MyVoice: Views of our readers 8th Mar 2025

Clear hurdles to healthy democracy

It is reported that more than 20,000 graduates did fail to vote correctly in the recently held election to the north Telangana graduates constituency. It is a warning signal to the quality of democracy, more so to the quality of education that is being imparted now. It is not correct to rush to the conclusion that all of them are the products of the government colleges. Some of them are surely the products of vaunted private educational institutions. Already, there is an agonising concern among the lovers of true democratic process and spirit that the voters are swayed by the narrow identity considerations and are lured by the money power. It is time all the stakeholders went for a bipartisan approach to stem the rot.

Yalamudi K, Khammam

Address delimitation concerns

Ref: “India in dire need of well-structured demographic management plan” (7-3-25). The once undesired growth of population in India has now become a necessity desperately. Tamil Nadu CM Stalin appeals to the newlywed couple to procreate children quickly and Andhra Pradesh CM is also insisting the same. Well. Do the leaders know well how difficult it is for the middle- and the lower class families who are restricting children to one or two, because of so many strenuous constraints? The demographic policies stated are not new and are never taken care by Governments before and now. Population growth cannot be possible by coercion, but it is intentional by couples alone.

N Ramalakshmi, Secunderabad

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There is genuine fear in south Indian states that the populous Hindi belt will benefit more in seat redistribution at their cost. This cannot be brushed aside. It is essential the fears need to be addressed on priority before moving forward. But the faulty arguments advanced by MK Stalin to retain existing seat proportions based on 1971 population levels carries no sense and, hence, need to be debunked. It is a fact that the country’s total fertility rate (TFR) has fallen and is now in the range of 1.9-2 as against 2.1 needed to maintain population levels. TFR of southern states hovers in the range of 1.7-1.8 in comparison to above 2.1 in five states in the north. Consequently, the demographic dividend will continue to rise in Hindi belt in the coming decades, thus putting for that matter all states converging towards lower TFRs will be at a disadvantage when seat redistribution is finalised.

K R Srinivasan, Secunderabad

Disunity, infighting in Congress genes

Recent MLC election results gave a big jolt to Congress party and the Chief Minister in Telangana that if unity not maintained by the leaders and cadre, opposition party need not work hard to pull down Congress government. It’s an old saying about Congress that it has inherent genes for infighting with intolerance to one another. Fed up with the behaviour and attitude of party leaders, high command changed state in-charges three times, ultimately bringing Meenakshi Natarajan. Congress leaders should realise public opinion and respect it with good governance with unity irrespective of usual dissents, solving their internal issues amicably.

JP Reddy, Nalgonda

States lukewarm to prohibition mandate

Kudos to women of Indriyal village in Bhudan Pochampalli mandal in Telangana who just a few days back successfully removed belt shops from their village. This brave incident brings to mind the great agitation started by Dubagunta Rosamma, an illiterate village folk in 1993 in composite AP, which shook NTR government and forced him to impose prohibition. But in 1997 yielding to liquor mafia, Chandrababu repealed it. As on date both Telugu States top the charts in liquor consumption. Dr Ambedkar and the committee who framed Indian Constitution provided Article 47 directing governments to make our Bharat liquor free. Alas, not a single step till date. Only 4 States implement prohibition.

RSN Rao, Hyderabad

Burden on civic infra in south Hyd

CM Revanth Reddy has announced his flagship project of Future City with 30,000 acres covering the southern part. The ‘Pharma City’ is in process to cover 19,000 acres in the south of Hyderabad. The west Hyderabad has a vast IT corridor with units of ITES, startups and industries in various SEZs. Incidentally, the aerospace industries also are allocated in the SEZs of South Hyderabad. If only southern and western parts of Hyderabad are developing, will there not be an imbalance in terms of traffic, civic amenities, land values, etc?

P R Ravinder, Hyderabad