Vox pop

Harsh Mander’s article An unfinished battle (Democracy Wall, February 4) has helped demonstrate the fact that the right to food must exceed the constraints of topography and region.

Bring more beneficiaries within the ambit the Food Security Bill
Harsh Mander’s article An unfinished battle (Democracy Wall, February 4) has helped demonstrate the fact that the right to food must exceed the constraints of topography and region. The Food Security Bill should not be res-tricted to a particular group or section. Since the country has a huge agricultural base, the bill must seek to fairly distribute food amongst everyone. The government must take steps to clear all relevant loopholes and bring more beneficiaries within the ambit of the bill. With all its citizens having a right to food, India can emerge as a healthy country on the international stage.
-Dheeraj, via email

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The children are not alright
This refers to the report Status report on missing kids: SC raps Centre (February 6). The Supreme Court has recently rapped the Centre and state governments on the knuckles for not providing enough details about the thousands of children who were missing between 2008 and 2010. Since the apex court cannot proceed without this information, Chief Justice Altamas Kabir is justified in issuing a stringent warning to the respondents.
-Deepak Chikramane, Mumbai

Rock in a hard place
With reference to the editorial No hand of god here (February 6), the disbandment of Kashmir’s first all-girl band — Pragaash — is very depressing. If singing by Muslim girls in public is un-Islamic, many things under the sun will have to be similarly denounced. Only a sick mind can associate singing with immorality. To say that rock music is of Western origin and hence alien to Muslim traditions is to undermine the universality it has come to enjoy. Radical outfits must not be allowed to Talibanise the Valley. One hopes that the arrest of three people for posting threats on social networking sites against the band will send across a strong message to the radicals.
-G David Milton, via email