Question Kalyan Jewellers too
The story about the racist ad that features Aishwarya Rai Bachchan has very valid points and completely makes sense (“Open letter to Aishwarya Rai Bachchan: This ad you figure in is insidiously racist”).
But why is it written to her? Shouldn't you be raising these questions with Kalyan Jewellers? What hold does a celebrity really have on the ads that are created? It is the same as Deepika Padukone after the My Choice video? Now that I think of it, it seems like a pattern at Scroll.
You being 'the media' should know that celebrities are merely props. If you want to address an issue, address it to the right people and in the right manner. This open letter will get you viral perhaps, and you will get more clicks. But, it is your job as a media organisation to help people think, differentiate that a company and a celebrity, that too a woman, are not one and the same thing. – Debasmita Majumdar
***
I suggest the letter should be sent to the Advertising Standards Council of India too for action against the agency and the advertiser. – Bikash Banerji
***
I completely stand by your views. Let’s not make such ads without or with an understanding just for the sake of money. One has to respect and see that no child is used or abused. Racism is a thing we must work against. Colour is superficial. – Nalini Rao
***
A very disturbing reflection of how racism pervades our every thought. – V Ramani
***
I must appreciate you for bring up such strong topics and make others realise about such ads. Please help us understand why you have targeting Aishwarya Rai in the picture and not the one who designed the idea, the one who approved the idea and the brand Kalyan Jewellers, as they are the ones who actually have thought of the idea.
She is only a there for the ad, and she should have checked and reviewed it, but she is not the owner of the brand that is actually promoting it. Let’s not target attracting unwanted attention but the right attention. At the end of the day, it should serve the purpose. – Priyanka Tiwari
***
My heartfelt congratulations for your article on the Kalyan Jewellers ad. – Chithra Suresh
***
I fully agree with your views, though it may be unintentional. One cannot allow such visuals to be shown in mass media. – Venugopal Thakker
***
First of all, this is India and anything can happen at a cost of hurting anybody's sentiment. The company is not bothered about the sentiments associated with the advertisement, because the purpose of putting this ad is to get customers and increase their business.
Likewise, we see many things in the US as well as India. For example, on footwear, leather bags, t-shirts, we see portraits of gods. Only a certain group might have objected to it, but the seculars would never object to this act. In the recent Aamir Khan movie, the director and him have publicly insulted Hindu gods, for which he never apologised. It hurt many Hindu sentiments. – Raviprasad P Rao
***
I agree with your argument completely. The only problem with the letter is that it does not acknowledge the source of the European paintings. Please give credit to the paintings. – Raju Pokhrel
***
Thank you so much for bringing attention to this ad and thereby other, highly distasteful and contemptible advertisements that run down people. I have long been outraged by advertisements that tout the fair skin as being a prerequisite to being successful in life.
My gratitude to those of you who raised your voices about this advertisement. You are all achievers in your own right and your words carry weight. In the day and age, when others strive to free children from bonded labour, to ensure that every child has a right to education and the dire need of having greater literacy (especially in India) to take part in such an advertisement is to rebuff every effort made by countless others for improving the lot of less privileged people. This advertisement is indeed highly prejudicial and thoughtless.
By being a party to it, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, rightfully or wrongfully the icon of millions of girls and women, is propagating a stereotype that is highly objectionable in the first place, let alone its adverse influence on the impressionable in our society. – Sucheta Nadkarni-Bhadri
***
It's sad to see that even though the world has progressed by leaps and bounds, many people still judge others on their skin colour. What does that ad announce? Only fair skinned people are welcome into their stores?
