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E-mail from readers the world over
Date sent: Sat, 28 Mar 1998 15:32:20 -0800 Since the Vajpayee government has now won the confidence motion by a clear majority in Parliament, will pseudo warriors leave the Vajpayee administration alone so that this ruined nation of the last 50 years can go back to work? Let the government work for five years and see whether we need the extreme swing of one party rule like the first 48 years, or we need another extreme of 2 years of instability and razor thin triangular contests. I think after the chaotic experience, people will see the wise design of mature democracies where all national interests are trimlined through only two nationalist parties. Rasik Sanghvi
Date sent: Sat, 28 Mar 1998 20:36:40 +0530 This news is very shameful for the TDP.
Date sent: Sat, 28 Mar 1998 13:44:53 +1000 Bring in the bill, you promised after you win the no confidence motion: "You have to be born in India to be the PM of India" Rama
Date sent: Fri, 27 Mar 1998 16:16:17 -0700 I would like to comment on the remarks of our ex-finance minister P Chidambaram on the BJP government. He says the country has not given the BJP a mandate to rule. I want to ask him the following: Did the country give him and his ever fighting colleagues the mandate to rule for 18 disastrous months? Did the country give them the mandate to cobble together a rag tag majority and rule the nation? Did the country give them the mandate to take the support of the same Congress party (with P V Narasimha Rao still at the helm), from which they split to form the TMC? Did the TMC and DMK not fight against the Congress and the AIADMK in Tamil Nadu, and then joined the Congress on the reason that they wanted to keep the BJP out? But is it not true that they never fought the BJP in Tamil Nadu, and it was only the Congress and AIADMK they were fighting against. He says the main objective of the BJP is to capture power. I would like to know from him, what is his and his party's objective. He asks the prime minister to search his conscience about deals that the BJP made during the last 20 days to win over a majority. I would like to point out that the BJP and allies got 250 seats prior to the last 20 days. So whatever deal they made will only be to secure 22 more votes. Now compare it to the UF and the Congress tallies separately, and one can easily see that they required more than 100 votes to get a majority. How can they rule the nation then when they are 5 times more short of votes than the BJP? I can see only one way out, that they make 5 times the deals that the BJP made. So instead of asking the prime minister to search his conscience, Chidambaram needs to do some soul searching himself. At the end I will make some suggestions to Mr Chidambaram. 1. You are respected because of your knowledge in financial matters, but making baseless, and totally illogical statements, would not do any good to your reputation. 2. Do not forget that a burden of 800 crore rupees was imposed by the Congress on our country, just to keep your partners in Tamil Nadu out of the government. So you have no justifiable reason to even talk of supporting or taking support from the same Congress party within barely 3 months of that incident. 3. It is better if you realise that your party has been almost wiped out in Tamil Nadu barely few weeks ago, and your opposition got more votes than you, a factor for that was also that the public wanted Atal Bihari Vajpayee to rule the nation. So claiming that the BJP has not been given the mandate to rule, and it is actually the UF and Congress which has the mandate to rule, is ludicrous. Or do you prefer not to have a government at all, as it is either the BJP and allies or the fragmented Opposition, which can only unite in the name of anti BJP. Anurag Misra
Date sent: Mon, 30 Mar 98 10:38:00 PST M M Joshi must have been drunk when he said this. This was not an insult to Bihar, as much as to Om Puri, who has a perfectly human face. I wonder why I can't say, that Bihar looks like Kalyan Singh's cheeks? I can't, simply because it is very immature and stupid. Perhaps Rediff can go ahead and tell Dr M M Joshi, that some more cracks like this, and he will lose a large number of supporters for the BJP, and they will not vote for them again. G Rajesh
Date sent: Mon, 30 Mar 1998 08:37:48 +0800 It is is sad to note that people and the Press still need to recognise people like Laloo. What does he mean by building the Ram temple? In fact, the Ram temple issue is an aberration in Indian history. Even Ram will not attach any significance to it. Of course, Laloo is sarcastic while saying this. But India now needs no sarcasm, but some serious approach from those who are involved in politics. Sathyan Singapore
Date sent: Wed, 25 Mar 1998 15:59:34 -0800 (PST) What is the purpose of the news article "Did Advani take over Manmohan's room?" A small procedural error is given such an important place. Don't you have other important news? Mr Advani is among the very few top politicians in the country who still preserve the traits of honesty and decency. In spite of being all powerful president of BJP for so many years, he is still living in a modest government accommodation. His modesty and integrity is admired even by his political rivals. My brother-in-law ,who has served as private secretary of several ministers, including Mr Advani's during 1977-79, told me that such an honest and modest man is difficult to find in contemporary politics. His experiences were so different from what the media projects about Mr Advani. In fact, several journalists including Mr M J Akbar have highlighted similar aspects of his life. In fact, you should cover the lifestyle of some such politicians irrespective of their political affiliations to honour the goodness in politics. This would also give your readers a constructive view of those who rule India and dispel some disappointment about our politicians. Sunil Kumar
Date sent: Wed, 25 Mar 1998 14:03:35 -0500 Is this your idea of "news?" Gopal Mr Kumar, Mr Saraswat: What we reported was an exchange in Parliament, as a reading of the report will indicate.
