PICTURE SPEAK

"Terror in the Temple", July 18

"The attack on Ayodhya shows the West should pay closer attention to India as it is becoming a testing ground for attacks in the US and Europe."

Kanishk Sinha, Delhi

Time to Strike Back

A terrorist's sole aim is to scare people and governments into submission through hostile and destructive actions ("Terror in the Temple", July 18). The only way to tackle them is through special laws and fast-track courts. Once indicted, the decision must be executed within 48 hours. We must create an exclusive organisation composed of intelligence, legal and special operations officials and its sole objective should be to wipe out terrorist organisations.

Brigadier (Retd) Apjit Anand, on e-mail

It is a pity that the BJP is trying to score political points after the terrorist attack on the Ram temple. They should learn a lesson from the opposition Conservative Party in the UK which backed the Labour Government to the hilt after the bomb blasts in London. No one asked for Tony Blair's resignation or blamed him for intelligence failure. Terrorism is a global phenomenon and there is no easy way to tackle it.

D.B.N. Murthy, Bangalore

Temples have been under attack for ages, be it the Somnath temple, Akshardham or Ayodhya. India is the only place where the Hindus, despite being the majority community, cannot defend their religious places. Our soft stand and policies encourage terrorist attacks.

Man Mohan Bhatia, Delhi

The attack on the Ram temple is symbolic of the terrorists' desperation. Security around the major places of worship, no matter to which community they belong, needs to be tightened as an attack on them is the easiest way to fan communal tension.

Arvind K. Pandey, Allahabad

The only effective way to counter terrorism is to strike at terrorist groups in such a manner that they aren't able to regroup again. The soft approach towards perpetrators of violence will not work.

Abdullah Khan, Aligarh

While the CRPF jawans must be commended for stopping the terrorists before they could do any damage to the Ram temple, the fact remains that there was a major security lapse in Ayodhya.

Ashwin Prakash, Allahabad

The attitude of the US and UK towards terrorism in India and in their countries is biased. If there is a bombing in those countries it is an act of terrorism. But if India is attacked, even repeatedly, it is termed as separatist violence. Even foreign news channels make only a passing mention of such incidents in India. Unless this bias is removed the so-called global fight against terrorism will not yield any result.

Amjad K. Maruf, Mumbai

During my visit to Ayodhya, sometime before the attack, I noticed that the security plan was indeed tight but its enforcement smacked of overconfidence.

S.S. Ramanatha Rao, Bangalore

India Today should not have printed photographs of the terrorists killed in Ayodhya. Even the dead deserve a certain degree of privacy.

Arjun A. Goyle, on e-mail

The Root Cause

We should stop blaming girls for dressing "provocatively" ("Gentility on the Wane", July 18). Women are no longer the underprivileged half of humanity. We need to dig deeper to find the root causes behind the rise in crimes against women. The problem begins with our education system which does not allow interaction between boys and girls. Once the raging hormones take over boys end up seeing girls only as sex objects.

Vidyadhar Akkaraju, on e-mail

Disaster Mismanagement

It is a pity that even though there are floods year after year we still do not have a system to tackle natural disasters ("Flood of Misery", July 18). The need to call out the army for rescue and relief operations every time is an indication of how underprepared the administration is to tackle such calamities.

Kunaal, on e-mail

Party Politics

The developments in the Shiv Sena were expected ("Autumn of the Tiger", July 18). Narayan Rane is a grassroots politician and senior leader of the party. But he had to suffer the indignity of being sidelined to make way for Uddhav Thackeray. With Uddhav as leader the Shiv Sena's future looks quite bleak.

M.M. Gurbaxani, Bangalore

UNDIPLOMATIC EXCHANGES

I was shocked by the language used by President Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger while referring to Indira Gandhi ("Let's Blame India", July 18). Imagine the scandal that would be caused if the Indian prime minister was caught verbally abusing the US president. Meghan Koushik, on e-mail More than the language used what should concern us is the fact that there was a mole in the government at the highest level. Bishan Sahai, on e-mail These revelations show how far India and US have come, in terms of bilateral relations, since the 1970s. Akash Verma, Delhi

Questionable Judgement

If Imrana was truly raped by her father-in-law the case should be tried as a criminal one and not according to the Muslim personal law ("Perverse Justice", July 11). When the personal law is in conflict with the constitutional law of the land, the latter must prevail.

S. Balakrishnan, Jamshedpur

It is shocking how even educated Muslims have not come forward to challenge the decision of the clerics. Someone must come out and take a stand against this retrograde judgement.

Bidyut Kumar Chatterjee, Faridabad

The members of the Darul-Uloom of Deoband who pronounced the judgement against Imrana should be tried under the laws of the land for jeopardising the life of a woman.

Partha Sarathi Banerjee, Kolkata

The contention that under Islam, a woman violated by her father-in-law becomes prohibited for her husband is not only wrong but appears to be in conflict with specific provisions of the Quran. The decision should be reconsidered.

Yasmeen Ahmad, on e-mail

The Driving Force

It is said that behind every successful man there is a woman ("Mother Power", July 4). This is true for the Ambani brothers as well. Their mother has ensured that Reliance will go from strength to strength.

Jethu Singh Rajguru, on e-mail

The Scheme of Things

The article on unit-linked insurance plans (ULIP) and equity-linked saving schemes (ELSS) draws an unfair comparison as the objectives of the two instruments are very different ("Two Darlings of Investors", June 27). It shows annualised returns for ELSS for a three-year period whereas it shows only the returns for a one-year period for ULIPs. Moreover, the returns shown for Birla Sun Life Insurance's (BSLI) funds are negative. It is not clear for which period the returns were computed.

Anjana Grewal, Vice-president, Marketing and communication, BSLI

The article does not compare ULIP with ELSS. It only highlights that the changes in income tax laws this year have made ELSS more attractive than before. Returns from ULIPs and ELSS were not compared which is why they had been given in two distinct tables in the separate sections. Returns have, however, been compared across ULIP schemes offered by different insurance companies and since the youngest was only 12 months old, only one-year returns for all ULIPs have been considered. This was indicated in the table.

-editor

Correction

The slug for the Money Today article on film posters should have read "Art Investment" and it was written by Geetika Sasan Bhandari, not Rohit Saran ("Posters of Profit", July 25). The errors are regretted.

-editor

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