|
|
|
|
|
| HOME | NEWS | SPECIALS | |||
|
ELECTIONS '98
|
|
|
How Readers responded to K V Bapu Rao's last column
Date sent: Tue, 21 Apr 1998 12:01:51 -0500 Nice article by Shri Bapa Rao. I hope he continues to contribute to Rediff On The NeT. I appreciate your efforts in putting out articles on all aspects of India everyday, and hope you will continue doing it without fear or prejudice. Thanks, Suresh
Date sent: Tue, 21 Apr 1998 14:57:19 -0300 EXCELLENT ARTICLE. FOR THE FIRST TIME I AM ANGRY WITH THE BJP SINCE IT CAME TO POWER. EAT MONEY AND STAY HAPPY, PEOPLE LIVE OR DIE. FOR THE FIRST TIME I AM HAPPY TO SAY I AM OUT OF INDIA. AT LEAST, I AM SAFE.
Date sent: Tue, 21 Apr 1998 11:04:16 -0700 Insightful article. Hope the Indian defence establishment gets its act together. Srini
Date sent: Tue, 21 Apr 1998 14:35:29 -0400 Mr Bapa Rao, You have more or less charted out the real situation vis-a-vis defence establishment. All the problems that you pointed out are just the tip of the iceberg. They are symptoms of a much deeper malaise running through Indian society. You can never really guess the extent of corruption and nepotism in the Army. The ostensibly professional army is really a fat inferior bunch of jobless men. But these are problems with all government institutions. I guess a war with Pak is what will wake people up to our decay. I don't want to be in India when it happens... S N
Date sent: Tue, 21 Apr 1998 12:06:55 -0700 I think Mr Rao's analysis is truly in line with reality, and throws a flood of light on the complacency of Indian defence standards and the Indian political elite's ignorance of how much the security equation has shifted in Pakistan's favor. The fact how Pakistan acquired this technology is immaterial, since their missile if it does come from China has a proven superiority. Indians should come to terms with reality and should not talk hollow. Ganesh Thakur
Date sent: Tue, 21 Apr 1998 14:43:11 -0700 K V Bapa Rao has hit all the major nails on their respective heads with his analysis of the Indian response to the Ghauri missile. What's especially interesting is that the reaction of our brave, militantly nationalistic, Hindutva-vadi political leadership has been very mild indeed. Nobody even mentioned reviving the Agni program. The fear of American punishment looms large in the Indian psyche, it would appear. As for George Fernandes's remark that Prithvi is an adequate counter to Ghauri, it shows again the stunning 'wisdom' of having a trade-union politician as defence minister of the nation. Yours truly,
Satadru Sen
Date sent: Tue, 21 Apr 1998 16:05:28 -0600 Load of bullshit. Sanjay
Date sent: Tue, 21 Apr 1998 18:21:38 -0500 It is a good article. Shekhar
From: MKohli1020 Dear Rediff, I do not understand Mr Rao's vitriol against India's establishment. Is this emotion or analysed thought? Anyway, I'll say this much: it is important to safeguard our land on the western front, since we have had to face three wars with them. Pakistanis who have named their missile Ghauri for psychological purposes have also shown once again that they are trapped in medieval ages -- unfortunate prisoners of hate, violence and evil from the past. Surely this is what is 'The evil empire"!!!!! Ghauri has changed tactical equations, but not inverted the balance in favour of the evil empire. That still remains in India's hand. If we have to go into history, let's not forget the last 3 wars were not glorious victories for the evil empire. Manish
Date sent: Wed, 22 Apr 1998 16:29:17 +0800 Mr Rao is perfectly right when he says that India has more to lose from a possible war or missile attack from Pakistan. Denying that Ghauri ever existed or saying that even if it does exist, it was built with Chinese/Korean help, is to tacitly accept that the RAW/Intelligence Bureau failed the government. The other situation might be that the intelligence agencies had indeed warned the government before hand, but ministers being ministers, didn't do anything until the last moment and promptly issued ridiculous statements. The best way for India to retaliate would be to induct Prithvi into the army and keep it battle ready. Also induct other missile systems like Akash, Nag and Agni so that Pakistan will think many times before they attempt to cause trouble. If the US/Western nations/UN asks India to stop doing this so that regional peace can be maintained, our government should have the courage to stand up for India and tell the world to first ask Pakistan to stop being hostile. Jagadish
Date sent: Wed, 22 Apr 1998 10:56:42 -0400 Outstanding article. Gopal Saraswat
Date sent: Wed, 22 Apr 1998 10:17:57 -0500 The whole drama reminds me of watching a cricket match over television. We are too eager for the victory of our team. Many of the people who read this may not be living in India. So for them the outcome of a possible war will not have any immediate consequence. The rest of the people who cry for war think war is something like a video game (Pressing a button and pumping the fist when the enemy explodes). They think war will be fought by jawans on their behalf. Has anybody thought about themselves with one of their limbs amputated and waiting in the never-ending line to collect their war veteran's pension? Come on, what are we trying to prove with a war? The standard of living in both the countries is already rock-bottom. Strange that this is a country preaching vegetarianism! Regards, Sony
Date sent: Thu, 23 Apr 1998 15:05:11 +0800 Make Amberish K Diwanji read it! Anurag
