IITians do contribute
The author who wrote a letter to Smriti Irani on the subsidies to IITs mentioned the cost of educating an IITian and coarsely wrote about Flipkart, Chetan Bhagat, and the likes (“Dear Smriti Irani, stop giving my money to IITians”). Why didn't he account for the employment created and revenues generated (which are again taxable) by Flipkart? Coming to the point on the Defence Research Development Organisation etc, when a person is offered Rs 10 lakh per annum and above as a starting salary, why would he/she choose research institutes who offer salaries with which even peanuts are unaffordable? – Rinosh Polavarapu
***
I can't comprehend on how many levels the author is wrong. Many of us don't get such high paying jobs, and I think most of the big companies started with IITians as co-founders. And these companies provide jobs to lakhs of people. Go look at the board members of Sun, Infosys, Flipkart and a lot of other companies. Do you think service is only in terms of engineering? Isn’t entrepreneurship a service to society? Isn’t it true that if we earn then we also pay taxes?
And we give back to our alma mater too. Why do you blame them when companies like DRDO don't attract by giving attractive opportunities? You can't expect a person to sacrifice his life and go work in the DRDO for a lower wage and lesser opportunities to excel when he gets a higher pay and more challenges from a big company. – Prudhvi Bellamkonda
***
The article is written in a biased manner and grossly one-sided. Statistically, you can prove anything, but IITs are the pride of our nation and have contributed to a great extent to the development of the nation. That not a single IITian has joined the armed forces is also not entirely true. Vice Admiral Krishnan was an IITian from Delhi and there are large number of government persons, academics and entrepreneurs who have done great work in shaping the national economy. The data is available on the IIT website. Although almost one-third of the IIT graduates head for MNCs abroad, the remaining are doing very well in the country. Yes, lot more is desired from these prime institutes, but everything is not a waste. – Nitin Khandekar
***
This article made me to think about national resources and my responsibility towards my country, though I am not an IITian. I would like to thank you for your social responsibility towards awakening young minds. – D Dastagiri
***
The article about IITs makes a lot of sense. The rich and the poor ought to be taxed differently. The IITians need to pay for their education either by national service or by paying the full course fees. There can be no other way to this brain drain quagmire. – Rajinder Verma
***
I was curious about how the US companies found out about Indian talent and crossed the ocean to harness it. I found that in every case—not most cases, but every case—someone of Indian origin had reached high enough in the hierarchy of the company to persuade it to look at India seriously. A good chunk of these were IIT engineers. It is arguable that India’s technology revolution would never have happened but for this diaspora of Indian engineers, many of whom graduated from the IITs.
So, yes, I would favour the subsidies and take steps to make sure that those from economically underprivileged get even more assistance. – Srikumar Rao
***
As an IIT-Madras alumnus, I fully endorse this article. – GR Srinivasan
***
I read the article about the subsidiaries paid to IITs. It was an excellent article. But will this help to come up with a solution? As far as I know, students not only from IITs but also from other engineering colleges don’t work on what they study. The reason is that no engineers are interested in what they really dream about. They just do engineering for their parents and get employed in any field because they feel they won’t get another opportunity to earn in this competitive country. – Rakesh Sharma
The biryani monster
The article on Public Prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam’s false statements in the Kasab case (“Why Ujjwal Nikam's lie about Kasab and mutton biryani should shame and anger us”) is eye-opening on how certain people, who take care of the law, along with a section of media mend and bend the cases. The last few sentences in the article tells that the media and other sections from the community or law construct monsters. I don’t agree with this claim. Apart from this, I liked the article. – Derin J Tom
***
I am ashamed of Kavita Krishnan for writing this article. These men killed over 160 people and nobody is worried about their constitutionals rights. I think you should now take up the cause of Pakistani soldiers killed by Indian soldiers. – Rakesh Mehta
Concerned by sand mining
I appreciate your efforts to address the sand mining in India, which is a very concerning issue (“Backgrounder: The legal fight against illegal sand mining”). Thanks for reporting it. – Virat Agarwal
Kancha Ilaiah's beef
I think Professor Kancha Ilaiah and the reporter are out of their minds. When people believe in the Quran and the Bible of their respective religions, why do people cry foul about Hindus who believe in the Vedas? (“Beef ban is an attempt to impose upper-caste culture on other Hindus: Kancha Ilaiah”).
Maybe a few people consume beef, but that does not mean that our Vedas taught us that. Let the writer or the professor read the Vedas. Vedas were written before Shankaracharaya or Gandhi were born. You need to first read and understand the subject you are discussing and then sum up the article. You don’t have any right to influence others. – Ajay T
The Haji Ali ban
Some points in your article about women and the Haji Ali Dargah need to be highlighted (“Why those challenging the Haji Ali Dargah Trust’s ban on women have a good legal case”).
