Readers comment on India's fair-skin obsession, Indo-Pak ties and water-sharing woes between states

Coloured perspectives
Tannishtha Chatterjee has done a wonderful job of bringing to light what could have easily gone into cold storage (“When a TV roast became bullying about my skin tone: Tannishtha Chatterjee on battling colour bias”).

However, there are three aspects of the article that need a rethink, especially because on expects her, and other such successful actors, to take a much more rounded stance. The fact that this article on Scroll.in would is being read by thousands even as a I write this lends further credence to my argument.

The first thing is that a person should have the right to consider both fairness and darkness as a measure of beauty. So a person should be able to want to be fairer or darker, depending on their idea of beauty. If we consider this, products such as Fair and Lovely would not be a curse but a boon, if, perhaps, there is also a Dark and Lovely being sold alongside.

Secondly, darkness also needs to appreciate fairness if the debate moves ahead. Fair can be as ugly as any other skin tone – so it shouldn’t be a discourse about treating fair and dark skin equally, as neither should have a particular status.

Also, saying that a roast should not be bullying is a slightly flawed argument – because, if you see many other roasts, they do border on bullying. People in power or those aspiring towards it should be prepared to be bullied. Rather than saying "don't bully me," let us please say "let's bully everyone, from time to time," provided they can fight back.

Why don't we for once start thinking of beauty, skin tone and the like in a more scientific manner, rather than as a personal issue? – Arup K Chatterjee

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This preference for fair skin over dark skin is so widespread. Most billboards only feature fair-skinned men and women. It's very sad that at this day and age, colour bias seems more pronounced than ever before, especially among Indians. – S Amin

Valley violence
The incidence of stone pelting has reduced (“Six years after iron-fisted suppression created Burhan Wani, has the state not learnt any lessons?”). What alternatives would David Devadas suggest? It is because people like you are stoking the fire that militancy stays. – Anyl Vaz

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You are coming across as a mouthpiece for terrorists and separatists.
They have created an atmosphere of intolerance and fear among those who differ and want to live peaceful lives. You appear to be a collaborator in their efforts. – Rajesh Sharma

Teaching lessons
I salute Maheshwer Peri’s courage to expose IIPM and Arindam Chaudhari’s lies and his patience to fight a long legal battle (“How IIPM and Arindam Chaudhury used the defamation law to hide the truth”). I'm indeed grateful that someone took the trouble to do this for the sake of thousands of students.

My husband and I have seen countless such ads that promise the moon to unsuspecting students. Education today has become a big business.

The government needs to frame rules to make the education system and admissions foolproof. We need a regulatory board that looks into such scams so that the money of parents and the students’ time and effort do not go in vain. – Asha Maben

State’s woes
All parties are playing politics over the Cauvery dispute and Karnataka suffers, as always has (“Two reasons why Narendra Modi is wary of mediating the Cauvery water dispute”).

I do not understand how the Supreme Court is unable to see Karnataka’s point of view. Why didn’t we have such a problem in previous years? That was because there were enough rains and there were no problems in sharing Cauvery’s water. This year, however, the rainfall was highly deficient in the Cauvery basin and hence there isn’t enough water to release to Tamil Nadu. Karnataka has pleaded that it doesn’t even have enough drinking water, so how can we release it for irrigation? – Ashok

Trading charges
This article on reviewing the Most Favoured Nation status to Pakistan does a disservice to India (“Should India snap trade with Pakistan? Five charts show why that won't actually hurt Islamabad”). India is the victim; Pakistan is the perpetrator of terror acts and the fountainhead of global Islamic terrorism.

What you have shown with five graphs is ephemeral and misleading. I can show 10 graphs that establish that India, with its vast economy, gains nothing by trading with Pakistan.

And another 15 graphs can show that Pakistan will be badly hurt if India stops trading with it. Think of the economic blow to Pakistan if Afghanistan, Bhutan and Sri Lanka also stop trading with it, just as they have refused to attend the SAARC meet in the Pakistani capital.

Pakistan is a failed state which exists based on lies and bullying others by exporting terrorism. By trading with Pakistan, India will just be giving in and pandering to a local bully.

