Hi A:
Good to hear from you. You've been quiet a long time :-).
>.... and as long as professional pessimists as
the likes of Ms. Singh have their
rhetorics going, the President and everybody
else would be ridiculed at every step that they
come up with any kind of a developmental plan.
*** Really? WHAT were the 'development plans'
that you saw in APJAK's song-and-dance?
And how could development plans be effective
while far more basic, fundamental issues are
ignored or brushed aside like APJAK did in that
'interactive' session. Does 'interactive' mean 'I
tell, you listen and don't ask embarrassing
questions' :-)?
Is shw aware that even with that
"grave" situation of scarcity of
electricity >etc., many of the western countries
been worried about companies outsourcing
to >India?
*** It was NOT about western countries' search
for cheap labor. It was supposedly about lifting
the lot of the 'people' with tele-medicine, while
primary healthcare is absent, it was about
virtual-universities while primary education is
absent or is supposedly provided under open skies
by unskilled 'teachers'.
Just because a TINY minority of Indians,
beneficiaries of
steal-from-the-many-to-enrich-a-few-system of
governance who are doing 'well'
does not mean that is THE NATIONAL lot, does it?
>Isn't it funny that even established
columnists/journalists often don't get
the basic meaning of true journalism (like,
duh! be non-biased!) as how even a lay person
would get?
*** What is the bias here A ? That she does not
take what was dissed out without asking hard
questions? That she has the gall to exercise her
intellect :-)?
Do you think that APJAK's response
Manjunath was a righteous man who came from
a righteous family and we must strive to make more righteous families.
is one that places the Pres. in an enviable
light? Would you have responded that way if you
wee to have been confronted by that question from
Manjunath's parents ? What was he thinking?
What is really 'funny' is those who think of
themselves or are called 'journalists' , while
all they do is regurgitate governmental
propaganda, without asking the hard questions
they should about the realities that surround
them? It is people like Tavleen Singh who are
serving as the WATCHDOGs -- the press' real role.
The picture of the 'un-biased' journalist you
paint is really one who sees everything in shades
of grey, unable to see the blacks and whites;
someone I would call vision-impaired :-).
c-da
At 10:31 AM -0600 11/30/06, Alpana B. Sarangapani wrote:
>that before the 'people's President' makes his
next speech about empowering India he take a
short drive without his cavalcade. He could
discover that neither Bharat nor India are ready
for his wondrous plans.
.... and as long as professional pessimists as
the likes of Ms. Singh have their
rhetorics going, the President and everybody
else would be ridiculed at every step that they
come up with any kind of a developmental plan.
>Is he aware that the average Indian is lucky if
he can get a couple of hours of electricity a
>day? Is he aware that the knowledge society is
fueled by electricity and that one of India's
biggest problems is that we have been unable to
generate even enough for every Indian home to
have a light bulb and a fan?
Is shw aware that even with that
"grave" situation of scarcity of electricity
etc., many of the western countries been worried
about companies outsourcing to India?
Isn't it funny that even established
columnists/journalists often don't get
the basic meaning of true journalism (like,
duh! be non-biased!) as how even a lay person
would get?
From: "mc mahant" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
CC: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [Assam] From the Sentinel
Date: Thu, 30 Nov 2006 17:15:32 +0530
Either the Rocket Scientist/DRDO
Designer-in-chief(main battle tank/combat
aircraft etc) has gone
All nuts OR
His speechwriter has.
mm
From: Chan Mahanta <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "Rajen & Ajanta Barua"
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>,
<[email protected]>,<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>,
"SANDIP DUTTA" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: [Assam] From the Sentinel
Date: Mon, 27 Nov 2006 21:35:53 -0600
blockquote, dl, ul, ol, li {padding-top:0;padding-bottom:0;}
It is hard to believe the accolade " Nice
writing!!" while one does not get it.
I can explain, but my guess is tat the effort will be a waste of time.
At 8:22 PM -0600 11/27/06, Rajen & Ajanta Barua wrote:
A bit of philosophy for a change!!!
Nice writing!!
However I failed to see what exactly the writer
is trying to depict. Is he trying to show that
the native rulers are the problem (which
actually means the native people in general) or
is the President of India in particular APJ
Abdul Kalam is the problem.
Indian civilization is known for its love of the
chaos in general. Our great leaders are known
for their complete disregard of the
order, Gandhi included. In India, things are
just supposed to happen without anybody taking
action. Indian masses keep themselves clean by
spitting everywhere with complete disregard for
public cleanliness. It is no wonder that India
has been described by various writers as a
'functioning anarchy' (Galbraith) to 'the
functioning madness' (Yann Martel). But all
these goes to show the reality of the Indoos.
Under the circumstances, what the writer has
written as news is no news at all.
But as Marx said, the point is not to
philosophize what is history, the point is to
change it.
From the writing, I have no clue to know if the
writer knows where the problem is, why
the Indoos (ie the people of South Asia in
general) love chaos, and how to change the
system.
