L E T T E R S    T O    T H E    E D I T O R

Stop fishing in troubled waters

The problems and plight of the farmers dependent on Cauvery river should have been highlighted in the wake of release of water by Karnataka to Tamil Nadu. It can be questioned whether Karnataka bandh was the best way to do that. The organisations and activists who led the bandh claim that people voluntarily participated in the protests.  However, most of the people remained indoors in the comfort of their homes, while people travelling to distant places were left stranded at various points.

Would the central monitoring teams that are visiting the state to study the situation and the Supreme Court in any way be influenced by the bandh? 

The Government of Karnataka and all political parties have to approach the issue dispassionately and put the facts to the monitoring teams and to the Supreme Court to arrive at a reasonable water sharing arrangement. Fishing in troubled waters is what all the political parties have been doing on the issue of Cauvery water sharing and this fact will not escape the suffering farmers.

It is not the time to score political points and draw mileage by keeping the issue alive through unreasonable demands and inflaming the passions of the people. Natural adversities and issues like sharing natural resources are an opportunity for us to come together and share the burden of problems facing mankind and solve them amicably. Will the political class rise to the occasion?

ZULFIKHAR AKRAM, Bangalore

Dare to bare

In the light of Arvind Kejriwal’s startling revelations about Robert Vadra, what is intriguing is the response of the public of our country. We all need to be more responsive towards abuse and exploitation by those in power. There is a need for us to be more informed, vigilant, dare to stand against such wrong doings and at least stand and support honest citizens of our country who dare to fight back, and not just negate their efforts. In the current setup and the course of law implementation followed in our country, the powerful always get away scot free from any unlawful activity.

Arvind Kejriwal has taken an initiative to bring about awareness and has shown the way to lead the fight against nepotism and corruption. He needs to be supported and moreover our country has never had many great leaders after independence. For this reason, a handful of families are ruling by taking turns, there is an urgent need to support honest leaders like Kejriwal and help him bring about a change in our system.

AMANVIR SINGH TIWANA, Patiala

II

The decision of Arvind Kejriwal to form a political party is appreciable. His aim is to create a corruption free country and if he does it by forming a political party what’s wrong with it? We know that a diamond cuts a diamond, so to face the political challenges in transforming this country to a corruption free country he has to do it in a “political” way. How long will he stick with protests and fasts? He has taken an intelligent step by directly challenging the political parties. With a country on the verge of annihilation with scams like 2G, coal, the challenge is real.

SAURABH KOUL, Patiala

Time to act

Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda was reportedly upset at the spate of crime, particularly rape, in Haryana and took the police to task. The DGP has, however, been taking shelter behind ridiculous excuses and devising ludicrous measures to tackle the situation. In fact, both are suffering from acute community fixation, and therefore, avoiding correct dispensation. With 80 per cent police personnel posted in the field being from a particular community and a similar percentage of criminals also being from the same community, the rising crime graph cannot be arrested, particularly if the crime is against Dalits.

Besides, several senior officials manning key positions, are deputationists from other states, borrowed mainly to block promotions from domestic feeder services, thus festering non-chalance and demoralisation.

There have been chief ministers from the same community in the past also, but they astutely maintained community balance in field postings, which stands awfully disturbed today. Unless it is suitably restored and the deputationists repatriated, crime graph shall go on rising.

ASHWANI DUTTA, Panipat