MyVoice: Views of our readers 18th April 2022

BJP playing dangerous politics in India

One needs more details from RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat on his prognastication particularly about the characteristics of "Akhand Bharat". The shocking report of the suicide of a contractor in Karnataka because of a BJP Minister demanding kickbacks to the tune of 40% is a testimony to BJP being second to none in corrupt practices. Is it not to distract the attention of people of Karnataka from real issues such as corruption and unemployment that the BJP government in Karnataka is becoming instrumental in engendering a hate wave in the State to target a minority community on issues ranging from hijab and Azaan to halal and vending near temples ?

More disturbingly, other BJP-ruled states such as Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat are taking a leaf out of the books of Karnataka and Uttar Pradesh and upped the ante against Muslims in the form using bulldozers to dismantle their houses and shops with utter disregard to rule of law. Is BJP justified to overtly or covertly indulge in promoting a narrative that seeks to malign Muslims to lure the electorate of majority community into its fold by being oblivious to catastrophic consequences of such perilous agenda which has the potency in the long run to come at a huge cost to the nation?

The current political leadership needs to take realistic view of India facing multiple challenges amid unending pandemic, Russia-Ukraine conflict, border tensions, flailing economy and global uncertainties. Let us hope that India will soon become an economic giant rather than a country where people fight among themselves to serve vested political interests.

Narne Raveendra Babu, Hyderabad

Nothing free in Punjab scheme

Punjab CM has announced free electricity of up to 300 units per month. What may seem a very nice move is not exactly what it is on the face of it. Economically, Punjab is already a debt-ridden state and providing such amenities for free will not better the situation anyhow. Also, giving out electricity for free somewhere also increases the number of times of power cuts. It is quite evident, a loss bearing state cannot do much good for free. They will for sure cover all this free 300units by increasing power cuts which in summer times is even worse to bear. So, as a common man, what is more important to me, a bill that excludes the charge of 300 units but also reduces the time I get to consume electricity, or I get sufficient time to consume electricity at the same price going on. Obviously, sufficient electricity with the same bill.

Khushnaseeb Kaur, Patiala

Political violence continues in Kerala

Another round of political killings is back in Kerala with impunity, even in a hitherto unknown place like Palakkad. A PFI activist was killed in retaliation to a previous murder of a RSS worker, in front of his wife, and passersby on a busy suburb of Palakkad, recently. There is no doubt the state is witnessing brutal and swift retaliatory executions with a professional precision. So to say, almost all districts of Kerala are being unwittingly drawn to become killing fields of political rivals. One marked change that cannot escape the attention is the stunning reality that such killings is no more based on inter party rivalry as before, but has transcended to the next level of religious sphere of hatred between Hindu and Muslim communities as the latter has become extremely radical to conspire destruction of Hinduism and India's democractic credentials.

K V Raghuram, Wayanad

The communal cauldron keeps simmering

The article (Ramnavami violence: Whey does a Hindu festival anger Muslim fundamentalists? by Sandeep Krishnarao Patil, 17 Apr) has rightly exposed the unending expansionist & exclusivist character of the Muslim community at large. Why should the mosques announce the 5-time Azaan through the loudspeakers of their minarets in the current times where the ubiquitous mobile phones can do the job by messaging or by setting the alarm? After all, there were no megaphones during the Prophet's time.

The Muslim leaders expect the Hindus to greet them during the Ramzan season, to hug them, wear the fuzz cap, kneel down at the mosques, and throw Iftar parties but none of the Muslim leaders, especially parties like the AIMIM are ever seen in a reciprocal gesture – dabbing Tilak on their foreheads, greeting or serving their Hindu brethren during the latter's festivals. Before harping on the rights of the minorities and the need to give unconditional asylum to the Rohingya and Bangladeshi Muslims, let the Indian Muslims talk of the pathetic plight of the Hindu minorities in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and even in India's Kashmir.

Let them raise their voices against the Islamic terrorist organisations and demand liberalisation of the Islamic theocracies for a respectable place for Hindus in such countries. Of course, not every Muslim is to be blamed for the conscious communal divide sought to be perpetuated in the country, but the voices and efforts of the moderate and liberal Muslims are always throttled and drowned thereby preventing the much-needed imperative of an ongoing dialogue for inter-communal harmony in the country.

U Atreya Sarma, Hyderabad