I object to the ‘sexational’ contents and graphics in your cover story No Sex Please, We are Indian (September 21). None of the responsible international magazines sexationalised the issue as you did. A few months back I switched over to Outlook. I even encouraged my 12-year-old daughter to browse through the magazine. Now you’ve made me regret my decision. We don’t want such cover stories, we’re indeed Indian.
G. Vijayan Rao, Bahrain
Most of us commit adultery at least once in our lifetime, in thought, if not in reality. It’s the lack of opportunity that make ‘virtuous’ men and women of us. Let Clinton be allowed to do the job he was given the mandate for.
D. Rohan, Chennai
In the great country America, they’re more concerned about their President lying than his affair. We in India have nothing against lies and corruption. After making a show of the due process of law we release the corrupt. We’re even greater than America!
H.S. Hanspal, Delhi
We in India lack the resources to drive terrorists out of our borders. But Starr has commandeered immense resources to nail the President. The sexual peccadilloes of our leaders and neighbours leave us unmoved. We wish our leaders got all the sex they wanted and gave us a buoyant economy. Instead of a nincompoop of a celibate for President, the Americans at least have a leader with a hyperactive libido but who does his job exceedingly well.
Raju, Chennai
After reading your cover story, I wonder what the politicians’ reaction will be to the code of conduct on sexual harassment released by the National Commission for Women. Will they ever adhere to the code or will they modify it to exempt themselves, the people’s representatives? All said, sex is not hereditary and the ‘biological urge‘ is the mother of all pathological deviation of sexual instinct and none need bother.
A.S. Raj, Bangalore
The Lewinsky affair should be a lesson for the politicians of the world not to misuse their august offices. It’s surprising that a western country like the US reacted strongly while (as per your cover story) Indians excuse their politicians with respect to their private lives.
Akhilesh Kumar Sah, Faizabad
The Indian politician is authorised to lie with impunity, and hence lie around with equal impunity. That’s the difference between the US and us.
F.M. Soonwalla, Lucknow
It’s absurd to say that Indians are not sensitive about their leaders having illicit sexual relationships. Had our leaders faced a Starr-crossed investigation, our reactions perhaps would’ve been different.
Rajeev Prakash, New Delhi
As a 22-year-old member of Generation Next, I was intrigued by the claim that we’re blasé about our leaders’ sex lives. After all, aren’t we the land of Kamasutra? Why can’t our elders be as blasé about the sex lives of the youth? And for Kama’s sake, why is the blame for all alleged ills of our generation always laid on MTV and Santa Barbara?
Deepa Iyer, Delhi
You’ve done justice only to Starr, bete noire of Clinton, by washing the dirty linen of Indian public figures.
V.S. Sankaran, Madurai
The world policeman, the US, is melting in the heat of the Lewinsky scandal. But it now wants to move ahead and look towards issues such as development. India, however, continues to be obsessed with America and its president, oblivious to its own woes.
V.N. Kesavan, Mumbai
Our penchant for imitating the West sometimes reaches ridiculous extents. Your cover story is a case in point. If the Americans behave immaturely in revealing the private life of their President, must we follow them in dealing with our own personalities? We should rather be proud that at least in evaluating the private lives of our ‘netas’ we don’t apply double standards.
Nandini Dutta, Delhi
In your Adam-Eve cover, the snake is missing.
K.C. Sagar, Ahmedabad
Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar has been bracketed with Sir Donald George Bradman and we Indians are justifiably proud (In the Don’s Lair, September 14). But one can’t help but notice the role of the media (especially print) in the creation of this unnecessary hype. Ever since Bradman retired in 1948, there have been players who’ve had careers brilliant by any standards (except perhaps Brad-man’s own). Sir Garfield Sobers, Everton Weekes, Vivian Richards, Brian Lara, Sir Leonard Hutton, Denis Compton, Graeme Pollock, Zaheer Abbas, Javed Miandad, Sunil Gavaskar, Ian and Greg Chappell and Allan Border, all have had postwar careers with batting averages of 50-plus per inning. Tendulkar’s physical build and batting style must have prompted Bradman to draw a parallel with himself, but the Don has also effusively praised Sobers, Pollock and Richards for their masterly batting displays. On one occasion, he has called Gavaskar an ‘ornament to the game’. Tendulkar is a terrific batsman and perhaps the most aggressive ever from India, but the unnecessary hype is bound to add pressure on the ‘little champion’.