Date sent: Thu, 23 Apr 1998 10:44:57 +0100 Dear Mr Rao, First of all, congratulations on writing an entertaining piece on Ghauri. Entertaining though it was, your criticism of the defence minister's reaction to Ghauri is somewhat naive. Mr Fernandes's public pronouncement, that Prithvi is able to target the whole of Pakistan, is the optimum response to Ghauri's test launch. The "defence establishment" in India is keenly aware that Pakistan and China pose a threat to our national security. Moreover, the country is amply prepared to meet this threat. The size of our defence budget, the conventional (and I assume, non-conventional) capabilities of our armed forces, our planned acquisitions, and the scope and scale of our indigenous defence research programme bears ample testimony to this. Moreover, contrary to what some commentators have been proposing, Ghauri does not significantly alter the strategic balance in the sub-continent. Even pre-Ghauri, the M-11 missile and the F-16 aircraft allowed Pakistan the capability of striking strategic installations and cities, including New Delhi, deep within India. Ghauri adds another arrow to this growing arsenal. Clearly, this development hasn't improved India's national security environment, but it hasn't worsened it much either. The Prithvi missile, and a multitude of aircraft of the Indian Air Force, are capable of delivering a devastating response to any Pakistani missile attack. While the balance of power, vis-a-vis Pakistan, is clearly in India's favour, the Pakistani leadership will be deterred from acts of suicidal foolishness. The Raksha Mantri's statement about the whole of Pakistan being in Prithvi's range will have served to remind their leadership that Ghauri does not alter the strategic balance on the sub-continent. The Raksha Mantri was also very astute to point out that Ghauri has most likely been developed with Chinese assistance. Ghauri has presented an excellent opportunity to India for bringing to the world's attention that China is a legitimate national security concern for India. World opinion matters in so far as India can justify the development of its ballistic missile and non-conventional weapons research programs as a necessary defensive response to its existing security environment. I sincerely hope that work on Agni and related and successor technologies is continuing apace. Yours sincerely, Eklavya Sareen
Date sent: Thu, 23 Apr 1998 15:23:59 +0000 I'm sure that when K V Bapa Rao wrote this article he didn't read Amberish K Diwanji's article in the same Rediff issue. Ghauri, whether built by their own genius (which I seriously doubt) or imported, is a reality now. What Rao seems to forget is the cost of producing such a missile in quantity. If the Ghauri is used in conventional war, they would need huge numbers to cause extreme damage to India's economic base. If it was nuclear, the damage is increased with fewer numbers -- but where is this nuclear device? Has it been tested? Surely the Pakis are not stupid enough to fire a nuclear tipped Ghauri on India without testing it? Even China would not provide complete N-devices, especially as she is trying to woo the rest of the world. If Pakistan does decide to test, then the world will be forced to sanction Pakistan which in effect would ruin it economically. Oh by the way, have the Pakis been able to 'miniaturise' an N-device to fit in a missile? But the most important question is: how long would Pakistan be able to hold out in an all-out war with India? India's conventional army is by and large massive. It would be an appropriate response by this government to increase its conventional spend on more technologically advanced weaponry that can be used as a blitzkrieg force to quickly subdue most part of the Pak forces and its population. After all, our deterrent is there. A conventional spend (including huge numbers of Prithvi and Agni) would be a more economically justifiable approach -- and one which would not alienate India on the world stage.
Jay Patel
Date sent: Thu, 23 Apr 1998 13:39:00 -0600 Bapa Rao is behaving like a typical NRI, with the arrogance of wealth. He does not have any idea of the cold realities in India. I think the report was an ill-informed one. I request that such reports be not published hereafter.
Date sent: Thu, 23 Apr 1998 17:28:12 -0500 I guess Rediff has found someone to balance the words (or rather miswords) of Dilip D'Souza and Diwanji on the Indo-Pak arm race. The columnist looks agitated enough by the happenings (or rather the mishappenings) in this sensitive issue, which will probably help him win the heart of warm-blooded Indians. The sarcasm with which he criticised the defence spokesmen's (including that of Mr Fernandes) utterings(!), which reflect their unprofessionalism, is worth reading. Still I will advice the columnist to take it with a cool head rather than by emotions. Avinash Jain
Date sent: Fri, 24 Apr 1998 00:49:56 +0000 Mr Rao, All I can say is that you are crediting the Pakistanis with a level of competence that just isn't there, and relegating the Indian defence establishment to complete incompetence with regard to missile proliferation in South Asia. Consider this: it was India who developed the Prithvi missile (range 150 - 350 km), tested it numerous time, mass produced it in their HAL labs and then deployed it near the Pakistani border. So now Pakistan has between 100 and 200 nuclear capable missiles pointed at its cities. Tell me, what is Pakistan supposed to do in the face of such fire power? Let's not even mention India's vastly superior conventional forces and the Pressler Amendment. The Pakistanis, can't even retrieve the money they paid for older F-16 jets that never arrived. The response of the Indian defence establish was correct. The more hysterical they got over Ghauri, the more embarrassing it would become for India. You do make the important point about India's intelligence services -- they suck. What about ISI sponsored terrorism in India? Sure it exists, so what? Please don't tell me that India is not doing the same sort of thing in Pakistan. RAW must be funnelling huge amounts of money to various destabilising elements in Pakistan; we just don't know about it and will never know about it because its such a secretive organisation. India is at war at the moment. Continuing with an expensive arms race (a race Pakistan will lose through bankruptcy) and exporting terrorism are probably the best weapons India has for now. Cheers, Anup
Date sent: Fri, 24 Apr 1998 09:30:16 -0700 A very well thought-out article, unlike some of the other columnists who seem to shoot off their sleeve. I hope the views expressed here serve as a wake-up call to the blinkered. I vote for more of Mr Rao's columns. Jagathi |
||
|
HOME |
NEWS |
BUSINESS |
CRICKET |
MOVIES |
CHAT
INFOTECH | TRAVEL | LIFE/STYLE | FREEDOM | FEEDBACK |
||