Gag advisory

•The editorial, 'Taslima as litmus test’should have drawn the logical conclusion from the external affairs minister’s statement in Parliament on Taslima Nasreen and described it as an abject surrender to fundamentalist forces, which it really was.

Tomorrow, if you or I chose to criticise the caste system or untouchability or even ‘sati’, it would be construed as ‘hurtful activities or expressions’. And since the minister has propounded a rule for all foreign guests, would it not have been better if he had also let his compatriots know as to who would set the benchmark for ‘hurtful activities and expressions’ which our foreign guests are required to refrain from? Hopefully, he does not wish to let the ‘lumpen crowd’ on Kolkata’s streets or outside the Baroda University set these benchmarks for us. Till now, the whole world considered India a beacon of pluralist democracy. It seems however that our vote-bank compulsions have not only deprived us of the chance to reaffirm our commitment to such a democracy, but have also sent clear signals about the hollowness of all our claims to being a secular country.

— Satish Dayal

New Delhi

Assam tribals’ voice

•The protesting adivasis being brutally beaten up and women being publicly stripped speaks of depraved, even unhinged, minds ‘Back story of Guwahati violence’, But why is it that the whole Indian landscape is marked by such ugly incidents? For this we must go to the root cause that has brought about this revolting mindset: vote-bank politics with the release of the Mandal genie, which in recent years of Congress rule has proliferated, with every policy initiative packaged in reservation sops queering the pitch and vitiating the atmosphere. There is nothing wrong in the notion of giving equal opportunities to all, but when policies emanate from personal or party motives, we have such untoward developments.

... contd.