NEIGHBOUR’S ENVY
Your September cover ‘HOW MUCH LONGER?’ was an eye-opener. Pakistan has been causing trouble since day one of its existence. That it’s a failed state is obvious to even the most ardent supporter of that country. The basic problem with Pakistan is that it is a completely artificial country, with no national ethos or raison d’ etre. It was basically a parting shot from the British who acted churlishly while being kicked out of the country. They wanted to break up India so we would be embroiled in a fratricidal war with our neighbour. That is the elephant in the room that no one is talking about. Pakistani must realise it was created simply because Britain wanted to Balkanise India to avenge the humiliation of retreat from empire. Not that it would make Pakistanis want to re-unite with India—even Indians wouldn’t want that—but at least they will then get back to the task of nation building.
Rakesh Krishnan
Washington DC
Your September cover story on the dynamics between Kashmir, Pakistan and India was superb. Your presentation of the article was clear and concise and the articulation with which you wrote was very engaging. The article was easy to follow and masterfully identified all the key factors and players involved in a very complicated and long standing issue. As a person who never really understood the intricacies of the bigger picture and the interested parties, I came away from reading the story informed and far more educated on the subject. Well done.
Adele Link
Prince George, Canada
Link2823@hotmail.com
Your cover story (September 2008) is quite an education for people like myself who do not quite understand what all the fuss was about. Very good work!
Raul Bermudez
Trincity, Trinidad
toymaker@parodicegames.com
Your article on Kashmir in September issue of ‘India Empire’ has been appreciated by all my colleagues who have read it. You have correctly said that India cannot afford to wait indefinitely. It is time for the entire country to join hands and take a decisive action for maintaining the integrity of country, in the light of the resolution adopted by the Parliament.
Baleshwar Agrawal
Secretary General, Antar Rastriya Sahyog Parishad
arspind@del2.vsnl.net.in
“How Much Longer” is a great caption for your cover story. But don’t you think that such writings are going on for years or decades by newspapers, magazines and TV media and the situation continues to deteriorate. I am sure, your answer is yes. So we can continue to write and watch helplessly the weakening of India. Politicians cannot do anything about it. This is given. Your magazine is for NRIs/PIOs. I hope that you can awaken PIOs/NRIs to join and do something about it.
Santosh Verma
Diamond Bar, California
verma105@hotmail.com
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It’s all about gold
Rakesh K. Simha is right Beijing 2008 lifted the Olympic curse from India. The gold medal in an individual event was also an individual effort, with no credit to the Indian government or its sporting federations. As gold medalist Abhinav Bindra said after returning to India, the politicians and hangers-on are doing little or nothing at all to advance sport. The only way we can win more golds is if we have funds, well-paid coaches, and dedicated technocrats who will create the system needed to pick future champs at the school level.
Sujani Das
New York
Sports and national honour go hand in hand, but do our politicians care? Hardly. The way out is for Indian corporates to get into sports in a big way. That’s happening in Russia in a big way. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the much vaunted sports programmes lost their funding and that showed in the Olympic results—from the top of the medals tally, Russia has slipped to No.3. Now Vladimir Putin has asked Russia’s oil and gas MNCs to pump money into sports. So now each megacorp has to sponsor a sport. So there’s Gazprom that sponsors the Continental League ice hockey tournament that rivals the North American league. India’s corporate czars need to be prodded to pump money into sports. As of now only Mittal is pumping money into sport in a big way. Why can’t Reliance and ONGC start acadamies? Even 0.1% of their profits would be a windfall for Indian sports.
Sunita Swaminathan
New York
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