First, there were no dargahs in Arabia during Prophet Mohammad’s time. The funeral as well as burial were expected to be solemn occasions. Display of pubic/ceremonial mourning, as was prevalent amongst the tribes in Arabia as well as Iran, was an absolute no in Islam. Women considered more emotional/ sentimental were less likely to exercise the restraint expected. In addition, the presence of small children and babies could make a mockery of the solemn occasion.
Women were permitted to pray in the mosque, and definitely should be.
A dargah is not a mosque. You may make a prayer, but you aren’t allowed to offer prayers at a grave. Prayers are to be directed only to Allah and not to anybody dead or alive, however pious. To best of my knowledge, most dargahs don’t permit women near the grave, which is enclosed. – Naiyer Razzaqui
***
You have written a very interesting article though you can even argue that according to the Sharia, that ban has no merit. With Islamic Sharia being according to the Quran, you will not find anything on dargahs or any rules of how to go to one. So they can’t base anything on the Sharia. During the time of Prophet Mohammad, women were allowed to pray in mosques. Even today, all over the Middle East and other parts of the world, women are allowed to pray in mosques. It’s only in South Asia where women are not allowed to do so. The reality is that most South Asian Islamic scholars don’t an understanding of the Sharia. It’s much easier to beat them at their own game with their own rules. – Ikkery
Books and being gay
Vivek Tejuja is a beautiful man. He deserves as much love as has come his way up till now, and more, much, much, more! (“Being gay: how books and reading saved my life”).
My first ever book was an Enid Blyton, which was gifted to me by a relative, and my mother swears I was horrified when I opened the gift and did not find candy. I grudgingly picked it up, shook it thoroughly hoping at least one tiny morsel of candy would fall, but started reading it anyway. I did not put it down for the next three days. While there wasn't much going wrong for me in the outside world for these new friends to save me from, there was so much wrong going on inside. Everyday, life was turning me into another unfeeling, unseeing automaton. Books are both my salvation and my downfall. – Sunanda Mehta
***
Wonderfully written, stunning in its simplicity. I’m going to share this with all my senior students. – Piyali Gupta
Remembering Kabir
Thanks a lot for introducing the five masters who sing Kabir in five different ways (“Kahat Kabir: Five musicians inspired by the mystical poet philosopher's simple lyrics”). I had a great time listening to them. This shows your commitment to the holistic approach of "news", which is positive news. Keep it up! – Madhu Menon
The right to information
It is mentioned in the article about RTI and political parties that substantial funding to the political parties is from the government/s (“By defying the RTI Act, national parties are undermining democracy”). Is it possible to isolate and bring out concrete figures for a few years?
If such figures can be authentically taken out, and if it is substantial, the C&AG has the right to audit it. I wonder whether this aspect has been investigated. – M Ramaswamy
Watch your figures
Supriya Sharma has raised an important issue in her piece about the impending Minegate (“Coalgate seemed huge but it might pale in comparison to the impending Minegate”).
However, the author has forgotten to deduct the production costs in her calculations. Even CAG used production costs for the nearest Coal India mine to arrive at the 1.86 lakh crore loss figure. After accounting for mining (eg. NMDC's mining cost is about Rs. 1,200/tonne), the 1.71 lakh crore figure will stand reduced to 1.02 lakh crore. Needless to say, it is still a massive figure. But the author/editors need to be a bit more discerning while quoting such figures. – Alok Rawat
Indians writing in English
I agree with what Bhalchandra Nemade said about Indian writers in English (“‘Indians writing in English cannot come close to Manto, Premchand or Bibhutibhushan'”). "Indian" here means South Asian, right?
However, in terms of specifics, writings by Nehru or Salim Ali are great examples of high English writing from India. But they do not rely on dialogues. And dialogues are what suffer most when we Indians, I mean Indian in India, writing in English. Such writers construct human speech in their vernacular speech and translate it into idiomatic English, at best. I have known Indians so deep into English that they dream in it, but they still construct their speech that way.
It is primarily for this reason that "Indian English" fails discerning readers (with the possible exception, sometimes, of Vikram Seth). This is also the reason why perceptive Indian readers can often make out the region of origin of such authors (which is, of course, not necessarily a bad thing). – SN Roy
***
After unburdening himself of several questionable assertions, Bhachandra Nemade concludes that he is right because he has stated his "frank opinion", his "considered view". This man would be laughed out of a class in logic. – Mukul Dube
Dishonest bureaucrats
Back in 1966, my maternal grandfather, who had retired as the Revenue Commissioner of Mysore and had been reemployed in the Indian Administrative Service as Chairman of the Coffee Board, died of a heart attack. He had been a strict and honest officer all his life. When he went to the tahsildar's office after retirement, he was taunted by him. The tahsildar refused to register a transfer of property, saying that the days of Mysore Samrajya were over. It was now Congress rule. If he wanted any work done, he had to bribe.
The rot began in 1947. Dishonest bureaucrats are nothing new (“Honest bureaucrats are seen as cranks reining in India's great surge forward”). Only, the proportion of criminals in the government has increased steadily since then.
