Readers’ comments: Non-Hindus should not be employed in Hindu temples, it hurts devotees’ sentiments

Secular temples?

This in response to your article on Tirumala (The Daily Fix: Tirupathi’s non-Hindu workers can’t be made scapegoats for Andhra temple politics). There was a widespread evangelist movement, a few years back, in the holy shrine. Where were the people who scream about fundamental rights then? Though such non-Hindu movements are strictly prohibited for a few kilometres around [the shrine], it was still happening. It was only the Pejawar Mutt head who spoke. We as devotees [were] deeply hurt.

No other non-Hindu organisation employs Hindus in their places of worship even for non-religious work. The government can employ them elsewhere where their religion does not come in the way. The holy shrine is visited by crores of devotees every day. [We] request very humbly that the bhakts [devotees] be kept in mind before anything else. – Vaijayanthi Venkatachalapathi

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The Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam is not a government organisation. Maybe it employs government officials because it is managed by the government. The government rules of employment will not be applicable because it is a Hindu temple and the management runs from its [the temple’s] funds. – Krishnaraj T

Jay Shah defamation case

The apex court rightly pointed out that the media cannot take everything for granted (Jay Shah defamation case: ‘The Wire’ withdraws its plea from Supreme Court, says will stand trial). If the media is pointing out some irregularities, then it must have some constrictive evidence. The opposite party must be given reasonable time to respond. Two days time is inappropriate. Media is also governed by ethics. It has no right to lower the image of any individual and if it does, then there is a law to deal with it

Print and media houses should be impartial. But it is not so. These are run by human beings and human nature can be influenced. It is advisable to act as responsible public watchdogs without any prejudice to any party or individual and not as one that always criticises other print and media houses. – Parkash Bhardwaj

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Yellow journalism is financed by big media houses to get power and more money. But it is very serious when it plays into the hands of enemy countries. Somehow people sense this but rigorous punishment must be given to the journalist. – Shyamali Banerjee

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It’s shameful, if not shamelessness on the part of other media houses for not supporting Wire.in [which is being] targeted by the corrupt system. When freedom of the press is at stake, democracy cannot survive long. – Ravi Narayan

Rules of millenialspeak

The uses of the word like have been very nicely presented (Millennialspeak: ‘Like’ is not a lazy linguistic filler. The word has, like, a grammar of its own). [A] very unique topic. I will feel very happy to read more articles in your journal. – Maryam Khan

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This article rehashes an old topic that has been researched by many other linguists dating as far back as Underhill’s 1988 paper Like, is Like Focus. And yet she does not cite any of this literature. Her findings are not novel and yet she presents them as if they are. For shame. Furthermore, her corpus comes from a scripted TV show that does not even reflect natural human speech, making them linguistically meaningless. This is shocking coming from a senior lecturer at a university. – Sarah Hansen

Miscellaneous comments

I support her cause (Watch: A tribal woman from the Amazon rainforest has a message for the world). She is speaking for the survival of all humanity. – Sucheta Sen Chaudhuri

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I don’t know on which study or on what basis, the author is claiming that people sitting in their homes will use less air-conditioning, lighting and power, than they would, in collectively sitting in their offices [How three-day weekends can help save the environment (and us too)].

An office containing a certain number of people is much more energy-efficient compared to those people residing individually or separately in their separate houses in separate rooms, powering separate air-conditioning to warm/cool their separate rooms. I can understand and agree with the argument made on energy savings due to less commuting. But overall, is the whole idea energy saving or more energy consuming, this question needs to be looked at and researched, because of my aforementioned point.

Also, this idea has nothing to do with the problem of presenteeism and redundant work hours and it doesn’t take too much logic to deduce that. The problem can persist even after applying this idea, and the problem can be addressed even without applying this idea of three day weekends. – Abhay Bhatt

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The cancellation was definitely legal and constitutional (If there was no 2G scam, why did the Supreme Court cancel 122 spectrum licences in 2012?). Firstly, there is no tender procedure such as First Come First Serve. In fact, it is for the orderly distribution of services such as tickets, food, subsidised vehicles and other such commodities that prices are predetermined and are not transferable to anybody else and are to be returned to the authority which had issued it. The loss in this scam was to the state. Of course, if it had thought of it beforehand it should have a method of paying the credit for their services, taking into consideration the increase in revenue by their efforts. – Alexander Francis

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Unlike politicians and followers of the Bharatiya Janta Party who continue bashing our first Prime Minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, 55 years after his demise, Indian culture teaches one to believe in the sentence “मरणान्तानि वैराणि” which means animosity ends after death (Why do Indian obituaries of dead politicians fail to mention their weaknesses too?) – Rajendra Kulkarni

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It is because of such anti-national articles penned solely on hearsay, that I have decided to never subscribe to you (Raids at night, handbills by day: Army siege in South Kashmir escalates after special status revoked). You pathetic people will anyway cease to exist once your third-class publication closes down. In new India, there is no place for terrorists like you. The government must arrest these authors for spreading lies and inciting hate. – Koushik Paul

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What a stupid idea (Pragya Singh Thakur blames Opposition’s ‘killing power’ for deaths of BJP leaders). All of them died of natural causes and illnesses. No doubt some of them were respected for their good deeds. But it is believed by some that all the members of her party are honest and not corrupt. It is also now believed that all members of the ruling party are immortal! If she is a professed Hindu. Does she know that all our lives have to face the law of karma which is infallible unlike our manmade laws adjudicated by human judges. – SN Iyer

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You were elected to take care of Pakistan (J&K: Imran Khan says Narendra Modi made a ‘historic blunder’, vows to raise matter at UN). Pakistan’s external debt is sky high, you have taken your begging bowl across the globe, your defence expenses continue to rise and there is political turmoil in Pakistan. Why don’t you take care of your country before making the generous offer of fixing the problems of your neighbor? – Arum Sharan

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In response to the article BWF World Championship: How PV Sindhu wrought a transformation that made her the world champion published on August 26, PV Sindhu has brought glory to the nation time and again. This time, she won a gold medal for the country. I would like to congratulate her on this achievement. However, everyone should note that at the end of the day she is a human being and she is bound to make errors. This understanding will help us to create a more supportive environment for her. A balance of physical, mental and technical changes could possibly be her success mantra in future games as well. The dreams of winning the upcoming Olympics is possible only if we don’t put the 24-year-old under a lot of pressure. – Harshini S

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Another convoluted story [written] just to malign the nationalist government of India (Interview: ‘This is the price we have paid for being Indians in a place like Kashmir’). Scroll.in please stop your anti-national articles. What is wrong in Kashmir being treated as any other state? While a Kashmiri can purchase land in any other state why prevent Indians from other states from living in Kashmir or owning property there? If anybody in Jammu and Kashmir wants to be treated as Indian, he or she should welcome the removal of Article 370 or Article 35A. Don’t spread calumnies to vitiate the atmosphere. – Jambunatha Radhakrishnan