Self-Immortalization!

In a show of brazen mindset, some people try hard to seek immortality by erecting costly statues of themselves when still alive. We saw this ignominious manifestation when Mayawati was the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh. On the pretext of immortalizing her mentor Kanshi Ram, Mayawati grabbed the chance to erect her own statues along with her mentor. This sort of preposterous mindset cost her dearly in the assembly election that followed. Then we found this phenomenon in An Hazare who, we are sure, lost much of his credibility for nurturing the desire to be immortalized the installation of a statue of himself. Needless to add, by so doing, An Hazare has tarnished his image beyond measure. People were of the opinion that the adulation he received for his crusade against corruption must have turned his head. Again, a news item doing the rounds is that a loyalist of Jayalalitha is all set to erect a temple, ‘Amma Alayam’ with a 6 feet high bronze statue of Amma (Jayalalitha). We understand that Jayalalitha has no role to play in the erection of the temple, but some of her loyalists are crazy after her popularity.

Ashok Bordoloi,

Dibrugarh.

Jihadi threat, Shivaratri

& intolerance

Somth temple, one of the holiest shrines for Hindus, is usually thronged by thousands of devotees during the auspicious day of Shivaratri. Many rituals and customs are observed during this time. But this year due to jihadi threats as intercepted by our intelligence agencies, Shivaratri was observed in a low profile manner, with many of the functions generally associated with Shivaratri curtailed. It is an absolutely correct decision by the concerned authorities in celebrating the said festival in low profile manner because security to the tion and its people is of paramount importance. But I shudder to think what would have been the case had some rituals belonging the minority community were cancelled owing to security threats. In that case, I am quite sure Rahul Gandhi and his company would have stalled the proceedings of Parliament and cried intolerance. Regarding Shivaratri celebration at Somth temple, I would like to see the reaction of so-called intellectuals who are very vocal on the religious intolerance issue. I am sure not a single one will come forward because in this case, they won't get that much needed mileage.

Joel Daimary,

Barkura, lbari.