India's fundamental problem, since its inception, is that the enterprise of subverting national resources to the personal pelf, pleasure, pomp, perpetuation and perversions of the politician-bureaucrat-police-judge-crony kleptocracy is far more vital than national interest, and is achieved by various "classes" or socio-metric groupings of persons.
India's solutions are always India's problems as they are directed at changing thaumaturged "legal' boundaries retrospectively, prospectively or selectively to alter whichever "class" of persons may benefit. – Suchindra Nath
Remembering Bhagat Singh
It stunned me at first reading the Bhagat Singh essay, as it stunned WB Yeats on first reading the Chapman's Homer (“On Bhagat Singh's death anniversary: 'Why I am an atheist'”).
God and religion are the great ditches in which the so-called educated and modern Indian society has plunged into blindly. The essay originally written for a Marxist organisation reveals the truth. Religion is an opium said Marx, and God is dead, said Nietzche. The ideas need to be revived if we want to survive and save humankind. Both Maqsood Saqib and Hasan deserve special encomiums for a beautiful translation and bringing the essay to the public. – Intaj Malek
Lee Kuan Yew: one sided view
Scroll joins the bandwagon of publishing views that only advocate for totalitarian rule. The IAS officer firstly praises Lew Kuan Yew, who with no real merit becomes the founding father of Singapore (“Video: Singapore's Lee Kuan Yew on why even he would not be able to change India”). What would we call Stamford Raffles or Yusof Bin Ishak or the Malaysian Parliament that expelled Singapore from the Malay federation?
The criticisms of India are far from farsighted, for the visionary he is described, the integrity he extolls, he lacks in large amounts, the corruption he addresses he institutionalised in Singapore, and the level playing field he provides fails to reach the Tamil citizens of Singapore whose culture he is extolling.
India's greatest strength as a Union is its diversity in language, cuisine, race, religion, history, climate, flora and fauna, and colonial experiences. If the Indian experience works out, we will be the first people to shed the nation state. Nations represent a homogenous people, which we are not. Rather than transcribing boring leadership summits of Yew, I would rather ask Scroll to transcribe Babasaheb Ambedkar's criticisms of India. – Sumesh Sharma
Overboard feminist agenda
The feminist agenda has gone completely overboard in the name of women empowerment.
Why go to a standup comedy show if you are so easily offended? (“Comedian gets the finger from Delhi women law students for his sexist jokes”). Also, what's up with this recent rush towards aggressively shutting people you don't agree with? First, it was the Delhi lawyers in the India's Daughter documentary and now this standup comedian. And both of those despicable efforts have come from the legal fraternity, who should instead be standing up for free speech, at least when that speech is an expression of your beliefs (even if you find those same beliefs despicable). – Nihar Panda
Supreme Court reigns supreme
The Supreme Court deserves kudos for having recognised the individual rights getting encroached (“No more 66A: Supreme Court demonstrates that at least one Indian institution values free speech”). Indian democracy along with the Constitution has provided the checks and balances, irrespective of the onslaughts on individual liberty and freedom. – Kewal Khanna
Going back in time
I like the Idea of moving back to non-mechanised farming. Three years down the line, this should also be implemented on the roads instead of cars (“Behind Maharashtra's stringent beef ban is a Jain trust that dreams of farming without tractors”).
Down the line, we should also get dissociated with other animals like dogs, cats and chicken. We should be surviving only on crops. We also have to reduce our dependency on bacteria. We should be drinking only milk and not to use any bacteria to make curd. The insulin for diabetes shouldn't be made from the levers of pigs and there should be some vegan option.
They use bone-char while manufacturing sugar. Unfortunately there is no substitute for the substance, so we should ban sugar altogether. These changes are radical but they are possible. Rajendra Joshi's trust should start bringing these changes to their community first so others can learn from it. – Rahul B
***
It is a good idea. Even in western countries, people are eating less beef as they have found out that it is not very healthy. – Krishan Uppal
Baseless Aadhaar
I know of students in Delhi who were harassed for not having an Aadhaar card when they applied for admission to grade six, even when they had graduated from the neighbourhood Municipal Corporation of Delhi school (“Centre blames states for violating Supreme Court orders on Aadhar, but is just as guilty”). There have been cases when students have been pushed out of schools and denied their right in this context.
Not only is this a violation of the Supreme Court's orders, but is also contrary to the Right to Education Act, which says that no child will be denied admission on the grounds of not possessing a document. The explanation given by some school authorities that it is needed to open students' bank accounts for direct transfer of scholarships etc is hollow and misleading since bank accounts can be opened without Aadhaar. – Firoz Ahmad
Progressive courts?
You forgot one of the most important reasons for India’s courts to come out with progressive verdicts – the cultural aspect (“The reason it's so difficult to obtain progressive verdicts in India's courts”).
