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April 28, 1998
SPECIALS
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How Readers reacted to Pritish Nandy's recent columns
Date sent: Mon, 20 Apr 98 11:44:48 -0800 Hi Pritish, You are correct about most of the issues discussed. But if you look at Amma's intentions, this is 100% blackmail. Just by showing up wrongs, your own wrongs will never become right. Amma has never taken responsibility for her acts. On the other hand Vajpayee's situation is a little more understandable. If he had a comfortable majority, there is no doubt in my mind that he would give a clean government. But in the present situation doing that would be foolish -- it might lead to the power falling into wrong hands.
Rajeev Jain
Date sent: Tue, 21 Apr 1998 17:54:59 +0530 I don't agree with Pritish Nandy's article totally. When the stability of the government is at stake, and she herself is corrupt, how can she create all this havoc? Moreover, it's the people who have elected them. If there is stability we can hope for something nice to happen. Otherwise, the people in the Opposition will come to power and wreak vengeance on the others. The cycle will go on... Bharat
Date sent: Fri, 17 Jul 1998 14:12:16 -0500 Hi Nandy, Although the method she uses is not fair, the point she raises is valid. Now the ball is in the PM's court. The means justify the ends. It really was a good article. Nice of Rediff to air Nandy's views. R Rajkumar
Date sent: Sun, 26 Apr 1998 12:55:22 EDT I suspect some ulterior motive in Pritish's column. Can you name a single person in today's politics who is better than Vajpayee in terms of mental acumen, moral righteousness and rich experience? Just name one person, I challenge you. Dr Sujeeth Reddy
Date sent: Wed, 22 Apr 1998 10:04:45 PDT A timely column, indeed. With friends like Jayalalita, Vajpayee doesn't need any enemies at all. Jayalalita is a prefect blend of corruption, nepotism and egoism. Everybody expected the BJP to have problems with Samata, Mamata and Jayalalita. While the first two have chosen to keep quiet, Jaya started showing her colours right from day one. First the letter of support, then the DMK govt's dismissal, then the Cauvery issue, language issue, Muttiah issue... and now the Sun TV issue! She says that Jethmalani and Hegde should resign on moral grounds. What a joke! Jayalalita, you should be the last person to speak of morality. Everyone knows the intentions behind Muthiah's resignation. In fact, he resigned only after his Amma asked him to do so. A lady who squeezed Tamil Nadu dry has no right to utter the word morality. Her first enemy, Karunanidhi, was quite humble in issuing a statement that he is ready to sacrifice power in order to have a stable government. But this lady, she cares a damn about the country. All she wants is her government in Tamil Nadu. She wants back those 'golden' days in which her house was full of gold. Her thoughts always move around herself and her dear friends. Looking at the way things are going, there is no wonder if she switches to the Congress one fine moment. I can only say one thing: Jayalalita, there is something called SHAME!!
Kiran Pillarisetty
Date sent: Wed, 22 Apr 1998 05:56:55 PDT Pritish has done it again! In the full glare of publicity, he has rushed out (another deadline, perhaps?), made inept comparisons, arrived at hasty conclusions, and fallen flat on his face. All in a single essay! No mean feat, that! On a more serious note: Why is it we find it so convenient to blame our leaders for our society's ills? Over the past 50 years, we have taken many shortcuts. Many of these had absolutely no merit whatsoever. They were politically convenient -- nothing more. At that time, our intellectuals found many reasons to justify them. Remember the notorious 'Conscience Voting' encouraged by Mrs Gandhi which put Mr Giri into the President's chair? The idea of packing the Supreme Court with 'Committed Judges'? The declaration of Emergency and the subsequent imprisonment of Opposition leaders? Each of these was a well aimed blow at established institutions, done solely for personal gain. As I recall, a great many journalists applauded Mrs G then. These and other blows have led to the steady decline of morals that our founding fathers were so proud of. Today we have a situation where our established institutions are corrupt to the core. Certainly Pritish and his fellow journalists have contributed to this decay. They cannot adopt a selective memory and pretend they had nothing to do with it. We, the general public, hold Pritish and Co. as much responsible for the mess as the average politician/civil servant. The situation cannot be corrected overnight either by this PM or anybody else. All of us have a vested interest in cleaning up this mess. We can start as more responsible citizens. In your case, Pritish, let's have more responsibility in your essays. No more of this trash masquerading as journalism. To use the words from your own lexicon: Don't fake it! Krishna
