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E-mail from readers the world over
Date: Tue, 21 Oct 1997 14:07:29 GMT My main objection with the VDIS scheme is that it leads to, what is called in economics jargon, a problem of dynamic inconsistency. It simply means that if you let an erring economic agent go unpunished, then the next time around that economic agent will assume that every time his wrongdoing will be forgiven. This increases, in our case, the incentive to evade tax even more. It is not surprising that the VDIS scheme is not generating too much revenue. Defaulters can rationally assume that the government will once again come up with an even more lenient disclosure scheme to tap some black money. Dangling a carrot every time without a stick can make people really greedy. Furthermore, honest taxpayers pay taxes through their nose. They definitely have a right to feel cheated by the VDIS scheme. In a desperate bid to collect resources for his 'dream Budget' Mr Chidambaram, it seems, has compromised with a lot of things. Honesty is one of them. Parthapratim Pal JNU, New Delhi
Date sent: Mon, 17 Nov 1997 18:40:01 -0600 The PSB's dismal performance doesn't really surprise anyone. They are forced to give loans to politicians's cronies and have to eat treat as loss. What surprises me is common people put their savings to be treated as beggars. They deserve to be treated better and give a new meaning to "Customers are #1" Ragu
Date: Thu, 13 Nov 1997 13:40:53 -0800 This is a superb article with great pictures of various locomotives in India. May I add a correction to the description shown in: 'This Electric Loco, #21900, class YCG1, was the first loco used on the Metre Gauge section of the Southern Railway in 1930.' Thanks for the great job. Prakash
Date sent: Fri, 14 Nov 1997 15:07:36 -0500 I read this report with surprise. I don't know why national dailies did not carry this report. It is the first time a Muslim leader of any significance said something pragmatic about the Babri Masjid. Instead of establishing whether at the site of the Babri Masjid, there existed a temple or not, let us ask why there is a mosque in the midst of so many temples. It must be simply because the Hindus told Babar that this temple, this piece of land, is most dear to them. Having won the war and plundered, that barbarian mind prompted him to destroy the temple and erect a mosque in its place. The only reason and purpose is to humiliate Hindus, because they said it is very dear to them. That the issue did not die down even after centuries shows how dear it is to Hindus. It is simply an emotional issue. Whether Ram was born there or Sita died there was of no consequence to Babar. For him it was an act to humiliate his opponent. Since lot of people (Hindus) believe that it is Lord Ram's birthplace, any sensible Muslim leadership would have abandoned its claim whatsoever long back. But strangely from the Muslim society no such sane voices are generally heard. Neither the press nor the politicians allow us to be heard. I am not a BJP man. In fact, I feel hurt that so much anti-Muslim talk is going on over this issue. Suresh
Date sent: Wed, 10 Sep 1997 13:49:57 +0800 It is hard to digest the difference in the stand of people on the two issues - "The demolition of the Babri Masjid" and "The implementation of the recommendation of the Mandal Commission." We have ample historical evidence that the Babri Masjid was built by destroying the Ram temple by the then Mughal emperor. If it is right that justice should be done to the dalits who were suppressed in the past, by way of implementing the Mandal Commission. It is also right that justice should be done to the Hindu population who suffered similar suppression by the Mughal emperors. So does this mean that the "demolition of the Babri Masjid is right??" If not so, what do you say about depriving the upper caste of their privileges in every aspects of life (like getting admission to universities to getting government jobs etc etc) for the wrong doings of their ancestors? As our nation's father Mahatma Gandhiji said, "Eye for an Eye.. tooth for a tooth" is a bad policy to be followed , then it should not be followed in both the cases. Some might wonder -- "Then how to uplift the dalit people??" I fully agree that something solid has to be done for these people who are living a miserable life. But I bet the Mandal Commission is nowhere near a solution. The solution should start from the base. It should start from the schools. Make government schools competent with all other schools. Give the poor people all the facilities which a good school can boast of, for free. This will bring them on par with all the other students, then let it be free for all when it comes to entrance exams to the universities or government jobs etc. But let the government continue to fund them during their course of studies. If the basement is not strong, even if you build a Taj Mahal, it is going to fall down soon. When the politicians can spend so many billions of rupees on themselves, their families and loot the country, they can definitely concentrate on reforming the schools run by the government, irrespective of the cost it would incur. Only then there will be a long running solution for the problem and justice done to the dalits. Instead of trying to build a proper base, our wicked politicians are casting their eyes on the vote bank by bringing up these issues and posing themselves to be the saviour of the dalits. Only if we think in this direction there will be some meaning for this otherwise meaningless and prejudiced Commission. Rajagopalan Anand.
