The Cover Story (“Lunar surprise”, October 23) on the Chandrayaan mission was interesting. Notwithstanding its failure a lot of valuable data was gathered, which will be useful for future moon missions. We can be happy that the efforts of our scientists have not gone in vain.

K.R. Srinivasan
Secunderabad

Kudos to the Chandrayaan-1 team. But what does the discovery of water on the moon mean to Indians living below the poverty line? Can it bring water to those Indians who are deprived of safe drinking water? The government should take care of these matters first.

E.A. Ibrahim
Vyttila, Kerala

THE demise of William Safire has removed from our midst an outstanding linguistic prodigy (“Language maven”, October 23). He was a phenomenon in the realm of language and its myriad uses. Adept at etymological discoveries, his expressions were extraordinarily lively, aside from being intelligent and incisive.

Safire’s The English Language column in Frontline used to be a real intellectual treat to readers like me. “Syllabic slicing” (Frontline, June 19), a piece with an autobiographical note was the crown of his career.

R. Soundararajan Nagapattinam,
Tamil Nadu

Islamic banking

It is good to hear India is moving towards establishing Islamic banking. Kenya, which has a smaller Muslim minority, has two shariah-compliant banks.

Badru Jaffar
Kenya

It is unfortunate that the name of god is so frequently employed by vested interests (“Unholy row”, October 23). The trouble at the Chidambaram temple stands out as a sterling example of this kind of exploitation. Communalists have been projecting temples as divine establishments whose activities should neither be doubted nor audited.

It is pitiable that the Central government is unable to close this non-issue without wasting time and resources.

Sattrajit Varma
Jamshedpur, Jharkhand

Bababudan

The Sri Guru Dattatreya Bababudan shrine, which gets both Hindu and Muslim pilgrims, is a symbol of religious harmony (“Communal work”, October 23).What is wrong if the people of two religions can find a place where they can offer prayers together?

Tathagata Ghosh
Uttarpara, West Bengal

No country can afford to salvage its people and territory in a phased manner when faced with rising sea levels (“A sinking feeling”, October 23). The Maldives vis-À-vis the countries responsible for the emission of greenhouse gases is like a Davidfighting Goliath.. Its government is even ready to purchase new territory from neighbouring countries. All the other Davids of the world should support the war the government of the Maldives is waging .

K. Ravindran
Salem, Tamil Nadu
India-China

China cannot be relied upon as a friend (“China bogey”, October 23). India should neither provoke nor appease China. The Chinese attitude towards India is quite negative and does not promote good neighbourly relations despite increasing trade relations, thanks to globalisation. If it gets a chance, it will annexe Arunachal Pradesh by force.

S. Raghunatha Prabhu
Alappuzha, Kerala

FRONTLINE deserves praise for drawing attention to extrajudicial killings in India (Cover Story, October 9). The way Ishrat Jahan was killed makes a mockery of the legal and moral ethos of our democracy.

THE fake encounter that claimed the lives of Ishrat Jahan and three others is a blot on Indian democracy. The case must be probed painstakingly and the culprits brought to book irrespective of their status.

Ippili Santhosh Kumar Srikakulam,
Andhra Pradesh

Vanchi Aiyar

THE article “An Irish link” (September 25) gives an insight into the level of patriotism that prevailed in South India during the freedom struggle. R. Vanchi Aiyar, who killed Robert Ashe in 1911 before killing himself, is no less a martyr than Bhagat Singh.

K. Nehru Patnaik
Visakhapatnam

ANNOUNCEMENT

Letters, whether by surface mail or e-mail, must carry the full postal address and the full name, or the name with initials.