Stray thoughts during
this season of lent
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Instead of opening the day with Facebook, open with a Prayer book.
Instead of texting on Whatsapp, call on a lonely person to say: What’s up? Instead of sending a Good Morning message, send a good deed for the day idea. Instead of spreading gossip, spread fellowship. Instead of giving up cigarettes, give up making people the butt of your jokes.
Instead of giving up chocolates give up your bitterness. Instead of fasting to reduce weight, fast to enable the hungry to gain some weight!
Robert Castellino, Calangute
India’s Defence Strategy
Rajnath Singh, our Defence Minister, has been talking of scaling up defence production. This has been echoed by Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, who has gone a little beyond and set an ambitious target for the exports of defence equipment. The emphasis on defence production for our national needs and strategic self-sufficiency is acceptable but we should not export any arms and armaments. As it is we are one among the top five buyers of armaments in the world which is not a good thing and we should not compound this further by exporting arms to encourage and sustain wars abroad.
We are the land of Mahatma Gandhi, the apostle of non-violence, and we should protect and nurture his philosophy of Vasudeiva Kutumbakam and propagate it around the world. As for the threats that we face from our neighbours, it is only China and Pakistan in that order. The other countries – Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal and Bhutan – have all their own problems to contend with except for Bhutan, a peaceful country with which India has had excellent relations. Between China and Pakistan, the latter is a spent-force beset with economic travails and an unstable political scenario. One wonders if Pakistan will dare a conventional war since it may not be able to sustain it for more than a few days. The only option it has are its nuclear weapons which given its ramifications of use, it may not invoke. Thus the principal threat in the short-term is China where we have been seeing incidents across our north and north-eastern borders. With China, if there is a war India cannot win and therefore we have to prop up our defensive positions. It is only to that extent that we need to reinforce our arms infrastructure and additionally to keep a vigil on our extensive maritime boundary and the outlying islands of our territory like the Andamans and Lakshadweep.
Srinivas Kamat, Alto St Cruz
Water conservation
Water scarcity, water conservation and water security are important issues that have troubled the globe in general and India in particular.
Pollution has never really allowed clean water to a society’s citizens. Untreated sewage, solid wastes and industrial emissions have polluted surface as well as lake and river water to a considerable extent. There is also the concern about depleting groundwater due to some agricultural crops heavily depending upon the same for cultivation.
All this and more are basically due to wilful ignorance and lack of awareness among the common man on ways to keep water clean and potable. The” Jal Jan Abhiyan” that was put in motion recently should, hopefully, create an environment where every citizen of the country is aware and active when it comes to saving and consuming water. Boosting public awareness apart from creating and preserving water bodies are crucial. At the end of the day, judicious and wise utilisation of water are the cornerstones for water security.
Ganapathi Bhat, Akola
It has been lies,
deceit on Mhadei
After bragging that Goa legally had a rock solid case on the very crucial Mhadei issue, the state government had to swallow the humble pie after the Supreme Court declined to grant Goa any interim relief. The BJP’s devious politrik was out in the open after the Union Home Minister publicly stated that the Mhadei imbroglio was resolved in consultation with the Goa Government which is something the Chief Minister to date has been silent on.
In this political chicanery, for the BJP its party’s interests in Karnataka has overridden Goa’s welfare. It is absolutely shameful to witness the manner in which the Central Government has in an utterly devious manner betrayed the people of Goa.
Let it be our unyielding resolve that this battle for our Mhadei will be a do or die. There is a dire need to ensure that every precious drop of water is saved for the wellbeing of Goans as posterity would not forgive us if we don’t combat this so vital Mhadei battle and allow our lifeline to dry up with our ecology destroyed.
Now more than ever Mhadei is the one very critical issue that should be of greatest concern to every Goan. Our Goa is on its way to being parched and will be reduced to a desert on account of the government’s sheer treachery on the issue. After this Mhadei disaster we cannot trust the BJP any longer.
On Mhadei the BJP will try to blame the Judiciary. The fate of Mhadei will be no different than that of the controversial bungalow at Old Goa owned by the family of BJP national spokesperson Shania NC.
Aires Rodrigues, Ribandar
Stop spreading
distorted stories
Some pro-Maharashtrawadi supporters were seen taking out huge rallies on this year’s Shiv Jayanti day and openly spreading their own distorted exaggerated stories about Shivaji’s life after garlanding his statues in different parts of the state.
Well, as per historical facts, the Portuguese ruled Goa almost for 450 years (i.e. 1510 – 1961) and Shivaji lived his life for just 50 years (i.e. from 1630 – 1680) ruling mostly parts of Maharashtra. Shivaji was the most famous historical secular-minded Maratha King who fought against all forms of injustice and practiced true religious tolerance throughout his life despite of fighting against the different Mughal rulers of that time. And that was his real greatness.
I therefore we should try to bring out some actual facts about his personal life after reading some genuine history books to seriously keep the unique communal harmony of Goans real strong even in the near future in Goa.
Jerry Fernandes, Saligao
Saffron
braggadocio!
While boasting that BJP leaders of her ilk were highly talented and great administrators, Telangana Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan has blamed the people of Tamilnadu for their failure to recognise their talents which has cost her and colleagues of berths in PM Modi’s cabinet of ministers!
She has lamented that they had only to remain satisfied with the position of Governors of states.
What she has conveniently forgotten is that if PM Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah were so convinced about her great talents, wisdom and administrative capacities, they could have accommodated her in the central cabinet by making her a member of the Rajya Sabha. Instead, they only preferred to make L Murugan who also lost in the last TN Assembly elections, a Minister by making him a Rajya Sabha member and also provided another RS seat to Ranjan Gogoi, former Chief Justice of India which, she must be ‘sorely’ aware of! She should be happy that she has been awarded gubernatorial position as Governor of Telengana and the Union Territory of Puducherry, despite having poor knowledge about the tenets and articles of the Constitution !
There must be a limit to self boating Madam Governor!
Tharcius S Fernando, Chennai