But over and above that, the portrayal of a child as given in the ad can never and should never be accepted in our so-called civilised society. It would be good if people like Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, who have lots of followers, would think before agreeing to do such unacceptable ads. – Nithya Mohan G
***
The problem partially lies with the readers and consumers – the public at large neglects or is not bothered ever to respond to such ads. In fact, most of us are not able to see anything wrong in such ads as it is infused in our minds and thoughts that a black is born to work as a slave to the white skinned. Over and above, the insensitive and irresponsible ad companies compete unethically to promote even sub-standard/unhealthy products to negligent consumers. – Unnikrishnan
***
The message being sent out in the Kalyan Jewellers ad is hardly noble. In keeping with this spirit, can I ask you to also send out an equally scathing letter to The Hindu which asks them to issue a public apology for the advertisement and seeks the removal of it from all their circulations? While the characters in such polemic adverts no doubt play a pivotal role in entrenching a regressive mindset on the part of the masses that consume these adverts, enough cannot be said about the silent perpetrators – the media that caves in to all kinds of pressure and promotes these unhealthy practices. – Nandakumar Srivatsa
***
Thanks for bringing this issue in the public domain. So many times, all of us tend to overlook these things without thinking about the ramifications of such ads. The reply from Aishwarya Rai Bachchan's publicist is totally ridiculous and I hope they are able to come up with a better reply and subsequent action. – Rachna Bhargava
***
Aishwarya Bachchan is fully aware of the blatant racism in this advert and is associating with it knowing of the controversy it will draw. This is a deliberate ploy and is designed to draw attention to her and the product. Many of the Bollywood stars are searching for work in Hollywood and will go to any length to secure an international audience for recognition in a globalised media.
Bollywood stars are overlooking the fact that they will always be viewed as people from a country which is one of the most primitive forms of capitalism and where these stars have made their fortunes from the money and misery of slum dwellers. As such, they are the agents of the capitalist industry where child labour and racism are an institutional part of the process of profit-seeking industrialists. Bollywood is that process by which India has been colonised again. Shah Rukh Khan engages in the promotion of skin lightening creams too. – Kaleem Sheikh
***
What about the company's responsibility about that advertisement featuring Aishwarya Rai Bachchan? Is there any letter/warning issued to it too? – Asmita Shri
***
Your piece - the open letter- was indeed an exemplary expose of one of the manifestations of the rot and unethical practices which has seemed to become the new normal. How much policing can be done by ASCI and other regulators in this era of self-regulation, to ensure base tenets of decency are not breached? Also, crass commercialism has spawned a no-holds barred race for popularity and one-upmanship by brands and celebrity-endorsers alike, who driven by the brazen attitude that nobody notices such things. If caught, they dole out a lip-synched apology.
The defensive response from Aishwarya’s publicity company Imagesmiths was on expected lines of a save-my-skin approach to wriggle out of responsibility and contain damage.
We see this trend in present day politicos who shoot their mouth off and resort to similar back-handed methods, and if nothing, to blame the media for misreading and misquoting them. – K Venkat
Well done, people who have civilly objected to the ad. We hope better sense will prevail and other actors and advertising companies will learn their social responsibility. - Dube
Not just Mumbai
Many thanks to Hussain Indorewala at the Kamla Raheja Vidyanidhi Institute of Architecture in Mumbai for the excellent article on the plan for Mumbai (“The biggest flaw in Mumbai’s Development Plan: it misunderstands both development and planning”). The criticisms you make are sadly highly applicable in many cities throughout the world. The real challenge is how to address this approach to planning and 'development'. – Geoffrey Payne
Gandhi fought for Dalit rights too
I quite liked your article on BR Ambedkar by JNU professor Vivek Kumar (“‘Dalits say there can be either Gandhi or Ambedkar. There can’t be both’”). If Gandhi didn't believe in emancipation but in assimilation, that does not mean that he did not fight for the rights of Dalits. And not just Dalits, his life had been a subject of fighting for the rights of the oppressed, be it his stay in South Africa or him coming to India and doing the same thing all around the country.
He wasn't single-caste oriented. I guess that's what Dalit NGOs did to deliberately catch the global eye, support and acknowledgement. Whereas, Gandhi did it out of his generosity, and the persistence of justice in the society. – Ramgopal Sharma
Give subsidies to 98% who don’t get into IITs too
One of the biggest benefits of the IIT system (JEE, low tuition, on campus living, needs based scholarships, etc) is often missed completely. It is not just the quality of engineers and leaders that the system produces, but it is the motivation to students who do not get admitted (98% of applicants) to work hard and become ‘quality’ educated citizens of India.
