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April 21, 1998
SPECIALS
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How readers reacted to Dilip D'Souza's last column
Date sent: Fri, 17 Apr 1998 13:41:44 -0500 (CDT) Why does the author feel the need to sacrifice defence to improve living conditions and literacy? Money spent on any national interest is well spent. What must be stopped is national money spent on private interests. Need I say that the defence spending is a small fraction of money misused otherwise? Fifty years ago India decided to take a path of no return, one with weapons and an Indo-Pak border. There is no way we can go back. Anand Bernard
Date sent: Thu, 16 Apr 1998 21:01:30 -0500 (CDT) Mr D'Souza has begun to think that he can deceive his readers all the time. But either his readers are not as stupid as he thinks or he is not skillful enough. He is trying to propagate the idea that we are poor b'cos we are locked in an arms race with Pakistan. But Mr D'Souza, have you ever amused yourself with the following facts? 1. To date, the world's deadliest weapons are developed by America and still it is one of the most prosperous countries in the world. 2. Many European countries face a grave threat from terrorists, but that does not deter them from being developed countries. 3. Israel is surrounded by hostile nations and a major chunk of its income goes to defence purposes. Still people in Israel enjoy a high standard of life. It seems that either you don't understand these issues, or you are doing it intentionally. Your way of thinking is ridiculous, but still it cannot be ignored as moonshine because you are writing these articles on a widely read site. It may have an adverse effect on some people's mentality. You better start thinking objectively and PATRIOTICALLY. Best of luck.
Date sent: Thu, 16 Apr 1998 12:27:31 -0400 This guy lives in a fool's paradise. Perhaps he hasn't read India's history. Thank God he is not a defence/finance minister! Ajay Ghatge
Date sent: Wed, 15 Apr 1998 18:32:44 -0400 Dilip comes across as extremely naive. A person who, to use an American expression, has been out in the country too long. I would have expected the Rediff columnists to be more mature than that. I don't like this less-than-perfect world either, Dilip, but do you have a prescription to change that? Just for starters, we've already had 3 wars and are battling what is possibly the longest proxy-war in world history, with that country called Pakistan. Andy
Date sent: Wed, 15 Apr 1998 16:08:27 -0400 I agree with much of what Mr D'Souza says. The phenomenon that he describes fits nicely with a well-studied problem called the Prisoner's Dilemma. While India and Pakistan as a group stand to gain by co-operating and not entering an arms race, individually each of them gains by trying to play a game of one-upmanship. The best strategy as economists have pointed out is not unilateral co-operation or antagonism, but play the "do unto your adversary what he does unto you" game. On another note, it is worth examining the Costa Rica example that Mr D'Souza offers a little more closely. A better example for India is not Costa Rica, but a Mediterranean nation, which was also small and invested in its people. It had next to nothing of a standing army and had a fully democratic constitution even before the First World War, patterned on the French constitution. The nation had one of the highest per capita incomes and there was a fine efflorescence of culture and arts, with leading European artists flocking to its capital as they did to the Venice of Renaissance. Its neighbor ignited the discontent of its minority population, funded a civil war, disrupted its demographic balance and waged a war on its soil claiming its territory as the spoils of the victor -- all the while the West looked on. The nation went through 15 years of civil war, and Syria and its stooges run the government now. Do we want India to become a Lebanon? The moral of the story is, you can be as peaceful and civilised as your neighbour will allow you to be. Care to recall Hindi-Cheeni Bhai Bhai?
Ravi Aron
Date sent: Wed, 15 Apr 1998 13:36:58 -0500 Dilip D'Souza's article was too intense bringing home some facts we cannot ignore. This issue has always been debated, but debates do not solve problems. Sitting comfortly in the safety of our homes, we can all raise our voice and concerns against the money being allocated to defence budget. But can India seriously ignore the safety of her borders (leave borders -- now with Ghauri missiles, even sitting at Malabar Hill is like sitting at the edge of fire)? Can we forget the three wars we had with Pakistan? Dilip says we should end this 'Tango'. But who are 'we' -- India alone? No one can clap with one hand. Only we are responsible for the safety of our borders and so we have to compromise something for the other. Criticism for the sake of criticism has always brought ruins to this country. If you can't solve a problem (the Indo-Pak problem), you should not criticise a decision with blind eyes, deaf ears and a closed mind. Words cannot win a war, they can only lead or mislead people. All I have to say is that we should not jeopardise the safety of our country with only criticism, but should do the needful. If the county can really discipline itself, even with lots of money allocated to defence budget, we can do wonders. Let's concentrate our energy there, and let those who are working for our safety do their work.
