Home > 2006 Issues > December 24, 2006

Readers? Forum Unprofessional and slack: The mental torture that I have been subjected to by the two public concerns-MTNL and BSNL-makes me conclude that their apathy for users? complaints tends to help private telephone/mobile/broadband companies. They discourage their users by not attending to their problems and compel them to go to private parties. BSNL gave me the broadband connection on July 20, 2006, without email ID. For about 20 days, I requested BSNL officials, from bottom to top, repeatedly and imploringly, and then they created and told me the ID. Even with the broadband connection, if and whenever available, I could not get internet page. It took about more than two hundred telephonic calls to get the defect removed but quite temporarily. It is almost next to impossible to get broadband connection when exchange is closed. There is no body to attend complaints during off hours and holidays. Complaints, if attended, are often frowned at with, quite often, contradictory responses. Some serious problem seems to be there with their server, which seems to be beyond the competence of BSNL staff. Though no body from BSNL has demanded bribe for the paid service, nor have I been asked directly by anyone so far to surrender the service to BSNL and go to private parties, the language and the body language of the officers and the workers of BSNL has always suggested to yield to what they want. What may possibly be the way out is certainly not punishment in all the cases. Bureaucracy, which guides BSNL also, may have a better, cleaner and sympathetic heart if they are honest to realise that it no longer represents the ruling Crown. It is now supposed to serve the people, the desi people, who want to live and work peacefully without any fear. This is the right time when the governmennt should close the departments like BSNL and MTNL as, to my experience, they are doing more disservice than service. They behave like rulers and expect the users to behave like their praja. -Dr Balram Misra by e-mail UPA?s dubious distinction (Organiser, 10-12-2006); What can be more appalling than the fact that our ruling establishment includes many more who are likely to be convicted at some point of time? Despite having all the laws in place, our system allows persons accused of committing serious crimes to occupy high offices till they are formally convicted. Even the good are tempted to follow in their footsteps. One wonders whether and when we will have laws that will prevent a person charged with serious offence from occupying position of responsibility and authority. -Salil Gewali, Shillong *   *   * The Soren issue highlights the glaring disparity in standards of propriety expected of politicians and other government servants. For politicians, the standard seems to be ?innocent till convicted?. But the initiation of a vigilance enquiry against public servants is sufficient to derail their career. As long as the political class fails to regulate itself and finds excuses to persist with such double standards, we will see many more Shibu Sorens. Committing a crime certainly needs a strong mind and heart. But strangely, when faced with the prospect to imprisonment, our politicians seem to develop chest pain and related problems. It looks like the courts should henceforth ascertain the state of their hearts before pronouncing a verdict. -Lokesh Kumar, Yamaha Vihar, Sector 49, Noida *   *   * Clean politicians should realise the danger that criminalisation of politics can pose not just to the nation but also to their future. With the number of MPs facing criminal charges increasing, who knows, soon a law may be enacted saying having a chargesheet is a prerequisite to fight elections! If for no other reason than self-preservation, the clean politicians should take immediate steps to keep the undesirable elements of society out of public life. -S.K. Sonpar, Bangalore *   *   * Soren?s exit this time is unique, as he is the first central minister to be convicted of murder while in office. That he has been convicted of killing his secretary allegedly over a dispute between the two on sharing bribe money is also unprecedented. It is the criminalisation of politics that is responsible for the happenings. With the self-centered and corrupt people occupying the political arena, such incidents are bound to happen. -P.R.V. Raja, Pandalam, Kerala Basic Islam for Hindu Dhimmis (Organiser, 3-12-2006); Subramanian Swamy in his article has referred to X-graph of statistical regression, according to which, Hindu-Muslim population of India would become equal in 2061, after which India would become a Muslim-majority country. Thus after 2061, there will only be one tiny hilly country of Nepal with Hindu majority and there will be no place for Hindus to take shelter, as Muslim fanatics will indulge in whole-scale slaughter of Hindus, similar to one of 1947. Therefore, the need of the hour is that the Hindus should unite, forgetting caste, language, sect, etc. -Anand Prakash, 72/Sector-8, Panchkula Judicial reform and the executive (Organiser, 3-12-2006); Former CJI J.S. Verma rightly questions the exemption of the Chief Justice from the proposed National Judicial Commission?s purview. Years ago, Socrate of Greek was forced to swallow poison for questioning God, on the plea that justice (truth) emerges when two diametrically opposite views collide. Thus became the god of justice or father of judicial system prevalent under democracies. However, the present system wherein the Executive and Legislature have been kept out of the procedure is not satisfactory. -Pran Salhotra, 574, Krishna Nagar, Gurdaspur Reservation fraud in Kerala (Organiser, 26-11-2006); It has been rightly said in the article that the present retrograde reservation policy is a fraud and has not benefitted those backward strata of society for whose it was originally conceived and introduced by the founding fathers of the Indian Constitution. There is an urgent need to review various aspects of the hereditary caste reservation policy as has been implemented for over 50 years and to ensure that a rational and sensible approach is adopted regarding the definition of social, educational and economic backwardness, types and nature of reservation benefits and other related issues. However, over the years all political parties in the country, both national and state, have made the reservation policy a permanent feature of the administrative system and made it an alienable part of the Constitution. -Ravi Tulsian, Kohat