Put a rupee on the cost to achieve this quantum leap in education quality for the 98% who do not get in, and I am sure it will far exceed the cost of the subsidy to the IIT system (“No, Smriti Irani is not wasting your money on the IITians”). – Roy Dasilva
Suffer from insensitivity
I do not like the kicker on the story about how Margarita With A Straw is inspired by a real-life activist (“Watched ‘Margarita With A Straw’? Now read the real-life story”). It reads, “…Malini Chib, the disability rights activist who suffers from cerebral palsy herself”. I have never in my entire career met a disability activist who "suffers" from their disability. I have met many who suffer from the insensitivity of an ableist society or clueless publisher attaching horrid titles to good articles. – Naomi Silver
Bravo on Bhagwati article
Thank you for your story on Jagdish Bhagwati’s article (“Why we must be thankful for Bhagwati's article dismissing fears expressed by India's minorities”). I hate raging on the internet and I don’t like making stupid comments without backing information. This article really puts things in perspective. Trolls usually accuse the media of blowing things out of proportion and perhaps they do, but this article sounds really well thought out and sensible. – Shaun Williams
Christopher Bayly, R.I.P.
Christopher Alan Bayly was truly a remarkable man and scholar – and a nice one too, a major figure in both global and Indian history writing who will be much missed (“Christopher Alan Bayly, pre-eminent Western historian of India, dies”). – Linda Colley
***
A great loss. A teacher who taught with compassion, who imparted a wealth of knowledge to all his students and who will be sorely missed. – Kanta Kaur
Encountering democracy
Those running the administration in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana neither not believe in democracy nor do they have any respect for the constitutional niceties. (“Encounter killings: Middle-class India doesn't care about either blue-collar workers or Muslims”). – Ram Naresh Jha
De Villiers should bat at no 3
I have also asked why AB De Villiers has been batting so low down in the order of Royal Challengers for the past three years? (“Kohli’s delay in sending out De Villiers costs Royal Challengers Bangalore against Mumbai Indians”). Can someone ask Virat Kohli at a press conference for an explanation? It makes absolutely zero sense. De Villiers needs to bat at number 3 with Kohli opening the innings. – Dennis Miller
Saving the French
Aakar Patel is wrong to describe the French fighters as gifts by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. (“A Kashmiri separatist has shown up the immaturity of India’s mainstream”). The evidence suggests that India, by buying them, has saved from collapse the company that makes them. – Mukul Dube
Love Pakistanis back
Yes, we should show our love to Pakistanis. They are not bad people (“Ordinary Pakistanis seem to love Indians. Do we love them back?”). – Rohinton Master
Why go for a quick-fix?
Why do we always go for quick-fix ham-handed solutions and mad copying of foreigners without applying our own mind to our own cultural and social situation? (“Flipkart removes all books promoting sex-selection after online campaigning by gender activists”).
Have we not seen many poor and even middle-class families in misery because they had either no boys or no girls being born in the entire joint family? Our neighbourhood milkman in Jammu had seven daughters in the hope of getting a son. Perhaps, if he had been able to select the second or third child, society could have been prevented four foolhardy attempts at getting a son. – Susheel Jalali
Hope in humanity
I am really quite impressed by the story about how Google Earth reunited a man with his family (“How a policeman and Google Earth reunited a lost man with his family after 20 years”). It’s all because of people like policeman Brijesh Kumar Chaubey that we haven’t lost faith in fellow human beings. – N Sekar
A wrong map
You rightly said in your article about Al Jazeera’s mistake that it is about trust and intent (“Ban on Al Jazeera: A wrong map of India is not ‘cartographic aggression’ against the country”). In defending Al Jazeera's depiction of the wrong map, you are going to lose both, not just in India but globally. Tell me, was it not mischief? Not this time, but this act is surely going to cost the network dearly in the future.
