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E-mail from readers the world over
Date sent: Wed, 01 Apr 1998 23:40:49 +0100 I am amazed the BJP is trying to espouse the so-called swadeshi. The upshot is that opportunists like Gurumurthy who are intellectually constrained, and who have no knowledge of how the international economy works are trying to steal the limelight by drumming up absolutely irrelevant and redundant topics. Please liberalise the economy like China has done and gain international respectability. After staying in the US for quite some time, I feel my fellow Indians like Gurumurthy are living in a fool's paradise.
Date sent: Wed, 01 Apr 1998 13:10:12 -0800 Gurumurthy is legitimising the caste system by articulating that they have precedence over state administration. It's like going back to the pre-British era where there was a clear division between lower and upper caste.
Date sent: Wed, 01 Apr 98 11:01:37 -0800 I think Mr S Gurumurthy is one of those people who wants to live in a small self-created hut forever. What the hell is he talking about? Why does he not work for creating awareness in Indian business houses to generate good-quality products? Indian customers (specially the middle class) are not fools. They will not buy imported of MNC products (which are more expensive than their "swadeshi" counterparts) just for the sake of buying an MNC product. One example is Onida. Please do not try to affect people's minds with your logic. Go to the Indian business society and first ask them to give us better products. Mukesh
Date sent: Wed, 01 Apr 1998 11:17:50 PST Associated with business and economics, is a report by UNDP, which is available at these web pages: http://www.undp.org/undp/hdro/96.htm After reading the above reports, and understanding your interview with Gurumurthyji (and other reports), it seems to be coming a full circle. A UN organisation talks of the ills of globalisation, which is said by our people too (for so long!) Can Rediff post excerpts of the above UNDP Human Development Reports '96? It will be of great help! Prasad
Date: Wed, 01 Apr 1998 14:20:45 -0500 How come you even cared to interview Gurumurthy? I am no believer of the 'westernisation is modernisation' rule which he claims oppose. But, I cannot think of a reason why he thinks the caste system should continue. I don't care whether you publish this or not, but I think he is living in 1998 BC. Venkatesh
Date sent: Wed, 01 Apr 1998 13:23:37 -0600 When Shobha Warrier asks him about the efficiency of the private industries as compared to government-owned industries, Gurumurthy replies: "It is because of socialism. Most of the airlines in the world, 70 per cent of them, are unwed by governments. So how come only Indian Airlines fares badly? Lufthansa, Swiss Air, British Airways, all are government controlled. The list goes on. It is because of the havoc that the Marxists caused in India. Indian discipline was destroyed by the Marxists." This shows the kind of knowledge with which these Hindutva guys operate. I know for sure that British Airways is not a government-controlled company and that it is publicly traded. I happen to be a shareholder in it. I am willing to bet quite a bit that Lufthansa and Swiss Air are also private companies. Mr Gurumurthy claims he is one of the best in his profession (apparently, he is a chartered accountant) and at the same time talks about dharma and Indian tradition. I thought modesty is one of the biggest qualities of a practising dharmist. Maybe he should start practising that. I couldn't make head or tail of most of his drivel. For instance, "My view is, smaller the market, the more efficient will be its role, and its evil will have less consequences. Larger the market, the greater the evil. ".. It would be interesting to see what kind of an alternative he proposes for Western civilisation which he says is unsustainable. Wouldn't it be better to find ways to make it sustainable, in case he isn't able to offer us an alternative??
Date sent: Wed, 1 Apr 1998 12:04:53 -0800 A very knowledgeable interview. Very impressive. Only a broad minded person who can also think off beat will be able to understand what Mr S Gurumurthy was saying. Thanks for such a great article again. Rajesh Chokhani
Date sent: Thu, 2 Apr 1998 02:14:14 +0530 As I read Mr Gurumurthy's interview, a series of points came up which I wanted to challenge. But by the time I had read the entire article, these points were so many, that I wasn't sure that the people who elected him to public office, would be intelligent enough to understand my criticism. Uday Sher Singh
Date sent: Wed, 01 Apr 1998 13:21:49 -0700 Why do you waste time, effort and valuable net bytes on interviewing such weirdos??? This site is real good -- so just don't waste space and turn off people who read this site with interest.
Date sent: Wed, 01 Apr 1998 16:36:09 -0600 Man, this fellow is scary. Is he the Ayatollah of India or what? Dharma, dharma, dharma! Was Kautilya a dharmic economist? Maybe Mr Gurumurthy should just practise his trade, ie, chartered accountancy and manage other people's money. Leave the sermonising to others. There are enough people in the world denouncing the "crazy, morally bankrupt West"! The world, or India, certainly does not need another one. Reading his interview, I wondered how many years has it been since Adolf Hitler's death! Are we now in for a superior race, namely the Indian people who are the only righteous ones, and the rest of the morally decrepit people of the world? News reports said that our finance minister is beholden to this man for his position. Hope he is not beholden to such an extent that he will begin fearing a fatwa, if he does not toe the line and the "truth" as spoken by a chartered accountant!
