Opinion Lack of will

The barbaric killing of 16 cops,including five women,by Naxalites in Gadchiroli district of Maharashtra should be condemned....

May 26, 2009 12:40 AM IST First published on: May 26, 2009 at 12:40 AM IST

The barbaric killing of 16 cops,including five women,by Naxalites in Gadchiroli district of Maharashtra should be condemned in the strictest terms (Another alert,IE,May 23). Despite the fact that Naxalites have been killing civilians and security personnel for years,there appears to be a total lack of political will to end their menace. The only genuine initiatives against Maoists so far seem to have come from the state governments of Chhattisgarh and Andhra Pradesh. But other state governments have done precious little. Sadly,at the head of this political failure stands the Centre. Perhaps theres a lesson or two to pick up from Sri Lankas single-minded war against the LTTE.

Fayyaz S. Pathan

Mumbai

Naxalites gunning down or blowing up security personnel is indeed such regular news in this country that we dont care to notice anymore. Can we be faulted for thinking that both state and Union governments consider security personnel whether from the police or the army expendable commodities? Even though the Naxalite movement has lost its intellectual attraction,it has again gained strength and spread to so many districts in India. The government must tackle the violence as a law and order problem first,and immediately. But thereafter,no effort should be spared in the uplift of living and working conditions in these districts.

Mathew Oommen Pune

Before its too late

The increase in aid to Pakistan sanctioned by the US must cause concern to the MEA and PMO. The US has its own interests and quite naturally it works on that basis,but our foreign ministry must take do more to influence the decisions of the US administration.

The UPA should use its leverage with Washington to change the way Pakistan behaves. Already,Pakistan is allegedly diverting the funds,and may be back at Indias door once the war with the Taliban is over.

Jai Prakash Gupta

Ambala

Shedding deadwood

In the editorial 19 signals (IE,May 23) you have rightly hailed Manmohan Singhs decision to exclude non-performers like Arjun Singh,H.R. Bhardwaj,T.R. Baalu from the new cabinet. As the new cabinet gets down to business,Singhs colleagues should know that the PM will not take kindly to corruption and poor performance. Singh and the Congress should remember that any breach in the standards will have high political costs.

M. Ratan New Delhi

Find a better reason

Surely Jeremy Carl knows that the Indian electorate votes in or out political parties,but not according to what pleases the US administration (The elections…,IE,May 23). One cannot take seriously Carls suggestion that Indo-US relations will hit a new high

because Rahul Gandhi is US-educated. One would like to believe that our mutual

ties run deeper than that! Besides,India-educated politicians dominate the political scene here.

R. Venkatanarayanan

Noida