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'This is a fight of corrupt minds'

How Readers responded to Saisuresh Sivaswamy's recent columns

Date sent: Tue, 15 Dec 1998 17:34:58 -0500
From: Mukund M Kute <mkute@ford.com>
Subject: Saisuresh's one cent on Fire

After reading Pritish Nandy's article on selective bans & freedom, I don't think much has remained to be written on this issue. You just wish to hurl some charges at the Shiv Sena, without going into the issue of selective freedom sought by Shabana Azmi and her friends. Thus, you expose your true colours. You are also part of some gang. In this case, the gang of pseudo-secular intellectuals(??).

The matter is simple. Either ban all sorts of aggravation-creating items like Fire, nude Saraswati, the Satanic Verses and the Godse play. Or just don't ban anything. Let people choose what they want. You can have freedom for all or freedom for none. But Saisuresh wants freedom ONLY FOR PSEUDO-SECULARS.

The 'total freedom for all' concept will really help the Sena express its feelings freely. We will then see a 'nude fatima' or an 'alcoholic Christ' under the name of arts. In fact, the Shiv Sena is already on the exercise. Remember the 'semi-nude' agitation in front of Dilip Kumar's home?

We must learn to live peacefully. But those people who had selective freedom during 50 years of Congress regime will try hard to keep it intact for them while denying it to others. Is this an intellectual fight at all? This is a fight of corrupt minds.

Mukund Kute

Date sent: Tue, 15 Dec 1998 13:39:53 -0500
From: Jawahar Subramanian <jawahars@worldnet.att.net>
Subject: Might and right

If people like you say that you and others are not represented by the Shiv Sena for whatever brand of Hinduism they profess, then persons like Javed and Shabana should come forward and say the same and take it upon themselves to lift the ban on the Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie. Stop writing stupid articles just for the sake of writing. Go into a closed room and shout whatever you want to.

Date sent: Tue, 08 Dec 1998 12:02:29 -0800
From: Sameer <skuppaha@sedona.ch.intel.com>
Subject: No bridge over troubled waters

This is another absurd article of ridiculous proportions. Please tell me, Sai, who was ruling Bombay when the city swelled from 2 million to 9 million? Who was responsible for improving the civic amenities? Your articles smack of abject partisanship. You hardly make your case. Now the BJP is responsible for the increase in your BP!! The Congress govt under Sharad Pawar was not? What kind of an argument is this?

You say the BJP-Sena govt should do something because they project themselves as people-friendly. So what does the Congress projects itself as -- people-unfriendly party? Don't they make promises that they will roll back the prices in 100 days? If your Congress govt was that effective in its economic policies, wasn't there a Congress govt at the Centre when the rupee got devalued from Rs 16/$ to Rs 32/$ almost overnight?

The problem is that you "try" to write articles in the mould of great investigative journalists. But your articles are replicas of Mani Shanker Aiyar's. You present no facts, no analysis -- only empty rhetoric. Fifty-one years after Independence; 45 years of Congress rule -- who screwed up the nation? You do the math! Don't pounce on the Opposition govt as though only the Congress has the right to rule the nation, and all the other govts are on an interim basis. Give them more time. If you want to criticise the BJP for lack of civic amenities (and your BP), put the blame on the previous govts too.

Please read the responses to your previous articles. That will give you some indication of what the intellectuals think of them. Sonia Gandhi may fool our ignorant, impatient and rather stupid electorate by her enigmatic silence, but on the Internet you are talking to people who have some analytical ability. So get the message: your articles have few takers.

Sameer Kuppahalli

Date sent: Wed, 16 Dec 1998 09:58:15 -0800
From: "Anil Wadhwani" <anilwadhwani@hotmail.com>
Subject: Rediff taken by Fire

Hello Saisuresh,

Our producer friend had many options to address the plight of poor women in India. Predictably, she wanted to win some awards in the international (US) circles.

The only reason we come to Rediff is that we see a fire - a fire to fight the corrupt and powerful. A fire to be different from the powerful mainstream media. There is no room for Mehta's Fire , sir! The same goes for Husain's paintings. Please leave that for the Times of India.

Indians have been smoking Lakshmi chaap bidi for ages; most of the prostitutes are named 'Lakshmi' or 'Sita' -- and no one had a problem with that. But for a few idle politicians and the 'taken' media... I would not be surprised if these marketing savvy producers pay these politicians.

I am glad that at least Rajeev Srinivasan has not touched this subject (yet). Varsha's Fire has already gone south, she rarely goes past "I" these days. Nandy has lost his touch too -- and I do not find myself at ODDS with him as often.

Anil

Saisuresh Sivaswamy