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August 10, 1998
ELECTIONS '98
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How Readers reacted to Rajeev Srinivasan's recent columns
Date sent: Thu, 23 Jul 1998 09:32:31 -0700
How come Rajeev left out one important person from his black list of journalists -- Anita Pratap of CNN? For the Indians watching the US version of CNN news, it was so obvious that her American bosses put the words they wanted in her mouth. Even worse was that the likes of Mulayam Singh Yadav were endowed with the "credibility" to educate the American public about the "Hindu Fascist Party" in power. As always, we're back to square one. Ever heard a Republican party leader discuss Monica Lewinsky to a European television channel? Whether they supported the decision to go nuclear or not, Indian politicians should have turned their backs to the foreign media. Shyam
Date sent: Wed, 29 Jul 1998 14:59:19 -0400
I agree that the Western countries are hypocrites, but definitely this article does not prove that. This article which tries to mix racism with the nuclear issue, and even Clinton's sexual indiscretion, proves nothing except that we Indians happily float on history, ignoring the present. According to the author's theory if a "white" country conducted nuclear tests there won't be worldwide criticism. Probably the author is too obsessed with his "neo liberal" philosophy (does the author know what that means?) and lost in the hallucinations of racism. I'm not sure why the Indian media has been ignoring our so-called friends like Russia who also condemned our N-tests. In fact, Russia recently along with China agreed not to include India, Pak in the "nuclear club". As far as racism in the US is concerned, it is effectively used by losers to cover up their failures (I've plenty of examples to prove this point) though I won't say that it's totally extinct. It definitely is not an issue that needs attention or I would say that it needs less attention than communalism in India. Dear author, who told you that racism doesn't exist in India?? Ask any African student in Bombay what they are referred to by our brown brothers. Your article seems to be a "constipation of thought and diarrhea of words" from a frustrated man who liked the BJP's foreign policy which has been just short of a catastrophe so far.
Date sent: Thu, 30 Jul 1998 13:23:09 +0100 Keep it coming. This is good news. I wish someone would explicitly expose the US hypocricy in all its international activities. The time is just right that well-meaning US citizens would come up with the correct facts about their country's two-faced activities. Well done.
Date sent: Thu, 23 Jul 1998 21:05:29 -0400
I liked the article a lot. We IMITATE the West and it is then I feel that the pride is better than an unconfident nation. The reason (I think) we imitate is very simple: MONEY. Poor men cannot have enough confidence to be proud of himself. Either the poor has to be very wise or ignorant or hate the rich to not to feel that they are better. When Japan was having a strong economy Americans had their own doubts. Now when Japan is facing problems they have again started thinking they are better. There are other reasons too which make us feel and like this. But I could only think of this. See how much importance we give to English in INDIA. Can we imagine how many geniuses in villages and towns are feeling let down because of this? Further the education leads to more inferior feeling. They see how good the others are and how bad they are. The educated people blame everything on the uneducated, ignorant Indians. They know for sure that those poor, ignorant and dirty people are the cause of everything. We are taught that the population of India is a problem. We should be more precise it is the rate of growth of population that is causing problem. If we have this population and it doesn't grow at an alarming rate we can progress better. Today this population has created a large middle class to attract foriegn nationals. Every country goes through this population growth cycles and then stablises. Education plays only a small role in it. I read in a book how every country goes through the population cycle. It has no mention of education. The lack of confidence among the educated people is the source of the problem. It is good that they are not able to spread it because we don't have a literate India. We need a vision which embraces India as it is. It has a Parliament where a member snatches papers from the Speaker. Such powerful energy needs to be channeled in the right direction. Vijay
Date sent: Fri, 24 Jul 1998 00:44:10 EDT
I agree with all the things that Rajeev says; I too have wondered why the Indian media and the Opposition parties are not putting up a united face against the Western powers. In fact, most of Rajeev's articles are a breath of fresh air. I enjoy reading his progressive, nationalistic, religion-friendly views incorporated into well researched articles. It is a welcome change from the dumb and poorly researched articles from people like Dilip D'Souza whose agenda is purely BJP and India bashing. Karthik
Date sent: Thu, 23 Jul 1998 20:37:40 -0400
Dear Rajeev, It is a real astonishment for me to read such articles which talk about using facts in media coverage rather than using bias, censor and other concoctions to misinform the reader to the maximum extent to prove one's own point. But, nonetheless I really appreciate your efforts for bringing into light the recent happenings in Indian journalism. Your article is excellent! I agree with your concept of banning the most misused word in Indian media and politics known as "secularism". Sanjay
Date sent: Thu, 23 Jul 1998 18:16:31 -0400
A very insightful article indeed. I have always wondered why the Indian public is not made to understand that most nations have 'conservative' parties for their own good. Most newspapers and the intelligesia have not tried to understand the BJP. That may have a lot to do with the fact that intelligence in India is associated with liberalism, mostly because of the dominance of a central-liberal Congress in political mainstream. It was only after the Shah Bano fiasco and the retrograde Muslim Women's Bill passing thereafter, that the intelligentsia started taking the BJP seriously and realised the importance of a balancing act in the polity. It is heartening to see journalists in today's media actually consider trying to see the party through their eyes and not through Congress lenses. It is not shameful to be a supporter of a conservative party. It is our own journalists who have successfully given the Western media a handle to classify the BJP as 'fascist', 'ultra nationalist' etc.
