The Veiled Support From Enemy Camp

I think Modi is floating because the Congress is helping him, under pressure from corporates. Else, he would have drowned long ago. Looks like a civil war in this country is imminent; Narendra Modi will hasten the process, but if he comes to power, he will also be victorious in that civil war.

Ankur Mutreja, On Email

Power Games
Refer to ‘Firestarter’ by Shoma Chaudhury, 16 June.
Hats off to you! This well-studied and thought-provoking article should be able to re-open the illusive minds of urban elites and other intelligent people of Gujarat. Narendra Modi is neither an icon of development nor of a welfare state. His main aim is to project himself for bigger roles in Indian politics. I met him once in Rajkot where he was hiding during the Emergency. He was disguised as a Sikh. I met him at my neighbour’s place, who was an RSS associate, and heard him talk about the Hindu-Muslim problem. Aer I heard him, I felt this person should never be allowed to take any leadership position.

Tushar Mehta, On Email

Read your piece on Narendra Modi. Very incisive and well-written.

Tanweer Alam, On Email

Excellent article by you, but we expect similar articles about others too. You have to understand the basics of power rules. So many people are sidelined/harassed by the Nehru-Gandhi family as well. If Sanjay Joshi and Narendra Modi fight with each other, then it’s their power problem. When people understand Modi’s true colours, they will throw him into the Narmada, but you shouldn’t write biased and mindless articles.

Raju, On Email

Read your article on Narendra Modi. It’s brilliant and superb. Thanks!

Mari Marcel Thekaekara, On Email

It’s a good view point. I have been reading TEHELKA for the past four years and find it as one of the best magazines in this country where journalism is at its all-time low. But I do wonder, looking at your constant attack in the past year on only the BJP and non- Congress ruled states/leaders that whether this great magazine is worth reading. I’m neither a fan of the BJP or any other party, except Jayaprakash Narayan. But I’m curious to know about the Congress’ working style and dynasty politics, and the rampant corruption in Andhra Pradesh under YSR and scams under the UPA (rice scam, CWG, 2G etc).

Gopinath Yadava, On Email

Green Signal
Refer to ‘The Future is Your Choice, Still’ by Jay Mazoomdaar, 9 June.
Joining the green crusaders, TEHELKA’s interest and initiative in promoting and popularising “Go Green” is praiseworthy. Conserving forests, groundwater level, contributing to green cover and the wells of climate change, protecting wildlife, forest rights and reducing power wastage are in the interests of every one of us.

Jacob Sahayam, On Email

CBI nails what gujar
Refer to ‘Green Guardians: M Ananda Kumar’ by Shonali Ghosal, 9 June.
Congratulations and kudos to you for your constant efforts to expose the ugly truth of Gujarat.

Shehzaad Poonawalla, On Email

I read this report about senior officials in Gujarat being under the CBI scanner. This is insane and bizarre. I come from a family of policemen and I found this shocking. I sincerely hope this is an aberration and not a norm. But thanks for bringing this out. More power to you and please expose the rot, so that there is an example for the rest. These cops have made the fraternity look suspect. Hope the CBI arrests them and sends a strong message.

Swagatika Patnaik Mohanty, On Email

Excellent story on the CBI and fake encounters, Rana! Brilliant work. It's all over the place here in Gujarat.

Deepal Trivedi, On Email

Feels great that your work has seen results. TEHELKA’swork in Gujarat is finally exposing the true face of development in Gujarat. Very well-narrated, gripping, exposé of the cover-up of cold-blooded murder. I also think that in India, it’s fashionable to accuse the CBI of not working or being motivated. But with all the duress that the agency is under, it has shown great courage to bring our politicians to book. Kudos to journalists like you who keep a check on them. TEHELKA should continue exposing these murderers across India. Reading this gives me a glimmer of hope.

Mithilesh Yadav, On Email

Cracker of a report Rana! This is one scoop that should dent Modi’s image but then we shall have to wait for the elections to see which way the wind blows. Congratulations and keep giving us such fabulous stories.

Prema Rajaram, On Email

Quite a scoop! This report by Rana is the perfect reality check for Modi.

Arfa Khanum, On Email

Once again, a brilliant job on the CBI report. Keep doing the great work!

Nasir Chopra, On Email

Thank you very much for this excellent report on the encounters. Congratulations to TEHELKA that its stand is finally accepted by the CBI. Now, I only hope our agencies gather the courage to act against Modi. He has blood on his hands.

Sam Amer, On Email

I am no fan of TEHELKA. Still, I like your consistent reportage on Gujarat and bringing out Narendra Modi's hypocrisy. I think he has become too big for his shoes. His comments against Nitish Kumar are highly opportunistic. He seems to have forgotten that his criticism of Bihar and its caste politics is a criticism of the BJP, which is in the ruling coalition. As you commented in a news channel, Modi should be the last person to critique Kumar when he himself has played the same game in Gujarat, and even endorses leaders from other states who practise the same. If Modi has the guts, why not take on Mamata or Jayalalitha or Bal Thackeray. Why was he silent when Raj Thackeray attacked north Indian youth in Mumbai? This man will be disastrous for not just the country, but for his own party and the Hindu leadership headquartered in Nagpur.

