The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

Our politico-diplomatic leadership needs to remove its blinkers and face ground realities. Time has come when we should display farsightedness, vision and courage and should have a clear perception of attainable goals. Let our view of Pakistan be not limited to just Kashmir but should encompass complex political developments taking place in the whole region.

We should follow a policy of peace, but not of appeasement. If need be India must not hesitate behaving like Israel to punish the neighbours for their affronts and unwarranted liberty against India.

VED GULIANI, Hisar

Challenge to diplomacy: It is time to think pragmatically and realise the high price we are paying for our incoherent foreign policy and its poor implementation by non-serious diplomats lacking vision, particularly in relation to our immediate neighbours like Nepal, China, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Pakistan.

Our neighbours know they can trample on Indian interests and go scot-free. By pursuing wrong policies India has succeeded remarkably in alienating all sides. New Delhi has only to blame itself for the anti-India feelings in its neighbourhood where we have no sincere friend. Perhaps it is because of our not being sincere to anybody. There is a general feeling that India is not a reliable friend as it lacks consistency and courage of conviction.

Look at Nepal where even a rumour is enough, as happened in the Hrithik Roshan case, to spark anti-India violence. Also when sometime back Nepal tried to play into the hands of China, Rajiv Gandhi had threatened to blockade this land-locked country but never did so. Bitter memories of that incident are blown out of proportion.

Pakistan has been waging a continuous proxy war against us and is abetting terrorism on our soil. Yet we are not hurt and try to forget its past misdeeds. Now we have extended Gen Pervez Musharraf our hand of friendship, although we know that he had stabbed us in the back.

Our policy decisions reflect weakness. Our wrong perceptions, distorted vision, miscalculations in international relations in our dealing with world affairs and policy of appeasement are mainly responsible for the utter failure of our foreign policy.

No less responsible are our tactless diplomats and intelligence personnel. At this juncture we are badly in need of a bold and dashing leadership. We should behave as a brave nation. The tragedy of our country is that we are a nation of billion people that thinks like a nation of a million.

K. L. BATRA, Yamunanagar

Palace events: The royal carnage in Nepal cannot be dismissed as a simple shooting spree carried out by a man merely for the sake of a woman. No sane man can put his parents to the sword for his love. He may at the most revolt and go against the wishes of his parents. So there is much more than meets the eye to the macabre Nepali palace events. In fact, the shootout attributed to Prince Dipendra portends the end of age-old monarchy and is the harbinger of the start of a Communist-backed regime.

India is surrounded by neighbours who, despite extracting huge concessions from it, can’t be depended upon. So it is futile to be a good neighbour. India is known for its patience which can’t be stretched beyond a certain point. Also patience does not mean that insignificant countries like Bangladesh should kill Indian jawans by torturing them mercilessly.

The writer is absolutely right that the gruesome events in Nepal have posed a formidable challenge to the Indian diplomacy which so far has failed disastrously in proving its mettle. It is to be seen how it tackles the predicament. King Gyanendra is known for his anti-India stance. So shrewd, intelligent, firm and effective diplomacy is required to deal with the crisis arising out of the palace events of Nepal.

TARSEM S. BUMRAH, Batala

Economic waste: Mr Hari Jaisingh has exposed the hate-India campaign by the Pakistani rulers which seems to have complicated the Kashmir dispute and other bilateral issues.

Pakistan fought four wars with India during the last 50 years with the aim to grab Kashmir, but in vain. Had the energy, time and money wasted on warfares been spent on development, the people of Pakistan must have had sound economic conditions.

AMARJIT SINGH PABLA, Nawanshahr

Uniform civil code

Muslim women groups from all over the country have sought to distance themselves from a declaration made by the Muslim Personal Law Board on April 9, 2001, and vowed to work on their own for legal reforms. Where are the vote merchants, the country's major political parties — the Congress, the BJP, the two Communist parties — and the regional parties and what are they doing?

Since Independence women have been clamouring for a uniform civil code to replace personal laws that legitimise oppressive familial and social structures. When our "netagan" pronounce that they will not formulate a uniform civil code, it begins to ring alarm bells for half the Indian electorate. Why are politicians so much afraid of the Muslim fundamentalists?

