MyVoice: Views of our readers 2nd May 2023

AP govt initiative laudatory

The AP government’s initiative to provide caste certificates to the needy students automatically without any requirement of applications from them is hailworthy. The Class X pass students would have to submit their caste certificates at the time of joining junior colleges and others, too, at the time of joining further studies. It has become a Herculean task for the poor students and their parents to get them in time. Sometimes they were at risk of losing one academic year failing to submit them in time, particularly in the case of downtrodden. Now the state government has taken an initiative to make ready caste certificates for the 10 lakh students who wrote Class 10 examinations. It will be a big relief and assures hassle-free admissions into further courses for them. A sensitive gesture which is worth emulating for other state governments too. Kudos.

Dr DVG Sankararao, Vizianagaram

A true story that LDF govt squirms about

The movie, ‘The Kerala Story,’ lucidly narrates the nefarious and despicable activities of Islamists of Kerala, in their effort to convert gullible girls from other communities into Islam to be cannon fodder for jihadi activities in Afghanistan and Syria, by way of suicide bombers and sex-slaves for the ISIS. The LDF government in Kerala is fighting tooth and nail in preventing the movie from being screened as it did in case of ‘The Kashmir Files’. The incidents in ‘The Kerala Story’ are already well documented and are already known to people of the state through print and visual media. The film covers all gamuts of incidents that are already before the peoples’ domain that the IUML leadership and the Islamic clergy are allergic to for reasons better known to them.

K V Raghuram, Wayanad

‘Kerala Story’ seeks to polarise, to aid BJP

When India got Independence and came out of trauma, partition and aftermath, the filmmakers then made films to promote social and religious harmony to make the people understand the importance of live and let live culture. In the Hindi film “Dhool Ka Phool” (1959), one of the characters who happens to be from a particular community and brings up an abandoned child is asked to leave the residential colony and the song “Na Hindu banega na Musalman banega insan ka oulad hai tu insaan banega” (neither you will become Hindu nor Muslim, you are human, you will become human) is now more relevant. The films like “Kerala Story” are bound to polarise the state where BJP is desperately going all-out to make an entry. The Telugu film ‘Balagam’ shot in rural Telangana has promoted the state culture, tradition and value family, and so also the Tamil film ‘Ayothi’ depicts the value of human beings and their life which is much above religion. Somehow mainstream right wing national electronic media has not made any attempt to speak about these films but is widely debating ‘Kerala Story’ to divide the people.

N Nagarajan, Hyderabad

Call a spade a spade to China

At the recent meeting between the Defence Ministers of India and China, the Chinese Defence Minister called on India to “take a long-term view” and “place the border issue in an appropriate position in bilateral relations,” a divergence from India’s stand that the rest of relations is predicated on peace along the LAC. Rajnath Singh rightly insisted that if normalcy is to be restored in ties, disengagement in the two remaining friction points will need to be followed by de-escalation. China is deviously seeking to downplay the seriousness of the border situation, but India must stay vigilant and deny it any space more than that it deserves in trade and relations. India must zealously seek to beef itself up with economic resurgence and thereby win over more allies and bolster our defences. The expansionist China under a revisionist Xi Jinping will not stop its salami-slicing approach to gobble up Indian territories.

Manoj Pande, Visakhapatnam

Wean poor tribals away from Maoists

The recent killing of 10 police personnel in the IED blast in Chhattisgarh by Maoists is reprehensible and deserves condemnation by all. It defies reason as to why the reds remain in a mad pursuit of their flawed ideology of waging a violent war against the Indian state. Governments - Centre and State - must deliberate on why their outdated ideologies have few takers beyond the jungles but a strong following among the most marginalised tribal communities. The galactically slow outreach of the governments to the tribals to wean them away from the Maoists to the path of peace and development must be stepped up and quickened, too. It is high concerted steps are taken to prove the futility of the outlawed ideals of the left extreme group to the common masses, particularly in the hinterland.

Mahesh Kumar P, Tirupati

Weed out dubious mobile apps

According to central intelligence agencies, 14 mobile apps were being used by terrorists and their supporters in J& K. According to a source, the department concerned has blocked Wickrme, Mediafire, Briar, BChat, Nandbox, Conion, IMO, Element, Second line, Zangi, Threema, Crypviser, Enigma and Safeswiss on the recommendation of the Ministry of Home Affairs, which is a welcome move. According to the central intelligence, they recommended action after discovering that terrorists and their supporters were using these apps to communicate with on-the-ground workers in J&K. The majority of these apps were designed to provide users with anonymity, and their features make it difficult to identify the entities associated with these apps. Further these mobile apps enabled terrorists and their affiliates to engage in activities that are detrimental to India’s sovereignty and integrity.

VijayKumar H K, Raichur

Need for dignity in levelling charges

Comparing men at helm with derogatory dialogues as ‘snake’ and ‘Vishakanya’ tantamounts to hate speech, highly defamatory and also a blow to democratic set-up. Everyone is an aspirant for holding the coveted post. Good. Such desire is required to go ahead for winning the post contested. But the way the election campaigns are going on is so distressing and disregarding the once upon a time well-established culture. Prime Minister Modi counts how many times he was abused by his opponents especially Congress. He also never gives up saying how age-old Congress party ruined the country. We cannot say he is unaware of the fact that India developed scientifically and technologically in the Congress regime and blaming it amounting insulting the intellectuals. Bravely fight over defective policies, but not against individuals who made them. There is a vast difference between these two and this is understood only by unblenched and unblemished political statesmen. Do we have them now in our society?

N Ramalakshmi, Secunderabad