Readers’ Forum

Government is playing with the lives of brilliant students:
The 100 per cent cut-off for students to get admission in Delhi University’s Sri Ram College of Commerce has unnerved students and parents. With such rise in cut-offs, even a topper with more than 95 per cent marks will not get into SRCC, leading to demoralising the students. I totally agree with the views of Sitaram Yechury when he said, “Forget me, even if Shakespeare were to come back and take an English exam today, he will not score 100 per cent marks.” What will a student do when he/she doesn’t get college and the subject of his/ her chose even after getting 95 per cent marks? The problem lies in a severe demand-supply imbalance. That one popular DU college received over 21,000 applications for just 420 seats exemplifies the problem. We have a serious dearth of quality institutions, a situation that will only worsen without urgent systemic reforms. For far too long the education sector has laboured under the mistaken notion that government alone can facilitate the creation and running of top quality universities. The government needs to encourage the private sector to build capacity at the university level. This requires creating a level playing field for such investors and giving universities and institutions far greater autonomy. Second option is to drop the idea of seeing the marks scored by the students and make them sit for a separate test to get admission to a college and subject of their choice.
—MAHESH CHANDRA SHARMA, E-198, Panki, Kanpur

Read Organiser of 12.6.2011 (Organiser, 12.6.2011):
I have read the articles on Prevention of Communal and Targeted Violence Bill, written by Shri Pravin Togadia, Shri Shivaji Sarkar, and Shri Shyam Khosla. I have also read Shri Sudheendra Kulkarni’s article ‘ Dump NACs’ Communal Bill’, in Indian Express of 29. 5. 2011. All the erudite writers have expressed their concern on the proposed Bill. If it gets through the Parliament it will be a draconian law, because during riots or other conflicts with minorities, Hindus will not be treated as victims inspite of life and property loss. A few days back Shri Arnab Goswami, the chief editor ‘Times now’ channel, arranged a debate on this subject, where Fr John Dayal a prominent member of NAC tried to justify crookedly that the Bill is for the protection of minorities, and moreover the Hindu minority in Jammu and Kashmir and north-east will also get the benefit of protection. He was not ready to realise the fact that the Bill empowers the Muslims and Christians to attack Hindus as the latter will neither have the right to self defence, nor they will be treated victims under this law. The fact is Hindus, werever they are in minority, is a docile lot and like to live peacefully. Ultimately after hot debate with Shri Ravi Shankar Prasad on constitutional propriety Fr. Dayal softened his stand and said the Bill is still a draft to be discussed in various forums. Here in this debate it was very clear that Fr. John Dayal was himself actively behind the preparation of the draft. About 90 per cent MPs in both the Houses of the Parliament are Hindus. I request them they should see to it that the draft prepared by Fr. John Dayal is not voted to become a law.
—HS MEHTANI, 89/7, East Punjabi Bagh, New Delhi-26

Minorityism: A reflection of national disunity (Organiser , 12.6.2011);
This is with reference to Shri MV Kamath’s column on minorityism in India, with a plurality of religions, castes, languages and tribes is bond to have minorities at every level of administration who enjoy equal rights as the members of the majority at that level. This means that all identities must be duly represented in the power structure, in every sphere of life. The question of reservation in the legislature or the executive or the judiciary or the administration or the armed forces follow from the principle of equality and justice. Freedom implies that any identifiable group, and even an individual, may adopt his distinct social pattern. This means that each group may have his own way of life. The main stream cannot be defined in exclusive majoritarian terms. Therefore a minority group may teach its own language, adopt its own religious practices, live where he/she likes. Shri Kamath has pointed out that in Mumbai, landlords do not rent apartments to non-Hindus. I recall my own experience. When I first came to Delhi in 1966 I found it impossible to get an apartment on rent from Hindu landlords. Things have gone much worse since then and disparities and discriminations have widened. Therefore majoriatarianism which has many forms cannot be imposed in the country of continental dimensions like ours.
—SYED SHAHABUDDIN, D-250, Abul Fazal Enclave, Jamia Nagar, New Delhi-110 025

A history of crimes against India (Organiser, 8.5.2011);

Apropos of the review of the Book “Crimes against India, the author of the book, Stephen Knapp has only highlighted the so-called atrocities against the Hindus between 1000-1525 AD i.e. before the establishment of Mughal empire. He has asserted that during the period, the Hindu, population of India decreased by 80 million. Timur had attacked India in 1398 AD during the reign of Mahmood Tughlaq, the last ruler of the Tughlaq dynasty. He ransacked Delhi and slaughtered its inhabitants irrespective of what faith they followed. It is wrong to say that he had killed only Hindus. He had enslaved equal number of the Delhiites he had massacred and wanted to take them to Central Asia, but a Muslim saint intervened and got them rescued. After returning from India he fought with and defeated Sultan Bayazid Yeldram of Persia, a Muslim ruler. This he had attempted over the request of the Christian Caesar of Constantinople. Hence it is to be noted that the motive of Timur was not really to spread Islamic faith, but to accumulate wealth, power and human resource to conquer lands for his worldly ends.
—TANVIR FATIMA, Sandesh Bhavan, Lakkad Kote, Chatta Bazar, Hyderabad—500 002, AP

