Apropos Vijay Nambisan’s column (Aborting the Real Issue, Dec 3), summoning the Irish ambassador and making a quiet diplomatic row may technically be an intrusion in Irish domestic affairs, but it still has symbolic value. A law that causes unnecessary deaths is inhuman and pressures to change it must come from all possible quarters, irrespective of the niceties of diplomatic protocol.

Anwar, Dallas

It’s true that even after 65 years of independence, we have millions of poorly fed, uneducated children. But I need to ask Nambisan why he shies from naming the political dynasty that has ruled us for 56 of those 65 years. As long as one makes plain sweeping statements about poverty and deprivation, without a sensible acknowledgement of the role of poor governance by the current ruling dispensation, the tax-paying, law-abiding resident aam aadmi in me is surely not going to buy Nambisan’s misplaced arguments.

Ramki, Delhi

 It was the doctor's call, wasn't it? The lady was a doctor, and she was in hospital, as a patient. What if a person died in old age, of a cardiac arrest, which is the cause of all natural deaths? How responsible, or not is a doctor? Would you have trusted this lady if she was treating your wife? I would have, and I wouldn't have blamed her, if my wife had died, being her patient. The Hippocratic Oath does not say, that a doctor wants to make a person live, with no dignity. It seems, the oath says, that a person can live life normally, not that he justifies his life, after his illness, because of the earlier illness.

Summoning the Irish ambassador and making a quiet diplomatic row may technically be an intrusion in Irish domestic affairs, but still it has symbolic value. A law that causes unnecessary deaths is an inhuman law and pressures to change such a law must come from all possible quarters irrespective of the niceties of diplomatic protocols.

@AN Bannerjee:The author might very well know he is fundamentally wrong in what he says.
But the photograph here shows exactly why he writes what he does.
It is that mother of all evils-The BJP- protesting against an idea.
So in his caveman brain the author thinks-Ogga Booga,BJP Evil, hence Idea Good,hence protest bad,so me write against protest,Ooga Booga.

Supply side works a million times better than your Socialism.Capitalism is still the best economic system in the world & Hernando De Soto's "The mystery of capital", where he grits his teeth and accepts that it is indeed the best way forward, is comprehensive proof that people on the other side of the spectrum also agree.
Our economic freedom is still remarkable low.It is amusing to see educated people with access to the internet believeing that we are not socialist now.
Most economies around the world, except a few rotten ones, are mixed.Some services for example police, are socialised.Others, are not.
We are still one of the least free & most socialist nations in the world when it comes to the economy.
Our economic freedom is a joke.More economic freedom is required.Economic freedom index puts us in the last 1/3rd or sometimes in the last 10%, depending on which list you may look at.
We still have mad throw money out of the window socialism. And you are right, yours, is a reactionary lame piece.I can't believe you got an opportunity to write such bogus cant.You must know someone at Outlook HQ or maybe you were Vinod Mehta's dog's barber!!
:-)
Now, to the abortion issue.Caste? Really? I will again move on to the crux of the issue.
Our problems are social and infrastructure based.Ireland's problems are an example of social AND legal issues.Their laws are moth-balled and this can NOT be conveniently brushed under the carpet.
It is catholic paternalism whichi influences the state and society.We have any number of issues but this comparison is puerile and is like comparing apples to oranges.

You, my good sir are not the only one doing this either.There have been others who have written much better pieces than you making the same case recently & they have been refuted by any number of people in the media.So if you wish to exotify yourself, it ain't happening, champion!!
As I said, in Ireland it is ALSO a legal issue. In india, gender determination is banned.Fine, by me! But abortion is not & rightly so! Ultimately the decision rests with the mother since it is her body.Yours, is the typical leftist xenophilic,high on emotion low on logic, attitude.This is not an EITHER OR scenario.Protesting, loudly at that, against percieved or real injustice in a foreign land does not for a moment mean people here are making a choice between home tyranny and foreign tyranny.It doesn't mean we don't support steps taken by the government or private institutions to better our IMR & MMR figures & make them more tolerable.It doesn't mean some of us aren't doing it too.
What hope do the poor have, with laws like the ones that are in place in Ireland, where they make it to the upper middle classes and still die.
Even if we were to accept for a moment your silly conclusions, it is bizarre articles like yours that promote the ideology of the Shiv Sena.Every time they thrash a bihari, a sainik might rightly ask-But what about Bihar? Don't more people get thrashed there on a daily basis?So you have no moral right to complain you poor bihari, take this chappal and eat it!!

