Handbook and stereotypes
In releasing a handbook with the aim of eliminating gender stereotypes, the Supreme Court of India has done well. One hopes that the text will help deliver justice to all without gender considerations. The initiative will definitely enhance the dignity of women, whose voice has been throttled owing to various issues related to a male-dominated society.
J. Radhakrishna Kurup,
Ettumanoor, Kottayam, Kerala
Nehru museum
It is sad that the government of the day has chosen to rename the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library in Teen Murti Bhavan (which was the official residence of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru) as the Prime Ministers’ Museum and Library Society.
Pandit Nehru is remembered for many other things.
He was not only a freedom fighter but also the first Prime Minister of independent India. He never made any tall claims. He stood by the principles of socialism and secularism. He was not dynastic by any chance. When asked as to who he would choose as the next Prime Minister, he gently said the people of India would decide. A visit to Teen Murti Bhavan is a sort of pilgrimage, a voyage to freedom.
Pandit Nehru can be called the jewel of India. To remove his name only displays a politics of hate towards the Nehru family, which should be avoided. Probably, this is the culmination of an erasing of Pandit Nehru’s memory from the collective conscience of the people. This is hardly doing any justice to the man who said he was standing before the people of India not as their first Prime Minister but as their first servant.
N.G.R. Prasad,
Chennai
It is a fact that the government of the day is always trying to belittle the contributions of Nehru. If the government wanted to honour all the former Prime Ministers of India, it could have done so without indulging in pettiness and hate toward the first Prime Minister and the architect of modern India with his commitment to democracy and efforts to develop the country — with huge dams, public sector undertakings with huge investments in critical areas and instilling a scientific temper in the people.
V. Padmanabhan,
Bengaluru
It seems that even the word “Nehru” is sufficient to raise the Bharatiya Janata Party’s hackles. Does the ruling BJP think that it is going to rule India’s political landscape for ever and ever? If, in the near or distant future the Congress returns to power, it will lose no time in upsetting the BJP’s apple cart by reverting to the old name.
“One should always play fairly when one has the winning cards,” said Oscar Wilde. Is anybody from the BJP listening?
Avinash Godboley,
Dewas, Madhya Pradesh
