Letters to the Editor: Oil bonds and oil prices

Oil bonds and oil prices

The BJP leaders and ministers are so adept at making excuses and blaming others for their failures that few can match their dexterity. The latest one came from FM Nirmala Sitharaman who has blamed the oil bonds issued by UPA government for the soaring fuel prices now. Going by the record of Mr. Narendra Modi & Co., one should not be surprised if the BJP ministers travel further back in the past and start blaming in the coming days Indira Gandhi, Pandit Nehru and even the East India Company for the rising fuel prices now.

-Navdeep S. Sindhu, Chandigarh

Who all supported ‘Partition’?

Henceforth August 14 is ‘Partition Horrors Remembrance Day’. Let’s remember Partition’s architects too. M.A. Jinnah to be sure, had played a prominent role. However, according to Dr. Shamsul Islam, the two-nation theory was “a Hindu nationalist project borrowed by Jinnah”. Dr. B.R. Ambedkar wrote, “Strange as it may appear, Mr. Savarkar and Mr. Jinnah instead of being opposed to each other on the one nation versus two nations issue are in complete agreement about it.” On August 15, 1943, Savarkar said in Nagpur, “I have no quarrel with Mr. Jinnah’s twonation theory.” Thus assured, the British gleefully divided India.

-Haridasan Rajan, Kozhikode

Suspension of Delhi Police SHO

Around the same time when the Delhi Police was dragging their feet in taking action against “unknown” persons who openly shouted slogans calling for butchering of Muslims, came a video on social media in which an upright Delhi Police officer is seen taking on the Hindutva hoodlums and rescuing a bearded Muslim man from their clutches. The officer was SHO Adarsh Nagar Inspector C.P. Bhardwaj. In the video clip, Bhardwaj is seen telling the Hindutva goons that they could not harass any citizen of India like that. But just two days after the video surfaced, Insp Bhardwaj was suspended. Has he been punished for taking on the Hindutva goons? Does the ruling party want to send a message in the ranks and files of Delhi police?

-Vipin Saxena, Delhi

BJP’s Bonds paying dividends

Common people invest in to get some returns on their money. But the bonds invented and floated by BJP, called Electoral Bonds, are paying it maddening dividends. The saffron party earned a whopping Rs 2,555 crore in FY 2019-20 from these anonymous electoral bonds. The figure is self-explanatory as to where the BJP stands in terms of money power as compared to its rival parties. What about the ECI’s “level playing field” objective?

-Ali Kazim, Lucknow