MyVoice: Views of our readers 24th December 2020

Divine justice, at last!

It is justice for Sr Abhaya after 28 years since she was murdered in a Catholic convent in Kottayam district in Kerala. The case stirred the conscience of all believers irrespective of religion in the state as vicious moves were afoot to portray the murder as a case of suicide. There were attempts initially to hush-up the case by the Church heads by the local police, judiciary; and even after the CBI took over the case, there were roadblocks being created in the case as precious evidence was destroyed with malicious intentions.

As they say, the God Almighty has innumerable eyes; as the murder that was being committed on Sr Abhaya has been witnessed by a petty thief- Adakka Raju who was exploring the convent for some worthwhile thing to steal. Raju proved to be the only eyewitness to the crime, who did not swear from his stand in the face of threats and inducements promised to him, despite being a thief in the eyes of society, whom the judge had no reason not to believe.

The perpetrators of the murder of Sr Abhaya – Sr Sephy and Fr Thomas Kottoor are now bare before the law of their crime that was flesh driven, whom the special CBI court pronounced as guilty for the murder committed.

K V Raghuram, Wayanad

Victory for democratic election process

The Gupkar Alliance, a group of six regional parties, including the National Conference (NC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), has emerged as the frontrunner in the maiden District Development Council (DDC) polls in Jammu and Kashmir. The alliance, at the time of writing, has won 96 seats while the BJP has emerged as the single largest party with 70 seats, performing particularly well in Jammu where it won six districts. This is the first democratic exercise in the region since the Centre revoked J&K's special status and reorganised it into two UTs in August 2019 and is a crucial opportunity to open a new political dialogue in the Union Territory. For the BJP, aside from a strong showing in Jammu, for the first time, the party won three seats from the Valley's Srinagar, Pulwama and Bandipora districts. In these places, we wouldn't get a single person to hold the BJP flag in the past. It was indeed a victory for democratic election process in the valley.

C K R Nathan, Ghaziabad

Unjustified honour

US President Donald Trump and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi are known for following the saying "I scratch your back and you scratch mine" as proved during "Howdy Modi" and "Namaste Trump" events ('legion of merit' award for Modi, December 23 ) . There is no justification that Trump announces an award to Modi, whose government failed in many fields and the statistics of economic slowdown, falling GDP, rupee and increasing unemployment, farmers suicides, bad loans prove the same. We should accept the fact almost all nations, rich and poor, have failed before the unknown creature coronavirus and so do not deserve any awards and honours.

Kshirasagara Balaji Rao, Hyderabad

Crackdown on loan apps

During the lockdown many lakhs of employees lost their jobs and it was sudden and because of Covid-19 restrictions only few were able to get their jobs . The financial difficulties have attracted many unemployed to these loan apps which forced them to take loans as there was no option left for their survival and later they were in trap of the loan apps which humiliated the persons who have taken loans from these apps. The government should intervene and should ban those apps and should file FIRs against those cheaters for harassing innocent people as many lost their lives .

Kanagiri SN Prasad, Hyderabad

Pinarayi versus Guv

Kerala Governor Arif Mohammed Khan declined approval for a special assembly session to discuss and pass a resolution against the three contentious central farm laws. This was just to antagonise the centre and its farm policies. The decision to convene the special one-day session was taken by the CPI-M led LDF government at a Cabinet meeting presided by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan.

The session would not be held as the Governor did not accord sanction. The government had in December last year convened a similar special session of the assembly, which passed a resolution demanding scrapping of the controversial Citizenship (Amendment) Act, becoming the first state in the country to take such a measure then. Thus, the Kerala government is trying to misuse the power, despite the fact that the farmers in Kerala are very happy with the benefits they get from the government.

M R Jayanthy,Muringatherry, Kerala