Dear Sir,
I read with great interest the letter “A PM who is in touch” (Gulf Times, May 2) and agree that anyone getting a greeting card from a country’s prime minister should feel a sense of pride. I had felt so when I received a greeting card from Rajiv Gandhi, a former prime minister of India.
Gandhi’s card came to me though courier, and not by e-mail as was the case narrated in “A PM who is in touch”. A few years ago, I got an appreciation letter from the Indian Prime Minister Office too after I donated a small amount to the Prime Minister’s Relief fund following floods in the north Indian state of Uttarakhand. That letter also came to me in Qatar through the courier service.
But sending e-mail greetings to people is not a criterion to evaluate a leader’s capability, at least today when the Internet service is available almost everywhere with Wi-Fi connectivity almost universal. Hence, I believe that the letter-writer has given extra marks to the greeting from Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
And describing Prime Minister Modi as “tech-savvy“ is not a proper evaluation of his leadership quality. If he was really “tech-savvy” he would have replied through e-mails or twitter to so many questions that are quite relevant to India these days. But he chose to remain silent over most of them. The fact that he hadn’t responded even when hundreds of writers had returned their prestigious awards to the government as a mark of protest shows that he is selective in responding to public issues.
The term “tech-savvy” would have better suited to the late prime minister Rajiv Gandhi whose dream was to computerise India.
Today when almost everyone owns a smartphone and uses Whatsapp, Skype, etc, calling a PM a “tech- savvy” for just sending a greetings through e-mail is a bit an overstatement.
But we are eagerly waiting for Modi’s visit to Qatar, which is expected to happen soon, according to press reports. The visit, we hope, will further expand relations between Qatar and India. But one should note that all previous Indian governments also had excellent relations with Qatar and had been trying to strengthen them further through various initiatives. We also hope that Modi will address the Indian expatriates in Qatar not as a leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) but as the prime minister of the nation. I write this because I had noticed a few people waving BJP flags at functions attended by Modi during his visit to the US.
MH, (Full name and e-mail address supplied)
Lukewarm response
Dear Sir,
More than 58,000 children face starvation death in drought-hit Somalia. The situation in Somalia, where dry conditions are exacerbated by an exceptionally strong El Nino weather pattern, is “alarming and could get worse”, the United Nations has warned.
According to UN estimates, 4.7mn people are in urgent need of food in Somalia but the international response to the unfolding tragedy is lukewarm. Neighbouring Ethiopia is also struggling to combat its worst drought in history. At least 10mn people need urgent food aid in Ethiopia.
Although, the El Nino phenomenon is blamed for the situation, man-made factors like poor management, corruption and violence are making things bad to worse. More than 400,0000 people have already migrated from Somalia to Kenya and are living in camps without any necessities of lives.
Many countries in different parts of the world spend millions of dollars on weapons but can’t provide relief to suffering humanity. It is a sad situation.
Khawaja Umer Farooq, [email protected]
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