Return of the Taliban
The Taliban will likely impose their medieval idea of governance in Afghanistan, with scant regard for human rights, freedom of speech, educational opportunities and freedom of work and leisure, especially for women (“Afghan President Ghani leaves country as Taliban reach Kabul”, August 16). One can only hope that the new dispensation will recognise that it must allow citizens to exercise freedoms in order for it to gain more legitimacy in the eyes of the world.
A. Mohan,
Chennai
Now that the Taliban have taken over, we need to ask some hard questions. How were the insurgents able to hoodwink the American intelligence? From where do the Taliban get their stockpile of deadly weapons? How did they regroup, grow and launch so many successful operations? How did they escape aerial attacks? And how did they manage to overthrow the government so easily? The world needs answers from the U.S. administration.
V. Johan Dhanakumar,
Chennai
It is shocking that the UNSC, the international community’s principal organ for peacekeeping, did not convene to discuss the Afghan crisis as it was unfolding and chose to meet only on Monday once the U.S. had left Afghanistan and the Taliban had taken over. Whose interests does that serve? It is time for a complete restructuring and reform of the UNSC.
Ratnaraj Jain,
Rajahmundry
Scientific temper
The scholarly articles of the I-Day special were insightful. I particularly wish to highlight the piece “Scientific temper as key” by Dr. Gagandeep Kang. It was bold for a country with so many traditions, conventions and taboos to have adopted a Scientific Policy Resolution as early as 1958. Indeed, the first quarter of independent India saw many concrete steps taken in the direction of developing a scientific temper. However, the state policies followed in the last few years give the impression that questioning, which is the essential tenet of scientific temper, is unwelcome, and seem to promote a line of thought which accepts primeval theories and beliefs as final truths. In fact, much money is spent in promoting projects to explore those “facts”. While there is some merit in testing the views and beliefs of centuries through modern means, the problem arises when it is done more to prove them rather than to test their validity. By asking whether we can thrive as a society without scientific temper, Dr. Kang has expressed a concern that we can ill-afford to neglect.
Rajiva Raman,
Banaras
