M A I L B A G

Question mark over competitive
exams’ reliability

Pratap Bhanu Mehta in his article “Competitive exam mania” (Dec 1) has made out a case against the reliability of the common competitive examinations for institutions like the IIMs and IITs. His views require to be treated with respect because he has personally seen in his long-teaching assignment at the best business school in America that these tests do not ensure that the best and the brightest get selected. The author has rightly concluded that the quality of education suffers by dependence on such a selection process.

If we look at the education scenario, including that in the high-profile, elitist institutions, it is designed for information bombardment of the students. Let us start with the highly competitive admission tests which comprise mainly multi-choice question modules in different subjects. The sine qua non of success in these tests is the ability of the student to gorge himself with information and then to process it into storage and recall memories. Only the highly motivated students with logical and flexible thought processes and driven to succeed at defined goals and capable of sustained mental effort are able to carry the day.

Some of the brilliant students find the whole process uninspiring and trite while the majority of the students being unable o cope with the dizzying pressure of demands made on them in the fast lane end up broken and frustrated.

R.C. KHANNA, Amritsar

The real heritage

The way the media reported the ‘Heritage Mela’ at Amritsar was too rosy. The reports ignored the pictures of semi-nude ladies hanging from electric poles on Mall Road, garbage littered at Kitchlu Chowk and even the walls en route to Khalsa College with suggestive graffiti. Even trees on The Mall are used for pasting cinema posters.

The whole town is dotted with steel structures which are used for putting up hoardings. A few yards away from the Rambagh gardens there is a slum where one cannot stand even for five minutes. It is next to the Civil Surgeon’s office.

The “heritage walk” was also highlighted by the media. The walkers, it seems, did not know that Rambagh Gate, the last of the 12 gates built by Maharaja Ranjit Singh, had almost crumbled.

INTACH, I always thought, was an organisation that looked after the restoration and preservation of heritage buildings. I did not know that they were event managers. It is said that Rs 50 lakh has been spent on this “heritage mela”. This, in fact, is a bonanza for the select few. We could have changed the face of Amritsar. We could have started a few schools for the poor with this money.

I am not against “heritage melas”, but let us first get rid of vulgarity from this holy city. Let us make this city neat and clean. Ours is a holy city where hymns of the gurus reverberate day and night. Let us shun elitism and work for the betterment of Guru ki Nagri.

BRIJ BEDI, Amritsar

Anti-corruption drive

Kudos to Captain Amrinder Singh for exposing corruption in higher places. The cancer of corruption has been spreading relentlessly. The common man watches the decay helplessly. The occasional reports about small fries like a village patwari or a clerk in some office getting caught hardly inspires confidence in the seriousness of the government in rooting out the menace.

No doubt the Punjab Chief Minister has been swimming against the tide, but he has earned the praise and appreciation of the common man for initiating the much needed campaign.

K.R. AWASTHY, Chandigarh

Apathy of authorities

Apropos of the editorial "Fatal corruption" (Dec 5), it is a clear case of apathy on part of the authorities concerned for not taking due notice of the confidential nature of the letter of the young engineer and handing it down without protecting his identity, which led to his murder.

Should the people not take this incident as a warning and not risk their lives for raising a voice against corruption and exposing corrupt persons?

Col G.B. SINGH (retd), Patiala

What honour?

"Honour killings continue unabated" by Ruchika M. Khanna (Dec 3) was a timely warning to those who refuse to shed the legacy of medieval age even though we are in the 21st century. The division of our society on communal lines portrays conflicting patterns on our delicate social fabric. Education, economic uplift and free interaction with advanced societies have failed to change our jinxed mindset. We, the so-called free citizens of India, are in fact slave to the orthodox caste-and-creed lines, for which we have had to pay a heavy price time and again.

Inter-caste marriages should never be treated as social taboos and we must accept the reality of the fast-changing social order and give a decent burial to the obsolete concepts. Everybody has the right to choose his or her life partner; why punish these couples with death?

KARNAIL SINGH, Ranjit Sagar Dam