:: Letters to Editor

Obama NOBEL is too early

Oct 11 : Sir, The Nobel Peace Prize awarded this year to US President Barack Obama has come as a complete surprise. The Nobel committee seems to have been "blown off" by hope in Mr Obama’s future programmes rather than consider his real achievements. No much progress has been made by him on the war on terror — Afghanistan and Iraq are still in turmoil and a solution to the West Asian problem is nowhere in sight. Mr Obama is really an honest man doing his utmost to achieve peace and stability. On the domestic front also his programmes are aimed at the poorer sections. His proposed welfare measures like health insurance and healthcare is an indication to that. But the Nobel authorities should have waited for some time before giving this prestigious award to him. This looks like a false start in a running race. There are more deserving individuals and organisations in the world whose presence is obscured to the general public for lack of publicity.

K. Venkataraman

Chembur, Mumbai

Sir, This is with reference to the news report, Obama gets hope Nobel (October 10). It is a matter of great irony in modern history that Alfred Nobel invented dynamite and then instituted the Noble Peace Prize, that America is the only nation to have used the nuclear bomb to win a war and now it is US President Barack Obama who has been awarded the Noble Prize for peace. At present, the world is on the threshold of serious threat to peace and civilised existence from rogue states like Pakistan and irresponsible non-state players like the Taliban. Unless these threats are neutralised, there can hardly be any meaning for international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples.

V.S. Prasad

Via email

Is ‘Bombay’ an insult?

Sir, There will be people who will lambast film producer Karan Johar for apologising to Raj Thackeray for inadvertently using "Bombay" instead of "Mumbai" in his new film Wake up Sid. But does Mr Johar have a choice? We have seen that the government is very reluctant to act against the "MNS method" of browbeating vulnerable sections of society. For obvious reasons, the producer cannot expect much support from the industry either. Of course, it is not understandable why the use of "Bombay" is an insult to Mumbaikars. After all, this city was known by that name for more a couple of centuries and nobody found it insulting. Where then is the issue of deliberately hurting the sentiments of the local people? This issue may bring some returns in the forthcoming Assembly elections, but strangling industry, trade and business in the name of "Marathi asmita", will help neither the city nor the people in whose name agitations are threatened.

Anil P. Bagarka

J.B. Nagar, Mumbai

Militants and their goals

Sir, Terrorism is defined as the killing of ordinary people for political purposes. The Taliban, who have claimed responsibility for the bomb blast outside the Indian embassy in Kabul on October 8, could satisfy just a part of the definition — killing of innocent people (Kabul mission targeted; 17 dead, 80 hurt, October 9). The militants must remember that they cannot achieve their political objectives anywhere in the world, how much ever they try to disturb the world’s peace.

S. Ramakrishnasayee

Via email