In the proposed bill for the elderly, stringent punishment is envisaged for the children of senior citizens if they fail to take care of them (Glimmer in the Twilight, Dec 18). But who is going to punish the government if it fails to do so? Take for example the cghs, which was working fine till recently. Now the health ministry is slowly withdrawing benefits like opd consultation with super-speciality hospitals, unless it’s a case of emergency, which term again is interpreted to the advantage of the government. So people like me have to run to the poorly-equipped and overcrowded government hospitals, which are miles away from residential localities. There are just three such in the twin cities of Hyderabad and Secunderabad.
B.R. Iyengar, Secunderabad
I’m glad policymakers have woken up to meet the challenges of a changing demographic regime by introducing a bill for the elderly. One only wishes that it becomes an act soon and gets implemented in letter and spirit.
Anitha, Nathakadaiyur, TN
Great, India’s economic growth is soon to hit the magical 10 per cent (Let’s Talk Ten, Dec 18). But what is the relevance of this figure in the lives of our 350 million poor? For instance, the growth in agriculture is a mere 2 per cent and 65 per cent of our population depends on it. Farmers’ suicides weren’t this common a few years ago when the gdp was only 6 per cent. A 5 per cent growth rate in agriculture alone would trigger a magical growth in gdp. How about investment and incentives in that direction?
K.J. John, Vadodara
Whichever way you paint it, India’s economic growth hasn’t impacted the lives of its lower-income group. Prosperity is confined to a few people, largely of the business class. Worse, the growing prestige of corporate culture is obfuscating public priorities like health, sanitation and drinking water. No wonder the lower strata of society find it difficult to meet even its bare necessities. Real growth will be meaningful only when farmer suicides have stopped and the poor are provided affordable healthcare. Successive governments have sadly remained mute spectators to this imbalance.
C. Deenadayal, on -email
As much as India needs to grow as an economy, it also has to sustain prosperity and social well-being. There should be an altruistic public spiritedness among its citizens. As a resident of England, I’ve noticed this attitude among the people here. It’s not that India is bereft of idealistic, talented and motivated people, only that our ruling class lacks in wisdom and integrity. This is true of the private sector too. Economic growth minus ideological elevation will only create a discontented, unequal India.
Abesh Choudhury, London
The whole world is soon going to realise that mass consumption is not a good thing after all. The Japs also keep saving, but no one considers their model worth emulating. Instead, people look up to the American model, not realising that the US has its share of poor people.
Vishwanath Rao, Bangalore
Ecstatic over touching 10 per cent? We could have grown by 25 per cent. We still can—if the Congress is voted out of power.
Mohit Ganguly, London
I always thought it was that ‘other newsweekly’ which shamelessly aped Time down to the red border on its cover. But Outlook too seems to have joined the club. The cover of this issue was too similar to Time’s November 2, 2006, issue for it to be mere coincidence.
A. Krishna Pillai, Bangalore
Your interview with A.A. Khan (Dec 11) was indeed revelatory. The outgoing high commissioner of Pakistan failed to answer a single pointed question by your correspondent. How do we expect relations to improve with such an attitude? The more articles I read on our ties with Pakistan, the more convinced I am that it is all a farce being played out at the government level. A waste of newsprint, breath, time and taxpayers’ money.
Rajeev Mahajan, Baroda
Apropos A Coup at Chamundi (Dec 18), the byelection here was fought with flagrant misuse of power and money; such elections can hardly be called fair. The violation of election rules was so rampant that the election observer had to pull up candidates and their election managers on a number of occasions. What was the big idea of almost all state ministers camping in the constituency? And Deve Gowda took it upon himself to ensure the defeat of Congress candidate Siddaramaiah who is a one-time protege of his. Imagine a former prime minister descending to such a level!
M.M. Gurbaxani, Bangalore
Apropos Poisoned Arrow (Dec 18), going by Outlook logic, every convicted criminal is innocent, be it Sanjay Dutt, Shibu Soren or Afzal. Wonder what they smoke at Outlook.
Rajeev, Delhi
Sidhu saying that the whole country is behind him (Man of Many Sentences, Dec 18) is the best example of Sidhuism, that too at his own expense.
