Red letter day

Sir — The Indian Space Research Organisation should be congratulated for the successful entrance of the Mars Orbiter Mission into the orbit of the red planet (“Walk on the beach... to Earth’s end & beyond”, Sept 25). This is no ordinary feat. India has become the first country to enter the Mars orbit in its maiden attempt. The ISRO claims that this is one of the cheapest MOMs till date. The mission puts India in the same league as the United States of America, the European Space Agency and the former Soviet Union. The prime minister, Narendra Modi, who witnessed the historic moment, said the country has achieved the “near impossible”. Hopefully, India will experience more such moments of glory.

Yours faithfully,
M.M. Kale, Kakinada, Andhra Pradesh

Sir — The scientists at ISRO have managed to create history. They have successfully sent the space probe to its final destination in orbit around Mars. It is a matter of pride that India managed this feat on its maiden attempt. Mangalyaan arrived at the sphere of Mars’s gravitational pull after travelling some 780 million kilometres over 300 days. One of ISRO’s aims is to search for the presence of methane in the planet’s atmosphere, which could indicate the presence of life on Mars. The MOM will revolve around Mars for six months, at least. The US and the former Soviet Union have tasted similar success. But none managed to do that in the first attempt. This proves that India has immense talent in science and can make history if it has the right support and infrastructure.

Yours faithfully,
Arun Malankar, Mumbai

Sir — India’s space programme has received a boost after it successfully put a satellite into the orbit around Mars. The success of the MOM, also known as Mangalyaan, will bolster India’s five-decade-old space programme that the prime minister, Narendra Modi, aims to expand. The ISRO wanted to develop technology required for design, planning, management, and operations for an interplanetary mission. The department of atomic energy first set up the Indian National Committee for Space Research in 1962. After a modest start, the Indian space programme took a giant leap in 1975 when the first satellite, Aryabhatta, was launched. The recent success has surely given an impetus to India’s global standing in space research.

Yours faithfully,
Bhagwan Thadani, Mumbai

Sir — The success of the ISRO has made Indians proud. Narendra Modi thanked a number of personalities after the MOM successfully entered the red planet’s orbit. But he excluded those who pioneered, nurtured and took forward India’s space programme (“‘Bechare’ pioneers draw ‘shunya’”, Sept 25). He did not mention the contributions made by Jawaharlal Nehru, Homi J. Bhabha, Vikram A. Sarabhai, Indira Gandhi and Satish Dhawan when he spoke in Bangalore after the historical feat.

Scientists should be lauded for the good work that they have done silently. In reaching Mars on its debut attempt, India has beaten China which failed to do something similar in 2012. India has proved that its space programme can survive even if the West does not share its technology as was the case after the nuclear tests. The ISRO has also developed the polar satellite launch vehicle for launching satellites into varied orbits. This has helped in gathering weather forecasts in advance. The ISRO should continue to scale greater heights.

Yours faithfully,
Dipak Banerjee, Calcutta

Sir — India may not have the intricate infrastructure of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration but that has not stopped the nation from achieving the impossible. Pranab Mukherjee, the president of India, congratulated the ISRO for the successful orbit insertion manoeuvre of the MOM that made India the first Asian country to send a satellite to Mars. He said that the nation is proud of this historic achievement which has demonstrated India’s capabilities in space research.

The technical superiority achieved at a shoestring budget has proved the mettle of Indian scientists. They have managed to successfully send the MOM to the Mars orbit through sheer dedication and ingenuity. It can be hoped that brilliant students of science would now want to work with the ISRO instead of going abroad. India’s technological skills will be a reason of envy for those countries who have failed to reach Mars in their first attempt.

Yours faithfully,
Mukul Ranjan Chakraborty, Calcutta

Sir — It is really surprising that the ISRO managed to create the MOM in a budget lesser than that of a Hollywood film. In fact, the prime minister’s pet project, the Statue of Unity, will cost at least four times more than the space project. The ISRO has set an example by putting in tremendous effort and time to this project. A team of scientists from the ISRO presented the first pictures of the red planet sent by the spacecraft. This achievement will etch India’s name in golden letters. The president of the Bharatiya Janata Party, Amit Shah said, “The Mars mission’s success is continuity to the astronomical heritage laid down by astronomers like Lagadha, Aryabhatta, Brahmagupta and Bhaskara.”

Corruption has crept into every level of administration in our country. It is holding India back. If corruption can be eradicated from the Indian system, then the nation would leave its mark in any field.

Yours faithfully,
G. Krishnanand Adiyogi, Calcutta

Letters from Odisha

Time to go

Sir — The expulsion of the former finance minister of Odisha, Prafulla Chandra Ghadai, from the Biju Janata Dal by its president, Naveen Patnaik, on September 20 raises questions about the democratic norms being followed by political parties. Ghadai’s supporters are justified when they allege that their leader was not even issued a show-cause notice to explain what had appeared about him in a newspaper report. In a democracy, people must be given an opportunity to make their stand clear. The leadership may not have accepted his version and could have expelled him. But by denying him a basic right, the BJD leadership has turned existing norms on their head. How can these political parties, which are supposed to defend democracy, fail to observe its basic norms? Do they consider themselves above the law?

