|
|
|
|
|
Intriguing promptness
This is with reference to the editorial “An honourable resignation” (February 28). Whatever may be the background to the rare step taken by the professional and morally upright CNS, one cannot miss the unusually negative circumstances behind the resignation by the Naval Chief. Still more intriguing is the prompt acceptance of the resignation by the government. It gives rise to such doubts as whether the RM or the MoD had pushed the Naval Chief to the wall on the issue of numerous accidents suffered by the warships leading to loss of precious men and material. But one wonders why the C-in-C, Western Naval Command, Vice Adm Sekhar Sinha, under whose responsibility all these mishaps occurred, should not have been called to account. His accountability is more direct. Or was it a deliberate attempt at changing the line of succession, in which some senior officers within the services sometimes unabashedly indulge? It happened in the early nineties in the Navy and was sought to be repeated through a writ petition filed by a retired Naval Chief along with former Civil Service Officers against the appointment of the present Army Chief. Such unsavoury incidents cast a shadow on the image and morale of the Services. Kuldip Singh Jhajj, Anandpur Sahib
Resignation no solution
As per the well-established doctrine of the Navy that the Captain of the warship has to go down with the ship in case it sinks, Commander Mulla did the same during the 1971 Bangladesh war when his ship Khukri was hit and sank. He ordered everyone else to bail out and remained on board. Admiral Joshi did the same heroic deed by resigning on moral grounds when 25-year-old submarine INS Sindhuratna was involving in an accident in which two officers died and seven were severely injured. Admiral Joshi is one of India’s finest scholar-sailors, a man of virtue and a professional.
|
|
|
Due to bureaucratic and political failures, timely action was not taken to replace old and worn-out ships and submarines, aircraft and equipment. The governance involving these issues is marred by large-scale corruption. To keep up the war-readiness, defence forces are forced to conduct exercises and training with old and redundant ships. Our three Services suffer for the lack of appropriate decision-making at the bureaucratic and political levels. Admiral Joshi’s departure from the scene is not going to set things right as fast as his presence will. Capt Amar Jeet Kumar, Mohali Avoid poll sops An outgoing government must refrain from taking major decisions in the run-up to elections. Despite the fact that the Model Code of Conduct is yet to set in, it is the responsibility of the government to not influence the voting pattern by announcing schemes just before the elections. Such decisions should be taken at least five months prior to the announcement of elections so that there is a cooling-off period for people to decide rationally on which political outfit to vote into power. Chirag Maroke, Jalandhar Roy had absconded The front page news item “Sahara chief surrenders; in police custody” (March 1) says that “Sahara chief Subrata Roy surrendered before the Lucknow police today, a day after the police failed to arrest him at his residence.” The fact is that the police did not fail to arrest him. Subrata Roy had absconded on February 27 after displaying contempt of court by not appearing before the Supreme Count on the appointed date. It is strange that a respected newspaper such as The Tribune has described this man’s disgraceful behaviour in this manner. Ramalingam, via email Missing little stars “Twinkle, twinkle, the lost star” by Shoma A. Chatterji (February 16) was quite interesting and very informaive. But surprisingly, the author forgot to mention Baby Nanda and Baby Tabassum, particularly the former who later rose to act as a heroine in a number of films and played mother to Padmini Kolhapure in Raj Kapoor’s film ‘Prem Rog’. Mohinder Pratap ‘Chand’, Ambala
|
|||
|
|
| HOME PAGE | |
Punjab | Haryana | Jammu & Kashmir |
Himachal Pradesh | Regional Briefs |
Nation | Opinions | | Business | Sports | World | Letters | Chandigarh | Ludhiana | Delhi | | Calendar | Weather | Archive | Subscribe | Suggestion | E-mail | |
