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Readers? Forum Pratibha as Sonia?s choice (Organiser, 24-6-2007); Jayanti Natarajan takes the lofty stand that any political party with minimum commitment to women?s cause must support Pratibha Patil?s candidature. Well, after Independence, we have had elected 12 Presidents of Indian Republic. Not once did it occur to the Congress to have a woman for the top post. Why so? If it was really so wedded to the cause, why couldn?t it consider an illustrious woman like Smt Vijayalakshmi Pandit for the exalted job? The Prime Minister honestly acknowledged the compulsions of coalition politics as the real reason behind the decision. But Natarajan?s brazen attempt to make a virtue of it is disgusting. ?M.S. RAMAKRISHNA, Flat No.101, Plot No. 41, Sujatha Towers, Lothukunta, Secunderabad *   *   * At last, the UPA has selected Pratibha Patil as the ?consensus? candidate for the post of President of India. It would have been far better if Sonia Gandhi had taken the Opposition too into the confidence before the selection of the candidate. The unanimous selection of Shri Bhairon Singh Sekhawat for the highest post of the land was the most suitable and appropriate selection for this august post. As the chairman of the Rajya Sabha, Shri Sekhawat showed remarkable honesty, integrity and impartiality. ?AMAR JIT SINGH GORAYA, 38 Houston Terrace, West Mains, East Kilbride Glasgow, Scotland, UK *   *   * The wide gap between the opinions of the people and those of politicians in the country is against democratic spirit. This gap is clear in the choice of the candidate for the next President of the country. In various surveys and polls held by many sections of the media, the present incumbent, A.P.J. Abdul Kalam was the choice of the greatest number of people. Common man wishes that the President of India should not be a party person. He does not expect the President to be a rubber stamp of the party in power. We had such Presidents in the past. ?K.G. ACHARYA, 21/33 Sagar Apartments, Link Road, Lokhandwala Cx., Andheri, Mumbai *   *   * At last, the Congress and its allies, particularly the Left, have come to a consensus and selected Pratibha Patil for the highest office of India. They have rejected Shivraj Patil and Karan Singh, because they are not secular enough, notably Karan Singh, who has authored several Hinduism books. The Congress says a history is in the making and Sonia Gandhi is very jubilant. There are other outstanding women, who could have been nominated, but they would not like to be the ?secular? puppets. ?PUSHPA CHAUDHARI, Royal Worcester Crescent, Worcestershire B60 2TJ, England 123 cut: Proceed (Organiser, 17-6-2007); It doesn?t need much analysis to read the designs of US. It indeed wants India to become a ?state? of US, and literally to surrender its sovereignty. The clauses of the deal show the designs of US, in wanting to turn India into a corporate country. Of course, the Corporate India is all too willing, but the masses aren?t. The Bush administration wants to rule India, by producing ?terminator? seeds. The BJP has vehemently protested against these designs, yet a lot of work is needed to educate the masses. ?SUSHIL GADKARI, Tehsil Narnul, Mahendragarh, Haryana *   *   * I am certainly not happy at the deal and the various concessions that India has made, more so, on the Iran issue as a bargain to obtain nuclear fuel. Many experts believe that though production of nuclear energy sounds cheaper than by thermal or other alternative mechanism, one must consider the huge prohibitive cost after a nuclear plant?s life has run out, which is at the most 30-40 years. ?P.R. SHUKLA, Vikram Colony, Ramghat Road, Aligarh *   *   * The arguments for the nuclear deal are many, and one would naturally ask, why shouldn?t that be welcome, since, with the changing lifestyles, India?s energy demands are exploding everyday? However, it would appear that the main argument for building and activating nuclear energy (NE) power plants in India is that there are more than 110 NE plants in US, and NE is America?s second largest source of electric power after coal. But, these plants produce radioactive emissions, with irreversible, and extremely harmful effects. There have been studies to prove it. And nobody talks about that. ?RAVI GAUTAM, Strand Road, Kolkata *   *   * If the accord works as intended, it would be a matter of time that India too starts allowing private sector participation in the nuclear power programme, with dangerous consequences. India must realise that we simply cannot ape US. The ground realities, as well as geographical differences between the two countries are far too different. ?G.M. KATYAYAN, Kerala VHP urges President to expel foreign missionaries (Organiser, 17-6-2007); The VHP has rightly demanded the expulsion of foreign missionaries from India. Recently, Kummanam Rajasekharan, organising secretary, VHP Kerala, pointed out that five foreign missionary workers from USA have been camping in Kerala for the last three years holding religious conventions and that they had converted about 2000 people. Therefore, an action should be taken against such missionaries. ?NIKHIL PANDYA, Surat *   *   * Missionary activities have been adequately and explicitly demonstrated in a section of India media. These are documented in history. The Crusade episodes, colonisation, apartheids, slavery, racial supremacy etc. bear witness to this. Perhaps a food for thought would be to consider as to why the love and bliss of the Lord is not shared with needy country like Bangladesh! ?B.K. CHAUDHARI, 28 Palmyra Road, Bromsgrove, B60 2RH (UK) SEZ: UPA promoting land grab, alien territory (Organiser, 17-6-2007); Unlike in West Bengal, Gujaratis haven?t protested loudly to the gifting of their land to big corporations. The pro-business climate in Gujarat should not blind Hindu nationalists from the agony of farmers losing their ancestral land. Ideally, in Bharat corporations should not be allowed to own land. They can lease land from villagers for up to 75 years. We should get the governments in Gujarat and other BJP-ruled states to convert all land allocations in the past decade or two to long-term leases so that the villagers get back their ancestral land. ?SHANKAR by e-mail Arjun?s profane obsession (Organiser, 10-6-2007); Sex education in CBSE schools is a case of aping the West. Indian government has been systematically and step by