An opportunity to take a second look at our priorities and our indifference to the working class

Fight for a cause

With the country at a crossroads, I am tempted to reproduce what a friend posted the other day. “We fought for temples, we fought for masjids, we fought for statues but we didn’t fight for hospitals,” he wrote. Now, he added, everything is closed but hospitals. He went on to remind us that Indians fought over culture, traditions, caste, history, Aurangzeb and Shivaji –but never fought for science. Ironically, today science appears to be our only savior.” Our elections are fought on rhetoric and over emotional but rarely substantive issues. It’s time we learnt our lessons and begin to fight for issues that matter, education, health, scientific temper and social and economic equality.

Manisha Tripathi

Democratic despots

UP policemen, who drove 700 kilometres from Ayodhya to New Delhi, and returned presumably the same day after serving a summon to prominent journalist Siddharth Varadarajan, the editor of The Wire, were carrying out instructions of course. But during the lockdown and with the country and state governments working against heavy odds to cope with the COVID crisis, what was so urgent for a handful of policemen to undertake the hazardous and somewhat expensive journey ? Only self-obsessed ‘democratic despots’ would squander public money in order to spite an editor. His fault seems to be that the portal he edits reported that the UP chief minister did not maintain social distancing at Ayodhya. I am more appalled at the casual disdain with which public money is utilized by these new zamindars than issues of Press Freedom. They will meet the same fate as zamindars.

Arun Thakur

A new deal

We will get over the present crisis sooner or later. But unless we change the way we treat public health and the working class, no real change is possible. This is an opportunity to take a second look at our priorities, our obsession for smart cities and our indifference to the working class. Unless their lot improves and unless they get access to food, water and reasonable shelter and security, even the rich are unlikely to remain safe for long. A well thought out plan for a new ‘work order’ has never been more urgent than now.

Javed Masih

Communal virus

It is distressing to see the communal virus overshadowing the public health crisis. A large number of foolish people seem to believe that Muslims are responsible for spreading the virus. Some have been led to believe that only Muslims are affected by the virus and keeping them away will keep themselves safe. Unfortunately, neither the Government nor the TV channels did anything to dispel such notions. . Several TV anchors spent the last 10 days demonising Muslim. What were the Airport police, Immigration authorities, Delhi Police (all under Central Govt) doing when foreigners came in?  Wasn’t it Kejriwal’s local administration who granted the permission to the organisers for the congregation?

Kuldeep Walia

On landlords

There are landlords and landlords. While there are some who scrupulously register lease deeds in court with their tenants, declare the rent they receive and pay taxes on the rental income, a large majority of landlords do nothing of the sort. They collect the rent in cash, sometimes in advance and do not give any receipt. Thus, they pay no taxes. These landlords include well-off people in civil lines letting their bungalows out to students and also rich villagers who construct dormitories for migrant workers and collect relatively modest amounts but from a large number of such cubbyholes. With migrants away, colleges closed, will the rent go down? Will there be a crackdown on landlords and will the migrant workers, as and when they return, get a fair deal ?

Mahesh Tirkey

NYAY for all

Congress proposed a variant of universal basic income in the form of NYAY before the general election last year. In hindsight, it appears so prescient. The experts the party consulted were convinced that an economic crisis was round the corner and were worried about the impact on the poor. And sooner the Government implements the scheme, the better.

Jaishankar