Attempt to consolidate Muslim-SC vote
I wholeheartedly welcome Asaduddin Owaisi and Prakash Ambedkar who are the ray of hope for backward i.e. OBC, SC, ST, and others — floating Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA) is an attempt to consolidate the Muslim-SC vote and provide an alternative to the established alliances like the Congress-NCP and the BJP-Shiv Sena in the state. While the alliance has made other political parties wary, discontent is brewing inside the alliance over the perceived sidelining of Muslim candidates. While Owaisi and Ambedkar took Saturday’s rally as a show of strength as well as solidarity, questions are being raised on whether this alliance will be able to sustain amidst the clash of the personality of its two leaders.
MD Ahmad
Behave like Indians
We strongly condemn the attack on India by the JeM terrorists. At the same time, we must also tell our local Muslim community that Indian citizens and the government will not tolerate their anti-Indian conduct and language of communication. If they want to live in India, they must behave like Indians and follow Indian rules and regulations.
Jubel D’Cruz
Welcome SP-BSP alliance
I wholeheartedly welcome the SP-BSP alliance in Uttar Pradesh and they are doing every work peacefully; till now there is no conflict between them. They finally worked out who will contest where. The allies have spilled 75 of the 80 Lok Sabha seats in UP among themselves BSP will fight from 38 and SP will fight from 37. The BSP and SP alliance has left two seats — Amethi and Raebareli — for Congress and three seats for Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD). However, they haven’t used the Lok Sabha poll results to come up with their seat-sharing formula. There was a need to look at the 2014 Lok Sabha poll results. They have time to rethink on it.
MD Ahmad
Massive fire at Aero India 2019 venue
It is sorrowful to hear that a massive fire broke out and spread across parking lot near Yelahanka Air Force Station in Bengaluru, which is hosting Aero India show that has burnt around 300 parked cars. According to the fire department, the fire was controlled by creating a gap between the adjacent cars. It is somehow good news that no injuries have been reported so far. However, this incident is sorrowful that such kind of events should not take place anywhere, especially in the state, which is called Green City. The government should instruct the police and the fire officials to find out the cause of the fire and take strict action and ensure that such incidents do not happen in future, which can cause the state’s huge loss.
MZ Qasmi
Fix maximum chargeable interest-rate
The central and state governments race for gaining the sympathy of farmers by loan-waiver schemes, which in fact is more harmful to them because farmers cannot receive any bank loan after once availing loan-waiver. This pushes them back in hands of money-lenders who take undue advantage by charging extraordinary heavy rate of interest.
Apart from this, banks issue credit-card statements boldly depicting Minimum-Amount-Payable but credit-card users are unaware that they have to pay as much as 48 per cent annual interest on availing such facility or even more in case of defaults. Moreover, the unsecured loans are sold by banks and Non-Banking-Financial-Companies NBFCs at times at exorbitant interest-rates crossing even 20 per cent per annum.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and the Union Ministry of Finance should fix some maximum interest-rate of say 18 per cent per annum inclusive of any other levies like penalties etc which may be chargeable from anybody by anybody in the country. Charging interest more than maximum fixed should be made non-bail able punishment under Indian Penal Code.
This system will not only be beneficial to farmers but also especially to a mute section of middle-income persons which are presently easily gripped through frequent calls from private banks and Non-Banking-Financial-Companies NBFCs for sale of loans and credit cards. It is an admitted fact that banks are at a heavy loss in case credit-card holders regularly pay on time without any default or availing the undue facility of Minimum-Amount-Payable boldly printed on credit-card statements.
Subhash Chandra Agrawal
Pulwama terror attack
Virender Sehwag, VVS Laxman sent condolences; the cricket fraternity condemned the blood bath. Pulwama attack is a ‘matter of grave concern’ but don’t blame us without a probe, said Pakistan. After the Pulwama attack on the CRPF convoy, the international community stands united with India in condemning the attack. The Indian government is involved in this incident. Don’t blame on Pakistan.
MD Hasiburrahman
(The views expressed by the author in the article are his/her own.)