Avinash Jain
Date sent: Wed, 15 Apr 1998 11:01:15 -0500 I have been reading Mr D'Souza's columns fairly regularly, and I must say that this is the greatest piece of lies and wishful thinking that I have ever seen. He talks of us "starving millions" in order to prop up our defence budget. I ask him, where will these millions be if we did not have the armed forces in the first place? Consider, for example, we decide to abandon our missile programme and feed the starving millions that Mr D'Souza sitting in his armchair in his ivory tower is so concerned about. Going by the past 50 years of experience, we can hardly expect China and Pakistan to follow Gandhian principles and destroy their arsenal. When the missiles with their nuclear warheads land in our cities, where will we be? I can only say that it's not Pakistan and China that we need to be concerned about, it is also peaceniks like Mr D'Souza who are out to destroy our country from within.
Date sent: Wed, 15 Apr 1998 08:50:17 PDT Great work Dilip, keep it up. I always read your articles with interest, I think they are very fair and unbiased and they deal with the real problems faced by a common man on the street, not some stinking rich politician or industrialist. I do agree with you, I think we should lead the way in creating a trend and pave way for other countries to follow. Even if Pakistan gets N-arms, it can never be a threat to India -- we have so many Indians that even if some of them walk into Pakistan with sticks in hand, they can overtake all the Pakistanis! We need to concentrate on building education, sanitation and infrastructure. I am sure this will scare the hell out of Pakistan, and they will be forced to follow our example. But I think this will happen only when we Indians learn to vote with wisdom, not with our emotions (which is always based on caste/religion/language/region/locality etc). I hope we can see that in our lifetime. I am quite hopeful if we have a few more people like you, this can really happen.
Date sent: Tue, 14 Apr 1998 23:09:05 -0400 Nice ideas and not totally impractical, only a few hitches. But you must realise that this has to be undertaken by both countries together. You cannot achieve this unilaterally. Pakistan resorts to defence expenditure because their government still fears a military that is quite hostile. The enmity towards India also tends to keep the masses off the problems of the daily grind, to a certain extent. So Pakistan won't be able to reduce arms induction. And I don't see that India has any other choice. Also, because of the sheer size and its international border with China, which incidentally is larger than what India has with Pakistan, India needs to be on its toes. I don't understand why most people when talking about defense forget about the northern border with China, which in my view is a bigger threat. The reason being that unlike Pakistan, China is a better armed and more intelligent adversary. The Costa Rican example is wrong in one sense. To a large extent the USA takes care of the Costa Rican defence. But as a proud Indian I would not like to look up to someone else for our protection. I agree that money spent on defense can be better spent on infrastructure development, but it is not just bound by the India-Pakistan equation. Even on a regional level it is a India-Pakistan-China equation. Dheeraj
Date sent: Tue, 14 Apr 1998 18:00:30 -0700 I just cannot stand a person who enjoys the fruits of freedom provided by the jawans guarding our borders, and then badmouth the equipment provided to our security forces meant for doing their jobs better. Maybe we ought to round up these armchair reporters and ship them to the line of fire before they are allowed to write. That would make them a believer in upgradation of arms, if they value their freedom. We need to understand that India will have to be lucky all the time with Pakistan, whereas Pakistan would need to get lucky only once. Pradip Parekh
Date sent: Tue, 14 Apr 1998 19:28:48 -0400 (EDT) Great article! However, the comparison with Costa Rica is inappropriate. Of course, D'Souza very conveniently dismisses them all by saying "I don't care." India, like Japan, Germany, Costa Rica and other nations without any significant military expenditures, can also forego its own military investment if it gets the backing of a large and unchallenged power (like the US). But fact of the matter is it does not have that luxury. And while saying that the millions of poor and illiterate should be given priority, it should also be noted that to do that one must protect their freedom, which is threatened everytime a Pakistani or Chinese soldier fires across the border. Without security, there can be no progress -- surely D'Souza realises that? However, I do agree with him on one thing -- that needlessly arming oneself to the teeth in response to Pakistan's every move is stupid. Prithvi, according to my understanding of it, can reach every part of Pakistan. It can also carry nuclear warheads. As such, given that we already have the ability to wreak sarvanaash on Pakistan, there is absolutely no justification for acquiring any new weaponry. However, we should test, maintain and deploy what weapons we already have. In ending, I'd just like to congratulate D'Souza on an article very well written. Abhijit Mitra
Date sent: Tue, 14 Apr 1998 11:16:58 -0700 Excellent article. One of the best I have read in recent times. Unlike his usual blind BJP hatred Mr D'souza this time has put some real thought into it. The result almost reminds me of MLK Jr's famous "I have a dream" speech. It's true that the politicians and leaders in power in our country as well as many others only play the game as it has always been played. Lie as their predecessors did, churn out stacks of hoaxes and false promises as they have always been done before using the same road, the same vehicles and the same drivers. Why else do you think after 50 years of Independence our country is still a regulatory authority of our lives?? We have no free media (except news papers and satellite television), no drive to educate the masses, no housing, no food, no job and no health. This is still not the worst part, the worst is WE BEGAN TO THINK THAT THERE IS NOTHING WE CAN DO ABOUT IT. But lie, lie and more lie. Now having failed to deal with any one of these real issues we turn to divert our mass attention to some foreign country firing missiles which maybe as good as ours. And there comes our liars again, with comments like "Fitting reply", "Not an inch of our soil", "Our missiles can reach anywhere in Pakistan..." Who cares??? With more than 50% of the people in devastating poverty and absolutely no health, education and home, what should be our next step? ANOTHER MISSILE? Who cares? Mr Vajpayee?? Mr Advani??? They need food, health, sanitation, homes, schools!! We are making missiles and atom bombs to protect whom? What is the point to be alive and hungry and illiterate?
