Letters To The Editor

Vote-bank bane 8226; IN your news report, 8216;When it comes to enrolment in schools, Muslims trail even SC/STs8217; IE, October 23, it...

Vote-bank bane

8226; IN your news report, 8216;When it comes to enrolment in schools, Muslims trail even SC/STs8217; IE, October 23, it is observed that 8220;barring infant mortality and sex ratio, Muslims are way behind others, even SC/STs, in the social health indices8221;. This revelation is shocking. But the comparison disturbs me. Does it mean that it is a sin to be born into an SC/ST family? It would have been far better to have stated that Muslims and SC/STs are underprivileged, uneducated and don8217;t have money in comparison with their upper-caste and middle-class counterparts. While the government comes up with various initiatives to help SCs/STs or OBCs through quotas and other schemes, Muslims are addressed through the prism of vote-bank politics. This, in fact, is the main reason for their backwardness.

8212; B.K. Chatterjee, Faridabad

Some merit

8226; SEEMA CHISTI, in her piece, 8216;Minority report, in numbers8217; IE, October 22, would have us believe that Bollywood and cricket are two areas where 8216;simply merit8217; counts. This is indeed very funny, considering the serious tenor in which the article is written. It8217;s an open secret that Bollywood and cricket are the two fields where nothing moves without extraneous considerations, backdoor manoeuvres, black money and the mafia. Apparent noise about merit is just a camouflage to cover up the deep sleaze within.

8212; Sanjay Chaturvedi, Delhi

Fact finder

8226; ONE wonders where the Sachar panel got its literacy figures for 1965 and 1980, since no census exercises were held in those years. You will do a great favour to readers like me if you could enlighten us about the source of these statistics, or whether these are mere surmises and guesses? After all, the credibility of the panel report would depend on the credibility of its statistics.

8212; M.M.P. Kala Dehra Dun

Mission against mozz

8226; UNTIL a couple of months ago, malaria and dengue were not on the minds of the authorities. Now, after a delayed monsoon, we are in the midst of not only malaria, but chikungunya and dengue, too. This clearly establishes that those in charge of controlling the disease simply do not know what they are up against. Neither do they know what to do. Standard procedures for sanitation and maintaining cleanliness are not followed on a regular basis. Nobody seems to question the authorities as to why this is not done. The solution lies only in not allowing the mosquito to breed. It is time that something like a National Mission on Mosquito was formed and all the agencies that are involved in research, control and eradication of the diseases caused by this dreaded insect are brought under one single agency.

8212; S. Kamat; Alto Betim, Goa

Beach breach

8226; It is sad that, despite the Mumbai High Court8217;s directives, Sanjay Nirupam, the state Congress spokesman, has put up a pandal for 8216;chhat puja8217; on Juhu beach. Can such leaders who have no respect for law be expected to rule the country through fair practices? It is quite obvious that they have no real interest in any puja or God; it is a charade for cheap popularity if not votes. Does Nirupam not know this is tantamount to contempt of court? We wait to see if the court takes notice of the contravention.

8212; Harischandra Parasuram, Mumbai