India's culture is predominantly hierarchical with most people having a subservient (non-questioning) attitude; even critical thinking is very limited. Thus it’s the same population and mindset that also reaches the judiciary (and legislature), which pass such judgments and create repressive laws. "Freedom" and "liberty" have different meanings for them as opposed to some of us. – EE
On Libertarians
Girish Shahane's article about libertarians disappoints (“Libertarians are right about the need to privatise Air India ‒ but wrong about much else”). It is naïve and presents a caricature of libertarian philosophy. The writer's bias is clear from the start. But to create a straw man and attack it does not make for sound (or for good) reading.
Shahane presents a monolithic view of libertarianism, an extreme version at that. In fact, there are competing schools of libertarianism ranging from libertarian socialism to neo-classical liberalism. In his haste to lampoon the philosophy he ignores such nuances. He distorts Locke's idea of self-ownership to argue that it legitimised colonial expansion. It was the latter, in fact, which disregarded the idea of self-ownership of the natives.
His caricature of a "libertarian paradise" where "every bit of land and water on earth has been opened up for purchase and sale, and now lies in private hands" is a straw man. It is entirely possible for individual right owners to pool their rights to create common property to a rival/depletable good and for these to manage sustainably through the evolution of social norms of trust, reciprocity and cooperation (Elinor Ostrom was awarded the Nobel Prize for showing this). – Shreekant Gupta
Not 5,000 but 20,000
As an organiser of the protest against beef ban at Azad Maidan in Mumbai, I want to thank you for covering the protest and beautifully articulating it (“Unemployment and attempted suicide: stories from a massive rally against Maharashtra's beef ban”). I only intend to correct the collective presence on the ground, which is described as 5,000. It counted to 20,000 and more. – Sanjay Pandit
What's in a name?
I read your article about the renaming of Indian places by our politicians (“From Chowpatty to Swaraj Bhoomi: why Indian politicians are so eager to rename iconic landmarks”).
However, the only concern was your mention about the city (state) "Madras". Though the city (state) has been renamed due to local politics, the origin of the name is disputed and is not considered a British originated name at all, unlike Bombay or Calcutta. Unless the origin of the city "Madras" is not established, it would not make sense to demolish the old and heritage names that bring India together.
You will also be interested to know that there is a city called "Sadras" (Sadhurangapattinam) near "Madras" named after "Madras". However, the city was never renamed because no one bothered due to its lack of popularity. – Madras Dreams
Not very sanitary
Freedom of expression aside, I'd like to bring to your notice that the exact same 'feminist messages on sanitary pads' installation was made by a German artist and the project did its rounds on the net, gaining an amount of popularity a couple of weeks back (“Jamia raps students for public art project, St Stephen's bans unauthorised weekly”).
Freedom of expression is probably a larger issue given the circumstances in our country, but a blatant rip-off of artistic creativity is far from tasteful. While the 'angle' you chose to present your article is great, you can't just gloss over something as important as intellectual property rights. – George Paracka
Selling online
I liked Binoo K John's piece on the Indian bookshops shutting shop (“As bookshops close down, should India follow Europe's lead to fix prices?”). However, I didn't see a single word about the authors. Are they doing better in online sales or fixed-price sales? Will online sales kill good writing and only spew more Chetan Bhagats? – Chaitanya Kalbag
Friendly neighbours
My experience with Pakistanis and that of some of my army friends slightly differs (“Ordinary Pakistanis seem to love Indians. Do we love them back?”). On the Line of Control, the Pakistani soldiers were always as friendly towards us as we were towards them. My friend’s experience of his visit to Pakistan a few years ago as part of an Indian delegation was that he was all the time shadowed by Pakistani intelligence.
I once happened to be in the seat next to a Pakistani on an international flight in the nineties. When he came to know that I was an Indian, he let go cursing Indians. I had the same experience in London about eight years ago when the driver of the cab happened to be a Pakistani. It is well-documented that it is drilled into every Pakistani from his primary school days how bad the Indians are. – Major General SCN Jatar
***
The unfortunate part of our history is that there is a great mistrust amongst Hindus and Muslims of our country. We are driven by scores of myths, which are far from the truth, but still we believe the myths as we have faith in our Gods.
While the uneducated and very economically backward Muslim is too ignorant about the facts and the history, and generally believes what keep on percolating to them for ages, the Hindus, mostly the upper strata people, are guided by the propaganda of Hindutva ideologues, who may know that they are wrong but stick to the claim that myths are the facts.
Muslims as they go up, become more secular, they start taking wine, don’t bother about halal meat, and are not offended to the inter-religion marriages in the family. Even the religious ones keep their God and traditions within the four walls of their home, and hardly show up these in the outside world.
