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

N-deal: story of a wasted effort

H K. Dua’s front-page write-up “Nuclear deal—the story of a wasted effort” (May 25) is a tremendous effort to revive the N-deal lying in coma. I blame both the Left and the UPA for the stalemate—the Left for not seeing sense and the UPA for not going ahead with the deal for fear of losing power.

Enough precious time has been wasted in trying to bring around the Left and a “now-or-never” stage has arrived. The UPA should not ignore the national interest and go ahead with the nuclear deal even at the cost of power. In any case, it has to face elections early next year.

Wg-Cdr (retd) C. L. Sehgal, Jalandhar

II

US sources indicate a green signal from India before the end of June can still save the nuclear deal. There is thus very little time left to get the deal through during the present administrations of India and the US.

The successor administrations in the two countries may not be able to salvage whatever has been achieved towards the conclusion of the deal and the efforts so far made may go waste.

G. R. KALRA, Chandigarh

III

The Left’s opposition to the deal may be understandable because of its innate anti-Americanism, notwithstanding the fact that both Russia and China are hand in glove with the US in this matter.

However, the BJP’s opposition to the deal is quite puzzling as it was during the NDA’s tenure that a dialogue on the issue was started with the US. It does not behove the BJP to backtrack now.

D. K. AGGARWALA, Hoshiapur

IV

There are opposing perceptions about the deal due to varying ideologies, petty political gains and coalition compulsions. After all it is the over-all national interest that should prevail.

Scientists and other men of vision should rise to the occasion and build a consensus so that our march to prosperity is not retarded. Decidedly, energy requirement holds the key to the whole exercise. Efforts should not go in vain.

SHANTI SWARUP SHARMA, Dharamsala

Obama in White House? I read with interest H. K. Dua “Obama forges ahead, crossing barriers”. Prior to the abolition of slavery in America, white planters were free to exercise full control, both in theory and practice, over not only slaves but also their wives and children. Even thereafter white Democrats kept the black voters disenfranchised until 1965 when the Federal Government brought the Voter’s Right Act, which gave African Americans entry into the ranks of the Democratic Party. It is in the 43rd year after that, that an African-American is forging ahead to occupy the White House for the first time in the history of America. If it happens, it would certainly be a great step towards making America an inclusive society. Even Hillary Clinton’s bold decision to campaign for being a candidate for American Presidency is a testimony to the fact that prejudice against women is also fading out along with racial prejudices, though very slowly as H.K. Dua has pointed out. One’s conscience gets stirred while one reads from the pages of history of the women’s rights movement in America that southern and northern states had even refused to ratify the equal rights amendment for quite a long time. Such moves in a male-dominated society were fully supported by the evangelical fundamentalists. In this background with exclusivist tendencies still existent in American society, both Obama and Clinton deserve to be congratulated. To be the first does constitute a great achievement. G S BAL, Jalandhar

Raj runs amok

One cannot but agree with your pertinent observations in the editorial “Raj running amok” (May 28). No right-thinking Indian, irrespective of his/her domicile and place of work, can ever endorse the divisive politics of the Thakeray clan.

The exuberance of youth, lop-sided logic and an intensely selfish motive to make a mark in the murky world of politics coupled with a desire to upstage his uncle and cousin, has apparently motivated Raj Thackrey to create a potentially explosive and dangerous situation that could have disastrous consequences for the nation.

It is about time for this ambitious and misguided young man to be brought to book for his shenanigans.

M. K. BAJAJ, Zirakpur

Judicious electorate

The results of the recently held panchayat elections in West Bengal, the assembly elections in Karnataka and byelections in a few states clearly show that the conscience of the electorate is very much alive.

In spite of caste-based social pressure and personal obligations of candidates/their supporters, by and large the voters have gone against the parties which have committed moral improprieties when in power.

It is particularly heartening to see how the JD (S) has been punished for greedily trying to stick to the chair when its turn was over. Wisdom and judiciousness of the electorate is the real strength of our democracy.

Lt Col (retd) H. S. GUR, Hisar

UPA’s record

The UPA government celebrated its fourth anniversary on May 22 though on a low key. It has three major achievements to its credit, namely the enactment of the Right to Information Act, waiver of farmers’ loans and the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme.

On inflation and price control, the government has done what it could do, but we have to wait for some time for the results. The Prime Minister himself has admitted that it may take 6-8 weeks. The BJP leaders calling the Prime Minister “lame duck” are uncalled for because the UPA government’s three major achievements as mentioned are historic.

Wg-Cdr J.S. BHALLA (retd), Chandigarh