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It is reassuring that Prime Minister Narendra Modi, whether out of compulsion or conviction, has broken his silence and restated what the law states on freedom of religion (“Modi promises complete freedom of faith”, February 18).
At the same time, what he actually embodies matters more than what he verbally promises to do. His representation of Hindutva politics is clearly at odds with the true inwardness of secularism.
While his party taps religious identity for political gain, he forfeits the right to claim the moral high ground. For all his homilies on Indian ‘way of life’ Modi has not asked his overzealous ‘friends’ in the larger parivar to wind up their ghar wapsi programmes and stop making hate speeches against ‘religious minorities’.
India’s demographic profile is so heterogeneous that it cannot but be secular and liberal.
G David Milton
Maruthancode, Tamil Nadu
Unhealthy systems
This is with reference to the editorial (“The swine flu scare”, February 18) Epidemic outbreaks in Rajasthan, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Telangana clearly demonstrate the lack of preparedness and pro-active approach of the Centre and state governments. While it is well known that poor sanitation, overcrowding and sick health systems are conducive for outbreak of malaria, cholera, encephalitis, etc., why is our government not tackling this epidemic on a war footing?
People with poor immune systems are prone to respiratory tract infections and are equally susceptible to swine flu. Why is this message not disseminated across by the government media?
Our media is quite busy creating hype on World Cup cricket and other election results, they can also resort to educate the common man on this dangerous epidemic.
VK Sridhar
Erode
The business of ethics
“The search for an ethical firm” (February 18) by Shiv Visvanathan rightly voiced concerns in the functional aspects of ethics in business and corporate social responsibilities. In the long run, when it comes to pricing of products and profits, the gap between the haves and have-nots is widening. The rich is getting richer while the poor is becoming poorer.
What the author stressed is nothing but good corporate governance, which needs to be practised by all business firms. Nowadays business schools are teaching, advocating and encouraging students to view everything from a profit angle, ignoring ethics and good governance. If a corporate is doing very well and adds considerable value to the existing wealth of shareholders, it is definitely at the cost of consumers. Arbitrary and ambitious pricing policies paved way for huge profits, charging consumers heavily on one pretext or the other.
This is akin to robbing Peter (consumers) and paying Paul (shareholders), which is not a healthy business model for a developing country such as India.
RS Raghavan
Bangalore
No acting this!
In a shocking revelation to the Mumbai Sessions Court, a witness said that Bollywood actor Salman Khan did not have a valid driving licence (DL) at the time of the incident in 2002. It is common knowledge that riding/driving vehicle without valid DL is an offence and it is ironical that the actor was oblivious about the rule or flippantly dismissed it as applicable only to the lesser mortals.
The fact that at the time of the accident besides not having DL to compound the matter, he was allegedly under the influence of alcohol makes the case even stronger for the prosecutors to tweak the ears of offender. It is indeed a lesson to others who throw the rule of the land to winds whimsically that they cannot escape punishment if found guilty.
HP Murali
Bengaluru
Erratum
With reference to the report ‘Commodities transaction tax expanded to cover 38 more items’ (February 16), the Finance Ministry has exempted the commodities from the levy and not expanded the tax net, as reported. A corrected version of the story is being carried online. The error is regretted.
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