step popularising the Western thoughts, lifestyle, clothes, food-habits, etc. through various agencies like schools and colleges/universities, radio, TV, print media. All these evils have to be fought, not only at social level, but also at political level, because politics and government power have become so strong that it has entered our society at the very root. ?ANAND PRAKASH, 72/Sector-8, Panchkula Quota?s macabre face in Rajasthan (Organiser, 10-6-2007); Reservations are getting from endemic to epidemic shape with practically every caste demanding some form of reservation. This has genetic basis. The provision of reservations in the Indian Constitution could not get the avowed objective, i.e. to uplift the socially backwards. The upliftment of socially backwards needed a categorical policy, to be implemented through statutory provisions in the Constitution. ?Dr. P.L. NAWALKHA, Jaipur *   *   * India?s vote bank politics has perpetuated the original ten-year extent of reservations and continuously added segments to the quota cauldron. Today, every community wants to descend the caste ladder to pick up the rewards at the bottom. If Rajasthan is burning today, tomorrow it will be the turn of another state to face the ire of some other ?deprived? community?. ?RAGHUBIR SINGH, Pune *   *   * Recent upheaval in Rajasthan by Gujjars and Meenas in which 24 people lost their precious life, besides loss of crores of rupees, is very unfortunate and tragedy is that this is not the end. Many others are also preparing to start such movement for their rights to get reservation. There should be an end to it at some stage. Politicians are responsible to ruse it just for the sake of a few votes. Particularly V.P. Singh and Arjun Singh are main culprits. Remove all denominations like Dalits, SCs/STs/OBCs etc. They are all to be considered as respected citizens of Bharat, irrespective of their religion. They should be free to follow their way of living according to their religion. ?B.R. VYAS, B-4, Anandvan Complex, B/H Aangan Tower, I.G. Marg, Vadodara *   *   * It is difficult to understand what the Gujjars want. Everywhere people aspire for higher social status; but this particular community wants to go down the social ladder. This peculiar demand bears testimony to the perversity of India?s reservation policy. Hopefully, the inter-caste conflict in the northern states, especially Rajasthan, will mark the beginning of the end for reservations. Politicians should own up to their mistakes instead of trying to pass the blame on to their rivals. ?B.S. GANESH, Bangalore *   *   * It is amazing and disgusting that every caste is now competing and agitating to be included in the ST category, each claiming to be more backward. None of them seems to be thinking that it is excellent education and skills that will make them employable and therefore prosperous. While the country is witnessing battles among castes and religions, the supreme leader of the Congress and the UPA is totally silent. Is it that she wants the country should be aflame with caste and communities warring against one another so that silently a secret agenda can get completed through a pliant, name-sake Prime Minister? ?M. NAGENDER GOUD, 4-1-74, Pragathi Nagar, Moosapet, Hyderabad *   *   * There being no basic progressive blue-prints within Indian political parties, who are most often pitched in caste/religion issues every now and then, caste eruptions can be in view on any nook and corner of the country, as is evident in Rajasthan. Irony of the realities is that Indian leadership is always standby for fishing in troubled waters. If a cross-section of society could not reconcile itself to its backwardness status for a long span of six decades despite providing financial and social uplifting constantly, how far shall the government keep flogging the dead horses? ?RAMDEV JHAMB, 870 Civil Lines, Jhansi Mayawati, the big winner (Organiser, 10-6-2007); I would like to add some more important issues to A. K. Sharma?s timely letter. Despite the sincere efforts of some senior BJP leaders, BJP looks like Congress? B team. There is not much integrity and no new ideas. ?KRISHNA. R. KUMAR, 5, Kasturi Apartments, Shiribeedu, Udupi *   *   * The recent results of the UP Assembly have surprised many political analysts. Emergence of the BSP as single largest party has been attributed to Mayawati?s charisma of social engineering in UP. But I do not believe it as a true analysis. The very fact that the party which till recently was believing in the ideology of Tilak taraju aur talwar inko maro jute char could overnight change to Hathi nahin Ganesh hai, Brahmin Vishnu, Mahesh hai ideology is simply unbelievable. Only time will show whether it is social engineering or pure stratagem. ?GANESH KUBERKAR, 55, Jawahar Colony, Aurangabad Sectarianism and India?s essential unity (Organiser, 17-6-2007); Islam stands for basic truths of its principles, the finality of the prophethood of Muhammad is one such principle. Since Ahmadiyas do not have faith in this cardinal principle of Islam, they are unanimously declared non-Muslim by the Muslim world. ?SHAKIL AHMED, 22-7-313, Chatta Bazar, Hyderabad Manpower woes: While it is heartening to know that the top IT companies will absorb 1,50,000 people this year alone and the banking and financial sectors will create 1,40,000 jobs this year with retail expected to create 2.5 million jobs in the next five years, the problem on the skill front would continue to haunt the employers. It is indeed a lamentable fact that most of the engineers are non-employable. Hence, it is absolutely essential for quality professional education to be provided and monitored by government and independent agencies. ?R.N. LAKHOTIA, S-228, Greater Kailash-II, New Delhi Hollow democracy: Whether there is a multi-party or two-party system, the fact remains that we don?t have a democracy in the political parties and thereby people do not get a chance to select a suitable candidate of their choice to fight the elections. People have a tendency to remain at home on the polling date. Only 40-45 per cent of votes polled will have to be shared by the contesting candidates. The winner is elected by a mere 20 per cent of popular votes. The rest 80 per cent have rejected him/her. This is the kind of democracy we have. ?M.L. NARAYANAN, FF-103, Ashwini Apartment, Nehru Colony, Anantnagar, Nagpur

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