Campus atmosphere

Refer to ‘The death of a dream’ (December 6); Fathima Latheef’s suicide points to the adversarial atmosphere in our centres of academic excellence. Caste and communal considerations have vitiated the atmosphere to an extent where even the brilliant students get affected. Generally more sensitive, such students succumb to the overwhelming pressure of animosity. In this age of science and technology, we must shun fanaticism.

RL Goel, Ladwa (Kurukshetra)

Learn to accept failure

Apropos Avijit Pathak’s article, too much of emphasis is placed on success, conformity and the rat race. I would suggest that schools give up the annual prize for full attendance and include the marks of physical tests in the final marksheet. Apart from success, we should teach the acceptance of failure. The dressing room at Wimbledon has Kipling’s lines: “If you can meet with triumph and disaster, and treat those two impostors just the same…”

Deepak Kapoor, via email

Bail for Chidambaram

Former Finance Minister P. Chidambaram’s incarceration did appear to be vindictive as he belongs to the Congress. In Maharashtra, NCP’s Ajit Pawar was given a clean chit in the irrigation scam just after he left party chief Sharad Pawar and joined hands with the BJP’s Devendra Fadnavis to form the government. One wonders if Chidambaram had deserted the Congress and showed his intentions to join the BJP, could he have been spared the ordeal of jail? In politics, everything is fair.

Prakash Hanspaul, via email

Shocking statement

It is startling to know the views of Nirmala Sitharaman, that just because she does not eat onions, she does not care about the rising prices. Tomorrow, she may claim that as she remains on fast, she does not care about the prices of essential commodities. Similarly, Union Minister Ashwini Choubey has said that he too does not eat onions. PM Narendra Modi should take note of such irresponsible utterances by his ministers and try to reduce the prices at the earliest.

Subhash C Taneja, Gurugram

Know your onions

Onion prices have broken all records, though it has become endemic in our country. This year’s exceptionally heavy rains is the cause of crop loss to some extent, but it is also due to the modus operandi of the hoarders. Our officials never bother to take remedial actions like stopping the export well in time, and the late import of the commodity makes up only a small fraction of the shortfall. This is a man-made misery due to artificial scarcity. The farmer is always the loser, whether it is crop loss or yield glut, and the people suffer.

Lal Singh, via email

Repo rate unchanged

Amidst slowing economic growth, the RBI decided to keep the repo rate unchanged at 5.15 per cent as it also weighed in concerns over the rising inflation. The decision to keep the repo and reverse repo rates unchanged may bring some respite for fixed deposit investors as banks have been cutting the interest rates, hitting returns. The class of investors hit the hardest by the falling FD rates is the senior citizens. Financial planners advise considering small savings schemes.

SC Dhall, Zirakpur

Controversial killings

Any extra-judicial extermination of life is always moot but the killing of the four accused in the gang-rape and murder of a Hyderabad veterinary doctor in a police encounter has been generally hailed. On the night of December 12, 2008, three youths, who threw acid on two engineering students, who later died, were also shot dead in Warangal by the Telangana police. The need of the hour is immediate legislation providing for summary trial, conviction and punishment in such cases of brutality and murder.

Lalit Bharadwaj, Panchkula

NRC exercise flawed

Reference to ‘Bogey of citizenship’ (December 6); after Home Minister Amit Shah’s promise of expelling infiltrators before the 2024 Lok Sabha elections and the NRC’s all-India implementation, the Cabinet’s approval of the citizenship bill was expected and its passage in Parliament ensured. The excercise will be undertaken across the country, but it appears that no lessons have been learnt. The updated Assam NRC left nearly 19 lakh stateless. There were reports that a good part of those excluded were the Hindus, so the BJP rejected the register, even after the apex court endorsed it. The NRC is a flawed idea and its limitations have been exposed.

PL Singh, via email

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