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APROPOS of Ashu Pasricha's article "Gandhi's philosophy: relevant for all times to come." (January 30), it may not be the right thing to say but it is true nevertheless that the only purpose Mahatma Gandhi's birth and death anniversaries seem to serve is to rescue for a day a pleasant old man from the archaism in which he is buried for 363 days. Everybody who is somebody can be depended upon to deliver on these two occasions long speeches on the continuing relevance of Gandhiji and his teachings to present-day India. How many of these speakers can, in all conscience, claim to be true to the Gandhian ideals? Very few, indeed. Anyway, after all this pious noise for a day it will be business as usual, and pretty rotten business at that.

To be honest to ourselves on two days in a year, each one of us is slighting the memory of the Mahatma day in and day out through his or her actions. And the blood that is being spilled almost every day in various parts of the country, including Gujarat (the home state of Gandhiji), in the name of religion must be the blood of Gandhiji himself, for it was for communal harmony that he laid down his life. He was too big and too loveable a man to be down to size. He could, therefore, only be killed. He helped India discover and rescue its soul. It seems to have been lost the day he died. Godse killed him once, but we Indians are killing him every day.

Gandhiji elevated politics to a higher plane and gave it an ethical touch. As against that, politics today has been wholly alienated from the ethical norms. He taught us that means are as important as ends. On the contrary, the guiding principle as well as the sought-after goal of the present-day politicians has been the pursuit of power and money irrespective of the means adopted.

So far as Gandhiji's stress on "ahimsa" and non-violence is concerned we find that our political parties during the post-Independence era have felt no inhibition in making use of muscle power. As muscle power is mostly provided by criminal elements and mafia leaders, a close nexus has come to exist between the politicians and the criminals. Criminalisation of politics has also wrought havoc on the administration of criminal justice.

I-tax and salaried class

The Central government is in the process of preparing the budget to be presented to Parliament. If the government is not in a mood to raise the taxable income limit, and yet it wants to give relief to the salaried class, the following points may be considered:

(i) As far the income tax provision for the salaried class, dearness allowance is being included while calculating income for tax purposes. In my view, there is no logic in including DA while calculating the taxable income. It should be totally exempted. After all, the government gives DA instalments due to the rise in the consumer price index so that the salaried persons are compensated to some extent. Still if the government wants to include DA for tax purposes, let it be 50:50.

(ii) As per my knowledge, standard deduction is meant only for the salaried class. So, to benefit this class in terms of tax relief, there should not be any upper limit. Instead, there should be only a lower limit. Now the maximum standard deduction allowed is only Rs 25,000 depending on one's total salary. Let Rs 25,000 be minimum and 30 per cent of one's total salary be the maximum standard deduction.

GURDERSHAN SINGH
Chandigarh

Students who passed their MA II examination in political science from Panjab University in April, 1998, applied to it for re-evaluation in September last year. Almost five months have passed, yet their results have not been declared. The unusual delay in the declaration of the results is causing worry to them. They are to apply for admission to higher courses. The authorities should declare the results immediately.

Kangra district, which included present Hamirpur, Kulu and Lahaul-Spiti districts, gave to the nation its share of soldiers who fought all the wars since the mid-18th century, and proved their patriotism.

Considering the sacrifices made by the soldiers of Kangra and other parts of Himachal, I would strongly plead for raising the recruitment quota in the armed forces for this hilly state not on the basis of population but also on the special consideration of patriotism and prospects that it offers to them. The Government of India should issue directives to all the defence recruitment centres in this regard.

	M A I L B A G	Thursday, February 11, 1999
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