Opinion Delhi High Court blast

One striking feature about the blast is the responsibility audaciously claimed by Harkat-ul-Jihad al-Islami (HuJI) coupled with the threat of terror attacks on other high courts and the Supreme Court. This threat has to be countered head on by strong counter-terrorism measures. It is virtually impossible to police large metropolitan cities like Mumbai and Delhi. However,do we not have effective and reliable moles to alert us about impending future terror attacks? The Delhi High Court bomb blast could not have been conceived,prepared and executed within days. It is bound to have spread over a number of days. The May 25 bomb blast at the High Court very likely was a rehearsal. Did our concerned agencies not get any scent of this nefarious plot? Was this intelligence available and shared with the police? In that case,the police’s failure to act on it has perturbing implications. Top priority must be given for swift action on actionable intelligence.

Another striking feature was the hostility displayed by the kin of the injured persons towards some ministers and Rahul Gandhi during their visit to the hospital. Arguably,it was unnecessary. Nonetheless,it reflects the low stock of our netas.

If the aim of the bomb blast was to paralyse our judicial institutions,it miserably failed. The Delhi High Court,which interrupted its judicial work for some time on account of security reasons,started functioning throughout the day. The unmistakable message is that our judges and lawyers are made of sterner stuff and will not be cowed down by the cowardly acts of the militants. The homage paid by the Supreme Court and the Delhi High Court to the lawyers killed in bomb blast was indeed a fine and fitting gesture.

Religious freedom at workplace

IT is heartening that the mayor of New York,Michael Bloomberg,last week signed into law the Workplace Religious Freedom Bill. This law will ensure freedom for employees to practise their religious beliefs at their workplace like the police department and transit authority. In enacting the law,Mayor Bloomberg said that employers must make a ‘reasonable accommodation’ for an employee’s religious practises unless following such practices creates an ‘undue hardship’. Interpretation of these expressions will be the lawyers’ paradise. Bloomberg rightly highlighted the message of the newly enacted law namely that people should not have to choose between serving the city and adhering to their religious beliefs and all Americans should receive the full embrace of the country’s constitutional freedoms. This is a salutary step in ensuring Sikhs and other religious minorities are not excluded from jobs. The US example needs to be emulated in other countries,especially by France,which despite its strong secular credentials has imposed undue restrictions on the attire of the minorities and the religious symbols they can display.

Mutilation of English

ONE way to spoil your English,especially pronunciation,is by listening to some anchors of English channels. During the coverage of the Libya conflict,anti-Gaddafi rebels were pronounced as ‘reebels’. Emergency is pronounced as ‘Aemargency’ and uncertainty as ‘uncertanity’. One anchor said Mr So and So had ‘collided’ with Mr Y when he meant to say colluded. One noticeable feature is that our netas and public figures who speak good Hindi fluently cannot avoid English words like development,democracy and transparency in the course of their erudite discourse. What is the explanation? Could it be that they have not yet severed the unifying umbilical cord of the English language? Perhaps Mulayam Singhji and other members of the angrezi hatao brigade may shed light.