Shoe story
Sir — Those who have ever had the misfortune of having their favourite pair of shoes filched in a public place are in glorious company. The red shoes worn by Judy Garland while playing Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz were stolen, allegedly in the hope that the shoes were wrought with rubies instead of red sequins. While they may not have rubies, the shoes are still worth around $3.5 million. Fortunately, they have been recovered recently after 19 years. One wonders why the thief held on to them for nearly two decades in spite of seeing the sequins. Might the magic shoes have whisked him away to Oz by mistake?
Sreya Datta, Calcutta
Harsh step
Sir — It is disheartening that the chief ministers of two states, Arvind Kejriwal and Hemant Soren, have been arrested by Central agencies just before the Lok Sabha elections (“Long arm of agencies gets Kejriwal now”, Mar 22). Is it just a coincidence that the arrests of Kejriwal and Soren were preceded by the chief minister of Bihar, Nitish Kumar, hopping back to the National Democratic Alliance from the INDIA bloc? This should ring alarm bells for other non-Bharatiya Janata party chief ministers such as Naveen Patnaik, Anumula Revanth Reddy and Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy. The BJP will crush the Opposition by using Central agencies. The need of the hour is for the Opposition allies to stand united.
P.K. Sharma, Barnala, Punjab
Sir — The arrest of the chief minister of Delhi, Arvind Kejriwal, seems like a desperate move by the BJP to destroy the Aam Aadmi Party before the general elections. This is undoubtedly a major blow for the INDIA bloc. Kejriwal was arrested on charges of corruption and money-laundering. Although several AAP leaders have been arrested for similar reasons, the alleged kickback of Rs 350 crore is yet to be recovered. The Enforcement Directorate has carried out over 3,000 raids in the last decade. Yet, most of these were against Opposition leaders. While the BJP boasts about fighting corruption, the huge sums it received through electoral bonds belie its image as a clean organisation.
Zakir Hussain, Kazipet, Telangana
Sir — Arvind Kejriwal has been arrested by the ED after he failed to appear before it in spite of nine summons. Kejriwal is the first sitting chief minister to have been arrested in India. It is funny that as soon as Opposition leaders switch their allegiance to the BJP, they are no longer harangued by Central agencies. The accusations by the Opposition of being targeted thus seem valid.
M. Jeyaram, Sholavandan, Tamil Nadu
Sir — The BJP has forsaken basic democratic decorums by misusing Central agencies to harass Opposition leaders. The godi media hardly highlights how the saffron party has siphoned over 8,000 crore rupees through electoral bonds from various business enterprises. The prime minister, Narendra Modi, and his party are trying to demolish the Opposition by using underhanded tactics such as freezing the bank accounts of political parties and arresting leaders on flimsy grounds. The country will become an autocracy and a ‘Hindu rashtra’ under the BJP supremo unless the voters take a stand against Modi’s anti-democratic moves.
A.K. Chakraborty, Guwahati
Sir — The arrest of Arvind Kejriwal is condemnable. The deployment of various government agencies to strangle the Opposition, stifle the free press and cripple non-governmental organisations by using the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act recalls the tyranny witnessed under Indira Gandhi during the Emergency. The BJP must not forget the electoral results that followed the Emergency. Arm-twisting the Opposition does not augur well for a robust democracy.
M. Rishidev, Dindigul, Tamil Nadu
