Court on Pegasus
The Centre could be in for a shock now after remaining unmoved despite disruptions in both Houses of Parliament over the Pegasus snooping issue. That the top court has made it clear “the truth has to come out” is a wake-up call (Page 1, August 6). Pegasus is a case in point for executive inactions.
Prabhu Raj,
Bengaluru
Language and learning
The implicit assumption of the writer (Editorial page, “A language ladder for an education roadblock”, August 5) seems to be that the mother tongue is invariably the dominant language of the State. The ‘actual’ mother tongue may be very different from the State language even if they hail from that State. In Karnataka, for instance, there are people whose mother tongue is Telugu, Tamil, Konkani, Marathi or Tulu, etc.
For these people, the political achievement of teaching in the ‘mother tongue’, which in their case is Kannada, would be more a bane than a boon.
The writer mentions studies that prove that teaching in the mother tongue is beneficial, but how many of those studies were conducted for professional courses in a diverse India? Of course teaching in the mother tongue is beneficial at the primary level, but it definitely is not so at the professional level.
Also, are we asking if our respective mother tongues have expanded to accommodate the needs of today’s professional education? One wonders what the mother tongue equivalent would be for basic terms such as ‘electromagnetic induction’ or ‘reverse osmosis’.
Suraj D. Nayak,
Bengaluru
Hockey diary
Finally, the monkey is off the back of the Indian men’s hockey team (Page 1, “India defeats Germany to win bronze in men’s hockey” and ‘Sport’ page, both August 6). The colour of the medal does not matter much. The spirited triumph is the pride and joy of all Indians. The country owes a debt of gratitude to Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik for sponsoring our hockey teams.
C.G. Kuriakose,
Malippara, Kothamangalam, Kerala
Medal or no medal, the Indian women’s hockey team gave us a superb display of skills and tricks at Tokyo. But the girls need to be reminded that it is not over. They will bounce back. They have also won a million hearts.
P. Vasudeva Rao,
Secunderabad
The teams have to be nurtured. I remember reading a news item years ago about our cricket and hockey teams being in Srinagar for their matches. While the cricket players were put up in a star hotel, the hockey players were lodged in a dormitory. One does not know the remuneration of our hockey players.
We need to take the premier game back to its past glory.
N.C. Ramasubbu,
Coimbatore
Considering the fact that India had won back in 1980, there were much less expectations this time. The underdog label weighed favourably on the Indian men’s team’s ultimate performance. India’s resurgence to retrieve the glorious olden days is not far away. The women’s team must be motivated even more.
V. Subramanian,
Chennai
