M A I L B A G

SC judgement: pointer for MPs & MLAs

The Supreme Court has delivered a far-reaching judgement by upholding the decision of the Bharat Forge Company Limited to terminate the services of one of its employees who has made a habit of sleeping during office hours. Hereafter the employees will have to be alert as they could face termination if they sleep during the office hours. I am confident that this judgement will improve the work culture in the offices.

The judgement should be made applicable to our MPs, MLAs and MLCs as well. For some of them from both the treasury and the Opposition benches are in the habit of dosing off during Parliament/Assembly proceedings. Even though our MPs enjoy immunity for their actions in Parliament, if they sleep, they should not be allowed to go scot-free. The presiding officers of both houses should take notice of such members and be bold enough to take stringent action against them. Nobody is above the law.

If an employee can be terminated, why not our lawmakers as well for flouting the law with impunity? Even if a single MP or MLA is taken to task, this would act as a deterrent and contribute to improving the quality of discussions in Parliament and the state legislatures.

The other view

While the Communists are gloating over the interim report of the Justice Banerjee report on the Godhra fire, they have ignored the Election Commission’s reprimand to Railway Minister Laloo Prasad Yadav on his violation of the model code of conduct.

Earlier too, they had overlooked the Patna High Court ruling that there was Jungle Raj in Bihar as also the Supreme Court’s observation that the Jayalalithaa government in Tamil Nadu has failed to produce credible evidence against Kanchi Sankaracharya Jayendra Saraswati in the Sankararaman murder case.

Even if the Left tried to brand these pronouncements as controversial, what about their silence during the Chinese aggression against India in 1962 and the Tiananmen Square massace of pro-democracy youth in 1989? The late Zhao Jiang, the then chief of the ruling Communist party in China, displayed remarkable courage in raising his voice against this military crackdown. Poor man, he had to spend the rest of his life under house arrest!

R.L. SINGAL, Chandigarh

Media fellowship

The Centre for North-East Studies and Policy Research has instituted a new national media fellowship for journalists and print media professionals who wish to study issues related to the North-East.

It is open to print journalists from other parts of the country with an interest in the North-East. It carries an award of Rs 75,000 and is to be spread over three months. Applicants are asked to select a specific topic from issues ranging from traditional governing institutions, coping with natural disasters, the Look-East Policy and the impact of conflict on women.

Details can be accessed at the following website: www.c-nes.org or the C-NES office at D6, 6143/3 Vasant Kunj, New Delhi – 110070 (Ph: 011-26121426). Email: sanjoy@c-nes.org, c-nes@c-nes.org. To be eligible for the fellowship, an applicant must be a full-time journalist with a minimum work experience of 5 to 10 years.

SANJOY HAZARIKA, New Delhi

Society must change

Apropos of Saroop Krishen’s middle “Teachers then and now” (Jan 22), he has rightly observed that most teachers today are more interested in making money than concentrate on teaching. A corollary to this is the thinking in some students that they can buy teachers. They don’t want to follow their teachers’ advice. Students want freedom — freedom from any kind of obligation.

When students behave like this, what do you expect from teachers? After all, teachers are also human beings. They too want social status, self-respect and, of course, money to lead a decent life. I feel it is not only teachers but society as a whole has to change.

SURAJ R. KAPUR, Solan