Progeny power

The letter 8216;Teeming millions8217; by A.K. Sharma, exposes his ignorance of the first principles of human resource development.

Progeny power

The letter 8216;Teeming millions8217; by A.K. Sharma, exposes his ignorance of the first principles of human resource development. Yes, population should be controlled, but the poor who do not have any property, savings or any other form of economic security, find security in children, as they get more hands to work and earn 8212; even if that means more mouths to feed, to begin with. To the poor, their offsprings are an insurance against life. Economically secure people adopt population control out of fear of dividing property, and to spend more on what are called lifestyle choices, expensive education, high quality health care etc. Their choices about the number of children aren8217;t dictated by national needs. India is a welfare state and it is the republic8217;s constitutional responsibility to take care of the poor. I strongly feel that corruption, bureaucratic apathy, lack of political will and human resource utilisation are the main reasons why India has miserably failed to take care of its poor, and has in turn failed to control population. Recent reports reveal that of every rupee spent on welfare programme 78 paise goes to administrative and delivery cost and the remaining 22 paise is at the mercy of the corrupt. How much actually reaches the target population? I feel that, instead of humiliating the poor by serving them leftovers, our intellectuals, policy makers and administrators should strive to make them stakeholders in the nation8217;s economic development. Only then we will be able to advocate population control to the poor successfully.

8212; Vitull K. Gupta

Bhatinda

Have we lost it?

Can I please be a spoilsport and say I am already sick of India losing its head again over cricket. Will we never learn? I have spent the morning today watching every TV anchor and any politician who could muscle his way into the melee, demonstrating that educated adults can easily and happily make a fool of themselves. Yes, it was great to watch a young team hold their nerve and there8217;s something infectious in their uninhibited display of emotion. But need we all go bananas to celebrate their victory? Will we remember this if Australia comprehensively defeats India in the one-day series starting this week?

8212; Daman Ahluwalia

Mumbai

Secularists8217; slur

Our secular brigade won8217;t say a thing against the

Christianity or Islam but can say horrid things about Hindu faiths, including against the Sikhs and Jains. For them Sikhs were plunderers while Lord Ram had no existence. The UPA government first submits an affidavit at the Supreme Court saying that Ram had no existence, followed by TN Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi, who went the UPA one better 8212; actually worse. That He was a drunkard and that he couldn8217;t have had an engineering degree to build the Setu.

The followers of Karunanidhi led by two ministers of his government, damaged not only the BJP office of TN but also the house of the state president of the BJP. What if just a few BJP followers had reacted to Karunanidhi8217;s remarks and pelted stones at his daughter8217;s residence in Bangalore? Though I do not at all approve of Ram Vilas Vedanti, I feel Karunanidhi must be punished for hurting our centuries-old faith by trying to sully our Maryada Purushottam.

8212; Harish Awasthi

New Delhi