Justice M.C. Chagla, a distinguished intellectual, wrote in his autobiography "Roses in December": Although the Directive Principles of State Policy enjoin such a code (uniform civil code) the government has refused to do anything about it on the plea that the minorities will resent any attempt at imposition. Unless they agree, it would not be fair to make the law applicable to them. I wholly and emotionally disagree with this view.

"The Constitution is binding on everyone, majority and minority. Jawaharlal Nehru showed great strength and courage in getting the Hindu Reform Bill passed, but he accepted laissez faire where the Muslims and other minorities were concerned. I am horrified that in my country, while monogamy has been made the law for the Hindus, Muslims can still indulge in the luxury of polygamy. It is an insult to womanhood; and Muslim women, I know, resent this discrimination between Muslim women and Hindu women".

And Chagla was no ordinary man. He was a great Muslim jurist, judge, educationist, diplomat, central Cabinet minister with Nehru and Indira Gandhi. A time has come for a Sonia Gandhi, a Jayalalithaa, an Uma Bharati, a Mayawati, a Mamata Banerjee, a Mohsina Kidwai to act. If they falter, history and posterity will paint their faces black.

S. S. JAIN, Chandigarh

Science Tribune

Since when has The Tribune started publishing PWD specifications in Science Tribune "Use of cement concrete in construction" (June 14), the use of cement concrete in construction is a straight pick from PWD specifications written 30-40 years earlier. Earlier also, once an article on DPC had appeared by this writer and I had somehow stopped myself from writing to you.

On the construction front, you have many times given very good articles about latest materials, technology, machinery and structures and I have been collecting those. An article on the world's largest construction project is under my table glass. Please continue to give good and inspirational articles.

VINAY JINDAL, Bathinda

Taxing tourists

On way to Shimla for a cool change, one has to struggle through heat and dust. Just past Kalka near Parwanoo, the cars of holiday-makers are stopped to collect toll tax of Rs 20, resulting in a virtual traffic jam. You have to move in inches on the uphill road, changing gears and pulling up hand-brakes, pushing up the temperature of the car as well as that of people as two policemen are at their cool to collect the tax and issue receipts.

This is coupled with the problem of arranging balance as many do not have the requisite denomination of currency. What a hot way to greet to the cool hills of Himachal!

R. S. LAMBA, by e-mail

Reservation

The move of Guru Nanak Dev University to give 70 per cent reservation to physical education students is highly deplorable. How can a one-year duration physical education course qualified student be given preferential treatment over a student of Bachelor in Physiotherapy (duration of four-and-a half years)?

ANUJA, Jalandhar

Horror of a dowry death

Apropos the news report "Non-bailable warrants against Jathedar" (June 12) Sharanjit Kaur, married to Barjinder Singh in 1996, allegedly committed suicide within a year of her marriage. As Giani Kewal Singh, Jathedar, Takht Damdama Sahib, did not respond to the summons issued by Mr Jatinder Singh Bheniwal, Judicial Magistrate, the magistrate issued on June 11 non-bailable warrants against the Jathedar, his son and a close kin, Joginder Kaur, in connection with a dowry death case.

The case had been registered by the district police chief on a direction from the high court. Now Mr Chand Singh, the then SHO, wants the FIR cancelled on the plea that all the three have been found innocent to the satisfaction of the SSP. Is the police not committing contempt of the high court?

Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal has left it to the conscience of the Giani if he would like to resign as the Takht Jathedar. What else could the political Giani in Mr Badal do? There is no separate law for the Sikh clergy. India is ruled by the rule of law.

Pendency of dowry death cases is alarming — 2, 988 cases in the high courts and 13,259 cases in subordinate courts. India's slow-moving legal system packed with countless ifs and buts needs a thorough overhaul. Brides are not meant to pass through the trauma of unnatural deaths. Hopefully, the National Commission for Women takes up this rather strange dowry death case involving a messenger of God on earth.

DURGA BHARDWAJ, Solan