Opinion - Letters to the Editor

Decent response

Sir, — This is with reference to the report ``No comments'' (Sept. 8). Ms. Gandhi showed both decency and tact in her response to the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, Jayalalithaa's remarks on her nationality. Ms. Jayalalithaa's attempts to exhume the issue by revealing Ms. Gandhi's original name boomeranged and she ended up discovering her own original name, aliases and her birthplace.

S. Vellaichamy,
Tirumangalam, T.N.

Sir, — This has reference to the opinion piece "Foreigners and patriots" by Ambrose Pinto (Sept. 8). The argument that the Union Home Minister, L.K. Advani, is a foreign citizen because his birthplace, Karachi, is a part of Pakistan is purely technical. Mr. Advani was born in the then united India, to Indian parents, lived in the same Indian society and culture which moulded him and his mind. But the Congress president, Sonia Gandhi was born in Italy, to Italian parents, lived there and imbibed the Italian culture. She later went to England and became an Indian only after she married Rajiv Gandhi and settled in India. Even then, she did not desire to become an Indian citizen. Only when she was sure that her husband had a chance to become Prime Minister, she applied for Indian citizenship. Hence, she is a foreigner by all standards and becomes ineligible to head the nation.

G. Prabhakar,
Mangalore, Karnataka

Sir, — It is a fact that even second generation Indians and Pakistanis in Britain identify themselves with their home country's cricket team than with the English team. Rarely do people rise over their emotional attachment to their place of origin. Such being the situation, can it be imagined how risky it will be to hand over the country's security to a first generation citizen? No country accepts such first generation converts to any sensitive position.

B.K. Ray,

Kolkata

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