I was attracted by the headline of your story A Fete for the Rich but was disappointed to find it replete with biases. What is wrong with honouring successful nris or pios if you can at the same time give proper attention to the average nri or pio as well? Has anyone ever tried to find out what problems we face in getting visas or clearances from customs? And how the offer of a bribe makes these very things easier. When our children see and experience these harassments, they prefer to spend their vacations in Europe or the Caribbean. It is such self-defeating regulations (which benefit only dishonest bureaucrats) which will turn the current and future generations of nris and pios away from India, no matter how many pravasi divases you celebrate.
Arun Patel, Matawan, US
Your commentary on ambassador Bhishma Agnihotri’s contribution to India is malicious and only goes to show your falling journalistic standards. I am a New York-based Indian. Ambassador Agnihotri has travelled to meet with Indians around the world in order to get a realistic perspective of their aspirations and views. Any quality analysis requires such an overview. This is unlike Indian bureaucrats who seem to have answers to problems even before they’re identified. At least Agnihotri is trying to create an efficient global Indian network. And given the bureaucratic hurdles, any such effort takes time to bear fruit. Please don’t write off the ambassador even before he has finished what he has set out to achieve.
Praveen Basu, New York, US
I am not sure how Prem Shankar Jha is trying to link the Sikhs having a truncated homeland with the possible outcome of the Hindutva movement (The Cost of Hindutva, January 20). The Sikhs had decided to throw in their lot with the Hindus after they were promised their own autonomous state within India. We do not need to rehash the back-stabbing Nehru did. The Sikhs had agitated peacefully for what was promised them. Obviously they were too trusting of that Kashmiri Brahmin back then.
Ranjit Singh, on e-mail
I don’t think the bjp wants a Hindu state. My understanding of Hindutva is that all Indians irrespective of their religions are Indians and take pride in their heritage.
Narasimha Reddy, Boston, US
You seemingly overlook certain cricketing aspects when, in the article Be Afraid... (January 27), you say that Kiwi skipper Stephen Fleming could not have made it to the Mumbai Ranji trophy team. Fleming is recognised as a world-class batsman even though he hasn’t played an innings long enough to prove his class. For a cricket connoisseur, he brings back memories of David Gower. Had he not had the responsibility of captaining New Zealand, he’d have gone on to become another great New Zealand batsman after Martin Crowe. It would be worthwhile for you to figure out how many of our "megastars" are capable of making it to another team on purely professional grounds.
K. Sethumadhavan, Hyderabad
The bottomline is this Indian team has no guts to fight it out in adverse conditions. Rarely do you see a performance as in England and that too happened because Sanjay Bangar had given support to ‘The Wall’. There is no point in having astronomical averages when you turn yellow at the sight of a bouncing, swinging snorter. Enjoy their batting on the flat tracks. No point expecting anything outside the borders of ‘Mera Bharat Mahaan’.
Madhu, Bangalore
Outlook these days is a puzzle; several dumb issues interspersed with a few brilliant ones. Why can’t you publish more of the writings of the eminently sensible Anita Pratap? Your stock will rocket.
S.K. Varma, Bhopal
Anita Pratap (Battling for Peace, January 20) is right that two wars were prevented last year and surprisingly "global pressure" was indeed the saver. But as for this year, looks like we are going through a lull before the (desert) storm blows over. It will be interesting to see how long the international community can prevent Uncle Sam and his men from capturing the Middle Eastern oil fields.
Prince Thomas, Kochi
Prashant Panjiar’s photograph accompanying the article A Morsel of Sense (January 20) was truly heart-wrenching. When will we start treating our children the way they ought to be? As our precious future?
Subba Joy,
Redwood City, US
Saurav Ganguly will be gladdening the hearts of all Indian cricket fans if he decides to quit the game right now (Be Afraid..., January 27). His awful record against high-quality bowling attacks testifies in ample measure that he is one of the most overrated batsman ever to have wielded the willow. Whenever and wherever the likes of Shane Bond have hurled their fiery thunderbolts, Ganguly has only proved to be as meek as a lamb and as pathetic and helpless as a viewer watching the latest Bollywood movie. Even considering the fact that the ball would keep jagging around on the seamy tracks of New Zealand, there is absolutely no justification for the tearful batting performances of Ganguly who is not worth his place even in a Calcutta XI. If at all the man has any feeling left for the game, it is time he said, ‘Bye bye cricket, adieu’, once and for ever.