If you are good journalists, then you should have the guts to say yes, this is wrong. Just because the Indian media gives space for dissent by taking money, you shouldn't lose your professional character. – Amit Chaturvedi
***
In the above article, you cite “UK regulatory body Ofcom clearly states that…”. I think that you should be ashamed subjecting yourself to a foreign regulatory body. Get out of that mindset. – JKA Singh Rathore
For the unborn child
The Indian Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act is one of the most progressive in the world (“Gujarat abortion debate: Should courts decide on when life begins?”). It is not a matter of the court having the power over a woman's body. The 20 weeks cut-off is put up there for a reason, as after this, the termination of pregnancy would be risky to the woman's life also.
Have you all seen what a 24 weeks foetus looks like? All the organs are formed, the foetus can perceive pain. At this length of gestation, the foetus also deserves protection. It is difficult for the doctor to do these procedures in good conscience. It is difficult to believe that when there is such a huge problem of female foeticide that we can actually think of increasing the upper limit for the MTP Act. It hurts to think of this woman's pain. But can we not spare some space in our hearts for this baby who is also a human being?
We belong to Mahatma Gandhi's nation, and we believe in the values of non-violence. But our values have some meaning only when we defend them in difficult circumstances. – Dr Anita Srinivasan
The vulnerable Indian farmer
Agriculture and the allied sector engage and employ 150 million rural households constituting 70% of the population. The reforms of 1991 touched every sector in the economy, but not the agriculture sector. The Indian farmer, mostly small and marginal, is the most cursed human being on Earth.
From the sowing to marketing of his produce, he is vulnerable to vagaries of nature and is subject to bureaucratic controls. Today, villagers have infrastructure in terms of roads and education and are able to get mobile and internet connection, but their mainstay of agriculture is still burdened with huge system of controls in entire farming activity chain. With looming agrarian crisis across the nation, farmer suicides are spreading to north from south. There is an urgent need for total liberalisation and modernisation of agriculture through reforms, which would lead to increasing its productivity and good remuneration to farmers through better risk management and technology infusion (“This is what the dead farmer wanted us to notice (only if anyone cared to listen)”). – Jagan Mohan
Fighting terror, Gujarat style
The new Anti-Terror Gujarat Bill ‘GUJTOC’ is an essential tool for fighting terrorism (“Nine reasons why the President should refuse to pass the new Gujarat anti-terror bill”). We request the President to suggest Central government for deploying similar anti-terror laws across the country. Only criminals, terrorists, anti-nationals and their supporters dislike the GUJTOC. – LP Singh
Juvenile justice
In any civilised society, it appears to be a no-brainer that children should be accorded with the benefit of doubt and offered a chance to learn from their mistakes or crimes. The picture from the Juvenile Justice Bill story shows that women want children to be tried as adults for crimes against women (“Seven things about the new Juvenile Justice Bill you should know”).
I suspect that this is in response to the reduced sentence to the 17-year-old convicted in the Nirbhaya case in New Delhi from the December 2012 gang rape. It is really interesting to me that we are ready to “hang” a boy for his crime but we are not ready to protect him from the same crime. Section 375 of the IPC defines rape in terms of a male perpetrator and a female victim. Legally, boys and men cannot be raped in India, even though millions of them probably are. They have no path to any form of reconciliation under the law, but we now want a law that could effectively hang them if they commit the same crime. How much more twisted can it get? – Ravi Shankar
***
I understand the concern of the writer and I certainly support children's rights. But isn't it naive to think all adolescents are immature and/or are innocent and should be tried as children? What if a 15 or 16-year-old deliberately commits heinous crimes in his 'immaturity', like murder, rape, etc. knowing fully well that he will get away with it in a few years and will be well taken care of during that period?
There was a case recently where a bunch of teenagers raped a girl and demanded that they be let off since they are merely children. How do we deal with such a menace? Furthermore, what if the 'adventurous teenager' decides to rape another teenager? Should child rights be protected so much and to the extent that it may give free run to adolescents who are yet to evolve their ethics and conscience?
I understand your point of view and even admire your concern for children’s rights, but shouldn't there be safeguards and a much deeper introspection of crimes committed by young adults deliberately? – Deepak M
We welcome your comments at
letters@scroll.in.
