Editor,
This refers to your editorial “Triple Talaq” (ST, May 1, 2017). PM Modi has rightly urged Muslims to work together to find a way to end the much-criticised practice of Triple Talaq . Any rational person would agree that the practice of Triple Talaq needs to be abolished because of the way it results in the abuse of women. The real temper of the country is that people want this obnoxious practice to end. People do not want any discrimination against women on the basis of any religious faith. Divorce laws in India are such that there are cases of harassment of women by men by not giving divorce, thereby limiting opportunities for remarriage and vice versa. Muslims in India should encourage their community to follow the Indian law and order and keep religion out of it, like they expect Hindu religion not to influence politics in the name of secularism. Does Triple-Talaq offer any mechanism to review the intent to separate as does the courts today? We must put an end to this Stone Age practice of “Triple Talaq”, which is used by Muslim men to desert their wives. The only civilized way is a uniform civil code to ensure that every man and woman is treated equally, as promised by the Constitution of India.
Yours etc.,
Vinod C. Dixit
Ahmedabad -15
Dastardly killing of 25 CRPF Jawans
Editor,
The mass killing of the innocent cannot be justified by sane people. But in India, a certain section of scholars have gone quite insane so much so that they defend all such cruelties upon humanity. What is more shocking is that some are often complicit behind the scenes. They hardly hesitate to coax the subversive forces into committing the crime. Well, post the dastardly killing of 25 CRPF jawans in Sukma a clear picture has emerged. Though not published, some media elites are hell-bent to prove the killing as a justified retaliation. A prominent journalist of ‘India Today Group’ Rajdeep Sardesai had hurried himself to invite Nalini Sundar to his studio for her opinion. Sundar, a professor of Delhi University, has long earned a bad name for taking a pro-Maoist stance and inciting anti-national forces. She is also involved in several Naxalite activities, apart from the charge of murder of a tribal man in Chhattisgarh. The formal complaint against Rajdeep Sardesai has already been sent to ‘India Today’ by Vinay Joshi, the convener of Legal Rights Observatory. Well, this is how the sharp edge of the freedom of expression has been bruising the heart of the nation.
Incidentally, with the credibility of the media sagging, the former Editorial Director of ‘The New York Times’, who is currently Editor in Chief of ‘Huffington Post’, Lydia Polgreen has very recently echoed her deep displeasure. With anguish she expressed her regret — ‘the trust of the general masses in the media is a historic low’. One reliable American media agency, ‘Pew Research Center’ lately, after an exhaustive survey, has come up with a very disquieting finding. It has revealed that 82% of the news audiences are disillusioned with the biased attitude and distorted reporting of media houses. Many have already held media as the ‘enemy of the American people’ — as famously retorts the US President Donald Trump. Should not all this grim fact, now directly from the horse’s mouth, get our Indian journalists/columnists to have a serious introspection of themselves?
Given the daily ranting and raving in TV studious and outrageously devious inclination of the media fraternity, one is not surprised if a dreaded murderer Charles Sobhraj is cordially invited from the “Jail room” to the newsroom for his precious opinions if ever a robbery and murder happens in some places, to get his expert opinion. Who knows very soon some TV channels might send a free air ticket with security to Hafeez Mohd Saeed, co-founder of Lashkar-e-Taiba, or take him through the hotline, to lash out at India as to how the terrorists are heartlessly shot down by the Indian army! Have we not heard enough from the media that the “innocent” stone-pelters in Jammu and Kashmir have been harassed round-the-clock by Indian army?
Yours etc.,
Salil Gewali
Shillong-2
Let’s remember real heroes
Editor,
During the Champaran Satyagraha movement, 100 years ago, a cook, Battakh Mian Ansari had divulged the conspiracy by forbidding Mahatma Gandhi to drink poison-laced milk. He was made to pay the price for disobeying W. S. Erwin’s order. He was tortured and was fired from his job. His home was razed to the ground and his land was confiscated. India should honour such great souls and help their heirs for silently contributing to India’s freedom struggle at the cost of everything.
Yours etc.,
Sujit De,
Kolkata