Date sent: 01 Apr 98 16:55:35 -0600 Gurumurthy's views are wonderful. Our Indian people should shun the craze for Westernisation. I am in the USA. After coming here I realised that Hindu culture is much more advanced than any other culture in the world. I would like to work with Gurumurthy. R Pazhani Kumar
Date sent: Wed, 01 Apr 1998 22:24:15 -0500 While I was going through this interview I remembered how I used feel the same way few years back. I can understand what Mr Gurumurthy really means through his words, but I am 100 per cent sure he cannot achieve that by alienating ourselves from the world in the name of our culture and civilisation. Sometimes we (Indians) are afraid to face the reality. For some reason, our years of civilisation and culture has not produced any development for the country. Instead we are working backward. Most of the time we are like frogs in a well. We need to come out of it and see the other world and realise where we stand. There is good and bad in every civilisation. Take the good and leave the bad. Who said there is no good in Western civilisation? If everything is bad why are they prosperous and we, in such a situation. My simple question to Mr Gurumurthy is -- we were swadeshi for 50 years. Take a simple example how may cars models do we have for past 50 years. Just one -- the Ambassador. Does that mean there are no Indian companies to compete with this company or is there any other reason? Why are we so crazy about Western goods like Coke? If you think our products are as good as theirs, then what are we afraid of? My simple suggestion is we need to be in the game to know what is right or wrong. You cannot hide behind the civilisation/culture to get the best out of us. Srinivas Gandham
Date sent: Thu, 02 Apr 1998 12:13:56 +0800 Please, please don't interview such rightist bigots in future. Your's has been a great site which is liberal in expressions. I assume you aren't getting carried away by the swadeshi ideals too much. Interviewing practical minded people is one thing but this guy is hopeless!!! Thanks a lot and keep up the great work... Sanjeev
Date sent: Wed, 01 Apr 1998 20:39:42 PST I read with saddened amusement Mr Gurumurthy's view on this topic. Bashing Western culture/capitalism is a lip service approach which Mr Gurumurthy has taken and it's no different than the Congress/Opposition's charge of the BJP being communal. We need concrete steps to improve the situation. The world has no time for us, and people (western/eastern) don't care about us whether we bash them or not. I'm sure a lot of people will agree that India is a very low priority country in the designs of the US and the West. While we continue to debate endlessly, the world is moving at a rapid pace only to leave us behind if we don't catch up. Let Mr Gurumurthy list and implement 10 steps for a better India and I'll hold him in high regard. Venky
Date sent: Wed, 01 Apr 1998 22:35:23 -0800 The idea of swadeshi seems to have been thought of by a section of the Indian elite in order to monopolise a huge market for their low-quality products. Another aim is to monopolise access to cheap labour. And through all this, to perpetuate hereditary privileges. To try and put a dharmic veneer on these nefarious aims is disgusting in the extreme. Milind Padki
Date sent: Thu, 2 Apr 1998 14:01:29 -0500 Mr Gurumurthy, "Acquisition, conquering, overpowering, dominating, interfering -- these are unsustainable." Whether this is true or false, but once we Indians accept it, I can bet India is going to be one of the laziest, weakest and unaspiring country at the mercy of foreign powers. Anyway, Westerners are not going to adopt your ideology. So they are going to become richer and powerful by acquisition, conquering etc. while we sell these ideologies to people who just go by emotions, and cannot analyse consequences. I feel a majority of ideologues in India like him and the communists are over reactive to western culture and philosophy. They don't want to go beyond their prejudices. Why are you teaching us Indians to remain poor, powerless, underdogs without acquiring goods, and letting others conquer us. Give us a brake, teach us to be acquirerers, achievers, conquerors, powerful.
Date sent: Wed, 1 Apr 1998 08:16:18 -0800 Poor Gurumurthy knows nothing and is seen sitting on a chair which itself is a Western invention. He is only the guru of murthy which means the guru of statue. Western society may not have the world's sustainable economy but the average Westerner has good knowledge of the environment. We have destroyed our forests, trashed our land, defecated on our railway tracks and built temples without toilets. By the way, does god still live in those temples Mr Gurumurthy?
Date sent: Wed, 01 Apr 1998 09:01:06 -0800 I was quite happy to read Mr Gurumurthy's interview. For once, someone has spoken what swadeshi actually means. Vedanta in one of its forms.
Date sent: Wed, 1 Apr 1998 09:45:38 -0800 Please spare us these inane ramblings. I wish I could understand what he was speaking. Either I'm an uninformed idiot who is unable to understand this genius or he is talking nonsense. Yaji
Date sent: Wed, 01 Apr 1998 10:50:40 -0700 Mr Gurumurthy should check the facts before quoting: For example, the answer to the following question is obviously flawed. "Let me ask you about the public sector. Why is it that efficiency and effective management is better in a private organisation then a public sector organisation? It is because of socialism. Most of the airlines in the world, 70 per cent of them, are unwed by governments. So how come only Indian Airlines fares badly? Lufthansa, Swiss Air, British Airways, all are government controlled. The list goes on. It is because of the havoc that the Marxists caused in India. Indian discipline was destroyed by the Marxists."
Date sent: Wed, 01 Apr 1998 16:41:53 PST I was shocked and dismayed to read about the views of Gurumurthy on the Uniform Civil Code. He said he would oppose it since it would aggravate the minorities (specially Muslims). Their percentage in India has increased from 6% to 17%. No country has different laws for different people. The RSS and BJP have opposed the Congress for appeasing the minorities by not having the Uniform Civil Code for decades. I hope people who call themselves intellectuals think about this before they give statements like this. Sunil How readers reacted to Dilip D'Souza's earlier columns
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