India should take the following actions against Pakistan: building the Wullar Dam on the Indian side of the border; withdrawing MFN status and imposing a trade embargo on Pakistan; sending the Pakistani High Commissioner back; freezing all diplomatic ties; building a credible smart electrified wall on the Pakistani border; bleeding Pakistan by using the Indus River Water System to our advantage; threatening to cancel the Indus River Agreement; having Pakistan declared a terrorist state; and declare total nuclear armageddon on Pakistan if it considers nuking India.

Please understand, Apologist articles on Pakistan will not help. – Sandeep Parmar

Information dose
Educating the public through on this is very important (“India has a massive antibiotic resistance problem, and it's up to the states to solve it”). People must be informed that they should take antibiotics with a red line on the strip only on doctors’ prescriptions. Television could play an important role in spreading this awareness. This will ensure that people think twice before popping antibiotics on their own.

I have witnessed how pharmacies happily prescribe antibiotics for coughs and colds as though they were doctors. – Sudhamalik

The fault with our stars
I understand that banning Fawad Khan from acting in India won’t bring us peace, but what’s the point of providing employment to people who are not even sorry for what happened in Uri (“‘Dear Fawad Khan, did you really think we think of you just as an artist?’”)? These people are working in the same nation where 19 soldiers laid down their lives to protect us.

It’s alarming that we as a nation don’t feel the need to pay homage to the army for their sacrifices.These artists who represent their country on an international platform should have concern for our army men – if they don’t, then they do not deserve to be in our country. – Harpreet Oberoi

View from across the border
One has to be living in a fool’s paradise to think that the Uri attack was masterminded by the Pakistani establishment (“Why it's important that India did not claim that the surgical strikes were revenge for Uri”). It does not make sense for Pakistan to have staged an attack at a time when it is seeking a diplomatic push for the Kashmir cause.

The Uri attack may have been staged by India to divert attention from Kashmir, over which it is facing international condemnation, and the surgical strike drama is being constructed to please war-mongering citizens.

India has almost seven hundred thousand troops stationed in Kashmir; if they can’t stop four fidayeen from enter a high-security area, how can you blame Pakistan with which you have already engaged in lengthy battles on an international stage?

Indian citizens must not buy into this baseless rhetoric which will do no good to either country.

We should all strive for peace – Pakistan has no intentions or dreams of attacking India.

Kashmir is the real problem that India does not want to talk about because she knows she has no right over the people of the valley if they don’t want to be a part of the country.

An honest and impartial referendum may solve the issue once and for all. #Peace. – Rizwan Rana

Race issue
In this article on racial biases, I hope you see the irony in identifying every single one of the artists in the in the caption for the photograph at the end except for the one person who appears to be of African origin. (“In a melting pot of Delhi, artists take a searing look at India's racial biases”).

Old habits
Rahul Gandhi and Akhilesh Yadav seem to be held back by the old style of politics of their respective parties and families (“Rahul Gandhi seriously tried to claim that Congress is not a 'dictatorial' party”). Both want to bring about a change in thinking, functioning and a shift towards development-oriented governance but the old school of politics relies on arithmetics of caste and religions and the politics of doles, corruption and crime.

Rahul Gandhi seems to want to usher in a change in his party, but his party men aren’t allowing him to do so. This is also why Priyanka Gandhi is staying away from active politics.

When Rahul Gandhi says that the Congress is not dictatorial, he means that he will not be dictatorial. It will be interesting to see whether these new dynasts bring about a change in the thinking and functioning of of their party. – Vishal Jindal

Troll patrol
JNU students are mostly anti socials and not students (“This video shows young men at a Delhi cinema heckling JNU students and calling them 'anti-national'”). They are probably being funded to defame the present government.

The various loopholes in our law are exploited by every enforcement agency. The media and the so-called intelligentsia of our country are encouraging this. – KP Chandra KSD

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Well, clearly the hecklers have understood Marx and Engels really well to be able to espouse their theories in sign language. – Sri Manjunath

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Surely people have the freedom to heckle anyone and everyone over anything. That is true freedom. A truly tolerant society is one in which people stop complaining about being trolled. – Gobind Singh