Pankaj Mishra writes brilliantly. But with the hard heart of a consumer ( The Anatomy of an Anti- Novel , March 22).
Rushdie has been kept in protective police custody for years. I can’t imagine a more exquisitely refined torture for a writer.
The world that he wants, a world that can take a joke— a bad one, but a joke nevertheless— and move on, spins more and more out of its axis. Mishra complains about Rushdie’s "priggishness". A few more disclosures about Clinton, and we’d all be prigs.
Maybe Rushdie— in his real, endless, and yes, indescribable anguish— has lost his audience. The squared up flattened out kind of folk. Those who can’t do without the familiar ground beneath their feet. Who need their familiar bedtime stories. Kipling. Forster. Now told by brown men and women. Rushdie probably knows this. Maybe that’s knocked him over the boundary.
Divakar S. Natarajan on e- mail
I’ve always liked Outlook’s pithy articles. Being an automobile hobbyist, I was delighted to see the article The Battle of the Biggies (March 22). But I was disappointed to find no mention of the effect Astra diesel had on Ford diesel sales or the market conditions or the fact that Astra has an excellence other cars lack— especially the Honda, which has a cheap feel. It also didn’t comment on GM’s deep pockets while it was all praise for Ford’s deep ones.
Vishwanath Swarup, on e- mail
A. S. Panneerselvan is to be congratulated for an honest attempt to make the highly- specialised topic of textual editing comprehensible to a general audience ( Editing Aurobindo , March 15). An intelligent reader will be able to see that, far from changing Sri Aurobindo’s Savitri , we’ve simply restored his original intentions as attested by his own manuscripts. In dealing with Ilion , Panneerselvan was less successful. The footnotes in the first edition were themselves "variant readings", necessitated by the fact that Sri Aurobindo sometimes didn’t make a final choice between two words. In the ’89 edition, we put these variant readings in a table in the back of the book, as usually is done with editions intended for the general reader. Panneerselvan’s treatment of the 1934 statement about the Ashram is somewhat misleading. The facts, in brief, are these: The statement was first published in The Hindu on February 20, 1934, and later the same year in a booklet called The Yoga of Sri Aurobindo and Sri Aurobindo’s Ashram . This was reprinted in ’45. In ’48 and ’51, the statement was included in Sri Aurobindo and his Ashram . In ’55 the Mother created the Sri Aurobindo Ashram and Trust. From this point on, the ’34 statement was no longer valid, and when Sri Aurobindo and his Ashram was reprinted next, in ’64, the statement was omitted in its entirety . It has never been reprinted. Thus the suggestion attributed to Pranab Bhattacharya that a single sentence was deleted by a "clever" editor is incorrect. Finally, Panneerselvan is wrong in thinking that people in the Ashram are unduly concerned about the notices that have been served in the Supreme Court and elsewhere. Most people here are too busy with their work and yoga to give their attention to such meaningless proceedings whose only result will be to waste time of the highest courts in the land.
Peter Heehs & Richard Hartz, Pondicherry
We all know the extent to which our investigating agencies stoop to appease their political masters (" Bofors didn’t pay me anything", March 22). For about a decade now, depending on the government at the Centre, the CBI has been engaged in a game of political servility. Even though the Congress has been out of power for some time now and various other parties have formed the government since then, none’s been able to bell the cat, in this case the culprits in the Bofors scandal. In spite of the fact that a number of Indian politicians, businessmen and bureaucrats have been named in the FIR filed by the CBI , none have been booked. Conveniently the CBI has managed to cook up a case only against Quattrocchi. While the Hindujas were interrogated in England and CBI officials went to Dubai to speak with Win Chaddha, they want Quattrocchi to come to India. If they’re sure of their case, why can’t they interrogate him in Malaysia? Is Bofors about criminal wrong- doing or political persecution?
Reema Ahuja, on e- mail
Had the political parties and the investigating agencies been serious in their intentions, the Bofors case wouldn’t have dragged on for more than a decade. Even after getting the Bofors papers from Sweden, the CBI has not been able to prove any Indian guilty of misconduct. In Quattrocchi, the CBI seems to have found a perfect scapegoat. Despite his willingness to talk to CBI officials they haven’t done so till date. What could be the possible reason behind this? I can only think of a deep- rooted conspiracy to shield the culprits at the expense of the innocent.
Aditya Sen, on e- mail
Quattrocchi says he’s ready for a CBI interrogation, but he claimed a misunderstanding with his counsel and refused to come even after the Supreme Court ordered the CBI not to arrest him when he came for interrogation. In this whole ‘Q’ episode, Sonia should be asked one question: when he’s so close to her family, and if she has nothing to hide, why can’t she persuade him to come for interrogation and clear her husband’s name?
