Readers’ Forum

 

 

 

 

 

APROPOS (Straightening the (Citizenship) Record?), Organiser, September 15, 2019, the final update of NRC is finally out. Going by the hullabaloo over the ‘inclusion’ or ‘exclusion’ of the update, there seems to have kicked up a virtual political storm from all quarters in Assam, while a highly biased section of the media is ganging up to cry hoarse over the issue. The Sunday edition of The Indian Express ran a story ‘debunking’ the bogey of illegal Bangladeshi immigrants, while it is perplexing to know how a considerable number of genuine Indians have been left out of the NRC. Despite the controversy, the need of the hour is to set the record straight, as the issue seems to be engulfed in a sea of confusion and controversies, in view of the fact that the commitment to undertake this mammoth exercise was given by the late Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi through Assam Accord way back in 1985. The Assam problem started way back in the 1960s and 70. The ‘wound’ was left to fester for over 60 years, with successive governments doing precious little to stem the rot, as the ‘vote banks’ continued to flow into Bharat from across the porous Bangladeshi border.

 

 

APROPOS (The Paradigm Shift), Organiser, September 15, 2019, if only we had a CDS, we wouldn’t have lost the 1962 Chinese war, avers military analysts and experts. Despite nearly 20 years after the Kargil War of 1999, India is still caught in a web of political and military controversies, even as our hegemonistic neighbour is relentlessly forging ahead building a superpower army of the next generation. As the next world war will be fought in cyberspace, India cannot afford to lag behind China. The urgent need for a CDS is only a step in the right direction, though we have a lot to achieve before the Dragon creep up on us.

 

APROPOS (“We are trying to change the way Sanskrit is taught in the country”), Organiser, September 15, 2019, the interview with renowned Sanskrit scholar Prof Chand Kiran Saluja is enlightening particularly his work on producing books on various topics. His struggle for popularising Sanskrit teaching in Sanskrit medium is indeed a very bold and direly needed step. The interview provides very less information about Samskrit Promotion Foundation. There should be a separate story on the activities of the Foundation particularly on the creation of digital content by it.

 

Apropos (Asteya & Aparigraha), Organiser, September 1, 2019, the virtues have nicely been explained with reference to Patanjali Yog Darshan. If they were inculcated by politicians there would have been no cheating of the nation of crores of rupees, as done by the Congress leaders. The fact is that talking of moral values based on our scriptures is considered a big sin by the ‘secular gang’ led by Congress and comrades. There is a need to spread moral values and universal teachings of ‘dharma’ to fight corruption at all levels.