Sanjay Bhatnagar’s rejoinder (January 24) to the extracts of my book Power Play (December 13) was amusing. I can but repeat what I told the Enron emissary who’d also questioned my qualifications. I’d said: "What difference does it make? Read it. If one fact is wrong, sue me."
Bhatnagar cites judgements on earlier, unrelated cases. He omits the ruling in the Mehta-citu case: "Enron revisited, Enron saw and Enron conquered-much more than what it did earlier... The decision of (an MNC) to invest in that country is based on the security of its investment and lucrative returns on the same... They do not do charity... They should, therefore, act and behave like an investor... and not as a government." Bhatnagar refers to the courts and their endorsement of Enron’s clearance but hasn’t quoted a single judgement. Simply because there was none.
Abhay Mehta,
Mumbai
I’m astonished that you should print Sanjay Bhatnagar’s rejoinder to a book extract. His obsession with Mehta’s credentials also puzzles me. Beyond being a citizen of India, what more qualification does one need? Bhatnagar’s insistence on obtaining Mehta’s CV would indicate he’s interested in offering him a job, or perhaps he wants to "educate" the "ssc-failed" Mehta.
Swamy Venuturupalli,
Los Angeles
To think of Tibet as a burden is a disservice to the millions of Tibetans, within and outside India, who repose trust in us (A Monk’s Passage, January 24).
Whether or not we grant political asylum to the Karmapa or recognise the Tibetan government-in-exile, our actions shouldn’t reflect our fear of or concern for China. Does China take our consent or show regard for our interests when it actively colludes with Pakistan?
Aalok Vidyarthi,
on e-mail
Dear Sandipan, Tsk, tsk. The Theory of Quotational Drift is at work again. The quote you attribute to Mark Mobius about shoe-shine boys and the state of the stock market (Shoeshine and Black Ink, January 17) was in fact made by J.P. Morgan. A couple of weeks before the Great Crash, Morgan was getting his shoes shined. The shoe-shine boy, after finishing, asked him, "Any tips for the stock market, Mr Morgan?" Morgan went back to office, called up his broker and sold his entire portfolio, saying, "When shoe-shine boys start getting into the market, it’s time to get out."
Anvar Alikhan,
on e-mail
Sandipan Deb replies: Nice try! But J.P. Morgan died 14 years before the Great Crash.
There have been widespread reports in the media about a number of mosques and madrasas (especially along the Indo-Nepal border) being used for isi activities (Corridor of Terror, January 17). I’ve been a resident of a border city of India for the last two decades and have been visiting various mosques in the city and surrounding areas. I’ve yet to come across any isi activity or sheltering of anti-India elements within these mosques. Doesn’t the government realise that such sweeping generalisations could create social dissension and also lead to the harassment of innocent people, socially and maybe even physically. Or is that the motive!
Mirza Faisal,
Pune
Vinod Mehta has wrongly attributed the quote, "I have seen the future, and it works", to Bertrand Russell (First Take, January 3). The comment, in fact, was made by well-known American author and journalist, Lincoln Steffens (1866-1936), after visiting the Soviet Union during the American Depression.
In the early 1950s, Russell had made the famous statement that he would rather be dead than be red; Joseph Stalin was alive then. And he did not care to visit the then ussr except once when Lenin was alive. ‘Better dead than red’ was the slogan born out of that Russell statement.
Yumnam Chandicharan,
Imphal
Vinod Mehta should have known that amongst the many starry-eyed western intellectuals who visited the Soviet Union just after the Revolution, it was Bertrand Russell who was completely disillusioned about the state of affairs that he saw there and gave expression to it. He therefore could not have said what Vinod Mehta has attributed to him. In fact, this is what he states in his Autobiography (1975) about his impressions: "For my part, the time I spent in Russia was one of continually increasing nightmare. I have said in print what, on reflection, appeared to be the truth, but I have not expressed the sense of utter horror which overwhelmed me while I was there. Cruelty, poverty, suspicion, persecution formed the very air we breathed".
R.C. Narayanan,
Chennai
The authors perhaps were trying too hard to prove their case in the cover story, Sack Sachin, Save Sachin (January 31). Which is why some of their comments sounded ridiculous, at times even malicious. Especially, your holding Sachin’s being a Maharashtrian against him. What really took the cake though was Raju Bharatan saying, "Sachin may have toured the world but he’s still a middle-class Maharashtrian who does not have a world view. Gavaskar was saved by his marriage. He became a global person." How parochial can you get?
