Circus at Vidhan Sabha

The circus on the first day of the Budget session in the Vidhan Sabha of Punjab was ridiculous. At a time when Punjab is suffering from so many problems, politicians are putting on such a show. The elections are approaching and politicians of every party are making efforts to woo people. The Opposition creates a scene to convince people about the promises that have not been fulfilled by the Congress. Where were they all these years? Why does, in routine, no one asks what has been done or is being done for the people?

Ramanjot Kaur, Sultanpur Lodhi

Hindi word of 2020

Oxford Languages, the world’s leading dictionary publisher, has named ‘aatmanirbharta’ (self-reliance) as the Hindi word of the year 2020 in its English dictionary. The term was first mentioned by PM Modi publicly in May 2020, at a time when the country was in the grip of the corona pandemic. The Oxford Hindi word of 2019 was ‘samvidhaan’; in 2018, it was ‘nari shakti’; and in 2017, it was ‘Aadhaar’.

RK Arora, Amritsar

Wrong precedent

The appointment of a professional political strategist as principal adviser by the Punjab Government has set a wrong precedent. It is unethical to appoint a political analyst to hold public office equal to the rank of Cabinet minister at the expense of the taxpayer’s money. His only job is to guide the ruling party to garner votes through his agency and not for the ‘betterment of people’. Token honorarium fee is a joke compared to his entitled privileges which amount to a whopping six-digit figure to carry out his assignment from the state exchequer.

Anil Vinayak, Amritsar

Political appointment

Poll strategist Prashant Kishor has been engaged by the Punjab CM as his principal adviser on a deceptive Rs1 token honorarium, but he will have a plethora of perks and privileges of a Cabinet minister in the guise of ‘betterment of people of Punjab’. It is actually for boosting individual and collective party winnability at the hustings. Such engagements out of the public purse are discriminatory vis-a-vis other candidates in the electoral fray. Fair play warrants a statutory ban on such blatant misuse of taxpayer’s money.

Lalit Bharadwaj, Panchkula

OTT content

With rapid improvement in technology and increasing levels of Internet penetration across India, the way people consume media is changing. These platforms include brutal, abusive and violent content which affects the impressionable minds of teenagers, children as well as adults. Though the FTII is against censorship on the content of OTT platforms, intervention by the government in the form of regulation is right.

Lakshay Guru, Chandigarh

Education standards

Refer to ‘Reduce learning deficit to boost education’; higher education institutes, specially private ones, have been harping on increment of student strength. The quality of education imparted by these institutes can be seen from the job profile of students passing out. Inadequate infrastructure and staff crunch in higher medical education institutes has been a cause of serious concern. Quality of education has gone so poor that some higher institutes have been selling degrees. Students from Punjab have been immigrating to other nations for education and employment. The lack of job opportunities in India has further made education only about degrees.

Wg Cdr Jasbir Minhas (retd), Mohali

Learning deficit

‘Reduce learning deficit to boost education’ underlines a serious but less talked about issue that has a bearing on what kind of world leader India will become. There is disturbingly little mention of the poor quality of our education. One only hears of Himachal’s high literacy accomplishments, for instance, but never that the vast majority of our undergraduate students have learning levels of middle school grades. What they understand and do in college remains a mystery! However, while poor budgets are a big reason, political and bureaucratic apathy is a key continual cause. After all, these people never have to send their children to run-of-the-mill government schools or colleges.

Vinay Tandon, Kasauli

Consult, collaborate

Apropos of ‘Link farming with employment to stem rot’, the observations are correct in the light of shrinking job avenues. In the best interests of the nation, those at the helm must honour the spirit of collective wisdom, expertise, consensual approach and sentiments of the masses. The nation faced the music of unilateralism in the wake of demonetisation, GST, CAA, instant lockdown and farm laws. The ever-rising spectre of unemployment and farmers’ unrest should wake the polity from its slumber, exhorting it to initiate strong measures to resolve these crises, instead of frittering away the nation’s rich resources, time and energies.

PK Sharma, Barnala

Letters to the Editor, typed in double space, should not exceed the 200-word limit. These should be cogently written and can be sent by e-mail to: Letters@tribunemail.com