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September 21, 1998
SPECIALS
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How Readers reacted to Varsha Bhosle's recent columns
Date sent: Thu, 25 Jun 1998 12:24:29 -0400
This is one eye-opening article by Varsha. Keep up the good work. You have a lot of support from like-minded Indians from all over the world. Sridhar
Date sent: Tue, 09 Jun 1998 09:54:49 +0530
A truly funny column from Ms Bhosle, at last! Was it the "rakshi" in the system? Why not rename it the First Draft Dodger? I would prefer the First Non-Inhaler, or the First Internophile... but not a word about those mysterious Chinese-origin campaign funds. I wonder..?
Jayant S
Date sent: Mon, 08 Jun 1998 19:47:18 -0700
I've been reading your articles for quite some time now. I really appreciate your ability to put emotion into words, though I can't say the same about your ability to express facts. Keep it up! I don't know how you manage to pulverise anybody and anything that gets under your nerve so effortlessly. Hats off to you -- being a fiery, stupid woman does help! It sure has made Rediff the most bearable Indian site!! And now I leave, to pick up my brains I left in the doorway...
Date sent: Mon, 08 Jun 1998 23:18:52 MST
This article lacked the usual Varsha Bhosle punch. Just wondering whether the Nepali "rakshi" dimmed the razor-sharpness of her plume? Anyway, I do hope that the haze clears out fast and Varsha continues to clear the haze created by the Nehruvian politicians and the (commie) Chinese-fed American capitalist gluttons on the domestic and international stages... Amol H Joshi
Date sent: Mon, 08 Jun 1998 18:00:15 -0400
First, it is a too uneasy language. Where she wants to go? What she wants to express? Varsha, you need some help and need to understand the meaning of words. Some words are not appropriate and should be removed from the column. It's a violation of Internet. Rediff, please stop such bogus columns. Shashi
Date sent: Mon, 8 Jun 1998 14:46:15 -0700 (PDT)
Varsha Bhosle is little more than a cyber avatar of Uma Bharati. What Ms Bharati does from rooftops, Ms Bhosle does from a keyboard. As for her "fans", well I will let them speak for themselves -- here is what some of Ms Bhosle's admirers have said on this forum while praising her. I think it should give one a pretty good idea about the level of maturity of the entire lot: "... I think what India should now do is attack PoK and finish off the Kashmir issue in one single day... " "... I must share my feeling with Varsha, Rediff and fellow netizens; for the nuke tests felt like I had enjoyed myself for the first time in 24 years. ..." ( After the nuclear tests) "... it is really very heartening to see so many people rejoicing, probably for the first time after Independence."
Date sent: Mon, 08 Jun 1998 15:29:32 -0400
I think you are doing an excellent job in calling a spade a spade, especially in terms of the appeasement of the Muslims, which has continued in India since our Independence. Keep it up, Varsha!!!!!!!!!!!
Date sent: Mon, 8 Jun 1998 14:44:53 -0400
Your articles are different and present a different perspective. I have liked all I have read so far. Good reading, keep it up. I hope you are able to inspire people to take pride in themselves. Adi Khindaria
Date sent: Mon, 08 Jun 1998 14:53:40 PDT
Go on lady... your patriotism is soothing. Just learn to respect others feelings too. One sided views not only look bad, they fail to convince readers despite being articulated well. I hope you understand. Ashish
Date sent: Sat, 23 May 1998 00:13:39 +0800
This is a much better article than usual. Contains information. Keep it up. Anurag
Date sent: Thu, 21 May 1998 21:44:59 -0500
I think we need more writers like Varsha Bhosle. The article was well written and presents everything in the proper light, based on facts. Keep doing this, Varsha! Many thanks to you for doing such a good job! Valli
Date sent: Tue, 19 May 1998 15:17:30 -0500 (CDT)
When I read Varsha Bhosle's article on "The H(indutva)-Bomb" I experienced a calmness and detachment that I had not felt since India's nuclear tests. Much as I would like to provide a point-to-point rebuttal of her epistle, I do not think it necessary. After all the issue has been discussed in detail and what she has said has been echoed by like-minded people and indeed, follows logically from the stand she has taken. Let me instead focus on the most irrelevant but outrageous point she has made. It is a useful pointer to an attitude that seems to have escaped attention. She says: "... Why couldn't we test them on Islamabad instead...? Just kidding." Of all the loose and irresponsible statements that have issued from her keyboard this one must surely take the cake even if she is just kidding. It is an almost joyful statement tinged with a bit of regret and quickly retracted as a "joke". I suggest that VB needs a soul. You don't have to be a nuclear scientist to describe the carnage wreaked by nuclear weapons. This understanding is well within the scope of even a journalist. To wish this horror to befall upon the hapless citizens of Islamabad, even as a joke, suggests a certain poverty of imagination and compassion. The lowest point of humanity can be marked when our might gives us the right to demolish the rights of others