MyVoice: Views of our readers - 11 Jan

CAA brings in new hope for those awaiting justice

The Central government has been able to fulfil its poll promise of granting citizenship to the people who belong to the six communities, who experienced persecution in the three Muslim countries of Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh.

Amongst huge reign of protests and the widespread negativity across the country, the Central Government has leaped forward to make CAA,2019 to come into play with immediate effect from the 10th of January 2020 through a gazette publication.

In a nut shell, the main objective as to why the Centre exhibited its valour in getting CAA bill to be an Act is to show its bleeding heart towards all those aggrieved people belonging to the six communities, who got divided in the 1947 partition by granting the Indian citizenship they have been devoid of, all these tormenting years.

The government is trying to set up a concept called citizenship by naturalisation for all the deprived people. There is no infringement of Right to equality just because the muslim community has been singled out.

The Muslims residing in three countries have got all the desired privileges under the Islam community (country religion) and the minority Hindu communities have been chosen to be given Indian citizenship.

Surprisingly, the people of Islam community in India began ridiculous agitations as they perceived that their community people in those three marked countries faced descrimination.

There are many apprehensions that if the people are granted Indian Citizenship, there will be a decline in the employment opportunities, suffer demographic fluctuations and most importantly some grave injustice has been done to the Muslims.

It is an incontrovertible truth that the people have not been given a prior scheme of information on such an ACT. This made the opposition parties to gain undue advantage of bestowing criticism and unnecessary ruckus.

We need to realise that the law makers will consider all the permutations and combinations before drafting any act.

Let's adopt to this new law that brings with it an ample of benefits to the people of the specified Hindu communities.

N Madhulika, Hyderabad

Where was Deepika during Nirbhaya agitation?

It is good that celebrity actor Deepika Padukone has shown solidarity with students of the JNU. As rightly said, Deepika is a free individual and she has constitutionally provided rights to affiliate with any political group she wishes.

She certainly has shocked most of her followers with her decision to go all the way to Delhi and stand with the likes of Kanhaiya Kumar and extend unconditional support to SFI on JNU.

Does the actor know that the Left-supported students and JNU student union were not allowing the students to study, continuously trying to create nuisance, mischief and ferocious activities inside the campus?

The violent form of protests by Left-leaning students' groups and SFI in these institutions are repeatedly done over the period of time. This is what the history and timeline of events tells about the Left-led violence in JNU.

However, this is shocking and we strongly condemn all form of violence. JNU can't become laboratory of violence led by Left students and students union in the country.

One wonders did Deepika or other film personalities ever bother to meet the grieving parents of Nirbhaya or Disha? Or for that matter what was their support for #me too movement in the film land ?

Deepika Padukone should utilise her popularity better to guide JNU students to concentrate more on studies rather than agitate on non- academic politics.

She certainly shocked most of her followers to their wits end, with her decision to go all the way to Delhi and stand with the likes of Kanhaiya Kumar and extend unconditional support to SFI on JNU campus recently.

Padmini Raghavendra, Secunderabad

Handle JNU with love and care

Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) is one among the most prestigious universities in India. Recently it has become an apple of discord among the elite political parties of India. An educational institution is one of the most important sacred places in the world.

A university is the epicentre of the fundamental unit of all sorts of educational activities. There is a purpose behind the establishment of universities which are run propelled by the pedagogical principles evolved by the great educational experts and philosophers.

The pious and sacred functions of universities are to amalgamate the subtle educational activities and create a willful ambience for the students so as to initiate the process of universalisation and globalization of education.

This is done purposefully to augment the transparency of educational procedures such a way to make it more feasible and affordable for the students of underprivileged and people from all classes irrespective of gender, caste, religion and social status.

Free and compulsory education is the fundamental rights of every individual. University students play the role of the custodians of the future educational and cultural revolution.

They are often treated as the stewards of modern education. Many social and cultural reforms are initiated by the students of many prestigious universities.

Regrettably the present situation in the JNU has turned worse and deplorable due to the rude, unfriendly and aggressive approach of the maculate administration.

