The Hindu : Leadership change

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Jan 18, 2003

Opinion

Opinion - Letters to the Editor

Leadership change

Sir, — This is with reference to the news report `Shinde to be Maharashtra CM' (Jan.17). The way the former Chief Minister was shown the door and the new leader elected at the behest of the Congress high command, raises some serious questions. What authority does the party high command have to recommend or replace a Chief Minister according to its wishes and how often? Is it correct to have more than a Chief Minister in a five-year tenure, in spite of his commanding the majority? If he is inefficient, who decides his fate? Is it the party high command or the MLAs or the people?

G.V. Mohan,
Hyderabad

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Sir, — The media and others have referred to Sushil Kumar Shinde as the first `Dalit' Chief Minister. Mr. Shinde is essentially a good and seasoned Congressman, politician and administrator. When will we shed the caste angle?

N. Ganga Ram,
Dubai, U.A.E. Dual citizenship Sir, — I was surprised to note the map on the Indian Diaspora (January 10). Obviously the staff involved are unaware that Sri Lanka has around one million people of recent Indian origin. These people in past censuses had been listed as Indian Tamils, Coast Moors and others. In the 2001 census, they are listed as Indian Tamils and others. The others include Malayalees, Bohras, Parsis, Memons and others of Indian origin.

The Indian Tamils are a distinct ethnic group in Sri Lanka, being the descendants of the first Indians to be taken overseas by the British. This `migration' which began around 1800, was followed a few decades later by those to Burma, Southeast Asia, Mauritius, Fiji and the West Indies. The Sri Lankan Tamils, listed as such in the Sri Lankan census, are those Tamils who settled in the island between 2,000 and 500 years ago. The ethnic dispute in Sri Lanka is between these Sri Lankan Tamils, not the Indian Tamils, and the Sri Lankan Government. The travails of the Indian Tamils over the years have, unfortunately, been ignored by the Indian media as much as they have been by the Government of India and India as a whole, including Tamil Nadu.

Several people of recent Indian origin in Sri Lanka have made a mark in the island and significant contributions to it in business, the professions, academia and in other fields. Why they as well as those in other parts of the world, are to be discriminated against in the matter of dual citizenship is beyond my understanding, unless there is a feeling in official circles that those Indians who go to the `white' countries are in some way a superior class, having made their way in the `developed' countries. This invitation to dual loyalties is a sad commentary on our morality. S. Muthiah,
Chennai

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Sir, — Now that dual citizenship will soon be bestowed on some ``select'' NRIs living in certain foreign countries, will these countries also have a duplicate Indian ambassador as the U.S. seems to be having already?

And, at home, what about Cabinet Ministers and duly elected legislators with dual loyalty to their political masters? An earlier national coalition broke up on this issue.

As for doublespeak, this has already become normal with Sangh Parivar leaders. What else remains to be doubled?

Sujit Mukherjee,
Secunderabad, A.P.

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