Letters to the editor

People like us• LET me say this very unpopular, un-Indian thing about the Shilpa Shetty controversy: British NRIs — I am one of th...

People like us

• LET me say this very unpopular, un-Indian thing about the Shilpa Shetty controversy: British NRIs — I am one of them — fighting for the supposedly injured dignity of a Bollywood actress is a bit hard to stomach. Let me also say to the British TV show’s producers, you wanted publicity and you got it, in two countries. Let me ask all rich NRIs how they react to prejudice issues that affect less prosperous emigrants from their home country. Workers, servants, construction workers, cabbies — these people come to Britain, slog and send money to families back home. They face real prejudice — which rich NRI has stood up for them? And in India, our homeland, there are plenty of racists; most prefer their daughters to be fair, and blacks are not made to feel as welcome as whites. And Indians dislike all kinds of fellow Indians. India is a land of a million hypocrisies.

— Rekha Ram Kadekodi , London

• OUR I&B minister has saved the country’s honour. He has taken up the cudgels on behalf of Shetty and a billion Indians. The Brits must be quaking in their boots. So I completely disagree with your editorial (‘Race to bottom’, IE January 18). We need to take the issue very seriously and once we have done so, we can get back to making fun of communities/groups we don’t belong to. We can laugh at Bong/Mallu/Panju accents, depending on which community we come from. We will do this on screen, too, not just on the streets. And naturally we won’t be showing any prejudice when we do that. And of course we will continue to buy fairness creams by the truckload. Our daughters must be fair before we marry them off. And, yes, some of them will be tortured or killed because of their inability to bring enough dowry. Nothing can be done about that. So thank you, Priyaranjan Das Munshi, for standing up for India’s reputation for fairness.

— R.P. Subramanian , Delhi

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• I AM a Canadian NRI. In Canada, racism is very low-key but still many of us have faced racist comments in our daily lives. So I sympathise with Shetty. My suggestion is not to get discouraged but to find right-thinking Western people — there are many — and oppose racist elements together.

— Karamjit Singh, Toronto

• I WISH the media would simply let go of the Shetty issue. Let us remember the biggest philosophical heritage of India — forgive and forget. Protests have been made. That’s enough. Time to get on with life. The same advice holds for Shetty.

— M. Kumar, New Delhi

Power intoxicates

• POLITICIANS in Goa seem to be intoxicated by the Goa Regional Plan 2011; they can’t give it up. Some bureaucrats in contrast are sticking to more usual addictions. A senior officer in charge of inspecting industrial units and a member of the pollution control board was recently questioned by vigilance sleuths, who were acting on complaints that the bureaucrat discharged his duty in high spirits. The analysis of his blood sample, taken after he was picked up from his office, showed presence of alcoholic substances.

— Aires Rodrigues; Ribandar, Goa

Bhavish Aggarwal (Photo via his Twitter page)

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