The talk of strategic Sino-Indian ties belies the mutual suspicion that characterises their bilateral relations (Who Goes There? Nov 27). The problem seems to be a certain ambivalence in Beijing’s stance towards New Delhi. On the one hand, it seeks—as it does elsewhere in the world—opportunities in trade and investment. On the other, it treats India as a strategic adversary that must be checked through the instrumentality of an unsettled border, or by fostering Pakistan’s hostility. China should be wary of overreaching in India. The ’98 nuclear tests showed New Delhi can react in ways with negative consequences for China’s security. An estranged India can be a more formidable foe.
Ashish Jha, Pune
In analysing the games of the US, India, China and Pakistan, you haven’t factored in the crucial role Russia’s poised to play on the world stage. Much of India’s strategy will evolve from how far Moscow is willing to accommodate it vis-a-vis China. Any day, Russia is a more trusted Indian ally than the US, which has warmed up to us only to balance Beijing.
Rohit C.J., Kochi
Three factors bog down India vis-a-vis China: education, people’s attitude, manufacturing capacity. Post-Sachar report, it’s an open secret: education here is affordable only to those from the right caste and religion. Worse, we stick to primitive attitudes. People’s belief in God and the supernatural is helping the far right become a respectable part of mainstream politics. As for our industry, it is pampered by a corrupt politico-bureaucracy, thereby checking any real competition.
Parthasarathy, Chennai
It’s not the time for jingoistic flexing of (non-existent) muscle (China Wants Trade...In Land!). It’s in India’s interest to make territorial adjustments with China. Negotiating over freer inter-border movements of people and goods will only negate any possible harmful effects of making concessions.
Akhil Rahul, Chicago
Let the Tibetans visit Tawang without visas, ditto with Mansarovar pilgrims from India.
Raj, Browlingbrook, UK
Reading India, Chin Chin, one felt the author stopped short of saying India should become another Chinese province.
P.S. Reddy, Hanamkonda, AP
So China continues to help Pakistan and Bangladesh in its bid to act as a bulwark against India, eh? Hmm, nice thoughts.
Prithijit Ray, Chicago
It is myopic and morally reprehensible to start off by saying that the Chinese are "masters of the art of denial and deception" (Never Trust China). Both countries have moved on immensely since the Panchsheel days of the ’50s. They have emerged as significant economic powers on the world stage. Of course, the ’62 war upsets me, but I still believe India’s goals today should be forward-looking. China leads on economic momentum, while democratic accountability guides India. Let’s not mistrust each other, instead be open-minded.
Abesh Choudhury, London
You rightly call a spade a spade. China is a known aggressor of the modern era, India should be careful dealing with them.
Ram, on e-mail
Isn’t this proposal to swap Aksai Chin for Tawang a clear Chinese intention of eventually gobbling up the entire Northeast of India. Wasn’t the 1962 experience enough? No more Hindi-Chini bhai-bhai, please!
M.L. Banerji, on e-mail
The question is not whether we should trust them. Since we have to deal with them anyway, we should be as cagey, shrewd and hard-nosed as they are. As Ronald Reagan once said, "Trust, but verify".
Ghulam Y. Faruki, New York
Your reporter says "many in the security establishment feel the Chinese are not really serious about exchanging Aksai Chin for Tawang" (A Straw Plebiscite: No). This is the problem with our thinking. Aksai Chin, like Tawang, is part of Indian territory, only that Beijing is holding it illegally. China keeps whatever it has, and takes a clever stand: "Let’s negotiate what India gets to keep".
A. Banerji, Sunnyvale, US
Strange, India did not act against the Chinese ambassador who effectively questioned our sovereignty. Such a diplomat could have got the sack even in a banana republic. Instead of talking Aksai Chin, we are busy discussing Tawang, which is very much a part of Indian territory. It amounts to already conceding defeat on a possible future confrontation.
R. Sripathi, Nicosia, Cyprus
If China took over Tawang in ’62 and if India was humiliated in that war, what events transpired subsequently to let India repossess the valley?
Viveka P., San Francisco
Almost all your stories have their headlines revelling in ethnic Chinese stereotypes—on appearance, food or martial arts. It’s obnoxious!