Even that example is not perfectly right to illustrate my point.There is no comparison here.If in India, in a hospital with adequate infrastructure,a  doctor conveyed the same disgusting message to the father of the child, we would have reacted the same way.
 

Mr Vijay Nambisan,

With regard to your question "Surely, it is our greatest shame that, 65 years after independence, our children are uneducated and ill-fed, and their lives are doomed to be nasty, brutish and often short." shall i ask you a question?

Yes, 65 years after independence, we are having a nation with poorly fed poorly educated children with poor health indicators. But shall I ask you why are you refusing to point the political party, the political dynasty that has ruled us 56 out of the 65 years?

Ours is a democracy with extraordinary powers for Central government and given this, the onus lies primarily on the political party and dynasty that has ruled us decades since 1947. And yet, the entire MSM and the journalists and intellectuals including you refuse to even talk about this.

As long as you make plain sweeping statements like this without a sensible acknowlegement of the role of poor governance by the current ruling dispensation, a tax paying, law abiding aam admi resident indian in me is not going to buy your misplaced arguments that are typical of the elite pseudo intellectuals that get a disproportionate representation, voice and importance in the ruling elite sponsored Indian english Mainstream Media.

 The author is conflation the two issues one is a case of unjust law and another is a case of resourse constraint.

But why SHOULD the government yield to feminist pressures and allocate even more funds to women for childbirth, and not for eg., to heart attacks and prostrate cancer besides work related and other 'naturally' violence related deaths of MALES?

The LIFE SPAN difference between males and females is bound to increase EVEN FURTHER with more skewed health care allocation - even if society currently does not view male death with sympathy.

Kudos however, to the women groups for having the cohesion to raise the issue, however small, so that the issue will get even more publicity and sympathy for the gender. A cohesion that male groups definitely lack.

But why SHOULD the government yield to feminist pressures and allocate even more funds to women for childbirth, and not for eg., to heart attacks and prostrate cancer besides work related and other 'naturally' violence related deaths of MALES?

The LIFE SPAN difference between males and females is bound to increase EVEN FURTHER with more skewed health care allocation - even if society currently does not view male death with sympathy.

Kudos however, to the women groups for having the cohesion to raise the issue, however small, so that the issue will get even more publicity and sympathy for the gender. A cohesion that male groups definitely lack.

 The author is conflation the two issues one is a case of unjust law and another is a case of resourse constraint.

Mr Vijay Nambisan,

With regard to your question "Surely, it is our greatest shame that, 65 years after independence, our children are uneducated and ill-fed, and their lives are doomed to be nasty, brutish and often short." shall i ask you a question?

Yes, 65 years after independence, we are having a nation with poorly fed poorly educated children with poor health indicators. But shall I ask you why are you refusing to point the political party, the political dynasty that has ruled us 56 out of the 65 years?

Ours is a democracy with extraordinary powers for Central government and given this, the onus lies primarily on the political party and dynasty that has ruled us decades since 1947. And yet, the entire MSM and the journalists and intellectuals including you refuse to even talk about this.

As long as you make plain sweeping statements like this without a sensible acknowlegement of the role of poor governance by the current ruling dispensation, a tax paying, law abiding aam admi resident indian in me is not going to buy your misplaced arguments that are typical of the elite pseudo intellectuals that get a disproportionate representation, voice and importance in the ruling elite sponsored Indian english Mainstream Media.