Vivek Maheshwari, Bhopal
You’re right about VSNL ’s inefficient working ( Surf’s Up , March 15). My Internet account was stolen by about 30 hours. I had applied for a renewed account in a form e- mailed by Help-desk, Delhi. But the DOT office at Allahabad told me to fill another one. Further, they demanded Rs 3,350 instead of the stipulated Rs 2,400 after 20 per cent rebate on first- time renewals. Unless they do something, VSNL , I’m afr- aid, will go the Doordarshan way, in terms of quality and service.
Kuldeep Chopra, Mirzapur
Of all the confident sounds that rang in your cover story ( Star’s Final Assault , March 15) about media magnate Rupert Murdoch, chairman Rathikant Basu’s were the loudest.
Educated, cultured, well- groomed he might be, but he’s easily the ex- bureaucrat who switched to lucrative business to make money, at the cost of the nation, much like a traitor.
Basu was with DD (which his present company Star proudly calls Dinosaur Darshan) and retired as its DG. He now conveniently helps plot Star TV’s strategy against DD. For all he’d love to say about business principles and professionalism, he has effectively transformed himself from a Mandi House Mandarin to a Murdoch Minion. Why did he have to do this; to further his career?
Mohd. Shahid Abdullah, Delhi
It was a relief to see Outlook finally address itself to more serious and thought- provoking issues ( Spider on the Web , March 15). One really shudders at the possibilities the Net provides white- collar criminals. The lack of geographical barriers and their invisibility lets perpetrators of such crimes go scot- free. Even though conscious efforts are being made, especially in the US (where such crimes have reached alarming proportions) to detect and prevent such crimes, policy formulators have to be cautious about not obstructing genuine Net transactions by being overly stringent. In India, where identified and chargesheeted criminals manage to escape punishment, one can easily imagine how such white-collar criminals will laugh merrily all the way to the bank.
K. K. Mahesh, New Delhi
In his column Descent into Nihilism (March 15), Prem Shankar Jha laments how the performing arts have become commercial and out of the common man’s reach. Pt Ravi Shankar had once said: "With music we should close our eyes and feel pain in the heart, feel like praying and meditating. The true soul of our music lies in its spiritual quality." What we witness today is quite the contrary. The government has to be liberal in patronising art and artistes. Otherwise, the classical forms will die after the known greats. Some hope remains at the Thirivaiyaru Thiyagaraja Festival, Tannjen festival in Gujarat, and Kalidas sadas in MP for music, while Chidambaram in TN and Khajuraho in MP uphold the traditions of dance.
V. S. Sankaran, Madurai
I’ll miss Irfan’s cartoons. They were full of punch and energy. I always looked forward to them. We’ve lost a gifted cartoonist.
Maya Kamath, on e- mail
A cartoon is the ultimate expression of free speech in a democracy. The murder of Irfan is the murder of that democracy. It seems foolish to ‘celebrate’ 51 years of Independence when all we can do is kill a man who only knew how to draw caricatures and make people laugh. Who had to be killed because his sketches reflected the ugly truths about this nation. If this is freedom, I do not want it. Because it makes me question every goddamn thing I’ve learnt and valued till now. About truth. About non- violence. About good triumphing over evil.
Valli, Delhi
Any layperson who watched the Indo- Pak Test match at Chennai will agree with Bedi on the kind of detachment Azhar exhibited ( Lean Side of Leadership , March 8). You seldom see him encouraging his teammates or trying to inculcate a sense of togetherness in them. Azhar has to make a conscientious effort to develop a positive attitude towards his teammates and the game.
K. M. Vijayan, Bangalore
Kindly rename your cricket section the Tendulkar section. There isn’t a single article in that section which somehow does not deal with Tendulkar.
Shaikhji Mohamed, on e- mail
In his review of Sanjoy’s Assam( The Scholar Gypsy , March 15),Sunil Sethi mentions that San-joy got a "degree in agriculture at Anand" before he got into replicating the Amul experiment in Rajasthan. It’s not only surprising, given that Sethi claims he knew Sanjoy well, but also very annoying for us here at the Institute of Rural Management, Anand ( IRMA ), since it was in this institute and not some agriculture college where Joy picked up his first lessons in development while studying for a PG diploma in rural management. His sterling achievements at URMUL and Assam have long inspired younger IRMAN s, many of whom have either joined institutions founded by him or set up their own NGO s at other Majulis and Lunkaransars of India.
Prasann Thatte & others, IRMA
Why don’t you have diaries on smaller places like Kochi, Coimbatore, Baroda, Imphal and such towns? Why only the bigger towns? There are so many things to know and learn from these places.
Simon Varghese, on e- mail
The ruckus being witnessed in Parliament over the sacking of Admiral Bhagwat brings to mind a worse case of injustice involving over a dozen service personnel of various ranks decades ago ( Coup Against the Forces , March 8). The men were summarily dismissed in what came to be known as the infa mous ‘Sambha Spy Case’ in which innocent men lost their livelihood as well as honour. The case was documented by TVI channel and telecast repeatedly. All the affected ranks that went on fighting in various courts against the arbitrary application of "Doctrine of Presidential Pleasure" have yet to receive any compensation or relief.
J. M. Manchanda, New Delhi
