Letters to the editor: Righting the historical ‘wrongs’?

Righting the historical ‘wrongs’?

No sooner than the long-festering Babri Masjid spectre was laid to rest that the Hindutva brigade came out with fresh list of masjids that it claims had been built after demolishing mandirs. The Hindutva warriors want all them to be turned back to mandirs. So now we have controversy being generated around the Gyanvapi masjid in Benaras and Shahi Eidgah in Mathura. A bright BJP chap in Delhi wants names of all the roads and places named after Muslims changed. He, and his ilk, want to erase all signs of “ghulami” (slavery). Well, in that case why only change names, let’s raze all these structures. Let’s start with the capital’s Lal Qila and the Viceroy’s House (now named Rashtrapati Bhavan) and all the Lutyens bungalows where colonial masters used to live and rule over the Indians. Let’s roll the bulldozers. Simultaneously, the drive can be extended to other “slavery era” structures in other states where BJP is in power such as in Uttar Pradesh where Taj Mahal is located. Either the BJPwallahs do it immediately or just shut up. –Atif A. Kazmi, Delhi

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Lessons from Sri Lanka

Many experts are drawing parallels between the situation in Sri Lanka and the one evolving in India. They are warning that if the Modi government did not mend its ways, India too may land in a similar mess before long. In Sri Lanka hungry people are on the streets. They have set on fires houses of the president and MPs. These are the same people who were divided on ethnic lines. Mahinda Rajapaksa further fuelled these divides to strengthen his power and he did succeed. In the meanwhile, with absolute power in their hands, the Rajapaksas took some arbitrary decisions like suddenly switching to organic farming that proved devastating for their economy. Of course, such decisions had no backing by empirical data. Just the ruler’s whims. In our country too we are facing deepening communal divides and sporadic violence. Beneath this is lashing a storm of massive unemployment, shrinking jobs, widening disparity, rising government debts, spiralling inflation and an overall wobbling economy. But amidst this, all the government seems to be doing is unleashing an advertisement blitzkrieg. Anyone can understand where we are headed. –Pooja Bhardwaj, Mumbai

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Welcome SC’s decision on Sedition law

We welcome the Supreme Court’s decision to suspend the colonial era sedition law for now. It is evident that the law has been misused over the past few years by BJP governments largely to silence their criticism. The government’s criticism cannot be interpreted as sedition or treason. Every Indian citizen who criticises an elected government by peaceful means is as much a patriot as the person who voted that government to power. The British rulers brought such laws as they were scared of the people they were ruling over. But what makes an elected government scared of the people of its own country? Perhaps the governments’ own incompetence. –Sanjay Srivastav, Allahabad