Supply side works a million times better than your Socialism.Capitalism is still the best economic system in the world & Hernando De Soto's "The mystery of capital", where he grits his teeth and accepts that it is indeed the best way forward, is comprehensive proof that people on the other side of the spectrum also agree.
Our economic freedom is still remarkable low.It is amusing to see educated people with access to the internet believeing that we are not socialist now.
Most economies around the world, except a few rotten ones, are mixed.Some services for example police, are socialised.Others, are not.
We are still one of the least free & most socialist nations in the world when it comes to the economy.
Our economic freedom is a joke.More economic freedom is required.Economic freedom index puts us in the last 1/3rd or sometimes in the last 10%, depending on which list you may look at.
We still have mad throw money out of the window socialism. And you are right, yours, is a reactionary lame piece.I can't believe you got an opportunity to write such bogus cant.You must know someone at Outlook HQ or maybe you were Vinod Mehta's dog's barber!!
:-)
Now, to the abortion issue.Caste? Really? I will again move on to the crux of the issue.
Our problems are social and infrastructure based.Ireland's problems are an example of social AND legal issues.Their laws are moth-balled and this can NOT be conveniently brushed under the carpet.
It is catholic paternalism whichi influences the state and society.We have any number of issues but this comparison is puerile and is like comparing apples to oranges.

You, my good sir are not the only one doing this either.There have been others who have written much better pieces than you making the same case recently & they have been refuted by any number of people in the media.So if you wish to exotify yourself, it ain't happening, champion!!
As I said, in Ireland it is ALSO a legal issue. In india, gender determination is banned.Fine, by me! But abortion is not & rightly so! Ultimately the decision rests with the mother since it is her body.Yours, is the typical leftist xenophilic,high on emotion low on logic, attitude.This is not an EITHER OR scenario.Protesting, loudly at that, against percieved or real injustice in a foreign land does not for a moment mean people here are making a choice between home tyranny and foreign tyranny.It doesn't mean we don't support steps taken by the government or private institutions to better our IMR & MMR figures & make them more tolerable.It doesn't mean some of us aren't doing it too.
What hope do the poor have, with laws like the ones that are in place in Ireland, where they make it to the upper middle classes and still die.
Even if we were to accept for a moment your silly conclusions, it is bizarre articles like yours that promote the ideology of the Shiv Sena.Every time they thrash a bihari, a sainik might rightly ask-But what about Bihar? Don't more people get thrashed there on a daily basis?So you have no moral right to complain you poor bihari, take this chappal and eat it!!

Even that example is not perfectly right to illustrate my point.There is no comparison here.If in India, in a hospital with adequate infrastructure,a  doctor conveyed the same disgusting message to the father of the child, we would have reacted the same way.
 

@AN Bannerjee:The author might very well know he is fundamentally wrong in what he says.
But the photograph here shows exactly why he writes what he does.
It is that mother of all evils-The BJP- protesting against an idea.
So in his caveman brain the author thinks-Ogga Booga,BJP Evil, hence Idea Good,hence protest bad,so me write against protest,Ooga Booga.

Summoning the Irish ambassador and making a quiet diplomatic row may technically be an intrusion in Irish domestic affairs, but still it has symbolic value. A law that causes unnecessary deaths is an inhuman law and pressures to change such a law must come from all possible quarters irrespective of the niceties of diplomatic protocols.

 It was the doctor's call, wasn't it? The lady was a doctor, and she was in hospital, as a patient. What if a person died in old age, of a cardiac arrest, which is the cause of all natural deaths? How responsible, or not is a doctor? Would you have trusted this lady if she was treating your wife? I would have, and I wouldn't have blamed her, if my wife had died, being her patient. The Hippocratic Oath does not say, that a doctor wants to make a person live, with no dignity. It seems, the oath says, that a person can live life normally, not that he justifies his life, after his illness, because of the earlier illness.