Sundari, Chennai
The article Ready? Yes Sir, (Nov 27) is as big a distortion of reality as can be expected from mainstream media. The huge amount of money being spent on agriculture is massive inefficiency. It is being done at a huge cost to other areas which have efficiency levels several times better than that of agriculture. Politically, the Congress is reaping the harvest of indiscriminate alliances with the trs, mim, and its soft attitude to Naxalism. It has lost trs and cpi(m) within two-and-a-half years of coming to power. It has failed to manage the Telangana movement—it’s now a hate fest against people from other regions and is threatening to split the state.
Kiran, Hyderabad
Haven’t read a better piece of yarn than the one spun on the ‘achievements’ of the Y.S.R. Reddy government! Bide your time, Outlook. An award for the best script of the year seems headed your way courtesy the film-crazy state.
Ashwini Shetty, Bangalore
Apropos Prof Imtiaz Ahmad’s comment that "en bloc reservation will only enable the elite to push out the needy Muslims" (India Counts Its New Dalits, Nov 27), the exclusion of the creamy layer will prevent an undue flow of benefits to the so-called Ashraf. The National Conference on Resolution for Muslims in 1994 had adopted a resolution that candidates belonging to the sub-communities notified individually as backward classes should have the first claim on the Muslim quota and only the unutilised should be available to the others. Muslims need reservation both in higher education and employment. If they were to seek reservation first in education as suggested by Prof Ahmad, they’d lose another generation! Basically what the Muslims need is a Backward Class notification as in Karnataka and a quota (or sub-quota) based on their population percentage and level of backwardness as compared to the sc/sts. Any clubbing will deprive them of benefits due to the prevailing bias.
Syed Shahabuddin, New Delhi
Since a Dalit remains a Dalit even after he converts to Islam or Christianity, shouldn’t he remain in the Hindu fold?
K.K. Lol, Calcutta
Drunken driving is assuming serious proportions in our society (On a Blur and a Wheel, Nov 27). Its prevention must go hand-in-hand with orderly and regulated traffic. Pavement-dwelling too betrays the state of our social infrastructure. Will we have to continue to live with sozzled brats, bad roads, poor lighting, and needless casualties?
S. Lakshmi, Hyderabad
Only strict enforcement of laws relating to "drunken driving" and heavy punishments for violators, including seizure of the vehicle and cancellation of driving licence can reduce drunken driving cases. In India, we need another caveat: law enforcement officials themselves have to be free of alcohol influence! Perhaps we could import the alcohol detection device invented in the US which locks the car if the driver is drunk.
S. Bakthavathsalan, Chennai
Apropos ‘Sonia could face 1977-like situation’ (Nov 27), R.K. Dhawan is like that fielder who the captain has placed on the boundary line without realising that one ‘deliberate’ drop can cost her the match.
Rajneesh Batra, New Delhi
It’s sickening to see Dhawan address Natwar Singh as Natwar, but rarely ever failing to add a ‘ji’ to the names of Sonia and Rajiv, or even Rahul. A truer third-rate ‘chamcha’ there’s never been.
C.M. Naim, Barabanki
The article Cyberian Folk Tales (Nov 27) was an interesting sociological mapping of the IT industry. True, the media has hyped IT beyond potential and politicians have used its relative success to hide their failures at policymaking and implementation. The biggest proof is in the ever-deteriorating condition of farmers in India. Indian firms have climbed up the value chain in recent months, but they’ll need to do that with more vigour in the coming years. The fact remains that for most companies, outsourcing is more of a cost-control exercise. If India’s usp lies only in cost-advantage, then it could soon lose that advantage to other countries.
Kunal Mangal, Denver
Let me add an eighth myth to the study you profile. Myth: Our IT companies are into ‘software development’ and are doing cutting-edge work. Reality: Our ‘software’ companies are actually ‘software services’ companies which are mostly into maintenance of legacy systems and testing products for their overseas clients. ‘Bodyshopping’, ‘benching’ and ‘billing’ of employees is what goes in the name of ‘software development’. The work in these ‘software services’ companies is mostly of the nature that any person with a decent IQ could easily do. If not, why are IT companies recruiting candidates who’re mostly freshers and from non-computer science backgrounds, just on the basis of a few aptitude tests to build their ‘bench’ strength? No Indian IT company is associated the world over with cutting-edge products, research or patents. Rather, they are known as successful contractors for outsourcing peripheral and non-critical work. Just think, which client company will give access of their "core" work to a contractor? It is high time our media too starts highlighting the nature of work in these ‘software services’ companies as this is creating a divide in our society between those in IT and those outside. The hype created by the media has made even technically qualified people outside of IT think it’s a very technically skilled job for which they’re not qualified and have missed the bus to riches. Highlighting golf courses, swanky cafeterias and swimming pools to the rest of "non-IT Indians" is not enough.
