Devotees being careless

Apropos of ‘Screening, social distancing given go-by at Amritsar shrines’, it’s surprising that despite the recent upsurge in Covid-19 cases in Punjab, very few devotees are taking the necessary precautions while visiting the Golden Temple. Even staff members, including sewadars, can be seen without masks and not adhering to the social distancing norms. Understandably, people visit ‘Guru Da Ghar’ with unshakeable faith that inside the holy precincts they will be immune to any disease. The government and local authorities can do very little in such sensitive matters. However, it’s the sole responsibility of the SGPC to coax the devotees to adhere to all necessary protocols to avoid the spread of infection.

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Balbir Singh Kakkar, Jalandhar

Illusion of strength

Anchorage in Alaska is hardly ever in international news. Therefore, the Blinken-Yang Jiechi meeting there took the world by storm. America’s assumed ‘position of strength’ was diplomatically exploded by China, which conveyed the idea that the US had lost that hegemony three decades ago. The former superpower will have to relearn how to deal with China under Xi Jinping. For an America just out of the bear hug of the Trumpian rightism, and the ghost of its re-emergence still in the offing, only solid commercial and climate interests should dominate such meetings, and not the potential, real or imagined, for mutual destruction.

Mohan Singh, Amritsar

Countering China

One can draw substantive conclusions from the article ‘Political drama at Anchorage’. The US needs to treat China as its number one priority, instead of engaging in one-upmanship with Russia. Engaging with Quad

will be more fruitful. China’s line of action is clear. It does not believe in a rules-based international order, instead it intends to follow its own arrogant and expansionist policy blatantly. Its cheap electronics goods have flooded the markets of US, Europe, India and other countries. This is the bitter truth. The topmost item on the agenda should be to beat China in this sector. India’s ‘atmanirbhar’ and ‘Make in India’ programmes are right steps, but these should not end up simply as political rhetoric.

Kiran Sharma, Sundernagar

All but public servant

In a democratic setup, every government employee is a public servant, but the word ‘officer’ has made them ‘master’ of the public. They do not bother about public work as the government has not made them accountable for it. If the government makes an employee time bound to perform his duty and charge penalty, along with compensation payable to the victim for failure to do so, administrative reforms may be possible. To achieve this goal, the shield of Section 197, CRPC, is required to be removed. Along with this, their nameplate should be designed in three lines, with ‘Public servant’ at the top, followed by name and post, to suppress their arrogance.

RK Garg, Fatehabad

No stopping crime

Reference to ‘Deep rot of lawlessness’; every day, there is news of rape and murder, and UP is a hotspot for crime against Dalits. Crime is a crime; it doesn’t have any caste. This is not just in UP, it is also the problem of entire India. The government seems unable to take strict action against criminals. If the criminal is 16-17 years of age, he is underage, but what about the gravity of the crime he has committed?

Dolly Pal, Chandigarh

Accelerate vaccination

Refer to ‘Covid resurgence’; in addition to adherence to Covid protocol, we need rapid mass-scale vaccination to rein in the second wave of the pandemic. Vaccination is available now. Having undertaken large-scale immunisation campaigns before, we have the requisite experience. Still, less than 4 per cent of population has been vaccinated over the past two months. The nation is yet to recover from the economic fallout caused by the nationwide lockdown of last March. We can’t afford another lockdown. India must accelerate the pace of vaccination to defeat the virus.

K Kumar, Panchkula

No reason to rejoice

The prices of petrol and diesel have been cut by 18 paise and 17 paise, respectively, per litre after a hiatus of 24 days during which the global price of Brent Crude touched $70 per barrel. While the latest cut may possibly be attributed to the same getting reversed to around $60 per barrel, one should not feel elated. More such marginal cuts may happen in the days to come, considering the forthcoming elections in four states and the UT of Puducherry. The end-users thereof may have to pay enhanced prices, once the election results are announced, as has been the experience earlier, like the one after the Karnataka Assembly elections.

Kumar Gupt, Panchkula

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