Religious
conversions
Sir,
Prohibiting
religious conversions in Tamil Nadu is
timely and a welcome step. Indeed the
Union Government should take a cue from T
N and introduce similar legislation to
cover the whole country.
Much of
the turmoil in the country emanates from
religious friction. To ensure a life of
peace, progress and development, it is
necessary that such frictions should
cease forthwith. Since these will not
resolve by themselves in view of the
fractured secular base of Indian polity
consequent upon the partition, resort to
legal and constitution remedy is
inescapable. Indeed such legislation
should have been a part of the
constitutional process in the immediate
aftermath of the partition of the
country. It is, however, not too late
even now to enact a constitutional remedy
in this behalf for the country as a whole
in the interests of peace and progress.
Banning
conversions is equitable for all the
religions in the country. Therefore, it
should not be a subject of wild debate.
Prima minority religions in the country
would resist it but ultimately would be
in the larger interests of all religious
communities in the country. It remains
the only way to contain and end religious
strife in the country. If it is pleaded
that one's religion is one's own choice,
so be it. If you turn a Hindu from
Muslims or vice versa, you should
continue to be treated what you were
prior to conversion for all purposes of
the State no matter what your adopted
faith may be. The ban on conversions
would also ipso facto act as a safeguard
against increasing population without any
need for adopting coercive measures by
the State in this behalf.
Yours
etc...
P N Kaul
Talab Tillo Jammu.
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Faith
in democracy
Sir,
The 2002
State Assembly elections in J&K have
been free, fair and transparent. Inspite
of the threats from various quarters,
people of the State came out in large
numbers and cast their votes. They have
thus expressed their faith in the
democracy. The Union Government has
fulfilled its promise of holding a free,
fair and transparent elections. For the
first time, people of the State were
given an opportunity of electing their
representatives to the State Assembly of
their own choice. This marks an end of a
dynastic rule. From a few places, there
were complaints of bunglings and
riggings. But overall, the elections have
been fair. The credit of holding such
elections goes to the State Government,
Election Commission, besides the Union
Government. Whatever, the complaints of
rigging, the Election Commission and the
State Government took immediate steps to
address such complaints by holding a
repoll in those areas. Those parties, who
haven't achieved the simple majority,
required to form the Government are hoped
to play a contributory role as the
opposition party. After the installation
of a new government, talks for
restoration of peace and normalcy in the
trouble torn State as promised by the
winning parties, shall surely be held
with the concerned groups. A dawn of new
era, peace and prosperity would replace
the present tumultuous circumstances in
the State.
The
acceptance of defeat by the outgoing
party has added a new feather to their
belief in the democracy. This is the real
democracy that has emerged in the State.
Yours
etc...
Ashiq Hussain Rather
Doda.
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War
with regime, not terror
Sir,
If the
verbal duel between Bush and Saddam
finally results into exchange of
missiles, it might lead to a precarious
security situation in an area which is
already conflict prone and unstable. US
has set its missiles on Iraq since the
horrific attacks on the world Trade
Centre. It wanted to deal with Iraq along
with Afghanistan but was kept in check by
its NATO allies. Moreover, it was also
not sure of its support from the Arab
League as it has always been difficult
for US to get wholehearted support of
these nations against another fellow
Muslim nation. It has always been the
endeavour of US to get the Muslim
legitimacy before launching attack on any
Muslim nation. During the Gulf War it was
achieved because the Arab nations did not
know how to deal with Iraq. But this time
it looks difficult as a considerably
weakened Iraq does not pose the same kind
of danger to them.
In recent
times there has been a tendency in US to
impose political leaders of its choice on
several countries. It asked Palestinians
to come up with a leader other than
Yaseer Arafat if it wanted its conflict
with Israelis settled amicably. Before
this US hate for Fidel Castro regime in
Cuba is also well known. Its seems that
the US problem in Iraq is related more to
the regime of Saddam Hussain than to his
programme of weapons of mass destruction.
The
question which becomes important in this
context is if Iraq’s weapon’s
of mass destruction programme is a threat
to US and world security why it ignores
Pakistani programmes in weapons of mass
destruction. Though Pakistani state is
allied to US its population is totally
against it. The rise of fundamentalism in
Pakistan is phenomenal. In fact it is
common knowledge that after the
destruction of Al-Qaida and Taliban
terrorist bases Pakistan is now a manor
springboard for terrorist action world
over. In a situation like this Pakistan
poses a greater threat to world peace and
security than Iraq. Then why US is silent
abut it. Is it because Mussarraf regime
is allied to US?
In
Afghanistan the avowed aim of the Bush
administration was to catch Mullah Omar
and bin-Laden. It failed in both.
Moreover, it has no clue about their
whereabouts. Hence the US administration
now wants to go after Saddam whose
existence and location is at least known.
Initially it had also talked about
Somalia as another centre harbouring
terrorism. But now Somalia figures
nowhere in the aggressive statements of
the senior officials because they know
that it would be difficult to get any
concrete achievement in Somalia in the
absence of a central authority. Moreover,
probably the humiliation of US soldiers
is also fresh in their mind. To show kind
of achievement in its war against terror
US now wants to remove Saddam from the
seat of power.
Yours
etc...
Anand Kumar
On e-mail
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