The Hindu : New Delhi News : Readers' Mail

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Dec 20, 2004

New Delhi

New Delhi

Readers' Mail

"Mera Metro" ?

Sir, -- The Delhi Metro railway is really the pride of the Capital -- indeed of the whole country. It has always kept up its schedule and in same cases done even better. It is also known for its post-completion efficiency.

So I was surprised when I happened to pass by the Inder Lok metro station the other day and noticed on a big hoarding in blue and white a slogan : "Mera Metro." This struck me as wrong Hindi. I am sure that in accordance with the directives of the Government of India the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation has a Hindi Officer who must have approved of this slogan.

The authentic grammar of Hindi was authored by Kamta Prasad Guru in 1920. After this there has not been a serious attempt to write Hindi grammar. But efforts by famous linguists like Kishori Das Vajpayee in his 'Hindi Anushasan' and Dr. Hardev Bahri do give an insight into Hindi grammar. Kishori Das Vajpayee while analysing Hindi usage maintains that foreign/borrowed words in Hindi belong to the feminine gender, while the words which are borrowed from Sanskrit retain their gender as from the original language. Accordingly in standard Hindi we use (meri) 'bus', 'taxi', 'kitaab,' 'kalam', 'maiz', 'kursi', `notebook', `khidki', `zameen', `basket', `magazine', `sadak', `tareekh', `haath-gaadi', `gaadi', `rail', `rail-gaadi', etc. According to Kishori Das Vajpayee, the word 'rail' is feminine gender so it should take the pronoun `meri' and not `mera'.

Delhi is home to a variety of Hindi speakers yet Hindi has a standard grammar and usage which should be adhered to in official advertisements, announcements and campaigns. In this connection, I must point out that Abhinav Ojha of 210/71-B/1, Stanley Road, Kamla Nagar, Allahabad - 211 002, has been engaged in a committed effort to standardise usage in Hindi for years and by now a set of rules about gender determination have emerged. These rules also state that the borrowed words in Hindi belong to feminine gender. Hence "Mera Metro" is wrong. The correct usage is : Meri Metro. As for my own competence to point out this gross mistake, I was born and brought up in Delhi. Hindi is my mother-tongue. I have taught Russian Language, comparative and contrastive linguistics, theory and practice of translation for over 30 years and am an established short story writer in Hindi, having been published in 'Hans' and 'Kathadesh', two renowned Hindi literary monthlies, besides other magazines all over India.It is on the strength of all this that I request DMRC to rectify its mistake.

Prof. Yogesh Bhatnagar,

C-3, Pusa Apartments,

Sector 15, Rohini,

Delhi - 110 085

Wrong number

Sir, -- It was shocking to read the report "Teenager held for misuse of Internet" (December 9) about the arrest of Puneet Malhotra, a 19-year-old student of computer engineering at a polytechnic institute, by the Special Cell of the Delhi police for allegedly posting the name and telephone number of a girl, who was a neighbour of his girlfriend, to a free messaging service provided by a local website for people seeking friends.

From October 25, the girl and her father (who eventually complained to the Police Commissioner, K. K. Paul), received a series of objectionable calls and, after a thorough investigation, Puneet Malhotra was arrested on December 7. He is supposed to have told the police that he simply wanted to harass the girl. This, it seems, is just the tip of Internet misuse. Reports from Japan speak of suicide pacts executed through the Internet, which is already infamous for its misuse in child sex and pornography.

As legal expert Pavan Duggal rightly maintains, we need to have appropriate laws in place to deal with the large variety of cyber crimes now emerging, and we must enforce them strictly. Hopefully, Puneet Malhotra's arrest will deter others from following in his path.

Vinod Chowdhury,

Head of the Department of Economics,

St. Stephen's College,

Delhi University,

Delhi - 110 007.

No, Haryana

Sir, -- The Haryana Government's recent move to prescribe a time limit for holding elections to municipal and panchayati raj institutions in the State four months prior to the expiry of their tenure is a step aimed at overriding the authority and undermining the dignity of the State Election Commission. It is pertinent to mention here that the State Election Commission is a constitutional body constituted under Article 243K of the Constitution vested with the duty of superintendence, direction and control of elections to urban and rural local bodies in the State. Though the Constitution provides that the State Government can enact legislation with respect to conduct of these elections, the time schedule for holding elections to these bodies should vest with the State Election Commission and it should not be made to function at the whims and fancies of the State Government. Last year also the State Government made it mandatory for the Commission to consult it before announcing the dates of the elections, thus encroaching upon its independent and autonomous character. The State has still not enacted a State Election Commission Act on the lines of the neighbouring State of Punjab. Haryana should enact such an Act specifying the powers, duties and functions of the State Election Commission in consonance with Article 243K of the Constitution at the earliest and desist from interfering in its functioning.

Hemant Kumar,

414 Sector 7,

Urban Estate,

Ambala City (Haryana).

Shocking

Sir, -- This refers to the report "Family Bill for MPs dies" (November 24). The decision of the Union Health and Family Welfare Ministry to withdraw the 79th Constitution Amendment Bill which seeks to disqualify politicians with more than two children from being elected to Parliament and State legislatures is shocking. If the two-child norm is already in force for elected panchayat members in some States, what is the harm if it is applied to all the legislative bodies throughout the country? This move exposes the half-hearted approach of all parties to control the population explosion that in fact requires drastic measures.

The logic of the Government that the Bill is tantamount to coercion and it wants family planning to be voluntary and not by force is unacceptable. This way our family planning schemes are bound to fail. How funny that a top political leader goes on preaching to the people to have small families but he himself has five or seven children! Our leaders are in the habit of getting themselves exempted from the norms, rules and laws and our people find no exemplary leader worth emulation. The alarming rate of population explosion has proved disastrous for our country. Our planning system has failed, the economy has been derailed, the unemployment problem has assumed dangerous proportions.

There is need for drastic measures to halt this menace. Since independence many schemes have been framed but due to poor, half-hearted implementation, all have proved an exercise in futility. Lack of a strong political will is clearly visible.

The Government must provide incentives as well as disincentives. Those who follow the one-child norm must be rewarded with a job for at least one member of the family. Those who have more than two children must be taxed. Social organisations and religious bodies must help in mobilising public opinion for this noble national cause. Let there be no vote bank politics. If this small family Bill is allowed to die, family planning can't remain alive.

Prof. K.L.Batra,

121, Lal Dwara,

Yamuna Nagar (Haryana).

* * *

(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".)

C-3, Pusa Apartments,

Sector 15, Rohini,

Delhi - 110 085

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