On the contrary, a Hindu as he goes up, becomes more bigoted, starts official functions with a Hindu ritual and spends official money on satyanarayan pujas in the office. Now you can imagine how the majority of Hindus in India can love the Pakistanis, as they are seen as the extended arms of their Muslim countrymen. The Indian Muslim generally does not carry any hate for Pakistan, but don’t relish their claim that they are better off than them. – Syed Aftab
The author who wrote a letter to Smriti Irani on the subsidies to IITs mentioned the cost of educating an IITian and coarsely wrote about Flipkart, Chetan Bhagat, and the likes (“Dear Smriti Irani, stop giving my money to IITians”). Why didn't he account for the employment created and revenues generated (which are again taxable) by Flipkart? Coming to the point on the Defence Research Development Organisation etc, when a person is offered Rs 10 lakh per annum and above as a starting salary, why would he/she choose research institutes who offer salaries with which even peanuts are unaffordable? – Rinosh Polavarapu
***
I can't comprehend on how many levels the author is wrong. Many of us don't get such high paying jobs, and I think most of the big companies started with IITians as co-founders. And these companies provide jobs to lakhs of people. Go look at the board members of Sun, Infosys, Flipkart and a lot of other companies. Do you think service is only in terms of engineering? Isn’t entrepreneurship a service to society? Isn’t it true that if we earn then we also pay taxes?
And we give back to our alma mater too. Why do you blame them when companies like DRDO don't attract by giving attractive opportunities? You can't expect a person to sacrifice his life and go work in the DRDO for a lower wage and lesser opportunities to excel when he gets a higher pay and more challenges from a big company. – Prudhvi Bellamkonda
***
The article is written in a biased manner and grossly one-sided. Statistically, you can prove anything, but IITs are the pride of our nation and have contributed to a great extent to the development of the nation. That not a single IITian has joined the armed forces is also not entirely true. Vice Admiral Krishnan was an IITian from Delhi and there are large number of government persons, academics and entrepreneurs who have done great work in shaping the national economy. The data is available on the IIT website. Although almost one-third of the IIT graduates head for MNCs abroad, the remaining are doing very well in the country. Yes, lot more is desired from these prime institutes, but everything is not a waste. – Nitin Khandekar
***
This article made me to think about national resources and my responsibility towards my country, though I am not an IITian. I would like to thank you for your social responsibility towards awakening young minds. – D Dastagiri
***
The article about IITs makes a lot of sense. The rich and the poor ought to be taxed differently. The IITians need to pay for their education either by national service or by paying the full course fees. There can be no other way to this brain drain quagmire. – Rajinder Verma
***
I was curious about how the US companies found out about Indian talent and crossed the ocean to harness it. I found that in every case—not most cases, but every case—someone of Indian origin had reached high enough in the hierarchy of the company to persuade it to look at India seriously. A good chunk of these were IIT engineers. It is arguable that India’s technology revolution would never have happened but for this diaspora of Indian engineers, many of whom graduated from the IITs.
So, yes, I would favour the subsidies and take steps to make sure that those from economically underprivileged get even more assistance. – Srikumar Rao
***
As an IIT-Madras alumnus, I fully endorse this article. – GR Srinivasan
***
I read the article about the subsidiaries paid to IITs. It was an excellent article. But will this help to come up with a solution? As far as I know, students not only from IITs but also from other engineering colleges don’t work on what they study. The reason is that no engineers are interested in what they really dream about. They just do engineering for their parents and get employed in any field because they feel they won’t get another opportunity to earn in this competitive country. – Rakesh Sharma
The biryani monster
The article on Public Prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam’s false statements in the Kasab case (“Why Ujjwal Nikam's lie about Kasab and mutton biryani should shame and anger us”) is eye-opening on how certain people, who take care of the law, along with a section of media mend and bend the cases. The last few sentences in the article tells that the media and other sections from the community or law construct monsters. I don’t agree with this claim. Apart from this, I liked the article. – Derin J Tom
***
I am ashamed of Kavita Krishnan for writing this article. These men killed over 160 people and nobody is worried about their constitutionals rights. I think you should now take up the cause of Pakistani soldiers killed by Indian soldiers. – Rakesh Mehta
Concerned by sand mining
I appreciate your efforts to address the sand mining in India, which is a very concerning issue (“Backgrounder: The legal fight against illegal sand mining”). Thanks for reporting it. – Virat Agarwal
Kancha Ilaiah's beef
I think Professor Kancha Ilaiah and the reporter are out of their minds. When people believe in the Quran and the Bible of their respective religions, why do people cry foul about Hindus who believe in the Vedas? (“Beef ban is an attempt to impose upper-caste culture on other Hindus: Kancha Ilaiah”).
Maybe a few people consume beef, but that does not mean that our Vedas taught us that. Let the writer or the professor read the Vedas. Vedas were written before Shankaracharaya or Gandhi were born. You need to first read and understand the subject you are discussing and then sum up the article. You don’t have any right to influence others. – Ajay T
The Haji Ali ban
Some points in your article about women and the Haji Ali Dargah need to be highlighted (“Why those challenging the Haji Ali Dargah Trust’s ban on women have a good legal case”).
