Letters to the Public Editor
I am in habit of shooting off Letters to the Editor whenever my mind is disturbed by the unjust happenings that we find in the newspaper or when I have an opinion on the subject that I want to ventilate. Here are some letters that were NOT published by the Editor, The Statesman, Kolkata. I post these letters for the attention of the PUBLIC EDITOR.
Commenst are, as usual, welcome.
Thanks for the comments.
(1)
In his two-part article "Judicial Power"(29 & 30 April), the eminent jurist Mr. Fali S. Nariman has given us a quotable quote :"Freedom – freedom for citizens like you and me – can only be secured through Courts – not through Parliament or through executive governments".
However, he also praised the Speaker Mr. Somnath Chatterji: "The fact that it (the Parliament) at the instance of the Hon'ble Speaker contemplated action with such promptitude in the recent human trafficking scandal in which some MPs are allegedly involved is a good sign." Surely he was not saying this in jest; more likely it was to keep the Speaker in good humour, knowing that in the Parliament the Speaker keeps company with a large number of hardened criminals. Telling just one Katara not to come to the Parliament when he had not yet been tried for his 'alleged' offence is hardly a way to take remedial action. Again, that he did not do the same to Sahabuddin when he was convicted and sentenced to Life imprisonment shows his double standard of justice. Of course, Katara belongs to the BJP and it was not possible for the BJP to do anything about it; but Sahabuddin belongs to Lallu Yadav's party which can pull down the government and, with it, Somnathbabu down from his exalted seat.
Discretion being the better part of valour, we appreciate the Speaker's 'judgment'.
(2)
(3)
Your story "Changing Court " in 8th Day(13 May) lays bare the shameless sycophancy of Sunil Gangopadhyay and his ilk among the so called 'intellectuals'. But all is not lost; there are still some conscientious poets, actors and other creative artists who genuinely feel that the incident at Nadigram was a terrible carnage and an inhuman act. The reputed poet Joy Goswami's set of poems entitled " Banglar gaa theke rakto gorhiye porhchhe" published in a Bengali magazine creates imagery where one can almost visualize the blood dripping down. So, not every poet has sold his soul to the devil.
Sunil Gangopadhyay has said that "Nandigram has been made into such a big issue". Well, the followers of the BJP may similarly say that the Babri Masjid or Gujarat incidents have been blown out of proportion.
However we are not surprised that a literary celebrity can stoop so low; we have seen how the rich and famous people used to lick the boots of the British rulers for titles like Rai Bahadur, Khan Bahadur etc. So, it is no wonder that our one-time Sheriff Sunil-babu would do the same for the rulers in search of their patronage. It reminds us of some lines from Gray's 'Elegy' : "The struggling pangs of conscious truth to hide/To quench the blushes of ingenuous shame,/Or heap the shrine of Luxury and Pride / With incense kindled at the Muse's flame."
Well, does Sunil-babu 'blush with ingenuous shame'?
(4)
Your editorial "Anyone but a politician"(22 May) is both rational and timely. What you have written about the past Presidents is very correct. In fact the trend to elect trusted politicians was broken by the NDA when they surprisingly elected the apolitical and a distinguished scientist as the present President, ostensibly to prove the secular credentials of the BJP.
Be that as it may, we must not forget that the President is elected entirely by the politicians, and we, the ordinary people have no say in the matter. It is only natural that they will elect a politician, and a pliant one at that, who will not try to upset the apple cart of the politicians, as the Supreme Court is doing in defending the Constitution. The President, after all, has necessarily to be a rubber stamp of the Parliament, as
In the jumble of names suggested for Presidency, two names are conspicuous by their absence, viz Jyoti Basu and Sonia Gandhi, possibly because they may not be as acquiescent to the Parliament's decisions as, for example, the present incumbent has been.//-->
Dr.APJ Abdul Kalam has been, and not unnecessarily delay signing dubious bills like the 'Office of Profit' bill, nor will decide things in a hurry such as the prayer of clemency from Afzal Guru. This has been beautifully portrayed in his cartoon (22May) by Mr. Rajinder Puri.
