Please accept my congratulations for your pre-poll editorial in the May I issue of The DayAfter, where you echoed the sentiments of President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam exhorting the people of India to vote without fear and prejudice. You rightly pointed out that he was the first President of India to take the initiative to tell the voters that voting was their most important right and duty and fear of violence should not deter them from exercising their right and duty. You had underlined that every Indian with the right to vote must make a pledge to the nation and to himself "vote I must to strengthen democracy". India has voted and the verdict is against those who wanted to take the electors towards a restricted and closed concept of nationhood as was spelt put by Adolf Hitler and his National Socialist Party ideologies which unleashed the Nazi menace the world over and was the source of inspiration for many similar fascistic ideologies. The mandate is clearly against communal forces and those who seek to divide India on the basis of race and religious philosophy concepts which are in total violation of even the basic concept of Hinduism, a liberal and universal philosophy. The point I want to make is that no adventurists and emotion mongers should be allowed to reverse the verdict of the people of India through politics of vilification and street brawls. We should not allow bad losers to ruin the democratic and peaceful image of a large hearted, liberal and humanitarian India.

Kokila Karunakaran
Kochi

Your editorial 'Vote without fear' has highlighted the message that let not the terrorists, the pre-poll surveys or early-stage exit pollers firghten the voters not to make their choice. You would be glad to know that the brave women of Kashmir, who voted more enthusiastically than their men-folk despite threats by terrorists and fundamentalists, set the lead for voting without fear. We, the Kashmiri women, have suffered so much at the hands of the terrorists and their open and secret agents that they no longer hold any more terror for us. After all, how far and how low can they go in vending their false and sanctimonious claims to represent the people of Kashmir. They have been shown that they certainly do not represent the majority of the women of Kashmir.

Khalida Begum
Srinagar

YOUR editorial "vote without fear" was timely. Those who did not heed the real message, came to grief. The long-distance string pullers, who desired to pull the strings and make political profit from the BJP-led and the Congress-led alliances, seem to have suffered a shock. Chandrababu Naidu was left with no strings to pull, Jayalalithaa suffered a clean defeat, Mamta Bannerji could not dislodge the Left, Mulayam Singh could not dictate terms to Vajpayee and Sonia Gandhi at the same time. The fence-sitters using political pressurism to rule Delhi long-distance through remote control have been rejected by the Indian voter. Will they learn their lesson or remain in their fool’s paradise?

Kanti Bhatnagar
Kanpur

YOUR editorial had its message that a vote without fear could let the self-style poll pundits really understand that their expert opinion was not the wish and verdict of the people of India. This has been proved beyond any doubt. Chief Election Commissioner Krishnamurthy was right in laying down that even the exit polls might be conducted with the surveyors disclosing the size of their sample, their methodology and source of the survey finding. In any case, the polls stand disproved and discredited in most parts of the country. Let us say "Goodbye poll pundits".

Nitin Malhotra
New Delhi

IN your story in the May I issue, you had posed the question: Why do you vote. Do we vote for personalities and prime ministerial candidates only? Do we vote for religions and castes? Do we vote for temples, mosques and churches? Do we vote for one set of arrogant and ambitious politicians and their cronies against another set of arrogant politicians and cronies? Do we vote for senile and aged persons in love with the seats of power against the entire new and younger generation? Do we vote for promises only or for actual performance? Are the voters and the people of India personal or corporate property of one or another political party or permutation of parties? Has one party the right to tell its rival party how to run its affairs? Does only the ruling party after a poll only have responsibilities and duties and those who have been made to sit in the Opposition none at all? The debate must go on Sir. The poll is over but we must debate threadbare the issue: Why do we vote.

Chintamony Chaliha
Guwahati

S Venkatesh’s investigation into Indian bureaucrats' attitude towards our neighbours and the hostility and suspicion of the bureaucrats from the neighbouring countries against India has many lessons for us to learn. In his reports entitled "Neighbours’ antipathy" Venkatesh has focused strong feelings against India have given a spurt to Bangladesh efforts to develop trade ties with Thailand , Indonesia, Pakistan and Malaysia. Its geographical location makes its task more difficult but the more India appears reluctant to be a generous neighbour, the stronger the anti-India feeling both among the people and the government . First lesson is obvious. We need to cultivate some neighbour sense, second we need to allay the fears of Bangladesh that free trade agreement with India would only benefit India. The fears and suspicions of our neighbours must be dealt with due thought care and consideration. That is what good neighbours’ sense is all about.

Dhruv Kumar Ghosh
Kolkata