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This is an archive article published on June 30, 2012
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Opinion Unequal partners

A society’s maturity should indeed be judged by how it treats its women

The Indian Express

June 30, 2012 01:07 AM IST First published on: Jun 30, 2012 at 01:07 AM IST

Unequal partners

* A society’s maturity should indeed be judged by how it treats its women. In spite of our culture placing women on a pedestal and our government passing laws to improve their lot,they continue to face discrimination,injustice and inequality. Male leaders don’t seem to be keen on being joined by female colleagues. Nothing vouches for this better than the women’s reservation bill,which has been lying in cold storage for a long time.

— Satwant Kaur

Mahilpur

Long shadows

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* IN HIS article ‘The right turn for BJP’ (IE,June 25) Ashutosh Varshney suggests that Chief Minister Narendra Modi reach out to Gujarat’s Muslims for “purely electoral reasons”. Yet the terrible loss suffered by Muslims in the riots of 2002 cannot be brushed under the carpet. Modi has shown no regret for the massacres in the wake of Godhra. There is little reason for Muslims in Gujarat to respond to his overtures now.

— J.S. Bandukwala

Vadodara

Playing the field

* IT IS too early to predict that the BJP will emerge victorious in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls. Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar touched a raw nerve when he objected to Narendra Modi being a potential prime ministerial candidate,saying the NDA should field a secular leader (‘Nitish slams Modi: NDA’s PM bidder must have secular image’,IE,June 15). His remarks come at a bad time. The NDA is already finding it hard to cobble together consensus for a presidential candidate,which is a more immediate concern. The face-off between Nitish and Modi has added to the current turmoil in the BJP. The Bihar chief minister’s statement may also be calculated to win minority votes in his own state.

— J. B. Sunuwar

Bagrakote

Tough choices

* THIS refers to ‘Modi vs Nitish’ (IE,June 25). Regional players have become so strong that they have begun to challenge the sway of the national parties,the Congress and the BJP. Coalition politics seems to be here to stay. Given its present condition,the Congress will be fighting for survival in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls. The BJP,meanwhile,must decide if it wants to hold on to its Hindutva agenda at the cost of losing potential allies. After all,the party is not the strong force that it was in the 1990s.

—- Bal Govind

Noida

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* IF Narendra Modi wins Gujarat again this year,the BJP might have no choice but to nominate him as its prime ministerial candidate. In the meantime,the party must make it clear to Nitish Kumar and the JD(U) that they cannot dictate terms to the BJP.

— M.C. Joshi

Lucknow

Slow motion

* THIS refers to ‘Abu Jundal: Wanted all over for strikes everywhere’ (IE,June 29). Although one of the major players behind 26/11 has been nabbed,it could be years before he is sentenced and punished. Our law-and-order machinery is slow to move in such cases. Take the cases of Afzal Guru and Ajmal Kasab. Both were awarded death sentences but are still housed in Indian jails. Crores of the taxpayer’s money have been spent in the process.

— N. Mahadevan

Mumbai