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December 2, 1998
ELECTIONS '98
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'The function of the government is to govern the country, not plough the fields'
How Readers responded to Dilip D'Souza's recent columns
Date sent: Thu, 19 Nov 1998 15:07:03 -0500 Commendable job. I hope the newer generations grow up and develop an interest in the political system in India, and make advances which are unbiased and universally acceptable. I've seen many educated individuals who, despite their education represent communal feelings to the 1984 incident. They fail to see the Sikh pogrom (organised, pre planned riots) as not something spontaneous but well planned. Please read Sangat Singh's Sikhs in History. Excellent read. Manmeet Singh
Date sent: Thu, 19 Nov 1998 14:07:40 -0600 I often give thanks that I have no idea how politics works. Because oh, take it from me -- your lack of knowledge is not just limited to politics. It's ever compassing. Please stop writing (or at least publishing).
Date sent: Thu, 19 Nov 1998 14:17:03 -0500 Dilip D'Souza has refreshed our memories of the sad happenings of 1984. No one can put a price on human life; yet the politicians in our country can colour their hands with the blood of innocent humans and we as a society are too fragmented to even bring them to trial, let alone make them pay for their crimes! Abdul Haq
Date sent: Wed, 11 Nov 1998 22:06:23 -0800 (PST) If one took Dilip D'Souza seriously, one would come to the conclusion that the primary task of the government is to ensure a constant supply of onions. The reason for the complete mess is that we chose socialism. His Communist mentality refuses to admit that though he knows it very well. Let us be very clear. Propagating hatred against Muslims is wrong. Blame BJP for it. Don't blame them for the onion crisis. Pay up if you want to eat. Who is Dilip D'Souza to suggest banning the export of onions? Do I suggest banning Rediff articles from reaching other countries. But then, that is typical Communist mentality -- enjoy all the benefits yourself but prevent others from doing so. Onion growers must toil in the sun so that the needs of Dilip D'Souza is catered to. They must not export. They must take orders from Dilip D'Souza on how much to grow, how much to send to his house and how much to sell in the open market. In the meantime, he himself will indulge in activities he pleases. And oh, I forgot, the function of the government is to govern the country, not plough fields. Arvind
Date sent: Thu, 12 Nov 1998 17:48:15 +0700 Well, this is really unconventional wisdom of Dilip D'Souza. I don't see any, near or far, relation between nuclear tests and onion price. And neither I see any connection between economic crisis after the US sanctions and onion price. Had it been the reason, Pakistan would have cried for every single piece of onion and would not have exported onions to India The rising onion prices are because of bad weather, unseasonal rain, poor production and hoarding of onions by traders. I agree that the BJP government failed to get onions out from the traders' godowns, but it doesn't mean that you go on bashing it for whatever it did. Giving nuclear status to India is one of the greatest achievement of our scientists with full support from the BJP government. Sanjay Gawande
Date sent: Wed, 11 Nov 1998 23:33:45 -0700 When one is going around a problem trying to figure it out, the idea is to avoid the tangents and reach the centre soon to solve it! Your columns start in the right direction but always take a tangent and reach a point away from the problem itself. Is it just the BJP to be blamed for the crisis? Or the traders who are filling their pockets with exports? Isn't the aspect that traders can shoot up prices making the government helpless, more frightful? Mohit
Date sent: Thu, 12 Nov 1998 16:52:48 PST Mr D’Souza, you have crossed all the limits of sanity. You have proved your insanity by writing this article. What is your logic? Give us some real alternatives? Give us some solutions? Against what are you comparing the BJP? It is because of Congress and people like you that we are still a third world country. Nobody in the world respects us. We are still one of the poorest nations in the world. We have terrorist problems in almost all states. Pakistan is doing whatever it wants in India. I really find it hard to understand your point of view. If tomorrow somebody attacks us, will you bombard the enemy with onions? Be a man and give us answers not more twisted truth.
Date sent: Thu, 12 Nov 1998 13:55:03 -0000 Just more pinko rubbish. Why should producers not export if they get better prices internationally? Get it right man, it's not the government's responsibility to feed you, it's your own. It's socialist control which encourages black-marketeering in any case. Fine, you can't eat bombs, but surely you can't expect taxpayers to pay for everyone's food (through food subsidy). Earn and eat, don't earn, don't eat. Ruchira Raghav
Date sent: Thu, 12 Nov 1998 07:30:10 -0500 You seem to be more interested being famous and then solving the real problem. It's not very difficult to find out what you are suggesting. There is no link between national security and price rise. If you have a better solution you should mention it, not by any way sacrificing security, it costs peanuts to explode and build nuclear bombs, much cheaper than what India paid for the recent purchase of fighter planes. I have not seen you making a comment on that at that time, even though we could have solved many of our problems with that kind of money. Get a hold on your self. Try to think as an Indian first and then be whatever you are. I have also seen many of your articles regarding Hindus. Look at history, had we been at least half as Christians and Muslims we have seen in history, there would not have been anybody in India except Hindus. Let's not get your hatred towards VHP and BJP get in the way of your journalism. I like your articles but they are highly repetitive. Even though they are on different topics, you seem to have a one point agenda. Work for unity and try to get them together by a positive attitude, not to get them to fight because of your negative attitude. Do not take us readers for granted.
