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August 11, 1998
ELECTIONS '98
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How Readers reacted to Pritish Nandy's recent column
Date sent: Fri, 07 Aug 1998 23:58:24 +0000
You are crazy, man. You have no idea what you are talking about. And the stupid argument that the joker in Delhi Durbar is ready to learn and correct himself does not surprise me when I think that it comes from a cheap politician-turned journalist like you. There was a time when I used to listen to what you had to say. But, those are old days. Now, I don't like to listen to you. You know why? Because YOU DO NOT MAKE ANY SENSE. Why don't you do a favour to us Indians and stop writing? You can call yourself a patriot just by doing that! A very angry Indian
Date sent: Mon, 30 Mar 1998 09:36:01 -0800 (PST)
The Indian consumer has lost the ability to get his/ her money's worth. And to add fuel to the fire, the present government has declared swadeshi as the main foundation of its governance! Swadeshi has lost its meaning. To be independent does not mean to continue funding sick PSUs or declaring subsidies to win favoritism. After all, whose money is it anyway? In the previous 13-day stint of the BJP, all female news readers of Doordarshan were barred from wearing sleeveless clothing -- quoting indecent western influence. Does swadeshi mean wearing clothes to suit the whims and fancies of a fanatic?! Vajpayee cannot eat anything else for breakfast but imported cereal! Just some examples of what swadeshi means to our politicians!! Why go swadeshi? Because they (the politicians) are least interested in the populace's development, fearing vote loss in the bargain. For any country to grow and compete in an international market there should be investment. Investment leads to infrastructure improvement, increased communication and better technology, thereby creating an enlightened population. For long we have been subjected to the drudgery of bad choices. The Indian consumer does not need this anymore. Although swadeshi as a concept prescribes self-sustenance, it has several major consequences. First, providing shelter to those who are not competent. Second, corruption, as a result of which monopoly is encouraged, and the right to attach any unreasonable price tag will be protected. But who will bell the cat? Two-thirds of the population living below poverty line. Their hunger does not distinguish between swadeshi and non-swadeshi. By slapping swadeshi, which anyway is senseless to them, this situation is fully exploited.
Date sent: Mon, 30 Mar 1998 11:52:22 PST
This article of yours proves beyond doubt that you have been hired to pamper foreign companies. You are doing the shameless job of selling our country's honour to foreign companies. Shivaram
Date sent: Mon, 30 Mar 1998 14:26:34 -0500
It will be interesting to see what the BJP will do after it receives the large amount of money from the Bombay Club.
Sameer Phadke
Date sent: Tue, 31 Mar 1998 00:51:06 +0400
Pritish Nandy at his corrosive best. He sounds like a 19-year-old kid. Nikhil
Date sent: 30 Mar 98 16:41:49 -0600
Mr Nandy, I request you to study again from primary school. Swadeshi is not weakness. It is strength. It means the nation is on its own. Unfortunately, India has got writers like you who have completely perverted understanding about everything. I've seen the sentence 'BUY AMERICAN' at almost all shops in the USA. If Americans say that, it is acceptable to you. But when an Indian says it, it is backward. What mental deprivation! We have all resources in Bharat. We should indigenously produce our technology rather than depending upon others. Then only we Indians will be respected all over the world.
Date sent: Sat, 11 Apr 1998 14:56:08 +0400
This piece is another example of the drivel spewed out by our not-so-young but very restless "intellectuals". The young in India are sick and tired of being treated as third-rate citizens of the world. The young in India are sick and tired of pseudo-secularism. The young in India want to be proud of being Indians. The young in India want to find elements in their history which strengthen and reinforce national pride. The young in India see the Japanese, the Americans, the Germans, the French, the Chinese, the British -- all PROUD of their nation and its history -- and wonder why the likes of Nandy want them to be ashamed of nationalism. The young in India realise that to compete globally one of the first elements to be put in place is a pride in being Indian. To discard the servile, chalta hai attitude so prevalent in Nandy's generation -- cloaked no doubt in the dialectic of globalisation. Of course, the young in India want the rotten licence-quota permit raj to be jettisoned. To let the free flowering of Indian entrepreneurship. Foreign or any other investment is motivated by one fact alone -- and that is the ability to make a profit. Creating conditions for the free flowering of enterprise is not mutually exclusive with being nationalist. Every successful country and economy in the history of the human race has been and continues to be nationalist. This includes the Chinese who even though professing communism, are guided by nationalism in every thing they do. The young do not want to be stepped over. They realise that today more than at any other time in history the name of the game is winning. And a government or society which sneers at national interest or nationalism is going to be dumped. Finally , the young are wondering. They are wondering why it is "communal" to have a Common Civil Code in the country. They are wondering why all states of the Union should not be governed by the exactly the same provisions of the Constitution and law. They are wondering why some political parties and their spin doctors want us to feel ashamed of our heritage and nationhood. They are wondering why in a "secular" state the unit of measure should be a community and not an individual. They are wondering if all that has passed off as being "secular" in the last 40 years has not been the worst kind of communalism. The conclusion many of the young are coming to is that, YES, it is communal and criminal to pander to "communities". That the unit should be an individual and not a community. That every Indian should be governed by the same law and by the same constitutional provisions. They want to be proud nationalists, helping to build a strong, powerful India -- not a cringing India hiding behind "globalist" brotherhood rubbish. That, Mr Nandy, is what the young are restless about. The sooner our pseudo-secularist, anti-national comrades get out of the way, the faster we will move forward. Anil Dev
Date sent: Mon, 11 May 1998 21:40:39 CDT
Yes, I agree 100 per cent with Mr Pritish Nandy. It is time we gave up trying to prove ourselves secular at the cost of hurting the feelings of many. Let us be realistic. Hrishikesh Sathawane
Date sent: Sun, 19 Jul 1998 19:43:31 -0700 (PDT)
Dear Nandy, Any Indian, brahmin or backward, knows what India has done to our SC/STs and backward classes. You can't think of a "free" society in which the majority of the children don't even have a slice of a bread for a day, and a minority eats MNC's food. Will you be able to say that we have equal opportunities to compete? I'm writing this against your argument about reservation. But I agree that reservation will not be a full success in any society. But, as everybody says, 50 years of reservations cannot wipe out 2,000 years of well-planned mistakes. Chockkalingam |
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