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From: pankaj@sbcs.UUCP (Pankaj Gupta)
Newsgroups: net.nlang.india
Subject: Re: Re: India and the Media
Message-ID: <177@sbcs.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 14-Mar-85 23:31:14 EST
Article-I.D.: sbcs.177
Posted: Thu Mar 14 23:31:14 1985
Date-Received: Sun, 17-Mar-85 19:34:11 EST
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Organization: Computer Science Dept, SUNY@Stony Brook
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>One Roosevelt wasn't elected because he was related to the other; neither was
>Indira elected because she was Nehru's daughter.  (Remember Kamaraj and the
>"Syndicate"?)  Rajiv clearly benefited from the "sympathy vote" after
>Indira's assasination.  Whether he would have won without the "sympathy vote"
>is an academic question.

I do not know much about the Kamraj era, but anyone who knows about the
Sanjay days and the Rajiv days knows that the ONLY reason why Sanjay
and Rajiv were able to rise prominently was the fact that they were
the sons of the Mrs. G.  In fact if you look in the newspapers in the
post Sanjay days, you can find reports of Rajiv saying that he does
not want to enter politics, and find reports of the various sycophants
of Mrs. G. demanding that Rajiv enter politics.  The problem of Indian
politics is that every politician professes that his only aim in life
is to serve the masses, whereas what really goes on behind is a same old
story of corruption and exploitation.  What is even more bothering is
the fact that the politicians get away with it.  (Disclaimer - I am not
comparing Indian politics with any other system).

Having visited India a couple of months ago, I got (another) dose of
Doordarshan and Aakashwani.  I sure hope that you guys, who were
debating about the US media, had had a similar experience, and the
argument would have been closed.  The govt. controlled media there is
totally biased and orchestrated towards singing the praises of Rajiv & Co.
The US media is much more objective by any comparison.

Pankaj Gupta
SUNY @ StonyBrook