Editor,
It is a matter of great pride and joy and also a very important diplomatic scoring point that Wing Commander Abhinandan Vartaman the real hero of India has come back safely after fighting in the air to defend India’s honour and glory. It is also heartening that we still have these live heroes as role models for our young ones to learn valour from. India unfortunately is a country where politicians make the loudest noise and speak with a pomposity that is so repulsive. The armed forces give their all for this country including flying on aircrafts that are outdated in order to put paid to the plans of enemy planes. Politicians across party lines have always quibbled about purchase of defence equipments. Will they at least agree to a joint meeting each time they have to do major defence purchases. It is a shame that every defence deal should end up as a scam in this country. This should end once and for all!
As citizens we can do our bit by showing respect to the silent warriors that guard our borders and our skies. It makes me cringe to watch retired generals frothing at the mouth in TV studios and shouting down those with a different opinion from them. Why can’t these former generals speak with the dignity expected of leaders of one of the world’s largest armies? Incidentally we see only army generals on TV news channels. Admirals and Air Marshals are not regulars in TV studios. Hats off to them for maintaining that discreet distance!
We salute the Vartaman family for producing two generations of fighter pilots for the country. You deserve all our respect.
Yours etc.,
KM Mishra,
Via email
Walk the talk Mr CM
Editor,
Apropos to our Chief Minister who went on record to say that young people should start looking beyond government jobs sounds hollow. The question is where is the infrastructure and the atmosphere that can allow job creation? We must understand that there is a lot of nepotism, corruption and misinformation concerning vacancies related to government posts available in various departments from the state level down to the block level. There are post retirement benefits given to so-called loyal servants of politicians and such appointments block the future promotion of others deserving candidates. Secondly, how does the job scenario change when the land tenure holding system is itself flawed by not allowing investment to come in that can provide jobs to many educated unemployed people of our state. We are sitting on a time bomb that would explode into chaos due to rising unemployment. Sometimes hard decisions need to be taken in a holistic manner in the overall Interest of the future.
Yours etc…
Dominic S. Wankhar
Shillong-3
Scientific temper
Editor,
National Science Day is celebrated across India every year to commemorate the discovery of the Raman Effect by Dr. CV Raman. He got the Nobel prize in Physics in 1930 for this discovery which happened on 28 February 1928. The basic objective of National Science Day is to propagate the message of the importance of science and its application among the people. The objective of this day of making people aware of the importance of science is necessary to help us discharge our fundamental constitutional duty “to develop the scientific temper, humanism and the spirit of inquiry and reform;” as enshrined in Article 51A (h) of our Constitution.
Unfortunately, there is not enough effort to fight against regressive prejudices. It is an irony that Narendra Dabholkar had to give his life for his endeavour to rescue India from the narrow lane which is potholed with myths, superstitions and prejudices to the constitutional highway of scientific temper. Given that advertisements for vashikaran for taming a person go mushrooming day in, day out, they must have been doing a brisk trade. This means that the umpteenth number of our brothers and sisters are being slow poisoned in the name of vashikaran or taming!
It is said that every cloud has a silver lining. It is really significant that amidst the hullabaloo over whether women from the age of ten to fifty can enter the Sabarimala temple; a documentary film ~ Period. End of Sentence ~ has got this year’s Academy Award. The producer of this film is an Indian. This film reportedly is all about the fight of a group of women against the prejudices associated with menstruation in rural India. The film is a reflection of the real fight against prejudices which are fought every day by some people in our country. They have been trying to save us from having a Period. End of Scientific Temper.
Yours etc.,
Sujit De,
Via email