The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

Friday, February 15, 2002, Chandigarh, India

THE TRIBUNE SPECIALS

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Marx, money, vote and madrasas: W. Bengal is typical case of soft state

The madrasas in West Bengal, as elsewhere in India, have over the years become the breeding ground for anti-national activities, crime and for indoctrination of impressionable minds and instilling in them a hatred for the secular and pluralistic order which India provides. As if all these ills were not damaging enough, these madrasas are also a conduit for facilitating illegal immigration.

The exodus of illegal migrants from Bangladesh has, as rightly been pointed out by Mr Hari Jaisingh in the article, completely altered the demographic profile of West Bengal. In times to come, the increased pressure of population resulting from illegal immigration, will completely drain the state's economy as well as the national economy. That all this is taking place due to the political patronage and as part of the vote-bank politics should make such politicians hang their heads in shame.

Mr Hari Jaisingh's analysis ( Marx, money, vote & madrasas )is very scholarly. The seven recommendations of the Kidwai Committee will go a long way in resolving the vexed issue, if implemented in letter and in spirit and in my opinion we can ignore them only at our own peril.

V.B.N RAM, New Delhi

Terrorism: Mr Hari Jaisingh has remarked: “Terrorism has no ideology." Today terrorism is the most explosive ideology which is distorting religions, destabilising states, brain-washing individuals and groups. Globalisation and liberalisation demand a world vision of peace and prosperity.

Marxism is no dogma. It teaches class struggle between haves and have-nots. Anti-Marx intellectuals interpreted Marxism as "philosophy of poverty." Marx described their interpretation as "poverty of philosophy.” As long as man is exploited by man, Marxism will last. The State will wither away when one works according to one's ability and receives according to one's needs.

Just as socialism is born out of the womb of capitalism, terrorism is born out of the dollar-imperialism which Osama bin Laden calls the “evil empire." He calls India a kafir-Hindu state. Islamic terrorism strikes blindly at its whimsical targets in the name of Islam. Sikh terrorists demanded Khalistan. Hindu fanatics want to revive Hindu nationalism. Whoever terrorises a state and individuals in the name of any religion, nation or race is a terrorist. Illiterate, unsophisticated, poor and simple folk fall easy prey to these human vultures.

Only true humanists, true secularists, nationalists and internationalists can contain and tame terrorists of all sorts. Terrorism is hidden behind the religious burqa. The highest stage of communalism is terrorism.

HARI SINGH, Kheri Jat (Jhajjar)

Terrorist factories: The madrasas, the divine-coated terrorist factories, are tolerated not only in West Bengal but also all over India in the name of secularism, forgetting that the road to hell was paved with good intentions too. The remedy lies in natioanlising all private schools. Only then the production of Muslim Indians, Christian Indians, Sikh Indians, Hindu Indians, communist Indians etc will stop and India will become a secular state in the real sense of the word.

PRAN SALHOTRA, Gurdaspur

For votes only: Marxist ideology no longer holds good. Socialism has been consigned to the pages of history books as it has been upstaged by capitalism and cannot be sold to the masses for getting votes. Perhaps that is the reason why supporters of the proletariat do not object to large-scale infiltration from Bangladesh because the Bangladeshis form the vote-bank of the comrades who too have become bourgeois with the demise of communism.

But this policy of the Red Brigade in West Bengal is fraught with danger and ought to be abandoned. Votes should be secured on the basis of performance and not on any other consideration. The communists will have to rise above petty politics in the larger interests of the country. To put things back on the right track, they will have to shed their soft image.

TARSEM SINGH BUMRAH, Batala

Badal vs the Maharaja
This refers to Mr Hari Jaisingh's brilliant and balanced front-page article "Congress has a definite edge" (Feb 12). Frankly and factually speaking, Mr Badal's rule indeed was bad and SAD as it was, in reality the rule of SSPs, Surinder, Sukhbir and Parkash. Mr Badal's government proved to be a “badal-without-barsaat” outfit. He could not win a single trophy for Punjab — be it the transfer of Chandigarh, the SYL dispute, inclusion of Punjabi-speaking areas or cleansing of the PSEB, the police and public administrators.
He wasted public money on non-issues — Anandgarh project, Maharaja Ranjit Singh's bicentenary coronation celebrations, pleasing Vajpayee etc while real issues — poverty alleviation, transparency in administration, improvements in education and health spheres etc remained untouched. No doubt, if the SAD-BJP (read Badal & Balramji) had not converted their "honeymoon" into “moneymoon'” with people, their graph would not have declined so soon and so sharply.
With regard to Mr Jaisingh's comment that the main challenge to the Maharaja comes from the four “devian", I would love to point out that history tells us that the Maharajas, especially of Punjab, are expert in handling women and in fact designated as “Masters of Women”. Four or 14 is no problem for them. In fact, it’s “Bs” which are going to be his headache — Brar, Badal, Bhattal, BJP, bribery, bijli and bureaucracy.
K.J.S AHLUWALIA, Amritsar

PUDA’s money games

Over a year ago PUDA collected a handsome amount of about Rs 30 lakh by selling application forms only for plots in yet-to-be developed sectors in Mohali at the rate of Rs 100 per form.

Encouraged by the arrival of easy money, it has again invited applications for a good number of plots left over in various developed sectors. No one knows how and why this huge number of plots were left unallotted .

Now the price of an application form has been fixed at Rs 250 which is quite unreasonable. An exorbitant price of plots, the use of interest-free crores of public money prior to refund, extension of the last date of submitting application forms to extract money from the maximum number of people and now the price of the application form, all reflect the greedy and public-robbing intentions of PUDA, which it must change to give itself a public-friendly look.

GURMEET SINGH GILL, SAS Nagar

New mandi townships

Apropos the report “widow in search of justice” (Feb 1), I wish to point out that many plot allottees face similar problems in the Punjab new mandi townships department. We all know why cases of transfer of plot are delayed on one pretext or the other.

In fact, the move to merge the department with the Punjab Mandi Board is quite sensible as the plot allottees will be spared the trouble and expenses incurred in going all the way to Chandigarh for minor official work. The Deputy Commissioners should be vested with the power to transfer plots. Computerisation of all records is another way to improve efficiency and reduce corruption.

SUKHDEV SINGH, Amritsar

Senior citizens

As per information given in your paper, 50 per cent concession in bus fares is allowed to the senior citizens in the PRTC and Roadways buses. But bus conductors refuse this concession to male senior citizens. The Railways gives 30 per cent concession to both males and females.

The department should clarify the position and the government should remove this disparity at the earliest.

O. P. SINGLA, Mansa

Vehicular nuisance

Heavy vehicles loaded with goods daily come to the congested residential Rudra colony in Kurukshetra and disturb children, women and senior citizens throughout the day. No action has been taken by the Excise and Taxation Department and the Municipal Corporation, Thanesar, in spite of written complaints since November 2001 against the private transport company.

B.M KALIA, Kurukshetra