Venkaiah’s women empowerment call worthy of emulation

Thishas reference to former Vice-President M Venkaiah Naidu advising the students of St Francis College for Women, Hyderabad, to be champions of women’s empowerment. In keeping with his erudition and sound advice, the college principal should start displaying hoardings in their campus specifying empowerment and motivational rules. It is not only her, but also her counterparts from other girls’ colleges and their faculty, who must conduct an everyday assembly session and administer an oath to swear by the empowerment guidelines. This will inspire a change in their mindset and keep them away from chatting on smartphones.

G Murali Mohan Rao,Secunderabad-11

Isolating women scribes is disgusting

Theway Afghan Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqui barred female journalists from his press conference was utterly disgusting and unwarranted, which shows the typical Taliban mentality. The current ruling power in Afghanistan is known for its misogynistic policies but attempting to replicate it in a democratic country like India is quite sickening. The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) was quick to wash its hands off the episode and maintained that the invites were at the behest of Afghanistan’s Consul General in Mumbai. But this is seen as a lame excuse for giving too much room to the Taliban mindset, at a time when ‘Nari Shakthi’ is the mantra for women empowerment in all walks of life.

S Lakshmi,Hyderabad

Male journos should have walked out

Genderdiscrimination could not have been displayed more blatantly than as was done in the all-male press conference of Afghanistan’s Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi in New Delhi. Disallowing women journalists was typical of the Taliban, notorious for its objectification of women and the denial of basic human rights to them. We have heard of a “men-only” toilet and it is understandable. But a “men-only” press conference was something unheard-of on Indian soil and irreconcilable to us. Why the presence of women journalists is problematic is not rationally answered. However, it was some consolation that the backlash over the exclusion brought pressure to bear on Muttaqi to let women journalists participate in his second presser a day later. For some inexplicable reasons, the Indian government did not take strong objection to the humiliation meted out to women journalists. This exclusion is a negation of the Nari Shakti notion. A cultural ignominy was allowed to be perpetrated on Indian soil at a time when our women are fast closing the gender gaps in all professions. Instead of attending the press event, the male journalists should have boycotted it and protested against gender discrimination stemming from misogynistic attitudes.

G David Milton,Maruthancode (TN)

Centre must defy Taliban diktat

Itwas unbecoming of the Afghan Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqui to exclude female journalists during his press conference. This smacks of rank male chauvinism that is prevalent in Afghanistan, under the Taliban regime. This was an occasion when India should have put its foot down and not bow down to the whims and fancies of the Taliban. This is reminiscent of the time when former president S D Sharma’s wife had to wear a burqa when she visited Saudi Arabia along with the President. Such deliberate acts of bowing to the Taliban diktat amounts to betrayal of women power that India so proudly talks of.

K R Parvathy,Mysuru

Everyone must be trained in CPR

Onemust appreciate the Union Health Ministry’s move to observe a CPR (Cardiopulmonary resuscitation) week from Monday to spread awareness about extending basic life support among people. It’s an important humanitarian skill that every citizen must acquire. I was fortunate to save my father from such a situation 24 years back when CPR skills were confined to medical professionals, which I was. In 2001, when I was 40 km away from my native place, Palikavalasa, a remote hamlet in Andhra Pradesh, I got a phone call that my father had fallen sick. I rushed with some emergency drugs. He suffered cardiac arrest the moment I reached home. I started CPR, which yielded a positive outcome. Not only the semi-literate onlookers, villagers and friends, but also my security staff and the educated lot who witnessed the entire episode were surprised. They learnt the life-saving skill for the first time, first-hand. Sadly, even after two decades, there is not much awareness of this important basic life skill, which needs very little time for one to get trained. The government’s initiative should be supported by civil society, the media and the medical fraternity to help save countless numbers of people within minutes after getting a heart attack.

Dr D V G Sankara Rao,ex MP, Vizianagaram