The story about the racist ad that features Aishwarya Rai Bachchan has very valid points and completely makes sense (“Open letter to Aishwarya Rai Bachchan: This ad you figure in is insidiously racist”).
But why is it written to her? Shouldn't you be raising these questions with Kalyan Jewellers? What hold does a celebrity really have on the ads that are created? It is the same as Deepika Padukone after the My Choice video? Now that I think of it, it seems like a pattern at Scroll.
You being 'the media' should know that celebrities are merely props. If you want to address an issue, address it to the right people and in the right manner. This open letter will get you viral perhaps, and you will get more clicks. But, it is your job as a media organisation to help people think, differentiate that a company and a celebrity, that too a woman, are not one and the same thing. – Debasmita Majumdar
***
I suggest the letter should be sent to the Advertising Standards Council of India too for action against the agency and the advertiser. – Bikash Banerji
***
I completely stand by your views. Let’s not make such ads without or with an understanding just for the sake of money. One has to respect and see that no child is used or abused. Racism is a thing we must work against. Colour is superficial. – Nalini Rao
***
A very disturbing reflection of how racism pervades our every thought. – V Ramani
***
I must appreciate you for bring up such strong topics and make others realise about such ads. Please help us understand why you have targeting Aishwarya Rai in the picture and not the one who designed the idea, the one who approved the idea and the brand Kalyan Jewellers, as they are the ones who actually have thought of the idea.
She is only a there for the ad, and she should have checked and reviewed it, but she is not the owner of the brand that is actually promoting it. Let’s not target attracting unwanted attention but the right attention. At the end of the day, it should serve the purpose. – Priyanka Tiwari
***
My heartfelt congratulations for your article on the Kalyan Jewellers ad. – Chithra Suresh
***
I fully agree with your views, though it may be unintentional. One cannot allow such visuals to be shown in mass media. – Venugopal Thakker
***
First of all, this is India and anything can happen at a cost of hurting anybody's sentiment. The company is not bothered about the sentiments associated with the advertisement, because the purpose of putting this ad is to get customers and increase their business.
Likewise, we see many things in the US as well as India. For example, on footwear, leather bags, t-shirts, we see portraits of gods. Only a certain group might have objected to it, but the seculars would never object to this act. In the recent Aamir Khan movie, the director and him have publicly insulted Hindu gods, for which he never apologised. It hurt many Hindu sentiments. – Raviprasad P Rao
***
I agree with your argument completely. The only problem with the letter is that it does not acknowledge the source of the European paintings. Please give credit to the paintings. – Raju Pokhrel
***
Thank you so much for bringing attention to this ad and thereby other, highly distasteful and contemptible advertisements that run down people. I have long been outraged by advertisements that tout the fair skin as being a prerequisite to being successful in life.
My gratitude to those of you who raised your voices about this advertisement. You are all achievers in your own right and your words carry weight. In the day and age, when others strive to free children from bonded labour, to ensure that every child has a right to education and the dire need of having greater literacy (especially in India) to take part in such an advertisement is to rebuff every effort made by countless others for improving the lot of less privileged people. This advertisement is indeed highly prejudicial and thoughtless.
By being a party to it, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, rightfully or wrongfully the icon of millions of girls and women, is propagating a stereotype that is highly objectionable in the first place, let alone its adverse influence on the impressionable in our society. – Sucheta Nadkarni-Bhadri
***
It's sad to see that even though the world has progressed by leaps and bounds, many people still judge others on their skin colour. What does that ad announce? Only fair skinned people are welcome into their stores?
