A.B. Vajpayee

IN the eyes of the aam aadmi, A.B. Vajpayee was not only a great politician but a versatile orator, a good poet, a gentle human being and, as everyone knows, loyal to the nation (“Beyond the mask”, September 14). In a tweet, former Home and Finance Minister P. Chidambaram said: “While we know Vajpayee had a lot of friends, what we don’t know is he had no enemies.” Maybe he forgot Subramanian Swamy, who disliked Vajpayee. As per Hindu culture, when hundreds of tributes were pouring in for Vajpayee, maybe it was felt that it was not a good moment to mention the former Prime Minister’s faults—that the door to today’s political climate of communalism, hypernationalism and fear was opened by him when he indirectly encouraged the demolition of the Babri Masjid and with his doublespeak after the 2002 Gujarat pogrom.

After his death, many people said he was the best Prime Minister of India. Then, why did he lose the 2004 election? BIDYUT KUMAR CHATTERJEE

FARIDABAD, HARYANA

AFTER the uninterrupted, long rule of President Robert Mugabe, his successor Emmerson Mnangawa has won a fiveyear term in Zimbabwe (“Mugabe’s man wins”, September 14). The new President