:: Letters to Editor

Censorship and Free speech

Sept.16 : Sir, I greatly appreciate that Shyam Divan (For our courts, all speech is free unless it’s in contempt, August 31) referred to my case when dealing with contempt of court issues and the freedom of speech. I would like to add two points, however. First, I do not consider myself the prime victim of censorship. I have benefited from my Indian experience in many ways. In my view, the true victim is public discourse in India, because a study which assessed the role of an important branch of government was not made widely available. Second, the problem of stifled debate is by no means solved, even though my book, Taking the State to Court, became available online a few years later. If insights from social sciences are to have any impact on the real world, critical debate, follow-up studies and research into related matters is needed. That, however, is unlikely to happen in the given circumstances. The fate of my book is certainly a disincentive for Indian scholars to tackle these issues. As a citizen of Germany, I had nothing to fear, but I believe citizens of India deserve the right to freely discuss the performance of their courts which, by the way, I assessed in an overall positive light in my book. Had I known what kind of censorship was lying ahead, my emphasis on the importance of transparency would have been even stronger.

Dr. Hans Dembowski

Editor-in-chief

D+C Development and Cooperation

CSR can be test of sincerity

Sir, Two comments are offered after reading Viraf M. Mehta’s article, CSR: It’s often nothing but a PR gig (Sunday Special, September 13). First, since the revenues to a company do not come from where it makes its products but from where it sells them, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) need not be confined to its surrounding environment, more so when the organisation has a national market. Second, a company need not relate its CSR to obviate the ill-effects of its products (eg a liquor-manufacturing entity). Those who buy such a commodity know the consequences of its excessive use. Why should such a company not spend money on building schools rather than cancer hospitals? The test of sincerity of CSR of an organisation is what percentage of its revenue it spends on it and for what causes.

Y.G. Chouksey

Wanowrie, Pune

India’s defensive foreign policy

Sir, Whether it is Pakistan or China, India’s foreign policy has always been on the defensive. When China was supplying missiles to Pakistan, India was scared to have any trade links with Taiwan. After driving out Dalai Lama and vanquishing Tibet by military means, China is now entering Arunachal Pradesh. We should immediately repudiate the Treaty on Tibet and declare it an independent nation. Like Jawaharlal Nehru did for China, we should canvass world opinion to recognise and support an independent Tibet.

Navnith Krishnan

Via email

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New rules for education

Sir, Your editorial Improve schools if India is to rise (September 12), gives a real picture of the state of affairs in government schools. The kind of incidents referred to give the impression that many among the teachers cannot be trusted. According to our traditional concept, a guru is a trusted counsellor and mentor. We must have new rules to revamp our entire education set-up.

T.K. Sivadasan

Via email