Editor,
In reply to a letter sent to the paper, “No Nation for atheists”, firstly I’d like to remind the authors of that letter that under article 25-28 of the Constitution of India, freedom of religion in India is a fundamental right. Every citizen of India has the right to practice and promote their religion peacefully. So yes, India is a nation for atheists as well as Christians, Hindus, Muslims, Judaism and every religion under the sun. We have the right to believe in whatever we choose to and I am not too familiar with atheism but as far as my understanding goes it is an absence of the belief in god or gods and atheists have every right to do so. Freedom of speech does allow us to say what we think regarding other people’s beliefs to some extent, unless it incites hate but no one has any right to tell people what to believe in. That’s as far as I’ll go into atheism and constitutional freedoms due to my lack of knowledge and understanding.
What I want to focus on is Christianity. I am a Christian myself, was born a Christian and now I can say that I am a practicing Christian, albeit not a very good one. I feel there’s a difference between being born a Christian and actually practicing it. Based on my understanding and what I try to practice as a Christian, Christianity is supposed to be a religion rooted in love. The foundation of our belief is that God loved us so much that he sent his only son to save us and his two greatest commandments to us is to love God and love one another. And we are supposed to share that love with others who do not know about it. However I’ve seen in this particular instance and many more that we are far away from practicing what our God commanded us to do. Instead of talking about God’s love, we Christians tend to stand on a pedestal, thinking we are better than everyone. That our God has made us better than everyone else, because of Him we can tell people how bad they are and how good we are. We are full of pride in our belief, however our own God says that pride comes before a fall. We want to talk to others about our God, however, instead of approaching those who do not believe in our God with love, we approach them in a judgmental manner, pointing out their wrongdoings, telling them of their shortcomings. This is a far cry from the teaching of our God. Remember just because we believe in our God does not make us any less of a sinner. If we want to share our beliefs let us do so in a humble manner, not with condescension as this will only alienate us and make people less willing to listen.
I’d like to end by saying that I have many atheist friends and friends of other beliefs and I can say they act in a more Christian manner than many, myself included. As Christians let us remind ourselves to approach every situation not in a haughty manner but with love the way our God would want us to do.
Yours etc.,
Gavin Siangshai,
Via email
Injustice towards private school teachers
Editor,
I would like to bring to the notice of the concerned authorities the plight of teachers working in small, private schools especially those run by a single owner. After thorough research it has been found that in most of these schools, the teachers are being deprived of their salary on the pretext that “ fees are not coming in,” whereas, teachers working in government or government aided schools are all drawing their full salary. Now, who is to be blamed for this? Should we blame the owners, who have lost all their professional ethics and are on the path of exploiting their teachers using the pandemic as an excuse? Don’t they have a reserve fund that can be used at the time of the financial crisis? Should we blame the government which has given permission to open such educational institutions but have never thought of following up with routine check-ups on the working pattern of these schools, the infrastructure, and above all the salaries paid to a teachers? Should we blame the Inspector of Schools or is this body meant to monitor only the government schools and not the private educational institutions?
Do teachers of private schools deserve such step-motherly treatment despite the fact that we are doing equal or more work compared to the government employed teachers? In this I would blame the Department of Education which has set rules on the criteria for a teacher whether serving in government or private schools but did not fix a minimum salary structure for the private school teachers who are, therefore, always left cheated. The Education Department is responsible for the mushrooming of schools but is keeping a distance from and not monitoring how these privately run institutions function.
One is left completely disillusioned by the injustices prevailing in privately run educational institutions and hope that justice will be done in the near future in remedying the plight of all the unfortunate teachers.
Yours etc.,
Name withheld on request,
Via email
Support local businesses
Editor ,
With the Corona Virus having turned life topsy-turvy, business and work is hugely affected. People are struggling to thrive and survive, hence it is very important for us as a community to be there for one another, especially when at such times we see so many local businesses being set up from home delivery for your daily groceries or even home delivery for your bakery items . Some businesses have been forced to temporarily close, and many others have had to scale back or change their operations completely. While it’s easy to feel powerless in a time like this, there are still a few things we can do to support our local businesses. We must remember that , there are a lot of advantages in deciding to “shop local.” By supporting local businesses, you are in turn supporting your local economy and significantly more money stays in a community when purchases are made at locally owned businesses. Local business owners don’t have the funds to go big so when you buy local you are going to be respecting that they are getting out there every day and trying their best to make an honest living even against all of the competition and the uncertainty that the pandemic has brought along with it .
There’s no question that the job market is tight these days especially with the pandemic going on unabated. Hence by shopping local, you are keeping a business open and giving people jobs within it so that you can help the local economy in more ways than one.
At the end of the day, it’s totally free to give a business a shout-out on social media, leave them a kind review, or hype them up through word-of-mouth.
Yours etc.,
Manisha M Pala,
Via email