T.S. Pattabhi Raman, Coimbatore
Your cover story Exodus (January 20) hit the nail on the thumb, as they say. An old-fashioned nationalist, I refused offers of migration to Australia in my early days because I wanted to remain an Indian. I did not even get myself a passport to go to the US as I thought it was humiliating to stand in a queue outside the US consulate and be treated like a criminal trying to enter their country! Now I’ve moved heaven and earth to send my son to the UK. My daughter too will be getting married and moving to the UK. Personally, I’m sad but also relieved for my children. I am a Hindu married to a Muslim for 30 years. The fact never bothered me till recently. Now, I am glad I gave my children neutral names. Very good Hindu friends of mine who seemed fairly broad-minded are suddenly talking aggressive. I find that this unease has entered the discussions in the drawing rooms of the educated, well-to-do middle-class. This isn’t the India I want my children to grow up in and get disillusioned about. I’d rather they left it and still had stars shining in their eyes about this country!
Bhaarti Shroff, Chennai
Excellent cover story, well-researched and worth reading by everybody!
Dr T.K. Bhattacharyya, Illinois, US
It is very disheartening to read about the exodus of Indians from India. But you can’t really blame them; it’s the right of every individual to aspire for better living conditions and security. If they get it in their own country, they would have no reason to leave. Just as it is a policy in some companies not to take their employees for granted, governments too should realise that they can’t take their citizens for granted.
S. Radhakrishnan, Bangalore
Yet another scare-mongering story from Outlook. Do you even remember the two-kilometre lines before the US, UK and Canadian embassies in the 1980s? Nothing today even in the "peak season" begins to compare. And frankly even if one million in a country of one billion people emigrate, it does not warrant the kind of hysterical headline and editorial line you’ve chosen. For a truer picture on how many Indians want to "quit India", refer to the mtv-Pepsi market surveys for the past few years which have not found a widespread sentiment in favour of emigration. Proper research—instead of a half-baked story—might rectify the picture you have presented, and drastically.
Suneeti Singh, Dehradun
A really moving article. I am an investment banker, live in Manhattan and probably have most of the things all these people quitting India are looking for. Yet, at times I feel life is incomplete and think of moving back to India. Maybe it’s pure "idealism" but I do know one thing: happiness is a state of mind, it has nothing to do with where you are and how much money you make.
Sumit Bhandari, New York
Though Outlook talks of migrations as though it were a catastrophe, I see a bright silver lining to it. No wonder even the government is smiling. Emigrations are a great alternative to family planning. If more and more people leave India, those left behind can manage their lives and resources better. People who have a "me, my wife and my children, others be damned" attitude deserve to be kicked out anyway. Only the government should not let these guys return, especially when the white man kicks them in the butt a few years hence.
Jaidev Menon, Kochi
Outlook could very soon become an unheard voice in India if it keeps chasing its own delusions. Fact is, at no point in the history of independent India has the urban middle-class Indian had such ease in availing global opportunity as after the opening up of India. Twisting this fact to suit your agenda is the reason why Outlook is becoming the punchline of many a joke already. Any further down this road and you’ll become a paranoia-stoking rag. Reform yourself or prepare to fade away.
Avdhesh Sapru, Sydney
I was shocked to know that so many Indians want to migrate abroad for problems like corruption, government negligence, lack of cleanliness and security. Do they not know that they too have contributed to this mess? What have they as Indians done to improve the existing conditions? The height of their shamelessness is that they are ready to do blue-collar jobs for a few dollars and a foreign passport. India would not have been in the pitiable condition it is in had they put some of their efforts into its development and progress. If these cowards are disgusted by their own motherland, then I as a 14-year-old am disgusted by them.
Swati Hegde, Mumbai
No, it wasn’t the money that brought me to the US, I had a fairly comfortable salary and all the things that I have here. Yet it was the insecurity, rising violence, pollution, power outages, the levels of corruption, pseudo-secular policies and the depression that follows looking at all this around me that made me take this painful decision. One thing is sure, even as a second-class citizen I feel more secure here than in India.
Raghu I. Reddy, on e-mail
One very good reason to stay back in India is the reasonable cost of a good English education. Take my case for example. I have every chance to settle here in Switzerland, except for my children’s education. The free education offered here is of top quality, the only problem is it is in German. It is taught very well and even though my children were here only for three months, they picked it up in no time. But it’s no use. They can only become good Swiss people, but not good Indians or world citizens, because English education is very expensive here and it’s taught only in a few international schools. Ultimately, I’ve sent my children back to Chennai. Those who have already crossed the bridge can talk about the greener pastures, but for those still trying, it’s getting tougher and tougher!
