Editor,
I write in frustration at the extremely slow pace of approval of appointments to the position of lecturers and assistant professors in deficit colleges. I have been waiting for my appointment to be approved and it’s already been a year, with no news. Those around me tell me to wait as it usually takes this long or even longer but can I ask why this long delay is being normalized? Should we all stay passive and let things carry on this way? If teachers are the ones preparing the leaders of tomorrow, should it not be a priority to ensure that the teachers also get what they deserve, and on time? Even teachers who put their heart and soul into teaching need monetary compensation to motivate them, because they are also part of the real world and need money to survive and meet their needs. I have been working for a year without receiving the remuneration promised for sanctioned posts. Further, may I ask why some colleges are secretive about the process and why there is no transparency in letting the concerned new recruits know about the status of the approval process?
I request the concerned authority in the Education Department to give ear to the plight of many teachers who are waiting for the approval. I also request my present and future colleagues not to normalize such delays but stand up for their rights and raise their voices. Taking 1-2 years for approval is not normal.
Yours etc.,
(An agitated victim of the protracted approval process)
Name withheld on request,
Via email
Hassles of politics
Editor,
Apropos of the editorial “Instinct under pressure” (ST August 20 2024) political reflexes are challenging to predict due to several factors. Politics involves human behaviour, which is inherently complex and influenced by myriads of factors including emotions, personal experiences and social dynamics. Public opinion can shift rapidly due to new information, events or changes in societal values. Polls and surveys capture a snapshot in time, but they cannot always predict future changes? Media coverage and social media can significantly influence public perception and political opinions. The rapid spread of information and misinformation can lead to unpredictable shifts in public sentiments. Economic conditions, social issues and unexpected events can all impact political reflexes. These factors are often outside the control of politicians and can lead to sudden changes in voter behaviour. While polls are useful, they have limitations. Sampling errors, non-response biases, and the difficulty of reaching a representative sample can all affect the accuracy of polls. These elements combine to make political reflexes difficult to predict with certainty.
It is a fact that being in the Opposition is starving the constituents. No matter how any party educates the electorate not to expect money or freebies, money is what money does. So, it is useless to enlighten those who will grab money when they get it. That is why the Khasis say “Lada phi don ruh pisa lada phim don ruh pisa”. China keeps its army at home, where its people are, US politicians on both sides of the same electoral coin are supporting the genocidal Israeli regime as it massacres Palestinian children, in an attempt to advance US imperial interests in West Asia. Look at what the US has done to Syria, Libya and Iraq and now Bangladesh. The US government is not ultimately concerned about “legitimacy,” because Americans have been denied a system of consultative democracy. The editor may be correct in stating that, “there is no such thing as distributing freebies in the US.” But it is an open secret that the US government is instead focused on maximizing corporate profits, privatizing public institutions, and preparing for more war. The editor has rightly pointed out that, “The Congress Party in Khasi-Jaintia Hills has been in the dog-house because it lacks charismatic leadership.” And another thing is that there is no second rung leader in the Congress party. The old enjoy bulldozing the energy of the young and the charismatic ones.
Yours etc;
VK Lyngdoh,
Via email
Stones from glass houses
Editor,
Stephen Leacock’s “Old proverbs Made New” was in our Higher Secondary syllabus. Leacock says that someone should rewrite English proverbs since they are old now. They do not fit in our world anymore. In fact, many of the old proverbs, he argues, are opposite to the new world facts. He cites an English proverb that says, “People who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones”, implying the people who have faults should not criticise other people for having similar faults.
On this, he argues, “They are the very people who ought to throw stones and to keep on throwing them all the time. They ought to keep up such a fusillade of stones from their glass house that no one can get near it. Or if the proverb is taken to mean that people who have faults of their own ought not to talk of other people’s faults, it is equally mistaken. They ought to talk of other people’s faults all the time so as to keep attention away from their own.”
Plenty of instances now demonstrate that Leacock’s advice is being followed verbatim by some. First, let us focus on the chronology of events in Uttarakhand. The Uttarakhand Police arrested independent journalist and Jago Uttarakhand editor Ashutosh Negi, based on a complaint lodged by a Pauri Garhwal resident on March 5, 2024. The journalist famously raised his voice for justice to Ankita Bhandari the 19-year-old receptionist who was killed at a resort near Rishikesh, allegedly by the resort owner and two accomplices in September 2022. Her body was found in a canal after she went missing over a week. The main accused in this case is the son of a former BJP Minister in Uttarakhand.
Cut to August 2024. The mutilated body of a 33-year-old nurse at a private hospital was found in Rudrapur, Uttarakhand on August 8. She was allegedly strangled to death, and her head was smashed with a stone after being sexually assaulted. This heinous crime was committed on her when she was returning home from work. Five days later a teenage girl had been gang-raped inside a stationary private bus at the inter-state bus terminus in Dehradun, Uttarakhand, on August 13.
Two days later on August 15, while commenting on the rape and murder case at the R.G. Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata, Uttarakhand Assembly Speaker said, “It is very shameful that such a thing happened in a state which is known for its celebration of Navratri and Durga Puja.” Given the chronology of these events and the NCRB report that declared Kolkata as the safest city in India for the third consecutive year from 2020 to 2022, on the basis of the least number of cognisable offences per lakh population among metropolises, this is a case of, “the pot calling the kettle black.”
Now, coming to what happened at the R.G. Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata, I fully support the movement for justice against the criminal or criminals who killed the trainee doctor. At the same time, I also want a movement against the criminals who committed heinous crimes in Uttarakhand and other parts of our country.
Gender violence, be it in Hathras, Kathua, Unnao, Uttarakhand, Manipur, Bihar, Kolkata or be it against Bilkis Bano or women wrestlers must be condemned by people in general and by the media in particular, irrespective of the political dispensation in power.
Never did I imagine that I would have to see rapists and murderers being honoured in public. But that had been done with the convicts in the Bilkis Bano case by a group of people.
Yours etc.,
Sujit De,
Kolkata