Girish Karnad is right about VS Naipaul’s anti-Muslim views
This refers to the report, Karnad takes on Naipaul (November 3). Actor and playwright Girish Karnad’s discretion to use the Mumbai Literary Festival as a platform to launch a verbal attack on Nobel laureate VS Naipaul
is debatable. However, he is right in saying that Naipual has no idea of how Muslims contributed to India’s history. This doesn’t suggest that I am undermining Naipaul’s contribution to literature. But his fame as a writer cannot alter ‘objective reality’. If his reading that “India was ravaged by Muslim invaders” is a grotesque distortion of the truth, his glamorisation of the demolition of the Babri Masjid is a gratuitous desecration of Indian secularism. It is extremely surprising that a Nobel laureate of Indian origin does not see or celebrate the uniqueness of the Indian tapestry woven with a rich diversity of religions and cultures.
G David Milton, via email
Train tribals for different careers
This refers to the report Centre’s Mamata mantra: hire youth before Reds do (November 4). The West Bengal government’s decision to recruit tribal youths from Maoist areas in a new class of police constabulary is commendable. However, the government must also come up with a scheme to provide training for jobs in other sectors like IT, aviation, etc, for those who are physically unfit or unwilling to join the police.
Gulshan Kumar, via email
Implement safety laws properly
This refers to the report Bad road manners behind high accident fatalities in India (November 3). Though several measures are adopted to minimise road accidents in the country, they are initiated piecemeal. This makes it impossible for authorities to implement these measures properly. In order to make our roads safer, we need an effective and uniform implementation of safety laws across the country.
AL Agarwal, Delhi