The Hindu : New Delhi News : Student outfit's open letter to Kalam

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Jan 12, 2005

New Delhi

New Delhi

Student outfit's open letter to Kalam

By Our Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI, JAN. 11. As the President, A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, gets ready to don his Visitor's cap for a lecture at Jawaharlal Nehru University here on Wednesday, representatives of the Students' Federation of India have appealed to the First Citizen to address certain issues.

While appreciating the overwhelming response of the people and the Government to help the tsunami victims, activists of the SFI JNU unit have, in an open letter addressed to Dr. Kalam, criticised the behaviour of the United States. Welcoming the Government's stand to carry out relief operations under the United Nations banner, the letter blames the "successive Indian Governments over the last decade for bowing down to pressures from the United States."

Claiming that the Government lacked the "moral courage'' to condemn the "illegal war'' that the United States waged in Iraq and Afghanistan, the letter states that the "willingness of the Government to be seen as an ally of the United States has gone to such an extent that the erstwhile NDA Government strengthened its ties with the Zionist Israeli regime denouncing our age-old policy of supporting the Palestine cause''.

Pointing out that Dalits were not allowed to live in refugee camps even in the face of the tsunami disaster, the letter states: "You being the head of this democracy have to intervene and resist the murder of democracy and secularism that are going on in the country''. Raising the subject of large-scale farmer suicides, the letter blames the "neo-liberal economic policies'' that have been pursued by successive governments. "The youth of the country are facing the menace of unemployment. In this situation, the Government instead of spending more for the poor and developing industries to provide employment opportunities for the people of our country, is succumbing to IMF-World Bank pressure and cutting subsidies for the poor and privatising even the existent PSUs.''

Finally, it questions the "exorbitant fees'' in private institutes that are "selling education to garner higher profits''.

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