MyVoice: Views of our readers 5th November 2020

Hypocritical netas of BJP

The way the union ministers are condemning the arrest of Arnab Goswami is bizarre. Is he an independent journalist or BJP worker? Where were these ministers, not uttering a word when the China occupied our land, when China killed our soldiers and other journalists are booked under sedition laws.

The union ministers comparing the arrest with Emergency period quoting it as death of democracy. In the mid of corona pandemic BJP formed the government in Madhya Pradesh, in Hathras case no solidarity shown to the victim and threatening to victims family. These union minsters not speak or tweeted immediately about Hathras case or Munger case as they did in Goswami arrest.

Vikas Panchareddy, Hyderabad

BCCI brouhaha

The controversies regarding BCCI continue to haunt Indian cricket for some time. Dada Sourav Ganguly, who speaks the truth was the first to mention that under Virat Kohli, Team India could not record a single win in ICC sponsored tournaments despite being the number one side in the world during that time. Again, the injury prone Indian side could not do well on overseas tours and the partiality in team selection played a pathetic role in our inevitable defeats.

Usually pace bowlers were given a chance with serious injuries they were facing. But this time round BCCI did drop Rohit Sharma from all three formats citing hamstring injury. But the contradictory outcome of the injury of Rohit Sharma came during the IPLs last league match. BCCI boss Sourav Ganguly says that Rohit Sharma has a serious injury and the latter responded by leading Mumbai side against SRH and to prove his worth opened the batting as well.

This is a bad precedent and there is no coordination between players, coach and the BCCI president. Controversy regarding BCCI will continue forever.

C K Subramaniam, Mumbai

Of in human bondage

The article' Bomb eaters of Kerala' penned by Sukumaran C V was very touching. The inhuman behaviour of so-called human beings towards the most lovable, intelligent, huge and revered as the incarnations of Lord 'Vinayaka' elephants was exposed threadbare. The vivid narrative of cruelty perpetrated in various forms by humans towards elephants and writer's own experience with elephants are well presented. It certainly touched the hearts of all readers. Thank you THI for publishing such a realistic and thought -provoking piece.

Rama Krishna M, Kakinada

Of intellectuals and democracy

Top scientific journals like Nature, Scientific American, and New England Journal of Medicine in recent times ran articles and editorials condemning the present President of the US and seeking to change him. Similarly, many intellectuals, academicians, and politicians publicly declare that they do not accept our present PM as their leader. This is all fine for intellectuals to like or dislike politicians in the best principles of liberalism and freedom and expression. But, this has extremely disturbing moral and ethical implications for the role of democracy and the importance of voting in free countries. When the majority votes for a particular person or a party in a democratic mode, does it not imply that one should honour the decision of the majority till the next elections when one can exercise their franchise?

How can supposedly non-political, secular, and neutral scientific intellectuals publicly call for removal, change, or rejection of popularly elected leaders because they have problems with the leadership? Whatever may be the motivation and however correct their reasons are, it is a cornerstone of democracy to accept the decision of majority. A blatant refusal or rejection points to the whole idea of democracy as an extremely flawed institution. Indian traditional ideal of governance was an enlightened monarchy. The ideal of philosopher-kings was also prominent in ancient Greek philosophers. Perhaps, we can question the whole concept of a liberal democracy as the best form of governance.

Can scientific journals run strong editorials to bias voters not to vote for a particular person and can someone in the country refuse to call a person as 'my PM'? As ancient philosophers stressed, all forms of governance, including democracy, come in cycles with each ending in breakdown and revolution. The ability to garner votes disconnected with the ability to administer, the power of oratory skills, nepotism, corruption, mediocrity rising to the top, and the 'wisest and the best' removed far away from elections were the critical points of Socratic philosophers against democracy. They remain eerily true even today across the world. What does democracy and voting rights actually mean? Accepting democracy as the ideal and then not accepting the decision of the majority shows the inherent stress and contradiction of this model.

Dr Pingali Gopal, Warangal