PICTURE SPEAK

"Mumbai's Collapse", August 8

"Natural calamities test a government's ability to live up to its promises. Going by the high death toll, the Maharashtra Government failed in this test."

Sandeep Singh, Lucknow

Hell and High Water

Why was India's financial capital marooned and reduced to helplessness ("Mumbai's Collapse", August 8)? The crisis in Mumbai was the result of over 50 years of neglect by planners and politicians. A city of 15-20 million people should have had a modern disaster management system in place, equipped to deal with all types of emergencies. But even the drainage system in Mumbai is more than 100 years old.

Rajendra K. Aneja, Mumbai

It is very easy to blame the administration for the Mumbai floods. These are natural disasters so we can hardly expect the Government to be prepared for them.

N. Ramesh, on e-mail

Now that the rains are over, the blame game begins. The state Government, the BMC and the builders are busy passing the buck. But all of them are equally responsible for the defective planning of one of India's premier cities. Instead of disaster management, what we got was disastrous management.

Geraldine H., Mumbai

When the calamity struck, it was ordinary Mumbaikars who rose to the occasion. They became good Samaritans, giving food and water and help to the needy. Politicians were conspicuous by their absence. So were the Bollywood heroes.

Mehmood M. Abdi, Mumbai

Politicians and builder lobbies have reduced the people of this city to tears and misery. Instead of providing better infrastructure, they came up with new policies like Transfer of Development Rights, which only facilitated haphazard construction in the suburbs. All further construction activities should be controlled and freed mill land should be developed as parks, playgrounds and open spaces.

K. Venkataraman, Mumbai

Our politicians spend most of their time pondering on non-issues like M.A. Jinnah's secularism. If only they had spent half that time on people's welfare and state's infrastructure.

Sandeep Batra, Mumbai

It was callous of the state Government to say that it was not prepared to deal with a heavy downpour. If the state of affairs does not improve in India's commercial capital, industrialists and businessmen will look elsewhere-be it Bangalore or Hyderabad.

A. Srikantaiah, Bangalore

The fury of nature notwithstanding, the civic administration should have been equipped to tackle the calamity. Natural disasters are never predictable, either in their savagery or in their destruction quotient, but the administration must be ready for the worst case scenario and react on time.

Lt-Colonel (Retd) Nageshwant Roy Vaid, on e-mail

The Maharashtra Government needs to answer a few fundamental questions. Why do slums come up in the city and the suburbs? Why was the infrastructure not upgraded in so many years? Since Mumbai as a whole is becoming unmanageable, shouldn't the city be divided into three or four municipal corporations?

H. Parshuram, on e-mail

Mumbai should accelerate its efforts to become Shanghai. Perhaps it should follow Surat's example-in the aftermath of the plague, citizens and the administration worked to transform it into a beautiful city and role model of development. There is opportunity in every adversity.

Vijayalakshmi Santhanam, Surat

Mumbaikars showed exemplary courage when faced with the monsoon fury. It is amazing that there was no instance of rioting or looting.

U. Laxmeshwar, on e-mail

The mayhem in Mumbai shows that the unplanned urbanisation of India is going to be a hindrance in our economic progress. Mumbai's drainage system is antiquated but what happened to the modern systems like power and communication networks? The politicians and all those responsible for planning various schemes in the city and its periphery have a lot to answer for.

R.K. Sudan, Jammu

People turn up in huge numbers for political rallies and protest marches. Where were all these people when the stranded Mumbaikars needed help?

Raghu Nandan, Pondicherry

Not the Right Image

Those who sympathise with Gurgaon's rioting workers and their leftist champions should pause for a moment and consider the consequences of the violence ("Red Alert", August 8). Images of workers assaulting police personnel, vehicles being set ablaze, or politicians mouthing the most inane statements in order to play to the gallery cannot inspire confidence among investors. Gurgaon is a major destination for foreign investment. Its rapid industrialisation has generated a huge number of jobs as well as revenue for the government.

A. Megha, Hyderabad

The most disturbing news after the clashes between the Honda Scooter and Motorcycle India (HSMI) workers and the police is that the leftist unions are trying to gain a foothold in Gurgaon. If that happens Haryana's industrial sector will be constantly plagued by strikes and bandhs.

Kalyan Ghosh, Kolkata

After systematically destroying most industries in West Bengal in the 1990s the Red Brigade has now realised that it converted the state into a nightmarish one for industrialists. Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya is now trying his best to change the state's image. It looks like the out-of-work leftists have turned their attention to other industrialised states.

M.K. Chakraborty, Delhi

PERENNIAL PROBLEM

It's time for Sonia Gandhi to pay some attention to what is happening in her own backyard ("House in Disorder", August 8). There are enough people to look after the Government. But only her authority works in the party. K.N. Sharma, Delhi In Indian politics, every party that is in power is bound to be a house in disorder. The root cause for this is the power struggle among party leaders. All party presidents, be it L.K. Advani or Sonia, have to deal with this problem. Prakash F. Madhwani, Bangalore Since the time of Indira Gandhi, personality clashes have been the bane of the Congress. S.S. Ramanatha Rao, Bangalore

The police action against the agitating workers in Gurgaon will forever cloud any discussion on the issues involved. Such is the distortion in perspective that any discussion on who started the fight will never lead to any conclusions.

J. Vani, Mysore

What happened in Gurgaon is a blot on our democracy and the freedom to protest. The police force unleashed a reign of terror on the agitating workers. We need a change in labour-management relations if we want to attract more FDI.

D.B.N. Murthy, Bangalore

Apart from projecting the arbitrary style of functioning of the MNCs, the incident brings to the fore the police force's brutish style of functioning. It is high time the law enforcing agencies learned to offer resistance in a more humane manner.

Arvind K. Pandey, Allahabad

Same Difference

Narayan Rane left the Shiv Sena because of the dynastic policies of Bal Thackeray and chose to join the Congress ("Rane's Rebel Rousing", August 8). But is the Congress' record any better on this count?

Rosemary John, Shimla

Suitable Dispensation

With reference to the apprehensions about the improved relations between India and the US, we must understand that the present unipolar world is better than a multipolar one with China as the other superpower ("Big Step Forward", August 1).

Manas Singh, on e-mail

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