Letters to The EDITOR: Say no to wars

Say no to wars

The repercussions of wars are hardly limited to one place. Bombs dropped in one country shatter the economy of the other. While trade deals and consignments get stuck, negotiations come into play in urgency, exposing that in geopolitics, ideals are not as important as national interests are. What the world is bearing today is not just an outcome of a war but the tyranny of a powerful nation. What started as a targeted assault to kill the Iranian supremo Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has turned into a full-blown energy war. Trump's miscalculation that Iran will not attack the Arab countries has pushed the world towards an unwanted crisis. The passage through the Strait of Hormuz has been restricted, leading to an escalation of oil prices, which is now hitting the economies of nations worldwide. What previously remained as a narrow choke point is now compelling nations for meticulous bargaining to get transit concessions through it from Iran. It is now geography that is being prized over weapons and military strength. The US has eased the sanctions on Russian oil, revealing that exigencies shape the strategies more globally than rivalry and diplomatic obduracy.

But at the end it is the people who pay the price of a war. When the productive human capital once engaged in business, teaching and doing research work wanders for security, it puts a halt to the economic and intellectual development of the country. When children search for shelters instead of playgrounds, it then belies the claim that wars are necessary to put things in order. While shelling is temporary, its memories are permanent. A generation which grows up hearing sounds of bombs more than the car honks breeds fear in their hearts instead of joy. It is high time the world stood up against the hegemony of the US and said no to war. Since a long-term neutrality is not silence, it is complicity.

Kabir Ahmed Saikia

Rajabari, Jorhat

Political integrity

Today everyone loves to talk about political integrity, but it is a utopian idea. It is good to imagine but impossible to achieve. The recent shifted allegiance of certain veteran politicians in the state before the Assembly election appears to be against all political decency and ethical values. Things are, no doubt, in a state of flux, and a change for the better is what people yearn for. Realistically speaking, even the world's oldest democracy - the USA - has not got there yet. How long it takes for us to reach that political maturity is anybody's guess. However, many politicians in our state uphold integrity, diligently work at the grassroots level, implement welfare schemes, enhance infrastructure, and advocate for social justice. Anyway, political integrity is the need of the hour. It rather depends on whether people are willing to expect honesty, question wrongdoing and demand better from those who lead them. Let us make it true that political integrity is not a thing of the past.

Iqbal Saikia,

Guwahati.