MyVoice: Views of our readers 14th January 2024

Jagan’s rule a major disappointment 

The reasons listed by writer V Ramu Sarma in Bold Talk, enumerating the slipshod governance of Jagan Mohan Reddy, cannot be brushed under the carpet. A sad feature of the rule of YSRCP is that its failures were accentuated by systematic malfunctioning of the establishment as a result. Several leaders ae facing serious allegations about functional impropriety and corruption charges. With large sections of leadership seem to be suffering from a kind of over-confidence, matters have taken for the worse due to Chief Minister taking people for granted. Jagan's charisma and mass appeal on the wane will not be able to resurrect or rejuvenate the party in this critical times. Even his die-hard supporters would accept that the performance of the government has not been up to the expectations of people. Now as the polls are just a few months away, anti-incumbency factor is clearly visible against the government. It is not going to be an easy ride for YSRCP this time is an accepted fact. Similarly, the caste and Kapu factor alone on the whole would play a decisive role. The path ahead for Jagan is not a bed of roses to counter TDP-Jana Sena on one hand and Sharmila on the other, who as expected is certain to cut into YSRCP base including the minorities.

– K R Srinivasan, Secunderabad

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The article "Anti- incumbency stares in Jagan’s face" was an apt article. Jagan is totally banking on welfare schemes but they may not help him to regain power. You rightly said that YSRCP and BJP are two sides of the same coin just as it was the case with BRS and BJP in Telangana. Jagan is showing soft corner against BJP, due to fear of CBI cases pending against him and also on land scams. Jagan is not able to get funds for Polavaram project from Centre and for Vishakapatnam Railway Zone. He was silent on privatisation of Vishakapatnam Steel Plant and he never raised his voice against Centre on Special Status Category to Andhra Pradesh. Jagan has suffered a setback in the illegal arrest of Chandrababu Naidu. Farmers, women and youth are not happy with Jagan. Jagan has spent most of his time showing political vendetta against his opponents. Jagan being one of the youngest CMs, who won with 50 per cent votes, has proved to be a major disappointment. People are comparing his rule with Naidu and feel that Naidu is only hope for AP. Nara Lokesh has also helped to regain confidence among people and also helped in revival of fortunes for TDP. Jagan’s own sister Sharmila joining Congress is also a major setback to Jagan. Next assembly elections in AP will be interested to watch.

– Zakir Hussain, Kazipet

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The views expressed by the learned writer on the election scenario and prospects of different political parties in the AP battle field, 2024 are far removed from ground reality. It is opined that the resurgent TDP, in league with exuberant JSP, would pose a serious challenge to YSRCP, ridden with anti-incumbency. But, I am afraid,the truth is otherwise. Sadly, the non-grant of special category status and failure to implement many provisions of AP Re-organisation Act continues to be an albatross around the neck of TDP- BJP combine even today in the eyes of Telugu people who feel betrayed. In contrast, the YSRCP is in scintillating form, fully geared up and battle-ready to go at the opposition, which is in a shambles today, plagued with dissent, desertion and despondency. With regard to the entry of Charismatic leader Y S Sharmila Reddy into Congress at this stage, it may resurrect the dead party in AP, but it may not cause any discomfort to YSRCP, which is sitting pretty. Similarly the entry of veteran strongman, Mudragada, is also not going to move the mountains, because he is a spent force and his hold on the community is not very strong. While this is so, the sterling performance of CM Jagan, in the fields of welfare, development, particularly in health, education, irrigation and industrial sectors, plus the social engineering and committed vote bank that the YSRCP has carefully cultivated, is certainly going to bless them with second term in AP.

– P H Hema Sagar, Secunderabad

A unique festival

Sankranti is the celebration of a three-day festival that comes in the winter season amidst chilly winds and fog-enveloped environment. Sankranti is more than a festival, for it reflects the glorious culture and tradition of Telugu people. Unlike other festivals of Telugu people, Sankranti is unique, unveiling a variety of festive spectacles of the beautiful Telugu culture and tradition tinged with a kind of religious fervour that delight immensely all people of Telugu states.

Haridasu, the very symbol of Telugu culture and tradition, attired so artistically in unique manner with Akshaya Patra ( a glistening round vessel) on his head and a garland of flowers hanging from his neck comes with the morning Sun piercing through wintry fog, striding along streets and lanes of villages and towns, ushering in the festive spirit. The morning keeps resonating with the mesmerising, traditional music from the keerthanas (devotional songs) sung by the Haridas and the music made by the Haridasu with chidatalu in his hands. Woman-folk, however busy they are in their homes, rush out with plates full of rice and coins and drop them into his Akshaya Patra with devotion and veneration. At street-corners of villages and towns, bonfires burning with dried cow-dung cakes and dumped old things, sending up flames into the chilly atmosphere are seen. Children clad in new clothes, moving around bonfires are screaming in joy while old folks seated near the bonfires are warming their bodies.

