Letters to the editor: Pakistan should learn from India

Pakistan should learn from India
This refers to ‘Just lunch no talks with Raja’ (March 10). Pakistan prime minister Raja Pervez Ashraf visited the Ajmer Sharif shrine and prayed for peace. I would like to state that after going back to Pakistan, Raja should specially mention the good behaviour of Indians who welcomed him even in these times of great adversity.  We don’t favour any inhuman activities; in fact, never even think of them. It’s time our neighbours took a lesson out of these Indian pages and taught their soldiers to behave like humans. We have proved our point of greatness.
—Izhar Khan, Mumbai

Striking teachers
This is in regards to the various news items recently published in your newspaper regarding the striking teachers. I am an HSC Arts student of Mithibai College and I do not  know how appropriate it would be for the MSBSHSE to send our papers to retired teachers for correction.

The syllabus has been revised frequently, and I wonder if all the retired teachers would be familiar with the new syllabus. I am worried also because even if the Board decides to force the striking teachers to correct papers, there is a high possibility of them taking out their anger on us. I completely understand the plight of the teachers; however, I hope they understand our plight too — how this examination determines our future. I hope the government and Board try to settle the issues amicably.
—Krishna Bajaria, Mumbai

A weird mindset
Apropos of ‘Delhi gang rape not unique. What about other victims?’ (March 10), Chief Justice of India Justice Altamas Kabir is quite right in pointing out that “the main issue is the weird mindset which men have towards the female sex”. It is undeniably true at least in the case of some misguided men if not the entire male species. If one looks back, say, some two decades back, there weren’t as many sexual assaults on women, and ‘gang rapes’ were rarely heard of. The beginning of this century seems to have marked the onset of increased sexual crimes on women.

Though the problem will defy any attempt to pinpoint any particular reason(s), it will not be wrong to say that our entertainment industry does have a big hand in it.  Added to this is the general apathy of the people in power towards crimes against women. In this scenario, women need to be more alert to the dangers lurking almost everywhere.
—V Subramanyan, Thane

Bitti’s free run ends
This has reference to ‘After 6 years, rapist Bitti’s run ends’ (March 10). Bitti, convicted for rape, had jumped parole and remained incognito for nearly seven years with the police not being able to trace him. During this period he was not living in a deep forest but in the thick of civilization moving around freely. In the meantime, as if to thumb his nose at the authority, he had enrolled himself for a professional course and got selected for an executive post in a public sector bank after successfully facing the pre-selection inquiries.

It is impossible to believe that the police force of the two states, Rajasthan and Odisha, that were supposed to be on a hot pursuit of this fugitive from justice, did not have any clue about his whereabouts. Now that he has been caught, not only Bitti, but all those who abetted his crime, should be brought to justice.
—VS Kaushik, Bengaluru
 
UPSC’s new pattern
The recent notification by UPSC is a clear indication on how it is trying to filter all non-Hindi speaking people from clearing the services exam. A Kannada/Telugu/Tamil student opting to write the UPSC in Kannada/Telugu/Tamil language will not be allowed to do so since a minimum of 25 students are required to write in that particular language. However, if only one student opts to write in Hindi, he/she will be allowed to write the exams.

Thanks to the flawed language policy of Union government which makes only English/Hindi as the official languages at the Centre. Language plays a important role in a person’s livelihood. It’s high time the respective state governments realise this and work towards getting equality for their own languages at the Centre.
—Babu Ajay, via emai

Pugilists and drugs
In India, a medal winner at the Olympics remains the nation’s darling for years together. Today, Vijender Singh is synonymous with boxing in India. However, with the boxer’s drugs nexus being exposed by the Punjab police and the arrest of some drug traffickers with a sizeable amount of heroin, the air is rife with speculations. Disclosures by fellow boxer and national champion Ram Singh that both he and Vijender were in touch with the accused drug peddlers four to five times since December 2012 and experimented with psychotropic substances, lend a new perspective to the whole matter.

The spectre of doping has been looming large over the sports fraternity for ages now. Earlier, Ben Johnson and Marion Jones with their performance-enhancing drug exploits put a big question mark over the accomplishments of athletes who, daring the maximum of human endurance, produced out-of-the-world feats to corner sporting glory at the Olympics. Recently, the famed cyclist Lance Armstrong shocked the world with his admission that he used these banned substances while pedalling away to glory in the Tour de France circuit, winning the title seven consecutive times.

Closer home, Indian athletics’ biggest doping scandal involving six top women athletes, including three Asian and Common wealth Games gold medalists, came as a rude awakener to the fact that the malaise of doping is eating away into the vitals of every sporting organization. Yet, going by the strength of revelations in the latest expose, it appears that the pugilists in question are not slaves to any performance enhancing substance but are trying drugs just for kicks.

But aren’t addictions a taboo as far as sportspersons are concerned? Moreover, with the state police looking into the role played by top sportsmen in directly or indirectly abetting the international drug racket, this episode will definitely cast a long shadow over the future of such sports personalities who have had the good fortune of remaining in the limelight much after their sporting exploits have ceased amusing the general public. Let us sincerely hope that this affair doesn’t promise to snowball into a scandal of sorts that undermines the ‘worthiness’ of our sportspersons!
—Pachu Menon, Goa

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