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Journalism of Courage
• The raid raj by the Amarinder Singh government in Punjab needs to be checked. If senior officers can be jailed and tortured to the extent of vomiting blood for decisions taken on files, there is an undeclared emergency in that state. First singer Daler Mehndi was hounded by the police. The much publicised raids on him finally resulted in an apology from the Punjab Police. The arrest of senior IAS officer Gurnihal Singh Pirzada will further kill initiative in decision-making in the government. The Punjab Police will quietly withdraw the allegations later, but the mental damage to the senior officer and the humiliation of his family will remain forever.
—Rajesh Pandey Ahmedabad
Ugly Maharajah
• The reported comment by Air India’s director (operations) that “daughters of untouchables and cobblers cannot become air hostesses” has exposed the ugly heart that lies hidden beneath the smiling face of the Maharaja (‘A-I official faces stir over ‘caste slur’’, IE, February 19). Practising untouchability is forbidden in the Indian Constitution. With his comment, M.K. Hathi has shown his blatant disregard for the Constitution, and also demonstrated the attitude that prevails with regard to reservation in the offices of Air India.
Hathi’s alleged remark that “there are no beautiful women among the backward classes” smacks of a stereotypical portrait of the backward castes. If there were, indeed, no such bias in the minds of the deciding authorities in Air India, they should have made efforts to clarify their standpoint on reservation. However, the statement of the Director (Human Resources Development) Jitendra Bhargava that the allegations against Hathi are a frame-up, without clarifying the investigation that went into proving this is so, make the exercise seem like a cover-up. The National Campaign on Dalit Human Rights demands that action be taken against Hathi and if he is found guilty, he be made to tender an unconditional apology. Air India should also look into the appointments made so far and clarify its standing on the implementation of reservations.
—Paul Divakar Convenor, National Campaign on Dalit Human Rights On e-mail
• I was dumbstruck after reading ‘A-I official faces stir over ‘caste slur’’ (IE, February 19). On the one hand, the government is pouring public money in the India Shining campaign and on the other, Air India’s Director (Operation) M.K. Hathi opens the flood gates of his love for the medieval age when he allegedly holds forth on why daughters of untouchables and cobblers cannot become airhostess. The government must show him the door.
—Bidyut Kumar Chatterjee Faridabad
You deserve it
• Congratulations on the International Press Institute Award for outstanding Work in Journalism, which The Indian Express richly deserves. As a regular reader for decades, I share the pleasure of the management and staff of the Express group for bagging the coveted award. My suggestion for the future is that the paper must give more place for readers’ views on the editorial page.
—V.S. Venkatavaradan
Salem So filmi, so true
• Film makers who had incorporated scenes where prisoners made a daring escape by secretly making an underground tunnel or with the help of their accomplices disguised as cops, would now be thumbing their noses at those who dismissed such sequences as that which can “only happen in films”!
—V. Rajesh On e-mail