less mighty, but who nonetheless wish to live in hope and without fear. By joking about nuclear destruction we lessen the horror and make it more likely to happen. Let me spell it out for VB. A woman on the street in Delhi rests wearily against a wall after a morning of labour in the searing heat. A shimmer of heat dances off the dry bleached road and the stones that she has been breaking. The only escape against the pitiless sun is the shadow thrown by the wall. She rests against it and holds to her breast a wizened dried child, nursing the frail body, providing it with nourishment that she herself desperately needs. Her body aches but there is no respite from more labour and more heat. But she smiles at the child whom she nurses and for whom she wishes the best of fortune in an ugly but sometimes beautiful world. In that posture, in that caress, are expressed a hope for humanity and a hope for a better world. She half turns sensing something, something undefined, and a light brighter than the scorching sun explodes about her. In an instant, protectively, she presses the child to her breasts even as her skin scorches, her blood boils, and her eyeballs explode. And then she is no longer there. The winds rail and then die, and in the quietness that follows the desolation, she stands there, an imprint on the wall. The imprint of a frozen skeleton, of a woman half-turning, surprised, vulnerable, taking a respite from her labour to feed her child. The bones of her fleshless child cradled in her fleshless arms. My India is the land where that woman would have eventually triumphed over her struggle and secured for her child a better future. It stands in stark contrast to your ideal of might first and then progress. I am the wimp you condemn Varsha, the pacifist, the spineless Hindu. I am all of that and a few more that you have not yet coined. But I am humane and I see a little further than you because of it. I would rather live for my country and let others live even if this vision is imperfect. Rama Ratnam
Date sent: Thu, 9 Apr 1998 16:06:30 -0400
I feel that we need more persons like Varsha Bhosle to voice our concerns so that our political leaders will know that the people of India aren't dumb. The article by Varsha is very good. Of course, a lot of critics will make stupid remarks about it. This is the first time I have read an article penned by Varsha and I feel she is bold, has the command of language and uses it to instigate the right kind of reaction from people who can reason. I wish, that the literacy percentage and information infrastructure in India are good enough for voices like Varsha Bhosle's to reach the ears of one and all to create some positive thinking in our minds. How I wish India would reach a stage when people don't know what corruption is, are polite and courteous, do not consider doing their duties as favours extended, be socially conscious and reach heights of excellence in all fields. Bala
Date sent: Thu, 09 Apr 1998 16:05:08 -0400
Even though I believe that national interest alone should be the guiding principle in framing economic policies, I abhor the misuse of swadeshi by corrupt politicians to benefit the corrupt and inefficient businessmen of our nation. As Varsha rightly pointed out, apart from the Tata group, no other swadeshi industrial house has thought of utilising their profits to reinvest in education, R&D and community welfare. All they have managed is to stash their ill-earned money in tax havens.
Date sent: Thu, 09 Apr 98 11:09:02 -0800
I do agree with whatever you have written in your column. It's a pity that things like that are happening. But how can we expect anything different. How can we expect a minister who has passed the 10th standard, to be knowing about new technology, business culture, customer-oriented market etc etc? Look, there is a loophole in our system: Politicians get elected due to these irrational thinking people. No point in crying over what have we done in past, the Vedas etc etc. The only thing that matters is what we are at present. I know businessmen who sell their products to the US and Europe with stamps of made in Taiwan/China etc etc just because if you say it's made in India nobody would buy it. The only way to mend it is to be quality-conscious. We cannot do anything good until we are forced to do because we have the attitude that things are to be done just for the sake of doing them. The only way to force businessmen is to bring in better businesses. Mukesh Kataria
Date sent: Thu, 09 Apr 1998 14:08:55 -0500
Varsha, you are on a hat-trick now! It is hard to think of what was in the minds of our "rulers" when they drove out IBM and Coca-Cola in the seventies. It is anybody's guess as to how much this has set back our economy or how irreparable the actual damage is. We would have been at least a decade ahead in the IT field if we had caught on with the computer revolution that started in the early 1980s. The sheer presence of IBM would have egged on a whole society, and who knows, Microsoft would have chosen India in place of Israel! It took almost another twenty years for IBM to come back to India, and even then they are not present in a big way as they should have. Swadeshi folks didn't want foreign investment in the social infrastructure so that the local contractors and PWD ministers could loot the country forever with cheap and shoddy public works. The Swadeshi consumer industry is still getting away with crassly finished goods in ill-packed containers, and nobody has ever heard of returning bought goods. They actually have the audacity to print "Goods once sold cannot be returned or exchanged"! If quality and money's worth do not mean anything to the local industry, there is little point in cribbing over their existence. Srinivas Murthy