Amlan Chatterjee
Date sent: Tue, 14 Apr 1998 14:20:46 -0400 What is D'Souza suggesting? That India give up the army!? I hope he is kidding. Because clearly India's situation is different from Costa Rica's. Interestingly, today I read reports that China has recently intruded in Indian territory in Arunanchal Pradesh and set up a helipad. I sure do give credit to D'Souza for such a noble idea -- good try D'Souza, but sorry, its impracticable. And also the part on Bombay riots -- what has that got to do with the Indo-Pak tango? Why was it in the same article? To me this is a clear case of D'Souza's intolerance for a major policital party in India. There is no place for intolerance in democracy and D'Souza should realise this.
Date sent: Tue, 14 Apr 1998 12:04:45 -0700 When Dilip D'Souza can write about something fresh and thoughtful, instead of wasting his energy describing his bias and hatred for the BJP, I think India and Pakistan can also change focus from destruction to development.
Sunil Ganu
Date sent: Tue, 14 Apr 1998 15:55:00 -0400 Another insightful column. It is time that both India and Pakistan sunk their differences and do something constructive for their people instead of amassing weapons of mass destruction. Shahnawaz
Date sent: Tue, 14 Apr 1998 15:03:01 -0500 Perfectly said. Good one. Sony
Date sent: Tue, 14 Apr 1998 13:07:51 -0700 The last time this sort of policy was followed in India, we were attacked by the Chinese in 1962. I for one wouldn't want a repeat of that. Satyaki
Date sent: Tue, 14 Apr 1998 20:52:51 EDT Couldn't agree more with the author. This stupid arms race between India and Pakistan has brought nothing except poverty, more dependence on developed nations, mutual hatred and communal riots! As an Indian, I give a damn to the arms build-up of Pakistan. I would rather have India spend most of the money on education and infrastructure buildup rather than acquiring Mirages/Sukhois/ Migs at unbelievable cost. It's the politicians of these countries (mostly Pakistan) who use hatred for their survival. Isn't it funny that the election of Pakistan is fought on in Kashmir? Don't they already have enough problems (poverty/lack of education) in Karachi? Even the Indian politicians seem to blame Pakistan for everything. The bottom line is that it's time we come out of this screwed up mentality. This arms race is required by the developed nations like US/UK/France and the not-so-developed Russia. Are we going to go into the next century with arms race or industrial race? Can't the people of these countries use their common sense which has become so uncommon these days? Is it worth fighting for no reason? God help us.
Date sent: Tue, 14 Apr 1998 16:12:07 -0500 I would like to remind you of three wars that have taken place and killed thousands of Indian soldiers. No one wants to spend on an army unless it's essential. The example of Costa Rica is not a good analogy at all. I would rather suggest you to publish this column in a Pakistani daily. See how they react to it! We have never attacked our neighbours. They have, however, done this so many times. The only way we can be sure of the sovereign status is to be well equipped to defend ourselves. If this means we have a problem with the economy, it's a pity. Why doesn't Mr D'Souza try to target corruption, especially the criminal politician nexus? The money that is involved in corruption is far too large and I think that the defence expenditure would look peanuts if compared to the black money that is in the possession of a handful of few. Get that out and you will have ample money to solve the problems you think are menacing. I always fail to understand how Indians can be so inherently meek, weak and dumb. When there is money being wasted in 100 directions, all that some people can think of is the money spent on the defence of the country! I really feel, this article is ridiculous and I was utterly disappointed with the columnist. I urge Rediff to review such articles before posting them.
Date sent: Tue, 14 Apr 1998 22:58:19 EDT Where were you when India test fired Agni and Prithvi missiles? I don't see any reason to get afraid of. Everything's going to be alright with the new and more sensible BJP government. With the National Security Council in place, we will be able to take radical decisions on this front and will be able to defend ourselves. By the way, do you have any brilliant idea to stop Pakistan from messing around in J&K and Punjab? Your Costa Rica comparison seemed more of an emotional nature than of anything based on mature analysis.