The absence of transparency between the students and the administrators takes the situation from bad to worse.

JNU crisis began in 2016 when some of the students held a protest on their campus against the capital punishment apportioned to the 2001 Indian Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru.

The aftermath of this protest was quite dreadful and horrendous. This protest has further augmented tension in the campus and gradually led to a serious hostility between the left-wing students of the campus and the Indian regime.

Eventually in 1919 it consequently developed into an interminable dispute between the students and the government due to the protests broke out against the revised fee structure drawn up by the JNU administration under the then Vice Chancellor.

A special team should be assigned to deal with the issue impartially. Government will have to move heaven and earth to find a creative solution for this burning issue.

The attack on the students of JNU by the masked goons is disdainful and reprehensible. Unfortunately the perpetrators behind the attack have not been cornered and detained yet.

The police as well as the authority concerned of the University cannot sneak away from their responsibilities for being slow and sluggish in responding to the attack.

Educational institutions should not be the puppets of political party and students should never become political pawns.

The government concerned of the state and country will have to treat the students impartially without considering their ideological difference and should show loving conciliatory approach to them.

Prabhakaran Vallath, Vatakara, Kerala

Courage of conviction

It would be a mistake to look at Deepika Padukone's presence at a student protest against recent violence in JNU as yet another celebrity photo-op or blatant PR stunt.

India's dream factory is not known to take a strident stance on nightmares. Deepika has chosen to be an exception to this rule and her gesture is an example of courage under fire.

One might point to the silence of his business peers after Rahul Bajaj spoke of intolerance at a public event, and it is more than possible that other Bollywood A-listers will refuse to come out of their shell now, but that will mark them as cowards who portray tough guys on the screen but wimp out in reality.

Once upon a time in Bollywood, for more than a decade, Amitabh Bachchan represented the angst of India over corruption, unemployment, and lawlessness.

He played characters that celebrated the secular liberal traditions of India and preached high ideals from the cinematic pulpit.

At his peak, he was, India's Angry Young Man, and the quintessential Amar, Akbar, and Anthony. Once in a while he also proclaimed Main Azad Hoon– a sort of war cry announcing freedom from fear of the establishment. Unfortunately, the screen image is seldom the man.

And, the reel is rarely the real. This is precisely why Deepika Padukone's decision to stand in solidarity with the students of Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) is such a pleasant surprise.

Her action also raises a larger issue. In the modern age, celebrities are, unfortunately, prisoners of fame. So much so that eminence can begin to eclipse their individuality as well as the autonomy of their choice.

Smriti Irani's attack on Deepika is typical right-wing mix of canards and bluster. For, in today's India, right-wing warriors don't counter courage with courage.

Since they don't have the moral fortitude to look the adversary in the eye, they revel in hitting below the belt, stabbing in the back from the shadows or inflicting collateral damage through institutions at their disposal.

They deal with criticism through the facile medium of lies, subterfuge and bullying.

Since they lack the intellectual heft to face the adversary alone in the battlefield of ideas, they send out calls to dozens of wolves and, only when the numbers are adequate, they attack from behind a veil, wearing masks, in aisles where the lights are put out with the help of the establishment.

Truth is, Deepika is a better role model than the power people of India. In a milieu of fear where it is considered more prudent to crawl when asked to cheer, Deepika has shown that not all celebrities are cowards.

She has not been deterred by the plights of others who spoke up before her and were subjected to vitriol and calls for boycott and bans.

Aware of the high stakes, the certainty of repercussions and victimisation, she has decided to out herself as a concerned citizen of India, a real patriot.

She has willingly entered a high-risk ideological battle when she could have easily watched it in silence We are a country of Laxmi Bai and Padmini, of poets who have immortalised them as "mardani".

Thankfully, the tradition still survives, even if the cinematic "Mards" of India have turned into quislings.

Javvadi Lakshmana Rao, Visakhapatnam

We should be more politically active

No doubt, it has become almost impossible for any honest and competent contestant to win the election and become a lawmaker in our country without influencing the voters with money, caste, religion and freebies where all political parties are left without any choice except giving tickets on the sole criteria of " winnability " which is paving the way for mounting cases of people facing criminal charges being elected to legislative houses. (Our politics is rotten - THI, January 11).