Rahul Prakash Singh, On Email

Leadership Deficit
Refer to ‘Editor’s Cut’ by Shoma Chaudhury, 16 June.
You wrote “no one paused to ask what was driving the delusional growth statistic.” That’s a little unfair. I remember at least one person (Rajeev Chandrasekhar) pointing out on a news channel that the 8 or 9 percent growth came largely from exploitation of minerals and was, therefore, tantamount to selling family jewels. Economists world over have commented similarly. On a different note, the urge towards “holistic” solutions is wasteful. The demigods of the Forbes lists are suddenly not the devils: Michael Milken seems, today, as old as Lucifer. An important uncommented-on problem lies with the judiciary and its inability to come to grips with “justice-delayed”. Writing on the failure of Lloyds, an author observed that the US Supreme Court viewed itself as the one instrument of social change, in a country that was unavowedly anti-socialist. Nice article, despite my caviling!

Venkatesh, On Email

I enjoyed your article and may I add that corruption has been there all along, since 1947. Only the volume is much bigger now. Remember the only two auto companies, Hindustan Motors and Bajaj Auto, which occupied the whole country with their junk and had monopoly in the market? Please trace the connections and you will find the company founders to be quite close to the then Congress party leaders. India’s current situation, unfortunately, is like old wine in a new bottle. India has opened up herself but was not ready with 21st century infrastructure, clean water sources, upgraded colonial judicial system and Government, accountability of officials, and corruption.

DK Ghosh, On Email

Miasmic Proportions
Refer to ‘Holy River, Unholy Mess: Polluted’ by Brijesh Pandey, 16 June.
After reading your article, the first thought which came into my mind was that it is shameful on the part of the government that could do nothing to clean the river, which is an integral part of our culture. But more than the government, it is shameful for the 40 crore people who are living off the Ganga. Your article mentioned that 70 million people took a dip in Allahabad during Ardh Kumbh, but even 70 people won’t come out to clean the river. I seriously think the government should take extremely stringent steps against anybody who pollutes the Ganga. Maybe even ban cremation on the ghats of Varanasi. Because more than the dead, it is the river which needs moksha.

Rohit Raj, On Email

If your intent was to scare people of how bad the condition of the Ganga is, you have succeeded. The mere thought of the Ganga conjures up images of a big drain and nothing else. While the situation is getting worse with each passing day, what did the government do? It spent Rs 1,200 crore, or Rs 20,000 crore for over 25 years, and what do they have to show for this huge amount of money spent? An even dirtier Ganga. I completely agree with Vijay Panjwani when he says that the Ganga Action Plan failed to clean the Ganga, but it made some bureaucrats, politicians and contractors very rich.

Manish Kaushal, On Email

I read your article and needless to say was quite shocked about the state of the river. It did scare me that 300 tonnes of half-burnt bodies are dumped into the river from Varanasi in a year. And, we think we can solve this mess? It would really require some imagination and real guts on the part of the government to clean this mess and restore the Ganga to its original glory.

Sheshnarayan Singh, On Email

Unequal boards Ruin common Entrance tests
Refer to ‘Engineering a Common Path For College Admission’ by Jandhyala Tilak, 16 June.
While I appreciate the points made by Professor Tilak in the article, developing uniform high standards among exams of all the states is impossible. Disparity across states in existing higher secondary (HS) syllabi is substantial. Removing this by upgrading the syllabus will be a daunting task. There will be a severe shortage of quality teachers suitable for the new syllabus. But without improving teacherstudent ratio, it will be futile to even attempt to improve the syllabus. Schools in rural areas, in general, are relatively poorly equipped in every respect, especially in science stream. Improvement in their infrastructure has to be addressed successfully first. Also, there is a huge gap in the Madhyamik (secondary) and higher secondary syllabi. Again, this has to be eliminated. As soon as HS score has a weightage in the calculation of entrance score for the IITs and other institutions, there will be an unholy competition between different boards to inflate scores in the HS exams. Already, evaluation scales in Central boards are soft compared to their state counterparts. Scores are not comparable between Central boards and state boards.

Rabindranath M, On Email

I must congratulate you for writing an excellent and well-researched article. It is indeed a matter of great shame that the river we call our mother is now no better than a drain. It was scary to note that the Ganga in all holy places was anything but the Ganga. In Haridwar, the water is unfit for farming; in Kanpur, Varanasi and Allahabad, the river is beyond redemption and, I think, the same is true for almost all places. The prime minister and the environment minister are all saying that they will solve this mess and will be able to clean the Ganga by 2020. Well, one look at the Ganga Action Plan and one has to be very optimistic to actually believe them. Excellent series. Just hope that the powers that be read it and feel ashamed.

Ashok Mehta, On Email

Risky Reefs
Refer to ‘At risk! One-third of Coral Reefs face uncertain future’ by Rohan Arthur, 9 June.
I loved the fact that Rohan Arthur wrote the article unabashedly, with all the facts set straight. It was really informative and actually made me think about taking up the cause and doing something substantial. It was rightfully said that the oceans are taking the worst impact of progress and development, and we have invaded and destroyed nature. It is really sad that none of our ministers is concerned about our natural resources. I just have to put forward these questions. Without nature, how will we survive? What will we breathe and what will we eat? Changes need to be made arbitrarily and we need to look out for sustainable development. Thank you TEHELKA for bringing out the issues that matter the most.

Vishal Manve, On Email

Cut Above
Refer to ‘Editor’s Cut’ by Shoma Chaudhury, 2 June.
I read TEHELKA regularly. Your writings are addictive, in content, in passion, in style and language. You are very articulate in conveying a holistic picture of your subject, which is not at all evasive in suggesting your point of view strongly. The Editor’s Cut about the last three years of the UPA regime was a cut above the rest. Thanks for presenting such thought-provoking subjects in such a simple straight way.

Partha Barman, On Email