25 Mar 2017 | 08:09pm IST
Letters To The Editor
That the Election Commission has freezed the ‘Two Leaves’ symbol of the AIADMK and has barred both the warring factions from using the name of AIADMK until further orders is a clear indication that the EC has reservations about the manner in which Sasikala was nominated as the party’s General Secretary flouting all rules and regulations pertaining to such a nomination. Naturally all decisions taken by her after her assumption to the post of General Secretary also become questionable.
The decision of the EC is definitely a moral victory for the O.Pannerselvam group mainly because the EC is convinced of a vertical split in the party contrary to the claim by the Sasikala faction that there was no split and also that it has given equal status to both the factions thereby recognising OPS group also an equal contender for the ‘Two Leaves’ symbol of the party.
With the loss of their ‘Two Leaves’ party symbol by both the groups, they will have to now contest the election using new symbols which would confuse those who had all along been blindly stamping on the ‘Two Leaves’ symbol considering it as the symbol of MGR /Jayalalithaa.
Needless to stress, the other well-known symbol to the electorate is only the ‘Rising Sun’ and even at this stage, we can predict how the results are going to be in the RK Nagar bye-election.
Tharcius S. Fernando, Chennai
“Why keep a dog and bark yourself?” – so goes an English saying. Our new Minister for Water Resources seems to have done that just when he decided that show cause notices had to be issued to the water department’s staff members who were absent without approval, after he paid a surprise visit to the Porvorim Office of the Water Department.
Surprise visits are good (as is the concept of “mysterious shopper”) in order to improve services. However, the surprise visit should have been undertaken in order to establish whether the Chief Engineer at the Porvorim Office (or whatever his title – let us call him Chief Engineer for the purpose of this letter) is doing his job or not. It is the Chief Engineer’s responsibility, inter alia, to manage via his Officers, his team and ensure that they are working and not sleeping and delivering courteous and prompt service to us, their customers. The show cause notice should have been issued to the Chief Engineer and the direct line Officers of the concerned absentees. By his decision, the Minister has in fact undermined the authority of the Chief Engineer and the Officers vis-a-vis the people working under them.
On a separate note, I observe that your editorial of 23rd March on this topic refers to the people working for the government as “Government Servants”. Please enlighten me as to why we should not refer to them as “Public Servants” instead, since they are working for the public and their salaries are paid from the taxes and other fees paid by the people.
More than half of the country’s problems of common men can be solved if true meaning of rights of freedom of speech is well understood by all citizens – it means your rights are subject not to deprivation of their person’s rights. But now days almost all people including organisations, communities, RWAs etc implement-force -their so called rights at the cost of absolving –depriving the rights of other people – selfish motive prevails-who cares for rights of others?
It’s very sorrowful news to hear that our leaders, who are considered hero for their supporter in society and whom we look towards for guidance, have lost their moral characters. When they are not determined to be respected them, who will trust upon them?
People cast their priceless votes in favour of them to see them as a good and civilized leader but such activities break our hearts and offend our feelings. An incident occurred in Air India plane, Shiv Sena MP Ravindra Gaikwad allegedly assaulted a 60-year-old Air India staffer with a sandal aboard a Pune-Delhi flight only because of seat. Not only he assaulted rather he used “foul language” against him saying that he is from Shiv Sena, not BJP.
May God save our country, if this is the culture and behaviour of our MPs, what kind of progress can be expected? Nowadays we are focusing only on materialistic progress but there is no little a bit attention towards morality.
Manohar Parrikar has a very good reputation of being an honest, simple and hardworking CM and DM. Although he carries a lot of Hindutva baggage of the RSS, as an individual he is very sincere and that is why the people of Goa especially the minorities brought him to power in 2014.
However, the BJP destroyed the trust of the people especially of the minorities and even of the majority community and this mistrust and anger against the BJP was reflected in the 13 seats, which they won in 2017 as against 21 seats in 2014. After the disastrous results, Parrikar was forced to come back to Goa to stage a coup and he managed to pull the carpet from under the feet of the Congress and set up a coalition Government of disparate entities who rebelled against the BJP and called each other names on the eve of the elections.
So the reward for doing all the hard work of negotiating the deals and forming the Government is to carry the crown of thorns which includes many burning issues faced by Goa like illegal mining, MoI, Regional Plan, casinos, ban of liquor shops along highways, conversion of village roads into highways, sale of drugs, unemployment, garbage disposal, law and order, safety and security of locals and tourist, Mopa v/s Dabolim, the growing fiscal deficit and shortage of funds to meet the various schemes adopted by the previous BJP Government and the list can go on and on. After tackling all these issues Parrikar has to also resign as MP from UP and get elected in Goa within 6 months.
So best of luck to Goa’s cleanest and most hard working CM.
Police investigations into the fatal mishap at Mandrem, which claimed the life of a young motorcyclist, has reportedly revealed that the truck was driven by an unlicensed truck-loader and not the truck driver. There could also be several instances of the bus-conductor, who does not possess the driving license, actually driving the bus in the absence of the bus driver. The bus conductor could even take over from the driver halfway through the bus trip and drive the bus probably to give the bus driver some rest or the bus-driver may have, for some reason, not reported for work.
Such instances could be quite common for city buses which make short trips. The bus conductor sitting behind the wheels without possessing a driving licence and without much driving experience, could prove dangerous to occupants of the bus, the pedestrians and road-users. The authorities concerned need to crack down on this practice of bus conductors, truck loaders or even the cleaner driving the vehicles by checking the driving license of those behind the steering wheel at regular intervals.
Kudos to Srinivas Kamat for his article, “Stunning immaturity of our leaders!” (Herald, People’s edit, March 24).
It is highly unfortunate that our political leaders are not listening to Amartya Sen who is not only a world famous Nobel laureate economist but also a champion of the downtrodden. Leaders must make themselves open to fresh and highly acclaimed ideas of economics for inclusive growth. Our annual merit card shows that we have failed in two major subjects — Human Development and Happiness. Burgeoning inequality, lack of social support and security, poor health care, nutrition and life expectancy, unemployment and job dissatisfaction and lack trust in government as well as in private sectors have contributed to India’s downward journey from 118th position to dismal 122nd among 155 countries in 2017 World Happiness Index. Now, our position is only better than Afghanistan (141st) among our neighbouring countries. All others - China (79), Pakistan (80th), Bhutan (97th), Nepal (99th), Bangladesh (110th), Myanmar (114th) and Sri Lanka (120th) are better placed than India (122nd).
Moreover, India is also demoted to further lower position from 130th to 131st in just one year in Human Development Index for her unchecked inequality, multidimensional poverty and gender gaps. The report says that half of Indians face deprivation in education, health and living standards. Here, only we are marching backward among our neighbours. Sri Lanka (73), China (90), Bhutan (132) and Pakistan (147) have kept their last year’s position. But Bangladesh (from 142 to 139), Nepal (from 145 to 144), Myanmar (from 148 to 145) and Afghanistan (from 171 to 169) have improved their ranking in HDI.
Our last year’s downfall rings the alarm bell for immediate policy review to arrest inequality by ensuring social security and by improving trust in government administration. Political leaders must quarantine their subjective personal biases in judging economic theories, models and empirical studies. India cannot afford to be a stage for ego fights.