Another prominent, delightful spectacle of Sankranti is endless, spectacular, colourful rangolis with Gobbemmalu (cow dung) decking so marvellously the front-yards of all houses and paths of villages and towns. There comes a couple of Gangireddulu ( bulls ) caparisoned and colourfully decorated to houses on Sankranti-festival days and dancing and nodding their heads with merry clappings of hands from children and smiles from grown-ups and receiving gifts from people. Happy with their wealth of harvested paddy, farmers worship their agricultural implements like ploughs and offer their grateful prayers to Nature for her generous offerings from paddy-fields for their year-long toil.

– Dr Venugopala Rao Kaki, Kakinada

Ram temple event mired in politics

The attention of the entire country is drawn towards the consecration of Ram temple on 22, January. There are many temples being consecrated in some parts or the other. More focus is attached to this temple because of its historical and communal past.

More than the pious people it is the ruling party that is bubbling with more enthusiasm. There are many ancient temples all around the country remaining as mere tourist spots and some of them are in ruins. A truly religious person or organisation should put some efforts to get them back to their glory and make them fit for regular worship by devotees. Only Ram temple is given such a publicities and activities like mobilising 5 crore people to temple from each parliamentary constituency at the rate of not less than 5 lakhs per constituency, fixing dates for each constituency, carrying on door to door campaigns and so on.

Doubt arises naturally in the minds of many on this event to be a national event or a mere religious one? If it is a national event why not the President inaugurate it. If it is a religious one it should be done by a religious leader. But some religious leaders also brand it as a political event and decide to stay away. It is also claimed that the month chosen to inaugurate is not appropriate for this event. We need to remember here that the new Parliament building was also inaugurated arbitrarily on an auspicious day to commemorate the birth anniversary of a person known for his communal background. One thing to be remembered by all is that those who are mobilised may come more as tourists and those who have not visited are not atheists. Religion is personal and politics is open to all.

– A G Rajmohan, Anantapur

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The greatest sacrilege done by Congress is declining the invitation to attend the consecration ceremony in ‘Ayodhya.’ It’s a big self- goal. The rejection shows that the party's general tendency to lean towards minority Muslims as they vote en masse for it. Its outright rejection of invitation hurts the sentiments of millions of Hindus .For Hindus and for Bharat, it’s going to be the monumental event as we are able to build the temple for Sri Ram at his birth place, correcting the historical blunder done by a then Muslim fanatic ruler. We valiantly fought for more than 525 years sacrificing the lives of thousands of Ram bhaktas.

The Congress party showed inherent opposition to Bharat culture, traditions and Hindu religion, saying that ‘Santana Dharma’ is bared /exposed. Many Muslim heads accepted the invitation; even the Muslim litigant in the legal dispute Iqbal Ansari humbly accepted the invitation. The bloc INDIA’s main party and some other rag-tag members permanently blocked their future in the next general elections. Their mindless moves will certainly help the BJP-led NDA.

– Rama Krishna M, Kakinada

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There is now a great deal of opposition in connecting religion with politics from Congress and Left parties. In this connection, there is no gainsaying the fact that in our country no political party is without combining religion with politics. In fact, all political parties use religion for deriving political mileage. Communists are committing historic blunder by opposing Ram Mandir while Congress is leaving no stone unturned to use religion for gaining political mileage. There cannot be as such any objection for PM Modi to attend the consecration ceremony of idols as much as the temple was constructed with the help of a trust which raised funds from public donations. It is high time that the opposition parties had shunned their attitude of thinking politics in terms of religion. We have after all won legally and justifiably to construct Ram Mandir and hence the same need not necessarily attract any objection for its institution on the original site as politicisation over the Ram Temple has resurfaced recently after its construction.

– Bh Indu Sekhar, Hyderabad

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The inauguration event of Ram Mandir is getting shrouded with politics. Every politician is trying to get political advantage to self and the party. Some politicians are attending the ceremony to get votes and others boycotting for the same purpose. Inauguration of Ram mandir is disturbing the unity in opposition political parties since two groups are created - for and against attending it. Almost the entire opposition is against the event to prevent BJP from getting credit and thereby increase its vote bank. At the same time, the BJP is sadly using Ram mandir as an achievement to impress voters. BJP founding members and strong advocators of Ram mandir i.e. Advani ji and Murli Manohar Joshi ji, appear to be keen on attending, but are being discouraged to do so because of their old age, leading to rumours of denying credit to them. Only, results of general elections can show to what extent they have achieved their objectives.

– Dr O Prasada Rao, Hyderabad

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Apropos ‘Kharge says the faithful can visit Ayodhya any day’. This escapist comment coming from president of AICC Mallikarjun Kharge is amusing and irrelevant. It is akin to a lazy school goer saying that he can go to the school any day as the school is open throughout the year. This shows the lackadaisical manner in which the Congress is viewing the Ayodhya temple inauguration and the “Prana Prathishta” consecration ceremony slated for 22nd. This is the standard mentality propagated by the Congress all these decades and its followers on the Hindus and Hindu places of worship in the country; and their priority always centred on one particular community – Muslims, albeit always swearing on secularism, and perennially blaming the BJP to be communal. But, the civil society is watching who is communal and who is not as the Ayodhya invite to the Congress proved the litmus test in which it miserably failed to the basic expectation of a common man in the country.

