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'Rational plans only work with rational people'
E-mail from readers the world over
.Date:
Thu, 1 Jul 1999 15:56:10 -0700
Besides asking for the withdrawal of intruders from Indian territory, India should insist on Pakistan handing over those responsible for torturing our soldiers in captivity and murdering Squadron Leader Ajay Ahuja. These people need to be tried for war crimes. Unless these conditions are met India should not accept any deal.
Date:
Thu, 08 Jul 1999 15:57:10 PDT
I have a very different view on associations like the AWWA. I think the first thing that has to be done to improve the life of these brave soldiers is to free them from household chores at their officers' houses. By rule, there has to be only one sahayak for an officer but you have to go to a CO's house to see!
Date:
Mon, 12 Jul 1999 13:29:54 -0700
I feel extremely sorry for India. Here militants can become chief ministers and are allowed to run the nation! THIS GUY WAS A MILITANT FOR 20 YEARS!!! What can we expect if such people run our nation? I strongly feel that only those who are well educated and with a clean character should be allowed to contest the election. The bravery that the Indian army showed in the Kargil crisis makes my heart beat with pride; but even that brave army cannot drive away the militants who have got into high places in the government. Manisha Joglekar
Date:
Fri, 16 Jul 1999 19:08:20 GMT
It was nice to read about Dilip Kumar. I really appreciate it. Since the day I started reading it one question conquered my mind: Why do you/we like a star? Be it any kind of business -- cricket/acting/artist/industrialist... Do we like them coz they are from so and so country, or do we like them coz of their talents? The answer is, TALENT! Then what makes one think that accepting an award from Pakistan makes Dilip Kumar a Pakistani and we start questioning his citizenship? I think that is ridiculous. Who's Bal Thackeray??? We are not living in a monarchy. Every individual has his own right to do what he wants and what he thinks is right. Dilip Kumar is not Dilip Kumar coz he has accepted the Nishan-e-Imtiaz from Pakistan, but because of his talents and skills. He has been a legend and will be a legend till the end of this film industry. No one can beat his talents and we like him for this. These things have nothing to do with one's patriotism. We are Indian and will be Indian till our last breath. Janbaaz
Date:
Sat, 10 Jul 1999 23:30:06 -0700
I totally agree with I S Gill. The only viable solution for the Kashmir problem is to divide the disputed area between Pakistan and India. It can be done by accepting the LoC as the permanent border between India and Pakistan. Otherwise, we will be wasting valuable resources. Tomy Varkey
Date:
Fri, 09 Jul 1999 17:06:50 +0500
The article on the North Korean ship Khoj is indeed revealing. Good to know that India is now pretty active. We must remind the Honourable Sharief that war isn't a cricket match! Anil Tambe
Date:
Mon, 28 Jun 1999 12:31:01 PDT
If you look at the list of our soldiers who have died, you would find men of all religions and caste background. If these men can ignore the divisive forces, why cannot the rest of the country do the same? Why do we have a Muslim vote bank, a Hindu vote bank, a dalit vote bank? It is sickening. And to top it all, it is the politicians who encourage this. I sincerely hope and wish (and in vain), that they would realise this and rise above petty goals and work for the people. Since I know and the rest of the country knows that it is not possible for the leopard to change its spots, there is a VERY STRONG case for a national government. This is the only way for our politicians to be rooted out of the political system. This is the only way we can protect our country from decay and not have to hide our face in shame when we hand over the reins to our children to come. Also, the criteria to be an MLA or MP has to be more stringent. The person should be a graduate and should have worked for the people for 5 years before he/she can run for election. Several universities have to be cleaned up. You just CANNOT have universities giving grace marks to students as a rule. The level of corruption is enormous, staggering. It is a huge task, but if we don't start now, in some shape or form, it will only get bigger and larger. This is my second email to Rediff. Whenever I start talking about conditions in India and how it can be made better, I become emotional. But that is helpful only to a certain extent. I hope I will gather the guts and courage to return home and do some work and contribute in some small way. Thank you for your coverage of Kargil. Rajesh Shedde
Date:
Sat, 10 Jul 1999 00:45:48 +0530
There has been an inordinately heavy media hype about a comparatively marginal non-entity like Yusuf Khan (better known as Dilip Kumar), essentially a professional actor who did all he did more for a living than for any other reason, as all professionals do. He might have earned some popularity in the bargain, and may even have used it incidentally to project himself as some kind of social activist. But by no stretch of imagination can he be regarded as someone that really matters as far as the indignation of a whole nation is concerned. So what is all this fuss about? That Pakistan should consider bestowing on so inconsequential an Indian as Yusuf their highest civilian honour is in itself an indication of the awe and reverence in which India is held within the sub-conscious of that country. It also sends out a clear signal that our neighbour functions at alarmingly low standards of discretion in their choice of recipients for prestigious decorations. Asking him to return the award because of the back-stabbing in Kargil is to lower our own prestige and self-esteem. It is the height of inanity. Indeed, it is precisely what some quarters within our country might desire should happen. Why give them that morbid satisfaction? Have we not been given enough lessons already, the latest one being Pakistan's misadventure in Kargil? And unless we are gluttons for punishment, aren't these lessons enough? I would strongly recommend to the political parties as well as the press to blackout such controversies, so that we will have that much more leisure to address issues of real relevance and import. If he chooses to keep the award, the only place he will henceforth ever be comfortable wearing it is in front of a mirror in the privacy of his bedroom where no one would see him! Yours sincerely Bhalchandrarao C Patwardhan
