MyVoice: Views of our readers 15th August 2023

Doesn’t the man who designed our national flag deserve highest honour?

As we enter the 77th year of Independence, it is nice to see that we prepare ourselves to celebrate once again a great day in the annals of Indian history by saluting the prominent leaders who fought British courageously and gave us freedom after the national anthem. What is strange is that we forget and fail to recall the immense contributions made by lesser known men and women despite their valuable writings and works played a stellar role in India’s freedom movement. One such person which comes to the mind is the enlightened thinker whose works made a remarkable impact on all citizens during the freedom movement. In this context, the editorial highlighting the name of one such doyen Venkayya of Andhra Pradesh going unnoticed and not getting honoured for decades is without an iota of doubt absolutely correct. One fervently hopes, it opens the eyes of the men at the helm at least now to demonstrate and bestow highest honour of the nation on such inspired and multi-faceted personality.

K R Srinivasan, Secunderabad

This refers to “PM kicks off Har Ghar Tiranga campaign” (14 August). To begin with, I don’t know whether PM Modi has greeted the people of Pakistan whose Independence Day was on 14 August, but we, the people, should greet the people of Pakistan for completing 76 years of Independence but at the same time feel sorry for the poor people who continue to suffer at the hands of their rulers. Back home, our PM is motivating people to hoist the national flag in homes, change display picture on social media and also upload “selfie” with tiranga in hand. As you have rightly observed, our Independence Day has become ritual except in the last two years our national flag has become a subject of oneupmanship as even greats like Patel, Nehru, Gandhi and others have become a tool at the hands of political parties in power. Nehru is now getting pitched against Patel and Netaji to present India’s first PM in poor light. Gandhi has almost been forgotten as otherwise how the UP government has managed to demolish the building of Sarva Seva Sangh a Gandhian organisation in Varanasi. As for Pingali Venkayya, the ruling party may use the descendants, may confer Bharat Ratna to get some votes. However, by making the people hold “Tiranga” (National Flat), the ruling party has spread hate inside Heart (Dil) of people which can be healed only by a campaign “Har Dil Mein Tiranga”. It is time to cleanse the heart and sincerely follow the ideals of greats. Jai Hind!

N Nagarajan, Hyderabad

Grave threat to India of tomorrow

The Telangana government is keen to hardsell liquor licenses in districts (The Hans India report). With this, naturally youth get diverted from their active academic stream. As a result, drug abuse is on the rise among the youth. Increase of drug consumption of 30% from last year is creating panic for the parents and the school managements. The academic and the police authorities are requested to divert the youth to active academic patterns. Kindly increase the laboratories, project works and assignments for the youth across our state. Strict measures only can inhibit the next generation kids to divert to these drugs.

G Murali Mohan Rao, Secunderabad

A dismal show by Team India

Team India is complacent, as presumed by the West Indies team, and an arrogant lot, and that proved beyond doubt in the 5-match series. We speak high of the team describing them as great. But for the sky, there is a limit. The hype, hoopla and hysteria is over. We always praise high our bench strength and that is totally exposed. Despite having 3 spinners, we lagged behind when it really mattered, and the West Indies spinners played a positive role in bringing down the much-fancied side. Batting looked brittle, bowling not penetrative and fielding pathetic. Of all, the captaincy saw most unimaginative of all. A more experienced, wily bowler in Ashwin is not considered whereas ordinary players are given the mantle of captaincy.

C K Subramaniam, Mumbai

SC quota: Let Congress be more pragmatic

Refer to the news that Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee has decided to hold a huge public meeting at Chevella on August 18, in which AICC president Mallikarjun Kharge will participate to announce the SC/ST declaration. It is expected that the party will promise more reservation for the SC/ST communities in Telangana, if voted to power in the next assembly elections in the State. This is not healthy in the national interest to assume SC/ST reservation to be only panacea for the community at the cost of other communities in the country, who do not enjoy these advantages. Since Kharge hails from the community, he should not overplay his role in supporting this cause.

S Lakshmi, Hyderabad