MyVoice: Views of our readers 25th December 2022

Let love lace & lead our lives

The Bible has lent many popular usages and expressions to English language. 'Broken heart, an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, apple of your eye, by the skin of your teeth, to see eye to eye,' are some of them. It has also given us many pithy, and inspiring quotes."God is love" is one such simple but profound saying. Of course, this simple and short sentence represents one of the core concepts of Christianity.

Love, faith and prayer are common elements in all religions. The Bible says that God has sent his son as Jesus to teach man love and help him live a righteous and holy life. Our body is a temple, and we must keep it clean and undefiled, both Hindus and Christians believe in it. Our Telugu nature poet and lyricist Devulapalli wrote in a song that 'there is a temple everywhere and there is a temple in all of us'.

Patience and tolerance are other common features in our religions. We wait patiently upon God for his love, help and guidance. That is why people in all faiths under take pilgrimages, be it to Jerusalem, Mecca, Tirumala, or to Shabarimalai, enduring all kinds of physical and mental challenges. John Milton said that "They also serve who only stand and wait." King Satya Harichandra,child Prahallada,and Job in the Bible have proved this point.

Serve all and help the poor and widows,the Bible says. 'Service to man is service to God', say many Hindu dharmas. Forgive your enemies and tormentors, says the Bible. Jesus asked God to forgive his killers. The killers of Rajeev Gandhi have been forgiven by his family and our courts. Even the 24 murder serial killer Sobh Raj has been forgiven and released from jail by a Hindu nation, albeit on the grounds of his age and health condition!

Charity is a fruit of love. There are people in all religions and in all countries who have made love a way of life and shown it in their social and humanitarian work. For such people, humanism is their religion and love, their God. In other words for them, 'LOVE IS GOD AND GOD IS LOVE.' Let such love lace our lives and lead us.Let it be our resolution in the New Year.

– M Somasekhar Prasad, Hyderabad

What is in store for us in New Year?

The year 2022 is coming to an end in a few days. Looking back what was achieved and what's not is probably is an exercise in futility. However when it comes India, it looks like more than governance, the politics dominated in India and of course the world continued to witness Russia and Ukraine war which is yet to see a cease fire.

In the politics of hate in name of religion, language finally reached colour as if it's a property of religious fanatics. Saffron and green has become colour of great divide amongst people. Whether it would be carried forward to the year 2023 will remain question mark.

Another two areas where India should remain united is witnessing huge divide: External affairs and defence. The scheme Agnipath saw huge divide for and against. There is China-India standoff near Arunachal and a highly provocation from Pakistan in the form of a controversial comment by its foreign minister Bilawal. At least on these two issues, both ruling and opposition has failed the nation.

The ruling party has failed to take lead to take opposition and people into conference that led to dragging Armed forces. On Agnipath in the name of employment opportunities for unemployed youth, the county also saw violence in some parts of India. Will 2023 witness change, we have to wait and watch. However, my appeal to fellow citizens is not to get 'Gaslighted' (one of the words of the year 2022).

– N Nagarajan, Hyderabad

Politicians must think broadly, not parochially

This refers to "Politics is service – beyond the ego" (THI, 24.12.22). I am immensely impressed by these words of V Ramu Sarma: "When you know what you have done for the people and if you are confident that people are with you, then one need not go to the extent of saying that so and so party has no right to contest. When you are the best in all respects, why bother about some who do not have even sarpanch here?" It is true! Because in a country of one's own, people can engage themselves in doing a variety of things as part of their life. But they should also know that there is a structural legal framework, so that whatever they wish to do, they should do it within that framework. As long as they go with the accepted framework – said to be a yardstick to be followed by one who happens to be the citizen of that particular country – one can do anything in any part of his country.

It is a simple and basic thing to be understood. But, as opined by the writer, some politicians are trying to blame other politicians on the pretext of regional issues. If so, even those so-called politicians do not have any right to spread their own party to the other states. Thus, speaking so is unethical; it is only a lame excuse to cover their mistakes in the guise of such egoistic statements, and also to divert the attention of people from the focal issues.

