— Md Ziyaullah Khan

Pune

Qualifier for Buddha

•‘REPENTANT Buddha’ would have been a more apt title for your editorial than ‘Enlightened Buddha’. But I do not agree with you when you expect words of remorse from the BJP for the Gujarat riots. Those riots were not sponsored by the state or party, as was the case in Delhi 1984 or in Nandigram 2007. Also, your expectations of the CM acting tough against his own party comrades and providing security to those affected is, I’m afraid, asking for the impossible. It may take years to restore the old enthusiasm for and faith in industrialisation in West Bengal.

— Kedarnath R. Aiyar

Mumbai

Such a song

•The article by Pratap Bhanu Mehta on the film, Aaja Nachle ‘Bansof caste’,is truly reflective of Indian society. We are as good or bad as our surname. Politicians have already invested in people’s caste-related emotions in such a way that one’s identity cannot be detached from what one does. Such wilful segregation on the basis of caste is necessary for the people of our country to the end that they can pick up their weapons and attack each other for the benefit of our politicians, casteists and religious fanatics. Indian democracy is getting worse, because politicians are succumbing to the interests of pressure groups, not of the nation as a whole. The ruckus over a film song which has no direct bearing on the lives of the voiceless millions in our country reflects this.

... contd.