Reject tainted candidates

Over the years, our political system has turned into an extremely lucrative business that can give assured manifold returns. Only those who are extremely rich or have enough ill-gotten wealth, venture into it on the pretext of serving people. To win an election, the candidate has to spend crores. Most contestants are either known criminals, mafia dons or antisocial persons. It is not surprising that this observation was also made by the Singapore PM. When such politicians come to power their sole interest is to refurbish their coffers and to acquire more wealth and power. Hence, they plunder State funds and assets with impunity. No improvement can take place unless a drastic change is brought about in the attitude of the voters to check the credentials of candidates.

SS CHAHAL, AMRITSAR

Voter real aam aadmi

Leaders and candidates of various parties in Punjab vied with each other to claim the tag of actual aam aadmi (‘I’m actual aam aadmi: CM’). However, the real aam aadmi, alias the voter, kept his/her cards close to the chest and was not swayed by such indiscreet rhetoric. The voter seems to have voted for a drug-free Punjab with the considerations of employment opportunities, transparent recruitment system, opening of startup opportunities, industries rehabilitation and infrastructure development.

Krishan Kant Sood, Nangal

BJP’s parivarvad

Senior BJP leaders usually accuse the opposition leaders of parivarvad but they should first clean their own house. Pankaj Singh, the son of Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, is fighting the election as BJP candidate from Noida in Uttar Pradesh.

Vidwan Singh Soni, Patiala

Crucial elections

Whether ‘Opposition challenge’ succeeds or not in the five states, only time will tell, as all elections test the inclination of the voters and are difficult to predict. The BJP still has a hold in the Northeast. If Manipur sees an opposition victory, it will be a miracle. Anti-incumbency is however strong in the UP heartland and in Uttarakhand. Goa’s problem is the multiplicity of parties involved. There appears to be a swing towards change, but in the end, the BJP may get a good number of seats. Punjab has to vote wisely and tactically to upgrade the state it once was. All governments have strong and weak sides, and the debit side of the BJP is gaining traction. The Opposition is strong in sensing the mood, but multiplicity of parties leads to division of votes. Also, the electorate can never be a monolith, it comprises of people with different political behaviour. The poll results will impact both the BJP and opposition parties.

Parthasarathy Sen, New Delhi

Sea of plastic

Refer to ‘A global treaty to curb plastic pollution’; even though billions of tonnes of plastic is produced worldwide, only 9% has been recycled. Recycling is a myth. The health impact of ingesting plastic is not known but it is endocrine disruptor. A UN report estimates that up to 12.7 million tonnes of plastic enters the world’s oceans every year. Micro plastics have been detected at extreme depths of the ocean. Sea salt around the world has also been contaminated and has entered our food chain. The only way to stop this scourge and save the environment and humanity is to stop producing plastic in all forms.

HN Ramakrishna, Bengaluru

Educated unemployed

Unemployment is assuming alarming proportions, and what is of grave concern is the number of the educated unemployed and those who are only literates (‘Address mismatch between skills, jobs’). The educated ones lack initiative to find self-employment as they do not have the mental make-up. The others suffer from white-collar complex. Increase in faulty degree-oriented system of education, without any sound technical and professional skills, makes the picture of unemployment in India as one of the mightiest internal challenges. The government cannot afford to invest more than what it is doing now to create additional job opportunities. The problem has to be tackled from the sociological and economic standpoint. Both the Centre and states have to deal with agrarian problems by going ahead with agro, ancillary and small-scale industries to absorb the rural unemployed.

Anil Bhatia, Hisar

Lata’s Pak fans

During an interview on TV with a Pakistani journalist, Lata Mangeshkar was asked to explain the purity, piety and depth with which she had sung the prayers, ‘Ae mere muskil kusha fariyad hai fariyad hai’ and ‘Bekas pe karam kijiye Sarkar-e-Medina’. She was told that her fans in Pakistan were wonder-struck at the solemnity with which she had sung them. She replied with a smile that she treated her work like puja, irrespective of religion. Another masterpiece is ‘Allah tero naam’.

RK Sharma, Kurukshetra

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