Mellow in democracy

Elections are the foundation of democracy, whose pillars are the protection of the weak, the poor, of women and of minorities.

• Elections are the foundation of democracy, whose pillars are the protection of the weak, the poor, of women and of minorities. An election victory can never justify injustice and humiliation against the have-nots. Democracy can only work if good citizens speak out their conscience to remind a ruler of his fundamental duty towards the deprived of society. A wise ruler listens to this voice of conscience. Moderation, humility, introspection and remorse are the highest virtues of those in power. It is that which distinguishes a Lincoln or a Gandhi from a Hitler or a Jinnah.

— J.S. Bandukwala

Vadodara

Assembly overlap

• Now, when the elections to elect the new legislative assembly of Himachal Pradesh have been held and the counting is slated for the end of this month, the state may find itself in a piquant situation if the opposition BJP returns to power in this hill state. The Election Commission would, nevertheless, notify the elections of successful candidates immediately after the results are declared, although it would not affect the duration of the present assembly. It may be recalled that the normal term of the present 10th assembly of Himachal is until the second week of March 2008. This may give rise to an ambiguous and unique situation where there would be one MLA and another MLA-elect for a constituency. The session of the present assembly can be held during this period but it would be a lame-duck session. Although a minister in the incumbent government has moved the Himachal High Court for deferring the counting process until next March, whether the judiciary would interfere in the matter is anybody’s guess.

— Hemant Kumar

Ambala

Choked exile

• In this third millennium AD and in our global village of multi-religious societies, mutual intolerance is becoming all too obvious. Taslima Nasreen’s case is a sorry commentary on us Indians (‘Taslima says am choking to death, Pranab doubts safety in Kolkata’). She says that even the TV and books are denied to her in her place of lodging. If what she says is indeed true, does it not amount to India being a police state?

— Mukund B. Kunte

New Delhi

Changing God

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• Apropos of ‘Baptised S. Gujarat Tribals re-embrace Hinduism’, I would like to mention that the tribals, since they do not fall under the typical Hindu hierarchical caste system, are not recognised as Hindus. Hence, in the Constitution they are listed under “Scheduled Tribe”.

Another important point: even if a tribal adopts any of the existing religions, he does not cease to be a tribal and is legally a beneficiary of the reservations privileges granted in the Constitutions. The religion he embraces becomes for him a mere title, a prefix and not a ‘legal change’ for that matter.

— Fr William

Ahmedabad

Flayed outlays

• Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi is never afraid of calling a spade a spade. Raising his voice against the Centre’s move for religion-based budgeting, he has rightly said that “poverty has no religion” and only poverty should determine allocations in the Plan (‘Modi tears into PM’s plan for minorities: it’s communal’). The fact cannot be denied that caste-, community- and religion-based concessions are part of vote-bank politics. So is the UPA government’s New 15-Point Programme that focuses on earmarking 15 per cent of certain outlays of various developmental schemes and programmes of the GoI for Muslims. It’s not just Modi, but any sensible Indian, who will reject such an approach.

—M.C.Joshi Lucknow