. Rahul Gandhi has rightly asked Congress MPs to go on a Bharat Darshan and acquire first-hand information about the ‘real India’. Rahul, vested with the responsibility of reviving the declining fortunes of the Congress, is attempting a Herculean task. He is reportedly visiting every nook and corner of the country in a bid to put his party in a commanding position in the next general elections.

But his attempts may not yield the desired results, since he has so far met with little success with the electorate. Nevertheless, the Congress needs to take some bold decisions to stay on the national stage.

National game

• History will say that although Indians were once invincible at hockey they became minnows from 2008 onwards. It is shocking that for the first time since their debut at the 1928 Amsterdam Olympics, eight-time gold medallists India have failed to make it to the Olympics. India’s defeat at the hands of Britain is the death of Indian hockey. In India, every sport other than cricket earns scant respect from the media, the government and the public.

India continues to possess a great pool of latent and visible talent in major international sports, which needs exposure. Therefore, the challenge before the nation is to bring back the glory of what used to be our national sport. To do that the viewer must be persuaded to forgo his obsession with cricket. But that will never happen unless the quality of performance in other sports improves.

Give her a life

• International Women’s Day was celebrated on March 8 with the theme ‘Laadli: save the girl child’. But the idea should be implemented in reality by taking necessary steps to prevent female foeticide. The girl child is still looked upon as a burden because of the ever-increasing cost of a girl’s marriage. India should follow Pakistan in allowing only soft drinks and simple beverages at weddings.

Registration of property in the name of women showed a remarkable increase after the stamp duty on such deals was subsidised.

The Union government should take all possible measures for similar concessions exclusively for women. Interest rates for home and other loans can be subsidised while interest on deposits and savings can be higher for women. Dentists and gynaecologists should be mostly women, with about 75 per cent reservations introduced in favour of women in these fields.

People should be made to feel that the girl child is a boon to the family.

Spare us the blare

• Will the administration wake up to the plight of hundreds of hard-working students who are troubled all day by the incessant noise pollution caused by religious and social programmes in the city? After the Supreme Court’s 2005 judgment banning the use of loudspeakers, one thought that noise pollution had been dealt a death blow. One hoped that the old, the ill and the students would not be disturbed any more. But that hope was shortlived. Ironically, the very administration that announces the strict implementation of the law on noise pollution is the one that utterly fails to curb noise despite repeated public complaints. The future of India’s students is at stake. Unfortunately, religious and political outfits wield much more power in India than its gifted community of students.