Ramadas Mannattil, Zurich
Given that the valuation of brain drain itself is flawed, your article is nothing but unadulterated bunkum. A couple of hundred thousand leaving is a mere trickle and not an exodus. Calling it thus is mere hyperbole. Those who bemoan the lawlessness in India should examine what their contribution is. Remember, only losers carp, moan and groan.
Prasad Boddupalli, Tucson, US
Why Indians cling to the lands we immigrate to is, for me, hard to understand. I am in Sydney on a job and find that many immigrants who come here are from truly disturbed areas—the Bosnias and Chechnyas of the world. They come here to survive. In contrast, the Indian attitude is one that can be best described by the Aussie term ‘whingeing’. For the Indian middle class now collectively aspires to a life of the semi-detached duplex, two garages and a neighbourhood mall. It’s not survival, but a better life that is at stake. Fair enough. But to adopt a victim mentality and deride India in the process is just not cricket. Maybe the country doesn’t need these quitters, it will survive without them.
Anu Moulee, Sydney
Although I too am driven by despair over the future of India, I want to emigrate for an entirely different reason. I want to quit to enhance my patriotism. Once I walk through the clean streets abroad, drive around in a Honda and shop till I drop in the supermarts, I will visit my old country once in a year and extol about the virtues of being an Indian. I will also lecture fellow Indians (those who stayed behind) on liberalisation, free trade and weapons of mass destruction. But then who will have me? Rwanda?
Jayant Nadkarni, Pune
Your article ignores so many factors. Every Indian who works abroad knows he’s there just for the money. You are always treated as a second-class citizen and never get to be part of the mainstream society, more so in the US. I’ve been abroad for quite sometime now. But it’s only for the money. I long for the day when I’ll get back to India. For all its faults, there’s no place like India.
S. Swaminathan, Singapore
Excellent story. Only the main reason for migrations is the low salaries in India.
Viren Shah, Dallas, US
Your cover story made a good read. I am glad these kuputras of Mother India are leaving. Everybody blames the system, no one does anything about it. The only thing I can say to the quitters is, pack your bags and leave, you aren’t even worthy of being Indians.
Saahil Bhanot, Chandigarh
Who is responsible for the state India is in? Surely it is us. My experience is that crime rates are the same everywhere, whether it’s in India, US or Canada. Yes, you do get a cleaner environment abroad but is it really worth forsaking your country? I’d bet that everyone who has migrated will wake up to this reality sooner or later. And then they’ll realise that there’s no place like home.
Srinath, Bangalore
Nobel laureate Hargobind Khurana had to quit India basically because even such a brilliant mind could not get a job in this corrupt country. What hope is there for a country which ranks a poor 71st out of 96 countries in the honesty sweepstakes? Business recession and mismatched aspirations are becoming a nightmare for middle-class Indians who’re leaving at the first available chance. India is becoming a hell for the common man and a haven for criminals coming in from Pakistan and Bangladesh.
Madhu Agarwal, Delhi
Exodus omits one reason one would want to quit India: the horror of the proudly self-destructive state that Hindutva will make India.
Som Thomas, Bangalore
It is nothing but the high level of competition and money-loving Indian mentality which is causing people to leave their country. Even if it means living in a foreign land which gives them everything but also treats them as second-rate citizens.
Subi Abraham, Auckland
How come people are willing to slog the same 16 hours in a foreign country which does not respect them for their colour or origin at a salary much lesser than their white compatriots than work for the same number of hours in their own country? Why are the US, Canada and European countries considered "safe" when repeated incidents of gun-toting schoolchildren killing their classmates appear with frightening regularity in the media? And does the white skin of their politicians make them any less corrupt than the ones here?
Mridula Udupa, on e-mail
It’s high time a survey was done on how many politicians send their children abroad. It will be a true measure of their patriotism.
Probal Roy, Bilaspur
In Uttar Pradesh, Mayawati spent more than a crore to celebrate her birthday. In neighbouring Bihar, the salary of teachers and government employees running into crores of rupees has been squandered by the political establishment. For the common man, each day is a ‘deathday’.
Geraldine H., Mumbai
