Half an Expert
Arundhati is an incredible writer and it was a pleasure reading her essay, Shall We Leave it to the Experts? (January 14). But I seriously think she should do a course in economics before pronouncing her judgements on reforms, privatisation, the wto and the like. The simple fact is that privatisation is good in the long run, though it does have some negative fallouts in the short term. The trick is to examine ways in which these negatives can be mitigated. Raving and ranting in fine prose certainly does not help. She has to talk about alternatives and to do that she needs to learn some basic development economics. That’s my two cents of advice.
Ujjayant Chakravorty, Emory University

It’s good to have a writer who really cares and writes like Arundhati does. Of course, it’s distressing to think of the costs or unevenness of progress. But then one hopes that beneath all this churning, the innate wisdom of India will help prevent it from becoming a mirror image of the West.
Sunil Ithikatt, on e-mail

Ms Roy doesn’t like politicians, ceos of private companies, Clinton, or anyone else who wouldn’t listen to her. It’s a pity that she has such a great flow of language but doesn’t know how to use it in the right sense. Can she appreciate anything in this world apart from her one-sided thinking?
Ramesh Selvaraj, on e-mail

Waxing Royal Blue
the ladies have feelings, so... Shall We Leave It to the Experts? (January 14) was a wonderful piece! And yet, it scared me. Arundhati Roy paints a very evocative doomsday picture, but where does it all end?
Priti Damle, on e-mail

Arundhati has proved, beyond any shadow of doubt, that she is the reigning diva of Ansari Road literary salons. The soaring brilliance of her insights and her near-Shakespearean mastery over the English language leave one awestruck. One only wishes she made her point more tersely, in far fewer words. Perhaps she’d do well to hone her precis-writing skills.
Ranjith Thomas, on e-mail

The US foresaw, a long time ago, that it didn’t have to subdue others by annihilating them with bombs, non-invasive ways would do just as well. The victor, after all, is the one who can get the victim to succumb to his ideology. ‘Globalisation’ is a euphemism for that non-invasive war. You needn’t travel to the US any more. America is now everywhere.
Chris Castelino, on e-mail

How hysterical can Arundhati get? I’m all for protest and activism but what good has the Narmada Bachao Andolan done for the displaced farmers except having created a nuisance for others?
Jayakrishnan K.R., Kochi

Arundhati continues to quote facts and arguments selectively. But the redeeming feature of her essay was her admission that she is open to persuasion and change of mind.
C.K. Goswami, on e-mail

Wonderful use of language, but there sure is an uncanny resemblance to the firebrand speeches Mamata Bannerjee uses to whip up crowd sentiment in Kolkata!
Bhismadev Chakrabarti, on e-mail

Arundhati harangues on about experts but hasn’t she herself become one on everything—from big dams to nuclear bombs to globalisation?
Sudhanshu Joshi, on e-mail

It’s sad to see a person like Arundhati buying into a defeatist and apologetic worldview. You can find something wrong with everything in this world, the point is to choose the lesser evils. That’s what people like Arundhati should address rather than indulge overtime in the politics of resistance.
Manish, on e-mail

It’s always with mixed emotions that I read Arundhati’s non-fiction; her mastery of language contrasts so starkly with the banality of her message. Is she aware that more Indians have been lifted out of poverty since the liberalisation of the mid-’80s than in all the preceding years since Independence? On one point, however, she has hit the nail on the head. The order criminalising the hardworking and imaginative entrepreneurs into a patronisingly labelled "informal" sector is indeed a moral outrage. But it’s also poor economics. Harnessing the talents of these people through property rights and access to public infrastructure should be a central plank of policy. Such prescription follows from the most basic tenets of "free-market economics" that Arundhati so disdains.
Shekhar Aiyar, on e-mail

Arundhati Roy is a pessimist to the core. It’s a waste of time reading all her babble.
Ramesh Kumar, on e-mail

Why can’t Arundhati say something different? We all know by now that she is anti-globalisation and anti-progress. She’d rather have people starve than lay fibreoptic cables because it appeals to her romantic notion of what our country must be like. Yes, there are inequalities in our country. But they preceded our joining the wto. Isolating ourselves from the world trade community will be no way to progress; it only reveals the depth of Arundhati’s xenophobia.
Nina Menon, New Delhi

A lot of what Roy says is true. But does she really have to get judgemental about people, governments, communities?
Rajesh Chary, on e-mail

A good article, at least a worthy start.... But if writing as an activist, one has to seek the good and then praise it. As Bob Dylan wrote: "When you gonna wake up and strengthen the things that remain?"
Jack Forrest, on e-mail

Arundhati’s passionate critique of trade and globalisation as tools of western economic imperialism smacks of the same one-sidedness that she accuses the World Bank, imf and wto of. Rather than cloaking all the old cliches in newer words, she should concentrate her effort on suggesting an innovative and collaborative approach to problem-solving by government, business and civil society.
Manish Kapoor, Gurgaon

I just wish Arundhati would make her point using fewer words. I never get past the second or third page of her essay.
Damo Chittibabu, on e-mail

Poetic Licence
Where did Arundhati Roy read about molten lead being poured into the ears of a Sudra were he to listen to a sloka (...Shall We Leave It to the Experts?, January 14)? Certainly not the Manusmriti. What is mentioned in Chapter 8, verse 272 is: "If anyone arrogantly teaches Brahmanas their duty, the king shall cause hot oil to be poured into his mouth and ears." It only reinforces the perception that the English media in India is viciously anti-Hindu. I am a Hindu, though not of the Sanghi variety. You’re catching me and others like me by the scruff of our necks and pushing us into the waiting arms of the Sangh parivar.
J. Anantharaman, on e-mail

An article Susannah Gregan first drew to my attention.

Being a long time subscriber of outlook and having been forced to read A. Roy's stories many times before, I am beginning to wonder whether Mr V Mehta has a AR fixation?

http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/2002/09/27/stor ies/2002092701300500.htm

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Haven't you guys got anything better to print than nutters like Ms. Roy?

Being a long time subscriber of outlook and having been forced to read A. Roy's stories many times before, I am beginning to wonder whether Mr V Mehta has a AR fixation?

An article Susannah Gregan first drew to my attention.

Haven't you guys got anything better to print than nutters like Ms. Roy?

http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/2002/09/27/stor ies/2002092701300500.htm

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