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India cannot afford to lose vigil on Pak

Seeing the prevailing scenario in Pakistan, what could be perceived is that the country is sitting atop a sizzling and searing volcano (G Parthasarthy’s article “Prevailing realities in Pakistan”, September 27).

Pakistan is an undependable friend and a fickle ally, a perception that is reflected in its conduct in safeguarding Osama bin Laden in a citadel under the very nose of the Army’s stronghold. If it could hoodwink the US, whose CIA is known for the highest level of efficiency verging on the sixth sense, it could easily delude India, as it has done all along since 1947.

It’s past treacherous record speaks for itself. In 1947, Jinnah unleashed havoc in J&K by letting lose his army personnel in the garb of tribals. followed by Ayub Khan’s strategy to dismember J&K from India by throttling ‘Chicken’s Neck’ in Jammu, the pre-emptive strike in 1971 in furtherance of the policy of deceit and cheat; infiltration at Kargil while the historic embraces between Atal Behari Vajpayee and Nawaz Sharief continued in Lahore.

There have been bear hugs at summits followed by reversal of behaviour. Pakistan has displayed ingenious skill in diplomatic areas, delivering coup de grace to India many a time.

JASWANT SINGH GANDAM, Phagwara

II

Voters are primarily responsible for electing wrong, incompetent and corrupt legislators, who later create chaos, crisis and indiscipline and stall proceedings in the House, instead of debating and discussing them. We are still far away from conscientious voting, where the majority ‘vote their caste’ instead of ‘casting their vote’.

It is painful but true, knowing what C.Rajgopalachari wrote in his 1922 jail diary, a prophecy coming true “As and when India will get her freedom, after sometime, they  will fight like dogs and create chaos”. That time has arrived.

 During my visit to China, I casually asked my young guide “What is one single reason of your country’s tsunami of development?” And her reply was —-“Three reasons — education, education and education”.

BM SINGH, Amritsar

III

The principle of ‘no work, no pay’ as mentioned in the editorial, if applied will not serve the intended purpose, as our Parliamentarians have numerous other sources of income to garner facilities. To refurbish the past glory of Parliament, it would be appropriate to enact an Act with a provision to hold sessions of Parliament at least 100 days in a year. The casual approach of our law makers in attending Parliament sessions has denigrated parliamentary democracy. Many MPs are caught napping by TV cameras.

SK KHOSLA, Chandigarh

IV

While the BJP seem to stall the proceedings of Parliament on issues that affect the larger strata of society, the UPA allies like BSP and SP are bent upon getting the larger slice of the cake in return for bailing out the government. Parliament is meant for discussion on vital policy issues and not to give vent to noisy and irresponsible utterances. Since the proceedings of the Parliament are telecast live, most of the MPs in their bid to get public attention just perform for the gallery.

LAJPAT RAI GARG, Panchkula

Political war cry

We have started reading and hearing clamour for yet another political war in the form of general elections to be held in 2014. Congress President Sonia Gandhi has already asked her partymen to brace themselves up for the 2014 Lok Sabha polls. Opposition too has been singing similar tunes. Political parties are busy preparing lists of false promises, hiring speech writers and speakers and contacting fund managers. The ruling party has issued no agenda for completion of its ongoing projects. Peoples’ woes continue to accumulate. Citizens are paying taxes for zero facilities. This is the stark reality of today’s modern life. Laws, rules and regulations remain confined to volumes of law books only.

GURNAM SINGH RATHORE, Khanna