Enclave, Main Road, Pitampura, Delhi Hanging of a terrorist-killer (Organiser, 19-11-2006); One thing is certain that those who enthusiastically advocate moves against time-honoured institution and customs in dealing with offenders against societal interest will never have known the meaning of empathy and will never have been capable of experiencing empathy. At best, their capacity for any experience (assuming they possess any) will swing into evidence and action only in favour of those who have taken lives and those who might have committed other heinous offences against society. Perhaps the explanation in the case of most such people might be looked for in the fact that almost never might they have been made to feel personal loss of the ultimate kind, through the doings of anti-social elements. It is always tempting to be charitable at others? expense. -T. Padmanabhan, 4-160/76, Osmania University, Teachers? Colony, Sainikpuri, Secunderabad Missionary education in Colonial India: An analysis (Organiser, 19-11-2006); It is said that emphasis had shifted from time to time, but educational policy had persisted unchanged in its essentials through the whole period of modern missions. The intentions of missionaries to start schools for the dissemination of the gospel with the chief aim of making Christians especially youth read the Bible, take active part in religious service and later become the mainstream of the Indian churches could not give them any success. Therefore, missionaries, in order to attract the children, supplied dress, food and money as their reward for their attending the school regularly and taught the children Bible with other subjects. -R.C. Vats, Balsamand Road, Near Railway Crossing, Hisar Spiritual quotient in resurgent India (Organiser, 5-11-2006); You will please excuse me to say that none of the three movements-propagation of yogic exercises and Ayurvedic medicines by Swami Ramdev, Art of Living by Sri Sri Ravi Shankar and Vipasana by Shri S.N. Goenka-is a social movement, much less revolution. These are all products of the above named swamis or gentlemen, like any other popular Allopathic or Unani product, which people use to ward of their illness and improve health. We are attracted to these swamis and their propagators because they generate an interest in our ancient Hindu wisdom. They cater to individual mental or physical health problems. However, their contribution to social, religious, economic or political ills of Hindu society is nil. None of them has uttered a word on the recent defilement of Hindus? holy spot in Hardwar by UP?s Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav, by holding an Iftar party there for the Muslims, serving non-vegetarian food. -Ram Gopal, A-2B/94-A, MIG Flats, Paschim Vihar, New Delhi Compulsory education, not reservation (Organiser, 3-12-2006); This is with respect to the vote-bank politics that is happening in our country, in the name of OBC quota, reservation for Muslims, reservation for Dalits, etc. In addition to this, there is a demand for the SC/ST reservation benefits to be extended to Dalit Christians and Dalit Muslims as well. It is highly ironical that religions that boast of caste-free societies should plead for reservations for Dalits inside their own religion. I am also surprised to note that leading Muslim activists should claim, on one hand, that Muslims should be brought into national mainstream, and on the other hand, maintain that Muslims will continue to have their own separate institutions and mechanisms when it comes to education. -Nachikethas Ashok by e-mail *   *   * I am surprised to see Arif Mohammed Khan talking about the situation of the Muslims community of India, which was a century ago. Reservations are the means to undo injustice. If education was the only means to uplift a community, the same criteria should have been adopted for the backward classed of the Hindu community too. The Muslim community never opposed modern education, yet they do not find jobs and other material benefits due to apprehension woven around them. -A.T.M. Anwar, 22-7-499, Purani Haveli, Hyderabad No Muslim in VVIP security: Recent reports have revealed that there are few Muslims in the security agencies. Particularly revealing is the fact that there are no Muslims employed in the protection of VVIPs, which prominently includes Sonia Gandhi and her family and the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. This shows the double standard followed by the Manmohan government, Sonia Gandhi in particular. She pays lip service to better opportunities for Muslims, but doesn?t want them near her or her family! To correct the situation, the UPA government should start at the top: employ Muslims to protect Sonia, Rahul and Priyanka. Otherwise, all the talk about more opportunities for Muslims is empty rhetoric, little more than vote-bank gimmick. -N.S. Rajaram, Bangalore Reasons for freedom: Whatever Swami Ramdev has said about the role of Gandhiji in the freedom struggle is unfortunately correct. It is a fact that India did not achieve freedom by merely the struggle, movement or activity of Congress and Gandhiji. Congress could not have achieved freedom for the country in even next 100 years by only struggles. There were many reasons for this freedom. The main reason was the then global political conditions, due to which British government was forced to pull out its hands from all colonial countries. Other reasons were the revolt in naval force and revolutionary activities of freedom fighters. Now the time has come that we should show courage to accept the truth in its reality. -Vijay Kumar Singhal, Panchkula Global imperialism: With clear aim of global imperialism, there are few faiths preying upon human heads in order to gain numerical numbers. They plan targets, devise methods, deploy men, finance measures, popularise achievers, punish trouble-creators, manage media to publicise good points and suppress adverse reports. They use false propaganda to start with and massacre to finish with, having in between arsoning, loot and hell is let loose in shape of all animal instinctual activities while performing same through human bodies. However, individual liberty is absolute in Bharat-origin faiths. Since all man-made arrangements are inherently imperfect and unavoidable to deteriorate with passage of time, the Bharat-origin faiths keep constantly introspecting and mending their systems to tread ultimately the right path. -Sharan, A-129, Sector 36, Noida

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