The Hindu : New Delhi News : Readers' Mail

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Monday, Jul 19, 2004

New Delhi

New Delhi

Readers' Mail

No, Professor

Sir, -- Prof. Murli Manohar Joshi, who until recently looked after such essential business as the brainwashing of the young and the demolition of monuments constructed centuries ago by the ancestors of foreigners who are still resident nationals, was interviewed on a television channel the other day. At least three times he said, on being asked questions about his party, that not just his party but "the whole nation" was, etc.. The physicist has clearly studied eel behaviour and learnt from it.

In the matter of textbooks, he said he had been visited by large numbers of people (Narendra Modi's five crores, perhaps?) protesting against the proposed revision of the textbooks. It is of no consequence that he cannot substantiate his claims -- what is important to him is that no one can disprove them either.

Speaking of the dismissal of State Governors, Prof. Joshi warned of the dangers of messing with institutions. It may have been implicit that the approach of his party, when it was in power, was the correct one: try first to purchase an institution, and if you cannot do that, take it to court and get all your tame foul-mouths to vilify the people who try to run it as it is meant to be run.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has appealed more than once, though in tones of resignation, to the Opposition to please permit Parliament to function. I do not wish to compete with him -- for he was, after all, a teacher at the Delhi School of Economics when I was a student there, even if he did not teach me -- but I must appeal to the television channels to spare us these Slippery Sanghis. They drowned us for years with their deluge of deadly drivel, and surely we deserve a reprieve.

Mukul Dube,

D-504 Purvasha,

Mayur Vihar 1,

Delhi -- 110 091

Sorry, Captain... .

Sir, -- The National Democratic Alliance and the Bharatiya JanataParty must be ever so relieved that the Chief Minister of Punjab is a Congressman! Now of the four affected States in the Sutlej-Yamuna link canal dispute three are Congress-ruled: Punjab, Himachal Pradesh and Delhi. The Central Government itself is led by the Congress. Only Rajasthan is outside the fold. But because of this there is no misapprehension that the Chief Minister of Punjab, Captain Amarinder Singh, acted only to embarrass the government of an opposition party when he blocked the completion of the Sutlej-Yamuna link canal and refused to give any water to Haryana. In huge advertisements published in national dailies this past week, Capt. Singh has tried to justify his move. He has referred to Punjab as a sovereign legislative authority. That it is not. Only the Union of India is sovereign.

But that apart, how logical really is his argument that the Sutlej water belongs to Punjab as it flows only through his State -- once, of course, it leaves the State of Himachal Pradesh? Why then just water? What of power that is generated by Himachal Pradesh? Why should one State agree to displace its residents so that the water from the dam may benefit the farmers of another State? Remember, the Pong dam displaced villagers of Himachal who were sent off to faraway desert and deserted Rajasthan so that Punjab and Rajasthan may get water.

Not so long ago Punjab was a much bigger State. I do not wish to go back to the times of Maharaja Ranjit Singh. The Indian Punjab at Partition was not even half the size of the old State. After State reorganisation in 1967 Himachal and Haryana were carved out of Punjab, which became much reduced in size, as small as many a large district elsewhere. As the Punjabi district magistrate of Dhulia, in Maharashtra, once told me, Punjab was smaller than the district of which he was the uncrowned king!

All this goes to show that State boundaries are not God-given or permanent; on the contrary, they are creatures of political expediency. Any day the current Government may carve out a separate State of Telangana from Andhra Pradesh or even a Vidarbha out of Maharashtra. With one stroke of the pen will their entitlements change? The Sutlej valley itself may become a separate State at some time in the future and refuse to give water to the rest of Punjab. Would that be acceptable to the good Captain?

Ten years ago I had the good fortune to attend an international conference in the Philippines on ownership of natural resources. The argument about ownership of natural resources by the people was made so specific that it was even argued that fishing and other sea resources should belong to the villages actually on the beach. One supposes that the villages set further back would then use their ownership of the roads passing through them as bargaining counters. We ignored the bizarre idea as it was not likely to affect us in India. Capt. Amarinder Singh is now bringing it here. The fall-out of his move threatens to be as far-reaching as it will be grave for the unity of this country. The question has to be settled speedily -- and once and for all.

