MyVoice: Views of our readers 23rd April 2022

Shameless practice of partisan politics

It is a matter of shame that both ruling and opposition have been practising partisan politics by meddling in social and religious and private matters of food, dress and modes of worship. The recent instance by Delhi municipal corporation using bulldozers to raze alleged encroachments in Delhi's Jehangirpuri, scene of rioting after Ramanavami, without first giving notice only goes to reveal that the governments are bent upon shoring up religious and identity divides and the opposition is adopting narrow approaches to their advantage by siding with the minorities instead of seriously finding solutions. The tendency of politicians to fish in troubled waters will ultimately only ruin democracy.

K R Srinivasan, Secunderabad

What happened in Delhi's Jahangirpuri seems it is not spontaneous but a planned one. Inspite of the Supreme Court order for status quo, the demolition drive continued for more than one and a half hours. It is nothing but contempt of the law. Their main intention was to cause as much damage as possible before the operation was halted. Now in a planned manner it is all going on - take out processions on Hindu festivals near Muslim localities, carry weapons, chant inflammatory slogans against Muslims. If there is any counter response, file FIR and the police will come and demolish the houses of particular community. Bulldozers have become new symbols of brute state power.

Zeeshaan, Kazipet

All-free culture will ruin economy

It is unfortunate to say that in our country better politics and better economics do not go together. Various states declare "all-free" policies during elections to appease the voters for their political interests. This practice doesn't promote meritocracy and is detrimental to the country's prospects on a larger scale. Living standards due to such trends will be largely affected due to excessive depandance on the governments. People will become lazy and passive regarding their responsibility. The political parties should stop spending money on such programmes. It is the high time that we said 'no' to freebies in the larger interests of the nation's economy.

T Santhosh Kumar, Yellandu

Rein in retail & food inflation

Retail inflation has alarmingly touched 7%. While increase in oil prices is understandable due to current geo political conditions, the duties of state governments on oil should be rationalised to reduce the retail price. Public transport should be made more user friendly and in the long term staggered working hours and 'Work From Home' should become norms so that cost of micro transportation can be reduced. As overall food grain production is not affected the price rise appears to be man-made, taking shelter under Ukraine crisis. The common man has suffered a lot in last two years due to pandemic and the government should take aggressive price control measures.

M Raghuraman, Mumbai

Civil services counter-productive

The letter entitled, 'National Civil Services Day,' (21 April) has heaped praise on civil servants, but let's see the other side of the coin and at the outset let me find fault with the iron man,r ather brawn(less of brain man) Patel who overplayed Nehru when the latter wanted to wind up erstwhile civil services as he aptly felt the colonial replica of divide and rule has to end. But Patel felt that civil servants could do better but after long years counter productivity is in full swing. The cream of student community opts for civils as against research and Prof CNR Rao, MGK Menon et al lamented over this trend.If Hargobind Khorana had opted for civils, we would have lost a Nobel laureate and the west has eminent scientists as there are no civil services there.

Dr T Ramadas, Visakhapatnam

Cricket umpiring a thankless job

Cricket is a team game where performance is the name of the game. Just like batting, bowling and fielding, umpiring also plays a crucial role in deciding the course of the match. An umpire is the only single person who, alone, can make or ruin a game of cricket. If he makes it, your average cricketer takes the fact for granted. If he ruins it, your cricketer grumbles, forgetting that, for far too long, cricketers have paid too little attention to the umpiring of their matches. Retired players, ostensibly the most likely potential umpires, frequently make themselves available but although their experience provides invaluable background, the finer points of an excitement are apt to escape them, as few players have more than a passing knowledge of the laws.

CK Subramaniam, Mumbai