Krishna Prasad

The world's first column written by readers

A common complaint that everybody in the media gets to hear some time or the other is that our newspapers and magazines do not report the 'real' issues of 'real' India. That our editors and reporters and columnists are swirling around with their own little agendas in their own little universes which rarely, if ever, cross orbits with those of the readers.

But...

What are the thoughts exercising your minds that none of us get?

Partly because Republic Day is around the corner, but mostly because he is feeling pretty pooped after all the 'pongal' he has pigged on, your columnist decided to track down the LTTE (Letters To The Editor) in half-a-dozen newspapers to see what you guys were talking about (besides US-64 and soiled notes) in the first fortnight of 2001.

The result, ladies and gentleman, is the world's first-ever column written by readers -- with due courtesy to the editors who received them, the newspapers from which they are flicked, and the readers who wrote them. This is also the world's first column with a built-in safety-shield, which protects writer and reader. You can't blame the columnist if you don't like it! And you don't have to agree with him!

If you read to the very end of this 3,500-word column, which you must out of due courtesy to the rest of your brethren and to my typing skills, but also because it is so damn good, you will find the answers to so many important questions in life that it will automatically help you qualify for KBC without eating Britannia biscuits.

So, here goes: vox populi, vox dei.

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Letter to the Editor of The New Indian Express

Sir: In the name of Iftar parties, the Karnataka government is spoiling the sanctity of the Vidhana Soudha and hurting the sentiments of Hindus by serving non-vegetarian food there. Government is doing this only for political gains and to keep one particular community happy.

Do they celebrate Ugadi and Deepavali to keep Hindus happy? If they are really particular about holding Iftar parties, there are a number of five-star hotels in Bangalore where they can go and celebrate or they can even do it at home.

Thank god the great architect Kengal Hanumanthaiah is not there to see what is happening at Vidhana Soudha.

G A Suresh
Mysore

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Letter to the editor of The Hindu

Sir: As Assembly elections are fast nearing in a few key states, our politicians who call themselves pure secularists vie with one another in organising and participating in Iftar parties taking advantage of the holy month of Muslims. The 'swayamsevak' Prime Minister takes delight in keeping company at such functions.

Nobody objects to such 'gestures' seeking to promote social harmony and we are made to believe nothing is 'political' about it. However, the fact remains that there will be terrible protests in the name of 'secularism' if any such party is organised in the name of a Hindu festival. Religion is used in a selective way to promote vote banks.

S Vanisankar Madurai

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Letter to the editor of Deccan Herald

Sir: The shrill cry of the Hindu orthodoxy at Varanasi and elsewhere for Amitabh Bachchan's blood, because he chanted the Gayatri Mantra while wearing shoes, is yet another case of the different time zones in which our 'religious soldiers' live. I am unable to understand why the 'Big B' had to issue a denial at all. The president of a Hosur-based company said some years ago how he kept cool during his daily ordeal of the journey between Bangalore and Hosur. The road was in a terrible condition and the bumps and traffic snarls caused immense stress. "I chant Gayatri Mantra all through the journey. Doing so keeps my mind at peace," he added.

Driving in Bangalore is a trying experience. I have emulated this example. I keep my eyes open and glued to the road. I chant the Mantra not silently but softly, relishing its phonetic excellence. Neither he, nor me, can or do take off our shoes for doing so. This may be recommended to everybody facing tense situations.

In the past, people wore no footwear. So, for centuries, people were barefooted and for that reason they had to wash their feet, before sitting to chant this or any Mantra. Our orthodoxy has reduced this grand composition to an empty ritual. It is like cleanliness being perverted to mean wearing a segregated or wet cloth, for performing any sacred ritual. The shabby manner in which it is practised makes it obvious, that for such orthodox elements, cleanliness is not next to godliness, but that the two are mutually exclusive. Gayatri is considered the mother of Vedas, the repository of all wisdom. Let us not make the chanting of this Mantra a battle to be fought out in the streets.

