MyVoice: Views of our readers 31st July 2025
Laudable move by CM
I applaud Chief Minister Revanth Reddy’s initiative to make Hyderabad an eco-friendly and pollution-free city. The plan to relocate pollution-causing industries from the core city to the Outer Ring Road limits is a step in the right direction. With Hyderabad’s current Air Quality Index (AQI) at 67 (Moderate) and PM2.5 levels at 18 µg/m³, it’s essential to take proactive measures. I urge citizens to support this initiative and work together to reduce pollution. Let’s make Hyderabad a cleaner, greener city for future generations.
K Sridevi Tejaswani, Hyderabad
Cong cuts a sorry figure in Parliament
Oddly enough, the Congress Party’s Lok Sabha member, Shashi Tharoor, maintaining a studied silence on the matter of debate on the subject of Operation Sindoor in Lok Sabha,speaks louder. It is a sorry state that a national party like Congress is finding itself difficult to emerge out of its worn out political exigencies and thereby unwittingly indulging in platitudes tending towards playing into the hands of our hostile neighbour,otherwise internationally acclaimed as the only country exporting terrorism. Opposition should not be for mere opposition sake, especially when it is a matter of national integrity and affects internal maintenance of law and order.
Seshagiri Row Karry, Hyderabad
Operation Mahadev affirms operational excellence
The successful culmination of Operation Mahadev marks a defining moment for India’s counter-terror operations. This outcome affirms both the operational excellence of India’s security forces and the persistent threat posed by Pakistan-backed terror outfits. Islamabad’s routine denials stand exposed, as India now possesses actionable evidence to rally global diplomatic pressure. Operation Mahadev delivers long-awaited justice for the 26 innocent lives lost and sends a strong signal to adversaries: India’s pursuit of justice is unwavering. Terrorists may run, but they cannot hide forever. Sovereignty will be defended—and accountability enforced, regardless of timelines or terrain.
N Sadhasiva Reddy, Bengaluru
Is SIR a threat to Indian democracy?
Continuing the “futile” special intensive revision (SIR) of the voter rolls in Bihar and extending the exercise to the rest of the country “poses one of the biggest threats Indian democracy has faced”, a group of former civil servants has said in an open letter. Joined under the banner of the ‘Constitutional Conduct Group’, 93 retired officers from the three all-India and various Union government services warned on Tuesday (July 29) that the Election Commission (EC)’s SIR may disenfranchise “a very large segment” of Bihar’s voting population and the manner of its conduct is bringing the poll body into “grave disrepute”. The ex-civil servants said the EC has inverted long-standing precedent by putting the onus on the elector to prove their citizenship, effectively given itself the authority to confer or take away citizenship rights without a constitutional mandate to do so, and conferred “extraordinary discretionary powers” to officials “to indulge in rent seeking to remove or add voters”.The evidence of such fraud in the very first stage of the SIR vitiates the entire SIR process and undermines those very constitutional processes that the EC claims to be following”.
The continuation of this futile exercise and its proposed extension to the rest of the country, especially when all that is required is routine updation of existing data in the regular course of the EC’s scheduled activities, poses one of the biggest threats Indian democracy has faced, from the very institution that is meant to uphold the system of universal suffrage.
Bhagwan Thadani, Mumbai