Vasudha Dhagamwar,

Executive Director, MARG (Multiple Action Research Group),

205-206, Shahpur Jat,

New Delhi -- 110 049.

Railways' ways

Sir, -- My wife and I, both in our seventies, travelled by AC I class from Dehra Dun to Delhi on June 28 by 4042 Mussoorie Express on a confirmed ticket purchased 10/12 days earlier. The coach and seat numbers were not shown at the place provided on the ticket which is unlike the practice adopted for the lower classes by which we generally travel. At the time of booking we had requested for an upper berth and a lower berth in a coupe (which we got on the outward journey, six days earlier).

As it turned out on the day of the journey, some VIPs were travelling in the coach and the chart arrived just 20 minutes before departure with some entries in the manuscript. We found that we had been allotted the two lower berths in a four-berth compartment and my wife was the sole woman in the entire coach. In the dark I copied as best as I could the names and ticket numbers of the passengers listed on the chart so I have an idea of the number of people and the date of purchase of their tickets. I would be happy to have the comments of the Indian Railways and members of the public to this episode to help me draft a suggestion to the authorities to help them put in place a customer-oriented, not a railway-oriented or, worse, a government-oriented, system.

Jasbir Singh Malik,

E-283, East of Kailash,

New Delhi -- 110 065

Campus scene

Sir, -- Given that 90 per cent Indians work in the unorganised sector, Anjali Dhal Samanta's "Admission Blues" (The Hindu, July 6) did well to focus on the adverse impact on Delhi University's "parallel economy" of "banta" sellers, rickshaw pullers, chana-bhatura stalls and photostat shop-owners because this year's unusually high "cut-offs" for admission to most courses in North Campus colleges kept the throngs of admission-seekers smaller in size than in previous years. At least the banta-wallahs managed good sales of their cold drinks thanks to unremitting heat and humidity, while many rickshaw pullers made up for a smaller number of passengers by taking the ones they got, especially those from out of Delhi, for a ride literally.

The photostat shop-owners certainly suffered, though considering the sheer poison chana-bhaturas are for most stomachs, a dip in their sales is only to be welcomed! Now that the admission process has ended, an unending quest for accommodation will begin for those who do not get a place in college hostels. Here the booming "parallel economy" of rooms to cram into with many others at exorbitant rents will come into play post-July 16, when colleges open for the new academic year, with spin-offs for booksellers and eating joints near the Campus, especially in Knags (Kamla Nagar for the uninitiated).

Vinod Chowdhury,

Head of the Department of Economics,

St. Stephen's College,

Delhi.

Dream come true

Sir -- What a powerful, clever and influential politician our Railway Minister, Laluji, is that almost everybody is happy and satisfied with his maiden railway budget!

For one thing, it has a lot of sops for the poor and unorganised sections. To top it all, Laluji has also not raised the existing passenger fares and freight rates. It is really a people's-dream-come-true budget.

Hope this pro-poor budget will go a long way in setting matters right in the country's biggest commercial employment unit ranging from safety and security of passengers to other basic facilities required on board our trains.

Heartiest congratulations to Laluji for coming up with such a nice gift to Indian society.

Safiuddin Khan

R.M. Hall, Aligarh Muslim University,

Aligarh -- 202 002

Burglar alarms

Sir, -- Internationally security gadgets are installed at residences to serve as burglar alarms. The monitoring of the system is done by the police -- that is, whenever a burglar alarm goes off, the signals are transmitted through telephone lines to a computer installed at the monitoring station.

There are similar gadgets available in India, but the monitoring is done by private agencies which are unable to provide complete solutions.

In case Delhi Police set up a control room where all such alarms are monitored and use the PCR vehicles to rush to the spot whenever such an alarm is sounded, it would be the most reliable service to our citizens whether senior or junior.

Manish Jaggi,

A-302, Shivalik,

Malviya Nagar,

New Delhi -- 110 017.

* * *

(Letters for this column may be sent by e-mail to wsins@thehindu.co.in. They must carry the full postal

address and should be marked "Readers' Mail".)

D-504 Purvasha,

Mayur Vihar 1,

Delhi -- 110 091

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