MyVoice: Views of our readers 8th October 2023

Globally famed writers passed over for Nobel

Every time, Swedish Academy declares the Nobel Prize in literature, ("Nobel literature prize for Norwegian author,” THI, October 6), it invariably springs a surprise beyond the expectations of the literary world. Of course, the literary world is taken aback at the announcement of the Nobel Prize to Jon Fosse, the writer almost unknown to the world, overlooking the writers who are well-known to the whole world through their amazing immense literary oeuvre.

It's known that Salman Rushdie, the globally renowned Indian fiction-writer, the two-time Booker prize-winner who created a unique literary phenomenon in the global literary landscape with his innovative writing style and thought-provoking themes of universal significance, was said to be one of the writers in the category of the writers nominated for the Nobel Prize. In fact, the literary world was abuzz with the possible win of the Nobel for Rushdie.

Our Sahitya Academy winner, the most eminent fiction-writer, R K Narayan who won the hearts of the whole literary world in India and outside India through his most inspiring, wonderful novels and short stories woven around middle-class families with memorable, lively characters in simple, beautiful English, failed to draw the attention of the Swedish Academy as happened in the case of Mahatma Gandhi for Nobel Peace prize. Of course, Mahatma Gandhi and R K Narayan are above Nobel prizes.

Apart from being a playwright, Jon Fosse is the writer of major and short fiction, poetry, essays, children's books and translated works. "A New Name-Septology, Melancholy, Morning and Evening, Aliss at Fire, I is Another, A Shining, Boathouse” are some of his famous literary works. "Someone is going to come, Night songs, I am the wind and The Dead Dogs” are his plays that brought him literary glory. Though all his literary works were penned in his native, mother tongue, they have been translated in more than 40 languages. Now this new Nobel laureate stirs the literary curiosity and the literary lovers all over the world are seized with a longing to read his books and get into the fictional and dramatic world of Jon Fosse to savour the literary flavour of this literary star that is of late illumining the literary firmament.

– Dr Venugopala Rao Kaki, Kakinada

mRNA vaccines raise hope to fight diseases

Katalin Kariko and Drew Weismann have won this Year's Nobel Prize for Medicine. Kariko is the 13th woman to win a Medicine Nobel. The world is proud of their achievement. The duo won the Nobel Prize for their extensive research in developing mRNA vaccines, which is a swift change from our conventional Vaccines. The mRNA vaccine technology developed by Kariko and Weismann has been used by Pfizer, Bio N Tech and Moderna in developing Covid Vaccines.

Conventional vaccines use a weakened version of the disease causing organism, which when injected into the human body triggers an immune response against the pathogen and enables life-long protection. But these vaccines take a long time to be developed. The advantage with mRNA vaccines is they can be developed in a short time and the Pandemic provided an opportune time for the use of mRNA vaccine technology. They are considered safe as they do not use a weakened pathogen. The lab-developed mRNA, once injected into humans, encodes for the same proteins as found on the surface of Covid-19 virus. Using the same spike proteins, the virus invades the human cells. Our immune system recognises this protein and begins producing antibodies that can fight the virus if the vaccinated person is infected again. Both Pfizer and Moderna Vaccines were administered and were found to induce a very strong immune response. Kariko and Weismann's research has helped the world in the fight against Covid. The day is not far when this technology could be used to develop vaccines for other dreaded diseases.

– Parimala G Tadas, Hyderabad

Nobel for 30 yrs of fight for women’s freedom

The Norwegian Nobel Committee’s selection of Iranian woman activist Narges Mohammadi for the 2023 Nobel Peace Prize is a big slap in the face of theocratic regime of Iran whose discriminatory and oppression policies have made women’s lives hell and miserable in that country. Ostensibly, she was named the recipient of Peace Prize, based on her tireless fights for decades against oppression of women in Iran and to promote human rights for all. For that matter, after the arrest of a young woman by the country's morality police and hundreds killed in the government crackdown last year, thousands of people demonstrated against the evil and barbaric regime by adopting the motto "Woman, Life, Freedom" in solidarity of Narges Mohammadi who sacrificed her entire career, focussing on women's rights. It heralds that time has come for change over to democratic rule.

