:: Editorial

Rein in pak for peace in asia

Nov.06 : Sir, The frequency and intensity of the recent bomb blasts in Pakistan must have reverberated through Pakistan's interior minister Rehman Malik's brain and rattled him enough to claim that India has been in cahoots with the Taliban and is behind the recent mayhem there. These incoherent comments are clear signs of the minister being shell-shocked. A lesson about the Pakistan authorities' patronage of terrorists and the Taliban is in the pet manual where it says that the big cat, like the lion and the tiger, can be kept only so long, since as they grow older they invariably turn on their masters. Even after the recent spate of terrorist-related violence in Pakistan, the fact that the US continues to support Pakistan, as evident in US secretary of state Hillary Clinton's recent statement during her visit to Pakistan, is beyond comprehension. It is time to take the Pakistani bull by the horns, secure its nuclear arsenal, disband its intelligence agencies, like the Inter-Services Intelligence, and prop up a more committed and meaningful democratic government.

S. Kamat

Goa

Bengal rivals in verbal duels

Sir, Railway minister Mamata Banerjee and West Bengal chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee are engaged in a wordy duel. Marxists today have become a sort of "bunch of jokers" to say the least. As Ms Banerjee has rightly said, Marxists and Maoists are two sides of the same coin. Marxists are always on the backfoot when such moments come. What happened in Nandigram and Singur, where the Communist Party of India (Marxist) was totally exposed and Ms Banerjee stormed into the bastion and has established a non-CPI(M) scenario in the so-called fort of Marxists. Maoists are a sort of embarrassment of the riches to the Marxists and they try to find a scape goat in Ms Banerjee since all their weapons fell flat against her. The Marxists are inviting trouble by criticising Ms Banerjee at a time when she's riding high and is likely to end their superiority in West Bengal.

S. Venugopalan

Via email

'84 sikh riots haunt india

Sir, The 1984 Sikh riots have come to haunt the nation once again. Irrespective of whether those behind it would be made to pay for their crimes, speaking philosophically, a time will come when they will regret their actions. After all, it is in old age that one becomes remorseful for the crimes committed in his/her past. Therefore, it is certain that the criminals responsible for this genocide will spend sleepless nights while awaiting death with the terrifying images of their crimes flashing through their mind, making them ashamed of what they did. That is the way the power that guides us all dispenses justice.

V.P. Damodar

Viman Nagar, Pune

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Judicial probe must be fair

Sir, The Karnataka high court's Justice P.D. Dinakaran's elevation to the Supreme Court has been temporarily put on hold as the Chief Justice of India has sough more time and is seeking information from Tamil Nadu where fresh "evidences" were brought to the notice of the Chief Justice. But there is no point in dilly-dallying on the issue. Everyone of us expects the judiciary to function independently, but honesty is the need of the hour. Law minister Veerappa Moily, who is bent on bringing major changes in our judicial system, must initiate action at the earliest.

Inamdar Ramachandra

Via email