M A I L B A G

Prescription without diagnosis

AJ. PHILIP’s article, “Welfare of the aged: Law not a substitute for social security” (Dec. 18) was timely. In India, everyone considers himself a doctor ready with prescription for every ailment — physical, mental, social or spiritual.

The insignia of Patiala’s Government Medical College reads thus: Dawa darru dooven bhujhe te vaid sujan (A good doctor is one who first diagnoses the ailment and then prescribes wisely). With 47 years in this profession, I am pained to say that every Indian tries to go in for prescription for every ailment without diagnosing the ailment first. This is called “quackery”.

As regards the joint family system, this will result in discomfort, annoyance, and ill-health of the parents. It often leads to unseemly disputes and altercations between the parents and the children, and thus undermines mutual affection. It does not really unite the family in love and harmony. On the contrary, it has exactly the opposite effect. Every self-supporting person, single or married, who is over 21, should have his/her separate lodging, be it a small room. Your personality cannot be developed without your own little home. For reasons of hygiene and psychology, the old and the young should live apart.

Dr AVTAR NARAIN CHOPRA, Kurukshetra

Mature & dignified

I would like to add to A.J. Philip’s middle, “MT’s house” (Jan 10) that the Malayalam novelist M.T. Vasudevan Nair has been my colleague in the National Academy of Letters now for five years. He is not only an acclaimed creative writer but also a very mature and dignified individual for whom writing is all that matters.

Chosen as a writer in the eminent persons category recently by the Sahitya Akademi, he along with another member of the Akademi, the Bengali writer Sunil Gangopadhyay, is among the frontrunners for the presidentship coming Feburary, and may the best man win. Both will add lustre and dignity to India’s premier literary organisation.

Silent, laid back and restrained, MT quietly rode out the little turbulence that had emerged over the issue of the selection of the contenders for the Akademi presidentship for the next term, proving that writers can be true gentlemen and trendsetters to the common public which look up to them while going about their main business of writing.

Maj-Gen HIMMAT SINGH GILL (retd), Chandigarh

Greedy shops

Private hospitals have become greedy shops. In the name of treatment, they are just squeezing innocent patients visiting them. These hospitals are more bothered about the money than the patient’s life.

In these hospitals, a few trainees play with the lives of the patients as they play with their cell phones. Though health is a State subject, no government monitors the functioning of the private hospitals.

HITESH JHANGIANI, New Delhi

Colonial mindset

The article, “India’s British legacy” (Jan 3) by Maj-Gen Ashok Mehta (retd) shows that during the last 60 years of freedom we have not been able to come out of 90 years of British rule and 110 years of East India Company rule. Our bureaucracy and the armed forces suffer from the colonial mindset.

The British were the colonial powers in the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries. They are the colonial power in the 21st century as well. Nothing has changed. The mindset is still colonial. Recent events are the occupation of Afganistan and Iraq and threat to Iran.

Indians need not be grateful to the British. It should be the other way round. The British fought World Wars I and II with Indian soldiers and money without which the UK would have been wiped off. Even Italy was freed from Hitler occupation by Indian soldiers. Remember these were picked up from India’s prisons and trained to fight! Let’s be Indian first and last. Let’s not lose our identity.

CHANDRA KUMAR SHARMA, Gurgaon

A rejoinder

I have to draw your kind attention to the editorial titled “Games Maya plays” in your esteemed daily of January 9, 2008, wherein you have inter alia commented that the CBI has done “precious little” to bring Samajwadi Party MP Atiq Ahmed to justice, etc.

To put the record straight, I have to mention that the Government of Uttar Pradesh had requested the Central Government for CBI investigation into the murder of BSP MLA Raju Pal on December 4, 2007. The UP government further intimated that the UP Police had already filed a charge sheet against 11 accused persons including Atiq Ahmed, MP, on April 6, 2005, for murder.

As the criminal case against Atiq Ahmed, MP and others had already been charge sheeted by the UP Police and was pending trial in the concerned court of law since April 2005, the CBI has not yet been authorised to take up the case for reinvestigation as the matter is under examination.

G. MOHANTY, DPIO, CBI, New Delhi