Take-over of GMC

Sir,

This is in response to the concern shown by the K P Community towards the temporary take over of the Management of GM College located at Srinagar. One needs to examine the problem with open mind as in the mad rush of criticism various persons in their write-ups have tried to justify the wrongs and irregularities committed by the previous Management from time to time.

The issue that needs to be examined is the interest that community has started taking suddenly in the affairs of the college. Government had taken some more damaging decisions with regard to different aspects of the college since 1990 which affected the livelihood of the employees of the college. Also various similarly situated institutions have silently been taken over by the local population of Kashmir and they have been managing the affairs of these institutions for the last 12 years now. Some of these institutions have even temples within their campuses. The society has forgotten all such educational institutions and the properties attached their too.

The so called community leaders need to give an explanation for their cold attitude towards Gandhi Memorial college and the scores of similar educational institutions of Valley for the last 12 year now. Their sudden exhibition of concern and raising the hue and cry shows that these leaders are trying to achieve their political mileage through Gandhi Memorial College issue. Educational Institutions cannot be and should not be used for political compulsions of some leaders. This shows their callous attitudes towards their own community.

Yours etc...
Monika Kachroo
Vitika Majoo.

Cabinet decision

Sir,

It refers to the shocking news on Union Cabinet's anti-national decision to keep in abeyance the Supreme Court's directives for making it mandatory for candidates to furnish details about their educational, financial and criminal backgrounds in usual excuse of achieving political consensus.

NDA Government at the centre is in habit of postponing acts which may cause uncomfort to present breed of dishonest/selfish/corrupt politicians flooded in our largely infected system with criminal virus. Apart from the mentioned directives of the Apex Court, much-needed poll reforms and the issue of women-reservation in legislature are being regularly postponed for last so many decades with same excuse of political consensus.

Repeated assurances of several Presidents and Prime Ministers ( of all parties and fronts) in this regard are deliberately washed off by engineering chaos in the Parliament by the friends in Opposition perhaps on behest of persons in power, because even members of the ruling alliance may not favour such public-interest reforms in our male-dominated democracy. If government is so sensitive about consensus, then why it manages to pass controversial bills like POTO even after stiff resistance from the Opposition?

The President and the Apex court should take note of Union Cabinet's anti-public decision in this regard and make use of all their powers to ensure poll reforms and women-reservation in legislature apart from directives for candidates as per May 2 ruling of the Apex Court, before any general or mid-term elections for a new Lok Sabha.

Yours etc..
Subash Chandra Agrawal
Dariba, Delhi

Musharraf's alternative

Sir,

It is somewhat gratifying to see that there is now a greater convergence of views between India and the US on the real dimensions of the ISI sponsored terrorism emanating from Pakistan.

American eyes and ears are now opening though not yet fully and rapidly as one should have expected. Before January 2002, India's repeated arguments that what is being witnessed for the last thirteen years in Jammu and Kashmir is not indigenous Kashmiri militancy, but purely Pakistan sponsored terrorism, used to fell on deaf ears. One is heard now attentively, patiently, and with lot better understanding. Both electronic and paper media provide a perceptible coverage to what is actually happening in that part of the world. One could sense a realisation, though still hesitant, that Jammu and Kashmir State in general and Kashmiri Pandit community in particular is and has been the victim of terrorism of the most brutal kind from the fundamental Islamic zealots of Pakistan trained and indoctrinated in the terrorist camps mushroomed all over its territory.

It is quite gratifying to note that by a willingness, though not yet whole-hearted, to admit in discussions, that the war against terrorism cannot be decisively won unless and until the terrorist infrastructure in Pakistani territory and of course elsewhere, whether directed against India, USA, Israel, or any other part of the world, is literally and permanently destroyed, and not in a make-believe manner as General Musharraf did after his January address on PTV. All the same it is noticeably presumed that despite all his higgledy-piggledy President Musharraf is still the best horse available to US. Any alternative to Musharraf at this stage can or will prove worse.

Yours etc...
Prof.P.L.Bakhshi
On -e-mail.