Opinion Letter to the Editor: Forced refugees

But the reason people gave the BJP a clear majority was because they believed the party’s promise to bring about change. But what we see today are a minority forced to become refugees in their own land.

faridabad lynching, attack on muslims, BJP, BJP nationalism, cow protection, cow vigilantes, india news, indian express

At the spot of the crime. Gajendra Yadav

June 28, 2017 01:46 AM IST First published on: Jun 28, 2017 at 01:46 AM IST

At the spot of the crime. (Express Photo: Gajendra Yadav)

This refers to the article, ‘May the silent be damned’ (IE, June 27). It’s unfortunate that incidents of lynching — something that was hardly heard of some years ago — are at an all-time high. What follows after such incidents is even scarier: The victim is portrayed as the criminal. Such scattered, but frequent, acts of violence do make dealing with them challenging. But the reason people gave the BJP a clear majority was because they believed the party’s promise to bring about change. But what we see today are a minority forced to become refugees in their own land.

Nishith Mehta, via e-mail

Debating education

This refers to the article, ‘Not for the children’ (IE, June 27, 2017). In his Union Budget speech in 2016, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley talked of a Higher Education Empowerment Regulation Agency to provide an enabling regulatory architecture to 10 public and 10 private institutions. This, he argued, would “enhance access to high quality affordable education for ordinary Indians”. This initiative was surprising given that the Union Cabinet decided to withdraw the UPA government’s Higher Education and Research Bill (2011) on the premise that centralisation of powers, instead of delegating functions to the state governments, was detrimental to India’s federal polity. Unfortunately, the government has decided to defer its action on the new policy and has reinforced the impression that it is trying to dodge a debate on reservations in educational institutions.

Shreyans Jain, Delhi

This refers to the article, ‘Not for the children’ (IE, June 27). Our expectations from the education system should be realistic. Comparing it with western standards serves no purpose. The West has enjoyed over 200 years of economic prosperity. Governments, both past and present, have taken satisfactory initiatives in education.

Sayantan Ghosh, Kolkata