Date sent: Tue, 21 Apr 1998 14:16:37 -0700 Pritish thinks he knows about everything. He likes to comment about everything around. First he talked about some stupid Independence Rock and now Amma. I wonder why he never writes about more serious stuff... like the killing of so many innocent Hindus in Jammu. This guy is a biased, always anti-BJP (anti-BJP is not bad sometimes, but if you are focused in that direction, you will ignore many important things) and anti-swadeshi. He is a typical Na ghar ka na ghaat ka type, who thinks just by knowing good English he is a great journalist. It is unfortunate that this guys writes regularly on Rediff, which is my start page on the browser. Rajesh
Date sent: Tue, 21 Apr 1998 11:07:36 PDT Mr Pritish, How conveniently you change your stand on a person! Now Jaya is helping you, so she becomes a tough and strong lady. A few days ago you were talking about her just like Subramanian Swamy. How about an article on how Sonia controlled the Congress since 1989? Moreover, here is a wish list of the articles I want you to write (if you want to prove you are not a symbol of yellow journalism): *What you think of India (honestly)? *A detailed article on Bofors. *Whom Sonia chose as Rajya Sabha nominees, who her close confidants are and why? After hearing your brother Ashis Nandy spewing venom against Indians in Texas, I realised the reason why you are so bitter about India. In the end I can only say "Forgive him Lord for he doesn't know what he is doing"! Anamika
Date sent: Tue, 21 Apr 1998 11:35:12 +0530 Hello Rediff Pritish Nandy once again proves that there is no equal to him in writing idiotic trash. I request Rediff to start a "comedy column" and include Nandy's trash there. And may we know, which school Nandy went to? (I heard it was in some backwaters of Orissa... Got my point??). Cheers, Raj
Date sent: Mon, 20 Apr 1998 18:23:32 -0700 Reluctantly, I had to agree with Mr Nandy. When the BJP was looking for the support it needed to form a government, I cringed at the thought of it having to collude with the likes of Sukh Ram and Jayalalitha. I did not know of the cases against Hegde, Buta Singh and Jethmalani, nor L K Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi. While Jayalalitha has no moral right to raise her voice against corruption, the fact is that the BJP cannot function without silencing her. And they can silence her only if: *They do not have to partner with her or Sukh Ram or such others *By actually cleaning up their own act. By holding themselves in full public view to the highest standard of public life service in a brutally honest manner But, all the while, a voice kept nagging me: Is Pritish's way the right way? Can the BJP do what he is asking them to do? Does the Indian situation provide any politician/political party such a luxury? Will the next government, should the BJP fall, be able to demonstrate such standards? I think all Indians will come up with the same answer to these questions -- NO! So, then, the question we have to ask is: Can we afford this? Do we deserve such standards -- we who have re-elected Jayalalitha and Sukh Ram, we who have kept Sitaram Kesri, Sharad Pawar, Arjun Singh and Laloo Yadav for years and years in politics, we who are so apathetic, illiterate/ignorant or so poor/corrupt that "when temptation comes, we give right in?" Or should we be saying: "OK, we know everyone is corrupt. Having looked in all corners for a solution, having thrown three governments in quick succession, having brought the country to a standstill while the rest of the world moves on, we have now installed the government. All the so-called 'allies' have pledged 'unconditional' support. Shall we now immediately set about criticising, attacking and preaching to the new government, even before it has had a chance to settle down and do some governing?" Knowing the Opposition parties, and in this case even the allies, we will be doing that anyway. Shouldn't we, the people, those such as Pritish Nandy, who have a voice in the media, and thus carry a bigger responsibility, those who care, be saying: "We are fed up. We know your games. You have had your time. Now we choose to let them have theirs. We know all of you are corrupt. But we feel L K Advani is better than Jayalalitha. We feel Ram Jethmalani may be better than Sukh Ram. So till their time is over, let them work, let them get a decent chance to function, a decent chance to provide 'good governance' as they have promised." In 5 years, or even 3 years, if they have proved otherwise, we would not be worse off than we are now. At least we would have proven ourselves wrong. And at least, we would have seen 3 years or 5 years of non-Congress rule, and have rid ourselves of the myth we all believe in -- that the Congress ruined the country and are unfit to rule. The reality would then be that we have proved Churchill right: that we, Indians, are unfit to govern ourselves! But till then I have pinned my hopes on the democratic process we have successfully followed year after year -- of voting out the bad, and voting in what we desperately hope is the better. So I have pinned my hopes on the BJP -- not because I believe they are saints in politicians's clothing, but simply because they may be better. I just wish Mr Nandy and others like him would tell people like Jayalalitha to shut up and pipe down. And give the new government a decent chance.
