Open Letter and Rebuttal to Mr Andre

In the December 2012 edition of Counter Punch, a political newsletter of USA, an article on the apathy of India written by Mr Andre Vltchek was published. Read it here..

This is an open letter and rebuttal to Mr Andre, seeking his lopsided ideological views..

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Dear Mr Andre,

One is really sorry to hear and sympathizes with the narration of your horrible times in India. We are sure that the actual agony and pain must have been much more than what you could pen down. In fact, we were surprised that you forgot to mention that you didn't find toilet papers in your hotel room and that Indians prefer to use the appendages at the end of the human arm to clean there manure. Well, nothing much can be done about it, as it is an inheritance. Please don't think that we want to justify our sanitary habits or want to contest your acrimonious and arrogant style of writing sarcasms, which seems to be your only style of writing (a quick search on the internet makes it obvious). In India we are very open to accepting such unidirectional self opinioned comments from people born with a silver spoon. Frankly, as one can see, you don't understand the meaning of a developing nation and associated aspects. 

India, as you have correctly pointed, hypocritically safeguards the country. The contrast of the inconveniences at the airports, metros and hotels viz-a-viz the reactions during riots, slums and elections have been drawn with an excellent articulation. But there is some things which you conveniently chose to forget - the omnipresent threat of an eccentrica and unstable neighbor. We are sure, you won’t understand it much because your shallow research of facts, negativity, distress of being checked frequently and not being allowed to film VVIP locations, which restricted your logical thinking.

After reading your article one gets a sense that you have spend a lot of time in India and other countries also, for which you must have definitely checked-in a numerous times at US airports (where you live). Here are some horror stories which, probably you did not notice or were too busy in your cocooned thoughts.

Embarrassing measures of U.S. airport security check..Read here..   And this.. 

A Mother’s nightmare at US airport….Read here..

We are sure; no one would have done this to you at the wooden box, which you mentioned, because we have our own balls to protect ourselves.

 

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Picking selective, advantageous and targeted excerpts from research papers do not justify the arguments of custodial deaths or Kashmir. We don’t think you have been to Kashmir, otherwise you would have mentioned that in your article to display the gallant. In fact, instead of investigating some hard facts of terrorism and the prosperity that Kashmir is making today, you were busy malingering the horrible state of Human Rights violations. One has only heard the abhorrent stories of pissing on prisoners by US soldiers and the numerous muslims, pushtoons and turbaned Indians who disappeared from New York after 9/11. But you see Mr Andre, we didn’t go on with publishing biased, ignorant, disillusioned and cynical point of views.

As Indians, we believe to be pro-active rather than reactive, which in most cases people are. We are sorry that you had to fill a form, surrender a repugnant photograph of yours and may be wait for few hours before making a call. Such measures have been adopted after analyzing the fact that most of the Improvised Explosive Devices are triggered using a mobile phones. Logical reasoning and preventive measures seems to be missing in your biggety dictionary. Condoms must be also not making any sense to you, or do they? Old proverb, just as a tip – “Prevention is better than cure”.

Ahhh.. you have point, why should we have the statues and paintings in museum of those British murderers, who used to rule and plunder us. Sad, very sad indeed. If not much of a trouble, can we request you to please look at the meaning of some simple words known as – History, Museum and Posterity.

History -  A usually chronological record of events, as of the life or development of a people or institution, often including an explanation of or commentary on those events.

Museum - A building, place, or institution devoted to the acquisition, conservation, study, exhibition, and educational interpretation of objects having scientific, historical, or artistic value.

Posterity - all future generations of people.

We think that you went to a wrong place which people call a museum. You should have tried our Zoo’s or Circus, apt for a man of your taste. And believe me, you would have got some nice pictures to cherish.

Comparing two economic segments of a society is not an analysis, rather it is called dramatization, an attribute which will help you make better documentaries and write satires, but are of no use when it comes to understanding the dynamics and mechanics of the largest, and also a successful democracy.

In the end, the kind hearted but no-nonsense tolerant people of this country, will request you Not, repeat Not make any more visits and undergo a self-perceived and exaggerated suffering. And if you still chose to visit this country of diversity, culture, ethics, economic accomplishments and etiquettes, kindly contact us for therapy to correct your paranoid and cynically short sighted vision and outlook in life. People like you in developed countries have the largest cache of obtuse, ill-advised and baseless opinions, but fortunately we don’t need one.

PS : Please try using a lot of ‘We’ instead of ‘I’ while writing. It will help you become a better man…