Anandrao Alurwar
Date sent: Thu, 12 Nov 1998 17:37:51 -0800 I understand your worries about onions and nukes. You know every problem has to be dealt with caution. Once you know you have a problem, you must try and understand the root cause of the problem. OK, you have to invest a little bit of time and money to try and understand the problems. But once you understand the problem thoroughly, it's easier to tackle such problems. Giving a temporary solutions to the problems is easy. But we must also see that similar problems never ever happen again. But unfortunately in a country like India, people don't care to understand the importance of investing time and money in case studies. People want some quick remedies and the politicians do same things to get votes. I remember reading in newspapers sometime back that the Congress has opened onion booths to sell onions at a fair price of Rs 5 per kg. Well, good, it is a kind of social work! (Do you think so?) Nope. Such will be the solutions of our own people at the helm (politicians). And our people think that politicians like these are doing favour to them and fall for the gimmick and vote for them. The same story continues with every government. What I am trying to tell you is: Our system in India is totally rotten. Policy makers (politicians) just think of temporary solutions with which they can retain their power. Until this mentality changes or at least the people of India become intelligent enough to understand such gimmicks by politicians, India can't even dream of coming up. Another thing is that, we Indians are not united on any cause. Tell me a factor which can hold all the Indians united? Is it religion? Nationality? Morals? Language? What can you think of ? No, it is very sad, that no cause can see the Indians united. They were divided before 1947. But came under one rule just because we had a great leader in the Iron man of India Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel. But it is very sad, that after Independence, the then politicians succeeded in uniting Indians physically. But they never did anything to unite them morally, mentally. To add to this, politicians including the governments of Nehru and his family (Indira followed by Rajiv), did nothing but to be in power. To do that they followed the divide and rule policy among their own citizens (primarily based on religion). Do you expect any good from people like this in Parliament? Well about the nukes... I don't know why the BJP did this. But there is a very genuine reason of national security behind this, even if the BJP had plans of exploiting votes on the issue. Being the good citizens of India, every one must support the genuine cause behind the tests. Well you see one more reason how our people in India are divided. They are not even united on the nation's security issues too. I feel very sorry for the country. My father used to tell me when I was a kid, that whenever you are building a new home, make sure that your boundaries are correctly marked. How true that is! India became an independent nation in 1947, but even now we have not settled our border disputes! But if you just look around you see a great military threat in China, thanks to a diplomatic error by Nehru, and Paki's becoming a nuclear threat now. I agree that for common Indians, their fundamental needs like clean air, water and food are very essential. But one must also understand what is happening around India. You see growing threats in China/Pak/USA(?), to the very existence of our nation if we are not prepared to face them. First you need to live peacefully, to enjoy good food, water and air! I believe you are getting what I am trying to tell you. Renukswamy
Date sent: Thu, 12 Nov 1998 22:28:22 -0500 Dilip, you are mixing up things. It is not good that prices are rising but this in no way is a cause for not taking crucial decisions on national security. You and I are not privy to security concerns as these in general are not highlighted by most of the media. It is therefore not correct to pass judgement with half-baked information, which most Indian media including you, tend to do. Prices are something that are very close to everyday life and it is apt that you take it up. But though in your column, you keep raving about what went wrong, you have no solution of your own, no constructive suggestions to improve upon the situation, nothing at all. You typify the average Indian, who always wants to be spoon-fed and will cry foul if something goes wrong without doing anything about it. People like you who are in the business of criticising politics and government as an obsession/hobby are in fact the bane of India. Well, let me put down some things: 1. Many people live in apartments and usually have associations. A few associations in a particular area can join hands, charter a van to go straight to the farmer and get the vegetables rather than buy it from the middleman. 2. If (1) is a problem due to farmers being far away, arrange the van to pick up vegetables at the wholesale market. The price will obviously come down if a group buys at the wholesale market and then shares it. 3. Of course, in (1) and (2) hoarding should be avoided by the people themselves. Can be avoided if somebody from each association is present at each deal. 4. Consume less onions. Indian cuisine is dexterous enough to add spice to any vegetable. 5. Help the government track down hoarders by keeping an active lookout for them and reporting their activity. It is okay if you have less onion in bhelpuri and dal fries for a few months. The heavens will not come down. But the heavens will come down if China/Pakistan invade and we have nothing to protect ourselves. After the loss of your freedom and soul, what is the use of onions? Remember, no matter what party is in power, it is THE Indian government. Have respect for it and take pride in what we do. If we ourselves do not respect the government, who will? Pakistan? Help us and the government rule the country rather than plunging into bizarre articles. Ranjit
Date sent: Sat, 14 Nov 1998 15:17:37 EST This is another absurd article by Dilip D'Souza. As usual Dilip is blinded by his anti BJP sentiments. The price of onions and the development of nuclear weapons for the nation's security are two entirely different subjects. While the former is a food item which is desirable to have but not essential for the well being of India or Indians, the latter is an important development in the history of free India and is needed for the security of the nation. Various army generals, scientists, politicians and the masses of India have openly supported it. The nuclear programme was not started by the BJP. If the nuclear weapons are so useless why not to ask the Congress leaders why did Indira Gandhi explode the nuclear device in 1974, and why various successive governments not only continued with the programme, but even tried to conduct nuclear tests and had to give up because of external threats. The BJP must be congratulated for having taken the nuclear programme a step further, and for speeding up development of missiles so badly needed by our defence forces. It is also time that the nation salutes those jawans who risk their lives protecting the nation, the scientists who develop new weapons and their delivery systems, and all others who are serving the nation tirelessly animated by the spirit of patriotism. Various writings by Dr Abdul Kalam shows how this spirit of patriotism is working through his vanes. In the same way, Atalji and Advaniji are in the political arena not for power or glory, but to serve the nation in the spirit of patriotism. I will like to hear from from Mr D'Souza as to why he has such hatred for the BJP that he cannot see anything positive in the acts of this government whereas the BJP is a majority parity in India. I am tired of reading such absurd articles. I wonder why Rediff prints such articles.
Ravinder Gupta
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