Bad apples
We’re masters of the unsaid words, but slaves of those, we let slip out,” Winston Churchill’s sage words can be cited in the ongoing spat between Mayawati and Rita Bahuguna Joshi in UP, (‘Rahul cuts in Maya’s Sonia diatribe’, DNA, July 18). One thing is clear from this dirty war of words that politics is meant for people who’ve no interest and objective beyond their personal agenda. Democracy would be better off without such people.
—Sumit S Paul, Pune
II
Indian politics has sunk to a new low, with rape becoming a political platform. The statements made by Congress leader Rita Bahuguna Joshi and Uttar Pradesh chief minister Mayawati are both offensive. Now Rahul Gandhi has stepped into the fray. This is rotten stuff. It is not even politics. For, as the late US president John F Kennedy had said, “politics is the art of serving people.” The current rape instances, the allegations and the drama are an insult to the people of India. Insteadof penalising the guilty, the leaders have descended into a cesspool of slush. India should remember that due to the progress of the electronic media, both television and the internet, such instances become international news within seconds. And, they do not add to India’s prestige, at home or abroad.
—Rajendra KAneja, Dubai
Can’t be trusted
The opposition cannot be faulted for objecting to the PM’s walking that extra mile for talking to Pakistan (‘Oppn slams PM over ‘sellout’ to Pak’, DNA, July 18) because nothing at all has changed in Pakistan’s attitude all these eight months — it has not accepted any of the massive evidence that we had presented proving that the terror had in fact originated from its soil. Its track record in maintaining friendly relations with
us is abysmally poor and so it will be naive to expect it to ‘act’.The only way to show our disapproval of its continued inaction is to sever all relations rather than enter into a dialogue that will not lead us anywhere.
—V Subramanyan, Thane
Inspiration to all
The 91st birthday of the great South African leader Nelson Mandela was celebrated with great fanfare across the world, although Madiba, as he is fondly known in his homeland, chose to have a quiet day with family and friends according to news reports. Mandela, who claimed to be inspired by Mahatma Gandhi in his long battle to end apartheid in South Africa, is now a major inspiration not just to oppressed people across the world but all of us.
—Sanjay Munda, via email
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