The Hindu : New Delhi News : Reader's Mail

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Nov 22, 2004

New Delhi

New Delhi

Reader's Mail

Missing mail

Sir, -- I would like to draw your attention to a strange problem of missing letters that I had posted in August this year to various banks applying for various posts.

Each letter was sent through ordinary post and comprised an application and a demand draft. All the letters were posted from the post box of the Yamuna Vihar C Block Post Office in Delhi-110 053.

After a thorough check, I have come to know that none of the applications was received by the addressees. As a result, I lost all my opportunities to appear at the written examinations.

I want to know who is responsible for all this recklessness.

When I tried to approach the Post Master of the Yamuna Vihar C Block post office, there were only two persons at two counters. They told me that there was no post master and that they had nothing to do with the missing letters.

I came to know through newspapers and TV news channels subsequently about rackets in theft of demand drafts from letters and parcels. It is a matter of serious concern for the public and raises question marks over the credibility of the Indian Postal Service which right now is proudly celebrating its 150th birth anniversary.

Millions of young job-seekers use ordinary post to send their applications for jobs, so it is most important to deliver these safely and speedily. The Indian Postal Service authorities must look into the matter urgently and take action against the culprits both inside and outside the postal department.

Anoop Silwal,
K-5/21A, Street No. 13,
West Ghonda,
Gangotri Vihar,
Delhi - 110 053

Dog days

Sir, -- Normally if there is a complaint, one is confident that the columns of newspapers would be available for it to be publicly aired and making the authorities take immediate note of it. But what does an average citizen do to complain about the menace of stray dogs when all the leading newspapers in Delhi form a body and issue a statement, as they did recently, that those who do not find the company of stray dogs exhilarating are lacking in human sympathy. Notwithstanding all the risky barbs from the powerful media, I plead guilty.

A casual walk across any residential colony of the Capital would manifest the constant fear of unintentionally annoying the dogs and incurring a dogbite. It is in any case impossible to prevent little children from running about in the colonies without the dogs running after them. I would have supposed that between stray dogs and little children one might expect a preference for the latter -- but then possibly I am too old-fashioned a fossil.

Further the dog lovers seem to offer some solace by suggesting that after the dogs have been immunised they may cause bodily harm by biting -- which could possibly lead to permanent damage -- but we can be certain that we will not die of dogbite. What a colossal relief to the silly victims who do not appreciate the love instinct of dogs!

I understand that abroad it is an offence for any dog owner to take out a dog without a leash. I believe we here have such a law too, but it is observed more in the breach. That must mean that there can be no stray dogs in the streets. How is it then that the dog lovers in India wish to shirk their responsibility?

I cannot understand why the dog lovers do not offer to adopt the stray dogs as their pets, so that the responsibility for the upkeep of these dogs rests in more humane hands. This will also not hurt the sensitivity of stray dogs having to live on charity for their daily bread. Incidentally, now with winter on, how is it that the dog lovers have not yet applied their minds to providing some winter clothing to the dogs?

I am all praise for the dog lovers' instinct of human sympathy. Could they not extend a little of it to the very many orphaned children stranded in the dangerous streets of our cities? If even some of these street kids could be rehabilitated, society will gain immensely and it will owe a debt of permanent gratitude to our dog lovers.

Justice (Retd)
Rajindar Sachar,
A-19, New Friends Colony,
New Delhi - 110 065.

Syracuse here

Sir, -- November 4, 2004, at Lodi The Garden Cafe marked the inaugural meeting of the Syracuse University New Delhi Alumni Chapter. Syracuse University has an alumni base of over 200,000 spanning the globe.

The University was founded in 1870 and is currently ranked as one of America's top 40 universities. It is best known for its diverse selection of schools and colleges. Its most renowned programmes are the Newhouse School of Communications, Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, as well as The Martin J. Whitman School of Management.

Syracuse University's vision of being the leading student-centred research university is a central theme in all areas of the University. Famous alumni include Dick Clark, Ted Koppel, Vanessa Williams, Ian Schrager of Studio 54 fame, and India's very own Arun Shourie. Distinguished alumni in attendance on November 4 included Amarjit Sahay, Som N. Sikand, Madan Agrawal and Prof. D. D. Malhotra.

The New Delhi chapter of the alumni association will continue to hold events on a semi-annual basis and welcomes alumni from all over India to join us in future. Please refer to http://www.syr.edu/alumni/ for the latest alumni news and happenings or ring up 98102-62987 (Adam Mazur) or 98100-09653 (Prithi Kochhar).

Adam Mazur and
Prithi Kochhar,
T-210 J, Shahpur Jat,
New Delhi.

Just why?

Sir, -- Every scientific enquiry involves formulation of a hypothesis which is then tested against facts. In the much talked about matter of Zahira Sheikh, one hypothesis is that the young woman, perhaps neither well-educated nor particularly intelligent nor acquainted with the ways of the world, was placed in a position of weakness by the horrors that she had witnessed, in particular the killings of members of her family.

She would have become fearful and easy to manipulate, specially by those whom she knew to have been involved in or associated with the brutality.

The lure of wealth beyond her wildest dreams may also have been a factor. Whatever may have been the reasons for her having become a malleable puppet, Zahira changed her stand twice, first before the fast track court, and, then, some days ago, while under the protection or control of Gujarat's administrators and police -- who, as has been pointed out by a commentator, are in theory prosecuting those against whom she was to testify.

People from the Chief Minister of Gujarat downwards have said that an NGO used precisely this combination of fear and cupidity to make Zahira change her stand after the fast track court had acquitted the 21 persons accused in the Best Bakery case.

This is perfectly plausible and must therefore be part of the hypothesis. It should not be difficult to establish whether a motley bunch of people was stronger than the entire police force of Gujarat State. Zahira has already told us, in words as expressive as those of a law enforcement agency, of the knife or knives with which the NGO's members compelled her to travel to Mumbai.

The girl is completely out of her depth and has been buffeted by a wind of immense strength, with only the shakiest of anchors to hold on to. The hypothesis must be tested, for there is far more at stake than just Zahira.

Mukul Dube,
D-504 Purvasha,
Mayur Vihar 1,
Delhi - 110 091

Good news

Sir, -- Lakshmi B. Ghosh in "Campus Jottings" (November 4) gives us the welcome news that our supply of trained lawyers is to be augmented by the Central Government's decision, under Section 3 of the University Grants Commission Act, to confer Deemed University status on the Indian Law Institute, New Delhi, subject to it following the UGC's guidelines, and to the Jaypee Institute of Information Technology (JIIT), Noida, on a "de novo" basis, subject to a review after three years.

Since the country's judicial system needs not only more judges but also better lawyers, this is good news indeed -- provided the new lawyers break away from current practices which delay justice by seeking endless adjournments et al. With the National Law School and Delhi University's Law Faculty, among others, producing at least some quality lawyers, there will soon be enough of them. But what we really need is a properly functioning judicial system for the common man.

Vinod Chowdhury,

Head of the Department of Economics,
St. Stephen's College,
Delhi University,
Delhi - 110 007

* * *

(Letters for this column may be sent by e-mail to wsins@thehindu.co.in. They must carry the full postal address of the writer and should be marked "Readers' Mail".)

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