NO doubt this is the time for change for a better India and a better world (Cover Story, April 10). And Election 2009 may be a good opportunity to bring about the change. In the United States, Barack Obama won the mandate with his promise for change. In India, there is no such young, energetic leader who can inspire the people.

Jacob Sahayam
Thiruvananthapuram

WITH reference to the Cover Story article on education (“Lessons in apathy”) I would like to point out that privatisation of education started in Tamil Nadu in a big way as early as 1977 when the government decided not to open any more colleges and not to permit the starting of aided institutions. In the area of higher education only self-financing institutions would be permitted. From nursery schools to medical colleges, educational enterprises came up in every nook and corner of the State with commercial motives.

At the school level, the number of fee-levying English medium schools has increased from 40 to over 4,500, besides many more unrecognised schools. Simultaneously the public school system, comprising government and private aided schools, was throttled by denying them adequate staff and funds.

S.S. Rajagopalan
Chennai

AS stated by Prof. K.N. Panikkar in his Cover Story article “Ways of Hindutva”, the Hindutva forces’ communal campaign has had a devastating effect on the Indian state. What is disturbing is their ability to polarise society on religious lines. But for the sentinel role played by the Left and democratic forces, the Sangh Parivar would have entrenched itself in the country. In the economic sphere, the Sangh Parivar supports the much-discredited neoliberalism.

S. Murali Vellore,
Tamil Nadu

Nuclear fuel

THE shortage of uranium for the Pressurised Heavy Water Reactors (PHWRs) is not due to poor planning and mismanagement (“Fuel crisis”, April 10). The real problem is the mismatch of political and scientific thoughts. At the time of its inception, the Department of Atomic Energy was blamed for the problems but there were national and international hurdles. The direct rapport between the Prime Minister and the Chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission made the decision-making process faster. Now the system has too many bureaucratic/political go-betweens.

The resistance by environmental groups with political support has also thwarted the DAE’s attempt to fulfil its ambitious programme. Besides, a number of environmental safety parameters have to be complied with before uranium is mined, milled and converted into fuel. Groups opposed to nuclear power also are impediments to progress in this area.

A.S. Raj
Bangalore

Brahmos

THIS has reference to the article “Why Brahmos failed” (April 10). It is difficult to believe the missile testers’ explanation that it went off mark because the American GPS satellites were switched off. Can one believe that no one had a Rs.1,000-worth GPS receiver to check whether there was GPS signal at the time of firing a missile worth millions of dollars?

Dr. Pritish Singh Ranchi,
Jharkhand

Marx’s grave

READING Romesh Bhattacharji’s article “A walk through Highgate Cemetery” (April 10) was a kind of a journey into history. The fact that fresh flowers adorn Karl Marx’s grave every day would keep alive one’s hope about the emancipation of mankind.

S.V. Venugopalan
Chennai

Education

THE article “Report card” (March 27) has established that despite the upswing in enrolment, better incentives and some improvement in facilities and infrastructure in certain government-run and aided schools, there is really nothing much going on in them. There are not enough teachers and worse there is no serious thought put into the whole teaching-learning process.

School teaching is truly the “untouchable” among professions in this country. The use of contract and part-time teachers and the reliance on non-governmental organisation to correct systemic flaws show how little we value the needs of our children.

Vasantha Surya
Chennai

Crime

IT is intriguing that in the controversy over the reduction of the sentence of a person convicted of rape, the question of his eligibility to appear for the civil services examination has not been raised (“Rape and bias”, March 27).

Perhaps the rules governing such examinations were framed without anticipating a contingency like this. It is time the rules are changed in such a way as to keep criminals out the civil service exams.

V.V. Srinivasan
Hyderabad

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