Saurabh Rajadhyax,
on e-mail
Once again, brilliant cricket coverage. And on the cover, as a bonus, one of the best portraits of Sachin I’ve ever seen. It seems by the time Dalmia & Co finish whatever they’re trying to do, we won’t have any cricket left, only a big, gaudy, gadget-ridden carnival. And to think we called Kerry Packer’s attempts a circus!
One big cause for anguish though. In the box on Dalmia, you say ‘Tom Alter, Indian and a white man’-that’s in extremely poor taste. And this cheap shot in a piece on racism?
Deepak Shrivastav,
on e-mail
I can’t understand the attitude of the Indian media. First it wanted to sack Azhar to back Sachin; now it’s baying for his blood. Why can’t it accept the truth? That Rome wasn’t built in a day. Nor has been the present Australian team, which is highly professional and undoubtedly the best today.
Gitesh Gadia,
Howrah
Sachin or no Sachin, the Indian team is in the bin. No doubt, in a team of 16 members, only six are ‘players’, the rest, including the coach, is excess baggage.
Akhil Govila,
Calcutta
Your cover story was extremely biased. The author, while insisting that Sachin’s captaincy is affecting his batting, contradicts himself by showing his batting figures as captain. In fact, Sachin’s first and only double century came as a captain. Sachin might be a god as a batsman but as a captain, he’s only human. It’s not his failure as a batsman that’s affecting the team, but the failure of others. A new captain too will get the same pathetic team where most players play to save their place in the team, rather than for the country. Instead of castigating Sachin, may be it’s the selection board Outlook should target.
Manas Gupta,
New Delhi
Sachin and his paper tigers mostly blamed the umpires for their debacle Down Under (Down Under & Out, January 17). But it seems they’ve either forgotten the basics of the game or our selectors have never gone more wrong in picking the Indian team, especially their exclusion of the experienced Azhar for Tests and Ajay Jadeja for one-dayers.
Sanjay Kumar,
on e-mail
Mohammed Azharuddin’s remarks in his interview make one wonder if he’s more sinned against than sinning. Seeing India’s dismal performance match after match in Australia, one can’t help but feel that Azhar’s inclusion might have helped tilt the scales.
Achal Narayanan,
Chennai
I’m not surprised by the vehemence of Neera Chandhoke’s abuse of Arun Shourie in her review of his book (Harvest Hate, January 24). When Shourie writes facts, and supports them with quotes, actions and evidence, I see the Neeras, Thapars and Panikkars targeting him with an unending barrage of abuse, slander and labels as diverse as reactionary, fundamentalist or fascist. I challenge Neera to dispute one single fact or adduced evidence in Shourie’s book. Nor is it a coincidence that a eulogising review of Romila Thapar’s book should appear in the same issue, wherein an attempt is made to make Thapar seem more scholarly than Kalidas or Valmiki. It’s part of the networking eminences, of which the Outlook editor seems a passionate member. He can be rest assured that the bluff of ‘secular intellectuals’ has been called. The Marxists produced gods who couldn’t last a century, and books that are sold today by kilos.
S. Thiagarajan,
Chennai
The Aroras, Dhakas and Gandhis of the Indian fashion world should wear the clothes they display on the ramps and walk through India’s streets (Too Hot to be Cool, January 24). Given their lack of talent, they do have ‘nothing’ to show.
V.K. Agarwal,
on e-mail
Fashion designers in India flout the code of decency with impunity. If floor shows of similarly-clad women were being held in the bars/restaurants of Connaught Place, the police would’ve probably swooped down on the organisers, and booked them for obscenity.
Surinder Marwaha,
on e-mail
Stockholm syndrome or not, I find it downright repulsive that the hostages of the hijacked IC 814 could be so naive as to believe their captors (Stockholm Revisited, January 17). I’m ashamed that such fickle-minded people also abound in a nation where only recently so many brave young men laid down their lives to protect the honour of their motherland.
Vivek Khanna,
Panchkula
You quote one hostage as saying, "Our troops commonly rape and kill their women, but they treated our ladies with respect. Even called them sisters." He forgets that even as they called his wife sister, they’d already widowed another of their ‘sisters’ in the plane, as also thousand others in the Valley?
Kush Kumar,
Patna
Reading Vinod Mehta’s Delhi Diary (January 24), I felt that both Atal and Advani have got their act as finely tuned as the pair in the serial Raja aur Rancho on Doordarshan. Both couples have grabbed the attention of India’s middle-class viewers like nothing else.
Premendra Singh,
on e-mail
