8226;This refers to the editorial ‘Delhi’s Durand Line’. Pakistan’s objection to NATO forces targeting terrorist hideouts in its territory shows its ambivalent approach to the US’s war on terror. Even when Pervez Musharraf enjoyed real power, Pakistan’s support to the US on this issue was opportunistic and a tool to extract as many dollars as possible from the Americans. The monetary aid and arms would obviously be used later against India. However, since Pakistan was always playing both sides of the fence, one wonders why the US never saw through its game.

Satwant Kaur

— MahilpurPunjab

One-way ticket

Anant Sudarshan has done well to highlight the significance of innovative entrepreneurship in providing low cost, sustainable and profitable solutions to India’s problems ‘The other social engineering’,. In the United States, strong ties between industry and academia facilitate the movement of technologies from laboratories to markets. Unfortunately, Indian universities are yet to enjoy such a relationship with the industry. Nor is the curriculum designed to provide practical expertise to the student. Therefore, in India, the student has no option but to turn to the academy for whatever intellectual resources and experience the latter has to offer.

— Faiz Mohammad

Aligarh

Hidden pockets

The editorial ‘Cheques, balances’, on donations to political parties by individuals and corporate entities, deserved serious attention. Of late, electioneering has become so expensive that, even for a panchayat poll, large sums of money are required by the parties. The adverse consequence of this is the fact that criminals and opportunists readily enter the election arena, pushing aside more deserving candidates. And once elected, these people exploit every available resource to compensate their campaign expenditure. MPLAD funds, for example, are one of the newest sources of campaign money for corrupt MPs.

— Shariq Alavi

Lucknow

Ironic intelligence

For India, the idea of “government intelligence” is an oxymoron ‘Infiltration levels down to new low…’. On the one hand, India’s intelligence agencies conclude that Pakistani infiltration has dropped, with less than 20 terrorists successfully entering India till May this year. On the other hand, they are “seriously concerned” that attacks by ISI-backed terrorist groups based in Bangladesh, such as Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami, are on a sharp rise, the latest atrocity being the Jaipur bombings in May. Is it beyond our intelligence services to realise that Pakistan-backed terrorists long ago learnt that it was much easier to enter India from Bangladesh, rather than cross the well-defended Indo-Pak border?

— R.P. Subramanian

Delhi