Editor,
After Rahul Gandhi was appointed AICC President this is the first time he is visiting Meghalaya. It is good that a musical festival of peace is organised by the MPCC to honour the Father of the Nation, Mahatma Gandhi on his death anniversary and that Rahul Gandhi will be present at the concert. A lot has been said against Mahatma Gandhi mainly by detractors of the Congress Party but that will not take away from his noble contribution of bringing independence to this country. It is easy to sit back and criticize the Mahatma and Jawaharlal Nehru and other freedom fighters who have made immense sacrifice for creating this nation. Meghalaya is known to be a state that respects its honoured guests and to give them a patient hearing. Many of us young students who have never heard Rahul Gandhi speak in person would love to be present at the Polo ground to hear him and also to listen to the musical performances from some of Meghalaya’s most reputed bands.
Yours etc.,
Lakyntiew Nongpluh,
Via email
Can RG change the Congress’ fortunes through the musical fest?
Editor,
The Meghalaya Congress Committee has made elaborate arrangements for holding a music extravaganza mostly meant for the youth of Meghalaya in the fifth ground of Polo Ground where Rahul Gandhi will be the Chief Guest (and perhaps he may address the crowd). The whole purpose is not exactly to celebrate peace as it was announced in the glamourised displayed advertisement in the media but primarily to net in the youth into the Congress bag for the 2018 Assembly elections.
The youth and music lovers may turn up at the event not to see Rahul and to hear his speech but for the sake of music that will be played at the ground. The reason is because by now all the people of India and of Meghalaya, including the youth, know who Rahul Gandhi is and what his worth. Everyone knows that he is the President of the Indian National Congress (INC) and there is nothing great about that, because unlike in the past the INC has lost its importance after losing election after election in India during last four odd years. So the idea of holding this Music Fest is unlikely to succeed and to achieve its purpose. Moreover, launching a musical event is not the correct way of launching the elections campaign. The correct way is let an elections campaign be launched in Shillong Polo ground where Rahul Gandhi will address the crowd and let us see how many people will attend it and let us also see how many seats the Congress can win in 2018.
The bottom line is that no amount of musical fests and addresses by Rahul will save the battered Congress in Meghalaya or turn the fortunes of the Party in the 2018 elections to the state Assembly. Please to do not fool the people.
Yours etc.,
Philip Marwein,
Via email
Whither national unity?
Editor,
The Centre’s decision to lift the income ceiling on its scheme which provides Rs. 2.5 lakh to every inter-caste couple provided the bride or the bridegroom is a Dalit; has rightly been hailed as a welcome move by your editorial, “Inter-caste marriage” (ST, Jan 29, 2018).
One hundred years ago, Tagore diagnosed the disease of our national disharmony as physical repulsion between different castes. A country cannot prosper without national unity. The religious prejudices that create walls of caste, creed and religion among us, can divide the country and endanger national unity. Such prejudices are so strong that they prevent us from interacting with our own countrymen. It is a shame that many people of our country including some of those who have had so called higher education still practice untouchability!
We need to reflect on Tagore’s lecture titled, “Nationalism in India,” which was delivered one hundred years ago in 1917. He had said, “When our nationalists talk about ideals they forget that the basis of nationalism is wanting. The very people who are upholding these ideals are themselves the most conservative in their social practice. Nationalists say, for example: look at Switzerland where, in spite of race differences, the people have solidified into a nation.
Yet, remember that in Switzerland the races can mingle, they can intermarry, because they are of the same blood. In India there is no common birthright. And when we talk of western nationality we forget that the nations there do not have that physical repulsion, one for the other, that we have between different castes here.
Have we an instance in the whole world where a people who are not allowed to mingle their blood, shed their blood for one another except by coercion or for mercenary purposes? And can we ever hope that these moral barriers against our race amalgamation will not stand in the way of our political unity? Then again we must give full recognition to this fact that our social restrictions are still tyrannical, so much so as to make men cowards.
Unfortunately, walls of apathy between and among us are very much prevalent in our country. As a result, intermarriage among Indians still remains a far cry. India Human Development Survey (IHDS) figures that while 26.9 per cent of marriages are among inter economic group, only 6.1 per cent inter-caste and 2.7 per cent interreligious marriages have taken place in our country in 2001-2005.
Even this microscopic figure of inter-caste and inter-religious marriage invites honour killings. According to statistics from the United Nations, one in five cases of honour killings, internationally every year come from India. Indeed, physical repulsion among us is the stumbling block to achieving our national unity.
Yours etc.,
Sujit De,
Kolkata