But over and above that, the portrayal of a child as given in the ad can never and should never be accepted in our so-called civilised society. It would be good if people like Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, who have lots of followers, would think before agreeing to do such unacceptable ads. – Nithya Mohan G
***
The problem partially lies with the readers and consumers – the public at large neglects or is not bothered ever to respond to such ads. In fact, most of us are not able to see anything wrong in such ads as it is infused in our minds and thoughts that a black is born to work as a slave to the white skinned. Over and above, the insensitive and irresponsible ad companies compete unethically to promote even sub-standard/unhealthy products to negligent consumers. – Unnikrishnan
***
The message being sent out in the Kalyan Jewellers ad is hardly noble. In keeping with this spirit, can I ask you to also send out an equally scathing letter to The Hindu which asks them to issue a public apology for the advertisement and seeks the removal of it from all their circulations? While the characters in such polemic adverts no doubt play a pivotal role in entrenching a regressive mindset on the part of the masses that consume these adverts, enough cannot be said about the silent perpetrators – the media that caves in to all kinds of pressure and promotes these unhealthy practices. – Nandakumar Srivatsa
***
Thanks for bringing this issue in the public domain. So many times, all of us tend to overlook these things without thinking about the ramifications of such ads. The reply from Aishwarya Rai Bachchan's publicist is totally ridiculous and I hope they are able to come up with a better reply and subsequent action. – Rachna Bhargava
***
Aishwarya Bachchan is fully aware of the blatant racism in this advert and is associating with it knowing of the controversy it will draw. This is a deliberate ploy and is designed to draw attention to her and the product. Many of the Bollywood stars are searching for work in Hollywood and will go to any length to secure an international audience for recognition in a globalised media.
Bollywood stars are overlooking the fact that they will always be viewed as people from a country which is one of the most primitive forms of capitalism and where these stars have made their fortunes from the money and misery of slum dwellers. As such, they are the agents of the capitalist industry where child labour and racism are an institutional part of the process of profit-seeking industrialists. Bollywood is that process by which India has been colonised again. Shah Rukh Khan engages in the promotion of skin lightening creams too. – Kaleem Sheikh
***
What about the company's responsibility about that advertisement featuring Aishwarya Rai Bachchan? Is there any letter/warning issued to it too? – Asmita Shri
***
Your piece - the open letter- was indeed an exemplary expose of one of the manifestations of the rot and unethical practices which has seemed to become the new normal. How much policing can be done by ASCI and other regulators in this era of self-regulation, to ensure base tenets of decency are not breached? Also, crass commercialism has spawned a no-holds barred race for popularity and one-upmanship by brands and celebrity-endorsers alike, who driven by the brazen attitude that nobody notices such things. If caught, they dole out a lip-synched apology.
The defensive response from Aishwarya’s publicity company Imagesmiths was on expected lines of a save-my-skin approach to wriggle out of responsibility and contain damage.
We see this trend in present day politicos who shoot their mouth off and resort to similar back-handed methods, and if nothing, to blame the media for misreading and misquoting them. – K Venkat
Well done, people who have civilly objected to the ad. We hope better sense will prevail and other actors and advertising companies will learn their social responsibility. - Dube
Not just Mumbai
Many thanks to Hussain Indorewala at the Kamla Raheja Vidyanidhi Institute of Architecture in Mumbai for the excellent article on the plan for Mumbai (“The biggest flaw in Mumbai’s Development Plan: it misunderstands both development and planning”). The criticisms you make are sadly highly applicable in many cities throughout the world. The real challenge is how to address this approach to planning and 'development'. – Geoffrey Payne
Gandhi fought for Dalit rights too
I quite liked your article on BR Ambedkar by JNU professor Vivek Kumar (“‘Dalits say there can be either Gandhi or Ambedkar. There can’t be both’”). If Gandhi didn't believe in emancipation but in assimilation, that does not mean that he did not fight for the rights of Dalits. And not just Dalits, his life had been a subject of fighting for the rights of the oppressed, be it his stay in South Africa or him coming to India and doing the same thing all around the country.
He wasn't single-caste oriented. I guess that's what Dalit NGOs did to deliberately catch the global eye, support and acknowledgement. Whereas, Gandhi did it out of his generosity, and the persistence of justice in the society. – Ramgopal Sharma
Give subsidies to 98% who don’t get into IITs too
One of the biggest benefits of the IIT system (JEE, low tuition, on campus living, needs based scholarships, etc) is often missed completely. It is not just the quality of engineers and leaders that the system produces, but it is the motivation to students who do not get admitted (98% of applicants) to work hard and become ‘quality’ educated citizens of India.
