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Clarification

Sir,

This has reference to the article captioned : ''Shivacharya Swami Laxman Ji'' by Mr Pitamber Nath Dhar 'Fani' which appeared on page 6 of your esteemed Paper on 25.4.2000.

We find that the article has the following inaccuracies :-

Sri Ishwar Swaroop Swami Lakhshman Joo Maharaj was born on 9th May, 1907 (and not April/May, 1905 as mentioned in the article);

Swami Ji Maharaj attained Maha Samadhi on 27th September, 1991 at the age of 84. It is not appropriate to say ''breathed his last'' so far as Godmen like Swami Ji Maharaj is concerned.

The name of his father was Pt. Narayan Joo Raina and not Kaul as mentioned in the article.

Pt Nila Kanth Raina (and not Pt Neel Kaul) is the forth son of Pt Narayan Joo Raina (and not second as mentioned in the article).

Yours etc...
I K Raina
Secretary.

IT hype

Sir,

This is in reference to 'India in western IT Trap' by S V Vaidya DE 25.4.2000.. The writer is right that the government is being too much carried away by the IT hype created by the western countries. East is east and west is west. Technologically advanced and economically sound, West had its own needs and requirements and is oblivious to the maladies facing the poor countries. The lot of million of Indians with their parched throats and hungry stomachs, can not be changed even if we distribute costly IT gadgets free of cost to them. What they need is the kind of education and technology that can ensure healthy and hunger free life for them in the villages where 70 percent of them live. 70 percent water of our rivers flows to the ocean unutilized. Rajasthan, Gujarat and IT savvy Chandrababu Naidu's Andhra Pradesh are faced with un- precedented draught. While the Super Computers installed at Chief Minister's office in Hyderabad can give you the accurate data; they cannot be of any help to the dying cattle and human beings. During the Janata regime of 1977 a plan was formulated to link all the rivers of the country so that the draughts and the floods are controlled for increased agricultural output. What happened to that plan? Nobody knows. Since Independence India's population has more than doubled with stablization nowhere in sight. This is straining the meagre resources this country has. Corruption is rampant and corrupt are ruling the roost. With Rs 8/- per year per person for health care not more than Rs 4/- will be percolating down. Rest is gulped by the potbellied corrupt officers. This is true of other sectors too. I T is O K but these are the real issues the Govt needs to tackle on priority basis so that the millions of naked and hungry are able to break the shakles of poverty and depravity. Only then can use IT properly and effectively.

Yours etc...
Vinod Bhan
Srinagar.

Secularism and Islam

Sir,

Democracy is a political system where more than one political party competes based on the agenda. That is to say, one-party system is anathema to a true democracy.

Secularism implies living space for all religions. No religion would be expected to dominate and eventually eliminate other religions, just as in a democracy no political party is expected to achieve power and ban other parties.

But the whole basis of secularism is undermined by the main theme of Islam, which states that it alone is the true religion, and all other religions are false !

Clearly, secularism and Islam are incompatible.

Yours etc..
Prof. Satvinder Singh
Sats@rice.edu

Trisection of J&K

Sir,

Jammu University's HOD in Pol Science Ms Rekha Choudhary, in a section of national press, has criticized trisection of J&K into three regions Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh. She says the demand is motivated and that it would fan balkanization of Jammu into Poonch, Rajouri and Doda.

She appears to have overlooked the ground realities. She should know that Kashmiri elite thinks Jammu as a millstone round their neck regarding their political and economic aspirations. Their demand and that of Ms Choudhary's are motivated too. In fact each and every political demand has a motivation. Why can't the state be trisected under Art 370 with one Governor, one High Court and three Legislative Assemblies ? Just because it does not suit the Choudharys who want to keep the pie in the present dispensation.

How can she represent Ladakhis and Kashmiris to oppose the trisection of the state? Does she know that Dogra Muslims too have suffered after independence. They may also like to be separate from Kashmiri dominance. She should know that beyond the towns of Nowshera and Kalakot-Sialsui, right up to Rajouri along the LOC there is Hindu dominance. Even the one and a quarter million Gujjars are apolitical. They dominate from Arnas to Loren-Mandi along the western slopes of Pir Panjal and Pogal-Paristan. Many of them were beaten by the infiltrators for not guiding them through the Pir Panjal passes to the Valley in 1965. It hardly matters to these innocents who rules them. They have not sided with pro-Pakistani politics of the Kashmir valley so far. Even Poonch has Hindu-Sikh dominance.

In the interest of Ladakhis after the trisection of J&K Doda district has to remain with Jammu for direct link they could have with India through it. So what remains behind Ms Choudhary's argument? Only a smattering of political blackmail on lines of Mohd. Ali Jinnah! The Congress party lost to him in the battle of nerves. Will the Dogras, one of the mainstays of the Indian army, loose too? So far they have not risen against Kashmiri dominance due to the challenge to their patriotism posed by BJP and its earlier incarnation the Praja Parishad that if Jammu separated then Kashmir would not stay with the Indian Union.

Now as the Hurriyat leaders are being released for possible talks and the Kashmiris are offered anything under the Indian constitution why not three separate legislative assemblies for the three regions? For the Regional Council could be dismissed any time by the Chief Minister under the present dispensation. Remember the procession carried by the BJP stalwarts demanding regional council for them.

Last but not the least her allegation that the trisection would cause communal division is wrong too. The three regions are entirely different entities. Geographically, linguistically and culturally they are different. Their religions too are different. Their food habits are different. Their geography and anthropology too is different. But there is no communal hatred between them despite the wedge being tried to be driven between them from time to time like that of Chitti Singhpora incidents.

Jammuites have nothing against the political and economic aspirations of people of Kashmir.

Yours etc...
Sunder Sharma
Jammu Tawi.