Cleansing the system
Moral and ethical values in public life, especially where it concerns our legislators, have been plummeting to irretrievable depths. We the people are left with no choice but to elect “criminals”. When we have such persons getting elected to Parliament to make laws that govern the nation, can their minions be far behind in emulating their leader? We cannot expect Parliament to enact laws to bar criminal elements from entering the portals of Parliament. The Supreme Court of India is our last hope. The top court should take the initiative to cleanse the system for the sake of the survival of democracy and to uphold constitutional values.
Kosaraju Chandramouli,
Hyderabad
Venky’s Chicken Products
I write this letter as the Company Secretary for Venky’s (India) Limited. The Hindu (and another media house) has published a report, “Venky’s pushing antibiotics as poultry growth promoter” (Inside pages, April 6, 2024 and online, with a link at thlink.in/Venkys), which alleges that Venky’s chicken has a heavy dosing of antibiotics. The story was aired on Live TV and circulated on social media platforms. The statement made by the media houses is unfounded, inaccurate and in contrast with the facts. Venky’s, a pioneer in the Indian poultry industry, has been supplying high quality chicken to its consumers for over four decades. One of the products sold by Venky’s is ‘processed and ready to eat chicken’ (Venky’s Chicken Products) which is made in state-of-the art processing units that have the highest standard of production practices and which are in strict compliance with Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) norms. Our chicken processing units have internationally recognised certification such as HACCP and FSSC 22000.
Venky’s chicken products are made from internally sourced chicken meat — from birds raised in-house or grown under contract farming supervised by Venky’s. We can proudly state that the birds used in Venky’s Chicken Products are not fed with antibiotics on a preventive basis or as a growth promoter. The meat used to make Venky’s Chicken Products is periodically tested at FSSAI-approved NABL-accredited laboratories for antibiotics residue, as per FSSAI norms. Venky’s Chicken Products are in compliance with FSSAI antibiotics residue norms.
Rohan Bhagwat,
Pune
Patriarchy and feminism
Set in the year 2001 and based in fictitious “Nirmal Pradesh”, Laapataa Ladies beautifully lifts the veil from various societal evils such as patriarchy, dowry harassment and comes off as a satire. Using humour as a mechanism it tells the story of two newlywed women who get mixed up during the train ride to their husbands’ villages as their faces were covered by a “ghoonghat” -- which is perhaps used as a metaphor to define the veil as an object which not only hides the face of women but also hides them from equal rights and opportunities.
In different places and strange situations, although lost, the naive Phool and ambitious Jaya end up finding and discovering themselves while navigating through the evils of patriarchy. Phool stays at the railway station and assists the old woman who runs a tea stall on the platform and gathers some wisdom from the old but wise woman. For instance when Phool asks her why women are not given any opportunities, the response is that women are capable of doing everything, from farming to running the house, and do not really need men at all. But if all women had this figured it out, men would be in a mess. On the other hand, Jaya at a stranger’s house finds freedom from a forced marriage to an abusive, chauvinistic groom and wants to study further and be independent. She even endears herself into the atmosphere and uses her knowledge of farming to help Phool’s in-laws.
The movie also questions various societal norms such as why women cannot address their husbands by names, what a woman’s identity is apart from being someone’s wife, what her rights are and whether women from good homes are taught any useful skills -- when the old woman questions Phool whether she was taught how to reach her own house or knew the name of her newly-wed husband’s village where she is going to stay forever. Various instances in the movie speak volumes about how women feel alienated in their husband’s homes and a patriarchal setup where Phool’s mother-in-law says one day out of the blue how she has forgotten what she likes to eat; whether women ever cook for themselves and how Phool’s sister-in-law has no one to talk while her husband has gone away to the city in search of a livelihood.
The patriarchy allows men to be the head of the house and grants them the decision-making powers while women are supposed to sit back, keep quiet and abide by them. And even if she dares to speak her mind she is not considered to be a “ache ghar ki ladki”.
Over the years, feminism has been a subject of considerable debate while many confuse it with hating men or being a “Feminazi”, without considering the fact that, even today, women have to sacrifice their choices and careers over prioritising their families and household duties, while men are free to whatever they want, which perpetuates the spiral of male dominance and chauvinism in Indian society.
Madhumita Sharma,
New Delhi
