All are equal before the law
Sir, It was a reasonable and legal matter for the public prosecutor to warn against the attempted Bollywood campaign to bring pressure and ultimately reverse the court’s decision in getting Sunjay Dutt out.

It is really sickening that whenever a popular Bollywood star gets involved in some kind of crime the entire industry rallies behind him. There cannot be a separate law for celebrities.

It will shake the very foundations of our judiciary. Anytime in the past our Bollywood lobby taken up the cause for the many innocent and equally precious lives lost in the Bombay blasts or the poor man allegedly killed by Salman Khan or the innocent black buck case.

Stop being partial, short sighted and swept away by emotions. Else George Orwell’s famous words will become eternal truth – “ All are equal, but few are more equal.”
B G Gnanadev
Molakalmuru

Cacophony of protests
Sir, In recent times we have the spectacle of the public overly interfering with the judicial process by either demanding instant justice or vociferously criticising the judicial pronouncements of courts in high profile cases. This is a dangerous trend as the hysterical reaction of the public on any case could lead to miscarriage of justice because the judges would be under undue moral pressure to go along with public opinion disregarding the basic tenets of our jurisprudence. This is what is happening now in the case of actor Sanjay Dutt where the cacophony of protests against the TADA court judgment is becoming shriller day by day.
V V S MANI
Bangalore

Fictitious argument
Sir, The opponents of Sethu Samudram project claim that NASA has carbon dated the Adam’s bridge-Setu as 1.75 million years old (DH Editorial, Aug 2).

Despite NASA’s denial last week in an e-mail to the Chairman of the Sethu Samudram Project, even then the  Setu is 17 lakh years old when human beings or other mammals never existed on earth.

During that period of time, only pre-historic monsters habited the earth. Then how could non-existent mammals like human-beings, monkeys, bears and squirrels, have built the bridge across the sea, that too 35 km long, 3 km wide and 6 to 30 km deep at some places, just in five days and five nights, by taming the turbulent mighty sea, as stated in the Ramayana?
Praveen S Shetty
Mangalore

Uproot corruption
Sir, Congratulations to justice Santhosh Hegde for completing one year as Lokayukta.

I wish the spirit of service which he has displayed, is followed by our politicians and others, so that poverty could be reduced considerably.

Even though corruption-free good governance is a fundamental right of citizens, corrupt governance appears to be an unwritten fundamental right of politicians and officials. Poverty and corruption are inter-linked and move in tandem.

Poverty can be reduced and common people can become happy and prosperous only when corruption is eliminated and ill-gotten wealth is confiscated mercilessly.

B S GANESH
Bangalore

Need for training
Sir, This has reference to your editorial Honour them, (DH, Aug 6). Our youth can “play hard”, while working hard, but they should not be so enamoured by the consumerism and materialism, so aggressively being promoted by the business, media and the government as the panacea for life.
Col Vasanth’s martyrdom must awaken us from our slumber to the danger of terrorism lurking around and the threat of insurgency our nation faces every day. We must impart to our youth compulsory military training to instill in them a sense of duty towards and love for the motherland.
Mahen Jain
Belgaum