Date: Monday, November 17, 1997 11:10 AM The article was really good. You should bring more such articles about the "other people" who are involved in the making of the movie instead of the standard articles about hero's and heroine's. Also the movies in India which are hero-oriented should change. If you write more such articles, it will influence the producers to change their movies and not produce stereotyped movies. They blame it on the masses saying that they want such movies, but if the producers produce movies with good FX then I bet the movie will be a hit. Narayanan Cincinnati
Date sent: Sat, 30 Aug 1997 13:26:19 -0700 (MST) Sniff, sniff. Abdullah Siddiqui
Date sent: Fri, 10 Oct 1997 17:35:19 -0500 (CDT) I have been a regular reader of V Gangadhar's column in The Hindu for many years. I have admired the way he writes the column, combining nostalgia with humor, and thoughtfulness. Boy, I was just zapped by his style !! This article, in his typical style, brings back my memories as a 17 year old, when I used to be the cause of those soaring telephone bills in our house! Four years later, the bills haven't come down yet, but, the difference being the fact that I pay the bills now!! Thank you, Mr Gangadhar, you have brightened up my day, as well as many others who have read this article!!
Date: Mon, 10 Nov 1997 20:50:08 +0000 Hi, I am a Guider in Norwich, Great Britain. We are making Diwali lamps tomorrow night, and being Scottish I know very little about Diwali. Your page has some lovely stories which I am sure that my Guides will enjoy. Wish us luck with the lamps and belated Happy Diwali. Louise
Date sent: Mon, 27 Oct 1997 07:10:44 PST I thoroughly enjoy reading A Ganesh Nadar's columns as it describes a lot of details about villages that are close to my own village (Umarikkadu). I have been bought up in Bombay and I go to my native place once every few years, but his articles on the life in the village give a vivid picture; almost like living it. Almost everyone living in that area has some sort of connection with Bombay and Madras and has a life very similar to what is described in those articles. Thanks for carrying his articles on the Internet. Anand Nadar
Date sent: Sun, 07 Sep 1997 14:07:36 +0800 The article like others is superb. Thanks for such an eyeopening article. Abhijit Datta Singapore
Date sent: Tue, 09 Sep 1997 11:41:30 -0700 I was very pleased to read your article on the Kashmiri Pandits, and am sure that many will make sense out of it. It is good to read a moderate and sensible stance on an issue as important as this. Something similar happened to the Sindhis and other immigrants from Pakistan just about 50 years ago. Guess it's true that those who forget history are condemned to repeat it. SB
Date sent: Tue, 16 Sep 1997 15:15:56 +0200 I have two comments about Mr D'Souza's article. One is tautological. Mr D'Souza accuses everyone about playing with the Kashmiris to prove their own agenda. "They are simply pawns in the hands of one agenda or another. " Now he himself is using the suffering Kashmiri pandits to drive home his point about browbeating the Hindus elsewhere. A good one too I agree. Two, a point about facts. Let's have statistics, about how many (in percentage terms or absolute) of the Kashmiri pandits have been driven away from homes and living as refugees elsewhere. Compare this with the number of Muslims from Maharashtra who has moved to "safe havens" in Pakistan, Bangladesh or where ever exists a Muslim majority is. In fact this might turn out to be negative as many Bangladeshi Muslims come to Bombay and elsewhere in Maharashtra.
Date sent: Fri, 26 Sep 1997 16:26:39 -0400 "Britain needs to recognise that India has been maltreated by it. And if that's jingoism, boy, yes, I'm a jingoist and proud of it." This is exactly how I felt when I read the quoted article on these pages. When would the pseudo-intelligentia come out of their dens. Hats off to Varsha. Suresh
Date sent: Fri, 26 Sep 1997 16:03:16 -0400 This is to compliment the article of Varsha Bhosle, regarding jingoism. I agree with her in more ways than I can express, she's a brave voice manifest in the darkness of Indian journalism, and hopefully shall continue to illumine more peoples lives, and continue the fight against the intensely biased and pseudo-secular press of India. Bravo Varsha! Keep it up. India needs more of its daughters to learn from your glowing example. I wish you all success and Godspeed in your journalistic endeavours. Sandeep Markan
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