Waterman’s achievement
Negative vote
Local flavour
Superpower dream
Potshot politicians
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Waterman’s achievement
Rajendra Singh, who has been selected for the Ramon Magsaysay award, richly deserves the honour (A quiet revolution, August 1).
Earlier governments in Rajasthan used to discourage him. He was asked to give up his ‘obsession’ with the construction of check dams, ponds and wells. But with consistent support from the villagers, he continued his efforts to help preserve water.
Subsequently, the state saw a rise in the ground water levels, flourishing of greenery and expansion of the forest cover.
Rajendra Singh deserves to be encouraged, particularly because there is scarcity of water in our country despite its abundant natural water resources.
Yugal Kishore Sharma, Delhi
Negative vote
In the absence of candidates who are competent and men and women of integrity, in every election a large number of voters are forced to favour the lesser evil. Many others just do not vote. However, does not abstaining from voting amount to indirect
support to a candidate who, the voter thinks, is not fit to be in the legislature?
There should be one more column, “None of the above”, in the ballot paper so that the voter can make his choice quite clear — that he does not approve of any of the listed candidates.
The law should contain a provision for cancellation of the election if the negative votes
outnumber those for the winner. That will compel political parties to be careful while choosing candidates.
KC Nahate, Delhi
Local flavour
THE editorial Globalisation is like this only (August 3) correctly argues that in spite
of the invasion of the MTV “pop culture”, which was targeted to turn the younger generation into ‘Hippies’, Indian culture has held it own and successfully spread into the foreign channel. Programmes such as The Grind, for example, were vulgar and not fit
for family viewing.
Without localisation, the channel would definitely have gone ‘off air’ in the Nineties itself.
Vijay Ahlawat, Jind
Superpower dream
If the economic conditions in India are to improve and our country is to become a super- power, we must tackle the ‘Pakistan problem’ head-on. This might create some difficulties in the short term, but in the long run India will be able to claim its
rightful place on the international stage. The alternative will be the perpetuation of the miseries that began with the arrival of foreign invaders centuries ago.
Vijay Singh, via e-mail
Potshot politicians
The report from Bhopal about a Congress general secretary shooting another leader of the party made shocking reading. The incident has rightly been described as a case of “criminalisation” of politics. It is a symptom of the appalling degeneration of
politics in the country as a whole.
Archana Gupta, Delhi
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