Unfortunately, Narges was handed out a10-year jail sentence for exposing the ruthless government for curbing the just rights of Iranian women. However, she is continuing the fight for rights of women from jail with a fond hope and determination, which goes to show that she is a born fighter for peace and just rights of people. By and large, her 30 years of activism to bring change in Iran through education, awareness, advocacy, protests though coming with a hefty price of losing her career and long separation from family and children did not deter her resilience and hope to ensure victory with greater determination at last goes to reveal that she not only truly deserved the coveted peace award but also paved a way that her fight will not go in vain.

–K R Srinivasan, Secunderabad

***

Presently awarding prestigious Nobel Peace Prize to imprisoned rights campaigner Narges Mohemmed and honouring her long fight against oppression of hapless women in Iran is indeed an apt warning by international civilised community against such irreligious policy actions of theocratic government. Present development can be qualified as applauding the voice of voiceless under the rule of fanatics, denying basic human right to women believers. It is noticeable that her heroic fight is by suffering much personal loses.As Nobel Academy observed, the present prize is inrecognition of the fight of lakhs of women in Iran against discrimination or anti-women policy of theocratic government in Iran.

–Jayashree Thampi, Thiruvananthapuram

Surge in unsecured debt worries RBI

The captioning of RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das to banks and NBFCs to strengthen their internal risk mechanisms as a first line of defence to avoid future challenges is timely.

It is a fact that these instructions by the Governor relate to the news items appearing that unsecured credit like personal loans, credit card loans and MUDRA loans of first category where no security is needed and other small loans are on the rise. Though one appreciates the rise in credit but at the same time, the banks and NBFCs should concentrate on the recovery aspects of these loans. Generally, there is a misconception among public coming from years together that any type of loan given by banks under the special guidelines of government are free loans and no recovery need be made like for example IRDP loans etc.

The Deputy Governor Swaminathan said that it is their intention to inform banks that 30% retail credit growth is an outlier of growth, so he asked banks to strengthen banks' internal surveillance mechanisms, so that any risk that may likely to build up may be handled upfront. This is the first instance of Central bank publicly expressing concern over the unprecedented pace of growth in unsecured retail credit growth and asking lenders to be cautious about future growth. Of course, the RBI on its part would continue to monitor the segment when it sees the internal controls are not being built.

– TSN Rao Manager, Hyderabad

An open letter to all parties on EPS-95

Since 2002, the former employees of central public sector enterprises, who were removed from service under Voluntary Separation Scheme (VSS) before attaining the age of superannuation on the ground of losing profits in their working organisations, are making an earnest appeal. Their pension was fixed around `1,000 and is being continued without any revision till date. This was brought earlier to the notice of PVNR, AB Vajpayee, Manmohan Singh governments several times. BJP's Modi government is also urged to revise the pension. In 2013 BJP leader Prakash Javdekar promised that the pension will be hiked to `3000/- if BJP is elected to power. BJP ascended the throne and Javdekar became minister and later conveniently ignored this issue .Labour Minister Bandaru Dattatreya and many MPs in every Parliament session addressed this grave issue. MP Hemamalini also met PM on this matter. The outcome is a big zero. Supreme Court's judgment on 04-11-2022 on higher pension is not applicable to the employees retired on `6000/- salary slab. This unfortunate group is not eligible for states' old age pension, white ration card, loans from banks, central govt schemes and what not.

National Agitation Committee under the leadership of Commander Ashok Raut is conducting meetings throughout India. He met PM, Finance Minister, Labour Minister and others and appraised the dire necessity of increasing the pension to a minimum `7,500/- p.m with free medical aid in ESI hospitals and periodical DA as applicable to Central Govt retirees. This demand is five years old. Now minimum pension must be revised to `10,000. All appeals were kept in cold storage. Lakhs of Crores of rupees are resting in the coffers of EPFO and govt claims it has no money.

On 29-09-2023, NAC's Telangana wing conducted a meeting in Hyderabad and once again strongly and painfully stressed the need for higher pension without delay as most of the pensioners are on the right side of 70 to 80 now. Already thousands in the country merged in the dust. Conclusively, the gist is that all parties ruled this country from 1995 till date have the equal share in putting this hapless lot into greater suffering financially and health wise. The party which makes this point of pension hike as stated above in its election manifesto and implement within one month of coming to power at the centre will be rightly and highly honoured by EPS-95 retirees.

