Our violent kids•The shooting episode at the Euro International School in Gurgaon ‘Gurgaon teen takes Dad.’ may well prove that such incidents are no longer confined to the West. What people fail to acknowledge is that such incidents also reflect the impact of the high level of violence shown in movies, serials, commercials and computer games. Such depiction of violence subliminally incites aggressive behaviour and desensitises children to the consequences of violence. They come to accept higher and higher levels of violence in society or even commit crimes like stabbing, acid-throwing, and even shooting. Over the last three decades or so, violence in the media has increased many-fold. Since ordinary people can do little to influence media content, parents and teachers need to play a pro-active role in overseeing what children watch on television and instil in them an awareness of the dangers of such violence.— M. SalahuddinMumbaiHardliner in charge•This refers to your editorial on ‘BJP (Advani)’. While it is the BJP’s prerogative to choose its prime-ministerial candidate, one must not forget that the octogenarian L.K. Advani is a Hindu fanatic who led the Ayodhya movement which ended with the Babri Masjid demolition. It was Advani’s hawkish image that made him unacceptable to the BJP’s coalition partners nine years ago. Have those parties changed their mind?— Bidyut Kumar Chatterjee FaridabadEqual checks •In the editorial, ‘‘Question of honour’, you rightly call for doing away with the ‘warrant of precedence’, so that the feudal practice of deferring to those in authority could be done away with. Let us admit that our politicians behave feudally once they become legislators. And then they demand and obtain many privileges at enormous public expense. To them power translates into perks and money, and their kith and kin become unacknowledged ‘royals’ to their constituents. This, in fact, is among India’s many woes. Only a handful of legislators and ministers, are humble and sincere in their dealings with ordinary people, and are otherwise free from the taint of corruption. You cannot legislate out of existence every social and political evil, yet it cannot be denied that our politicians ordinarily refuse to believe that there are limits to their power, unless and until hauled up before courts.— Prasad Malladi Basivireddypeta, AP•Your editorial, ‘‘Question of honour’, makes the newspaper’s distaste for feudal legacies known. The obscure practice of giving exemptions to a chosen few at the airport security check point has to be done away with. Our country is being built by people from every strata. No job is more or less significant and no person is unimportant. This is a legacy we inherit from the father of the nation who travelled by third class throughout the country.—K.P. UdayabhanuNew DelhiDoer of Jallianwala •This refers to the news item, ‘Now, photo of Gen Dyer at museum kicks up a row’. In my opinion there is nothing wrong in placing a photograph of General Dyer at the Sikh Museum, as he is part of the history of Punjab. His black deeds should be inscribed on a plaque near the portrait, but it should not be removed. Alongside it, we must have a photograph of Shaheed Udham Singh who went to England, killed the general and demonstrated true Punjabi courage.— Dalip Singh Ghuman Chandigarh
