Pak’s hostile attitude

With reference to the report ‘Pak fires on forward posts in Mendhar’ (September 16), it seems that Pakistan doesn’t want to put an end to hostility against India. A blatant violation of ceasefire again and again on the LoC by Pakistan indicates that it will not change its stance towards India. In January 2013, our two soldiers were beheaded and recently the Pakistan army ambushed an Indian patrol team and killed five Indian soldiers. This can happen because of the laxity and inaction on part of the government. Moreover, the real power in Pakistan lies in the hands of Pakistan army and the ISI and the elected government in Pakistan can’t take decisions on its own. Since the day Nawaz Sharif showed his keenness to normalise relations with India, the Pakistan army has mounted its attacks against us and sabotaging Sharif’s plans to establish a peaceful relationship with India.

SANDEEP ARYA, Fazilka

Weed out corruption

I fully agree with the views expressed in the editorial ‘Kick corruption out’ (September 7) that Indians must support the International Olympics Committee (IOC) stance and the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) must not allow those officials against whom a chargesheet has been filed in a court of law.

But the IOA insists that they are sticking to Indian law and bars only those sportspersons who have been convicted by a court from holding office. In my opinion, the IOA must be thankful to the IOC as they are providing an opportunity to India to clean up sports and the Indian Government must not let themselves be blackmailed on this.

SUBHASH C TANEJA, Gurgaon

Wake up, AICTE

The root cause of maladies plaguing private engineering colleges is that most of these colleges are not run as educational institutions but as business ventures. Many engineering colleges have been opened by those people who have nothing to do with education, but have jumped into the business just to make a fast buck. Some of the owners and chairmen of private institutes are not even graduates. What kind of vision one can expect from such people? Such private institutions prefer to appoint substandard faculty and sometimes even fresh engineering graduates just to fulfil the quantitative faculty norms stipulated by the AICTE, thus compromising on quality.

Many low-quality institutes even force their teachers to bring in admissions by visiting various schools and colleges so as to allure students with the aid of glossy brochures and false commitments. The AICTE has definitely failed to prevent commercialisation of technical education by taking no action against private institutions involved in catchy marketing activities. Does the AICTE follow the norm of being a body that follows its own motto in letter and in spirit? The AICTE’s motto “Yogah Karmasu Kaushalam” (from the Bhagvadagita) inscribed in its logo means doing your work well is yoga. Is the AICTE doing its work well?

NEERAJ PIPLANI, Jalandhar

Check gun culture

This refers to the editorial ‘Tragedy in Washington’ (September 14). The US government is totally helpless before big gun manufacturing companies. Generally, American Senators kneel down before rich and powerful gun makers whenever any gun control bill is presented in the Senate. There is a strong and rich firearms manufacturers’ lobby in America. It has become very difficult to pass a gun control bill due to the presence of this powerful lobby. The lobby remains unmoved by these massive tragedies as its sole motive is making money.

KHUSHWINDER SINGH SURYA, Tapa (Barnala)