First, there were no dargahs in Arabia during Prophet Mohammad’s time. The funeral as well as burial were expected to be solemn occasions. Display of pubic/ceremonial mourning, as was prevalent amongst the tribes in Arabia as well as Iran, was an absolute no in Islam. Women considered more emotional/ sentimental were less likely to exercise the restraint expected. In addition, the presence of small children and babies could make a mockery of the solemn occasion.
Women were permitted to pray in the mosque, and definitely should be.
A dargah is not a mosque. You may make a prayer, but you aren’t allowed to offer prayers at a grave. Prayers are to be directed only to Allah and not to anybody dead or alive, however pious. To best of my knowledge, most dargahs don’t permit women near the grave, which is enclosed. – Naiyer Razzaqui
***
You have written a very interesting article though you can even argue that according to the Sharia, that ban has no merit. With Islamic Sharia being according to the Quran, you will not find anything on dargahs or any rules of how to go to one. So they can’t base anything on the Sharia. During the time of Prophet Mohammad, women were allowed to pray in mosques. Even today, all over the Middle East and other parts of the world, women are allowed to pray in mosques. It’s only in South Asia where women are not allowed to do so. The reality is that most South Asian Islamic scholars don’t an understanding of the Sharia. It’s much easier to beat them at their own game with their own rules. – Ikkery
Books and being gay
Vivek Tejuja is a beautiful man. He deserves as much love as has come his way up till now, and more, much, much, more! (“Being gay: how books and reading saved my life”).
My first ever book was an Enid Blyton, which was gifted to me by a relative, and my mother swears I was horrified when I opened the gift and did not find candy. I grudgingly picked it up, shook it thoroughly hoping at least one tiny morsel of candy would fall, but started reading it anyway. I did not put it down for the next three days. While there wasn't much going wrong for me in the outside world for these new friends to save me from, there was so much wrong going on inside. Everyday, life was turning me into another unfeeling, unseeing automaton. Books are both my salvation and my downfall. – Sunanda Mehta
***
Wonderfully written, stunning in its simplicity. I’m going to share this with all my senior students. – Piyali Gupta
Remembering Kabir
Thanks a lot for introducing the five masters who sing Kabir in five different ways (“Kahat Kabir: Five musicians inspired by the mystical poet philosopher's simple lyrics”). I had a great time listening to them. This shows your commitment to the holistic approach of "news", which is positive news. Keep it up! – Madhu Menon
The right to information
It is mentioned in the article about RTI and political parties that substantial funding to the political parties is from the government/s (“By defying the RTI Act, national parties are undermining democracy”). Is it possible to isolate and bring out concrete figures for a few years?
If such figures can be authentically taken out, and if it is substantial, the C&AG has the right to audit it. I wonder whether this aspect has been investigated. – M Ramaswamy
Watch your figures
Supriya Sharma has raised an important issue in her piece about the impending Minegate (“Coalgate seemed huge but it might pale in comparison to the impending Minegate”).
However, the author has forgotten to deduct the production costs in her calculations. Even CAG used production costs for the nearest Coal India mine to arrive at the 1.86 lakh crore loss figure. After accounting for mining (eg. NMDC's mining cost is about Rs. 1,200/tonne), the 1.71 lakh crore figure will stand reduced to 1.02 lakh crore. Needless to say, it is still a massive figure. But the author/editors need to be a bit more discerning while quoting such figures. – Alok Rawat
Indians writing in English
I agree with what Bhalchandra Nemade said about Indian writers in English (“‘Indians writing in English cannot come close to Manto, Premchand or Bibhutibhushan'”). "Indian" here means South Asian, right?
However, in terms of specifics, writings by Nehru or Salim Ali are great examples of high English writing from India. But they do not rely on dialogues. And dialogues are what suffer most when we Indians, I mean Indian in India, writing in English. Such writers construct human speech in their vernacular speech and translate it into idiomatic English, at best. I have known Indians so deep into English that they dream in it, but they still construct their speech that way.
It is primarily for this reason that "Indian English" fails discerning readers (with the possible exception, sometimes, of Vikram Seth). This is also the reason why perceptive Indian readers can often make out the region of origin of such authors (which is, of course, not necessarily a bad thing). – SN Roy
***
After unburdening himself of several questionable assertions, Bhachandra Nemade concludes that he is right because he has stated his "frank opinion", his "considered view". This man would be laughed out of a class in logic. – Mukul Dube
Dishonest bureaucrats
Back in 1966, my maternal grandfather, who had retired as the Revenue Commissioner of Mysore and had been reemployed in the Indian Administrative Service as Chairman of the Coffee Board, died of a heart attack. He had been a strict and honest officer all his life. When he went to the tahsildar's office after retirement, he was taunted by him. The tahsildar refused to register a transfer of property, saying that the days of Mysore Samrajya were over. It was now Congress rule. If he wanted any work done, he had to bribe.
The rot began in 1947. Dishonest bureaucrats are nothing new (“Honest bureaucrats are seen as cranks reining in India's great surge forward”). Only, the proportion of criminals in the government has increased steadily since then.
