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THIS refers to the editorial “Sin against national creed”. It is disheartening to note that the members of the minority community have been subjected to untold sufferings by the perpetrators of religious bigotry. The freedom of religion as guaranteed under Article 25 to 28 by the Indian Constitution is restricted to the extent that it does not encroach upon the domains of other religions. None can be allowed to propagate religious fanaticism and unleash an atmosphere of insecurity among the people of different religions.

The Gujarat government cannot escape its moral as well as constitutional obligation of defending the life and property of its people, which it has miserably failed to accomplish. It remained a mute spectator. Such parochial tendencies and elements of anarchism, if not brought to book well in time, will give rise to dangerous portents in a democratic country like India which is committed to upholding the secular pattern of society. In such an eventuality, the age-old communal harmony and peace among different religions will be put to severe test.

The Prime Minister’s proclamation that the BJP-led government will have no truck with religious outfits like Vishva Hindu Parishad provides indication in abundant measure of his intention and determination to deal firmly with those who are out to disrupt the communal harmony. Such an utterance would generate a sense of security among the aggrieved people in particular and the minorities in general.

In addition, some concrete action is needed swiftly so as to avoid the recurrence of such ugly incidents in future. Any slackening would fortify the assumption that the BJP-led coalition government has become ineffectual in maintaining secular-credentials of our society, which is the backbone of our national creed.

Why this hypocrisy?

Leader of the Opposition Sharad Pawar demands dismissal of the Gujarat government because of communal violence in a part of the State. It is same Pawar during whose tenure hundreds of innocent people died during communal violence and bomb blasts in Mumbai and elsewhere in the State and about 150 tribals who had come to meet him died in a stampede in Nagpur. But these incidents then did not arouse his own conscience or that of the Congress to volunteer resignation from chief ministership as do the incidents in Gujarat now.

Former Prime Minister I.K. Gujaral states in Chandigarh that by seeking an explanation from the Centre on the Gujarat situation he was “demanding more than that (dismissal of State government).

Gujaral’s Janata Dal had been in power for about two years with his own stint as Prime Minister and communal violence did occur during that period in various parts of the country but never dismissed a State government on that account. Then why this sudden change of heart now?

Simultaneously with Gujarat incidents communal violence took place in Karnataka also where more human lives were lost than in Gujarat. But, surprisingly, both Gujaral and Pawar prefer silence about Karnataka. Only because “secular” Janata Dal is in power in Karnataka and “communal” BJP in Gujarat and the Centre? Does it also mean that both of them are too condescending to condone communal violence in Karnataka but want Gujarat to be punished severely for the same offence?

Is it not time all our political parties rising above their narrow political considerations thrashed out a common political strategy to deal with such similar, unfortunate incidents of communal violence in a uniform manner instead of trying to make political capital out of human misery? If they cannot agree they only expose themselves to the charge of hypocrisy and insincerity to the people.

AMBA CHARAN VASISHTH
Shimla

The Finance Minister of India has rightly suggested that there should be only one Pay Commission for all the employees in the public sector. It is on record that almost all the states follow the pay structure adopted by the Government of India. We also know that the Government of India frames rules for their employees and a copy of that rule is circulated to the States and they also frame or amend service rules so that there is no difference in rules throughout the country.

It has also been suggested to reduce expenditure on establishments because much of government revenue is consumed on pay and allowances of government employees. All these suggestions are very good and should be adopted.

There should be one pay structure, one cadre system and one service rules for all the employees in public sector. Public servants should be liable to transfers from one department to another and should not be allowed to have a monopoly in one department or on one seat. Such type of adjustment breeds corruption and that is the reason people belonging to particular departments become rich within days while people serving in another department remain poor. Similarly, in some of the departments there are quick promotions and in some of the departments people suffer stagnation.

Some of the departments could be wiped out and the work of those departments could be given to others. Establishment of different departments means non-centralisation and such distribution of work causes inconvenience to the public.

The report under the above caption (Dec 2) suffers from a major discrepancy. The dates of Guru Gobind Singh’s birthday and Guru Teg Bahadur’s martyrdom, published as January 5 and November 24, respectively, refer to 1998. The next birth anniversary of Guru Gobind Singh fell on December 5, 98.

As the lunar year is shorter than the solar one by 11 days, an extra month, called adhi or malmas, has to be added to it after a period of about 34 months for maintaining its relevance to the cycle of seasons as well as the uniformity in its number with the corresponding solar year. No festivals are observed during the malmas, which is branded as dirty.

During 1999 an extra month, after the lunar month of Jeth, is going to be inserted from May 31 to June 28, (29 days) which will advance the anniversary date of each subsequent festival, observed according to lunar date. Martyrdom of Guru Teg Bahadur, which corresponds to Maghar sudi 5, will fall on December 12, 99, and the birthday of Guru Gobind Singh (Poh sudi 7) in the first week of January 2000 A D. It happens often that due to the insertion of an extra month, the birthday of Guru Gobind Singh does not fall in a Gregorian year, but is celebrated twice during the next one after a gap of 354 days, the duration of a lunar year.

	M A I L B A G	Thursday, January 21, 1999
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