Celebrating failures

Celebrating failures (Organiser, 12.8.2012); Two power blackouts in 48 hours, the second one effecting east India and the north-east also exposes the ‘helplessness’ of the UPA government. Such power blackouts not only send a hugely  negative signals to the world as far our image is concerned but also  cry out for reforms in this sector. While officials had explained away the  failure of the northern grid on Monday dated 30.7.2012. as an aberration because one of the states drew more power than was allotted to it, the collapse of as many as three grids the following  day affecting 22 states and 670 million people demonstrate  the rot that has  set in the power sector. It is mainly due to the callous  approach of the UPA government to do reforms in the power sector. Nothing  major has been done in that direction  by the regime over the eight years that it has ruled the country. With political will missing from the PM down, the Power Ministry too has  remainea2d complacent as State electricity agencies not  only tap power from the national grid far in excess of their allotted share, but also allow transmission and distribution losses to mount—and there is no one to check them. Infact it has been rightly said in the editorial  of the Organiser that “Since under Manmohan Singh   nobody is accountable for anything  that  is happening  in the country the culprits, bad managers and under achievers go unpunished.” Will the virtual kumbhkarans in power grid wake-up from their  deep slumber sleep to ensure such situations don’t  recur in future.

ARCHANA SHARMA, Flat No.5, Deep Vatika, Ratanlal Nagar, Kanpur

Bangla Muslim infiltrators attack Bodo villages, torch houses, hamlets (Organiser, 5.8.2012); The  politics of blame game has been perfected by the Congress in the last 60 years to such an extent that the party skirts  the main issue during crucial times by blaming others. This is precisely what it has been doing for its failure to contain  the Assam violence.  Soon after realising that his government has  miserably failed to contain the violence that  broke out in parts of Assam in the last week of July, Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi has promptly put the blame for the escalation of the crisis on the ‘failure’ of the Army stationed there to quickly respond to his administration’s call for assistance.  By passing the buck Gogoi has sought to effectively wash his hands of a problem that his regime should have tackled—and tackled effectively. Had the government done that, there would have been no need to reach out to the Army for help. But then little could  have been expected of a Congress government that  has been primarily responsible in the first place for creating the ground over the years for the explosive confrontation between the ethnic Bodo tribals residing in Assam and the illegal immigrants from Bangladesh who have settled there and brazenly used as vote-banks by successive Congress regimes over the years.

Sagar Mathew, Goa

Team Anna sets deadline  for UPA (Organiser, 15.4.2012); Large crowd at Anna Hazare’s  anti-corruption protests show the extent of popular anger against official  corruption under UPA regime. Anna is just a messenger conveying the strong  public sentiment against  corruption to the lawmakers and pressing for an empowered Lokpal. By dodging the issue of Lokpal and shooting the messenger, the  lawmakers  are strenghthening the public perception that corruption suits the political  class and that is the reason for their  reluctance to create a strong anti-corruption ombudsman. Team Anna must remain focused on the core issue of corruption and refrain from other activities meant to get attention.

MC Joshi, Lucknow 

Annaji namaste Your team is comprising of great people like Arvind Kejriwal and  Kiran Bedi. After ten days of fasting Kejriwal can sing a song and speak with such gusto shows that he has got superhuman power which is unthinkable. He can be compared to a Bhisma or Hercules. You are very lucky to have such a great person in your team. After all his entire body is made of nerves of steal and muscles of iron. Probably Vivekanand referred to such persons in his fight for India’s Independence. But unfortunately you are ashamed of keeping Bharatmata as an emblem and guiding spirit for eradicating corruption. You are shaming Vivekanand also. Other than appeasement value your team has nothing worth representing. India will lose more because of you and your team  which is following the lines of Gandhi and Nehru. Aanoobhadraha krathvaha i.e. let noble thoughts come from all sides to you and your team roar like a lion and accept Shivaji as an ideal. Appeasement policy will drive honest people away from you and you may gain and  few communal votes and nothing more.

