Date:01/10/2005 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2005/10/01/stories/2005100103651001.htm

Opinion - Letters to the Editor

Shocking

The entire civilised world is shocked at the treatment meted out to Walter Wolfgang, a veteran leader of the Labour Party, for shouting "nonsense" and "lie" during Jack Straw's speech supporting the Iraq invasion (Sept. 30) at the party's annual conference.

He was well within his rights to express his opinion on the floor of the meeting. That a simple act of heckling was construed as indiscipline and he was evicted is surprising. Is not democracy all about agreeing to disagree?

P.L. Nageswara Rao,
Hyderabad

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The forcible eviction of the ailing, 82-year-old veteran is shocking. Viewed in the context of the verdict in the Jose Padilla case, which reinforced the Bush administration's claim to indefinitely imprison an American citizen without charging him with a crime, it appears that the so-called champions of the free world and self-proclaimed world police are determined to brutally suppress the voices of dissent in their own countries.

Is the global war on terror turning into a war on free speech in the U.S. and Great Britain?

G. Radhakrishnan,
Thiruvananthapuram

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