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LETTERS
 Promoted
to a Degree
"Politicians who genuflect
before the practitioners of a dubious art are now going to offer them
an academic certification. The quacks will then become doctors."
—Gatikrishna Ray, on e-mail
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e-mail your letters to: letters.editor@intoday.com
or fax them to: 011-3316180
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Back To The Future?
The Indian Army is short of 10,000 officers
and the UGC plans to produce a million qualified astrologers ("Science
or Sham", September 17). We don't seem to have learnt any lessons
from the third battle of Panipat when a superior Maratha army lost to
Ahmed Shah Abdali because it relied on astrologers and not on its own
military prowess.
— Dev Kumar Vasudevan, on e-mail
The idea of promoting astrology as a degree
course is grotesque, for saffronisation of education does not mean creating
a hundred per cent literate population of fatalists.
— Richa Jha, Jabalpur
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The Age Of Innocence
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Your article transported me back
to my childhood when we explored and discovered life in natural
environs ("Business at Play", September 17). Are the new
designer playschools out to produce superkids with make-believe
sandcastles and mock hill climbings? I feel parents should resist
from such temptations and instead invest money on annual outings
where the child can experience the true beauty of a sand dune or
simply frolic in an apple orchard. The child should not miss out
on childhood.
— H. Rahman, Guwahati
The article read like a boon for working mothers
who do not get adequate time to spend with their children. I don't
mind coughing up some extra amount if it can help stimulate the
creative instincts of my five-year-old. I hope the team spirit imbibed
early will make her more adept at facing intense competition later
in life.
— Anshu Sinha, Delhi
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It beats me why the Government and the UGC are
bent on introducing a course on astrology in the absence of a genuine
public demand. Astrology as a branch of science merits no attention considering
that there is no unanimity or consistency in predictions. On the other
hand, science is universally constant and not a factor of time or place.
As a progressive nation we must march ahead and explore the myriad opportunities
that science offers instead of plunging into wasteful endeavours.
— Jinu Mathew, on e-mail
One is amused at the double standards of some
Indians. Those who oppose the introduction of astrology as an optional
subject in the university degree course are the very people who ardently
follow the astrological implications for their lives. Didn't Indira Gandhi
rely on the word of Sampooranand and later, Dhirendra Brahmachari?
— Rohini Nayak, Mumbai
Those who want astrology to be introduced as
a subject in universities in the belief that it is a science are simply
confused about its status. Astrology is an art. One should learn it by
all means if it generates interest. But it is healthy to study a subject
for what it is-with its drawbacks-and not for what it is not.
— Pallavi Guptaa, Mumbai
Problem Of Plenty
Your edit has made many people sit up and take
stock of the foodgrain situation in our country ("Poverty of Action",
September 17). More than overhauling the PDS-which should have been abolished
after World War II-there is an urgent need to chalk out a realistic agricultural
policy. In the wake of the shortage of foodgrains in the 1960s, attention
was largely concentrated on increasing the production of rice and wheat.
As a consequence while there is now an abundance of these two, there is
a shortage of millets, pulses and oilseeds. Thus, we are suffering both
ways: the problem of disposal of rice and wheat, and the import of pulses
and oils.
— Dr Vidya Sagar, Delhi
The paradox of starvation coexisting with grain
godowns bursting at the seams is aptly illustrated by an adaptation of
a nursery rhyme: "Baa baa, black market, have you any rice? Yes sir,
yes sir, plenty and nice; some for the rich man, some for the mice, none
for the poor man who can't pay the price."
— I.S. Chahdha, Chandigarh
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