Musketeers of Bollywood: Letters to THE EDITOR

Musketeers of Bollywood

The dreamland of Bollywood refuses to part with the wrong trendsetters. The mysterious death of Sushant Singh Rajput has already opened up many skeletons from the cupboard of Bollywood. Now renowned actor Ameer Khan has exposed his true colours by visiting Turkey, a nation known to hold anti-India stand and is also in the best of friend's list of Pakistan. The recent stand of Turkey against India is known to everyone but the Sarfarosh actor never hesitated to meet the first lady of Turkey. Some of the actors like Ameer Khan, Salman Khan and Shahrukh Khan have already past records of sharing closer ties with Pakistan. The three musketeers of Bollywood were completely silent when twenty bravehearts of Indian army attained martyrdom in the Ladakh valley. Stars like Karan Johar, Naseeruddin Shah, Shabana Azmi, Ameer Khan felt very unsafe in India when there was a change in government in 2014. But these same breed of people were nowhere to be seen when two innocent sadhus were lynched in Palghar, Maharashtra. These stars never realise that they are what today because of the people of the country, who have never segregated the stars based on their religion or whatsoever. As movie buffs we are flabbergasted when these silver screen people show loyalty to our arch enemies. These breed actually act as termites eating the country from inside.

Coming to Ameer Khan, the said actor must be quarantined by the people and sanitized. Those in the infamous award wapsi group should come out spontaneously and question Ameer Khan, after all it is the question of country's integrity and security.

Dr. Ashim Chowdhury,

Guwahati-1.

New regional parties

As regional politics is the need of the hour for a state like Assam, many intellectuals/like-minded persons are mulling alliance or creation of new political parties with support of student organizations like the AASU. But the larger question that remains to be answered is: will it serve the greater interest of our people which drastically requires vocal for local leaders with the burning zeal to serve the people to fulfill at least the bare needs of the State? Mere political aspirations will not be enough. Fruits of Assam agitation are out there for all of us to see. Many lives got sacrificed but then the nascent steps have not got forward. Every common citizen is now aware of politics or has developed an interest. They say one can join a political party if he can spend a lot of money for the party in question i.e. party funds. But does money bears testimony to the political capacity or foresighted vision of the person to lead the State forward?

Too many political parties may only spoil the game with the State to suffer as 'too many cooks spoil the broth'.

Time is ripe to walk the talk. We need people's leaders...the voice is missing for the people. During voting, we are left with no choice as most of candidates are not fit for the job, but we are left with no option, yet democracy survives. The great Indian democracy!

Purabi Pathak Barua,

Guwahati.

MSD's retirement

After Mahendra Singh Dhoni (MSD) announced retirement from all forms of international cricket on the last 15th of August, his fans from all over country are asking BCCI to hold a farewell match for him. A legend should get a farewell match who achieved many milestones for the country. Many cricket experts expressed their wish to see MSD on blue jersey for the last time. Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren also demanded a farewell match for Dhoni in Ranchi, Dhoni's hometown. Former Indian all-rounder Irfan Pathan tweeted in his personal tweeter handle- "Many people are talking about a farewell game for retired players who didn't get a proper send-off from the game. What about charity-cum-farewell game from a team consisting of retired players versus current Indian team?" As a cricket fan, I also appeal to the governing body concerned of Indian cricket team, kindly think about this matter and if possible organize this game.

Firdaus Ahmed,

Dhubri.

Israel-UAE peace deal

Most Arab nations, including the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have not recognized Israel because of Israel's thwarting of Palestinians' aspirations of their independent state. But, very recently, Israel and UAE have signed a formal peace agreement, called "Abraham Accord" under which UAE has agreed to recognize the state of Israel and both the countries shall establish bilateral diplomatic relationships. Under this deal, Israel would halt its controversial plan to annex parts of the occupied West Bank of Palestine. With this peace deal, UAE has become the first Gulf Arab nation and third Arab nation to establish diplomatic relationship with Israel. In recent years, both Israel and UAE have had backroom contacts which finally opened the way for a strategic relationship under the auspices of the Trump Administration. For Donald Trump, it is a great diplomatic accomplishment ahead of the US presidential election in the month of November.

The deal could pave the way for the region's Sunni Arab nations and Jewish-majority Israel to enhance their regional cooperation against their common enemy Shia Iran. Moreover, it is quite possible that following the trend, other Gulf Arab countries like Bahrain and Oman may also start recognizing Israel and establish diplomatic relationships in coming times. While the deal has the potential to establish peace in the Middle East, it shows how the Arab countries as well as the USA are gradually decoupling themselves from the demands of the Palestinians. Thus, although the agreement can bring peace to the Arab-Israel conflict, yet the Palestine-Israel conflict is to continue as the deal shows little interest for Palestinians to get full freedom in their Palestinian homeland.

India has welcomed the peace agreement and it will be very beneficial for India in the long run. India has close relationships with both Israel and UAE and had to work deliberately to balance the foreign policies with both the countries because of their conflicts. With the acceptance of this peace deal, India can easily extend its relations with both Israel and UAE without any hesitation.

Phanindra Barman,

Sandheli, Nalbari.