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June 29, 1998
ELECTIONS '98
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How Readers responded to Pritish Nandy's recent columns
Date sent: Fri, 26 Jun 1998 19:03:15 -0400 Pritish, In the title itself you show you have been bought by the BJP. (I guess you wanted to write Hindi, Yankee...). A journalist like yourself can do more harm than the strongest enemy. Sometime ago you praised Balasaheb Thackeray and Khomeini, defending their actions against M F Husain and Salman Rushdie. Was it to buy Shiva Sena votes to win the Rajya Sabha seat? Now, Yankees are brainless, stupid fellows and you want them to be friends of India! The basic funda of becoming a friend, building a constructive relationship, is not to call another party fool, brainless, pigheaded etc. It does not sound right. The whole article is filled with your confused views. America is the strongest nation on the face of earth -- is it because they are stupid? It is simply because they will *never* compromise their interests. All India has is people like you who sell themselves! What Nehru did, Indira did and Rajiv did are history. They are not here to defend themselves here. Can you talk about Sonia and her Rajiv Gandhi Foundation (where Bofors money is sitting now)? And Arun Nehru, who is still around and made big bucks from Bofors deal? Do you have the guts to take them on? And all those people who served Indira and Rajiv are now in the BJP govt, with powerful positions. K C Pant is one example. He was once the defence minister. He lost the election from Nainital and was discarded by PVN and Kesri... but now he heads the task force for Indian security!! Anyway, the only sensible thing you pointed out was: good Indo-US relations. And that won't be possible when we have an *honourable* RS member like yourself who calls the US stupid! Learn from history, JFK refused to help India even after Nehru pleaded in 1962. Reason: some arrogant defence minister! Hampiholi
Date sent: Thu, 25 Jun 1998 11:38:58 -0500 I like the general tone of this article. However, I disagree with his claim that Indians share a lot of their lifestyle with Americans. I don't think Indians have much in common other than a few superficial categories such as popular urban entertainment. Most of India is still pretty rural and I don't think we need to convince the US that it has to have something in common with India to enhance trade and other bilateral relationships. All the US needs is an open market that is capable of using American goods and I am not sure if Indians really need a McDonalds, or a Coke to feel good about themselves. However, we do need technology feeds and inputs from the US to better our indigenous agricultural and industrial input. I personally don't feel India has the infrastructure to provide a good market for American industries, especially in the power sector. We have to dedicate ourselves to improving our infrastructure for investments and we have to be smart about China. China is a capitalist enveloped by Dengism (not Communism). The only thing that can halt the Chinese juggernaut is a full-blown civil unrest there as a result of democratic upheaval. However, the Chinese are smart and realise that at this point they are all happy making some money and they can see significant improvements in their standard of living. Unfortunately, India is seeing a reverse trend and their kissing the **** of the Russians is a reflection of their lack of foresight. This whole thing would have not escalated if India was less Sovietised in their government from the Nehru era. I don't know of a single country that is so aligned with Russia and yet claims to be non-aligned. I like our attitude with the bomb. It is open and, yes, a tad bit honest compared to Israel for example. We should be just as honest and open as a nation about our relationships with Russia or the US, for instance. I also disagree with Nandy's comments on Indira Gandhi. I think every politician is anointed with a certain amount of corruption to get to where s/he is. However, she was also gutsy and put forth a bold face for India. In the final analysis, international politics is a like betting in a horse race and we unfortunately bet on the wrong one !....Russia ! Venkatesh Krishnan
Date sent: Wed, 24 Jun 1998 19:35:38 EDT The points which Mr Nandy highlights in this article certainly DO MAKE SENSE! I have been away from India for over 20 years, and have never read any Indian political writer make such solid points as Nandy makes here. I only wish Indian politicians follow the political course he suggests and India is successful in rebuilding relations with the US. Good luck.
Sunil Koppar
Date sent: Tue, 9 Jun 1998 21:42:34 -0700 Hey, isn't this exactly what you said a couple of months ago? Or is this article a reprint? Srinivas Murthy
Date sent: Wed, 10 Jun 1998 14:23:30 +1000 Nandy has gone senile. To give vent to his animosity towards the BJP & its policies he reiterates in this article the same shoddy logic he used a couple of months back in his article 'The Bane of Swadeshi politics.' By the way, did he check out the response for that article? I wonder how many middle-class families in India can afford buying a Ferrari or an Alpha Romeo, leave alone the maintenance thereafter. Maybe Nandy's idea of an average Indian middle-class individual is a Harshad Mehta or so. This guy simply seems to be turning a blind eye to the ground realities in India. Has he ever written in his article on the need to improve the quality of roads in India? What's wrong with a fat-bottomed Ambassador or a not-at-all ugly Premier Padmini? Remember, this is the same Ambassador which can carry 7 to 9 persons over any roads in India. If one has the money, he deserves the best. Has Nandy forgotten the taste of Thums Up, Limca, Gold Spot, Frooti (unfortunately sold lock, stock and barrel to Coke), Mangola? They were and still are better than Coke or Pepsi anyday. Along with the globalisation and MTV culture will also come the culture of teenage pregnancies, single mothers, broken families, gun culture etc. Is Mr Nandy willing to roll out the red carpet to welcome these also?
