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Use common Man's language

Sir,

This has reference to a letter "Sham Secularism" DE April 26, 2002 by Dr. R L Shant. Though the overall outcome of Dr. R L Bhat's words which he has been showering in his column "Yours Randomly" emit sense of maturity, depth, hold but I totally disagree with Mr. Shant when he says "His style speaks for his knowledgeably and hold over the living media of journalism that makes every stark and unpleasant facts pleasantly readable".

The Shakespearean English of Dr. R L Bhat may soothe highly literary nerves of personalities like Dr. R L Shant but every reader is not a Shakespeare or Wordsworth to understand the language that does not fit in the periphery of modern journalism. Actually today language of journalism should be of that mould which is understandable to a common reader.

Today's newspapers are mostly read in running buses or on dining tables because of the shortage of time and hence one cannot afford to spill the time in seeking the meaning of dictionary words. A true journalist today writes in simple English without using puns and knots. Using simple and straight forward expression is an art which appeals a common man. To write what is known as the language of the common man is the right journalistic approach but Dr. R L Bhat is lacking the same. Temptation to use cliches, well worn out phrase, inflating the style and dramatising the story now-a-days are outside the domain of journalism. Yes, the language of M L Kotru, Dr. Jitendra Singh and Shyam Koul is strictly according to the norms of a language known as language of a common man.

Yours etc...
Darsh Ajit
Raghunath Pora,
Udhampur.

Prepare for elections

Sir,

Jammuites, who have inherited fighting skills against injustice seem to have forgotten this virtue and are not being led in the right direction by their leaders. Or one can say that our Jammu leaders do not have that much calibre to carry the people with them and have lost faith to fight against the injustices faced by the public. This has been proved in the last parliamentary bi-elections where only 25 to 30 percent people came forward for exercising their voting rights in Jammu district and very thin rate of polling was reported from most of the other areas also. This of course is unfortunate. Today's war and struggle is in the form of exercising the right to vote. Every political party should put its efforts to press to Govt. for updating the polling lists in the right earnest. At present the polling lists of 1988 have been accepted, as was the news few days back, this could lead to no voting right to the boys, girls attaining the age up to 32 years and below if the voting lists are not updated. This means a denial of voting right to the younger generations who were bestowed this right to have a say in building of the nation by electing the representatives of their choice. Besides the persons who have died within this period of 14 years will be figuring in the last increasing the chances of rigging by the parties who can have maximum acess. Now when the Chief Electoral officer of J&K has announced the revision of polling lists, every political party should co-operate and help the administration in the process for which 15 days time given by the Electoral office is not sufficient. This exercise needs to be done at grass root level by the electoral officer itself. The use of electronic voting machines at this juncture, without issuing identity cards, will further promote the rigging chances. The representative of pubic should realize all these parameters and a joint front of all opposition parties needs to be raised in the next elections after forgetting their personal egos for which they have been struggling for so many years and achieved nothing. The time to work in coalition has already set in the country. The people of this region, irrespective of their parties, should also unite for the common cause to see that their areas are not made to suffer and over shadowed by small achievements and should face the elections with a joint front in case they are really interested in the development of the region and do not want that their identity is over shadowed by Kashmiri's.

Yours etc...
B M Kohli
Jammu