Sir — This refers to the editorial, “Going to space” (August 17). It is really surprising that India, remaining at the 100th rank among 119 countries in the global hunger index, is planning to have a man up in space by 2022. Sending satellites into space is necessary for the purpose of communication, weather forecast, defence et al.
But what is the use of sending a man into the spaceij Is this mission just to showcase our glaring inequalityij Can a fashion designer make his model look smart by getting him wear a costly coat along with a cheap, shabby and tattered pajamasij
Should the head of a family curtail expenditure on health and education to finance travel to foreign countries like Chad (read the moon) and Mongolia (read Mars) when two of his five (40 per cent) children have stunted growth as a result of malnutrition and hungerij Should 194.6 million people go hungry everyday in our country when the value of food lost in India is enough to feed 400 million poor Indiansij
Human aspect must be central to any planning if India wants to obtain smart results.
We need to be more people-friendly in our approach to make people happy, strong and united. And to achieve it, we need to give more priority to improve our human development rank rather than on lopsided GDP growth. What is the use of sending one man to the space, when the masses are going to the dogsij