True Homage to Mahatma

Mahatma Gandhi did us proud by getting us freedom from British rule and we enjoy the freedom of an Independent India, thanks to the efforts of the Father of the Nation and other illustrious leaders, who took an active part in the freedom movement. The struggles, trials, tribulations and the sufferings faced by them gave us the much-needed impetus to achieve our goals. Seventy-seven years have gone by and it is our duty to value the efforts of the great leaders and pay homage on Martyr's Day. Instead, we fight over trivial matters and make a mockery of the freedom obtained by attacking each other. “India is my country and all the Indians are my brothers and sisters should come to our mind” rather than going overboard and playing dirty politics all the time.

The legacy of the great is always up for scrutiny. It is constantly interpreted and re-interpreted. That is how it should be – what is relevant for a time and place is to be accepted and other views should be discarded. Also, no person, however great, is perfect in every way, for absolute perfection is only an attribute of the divine. Gandhi was a great soul in the eyes of his fellow Indians. His continuous efforts and perseverance were what brought all the leaders and people together to stand against the British.

– Nikhil Akhilesh Krishnan, Mumbai

Sonia's empathy for Prez misconstrued

Sonia Gandhi is under fire of the ruling party that understandably an elderly lady's empathy for the lady President, who had to deliver a long speech, and the ' poor' and' boring' were the expressive words referred to the text but not the Constitutional Head. Naturally, the texts are made by those as-signed for the job and the one who got to read it may have a rehearsal as well but how the said long speech was perhaps 'boring' to the listeners and 'tiring" to the Speaker and it'd perhaps be a 'poor' thing on anyone's part. There is nothing to refer to 'royal' origin or a 'tribal' origin, but both are re-spectable by virtue of the office they hold and represent the people. Sonia, being an Italian born, would not have denigrated English text as Italian words in pronunciation differ like 'but' is not T but TH. We cannot go further but we had illustrious Presidents like Radhakrishnan, who used to speak edifying English so much so as Nehru, the then PM, as both were great scholars. I wish that our incumbent Presidents got to walk into the shoes of our former illustrious scholars. I do not know if Prez may as well deliver speech in Hindi like Modi, the PM.

–Dr T Ramadas, Visakhapatnam