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ASSEMBLY POLL '98
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'Why don't Admiral Bhagwat's supporters do some soul-searching before accusing the government?'
E-mail from readers the world over
Date: Wed, 23 Dec 1998 08:18:52 +0530 I think this is the first time someone has taken care to write about Christian religious monuments in south India. Congratulations to Ganesh Nadar for his lucid article "The Village St Anthony Calls Home". A native of this tiny fishing village, I was pleased to get this message on a Tuesday -- a day dedicated to St Anthony -- and to read the article on our village patron saint on the day dedicated to him. I have taken a copy of this article for printing and will be distributing it to my friends and relatives who are ardent devotees of St Anthony. You may be interested to know that a very popular politician and author cum television personality Professor Valampuri John is my relative and also belongs to this village. I am going to meet him in Madras and I will ask him to view the article on his PC if he has obtained an Internet connection by now.
JOEVALAN VAZ
Date: Sun, 13 Dec 1998 14:44:13 -0800 Quoting Yeddanapudi Radhika: "Good question, I thought, not daring to say that I didn't see an Indian man who could share my dreams, thereby dooming me to spinsterhood since that was a preliminary screening level, beyond which other qualities such as solvency, tolerance and patience, consistency, sensuousness, love of the arts, courtesy, willingness to share, intelligence would weed out those left!" All I could say was "Ouch!!" :-) This is vast Generalisation, Yeddanapudi!! Srinath
Date: Sat, 12 Dec 1998 11:07:41 EST I love your photographs of Kinnaur. Mark Fox
Date sent: Tue, 5 Jan 1999 11:58:45 -0600 It is really refreshing to see an article based on facts amid the din over Admiral Bhagwat's sacking. I am really surprised that whatever the BJP does gets a communal colour! Why don't Bhagwat's supporters, including his wife, do some soul-searching before accusing the government? The armed forces should remember that they are not above the civilian representatives. What the country is coming to? We can't afford a rift between the government and the armed forces. We already have enough security-related problems to solve.
Vadiraj M R
Date sent: Tue, 05 Jan 1999 07:53:48 -0500 Admiral Vishnu Bhagwat should have been court martialled and one cannot but be inclined to agree with Vice-Admiral Awati (retired). It is difficult to absorb the fact that Admiral Bhagwat endangered the navy and India. Had it been for our neighbour, Pakistan, the army might have taken over. The bureaucrats are not the ones who will fight wars. The government has not explained in a clear manner what has happened and this leads to doubts about the real reasons. The Vajpayee government has recorded yet another failure after a very poor performance with the economy. The defence secretary deserved to be sacked as well and not transferred. Jayant Mehta
Date sent: Tue, 5 Jan 1999 15:44:45 +0530 I would like to register my protest about the uncivilised handling of Admiral Bhagwat's dismissal. If the clerks in the MoD have proved their supremacy, then it has been at the cost of the nation. While it is possible that various senior officers will ensure that discipline is maintained, this is a quick way to destroy the morale of the armed forces. I agree that Admiral Bhagwat should have been court martialled. If he had committed any offence against the country, he deserves whatever punishment was due. In Admiral Bhagwat we have lost a brilliant officer. If he was guilty of issues described by Fernandes then the performance evaluation for personnel in the armed forces is very seriously wrong. I'm sure these problems would have been spotted long before. If they were spotted before, how did he rise to become chief of staff before these problems eventually surfaced? One doesn't become CoS unless one is very good. Also, why is the MoD hurriedly being reorganised? I now await another "Himalyan Blunder" to happen. But what really hurts is that even after another such "Blunder" happens, the South Block clerks and other sundry politicians will again shift responsibility and get away with it. But I guess the nation's security is not as important as their egos. I really wonder if the people in South Block should not be tried for high treason. R Singh
Date sent: Sat, 2 Jan 1999 12:22:58 +0530 Mahesh Bhatt's intentions cannot be questioned and most of what he says is definitely correct. One cannot deny the fact that Maharashtra has been the hotbed of violence for the past 4 to 5 years. For all the shortcomings of the Bombay police, it may be too farfetched to say that all they think of is covering up their various atrocities. On this particular issue of Zakhm, I think Bhatt should at least hear out what R H Mendonca has to say. After all, tomorrow, if this film causes any communal flare-up, Bhatt is not going to wield the baton and come charging at the miscreants. All the dirty work would have to be done by the police. In any democratic society comprising individuals, harmony is maintained only by people respecting each other's views. If one were to repeatedly belabour one's point without even giving a hearing to the other party, then there would be no difference between the Taliban in Afganistan and a civilised society like India. Please let us have some understanding on this. Let us put all our partisan interests in the dump and concentrate on putting the national interest at the forefront. We have found that politicians are not going to mature out of their childish political gimmicks (like Ashok Singhal's comments about Nobel laureate Amartya Sen) -- let us outgrow them.
