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ON E-MAIL J. Akshay: Apropos of
Sin in the Box (July 9), it is disturbing to
read about this alleged exploitation of a
woman parishioner by five priests of
the Malankara Orthodox Syrian
Church, as well as a nun alleging rape
by a bishop. In light of these serious all­
egations, it is incumbent on both
churches to cooperate with the investi-
gating agencies to ensure that truth
prevails. It is a pity that a lady has to
fight a long battle to get this out in pub-
lic. We have heard many other stories
of nuns’ suffering as well. Any criminal
case should be dealt with and cleared
by the law of the land. Hiding it in the
local law and only saying that canonical
procedures have been complied with
has no merit under our Constitution.
Ideally, both the law of the land and
canon law should have been taken up. A
crime is a crime, whether it is from a
Christian religious figure or a Hindu or
a Muslim or any other religion. I hope a
thorough investigation happens and
the truth comes out, and anyone found
guilty is duly punished. Finally, it
would be pertinent to know whether
the church authorities themselves app­
roached the investigative agencies on
their own. If not, would it not amount
to a cover-up?
Vile Words
DHARAMSHALA Lalit Mohan
Sharma: This refers to Shiv
Visvanathan’s analysis of the crude
obs­cenities that punctuate routine
reportage of narratives of violence
(Listeneres Peddling Narratives of
Violence, Jul 9). Only after the police
shoot dead 13 Indian citizens do you
hear about a protest that kept brewing
for a hundred days. Hasn’t Noam
Chomsky spoken about how the UN is
controlled by the corporate world?
Sterlite of Vedanta must be held to acc­
ount. However, once normalcy is res­
tored, the larger issue is promptly
forgotten by the media. Such atrocities
do irreparable damage to the polity.
ON E-MAIL Krishnan S.: Can you
translate Shiv Visvanathan’s article in
Greek on the Thoothukudi tragedy into
English next time?
It’s PoCo Guv’nor!
BANGALORE H.N. Ramakrishna: I
refer to What’s Tamil for Lèse-Majesté
6 OUTLOOK 23 July 2018
(July 9). This rarely-used section of the
IPC, enacted in colonial times, has no
place in India’s modern democratic
soc­iety. Such laws should be repealed.
The office of governor is another colo-
nial legacy that continues to be inhab-
ited by the colonial proconsuls of the
present ruling elite. One wonders why
the governors and lieutenant-gover-
nors appointed by the present adminis-
tration seem unable to get along with
non-BJP state governments. Such act­
ions by constitutional aut­horities will
only usher in the twilight of our democ-
racy and not as guardrails, when our
position on the democracy index is
already slipping. The relevance of this
archaic institution needs to be re-eval-
uated. The pomp and panoply of this
office can be dispensed with, saving
considerable resources.
GSTaint
HYDERABAD J. Kishore: Are we
e ­ xpected to celebrate GST’s anniversary
(GST or GST’N! July 2) It is no innova-
tive approach to taxation, it’s the old
wine in the same old bottle, only,
they’ve put a pretty label on it. It’s only
‘one nation one tax’ in name, with dif-
ferent tax slabs for different goods.
Pray, what are “sin goods”, what is this
free market morality? Small and mid-
size traders are still grappling with this
tax and the GST brigade is roaming
around, keen to extract its ‘pound of
flesh’ from businesses. This Shylockian
approach of the government has made a
mockery of federalism, twisting the int­
ernal economics of states in true big
vbrother style. But what can one expect.
The GST is a rock compared to the
Tughlaqian mountain of demonetisa-
tion that made the yoke of this country
groan under its callous weight.
You’re Illegal
GUWAHATI A.K. Chakraborty:
CROWD CHARMER Salman Khan
Salmania Rules
ON E-MAIL Aditya Mukherjee: This
refers to This Tank is Unstoppable (July
9). The Salman Khan juggernaut con-
tinues to roll its way through the peo-
ple’s heart. While some critics and
purists may pooh-pooh his movies,
which cash in on his macho appeal
without much thematic substance, the
52-year-old actor’s unmatched cha-
risma and flamboyance remain the
driving force behind the success of his
movies. Even the likes of Amitabh
Bachchan found the going tough at the
box office when he was playing a hero
after 50. But Salman has turned even
the age trope upside down by getting
cast in roles opp­osite actresses half his
age even today. The audiences have
wholeheartedly acc­epted the ageless
Salman Khan in these roles and he still
has a huge fan following. He is the mod-
ern day Gatsby, oozing oodles of swag-
ger and chutzpah.
Refer to A People’s Final Draft (July 2).
The piece leaves many questions unan-
swered. It delineates mainly the fear of
alienation among Muslims and is sil­ent
on the actual problem: Following the
NRC’s publication, the Centre will pass
the Citizenship Amendment Bill, 2016,
in the coming session of the
Parliament. It would enable India to
issue citizenship to the persecuted
min­orities of Bangladesh, Pakistan and
Afghanistan, which is vehemently opp­
osed by much of the Assamese commu-
nity in the Brahmaputra valley, and
supported by a large number in Barak
valley. Since the 1960s, there have been
agitations against the presence of
illegal immigrants from Bangladesh,
leading up to the Assam Accord.
Our family has been living in Assam
since 1951. My father’s name is in the
1956 NRC, but using his legacy data we
failed to get listed in the first draft of
this NRC (December 31, 2017). Eight
members of the family are waiting for
publication of the second list. Bengali
Hindu