N Narasimhan Bangalore

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Letter to the editor of The New Indian Express

Sir: I was surprised to see the amount of space and the degree of prominence given to Hrithik Roshan's wedding. Your paper surely made history for I do not remember reading about any other wedding reported so exclusively and extensively. The only other intrinsically inconsequential event which received such attention was the death of Princess Diana. But curiously, all the (wedding) pictures published are those of the bride's father, uncle and sister, and the groom and his father, but the bride herself is not present. Was she in purdah or was she being prevented from evil eyes?

K Sundaram
Bangalore

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Letter to the editor of Deccan Herald

Sir: In the Kaun Banega Crorepati programme, film stars like Aamir Khan, Sonali Bendre, Shah Rukh Khan and Rani Mukherjee recently won certain amounts and all of them donated the same for charitable causes. This is a laudable gesture. But a doubt arises as to why they did not realise such a need for charity earlier; to be made from their professional incomes, when all of them have been making substantial incomes. Should they have waited for an event like KBC to realise such a need? No KBC, no charity! This is an instance which indicates a person's hunger for publicity rather than a charitable mind.

G N Cheluva Raju
Madikeri

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Letter to the editor of Deccan Herald

Sir: Vishwa Hindu Parishad working president Ashok Singhal has supported Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray's call for disenfranchising Muslims in India to avoid vote bank politics and proposed proportionate representation for minorities. Minorities have not got proper representation in the institutions constituted under democracy. Muslims constitute 12 per cent of the population and there should have been 26 MLAs in the Karnataka assembly and 65 MPs in Parliament. Not even once has this much representation been possible during the 53 years of Independence. In zilla parishads, taluk panchayats and municipalities, too, their representation has not crossed 4 per cent.

To this extent, democracy has suffered. People from all sections of society should be given an opportunity to actually participate in the process of nation-building. Those belonging to the weaker sections and minorities should be brought effectively into the national mainstream and allowed to enjoy the fruits of democracy.

Now 41 per cent of the population of Muslims is illiterate. The income of 78 per cent does not exceed Rs 10,000 per annum. Not more than 4 per cent jobs in government are available to them. The monetary assistance from financial institutions does not cross 2 per cent. Major and powerful communities have always had the lion's share. The cry of appeasement of minorities is a shallow one.

Persons responsible for dividing India in the name of religion or region and destroying national property deserve disenfranchising, but not minorities who are the victims of circumstances. However, Mr Ashok Singhal's suggestion to give representation to minorities proportionate to their population should be welcomed by all the minorities.

Syed Basheer Ahmed
Bangalore

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Letter to the editor of Praja Vani

Sir: At the 88th Indian Science Congress, the prime minister gave a call to eradicate poverty and urged scientists to put a full stop to diseases. You have reminded us that 25 years ago, on the same day, at the 63rd Congress, prime minister Indira Gandhi too gave a similar call to eradicate poverty and fight diseases. I can very well guess what the inaugural address at the 113th Congress in 2026 is going to be....

Di Pi Ke
Bangalore

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Letter to the editor of The Asian Age

Sir: It is not very clear what Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee is trying to do when he issues statements and counter-statements on the construction of a Ram temple at Ayodhya. In Parliament he speaks of national sentiments and a month later on the front page of national newspapers he asserts that no one should attempt to break the law in Ayodhya.

Does he not realise that when he issues a statement in Parliament, as the head of government he gives legitimacy to a matter which he should not be talking about? And that the statements he made in Parliament will stand the test of time, not his utterances in newspaper articles? His latest move to backtrack from all that he said earlier shows him in very poor light. He resembles a man who is desperately trying to save his house which he has himself set on fire.

Deep Srivastav
New Delhi

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Letter to the editor of The Hindu

Sir: The Confederation of Indian Industry has demanded that the railways should end cross-subsidisation of freight and fares. The CII has sought an increase in passengers fares, specially in the ordinary classes, so that the railways do not have to increase freight charges. I believe that the capitalist segments of our economy are emboldened by the current hypes, 'free-market, privatisation, globalisation,' not forgetting, of course, that a right-wing party is in power, and hence the demand to end cross-subsidies.

Also, the moot point is whether the railways is losing money in its total operation and, if so, whether the loss is attributable to 'lower' passenger fares in the ordinary classes. The loss in revenue could be due to widespread ticketless travel north of the Indian counterpart of the 'Mason-Dixon Line.'

