Letters

Divide and rule

HYDERABAD.13/06/2013.No-Man Zone,,Ǩaa,ÄaaÇa police placed huge iron barricade and sharp-barbed wire fenced to block all leading roads to Indira Part known as dharna Chowk was selected for Telangana political Joint Action Committee sponsored 'chalo Assembly' in Hyderabad on Thursday. The police throw multi-layered security after outlaw Maoists group pledged support to programme schedule be held on Friday seeking a separate statehood will be organized irrespective of the State government,,Ǩaa,ÄaaÇas permission...Photo: Mohammed_Yousuf

THE United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government’s decision to divide Andhra Pradesh is based on the narrow political calculations to outplay Y.S. Jaganmohan Reddy of the YSR Congress in the next Lok Sabha elections (Cover Story, August 23). Electoral arithmetic should never be the criteria to decide on creation of States. Creation of smaller States is not a panacea for all problems. The aspiration of the common man is for good governance and development of all the regions in an even manner without any discrimination. The strength of India is its unique federal system, and we should not allow it to be derailed in the name of decentralisation.

Ettirankandath Krishnadas

Palakkad, Kerala

ALTHOUGH the dream of a section of people for a separate Telangana State is about to become a reality, it has fuelled violent protests in coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema. Politicians have mastered the British art of keeping one’s self-interest above people’s welfare. The division of the State is a direct result of successive governments’ failure to ensure development of some regions and their dilly-dallying on a sensitive issue for a long time.

K.R. Srinivasan

Secunderabad, Andhra Pradesh

THE argument that division spurs growth is not valid. If that were so, Uttarakhand and Jharkhand would have been the most developed States in India by now. The Union government has opened a Pandora’s box and will now have to deal with other regions that have been demanding separate statehood.

N. R. Ramachandran

Chennai

BY resolving a long-pending issue, the Congress hopes to gain electoral benefits in the next general election. Whether it will reap the dividends is the million-dollar question as parties such as the Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) will also claim credit for a separate Telangana.

Bal Govind

Noida, Uttar Pradesh

A NEW State would provide ample opportunities for disgruntled politicians and offer new job opportunities. There are the posts of Governor, Chief Minister and Ministers to be filled and money to be made in the process. However, ordinary citizens will gain nothing.

S. Raghunatha Prabhu

Alappuzha, Kerala

THE UPA government has done the right thing. It is not fair to accuse the government of having been guided by political expediency. The Telangana demand is an old issue, and every major party, including the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), promised its creation. The government also took on board all the stakeholders in the exercise.

J. Anantha Padmanabhan

Tiruchi, Tamil Nadu

Cuba

Cuba's acting President Raul Castro addresses the crowd while standing above a stone relief of his brother Fidel during an event marking the 1953 assault on the Moncada military barracks in Camaguey, Cuba, July 26, 2007. Raul Castro promised economic improvements in Cuba and decried implacable U.S. hostility in a Revolution Day speech on Thursday, one year after taking over from his brother. REUTERS/Stringer (CUBA)

I READ the article “Red-letter day” by John Cherian (Frontline, August 23) with the utmost interest. President Raul Castro captures the transformation of Cuba beautifully when he says: “The years have gone by but this continues to be a revolution of young people as we were on July 26, 1953.” His lament on the loss of revolutionary values among the younger generation gives a clear picture of present-day Cuba.

B. Jambulingam

Thanjavur, Tamil Nadu

Midday meals

ANDHRA PRADESH,KURNOOL: Mid day meal workes working at seiage water near midthur kurnool district on wednesday photo:u.subramanyam

ON the midday meals tragedy in Bihar, which resulted in the death of many school children, everyone is still busy playing the blame game (“Tragic eye-opener”, August 23). It is also surprising that similar incidents in Delhi, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, and so on, are suddenly coming to light. Given the unhygienic conditions of the schools and the poor teacher to student ratio, it is difficult to believe that school administrations have been running the system smoothly all this while. One suspects that many such incidents of the past might have been swept under the carpet.

H.C. Pandey

Delhi

Amina Wadud

Amina Wadud (R), a professor of Islamic studies at Virginia Commonwealth University, leads both men and women in prayer 18 March 2005 at Synod House at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York. Her action, which has drawn sharp criticism from Muslim religious leaders in the Middle East, hopes to spotlight the "second-class status" of women in Muslim life. AFP PHOTO/DON EMMERT

IT is unfortunate that the Madras University bowed to police pressure and cancelled the lecture of the Islamic scholar Amina Wadud (“Fetters on freedom”, August 23). Nowadays films, lectures, books and periodicals are banned for flimsy reasons. Even meaningful comments on social media such as Facebook can get one into trouble. This is highly deplorable and goes against the spirit of the right to freedom of speech and expression enshrined in the Constitution.

Sravana Ramachandran

Chennai

IF police permission is required to deliberate on academic subjects within the precincts of any university, soon even classroom discussions and faculty initiatives may suffer a similar fate. The academia and the general public in Chennai lost a wonderful opportunity to engage with a scholar of the highest merit.

B. Rajasekaran

Bangalore

Sikkim

Rhododendron thomsonii was attractive with its deep red flowers. AJTJ DSCN0411

THE fabulous photographs of Sikkim’s floral diversity evoked a sense of nostalgia in me (“Monsoon memories”, August 9). As part of the basic mountaineering course conducted by the Himalayan Mountaineering Institute, Darjeeling, in 2009, we were taken to the Rathong glacier near the Kanchenjunga in Sikkim. I enjoyed the floral topography of Sikkim very much.

Gautam D. Ryan

Lucknow

Food security

THE government has taken the right step by conceptualising the Food Security Bill (“Half-baked scheme”, August 9). In India, political leaders claim to be champions of the downtrodden but do very little for them in reality. The Congress is no exception.

However, now the urgent task before the Congress-led UPA government is to have this Bill passed in Parliament in its next sitting. It is also heartening to note that five Congress-ruled States plan a roll-out of the scheme in August. One hopes that the Bill is popularised and that food items reach the needy and the poor.

Jayant Mukherjee

Kolkata

Corruption

OF all forms of corruption, the least talked about is judicial corruption because the public, including advocates, do not want to incur the wrath of judges (“Corruption Barometer”; Data Card, August 9). Out of fear, people say that they respect the judiciary. Judicial independence is a convenient way for the judiciary to reject all forms of accountability. Judges have to be made accountable for their judgments.

Deendayal M. Lulla

Mumbai

Wimbledon

THE victory of Andy Murray over Novak Djokovic in the Wimbledon finals was the defining moment of his career (“Crazy Wimbledon”, August 9). Murray, who waited for a long time for success, attributed his win to his perseverance. The exciting win sent the people of the United Kingdom into raptures as Murray is the first Englishman to win Wimbledon since Fred Perry last won it in 1937. The women’s finals too had a charm of its own as none of the top-seeded players made it to the final stages.

N.C. Sreedharan

Kannur, Kerala

Business of agriculture

THIS is with reference to the article “They don’t farm anymore” (Cover Story, July 26). The situation today is that big businesses are cornering all the resources by manipulating governments across the world. For agricultural revival, the sector has to be removed from the dictates of the market forces. It is important for small and medium farmers to adopt cooperative farming with a judicious mix of core and commercial crops.

G. Govind Reddy

Hyderabad