Falsifying history for political gain (Organiser, 18-1-2009); “Politics is a dirty game”, so is often said, but politicising history is far more dangerous and ominous for the nation. I would like to share my experiences with the readers in this context through this letter. In 1976, during the days of Emergency, I was directed by the Haryana government to go through the NCERT textbooks on History meant for classes VI to VIII, namely Ancient India, Medieval India and Modern India, written by Romila Thapar and one or two others and procure their publishing copyrights from the NCERT for introduction of these books in schools in Haryana. I read these books and pointed out a number of sentences needed to be modified in the books. It was purely an apolitical professionally academic exercise done by me. At this time, I do not remember all the objections I raised with the NCERT authorities, but I do remember three objections, I raised with them. The one was on beef-eating by Aryans, the second was their distortion against the facts of slaughter of Guru Tegh Bahadur and the third was their branding of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose as a fascist. At the first instance, the NCERT authorities were adamant and refused to change even a single word in the texts. I met the NCERT authorities several times in this connection. I was told that the authors, Romila Thapar, Bipin Chandra & Co., were not willing to change a single word. I never got a chance to discuss my points with the authors of the books. At the end, I told them bluntly that I would not recommend these books to my department unless you make these modifications and would send my report to my department and leave it to the discretion of the department. Thank God, the better sense prevailed and the NCERT and the authors concerned relented to make some modifications in the texts to be published by Haryana Education Department in 1977 and 1978. However, as an erstwhile teacher, I appeal to the authorities concerned in the states, NCERT and MHRD, not to impose doctored and politically motivated history or their political isms on small innocent children in schools and free the school system from the strangulating grip of the academic mafia, presently masquerading as progressive educationists and intellectuals.
—SUDARSHAN KUMAR KAPUR,
Gurgaon, Haryana
A Matter Of Economics (Organiser, 18-1-2009); January 7, 2009 will go down as a black day in corporate India for this was the day India was hit by its first major market/corporate scandal leading to the collapse of the stock of a major Indian IT corporate house. Ramlinga Raju, founder and Chairman of Satyam Computer Services Ltd, India’s fourth largest IT services company, admitted to fraud and inflating the revenue and costs and resigned from the company and the board. Raju admitted that he falsified the account books at Satyam. The $1.04 billion listed in assets is non-existent according to Raju reports The New York Times. Raju’s claim that neither he nor his family benefitted and got any “rupee” from Satyam in all these years is not lost on those who are reporting and reading about the scandal. The irony of the meaning of Satyam has been highlighted by many media reports. Satyam is derived from the Sanskrit word for truth and honesty.
—KP DESHMUKH,
Vadner, Nashik
I do agree with whatever you said in your column. If we (India) want to project to the world as clean and really serious about handling corruption, it is high time our officials acted and framed strict rules from hereafter and put an end to the chalta hai attitude. And our politicians and other higher officials will keep on going back to corruption until and unless there comes a force, out of the common man’s world, which instils fear into wrong-doers. I hope there comes a movement in our country, one day, which will put an end to the corruption and strive towards the progress with unity, integrity and honesty. Then, I predict that India will be respected not only by its people but by the entire world.
—SHEKHAR BURRA
by e-mail
It is very sad to see a well-regarded company fall because of one individual’s quest for fame. Wall Street Journal mentioned that Mr. Raju always felt that he was not given the same respect as the other majors and I have a feeling that it drove him to overstate revenues, profits and thereby cash flows. I feel sadder for all those hard-working and loyal employees. Satyam is known to have the lowest attrition rate and this will definitely impact employee loyalty even more and across all Indian companies. Employees will trust less and less their employers. I only hope things are cleaned up fast. Having seen how companies like Enron and many others have unravelled, it may be wishful thinking on my part.
—P THAMMINENI,
Padmnabh Nagar, Bangalore
This was not the first corporate scandal in India. What is different about Satyam is the magnitude and scale and the fact that accounting and other errors went undetected for so long. India has one of the most complex legal landscapes to do business. Then there is the fact Satyam listed on the US and European stock exchanges to. How could there be failures at so many levels? Satyam will not be the first corporate scandal if you go by what has happened in the business history of other free-market economies and the scandal skeletons that are strewn in their landscape. Scandals are symptoms that something is wrong with the system and the system needs to get fixed. The system consists of people, who are politicians, bureaucrats, business people, lawyers etc. They are the one who come up with a set of rules and procedures etc. It is also important to instil a value of ethics and trust. When greed takes over, you will notice that the first casualty is your ethics and integrity. Once you have lost your ethical compass it is very difficult to regain, I suspect, but hopefully I am wrong.
—P MALLESHWARAN,
Raghvendra Nagar, Karim Nagar, Andhra Pradesh
Don’t be blind to Hamas terror while commenting on Gaza strike (Organiser, 18-1-2009); Israel has won all its unprovoked wars so far, but it has not been permitted to win the peace. The other world powers restrained Israel from completing the victory and, therefore, the peace. Traditionally, when a country is victorious, it occupies the defeated country until a regime, friendly to the victor, is installed. In World War II, Germany, Japan and Italy were neutralised and now exist in peace with the Allies. Israel was never given that privilege, and so the conflict will continue. Israel will never accept defeat; its enemies call for its nonexistence. It will resort to the ultimate weapon instead.
