India’S certainly on the verge of becoming an Asian superpower (India, Big Time, July 11). We don’t need a Carnegie report to tell us that, the facts are there for all the world to see. The report seems to suggest that it’s in America’s interests to prop up India in the region as it would help keep China at bay. How can America think India can become a superpower only with its help? With the expected growth rate of 7-8 per cent, India’s ascent on the world stage is assured, with or without the US.
Pragya Saini, New Delhi
The Carnegie report, far from being ‘bold’, is extremely short-sighted. Aligning with one nation because of the fear of another is a mindset at odds with an era of globalisation. America should learn to shed the fear psychosis that has engulfed it and go for some truly ‘bold’ measures. Tellis would have done well to recommend that the US give up some of its power and independence to the UN in the interests of a better world. India, on its part, should refuse to bite the bait, if and when it comes. In fact, India’s long-term interests lie in aligning with China and making Asia a regional powerhouse and in the process probably bring down America from the high pedestal it enjoys. After all, India too has a responsibility towards contributing to a more equitable world order.
Manu Rajan, Bangalore
One look at your cover story on India as the great power of the future and I turned Outlook to see if it had become a humour magazine. India is only a great global stink. What Bihar is to India, it is to the world. As the Yanks put it, tell your story to the marines!
Vidura Gupta, New Delhi
Coming from Tellis’ vantage point, his report has a higher chance of echoing in the corridors of the US Congress. However, the probability of it registering with myopic American policymakers is from slim to none. What Tellis is saying is nothing new. But what this country’s dim-witted policy wonks don’t seem to realise is that their long-term bread is buttered on the Indian side. Rumsfeld may call us a "natural ally" but America’s foreign policy establishment has in the past few years been sidetracked by ideological hawks who have opportunistically aligned themselves with the Pentagon’s natural militaristic urges. The officer’s core of the US military is a hotbed of right-wing ultra-nationalist and religious sentiments. These feelings are constantly fanned by the Christian right groups and the ever-present jingoistic impulses 9/11 unleashed. The intellectual rationale is provided by the so-called "conservative think-tanks", mostly peopled by the same neo-cons. Tinpot dictators and tyrants are their natural allies, self-respecting countries like India, China, France, Germany and Russia are ‘competitors’ for natural resources that need to be controlled. Sadly, this phase of American political development has to run its course. Till then, we shouldn’t harbour unrealistic aspirations.
Amit Sinha, Pittsboro, US
America’s attitude towards India is comprised equally of glorious possibilities and fatal uncertainties. Every now and then the US tries to dismantle our friendly equation with Pakistan by betraying its tilt. Its double-barrelled niceties somehow always prove more advantageous for Pakistan. India should therefore stick to its own plans of further strengthening its position on the global map rather than nurturing false hopes by relying on fairweather friends.
Arvind K. Pandey, Allahabad
Let’s not get carried away by some lilting, nice-sounding words. Reports always sound impressive but are more likely wrong than right. A country’s economic growth or its international ties depend on too many factors. We should analyse our strengths and weaknesses on our own rather than derive baseless optimism from someone else’s shallow praise.
Vijayender Choudhury, Bangalore
The Carnegie report’s advice to America to ally with India is good. What’s less appealing is its proposition that the US consider India "a potential hedge against a rising China". This is reminiscent of Cold War thinking. India’s relationship with both the US and China should be governed by what’s in India’s interests.
Ghulam Y. Faruki, New York
Of course, the US has to take notice of India. Name any field, and India has a presence there, be it economy, defence, space or energy. This will be an Indian century and America better be with us or...
Sameer Ahmad Hashmi, Bangalore
Why should India go and beg for a permanent seat in the UNSC? Nations of the world should confer it on us.
K.V. Rupchand, Chennai
Prem Shankar Jha’s India Shining, Act II (July 11) had more cliche than logic. The economic policies being followed by the current government are a continuation of the last. The nda lost the election, without the upa winning it, because of them. The already rich mncs are poised for the kill. Unwilling to fight back, our rulers are deceiving the people by fudging figures and cleverly modifying the parameters of progress.
V.C. Nanda, Chandigarh
Yashwant Sinha’s outburst stems from the frustration which comes from losing power (Sinners, Losers, July 11). It’s just a way of attracting attention when it is completely lacking.
