M A I L B A G

NRI husbands: court ruling a welcome relief

The editorial, “NRI husbands beware!: The courageous bride stands up to trickery” (April 28) will encourage young girls to fight the fraudulent grooms. At the same time, a historic judgement by declaring the marriage between Taruna Gandhi an NRI girl, and Ajay Kumar of Majitha village as null and void has proved that our judiciary, law and judges do justice with the victims.

This is the traumatic and courageous saga of Taruna Gandhi, a gold medallist, B Tech student of GNDU, who is pursuing MBA in California University, Berkeley, after doing Masters in Engineering from the US. She got married in December 2000 to Ajay, who claimed to be a computer professional from Australia. After reaching the US, Ajay remained idle at Taruna’s home, for three years. His plan was to grab Taruna’s earnings, property and, of course, the Green Card. On Aug 25, 2004, Ajay got his Green Card and the same day he told his wife that he was a taxi driver in Australia! He left Taruna’s house, threatened her to face divorce. Ajay and his parents were ready to make this marriage work only if Taruna would give US $ 100,000 to Ajay.

Taruna took a courageous stand and filed the petition on Jan 11, 2005, at Amritsar District and Sessions Court for annulment of marriage on the ground of fraud committed by her husband. Ajay filed in July 2005 for divorce, half of Taruna’s property and alimony in California. This proved Ajay’s real intentions, who is still a taxi driver in California.

After hearing both parties and arguments of lawyers, District and Sessions Judge Gurdev Singh declared this marriage null and void on all points. This judgement is important for all those girls and their parents who are entrapped by fraudulent husbands. The victims of greed, money, dowry and Green Card will find solace. The grooms will think twice before duping innocent girls.

JIWAN JYOTI, Amritsar

State of services

It is a shame for whatever is happening in the armed forces, particularly the Indian Army. The Army and the Air Force have produced two great personalities — Gen K.S. Thimmaya and Air Marshal Arjun Singh.

Why are boys from good families not joining the armed forces? It is of fear and non-encouragement by the parents. I am 66 years old and I belong to the fourth continuous generation starting from 1883. My son wants to become a fighter pilot. No one of my forefathers was enrolled in ranks but all were given Viceroy’s Commission.

However capable a girl may be, she should not be allowed to join the armed forces as we have seen a number of sex scandals, hypocrisy and ambitious senior officers wanting to become Ambassadors and Governors.

Brig B.S. MANKOTIA (retd), Bhankarpur (Patiala)

Town-centric growth

I agree with former Union Urban Development Minister Jagmohan’s view that we must plan and develop small and medium size towns to serve, on the one hand, as economic and social links between them and the villages and to prevent, on the other, an unmanageable rush of rural migration to metropolitan cities.

If urban development is town-centric, it has many advantages. It would facilitate a more balanced distribution of population amongst different categories of human settlements and give a positive shape to the process of migration from rural to urban areas, particularly in the matter of acquisition of new skills. It would also enable us to develop or redevelop our cities on a human scale.

GOPAL BHARGAVA, New Delhi

Serious matter

It is a very serious matter that a Congress secretary has openly charged the Haryana government with jobbery, casteism and parochialism in public recruitments (April 24). The least that the government can do to come clean in the matter is to publish a complete list of candidates with their addresses who have been recruited for various posts and services during the last two years.

However, this is too much to expect from a government which is reluctant even to implement the Right to Information Act in letter and spirit.

VISHWA MITRA, Panipat