Letters to the editor

Gaining admission into prestigious institutions in this country is an enterprise fraught with difficulties which include elaborate entrance tests and gruelling interviews.

Gaining admission into prestigious institutions in this country is an enterprise fraught with difficulties which include elaborate entrance tests and gruelling interviews. It is refreshing, therefore, to consider a period when making it through the portals of a well-considered college like St Stephen8217;s was considerably less stressful than it is today. Delhi-based Mahindar Singh8217;s anecdote 8216;A curious admission8217;, IE, July 7 does more than tickle the funny bone. It raises the question whether those who head educational institutions have lost the ability to divine the individual needs of a student, given their rat-race today.

Letter of the Week

8226; AS an old Stephanian, I read with keen interest the piece, 8216;How I got cured of my St Stephen8217;s fixation8217; 8216;Writeback8217;, IE, July 4. It prompts me to relate my story that dates back 74 years. In May 1933, on passing my matriculation, I went for admission to St Stephen8217;s College, then located at Kashmere Gate. My elder brother, an alumnus of the neighbouring Hindu College, took me to the St Stephen8217;s principal, the late S.N. Mukherjee. The minimum qualification for entering this college then was a first division, which I had, but the principal did not look at my marks. Instead he looked at my face and told me to take off my coat, pull up the sleeves of my shirt, and touched my arm muscles, remarking that physically I was quite weak and that he would admit me into St Stephen8217;s on the condition that I join their main hostel opposite the college building. The hostel had a gymnasium and I had to exercise regularly there. Although my brother had a house in New Delhi and I wanted to be a day scholar, I was forced to stay in the hostel for a couple of years!

Maoism8217;s shadow

8226; I FEEL the editorial, 8216;Lal fortress8217; IE, July 12 is way off the mark when it suggests that the state must impose its writ as Musharraf did on those intent on subverting law and order. Can the UPA advocate a Lal Masjid-like operation for the Naxalites? You have not analysed the ground realities prevalent in areas that are fast coming under the shadow of Maoism. The affected areas cover an estimated 160 districts out of the 600-plus districts in the country. The causative factors are largely socio-economic in nature. Maoists are products of an inefficient, corrupt and decaying system. Maoists have a cause and have tapped successfully into a deep well-spring of anger and desperation among India8217;s poor and deprived. I think if the Indian state had continued to do what it did immediately after independence 8212; provide economic security, land distribution, a corruption-free environment without victimisation and suppression, decentralisation of powers to people at the village levels, and making the poor stake-holders in economic development from the very beginning 8212; Naxalism would have never been born in India.
I strongly feel things can improve only if a holistic policy, aimed at ensuring employment and social justice, is adopted.
8212; Vitull K. Gupta Bhatinda

Aiding AIDS scare

8226; THIS is in reference to your report, 8216;Before it became official8230;8217; IE, July 12. I personally agree that India8217;s AIDS scare is exaggerated. There are many contributory factors for over-estimating these figures, including faulty random survey records and a proliferating number of NGOs working in AIDS awareness and control programmes. They play a significantly negative role merely in inflating the numbers because of the huge foreign funding available to them.
8212; Nagesh Tekale Mumbai