Darker war clouds
Russia’s move to step up its aggression against Ukraine raises the prospect of a prolonged military confrontation to the detriment of world peace, development and stability. The world needs to act fast to get both countries to agree to a truce.
M. Jeyaram,
Sholavandan, Tamil Nadu
Mulayam Singh
A shrewd politician and a kingmaker in the contemporary era, Samajwadi Party founder and former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mulayam Singh donned many hats in his long but eventful career (Page 1, October 11). It is noteworthy that in spite of experimenting with political alliances, he never gave up the concepts of secularism and social justice.
V. Johan Dhanakumar,
Chennai
Despite being from a State that makes a contribution to the strength of Parliament in a significant way, Mulayam Singh frittered away his chances to occupy the highest post in India with his constant alliance shifting. While his political fall was as steep as his meteoric rise he remains a source of inspiration — as a person from a humble background who rose to power.
V. Subramanian,
Chennai
Mulayam Singh was a leader who faced many ups and downs in his political graph. But he was a popular leader as far as the common man was concerned.
Sandeep Rawat,
Chandigarh
Bus passengers
I write this letter as a professor of neurosurgery, JIPMER. The official response to the horrific bus accident in Palakkad, Kerala, recently seems to focus more on finding a guilty driver and the bus owner.
While punishing the guilty is an important step, a systems approach to reducing the risk is warranted too. What has not been discussed is the near-universal lack of seat belts in buses. Buses tend to travel at higher speeds, and the chances of passengers being thrown every which way in the event of an accident are perhaps more than in a car. The impact of a person’s head on the steel bars of the front seat typically causes a lot of head trauma. We must make it mandatory to have seatbelts on buses too.
Dr. M.S. Gopalakrishnan,
Puducherry
Hindi instruction
The recommendation of the Committee of Parliament on Official Language that the medium of instruction in technical and non-technical higher educational institutes should be Hindi or local language has not come as a surprise as there is indeed a vicious plan to impose the use of Hindi. There are many of us who dread to think of the future of our students who could well be forced to read all their lessons only in Hindi. They face a bleak future.
Tharcius S. Fernando,
Chennai