Whether it is Chandrababu Naidu, YS Sharmila, or somebody else, as long as they follow the constitutional principles, they will have a right to contest in elections from any place in India. Since they belong to this country, they have a legal right to spread to any place in India. Thus, there is no valid reason to criticize them as they do not belong to this place. It is only an ego of some politicians who are scared of challenging these charismatic leaders like Chandrababu Naidu who was one of the best chief ministers of the then AP , who had left his indelible mark of progress in the annals of Indian politics in general and in the politics of AP in particular. Thus, instead of thinking broadly, if politicians think parochially, firstly they should stop their expansion to other regions with an ambition of imperialism. Else they should cease their egoistic statements against others who want to fulfill their wishes by expanding themselves to other regions, thereby aiming to people who are in need of others' help.

-Dr Venkat Avula, Hyderabad

II

The writer V Ramu Sharma in the write-up had rightly driven home the point that politicians of the bygone days are a thing of the past unlike the present day politicians who though elected to serve the people forget the moment after winning the poll.

The classic examples the writer quoted about various individuals is abundantly clear that what ultimately matters for such individuals is they do crave for name and fame rather than values.

As seen, when problems in society calls for an objective analysis of reasons coupled with competence to tackle them, political leaders of various parties in order to seek power only blame their rivals by directly or through their cohorts indulge in appeasement politics by portraying the majority as tyrannical without bothering that it portends danger to the nation. Polarisation and violence on one pretext or the other is the consequence of ego playing a dominant part in the minds and hearts of political leaders of all parties as seen from every speech, every action and every move. Thus it is very clear their India is not the India we dream of.

– K R Srinivasan, Secunderabad

The impact of physical inactivity on economy

A new report from the World Health Organisation (WHO) states that physical inactivity between 2020 to 2030 will result in more than 50 crore people developing a preventable non-communicable diseases(NCD)at cost of $300 billion, if governments do not act urgently. Physical inactivity may lead to the highest economic cost among high-income countries and will account for 70 per cent of health-care expenditure on treating illness resulting from physical inactivity.

The report of WHO -"Global Status Report of Physical activity 2022", analysed the data for about 140 countries to check to what extent the governments are implementing policy recommendations for physical activity across all ages and abilities as outlined in the report of "Global Action Plan on Physical Activity" (GAPA) 2018-2020. It has set 15 per cent of reduction in the level of physical activity in adults by 2030.

The report finds that 81 percent of boys and girls aged between 11 to 17 years are engaging less than one hour physical activity each day that may lead to risk of heart and circulatory diseases and about of 38 percent of adults in India do not meet physical activity recommendations. There is an urgent need to redouble the efforts to meet 15 percent target by end of 2030 by increasing physical activity 300 minutes a week for adults that may result in 20-30 percent of reduced risk of premature death.

The report shows that large percentage of people in India are inactive with fewer than 10% engaging in recreational physical activity. Therefore, urgent steps need to be initiated to promote physical activity to stem the twin epidemics of diabetes and obesity and other NCD diseases in India.

The WHO predicts that Type 2 diabetes, hypertension and depression which have also a prevalence rate of 95% in all diabetes cases, has a 5% chance of being avoided if one exercises regularly. The report concludes that aiming a 15% reduction in total physical inactivity is an important fact and countries should enhance physical education and school based programs, and incorporate physical activity into health and social services and improve provision for older adults.

- Gudipati Rajendera Kumar, Hyderabad

Democracy is not a one-time deal

Tax payers money must be used judiciously by the government irrespective of parties that rule the country and the states. One time concessions are accepted at the time of disasters. Government, courts and responsible governing bodies must strive to put a stop to this wastage of public money. It is high time to act. If not, the rulers are either impotent or a party to this misrule.

