MyVoice: Views of our readers 22nd February 2020

Modi's attempt to hide India's poverty ridiculous

Stage is all set for United States President Donald Trump to receive a momentous welcome when arrives at the Ahmedabad airport on February 24. There will be cheering crowds – though Trump expects no less than seven million people, there will be at least one to two lakh people.

Miles of roads have been freshly paved on the way to the world's largest cricket stadium, which he will inaugurate. Paan shops will remain closed and the highway will be spotless. There will be a swanky new wall, stretching for about half a kilometre.

A newly constructed wall will hide what he is not to see: hundreds of people still living in poverty in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's "New India". The cheering crowds will probably not include 45 families who lived near the stadium and claim they were handed eviction notices ahead of the visit.

The municipal authorities have rushed in with explanations and denials – the families had been asked to move long ago as they were encroaching on government land, the wall was meant for security reasons, and no, paan shops had not been ordered shut, so what if it meant roads and walls were stained with scarlet spittle. But the allegations have stuck – the government wants to hide the poor.

Madhu Mareedu, Hyderabad

Deemed university, a long pending demand

It is to be hailed by all means that the Government Autonomous College, Rajamahendravaram, is being proposed to be made a deemed university. This has been a long pending and much deserving thing.

And it is an all welcome step. It may be christened this time the Godavari Rajamahendravaram University. The college has been as great as a university over decades together possessing great library with numerous and voluminous works on various subjects and topics along with all equipment and museum required by the Departments of Sciences and for various Post-Graduate departments in diverse faculties.

And it now shines forth with Post-Graduate courses in different faculties. Further, stalwarts were associated with the institution in the bygone decades and century also. Dr Sarvepalli Radha Krishna, a professor of world-wide renown and ex-President of the Indian Union and other stalwarts were on the teaching staff of the college.

It includes Kandukuri Veerasalingam, a great philanthropist and esteemed social reformer, Tanguturi Prakasam Pantulu, ex-Chief Minister of the Madras composite State, and others as its alumni, making the college a much deserving one to be a university.

The centenary celebrations and the sesquicentennial celebrations of the college were held on a grand note. As more deservingly A+ Grade was accorded to the college by the National Accreditation Academic Council in the recent years.

Prof Tuttagunta Visweswara Rao, Rajamahendravaram, AP

Does shouting pro-Pak slogan amount to sedition?

It is quite embarrassing to read that 18-year-old Amulya Leona was charged with sedition after she shouted "Pakistan Zindabad" at an anti-Citizenship Amendment Act rally organised by the All India Majlis-e-Ittehad-ul Muslimeen in Bengaluru.

Owaisi's response to the slogan was clearly the right thing to do, given the atmosphere that has been created across India ever since protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act broke out in December. The new law introduces a religious criterion for awarding citizenship, providing illegal immigrants from three countries a fast track to Indian citizenship – except if they are Muslim.

Hindutva groups, including the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party and its Ministers, have repeatedly attempted to portray Muslims agitating against the law as "anti-nationals". In such a situation, for someone to chant slogans in support of Pakistan at a meeting organised by a Muslim party is irresponsible and ill-conceived.

Such an action plays into the hands of Hindutva groups, which are now trying to justify their bigoted opinion that all Indian Muslims harbour sympathies for Pakistan. While it could be argued that she was simply trying to get the attention of the crowd, the consequences that the chant would have created for the protests is dire.

Owaisi's decision to stop her cannot be faulted. What can be faulted is the manner in which the State has responded to events. The police immediately filed a case of sedition against Leona and the magistrate has sent her to judicial custody for 14 days. Quite unfortunate!

Anil Kumar Choudhary, Tanuku, W G dist, AP