Take care

Sir — The chief executive officer of Twitter, Parag Agrawal, has been lauded for taking paternity leave after the birth of his second child. Yet, Virat Kohli was criticized when he took time off to care for his child during an important tournament last year. One hopes that the support for Agrawal paves the way for normalizing paternity leave. However, paternity leave is still an alien concept for most organizations in India. Even if a law is brought to make paternity leave mandatory in the country, it is unlikely to achieve much. Instead, women will be left tending to both babies and husbands.

Sujit Biswas,

Malda

Blame game

Sir — The former prime minister, Manmohan Singh, has accused the Narendra Modi-led dispensation of not admitting its failures (“To think that Modi had called him Maun!”, Feb 18). He has also questioned the practice of blaming previous regimes every time the government makes a mistake.

The Bharatiya Janata Party came to power at the Centre in 2014 with promises of achchhe din. However, things have only gone downhill from there. The economy has suffered, India’s relationship with its neighbours has deteriorated and social harmony has been destructed. Singh correctly pointed out the twin blunders of demonetization and the hasty implementation of the goods and services tax; these proved to be disastrous for millions of people. Unfortunately, instead of reflecting on its mistakes, the government has done nothing but resort to blame games.

S.S. Paul,

Nadia

Sir — Narendra Modi’s tendency to condemn India’s first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, for the problems the country is facing at present must be called out. It cannot hide the shortcomings of his regime. Manmohan Singh was justified in saying that the current administration is only interested in hoodwinking people and covering up its failures by criticizing previous governments.

Arun Gupta,

Calcutta

Learning process

Sir — The article, “Engage with knowledge” (Feb 16), by Devi Kar was impressive. It highlighted the dwindling awareness among schoolchildren when it comes to General Knowledge. The internet might help students with ready-made answers but it also hampers logical thinking and problem-solving skills. Parents must encourage kids to read books and newspapers every day. This will help in all-round development.

Kiran Agarwal,

Calcutta

Sir — Devi Kar rues the lack of interest among schoolchildren about important issues in her latest article. She advocates building a knowledge system that they can engage with. Students should be encouraged to develop an interest in subjects that nurture critical thinking and hands-on learning.

Zohra Calcuttawala,

Calcutta

Lost star

Sir — We lost one of football’s greatest with the death of the former East Bengal winger, Surajit Sengupta (“Transformer of wing play into art form”, Feb 18). His demise just weeks after the passing of another football stalwart, Subhas Bhowmick, has left sports lovers heartbroken. Sengupta began his career in the Robert Hudson club in 1968 and went on to play for all three giants of football in Bengal — East Bengal, Mohun Bagan and Mohammedan Sporting. His dribbling skills were extraordinary. Watching Sengupta play was a treat. He will be missed.

Sourish Misra,

Calcutta

Parting shot

Sir — A study by the West Bengal government has found that most of the critically-ill patients in the third wave were infected with omicron and a small percentage had the delta variant. The traces of the delta variant show that we cannot let our guards down yet.

Suruchi Das,

Calcutta