The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

Monday, August 18, 2003, Chandigarh, India

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When Chautala, not cops, helped victims

They were lucky, thanks to Haryana Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala. They were lucky that his calvacade was stuck in the traffic jam at the Punjab and UT border, Zirakpur, at 8 pm on August 15. Or else it might have whizzed past. If this was a story of two men lying at a grotesque angle on the road, very few people would pause to read it. Mr Chautala told his PA to rush the injured men to hospital in one of his security vehicles.

Two men astride a scooter hit the barriers on the Punjab-UT border and lying in a pool of blood, their scooter a good 20 feet away. When my wife and I reached the spot, there were at least nine policemen on duty and one feetiwala drunk waving his hands about adding to the general chaos. A crowd as usual had gathered around the two victims. There was a traffic jam. Mute spectators were sitting in their cars expecting the policemen to find a solution to the problem. My wife, who is a doctor, and I realised that these policemen were making no effort to get these people to hospital. We tried to explain to the officer on duty that the victims needed immediate medical care as they were bleeding too fast and told him to put both of them in our car. The officer could not obviously comprehend that for those two men every minute was a question of life and death. Then the hooter started blowing.

It was Mr Chautala’s calvacade. And then the entire focus of the policemen at the barrier shifted to clearing the passage for the calvacade. My wife stepped right in front of Mr Chautala’s car, and I half expected her to get run over. The car stopped.

The Chief Minister was considerate enough to lower his window and she told him that two men were probably going to die just because the people who should be busy trying to focus on getting them to a hospital were enthusiastically trying to clear the road for his calvacade. That was the time I heard Mr Chautala tell his PA to rush the victims to hospital in one of the security vehicles.

I do not know what happened to those two men but I can tell you with conviction, based on personal experience and what I have seen, that don’t rely on the police. It leaves one wondering as to what happens to people who don’t get lucky.

People who are responsible for reacting in situations that affect human lives require split second decision-making capabilities, and should have above average IQ and EQ. Unfortunately, we all know the ground reality.

— DESH BIR S. BHULLAR, Chandigarh

The menace of ragging
Apropos of the editorial “Ragging is a sickness” (Aug 14), I agree that society must show zero tolerance policy for preventing ragging from becoming a crime against humanity. Ragging ia a criminal act of physical and mental torture of freshers by group of senior students. Most of the colleges in northern India have left ragging but the proffessional colleges are still active.
It is a shame that ragging happened in the Army Institute of Technology, Pune and Delhi IIT. I am shocked that Gaurav Malhotra of Patiala became a victim of ragging at Pune.
The Youth Wing of the Vishwa Jagriti Mission, a social and cultural organisation, inspired by Acharya Sudhanshuji Maharaj, had filed a writ petition in the Supreme Court against ragging a few years ago. Subsequently, ragging was banned in 2001. The Supreme Court had observed that failure to prevent ragging shall be an act of negligence. The universities can stop financial assistance to such institutions and withdraw affiliation.
As per the directions of the court, a student indulging in ragging can be dropped from the college, his results can be withheld, fined and sent to the jail. I appeal to the authorities concerned to take strict action against the guilty in Pune.
— M.L. GARG, Chandigarh

Laloo in Pakistan

It is heart-warming to see the ebullient, irrepressible, Urdu-speaking and pan-chewing MP from Bihar, Laloo Prasad Yadav doing something useful for India in Islamabad by trying to improve the Indo-Pak relations which are not yet on a fast track.

One area of concern is that Laloo does not cast the image of India’s MPs as comic characters which, on second thoughts, may probably be true to some extent, considering the performance of some of them in the ‘well’ of the Lok Sabha. However, from the broader perspective of the Indo-Pak relations, if India’s stern-looking politicians have not succeeded in breaking the ice till now, let them yield the floor to Laloos with their native sense of humour and bonhomie which goes well with the ordinary people of the sub-continent.

— SUSHIL GIRDHER, Sirsa

Deplorable approach

I admire the manner in which Mr J.S. Anand has drawn the similarity between private coaching and private practice and the way in which the state government is dealing with both the professions (Aug 14).

In case of education sector, the government wants to save the future of students by freeing them from the clutches of private tutors. But in case of medical services, it doesn’t mind putting up the health of lakhs of patients at stake. Is this the work of a responsible government which boasts of setting up standards for everything it does? This is for the people to analyse.

— ANUJ VERMA, Amritsar

Tax on Sachin’s car

Mr Justice Vikramjit Sen of Delhi High Court deserves congratulations for suo motu taking up the matter of the Union Government harming the national exchequer by exempting a whopping Rs 1.13 crore on payable custom duty on star cricketer Sachin Tendulkar’s gifted luxury car.

The court should also initiate action against wrongly-granted tax-exemption on earnings made by our cricketers during the South Africa World Cup Cricket Tournament. Our cricketers are very rich. They should not claim or accept such exemptions. On the contrary, they should voluntarily pay taxes on their earnings from cricket as their humble contributions to the exchequer for national development and public welfare.

— MADHU AGARWAL, Delhi