Mutual trust among citizens will be lost

Mutual trust among citizens will be lost
The unfortunate exodus of our fellow citizens from Bangalore to Assam on India’s Independence Day is very shameful. The failure of the state administration in curbing the spread of rumours and providing a sense of security among these people is the root cause of this incident. This is a very dangerous trend, especially in a cosmopolitan city like Bangalore, and may adversely affect the economic and social fabric of our society. The mutual trust among citizens is lost because of such incidents and this is surely not a healthy sign for the nation. And the callous attitude of the state administration is a cause for worry. We have seen such incidents in Maharashtra earlier. A pro-active bureaucracy — in collecting intelligence information — can curb these incidents.

—Achuth Nayak, Bangalore

II
I am sad for what happened at Azad Maidan on August 11. People who call themselves Muslims, abused the very fundamentals that Islam is based on. I am now ashamed to call myself a Muslim. In the holy month of Ramzan, when Allah bestows his blessings on us, you go and outrage the modesty of women. Aren’t you the same men who help me get a cab when there is none on the road or held my hand to cross the road when I was a child? You have shown to the world the level you can stoop to. Now, stand up and take up responsibility. As a Muslim, I apologize to the cops, to the citizens of India!

—B Shaikh, via e-mail

Abused childhood
The analysis ‘It’s time kids got their due: A beautiful childhood’ (Aug 16) was factual and well-documented. It is deplorable that even after 65 years of Independence, millions of children are yet to be freed from the bondage of malnutrition, labour, lack of education and abuse. The fact that every second child in the country faces some level of malnourishment brings to the fore how irresponsible we adults are! One has to admit that it is basically the malnutrition that surges child labour. A particular family deep in poverty is forced to send its children to take up some employment in factories, hotels, canteens, shops, etc., while some even resort to begging and others engage themselves in cheating, robbery and smuggling. Child labour will not cease to exist unless poverty is taken care of. With hunger torturing them, children will not think about school. And with prices of essential commodities constantly moving upwards, things are becoming all the more difficult for the poor and the downtrodden. Secondly, we have to hang our heads in shame that the country is increasingly becoming unsafe for our children. Child trafficking, rape, sodomy are rampant, whereby we not only crush their innocence but also take undue advantage of our superior and capable position. Crimes against children only go to show our weakness, meanness and inhuman attitude. The so-called ‘hubs’ of child trafficking indicates how organised and established the activity is. No activity, however bad, can be run without the blessings of some influential and powerful force. Again, child trafficking is purely due to poverty and helplessness. Children should certainly get their due but much depends on our social and legal systems and, of course, the government. A child will always accuse the adults for all the sufferings and misfortunes that come its way!

—Prem K Menon, Mumbai

Support the PM
This has reference to ‘Our allies have slowed down growth: PM’ (Aug 16). I think our prime minister’s Independence Day address to the nation was an inspirational one. His statement that allies have slowed down the growth is very true. Some allies are playing vote-bank politics and they do not want any improvement to take place. It sometimes feels that the central government is being run from the Writer’s building in Kolkata. Some of the points mentioned by the prime minister --- like generating jobs, supplying electricity to villages etc. in the next five years --- are laudable. Henceforth, as citizens of this country, we all should strengthen our prime minister and lend him support in such difficult times. Jai hind!

—Vinnet Kini, Mumbai

II
The PM blaming the allies for slowing down the country’s economoic growth in his Independence Day speech is height of irresponsibility. If, as the leader of a coalition government, he is not able to persuade the allies to cooperate at least on the important economic issues, he should step down and let a more capable leader (if any) take over. Coalition governments are no longer a new phenomenon; they are already a part of our political system. In fact, they have become more of a rule rather than an exception. When he took oath as the PM, he must have been fully aware of the challenges facing him, namely, to extract cooperation from the coalition members. If he cannot adequately handle the task, there is no point in blaming the coalition partners at this juncture. In any case, this blame game should not have found place in the PM’s speech from the Red Fort. In case the coalition members are unable to function in a coordinated manner with at least a workable consensus on critical issues, the only alternative is to dissolve the government and face fresh elections! It is high time the PM stops blaming the obvious constraints of a coalition set-up (which were already known since formation of the government) and concentrates on the actual steps that can be taken to revive the economy, needless to add that this will have to be done on a war-footing.

—SA Patwardhan, Mumbai

Cadaver donation
This has reference to ‘2 cadaver donations in city in a day; numbers swell but still not enough’ (Aug 16). It is a universal wake-up alarm for the society in general, NGOs, the corporate world, LIC of India, hospitals, police, and the state and central governments. This is a global concern too and is relevant to the UNO. The governments world over may enact a law of ‘cadaver-donor by default’ covering natural/accidental deaths and every human may be treated as deemed registered cadaver donor, unless one wished otherwise. It is more of ignorance, inaccessibility and legal hurdles rather than social stigma that hampers cadaver donation. I request DNA to take up a campaign of mass-movement for enacting a law of ‘donor by default’ and for an online and offline registration method of cadaver donors. I offer my gratitude to DNA for reporting on a vital issue with a befitting sketch by Ravi Jadhav.

—Suresh Ranka, via e-mail