L E T T E R S    T O    T H E    E D I T O R

Punjab should give up populism

The editorial “Subsidising electricity: Populism will cripple power board” (Jan 11) has aptly described the proverbial cleft stick in which Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal seems to have been caught on the issue of power subsidy. If he cannot stop free power for farmers for the fear of losing their votes, he also cannot ignore the demand of the BJP to rollback the power tariff clearly in order to keep its urban vote bank intact.

The adamant and confrontationist attitude on the part of both parties will ultimately worsen the already poor financial condition of the government thus threatening its stability, which obviously none of the two want. It will, therefore, be in their interest to resolve the differences on policy matters amicably instead of precipitating the issue for partisan and petty political ends.

For the sake of improving state’s economic condition, the government should stop the free supply of power to farmers by taking them into confidence. It must explain to them that in the long run it will be left with no money to purchase the power for them and that as a result crop production will suffer. Anyhow, let us see how Mr Badal with political acumen and foresight, makes his government come out unscathed.

 SATWANT KAUR, Mahilpur

Meaningful film  The middle “Learning from 3 Idiots” (Jan 8) by Rajnish Wattas was interesting. The movie, “3 Idiots”, highlights the inherent lacuna in our education system. We are awarding degrees rather than knowledge to the students. In India, every father intends to achieve his unfulfilled dreams through his son. Then, the rat race begins. Though the desires of a father cannot be faulted, our education system deserves to be reformed. We are producing lakhs of graduates every year with a degree in their hands but with no knowledge. We should allow our children to become what they want to become. However, it is our duty to make them aware of the pros and cons of their actions. I congratulate Vidhu Vinod Chopra and director Rajkumar Hirani for their sincere efforts to highlight the ills prevailing in our society through their purposeful movies like “Munna Bhai MBBS”, “Lage Raho Munna Bhai” and now “3 Idiots” which give a strong message to our policy makers. We should refrain from preventing real talent to bloom. We should allow our children to shape their destiny and realise their true worth. AJAY K JINDAL Ludhiana