Both brutal and a sign
The Udaipur incident, of the beheading of the 40-year-old man at his shop, has grossly shaken the conscience of the nation. Such a brutal act is highly reprehensible. Community leaders must condemn the act without any ‘ifs and buts’, as there is no scope for any justification. It is beyond belief that a few elements can resort to such a crime and even broadcast it. What we need to understand is that any grievances have to be resolved through constitutional and democratic means and not through fundamentalism (Page 1, “Man killed for post backing Nupur Sharma”, June 29).
Abdul Rahman,
Faizabad, Uttar Pradesh
The ISIS style barbaric murder is deeply shocking and must be condemned by all. At this crucial moment, all parties, especially the national parties, must appeal for calm and peace. There should be no attempt at mud-slinging. The perpetrators must be punished severely. That the law is working, and working swiftly, should serve as a strong deterrent to peace breakers.
Janga Bahadur Sunuwar,
Bagrakote, Jalpaiguri, West BengalHow can a person show hatred towards another human in this way? The Government and the police must take this very seriously and act on priority. There must be severe punishment.
Shivam Ambwani,
Ujjain, Madhya Pradesh
The beheading is horrifying and also a very cold reminder of the extent of polarisation taking place in society, perhaps across India. It is a warning to all leaders across political parties to unite and address the issue of fundamentalism and extremism at once.
Mahesh Rallabhandi,
Rajahmundry, Andhra Pradesh
Sena and politics
The floor test in Maharashtra that is being sought may go in any direction but the main issue with the Sena rebels seems to be a lack of attention under the tripartite MVA government. The Sena leadership is at fault for ignoring the interests of senior members. Ideologically, a distinct tripartite coalition seems difficult to continue as well. The Shiv Sena needs to rethink its priorities again.
Rajani Joshi,
Karjat, Maharashtra
An alliance of ideologically opposed political parties is bound to create problems. Discipline in a political party would prevail only when its leaders pay due regard to the sentiments of their partymen. The Maharashtra crisis only shows what a hard lesson it has been for the leaders.
B. Gurumurthy,
Madurai
The Shiv Sena is at the political crossroads as opportunism has the potential to snowball into a crisis. In fact the party can be said to be more Hindutva than the BJP. During the Ayodhya movement, its leadership had the line “a friend in need is a friend indeed”, implying that the Sena’s support was indispensable for the BJP’s cause. The problem began with the growing acceptability of the BJP, when compared to the Sena for varied reasons. It is akin to the state Bihar’s Nitish Kumar finds he is in, despite his wider acceptability. Even if the Sena manages to survive, its ‘mistake’ of deviation from its core ideology could haunt it.
Dharmarajan A.K.,
Thalassery, Kerala
The enthusiasm shown by the BJP leaders in asking for a floor test has only strengthened the perception that it is this national party that is backing the actions of the rebel Sena MLAs (Page 1, June 29). That they were also holed up in BJP-ruled Assam only strengthens this.
V.S. Sindhuri,
Kakinada, Andhra Pradesh