There are a lot of myths about 'subsidies' in general, and it's time the issue was demystified. The government has the task of maintaining law and social order. The task is onerous given the population and poverty in our country. The rich must realise that they live amidst an ocean of deprived people. It is in the interest of the rich that the poor are kept quiet in the overcrowded classes of trains on a subsidised fare. Otherwise, the milling masses will get between the legs of the rich in the air-conditioned first classes. It will cost the government a lot more to have a huge police force to maintain peace and quiet for the rich in the upper classes. This is a 'sound costing principle' underlying 'subsidies.'

A little subsidy for travel, housing and education for the poor is a sound interim governing principle, till such time the gap between the 'haves' and 'havenots' is narrowed down to sensible levels. After all, subsidies come in different shapes even for the capitalist industrialists and rich land-owners: power subsidy, freight subsidy, fertiliser subsidy, minimum support price, free travel for politicians and so on. Why not CII demand that all these subsidies be ended as well.

Subbaiah Venkataraman
Thiruvananthapuram

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Letter to the editor of Deccan Herald

Sir: This is with reference to the photo of 'A group of women taking out a semi-nude procession at the Kokatunur jathre.' The women in the photo appear to be no less nude than the Miss World, Miss Universe, etc, as seen in the latter's photographs in the newspapers. On our city roads, we comes across worse 'semi-nude' specimens! Why show cruelty to the poor, simple and uneducated women for their harmless religious convictions?

T R Gopi
Bangalore

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Letter to the editor of The Hindu’

Sir: With reference to Mr P A Khader Kukkady's letter 'Mandir-Masjid imbroglio,' I would like to clarify that the Babari Masjid site has an area of only 4,000 square feet and the floor area of the proposed Mandir is of the order of 36,000 sq ft. So even the Mandir and the Masjid cannot be accommodated in the Babari Masjid site, far less a church and a gurdwara as well. A possible solution can be the reconstruction of the Masjid on its original site and of the proposed Mandir on an adjacent site.

The Muslim community would be prepared to give the Wakf land around the Masjid (which is in dispute) to the extent necessary or even wholly, if the Masjid is left untouched. Neither Hindus nor Muslims will be receptive to the super secular idea proposed by Mr Kukkady.

Syed Shahabuddin
New Delhi

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Letter to the editor of The Hindu

Sir: The Nobel laureate, Prof Amartya Sen's views, as expressed at the 61st annual session of the Indian History Congress at Kolkata recently, about Ayodhya, mythology and history are worthy of serious contemplation by all the citizens. Prof Sen is right in his observation that mythology is being confounded with history by vested interests. The two are as different as chalk and cheese and if both are clubbed it would be a mystery and nothing else. The ICHR, which is very much tainted and saffronised today, had better take the cue from Prof Sen's speech and discipline its members from issuing nonsensical statements.

To quote from the foreword of Prof A R Krishna Sastri's famous work Vachana Bharatha, it is said that the during the period of the Mahabharatha, there were no temples existing. So still going past into the Ramayana it can be surmised that temples were not at all built those days except the hermitages of sages and saints. Hence, what could be conjectured by this theory is that if there was at all a Ram temple at Ayodhya, it must have been built not during the periods of either the Mahabharatha or the Ramayana, but only some centuries later and if anyone today thinks that Maryada Purushotham Ram was born exactly at the same site where the Babri Masjid existed, it is only a sentimental assumption as was the case even in the past at the time of building the Ram temple, if any.

K Usha Manohar
Chitradurga

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Letter to the editor of Star of Mysore

Sir: This has reference to the news item 'Rs 1.2 crore profit for Mysore Dairy.' It is indeed good that the Mysore Dairy has made a profit. However, the users of Mysore Dairy milk might have observed that the milk that is being supplied during the last few months is very diluted. Upon boiling, milk does not form the quantity of cream as it used to earlier. Further, if the sachet is kept in the fridge overnight substantial quantity of ice is formed in the milk which could be the quantity of water in the milk. Even the curds supplied by the Dairy is watery and is not of good quality. It looks as if the profit of the Dairy has come not from the efficient management of its affairs but from the additional quantity of water being added to its milk and curds.