Put a rupee on the cost to achieve this quantum leap in education quality for the 98% who do not get in, and I am sure it will far exceed the cost of the subsidy to the IIT system (“No, Smriti Irani is not wasting your money on the IITians”). – Roy Dasilva
Suffer from insensitivity
I do not like the kicker on the story about how Margarita With A Straw is inspired by a real-life activist (“Watched ‘Margarita With A Straw’? Now read the real-life story”). It reads, “…Malini Chib, the disability rights activist who suffers from cerebral palsy herself”. I have never in my entire career met a disability activist who "suffers" from their disability. I have met many who suffer from the insensitivity of an ableist society or clueless publisher attaching horrid titles to good articles. – Naomi Silver
Bravo on Bhagwati article
Thank you for your story on Jagdish Bhagwati’s article (“Why we must be thankful for Bhagwati's article dismissing fears expressed by India's minorities”). I hate raging on the internet and I don’t like making stupid comments without backing information. This article really puts things in perspective. Trolls usually accuse the media of blowing things out of proportion and perhaps they do, but this article sounds really well thought out and sensible. – Shaun Williams
Christopher Bayly, R.I.P.
Christopher Alan Bayly was truly a remarkable man and scholar – and a nice one too, a major figure in both global and Indian history writing who will be much missed (“Christopher Alan Bayly, pre-eminent Western historian of India, dies”). – Linda Colley
***
A great loss. A teacher who taught with compassion, who imparted a wealth of knowledge to all his students and who will be sorely missed. – Kanta Kaur
Encountering democracy
Those running the administration in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana neither not believe in democracy nor do they have any respect for the constitutional niceties. (“Encounter killings: Middle-class India doesn't care about either blue-collar workers or Muslims”). – Ram Naresh Jha
De Villiers should bat at no 3
I have also asked why AB De Villiers has been batting so low down in the order of Royal Challengers for the past three years? (“Kohli’s delay in sending out De Villiers costs Royal Challengers Bangalore against Mumbai Indians”). Can someone ask Virat Kohli at a press conference for an explanation? It makes absolutely zero sense. De Villiers needs to bat at number 3 with Kohli opening the innings. – Dennis Miller
Saving the French
Aakar Patel is wrong to describe the French fighters as gifts by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. (“A Kashmiri separatist has shown up the immaturity of India’s mainstream”). The evidence suggests that India, by buying them, has saved from collapse the company that makes them. – Mukul Dube
Love Pakistanis back
Yes, we should show our love to Pakistanis. They are not bad people (“Ordinary Pakistanis seem to love Indians. Do we love them back?”). – Rohinton Master
Why go for a quick-fix?
Why do we always go for quick-fix ham-handed solutions and mad copying of foreigners without applying our own mind to our own cultural and social situation? (“Flipkart removes all books promoting sex-selection after online campaigning by gender activists”).
Have we not seen many poor and even middle-class families in misery because they had either no boys or no girls being born in the entire joint family? Our neighbourhood milkman in Jammu had seven daughters in the hope of getting a son. Perhaps, if he had been able to select the second or third child, society could have been prevented four foolhardy attempts at getting a son. – Susheel Jalali
Hope in humanity
I am really quite impressed by the story about how Google Earth reunited a man with his family (“How a policeman and Google Earth reunited a lost man with his family after 20 years”). It’s all because of people like policeman Brijesh Kumar Chaubey that we haven’t lost faith in fellow human beings. – N Sekar
A wrong map
You rightly said in your article about Al Jazeera’s mistake that it is about trust and intent (“Ban on Al Jazeera: A wrong map of India is not ‘cartographic aggression’ against the country”). In defending Al Jazeera's depiction of the wrong map, you are going to lose both, not just in India but globally. Tell me, was it not mischief? Not this time, but this act is surely going to cost the network dearly in the future.
