MyVoice: Views of our readers - 26 Jan

AP Council members should act responsibly

This is in response to the front page article 'Council abolition top on agenda' (Jan 25). The Legislative Council of Andhra Pradesh and its honourable members should act responsible in the interest of the common public and also keep the larger interest of State's development in mind while discussing Bills which are already passed by the Legislative Assembly.

Hundreds of crores of taxpayers' money is being expedited annually in running the Legislative Council and collectively the House should come good in terms of overall productivity and value addition.

Gajjarapu Sri Harsha, Visakhapatnam

Freebies are no panacea for farmers' misfortune

The Modi government breathed a sigh of relief following the propitious remarks from Kristalina Georgieva, the chief of International Monetary Fund (IMF). She also emphasised the need of the Indian growth as it will directly influence world economy ('Growth slowdown in India temporary: IMF ', The Hans India, Jan 25).

The ongoing anti-CAA protests will directly bear on India's GDP. The netas should realise that freebies are not a panacea for the current misfortune of farmers, rather the governments should work on long term solutions to increase the income of the ryots and the poor.

The receding havoc caused by the trade war between the dragon nation and the US will surely help India to increase its GDP numbers.

Vinayaka M, Bengaluru

Police brutality on peaceful protestors

This is with reference to the report 'Remain non-violent while fighting for a cause: Prez', Jan 26) In fact, the growing protests against the amended Citizenship Act are non-violent across the nation. In spite of police brutality in many States ruled by the BJP, especially in UP, the public protests, far from fading, are getting stronger.

Led by women and young people, Shaheen Bagh is finding resonance all over India and numerous such similar protests are taking place. There are many more sites in Delhi, and protests have spread to Lucknow, Kanpur, Allahabad, from Gaya and Samastipur to Patna and Park Circus in Kolkata and many other places, attracting solidarity from ever-increasing crowds.

What is significant and lends the most strength to people's unity is that everywhere, in every meeting, the slogans are not in defence of this or that religion or caste, but for the defence of India's Constitution.

What greater tribute can there be for the founders of our Constitution that 70 years later, on January 26, 2020, lakhs of people, women and men across the length and breadth of India, read aloud the preamble of the Constitution as a mark of their determination to save it, to defend it, to uphold it.

Kavita Rao K, Hyderabad

Democracy is all about diversity

There is no doubt about the mandate of the ruling party. Nor can anyone question the conviction of its leaders and cadres who believe they know what is best for India. They see these moves whether on Article 370 or citizenship as "historical wrongs" being set right.

In a strange way, it is Tsarist Russia (where there was no doubt the Great Russians ranked first) or China (ditto the Han Chinese) that evoke comparison. Or Burma, where the nascent nationalists aligned with the invading Japanese to force out Indians who often had to flee on foot. Or General Zia ul-Haq's Pakistan, where Islamisation stirred a witches' brew with explosive consequences for this region and beyond to this day.

The challenge will lie in addressing the yearning for identity in a way ­consistent with the practices of democracy. But India is unlike any of these countries. It is neither an empire nor a one-party State. It has a distinctive history.

The idea of an inclusive India was not crafted by the English-speaking elite in salons and coffee houses. It took shape in a largely non-violent freedom struggle, which saw the end of imperial rule as the first, not last, step in the forging of a nation-State.

Here the new rulers err. Where they probably more than just err is in underestimating the ways in which diversity and democracy are intertwined in a continental polity with seven decades of an active democratic political life.

The last matter for democracy is not about dissent, which exists even in authoritarian systems. Democracy is about difference and its celebration.

P N Vishnuvardhan, Hyderabad