Dubious inputs

Dubious inputs
An anonymous Afghan intelligence source has claimed that Mullah Omar, the Taliban chief, has been killed on his way from Quetta to Waziristan (‘Pak terror attack: Afghan media says Mullah Omar dead, Taliban denies the report’, May 23). This news, coming in the wake of President Obama’s warning that the US will stage another raid in Pakistan if a high profile militant is found there, appears to have been engineered by the Pakistani military establishment to put on hold any such plan the US may have to capture the Taliban chief hiding in Pakistan. Attributing the killing to former ISI chief is a clever ploy to placate the ISI. Pakistan is naïve to think that the US and the world can be fooled by such dubious intelligence inputs.
—VS Kaushik, via email

No faculty for research
Meaningful research is the backbone of knowledge, hence, it is imperative that faculty teaching in the IITs and IIMs should be world-class (‘IIT, IIM faculty face Ramesh ire’, May 24). Union environment minister, Jairam Ramesh, is absolutely right that only the private institutions churn out worthwhile research and not IITs or IIMs. Although both are country’s prestigious institutes, they are lacking in good class faculty as they are not able to produce substantial research projects. It is also widely believed, if not a fact, that government institutions cannot compete with private institutions as far as infrastructure and faculty is concerned.
—Jitendra G Kothari, via email

Obama’s warning
This is with reference to ‘Obama warns Pak, yet again’ (May 23). Obama’s reported statement that “we cannot allow someone who is planning to kill our people” and “Pakistan’s biggest threat does not come from outside but within” are priceless. It is needless to mention that the US president has yet again proved why they are ‘the super power’. This unilateral (termed by some) action of his seems to be giving two signals: first, to all those engaged in terrorism that time is up for them to desist from such dastardly acts and the second to the nations being hit by terrorism that they need to fight it alone. Will it be out of context if I say that it is being proved that the answer to terrorism is ‘tit for tat’?
—PL Thomas, Mumbai

Uncalled for signal
The government’s recent go-head to the Posco project in Orissa is ‘uncalled for’. It only shows that government is yielding to the pressure of private companies, thereby neglecting the plight of thousands of people who are likely to be adversely affected due to this arbitrary decision. Such projects, running into tune of crores of rupees, need to be halted immediately to avoid the repeat of another 2G like scam.
—Amarnath U Kashiprasad, Mumbai
 
Protect the nukes
The Taliban’s attack on Pakistan’s Mehran naval aviation base is yet another glaring example of utter lawlessness in the country (‘Insiders helped militants plot PNS Mehran naval base attack: Experts’, May 23). But such attacks paint a negative picture and put a big question mark on the Pakistan army’s credibility to protect its vital defence installations. It also raises serious concerns over the safety of Pakistan’s nuclear weapons. So, the government should initiate concrete steps to prevent these weapons from falling into the wrong hands.
—Shaikh Sharful Islam, Mumbai   
 
Government records
It is so sad that there were factual errors in the list of country’s most wanted fugitives hiding in Pakistan which was handed over to Pakistan (‘Dead to remain CBI’s most wanted list of fugitives’, May 21). Some of the fugitives are in Indian jails, some released on bail and some are dead. This shows how ‘efficiently’ the government keeps its records. Those who have to deal with some of the government departments can tell us of many such more routine mistakes of record keeping. For example, income tax records of assessees, especially of refunds due, is incorrect most of the time. We just hope that most government departments’ records are not just like these.
—M Kumar, via email