MyVoice: Views of our readers 6th January 2022

Beware of Omicron surge

The Corona third wave seems to have arrived earlier than expected, if the sudden surge in new cases across India is any indication. The active cases have crossed 2 lakh mark after 80 days lull, with the positivity rate grows fast.

The Centre and the States should gear up their efforts to contain the virus spread as minimum as possible. Though there is no case for panic given the low severity of Omicron variant, there should be no space to be complacent, given its high transmissibility.

Dr DVG Sankararao, Vizianagaram

Where is the country headed to?

It is a matter of great concern to note that Muslim women have been targeted by an app called 'Bulli Bai,' in which photographs of hundreds Muslim women had been uploaded through the platform of GitHub. It collected photos of Muslim women from social media accounts and encourages people to participate in their 'auction.' Showing women in a such a humiliated manner is a clear indication that we are becoming the most unsafe country for women. In our country women are prayed to and treated as Goddess Durga, Lakshmi, Saraswathi, but now I feel hate mongers are spoiling the image of my country.

The events such as calling genocide of Muslims, disrupting Muslim prayers in Gurgaon, denying entry of Muslim students wearing Hijab, and now Muslim women being targeted proves that we are heading towards anarchy. Simply filing FIRs is not enough, those degrading Muslim women on internet should be arrested and punished severely.

Zakir Hussain, Kazipet.

II

It is good to know that Mumbai cyber police have detained a woman, believed to be the main accused in the 'Bulli Bai' app case from Uttarakhand and also arrested an engineering student from Bengaluru. The police had earlier filed an FIR against unidentified persons following complaints that photographs of Muslim women were uploaded for 'auction' on the app hosted by GitHub platform.

Hundreds of women were listed on the' Bulli Bai' for auction with photographs sourced without permission and doctored. A detailed narration on an English news channel by a victim in the case who attended a party with her friend was truly spine-chilling.

K R Parvathy, Mysuru

III

It is disturbing to read reports on "Bulli Bai" and that involvement of youngsters just out of school and the other an engineering student. I don't know where our leaders are taking. Just for the sake of votes, our leaders from PM and all others continue to drag religion focusing on particular community.

We often feel proud of Meera Bai, Rani Lakshmi Bai. Probably we have forgotten to talk about such great characters from Indian civilisation and now reached an era of Bulli Bai which is spreading faster.

N Nagarajan, Hyderabad

A spirited fight goes unnoticed

It is a sad tale of another UP Indian woman Rani Devi in having sacrificed her life for the sake of bringing a basic road service with proper drainage system to her area in Agra in UP. It is not as if this woman just like that came for publicity but it was a flawless and determined protest for continuously 81 days which is really shameful for the Government of UP in particular and all politicians in general.

It is further an 8th wonder as to how IT-savvy PM, CM could not have come across this issue, along with District officials etc for the past 81 days, which clearly shows the callous attitude mainly of the collectorate, which resulted in the death of a soldier.

Katuru Durga Prasad Rao, Hyderabad

Panel on women's issues not inclusive

The Parliamentary standing committee constituted for the landmark bill which seeks to increase the legal marriage to 21 has a total of 31 members with just one women member - Sushmita Dev from TMC. The lack of women members is a serious issue.

Many opposition leaders and women organisations have demanded that the committee be made gender-inclusive and their demand is appropriate. This bill will have huge impact on the lives of female and their opinion must not be left out. The committee must comprise of females from different sectors, backgrounds, professions, caste and creed. Their voices, emotion, feelings must be heard.

Rajat Jain, Ujjain