It’s complex
While India can definitely use its good offices to try and broker peace between Russia and Ukraine, it must also note that a stage has been reached where both sides have hardened their stances. India had enjoyed good relations with both Russia and Ukraine before the war broke out but India’s continuous abstention at the United Nations might possibly have alienated the ruling dispensation in Ukraine.
C.V. Aravind,
Bengaluru
Running the CBI
The prognosis provided by the writer (Editorial page, “A candid conversation about the ‘caged parrot”, April 7), a former CBI Director, sounds fine. However, the real issue is this: who will administer the medicine, and how? It is illusory to expect under the present dispensation, for somebody “who have shown and proven themselves to be honest and professionally innovative” to reach the top of the CBI so as to reform it. The situation is bound to go from bad to worse unless political parties display their commitment to constitutional values and national interest and value them above their short-term political gains. Or we have the judiciary intervening decisively.
Manohar Alembath,
Kannur, Kerala
COVID-19 and caution
The report and confusion over the first case of the COVID-19 variant, XE, in India, is unsettling (Page 1, Centre denies presence of new variant”, April 7). The world has still to recover from the onslaught of COVID-19 that came in the form of three waves. Another wave would mean trauma and throwing life out of gear once again, which should not be allowed to happen. Let people not lower their guard and begin merry-making.
K. Pradeep,
Chennai
Highlight the harmony
The news report, from Kaup in Karnataka’s Udupi, “Here, Muslim family renders music in temples” (Inside pages, April 7), reminds me of what historian and political scientist Howard Zinn says in A People’s History of the United States: “Our future may be found in the past’s fugitive moments of compassion rather than in its solid centuries of warfare.”
In the now communally tense political atmosphere of India, distorted public conscience is eager to zoom into even small tensions between communities while ignoring to appreciate the many sides of harmonious co-existence. The British ruined that old syncretic culture in order to weaken the fight by Indians against them.
And, today, Hindutva forces try to use the same colonial narratives to vilify minorities. There is absolutely no doubt that we have to reinforce our culture of compassion rather than a new line of hatred.
Sukumaran C.V.,
Palakkad, Kerala
