Milk adulteration: Enact strict laws

Milk adulteration:
Enact strict laws
Milk adulteration, a very serious concern, is not being considered on a priority basis by the authorities. The media has reported that 70% of the milk sold in India is adulterated with fertilizer, bleach and detergent. Consumption of such milk can lead to serious health hazards, especially in children. Although courts have taken suo moto cognisance of the media reports and issued notice, people have been suffering for long with adulterated milk and food insinuated into the market by unscrupulous traders taking advantage of lack of stringent laws. The authorities should initiate urgent steps to prevent this menace. Periodic tests should be conducted on the product to ensure that these are fit for human consumption. The Centre and states should work in tandem and enact uniform and stringent laws to make this crime a non-bailable offence.
—Ramesh G Jethwani, Bangalore

Curb pollution
The present trend of winter across the world with severe cold weather indicates that the future years will be worse not only inthe western countries but also in Asia. Many countries across the world have started taking steps in minimising the green house effect. However, more needs to be done on a war footing to secure our future, like curbing further industrialization. Manufacturing of cars should be stopped at once because their emissions worsen the environment at a very fast pace. To minimise this effect, car pools and public transport should be utilised to their maximum.
—Hansraj Bhatt
Oz media’s tactics

The tall claims made by the Australian media that all is not well in the Indian cricket camp and there is a growing rift among the seniors sounds hilarious. It appears to be a crude attempt to tarnish the image of an already battered side. However, by doing so, the Australian media has shown itself in poor light. The Indian team should remain unfazed by these cheap tactics and come up with an inspired performance in the remaining matches if only to prove their media wrong.
—NJ Ravi Chander, Bangalore

II
I do not agree with the caption of the photograph that appeared on the front page of DNA (January 11) showing Virender Sehwag and MS Dhoni sitting together. It said: They are mates! However, in another photograph that appeared on page 16 of the same edition, they don’t appear to be mates at all. There is nothing wrong if Sehwag aspires to be the captain with the backing of other cricketers. He has served the nation in a tremendous way and worked as a vice-captain. In the Australian team, MJ Clarke had tried for his chance to replace R Ponting as a captain and he is now one. Similarly, Sehwag’s day too may come.
—Mukund Kelkar

III
While Team India continues to face defeats overseas and our bowling department is at its lowest ebb, Zaheer Khan is trying to blow the situation out of proportion. Aussie BJ Haddin was trying to play the mind game and the body language of Indian players had gone from bad to worse. First, it was Virat Kohli, then an ineffective Ishant Sharma, and later, Zaheer Khan. We could take only 4 Australian wickets at Sydney and all our main bowlers went for more than 100 runs each. This raises the question: is our bowlers good only in their backyard? Zaheer should focus on his bowling and lead his juniors with example.
—Jayanthy Subramaniam

Cong may stop Rushdie
A Hameed Yousuf in his letter ‘Don’t let Rushdie in’ (January 12) argued that the government must ensure that the author does not visit India because in the name of freedom of speech he has been disturbing communal harmony. Congress minister Sriprakash Jaiswal seems to implicitly support the Deoband demand. The Congress party had banned his book Satanic Verses and now it may ban the author’s entry into India. I would like to ask its leaders what action had they taken against late MF Hussein who repeatedly hurt Hindu sentiments by painting Hindu gods and goddesses nude? Apparently, he had ‘unlimited’ freedom of speech!
—Shreeram Paranjpe
II

When celebrated painter MF Hussain was hounded out and forced into a self-imposed exile by extremist groups like Bajrang Dal and Vishwa Hindu Parishad for hurting the sentiments of the Hindus by painting their goddesses nude, a large number of members of this community took up cudgels for him defending his artistic freedom of expression. How is it that we don’t see a single prominent member of the Muslim community, including its intellectuals, coming out to criticise the protests of Muslim organizations against Rushdie’s visit to India just because he made some disparaging remarks about their Prophet in his book almost quarter of a century ago? Are they afraid of being served with fatwas by their religious heads? It is this kind of ‘cat closes its eyes’ attitude of the Muslim intellectuals that has encouraged the politicians to use their community as a vote bank in electoral politics.
—V. Rajalakshmi
Dalit leaders’ interest

This has a reference to ‘Busting the myth called Dalit Capitalism’ (January 12). Instead of striving for the welfare of downtrodden people, the self-proclaimed leaders of Dalits give preference to short-term gains. No wonder, various political parties have a policy of ‘use and throw’ as far as Dalits leaders are concerned. A couple of years ago, the supporters of Ramdas Athavle had gone berserk at a television channel office because he was declined an opportunity to participate in the reality show Bigg Boss. The cause of the Dalits has suffered because of such leaders.
—Ketan R Meher