Norway is generous

Vote against Sri Lanka may spell trouble
This has reference to ‘UPA-II takes its coalition dharma to UN’ (March 23). It is unfortunate that the government has succumbed to the pressure of the Dravidian parties and voted against Sri Lanka on the US-sponsored resolution in the United Nations. This has set a dangerous precedent for India as it is likely to be similarly censured in future for the alleged human rights violations by the army while fighting insurgents in Kashmir and the North East. India’s action is bound to be misconstrued as an unfriendly act by our neighbour who may turn to China for support and this may contrive ominous portents for us. Taking advantage of the strained relation between India and Sri Lanka, China is sure to spread its influence in the Indian Ocean region posing great security threat to us. The Pakistani terrorists may also take advantage and find safe haven in Sri Lanka in the future. By our emotive response to the Sri Lankan Tamil issue we have sacrificed our strategic interests in this region. It is a fact that nations across the world formulate their foreign policies based on various geo-political considerations and strategic interests, but India’s foreign policy is governed by its self-righteous hypocrisy.
—VS kaushik, Bangalore

II
I was saddened to learn about India’s vote against Sri Lanka. The DMK’s narrow-minded politics and the UPA government’s lack of imagination have ensured that we are left without any friends in our neighbourhood. All our neighbours are now closer to China, thanks to our lack of strategic vision in engaging them. If there were rights violations in Sri Lanka during the last phase of its war with the LTTE, it is for that country’s law-enforcement agency and the judiciary to act upon — like our judiciary has done on matters related to alleged rights violations in Kashmir, Gujarat and the naxal-infested states.
—Valli S Rajan, Kalyan

III
India’s response at the UN is not that of a credible global player. What is surprising is that the coalition dharma has made Manmohan Singh succumb to the demands of the allied parties. Now we are surrounded by nations with political affiliations to China. India should have dealt with the situation more strategically looking into the various issues involved.
—NR Ramachandran, Bangalore

Imran’s wise decision
Debonair cricketer and politician Imran Khan took a wise decision to opt out of the conclave in India, where controversial writer Salman Rushdie was one of the participants. I have read The Satanic Verses and can clearly say that Rushdie has committed sacrilege. Using the weapon of free speech, one cannot slaughter the feelings of millions of Muslims around the world for whom the holy Koran is the way of life. As for those liberals who come to the rescue of the writer, let me remind them that celebrated Indian painter MF Hussain was shunted out of the country as he had wrongfully made paintings which had hurt the sentiments of a faithful community. Freedom of expression, at the cost of people’s faith, is not acceptable.
— Altaf H Ladiwala, Mumbai

Norway is generous
This has reference to ‘Norway won’t hand over Indian kids’ (March 23). As the problems between Anurup and Sagarika Bhattacharya come to light, we can now see with what commendable restraint the Norwegian government had behaved in the face of a hysterical onslaught by the Indian public and the media branding it racist. As the NRI children had been traumatised by the violent quarrels in the house, it had taken the unprecedented step of separating them from their biological parents to be brought up in a more congenial atmosphere provided by another Indian household. And we construed this as their arrogance and insensitivity to other cultures. The Bhattacharyas really took the whole country, the media and the government for a ride and all of us were gullible enough to fall for their ‘sob sister story’. It is a pity that none of the newspapers or the TV channels that went ballistic over the incident has tendered an apology for demonizing the Norwegian government or misleading the public or dragging the MEA into a diplomatic mess. The government also wanted cheap publicity and allowed itself to be bamboozled by the media into committing a diplomatic faux pas.
—Rajalakshmi, Mumbai

Keep it up
Thanks galore to DNA for the DNA fix-it series. Religion is the best business today. Whether it is Tirupati, Shirdi or a local temple in Kandivli — all of them are excellent conduits for money making. The trustees usually do not bother to get BMC approval for construction as they have strong political backing. If things become difficult, they just get a stay order from the court and the BMC cannot touch them! However, thanks to your newspaper for keeping the cause of the common man alive.
—Ragahv Naik, Mumbai

Bihar, Bengal & railways
This has reference to ‘Railway minister finishes Didi’s agenda’ (March 23). This proves that Manmohan Singh wants to hang on to power at any cost suppressing even national interest. For the past two decades, the railway ministry has been handled by regional parties that have single-figure presence in the parliament. In the railway budgets, Ramvilas Paswan allotted a number of trains and factories to Bihar and  Lalu Yadav had done the same. There are 48 trains to Bihar alone from Mumbai. Mamata Banerjee linked Kolkata with super-fast trains to all state capitals. The defence, railway, tele-communications and finance portfolios should be handled by national parties to serve the interest of the nation.

—George Lukose, Borivli