M A I L B A G

A new spirit of liberation

It is not often that we get a glimpse of the larger picture of the humanity and its destiny. So Abu Abraham's article "A new spirit of liberation" (July 19) was welcome.

It is true that the West shaped the minds of men in the 20th century, but out of the welter of Western ideologies — democracy, fascism, Nazism, communism, Fabianism, Marxism, socialism — only democracy has survived. All others have more or less perished. The Western man is again in search of an ideology.

And out of the many men who have influenced the last century, only Mahatma Gandhi continues to stir the imagination of men. Neither Marx nor Mao.

We need not be "sad".

But was not the discovery of India and China as great an event as the discovery of Greek civilisation? And does not India, more than any other country, continue to fascinate the Western man?

It is my firm conviction that the Indian civilisation was the greatest. You may ask: how? Because it was founded on freedom. It began with the freedom to doubt. It was its freedom, which allowed the Charvakas and Nastikas to flourish, the Buddha to defy the authority of the Vedas, and the authors of the Upanishads to advance different views. All these explain the great beauty and diversity of Indian life.

M. S. N. MENON, Delhi

To salute or not Apropos the letter "Why no salute to Gen Musharraf?” (July 21), Col P.K. Vasudeva should know that the service etiquette for which he has gone to the Press would have rather belittled his image and integrity before the serving and retired soldiers, as every one knows what treatment our Prime Minister was meted out at Lahore when the General refused to receive and salute him. As regard his contention that if some of his officers did not salute Air Chief Marshal AY Tipnis, how he would feel, I feel sorry for Colonel Vasudeva for saying so. An officer can be court-martialled for not saluting wilfully his superiors. But the case of General Musharraf does not fall in this category. The fundamentalists had hailed General Musharraf as a great hero for not saluting the Indian Prime Minister. MULTAN SINGH PARIHAR, Rajinder Singh Rana, Hamirpur

No jobs after BCA?

The Bachelor of Computer Application course was started four years ago by Punjab Technical University (PTU), Jalandhar. At that time it was stated that the BCA degree would cater to the growing needs of the software industry and to provide them with talented programmers and software engineers. Till now hardly any effort has been made to get them placed. BCA degree holders have knocked every door, but nobody is ready to accept them

Software companies are ready to recruit a B.Tech, whether civil or mechanical, but no BCA. I don’t know why.

Universities have hardly done anything for the BCA students, but they find it an easy way to get money from this course. They have opened BCA colleges like shops. They know people are crazy about this course.

DEV KARAN SINGH, by e-mail

Rightly punished

It is shocking to read that two defence officers have been charged and punished for disobedience of the lawful command during “Operation Vijay” at Kargil.

While a grateful nation honours its war heroes, no leniency can be shown to traitors and cowards. The defence officers must remember that (a) interest of the country comes first, (b) welfare of soldiers comes next, (c) self-interest comes last.

M. L. BATURA, World War II veteran, Karnal

PU LL.B course

Panjab University started LL.B classes at its regional centre at Muktsar in 1998. Students were nowhere informed that the course was not approved by the Bar Council of India. Admissions were made on the basis of an entrance test. The Bar Council of India inspected the centre in 2000-2001 and since then we have been requesting the authorities to tell us the result of the inspection.

We again request the Vice-Chancellor and the Head of the Department of Law to give a press release whether the LL.B. degree of students enrolled in 1998 has been recognised by the Bar Council or not.

Law students, P.U. Regional Centre, Muktsar

PTU at it again

Punjab Technical University has done it again. This time students of the final year batch (2001) are at the receiving end. Not only has the university failed to declare the 8th semester results on time it has also not sent marksheets of previous examinations to the respective colleges.

Students are forced to make the rounds of the university to obtain their marksheets. The university staff refuse to cooperate with them and ask them to come again.

We, apart from being students of the university are its customers as well, since besides the regular fees we are asked to dole out Rs 500 per semester as the examination fee. When we are made to pay in time, why should the university on its part delay in despatching the marksheets to the respective colleges?

GURKIRAT SINGH, by e-mail

UTI & small investors

This refers to the editorial "UTI scheme for small investors" (July 17). The bailout package for the UTI US-64 was necessary but not sufficient to restore faith and confidence of the investors.

To come up to the expectations of investors, the new Chairman will have to take hard measures by investigating all past decisions of the UTI so that the culprits can be booked.

DR M. M. GOEL, Kurukshetra

Inappropriate

In the report “Torchlight procession marks Urs” by Ehsan Fazili a Muslim saint is referred to as a “rishi”, which is very inappropriate. If it was used to mean mystic, the word mystic could have been used.

FARRUKH N. QADRI, by e-mail

Well done!

The report “Where Muslims look after Hindu shrine” by Aditi Tandon is commendable. I congratulate The Tribune for publishing such stories that strengthen harmony between the two communities.

POONAM MONGA, Faridkot