Letters-38: "Burning Persons Alive"

1. Burning persons alive is an act of cruelty that only dehumanised people are capable of. The country's competitive strength lies not in unethical leaders but in those who know the difference between right and wrong. - K.G.Koru Kuttan Nair, Palakkad.

2. The barbarous and gruesome killing of two innocent persons during the bandh organised by VHP and Bajrang Dal activists is shocking. This lunatic fringe which is trying to push India into the dark ages should be stopped and the perpetrators of the horrendous acts punished immediately. - Jabez Pradeep Roy Chennai.

3. The Orissa government was sufficiently warned of an outbreak of communal violence in September 2006, with the publication of Communalism in Orissa - the Report of the Indian People's Tribunal on Environment and Human Rights, headed by Justice K.K.Usha, former Chief Justice of the Kerala High court, Democracy is at stake in a country where citizens live in the shadow of terror. Any form of religious communalism mars democracy and should be resisted tooth and nail, regardless of our political inclinations and affinites. - Fr.Adolf Washington, Bangalore.

4. The violence in Orissa exposes the destructive character of communalism. The attacks on the minorities and their institutions are unacceptable. Violence should be contained at the earliest. Religious leaders should rise above parochial considerations and come forward with a positive solution. - R.S.Sreeram, Thiruvananthapuram.

Courtesy: The Hindu, Madurai, August 27, 2008 (Selected Letters From "Letters to the Editor" column).

Grateful thanks to M/s.K.G.Koru Kuttan Nair, Jabez Pradeep Roy, Fr.Adolf Washington, R.S.Sreeram and The Hindu.