Letters to the Editor: Back in business

Fashion brand Manyavar is again back with a new advertisement which is directly targeting Hindu's rituals and customs. Hindu rituals and customs are shown in bad taste in the advertisement which features Bollywood actress Alia Bhatt. Just as we wait for an auspicious day or festival to start anything new, the leftist brigade too waits for such days to begin their social messaging campaign against the Hindu festival or ritual or custom. Manyavar's advertisement film portrayed 'Kanyadaan' as an oppressive and regressive practice and suggested 'Kanyamaan' as an alternative. The makers of the advertisement said why women be given as charity at the time of marriage. According to our Sanatan culture, charity cannot be equated with money and wealth but the concept of 'daan is vast as it includes knowledge (vidyadaan), life (Jeevandaan), labour (shramdaan), wealth (dhandaan). In Hindu customs and rituals, there is also 'putradaan' (giving away son), which was seen in Mahabharata.

'Kanyadaan' is not an insult to girls or women as projected in the advertisement. As per the sloka or mantra recited at the time of 'kanyadaan', parents of the bride are referred to as Varun Devta (Lord of Ocean) while the bride or daughter is referred to as Surya Devta (Lord Sun), while the groom is referred to as Vishnu Devta (one who resides in the sky).

The left ecosystem finds faults only with the Hindu rituals, tradition and cultures, but they give clean chit to the practices of other faiths. Due to many reasons, today's new India reciprocate to such attacks on its faith, culture, tradition, beliefs, rituals by giving a befitting response. The social media sites are trending with the 'Boycott Manyavar' hashtag.

Julie Bhuyan,

Gaurisagar.

Majuli bridge!

Majuli is not an island alone, Majuli is the pride of Assam, Majuli is the soul of Assam, Majuli is the cultural soul of Assam. It is a cultural town with well-equipped Xatras and Namghars. It is an island that is home to indigenous Assamese. It is condemnable and shameful for the entire Assam that no government can save the land of Majuli from the gobbling Brahmaputra even after seven decades of independence or the life and property of the pure eaters by gifting a bridge to the general public of Majuli even after seven decades. I condemn every government, every representative.

In the interest of protecting the life and livelihood rights of Majuli and Majuli people, a movement should be launched all over Assam. There will be a moral support to such a movement.

Pranjal Kalita,

Cotton University,

Guwahati

AASU, where are you?

Dholpur, a small village in Sipajhar Block in the Darrang district, is in the news of all the leading print and electronic media of the state for the state government's decision to evict all encroachers. The State Government has decided to evict all the encroachers of doubtful nationality. A novel scheme named 'PROJECT GORUKHUTI' has been launched by Dispur to enable local youths to do farming under the government's guidance which no doubt is laudable. It is almost an open secret that during the Congress regime there was massive encroachment of government land even up to encroaching Xatra land by these intruders. A statewide agitation, in the form of Asom Andolan, was launched by the AASU in 1983 where many precious indigenous lives were lost. An illegal election was forcibly imposed by the then Congress Government at Dispur where all the locals boycotted the said poll. An anti-people government was installed under Lt. Hiteswar Saikia. Now after decades a new government other than Congress is installed by the locals at Dispur with the sole aim of making Assam free from the curse.

Naturally, the government will be facing stiff opposition from AIUDF, Congress and their allies like Akhil Gogoi. But what pains us is the deafening silence maintained by our 'jatiyobadi' AASU and AJYCP, the so-called champion of the original populace. Their silence indicates at what AASU might have changed their original stance and now become the silent supporter of illegal encroachers of doubtful nationalities. Less said the better about the new APCC president, Bhupen Bora who will face the curse of the locals for his role in betraying the aspirations of the sons/daughters of the soil. The Dholpur incident is the eye-opener for the indigenous people of the diabolic game plan of people of suspected nationalities.

Joel Gayari,

Tangla.

