Tackle naxals with iron hand
Er Jayesh Shrikant Rane, Mumbai
This refers to the report ‘No military action against naxals: PC’ (Herald, May 13). Really,
it should be good news for naxals, but bad news for all Indians.
Day by day, the power of naxalists is increasing in India. In one month, they have
targeted Chhattisgarh twice but the Union Home Minister P Chidambaram says naxalism
is under control, when the reality is we are still debating how to control it. Please, Mr
Chidambaram, tell us what your definition of naxalism is?
History which gives bad experience should not be repeated, but in case of India it
is quite the opposite as history is getting repeated in case of naxalist, terrorist issues.
The past experiences have shown that our enemy is more alert than us. Now, it is high
time, India acts fast and takes military help to tackle naxals. Since our enemies know
very well they can’t win an open war against India, they are disturbing us through
internal attacks.
When the problem of terrorism started, the Indian government was slow to respond
to tackle it and now it has grown beyond control and become a headache for the
people. This casual approach by the politicians is putting the lives of Indians at risk.
If a similar delay is caused in dealing with naxals, then they will get time to rebuild
their network and the result will be similar to terrorism. Ones their network gets
strong, then the losing of jawans’ lives will be a daily affair. It is high time India shows
its enemy that this country is not a place for bloodbath.
++++
If you enjoyed reading this article, you can help support our journalism by adding OHeraldo as a preferred source.
Rethink on celibacy
Michael Vaz, Merces
It is heartening to realise that the Catholic
Church is slowly coming to terms and is
beginning to accept that the child abuse in
the church hierarchy was a reality and not
a fiction. It is unfortunate that in some of
the European countries as well as in USA,
Canada and Australia there were several
cases of child abuse that remained concealed
over several decades and even when some
light was thrown on them every effort was
made by the church to conveniently camouflage
the facts.
It is a great step forward that the church
while seeking forgiveness from the faithful
for its acts has recognized that forgiveness
cannot be a substitute for justice. Whereas
we do acknowledge that such cases are in
the minuscule, it would be right and just
on the part of the church to do a thorough
rethinking on its celibacy code, which has
been underscored by various groups since
decades, instead of plainly evading the
truth.
It is a good relief to the catholic community
in our country that no such cases have
been reported from any quarters in India.
Augment water supply
Prof Robert Castellino, Calangute
Local residents of Calangute, receive tapwater
every alternate day. The supply is erratic
and woefully inadequate for the
requirements of an average sized family. As
an important tourist centre, Calangute generates
a lot of revenue, a small part of which
may be set aside for augmenting water supply
to the harried residents. Locals should
not be equated with tourists, who rely on
beer and Bisleri / bottled water to quench
their thirst.
Proper guidelines needed
Stephen Dias, Dona Paula
The recent instructions by District Magistrate
(DM) to all the hotel management in
Goa that their guests, before check-in,
should provide photo ID such as smart card,
election card, ATM card or any other photo
ID issued by recognized authority which
can be accepted by the hotel management.
This order has come in wake of terror threat
in the country, especially in Goa.
Fine, but the order does not say in case
the guests do not have the necessary photo
identity card before check-in the hotel,
whether they need to get the clearance
from the local police or denied of check–
in? There are lots of genuine tourists who
do not carry with them any kind of photo
ID card, and in that case Goa tourism will
be affected. I agree that in the wake of
terror attacks some proper instructions are
needed to be issued, but who will seriously
implement them? Whether there will be a
register kept in the reception of the hotel
with the xerox copy of the ID card as record
proof, or whether any authority will scrutinize
these registers from time to time?
Now, regarding certain photo identities
mentioned by the DM, for example ATM,
the banks do not issue with photo ID ATM
card, and in that case how this can be accepted?
Therefore, there should be proper
guidelines and clear instructions to the
hotel management in Goa, whether one
star to seven stars or no star, should restrict
accepting the guests, and in case the photo
identity card is not genuine, they could be
asked to get NOC from the concerned police
station.
In lieu of proper instructions from DM
or having loopholes on ID cards may result
accepting these guests or terrorists officially
in the hotels in Goa.
Illiterate bus conductors!
Nelson Sequeira, by email
Your newspaper report dated the May 11,
quotes the General Secretar y Sudip
Tamankar of all Goa Private Bus Owners Association
as follows: Most of our conductors
are illiterate and hence cannot read what
exactly is been mentioned on the card. They
see the card and charge half ticket. The
stamps of our association or of KTCL will
help them in identifying the valid cards.
The provisions of the Motor Vehicle Act
clearly states that: A person of 18 years of
age who has passed Std VIIth can apply for
conductor’s license. Therefore no illiterate
person is eligible for a conductor’s license.
Will the Road Transport authority kindly
take note of Tamankar’s statement and take
action against all persons working illegally
as bus conductors?
India’s T20 shame
Mauro Fernandes, Anjuna
Shame, shame, shame, is the least one can
describe India’s disastrous performance in
the ongoing T20 Cricket World Cup. We
could not even reach the semis and I reckon
we played only slightly better than
Afghanistan.
Let us accept that the Indian team is no
world beater, but a fairly ordinary average
team which can perform only on placid
tracks. It is the media which has hyped the
team to be among the best in the world.
On a slightly bouncy track at Bridgetown,
our famed batting lineup simply crashed
like a pack of cards against the Aussies and
Windies pace attack. It showed our vulnerability
against top class pace attack on fast
tracks. To make matters worse our bowlers
were simply slaughtered by the opposition.
Dhoni’s captainship has left a lot to be
desired. It is inexplicable to elect to field
after winning the toss when you are playing
with only three frontline bowlers. And the
worse thing to have happened to the Indian
team in the last one year is Ravindra Jadeja
cementing his place in the team.
One wonders what special he has done
that he has been hardly left out of the playing
eleven and I wonder why Irfan Pathan
is out of the team when he is definitely a
better all-rounder. Is Dhoni playing politics?
The Indian team looked out of sorts and
jaded. It was clearly the after-effects of the
now infamous IPL. You just cannot play a
world cup five days after the gruelling IPL
without any practice matches. Honestly the
IPL has not improved the standard of the
game in the country. It has only filled the
coffers of the BCCI and pockets of players
and some individuals.
Fr Thomas: A shining star
Fr Joaquim Fernandes, Aldona
The news of the tragic death of Fr Thomas
Fernandes, Asst Parish Priest of Nuvem
Church, was a bolt from the blue. I couldn’t
believe my ears when one of my friends
phoned to me. After having accepted it as
the will of God, all I could say was “The
Lord has given, the Lord has taken away,
Blessed be the name of the Lord”.
Fr Thomas though short in stature, yet
he was tall in reaching out to others, for
he has shed his blood to save the life of
others. Ben Johnson, the Elizabethan Poet,
in one of his poem, ‘The Oak and the Lily’
aptly describes the impact the lily flower
creates on the society inspite of its short
life span.
Without any exaggeration, Fr Thomas,
in a nutshell, is like a lily flower without
any guile, full of charm, energy, joy; all in
all, purity and simplicity of lily flower personified.
In the present-day controversy-ridden
cloudy atmosphere, where the integrity of
the Priests is questioned in the recent past,
the life of Fr Thomas emerges like a shining
star dispelling the gloom of misunderstanding
about priests and leaving behind him a
trail of virtues and values for all the priests
to follow.
