letters to the editor

No second rung 

leadership in BJP

The top leadership in the ruling party never tried to groom second rung leaders. Now they are looking up-to imports from other parties and their  sworn - opponents - now- turned-friends to lead them. Those same very people who they were highly critical of in the not so distant past. In all this,  the citizens have been taken for granted. 

Orders come straight from top and you are supposed to accept them without any questions. No feedback from cadres. No hopes, wishes and aspirations of people required to be met. Goa's politics is depressing and going from bad to worse. For them, it is "Hum Kare to chamatkaar, aap karen to balatkaar." All a game of power. 

Who cares about the State? 

Sandeep Heble, Panjim

Taking electorate 

for granted

The move of the two Congress MLAs to switch over to the BJP may have shocked many but what was even more shocking was the manner in which the entire episode unfolded. Both the MLAs were taking part in a Congress legislature party meeting on Monday and on Tuesday they were members of the BJP. 

At the airport when asked why they were making a dash to Delhi one of them said that it was a “business trip” and the other said that he was going to attend a “reception”. This is nothing short of making a mockery of the electorate who voted them and taking them for granted. The voters were reportedly not taken into confidence neither were all the party workers about their move to change party. 

On second thought were the two Congress deserters misunderstood by the general public. The “reception” could have been with reference to a meeting with the BJP leadership at the centre and the “business trip” could have been with reference to the “deal” that has been struck for the switch-over. All said and done whether this was a wise move or a political suicide by the two will be known within six months.

Adelmo Fernandes, Vasco

Anti-defection law 

needs to be tweaked

It is time the Election Commission or those in power tweak the Anti-defection law. Any elected member who resigns his seat for whatever reason should not be allowed to contest for elections again during the term of the house he has resigned from. Why should the taxpayer pay for the political games of these representatives? Did he consult his constituency before resigning? The usual excuse is “we want to develop our constituency” . Does this mean if one is in the opposition his constituency is left undeveloped? 

In that case for the sake of the state development once the government is formed all those in the opposition should resign and join the party in power! Under these circumstances mandate of the people means nothing. 

It is the duty of the Election Commission to make sure that the democratic process is implemented in law as well as spirit. Holding just and fair election is not the end point of the democratic process. It has no doubt gone one step further with the anti-defection law but then there are still loopholes in the law and those need to be plugged. 

We are in a country where one day before the election results a candidate is a criminal and the next day after he is elected he becomes the “honourable” MP or MLA . This is the self-imposed hypocrisy of the system. The political class has been known to use the system to their advantage and the voter is left helpless. The system has to be tweaked in favour of the voter. “When you see that trading is done, not by consent, but by compulsion—when you see that in order to produce, you need to obtain permission from men who produce nothing—when you see money flowing to those who deal, not in goods, but in favours—when you see that men get richer by graft and pull than by work, and your laws don’t protect you against them, but protect them against you—when you see corruption being rewarded and honesty becoming a self-sacrifice—you may know that your society is doomed.” 

DC Dias, Taleigao

Tackling rumours

Rumours and fake news that have been circulated by 'cyber-nationalists' must effectively be dealt with to unplug the panic channel that can instigate the mob to lynch. Recent cases of lynching had their origin in hate - speeches and rumours in social media, which snowballed into street murders. 

Rema Rajeshwari, Superintendent of Police in Jogulamba Gadwal district of Telangana reportedly ordered training session for 500 police officers to counter fake news. Officials go to villages and spread awareness about social issues. They have joined WhatsApp groups in villages and nip any rumour in the bud. His efforts have earned him great success. Not a single rumour - related lynching has been staged in his jurisdiction. 

Given that lynching has become a new normal, Rema Rajeshwari model needs to be followed in every district of our country to effectively stop rising incidents of lynching. 

West Bengal police have also done a good job in timely and effectively tackling rumours. Recently, a fake news that the state government had sanctioned a five-day Eid holiday was doing the rounds in social media to incite communal tension. But the police over there promptly took help of Twitter to dispel the rumour in time.

 Administrative vigil both digital and direct to weed out any kind of hatred generating rumour is the need of the hour. There should be an effort to build strong public opinion against lynching as it throws down the gauntlet to the law of the land.  

Sujit De, Kolkatta

Climate change

creating havoc

This is a matter of great concern that according to a study by the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR), climate change is causing more havoc than geophysical events. 

India is listed among top five countries in the world with $80 billion in absolute economic loss due to disasters in the last 20 years. What is more worrying for India is the fact that economic losses from up to 87% of disasters are not reported, because India is yet to develop a robust mechanism to capture all disaster losses. 

According to an agency report annual loss of human lives on account of just floods is an average 1,600, while loss of properties is more than Rs 1,800 crore per year. Besides floods, India has been experiencing hundreds of deaths every year due to storms, heat waves and other extreme weather-related incidents.

 It is high time for the government and appositions to caste aside their political differences and cooperate for national interest and build a new solid plan to eradicate such disasters caused by climate change.

Ismail Ansari, Secunderabad