No justification for ragging

  RAGGING is still in vogue in educational institutions. It is not only irritating but loathsome also. It is unpleasant and unwanted. The new entrants in the colleges and training institutes, including Officers’ Training School and the Indian Military Academy, are put to the agony of body and mind to such an extent that some of them get discouraged and give up the training courses with broken hearts. Thus the hard-earned admission in an institute goes waste and the career of the candidate marred.

In the so-called practical jokes some sustain physical injuries while others undergo uncalled for humiliation. It is not understood as to why the authorities do not stop this nonsense forthwith. We find no good in these base and uncivilised activities by highly educated and disciplined people.

JAI DEV SUMAN
Ferozepore Cantt

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Jindal’s stand & hospital cost

According to a report in The Tribune of November 23, Mr O.P. Jindal, industrialist-turned-politician, has resigned from the Haryana Vikas Party because the Bansi Lal government stopped the aid to Maharaja Agarsain Medical College and Hospital at Agroha, Hisar.

The total project cost for the hospital has been mentioned as Rs 30 crore. Mr Jindal has brought shame to the entire Vaishnav-Aggarwal community in India by looking to the government for a petty amount of Rs 30 crore.

He should remember that the Aggarwals all over India constitute a very prosperous business community. If a single call is given to the community it can contribute the full amount of the project cost through donations. The late Ghanshyam Das Birla founded the prestigious Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani (Rajasthan), entirely from his own resources. The late Jamna Lal Bajaj and Shreyans Pershad Jain established institutes of management of international repute in Bombay with their own contributions.

Mr O.P. Jindal is himself so resourceful that he can contribute the entire project cost of Maharaja Agarsain Medical College and Hospital at Agroha. But if he finds it difficult, a single call to the Aggarwal community will provide the much-needed funds to the hospital management.

ANIL JAIN
Ambala Cantt

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Irrationality in traffic rules

The traffic police has become the most efficient and effective agent of the insurance companies! The irrationality of the traffic police on insisting that the original copy of the insurance policy should be carried along is beyond comprehension. What is then the use of getting your vehicle insured? If the vehicle is stolen along with the insurance policy copy, imagine the trouble and tension the vehicle owner has to suffer to get the claim. After all, the insurance company will ask for the original copy of the policy.

The traffic police does not accept a photocopy of the policy. Many people are thus taken unawares. And the fines are not petty. For not carrying the original insurance policy the fine is something like Rs 700, which goes up to Rs 3000 for other so-called defaults.

Wah! How smart these traffic police personnel are.

On a particular day of a particular month (probably when they have to show their collection upward) one would find the traffic police forgetting its traffic control role, and creating traffic havoc by stopping vehicles for minutes and hours. Great show! Don’t you think this is an arbitrary policy. The behaviour of the traffic police should be made known to those who have not faced the music so far.

VEE TEM KAYE
Solan

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Are we really free?

Despite being a free nation for nearly half a century, the shadow of colonial rule looms large over society. Our political leaders and administrators consider themselves as no less than the masters of the people. A glaring example of this attitude can be seen when roads are blocked during the VIP movement, for “security reasons”.

I wonder whom these people are afraid of! The common man, who is too busy reaping the harvest of bad and corrupt deeds of the rulers? I am sure if they move out unescorted, people in the street would be barely able to recognise them. And this is precisely what our leaders don’t want. The cavalcades of motor-cars and the accompanying gun-totting policemen are more a status symbol for them than security concerns.

Strange as it may sound, it is true that people in the USA won’t even know when their President — the most powerful person in the world at present — has passed by. It is because there they believe in the dignity of the common man.

It is our appeal to the political leaders that if they are so afraid of us, they can happily keep away from us. For us, the common Indians, it is better if they operate from their garrisoned offices, bungalows and legislature buildings. We don’t need them to visit us only to put us to inconvenience.

(Dr) SUDHIR AGGARWAL
Patiala

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RSS & literature

This refers to the article “Teachers see red in saffron agenda” by Ms Meenakshi Mehta, published in Education Tribune (November 23). If one were to go by the saffronised criterion of the desirable and the undesirable in the curriculum of literature, we might have to altogether abolish the study of English literature at the postgraduate level. For, apart from nature, there is precious little but beauty, love and woman, which is celebrated by poets. The poets have given a frank expression to their notions of love, without ignoring its carnal aspect. Is it the case of the RSS ideologues that the generations of students who read these poets turned corrupt?

The erotic in literature or art need not be salacious or titillating. If the subject is handled in an aesthetically satisfying manner, it evokes admiration and becomes a delectable experience.

AKHILESH
Birampur (Garhshankar)