Date sent: Tue, 14 Apr 1998 10:23:06 -0700 That was a nice article, though not applicable to India as the author himself points out unwittingly: "Does all those stinking Pakistanis hate India?" was the question he posed, for which he admittedly didn't know the answer. I would like to address that. I have a well educated Pakistani colleague who is working with me here. Scores of other "educated" ones too think on these similar lines. He says 'He is a Muslim first, and a Pakistani next'. He extends his argument saying that if the nation doesn't allow him to lead his life according to the holy Quran he will revolt against the government. With such fundamentalist people sitting on the borders, India can ill afford not to spend on defence. If Mr D'Souza thinks that cutting the military expenditure will eradicate poverty in our country, I strongly disagree. There is much more to our problems than that can be solved by money. If we had a country like Nepal or Bhutan on our northwest side, even we wouldn't have needed such a huge army! What Mr D'Souza failed to observe in his article is the commonality of the religion among the countries surrounding Costa Rica.
Yaji
Date sent: Tue, 14 Apr 1998 12:38:10 -0500 Mr Dilip D'Souza does not seem to have read Indian history. We Indians were enslaved for a millennium by a tiny minority. Poverty, humiliation and insults have been part of our history. Poverty and illiteracy will not go away if we unilaterally disarm now, but we surely become slaves again. D'Souza is blind to history and reality, I hope Indians have learnt the lessons from the Gita where Lord Krishna instructs his disciple, Arjuna, to acquire Divya-Astras, which he may never use, but are necessary for deterrence. As we forgot Krishna's teachings, we paid very dearly for our mistakes. Never again we be slaves.
TRN Rao
Date sent: Tue, 14 Apr 1998 10:46:56 -0700 I must say I disagree with what you wrote in the above mentioned article. Trouble with bleeding-heart liberals who have already mortgaged the country away is they fail to see what similar unconventional, good-hearted gestures have done in the past. We have problems that are very unlike those in Central America, where countries like the US have greater influence. It's not as if catchy phrases about a "Carlos Gardel" gives any credibility to your comparison. My point is, our situation is inherently different from Costa Rica's. While we are at this subject, I wonder how many people in Pakistan share the same sentiment with you. We can go into this some more if you'd like. SB
Date sent: Tue, 14 Apr 1998 13:09:32 -0400 Mr D'Souza, I have one answer to all the doubts you have in your mind about the Indo-Pak tango: India has been a slave country for a thousand years. Our destiny was decided by people who did not call themselves Indians but Mogols, Afghans, Portugese etc. One of the prime reasons for this to have happened is that we were militarily weak. Do you wish that it happens again? I advise that you read the history of Sikhs to understand the words 'tyranny', 'slavery' and 'fight back'. Freshen your memory.
Date sent: Wed, 15 Apr 1998 06:19:46 -0700 I think Dilip D'Souza needs his head examined. Has he forgotten the three defeats at Panipat and the loss of independence through centuries? We have to decide the defence policy based on circumstances. Even Switzerland which is neutral is strong militarily. We need not keep up with the Joneses. We must improve our commercial industry in general first and then quietly -- the emphasis is on quietly -- we must apply the improvement to our defence requirements, our defence industries, our armed forces. We should be effective, modern, as indigenous as possible, and have maximum destructive power at the least cost. Our armed forces are for the defence of India, but when needed they should switch to offence too. Kashinath N Dandeker
Date sent: Wed, 15 Apr 1998 16:13:55 -0500 I think Mr D'Souza misses the point completely. The human misery he points to is a result of corruption, lack of political will, weak leadership -- not our 'excessive' defense spending. In real terms India's defence spending hasn't really increased in the last 10 years. Why point fingers at our defence needs when we have politicians like Laloo Prasad Yadav? When leaders steal from the very people they are supposed to serve? No amount of defence cuts will help if all the resources that are moved from defence to other 'more' useful sectors are siphoned away by these politicians... We need to elect the right people, first and foremost. As long as we send the likes of Kalpnath Rai to Parliament India will continue to suffer. The misery is after all self made. Ram Kubal
Date sent: Thu, 16 Apr 1998 17:25:20 -1000 Good work, Dilip. Refreshing to see someone with sense and decency, rather than playing the macho game of "national security imperatives blah... blah ... blah". I also really appreciated the column you wrote on Sanjoy Ghose. Keep it up. While the warheads will shout the loudest, as always, I think you speak for the vast majority of Indians (and I suspect Pakistanis as well). Sankaran Krishna |
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