Rajiev Datta, on e-mail
The Imrana case is a blotch on the face of progressive India (Imrana: Her Story, July 18). It’s a shame such retrograde decisions can be taken here in this day and age. Our religious heads must realise that they belong to a liberal, modern state where their decisions have a bearing on how the world perceives us as a society. I wonder when our leadership will learn to present a united face to the world over sensitive issues such as these, rising above the bar of narrow interests and petty politics.
Dr Jinu Matthew, on e-mail
The All India Muslim Personal Law Board is at the epicentre of the black hole of suppression and strangulation of Muslim women’s rights. The local mullahs of towns and villages form the fringes of this black hole and the gravitational pull of the Shariat is so powerful that no ray of justice or logic can pass through it. I earnestly pray for the day when the projectile of suppressed justice and liberty gathers sufficient momentum and smashes this giant black hole that has propagated nothing but doom.
Zayir Khan, on e-mail
British tabloid Sun’s sting operation (Sting in the Fairy Tale, July 11) smacks of a modus operandi familiar to anyone who’s from a former colony of western imperialists: if you can’t beat them honestly, trick them. If the West is trying to prove that dishonest people do not exist in their system and financial fraud has come to them through the bpo industry, that’s reason enough not to take this sting seriously. Instead of resorting to such desperate efforts, the West should become more competitive, improve its own systems and ask its spoilt work force to learn to compete in the new economy. Whether it likes it or not, the East is here to stay. The only reason they outsourced was to make money off us. It’s become a problem only because higher-value jobs are moving here. The West would rather get ripped by one of their own rather than by a ‘nerd’ in India. It’s just more palatable that way.
Chitra Iyer, Bangalore
It’s paradoxical that foresters, despite being science graduates themselves, are often the biggest adversaries of our wildlife researchers (That Hunted Feeling, July 11). It’s probably because they too are victims of the system. Chief wildlife wardens are made scapegoats for any failures by political masters. This sense of insecurity makes them ‘play safe’ rather than facilitate research. And with no stated rules governing research, a wildlife researcher becomes a prisoner on parole. The departments need to protect the forested landscape, facilitate research and incorporate its findings into management action. These are the basic tenets of adaptive management, something we have ignored constantly.
G.V.Reddy, Ex-Field Director, Ranthambore
While your article highlights the difficulties wildlife scientists face, it doesn’t explain why this divide between them and forest officials exists. With scientists being internationally funded, their loyalties lie elsewhere. They seldom share their information with forest functionaries at the local level and directly seek to sensationalise it through the media. Some are so influential that they can get irksome officers transferred. They also misuse guesthouses, by paying fees meant for staff when they get thousands from their sponsors for accommodation. Our scholars have to understand that we need to work with the poor farmer who lives at subsistence levels near national parks, our poorly paid rangers and forest staff, and utilise this as a collective pool of knowledge to save our wildlife.
‘Tiger’ T.G. Ramesh, on e-mail
A soccer-style substitution for cricket is ridiculous (New Laces for the Pyjamas, July 11). Football is a fast, continuous, uniform game. In cricket, given playing conditions, a toss most often determines the winning outcome. The change will further tilt the balance in favour of the toss-winners. Changes in field restriction rules may have been envisaged to make the game more exciting but they could actually do just the opposite. As the time to choose the last two five-over slots of field restrictions stays with the fielding captain, he’ll always choose times when two dull, placid, defensive batsmen bat for the opponent team. Lastly, bringing technology into decision-making is welcome, but that technology has to be foolproof. The snickometer is doing a fine job of deciding whether or not there is a faint edge but is the technology infallible when it comes to catches and lbw decisions?
D. Mitra, Gurgaon, Haryana
In his Delhi Diary (June 20), Vinod Mehta refers to Tiger Pataudi as "a former MP". If I remember right, Pataudi contested polls once for the Lok Sabha from Gurgaon in the late ’60s or ’70s and was defeated. He was never an MP.
R.S. Agrawal, Nagpur
Why does Outlook persist in propagating the muddled thinking of left-leaning elites like Pankaj Mishra (Books, July 11)? Could he or Amartya Sen whose book he reviews explain how sitting around in university cafes and employing India’s "argumentative tradition" can do more to alleviate social inequity and poverty than an IT tycoon in Bangalore who directly creates thousands of well-paying jobs and indirectly benefits 10 times as many? The problem with left-wingers like Mishra is that they too often confuse their personal distaste for globalisation’s side-effects with what the masses want. The average guy on the Indian street wants nothing more than an opportunity for his children to be upwardly mobile. And in today’s India, the surest path to achieve this is finding a way to be directly or indirectly linked to the global economy.
Dharma Kuthanur, Bangalore
