A sharp tongue only helps in injuring one’s public image

This refers to the the editorial What the #@&$! (The Pundit, January 12). Self-control is one of the pre-requisites for an individual to be considered respectable.

A sharp tongue only helps in injuring one’s public image
This refers to the the editorial What the #@&$! (The Pundit, January 12). Self-control is one of the pre-requisites for an individual to be considered respectable. It is unfortunate that former Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda has transgressed the line of decency in his utterances with regard to Karnataka Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa. If a person wishes to be respected, much as it’s important for him to respect others. Deve Gowda’s abusive outburst will not so much hurt Yeddyurappa as it will dent his own image as a seasoned politician.
P.L. Bakhshi, Delhi

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Tharoor has other duties too
This refers to Aravind Adiga’s article Panditji’s pundit (January 12). The fact that India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru’s foreign policies would be beyond criticism by anyone from the Congress party is obvious. His policies were far from perfect and irrespective of Minister of State for External Affairs Shashi Tharoor’s praise of Nehru’s policies, the fact that they are responsible for major blunders in respect of Kashmir and China remains unchanged. And it wouldn’t be totally unfair to say that it’s because of those policies that India still remains a major target of terror attacks and why Tibetans are nationless even to this day.
M.C. Joshi, Lucknow

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Shashi Tharoor should make better use of his time and energy by concentrating more on pressing issues that ail the country today instead of indulging in flippant observations about Jawaharlal Nehru’s foreign policy. Surely, Tharoor was not elected from Thiruvananthapuram constituency to engage in twitter, chatter and facebook banter. Is this his way of serving the people of the nation and performing his duties as a minister? Nehru sacrificed years of his life in jail along with other freedom fighters for our country’s independence. His policies may not have all been flawless, but Tharoor must not forget that a political stance taken some 50 years ago was dictated by a search for optimism in a post-war ravaged society. It’s time Tharoor stopped tweeting like a twit and got some work done instead.
P.G. Murthy, via email

Chinese invaders are closing in
This has reference to the report China taking over our land, Ladakh tells Home Ministry (January 11). It is a matter of grave concern for the government as well as for our intelligence agencies that China, for many years now, has been trying to grab our territory. It is true that India has lost substantial portions of land in the last two decades, along the Line of Actual Control. Last year, Chinese troops had entered nearly 1.5 km into Indian territory near Mount Gaya and written ‘China’ on boulders and rocks in red paint. The government’s apathy towards such incidents has created a sense of insecurity among local residents. When will our government realise that China doesn’t care about India’s interests and take a firm stand on the issue?
Amrik Singh, Chicago

A tale of vanishing sleuths
Srijana Mitra Das in Not so elementary (January 8) made an insightful observation concerning detective fiction in India and how it reflects the low level of public confidence in the judiciary today. She rightly highlights the trajectory of detective fiction in India from the Bengali greats onwards. However, while contemporary literature hardly has an inspiring sleuth, television has many popular detective shows like Don, CID etc, recycled from the Eighties. How will the writer analyse the presence of detective fiction on television considering their poor standards, I wonder.
Pratik Dutt, via email