–Dr NSR Murthy, Secunderabad

Hamas attacks on Israel condemnable

The onslaught of Hamas terrorists firing a barrage of 5,000 rockets on Israel, hitting Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, is condemnable. Palestine terrorists holding 35 Israeli hostages, after the Hamas infiltrated the Gaza border post, will help compound the situation, in which Israel will decisively pay back on Palestine that is likely to cause mass destruction of buildings and deaths of innocent women and children, albeit with a few terror cadres included. The victim card that Palestine is attempting to play out before the world would have no takers, and there would be no sympathy that Palestine desperately needs as its people are putting up with innumerable economic hardships already, for want of food and unemployment. The world opinion against Palestine is definitely hardening as Iran is unabashedly supplying Palestine with missiles and other military hardware to destroy Israel. It is indeed pathetic that Israel has a diabolic neighbour Palestine, akin to India having a hostile and incorrigible terror nation in the west as Pakistan that is not amenable to giving up anti-Indian activities by way of proxy war and cross border terrorism.

–K R Venkata Narasimhan, Madurai

Finish LWE once & for all

The Left Wing Extremism (LWE), which started in the late sixties, is perhaps in its last stage, largely because of the leadership crisis. Over and above this factor, the 'recruitment' of cadre, too, has become an issue mostly because of the disinterest being shown towards it by the youth of today who are better placed in respect of education and employment compared to the situation two decades ago. The failure of Communism all over the world has a major say in this regard and the remnants of LWE in India should close shop sooner than later as there are no takers for it to continue the movement. I personally feel that a last push concerted effort by all the stakeholders should end this 'failed' menace called the LWE movement once and for all. There should be no mincing words and only action is required to put a full stop to LWE in the country.

–Govardhana Myneedu, Vijayawada

Man-made disaster

Fourteen people have been killed, and 102 others, including 22 soldiers, are missing after the cloudburst over Lhonak Lake in North Sikkim, which triggered a flash flood in the Teesta river basin, officials said on Thursday. According to the figures released by the state government, 26 people have been injured so far, and over 2,000 have been evacuated. Eleven bridges have been washed away, and a population of over 22,000 has been affected, the state government has said. It is a sorrowful piece of news. However, we are ourselves responsible for this to some extent. Illegal and unregulated construction has significantly contributed to environmental problems in Sikkim and Bengal.

This is what happens when we alter natural landscapes without careful planning and consideration for the environment. The natural flow has been disturbed and disrupted, leading to such flooding everywhere. The local authorities were diligent in enforcing rigorous regulations and conducting frequent inspections to curb the issues. Furthermore, public awareness and proper education on responsible land use and construction practices should also be on the agenda of the government and local NGOs.

- Jahangir Shaikh, Mumbai

Give due recognition to non-cricket sports

It is all a marketing gimmick by all consumer products and service providers after the commencement of World cup matches in India. The game of cricket gives plenty of scope for advertisement on TV. In between overs, drinks, when a batsman gets out, ball is damaged etc.

This much opportunity football or tennis or athletics can’t provide. So, all our efforts are made to propagate Cricket. India, being the largest populated country, is the highest potential market for consumerism. Common salt to cooking oil they advertise. We pay for that and watch cricket matches and waste valuable time, which includes indulging in debates before and after matches. The BCCI gave an affidavit in the Supreme Court that they are a private club and they have nothing to do with the Government. So the question of national pride is only notional. It is time to cheer our football team, athletes, and Kabadi team instead.

The Khelo India movement is going on in high spirits as more and more medals are pocketed by our sportsmen and sportswomen in the best way possible. Apart from cricket, other games are also getting a much-needed boost in recent times.

The Khelo India movement is gaining momentum as we come across more and funds are allotted to this cause to give importance to sports in this country. Thanks to the initiative taken by our Prime Minister and sports minister and the care taken by sports associations, all see our country's flag flying high in the world of sport. This time round we touched 100 medals in Asian Games for the first time mainly due to our improved performances in field events.

Nothing succeeds like success. It is time to work hard for getting more Olympic medals and the sports authorities must work hard and put in extra efforts to make our dream of becoming the first three in the world events. It is time to encourage other sports apart from cricket.

–C K Subramaniam, Mumbai