II

Politicians of all ruling parties treat government resources as part of their fiefdom and give scant respect to rules and regulations Their word is law and bureaucracy is too willing to toe the line of their political bosses and they too make proverbial hay while the sun (son!) shines. The ones who do not bow to pressure are shunted out by transferring them to insignificant posts.

It is sad that our voters’ memory is short and they forget scams committed by political leaders and often re-elect even shady and tainted leaders. If Om Parkash Chautala had been punished when he was caught red handed at the Delhi airport bringing smuggled gold watches in 1977, he would not have landed in jail for 10 years now.

ARUN HASTIR, Babehali (Gurdaspur)

III

In  this  entire  scam,  the courage  shown  by  IAS  officer  Rajni  Sekri  Sibal is  highly  commendable  and  worth  emulating. She  has  rightly  emerged  as  an  empowered  and  honest  official  who  has  shown  the  courage  in  exposing  corrupt politicians and officials. But for such resilient officials in our system, we can hope for honesty in governance.

RAVNEET KAUR, Kharar

Hypocritical decision

The editorial ‘One more death for Manto’ (January 22) rightly decries the hypocrisy in deifying Manto on one side by observing his centenary year and on the other hand not allowing staging of his plays in Delhi.

If Manto can be stifled in India, we must revisit our ideals of secularism and stop boasting about equality and freedom enshrined in the democratic setup that we have. The flimsy pretext of cancelling Manto-based theatre shows (that it may create a law and order problem) is laughable and only goes to show the utter incompetency and ignorance of the law enforcing agencies.

Manto himself was very clear on the subject of secularism when he wrote in ‘A tale of 1947’ that “…when I say religion or faith, I do not mean this infection which afflicts ninety-nine percent of us. To me, faith is what makes a human being special, distinguishes him from the herd and proves his humanity…..”

VINOD KUMAR KHANNA, MOHALI  

Wrong usage

Shinde’s use of the phrase ‘Hindu terrorism’ to describe terror acts committed by fanatics in the name of their religion is as objectionable and inaccurate as the use of the term ‘Muslim terrorism’. The BJP should not be in denial about the fact that such acts do indeed take place. Independent India’s first terrorist crime was the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi by Nathuram Godse, a man driven by the ideology of Hindutva.

The police have said the bomb blasts aboard the Pakistan-bound Samjhauta Express, and at mosques in Hyderabad and Malegaon, were carried out by extremists with “links” to the RSS and other Hindutva-oriented factions. Empty rhetoric can only aid, not hurt, terrorism.

VIVEK CHHABRA, Abohar

Surrogacy rules

The Home Ministry needs to be commended for setting guidelines on surrogacy regarding foreign couples. The news report ‘Same-sex foreign couples can’t hire Indian surrogates’ (January 19) clearly states that only those foreign couples who have had two years of sustained marriage and whose countries of origin recognise commercial surrogacy will now be allowed to hire surrogate mothers in India for the purpose of having babies through Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART).  It is also good that gays and lesbians stand barred from hiring Indian surrogates.

It is also in the fitness of things that now foreign couples seeking surrogacy service in India have to produce a duly authorised agreement between the applicant couple and the prospective Indian surrogate mother.

K K MITTAL, Chandigarh

Be the change

Today’s youth do not wish to take up politics as a profession. Almost everyone is agog about cleaning up the system but nobody is ready to don the robe of a politician to clean it. Whenever an unfortunate incident of rape, murder or any scandal is highlighted, it becomes a catalyst for change, but the reactions stops after some time.

The cynic Indian youth must realise that that a change cannot be brought about just by tweeting or posting on Facebook, they need to channelise their fiery emotions to bring in requisite changes, as they say, “Be the change you wish to see in the world”.