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Amit Shah's Hindi move nothing but bunkum

There are a couple of old sayings in Telugu. One, 'Barber without any customer shaved a cat's head' and two, 'A leisurely man, just for the fun of it, burned a palm leave basket which can carry things.'

By claiming that Hindi, as a national language, can unite India Amit Shah is unnecessarily stirring up a hornets' nest. He should realise that the fabric of India is woven around Hindutva and Hinduism and the epics Mahabharata, Ramayana and Bhagavatam were and are being still translated by various authors into respective State languages having centuries' old literary histories.

From Amarnath in North to Rameswaram in South and from Somnath in West to the Fareast, the country is interwoven with thousands of temples and pilgrimage centres keeping the people in unifying spirit. Languages as such are not creating any serious problems in the present day framework but unemployment and river water sharing are two major issues leading to troubles.

If the Central government wants to have a national language, it is quite alright, let it be Sanskrit instead of Hindi. Reviving and uplifting Sanskrit, the language of Vedas and knowledge, to its former glory will be a better option to convince people.

Irrespective of the State language, the offerings in all the temples and yagnas performed across India are performed by chanting Sanskrit shlokas/mantras only.

Whatever, we cannot wish away with English, the global language, and Sanskrit is one such language which can offer near equivalent words for many scientific and technical words in English.

P V Ramana Rao, Hanamakonda

II

The language debate erupts once again as the pro-Hindi and anti-Hindi warriors take up arms. The biggest mistake our country did after Independence perhaps was to continue with the English language.

The colonials left, but a deep colonial legacy continued. We now think, talk, and write in English. The colonial consciousness pervades every single debate and thought of ours. The first thing for disbanding after Independence should have been English.

We should have chosen Sanskrit as a national language; and in a matter of two generations, a new consciousness would have evolved in our country. Scientists in the fields of Artificial Learning and Machine Intelligence now consider Sanskrit to be the most perfect language.

The grammar and vocabulary of Sanskrit stuns the contemporary language experts too. There is nothing either exploitative or Brahmanical about Sanskrit. It is simply the most perfect and beautiful language; also, the mother of many Indian languages.

All the colonial narratives of religion, caste, Aryan-Dravidian conflict, idolatry, superstitions, and so on stayed intact with the persistence of English language amongst the educated elite; and the faultiness have reached beyond a point of repair. Proposing Hindi as a national language is only going to deepen them.

Each language has the beauty and power to open a new world. Hindi is undoubtedly not different - a wonderful language and a great link language too; but the idea of making it a national language should have a rejection for the sake of our country's integrity. It is unfortunately either status quo, or optimistically Sanskrit as a national language.

Dr Pingali Gopal, Warangal

Case against vet for pet's death ridiculous

A barrage of relentless hostility has been seen in the last 12 weeks in the States of West Bengal, Assam and Maharashtra as patients' kin resorting to attack doctors in the name of medical negligence.

Sadly, the administration in Telangana has joined the fray by unleashing its power clumsily, compounding the fears of medical fraternity by filing a cast against a veterinary doctor under Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act etc, after a pet dog owned by a VVIP died on Wednesday night in a hospital (Case on vet after KCR's dog dies, THI, Sept 15).

The police registered a case with lightning speed against the veterinary doctors and hospital on Thursday morning. This not only shows cynical disdain for propriety but is it is also a classic instance of abuse of authority and deserves more than cursory ridicule as the owners were negligent and culpable.

S Vasudevan, Kodaikanal, Tamil Nadu

Vikram lander is a setback, not defeat

Indian Space Research Organisation's (ISRO) efforts to ensure India becomes only the fourth nation to successfully carry out a soft landing on the moon is perhaps the most unifying moment in recent times.

The last stages of six weeks' journey to the south pole of the lunar surface were a riveting watch. The last minute glitch made a billion Indian hearts stop momentarily as Vikram lander couldn't soft land on the moon surface as planned. Eventually, the ISRO lost communication with the Vikram lander a mere 2.1 km from the lunar surface.

Everybody thought India was close to script history on the wee hours of September 7, still something went wrong. The ISRO scientists are relentlessly trying to establish contact with the Vikram lander and their efforts have not stopped. But there is always hope.

The NASA is also helping the ISRO to establish contact with the Vikram lander. The ISRO scientists still have a couple of days left to achieve this feat.

Given this context, the ISRO needs to use the knowledge from Chandrayaan-2 mission to build on its early success. The ISRO scientists are analysing what went wrong and trying again until they succeed.

According to the ISRO, the lunar orbiter is still functional and orbiting the moon and has accomplished 90 percent to 95 percent of its objectives by sending data and pictures from the moon surface despite the failure of Vikram lander.

The Vikram lander is a setback, but not a defeat. Truly, our space scientists successfully have delivered so far. The ISRO has constantly evolved, taking on tougher challenges. The Prime Minister struck the right note by declaring enthusiastic support for continued efforts by India's space scientists.

Kodihalli S Rao, Shreenagar, Thane

Let's save Nallamala

A Sanskrit quote 'Vruksho rakshathi rakshithaha' is echoing the social media platforms by the environment conscious citizens to save Nallamalla forests from the ill effects of uranium mining.

The Forest Department and the elected public representatives should realise that our Nallamalla forests are home to several tribes, exotic wildlife and they should consider the genuine concerns emerging from the local tribal villagers and the protesting environmentalists.

After all, our forests are the breathing lungs of the planet. We can buy Uranium, but can we buy our forests? Let the forests breathe. Let the Chenchu tribe and exotic wildlife live in peace. Let's save Nallamala.

Harsha Gajjarapu, Visakhapatnam

Our government recently enacted the new Motor Vehicle Act with a good intention to save the lives of people from undue accidental deaths. No one can deny the good intention of the government but how much it can yield the intended results is the point.

In a democratic country like ours, where most of the people are struggling everyday with poverty, unemployment and lack of sufficient education, the public cannot bear these heavy penalties. They should be educated gradually and may not be penalised by heavy penalties.

It is experienced that most of the accidents occur on the National Highways due to high speed, rush of people and traffic and no police watching.

The government may review the Act and ease the norms to some extent that a radius of certain kms within the city limits (depending upon the population) maybe exempted from these penalties and make them compulsory on the National Highways.

B Veerraju, Rajahmahendravaram, AP