There should be a public debate on freebies. Nothing should be free. There could be subsidies on essentials like the food, medical treatment, education and shelter to the weaker sections. There must be stringent curbs on freebies such as free power supply and waiver of bank loans. Democracy is not a one-time deal. If concerned citizens are not engaged in active politics, the quality of democracy and governance will suffer.

Over 50% of the price of petrol today is due to taxes. That is hard-earned money for a lot of families that have to pay to go to work every day to make ends meet. India is a "deficit-making" country - i.e. it spends more than it earns every year. This means that every citizen is being burdened with more and more debt that needs to be paid off by current and future generations.

Given this context, what is the justification in allowing a political party to make freebie promises that are essentially future-robbing from the already highly taxed, debt burdened citizens? Agreed that "derecognition" is too harsh to start with - but, at least make a start by penalising any party that makes such promises before they even get into government and know the finances.

– Jayanthy Subramaniam, Trichy

Ulterior motive of protests over development projects

It is a well-known fact that project constructions like dams,river bridges, airports, railway tracks and nuclear power plants are the harbinger of national development for which huge amounts of resources / funds are essentially required. But unlike as in the past when national development was tardy due to paucity of funds, of late due to India having emerged economically vibrant there have been positive signs of progress achieved by the nation, thanks to the developmental projects in pace.

The obstacles causing delay in completion of projects undertaken from time to time have been mainly on account of protests and movements launched against such constructions. As political dissensions and protests are not countered in our democracy, the completion of developmental projects is scuttled. The projects initiated in India at local levels are often halted / scuttled at the instant of foreign forces bringing pressure at the international level. In this backdrop, it may be recalled that Narmada Bachao movement spearheaded under the leadership of Medha Patkar is a glaring example of foreign hand that scuttled the development of Narmada project vis-a-vis obstacles created by the agitators who were responsible for inordinate delay in the construction of the dam. We need to exercise caution against protesters and agitators who are incited by external forces in decelerating the overall developmental activity vital for the nation.

– Bh Indu Sekhar, Hyderabad

A wasted opportunity

It's unfortunate that the Parliament has cut short its winter session seven days ahead of schedule. The session of thirteen days sittings, one of the shortest in seventeenth Lok sabha will be remembered as a wasted opportunity to discuss many important issues of national importance.

The economic slowdown, unemployment, country's new role at world stage particularly at UN and G-20, border issues with China, food security and many other contemporary issues would have been discussed, had the treasury benches and opposition wished to. That in terms of productivity it's ninety seven percent in Lok Sabha, and 102 per cent in Rajya Sabha for this session, as claimed by the respective chairmen cannot bring any laurels, thanks to the lack of proper debates and repeated logjams. The Parliament is undermining, if not avoiding its major duty of discussions in the needy hour, which is not good for democracy.

– Dr DVG Sankararao, Vizianagaram

Covid rearing its ugly head again

Just as the world thought that the Covid-19 pandemic was coming to an end, the virus is surging again in many parts of the world. There is concern in India, which suffered badly for about two years, over a fresh Covid challenge, and alerts have been sounded by the central and stare governments.

Genomic testing of samples for new strains of the virus has started. The vaccination programme has covered a large segment of the population, and most people may have acquired some immunity from vaccinations and infections. But these are no reasons for being complacent about new variants of the virus.

The new worries have been caused by the viral outbreak in China, South Korea, Japan, and the US. The worst affected country is China where millions of people are suspected to have been affected, with the pandemic still spreading. The outbreak is considered to be the result of the failed strategy the country followed until recently to contain the disease. Against this backdrop, the preparedness of the health infrastructure has to be improved and the vaccination programme needs to be revived. There are more vaccines available now than in the past and they should be efficiently deployed. It is even possible that the number of cases is low because testing is low. Testing, surveillance, and genomic sequencing have to be done on a wider scale and more efficiently and strategies have to be prepared accordingly. While there is no cause for panic, caution is necessary. Governments, at the Centre and in the states, should avoid the slippages, pitfalls and misjudgements that aggravated the pandemic situation in the past.

– N Sadhasiva Reddy, Bengaluru