VENKATAGIRI, Bengaluru

Improve power generation I feel there is an urgent need to creat consensus  on issues like power grid failures, coal supply, power theft and fuel crisis. Lack of power is holding back India’s industrial take-off and keeping it far behind countries like China. We  must improve power generation capacities and reduce widening demand and supply mismatch. An important aspect here is reducing dependency on thermal power plants and focussing more on alternate source of energy like solar, nuclear and hydel power.  The last is the most affordable and particular care should be made to tap the full potential of hydel power at the earliest.  Tapping alternate source of energy, especially renewable  energy like solar power and wind, may also be part of  the answer.

Bibhu Patel, Odisha

Molestations can be checked Molestation case of July 9, in Guwahati, Assam, is very much in the news these days. A ruling Congress MLA Amiya Gogoi, while participating in the discussion on  this issue in Legislative Assembly (See The Tribune date 20-7-2012) said, that “If  the girls move around in short dresses, such type of incidents  will happen. The parents should not allow young girls to go to bars and  pubs.” This is  indeed a very sane advice. But why to blame young  girls, boys and their parents only. What the government and the media is doing? In the name of Modernity, Progressiveness, Freedom and Equality, TV channels, Cinema industry, Print media with the fullest support of the government,  is glorifying and showing nude and short dressed girls and women. Film actresses are honoured as ideal  women.  Naturally the young girls ape them and consider them as their ideal. With co-education, boys and girls get ample opportunity to put into practice, what they see on the glittering screen, and that becomes the cause of molestation and crime against girls and women. Swami Dayanand Saraswati, the founder of Arya Samaj, has written in his famous book Satyarth Prakash,   that educational institutions for boys and girls must be at least two miles away, and there must not be male teachers in girls institutions, and no lady teachers in boys institutions, as that is the ‘Brahmacharya Asharm’ period, and  to be fully devoted for studies and not for indulging in sex. During British rule, there was absolutely no co-education, and therefore no cases of molestation and rape, nor such dirty display of nude women in the media. If the government is really serious and honest to curb these crimes against women, it must enforce strict code of conduct for the TV channels, cinema industry and the print media, and also ban co-education in schools and colleges. The teaching staff also must observe high moral code of conduct. Government  should also stop patronising sale of alcohol and wine. Twenty years ago, when I settled at Panchkula, there were no alcohol and wine shops, nor bars or pubs. Now they are in dozens, after every few yards, all due to the bad policy of the government . Why the government  is promoting, as it happened at Guwahati, the culture of young unmarried girls going at mid-night  to  pubs along with their boy friends?

Anand Prakash, 72/Sector-8, Panchkula-134 109

Campaigning against Hinduism Star-Vijay group runs a programme called Neeya Naana (You or me) which delights in dealing irreverently with religious issues. The programme is produced by Mercury Creations Anthony with several trade and business houses sponsoring the programme. Some notable themes taken up by Anthony for this programme includes inviting a group of women with unknown political, social ideological leanings to publicly remove their mangalsutra before studio cameras as a woman's liberation gesture. A feminist myself, I was horrified at this public display of disrespect and shamelessness which wounded the religious sentiments of thousands of ordinary religious Hindu men and women. The mangalsutra, screeched one vile woman, is like a licence token tied around the neck of a dog. This to me personaly was doubly nauseating for the sheer insensitivity of it all. One of the sponsors of this programme was Lion Date Syrup. Concerned Hindus spoke to the MD and CEO of this business house who was horrified at public outrage and promptly withdrew their sponsorship of the programme. Next, Anthony began to show promos of his next pet theme— ‘Is wearing the burqa really necessary for Muslim women?’ The Muslims protested and made a beeline to the police commissioner's office and made it clear that if allowed to be relayed the programme will have law and order problem. Unlike the ‘Remove your mangalsutras Hindu women,’ Anthony could not go ahead with ‘Is the burqa necessary’ and the programme had to be cancelled. Anthony is airing promos on a programme called, ‘Hindu sanyasis are charlatans’. One of the sponsors of this programme is Padm Singh Issac, a Nagerkoil Christian, MD Aachi MasalaFoods Private Ltd.  Through this letter I request the government to stop such programmes immediately.

Radha Rajan, Email: radharajan7@gmail.com