MyVoice: Views of our readers 16th February 2022

Prof's strange posers

What arbitrary appointment of the governors Prof. Sridhar Acharyulu is questioning is not understandable. Modi government has not amended the Constitution to change the way of appointment of governors. The procedure now questioned by the author is as old as Indian Constitution and no government ever thought of changing that. Andhra Pradesh was formed after a resolution in Hyderabad State Assembly and Channa Reddy went to UP Raj Bhavan in 1974 after the separate Telangana agitation got subsided and it was his personal decision. Channa Reddy's power politics are well known. CM vs Governor issue is not a new one and certainly not the one created by Modi.

Duggaraju Srinivasa Rao, Vijayawada

'Special Category Status' is now routine drama

SCS issue removed from the agenda of the Home Ministry at the behest of the BJP Rajya Sabha MP GVL Narasimha Rao has now taken the centre stage. That he himself intervened to do so as it was not an inter-state issue has added fuel to the fire. On one hand, the MP claims that he did so in the interest of the State and on the other he says it's a dead issue. How can he be so self-contradictory.? So, is it back to square one with Special Package even which has not been implemented in toto.

But what needs to be taken with tongue in cheek is the way the blame was pushed on junior level officers. This is to insult the entire senior hierarchy above and showing the bureaucracy in poor light. Time alone will tell whether this was a political ploy in once again denying what Andhra Pradesh is supposed to get as promised by both Congress and BJP in 2014 with both houses of Parliament as prime witnesses. People of Andhra Pradesh look towards unflinching integrity by the Centre and are tired of being cheated time and again.

D Nagarjuna, Hyderabad

Replace current secularism model

Secularism was a solution to European Christianity at a specific time in its history to deal with various factions fighting for 'truth values' of individual doctrines. It is hardly an ideal or a universal solution as demonstrated by the huge problems creeping up with the influx of Islam into Europe. Transfer of this solution to the plural world of India is even more problematic. Secularism ends up causing more religious friction paradoxically. It badly hits the Hindu traditions converted inappropriately into 'proper religions' by an extremely poor understanding on the part of our politicians, academics, and intellectuals.

The churches stress on the Constitution and secularism for allowing conversions, intensely antithetical to a traditional world like India, as a part of religious imperative. Similarly, Islamists talk about the Constitution and secularism for their demands but refuse the Uniform Civil Code to honour the Sharia. Secularism has failed brilliantly in our country and will continue to do so. It is important at this stage to invest some resources on developing alternative models to deal with the cultural diversity in the ever-shrinking world.

Across centuries, the Indian solution to diversity and multiculturalism was in 'traditionalising the religions' and making them indifferent to each other. Instead, we are insisting on 'religionising our traditions' making them hard and increasingly intolerant.

Dr Pingali Gopal, Hanamkonda

Plastic pollution continues

UNO and legislatures (of all nations) must communicate regularly to bring in suitable laws and alternatives to stop plastic usage and show alternates (on non plastic, non-wooden, non-paper articles) too. Solutions are i) setting up of bioplastic plants widely ii) carry cotton cloth bags

iii) minimize usage of synthetic clothes iv) use water bottles made of metal, glass or porcelain

v) leaves as plates vi) mud pots to drink hot soup, tea, coffee so on Viii) food packaging with leaves or some other safer material ix) Use E-books, mechanical pencils and mechanical chopsticks to save billions of trees getting cut X) 8 billion tons of plastic waste is wreaking havoc and causing eco imbalance via deaths of animals (of both water and land). Use waste-plastic as raw material to create alternate useful chemicals and for laying roads (by mixing it with asphalt). Not just words. Implement the same. Limit mud-pots (etc.) small scale industries (of non-plastic, non-wooden, non-paper articles) and business to only the poor. No to the entry of big players and corporates. Live and let live.

Sahasra Nivriti Vislesha, Secunderabad

Tackle agricultural sector issues now

Indian agriculture is marred with problems and one of the major problems is lack of good transportation and cold storage facilities. Instead of giving nickels and dimes as financial incentives to farmers, the government should focus on improving the transporting and cold storage facilities. The current government deserves a big applause for embarking on the rather uphill task of smoothening out each and every road in the country but there is still a lot to be done.

Due to lack of proper transportation and cold storage facilities the Indian farmers have to incur losses to the tune of Rs 92651 crores. It will be a big ask if we want that humongous figure to even out but the government can considerably bring that figure down and help out the poor farmers who are already reeling under extreme poverty. Agriculture is the character of India and being the cultural hub of the world we would not want our character to get grounded.

Noopur Baruah, Tezpur