Nirmala Prakash
Gokulam

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Letter to the editor of The Hindu

Sir: The Grameen Bank of Bangladesh, very successfully run by the rural womenfolk in that country, has long won the admiration of the world. But that is not all. Bangladesh is doing many things which India could emulate. It gives ten seers of rice every month to boys attending school and the village and 50 per cent more rice to girls attending school. As a result children are going more and more to the job-oriented regular schools and less and less to mullah schools, whose products find it difficult to get jobs. And now the high court of Bangladesh has declared fatwas on issues concerning Muslim law illegal.

Bangladesh has even set an excellent example in women's empowerment. After every general election, its Parliament of 300 elects 30 women to join the House. That gives women ample representation, without subjecting them to the rough and tumble of general elections.

K R Malkani
New Delhi

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Letter to the editor of Praja Vani

Sir: It was heartening read the news item 'Computers for 1000 schools.' But the images of rural schools without rooms, classrooms without chairs, and laboratories without equipment quickly came to mind. Providing such schools computers is like akin to wearing flowers on the head when there is no food for the stomach. Or do our political masters believe in the adage of making kids who cannot climb steps to climb a loft?

Koheema
Basarakodu

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Letter to the editor of Deccan Herald

Sir: It is surprising to note that account holders of the State Bank of India have to shell our Rs 50 for every cheque book from January 1, 2001, onwards. It is not whether the same system is followed by other banks. Once a person has opened his account, he becomes a valued customer and it is the bounden duty of the bank to issue, free of cost, all the stationery, including the cheque book, for regular business. This is the basic ethics of any business or service organisation.

There is no logic in asking the a/c holder to pay for the cheque book. At this rate, it may not be a surprise if even for entry and every cash transaction like withdrawal and deposit, the a/c holder may be charged. Probably in the name of financial reforms and to meet the unprecedented expenses for attractive VRS for its staff, SBI might have invented this novel method which may be the forerunner for many more similar shocks for a/c holder in future.

V S Ganeshan
Bangalore

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Letter to the editor of The Hindu

Sir: As per newspaper reports the Prime Minister, Mr Vajpayee, is now laying emphasis on a VRS for central government employees to reduce staff strength. This seems astounding as only two-and-a-half years ago he got the retirement age of government employees raised from 58 years to 60. If Mr Vajpayee really means business he should reverse his decision and have the retirement age reduced to 58 years.

Anil Chandra
New Delhi

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Letter to the editor of The New Indian Express

Sir: Paswan and TRAI keep hoodwinking telephone users at regular intervals and every time they term the announcement either a bonanzas or a concession. But unfortunately these bonanzas and concessions result in increased telephone bills. The most affected by these generous announcements are the middle category telephone users because the telephone rentals keep increasing with each concession. The last concession in telephone tariff resulted in an increase of more than Rs 100 in rental because TRAI changed the rental according to the rental according to the calls made and the rate in change was steep.

This time the rental would again go up to Rs 70 because of the concession in calls up to a distance of 200 km. The gain to the subscriber in making the call up to 200 km equal to a local call is negligible compared to the steep hike in the rental. Instead of these gimmicks, Paswan can just explain his inability and helplessness for having increased the rates so that the middle category user will at once reconcile to the increase.

R G Srinivas
Bangalore

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Letter to the editor of The Hindu

Sir: In a country where 40 per cent of the people are illiterate, it behoves the prime minister to use audio-visual media when he wishes to make contact with the masses. The significance of his gesture (My Musings from Kumarakom, January 2 and 3) is lost and seems to be targeted at the educated middle class Indians who seemed to have been promised peace and prosperity.

The prime minister must follow up this attempt with, as in the days of the America Depression in the early 1930s when President Roosevelt had a nightly radio talk with his people to give them hope and confidence in those dire times, a programme of audio-visual airing of specific methods and principles that he intends to follow for the rest of his term. This would give his 'musings' a greater credibility as a plan of action rather than being a long winded apology for the loss of business time of the House in the recent session of Parliament due to his intemperate utterance on the Ram Temple issue.

Mushtaqh Ali
Chennai

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Design: Lynette Menezes

Krishna Prasad