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Wisdom lies in retaining Mufti I agree with the sensible and forthright stand taken in the editorial in The Tribune that the circumstances require that there should be no change in the Chief Ministership of J&K, notwithstanding the old agreement that it is the turn of the Congressman to be the Chief Minister. It is necessary to understand the psychology of an average Kashmiri, who has inherent strong sub-conscious determination against being dictated from Delhi. Thus, Dr Farooq Abdullah, never a popular person when he was the Chief Minister with the help of the Congress, was able to give a resounding defeat to the Congress in 1986, when he split with the Congress. The ground reality and practical common sense demand that nothing should be done which would in any way spread a feeling of distance or alienation in the valley. That is bound to happen if the present Chief Minister whatsoever his faults and there are many, is asked to step down in favour of a blue blooded Congressman. This will give a feeling again of the Centre trying to dominate Kashmir’s internal politics.
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| Incidentally, Justice B.A. Khan of J&K has now been transferred from Delhi but has taken over only as Acting Chief Justice of the J&K High Court. A similar situation arose in 1993 when Justice Rizvi was functioning as the Acting Chief Justice. I had even then suggested publicly that Justice Rizvi should have been made permanent Chief Justice. My reason was that apart from the fact that the policy of appointing Chief Justice from outside the State has proved counter-productive, more important was to dispel the impression that there is any distrust of local people and officials. The sensitivity of locals may be somewhat exaggerated but it has to be appreciated.” This suggestion was not heeded to and the Centre has remained a hitting target all the time. Why not make a good start by confirming Justice Khan as a permanent Chief Justice of the J&K High Court. All these steps will send a strong message that the Central Government genuinely recognises the special position of J&K in our federal set-up. Rajindar Sachar,
Building highways Owing to paucity of funds, the government has decided to hand over the highways to private builders on a BOLT (build, operate, lease and transfer) basis. The builders shall be laying the roads and then charging toll tax from commuters. Is the government right in doing so, as the average commuter is already paying road tax for the development and upkeep of the roads and other slurry of taxes for the development of national infrastructure. The government should then stop charging road tax from people when it is unable to provide roads and other infrastructure. The bulk of the tax payers’ money is squandered to feed the ever greedy and corrupt officers and politicians. If this section of society is stripped off only a fraction of their allowances, the required money can be made available for development. SHAKHER GARG, Bathinda
Media awards The Grassroots Innovation Augmentation Network (North) and the Bhoruka Charitable Trust announce the Second Media Awards –2006 for both the print and the electronic media. The entries in Hindi, English or any North Indian language should be about innovations from states/UTs in the North. Each set (for both print and electronic media) will have a first prize of Rs 50,000, second prize of Rs 30,000, and third prize of Rs 10,000 each with a memento and certificate. The reporting should be from July 1, 2005 to June 30, 2006 and entries will be received up to 31 July, 2006. Entries can be mailed to Rajeev Singhal, Chief Innovation Manager, GIAN (North), Science Park, Shastri Nagar, Jaipur (Rajasthan). RAJEEV SINGHAL, Jaipur
Farmers’ habits Apropos of
“CM stays firm on free power”
(Oct 11), there is a Punjabi proverb, “Jat machla khuda noon le gaye chor”. Capt Amarinder Singh is defying sincere advice of the Prime Minister which is in the best interest of hard-working farmers. He would have thought 100 times before defying such a statement had it come from Mrs Sonia Gandhi. Suicide by some farmers in Punjab is due to bad social habits some of them have picked up. In the evening when a farmer is drunk, he sings, “Putt Jatan de bulaonde bakree”. But when in the morning, he has to go to his fields for work he has no energy and sings, “Jatta ve teri joon buri”. Farmers with good social habits do not commit suicide. People from other castes and professions also commit suicide if their social habits are bad. DEEP BRAR, New Delhi |
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