An open letter to Swaminathan S Ankilesaria Aiyar
Dear Mr. Aiyar,
There isn't much to read in the Times of India these days except for the Sunday columns by you, Jug Suraiya and Gurcharan Das, Bacchi Karkaria, sometimes Shobha De as well.
But today after decades of reading your columns I felt disappointed.
So I write to you.
When you write...."I was gratified to find Rahul Gandhi taking this very line in parliament, " my heart sank as I will now have one less column to read.
Either you wrote Rahul Gandhi's parliament speech or Rahul Gandhi wrote your column this morning.
Only then would your readers appreciate your effort.
Unfortunately, many of India's great columnists have slipped before you. One of my favourite columnists was Tavleen Singh. I liked her because of her articles that she wrote like a reporter. You could see that it wasn't written from the comforts of an air-conditioned office, but written after travelling to a dusty Uttar Pradesh village.
She would take on the left, the right and the centre..always speaking for the India that she cared about.
But then one day I saw an article in favour of the BJP and then another and then another.
Now I do not know where is Tavleen Singh??
Ofcourse, there are others who sit in the Rajya Sabha but that is ok because I do not read them as a matter of habit and sometimes I glance through them if I really, really want to see a party viewpoint.
I do regard you and Gurcharan Das as leading supporters of India's economic liberalisation.
But when you speak about convincing Rahul Gandhi and Gurcharan Das speaks about how great SEZs are going to be for India, I can only pray for this country.
Yes, I know newspaper editors wrote how great Rahul's `I'm an Indian speech' was and how much he cares for Kalawati in suicidal Vidarbha, but on Live Lok Sabha TV Indian viewers (those who do not read and write) saw how non-serious Rahul Gandhi was.
Whoever his ghost speech writer may have been, his speech was best suited to some Doon School debating societies.
Today, I was expecting Swaminomics to be about the economics of buying a parliament!
Everything, Manmohan, Advani, Amar, Akali, Sonia, Italy, USA, Russia, Mulayam, Maya, and Bhagora!!!
Yours Sincerely,
Manuwant Choudhary
2 comments:
Dear Manuwant
Comment on Swami is very honest. Even I was surprised as Swami appear to be writing on someone else's behalf in this very column. Let's hope that his orginality is visible in the colums he would wrtie in future
I think Swami's mention of Rahul Gandhi's speech is only of incidental value. Because even if Rahul Gandhi had not spoken in the parliament debate, core of Swami's arguments in this article will still be valid. That opening up India will empower India.
If Rahul Gandhi or any one else begins to accepts this broader vision of India, all of us, all of India, would benefit.
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