Dilip Kumar
Date sent: Tue, 29 Dec 1998 13:02:13 -0800 Here is my beef with the reporter and since the segment of this article starts with the claim that we are never too tired to discuss Amitabh Bachchan, I will do just that. Is it fashionable to predict as well as rejoice the failure of Amitabh Bachchan in the film industry reporting as it is to criticise Microsoft and Bill Gates in the high tech industry? I have noticed this on several sites and especially on Rediff. The bad reviews and misinformation about how his movies are doing at the box-office are something we are all used to hearing. And yet, you so-called pundits fail to explain how he has remained on the top for these many decades. Maybe it is so because you pundits never gave him his props as an actor nor admitted that even at his age he is still the superstar in Hindi film industry, that he can still command the audience, and that the producers (and what do they know!) are willing to pay him the amount that puts the entire film budget to shame. I understand that with his punctuality and professionalism he may not have given much to write about (especially since his association with Rekha has ended). And he clearly hasn't gone hunting for bucks or refused to work with an esteemed director citing facial hair growth, but then again no one is perfect. Can I call upon your journalistic integrity and ethics and print this or finally admit that his latest movie was not a flop but a major hit and he too along with Govinda deserves some of the credit for that? Or do us a one better by may be doing a story that finally does him and us, his fans, justice which will concentrate on him as an artist whose contributions cannot be brushed aside? Shaun Trivedi
Date sent: Fri, 25 Dec 1998 22:21:00 +0530 Too good. Par excellence.
Date sent: Sat, 26 Dec 1998 18:48:30 +0530 GOOD.
Date sent: Fri, 18 Dec 1998 19:42:47 EST Good interview of Vijay Anand. Sushli
Date sent: Mon, 07 Dec 1998 12:05:12 -0800 I have some problems with your review. I definitely do not think the movie was a 'classy comedy'. It was clean and nice, but not classy. I agree with most of your review, specially about the songs not fitting into the movie. Hrishida could have done without them because most of them aren't even pleasing. The songs picturised with Sajid Khan are the most avoidable ones. Also if he had made a no-song movie, the public like us will go to see it, only because it is a Hrishikesh Mukherjee film, a good enough reason to see it! I just saw the movie yesterday and though I liked the movie for its non-violence and simplicity, I don't find it on par with Hrishida's past films. It doesn't even come close. Maybe he has lost his creativity with age and he could have done it better with the actors he had originally intended to do the film with and in that era. I find the climax a typical Hindi film melodrama which I did not expect from a director of Hrishida's calibre. On the whole, a pleasant film compared to the other films dished out nowadays, but when compared to Hrishida's repertoire, it pales in comparison to any of his previous films. I guess in the end it boils down to one thing: When you go with high expectations, you can only be let down, but I did hope that Hrishida had maintained his good humour and special way of projecting things to penetrate right into one's heart. Oh well... everything that is good must come to an end. Neha Desai
Date: Saturday, November 28, 1998 8:25 PM When Harsha says look around beyond Prasad, Srinath and Ajit there is no pace bowler around, then either of two things happen: one he is like the selectors with a tunnel view or he does not know his cricket. The UP pace bowling duo of Ashish Zaidi and Ubaid Kamal are both better bowlers than Prasad, better fielders and no muck with the bat too. Similarly, Amit Bhandari and Robin Singh of Delhi are better bowlers too. When I say better I mean they have picked up wickets in docile pitches against good batting sides. It is embarassing to look at the number of chances given to Dravid and Laxman in one dayers. Everybody is flogging a dead horse, but the so-called experts will swear by the "talent" of these players. It is very obvious that other than the "Madrasi" crowd and people from Bombay, the players have to perform twice as good to get even a mention from the so-called experts of the game, leave alone the selectors. Hemant
Date sent: Thu, 19 Nov 1998 16:52:14 -0600 This column SUCKS. Clearly, whoever has written this article has no idea about what he is talking. Please refrain yourself from publishing such shameful articles in the future. The author would be better off keeping his opinions to himself. Murali
Date: Thursday, December 24, 1998 9:24 PM This was a very thought-provoking interview (on betting in cricket matches and match rigging) which raises many disturbing questions. Is it so difficult to prove such allegations though? All the CBI has to do is raid the concerned players and get a handle on their unaccounted wealth. The money players make in endorsements is all above the table, so any and all unaccounted wealth must have been made from illegal activities. Karan Kariappa
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