They shun your touch

Published : Oct 06, 2006 00:00 IST

MAHATMA Gandhi published on the cover page of the first issue of Harijan Rabindranath Tagore's English translation of a Bengali poem Methar, written by the distinguished poet Satyendranath Datta (1882-1922). Excerpts from the poem are given below:

Why do they shun your touch my friend, and call you unclean?

Whom cleanliness follows at every step making the earth and air sweet for our dwelling... You help us like a mother her child into freshness and uphold the truth that disgust is never for man....

Come friend, come my hero, give us courage to serve.

A.K. Dasgupta HyderabadScavengers

MANUAL scavenging is really a blot on humanity (Cover Story, September 22). It is shocking to learn that even government departments employ manual scavengers.

Resmi Asokan Kollam, Kerala

THE feature reminds me of Arun Shourie's book Vedanta and Marxism, which focuses on how religion exploits social hierarchy by preaching values that are not practised. It extols God as the greatest purifier, equating his role with that of scavengers, yet upholds varnasrama dharma, putting India to great shame.

R.R. Sami Tiruvannamalai, T.N.

THE plight of scavengers is compounded by inefficiency and laxity on the part of government officials. The attitude of Central and State governments is reprehensible. Just enacting laws will not ameliorate the sufferings of manual scavengers. A systematic and proper approach is required to put an end to the practice.

Brij Bhushan Mumbai

THE articles are heart-breaking. It is sad that 6.76 lakh workers are still engaged in manual scavenging. No civilised society should tolerate this practice. Article 42 of the Constitution requires the government to ensure just and humane conditions of work. It is a disgrace that almost 60 years after Independence and more than a decade after the enactment of the Employment of Manual Scavengers and Construction of Dry Latrines (Prohibition) Act, 1993, this barbarous practice still prevails.

S. Nallasivan Tirunelveli, T.N.Baloch upheaval

THE articles on Balochistan (September 22) were thought-provoking. In the days of the agitation for the partition of India, Balochistan, then a stronghold of Abdus Samad Khan, was averse to integration with Pakistan.

In the provincial general election of 1946, the Muslim League with the key agenda of the creation of Pakistan could not form a Ministry in any of the Muslim-majority provinces that are now part of Pakistan.

The Unionist leader Khizir Hayat Khan in Punjab, G.M. Syed (not a Muslim Leaguer) in Sindh, and Khan Saheb, a staunch opponent of Pakistan and brother of Frontier Gandhi Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan in the North West Frontier Province, became Chief Ministers. In 1947, however, the Muslim League was able to form Ministries in Punjab and Sindh. The first important act of Mohammad Ali Jinnah as Governor-General of Pakistan was the dismissal of the Khan Ministry. Khan Abdul Ghafar Khan was put in jail for years in Pakistan for demanding a separate Pakhtoonistan.

Abdul Wasay Bhagalpur, Bihar

IT is distressing to find the Pakistani President congratulating the country's security forces on their "successful operation" that killed Nawab Akbar Bugti and several of his companions in the Bhambore Hills of Balochistan. Bugti was not a jehadi terrorist motivated by bigotry and fanaticism, but a mass leader voicing legitimate demands that have been repeatedly spurned by Pakistan's rulers over the decades.

A. Megha HyderabadHrishikesh films

MIHIR Bhattacharya's obituary on veteran filmmaker Hrishikesh Mukherjee brought back many fond memories ("He was everyman's filmmaker", September 22). If R.K. Laxman depicted the life of India's `common man' through his cartoons, Mukherjee did the same through his films.

He was fortunate to have started his career assisting the legendary Bimal Roy in films such as Do Bigha Zameen (1951), Parineeta (1953), Devdas (1956) and Madhumati (1958). He started off on his own with Musafir (1957) and continued to make low-budget films until Jhoot Bole Kauwa Kate (1998), his last film. His serious films (Anupama, Ashirwad, Mili, Anand, Satyakam and Abhimaan) and comedies (Bawarchi, Chupke Chupke, Golmaal and Naram Garam) were commercial successes. His movies provided clean, wholesome entertainment.

