— Vinod C. Dixit

Ahmedabad

Drink control

• The Ahmedabad hooch tragedy might have been avoided if the government had a pragmatic policy in place instead of the farce called prohibition. The hypocritical policy of prohibition helps neither individuals nor society as a whole. Instead, all across the country, prohibition allows unscrupulous policemen to extort lakhs of rupees. Gujarat has taken a lead in many social issues; it’s time the Gujarat government stopped acting as society’s moral guardian.

— Amit Pradhan

Baroda

Subtle handling

• The violence in China’s Xinjiang province proves that no country is beyond the reach of extremism and exploding minority grievances. It doesn’t matter how such violence is termed and explained. The Uighurs probably have genuine complaints against the Han Chinese and China’s state policies. However, India’s job is to closely monitor what unfolds in China and subtly use the riots and the army crackdown to push the People’s Republic towards taking an unequivocal stand against terror everywhere. Enjoying China’s embarrassment and rubbing it in will backfire. If China’s says

Al-Qaeda had a hand in the violence, India should agree, and diplomatically begin to drive a wedge between China and Pakistan.

— Satwant Kaur

Mahilpur

Fears of Maya

• No one can disagree that Mayawati may be building her innumerable statues because she is preoccupied with her own fragility and insecurity. But it would be naïve for Mayawati to believe that she alone represents Dalits and all backward castes in India. If that were so, she wouldn’t have suffered her reversal in the 15th Lok Sabha elections that has shaken all her electoral mathematics to the core.

She too is vulnerable to the vagaries of the political weather like any other leader. It’s time for Mayawati to come out of her shell and concentrate on governance so as to live on in the hearts of her constituents.

— S.K. Gupta

Chandigarh

India vindicated?

n The cat is out of the bag with Asif Ali Zardari admitting that Pakistan nurtured terror for years for short-term political ends. Long before 9/11 India was consistently pointing out Pakistan as the native land of all militancy. Zardari’s admission is a vindication of India’s stand. However, are the big Western victims of terror listening?

— Deepak Chikramane

Mumbai