God forsaken

— Jai Prakash Gupta

Ambala

• Pratap Bhanu Mehta’s article should be widely read and understood, including by the self-styled heads of many religious sects. Militants, who claim primacy of one religion over another, and use it to claim superiority, need to study these thoughts. Religion is being used not to understand the world but to exploit it for narrow self-gain. Mehta has cleverly worded his ideas to avoid violent response; yet he has brought out clearly where we have failed.

— Brig Vijay Dani

New Delhi

• This is with reference to ‘Look who hijacked Jamia’. While condemning SIMI, Arif Mohammed Khan does not explain why the Government has produced so little evidence to justify a ban on the group. If SIMI is such a suspicious organisation, then why was the evidence thrown out by the Delhi high court? He also does not chastise non-Muslim extremist organisations like the Sangh Parivar groups, who are propagating lies against Jamia university — once nurtured by secular Indians like Mahatma Gandhi, Dr Zakir Husain and Mukhtar Ansari. They are also attacking minorities in Karnataka and Orissa. May I request that Khan to denounce the murderous Bajrang Dal with equal vehemence.

—Faiyaz M. Khan

Lucknow

Good Wednesday

• This is with reference to Kamal Mohammad’s article ‘Cinematic politics’. He wrongly accuses critics of missing the film’s disturbing aspects. If film critics only highlight the dangerous undertones of films, then no film will be unscathed, including those made by Mohammad. ‘A Wednesday’ was also appreciated because of its good acting, action-packed narrative, and tight editing. Mohammad ignores this to wrongly emphasise on only one interpretation of its story.

—V. Neelakantan

New Delhi

Don’t panic

• There is a common idiom: the party usually ends when the fat lady sings or dances. In stock market code, this means: the bull-run is over when investors start committing suicide due to bankruptcy.

... contd.