India's fundamental problem, since its inception, is that the enterprise of subverting national resources to the personal pelf, pleasure, pomp, perpetuation and perversions of the politician-bureaucrat-police-judge-crony kleptocracy is far more vital than national interest, and is achieved by various "classes" or socio-metric groupings of persons.
India's solutions are always India's problems as they are directed at changing thaumaturged "legal' boundaries retrospectively, prospectively or selectively to alter whichever "class" of persons may benefit. – Suchindra Nath
Remembering Bhagat Singh
It stunned me at first reading the Bhagat Singh essay, as it stunned WB Yeats on first reading the Chapman's Homer (“On Bhagat Singh's death anniversary: 'Why I am an atheist'”).
God and religion are the great ditches in which the so-called educated and modern Indian society has plunged into blindly. The essay originally written for a Marxist organisation reveals the truth. Religion is an opium said Marx, and God is dead, said Nietzche. The ideas need to be revived if we want to survive and save humankind. Both Maqsood Saqib and Hasan deserve special encomiums for a beautiful translation and bringing the essay to the public. – Intaj Malek
Lee Kuan Yew: one sided view
Scroll joins the bandwagon of publishing views that only advocate for totalitarian rule. The IAS officer firstly praises Lew Kuan Yew, who with no real merit becomes the founding father of Singapore (“Video: Singapore's Lee Kuan Yew on why even he would not be able to change India”). What would we call Stamford Raffles or Yusof Bin Ishak or the Malaysian Parliament that expelled Singapore from the Malay federation?
The criticisms of India are far from farsighted, for the visionary he is described, the integrity he extolls, he lacks in large amounts, the corruption he addresses he institutionalised in Singapore, and the level playing field he provides fails to reach the Tamil citizens of Singapore whose culture he is extolling.
India's greatest strength as a Union is its diversity in language, cuisine, race, religion, history, climate, flora and fauna, and colonial experiences. If the Indian experience works out, we will be the first people to shed the nation state. Nations represent a homogenous people, which we are not. Rather than transcribing boring leadership summits of Yew, I would rather ask Scroll to transcribe Babasaheb Ambedkar's criticisms of India. – Sumesh Sharma
Overboard feminist agenda
The feminist agenda has gone completely overboard in the name of women empowerment.
Why go to a standup comedy show if you are so easily offended? (“Comedian gets the finger from Delhi women law students for his sexist jokes”). Also, what's up with this recent rush towards aggressively shutting people you don't agree with? First, it was the Delhi lawyers in the India's Daughter documentary and now this standup comedian. And both of those despicable efforts have come from the legal fraternity, who should instead be standing up for free speech, at least when that speech is an expression of your beliefs (even if you find those same beliefs despicable). – Nihar Panda
Supreme Court reigns supreme
The Supreme Court deserves kudos for having recognised the individual rights getting encroached (“No more 66A: Supreme Court demonstrates that at least one Indian institution values free speech”). Indian democracy along with the Constitution has provided the checks and balances, irrespective of the onslaughts on individual liberty and freedom. – Kewal Khanna
Going back in time
I like the Idea of moving back to non-mechanised farming. Three years down the line, this should also be implemented on the roads instead of cars (“Behind Maharashtra's stringent beef ban is a Jain trust that dreams of farming without tractors”).
Down the line, we should also get dissociated with other animals like dogs, cats and chicken. We should be surviving only on crops. We also have to reduce our dependency on bacteria. We should be drinking only milk and not to use any bacteria to make curd. The insulin for diabetes shouldn't be made from the levers of pigs and there should be some vegan option.
They use bone-char while manufacturing sugar. Unfortunately there is no substitute for the substance, so we should ban sugar altogether. These changes are radical but they are possible. Rajendra Joshi's trust should start bringing these changes to their community first so others can learn from it. – Rahul B
***
It is a good idea. Even in western countries, people are eating less beef as they have found out that it is not very healthy. – Krishan Uppal
Baseless Aadhaar
I know of students in Delhi who were harassed for not having an Aadhaar card when they applied for admission to grade six, even when they had graduated from the neighbourhood Municipal Corporation of Delhi school (“Centre blames states for violating Supreme Court orders on Aadhar, but is just as guilty”). There have been cases when students have been pushed out of schools and denied their right in this context.
Not only is this a violation of the Supreme Court's orders, but is also contrary to the Right to Education Act, which says that no child will be denied admission on the grounds of not possessing a document. The explanation given by some school authorities that it is needed to open students' bank accounts for direct transfer of scholarships etc is hollow and misleading since bank accounts can be opened without Aadhaar. – Firoz Ahmad
Progressive courts?
You forgot one of the most important reasons for India’s courts to come out with progressive verdicts – the cultural aspect (“The reason it's so difficult to obtain progressive verdicts in India's courts”).