The agony and anguish of the writer of this article about our people being harmed immensely because of their ignorance and immaturity being taken as an advantage by unscrupulous politicians by luring the voters with unfair practices is something to be taken seriously by all stakeholders to find remedial measures to enable Indians to have right lawmakers which ultimately facilitates good governance.

The author opined that caste and religion play a major role in Indian politics which can't be denied by anybody given the way political discourse is getting defined not only at national level but also at the level of various states.

The government at centre has a clear intent to gain popularity through overplay of religion and ultra-nationalism with no sincere efforts to effectively manage the economy to ensure better living standards to all sections of people.

Instead, it is promoting myth over history, fanaticism over faith and superstitions over scientific temper.

We are now seeing escalating tensions among people of various ideologies and variegated beliefs because of recent controversial decisions of BJP led government at centre such as NRC and CAA which are dangerously leading to protesting students becoming victims of violence unleashed by intolerant mobs and hooligans in the campuses of prestigious Universities such as JNU .

It is highly disturbing that majoritarian intolerance has now become a great concern to all votaries of democracy , secularism and constitutional spirit.

Instead of paying attention to livelihood issues of people, the government at Centre is interested in deepening the divide among the people on the lines of religion for electoral gains.

Certificates of patriotism and anti - nationalism are being issued to citizens on the basis of their allegiance to ruling dispensation which is not acceptable in a democracy.

If we take in to consideration what is happening in A.P , it is nothing but spreading poisonous feelings on the basis of caste.

The agitating Amaravati farmers are being branded as people belonging to the caste of Chandrababu Naidu. Supporters of YSRCP are being trolled as persons belonging to the caste of CM Jagan.

It is beyond the comprehensive skills of any sane person as to how caste identities are brought in to focus and limelight when we debate seriously about the life and death problems of farmers who, for the sake of capital of AP, gave their land which is the only source of their income.

The right course of action is that the CM and the ministers need to have a dialogue with the agitating farmers in order to protect their interests.

Blaming farmers for having mobile phones by invoking their caste is not only inhuman but also indecent by any measurement.

It is very clear that people are being taken for a ride by ruling establishments not only at cente but also at various states by playing the cards of religion and caste to the gallery to perpetuate their hegemony and to further their selfish agenda.

The need of the hour is that people should think rationally about their problems and should vote judiciously and afterwards should question the lawmakers for their shortfalls.

The writer Ramu Sarma rightly opined that people are real saviours of democracy and people's intervention rather than political intervention is required to save democracy.

Let us hope that people of India will live up to the expectations to enable our country scale greater heights in future not only in terms of democratic functioning but also in terms of economic prosperity.

Narne Raveendra Babu, Hyderabad

II

This is with reference to the article "Our politics is rotten" by V Ramu Sarma. It is true as the author said that 35 per cent of the elected representatives have criminal cases against them and also that some of the offences are heinous in nature is not far from truth.

Though the vote bank politics had started long back it has now reached to the worst stage. It is not that the successive governments did not take any measure to curb malpractices or bring in reforms, but the effect is nil.

It has become a common practice that all political parties do promise various freebies and employments and now a days loan waivers without doing any pre- poll exercise regarding the financial and social impact of them and after coming to power in order to fulfil the promises they drag the state or country into debt trap.

Ultimately the burden has to be born by the people themselves. Though efforts were made to curb distribution of money and liquor it is still being continued. Hence the reaction should come from the people themselves.

The election commission should change its rules to stop criminals from contesting the elections that a certain proof of committing the crime is itself a sufficient reason to bar such contestants.

If we wait for the judgement of his confirmation as criminal by courts it would take years together and by that time two to three elections would be over.

Unless people wake up and realise that their vote has remarkable value in bringing the corrupt free people things will not change as no party in power would dare to intervene in the process for fear of losing the vote bank.

Intellectuals and educated people including student force should take things into their hand and set the things right.

TSN Rao, Bhimavaram