Temping soldiers

• This refers to your editorial, 'To serve & to benefit'. Given the infrastructure we have, training cadets for short service commissions will be nearly impossible under the present circumstances. That will increase the training period of the cadets considerably. Moreover, the shortage is so huge that normal induction will not be able to make up the shortage. A temporary commission for serving Central and state government employees for a five-year period with lien on their job is a possible alternative. The upper age limit for the commission could be 30 years. Those who are found suitable can be granted permanent commissions after five years. Two inductions of 500 temporary commission officers should take care of the current shortage of officers in the Indian army.

— Lt Col H.S. Gur (retd)

Hisar

Today's dynasts

• Your editorial, 'Vote for/against Modi' is indeed a clarion call to foster real intra-party democracy. Because of dynasticism in every party except the Leftists and the BJP, our system has become more feudalistic than democratic. The genesis of this malady lies in the Congress party, which became the handmaiden of Nehru-Gandhi dynasty after the death of Sardar Patel in 1950 and the elevation of Dr Rajendra Prasad to the presidency. It is high time we built institutions that would bar a son, daughter or wife of a leader to claim their 'political legacy' as a matter of divine right.

— Prem Behari

Lucknow

Caste colour

• I have carefully read Anne Applebaum's Washington Post article. To say, "The Indian caste system has an element of skin-colour discrimination," is ignorant of the social revolution brought about by Mahatma Gandhi and the Indian Constitution. There is a virtual race in India to be included in the "backward" classes or SC/ST categories because of the policy of reservations for them in jobs as well as for admission into educational institutions. The only class that is "victimised" at the ground level is the so-called forward caste, whose light skin colour is a cause for exclusion, despite merit, from jobs or education.

... contd.

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