In the jumble of names suggested for Presidency, two names are conspicuous by their absence, viz Jyoti Basu and Sonia Gandhi, possibly because they may not be as acquiescent to the Parliament's decisions as, for example, the present incumbent has been.
(5)
This refers to the letters of Mihir Kanungo (12 May) and Rabindranath Sarkar (30 May), on the subject of "reservation" or the quota system. All right-thinking persons agree that the caste system is bad, but on what basis can one say, like Mr. Sarkar, that caste-based reservation is a tool to eradicate the caste system?. It is merely a hypothesis and a conjecture not based on facts. Had it been true, the caste-based reservation would have wiped out the caste system in these 60 years of the quota system..
Like Mr. Sarkar, everybody wants "to free the society from the caste-system" but "reservation" is not the panacea for all the evils that the caste-system has created in the society. Also, his sweeping remark that "the caste-system is the catalytic agent of all inequalities" is highly debatable. He is missing the woods for the trees.
We agree that the Indian society, like societies in other countries of the world, is not egalitarian. And, the world over the society is divided between people who have money (and power) and those who are deprived, between the educated and the unlettered, between the high (by being brilliant and famous though not necessarily rich) and the low. Caste-system adds another dimension to this inequality in India, but is not the only and not even the major factor. Severe inequality exists even where there is no caste-system, like, for example, in the U.S.A. or Russia . So, if any government or society is serious about removing or reducing this inequality, it will strike the malady at the root by providing education to the deprived – not by getting them into IIT, IIM, ISI or AIIMS by quota system where they will feel inferior, and be discriminated against -- but by providing enough opportunity for their education through special schools, so that their academic level comes up so as to enable them to get into these institutions through open competition.
But, may be, I am missing the point. The whole thing is not about removing the caste-system, but to carefully nurture it so as to maintain the vote-bank.
Commenst are, as usual, welcome.
Thanks for the comments.
(1)
In his two-part article "Judicial Power"(29 & 30 April), the eminent jurist Mr. Fali S. Nariman has given us a quotable quote :"Freedom – freedom for citizens like you and me – can only be secured through Courts – not through Parliament or through executive governments".
However, he also praised the Speaker Mr. Somnath Chatterji: "The fact that it (the Parliament) at the instance of the Hon'ble Speaker contemplated action with such promptitude in the recent human trafficking scandal in which some MPs are allegedly involved is a good sign." Surely he was not saying this in jest; more likely it was to keep the Speaker in good humour, knowing that in the Parliament the Speaker keeps company with a large number of hardened criminals. Telling just one Katara not to come to the Parliament when he had not yet been tried for his 'alleged' offence is hardly a way to take remedial action. Again, that he did not do the same to Sahabuddin when he was convicted and sentenced to Life imprisonment shows his double standard of justice. Of course, Katara belongs to the BJP and it was not possible for the BJP to do anything about it; but Sahabuddin belongs to Lallu Yadav's party which can pull down the government and, with it, Somnathbabu down from his exalted seat.
Discretion being the better part of valour, we appreciate the Speaker's 'judgment'.
(2)
(3)
Your story "Changing Court " in 8th Day(13 May) lays bare the shameless sycophancy of Sunil Gangopadhyay and his ilk among the so called 'intellectuals'. But all is not lost; there are still some conscientious poets, actors and other creative artists who genuinely feel that the incident at Nadigram was a terrible carnage and an inhuman act. The reputed poet Joy Goswami's set of poems entitled " Banglar gaa theke rakto gorhiye porhchhe" published in a Bengali magazine creates imagery where one can almost visualize the blood dripping down. So, not every poet has sold his soul to the devil.
Sunil Gangopadhyay has said that "Nandigram has been made into such a big issue". Well, the followers of the BJP may similarly say that the Babri Masjid or Gujarat incidents have been blown out of proportion.
