Mr. Francois Gautier, being a foreigner, is unable tounderstand India. Indians are very different from people like Israelis and Palestines. When Yasser Arafat died, the Isreali President refused to make condolence and blurt out some words to the effect that his death was good for Israel. Something similar happened from the palestine side when a well known Israeli leader died. But Indians are not like that. Indians may not like Benazir Bhutto very much. Had she won the elections and become the PM, a lot of would have written such bad things about her. But we don't insult dead people. Not just in India, even in Gautier's own Europe, usually, people condole the death of even political opponents. And after all it is the country where we love even our enemies.
RE:To understand India
by ryan on Jan 02, 2008 03:11 PM Permalink
You being a politically correct pseudo secularist are unable to understand what is written by Mr. Gautier. Francois Gautier has been writing about India for many years, and understands India better than a lot of Indians (like you) do.
It seems you didn't read the whole article, so please do instead of having preconceived bias. Let me spell it out for you... this is what he says right at the start
"It is sad that a mother of three children was so brutally killed and we all mourn her terrible death"
So he is sad about her death too, and we all are, as we would be about anybody's death. NOWHERE in the whole article has he insulted her or disrespected her. Please show me which statements you found insulting. All he says is that we must not forget her deeds, and her henious crimes against India. Let us not turn her into a hero or portray her as a champion of democracy.. for clearly she wasn't! Mourn her death, but also let the truth be told!
RE:To understand India
by Demo-crazy on Jan 02, 2008 03:34 PM Permalink
Well said! If Benazir was a real democrat she would NOT have nominated her husband as her heir to lead PPP.
Now the mantle is passed onto a Bilawal Zardari - but he is called Bilawal Bhutto, like in our own India, we get to see a false family legacy gets passed on to fool people.
One needs to be objective, especially with matters pertaining to leadership of Nations. So being kind at a personal level is OK, but one requires brutal honesty to say the facts. They should not be washed away in the wave of sympathy.
RE:To understand India
by neerja tewari on Jan 03, 2008 01:52 PM Permalink
i feel that it is very important to read both aspects and then decide. We have been inundated with karan thapars fond memories of ms bhutto and her wit and repartee but frankly after reading gautiers article, i tend towards his views. but then she had said that this time she would hand over the terrorists to india whether it was her political compulsion or not, whether she would be pro or anti india inher third term is but a matter of conjecture let us not get carried away folks by the media hype and call a spade a spade for as of today it is her past that shall judge her. let history decide
RE:To understand India
by sudip majumder on Jan 05, 2008 04:41 AM Permalink
It is rather implicit that you have not read any of Francis' article. If you do you would have known that he might know a little bit more about India than you. I am sorry to say that you are short of understanding his article and decided to give your own spin however lousy that might be. Anyway democracy expects respect for individual and so do I to your posting however moronic that might be
RE:To understand India
by Jojy Joseph on Jan 06, 2008 06:54 PM Permalink
"Anyway democracy expects respect for individual". We have seen the murder of this respect in Gujarat verdict from people calling Modi an ugly Indian to wishing his sudden removal.
RE:To understand India
by sujith on Jan 07, 2008 09:23 AM Permalink
Was burning 58 innocent men , women, children in godra train and justifying their death because they were hindus by media "respect for individual". So don't make baseless claim. Modi is only target of false inneduous of psudo secularists policy "kill hindus its secularism, kill muslim its not secularism. Bah !
RE:To understand India
by Indian Indian on Jan 02, 2008 10:41 PM Permalink
I totally agree with ryan that Mr. Francois Gautier understands India FAR BETTER than most of the Indians. The majority of Indians are still ignorant and from the lower strata of society and are gullible. They are the ones who are fooled by most political parties. And, a majority of media are sycophantic, especially to parties which expect sycophancy like Congress. Almost the rest of the media is manned by people educated under western principles, and hence they have lost their balance. Mr. Francois Gautier is an extraordinary journalist, who seems to have understood excellently well, in spite of his upbringing in a western country. He is extremely analytical, totally unbiased, does not bother to be "politically correct" when talking truth, and even his own personal beliefs do not come in the way of his professional writings..
