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ASSEMBLY POLL '98
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'Somehow, he does sound so damn convincing all the time that for the moment you would want to toe his line... only if you didn't know better!'
E-mail from readers the world over
Date sent: Sun, 29 Nov 1998 13:12:12 -0800 As usual, this is sarcastic Mani at his best! The guy who sees no evil in the Congress and deems none but the Congress to be fit to rule the nation. No one else has the experience, the wisdom, the insight, the cunning and the tact to head the government except the Congress! And somehow, he does sound so damn convincing all the time that for the moment you would want to toe his line... only if you didn't know better!
Bharat Suneja
Date sent: Sun, 29 Nov 1998 14:40:33, -0500 Nice to see that Aiyar for once has been able to write in a balanced frame of mind. May be it is a sign of maturity! If so, may he keep it up! God bless.
V Muthuswami
Date sent: Mon, 09 Nov 1998 19:54:36 PST I do not know to what extent Rediff is valid in having a person like Mani Shankar writing its articles. While I do not have anything against a person with party affiliations writing in newspapers /news web sites, the same privilege cannot be extended to anyone holding an office in a political party or in government or Parliament/assemblies. If the views of these persons are indispensable and are required for journalism, then the same needs to be obtained through an interview or other similar means. This would ensure that the newspapers are not blatantly used to as propaganda machinery. Raman
Date sent: Sat, 28 Nov 1998 17:07:40 -0500 If you really want to know what I think of this column, then I will tell you. I think Mani is a stooge of Sonia Gandhi and his views carry little importance. I hardly find any of his columns stimulating. I cannot believe Rediff can host the column of some one like Mani Shankar Aiyar. Well I need to rethink my opinion of Rediff.
Date sent: Sat, 28 Nov 1998 18:27:32 EST I would not consider Aiyar a journalist or columnist, but a spokesperson for a political party. Therefore, any commentary or viewpoint advanced by him is merely a spin and not a journalistic endeavour. Nothing wrong with that as long as the author of the particular piece is identified for his or her political moorings.
Date sent: Sat, 28 Nov 1998 00:31:44 -0800 It is difficult to remain objective in one's comments in the light of Aiyar's worthless weekly drivel. Why you persist in providing this political propaganda, disguised as "commentary," a forum, is beyond me. PLEASE! If you cannot find a better, more sensible commentator, help the networld and save the bandwidth wasted by his columns.
Date sent: Fri, 27 Nov 1998 22:38:21 -0500 Keep dreaming. It's better to survive and serve India than trying to pull down the government. It's really sad to find (rare) an "educated" personal advisor to a person who can't think of anything else but power. Indeed education is not the only solution to India's problems. Maybe it's high time we fulfill Mahatma Gandhi's dream of closing the Congress shop. One sad Indian
Date sent: Fri, 27 Nov 1998 17:44:38 EST He stinks of a person who tolerates taking away democratic rights of citizens and supports Basu, who supported China when they butchered our great soldiers.
Date sent: Fri, 27 Nov 1998 17:38:18 EST Seems to be writing an obituary before a death. His stance is that of a vulture. Vultures hide away from cities where the humdrum of life is. They sit on lofty ramparts and wait for weakness and death. Once targets are spotted they waddle up and claim victory. Neither can vultures fit in the city nor do they have the desire. Like all other scavengers they carry with them the stench of death till they perish themselves. I would like to see Mani Shankar contribute something positive (that adds to city life) rather than just posture to his benefit. How does one get to write for Rediff? Somebody mentioned Rediff's founder was a key part of the Rajiv reelection campaign. I hope Rediff itself is not just a mouthpiece for pro-Congress views. Rather than stand for objectivity and be a means for education of the Indian electorate. Rediff On the NeT provides a forum for diverse views and does not advocate any particular party stance.