Date sent: Tue, 9 Jun 1998 19:23:56 -0500 Well said, Pritish, I couldn't have said it better! Mohan Marette/USA
Date sent: Tue, 09 Jun 1998 15:18:57 -0700 Mr Nandy rightly says: "But it is the price that you, as a consumer, have chosen to pay because you see a clear and distinct advantage in, say, quality service and no one can deny you your right to pay more and get better served." The problem with the statement is that in the typical socialistic Indian mind-set, this is immediately seen as a right of the rich at the cost of the middle-class or the poor. It does not focus on the right of each individual. One needs to emphasise that each and every person has earned their money the hard way, and no one can deny them the right to decide how they will spend that money and the right to expect the best possible (or world-class) value for THEIR money. And in fact, the lesser a person earns, the stronger their right to be able to buy something for their money that won't break down, that won't lose value before its stated expected life-time, that will be money well-spent. This needs to be understood by each and every citizen and demanded of their bureaucrats, politicians and businessmen. Mahesh Singh
Date sent: Tue, 9 Jun 1998 17:11:43 -0500 Pritish Nandy has hit the nail on the head. All around the globe it has been proven again and again that an open market is better than a closed market. It is a popular argument of all the politicians that we do not need Coke or Pepsi or MTV but we do need technology from foreign investors in 'critical' industries like energy, telecom etc. This argument has one big flaw. Who decides what is critical? And who gets to provide these 'approved' services or products? Not you and me but the corrupt politicians and their business counterparts! NO THANK YOU! I would rather have the market decide that for me. Market demand and supply is the greatest force in the world. All I want is a choice to choose a quality product at a reasonable price. I will not spend my hard-earned money on shoddy swadeshi item. The people of India have to make this clear and not fall for the swadeshi rhetoric.
Date sent: Tue, 9 Jun 1998 20:07:52 EDT Pritish Nandy, Nandy logic: We prefer American sweetened water over Indian sweetened water so we should stop trying to make Indian water. Swadeshi has little to do with consumerism. It has everything to do with creating leadership in certain sectors so that India can penetrate the global market and bring home the bacon. Swadeshis is being the owner of a business, not just an employee. Employees get paid, they earn a good living but they do not have control over a business. Swadeshi is about a nation being an owner of its factors of production, not about selling its natural, human and capital resources. Pritish Nandy is a good television guy, not a good economist. He should get a good set of advisors as he plans to jump into politics.
Date sent: Tue, 9 Jun 1998 15:44:00 -0400 I have been a regular visitor at your site for over a year now. I have always found Pritish Nandy's columns stupid and senseless. For one, I always think that this guy is not an Indian, he has nothing good to say about India. I have found many people share this opinion about this 'expert' (in nothing). Is it that Rediff can't do without this guy's columns? I think Rediff would be a better site without PN's columns. Ramesh
Date sent: Tue, 09 Jun 1998 14:01:13 -0500 Looks like Pritish's Hindutva effect has worn off. However pretty she may be, the neighbour's wife does not become your wife. All these opponents of swadeshi are blaming it for the ills of license/permit raj. What is wrong in providing a safe pond for our local fish so that they can grow (with competition amongst themselves), away from the foreign fish? This is required till our local fish (who have remained small thanks to 50 years of mismanagement) become big and strong enough to take on other international big fish ??? Pritish thinks that by just throwing around best-selling international brand names and then trashing their Indian counterparts, he can drive home his point. Swadeshi is an additional weightage that you put on the side of Indian corporates when we weigh them with their MNC equivalent. Regarding free choice, our goal should be creating choice amongst Indian brands. I don't understand how swadeshi comes in the way of competition -- better business practices, a boon to the crooks etc, says Pritish... When you have domestic problems, you do not look to the world for solutions, you have to find it yourselves. And guess what? Every country (including the rich ones) practise some form of swadeshi when it comes to the access to its own domestic markets by foreign corporations. Look at the Southeast Asian tigers. They threw their markets open to everybody and look at their situation now. They posted double digit growth rates, their citizenry had access to the best in the world -- but when the going got tough, these foreign investors pulled out! The locals are left now to pick up the pieces. Shouldn't we learn any lesson from this?? Hasn't the years of colonialisation taught us anything ?? If one thinks with an open mind, swadeshi is a logical choice. However, most of the opponents look at it as a BJP's programme and hence oppose it.
Date sent: Tue, 9 Jun 1998 13:32:29 -0500 Every word Pritish wrote is nothing but the whole truth. The word swadeshi has been interpreted by politicians and bureaucrats alike to their advantage. We, the Indian people have been cheated, stripped by them. It's high time we started integrating ourselves with the world economy rather than trying to save an inefficient PSU. The government's business is foreign affairs, defence, etc. It is not deciding what the people should see on their television or how they travel. Kudos to Pritish for such a fine article. Srimanikandhan Appunni
Date sent: Tue, 9 Jun 1998 18:01:06 EDT I think Pritish's article really made sense. We are a joke in today's global economy. The thing is we got to do something to stop these stupid and selfish politicians. But what can we do?
Date sent: Tue, 09 Jun 1998 13:23:25 PDT I totally agree with you that MNCs provides better choice and it is up to us to decide whether to buy this goods or not. But it doesn't mean that you open up all the industries and let them rule you. You know what the main problem is? Infrastructure. I mean, does Maruti or any Indian company we are talking of has the machinery to stand up with this MNC? What we need is to reduce TAXES and provide better conditions for Indian companies. Government help for R&D projects, better roads and infrastructure. And this will help our Indian companies to grow and compete. MNCs should come, but only in infrastructure projects. |
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