—P BHASKAR,
Kukapalli Colony, Hyderabad
Join madrasa, why sit for tough CBSE board exams? (Organiser, 11-1-2009); You have traced all loopholes in your editorial. The need of the hour is to provide education to all citizens, irrespective of caste, creed, sex, religion, etc. By doing so unity of the nation and society is possible. There should not be majority or minority system as tool of catching votes only. If the rulings parties are not serious, then the opposition should discharge their duties in the national interest. In foreign countries, such type of only minority education is not prevalent. It is only in India where divide and rule policy, inherited from British government, is still prevalent. In the long run, heavy cost will have to be paid for such disparity.
—LAKSHMI CHAND,
Bandh, Bhangari, Solan
Jammu win boosts BJP (Organiser, 11-1-2009); The BJP emerged as a major political force in Jammu and Kashmir, winning 11 of the 87 seats. The party had only one seat in the outgoing assembly. Its best-ever performance had been in the 1996 polls, when it bagged eight seats. All 11 seats were obtained out of the Jammu region’s tally of 37, since it has no presence in the Valley. It won 7 seats in Jammu, three in Kathua and one in Reasi district. For a party that lost the elections in Rajasthan and Delhi earlier this month, the Jammu results have come as a great consolation. Ten of the 11 seats were wrested from the Congress, while one seat was taken from the National Conference.
—ANEEK PARMAR,
Station Road, Bhavnagar, Gujarat
The BJP rode the crest of a wave of resentment against the previous Congress-PDP coalition, which was perceived by Jammu-dwellers as being biased in favour of the Kashmir Valley in the protracted dispute earlier last year over the allotment of land to the Sri Amarnath Shrine Board. Many of its local leaders played key roles in the land-related agitation. However, BJP general secretary Arun Jaitley, who handled the party’s Jammu agitation, insisted that the Amarnath issue was not the sole factor behind the BJP’s win. The BJP is seen as representing the aspirations of the people of Jammu, who have suffered years of discrimination. The credit for this performance of BJP goes to party’s cadres and the people of Jammu.
—SK JINDAL,
Mandi Road, Hisar
Doing good: The limits of appeasement (Organiser, 11-1-2009); Unless we successfully reorient our misguided policy of appeasement, India will lose the soul of the nation. Congress has swallowed Hindus by hypnotism of minorityism. To combat it, proactive-majorityism is the weapon. Hindus should be inspired by highlighting the heroic deeds of Ranapratap, Rana Sanga, Shivaji Maharaj, Subhas Chandra Bose, Veer Savarkar, etc, in the media.
—KALIDAS DE,
Dewanpara, Sunhat, Balasore, Orissa
A strategy to deter terrorism (Organiser, 4-1-2009); Dr Subramanian Swamy has very correctly mentioned in his article that core countries of our strategic planning have to be those, who have been identified by Osama bin Laden as the enemies of Islam:- US, Israel and India. The basic problem with our secular rulers of India is that they have been allergic to USA and Israel, and are all along working for the benefit of Islamic and Communist countries, with complete disregard for national interests. In fact the definition of secularism in India is appeasement of Muslims and hatred for Hindus.
—ANAND PRAKASH,
72/Sector-8, Panchkula
The article is highly educative and timely but which political party is today ready to sacrifice power for the sake of saving this country from pan-Islamic forces financing terrorism? Specially when it is the case of Congress, which divided the nation purely to come into power, and left parties that supported this tragic partition. UPA is an alliance of wilful traitors who took no concrete action against terrorists or those who are promoting terrorism. The only way out is to politically liquidate the paid agents of anti-India forces.
—PRAMOD PRABHAKAR VALSANGKAR,
Dwarakapuram, Dilsukh Nagar, Hyderabad
Islamic largesse on media in eastern India (Organiser 18-1- 2009); I am surprised at the myopic tendency of the writer to dub the words Islamic and Muslim depicting some sense, which is opposed to national interest. If about twenty per cent population of the country is looked down in such a manner, it would actually lead to anti-national phobia among the non-Muslims only.
—ATM ANWAR,
22-7-499, Purani Haveli, Hyderabad
Indo-Pak animosity: A way out (Organiser, 4-1-2009); The terror attacks cast a long shadow over a spate of confidence-building measures taken by the two sides to thaw a long freeze in bilateral ties. The Mumbai terror attack drew international ire against Pakistan-based terror groups and India asked Pakistan to shut down the entire terrorist network operating on its soil. Relations between India and Pakistan, which appeared to be on course towards normalisation after return of civilian rule in Islamabad, almost touched a nadir at the year end in the aftermath of Pakistani terrorists carrying out a carnage in Mumbai.
—RAMESH TOMAR,
Kali Bari, Tarapur, Silchar
In spite of setbacks such as the recent Mumbai terror attack we need to continue with the peace process, as this will benefit both countries. The London blasts have shown us that terrorists can attack anywhere and at any time. So cooperation among all political parties and media support is important. There have been hiccups in the Pakistan-India peace process in the past and we will overcome the current problems too though it may take a little bit longer.
—S SRIDHAR,
Vardharaja Puram, Chennai
Porous Bangla border, a security threat (Organiser, 4-1-2009); The north-eastern region of the country is sitting on a powder keg as Pakistan’s ISI has been able to make substantial inroads into the region by covertly using the Bangladesh territory for carrying out its operation. The illustrated portrait of widened Bangladesh border and inexplicably increasing population of border India massively by Bangladeshi infiltrators in the north-east, is reason enough for being construed as ‘cancer’! The intelligence, which has been sent in to the Home Ministry, said the situation continues to be grim, as the region falls in ISI’s top priority.
—AYAN PRAMANIK,
27/1B, Bidhan Sarani, Swastika
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