Mahesh Singh
Date sent: Mon, 20 Apr 1998 18:16:13 -0400 Like her or hate her, she has the facts right -- at least this time. Albeit the fact that it all boils down to personal ambition, what she has done is correct... Jayalalitha is the femme fatale of Indian politics -- to predict what she would do is an impossibility. But, under all these, what do we see? A subtle Hitler or a broom to sweep our political scene clean? Pritish Nandy has done a good job!
Date sent: Mon, 20 Apr 1998 13:55:06 -0700 I am waiting to hear what Nandy likes about Adolf Hitler now. The article reminds me of "whatever atrocities Saddam does it's OK because he is expected to do it, but US cannot bomb Iraq because they are bound by rules and regulations even though it is for the betterment of people." At this moment I am not concerned about how much money who accumulated because I know everyone has done it. I am more concerned about my country having a stable government for the next 5 years. I don't want to pay tax to have elections conducted every other year. Also, at this moment I don't care what language is being spoken. I want the Kashmir and NE problems to be resolved. I want them to feel proud to be Indians. We should get together for this cause and not to change Bombay to Mumbai, Ahmedabad to something else, or making Tamil official language. SK
Date sent: Mon, 20 Apr 1998 17:03:56 -0400 Dear Pritish, While I am for the cleaning up act that you suggest, where do we find the clean-up guys? How many experienced and clean politicians are there? The answer is not enough to make even half of the Cabinet. Even the ones that have no charges against them would have charges once they become ministers. New Swamys will come to the fore, to dig up old graves. Is the alternative to the present gang of politicians a military raj? Okay, corruption should be fought, but why so much hue and cry over a few guys? Why not build controls so that they cannot continue to be corrupt? With the kind of history that Amma has, she should drown herself in a chullu bhar pani. It is one thing to harp on clean politics, quite another to find clean politicians. The days are not yet here when you and Pranab can be invited to be in the ministry.
Tapas
Date sent: Mon, 20 Apr 1998 17:42:15 -0700 My dear friend, you missed the bus! You should have criticised Hegde and Jethmalani when they committed the crimes. Talk about those ministers in Vajpayee govt who adopted corrupt practices while serving in his Cabinet? Can you identify even one minister? Vajpayee is only responsible for his government and his ministers, not for crimes committed during some other government's regime. Courts are taking care of such cases.
Date sent: Tue, 21 Apr 1998 07:43:29 +0700 Though Pritish Nandy had problems in the past with JJ, he acknowledges what she is doing is right. TN voters have done a good job bringing her back. Good for Mr Nandy to highlight that some one like JJ is needed to act as a check to the present PM. R Chandrasekaran
Date sent: Mon, 20 Apr 1998 17:44:10 -0500 I agree with Mr Nandy completely. I think what India requires is the enforcement of political morality. With political players like Jayalalitha and her coterie, this not going to happen. I am convinced the current judicial system will not convict any politician of corruption charges. What needs to be done is to appoint a special panel of judges to try corruption charges against politicians. They should be given a time frame to complete the trial.
Date sent: Mon, 20 Apr 1998 17:50:00 -0700 Pritish Nandy has hit the bull's-eye by bringing out the vagaries of Indian politics. A very good column indeed. The only tragedy is that these issues are being raised by one of the most corrupt politicians in India today.
Santosh Bhat
Date sent: Mon, 20 Apr 1998 13:30:38 -0500 Pritish Nandy is asking for a pure governance in a political situation which has been polluted for years by the Congress and its UF offsprings. If the BJP has to set this muddle straight it would take it some years of stability. An alternative to the BJP is to let the Congress come back and continue its scamster government. Pundits, such as Nandy, are not that naive that they do not understand this. They hide their hatred for the BJP by logic twisting and sermonising. It is not possible to eliminate political corruption in one clean sweep, unless the BJP is given an absolute majority, which they do not have now. Nandy should thank God for providing India with at least one Vajpayee. The unfair manner in which you attack Vajpayee is similar to criticising Arjuna for killing the unarmed Karna, while ignoring Karna's earlier treacherous act of killing unarmed Abhimanyu. The ethics of clean politics have been systematically destroyed by the Congress. It will take a long time to bring some civility back to politics. We pray that Vajpayee will be given time to do that.
T R Rao
Date sent: Mon, 20 Apr 1998 14:01:53 -0400 Exactly the kind of journalism I wanted to see! I am no fan of Amma. I find her hypocrisy hard to take. But I cannot but appreciate her persistence and determination in whatever she does. Srikanth Parameswaran
Date sent: Tue, 24 Feb 1998 23:13:11 -0500 Brilliant.
Amardeep Singh |
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