Covid toll lie

Apropos of ‘Covid toll 10 times higher, says WHO; India objects’, understandably, the government is roiled by the report which mentions 47 lakh Covid-19 deaths in India, which run counter to the official figure of 4.8 lakh. The government has claimed that its own mortality data is accurate and the report is based on heresy. However, how does the government account for the large number of unclaimed bodies reaching crematoriums and corpses being dumped into the Ganga? The Centre’s Covid count is a whopper. Under the guise of technicalities of collation of data, it may put up a brave face, but it is outright affront to the departed souls, many of whom could not even get a dignified burial.

Deepak Singhal, Noida

The letter fight

The high-profile battle of letters has reached fever pitch (‘A voice in the wilderness’). Former civil servants and their ilk are in the arena, comprising the ‘for’ and ‘against’ groups, outdoing each other in the numbers game. Their intellectual acrobatics are causing the greatest harm to the cause that the contending groups claim to espouse. Pro-Modi and anti-Modi sentiment has nothing to do with self-motivated parties involved in reducing the effects and after-effects of the politics of hate to their signature one-upmanship. The concerns in the article express the dilemma of both groups and the way out is also implicitly given therein: develop ways to create an atmosphere of trust and the rest will take care of everything else.

DV Sharma, Mukerian

Nuclear threat

In response to ‘Spectre of blundering into a nuclear war’; both sides must realise the extent of damage a nuclear war would cause. NATO is poking Ukraine and Russia feels ditched. Giving a nuclear war threat is of grave concern. The United Nations must come forward to take preventive steps. De-escalating tensions between Russia and Ukraine is essential. Unfortunately, the UN has been humiliated by this war. The current times underscore the significance of the Non-Aligned Movement. All nations must make the planet a place to live and flourish peacefully, respecting the core idea of Panchsheel that India gave to the world.

Jasvinder S Humsafar, Maloudh

Incomplete picture

Reference to the middle ‘In the end, right is right’; former bureaucrat Suresh Kumar has peddled half-truths, as is the wont of this elite group. He has not given the complete picture about how he clung to the chair before the combined thrust of the then ruling party and its MLAs pushed out his master and him. Many of these officers have an air of indispensability and infallibility around them, and only the courts or fate can show them their rightful place.

Sarat Chander, by mail

Engineering row

The BJP has mastered the art of creating one controversy or the other to divert the attention of the public and the media from the real issues. The latest being the one by Home Minister Amit Shah that the government will implement the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) when the Covid pandemic ends. They will never speak on issues concerning the common man, such as record inflation, record unemployment, tense communal atmosphere, either at public meetings or Parliament. When a common man is struggling to feed his family, he is least interested in such issues that are only raised to make headlines.

Bhupinder Kochhar, Panchkula

Restore grace marks

Recruiting agencies and the staff selection commission in Himachal Pradesh would evaluate aspirants for class III posts based on the norms set by the government, wherein additional 15 marks were allotted to certain sections, like orphans, residency in backward area, landless, below the poverty line and widows. The government has now done away with this provision and direct merit in the written examination been fixed as the criterion for selection. This is against the spirit of reservation.

BR DHIMAN, HAMIRPUR

Baddi rail link

Reference to ‘Cleared 15 yrs ago, tenders floated for Chd-Baddi rail link’; the BBN belt has been a boon to the geographically challenged state of Himachal. It has generated employment and brought revenue to the state. After much delay, the wheels have finally been set in motion for the rail link. The government should ensure that the project comes to fruition smoothly as it will greatly facilitate the common man and create inter-state links with other industrial areas.

Mayank Pathak, Shimla

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