India's culture is predominantly hierarchical with most people having a subservient (non-questioning) attitude; even critical thinking is very limited. Thus it’s the same population and mindset that also reaches the judiciary (and legislature), which pass such judgments and create repressive laws. "Freedom" and "liberty" have different meanings for them as opposed to some of us. – EE
On Libertarians
Girish Shahane's article about libertarians disappoints (“Libertarians are right about the need to privatise Air India ‒ but wrong about much else”). It is naïve and presents a caricature of libertarian philosophy. The writer's bias is clear from the start. But to create a straw man and attack it does not make for sound (or for good) reading.
Shahane presents a monolithic view of libertarianism, an extreme version at that. In fact, there are competing schools of libertarianism ranging from libertarian socialism to neo-classical liberalism. In his haste to lampoon the philosophy he ignores such nuances. He distorts Locke's idea of self-ownership to argue that it legitimised colonial expansion. It was the latter, in fact, which disregarded the idea of self-ownership of the natives.
His caricature of a "libertarian paradise" where "every bit of land and water on earth has been opened up for purchase and sale, and now lies in private hands" is a straw man. It is entirely possible for individual right owners to pool their rights to create common property to a rival/depletable good and for these to manage sustainably through the evolution of social norms of trust, reciprocity and cooperation (Elinor Ostrom was awarded the Nobel Prize for showing this). – Shreekant Gupta
Not 5,000 but 20,000
As an organiser of the protest against beef ban at Azad Maidan in Mumbai, I want to thank you for covering the protest and beautifully articulating it (“Unemployment and attempted suicide: stories from a massive rally against Maharashtra's beef ban”). I only intend to correct the collective presence on the ground, which is described as 5,000. It counted to 20,000 and more. – Sanjay Pandit
What's in a name?
I read your article about the renaming of Indian places by our politicians (“From Chowpatty to Swaraj Bhoomi: why Indian politicians are so eager to rename iconic landmarks”).
However, the only concern was your mention about the city (state) "Madras". Though the city (state) has been renamed due to local politics, the origin of the name is disputed and is not considered a British originated name at all, unlike Bombay or Calcutta. Unless the origin of the city "Madras" is not established, it would not make sense to demolish the old and heritage names that bring India together.
You will also be interested to know that there is a city called "Sadras" (Sadhurangapattinam) near "Madras" named after "Madras". However, the city was never renamed because no one bothered due to its lack of popularity. – Madras Dreams
Not very sanitary
Freedom of expression aside, I'd like to bring to your notice that the exact same 'feminist messages on sanitary pads' installation was made by a German artist and the project did its rounds on the net, gaining an amount of popularity a couple of weeks back (“Jamia raps students for public art project, St Stephen's bans unauthorised weekly”).
Freedom of expression is probably a larger issue given the circumstances in our country, but a blatant rip-off of artistic creativity is far from tasteful. While the 'angle' you chose to present your article is great, you can't just gloss over something as important as intellectual property rights. – George Paracka
Selling online
I liked Binoo K John's piece on the Indian bookshops shutting shop (“As bookshops close down, should India follow Europe's lead to fix prices?”). However, I didn't see a single word about the authors. Are they doing better in online sales or fixed-price sales? Will online sales kill good writing and only spew more Chetan Bhagats? – Chaitanya Kalbag
Friendly neighbours
My experience with Pakistanis and that of some of my army friends slightly differs (“Ordinary Pakistanis seem to love Indians. Do we love them back?”). On the Line of Control, the Pakistani soldiers were always as friendly towards us as we were towards them. My friend’s experience of his visit to Pakistan a few years ago as part of an Indian delegation was that he was all the time shadowed by Pakistani intelligence.
I once happened to be in the seat next to a Pakistani on an international flight in the nineties. When he came to know that I was an Indian, he let go cursing Indians. I had the same experience in London about eight years ago when the driver of the cab happened to be a Pakistani. It is well-documented that it is drilled into every Pakistani from his primary school days how bad the Indians are. – Major General SCN Jatar
***
The unfortunate part of our history is that there is a great mistrust amongst Hindus and Muslims of our country. We are driven by scores of myths, which are far from the truth, but still we believe the myths as we have faith in our Gods.
While the uneducated and very economically backward Muslim is too ignorant about the facts and the history, and generally believes what keep on percolating to them for ages, the Hindus, mostly the upper strata people, are guided by the propaganda of Hindutva ideologues, who may know that they are wrong but stick to the claim that myths are the facts.
Muslims as they go up, become more secular, they start taking wine, don’t bother about halal meat, and are not offended to the inter-religion marriages in the family. Even the religious ones keep their God and traditions within the four walls of their home, and hardly show up these in the outside world.
On the contrary, a Hindu as he goes up, becomes more bigoted, starts official functions with a Hindu ritual and spends official money on satyanarayan pujas in the office. Now you can imagine how the majority of Hindus in India can love the Pakistanis, as they are seen as the extended arms of their Muslim countrymen. The Indian Muslim generally does not carry any hate for Pakistan, but don’t relish their claim that they are better off than them. – Syed Aftab
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