M A I L B A G

The crisis in Haryana society

D.R. Chaudhary sounds quite pessimistic in his article "Spiritual crisis in Haryana society" (Dec 11), though his lamentation about growing ruthlessness and cruelty in the social life of Haryana is not misplaced. The Bhakti movement might have been very weak in the state in the medieval age but religious bigotry has never appealed to the common people here. The ugly face of casteism which we see everywhere in India is only marginally visible in Haryana.

No doubt, the Dulina killings have brought an amazing metamorphosis in the peaceful and congenial ambience of the state. But by no stretch of imagination, we can claim that the people of Haryana are "a throng of zombies in a state of trance." Most of the sensible and educated people in this taste know that the Dulina killings were engineered in the name of "Goraksha Abhiyan".

Rajbir Parashar sounds more objective and realistic in his article "Factors behind Dulina killings" but his analysis of the "psychic structures" and "reaction mechanisms" of the common people leaves much to be desired. In fact, the common people don't consider the Dulina killers as heroes. Only relatively high caste individuals with a communal bent of mind think so. But then, such individuals don't represent the majority of Haryanvis. In my opinion, the Dulina killings have once again exposed the inherent drawbacks of the Hindu societal organisation.

R.B. YADAV DEHATI, Fatehabad

Falling interest rates THERE is a law against cruelty to animals but there is no law against cruelty to the Senior Citizens of this country. There is no social security cover for them. On their small savings, banks earn huge profits. But the lowering of interest rates threatens to kill Senior Citizens like us. More than 10 million people aged 60 years and above, who bear the brunt of the falling interest rates on fixed income instruments are now looking to the Finance Minister to bail them out. The drastic cut in interest rate from 16 to 7 per cent has come as a shock. We appeal to the Prime Minister of India to intervene and prevent possible suicide attempts by the Senior Citizens due to the sudden fall in their income from their savings without any social security cover to them. HANS SAKHUJA, Jalandhar

Harassment

Harassment is caused to the people visiting Mandi Gobindgarh tehsil office for getting attested their affidavits and other documents. For personal identification, people are asked to bring along a municipal commissioner. All other documents i.e photo identity card, PAN, driving licence, ration card etc have no meaning for them.

SAT NARAIN SINGLA, Mandi Gobindgarh

Reliable marriages

This refers to the letter "Marriages as contracts" (Nov 10) where it is written that the one who loves you before marriage is guaranteed to love you forever after marriage. Many of the love-marriages end up in a divorce.

Moreover, "instant love” may be the fashion in western countries, not in India. We Indians first build mutual trust in our relations. It is OK that most of the Indian marriages are based on terms and conditions, but isn't it better to have a fair deal before getting tied in nuptial knots than to repent later?.

GEETA GUPTA, Ambala

Clarification

The headline of the “middle” carried on this page yesterday should have been “Visa office on two legs,” and not “ Visa office of human legs”. The error is regretted.

EDITOR