A portrait of a great patriot leader In the review, titled, “A portrait of a great patriot leader”, of the book, Lal Bahadur Shastri in Bookmark page of Organiser , 29-5-2011, Lal Bahadur Shastri has been praised as a great patriot leader. Some typical examples of greatness, included, that he paid for the private use of official car, and a few other such petty things in day to day life. If that is the criteria for entitlement of a great patriot leader then Aurangzeb should be at the top of the list of patriots. He did not use even a single penny form the royal treasury of his kingdom for his personal needs.He used to stitch caps and write verses of Koran, and whatever he earned by selling them, was used for his personal needs. Additionally, he was faithfully devoted to the spread of Islam by all possible means. The basic question is, as to what good thing Lal Bahadur Shastri did for the India and the Hindus. He went out of the way to honour Pope Paul, who had come to India for the spread of Christianity and promote conversion of Hindus to Christianity, and treated him as state guest and condemned the RSS and the Arya Samaj for opposing state guest status to the Pope. Not only that he asked Hindu King of Nepal, not to attend the Hindus conference organised by RSS a few months later, where he was to be honoured as a special guest, although the King had already given his concent for it. The King had to cancel his visit. Shastri also returned to Pakistan, all the areas captured by our brave Army men with their blood in 1965 war with Pakistan, including Tharparkar district of Sindh which had more than 90 per cent Hindu population, and our own parts of Jammu and Kashmir freed by Indian forces.
—ANAND PRAKASH, 72/Sector-8, Panchkula-134 109

Dismiss Omar Abdullah government Controversial comments made by the CM Omar Abdullah regarding J&K in the Legislative Assembly of the State has created furore in the minds of patriotic Indians. According to him J&K has not merged with India but only acceded to it. His anti-national statement was immediately protested by enraged BJP and Panthers Party members. They deserve to be congratulated. But shameful and highly objectionable thing was that none of the Congress member condemned his statement nor convinced him. No question of expecting anything good related to national interest form PDP. Omar Abdullah also raised objection for calling frequently J&K as an integral part of India. He must tell the nation whether he is Chief Minister of a Indian state or Pakistan. Most pityable thing is that the person who has been uttering against national interest occupies the key institutional post of CM. Such things are taking in a great country like India and nowhere else in the word. Congress which is a partner in Omar Abdullah Cabinet should come out at once. At the same time CM should be dismissed and Assembly should be dissolved.
—SRIDHAR V KULKARNI , Kalyan (West) Maharashtra

UPA’s democracy is family rule It is very surprising that today in the modern scenario where democracy has been accepted by the whole world, India is moving towards a fascist type of governance under the UPA government. A big gap is coming up between the ruler and the ruled, where the ruling party is using all its muscle power to crush the voice of the people. The recent happening at the Ramlila Maidan is a living proof of it. The Congress has demonstrated how low it can stoop by taking recourse to coarse bazaar language while defending morally and legally a indefensible police crackdown it ordered on sleeping protesters and then attacking the Opposition for taking up cudgels on behalf of the victims. But one wonders where is the PM of India? Why is the PM, who lost his sleep for an accused terrorist and family, silent over the unwarranted use of excessive violence against men, women, children and even senior citizens who were subjected to police manhandling? What to feel sorry for what the UPA government did at the Ramlila Maidan, they didn’t even bothered to visit the hospitals where the victims of police brutalities were admitted. Infact the hospitals were told to release the victims as early as possible. I strongly feel that the people should wake-up and throw the autocratic UPA government otherwise a day is not far off when India will also become a fascist state and democracy will be buried for ever.
—MANAV CHANDNA, B-203, Derawal Nagar, Delhi 110 009

A relevant suggestion Shri Prabhat Jha, BJP president of Madhya Pradesh has made very important suggestion for improving our democratic system and for wiping out corruption. The right to recall our representative will enable the electorate to keep a check on the activities of the elected Members of our constituencies. An elaborate procedure will have to be finalised for implementation of the scheme. I would suggest that a representation from at least 25 NGOs to the concerned election office may be sufficient to initiate enquiries. This will deter the Kalmadis, Rajas and Kanimozhis from encouraging corrupt practices and give us an opportunity to exercise a proper control over our MLAs and MPs.
—SH BHIDE, 879, Sadashiv Path, Pune: 411 030

Digvijay Singh has become senile It is indeed right time for the Congress to rein in the capricious and impulsive instincts of its General Secretary, Digvijay Singh. He is bent upon ridiculing himself by his outbursts on Baba Ramdev and RSS. These are turning out to be counterproductive. Furthermore, this person of unstable mind is turning against his own Party too and often keeps eating his own words or offering apologies. It is important that he is brought into the fold of sincerity, dignity and maturity!
—BK CHAUDHARI, bk_chaudhari@hotmail.com