I do not agree fully with the author, but he has a point...we never dedicate pages after pages to Indian heroes like Param Vir Chakra awardees, most Indian "intellectuals" will not be able to name even five PVC awardees...a lot of them don't know who Dr. Sandeep Pandey is...we never mourn for the Indian soldiers who die in Kashmir, but we all have a public outpouring of emotion when the WTC bombings take place... In the end, its just a question of letting our emotions be directed by the media...the more global the "event", the more heartfelt it will be for us "Indians"... Aren't the soldiers protecting our borders heroes?... aren't the people striving to make India a better place to live in heroes?...why do we "neglect" them?...
It is really sad that while half of the bengalis are sane and level headed and possibly capable of making West Bengal a developed state, the other half totally red in color just pulls the state backward. You cannot blame them for their beliefs, of course, which is that the wage earners are the kings. These commies (or comic book characters) want the people like the CEOs of Infosys, Wipro, etc., to give up their riches to the poor workers. Never mind the fact that without the innovation and initiatives of these "rich people" these poor workers could no afford two square meals a day.
Wake up Mr. Ashoke Mitra. Gone are your commi ideals. Look at the wretched condition of the workers and farmers of your communist W.Bengal. And, by the way, if your care so much about the poor working class, give up your car and money, and ask your daughter and her husband to give up the money they make. That would feed a a thousand homeless children for the next several years.
The article is indeed great..The article will be bogus to the ones for whom the Television is the world and all of us know who controls the media. Unfortunately few people apply their minds before making insincere comments..And let's not talk about Dr. A Sen. Dr Amartya Sen did not migrate to the US keeping in mind the dollar-rupee conversion ratio and the share market..Let us learn to differentiate the mediocre and the lesser mortals from the greats.
The comments of the author are on typical and expected communist lines. However i am surprised at the crass ignorance shown by the author (who was once the finance minister in the cpi(m) govt in w. bengal and hence supposed to know much better and be better informed of legal realities) about Gulf Indians. As far as my understanding goes of the Gulf, no country offers citizenship to foreigners. Thus none of the indians (right from the high up professional whom ashok mitra dislikes to the toiling masses - malayalees, muslims etc) can ever become citizens of these countries. Thus they continue to be Indian Citizens and finally when they have reached old age or are booted out by their employers have to come back to india. So where is the question of Dual Citizenship to these people. They have only one citizenship - Indian.
There is some confusion in understanding of kalpana's status in the article.She was very much dedicated to India.This is evident from her association with her school,college,teachers,friends & family of course,how many people living in India care about these things when they become bigshots.She did what she could do very decently & definately without any political support.Her achievement was her knowledge & the resources for even more knowledge which she wanted to share with indians, then why did she was not permitted to bring her fellow astronauts to India.People like her do not believe in political boundries, so stay away from casting aspersions on intellectuals like her. Once an Indian always an Indian.
