Tags:
Journalism of Courage
This refers to the article, 8216;The beti-maru mindset8217; by Pamela Philipose IE, Sept 15. The writer has put all the blame for female foeticide on the medical community and has decried the small family norm without considering the fact that India faces a very serious threat from its growing numbers. If we talk at the macro-level, there is no denying that adverse sex ratio is increasing with passage of time and a day is not far off when the situation of China will get repeated in India. Secondly, female foeticide is wrong socially. But why don8217;t we address the cause of female foeticide: the poor status of women. I know a couple who after the birth of their second daughter took a bold decision not to have any more children some 35 years ago. Now when their daughters are married, the couple are left without any support in their old age. This is one reason why parents today have become cleverer and opt for pre-natal diagnostic tests to ensure at least one male child. If we want to save women, we have to raise their status to that of men. Unless this happens, female foeticide will continue.
8212; Rajiv Ahuja Parwanoo
8212; K.G. Acharya Mumbai
Uma dimmed
8226; One wishes that our media would learn from Lady Margaret Thatcher8217;s words that 8220;publicity is oxygen for terrorists8221;. Mercifully Uma Bharati, after the initial media blitz, was relegated from front pages to the inside pages and, now, is hardly mentioned at all. After her speech in Bidar/Udgir on 8220;foreign rule in Delhi and how under the new government 100 crore Indians do not know what is going to happen tomorrow8221; her fire seems to be petering out.
8212; Mukund B. Kunte New Delhi
Just one question
8226; Kudos to Murli Deora for his courage and outspokenness in writing a letter to PM reminding him about the unanimous decision taken by the parliamentary committee about five years ago to put a cap on FDI at 26 per cent for the insurance sector IE, Sept 13. But would Deora have taken such an unprecedented step had Sonia Gandhi been PM?
8212; K.R.P. Gupta On e-mail
Jaipal8217;s tax
8226; Apropos of the editorial, 8216;Licence raja8217; IE, Sept 14, this is one more result of universal adult franchise: leaders have been thrown up to head ministries without having even a bare knowledge of the problems and intricacies of the matters they handle.
8212; V. Narayanaswamy Chennai
Icon and image
8226; Two postage stamps bearing the likeness of V.D. Savarkar should be issued, differently coloured but each of the value of Rs 2.50. Millions of letters will then travel across the country with both stamps pasted on them to make up Rs 5. This will bring alive for the masses the man8217;s two radically different historical roles as well as his historic double-facedness 8216;Holding out for a hero8217;, IE, September 16.
8212; Mukul Dube Delhi
