L E T T E R S    T O    T H E    E D I T O R

Sonia deserved to be re-elected

It is good to see Ms Sonia Gandhi becoming the Congress president for the fourth time (editorial, “Unchallenged Sonia: The Congress owes much to her”, Sept 4). She surely deserved to be re-elected to the highest post of the party that can rule the country with ease and effectiveness. Under her able guidance coupled with intelligence and honesty of the Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, the Congress has succeeded in steering the nation on the path of development.

Ms Gandhi has inspired her party men and the UPA to see the government through the rough weather and high political tides in her 12 years as the Congress president. Her relinquishing the post of the Prime Minister has surely made her popular among the masses.

Both Dr Singh and Ms Gandhi are examples of an effective combination that is necessary for the governance of the world’s largest democracy that India is. There is no denying the fact that the confidence of Ms Gandhi has grown with the passage of time. She has been able to make the Congress and the UPA stronger.

R K KAPOOR, Chandigarh

B M SINGH, Amritsar

Heartening decisions

Recently, there have been a couple of noteworthy decisions by the High Courts which have lifted the spirits of a lot of citizens of our country, and restored our faith not just in our judicial system but also mankind.

The first one pertained to a HP High Court wherein Justice D D Sood cancelled the bail granted by a fast track court in Kangra to the four accused students of Tanda Medical College who allegedly ragged Aman Kachroo last year to death. Around the same time Justice Jitendra Chauhan of the Punjab and Haryana High Court dismissed the plea of SPS Rathore seeking parole. A lot of criminals in our society, after committing heinous acts, seek relief from courts (and even sometimes get it) by exploiting certain loopholes in our laws and the system thereby emboldening misguided citizens to commit a crime and get away with it. If a wrong is not corrected swiftly and sternly, it always multiplies. Its time that we all try and stem the rot of corruption in our society. It is in this context that I salute the above two decisions of our courts.

PRAVEEN VASISHT, Headmaster, The Lawrence School, Sanawar

Tackle corruption

One wonders whether there is a way to tackle electoral corruption. Corruption has engulfed the entire society. The relevant Act should be amended enabling quick and exemplary punishment.

Procedures should be simplified to prevent corrupt elements taking undue advantage of the law and the system. Values of honesty should be instilled in the minds of people and particularly youth studying in schools and colleges. The government should supplement this effort with sustained publicity highlighting the virtues of honesty.

R L MAHAJAN, Ludhiana

Record interviews

During election campaign, the prospective candidates of the political parties assure their voters that they shall provide them possible help in their constituencies. The elected candidates then make every endeavour to help their voters in the matter of selection of their kith and kin for any gazetted or non-gazetted job.

Very often it is learnt that candidates obtaining better marks than the selected ones are not selected. The plea often taken is that the selected candidates performed better in the interview. Therefore, to ensure fair and transparent selection, the interviews should be recorded.

HARI CHAND SHANKER, Ambala Cantt

A look at India-China ties  Brig Kiran Krishan (retd) in his article “India,China locked in zero-sum geopolitics” (Sept 3) is correct in asserting that more discretion and maturity is needed by both countries to prevent pettiness from becoming the leitmotif of Sino-Indian relations. While one could perhaps disagree with his assertion that “the China of today enjoys great respect and admiration in the Indian public.” The people of Assam, for instance, still recall with bitterness and rancour, Pandit Nehru’s ill-timed and badly written November 1962 radio broadcast where he reportedly said that “our hearts bleed for the people of Assam...” This, at a time when Chinese PLA troops were (on November 18, 1962) at Chaku, on the Tezpur-Tawang road, barely 30 kilometres away from Tezpur city. China was then considered 10 feet tall. It is only after the 1987 Wangdung incident in the Bum La area that India showed the tenacity and resolve expected of a great army by calling the Chinese bluff and indicating its military readiness to take on the PLA. If anything needs to change it is the needless apprehension about China continuing to impart “lessons” to all and sundry. Maj-Gen RAJ MEHTA (retd), SAS Nagar