Stinky plan

Sir — Nobody protests like the French. Recently, the French president, Emmanuel Macron, promised to swim in the river Seine to prove that the water was fit for Olympic athletes. In response to this, Parisians, who have been aggrieved over the huge expenses of cleaning up the Seine, threatened to defecate in the river, which, they argue, has been polluted for centuries, rendering the sanitisation drive futile. Indians, too, are infamously reluctant when it comes to cleaning the Ganga. But the fact that the French protest would aggravate river pollution ends up showing Indians in a better light.

Debashree Ghosal, Calcutta

Deadly rush

Sir — It is unfortunate that over 120 people have died in a stampede at a religious congregation in Hathras, Uttar Pradesh. Stampedes are not unheard of in India, especially during religious events which are often held in cramped areas with shoddy infrastructure and inadequate safety measures. It is due to the negligence of the event organisers that stampedes take place. Worryingly, the guidelines for crowd management released by the National Disaster Management Authority are flouted with impunity.

To prevent stampedes, the authorities should ensure separate entry and exit points at congregations, deploy adequate security personnel and set up a public address system to maintain a clear channel of communication and dispel rumours.

Ranganathan Sivakumar, Chennai

Sir — The Hathras tragedy is not an isolated event. Stampedes at religious gatherings in India have claimed hundreds of lives over the years. The incident at Hathras took place when people rushed outside the venue at the end of the satsang to catch a glimpse of Bhole Baba, a self-styled godman (“Vanishing act: Bhole Baba and stampede evidence”, July 5).

Bhole Baba is neither ‘bhole’ (innocent) nor a ‘baba’ (godman), but a suspended constable who has been holding religious events to feed off the vulnerabilities of the poor. As is usual in such cases, Bhole Baba vanished into thin air after the incident and remains untraceable at the moment. The failure of the police to nab him compounds the tragedy.

Avinash Godboley, Dewas, Madhya Pradesh

Sir — Several questions about the Hathras stampede remain unanswered. The organisers of the satsang had sought permission from the local authorities in Hathras to accommodate 80,000 devotees but around 2.5 lakh had turned up on the day of the event. Why was there no security check in place to stop overcrowding? Why did the members of the organising committee keep the crowd management to themselves instead of seeking help from the local police? Bhole Baba and his accomplices are all complicit in this tragedy and must be booked.

Bal Govind, Noida

Sir — The stampede at Hathras was the result of negligence on the part of the Uttar Pradesh government. The satsang was bursting at the seams with crowds of devotees but the district administration and the law enforcement did not take steps to control the gathering.

Devendra Khurana, Bhopal

Traumatic lives

Sir — Afghan women have been subjected to atrocities since the days of the Russian and the American occupations. But crimes against women have increased manifold under the Taliban rule. The authors of the article, “Regressive regime” (July 3), painted a grim picture of the situation of the women and the minorities in Afghanistan, whose rights are regularly abused by the Taliban. The argument of the authors that the United Nations must step in to broker a deal with the Taliban to improve women’s lives must be heeded by the international community.

Sanjit Ghatak, South 24 Parganas