Date:
Sat, 03 Jul 1999 09:29:03 +0400
Diwanji is very logical and rational. With the insight provided and cool-minded analysis, it is easy to appreciate the farsightedness and LEADERSHIP quality of the PM, rightly termed as 'Bhishm Pitamah"
Date:
Mon, 12 Jul 1999 23:25:27 -0500
The only line I agree with Diwanji in his article is "India has slowly whittled down its defence preparedness and expenditure". I have been reading him on rediff.com for quite some time now. This guy writes on the same lines as those in the western media. Diwanji had a whole-hearted support for NATO's action in Kosovo. He thinks he knows better than our army generals and defence analysts who have repeatedly requested the government to allow them to cross the LoC and root out the Kashmir problem forever. Diwanji will make a good Pakistani news writer. In his article Diwanji writes "our causalities after a month of war is less than 200 (remarkable, that!)". Does any of you think 200 of our men sacrificed so far is less? This man has no value for our brothers' lives. Okay, what about the 30,000 civilians that have been butchered and over a million Pandits driven out of their homes in the last 10 years? Does anyone think that this aggression is going to stop if we don't tackle Pakistan? Diwanji acknowledges that fighting in mountainous terrain like Kargil is difficult especially from lower heights. Right, that is why the army generals want to fight in flat terrain across the LoC. Once the supply camps across the LoC are eliminated, how long are the intruders in mountains going to survive? We don't even have to attack them. They will freeze to death in a month or two. The army knows that it is capable of handling the Pakistanis across the LoC. A bunch of our jawans might be killed but the result is certainly everlasting peace. This is because once we recover the land that legally belongs to us, there will be no intrusion. We certainly won't lose 30,000 countrymen if we crossed the LoC and took all of the occupied Kashmir. If Diwanji or anyone else thinks that Pak could use a nuke on us if it lost PoK, then who on the earth can guarantee that Pak will not use the nuke 10 years from now? Also, what is the guarantee that this kind of intrusion will not be attempted by the Pakistanis in future and no more Kashmiri Pandits would be killed by fanatic intruders? One more question: Are we going to ask our army to station our jawans in all the mountain heights 365 days a year like we do in Siachen? Is Diwanji and his believers going to guard these mountain tops all through the year? Does anyone know what the life expectancy of a soldier serving in the Siachen glacier is? Mr Diwanji, hello, do you get it?? If we take back the entire Kashmir now, we will not have a difficult task of guarding the treacherous mountain tops and valleys. Why are the intrusions along Gujarat, Rajasthan and Punjab borders less as compared to that in Kashmir? It is certainly not because the Pakistanis have no interest in those states. It is because the intruders are apprehended by our border patrol with very little effort owing to the flat terrain. Let us not forget one fact. Pakistan cannot afford another war with us. If the $ 100 million loan it is eagerly waiting from the IMF is declined, Pak can't buy anything from any other country. Its exchequer will be a history in no time. The truth is that Nehru made the biggest blunder in accepting the unilateral ceasefire in the first Kashmir war in spite of General Thimayya requesting to grant him only 48 hours more to free Kashmir from the Pakistani and Afghan tribal forces. Next, Indira Gandhi had a golden opportunity in 1971 to acquire the PoK that legally belongs to us. She was dreaming that the western nations would reward her with the Nobel Peace Prize and she ordered our troops to lay their arms down and step back. As a result of this father-daughter mess-up, we are now in a situation like this. Now, the only long-term solution for Kashmir is to eradicate all the forces across the LoC and acquire PoK. We probably would pay a heavy price but Kashmir and the rest of the nation can get good sleep every night there after. Vande Mataram.
Date:
Fri, 16 Jul 1999 13:33:22 -0500
While it is not a bad idea to share resources with other nations as part of trade, I am not too sure if it was wise in the first place to go for a power-sharing agreement with a country like Pakistan. I am not in disagreement of the concept itself, but just the idea of implementing it with Pakistan. Pakistan has always been an undeclared enemy for India, it is natural that there is a great amount of suspicion that comes prior to any agreement or understanding with them. Kargil intrusion (invasion?) is the latest example of suspicion becoming reality or truth. With this in mind, how could anyone even guess what the Pakistanis would do to power supply that they are in control of, if India were to depend on it for its economic growth in the North-Eastern states? They could easily push the "stop" button anytime there is a conflict. What happens then, the poor Indian states are left in dark (literally too)? It is about time India privatised the power and communication sectors, so it need depend only on itself, and no one else, certainly not the enemy. Venkat Venkataramanan
Date:
Wed, 30 Jun 1999 21:16:03 -0400
If people have the mentality that "Once Islamic, for ever Islamic (any land)", "Any thing except Islam is infidel, and should be destroyed" etc, these theories will never work. It is thus unfortunate that even if all that mentioned there is done, we will have peace and trustworthy relations with Pakistan only if the borders are guarded by a powerful army. We cannot afford to forget the innumerable attacks from the north west -- starting with Mohammed Bin Kasim in 712 through Ahmed Shah Abdali in 1761. We are dealing with a country that approves of that history and names their missiles as Ghori, Abdali, Ghaznavi etc. Rational plans work only with rational people. Gajanan M Pandit
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