Letters to the Editor: Civil service officers' attire

Through this newspaper, I want to express my dissatisfaction with the attire of some civil service officers when they attend office. As the son of a retired ACS officer, I have memories of seeing my late father going to the office every morning while being clean-shaven, wearing a formal full sleeve or half sleeve shirt and formal trousers with socks and shoes. This visual appearance was one of my earliest memories which served to instil a form of respect towards people working for the government and gave me a reason to work hard and survive in life.

Unfortunately, at present, there is a form of gradual decline w.r.t. the state civil services, affected by corruption, high-handedness, abuse-of-power and the most disturbing being getting jobs through money. Under such circumstances, it might not have come to the notice of higher authorities or God forbid, they appear in the same way, about the above-mentioned aspect. I have come across ACS officers wearing T-shirts, jeans and sandals while attending office as also officers preferring to keep unshaven faces and unkempt hair. Physical appearance speaks a lot about a person and such "officers" do not provide a sense of confidence or good work culture. I request the higher authorities to look into this matter and advise all ACS officers to come to the office in proper attire.

R P Das,

Chaliha Nagar, Tinsukia

Hateful remark

Salman Khurshid, the Congress leader and a former Union minister, has penned a book recently titled 'Sunrise over Ayodhya: Nationhood in our Times'. I have not seen the book, let alone reading it; but already it has raised a storm on the TV screens over an alleged malicious remark made in the book, such as, "version of Hindutva similar to ISIS & Boko Haram'' purported to spread religious hatred between the two communities. Hinduism symbolizes religion for universal representation without any imposition. India is a multicultural, secular state and our Constitution does not acquire its secular character merely from the words, but our secularism is the bedrock of the Constitution without discrimination on grounds of religion, race, caste, sex, place of birth. Hinduism is opposed to theocracy unlike most of the Muslim countries declaring themselves as the Islamic State and governed by Islamic laws. Many Muslim countries have enacted blasphemy laws to confiscate citizens' right to criticize which is hanging like a sword on non-Muslims. But in India Khurshid and his ilk are freely passing hate remarks on Hindutva ideology with impunity because it is a Hindu majority state. He should be prosecuted in the court of law for his derogatory remarks against a religion professed by a few hundred crores of the liberal and tolerant population the world over.

ISIS and Boko Haram are two dreaded Islamic militias who have been engaged in terror acts to overthrow the Governments and install Islamic states respectively in Iraq, Syria and Nigeria by latter. By equating the BJP-RSS ideology with these two Islamic terror outfits Khurshid foolishly has abused the constitutional right of free speech and expression and openly tarnished the essence of secularism. These politicians very cunningly overlook abnormally dangerous activities of the anti-national elements among their coreligionists who have been making a coordinated campaign against India and engaged in undermining the authority of the democratic system and in weakening the internal security of the country. They expediently exercise their rights in our liberal and pluralistic system of governance but conveniently avoid opposing the obscurantist agenda of their fellow Muslim brethren thereby terror outfits in the name of Islam have flourished due to tacit support of the community. Even the UNO has from time to time taken up concerns of Islamic terror networks proliferated in various Islamic countries and imposed a ban on such terror outfits. If people like Salman Khurshid have true concern for the safety, integrity, peace and development of the country, they must come to the forefront and forcefully oppose these brutal obscurantists.

Pannalal Dey,

Guwahati

Darkness on the road

After Himanta Biswa Sarma has taken charge as the Chief Minister of Assam, the netizens of Assam are expecting that he will bring a new era of development to the state. People have great faith in him. He is also trying his best to develop our state in a new way. But many primary things are still in an undeveloped condition and left unnoticed. The Kaliabhomora Setu is one of the renowned bridges. It was the third bridge made over the mighty Brahmaputra. But it has been in dark for a couple of years. Many streetlights with darkness are still on the bridge. Due to the less visibility, there is a high chance of a severe accident. Besides this, the maximum four lanes of Assam are still waiting for the light. So I urge the proactive government of our state to take necessary steps on these matters.

Aditya Ankur Nath,

Cotton University

Guwahati-1