MyVoice: Views of our readers 19th June 2021

North Korea, a veritable hell

This refers to the editorial – 'Oppressive Soap Opera of North Korea'. Present North Korea is witnessing what China had witnessed during the cultural revolution, headed by Mao Zedong, chairman of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and founder of People's Republic of China (PRC) who established Chinese communism purging remnants of capitalist and traditional elements from Chinese society. Fear is the key, in North Korea, headed by tyrannical leader Kim Jong-Un. Perhaps this fear has paralysed the North Koreans to no end as it was under the rule of Pol Pot of Cambodia.

If Kim proves to be world's bully by constantly improving and updating the nuclear hardware of North Korea, that day is not far when a combined assault on North Korea cannot be ruled by countries like Japan and the US. As China is increasingly being drawn into a state of vacuum politically and economically, after having cornered worldwide for the Wuhan virus that China has wilfully spread all over the world, about which the world opinion is fast zeroing in on China for its culpability.

Venkata Narasimhan K R, Madurai

Hastening vaccination spread

Indian Government is giving vaccine freely for all above 18 years. It is an appreciable decision. But for that vaccines should be produced faster. There are many changes for third wave. If it will become faster there is availability to give the vaccines for below 18 years. So that we can stop most of the deaths. As sooner vaccination process completes the sooner we can stop corona virus. Due to reduction of cases governments are relaxing the lockdown. Because of this again the virus will spread. Over 26 crore people are administered Covid - 19 vaccine in India. In that 4.84 crore people vaccinated fully. It means 3.5% of people vaccinated in India. The states must work in coordination with the Centre to make the vaccination success.

T V S Suchitra, Khammam

A lot of debate has been held surrounding the time gap between two doses of Covishield vaccine after the government increased it from 6-8 weeks to 12-16 weeks after examining the real life evidence from the UK. The current gap of 12 to 16 weeks has two problems. First it leaves people with one dose exposed for that much time to the risk of several Covid with the delta variant. Secondly, it promotes the development of further mutations and new variants.

Experts are of the view that with the UK reducing Covishield dose gap to eight weeks is the best for India to follow suit as it gives maximum immunity protection from severe Covid infection. Otherwise that would defeat the purpose of vaccination for individuals and for society. Therefore the government should consider the shorter interval of 4 to 8 weeks between two doses of Covishield vaccine to ensure a high immune response in the recipients.

K S Rao, Thane

Discuss disarmament

The Geneva summit between Russian President Putin and USA President Biden should have discussed disarmament too. Recent G-7 meet too did not discuss this issue. Disarmament and destruction of weapons must be made compulsory topic in the agenda of any major meet / summit. Also let there be regular E-meetings amongst various leaders on disarmament, reduction of production of weapons and war paraphernalia. This sounds meaningful in this modern era.

P N Sreelekha, Secunderabad

Opaque disengagement process?

The Congress president has rightly echoed the sentiments of the common man that the disengagement process with the China appears to have worked to our disadvantage. Several rounds of talks between the Army Commanders of both the nations throughout the past one year,have unfortunately yielded nothing optimistic. What is still more concerning is the dragon country's recent deployment of additional armed forces and artillery near the area of conflict. The entire country is watching restlessly for a positive outcome, given the assurance by our prime minister Narendra Modi that our brave Jawans' sacrifice in June 2020 must not go in vain. The nation can ill-afford another encore of October 1962 debacle

Seshagiri Row Karry, Hyderabad

Control inflation urgently

The fight against the pandemic has somewhat obscured the rising inflation, both retail and wholesale. You name it, vegetables, fish, pulses, edible oils; the price of each item that we consume for our subsistence has gone up. Core inflation is also upward in the inflation trajectory. A cartoonist has captured it excellently with a person entering a shop with a shopping trolley, but coming out with a basket. Those living below the subsistence level don't use trolleys even in the best of times, though.

The prices of all essentials have gone up so much that low income households find it extremely hard to make both ends meet. Job losses and reduced salaries since the Covid-19 outbreak have left poor families without the means to cope with the inflation. People's purchasing power is now at an all-time low. Daily wage earners who have no means of subsistence other than their labour are the worst hit as they don't find work or find less than usual work in this pandemic time. Less or 'lacklustre' production, high production cost and disruption in supplies, coupled with rupee depreciation are contributing factors to the high inflation.

The increase in fuel prices (petrol and diesel cost somewhere around Rs.100 per litre) has exacerbated the problem of runaway inflation by its cascading effect in terms of transportation costs on food items consumed and other products used in daily life. The RBI can opt for 'a wait-and-watch policy' or adopt 'accommodative policy', but the poor with their empty or near empty stomachs cannot. The government should act to rein in inflation and ease the inflation burden.

G David Milton, Maruthancode, Tamil Nadu