Letters to the editor

Education

IT appears that the government set out the policy for the merger of schools keeping in mind only the aspirations of students from urban areas (“Merger muddle”, July 19). One wonders whether the benefits of merging schools were explained to the parents of schoolgoing children in interior villages. Did the government depute a team to these villages to check the distance between old and merged schools and whether parents were willing to let their children travel that distance, and whether these schools have proper infrastructure? The merger move has apparently deprived children of their right to free and compulsory education as guaranteed in the Constitution.

Ashok K. Nihalani

Pune, Maharashtra

Water crisis

Several States, including Tamil Nadu, are reeling under a severe water shortage due to successive failures of the monsoon or less than normal rainfall (“Chennai’s thirst”, July 19). The worth of water is realised only when it is in short supply. The government and the civic bodies should manage the supply of available water better by preventing leakage, pilferage and waste.

Chennai should go in for enhanced desalination in view of uncertain monsoons. Groundwater should be recharged through suitable rainwater harvesting devices. Every house in urban areas should have rainwater harvesting arrangements. Consumers should be aware of the worth of water and use it carefully.

D.B.N. Murthy

Bengaluru

Sri Lanka

IT is strange that in a moment of crisis the political leaders in Sri Lanka are working at cross purposes to fish in troubled waters (Cover Story, July 5). Whatever be the goal of the perpetrators of the Easter Sunday blasts, they have caused enormous injustice to mainstream Sri Lankan Muslims. Terrorism has only helped in giving added muscle power to the hardliners in the Sinhala community.

One positive aspect of the situation is that Christians, the direct victims of the bloody mayhem, have shown remarkable restraint and composure. We in India cannot afford to remain impervious to the cascading impact of the viciously hardening social identities in our backyard.

Ayyasseri Raveendranath

Aranmula, Kerala

EVMs

IT is not surprising that the opposition cried foul after the BJP’s overwhelming victory (“In EVMs do we trust?”, July 5). Unable to digest it, the opposition questions electronic voting machines. It has forgotten that these same EVMs brought victory to the Congress in the Assembly elections in three States in the Hindi heartland and gave Rahul Gandhi a resounding victory in Wayanad. The decline in the electoral fortunes of the CPI(M), for instance, is certainly not due to manipulation of EVMs.

If the opposition suspects a deep conspiracy between Modi and the Election Commission (E.C.), it must at least put its faith in the Supreme Court, which rejected the plea for 100 per cent VVPAT verification on the grounds that it could not come in the way of people electing their government.

Kangayam R. Narasimhan

Chennai

Jammu & Kashmir

IF the BJP tries to make political capital out of the Amarnath yatra, it will be fishing in troubled waters (”Operation Kashmir”, June 21). The BJP uses the yatra episode as a political tool to engender further polarisation in the State.

Any idea of repealing Articles 370 and 35A should be nipped in the bud as the situation in the Kashmir Valley is already volatile and may worsen. The PDP, the National Conference and the Congress have protested against the delimitation exercise in the State and termed it a violation of basic democratic norms. The BJP has squarely blamed the Congress’ “appeasement politics” for the plight of the Kashmir Pandits. This is far from truth.

Never before have the Army and the E.C. been so misused, with the E.C. dancing to the tune of the ruling dispensation. Ultimately, the sole aim of the BJP in Jammu and Kashmir is to capture power at any cost.

S. Murali

Vellore, Tamil Nadu

Congress party

THE Congress party is now a divided house and its electoral defeat has eroded its credibility (“Time to introspect”, June 21). It is sad that Rahul Gandhi’s inability to rejuvenate the party and win elections has created a possible vacuum in national politics. His decision to quit as the party chief has only aggravated the crisis in the State units where the Congress is in power.

In the given situation, a new leader may not be able to change the fortunes of the party overnight. The party should understand the reasons for its failure and rectify its mistakes before its stock falls further.

K.R. Srinivasan

Secunderabad, Telangana

Tamil Nadu

IT is sad that inter-caste or inter-religious marriages evoke negative reactions in society (“A closed chapter?”, June 21). There should be an end to the stigma that has unfortunately attached to such marriages.

P. Senthil Saravana Durai

Mumbai