Padma awards

Google’s Sundar Pichai and Microsoft’s Satya Nadella got Padma Bhushan awards based on one criterion — their ‘Indian origin’, otherwise they are American citizens, work in America and pay taxes there, don’t remit dollars to their families back home and unlikely to return to India and serve here. Are we ignoring that a national award is given to a person to encourage him or her to do more service for the people of the native country and accepting that chances of doing work for getting an award in India are limited and encouraging intellectuals to migrate for it?

O Prasada Rao, Hyderabad

No reason to cheer 

The President urged all successful people to work for the development of their birthplaces, mentioning the transformation of Bhiwani’s Sui village. Even after more than seven decades of Independence, the political fraternity has not set an example in this context. Punjab constituencies, nurtured by political bigwigs and heavyweights for decades, are in a pitiable condition. Birthplaces of these political bigwigs are in shambles. Even villages adopted under Sansad Adarsh Gram Yojana don’t give a rosy picture. Offshore sons of soil also don’t bother. When the likes of Harjit Singh Sajjan, Ujjal Dosanjh and Kamala Harris reached upper echelons of power in their adopted countries, their ancestral villages in India celebrated with sweets. Success of sons and daughters of the soil should be celebrated only when they contribute for the betterment of their motherland and fellow brethren.

Rajesh Goyal, by mail

Petition against freebies

It is praiseworthy step that the Supreme Court has taken cognisance of the matter of freebies and issued a notice to the Central government and the Election Commission of India to give their comments on the petition to curb the menace of freebies announced by political parties in their manifestos, with a view to grabbing power. The protagonist of this ‘bribe’, Arvind Kejriwal, who recently announced costly concessions, will fully ruin the financial position of Punjab. The government will find it difficult even to pay the salary of its staff and pension. The apex court must come up with measures on a war-footing to check this tendency of political parties during elections.

RL Bansal, Kurukshetra

Need proper planning

Apropos of the middle ‘How India may look in 2047’, the writer has failed to hit the nail on its head. Sorry to say but India has been suffering from inefficiency and ill planning. It was expected that he should have also spoken about the mismanagement and lack of planning which India needs to conquer before rejoicing the 100 years of Independence. Everything that he has mentioned should technically revolve around public dealing with the government at the grassroots level, a nerve he has not touched. The removal of the difficulties that a common man faces should be the sole objective of the government and its servants. They should be inculcated with the will to serve people, to at least do the duty that is expected without expecting any favours. Everything else like AI, machine learning and technological advancements would fall in place automatically since the whole world now is a global village and India cannot remain aloof in the midst of it all.

Amit Kumar, Mohali

The Gandhi way 

In response to ‘Classrooms as sites of ahimsa’, belief in Gandhi is temporary and clouds of uncertainty hover around his personality. Angry Indians won’t take pains to read Gandhi, but will question his credentials. Our fault lies in overdependence on the political class. Excelling in academics does not guarantee a good citizen. Let’s remember what we lost in losing Gandhi to violence.

Jasvinder S Humsafar, Maloudh

Code of values 

‘Classrooms as sites of ahimsa’ express concern over an issue relating to the present-day uncomfortable situation regarding values. Introduction of values in  lessons is not enough. ‘Liberating education,’ says Paulo Freire, ‘consists in acts of cognition, not transferrals of information.’ The school as a whole has to be charged with a code of values. And that is not possible unless school leadership and teachers believe and live with those values. The pedagogical skills should be shaped accordingly during pre-service and in-service periods of training. Administrative agencies connected with the education system cannot remain aloof and have to work as a springboard to encourage this phenomenon of values and fundamental principles. Creation of the Indian Education Service (IES), as recommended by NEP-2020, may also be considered.

S Kumar, Panchkula

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