Readers’ comments: Delhi’s women want to breathe the fresh air of freedom, without fear

The great metro divide

This is a disastrous decision and sets a bad precedent (‘Metro man’ E Sreedharan writes to PM Modi against AAP’s proposed scheme for free travel for women). Nothing comes free in life and we should respect metro man E Sreedharan’s opinion on this subject. From the management perspective, one may give concession on the cost of the ticket to any extent, but one should not totally eliminate the act of buying tickets for anybody. This process should never be eliminated. Metro service in Delhi is really efficient. I hope it will remain sustainable for a long time into the future. – Sadashiv Tembe

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Instead of offering this free metro ride, the money could have been diverted to help farmers burdened with heavy loans. – Jyotsna Ranade

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I totally agree with E Sreedharan. Already on several accounts, the government is giving a rebate. Just to make themselves popular, the Aam Admi Party has taken this decision. – Deepa Sharma

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I disagree with the Aam Admi Party’s decision to give free travel to women on the Delhi Metro. The revenue loss may be because of inefficient management. Further, by asking women to travel free you would not be increasing the revenue but only increasing the losses. The fare structure must be revised and wasteful expenditure reduced. I support metro man E Sreedharan’s comment. The management should review all possible alternatives before encouraging such foolish decisions, made to increase political mileage. – Deepak Shetty

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It is good to read that the government is thinking about women’s safety, but safety cannot be ensured by giving free rides on metros or buses. We need to understand that crime starts from the exit gates of the metro station. If we go and visit various metro stations, we will find an insufficient supply of electricity outside stations as well as the absence of street lights on roads. Crime is hidden in such dark areas.

Secondly, we also lack in providing check-points or police patrolling vans in the evening, on roads. If we are sincerely concerned about women’s safety then we need to identify spots where repeated crimes are reported and take corrective actions. There is a need to strengthen police support at those points.

The government must deploy some agency to regularly check the CCTV cameras and the agency must immediately repair non-working cameras so that all movement on Delhi roads is captured.
Women police staff should be posted at metro stations, specifically during evening hours accompanied by one male police officer to handle abusive situations. CCTV cameras should be installed in buses along with trackers to be monitored by police stations.

Women do not need free rides, we want a crime-free atmosphere so that we can live without any fear and can move freely in our own country, which is our home. We want to breath-in the fresh air of freedom without fear. – Usha Srinivas

On the letters to the editor

Regarding readers’ comments, it is very absurd and ridiculous to read these kinds of one-sided views (Readers’ comments: Sharad Pawar’s remarks on surgical strike are politically motivated). Even independent journalism like that of Scroll.in can lose its credibility by publishing such kind of one-sided views, meant for propaganda purposes.

The National Democratic Alliance government under Modi as PM from 2014 to 2019 has a total of zero achievements. [Their achievements are, the creation of] a sluggish economy, increasing unemployment, improper or hazardous implementation of the Goods and Sales Tax and demonetization, rising intolerance towards Dalits and minorities.

Just to create some false sense of security for the people of India, they created this false Balakot air strikes. No one really knows whether Pakistani terrorists really attacked India. Media is just being used as a propaganda machine to create such false events. Very soon people of India will realise the truth. The NDA came to power for a second time, only because of huge organisational power, money muscle, a weak Opposition and the creation of a larger-than-life image of Modi through propaganda. – Dr Balaji Mane

‘Oath-taking, a waste of time’

The recent oath-taking ceremony for the 17th Lok Sabha session witnessed several members affirming their promise to the constitution in various regional languages (Parliament session: Lok Sabha adjourned till Tuesday). The day-long event witnessed members reading the transcript of the oath in the presence of a pro tem speaker.

Though the event witnessed the oath-taking many first-time parliamentarians, the entire day was wasted without any business. The whole day was reserved only for an oath-taking ceremony, which holds no relevance in today’s busy world and thus only resulted in the wastage of tax-payers’ money. The archaic oath reading ceremony could have been replaced by the mere signing of papers and the session could have started-off directly with business proceedings.

There many crucial amendment bills pending to be passed, which will require sufficient time for necessary discussions and then resolution. The Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs is requested to look into doing away with unwarranted and archaic procedures such as the oath-taking ceremony. This will help ensure that sufficient time is given to the House to discuss issues. – Varun Dambal

‘Tata Vs Mistry’ revealed

Quoting verbatim the discussions that happened inside a confidential board meeting do not seem authentic to me (Revealed: What happened at the board meeting where Cyrus Mistry had to quit as Tata Sons chairman). Are these discussions recorded?

