Shining gloom?

Shining gloom? 8226; There are two parties responsible for the 8220;feel gloom8221; syndrome, ...

Shining gloom?

8226; There are two parties responsible for the 8220;feel gloom8221; syndrome, which has affected India since independence. The self-serving secular politicians are one; the other is the Indian media, particularly the English kind 8216;Wind up the ministry of gloom8217;, IE, June 12. They obsessed with the negatives and in their obsession they paint a sad picture of the state of India and Indians.
More interestingly, they also manage to twist facts to turn good positive news items into sad negative ones. The common Indian, the regional media and the foreign media, base their opinions on the reports of this English media. I believe that the Indian media should take the initiative to 8220;wind up the ministry of gloom8221;. Rather than focus on the negatives, it should bring out the positives of Indian lives. True we have our share of problems but so does every other country. Rather than amplifying them, the media should encourage itself as well as its readers to go out into the field and find solutions, encourage debate and build healthy public opinion on those issues.

8212; Ashutosh Varshney On e-mail

Gujarat8217;s loss

8226; It is painful for Gujaratis like us to read statements by BJP leaders commending Narendra Modi for winning 126 assembly seats out of 182 in the 2002 assembly elections, and then going on to win three by-elections. What are they trying to say? That the Gujarat carnage of 2002 was a successful experiment to win the election? It is also unfortunate to listen Atal Bihari Vajpayee, who also narrows down the Gujarat carnage as an issue of winning or losing elections. He states that the violence in Gujarat could have been one of the reasons for the party8217;s defeat in the recent election. Both the trends inside the BJP are debating the violence in Gujarat as a reason for the defeat, or not, in recent election. So it is pretty clear that even Vajpayee is not feeling sorry for the Gujarat carnage which was a Crime Against Humanity. Defeat in an election seems to be his prime concern. It is also unfortunate that the media is not trying to expand the issue beyond the wining or losing of the election.

8212; Trupti Shah Vadodara

Let8217;s debate

8226; With reference to the report IE, June 9, regarding the government8217;s proposal for job quotas for SCs and STs in the private sector, could we request the country8217;s media to initiate a serious debate on the issue at the earliest? Since there is a lot of misgivings about the marginalisation of merit in the wake of caste based quotas in employment, an objective survey of the work and contribution of the beneficiaries of such affirmative action is called for and the silent reservation for select upper castes practiced by the establishment remembered, while considering extension of job quotas to other spheres in the wake of shrinking employment opportunities in the public sector. Institutional well-being and work efficiency are equally important and surely need to be balanced with social justice imperatives. But going by the overwhelming dominance of the twice born in the list of those exposed in recent corruption scandals, the deep seated prejudice regarding the commitment and capabilities of our hard working 8216;shudras8217; deserves a second look with policy makers.

8212; Devesh Vijay Delhi