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To prevent loss of valuable foodgrains, it is time to go for scientifically-designed farmhouse silos with government subsidy (news report “Colossal wheat wastage in Punjab and Haryana”, May 2). To store grains at farm houses the farmers need to be provided with incentives with multi-tier MSP. This could augment storage capacity, benefit the farmers and make the anaj mandis function round the year.

Wg Cdr SS RANDHAWA (retd) Chandigarh.

King-makers

The Congress in the UPA and the BSP in NDA have lost their sheen and supremacy. The king-makers in the presidential polls are Mamata, Mayawati, Mulayam. Sadly, they are bereft of national vision. The national parties need to rise above petty issues of vote bank politics and act in a sagacious manner.

The President represents the nation and plays a ceremonial role in the nation’s life. A worthy President can play a valuable role in guiding the Prime Minister in resolving controversies by behind- the-scene advice and encouraging healthy traditions, conventions and customs.

The polity should arise above degraded politics, select with unanimity a successor who is non-partisan, suave, dignified and has no skeletons in his cupboard.

V I K SHARMA, Jalandhar

Growing opportunism

The doublespeak of both the national parties has come to fore when it comes to reprimanding those who are caught on the wrong foot when one party overlooks corruption and permissiveness in its own camp but is always ready to pounce upon the other on the slightest possible opportunity ('Conviction of Bangaru’, April 30).

Whereas the common man gets dismayed watching this theatre of the absurd, the corrupt and the crafty take a cue from this absurd drama for public consumption and continue their loot with more boldness.

They understand that the political elite of the country castigate corruption only as rhetoric and that there is no well-meaning consensus on the issue. No wonder scams involving astounding figures keep surfacing every day eroding the faith of the people in the system of governance.

SC CHABBA, Panchkula

Jats vs non-Jats

After Haryana was formed in November 1966, for most of the time the Chief Minister of the state was from the Jat community. Intermittently, if there have been non-Jat Chief Ministers, they were either a protégé of some powerful Jat leader of the time or seen hankering after Jat support for political survival. It bears testimony to the political clout of Jats in Haryana. Hence, it sounds quite queasy to hear the shrieks of demand for reservation from within the Jat community.

The common refrain of the protagonists of the Jat reservation is that some other peasantry castes in Haryana are already enjoying benefits of reservation, then why not Jats? Two wrongs do not make a right, they constitute a blunder. The remedy lies in denotifying and dis-entitling any such caste from reaping the fruits of reservation, if after an objective appraisal found that they do not qualify for it.

We must be alive to the hard fact that reservation is a state's charity and it is highly unbecoming of any self-respecting person to live of anybody’s alms unless physically handicapped.

Dr Rajender Goyal, Delhi

Painful conflict

Lt Gen Harwant Singh (retd) has drawn a pure but painful picture of a soldier’s life at Siachen in his article “Siachen-An Unending Conflict”(April 24). Most people of the older generation are keen to break the borders and create a brotherhood as it existed before the painful partition.

To my mind, the people who were born after 1947 on both sides of the divide have created hatred against each other. For India, the major concern is the frequent and fatal terrorist attacks on this country killing innocent people, creating hatred and humiliation even to these who are advocating peace and prosperity on both sides. Until the terrorist camps are not demolished by the Pakistan army, such attacks would become a danger for the unity and integrity of India.

The Pakistan government as well as the Pakistan army should show give sign of stopping such attacks. India, a peace loving country, would always extend its hands of friendship to anybody on the other side of the divide.

Bullets and bombs will only destroy peace on both sides. They will never help solve our problems. Let both India and Pakistan spend funds on providing for the welfare of their people. I am reminded of Sahir Ludhianvi’s famous Urdu verse:

Is Daur-e-taraqqi ke andaaz nirale hein, Zehno mein andhere hein, sarkon pe unjale hein”.