– K R Venkata Narasimhan, Madurai

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Seat adjustments are a trick affair at best, and it is here that the INDIA group will face its biggest challenge. Every regional party will want to protect its own turf and it remains to be seen if the INDIA group will be able to surmount the hurdle. The refusal by the Congress to attend Ram temple pran pratishthan has given the BJP an opportunity to accuse the Congress of being anti-Hindu. But if one goes by the same yardstick, the four Shankaracharyas, too, have refused to attend too. Does this make them anti-Hindu? As regards the Maldives diplomatic row, right now we cannot afford to antagonise the Maldives too much as this would send them into the waiting hands of the dragon. China has been trying to surround us by making friends with all our neighbours. Can we afford that?

– Anthony Henriques, Mumbai

Move to turn real jungle into concrete jungle

Giving away 100 acres of precious land belonging to the Agriculture University seems to be a hurriedly taken decision and even if the High Court and the government are pleased with each other over this largesse. Definitely it is at the cost of common man in general and students and staff of the university in particular which needs every inch of land for research purposes and development of greenery all around. The widespread protests are spontaneous and hope Revanth Reddy sees some reasoning and retracts from this decision. In fact, High Court should have declined the offer at the first instance. Real jungle should not become a concrete jungle. The ambience of an agricultural university will definitely get affected and making it difficult for both the legal fraternity as well as the academic people to gel and in fact with litigants everywhere, the whole atmosphere would look chaotic. Just visualise if KCR did this for even two acres of land, how protests would have erupted on a large-scale, putting the whole government machinery to a standstill. Ironically, how can one file a PIL against the High Court when it is the beneficiary which has no problem over the surprising benevolence of Revanth Reddy, but people would see this as some quid pro quo arrangement and the latter should desist allay misunderstanding among the public.

– D Nagarjuna, Hyderabad

India's economic ascent

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is optimistic about India's economic growth, inviting global industry leaders to invest in the country. India, currently the fifth-largest economy, aims to become the third-largest. Modi emphasizes India's role as a pillar of stability, highlighting policy shifts in logistics and transportation as significant investment opportunities. He asserts that India's commitment to global welfare makes it a trusted partner, an engine of global growth, and a technology hub.

The Prime Minister attributes India's economic resilience to structural reforms, a robust banking system, GST, FTAs, and green energy initiatives. He also mentions poverty reduction and rising middle-class incomes as indicators of positive change. Modi highlights the government's commitment to structural reforms, citing successful initiatives like GST, FTAs, and substantial green energy investments. He emphasizes India's thriving startup ecosystem, boasting over 115,000 registered new-age companies, contributing significantly to the country's economic dynamism. The Prime Minister portrays India not only as an economic powerhouse but also as a nation dedicated to improving the well-being of its citizens and making a positive contribution to the global landscape.

– Dr Krishna Kumar Vepakomma, Hyderabad

Need for Int’l University for Vedic Sciences

This is an appeal to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the need to establish an International University for Vedic Sciences at New Delhi and set up departments of Vedic Sciences in all universities in the country.

Ancient rishis were more advanced than the most advanced of the modern civilizations which today’s world is still attempting to unearth. It is a great unexplored valuable treasure of science and technology. For decoding the knowledge of Vedic system: Lost Science and Technology in Ancient Indian Epics, dedicated research in scientific manner is required and it is the urgent need of the hour. Vedic studies are centrally important for an understanding of Indian history and culture in general.

“If history is to teach us anything, it must teach us that there is continuity which binds together the present and the past, the East and the West.” This statement of Max Mueller in the “Last Essay” of his famous book ‘India – What Can It Teach Us? Rs is no less topical now than it was then.

The depth of the Vedic knowledge found in the Vedas in regard to several fields of modern science such as Mathematics, Physics, Astronomy, Engineering, Architecture, Metallurgy, Biology and Botany has been greatly appreciated by a number of scientists in India and abroad. Universities In several countries like in USA (MIT School of Vedic Sciences), UK (London College of Vedic Studies) etc., are offering courses in Vedic sciences.

In our country also there are few private institutions and universities which are offering educational courses in Vedic sciences but are not recognised and approved by the UGC. The Vedic university at Tirupati is recognised by UGC only as a state university but not as a central university. Further, many other parts of the country are still planning to initiate the Veda Pathashalas and Vedic colleges.

The ancient Gurukul system of education was honoured worldwide owing to its holistic approach to teaching life skills with Vedas at its epicentre. Vedas were not taught in isolation. Yoga, Sanskrit, Ayurveda and other allied subjects were taught as an integral part of the Vedic education. Our country has its own native educational methodology that is firmly rooted in the scientific tenets of rigorous analysis, logic, experimental, validation and repeatability for the past thousands of years.

Developing leadership qualities, management of principles and concepts, teamwork, problem-solving techniques with ease and calm mind, understanding mind and its complexity, to sharpen intellect and memory, managing ego, caring for nature, research and development were all taught in Vedic education system apart from science, social studies, grammar. Therefore, for the reasons mentioned above, the Prime Minister should intervene urgently to set up the proposed university.

– Dr Buragadda Srinadh, President, VHP, Krishna district