Cutting trees to build roads

Trees are being cut to build roads. What is the use of development where there is loss of nature? Annual tree harvest vs production on a worldwide scale shows that humans cut down approximately 15 billion trees a year and re-plant about 5 billion. That's a net loss of 10 billion trees every year. The loss of trees can cause climate change, landslides, desertification, flooding, increased greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. People should stop cutting down trees in the name of development because tree exhales oxygen and inhales CO?. If we run out of oxygen people will die and if there will be no tree the amount of CO? will increase in the atmosphere which can cause global warming. Roads can be built without cutting down trees. We shouldn't harm the environment, instead, we should take care of the environment if we want to breathe.

Parilina Das,

Mirza.

Heart diseases

The death of actor Sidharth Shukla has drawn many towards the alarming rate of deaths due to heart attacks of people under 50. The actor was 40 years old and seemingly fit. Fit does not always mean healthy. Various doctors have reported that patients with heart problems aged 30-40 are increasing alarmingly. Dr Brajesh Kunwar, the Head-Interventional Cardiology, Fortis Hiranandani Hospital, Vashi, Mumbai, has stated that two out of every 10 patients of his are in the age bracket of 30-40. Nowadays, people are more focused on maintaining a good figure rather than staying healthy. Of course, maintaining a good figure draws little attention to one's health. However, that is not enough. People need to focus more on staying healthy rather than looking fit. Exercise, sleep and a healthy diet is the need of the hour. But this is not to remain slim or to maintain a toned body or to remain fit. It is to be revered in a way that would make us healthy. A fit body cannot resist disease whereas a healthy body can.

Anabil Goswami,

Tezpur

Burning of horns vis-à-vis carbon emission

At the initiative of the State Government, 2479 rhino horns were burnt into asses with great fun-fare, very recently at Bokakhat. I have no problem with destroying the horns. My problem is with the burning of the horns. Did anyone observe the number of carbon particles emitted into the atmosphere then? Various governments and non-government organizations often talk of global warming and ways to curb burning things in the open. Organizations are desperately trying to bring awareness among people globally. In this case, the State government has failed brazenly to set an example to the public.

Instead of burning the horns, the same should have been crushed into small particles with an electrically driven crusher machine. The crushed particles could be made a paste (the myth of medicinal value would have been evaporated) with the addition of sand and cement. The paste could have been brought to any shape and size by pouring the paste into various moulds. Everybody should keep one thing in mind that 'example is better than precept'.

Prafulla Dowarah,

Guwahati

Two Sapatgram

high schools deprived

Sapatgram is one of the oldest towns in the Dhubri district, famous for its educational and cultural atmosphere from the remote past. There are many scholars at national and international levels as educationists and scientists from this old and small town. The inhabitants of this locality are very peace-loving and use to avoid politics. The thickly populated town is mostly Bengali-speaking with a large number of Assamese and Bodo residents. Two old schools produced lots of talents in all fields. Sapatgram Bengali High School is an 85-year-old Bengali medium school. Sapatgram Amalgamated Academy is an 83-year-old Assamese and Bodo medium school. Both schools with a good number of postgraduate teachers and good infrastructure in all respects can be elevated to higher secondary schools, both in Arts and Science streams. However, even after repeated persuasion, the authorities concerned do not elevate these two schools as higher secondary institutions. Every year hundreds of students pass out HSLC examination from these two high schools.

Sapatgram College has only an Arts stream. This compels students to go out for higher education in Science and Commerce streams. However, this is not possible for the poor.

On14th September 2021, the Director of Secondary Education published a list of 112 high schools elevated to higher secondary schools. Six high schools in the Dhubri district are on the list. It is indeed good news for the district. The fact, however, remains that these six high schools got established much after the two high schools at Sapatgram.

This time too, these two schools have not got the favour of the Education Minister and the department concerned. The matter has caused resentment in the locality. There is an allegation that the State government is not considering the development of this old town due to its Bengali population, besides no political representation from the town that comes under Bilashipara West Assembly Constituency.

