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THE TRIBUNE SPECIALS
50 YEARS OF INDEPENDENCE
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Enforce law to save our daughters

I read the editorial, Missing daughters (Oct 9). A woman’s consent to go in for abortion of female child originates, in addition to many other reasons, from her own horrid experience she undergoes at the hands of her greedy, cruel, immoral, alcoholic and drug-addict husband and insensitive attitude of her in-laws.

She is incessantly haunted by the nightmarish treatment she received in the form of physical torture, abusive language, derogatory remarks and coercive methods to keep her economically crippled and subjugated to the whims and tantrums of the male macho. Otherwise, which mother would like to kill her own daughter in the womb?

Besides enforcing the relevant laws with vigour and vehemence, the government should ensure education for every girl child, prepare her from some vocation for economic sustenance and create an atmosphere which promises that she, if outraged, will get justice free of cost and at a very high speed.

C.L. ARORA, Ferozepur City




II

The sex selective abortion is not the issue of “violence” (perpetuated against womankind, as mentioned in the editorial) but it is one of “discrimination”. There are many reasons for the rise in sex selective abortions, the chief amongst them is the rising cost of child care amongst the middle class, costly education, prohibitive health care services, resource crunch, unscrupulous radiologists, greedy medical fraternity and unaccountable authorities entrusted to implement the PC-PNDT Act.

The state should discharge its constitutional duties towards its citizens by providing universal quality education and health care services free of charge, property rights to women and equitable distribution of resources.

There is nothing unethical or illegal in aspiring to have a male child; what is unethical and illegal is to access abortion services based on discrimination.

SUBHASH MENDHAPURKAR,

Director, SUTRA, Jagjit Nagar (Solan)

Biased stand

Arundhati Ghose has done it this time, with her piece Services contempt… (Oct 22). It is sad that a discerning person like Arundhati has called the actions of the Service Chiefs as “insidious and underestimated danger which has raised its venomous head”!

Is this how mountains are made out of molehills? The Chiefs had correctly informed their commands that there would be a delay in their receiving new scales of pay, as important anomalies are still to be resolved. This perfectly legitimate duty and innocuous communication has become a sinister ‘challenge and defiance’! What deviousness!

I am amused by Arundhati’s phrase, so eloquently stated - “contempt of the forces for their civilian masters and counterparts”, implying that bureaucrats are also masters. How cheeky? She has even brought in the Constitution, albeit wrongly, to imply that the bureaucrats and the political leaders are synonymous when one talks of ‘civil control’!

Lt-Gen VIJAY OBEROI (retd), Panchkula

Of Sikhs & French

Please refer to General Baljit Singh’s piece, When Sikhs Bolstered French honour (Oct 8). It is not only in the First World War but also in the Second World War that Sikh soldiers liberated France from German occupation. In 1833 Emperor Louis Phillipe of France and the Lahore Darbar opened diplomatic relations.

Unfortunately since 1849 the Sikhs have been stateless. Every inch of the way as General Baljit Singh painstakingly describes we have to fight our own battles. In the case of hate crime as Member of Parliament I asked the then Vajpayee-led government to advertise in the Americas and Europe in the print and electronic media that Sikhs who were being murdered on account of misidentification were neither Arabic, Iranian nor Afghanis, though I said there was no reason to murder them either. It was all in vain.

Under British rule General Baljit Singh says the Sikhs were not represented. Even today under the Theocratic Hindu Indian State (THIS) we, though a nation, but sans sovereignty, are not represented by the government in internal and external affairs.

SIMRANJIT SINGH MANN, President, Shirmani Akali Dal (A)

Quilla S. Harnam Singh, Fatehgarh Sahib 







Remembering Shastri

Sunil Shastri’s article, “Shastri: a true Karamyogi” (Oct 3), was interesting. The grateful nation remembers its great sons by paying floral tributes and saying a few words about their great deeds and then forgets them till their next birthday.

Two illustrious Indians were born on October 2. One became Bapu and Father of the Nation and the other rose to become Prime Minister. Shastriji was a real Karmayogi in every sense.  He was upright, sincere and  honest to the core.

When Shastri became Prime Minister, his eldest son, who was employed in Leyland, got a pay hike. Shastri asked him to resign which he did.

To maintain national honour, Shastri scrapped PL-480. Instead, he requested the entire nation not to eat cereals every Monday night which the grateful nation did. Do we have such leaders now? The answer is a big ‘No’.

H.S. BADHAN, Dasuya (Hoshiarpur)

 





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