Sir — I was alarmed to hear the sound of coughing while trying to make a phone call. When a long message about the risks of coronavirus followed, I figured that it was an alert. The government has reportedly asked telecom companies to use this pre-call warning for all their users. However, if the phone rings only after the message is over, how is a person to reach out for help in case of an emergency?

Amalendu Chaki

Calcutta

Quite a show

Sir — The news anchor, Arnab Goswami, has an interesting relationship with comedians. Although he appeared to respond to the alleged heckling by the stand-up comic, Kunal Kamra, in a calm way, Goswami recently lashed out against John Oliver, a comedian of British descent, for the latter’s criticism of the Narendra Modi-led government in one of the episodes of his show. If Goswami takes his job as seriously as he lets on, he should come up with more important things to discuss rather than rail at self-proclaimed comics.

Rajarshi Sahoo

Bhubaneswar

Sir — On one of the recent episodes of his show, Arnab Goswami, who is known for his staunch support of Narendra Modi and his government, began to insult the television show host and comedian, John Oliver, by calling him names. The reason for Goswami’s anger seems to be the fact that Oliver and his research team presented on television some facts about the Indian government — none of which is unsubstantiated — that apparently showed Modi and the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, Yogi Adityanath, in poor light.

However, followers of Oliver’s show would remember earlier instances, even as far back as 2014, when Oliver cracked jokes on Goswami’s style of reporting. Could Goswami have been nurturing a grudge against the comedian ever since?

Oliver, of course, has retaliated in kind, calling Goswami the Tucker Carlson — a controversial American anchor — of India. These altercations have generated great entertainment, and as far as the viewers are concerned, the show might as well go on.

Purba Ghosh

Calcutta