Price of love

Sir — Dealing with heartbreaks can be arduous. Therefore, the New Zealand government’s latest campaign, ‘Love Better’, which supports teenagers through their experience of being dumped, is quite an innovative approach to reduce the youth’s emotional stress. But can nursing a broken heart be good for the pocket? Heartbreak insurance fund — it relieves a person from the effects of break up with financial benefits in case of betrayal — recently led to a Twitter user getting Rs 25,000 from his girlfriend. But does not the existence of a refund policy indicate that the relationship was doomed to begin with?

Akansha Jain, Delhi

War games

Sir — Over a year since one of the global superpowers, Russia, launched a military attack against the minnow, Ukraine, there have been no real signs of a victory. Instead, cornered with Western sanctions, Russia now seems to be relying on China for economic and military support (“Xi, Putin synchronise G20 stand”, Mar 23). Perhaps the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, has started to realise the impossibility of a victory in the war that is claiming hundreds of lives on both sides each day and resulting in a global economic slowdown. Putin may also be reluctant to end the conflict for the fear of being seen as a sore loser by the West. This is unnecessarily dragging on the war.

Aranya Sanyal, Siliguri

Sir — The Moscow visit of the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, is significant on several counts. Xi became the first leader to shake hands with Vladimir Putin after the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant against the latter over his alleged war crimes in Ukraine. Xi’s visit thus not only comes as a morale booster for Putin but also sends a message to the West that their efforts to isolate Russia have fallen flat. Further, Xi’s visit to Moscow took place on the same day the Japanese prime minister, Fumio Kishida, made an unannounced visit to Kyiv in a strong show of support for the West. Such acute polarisation is disconcerting. It is hoped that world leaders will work together to ensure peace.

Bal Govind, Noida

Mixed bag

Sir — Although India improved its performance according to the 2023 World Happiness Report, ranking 126 among 150 countries, it still remains among the least happy countries. This is disconcerting. The degree of seriousness that the Indian government accords to the report to ensure the well-being of the people remains to be seen. Significantly, the global happiness rankings, which take into consideration factors such as GDP, quality of life, freedom to make life choices, among others, also showed that the average global life evaluations remained resilient throughout 2020-2022, indicating that the pandemic had little effect on global happiness. This is a cause for optimism.

Amrapali Roy, Jamshedpur

Sir — The fact that India ranks below neighbours such as Nepal and Bangladesh on the World Happiness Report speaks of the larger discontentment among the people owing to misgovernance.

Dipanjan Ghosh, Calcutta

Dated practice

Sir — The Supreme Court bench said that it may consider setting up an expert committee to examine whether the execution of death row convicts by hanging is humane and sought data to explore viable alternatives to the execution method. This is welcome. Capital punishment is a barbarous way to punish a criminal and has been outlawed in many countries. Punishments should be reformative and not retributive in nature. The law should be revisited to adopt less painful methods of execution.

Sravana Ramachandran, Chennai

Sir — The quest for alternative modes of execution is not enough to right any wrong. The fact that the primitive method of capital punishment still exists in a civilised society is a matter of shame. Moreover, instantaneous and painless options of execution will in no way be better than hanging as the duration of death and the pain experienced could still vary. Capital punishment should be abolished and judicial punishments should be meted out with mercy to ensure justice.

G. David Milton, Maruthancode, Tamil Nadu

Justified remark

Sir — The Union minister of information and broadcasting, Anurag Singh Thakur, stated in the Lok Sabha that states do have the power to enact laws on online gambling. This vindicates the M.K. Stalin-led Tamil Nadu government’s decision to bring about a legislation on the subject. It also deals a blow to the governor, R.N. Ravi, who had returned the bill passed by the state assembly citing that the proposed law lacked legislative competence. It must be noted that while Ravi kept dragging his feet on giving his assent to the bill, several people lost their lives as a result of online gambling. Ravi, who seems to be deliberately picking a fight with the state government, should act with compassion and sign the bill.

Tharcius S. Fernando, Chennai