If you are good journalists, then you should have the guts to say yes, this is wrong. Just because the Indian media gives space for dissent by taking money, you shouldn't lose your professional character. – Amit Chaturvedi
***
In the above article, you cite “UK regulatory body Ofcom clearly states that…”. I think that you should be ashamed subjecting yourself to a foreign regulatory body. Get out of that mindset. – JKA Singh Rathore
For the unborn child
The Indian Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act is one of the most progressive in the world (“Gujarat abortion debate: Should courts decide on when life begins?”). It is not a matter of the court having the power over a woman's body. The 20 weeks cut-off is put up there for a reason, as after this, the termination of pregnancy would be risky to the woman's life also.
Have you all seen what a 24 weeks foetus looks like? All the organs are formed, the foetus can perceive pain. At this length of gestation, the foetus also deserves protection. It is difficult for the doctor to do these procedures in good conscience. It is difficult to believe that when there is such a huge problem of female foeticide that we can actually think of increasing the upper limit for the MTP Act. It hurts to think of this woman's pain. But can we not spare some space in our hearts for this baby who is also a human being?
We belong to Mahatma Gandhi's nation, and we believe in the values of non-violence. But our values have some meaning only when we defend them in difficult circumstances. – Dr Anita Srinivasan
The vulnerable Indian farmer
Agriculture and the allied sector engage and employ 150 million rural households constituting 70% of the population. The reforms of 1991 touched every sector in the economy, but not the agriculture sector. The Indian farmer, mostly small and marginal, is the most cursed human being on Earth.
From the sowing to marketing of his produce, he is vulnerable to vagaries of nature and is subject to bureaucratic controls. Today, villagers have infrastructure in terms of roads and education and are able to get mobile and internet connection, but their mainstay of agriculture is still burdened with huge system of controls in entire farming activity chain. With looming agrarian crisis across the nation, farmer suicides are spreading to north from south. There is an urgent need for total liberalisation and modernisation of agriculture through reforms, which would lead to increasing its productivity and good remuneration to farmers through better risk management and technology infusion (“This is what the dead farmer wanted us to notice (only if anyone cared to listen)”). – Jagan Mohan
Fighting terror, Gujarat style
The new Anti-Terror Gujarat Bill ‘GUJTOC’ is an essential tool for fighting terrorism (“Nine reasons why the President should refuse to pass the new Gujarat anti-terror bill”). We request the President to suggest Central government for deploying similar anti-terror laws across the country. Only criminals, terrorists, anti-nationals and their supporters dislike the GUJTOC. – LP Singh
Juvenile justice
In any civilised society, it appears to be a no-brainer that children should be accorded with the benefit of doubt and offered a chance to learn from their mistakes or crimes. The picture from the Juvenile Justice Bill story shows that women want children to be tried as adults for crimes against women (“Seven things about the new Juvenile Justice Bill you should know”).
I suspect that this is in response to the reduced sentence to the 17-year-old convicted in the Nirbhaya case in New Delhi from the December 2012 gang rape. It is really interesting to me that we are ready to “hang” a boy for his crime but we are not ready to protect him from the same crime. Section 375 of the IPC defines rape in terms of a male perpetrator and a female victim. Legally, boys and men cannot be raped in India, even though millions of them probably are. They have no path to any form of reconciliation under the law, but we now want a law that could effectively hang them if they commit the same crime. How much more twisted can it get? – Ravi Shankar
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I understand the concern of the writer and I certainly support children's rights. But isn't it naive to think all adolescents are immature and/or are innocent and should be tried as children? What if a 15 or 16-year-old deliberately commits heinous crimes in his 'immaturity', like murder, rape, etc. knowing fully well that he will get away with it in a few years and will be well taken care of during that period?
There was a case recently where a bunch of teenagers raped a girl and demanded that they be let off since they are merely children. How do we deal with such a menace? Furthermore, what if the 'adventurous teenager' decides to rape another teenager? Should child rights be protected so much and to the extent that it may give free run to adolescents who are yet to evolve their ethics and conscience?
I understand your point of view and even admire your concern for children’s rights, but shouldn't there be safeguards and a much deeper introspection of crimes committed by young adults deliberately? – Deepak M