Show some spine

Sir ? We should do something about the veto raj we live in. Every group seems to have a veto power on every policy. Students engage in criminal misconduct. They are expelled. Students protest. We back off. Hawkers are banned from footpaths. They protest, and we back off. The government announces privatization of the Great Eastern Hotel. It has been losing money for years. The employees are offered a retirement scheme of a kind unthinkable anywhere else. They or the union that makes money off them balk, and we back off. We decide on evicting squatters along the railways by Rabindra Sarobar. They protest and we back off. There are numerous instances like these. I have a few suggestions for the authorities. Do not adopt a decision that you are not going to enforce against foreseeable odds. Show some spine. Or people come to think anything goes.

Yours faithfully,
Jnanabrata Bhattacharyya, Louisiana, US

A day like any other

Sir ? The chief justice?s rejection of the demand for a holiday on April 18, on the occasion of Ram Navami, is commendable and will set a good precedence (?Court shows way by shutting out holiday?, April 16). In a country where millions of cases have been pending in the courts for decades, making people lose faith in the legal system, it is unthinkable that the courts should have so many holidays. The legal fraternity should also consider reducing the two-months-long summer vacation at least by half. In fact, the courts should work round the clock, in shifts if need be.

The practice of adjourning parliament on the opening day of a session as a mark of respect for some leader or eminent personality who has died during the recess also does not make sense. Rather, respect should be shown by an extra hour of work. Similarly, all government offices should work an extra hour as a mark of respect on great men?s birth or death anniversaries, instead of the day being declared a holiday. After all, a day off work is seldom spent in a manner befitting the occasion. It is a pity that while millions of unemployed youth frantically searching for non-existent jobs, the lucky ones who are employed seem more interested in salary-hikes and holidays on one pretext or the other.

Yours faithfully,
Asit Kumar Mitra, Calcutta

Sir ? Every year April 14, the birthday of B.R. Ambedkar, the father of the Indian Constitution as well as the man who pioneered social reform among the untouchables, is declared a holiday by the government under the Negotiations Instruments Act, 1881. Nothing is wrong with that. But if this has become the custom, what is the hindrance to recognizing the day as a government holiday, as Gandhiji?s birthday is, instead of issuing a special declaration?

Yours faithfully,
Sujit Kumar Sen Gupta, Manirampore

Sir ? The judge, R.C. Lahoti, has done well to refuse to grant a holiday for Ram Navami. As it is, our country has plenty of holidays. And anyway, why have a holiday on Ram Navami when the values Ram stood for have lost all relevance in contemporary politics, administration and business. Also, as per the Hindu calendar, wasn?t Ram Navami on April 17?

Yours faithfully,
B.S. Ganesh, Bangalore

Sir ? While I am in complete agreement with the turning down of the demand for an unscheduled holiday on Ram Navami, it is unusual that the courts were closed for an unscheduled holiday on April 14 to observe Ambedkar Jayanti. Also the Centre?s decision to declare Ambedkar?s birthday a holiday is strange, considering that the birthdays of equally great, if not more important, are yet to be given similar status. The idea, it seems, is to woo a certain class of people, and in that sense, the entire issue is certainly politically motivated.

Yours faithfully,
Pijush Banerjee, Calcutta

Tricks of memory

Sir ? The belief in reincarnation is a vestige of medieval times, and other than Hinduism, no religion professes the theory of re-birth. It was a convenient device to control the so-called lower castes, by imbibing in them the fear of being reborn as a fox or a dog in their next birth if they were too ambitious in the present one. There have been many reports of reincarnation during the last few decades. On investigation they were found, without exception, cases of fraud. They may be explained in terms of child psychology, mystical beliefs of grandparents or colourful yarns thought up by grown-ups for publicity. By publishing a full-page article on reincarnation, The Telegraph is not only promoting an unscientific and obscurantist belief, it has given scope to charlatans to practice such hocus-pocus in the name of science and make money by opening plush chambers to take people back to the past (?Total recall?, April 10). After astrology, this is going to be the next scam. There is no methodology for establishing such a nonsensical belief, at least the article does not give any details as to how the Bangalore practitioner came to establish the fact. Obviously, there can be no way to verify the testimony of the boy ? unless one were to investigate the life of a mountain goat or a centipede who lived and died thirty-forty years ago. Medieval beliefs like these can have a damaging role on a child?s mind, and newspapers cannot deny their responsibility in this regard, even in the name of fun.

Yours faithfully,
Sumitra Padmanabhan, Calcutta

Sir ? The researchers of reincarnation could have saved themselves a lot of trouble if they had asked a simple question, ?Whose rebirth?? The individual is a composite of the physical body and the spirit. Even if one of the two is missing, the identity is lost. On death, the body is destroyed and the identity is lost forever. No claim of remembering previous births can stand scientific scrutiny. Regressive memory therapy may be an opportunity for some people to make money, as the memory of past birth is not verifiable.

Yours faithfully,
C.V.K. Moorthy, Calcutta