Date sent: Wed, 25 Mar 1998 13:40:04 -0500 Your headline in today's column reads: "And in a telling comment on the BJP's dependence on its allies, the FM has hiked central aid to states." In the article the actual sentence just reads: "Sinha also announced a bonanza for the states in the shape of an additional sum of Rs 10 billion by way of additional central assistance for states for externally aided projects to settle all pending claims for the current financial year." The state politicians always clamour that they need more assistance from the Central government. When this actually happens the media wants to malign the government by twisting words. The FM has not said that this increase is "only" for states where it has allies. Instead, the article clearly states that this aid is for all states, doesn't it? It would be better if you (the media) put things in perspective, and report matters sensibly and responsibly. Rangarajan Padmavijayam
Date sent: Tue, 24 Mar 1998 12:46:15 -0800 The columnists are beating their breasts as if they suddenly discovered that most of the ministers in BJP have a strong RSS background. Come on, we all know that. In fact, due to this knowledge alone, did most BJP MPs get elected. The RSS has to call shots in the government. Otherwise, how can we undo the Marxist mixture in our universities, Prasar Bharti, Education Boards, Newspapers and government? Remember the last sentence of Professor Rajendra Singh in this article. "We all hope, Muslims will overcome their fear about strong Hinducentric government and will understand that RSS/BJP knows well that without the welfare of each and every citizen of the country, we can not live in peace and prosperity."
Date sent: Mon, 23 Mar 1998 09:04:59 -0600 Just read Shobha Warrier's interview with Selveganapathy. It was great to see an interviewer who was persistent and pointedly asked questions. Impressive work! Ram Raghavan
Date sent: Sat, 28 Mar 1998 06:11:23 PST My name is Mukul and I stay in Bombay. I totally agree with you. But I don't think your responsibility just ends there. Many people will agree with what you say. It's now our job to put an end to this. It is very important for India's future. If such people are going to rule India then God save the people. It is now time to get up and fight against such practices of letting criminals contest elections. A public interest litigation should be filed to put an end to such practices. A movement should be started by enlightening the people of the acts committed by such people. The problem in an election is that we do not have a clean choice. It's like we are voting for "Best of the Worst." Give a clean alternative to the people and they will lap it up. I voted because I didn't want the worst candidate to win (the best of worst situation). In TN, it was the same situation. People voted for AIADMK since they were fed up with the DMK- TMC combine. Similarly in Maharashtra. So I call upon like minded individuals to come together and clean up the rot that is all pervading in our political system. We should take inspiration from T N Seshan who single handedly cleaned up the electoral system in a short span of 5 years. Because of him people now know about the election process and what the model code of conduct means. Mukul
Date sent: Sat, 28 Mar 1998 07:45:34 -0500 Saurav should not be dropped from the squad for his suspension. The BCCI, as expected will adhere to this harsh pronouncement and not stand up for our players. What's happening here is a conspiracy against subcontinental cricket. South Africa, the pariah of international cricket just a few years ago is probably the worst behaved team -- openly abuses opposing players on and off the field and seems to get away with anything. It's time to take a stance. We do not have to put up with this kind of preferential punishment. The best way to do this is to include Saurav for the first ODI. Vish Iyer
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