Date sent: Thu, 23 Jul 1998 16:46:31 -0500
Rajeev Srinivasan inspires the readers to raise against the menace of shoddy swadeshi journalists and corrupt politicians who have contributed immensely to India-bashing abroad. The media power is too enormous in this age of computers and communications. Saddam Hussain was transformed overnight from "Our friend in the Middle East" to the "The most evil human despot ever lived" by the US media. Indian media moguls are no inferior either. They turned overnight a white Catholic, inexperienced (in politics, not in handling Swiss bank accounts) woman into a charismatic darling and leader of the masses. We may have only a few (just a handful) brilliant Srinivasans, but we can raise an army of intellectual Kshatrias to fight along with Srinivasan to stop the menace of this 'yellow' journalism. We have a sacred duty to fight not just the Macaulay minds (Euro-centric, Brown Englishmen), but also the American-Chinese-Pak propaganda. Indians have the brains and resources of the information age, but what is lacking is the awareness and the will to stand up. We hope the Intellectual Kshatrias will arise to save India.
T R Rao
Date sent: Thu, 23 Jul 1998 16:23:49 -0400
Rajeev, Your article on the deplorable state of Indian journalism is right on the mark. Nowhere has this been more evident than in the handling of news about Kashmir. Rather than running to interview Kashmiri Hindus, who are victims of one of the worst cases of ethnic cleansing anywhere in the world, and carrying their tale of woe to the far reaches of the earth, our Indian journalists are busy writing archaic sermons of why Kashmir belongs to India. In this they parrot our ineffectual statesmen, who too are fond of useless sermons and who look so unprofessional especially when compared to their counterparts. [But that is another article in itself]. The utter lack of even a modicum of patriotism in our 3rd rate journalists is simply amazing; so much so that when I pick up any of the leading Indian dailies, be it The Times of India, The Indian Express, The Hindustan Times or The Hindu, I'm often left wondering whether I'm reading an Indian newspaper or a Pakistani newspaper... The degree of anti-India & anti-Hindu venom is so great. Regarding the US press and its slanted articles on India. What I've found is that there are a few staunch anti-India writers who take great pain to "blast" India whenever they can. Barbara Crosssette of the NY Times is a good example. Having been wined & dined (and quite possibly financed) by the Islamic terrorists in Kashmir she is more than a willing spokeswoman for the Kashmiri Islamic cause. I, along with a number of Kashmiri Hindus, challenged her stories at a press conference in Washington DC. Needless to say, she looked utterly idiotic when we challenged her stories. She had done no research on her own and was just regurgitating what her Islamic friends had told her. She claimed she had visited Kashmir, but she had not even bothered to visit the victims of the ethnic cleansing... she didn't even know that over 300,000 Kashmiri Pandits were living in deplorable conditions in camps across Jammu and Delhi and tried to say that that was all BJP propaganda! Aside from columnists like Barbara Crossette, who have a personal vendetta against India or Hindus, there is a much larger class of US journalists who just reformulate the tripe put out by our own Indian journalists. An example in mind is Steve Coll of the Washington Post who probably had a wonderful extended vacation while on "duty" in India. All he had to do was every once so often pick up a story from the local Indian press and reformat it to make it his own [his reformatting formula is quite simple: just add the word "xenophobic" when describing Indians]. Anyway, at the risk of sounding sycophantic, your articles break the mold. Keep up your articles, which are always well thought out and quite entertaining as well. Rajender Razdan
Date sent: Thu, 23 Jul 1998 15:46:47 -0500
I read with interest the column talking about the journalists, mainly the foreign correspondents. Journalism in India has deteriorated in the last few years with cynicism rampant in most reports. I rarely see anything positive in the Indian newspapers or magazines. The achievements of the government/industry/individuals are under reported. These apparently are not news. The danger of such a philosophy can be seen in any city in India. We as people do not have confidence and seem dejected and hypercritical about everything around. I would like to see upbeat articles highlighting our achievements in the last fifty years. Tell those cynical journalists and pseudo intellectuals to take a hike.
