Sitaram Yechury hit the nail on the head when he said that the Sangh Parivar was making all-out efforts to convert India into a Hindu Pakistan. The most significant legacy of the freedom struggle was the secular ideal and it is now under threatFighting off these forces is crucial for India’s religious diversity.
The construction of religious minorities as “common enemies” of the majority community is done with a purpose. It is to prevent Dalits and others from fighting for their rights. If there is one factor that largely explains India’s economic backwardness, it is caste. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s exhortation to rid the country of communalism, casteism and poverty by 2022 must be seen from this perspective. His call is more significant for the deadline going beyond the 2019 general election than its import. If Modi was sincere, he would have unambiguously denounced the equation of majority communalism with patriotism, effectively intervened to stop the attacks on Dalits and Muslims by Hindutva outfits, and boldly taken radical steps to mitigate poverty.
G David Milton
Maruthancode, Tamil Nadu
Bank’s robust legacy
This refers to the report, ‘Bank of India swings to profit in first quarter’ (August 10). BOI’s operating profit is robust and net interest income strong. It had been making losses, provisioning for NPAs to the extent of 60 per cent.
The result clearly shows that BOI has showed an improvement in containing its slippages, or good loans turning bad. The BOI culture was not created overnight, it is part of a legacy.
Vinod C Dixit
Ahmedabad
Changed fortunes
The manner in which fortunes can fluctuate is amazing. Abhinav Srivastav, who was at the wrong end of the stick for accessing Aadhaar information, has not only managed to impress the cops with his tech skills but may soon land a job as a consultant with the Bengaluru City cyber police. The techie’s expertise could come in handy to solve umpteen cyber crime cases that have piled up.
NJ Ravi Chander
Bengaluru
Knee-jerk reaction
This is with reference to ‘Deleting dissent’ by Elaine Ou (August 10). A pertinent question is: Are big tech companies in the US, long known for their flexibility and openly autonomous culture they foster, displaying a parochial attitude (as seen in this instance)? Also, is a deliberate effort to enhance female participation in the work-force at the heart of Google’s recruitment strategy, or is trait-wise and skill-wise merit-based recruitment irrespective of gender? The fired Google employee, James Damore, offers a different perspective, one that could be used to nurture talent among the workforce.
It’s unfair to fire Damore. It shows Google to be discriminating against potentially capable male recruits. Such disdainful institutionalised ostracism of employees who express with boldness innocuously and dispassionately measured views for a better corporate culture is demeriting not only for the employee but for Google itself in the long run.
This episode is also a reflection of the direction that corporate America may be heading towards regarding corporate recruitment — the promotion of a recruitment strategy oriented solely towards increasing female participation in the workforce, and according much less importance to merit.
Aravind Sridhar
Bengaluru
Out of line
This refers to your editorial, ‘Shell shock’ (August 10). Sharing the names of 331 suspected shell companies with SEBI with instructions to take corrective action is hasty to say the least. At least listed companies should have been subjected to a background check in terms of their holding pattern, share value, market share, etc before taking such drastic measures.
Few companies in the list have a market share of over ₹1000 crore. Whether on the issue of banning Participatory Notes or action on shell companies which have a severe bearing on the stock market, SEBI should maintain an effective monitoring mechanism.
Srinivasan Velamur
Chennai
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