Archisman Mozumder, Mumbai
There has been widespread criticism of the scuttling of the Tata’s airline project (Whose Loss is it Anyway?, September 14). I can recollect our former civil aviation minister C.M. Ibrahim yelling "Tata, tata". This pathetic attitude of our ministers has earned us no good reputation among global investors. The BBC’s Daniel Lak has earlier pointed out the blatant flouting of rules in the Indian Airlines flight to Leh wherein only half the capacity utilisation is permitted and one can get a seat by doling out a few dollars, risking other passengers’ life. The overweight, sluggish IA will thus find it difficult to gear up for competition.
Guarav Bansal, Chandigarh
After the storm raised by Arun-dhati Roy’s article (The End of Imagination, August 3), you’ve stirred the hornet’s nest yet again by giving undue importance to a terrorist like Osama bin Laden and sensationalising the serious issue of terrorism (The Jehad Spillover, September 7). I don’t think he warranted a cover story especially when he talks of liberating Kashmir from our country. But then every magazine has an eye on its circulation and anything—from terrorist threats to unconstitutional burstouts from Booker prize-winners—becomes a cover story in the name of freedom of expression.
V.K. Sathyajit, received on e-mail
The great satirist late Harindranath Chattopadhya once remarked that there’s "no broadcasting in India, it is all fraudcasting". Nothing could better describe the situation outlined in Down a Prime-Time Abyss (September 14). There may be many for and against the Prasar Bharati, but a critical appraisal of its past will establish that the electronic media has always been under the clutches of the ministry of information and broadcasting or handled by bureaucracy-oriented or imposed professionals. That corruption has only reached its pinnacle now at the hands of the Pracharaks.
Mahesh Inder Sharma, Delhi
In the land of Chanakya where proper guidelines were laid down for a suitable foreign policy, it’s sad to see that our diplomacy failed so completely at the NAM summit (Nelson’s Roving Eye, September 14). The reasons for such failure are probably the lack of enough groundwork done by the high commissioner and his staff; the present high commissioner’s lack of rapport with Mandela; and the faulty selection and training of our foreign service officers. As rightly pointed out by J.N. Dixit we are wrongly patting our backs, instead we should strengthen our weak links and post dedicated men who can establish rapport with the governments where they’re posted.
Lt Col. Harish Bahl, New Delhi
I don’t agree with your opinion that chief minister N. Chandrababu Naidu is the CEO of Andhra Pradesh state (Reinventing Chief Ministership, September 7). He is concentrating on developing only Hyderabad and Kuppam in Chittoor district. One example of his apathy towards other regions in his native district is that he didn’t try his best to get funds for the completion of the gauge conversion project between the Tirupati-Pakala-Katpadi and the Pakala-Dharmavaram sections, which are pending for the last 30 years. As the CM of AP he should try his best to develop all regions. Otherwise the people of AP wouldn’t be satisfied with his reforms.
M.V. Naidu, Pakala, AP
There is nothing "bewildering" about the conduct of the Americans (Yankees!, September 28). The French statesman and prime minister at the turn of the century in 1919, George Clemenceau, said succinctly and with perspicacity:"America is the only country that has moved from barbarism to decadence without an intermediate period of civilisation." How truly his words have been vindicated!
Som Benegal, New Delhi
The film-makers of Mumbai on August 18 took out a protest rally against video piracy (Star Parade, August 31) which they claim has brought about losses of crores of rupees. Now, would the film-makers return the enormous money they’ve earned all these years through plagia-rising foreign flicks and copying western tunes? Before applying the Goonda Act to cable operators, as promised by chief minister Manohar Joshi, action should be initiated against the film-makers for violating the Copyright Act. After all, both are two sides of the same coin. Who’s to raise a hue and cry against the other?
Anil R. Torne, Pune