Vidyadhar Akkaraju
Date sent: Thu, 23 Jul 1998 11:49:17 -0700
Rajeev has brought attention to the sorry state of affairs of our English journalists and editors and contrasted this against the Western "free" press earlier as well. And rightfully so. Living in the US for over 16 years with an active interest in the workings of the media here, I can say he is on target about the Western media. The media here is controlled by huge conglomerates. I suggest Ben Bagdikian's excellent book, Media Monopoly,, which lays bare as to where we get our information from. From a handful of huge corporations. Consider the television networks where, on an average, a person spends 21 hours per week in front of it. Mikey Mouse (Disney) owns ABC, one of three main television networks and Westinghouse (manufacturer of electric bulbs and submarines) owns CBS and General Electric (manufacturer of nuclear plants among other things) own the third TV network NBC. This inter-connected conglomerates have only one thing in mind: greed. So they will be willing to deal with the devils (China) and bulldoze their congressmen into doing business with them. I am surprised that Rajeev Srinivasan has not mentioned Arun Shourie in his list of admirable journalists. Well, he happens to be one in my list of journalists par excellence. Like Rajeev, he too had spoken and written about the lack of responsible journalism in India. Unlike Rajeev, he names names :-) Recently, he lashed out at The Times of India for writing editorials and articles in favour of law (something like half a dozen times in a few months period) which directly affects its bottom line. No conflict of interest here! And this from a newspaper, which is considered the "biggest" of the big newspapers of India. Keep up the good work, Rajeev. Anand
Date sent: Thu, 23 Jul 1998 13:06:25 -0500
It is an excellent article. I agree with everything that he has got to say. The lack of national pride is our biggest problem. Once we have it I guess more than half our problems would be solved, For quick changes I guess a true honest and authoritative judicial system and the media would be required. Hope that in the days to come we shall achieve that. Congrats Mr Srinivasan. In your anger and frustration I see true patriotism and pain. I wish your columns are well read. Vishnuraj R
Date sent: Thu, 23 Jul 1998 11:37:53 -0700
Couldn't agree more! But as I am sure Rajeev knows, as much as anyone else, things will not change. There is also another category of journalists that could be added to your list: Indians, or Indian-origin people, who work for foreign media, and report on India (whether based in India or not). CNN's Anita Pratap(?) who reports from India now and then. She, like the foreign journalists, calls the BJP government as "the Hindu nationalist government"!! I can imagine the brain-dead foreign journalists parroting what the US govt says, but an Indian/Indian-origin person? I guess she has to follow the diktats of CNN. Had she said the "Indian government" instead, she might have lost her job. And there is another pet greeve of mine. You might have heard of Peter Jennings, yeah the guy who anchors ABC's World News Tonight(!!!). Comes across very suave and intelligent, doesn't he? Well, for a journalist of that repute, one thing he does incorrect, always, is to mispronounce Indian names. Yes, many names are difficult for them to say out, but "Punjab"? He says it as "Poon-jab" and not as "Pun-jab". How much effort does it take for him to find out what the right pronunciation is? He really comes across as a semi-literate whenever he says "Poon-jab". Imagine somebody saying out his name as "Peeetare J-innings" or some such ludicrous effects! Satya Podury
Date sent: Wed, 04 Mar 1998 00:42:06 +0530
Mr Srinivasan's article made a lot of sense. It never ceases to surprise me how much our two countries have in common. We too have been ruled by tired old ideas. Here too it is fashionable and progressive to hate Sri Lanka. To hate Buddhism. To hate Hinduism. To hate the Sinhala language. To hate the Tamil language. To hate our traditions. To condemn everything that we can call our own as primitive and reactionary. A sterile secularism, a blank identity, an empty culture is the progressive ideal. And those who generally oppose this vision are even worse -- xenophobic Neanderthals, unreconstructed racists. Let me not bore you further with Sri Lanka; much of what is true for India is true for Sri Lanka. Cheers to Mr Srinivasan. Of course, Sri Lanka can never hope to be a power on the world stage as India can. I think, on the whole, Sri Lankans would welcome a robust and confident India that can hold her own with the East Asia, Europe, the USA etc. However, if India seeks to assume the stature she deserves by demonstrating high-handed hegemonic control over the other countries of the region, then there will be trouble brewing. Is it me, or does Mr Srinivasan seem to suggest such a course of action in his article? In the late '80's, India was feuding in varying degrees with Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. It can hardly be called a glorious time for India. Might I respectfully suggest to Mr Srinivasan that being recognised as an equal to China or the United States in the eyes of the Economist magazine (or whoever) should not be India's priority. This is some sort of unbecoming complex, a peculiar immaturity, that I have observed in many Indians. When India overcomes her inhibiting social structures, when India dismantles her stifling administrative mechanisms, when India can offer the hope of a decent living to all her multitudes -- that's when India's day will come. The India of power, influence and esteem that Mr Srinivasan obviously yearns for will come naturally, effortlessly by way of a cultural and economic renaissance. My vision for India and the region is this. First, India recognises what she is -- Hindustan. What holds India together is not secularism, not the army, not the bureaucracy. It is the shared Indic values and that's a strong bond indeed. Thus, India will hold when power moves away from the centre, India will hold even as the states begin to flex their freedoms, India will hold even as her many ethnicities assert their identities. India will hold and Indians will begin to realize their true potential. So a looser Union in many ways, but a tighter one as well. One that may, someday, be attractive enough for Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bhutan, the Maldives, Bangladesh, even Pakistan to join in some form or another. Imagine the possibilities of such a Union! Far-fetched? On the contrary, I feel it is almost inevitable. Could we have imagined a (voluntary) European Union at the turn of the century? Forgive me if I've strayed from the point. I think Mr Srinivasan has prepared an excellent manifesto for a new India. It does have a few rough edges, which might be particularly rough on the neighbours. But then I'm of the view that whatever is good for India will, on the long run, be good for us in Sri Lanka as well.
Rajiv Wirasinha
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