Editor,
I fully agree with Bah Micheal Syiem of the Mait Shaphrang Movement that the Government is applying double standards in the implementation of the Supreme Court orders . While the police acted with speed and fervour in the removal of tinted glasses from the vehicles of particularly the ordinary citizens, they have however gone slack in the implementation of another order of the Hon’ble Court which is to restrict the truck load of coal to within nine tonnes. Any commuter on the national highway will notice that in the past few months many trucks are now glaringly carrying a load which is obviously much more than nine tonnes. It is strange that the law enforcers are blind to these flagrant violation of the order in spite of the numerous Police check gates, Transport Department weigh bridges, the Directorate of Mineral Resources(DMR) check gates, the Taxation gates all along the highway. The Jaintia Coal and Cement Truck Drivers Association has threatened to file a contempt petition against the State Government, the Wageasi Surrounding Area Development Committee has given a 48- hour deadline to this very same Government and recently local NGOs in West Khasi Hills District enforced a 500 hours bandh on the Aradonga road and all these are for the failure of the State Government to strictly and expeditiously implement the Supreme Court order. Yet this does not seem to jolt the people in the Government and it appears that the powers that be will go to the extent of even flouting Court orders to let the rich and the mighty get off scot-free while the ordinary citizens are harassed. It is also strange as to how our NGOs remain silent on this issue and are also always silent on the issue of the adverse effects that coal related activities have brought to the State. There is more to this than meets the eye.
Yours etc.,
Gilbert Rani,
Shillong-14
Too many holy cows!
Editor,
This is in response to the editorial “Experimenting with Censorship”(16 May).
Actually when any individual, linguistic-religious-caste group, political party or the society as a whole is insecure and lacks confident then we witness a hue and cry over harmless cartoons and the “offenders” are taken to task by wielding muscle or administrative power. Thus books of Salman Rushdie and Taslima Nasreen get banned, the latter even gets thrown out from Kolkata and is forced to lead a confined life in New Delhi. Any book or film “belittling” Shivaji gets instantly banned in Maharashtra. Books or articles depicting the married life of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose draw protests in West Bengal and particularly from a certain political party.
It is indeed shameful that the cartoon, which was not found objectionable either by Jawaharlal Nehru or BR Ambedkar, is being zealously and barbarically protested against by their self-appointed admirers! And the greatest misfortune remains that the authorities meekly succumb to the whims of the muscle-flexing groups and promptly ban such “objectionable” books or exterminate the “offending” authors. India goes gaga whenever Hillary Clinton visits the country. But the very same country is perhaps unaware of the fact that she invited those who produced cartoons lampooning her! Instead of boasting about India being the largest democracy in the world, Indians should first learn to appreciate the essence of democracy from the likes of Hillary Clinton, all truly progressive countries and from the likes of Nehru and Ambedkar who have been sadly reduced by their “followers” to mere “holy cows”.
Yours etc.,
Kajal Chatterjee,
Kolkata-114
