India must be pro-Palestine

There was a time when India’s total and unwavering support to the Palestinian cause was spoken of quite proudly. It was a moral stand that India took, regardless of what it meant for its interest and image. India took a stand out of principle, not expediency and held its head high. It was a badge of honour for us to identify ourselves with the ANC and PLO as they fought for justice and freedom and we looked up to Nelson Mandela and Yasser Arafat.

However, the rise of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to power in 2014 marked a marked shift from the earlier pro-Palestine stand. It was as if India lost its moral compass and began to base its foreign policy on what suited Hindu Right’s world view. India has become one of the biggest buyers of weapons from Israel. India chose not to deplore and condemn the genocidal war on Gaza, as, say, South Africa did, and took a very ambivalent stand on it at international forums in an abdication of its moral obligation.

Despite his statement that ‘this is not an era for war’, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has made no significant effort to prevail on or force Israel to stop the war.

The friendship he cultivated with Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu seems to have come in the way of his intervening to secure a ceasefire and save the lives of innocent Palestinians in Gaza.

India abstained from a UN voting that called for a ceasefire in Gaza, even as it is acknowledged that it voted for Palestinian statehood.

That Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich who spoke of a ‘real estate bonanza in Gaza’ was feted in New Delhi was an ignominy. India must side with the weak and vulnerable and regain its moral stature on the world stage.

G. David Milton, Maruthancode, TN

Treat child trafficking seriously

Child trafficking is an age- old problem in our country. It is estimated that a child goes missing in India every 8 minutes. But none of the successive governments, both at the Centre and in the States have evinced interest in this regard to trace the missing kids, since independence. As a result, information of missing kids in lakhs still remained shrouded in darkness.

The Khoya-Paya portal started only during 2015, after NDA was voted to power, also apparently failed to serve the purpose, as there is no coordination among all the concerned police and child welfare organisations in the country.

This is India’s greatness, even as techies of India are spread all over the world creating astounding results in the field of technology and heading world’s leading tech Co’s as CEOs, but within the country there is not even a centralised portal till date to trace missing children and investigate such cases! Children are the future citizen of the country.

If they are missing in large numbers, it should be treated as a highly serious problem.

The issues involved in such cases could be sheer human trafficking including for future prostitution, begging mafia, human organs mafia, thieving mafia etc. The alarming number of cases increasing every year should alert the government(s) at the Centre and in the States.

The Apex Court did the right thing by directing the union government to create a dedicated online portal for monitoring the progress of each case.

Govardhana Myneedu, Vijayawada

Mamata Banerjee can be more liberal

It is very much demeaning to hear West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee announcing a compensation of just Rs 2 lakhs to the next kin of those who died from electrocution following torrential rainsin Kolkata. Comparing with the amount of compensation announced by other states, this is too less and demeaning. However, it seems it is a telling commentary on the standard of living of an ordinary Bengali under the leadership of Mamata Banerjee. In some Southern states, the compensation is to the order of several lakhs.

Seshagiri Row Karry, Hyderabad