Letters To The Editor

Why convert? 8226; This refers to your report IE, June 27 that says that the National Minorities Commission team wants 8216;conversion...

Why convert?

8226; This refers to your report IE, June 27 that says that the National Minorities Commission team wants 8216;conversion8217; to be defined. Making people change their traditional system of faith, culture and religion is 8216;conversion8217;. Everybody understands it, including proselytisers and evangelists. And why do they convert? Because they believe in adding to numbers and hence expand their power and influence. As for the affidavit before the SDM, has the commission not come across identical papers prepared by missionaries as affidavits on which thumb impressions are taken? Conversion by deceit, allurement and threat are not merely allegation of political parties. Has the Commission cared to meet the Hindu religious leaders on this subject? The vast mass of them are not politically connected. In fact it is the missionaries who flex their political muscles in the Northeast, Kerala and Andhra Pradesh. The NMC may be concerned over minorities but it must be fair and open-minded.

8212; Krishna, Noida

OBC over 30 yrs

8226; While we are still caught up with quotas for backward classes, has anyone considered how the OBCs came to be backwards? Historically, they were not denied social equality or temple entry. Lord Krishna, from the Yadav community, was a powerful king. The Constitution does not recognise them as chronically backward. In UP and Bihar the Yadav community has ruled for long. Important point to be noted is that Yadavs, Kurmis or Nadars of Tamil Nadu, who did not consider themselves backwards at the time of independence, began regarding themselves as backwards three decades later. Should we infer that this is the result of official discrimination? If this is so then the Congress which has ruled at the Centre and in UP, Bihar and TN for initial three decades, bears responsibility for economic mismanagement and discrimination, which led to the emergence of OBC.

8212; Shital Kumar Jain, Varanasi

Forgotten issue

8226; With new stories like the hike in tomato prices, and the controversy over the screening of Fanaa taking the centre-stage in the media coverage, the reservation issue now seems to have become history. With the agitating doctors having gone back to work and students across the country subdued, no one seems to be bothered any more about the reservations that are being forced upon us. Is the issue no longer relevant? Will nothing be done to help those students who are economically backward but belong to the 8220;general8221; category?

8212;Megha Saxena, Surat

Lahore temple

8226; It is sad that neither the Central government nor the state government of Punjab have condemned the razing of the last Hindu temple in Lahore. It is commendable that the PM went all the way to Wagah border to inaugurate the pilgrimage bus service to Nankana Sahib, but he does not seem to spare a thought for Hindu sentiment, when rare temples are razed in Pakistan or Malaysia.

8212; S.C. Dutt, Noida

Correction

8226; In the article, 8216;We8217;re buying, can we sell?8217; IE, June 27, the translation of the German expression, Kinder Stat Inder should have read: Kids, not Indians. The error is regretted.

8212; Editor