As long as every single daughter in India feels unprotected, unsafe, unrepresented, it is simply naive to join Prime Minister’s latest initiative to post a selfie with daughters. Instead of the high drama cleverly marketed in the media, it’s time to get our priorities in place first.
The farmer from Haryana who is the man to start this had a valid point in doing this, however, for the Prime Minister to quickly snatch this idea and build a powerful brand out of it doesn’t sounds logical. Though nothing wrong in doing that, the whole idea has become just another political gimmick from the PM, which carries a zero real value in it. Perhaps with this attitude taking a “selfie with daughters” can be a wrong idea. It’s high time for the PM to first announce tangible steps to make our girls safer. Let’s not become the victim of this gimmick by keeping the important issues by settling for tokenism of this kind. It’s time for daughters to secure from such hollow promises and empty slogans.
Mohd Zeyallah Khan
Nagpur, Maharashtra
The Yoga Drive
The editorial “The Yoga Drive…” (Radiance, 21-27 June) is well-written. Yoga is claimed to bring about unity of body, mind and soul but, ironically at the moment, it threatens to turn into a potent symbol of communal disunity. The Sangh Parivar’s cunning presentation of Yoga hides its pernicious agenda of Hindutva. It would have us believe that Hindutva represents the totality of Indian culture and civilisation with no space left for others. If the Muslims and Christians in the country show any sign of dissent, they run the risk of being branded as foreigners or traitors. Already, members of the Sangh Parivar have issued warning to the Muslims who refuse to practise yoga on the ground that it is against the basic tenets of Islam.
The editorial has mentioned the ominous bid to impose compulsory yoga, surya namaskar and saraswati vandana on the minority communities.
In today’s universal value system, diversity is celebrated as a mark of civilisation as against barbarity. India too prides itself on its pristine tradition of unity in diversity. But the attempt of the present dispensation to push yoga down everybody’s throat is inimical to India’s time-tested pluralist tradition.
Mostafa Murshid Pasa
Rajnagar, Murshidabad, W.B
Vyapam Scam and Bell of Mysterious Death
Scams do not surprise Indians. Because in India, corruption and scams have become order of the day and no party is in a position to take high moral ground on it. After every expose, a committee is formed to submit a report which usually gathers dust. And in some cases SIT is also formed. It keeps happening in corruption cases. But in Vyapam scam, there is not only loss of money but lives too. Corrupt politicians digested not only amounts of money but a number of lives as well. This clearly reflects how deep corruption has stricken its roots in our country. The corrupt can snatch even lives of common people to secure their interest.
Ibne Hasan
New Delhi
After Atali, It’s Tikri Now
It was very painful to note that even before memories of Atali riots in Ballabgarh were yet to subside, another communal violence broke out at Tikri Brahman village of Palwal district of Haryana. Many would believe that failure of any stern action might have encouraged the perpetrators elsewhere. Tikri is hardly 30 km away from Atali village where riots had taken place in May. The nearby places were simmering since then. In Atali riots where authorities were not eager to punish the culprits, about 70 people were detained in that connection of which only 10 people have arrested and the rest were released.
Akram Hussain
New Delhi