Rajen Barua
----- Original Message -----
From: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>Chan Mahanta
To:
<mailto:[email protected]>[email protected] ;
<mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>[EMAIL PROTECTED] ;
<mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>SANDIP DUTTA
Sent: Monday, November 27, 2006 11:08 AM
Subject: [Assam] From the Sentinel
*** A dose of reality !
cm
India from Raisena Hill
ON THE SPOT
Tavleen Singh
No Indian city is as removed from the realities
of India than New Delhi and last week I was
reminded of this in the most surreal way. By New
Delhi I mean not the old Moghul city that lies
on the edge of the Red Fort or the new suburbs
that sprawl in ugly disorder towards the borders
of Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan but that
part of the city that Edwin Lutyens built in the
dying days of the British Raj. Lutyens was
building an imperial capital worthy of the
British empire, so at its heart, on a high hill,
he built a sandstone palace fit for a Viceroy,
distant from the squalid realities of native
Indian life.
When native rulers took over the reins of
governance from the Viceroy they must have
realized that the palace on the hill was
inappropriate accommodation for a socialist
Prime Minister, so it was used instead to house a
more ceremonial personage, the President, and
renamed Rashtrapati Bhawan. Last Tuesday, at the
request of The Indian Express newspaper, the
President of India came down from his palace to
the lesser Taj Palace hotel to address a select
group of invitees on 'empowering' India.
To listen to the President we gathered early.
Security is always a nightmare. After being metal
detected, body searched and having bags checked
for dangerous objects and mobile phones tested
for bombs, we waited an hour for the man many
regard as the most popular President ever, the
'people's President,' which is why it came as
such a surprise that he should be as removed
from the realities of India as the Viceroy may
once have been.
The President used a computer to give us a power
point presentation of his idea of an empowered
India which would be a knowledge society linked
by the 'grids' of knowledge, e-governance and
society. With the eagerness of Alice in
Wonderland he took us through an India that does
not exist. Listen to a small sample.
''Societal grid consists of Knowledge Grid
inter-connecting universities with
socio-economic institutions, industries and R &D
organizations; Health Care Grid,
inter-connecting the health care institutions of
government, corporate and super specialty
hospitals, research institutions, educational
institutions and pharma R & D institutions;
E-governance Grid, interconnecting the central
government and state governments and district
and block level officesÂ..''
It was not President APJ Abdul Kalam's confused
jargon that was disconcerting so much as his
total disconnect with Indian realities. Is he
aware that computers need electricity to work?
Is he aware that the average Indian is lucky if
he can get a couple of hours of electricity a
day? Is he aware that the knowledge society is
fueled by electricity and that one of India's
biggest problems is that we have been unable to
generate even enough for every Indian home to
have a light bulb and a fan?
The President talked of 'virtual universities'
and 'tele-medicine' as if he were living in some
advanced Western country and when at the end of
his Alice in Wonderland address some members of
the audience tried asking him real questions he
brushed them away. A doctor rose to point out
that tele-medicine could hardly be a replacement
for basic healthcare and he launched into a
convoluted description of his 'health grid'.
In the audience were the parents of Manjunath,
the official who was killed for his honesty by
corrupt petrol pump owners, and they asked what
plans he had to stop honest officials being
killed for being honest. He said he was aware
that Manjunath was a righteous man who came from
a righteous family and we must strive to make
more righteous families. Great! But, how?
The President seemed not to have noticed last
week's Star News sting on MPs making lakhs of
rupees out of every contract they handed out
under their local area development scheme.
Corruption was a problem, of course, but we must
not allow a 'problem' to become 'captain' of our
lives we must be the captain of the problem.
After finishing his 'interactive session' the
President drove off in his cavalcade of
limousines and I set off towards Haryana in
pursuit of a story. I drove past Gurgaon with its
glittering glass offices and salubrious suburban
apartment blocks and watched plump, middle-class
children play in parks filled with trees and
ornamental ponds and then suddenly the landscape
changed. The real India reappeared.
Wide roads gave way to dirt tracks that led to
villages of open drains and air so polluted that
even the trees seemed coated with sludge. I saw
people eating at restaurants built by stagnant
ponds in which barefoot children and mangy dogs
played. I drove past private clinics and
government healthcare facilities that were
primitive by today's standards and towns that
looked like slums. Haryana is one of India's rich
states.
The landscape I describe is less than fifty
kilometers from Rashtrapati Bhawan. I recommend
that before the 'people's President' makes his
next speech about empowering India he take a
short drive without his cavalcade. He could
discover that neither Bharat nor India are ready
for his wondrous plans.
_______________________________________________
assam mailing list
[email protected]
http://assamnet.org/mailman/listinfo/assam_assamnet.org
_______________________________________________
assam mailing list
[email protected]
http://assamnet.org/mailman/listinfo/assam_assamnet.org
>_______________________________________________
assam mailing list
[email protected]
http://assamnet.org/mailman/listinfo/assam_assamnet.org
Connect with your friends who use Yahoo!
<http://g.msn.com/8HMAENIN/2734??PS=47575>Messenger
with Voice. Click!
>_______________________________________________
assam mailing list
[email protected]
http://assamnet.org/mailman/listinfo/assam_assamnet.org
<http://g.msn.com/8HMBENUS/2740??PS=47575>Share
your latest news with your friends with the
Windows Live Spaces friends module.
_______________________________________________
assam mailing list
[email protected]
http://assamnet.org/mailman/listinfo/assam_assamnet.org
