• The frequency and intensity of bomb blasts along the length and breadth of Pakistan must have rattled Interior Minister Rehman Malik to comment that India has been helping the Taliban there. Such incoherent comments are a clear sign of the minister being shell-shocked. A lesson about Pakistani authorities’ patronage for terrorists and the Taliban is in the pet manual where it says that big cats like the lion or the tiger can be kept only for so long, since when they grow older they invariably turn on their masters.

So is the Taliban teaching a lesson or showing off its skills to its Pakistani masters. Even after the recent spate of terrorist violence, the fact that the US continues to support the Pakistani state is beyond comprehension.

— S. Kamat

Goa

Deaf men talking

• India-Pakistan talks are now akin to dialogue between two deaf persons. Even as Pakistan accuses India of fomenting trouble in Balochistan and funding the Taliban, India keeps harping on constructive talks without pre-conditions. However, it needs to be thoroughly analysed whether Pakistan’s allegations are mere rhetoric or a calibrated move to build favourable international opinion before launching another clandestine terrorist attack on Indian soil. Even otherwise, the impact of our government’s reiteration of “check terror” is wearing thin as Kashmir continues to face militant assaults and the fear of the next attack in India does not diminish.

— Y.G. Chouksey

Pune

To waste

• The proposed five-fold increase in MPLADS allocation is typical of our politicians’ interest in their own “welfare” for which all of them, even those always at loggerheads otherwise, unite. A major share of this allowance would definitely not reach the intended beneficiaries.

... contd.