Appeasement policy

Our Prime Minister seems anxious to avail every opportunity to appease and please foreign governments at the cost of national dignity and honour. Many an eyebrows were raised when during his official visit to England as UPA -1 Prime Minister he had appreciated the British for having ruled over India. An unpalatable situation occurred at Sherm-el-Sheikh when a joint communique smacked of an official confession that the Indian soil was being allowed to be used by terrorists against other countries.

Now, he has conferred the title ‘Man of Peace’ on his Pakistani counterpart Yousuf Raza Gilani on the occasion of the SAARC summit in the Maldives. The government of Pakistan has not handed over the most wanted 20 criminals to India nor the perpetrators of 26/11. Three Hindus were brutally murdered in Pakistan but the Prime Minister did not condemn it.

SWARAN SINGH SANEHI, Jalandhar

Nobody cares

The article ‘Population is still a ticking time bomb’ (November 16) by Ram Niwas Malik brings into focus an important issue which has been relegated into the background. The issue is not on the agenda of any political party or the government. We need to learn from China which has reiterated its resolve to pursue family planning despite its ageing population. In India, there has been a sense of complacency on the marginal decline in population growth in the last decade, though it is still quite high. There is an increase of 1.8 million people every year, which equals Australia’s population. ‘Demographic dividend’, the term coined by David Bloom, is a myth in the Indian context.

The benefit of an overwhelming large percentage of young population gets dissipated in the absence of opportunities. Far from being an asset, the army of unemployed and uneducated youth can be potential threat to the peace and stability of the nation.

RAMA KASHYAP, Chandigarh

MPs’ phone bills

The revelation in the news item ‘Sitting, ex-MPs owe Rs 7 crore in phone bills’ (November 24) was interesting. Certainly the parliamentarians concerned took advantage of their powerful posts and became defaulters of huge amounts of telephone bills.

The MTNL/BSNL authorities did not put a tab on the growing bill amount, neither did they bother to get their phones disconnected. The concerned officials must be pulled up for their laxity. The defaulting parliamentarians should be asked to pay arrears of phones with heavy penalty. Rules and regulations must be implied equally on all citizens, irrespective of their positions.

DP JINDAL, Mandi Gobindgarh

II

In order to recover government dues from MPs, a new rule must be incorporated. Along with the nomination, an affidavit must be filed stating no pending government /public sector dues against them. If dues remain unpaid for say more than one year, their seats should be termed ‘vacated’. To implement it in the right spirit, every year a declaration to this effect must be filed with an appropriate authority.

M KUMAR, New Delhi

Pay back time

Sarita Mohan’s middle (November 24) ‘Losing one’s father’ reminded many of us, who are passing through the same phase, of our ailing parents. It is pay back time for everything they have done for us. They have put in so much of effort to see us reach where we are today. Making their penultimate days comfortable and happy is the least we can do.

MS ANAND, Amritsar