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

Vijay Kumar deserves more

Vijay Kumar who won the silver medal in London Olympics was recently promoted to the rank of Subedar Major by the the Army brass. The least the authorities could have done to acknowledge Vijay Kumar’s tremendous achievements was to promote him to the rank of Junior Commissioned Officer (JCO).

I request Milkha Singh to speak for him. He was promoted to the rank of JCO by Prime Minister Nehru at the time when the flying Sikh came fourth in the Rome Olympics.

If the Army brass does not review its decision soon, then I shall request our PM to intervene.

Bhartendu Sood, Chandigarh

Unity in diversity

You have rightly said in the August 18 editorial, “No reason to fear”, that India has always shone because of its unity in diversity.

But it saddens me that a mere rumour has caused so much panic amongst the people from the north-eastern states that they have fled from Karnataka and Maharashtra among other states.

This raises disturbing questions. Is our unity so fragile that a mere rumour can trigger off an exodus? Have we, even after 65 years of Independence, failed to end the sense of alienation among people from the north-east?

Deterrent action must be taken against the social networking websites that have been instrumental in spreading the rumours. We unify in our diversity.

“Chaman mei imtiyaze rango bu se baat banti hai, /Hamin hum hain to kaya hum hain, tumhi tum ho to kaya tum ho?

Jaswant Singh Gandam, Phagwara

Coal scam

Another scam has rocked our nation. This time it is the coal scam and it has pipped the 2G scam in terms of the losses to the exchequer. It is shameful to witness so many corruption scams of epic proportions getting unravelled so frequently. What’s more shocking is the manner in which the UPA is dealing with the situation.

It has become brazen in defending itself. Instead of putting a stop to corruption, it is burdening the common man with price hikes.

Why should the government bother when no effective action has been taken against those involved in the previous scams?

People at higher positions of authority must be held accountable for their actions.

We wish to have a corruption-free India, but this seems to be a distant dream. It is time to raise our voices against corruption and save our country.

Inderpreet Singh

Populism vs progress

How reforms and good governance get stunted in a multy-party democracy like that in India, has best been analysed in the editorial “Stuck in reforms’’ (Tribune, Aug 17).

Either the party staking a claim to rule the country should have a comfortable majority of its own or its coalition partners should pre-discuss the reform proposals before tabling the same in Parliament.

But a coalition in politics is a marriage of convenience. The priority of the coalition partners is always to improve their tally in elections rather than to work towards the progress of the nation.

So they prefer to adopt a roller-coaster policy vis-a-vis any reform that is tabled in Parliament. The editorial’s bottomline that ‘’the government is caught between reform and populism’’ is very apt.

It underlines the value of populism in a democracy. Every political party’s policies are determined by this one factor. Perhaps populism is the Achilles’ heel of a democratic set-up. Should the public, therefore, suffer due to political parties’ ambitions?

Well the past 65 years of our country’s democratic rule hasn’t proved otherwise.

It seems that the best solution to this problem would be to set up a working programme at the commencement of any government’s five-year tenure. On the face of it, this may seem like a far cry but if adopted, it will pave the way for reforms and progress.

Er L R Sharma, Haripur, Sundernagar (HP)

Stop the exodus

The sudden exodus of the north-easterners from cities like Bengaluru, Pune and Ahmedabad cries out for the impending law and order disaster the country is facing.

The rumour-mongers are said to be the culprits. How is it that the intelligence agencies could not stop this issue from flaring up?

It is a must for all of us to understand that the north-east is as much a part of India as are other provinces.

Prof. M. K. Sharma, Amritsar

“If I were PM” In our childhood, when we were asked to write an essay on “If I were the Prime Minister of India”, we used to write around 500 words on it. Yesterday, we asked our daughter to write an essay on the same topic. She wrote two lines: “If I were the Prime Minister of India, I would have either awakened or resigned.” Priya & Hitesh Jhangiani, Dwarka, New Delhi