JOIN USPre- school gimmicks
Of late several so called 'Pre School' units have sprung up all over the City and even on the outskirts where new layouts have developed. Most of these pre-schools are places where young working couples leave their child to be looked after for a few hours. At the age of 1 1/2 years it is not poosible to teach the child anything. Hence,the well paid 'teachers' who are generously designated as 'counsellors' just end up in cleaning the nose and wipe the tears of the crying child. Some have made good use of the internet and are apeing the West.
Since no agency or authority controls such pre-school units,these schools have their own rules and regulations. Most have them have tremendous snob value. As expected the media has reported some friction bewteen the parents of children going to such pre-school units and the 'counsellors' of some schools on the eating habits of children.
For the sake of the convenience of pre-school teachers/attenders parents are instructed to send only dry lunch.The reason given is that the child usually messes the place if items like curd rice/bhel/etc..are sent. But the parents who know their children much better are against the pre-schools interfering with the eating habits of children.
Such frictions between the pre-school authorites and the parents are bound to arise, since the 'counsellors';'attenders and teachers' have not much teaching to do.They have to play with the child for a few hours and sometimes see that children do not fall or fight with each other.
In short the innovative pre-school concept has become a good and lucrative proposal and is likely to attract the wives of our politicians!
M.V.Nahusharaj
Bangalore
Unwanted importance
Whenever we see a small breach in protocal of any VVIP there is hue and cry and debate in Parliament. These Protocals should be OK with persons in office. When they are out of office, why should there be a line between the common man and the person who occupied the position. There is no need to feel insulted against a system of security checks and the like. The person involved himself may not mind it but others including media make a big noice wasting precious time. Mahatma Gandhi was travelling in third class in the train and meeting each and every person without much of a fanfare. There are others like Lal Bahadur Sastry, G.L. Nanda etc... who are highly respected for their simplicity. In fact, Dr.Kalam is also one such personality. It is only others who make a big fuss about such incidents. After all these so called protocol are a copied western culture left behind in India by British. We should not give too much of importance to such issues.
M.K.Visweswara
Flat.No.104, Sri Mahaveer Gardenia,
32nd Cross road, Kumaraswamy layout.
Bangalore 560078.
Shameless politicians
The recent public outbursts of Ritu on Mayavati proved the "dirty" tag on politics to be true again. No doubt Ritu's comments are crude and offensive to any woman with self respect. But it seems that we forgot the remarks made by Mayavati during early 2007 in a similar public speech, responding to Mulayam singh Yadav's announcement of Rs.2 lakh as compensation to the girls who have been raped which goes something like "We would ask if you or your relatives have daughters, we will rape them and the whole Muslim community will give 4 lakhs as the compensation instead of the 2 lakhs"[According to an authentic report on "News 24"].
Is that not cruder when she mentioned the whole muslim community in such atrocious remarks which no dignified human can make? Only God knows why the media hasn't responded then. The truth is that two shameless people are fighting against each other naked. Ultimately it only becomes a funny scene for the whole society to see. Very ugly scene and disgusting to say the least.
It is thus important for us to see the whole picture in UP and then respond strongly against these shameless politicians and teach both of them a lesson.
Anil
Bangalore
Unparliamentary actions
In the editorial " Distasteful tiff " ( July 20 ) you have very rightly analysed that “Rita Joshi’s comments were most uncivilised, humiliating and offensive.The remarks of UP Congress president made from a public platform, involving state chief minister Mayawati are most condemnable as they were very insensitive, crude, sadist and derogatory couched in the language of sexual violence against a political rival. The foul words used by her against Ms Mayawati is an affront to all women. Rape is the worst crime committed against women.
Unfortunately, two women leaders are bickering over it. Even a discussion on it is sickening. It looks like politicians can do anything to get mileage. Women should be on the same side on issues that concern them but Ms Joshi has undoubtedly crossed all limits of decency. To speak lightly and mockingly of sexually assaulting a woman is an act of baseness of which the UP Congress leader is guilty. It is surprising that such words, which will be deplored in any civilised society, comes from an Allahabad University professor and from a woman who bears the name of a famous and respected political family of the state.
What is extraordinary is that the UP chief minister has failed to note the gravity of Ms Joshi’s crime and has sought instead to personalise it, in the process trivialising the matter. If Ms Joshi’s remarks against the UP chief minister are permitted to be wrongly construed as being against dalits, then any criticism of Ms Mayawati as a prominent public figure and chief minister will become out of bounds. This is certainly not on. The Congress strategy in Uttar Pradesh has been to go on an all-out offensive against the perceived shortcomings of the BSP-run state government. You have rightly concluded that the vindictiveness and strong-arm measures will not help Mayawati to retrieve her lost political ground. A more mature approach to politics is expected of the chief minister of the country’s most populous state and a leader with a wide following across states.
Dilbag Rai
Chandigarh
Menace of corruption
A three-time MLA on Congress ticket who recently jumped into the tainted lotus party, has assets worth thousands of crores of rupees according to raids from Income Tax officials. This represents just a tip of the ice berg. Why do all political parties harvest and give shelter to such dishonest people? Estimates from experts show that black money in the range of Rs. 40,000 to one lakh crores is running a parallel economy. This has a tremendous holding power cornering huge stocks of goods ans services, harming the poor and middle class people. Efforts of several finance ministers to root out corruption have failed miserably. Unless the corruption is rooted out at the highest levels of government, the menace will be a growing cancer of the economy. Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, a great patriot-Prime Minister proclaimed loudly that he will hang the black marketers at the nearest lamp post. During the last six decades, not a single looter has been hanged. What is the remedy for this ruinous national cancer? Will giving full powers to Lok Ayuktas solve this problem? How is it that small countries like Singapore and New Zealand are rated as the least corrupt countries? In the shameless list of high corruption, figure countries like China, India, Bangladesh and Pakistan.
Dr. K.S.Krishnamurthy
Bangalore
Congress means…
Congress (read Sonia Gandhi and her puppet Dr. Manmohan Singh) means complete surrender to the US, Maoists, Naxalites, underworld, bootleggers and anything and everything against the nation as a whole, solely for the chair, power and money completely ignoring 120 crore aam aadmi of India, their fate and future.
Hansraj Bhat
Mumbai
Language policy
Supreme Court's decision regarding the imposition of mother tongue as the medium of instruction is fully welcome. Whereas the choice of language in school is the democratic right of parents, some state governments have been playing truant every now and then. God knows why political parties somehow believe that such games fetch them more votes. SC's decisive verdict in this regard will hopefully put an end to such thinking. While the love for one's mother tongue is unquestionable, nothing should appear fanatic and chauvinistic.
Ravi S
Bangalore