Date sent: Mon, 23 Nov 1998 11:44:29 -0500 Mani Shankar Aiyar is a former IFS officer and his expertise seems to lie with foreign policy, not politics. It would be better if he could get past his sectarian hatred for the BJP and serve the country in the capacity of a foreign policy advisor. One doesn't have to be in politics to write these columns for Rediff. Even Mani, the Foreign Policy Pandit, can write columns for Rediff. I'm sure they will not have any problems entertaining such thoughtful articles. But he must get past his sectarian attitude. India has been abused and molested by politicians for the last 50 years and its remarkable that anyone wishing to serve this nation can only do so in a non-political capacity. Our own nuclear establishment bears witness to this fact. Such, alas, is the state of things. Anyway, the article made good reading (a surprise from Mani at last). But, and I am not entirely certain of this, I thought that India had accepted that it was not possible to be accepted as a nuclear state under under CTBT after only the first few rounds of talks between Talbott and Singh. I thought that the points of contention were the bans on technology transfer that the US had imposed. It was a given that if and when India signed the CTBT, the economic sanctions would automatically be lifted. That was not a bargaining point. The real issues were that India would be maintaining an arsenal of sufficient deterrence capability and that dual-use technology bans should be lifted. I am not sure whether being accepted into the Nuclear-5 club for CTBT purposes is an issue anymore. As far as the NPT is concerned, there is no ambiguity there. India will not sign it and there was to be no discussion. As far as President Clinton's visit to the subcontinent was concerned, it wasn't just the gesture of an American president but the kinds of business promises he would be able to bring in the areas that India was negotiating on -- technology. The Americans aren't stupid to presume that the presence of an American president in India was going to make much difference to us. Not unless the gesture was loaded. In his last paragraph he writes that India and Pakistan should initiate some sort of a bilateral dialogue for the elimination of nuclear weapons, something that could then encompass all other nations. But geostrategically speaking, any such dialogue is useless for us unless China is a part of the discussion. The same mistake is being made by commentators in this country that the Indian nuclear arsenal is for Pakistan and vice versa. Our main goal in the short and long term is to keep China at bay. So if any dialogue does not begin with China, it would bring us nothing. On top of that, we would have invited world attention on a bilateral (Indo-Pak) elimination of weapons, which would truly give our arsenal a Pak-centric shade, something that we want to avoid. Mani served in the ministry of external affairs himself (I believe) and he should know that the general perception there is that China would never agree to any such dialogue for the elimination of any of its weapons. So much for that thought.
Date sent: Sun, 22 Nov 1998 22:14:38 +0530 I really wonder how Rediff permits people such as Mani Shankar Aiyar to write columns. He is nothing but a sycophant, who can only sing praises of the Nehru/Gandhi family . He writes with a bias against anybody and anything not in favour of the Nehru/Gandhi dynasty. It's time such perverts were thrown out of the country. We have lived with such nuisansical clowns for too long. K S Shankarraman
Date sent: Sat, 21 Nov 1998 20:47:29 -0500 Dear Mr Aiyar: well written and quite correct article. India must stand for itself.Thank you
Date sent: Wed, 11 Nov 1998 18:21:17 -0500 Shame on you Mani, you have sold yourself to Sonia. She belongs, as you, to a gang of corrupt Congress(I). May God give you some sense to be a true and honest Indian. Peace to your soul, if you have one.
Dr M P Gupta
Date sent: Tue, 10 Nov 1998 11:56:24 -0600 It would be nice if Mani Aiyar can do some investigative reporting on the corrupt crooks of the Congress who have brought this country to this grotesque present. He can start his investigation with Sonia's friends, the Quattrochis and the Bofors gun scandal. Then he can move on to Romesh Sharma's deals with the former PMs and FMs of India. If journalists can do some service by investigative reporting, the country could have been saved from this wretched poverty. But our Mani Aiyars are so partisan in their reporting that they want to bring CCC back to power. With the help of a corrupt media, they may succeed and that is a disaster India can ill afford.
T R Rao
Date sent: Tue, 10 Nov 1998 11:36:06 -0500 I have always enjoyed Mani's articles and appreciate his ability to cut through the rhetoric and make an objective analysis of any political issue. But in his recent article, the claim that "the statistic shows that, bar Indonesia, the fall in the stock market index and the rise in the cost of living index in the past eight months of BJP rule has been more than in any of Asia's crisis-ridden economies." is very serious indeed. I think Mani should have cited the source of this information. Laeeq Mohd Khan
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