Going backwards

Refer to the editorial ‘Cow Hug Day’; the government wants the nation to be vishwaguru, but its actions are taking us backwards. If all humans are considered equal, how can animals be differentiated? Stray cows have been the cause of serious accidents on roads. Farmers have been urging the administration for the rehabilitation of stray cattle to save their crops. Instructions from government agencies to celebrate Cow Hug Day to counter Valentine’s Day are nothing but a political and religious gimmick. People cannot be forced to celebrate such unmindful acts. Stray cows on roads should be rehabilitated with the money being spent on such propaganda.

Wg Cdr (Dr) JS Minhas (retd), Mohali

MGNREGS funds

Reference to ‘Neglecting MGNREGS undermines…’; the scheme was started with the aim of providing guaranteed employment to unskilled workers in rural areas, but at ground level, it has failed to reach the needy. Funds are hardly utilised purposefully with any visible results. In most cases, these are controlled by ilaqa MLAs in connivance with BDPOs and village heads, with only their ‘selected’ job seekers on the muster rolls. There are examples of the same manpower desilting the same village pond throughout the year without any improvement. A retired civil servant recently mentioned that most of the funds are generally ‘utilised’ in March before the closing of the financial year to complete official records. Though MGNREGS has given employment to over six crore persons during the financial year 2021-22, it can achieve the objective of mitigating poverty in rural areas only if it is implemented genuinely and meaningfully. This would be possible only if fund utilisation and resultant work output is monitored at the micro level.

Lt Col JS Dullat (Retd), Patiala

Operation Dost

It is a welcome move that India has launched Operation Dost under which three NDRF teams have been sent along with the medical teams with necessary assistance to spearhead the rescue operations in earthquake-torn Turkey and Syria. It is heartening that the NDRF team rescued a six-year-old girl from under the debris. Medical teams, too, are leaving no stone unturned to help the needy in temporary operating theatres being run by them. All world powers, including India, should continue rendering financial, medical and disaster-related assistance to the two countries till they stabilise.

Maheshwer Sharma, by mail

Mud and lotus

‘Opposition mud will only make lotus bloom’ is the latest gem of wisdom from Prime Minister Narendra Modi. To a layman, the implication is that the more mud there is, the more the lotus would bloom. The culmination of this process would be when the lotus reaches its fullest bloom — when the ‘Hindu rashtra’ (BJP’s dream) is established. Correspondingly, the Indian ‘environment’ would find itself saturated with mud, which also symbolises corruption, misgovernance and other related evils.

Beant Singh Bedi, Mohali

China’s spy balloon

Apropos of the editorial ‘Chinese eye in the sky’; the shooting down of the Chinese balloon by the US has perhaps set back the clock to 1960 — the peak of the Cold war era — when an American spy plane was shot down by the Soviet Union. From planes to drones, and now, balloons are the target for practice in the global shooting range and a climbdown in visual effects. Nations now revert to diplomatic fencing.

RAMESH GUPTA, NARWANA

Repo rate hike

It was somewhat astonishing to observe that the Reserve Bank of India has hiked the repo rate by 25 basis points to tame inflation which carries no weight (‘Repo rate hike’). With this hike, borrowings are set to get more expensive and EMI will be increased. People are already suffering due to the high prices of essential commodities. The authorities should reconsider the decision and maintain status quo.

Subhash C Taneja, Gurugram

Clean chit to Modi

The write-up ‘An avoidable controversy’ appears to be biased against Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The writer has not mentioned anywhere in his article that the Supreme Court of India has already given the clean chit to Modi in connection with the 2002 Gujarat riots.

RK Arora, Mohali

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