MyVoice: Views of our readers 12th September 2021

Narcotic jihad?

The claim of Pala Bishop Mar Joseph Kallarangatt that 'jihadi terrorists', to use his words, in Kerala are resorting to not just 'love jihad' but also 'narcotic jihad' to trap Christian girls without substantiation was unfortunate, to put it mildly. In making this unsubstantiated claim, the Bishop has wittingly sought to drive a wedge between two religious communities. It was unchristian of him to do so.

The claim smacked of so much religious hatred that anyone with zero tolerance for religious intolerance would deplore and condemn it in no uncertain terms. If the Bishop is privy to information about 'narcotic jihad', he should share it with the law enforcement agencies. It is hard to believe that a Bishop could make a sweeping statement to malign another religious community so blatantly without an iota of concrete evidence to support it.

The wild charge that 'narcotic jihad' is being used as a strategy to turn non-Muslim youngsters into drug addicts is just a figment of the Bishop's imagination. The Bishop must have a fertile imagination to produce the story that 'jihadi terrorists' roam around near schools and colleges and run ice-creams and soft drink parlours to ensnare girls. He would do well to first tackle the use of drugs among priests and Bishops of which he cannot be unaware.

If he is against inter-faith friendships and marriages, he should say so openly. Then he should realize that human relationships and freedom of choice cannot be circumscribed by religion. He should know that elopement is as old as humankind. By cautioning against 'befriending people from other communities', he has become an apostle of sectarian divide. Inexplicably, Bishop Mar Joseph Kallarangatt has spoken the language of Hindu Right, acted as a tool of the Sangh Parivar and reduced the Syro-Malabar Church to a Hindutva outfit.

— G David Milton, Maruthancode

Army should revise entry barriers

There are not many people who would take a bullet for their motherland. The Army with its height and fitness requirements makes it even lesser. The Indian Army has a height requirement of 5 feet 6 inches which is normal Indian height.

The problem with these requirements is that they lose some brave hearts because of these. Height is never the indicator of the strength and courage a person possess. We have already seen the much shorter Chinese Army proving themselves stronger than our Indian forces in the hand to hand battle. I think the Indian Army should ponder on these things and restructure their requirements so that more bravehearts join in to serve the motherland.

— Noopur Baruah, Tezpur

Sansad TV is here…

It refers to welcome merger of Rajya Sabha TV and Lok Sabha TV to a unified Sansad TV with effect from September 15. It will save huge funds in running two TV channels with same purpose. Direct telecast of live proceedings of two Houses of Parliament can be done according to importance of proceedings being conducted in two Houses of Parliament. However excerpts of proceedings of two Houses can be shown at prime time not only on Sansad TV but also on various Doordarshan channels. Same merger-plan can be considered for too many Doordarshan channels according to its viewership-statistics. There may be several Doordarshan channels which may not have significant viewership. Continuing with such ones is waste of public-money.

Union Ministry of Information and Broadcasting should consider idea of making at least half-an-hour daily on prime-hours for every private news-channel to compulsorily telecast simultaneous news-bulletins and Parliament News (Sansad Samachaar) from Doordarshan, because usually private news-channels provide news-contents on their personal ideology and to achieve more and more TRP rating.

|— Subhash Chandra Agrawal, Delhi

The 'Right to Sit'…

The Tamil Nadu government, following the Government of Kerala, has tabled a bill seeking to amend the Tamil Nadu Shops and Establishments Act 1947 as per which seating arrangements are to be provided mandatorily to sales personnel during business hours in commercial establishments. This is a welcome move as sales persons are made to stand the entire day in their workplace whether there is a customer or not. This age old practice is inhuman and hurts all employees- young, old and women badly. To sit is an essential comfort and many sales persons who are deprived of that and made to stand long hours suffer from varicoceles and arthritis problems. This has somehow escaped the eyes of human rights activists and governments. It is necessary for the salespersons to stand only while attending to a customer and hence all state governments should follow the action of Tamil Nadu.

— M Raghuraman, Mumbai