Prateek Kaul, Pune
Interesting piece, but could have done with some sample statistics: who was interviewed, the basis of selection and so on. A finding of 100 per cent endogamous marriage is startling indeed.
Deepak Rajagopal, on e-mail
I wonder why Priyadarshini Mattoo’s killer Santosh Singh doesn’t get the kind of coverage Afzal does (The Noose Has Loose Ends, Dec 04). After all, he too is going to be hanged. Why is that the opponents of the death penalty, who constantly harp about how death is not a deterrent in cases of terrorism, don’t speak up for death not being a deterrent in cases of rape either? Under what calculus is death a deterrent against rape and not against terrorism? Maybe Santosh should change his name. He should become Mohammed Santosh Syed Ali. The liberals will line up for his defence in no time.
V.R.G., on e-mail
How can you say Mohammad Sheikh Noor Hussain spent an ‘agonising’ four years waiting for his sentence to be commuted (One Knot on a Long Rope, Nov 20). Agonising? No punishment on earth can suffice for a man who rapes and kills his own child. I’m surprised he wants to live at all.
Shafqat Ahmed, Panchkula
As a frequent visitor to the walled city, I knew for long that ‘Tilanga’ has a pejorative connotation. Its connection with Telangana is understandable too, but how it got into the lingo of the city was always a mystery to me. Till I read William Dalrymple’s Last Mughal. John Company recruited its soldiers for the Carnatic wars from Telangana and the native recruits were addressed as Tilangas. Later, Avadh supplied a majority of Company soldiers but the appellation continued to be in currency and was interchangeably used with Purabias—the Easterners (read foreigners). The unbecoming behaviour of sepoys who came to Delhi in search of a leader to head the rebellion got embedded in the memory of its inhabitants.
Vikram Kumar, Delhi
Drunken driving has been responsible for the death of thousands of Indians (On a Blur and a Wheel, Nov 27). Yet no serious steps have been initiated to control it. Young drivers continue to drink heavily, drive and wreak havoc on the roads with impunity. In the US and other western countries, the ‘designated’ driver refrains from drinking at social dos and takes the ones who have consumed liquor home safely. Our youngsters ape the West in everything else, why can’t they adopt this western trend too? Perhaps it is because the police there is more vigilant and serious about law enforcement. Law enforcers here do not observe any rules and regulations themselves and allow the drunken drivers to get away.
Ranjana Manchanda, on e-mail
What would Manmohan and his aides do without Mr Mehta and his bits of advice through his Delhi Diary (Need a Hard Dose, Doc, Nov 27). Before Mr Mehta pointed it out, I’m sure it never occurred to them that there would be an election in 2009 and that they might have to plan to win it. VM’s memo has hit them like a thunderbolt. They have had a Moses experience reading it. All we need now is the writing down of this wisdom in stone and start worshipping it.
V.R. Ganesan, New Jersey
Why don’t you surprise me ever, Mr Mehta? The more you claim to be liberal, the more dogmatic you sound.... Apart from your irritating sycophancy for this good-for-nothing government, it’s your uncharitable attitude towards the gimc (Great Indian Middle Class) that gets my goat. This nation runs on money it pays as taxes: the rich evade taxes and the poor can’t pay them. After five decades of independence, if the gimc has arrived, why does it bother you?
Kiran Bagchi, Mumbai
I don’t know why the Indian middle class keeps taking on the burden so that Mr Mehta and other elite can have free meals at their expense?
Ram, Kerala
"Perhaps a degree of populism might be required...". Mr Mehta needn’t worry. Telling the Congress to adopt populism is like telling a bear it should consider defecating in the woods. The one policy plank the Congress will use to cling to power, populism is here to stay. But am glad you clarified you’re pro-populism too, even if it means jacking the country.
Raj Shah, New Jersey
Apropos your review of The Departed (Glitterati, Nov 27), I thought the movie was a step down for Martin Scorsese. After all these years, he does not need to do a Quentin Tarantino. The film, however, has helped me lose some of my aversion to Leonardo Di Caprio. He might turn out to be a good actor someday.
Sundar, Madurai
