Just one more?

• If you want to feed a man teach him how to catch the fish instead of giving ...

• If you want to feed a man teach him how to catch the fish instead of giving him the fish. For years we have seen the government coming up with numerous programmes for the benefit of the poor but we all know they only benefit government officers and the rich (‘Will it reduce poverty or fill corrupt pockets? A 7-item reality check’, IE, August 19). Even the government knows this. So why then does it keep bringing out more of such programmes? Is it just to appease themselves? To say, “Oh, we have done something for the poor!” Or is it to satisfy the greed of countless government officials? We need to wake up to our extremely corrupt governance at all levels and do something about it. Otherwise all this talk of India becoming an upcoming superpower is meaningless, when we can’t even feed our people or give them drinking water and a proper police who will protect and not harass them.

— Sagar Verma On e-mail

Equal rights

• This refers to ‘Daughters and sons’ (IE, August 18). Why is there this disparity between the two genders when all are citizens with equal rights, as per the Constitution? This means that people being treated more as religious groups than citizens of this country. Why cannot we frame a law which ensures that all citizens have the right to own property and inherit it equally? This will arrest religious orthodoxy to a great extent.

— S.K. Iyer On e-mail

Fatwa politics

• Congratulations to the Indian Express for starting its new series, ‘India Explained i.e. India Empowered’. It is in the fitness of things that you began it with Somnath Chatterjee, the veteran Parliamentarian and outspoken Lok Sabha Speaker. He has rightly pointed out that gender-based discrimination is yet another major social issue we have to address. Women, who constitute almost 50 per cent of our population, are yet to have an effective share in political decision-making processes, especially in our representative institutions. As if to tell the honourable speaker that he cannot talk about Muslim women, the Islamic seminary — Darul Uloom — has issued a ‘fatwa’, disallowing women from contesting. Even if they are to contest and win elections, only men should attend to their work. Happily parties cutting party lines have criticised the fatwa. The SC has done a good thing by issuing notices to Centre, AIMPLB and the Islamic Seminary Darul Uloom for running a parallel judiciary system. Somnath Chatterjee should act fast and condemn the move in Parliament.

— A.B. Sai Prasad Jamnagar

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• Close on the heels of controversial fatwa in the Imrana case, comes one more edict by the Darul Uloom that only veiled Muslim women can contest elections (IE, August 17). Shocking to say the least. In the name of religion, Darul Uloom seems hell-bent to keep gullible Muslim women backward in all walks of life, for all time to come.

— Ram Gurbaxani Minneapolis

Clarification

• Due to a technical error, the unedited version of a letter casting aspersions on the judiciary was carried in some editions of the newspaper dated August 17. When this was noticed, it was immediately corrected and other editions of this newspaper carried the corrected version on the letter on the same date. We wish to state here that we hold the judiciary in the highest regard and deeply regret this inadvertent error.

— Editor

Railway authorities promptly took action, shifting passengers to other coaches and quickly extinguishing the fire.

Fire noticed in coach of Amritsar–Saharsa Garib Rath Express, no casualties reported

India48 min ago

A fire broke out in a coach of Amritsar–Saharsa Garib Rath Express at Sirhind Station in Punjab, but no casualties were reported. Railway officials quickly took action, shifting passengers to other coaches and extinguishing the fire. The train will depart to its destination shortly. The incident occurred at 07:30 hrs and is currently being investigated.

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