LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Merger of AIADMK
Merger of two factions of AIADMK in Tamil Nadu leaving aside a tiny group supporting now jailed Sasikala is welcome in Indian political system where only two strong political parties either in centre or in states can only be an ideal political system. However almost elimination of a strong opposition party at the centre with Congress fast losing its creditability, is also equally dangerous. It is welcome that BJP has managed to play bigbrother role in the ruling NDA alliance with hope to get all other allies merging with BJP in time to come. With new generation totally moving away
with left ideology, need is that some strong opposition leader may emerge who can unite all anti-BJP forces to come under an umbrella of one strong single party. Political bosses of regional political parties running parties like their familybusiness should also consider that days are gone when they could use politics as unholy tool for minting corrupt money. — Madhu Agrawal
Imposing a language
After the advent of BJP as the ruling party they have started imposing and promoting ‘Hindi’ thus becoming a nation of ‘frogs in the well’ isolated from the comity of nations by ignoring English as our asset & passport to the World! Now regional parties want to impose and promote their state language worsening the plight of the people from frogs in the well to "frogs in their respective buckets"? Has any national leader thought of the future of India if Marathi is imposed in Maharashtra, Tamil in Tamil Nadu, Bengali in Bengal, Gurumukhi in Punjab etc? Today India is shining all over the world only due to
English and we must accept this truth or face endless conflict & complications in the future generations as "frogs in the well" have no place in India first and they can forget the outside world. Senior leaders from India including the Opposition parties must unite and oppose regional language imposition and enforce English-Hindi dual language formula to save India before it is too late.
— KV Satyamurty
Dangerous trend
The rationale behind the ban on sale of meat during the Jain festival of Paryushana is questionable even if the practice is decades old and has been followed by various governments in the past.The purpose of practicing ahimsa is served, but only superficially by sparing the animal on some odd days. As against this bizarre objective, a meat ban means people are denied the choice of food, and the livelihood of those associated with the meat industry is affected.The Maharashtra government's decision to ban the sale of meat during a Jain festival in the state is similar to Saudi Arabia telling non-Muslims not to
eat or drink in public places during Ramazan. Unlike people in West Asian countries, who don't cry hoarse saying they belong to modern nations, India's claim to be one, sounds hypocritical. Also, banning a certain food item for the sake of a certain community may lead to other communities asking for similar bans in future.This is a dangerous trend. — Jubel D’Cruz
US-Pakistan relation
Temporarily withholding of the US military aid to the theocratic bigots at Rawalpindi will not deter Pakistan from serving as a conduit for spreading Islamic terror across the globe. The American economic assistance too is being secretly passed on by Pak to the numerous Muslim extremists groups to purchase lethal weapons in the international markets. Another clandestine source of aid to these religious terror outfits is the petro-dollar rich Islamic countries in the Middle East. This can be inferred from the fact that some 6-small oil-rich Muslim countries in the Gulf have never been
made the target of terror attacks by the extremists' gangs. — Arun Malankar
Boulders falling on tracks
The black rock of Maharashtra, called 'basalt', is prone to produce spheroidal boulders during its normal process of weathering and these get released due to the impact of the rain and roll down on the railway tracks especially at the portals of tunnels. There have been a few instances of such falling boulders blocking the tunnel entrance in the Konkan Railway leading to accidents of the Matsyagandha Express in the Raigarh region. What happened at Lonavla on Monday morning near the Monkey Hill on the Bor Ghat section of the central railway was a similar occurrence with the only difference that the boulder in this case had come down crashing down on the compartment of an express train going to the Kurla Terminus. To avoid such incidents, it is necessary to remove the boulders from their moorings after locating them.
— V Subramanyan Iyer
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