This refers to the editorial, “Both sad and shocking” (October 22). Educating and empowering the Indian people with modern, liberal, logical and humanistic thought, is still a distant dream. Cherishing lawlessness and indulging in religion-caste-language and sons-of-soil sentiment is responsible for much of the social violence. It's a shame for a nation that possesses the legacy of tolerance, non-violence and nourishment of all faiths.
No punishment is enough for those who killed the innocent children of a Dalit family in Faridabad and for the killers of a Muslim man in Dadri on the charge that he had consumed beef. Political leaders who spread violence and issue poisonous statements must be punished according to law. Neither can the Centre blame the State regimes nor can the State Governments blame the Centre and get away with such transfer of responsibility and accountability. Jawaharlal Nehru had once said, “No country can progress if its people are fearful of each other.” The fear must be banished.