However we are not surprised that a literary celebrity can stoop so low; we have seen how the rich and famous people used to lick the boots of the British rulers for titles like Rai Bahadur, Khan Bahadur etc. So, it is no wonder that our one-time Sheriff Sunil-babu would do the same for the rulers in search of their patronage. It reminds us of some lines from Gray's 'Elegy' : "The struggling pangs of conscious truth to hide/To quench the blushes of ingenuous shame,/Or heap the shrine of Luxury and Pride / With incense kindled at the Muse's flame."
Well, does Sunil-babu 'blush with ingenuous shame'?
(4)
Your editorial "Anyone but a politician"(22 May) is both rational and timely. What you have written about the past Presidents is very correct. In fact the trend to elect trusted politicians was broken by the NDA when they surprisingly elected the apolitical and a distinguished scientist as the present President, ostensibly to prove the secular credentials of the BJP.
Be that as it may, we must not forget that the President is elected entirely by the politicians, and we, the ordinary people have no say in the matter. It is only natural that they will elect a politician, and a pliant one at that, who will not try to upset the apple cart of the politicians, as the Supreme Court is doing in defending the Constitution. The President, after all, has necessarily to be a rubber stamp of the Parliament, as
In the jumble of names suggested for Presidency, two names are conspicuous by their absence, viz Jyoti Basu and Sonia Gandhi, possibly because they may not be as acquiescent to the Parliament's decisions as, for example, the present incumbent has been.//-->
Dr.APJ Abdul Kalam has been, and not unnecessarily delay signing dubious bills like the 'Office of Profit' bill, nor will decide things in a hurry such as the prayer of clemency from Afzal Guru. This has been beautifully portrayed in his cartoon (22May) by Mr. Rajinder Puri.
In the jumble of names suggested for Presidency, two names are conspicuous by their absence, viz Jyoti Basu and Sonia Gandhi, possibly because they may not be as acquiescent to the Parliament's decisions as, for example, the present incumbent has been.
(5)
This refers to the letters of Mihir Kanungo (12 May) and Rabindranath Sarkar (30 May), on the subject of "reservation" or the quota system. All right-thinking persons agree that the caste system is bad, but on what basis can one say, like Mr. Sarkar, that caste-based reservation is a tool to eradicate the caste system?. It is merely a hypothesis and a conjecture not based on facts. Had it been true, the caste-based reservation would have wiped out the caste system in these 60 years of the quota system..
Like Mr. Sarkar, everybody wants "to free the society from the caste-system" but "reservation" is not the panacea for all the evils that the caste-system has created in the society. Also, his sweeping remark that "the caste-system is the catalytic agent of all inequalities" is highly debatable. He is missing the woods for the trees.
We agree that the Indian society, like societies in other countries of the world, is not egalitarian. And, the world over the society is divided between people who have money (and power) and those who are deprived, between the educated and the unlettered, between the high (by being brilliant and famous though not necessarily rich) and the low. Caste-system adds another dimension to this inequality in India, but is not the only and not even the major factor. Severe inequality exists even where there is no caste-system, like, for example, in the U.S.A. or Russia . So, if any government or society is serious about removing or reducing this inequality, it will strike the malady at the root by providing education to the deprived – not by getting them into IIT, IIM, ISI or AIIMS by quota system where they will feel inferior, and be discriminated against -- but by providing enough opportunity for their education through special schools, so that their academic level comes up so as to enable them to get into these institutions through open competition.
But, may be, I am missing the point. The whole thing is not about removing the caste-system, but to carefully nurture it so as to maintain the vote-bank.
posted by SENsible at 12:58 pm
1 Comments:
I loved, in particular, your comments on the quota reservation system and the tolerance for criminals in parliament. There is a common thread in both cases -- a desire for a naked grab for power. A theme that Sunil Gangopadhyay seems to have taken to heart when he thinks Nandigram has been blown out of proportion. He would feel differently if his cadre friends took over his posh house --but then to have power is to have different standards!
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