H.N. Ananda, Bangalore
Apropos Arundhati Roy’s Breaking the News (Dec 18), I think Afzal should be put on national television, isolated from everyone, and then be asked to tell his story. The can of worms this will open up will be interesting.
Bindu Tandon, Mumbai
Our Lady of Eternal Petulance does it again—don a faux liberal-secular-intellectual garb and espouse conspiracy theories. Her shrill campaign in support of Afzal Guru is getting a bit tiresome. Borrowing from her own title, it is becoming a Strange Case of Defending Afzal Guru. The 13 questions she raises are specious, and can be answered convincingly by any reasonable legal mind. Polemics is an interesting game, and no one’s better at it than our Booker Prize winner. But it is not difficult to turn around the logic of most (if not all) of her arguments. For instance, her posturing that the campaign against Afzal was "fuelled by the usual stale cocktail of religious fundamentalism, nationalism and strategic falsehoods" can just as easily be reworked into a convincing argument that the campaign for clemency is proof of "the potent cocktail of religious fundamentalism, anti-nationalism and dangerous pseudo-secular falsehoods" that drive terrorist movements in this country.
Sivaram Srikandath, Kochi
For the nth time, Ms Roy, are you defending Afzal only because he’s from the minority group?
R.V., Minneapolis, US
Afzal can either be hanged and the entire nation can bear the weight of the State action on its conscience. Or he can be pardoned in the interests of reason and political pragmatism. But it’s high time we stemmed the parallel industry by a bunch of opportunists via book publishing, speechmaking, and hawking of opinions. In a poor country such as India the passions of many can be put to better use.
Akhil Rahul, Chicago
Ms Roy would have us believe that our police, investigating agencies, the government and judiciary are all a bunch of amoral imbeciles and that the terrorist attacks which happen periodically are all stage-managed. I have only one thing to tell her. She should stop posturing as some sort of goddess of small things.
M.A. Raipet, Secunderabad
Outlook and Arundhati Roy display in stark relief another facet of the crass middle class, stoking and stroking each other with their introverted concerns. If you wish to be taken seriously and as infinitely more intelligent, show your enduring love for the 3,00,000 Kashmiris who have been left homeless and jobless and their region reduced to a war zone.
K. Kitchlu, Mysore
Well, to relieve Vinod Mehta of his misery, the word that troubles him so, ‘partner’, is passe (Delhi Diary, Dec 18). The socially acceptable term these days is ‘Significant Other’, a politically correct construct that could refer to just about anyone: girl/boy-friend, spouse, same-sex partner. Though, like the former word, this too takes the punch out of the enigma that is love. Personally, I prefer how we’re doing it politely in Telugu lately. We say ‘amitaMgaa kaavalisina vaaru’ meaning persons with whom you want to be close.
Akshay, Hyderabad
Surely Mr Mehta means the mixed doubles event when he says the word ‘partner’ belongs to doubles tennis.
V.S. Venkat, Chennai
Finally, something sensible from Mr Mehta, instead of his usual ploy of criticising himself.
Bhaskar K.B., Bangalore
By branding himself as a Congress chamcha, Machiavelli Mehta denies his readers the privilege of telling him he is indeed me.
N. Joshi, Chandigarh
If memory serves me right, didn’t Mr Mehta, in an earlier diary, promise not to burden his readers with stories of Editor? Or have I missed something between then and now?
T.K.N., New York
I think Editor the dog understands the Congress better than you do, hence his attitude.
Navdeep Hans, Delhi
Dileep Padgaonkar finds bloomers in the Selected Speeches of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh brought out by the Publications Division (Dec 18). It’s worse for ordinary authors. Recently, it played havoc by bringing out a ‘re-edited’ version of the Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi. The government had to prohibit its sale and suffer a Rs 1 crore loss. A petty sum for it but plenty for those who profited by it.
Vishwanath Tandon, Kanpur
I read S. Anand’s 10 Questions with Bombay Jayashri (Dec 18) and waited for the one on Tam-Brahm hegemony. Sure enough, at Question No. 7.
Ramachandran, Chennai
