Flight of protesters

I agree with Shiv Visvanathan in saying that the drama at the Jaipur Literature Festival was a spoof of political protest (The emptiness of literary protest, Jan. 26). Though all the protesters concerned — Hari Kunzru, Amitav Kumar, Jeet Thayil and Ruchir Joshi — are respected litterateurs, their collective protest lost much of its force due to their fleeing the venue. Perhaps a more thoughtful response could have been made at the conclusion of the festival if they had not fled, and instead held their ground against the cancellation of Salman Rushdie’s videoconference.
Cynthia Stephen
Via email

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Speedy justice

The Supreme Court is right in ordering Parliament to amend the Prevention of Corruption Act to speed up granting of sanction in graft cases. It is unfortunate that the PMO has been sitting on the CBI’s plea for sanctioning the prosecution of former communications minister A. Raja for about 16 months. As many as 126 other corruption cases are pending with the CBI for want of sanction. This inordinate delay in due process seems to be politically motivated. Hopefully, the court setting a time limit of four months, after which sanction will be deemed granted, will cut through the pendency and we will see a breakthrough.
Trisha Patel
Via email

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Playing with SC order

The defence ministry has written to the Adjutant General’s (AG) branch of the Army to show the year of birth of Army Chief Gen. V.K. Singh as 1950, contrary to his stand that he was born in 1951. It is surprising that it never occurred to the government that this order, when the case is in the Supreme Court already, can amount to contempt of court and the AG’s move even be construed as an act of tampering with evidence. The government could have saved itself this imminent embarrassment if it had not set out on a collision course with a general reputed for his honesty.
Arun Chandra
Via email