Readers’ comments: Indian democracy is facing challenges. What is Rahul Gandhi doing to stop this?

What is Rahul Gandhi doing as a leader of the Opposition to stop the Narendra Modi juggernaut (India is no longer a democratic country, says Rahul Gandhi, shares Swedish agency’s report)? The citizens are displeased with the government and are looking up to the Opposition to lead them to true democracy, but the Opposition is nowhere to be seen. Citizens had started an uprising of sorts during the agitations against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act and the farm laws. However, the opposition has failed miserably to support the people. Failure of the Opposition to stand up to the government on various issues has led to the government being autocratic. – Sunil Sarnaik

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West Bengal might be the only state where political power has been constantly in the hands of the Brahmins since Independence (Will the communalisation of OBC reservations help the BJP in Bengal?). Just like Congress, the Left and Trinamool Congress, the BJP will do the same if it comes to power. The BJP is interested in the division of voters of Scheduled Castes and Other Backward Class on the caste and communal lines, rather than for their social upliftment. – SS Badhawan

Myanmar coup

This is one of the few articles that come close to explaining the nuances and the reality of the struggle in Myanmar (By arresting Aung San Suu Kyi, Myanmar’s army has partially helped restore her slipping halo). The conclusion does miss the point though. Aung San Suu Kyi did not make the choices she did for personal glory, for her legacy or to protect her personal liberty, but to negotiate a very delicate truce with the Myanmar military to give people a shot at freedom, and to push forward the march towards democracy. And it worked. She has done her part. – Rishikesh Chhabra

Bapu’s bicycle

I loved reading this article on the restoration of Mahatma Gandhi’s bicycle (How I restored Bapu’s bicycle with the help of local repairmen and ingenuity). I often sift through old yellowed clippings from the Times and articles today, unfortunately, lack good writing; failing to hold an interest in the story for long, mostly gossip and terrible terrible language. The way this article has been written, makes me want to see the cycle and talk to the people involved. Even without that though, I was completely drawn into the story. Really enjoyed it. – Namrata

Faith and science

As god is omnipresent, omnipotent and omniscient, the question of his/her comparison with light or darkness does not stand to reason (Can god be disproved using the laws of physics? An expert explains how it depends on perspective). Physics can only deal with physical things. This is a very thought-provoking article. – Appaiah NV

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Evidently, it requires more faith to believe in a multiverse than an intelligent designer. – Edward Rex

Pandemic woes

What this article has shown is only the tip of the iceberg (No pensions for five months: How Jharkhand’s poor were left poorer during the pandemic). More such cases need to come to light. The culprits should be held accountable, be it the state government or the Centre. – Joel Urumpil

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I do not fully agree with this article (A stark class divide is emerging in India’s Covid-19 vaccination drive). Yes, a technological divide is definitely there in the Covid-19 vaccination programme, which we must bridge at a fast pace. But the claims of a class divide in the vaccination drive is not fully true. The state-run health centres are doing a great job. Citizens need to only show their Aadhar card to get the vaccination. The entire process is managed very well. My experience at a private hospital was different. There was no social distancing. In fact, no doctor to advise as well. Where is the class divide [if public health centres are being managed better than the private ones]? – Valsa Williams

Songs of love

I am a Greek living in Mumbai for the last 10 years and was happy to find your article (Greece fell in love with Nargis and Madhubala in the 1950s – and is still singing songs of love). I was also happy to share it with my niece to use for a school project on Indian music. I did notice some things I would like to bring to your attention that might not be something as familiar to your writers as it would be to a Greek, much as the nuances of Indian culture would not be to a Greek.

There is an entire genre of words found in Sanskrit – and therefore Hindi, Greek, Persian, Chinese, and Arabic with roots that can be traced back to the Silk Road trade routes that have similar sounds and meanings. Knowing any of these languages allows you to suddenly find familiarity in the others. Throw in random dishes here and there that look, taste and have similar names and it is obvious they have been influencing each other forever.

Stellios Kazantzidis did not belong to a “Turkish Greek family”. He came from a Greek family that lived under the Ottoman Empire for many generations and left during the war and population exchange of 1919-1920 (Similar to the India-Pakistan Partition). Greeks had been scattered throughout the Ottoman Empire for centuries, the Byzantine before that and throughout the region pre-and post-Alexander the Great. And we are all still Greek. We might have alternate “papers”, but we are Greek. No one fleeing the Turkish genocide in 1919-1920 received “papers”. I speak from personal family experience. So much as you would not call any famed Indian artist as hailing from a “Pakistani-Indian family” simply because they moved during or after the Partition, it is the same with a Greek person.

No one would call Greeks living for 200-odd years in Calcutta as being from “Indian Greek families” unless one parent hailed from each culture. They were diaspora Greeks, like those in the US or Egypt or Australia. Again, wonderful article. Happy to see shared cultural information. Do keep up the great reporting. – Kaleroy Zervos