MyVoice: Views of our readers 16th August 2020

Recapturing lost glory

At last the beautiful heritage of Hyderabad, the famous Moazzam Jahi Market gets its past glory thanks to the Minister for Municipal Administration Kalvakuntla Taraka Rama Rao for taking interest in its restoration. It will be surely a tourist spot for heritage lovers, evening walkers and families.

Previously every one ignored this heritage site besides the tenants also made it uglier by painting its stone wall and putting sheds etc. which changed it uniqueness, not to speak about garbage and choked drainage system.

Hope the days are not far for the historical, beautiful and famous Clock towers, which has its own stories will gets it past glory back if K. T. Rama Rao took interest in its restoration. It will be an injustice if we didn't thank Arvind Kumar, Principal Secretary, Municipal Administration and Urban Development for his excellent work after taking a challenge for its restoration.

Syeda Miratu Zohra, Hyderabad

Balance in inoperative bank accounts

Huge balance is lying in inoperative accounts in banks with even many account-holders having forgotten about their bank-accounts. Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has introduced Know-Your-Customer (KYC) forms which has been made mandatory also for closing such inoperative accounts. Such cumbersome practice not only is causing difficulty to account-holders wishing to close their inoperative accounts, but also creating a big loss of man-hours of bank-employees apart from unnecessary data-entries and record-keeping. Frauds are reported through some bank-employees misappropriating funds in such inoperative accounts where amount is large.

RBI should direct all banks to close all accounts not operated for say last three years, and send the remittance through pay-orders by Speed Post at last known addresses of account-holders at least for accounts having balance of say rupees ten thousand or less. In case of return of Speed-Post envelopes, formalities like of KYC form and succession-certificates etc may be required. For amounts bigger than rupees ten thousand, account-holders should be informed about their existing balance and to approach banks either to make accounts operative or close these in a time-bound period after which all such balances should be transferred to Depositor-Educative-Awareness-Fund (DEAF). With private sector dominating banking sector, public-money lying in inoperative accounts must not be allowed to be retained by banks.

Frequent change of account-numbers by banks should be prevented by making it mandatory for all banks to allot 15-digit account-numbers. Confusing and frequently changing account-numbers result in bouncing of electronic fund-transfers.

Madhu Agrawal, Delhi

Kamala Harris: A female Obama?

It is interesting that Joe Biden's choice of Kamala Harris as his running mate has not evoked euphoria among India's self-styled desh bhakts despite her Indian roots. The only plausible explanation for their lukewarm response is that the principled stand she took on some of the decisions taken by the Modi government were not to their liking. Her "India connection" – she is the daughter of an Indian-born mother – independent of her political creed was not sufficient for India's ruling elites to welcome her candidacy for the US vice-presidency.

What Kamala Harris represents does not fit in with their narrative in domestic politics. Her world-view conflicts with theirs in profound ways. Kamala Harris has been vocal in her criticism of Modi government's handling of the Kashmir issue and resultant denial of basic human rights in the Valley.

As a prominent member of the Democratic Party known (and distinguishable from the Republican Party) for its inclusive politics and broader vision, she has voiced her opposition to the amendment to the citizenship law on the ground of being linked to religion. Perhaps it is hard to digest the fact that the treatment meted out to the blacks and other minorities in the US is not vastly different from that to Dalits, Muslims and other weak and vulnerable sections in India. That caste is akin to racism is a fact hard to accept for Hindutva zealots.

As for the chances of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris getting elected, the US is currently crying for leadership and the incumbent President is in a downward spiral of unpopularity. A progressive, sometimes called 'female Obama' and a daughter of immigrants, Kamala Harris represents the best in American politics and the confluence of cultures in the vast melting pot of American society. Her prominence in the rough and tumble of American politics is a testament to her talent and hard work.

Kamala Harris has always championed the cause of the rights of the socially and economically underprivileged, women and blacks. Her attribution of the heavy toll the coronavirus has taken on America to Donald Trump's delusional belief that he knows better than medical experts is spot on; it will resonate with the American electorate. Donald Trump has characterized Kamala Harris as 'a socialist completely controlled by radical Left' and 'a dream opponent' in a vain bid to belittle her illustrious public life. We hope that the Indian diaspora in the United States will vote overwhelmingly for Kamala Harris' installation as the next Vice-President of the world's oldest democracy.

G David Milton, Maruthancode, Kanyakumari

US polls promise to be sizzling

What interests India most apart from the usual strategical and political developments in the Presidential election in the US is that Democratic Presidential nominee Joe Biden made a maiden public appearance with his running mate Kamala Harris on Wednesday. Mr. Biden, a 77-year old white man, on Tuesday named 55-year-old Kamala as his vice-presidential running mate making history by selecting the first Black woman to compete on a major party's presidential ticket.

Taking the centre stage of American politics for the first time after becoming the presumptive vice-presidential nominee of the Democratic Party, Kamala is always proud of her deceased mother, Shyamala Gopalan, who was born in erstwhile Madras, an Indian-born Tamil American. Later, she earned a PhD in nutrition and endocrinology from the University of California.

Being a civil rights activist, she befriended with Donald Harris, a Jamaican professor of economics at Stanford, who also involved in the civil rights movement. Their friendship grew and culminated in the marriage. They had two daughters out of their wedlock- Kamala Harris and Maya Harris. Paradoxically, Shyamala died of colon cancer though she was a cancer researcher.

Kamala married fellow lawyer Douglas Emhoff in 2014 and is step mother to his two grown-up children, Cole and Ella. Making her first appearance along with Mr. Biden, Kamala said that her mother had a great role in her life. She even said, "My mother raised my sister Maya and me to believe that it was up to us, and every generation of Americans, to keep on marching. She'd tell us, don't sit around and complain about things, do something." Named after a Hindu goddess, Kamala grew up attending both a temple and a Black Baptist church.

As a former presidential hopeful herself, Kamala entered the Democratic race on Martin Luther King Day carefully timed to highlight the historic nature of her candidacy. However, how much she is acceptable to the American society as a Black woman vice-president will have to be watched yet. Admittedly, on earlier occasions, Kamala dropped out of the contest for presidential nomination after she failed to attract big money donors. But Kamala shot to further fame when the President Donald Trump began trying out a few familiar attack lines-similar to those misogynistic ones he used against Hillary Clinton-describing Kamala as 'nasty, mean, horrible, disrespectful and liar.'

Donald Trump seeking re-election for the second consecutive time is still a sure bet. He has established himself as the best suited man to the presidency again for the second term at this present era as psephologists have predicted in favour of him for the second term.

The most important feather in the cap of Donald Trump, the President of the USA, the people conferred and credited on him waswhen he declared his support to Israel that had declared Jerusalem as its capital. This declaration has historical as well as far-reaching consequences. American President's support to Israel has always attracted a lion's share of the traditional votes in favour of Trump.

Above all, the things which are going to happen in the immediate future need certain personalities like Trump in the hot seat of America and time will choose him again for the Presidency. Let us wait and watch the political drama being enacted in the land of America for the destiny of this world.

T K Nandanan, Kochi