MyVoice: Views of our readers 19th October 2020

Silence is a bad strategy

Merely making allegations, whether by an ordinary citizen or a Chief Minister, does not mean that that they are true. But in order to decide whether there is truth to the allegations, an impartial inquiry is essential. Being a popular leader and the Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, YS Jagan Mohan Reddy's allegations against our judiciary needs to be clarified as early as possible.

When the person making the allegation holds a high constitutional office, it becomes even more essential that the matter is dealt seriously and swiftly. This is because the moment the letter was released to the public, questions have already been seeded in the minds of the people. Doubts about the functioning of sitting judges of the highest court of the land do not bode well for the reputation of the judiciary and its independence.

But there has been silence from the Supreme Court, even as many outside are using this as an opportunity to sling mud. It is to be noted that the court's reputation as far as dealing with allegations against sitting judges is already at a low.

In April last year, when an employee of the court wrote letters to judges accusing the then Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi of sexual harassment, an in-house committee of judges was formed. But it dismissed the allegations even without allowing the complainant to exercise her right of representation. Silence is certainly not a good strategy. At stake is public trust in the judiciary.

Ashok Kumar B, Vijayawada

Love doesn't have religion

This is with reference to the reports on a jewellery brand - Tanishq - withdrawing its ad following protests from Hindu fundamentalists. Reacting vehemently to a fictional depiction of a Hindu girl having been married into a Muslim family is not just intolerance, it is something much more sinister.

Let us face it. All this talk about the so-called "love jihad", suggestive of an anti-national conspiracy, is just a façade, a clever design to conceal their real motives. The fact is that those who opposed the ad really do not want any relations at all between the two communities.

This kind of bigoted people do not seem to tolerate the very existence of Muslims anymore. Given a chance, they would like the Muslims to vanish out of mind and out of sight, the narratives of marginalisation and social exclusion paling before it. They would want them to become invisible.

Maintenance of communal peace in the society under the threat of legal action is one thing; a wilful, happy acceptance of the diverse components of our society is quite another. Communal harmony, as we love to envisage, is dead for all practical purposes.

Hatred has irretrievably cleaved the spine of our multiracial, multicultural society. Now, the best we can hope to do is to redeem our individual souls by relating to and loving "the others" at our individual levels. Let love not die within our hearts; society may be damned.

Sushma Vemula, Hyderabad

Ad that shows communal harmony irks bigots

The advertisement of Tanishq jewellery for its new collection called 'Ekatvam' which means 'oneness' showed a Muslim family organising a traditional Hindu baby shower ceremony, for their Hindu daughter-in-law.

Tanishq crafted a beautiful ad that depicted the story of Hindu women married into a Muslim family. The ad is beautiful confluence of two different religions' tradition and culture. It is a sweet ad which shows that you can express your love to other person irrespective of caste.

But it is disgusting that the ad was pulled out by Tanishq due to uproar in social media by hatemongers and bigots. Trolls accused the jewellery brand of promoting what they called "love jihad "an inter faith marriage.

The ad was promoting brotherhood between two religions. They showed a loving Muslim family and how caring they are towards their Hindu bahu. The Hindu-Muslim 'Ekatvam' has irked the hatemongers. It is sad to note that the ad was pulled out due to trolls accusing it of promoting "love jihad." I don't understand what is wrong with celebrating traditions across religions. It is really sad to see where our country is heading for?

Zakir Hussain, Kazipet, Warngal Urban