L E T T E R S    T O    T H E    E D I T O R

Help Punjab farmers in Gujarat

It was shocking to read in The Tribune (October 28), “Kutch land mafia eyeing Punjabi farmers' holdings,” that Sikh farmers of Loriya village in Kutch, Gujarat, are being terrorised by the local land mafia and forced to pack up and flee. These farmers had been made to settle there for foodgrain production under harsh environments by the government when nobody else was willing to take up this job.

A similar situation had arisen in Haryana, but Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda was quick enough to pass instructions, giving immediate relief to the farmers.

The matter has been taken up by the Punjab Chief Minister and the Central Government with Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, but he does not seem to have come up with any clear roadmap to give the Kutch farmers a relief and keep the mafia at bay. This is worrying, considering that Modi projects himself as a messiah of the minorities and is one of the prime ministerial candidates.

Rajiv Angrish, Hisar

II

The way SAD (B) and Congress had initially taken up the issue of the Punjabi farmers in Gujarat, it appeared that their problems would be resolved on priority. The farmers were, however, left to fend for themselves in the absence of further support. This despite the fact that they were being attacked by the local land mafia, intending to grab their land and sell it to industrialists for setting up industries. The farmers belonging to Punjab are facing serious problems. The Punjab government should not ignore them or it would send a signal to the affected farmers that the SAD-BJP combine was not concerned about their misery.

Ravinder Singh, Jalandhar

Sachin’s integrity

It was shaking and startling to learn that Ricky Pointing, former captain of the Australian cricket team, has written in his book that Sachin Tendulkar played a dubious role during the infamous 'monkeygate' affair in the Sydney Test of January, 2008.

I feel sorry for Ricky, who is a good cricketer, but zero in sportsmanship. In the field, he never felt shy to use bad ethics and force the umpire to declare wrong decisions. At least, he had never wished defeat. You have aptly pointed out in the editorial, “Stop this outrage” (October 19), that Indians must cease to believe that they all victims. Monkeygate is past. Sydney is past. Tendulkar’s infallibilily and integrity rest on his being a great cricketer.

SUBHASH C. TANJEJA, Gurgaon

Intractable Kashmir problem In the last para of his article “India needs to deal firmly with Pak on Kashmir” (October 25), Dinesh Kumar asks a question: “Is there not a need for the Indian leadership to come up with new thinking and approach to handle Pakistan on the J&K problem….?” Had Jawaharlal Nehru not committed two blunders, we would not have been facing the Kashmir problems today. One, Maharaja Hari Singh, the ruler of J&K, had sent Dewan Mehr Chand Mahajan to New Delhi in the third week of September 1947, to offer his accession to Nehru, but he rejected it. Even when Sheikh Abdullah, on release from jail then, conveyed his willingness to Nehru to accede to India, Nehru remained adamant. The tribals invaded the valley on October 22. Still Nehru did not accept accession till October 26, when it was too late. Two, in 1948, Gen K. S. Thimayya (then Major-General) GOC 19 Infantry Division, who was responsible for the security of the valley, asked Nehru to give him three more months to reach Muzaffarabad, but Nehru rejected his advice and agreed to a ceasefire. Had Nehru not done that, the entire J&K (including present Azad Kashmir) would have been with us since 1948. Nowhere in the world has a terrorist problem been settled by military power. Kashmir is a political problem and needs a political solution. India has already wasted precious lives of thousands of its soldiers in Kashmir since 1947. It should change its rigid stance now and accept the logic that Kashmir is a disputed territory and a bilateral solution to it is not possible. PRITAM BHULLAR, Chandigarh