Second, it seems like the ejection of Mistry was preplanned behind the scene and then executed stealthily. Surely principles of natural justice should have been extended to Mistry. A board member claiming he was “not carrying the legal opinion” with him seems a lame excuse.

Crudely speaking, even a lala-company would have handled this more gracefully. This raises a question over the squeaky clean image that Tata has built for itself. Was that image built through good public relations or is the organisation truly as it projects itself to be? The answer is clearly, no longer. – Dr Aquil Busrai

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Revealed! Really? It’s on my blog in a post dated October 2017. – Nirmalya Kumar

Bapu falls

It is very cool and trendy nowadays to pay compensation to a person’s family if they die due to government failure (Mumbai: Man dies after portion of mural of Mahatma Gandhi at Churchgate station falls on him). So is Rs 5 lakh the price of a human?

It’s not a blame game. It was carelessness due to which somebody had to pay with their life. Two children died due to electric shocks as the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation did not finish their work on time. I constantly see road accidents due to metro work. Then news comes that a bridge has collapsed.

I don’t know how after having so much money the government fails to sort out these problems. It will hardly cost them anything. – Rahul Kandwal

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Innumerable photographs, statues and roads named after MK Gandhi exist. But there are constant attemps to erase Gandhi. Flogged to no end, it is a wonder he isn’t a dead horse yet. But soon some despicable Thakur might write that MK Gandhi was a murderer, and it shall be believed. – H Pattabhirama Somayaji

Indian homes for Polish refugees

I am Polish by birth although I now live in Canada (‘Felt like heaven’: How India became home for WWII Polish refugees is the story of a new documentary). I was touched and moved by the article about Polish refugees in India during the Second World War. Especially now, with a right-wing populist government in Poland, it has a special meaning for me.

Most of the supporters of today’s Polish government who spread hate against and fear of immigrants are poorly educated, indoctrinated by the Catholic Church and don’t know about their country’s fellows being helped by India, Turkey, Iran and many other countries in earlier times of need. Anjali Bhushan’s film should be shown in Poland so people can have healthy reflections.

Last year I spent six weeks travelling all around India and was mesmerized by the richness of your country’s culture, the legacy of the Raj, the hospitality of Indians and the sorrow and sympathy for the poor and underprivileged. Although tired of many inconveniences and terrible pollution and though I came back home with pneumonia, I crave more and will definitely come back soon.

Thank you for the interesting article. – Mariusz Wasilewski

Indians at NASA

I am a regular reader of Scroll.in. (Fact check: Are 58% of NASA employees Indian, as a viral message claims?) I enjoy Scroll’s journalism of ethics and unbiased news. I was disappointed in the reporting done here, as the source of the tweet was not researched.

As per my understanding, Dr Kash Sirinanda had posted a tweet which became viral. This was a truncated message extracted from a LinkedIn post. No attempts were made by AltNews or Scroll.in to ascertain the source message.

Lars RKT Norberg wrote the original post which he later edited to say: “58% and 59.89% come from the estimate that 3% to 7% – the figure is different from different sources – of NASA employers in the US are Indians. But with all the work that is contracted out, the headcount [increases to around] 58% which is not something obvious.”

So, the 58% statistic is backed up by contract works taken by NASA, not direct employees. – Ijaz Nazeer

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If only AltNews had checked Wikipedia it would have known that Ajaypal Singh Banga is an Indian national. Just put some effort into checking facts. – Ravi Khanna

Mamata versus doctors

Mamata Banerjee should do a thorough check of all the mischief makers behind this agitation and find out if they have bonafide degrees to function as doctors (Explainer: How the West Bengal doctors strike swelled into a political crisis for Mamata Banerjee).

No real doctor with ethical values would put the public at their mercy especially when doctors kill lakhs of people each year via malpractice, unnecessary scans and unnecessary drugs and medicines to feed pharmaceutical companies which help fill their pockets with commissions and kickbacks. Worse, each scan is equal to 250 x-rays and therefore increases the risk of inducing cancer in patients.

Mamata should encourage safe alternatives for better health such as homoeopathy, naturopathy, herbal and acupuncture treatments which are safe and permanent and also very affordable for the general public in the State of Bengal. She should get rid of all these terrorist-type quack allopaths. – Angela Alvares