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ShareScared guardians
It is a shame that our military cricket team felt it was unsafe to play in Jammu and Kashmir ('Intel alert made Services back out of Srinagar match', DNA, November 4). The damage to our prestige, image and tourist industry is unfathomable. We bristle when other governments issue advisories against travelling to India and here we have our very guardians not venturing to areas entrusted to them for maintaining security. Are we to understand our guardians who fear to venture forth into our own territory are capable of defending us against the enemy in hostile lands? The BCCI suspending the services cricket board is just a small ineffective gesture towards repairing the damage.
--PR Arvind, Navi Mumbai
Religious diktats
By endorsing the 2006 edict issued by the Dar-Ul-Uloom, the Jamait Ulema-i-Hind has provided a readymade cannon fodder to the right wing organisations in the country to fire at the "secular" lobby ('Islamic clerics uphold Vande Mataram fatwa', DNA, November 4). It will be interesting to see how the latter are going to react to the demands raised in the resolution passed by the supreme body of the Islamic clerics in India. Some of the points raised in the form of diktats are of controversial nature, which can be exploited by the "communal" forces that were hitherto lying low following their successive defeats in the Lok Sabha as well as the Assembly polls.
--Arun Malankar, via email
The boy king
Howard Carter's 1922 discovery of his virtually intact tomb has made Tuntankhamen Egypt's best known king ('King Tut's tomb', DNA. factfile, November 4). Surprisingly little is known about this 'boy king' and his parents. It is however assumed that his parents were Akhenaten, the 18th dynasty 'heretic king' and his secondary queen Kiya. Tutankhamen was married to Ankhesenamen, daughter of Akhenaten and Nefertiti. After perhaps 10 years on the throne, Tutankhamen died unexpectedly and was burried in a small non-royal tomb in the Valley of Kings.
--CV Vaidyanathan, via email
Erroneous claims
I was surprised to read 'State govt said no to C'wealth Games in Mumbai', (DNA, November 4) and Suresh Kalmadi's statement that Mumbai let the opportunity pass for lack of funds. One cannot but believe Sushil Kumar Shinde's denial of Kalmadi's claim. I feel sorry for Kalmadi. What did he gain by making such a statement
--Yash P Verma, via email
