MyVoice: Views of our readers 27th September 2021

India hits out at Pak, China

In his address at UN General Assembly, Prime Minister Narendra Modi slammed Pakistan for not fighting regressive thinking and using terrorism as a political tool, a big global challenge facing the world. He found fault with Pakistan for not embracing democratic values required for all-pervasive and inclusive development, thereby sending a strong message that it will boomerang on the country any day. Similarly, Modi took a dig at China's expansionism by trying to covet territories belonging to other countries by forcibly occupying it. He also accused China of manipulating World Bank data to improve its rankings and in the same vein supporting Pakistan, epicentre of terrorism, cause for downfall of Afghanistan and export of terror to other countries with India suffering the most. Finally, Modi hailing India for its vibrant democracy and progressive thinking had put Pakistan on notice for its failure to understand its duty to promote peace and harmony and instead digging its own grave by continuously supporting terror which would only spell doom.

K R Srinivasan, Secunderabad

II

Modi held that 'diversity' is at the heart of Indian identity. But in reality his party is promoting 'uniformity' and 'homogeneity' in everything. 'One nation, one everything' is BJP's mantra. Modi's claim that India is seeing 'equitable development' is belied by ground reality. The economy is in a downward spiral, but the incomes of Ambani and Adani show an upward movement. He touched on India's 'growth story' and its strong 'start-up ecosystem, but he conveniently overlooked the problem of rising unemployment.

Modi described 'regressive thinking' and 'extremism' as 'threats to the world' in the context of the turn of events in Afghanistan and emerging geopolitical partnerships. He cautioned against taking advantage of the situation in Afghanistan. He referred to 'the origin of the novel coronavirus', cancellation of the World Bank's Ease of Doing Business Index (at China's behest) and oceans as our 'shared heritage' and 'lifeline of international trade' for anyone to have expansionist designs. He should show the same concern for minorities in India

G David Milton, Maruthancode

III

Pakistan, where terrorists enjoy free pass, is an arsonist disguising itself as a fire-fighter, and the entire world has suffered because of its policies as the country nurtures terrorists in its backyard, India has said in a blistering retort after Prime Minister Imran Khan raked up the issue of Kashmir in his address to the UN General Assembly. Counter-terrorism experts will need to lay stress on multi-domain operations and information technologies, and undertake 'terror gaming' to wrestle with an uncertain future that is already upon us. PM Modi is advocating the need for unearthing the terror groups and making a joint effort to bring them to books once for all, so that we need not worry about them all the time. It is high time the tyranny of terrorism must be eliminated and bring peace to the sub-continent and also the world over.

C K Subramaniam, Mumbai

IV

Prime Minister Narendra Modi told the 76th UNGA - without naming China and Pakistan - that "regressive thinking" by those who employ terrorism as a political tool must realise that it is a threat to them as well; and that oceans are the lifelines of global trade, and we must not abuse oceanic resources, there is need to protect oceans from expansionism; and that the consensus reached at the Security Council with regard to maritime security must show the way forward. The need for the United Nations to enhance its reliability as many questions are being raised with regard to the legitimacy of the UN into the origin of the Coronavirus, climate change, and more recently the new development in Afghanistan, in the aftermath of takeover by the Taliban. The lack of assertive global order and uniform rule that should have come from the UN has been seen to be absent over the past many years; and there is need for course correction on part of the UN to be more relevant to face the new challenges that the world did not witness during the past few decades ago.

K R Venkata Narasimhan, Madurai

Heavenly gods descend, earthly gods ascend

This is with reference to the news item " Doctors Scale hostile Himalayan terrain in mission to vaccinate all" (The Hans India-25-Sept 2021). It is a popular belief that gods descend from their heavenly abode to the earth to save the people who are in danger of death but now it has so happened that the earthly gods (doctors) ascended to the Himalayan heights to save the people of Malana ,a village in the Himalayas, from the danger of deadly disease COVID-19. On Sept 14 2021,a team of five health workers led by District Health Officer Dr. Atul Gupta set out to Malana to administer the second dose of vaccine to all the adults in the village. Making a hazardous journey, carrying boxes of vaccine, crossing the gorge which drops down about 100 meters the team reached the village and successfully gave the second shot of vaccine to the people there to save all of them from death. That has always been the spirit of genuine doctors in India and hence it is said "Vaidyo Narayano Harihi." God descends, Doctor ascends. Long live such doctors and their crew!

R Sreenivasulu,Ananthapuramu