So, we urge the authority concerned to review the matter to include these schools immediately in the list of higher secondary schools.

Dipak Kumar Saha,

Ex -student of Sapatgram

Bengali High School,

Lalganesh, Guwahati-34.

Awareness against cybercrime

At present, cybercriminals have spread their paws like an octopus in multifaceted ways. From children to old persons have been victimized by their well-organized network. First, they send a friend request through social media and then ask phone number or WhatsApp number. If the opposite person's response is positive then they will make a video call and after receiving the call someone unknown girl starts to nude herself. And after this, they produce a doctored vulgar video on the WhatsApp of the recipient and try to blackmail him or her threatening to viral the videos on different social media and demand money in exchange for deleting the nude videos. If the recipient of the call is a timorous fellow then he or she will immediately agree to pay the ransom in fear of outward modesty and some of these victims take the path of suicide fearing to face the people's censure. Nowadays, these kinds of incidents are increasingly happening every day. During the lockdown period, smartphones become handy amongst the students as they have to attend online classes. It is fact that almost ninety per cent of our people are not digitally educated. Their digital knowledge is limited only to calling and receiving phones and sending SMS and e-mail. They are even not familiar with the use of touchy/smartphones. So, in this case knowingly or unknowingly, the students or any other person may enter into the forbidden website and fall prey to the cybercriminals. If such things happen to someone then he or she should immediately inform the nearest police station and lodge an FIR against such a number. Moreover, to see the increasing cybercrime the government and the police administration should hold a digital awareness camp under each police station to keep away the people from any kind of fraudulent activities. Yours etc.

Harsha Sarma

(harshasarma183@gmail.com)

Wrong answer key by APSC in CCE prelims

Through your esteemed daily, I want to highlight that recently the APSC has released the official answer key of the CCE prelims, 2020 exam. But it is a matter of concern that in question no 19 of "SET D" it has been wrongly stated that the answer is option 'A', whereas the right answer should be option 'B'. The question is related to fundamental rights and it is a very basic question whose answer can be found in the Indian Constitution and all the standard textbooks including Indian Polity by M Laxmikanth. I hope that APSC would rectify its mistake and will soon release a final answer key as this would impact the marks of serious candidates. Otherwise, many candidates move to the high court which seriously impacts the whole selection procedure. To avoid such situations, the APSC must publish the new final answer key soon.

Prabhas Gautam

Bhatipara, Jogighopa,

Bongaigaon - 783382

Vaccination access to disabled

The Supreme Court issued a notice to the Central Government based on a PIL filed by an NGO for vaccination access to the disabled. Considering section 3 of the Disability Act for reasonable accommodation the Supreme Court has sought the opinion of the Central Government whether it will be possible to provide COV vaccination at the doorstep of the disabled. The applicant had also sought relief under Section 25 of the Disability Act and accordingly health services should be provided to the disabled at their doorstep as it is the fundamental right of every citizen to have the right to live.

It is expected from the government that they should protect the fundamental rights of the disabled. I quote the contents of the Supreme Court decision in the famous Jija Ghosh case who was disabled and the Apex Court had imposed a fine of Rs 10 lakh on Airline for maltreatment and also noted that it is the mindset of a large section of the people who claim themselves to be able persons still needs to be changed towards differently-abled persons. And it is this mindset of the other class which is still preventing in a great measure, differently-abled persons from enjoying their human rights which are otherwise recognised in their favour. The Sooner the decision is taken in favour of the disabled better it will be as eighty crore persons had already taken the vaccination and ultimately whatever will be left they will be disabled only. It is also expected from the government that they should not impose any unnecessary conditions otherwise the very purpose of giving the permission will be defeated and the government come forward with an open mind without any conditions imposed.

Yash Pal Ralhan,

Jalandar 144003