Sir — This refers to the article, “let’s call it a code for equality” (June 20) by Srinivas Bhaskar. In a modern democracy like India, religion should not be the guiding principle. This may have been acceptable in the early stages of society but we need to move now to build independent, reasonable laws and institutions in our social and civil lives. What a person does privately is his choice, but anything involving other people (marriage, divorce, adoption) should be governed by secular laws.