Brutes as asylum custodians

Your forthright editorial “Brutes as asylum custodians” (July 21) aptly highlights the social disrepute emanating from Government Mental Hospital, Amritsar, with which is associated the name of the late Dr Vidyasagar, one of the most compassionate and efficient psychiatrists of our country and which should jolt us into sanity. In India it is fashionable to describe a mental hospital theoretically as a holy microcosmic social world and then to disown and forget the patients dumped conveniently in the hated “home”. Ranchi, Madras, Delhi and Agra are other geographical landmarks in respect of the pervasive malaise. The pathetic state of affairs as a result of the inhuman treatment meted out to the inmates make these mental asylums look worse than hell.

Over-crowding, prison-like accommodation, untrained and unsympathetic staff, cruel and unscientific treatment, all combine to add to the miseries of the inmates. The treatment of mental patients has been fast changing the world over from the era of straitjackets, chains and straw-beds to home-like hospitals. But, alas, in India mental hospitals seem to be on the way to becoming breeding grounds for lunacy. The difference lies in society’s indifferent attitude towards these hapless creatures. In the West mental illness is accepted as a human disease like other physical ailments. In India, however, mental hospitals are dustbins for people to throw away their relatives with slight mental disorders.

In my view even the highest clinical attainments made by psychiatrists, psychologists, educationists and the like cannot be made use of by the needy if the social policy of a nation is not in tune with the real needs and aspirations of the sufferers. What is urgently needed is that the “concentration camps” which detain the mentally ill for long periods must be humanised and transformed into caring hospitals.

It should be recognised and appreciated that madness is actually a sickness and not a crime. The very terms “mental hospital” and “lunacy” are obnoxious and need to be substituted by more acceptable and dignified terms. Above all, we need better after-care of patients and training of their families to look after them properly. Let us move a step closer to sanity!

K.M. VASHISHT
Mansa

Vajpayee’s leadership

Caught in a difficult and politically embarrassing situation (as if in a cleftstick) of the Vajpayee government’s amazing determination, dexterity and speed in dealing with the Pakistani aggression in Kargil, the Congress, while admiring the valour of our armed forces (which is a compulsion) is desperately trying to pick holes in the competence of this government to deal with the situation. Not a word has so far been uttered in praise of the quick and clear decisions taken by the government to throw out the intruders.

Of course, the jawans on the border have to be praised for their acts of valour and sacrifice but the pertinent question to be asked is whether any army in the world can succeed without the direction and motivation provided by the political leadership of the day. Was Churchill’s leadership to Britain or Stalin’s to Soviet Russia or Roosevelt’s to the USA in World War II of no consequence? Our intention is not to compare Vajpayee to these stalwarts of World War II but only to emphasise that our present Prime Minister has displayed exemplary confidence and grit, and has not wavered in the least, in taking hard decisions in this nation’s hour of crisis.

Sonia Gandhi could find time to go to the hospitals in Kashmir to meet our jawans, but she had no time to attend the All Parties Meet in New Delhi. Let it be considered as her playing the second fiddle to poor Vajpayee. Sad for the nation!

Nawaz Sharif has been running across continents to garner support for his misadventure in Kargil and has miserably failed to do so. Vajpayee has not stirred out of his home, but by the sheer logic of his arguments, his stern and unbending stance, and his unambiguous and determined utterances, commanded the attention and approval of world leaders. The BJP may be suffering from a number of shortcomings which can be debated in the ensuing electoral battle, but the leader that it has thrown up, is by far the best that we could have had in today’s war-like situation. Let us rally round him and give up all hiccups.

R.L. Singal
Chandigarh

Military ethics

While we gratefully pay tributes to the brave militarymen,we should keep in mind a simple fact. Indian military is successful because it is unlike the rest of India. If the Indian military were a typical product of the Indian system, it is unlikely to have been very effective.

A few years ago,while travelling by train I met a serving military officer, a Lieut-Colonel, who succinctly described the difference between the military way and the (Indian) civilian way: In the military, if the mission is successful,the officer-in-charge passes on the credit to his subordinates. If the mission fails, he takes the blame on himself. The contrary is true in the case of the civilians. If the project succeeds, the boss takes all the credit ; if the project fails, he puts the blame on his subordinates.

Looking after the families of the soldiers and honouring their memory is the least a grateful nation can do. But the real tribute to the fallen jawans would be to imbibe the military work ethic into the civilian mainstream, leaving the regimen to the military.

RAJESH KOCHHAR
Bangalore