MyVoice: Views of our readers 3rd August 2022

Include a blend of Indian and foreign coaches

Excellent! India got more medals in CWG-22. Till now, it got 7 medals in weight lifting and surprisingly 2 medals in judo. Will it help if India gives more focus on weight lifting, badminton, judo, wrestling, Javelin throw to get more medals in Paris - Olympics-2024? Australia and England already crossed 50 medals in CWG-22. Will it help if the Indian contingent get a mix of coaches from India and foreign nations (Australia and England) for more medals in Paris Olympics-2024? Because foreign coaches have better awareness of latest scientific coaching methods, equipment and nutritious food for players.

Sahasra Nivriti Vislesha, Secunderabad

The proposal to push indigenous games like gilli danda and langdi is indicative of the direction in which the NEP is moving. This government seems to be taking the nation back to the past instead of thinking about the future. Are the rural students be given no opportunity to participate in sports which are likely to lift them out of poverty? There was a time for such games but that time has gone. Not all sports require expensive equipment. Has anybody asked the students the games they would prefer to play? If the government cannot provide students with sports infrastructure, let them be left to their own devices rather than push them toward indigenous games.

Anthony Henriques, Mumbai

Masking headlights can avoid accidents

In earlier days, all two wheelers had black masking of their headlights so that the light does not directly fall on the drivers coming head on thus blinding them and creating a threat of accidents. But these days we are finding this rule thrown to winds and one wonders whether the rule of half-masking is done away with. The two wheeler riders hitherto were fined for violating this rule during checking the vehicles. Either black stickers or black paint used to be there on the headlights. Though there is a rule that one should look at the respective side on the left, the drivers are not properly trained in this matter. I request the traffic authorities to look into this and clarify whether half masking of the headlights as rule is no more followed.

D Nagarjuna, Hyderabad

Hindutva and the idea of India

India is all set to celebrate her 75th anniversary of Independence. In a tribute paid to the freedom fighters, Prime Minister Narendra Modi exhorted his fellow citizens to strive for shaping an India that the freedom fighters and the founding fathers dreamt. He said the right thing to say. But he must pause a moment to think what Mahatma Gandhi would have thought of today's India in the throes of Hindu revivalism. He should spare a thought to how the scourge of religious hatred has become the salient and defining feature of our national life.

The Hindu Right has, to a great extent, succeeded in making the 'ideology of the ruling class', read, the privileged upper castes, the ruling ideology of the wider society and creating the perception that there is no alternative to the Hindutva-oriented BJP. Remember that the ruling party has corporate billionaires, top bureaucrats, academics, think tanks, film stars, journalists and judges among legions of its supporters. The impoverished multitudes do not fully realize that Hindutva is the Sangh Parivar's prescription against struggles for social justice. Recently Home Minister Amit Shah has expressed the hope that Prime Minister Narendra Modi will score a hat-trick, thanks to his charisma and the 'good things' his government has done. He has omitted to mention 'Hindutva' or its overarching appeal which is BJP's USP. Hindutva or Hindu nationalism is antithetical to inclusivity and heterogeneity; it does not suit the mass of Indian humanity; it cannot sustain itself for long in the march of time.

G David Milton, Maruthancode, TN

Dialogue is vital in democracy

The editorial highlighting that despite America working on a two party system (which profess by oath to govern the nation protecting democratic values) but in reality what is witnessed is unethical and uncivilised acts on the rise proving people can act emotionally when the going is not in their favour. Similarly, India is no different due to institutional decay representing a core malaise, the debate on critical issues of governance getting drowned in rhetoric presents a sad state of affairs in governance. Though democracies have grown from forty electoral democracies to hundred in the last fifty years and now is the preferred form of governance across the world, still the growing restlessness indicates democracy has not been able to mitigate the problems. Some of the other reasons attributable are lack of electoral integrity and a persistent climate of mistrust over the years undermined the legitimacy of the political system which as rightly said by Plato "Rhetoric is the art of ruling the minds of men".

All in all the fact remains that dialogue is an absolute necessity in a democracy and political parties must understand and should give more importance to public perceptions so that it a brings a vast change by promoting internal democracy thereby it ensures power is shared among legitimate, regional, ideological and linguistic contenders which in turn would pave way for large measure of cooperation, self- discipline and restraint at all times because these are the virtues parliamentary democracy demands to thrive.

K R Srinivasan, Secunderabad