Date sent: Thu, 9 Apr 1998 14:02:01 -0500
One of the nicest columns I've read in Rediff. I couldn't agree with you more. Politicians are ruining the country in the name of swadeshi. I was wondering, do politicians (local and at the national level) read this kind of articles? Keep up the good work. Selva
Date sent: Thu, 09 Apr 1998 11:37:04 -0700
Good stuff. Will this sensible stuff reach a politician's ears? Otherwise, it is a waste of time. Baski
Date sent: Thu, 9 Apr 1998 14:16:23 -0400
I really enjoy reading your column. I always look forward to a new column from you. Keep it up. However, I must say you are way off on this one. All the reasons you cited as evils of swadeshi are actually evils of license-quota-permit raj. Premier or Ambassador never upgraded their models beyond cosmetic changes, because they never had to. They had gobbled up licenses for available capacity (determined by the government) and were sure that there cannot be any competition (local or foreign) to take away their market share. Resistance to foreign participation was motivated not by any patriotic thoughts but by narrow personal interests of those in power and their hangers-on. In your article you mentioned about Asian tigers. Well, they're all toothless now. Why?? Because they threw their country open to foreign (with their $$$$ accounts to leverage) vultures who manipulated and speculated on local currency and quickly withdrew when the going got tough, leaving locals to pick up the pieces. This kind of foreign participation India could certainly live without. While I am not condoning inefficient Indian entrepreneurs, I don't think the answer lies in making them compete with foreign MNC (again with their $$$$$ leveraged accounts). The real solution lies in internal liberalisation. Making Indian industry competitive. It lies in awakening the real controllers in any democracy (ordinary citizens) so that they can keep better check on scumbags they send as their representatives. If you read the criticism that Pritish Nandy's column attracted in Rediff, you'll find a lot of arguments supporting swadeshi there. About having to put down your coke bottle, look at the soft drink industry after Coke bought Parle out. Very soon Thums Up will be eased out of market and then there will be clash of only two titans -- both foreign, Coke and Pepsi. There will be no place for the Indian entrepreneur in that market as s/he won't be able to compete with multi-nationals. Also in our country, where anything foreign is always considered superior, local products have to overcome this initial threshold even to get noticed. And look, it's just not we Indians preaching swadeshi, every country in this world does the same thing. There are anti-dumping penalties, import quotas etc. No one allows complete/unchecked access to the local markets by foreigners. Big fish roam the waters of the world but when it comes to their native shores, they make sure it is protected. Nitin
Date sent: Thu, 09 Apr 1998 14:51:50 -0300
You people are in India. So you are dying to eat McDonalds, KFCs and whatnots. You people find swadeshi stupid because you have lots of it. Varsha as usual writes in the majestic fashion that SHE is ALWAYS right and the other side is nothing but 100% wrong. Varsha says Hindutva rules, next she says its nothing wrong if McDonalds introduces beef. Shetty argues that there are umpteen restaurants that sell beef. SO? Stop them. This is NO excuse for McDonalds to start selling it. CAN the McDONALDS or KFCs in KUWAIT, SAUDI or UAE SELL PORK?? You have any answer for that Varsha?? You Indians can't prepare your own food, beef or non-beef?????? You need American beef, you need American Coke, Pepsi, Reebok? You can't make your own cold drinks? ARE THERE ANY MNCs in INDIA that make UNDERWEAR FOR YOU???? I wouldn't be surprised if there was. The only answer to all these arguments is simple. STOP CORRUPTION, so that Indians like ME who currently live in Toronto can go to Bombay or Mumbai and open up businesses. Bribes everywhere for us. These MNCs have enough money to fill all your Indians pockets with dollars. MD Shetty isn't speaking, it's the US dollars in his pocket that are apeaking. Seriously Varsha???? Don't you find ANY difference between building a bridge for your Bombaites and opening a restaurant???? Akshay
Date sent: Thu, 9 Apr 1998 14:13:12 -0400
Good article, Varsha!! I think instead of saying Mera Bharat Mahaan we should all be saying Mera Bharat Baimaan. The need of the hour is not to be pessimistic or optimistic but realistic! And in reality, India is far behind the sub-Saharan Africa -- satellites, missiles, not withstanding when 70% of Indians do not have access to safe clean drinking water! Being a journalist, you need to open up the minds of these nincompoop politicians! |
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