S. BalakrishnanSEZ pitfalls

PRAFUL Bidwai has rightly pointed out the pitfalls in the development of Special Economic Zones ("The great land grab", September 22). The Reliance SEZ in Gurgaon has already generated some controversy. With 1,700 acres of land already acquired for the SEZ, the government should at least take steps to rehabilitate people displaced by the project.

S.K. Jain New DelhiJudicial authority

A.G. NOORANI'S article, "Limits of judicial authority" (September 22) clearly points out how the Supreme Court in India is overstepping its authority. This encroachment upon the other arms of the state may eventually disrupt the fine constitutional balance. But, most of the cases cited in this article relates to England where Parliament is supreme. In fact, the House of Lords, which is a part of Parliament, is also the highest adjudicating body in Britain. The Indian Parliament, hence, is not a true counterpart of the British Parliament.

Nevertheless, the only institution that can restrain the Supreme Court is the Supreme Court itself. Parliament deserves appreciation for its restraint and the way it has avoided confrontations with the highest court of the land, though it has the power to do so. To avoid any future embarrassment, the Supreme Court should review its recent judgments and abide by Articles 122 and 212 of the Indian Constitution.

Naveen Marrapu Hyderabad

THE article offers a reasonable criticism of judicial encroachment on the domains of the legislature and the executive. Directives in the matter of appointments of judges to the higher judiciary and orders to the legislature on how it should conduct its business are indeed cases of usurpation not envisaged by the framers of the Constitution.

V.K. Sathyavan Nair Kottayam, Kerala

THE writer emphasises that no organ of the state should encroach upon the sphere of the other organs. But under Article 142 of the Constitution, the Supreme Court may pass such decree or make such order as is necessary for doing complete justice in any case or matter pending before it. Under Article 144, all authorities, civil and judicial, in the territory of India shall act in aid of the Supreme Court. The author admits that judicial activism comes into play when the executive or the legislature refuses to do its job.

H. Syed Mathani Tiruchy, Tamil NaduMPs' salaries

MEMBERS of Parliament are elected representatives. While electing them, no one promises them any remuneration ("By the members, for the members", September 22). Remuneration for a job is a part of the profit that a person's work brings to an institution. It is not as if the work of Members of Parliament brings no profits, but the fact is that they do not have specific responsibilities for which salary/remuneration is paid. In a country like India where so many people live below the poverty line, those who really want to serve the people should not draw any remuneration, even if they are entitled to it.

P. Venugopalan Dubai (UAE)

THE article "Eccentric genius" (September 8) was certainly a rare piece about a rare man. `Grisha' Perelman, by turning down the `Nobel' Prize of Mathematics, the Fields Medal, may appear `eccentric'. But we should remember that we live in days when people want attention for achievements that are not even theirs in the first place.

Duke Jonathan Jeyaraj HyderabadChild labour

THE article "Imperfect sympathy" (September 8) is a brilliant critique of the government's failure to implement the Child Labour Act. A blanket ban on child labour would be counterproductive, unless all the working children are identified and given proper schooling vocational training and jobs.

Syed Sultan Mohiddin Kadapa, A.P.Dead end

LACK of irrigation facilities, the ever rising cost of inputs and declining yield are among the causes of the agrarian crisis in Maharashtra (Cover Story, September 22). One of the reasons for cotton farming being so expensive is that the crop is vulnerable to pests and farmers are required to invest heavily in pesticides. Crop insurance might be one way of cushioning cultivators from possible loss.

Sanjay Rahar JaipurMusharraf

IN his interview, A.G. Noorani made no effort to question President Musharraf about his role in the Kargil war in which hundreds of Pakistani and Indian soldiers died ("Message of peace", August 25). Nor did the interview square up to the fact that we are dealing with a military dictator and that any agreement with him might not be valid when a democratically elected government comes to power in Pakistan.

Ashish Bhat MumbaiPrisons

IT is necessary for India to take adequate steps to tackle the overcrowding of prison and also provide better opportunities for the rehabilitation of prisoners ("Prisons as agents of change", August 25). Prisons should bring about a transformation in the minds of the criminals.

Alex M. Thomas, Kollam, KeralaAnnouncement

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