Unity’s moment

* This refers to ‘The Malegaon precipice’ by Pratap Bhanu Mehta (IE, November 18). It is really thought-provoking and scary since the threat of the balkanisation of India is now very real. We need to emphasise and implement the “One Nation, One People, One Rule” principle without any further delay. And without asking for any quarters.

The laws governing us also must be rewritten urgently. Most of the laws of day-to-day governance were drafted by foreigners with the idea of governing a large unwieldy local population with a handful of rulers. The British never used similar procedures in their homeland. We have been independent for too long to not have devised laws and procedures for self-governance.

—Anil K. Singh, New Delhi

In our genes

* This refers to Nalin Mehta’s article ‘Barack Singh Dhoni’. He compares the electoral system in India with that of the US and has a view that the US has a better system since it elected Barack Obama. But it is meaningless to try and emulate what others are doing, which from a distance looks good. Every country evolves its own system. The same system need not be workable in another country. In India, heredity is an established and sustaining system. There is no point in denigrating that and clamouring for disregarding it in our life.

—K. Raghu, Ahmedabad