Yours faithfully,
Chandramohan Patnaik, Bhubaneswar

Sir — It is ridiculous to see the former finance minister, Prafulla Chandra Ghadai, trying to attain a high moral ground after his expulsion from the ruling BJD. If he had felt so aggrieved about the goings-on in the party and had problems with the attitude of the chief minister, why did he keep quiet for so long? As the vice-president of the BJD, he could have easily initiated discussions about these issues at the party fora at a suitable time. If he so wished, he could have directly spoken to Patnaik and told him about the problems plaguing the party. Ghadai was first dropped from the government, and then he was denied a ticket for the assembly elections. Later, he was also denied membership of the Rajya Sabha. Predictably, he chose to vent his ire against Patnaik through the media. Ghadai has pleaded that he had spoken off the record. But mediapersons are not partymen. Why should he take them into confidence and attack his own leadership? Who was he trying to fool?

Yours faithfully,
Radhashyam Das, Jajpur

Sir — The fiasco involving Prafulla Chandra Ghadai has served to highlight the crisis that the BJD has been plunged into. A series of embarrassing scams have emboldened closet dissidents to come out in the open. The interview given by Ghadai makes it amply clear that his two targets are the chief minister, Naveen Patnaik, and Ghadai’s rival and the Rajya Sabha member, Kalpataru Das, who has suddenly emerged as Patnaik’s key man.

Das, too, is embroiled in land- related controversies. By throwing out Ghadai from the party, Patnaik will be able to silence the dissidents for sometime, but not for ever. The chit fund scam, being probed by the Central Bureau of Investigation, will most likely expose many of his party colleagues. To save his image, Patnaik should take action against his erring colleagues instead of throwing out of the party people who question these issues.

Yours faithfully,
Himanshu Mohanty, Bhubaneswar

Sir — The expulsion of Prafulla Chandra Ghadai, who had a long association with the BJD, was expected. All those who were close to Biju Patnaik and had initially resisted Naveen Patnaik’s dominance in the party have been gradually eased out. Patnaik had started this process by denying Bijoy Mohapatra, one of the founder-members of the party who had been instrumental in bringing him into politics, a party ticket at the last moment during the 2000 assembly polls. It was followed by the expulsion of several leaders, including Dilip Ray and Rama Krushna Patnaik. The ones who are left in the party now should be on their toes. Any wrong move on their part could land them outside the party.

Yours faithfully,
Ramesh Satpathy, Puri

Letters from Bihar

Find a cure

Sir — The recovery of “objectionable items and eight bottles of alcohol” from the prisoners’ ward of the Patna Medical College and Hospital has, once again, raised the issue of the deteriorating law and order situation in the state. The recovery of these items, together with the arrest of a woman inside the ward that lodges the notorious gangster and undertrial, Anil Sharma, reminds one of the Lalu Prasad-Rabri Devi era, when criminals led a luxurious life in different jails or prisoners’ wards of hospitals. A case has been lodged against Sharma for carrying out illegal activities inside the hospital premises while the woman has been released on bond. However, another shocking incident has happened since then. Arvind Mahto, an accused in a triple murder case and an inmate of the Barh jail, went missing from the PMCH prisoners’ ward only days after the incident involving Sharma. Mahto was said to be ailing and was shifted to the PMCH a couple of days before he went missing.

After the incident, the city police have suspended four cops for dereliction of duty. But would the suspension of a few policemen solve the problem? The government should look into the matter seriously. Only those criminals who are medically unfit or have some serious ailments should be shifted to the hospital. Also, the jail doctor, after consulting a civil surgeon, should recommend the shifting of the patient from jail to hospital. For hardened criminals, security should be tightened at the prisoners’ ward and only one attendant should be allowed to remain with patients. Outside food should be banned.

Hopefully, the state government will take some corrective steps to strengthen policing at a time when India has created history by becoming the first country to successfully get a spacecraft into the Martian orbit on its maiden attempt.

Yours faithfully,
Ravindra Upadhaya, Patna

Sir — The news that a nine-year-old child lost his life at the PMCH after he was denied the supply of oxygen by a class IV employee who demanded a bribe is appalling (“‘Bribe’ sought for oxygen, child dies”, Sept 19). How can such an incident happen at a State-run health institution? As per media reports, the class IV employee was later arrested. But the question is why did the hospital administration not take any action against the doctors and nurses who were on duty during that incident? Even if one supposes that the class IV employee withheld oxygen to the child till he was paid his bribe, what about the doctors and the nurses who were on duty? Why did they not help the patient? The hospital must investigate such incidents and should punish the negligent doctors and nurses. Unless this is done, a wrong message would be conveyed to the residents of the city.

I also cannot understand why the departmental health manager did not intervene in the situation. This means that he or she was not aware about the incident though it is the job of the health manager of the various departments of a health hub to keep a tab on the affairs of their respective departments. In this case, the health manager of the paediatrics department had failed to discharge his duties. The guilty should be meted out stringent punishment. I also found the statement of Nigam Prakash Narayan, which was quoted by The Telegraph — alleging that doctors and nurses were not supposed to operate the oxygen cylinder — unacceptable. Has he forgotten the oath that every doctor has to take before joining the service? In it, they take a pledge to work for the society. How can he make such a meaningless statement? Doctors have a reputable position in society only because they save lives, a job people in other professions cannot do. But such remarks are tarnishing the image of the entire medical community.

Yours faithfully,
Manju Verma, Patna