Worlds apart

Sir — Ashok Mitra has rightly observed that our collective hysteria over India winning only three medals in the Beijing Olympics is nothing but a sign of immaturity (“A sense of proportion”, Sept 29). At the same time, Mitra has been biased in his praise for China. Despite China’s achievements, both in hosting the Olympics and in winning the highest number of gold medals in the Games, Mitra should have been more cautious in his praise. Staging the Olympics is a mammoth task and its successful execution deserves plaudits, but it was not China alone that ran the show with aplomb. A smaller country like South Korea had staged the Olympics successfully in 1988. Also, the Chinese government’s despicable practice of silencing all opposition inside the country prior to the games has surely taken a bit of the shine off its success.

Mitra has been impressed by the technological feats China achieved during the Games: the solar power supply to the entire Beijing Olympics site or the spectacular opening and closing ceremonies. But Mitra seems to have forgotten that China had a contract with the American company, Westinghouse, which constructed high-power reactors. The French company, Areva, also supplied atomic reactors to China. The Swiss architects, Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron, designed China’s Beijing Olympics stadium known as ‘Bird’s nest’. China’s technological marvels that impressed Mitra so much were thus achieved through international cooperation. Mitra also writes that “China has made giant economic strides in the course of the past half-a-century century”. This may well be true but why doesn’t Mitra compliment non-communist nations such as South Korea and Taiwan that have better GDPs than China? Furthermore, Mitra says that “Ruling politicians caught in corruption are summarily shot in China; in India they receive promotions”. Does he then endorse a practice that can never be permitted in a democracy such as ours? Perhaps Mitra should urge his brethren in Bengal, Kerala and Tripura to emulate the Chinese in this regard. It will certainly help us rid ourselves of the Left parties that seem to be full of corrupt elements in their rank and file.

Mitra is worried that India’s growth rate is based on outsourcing of business to unstable capitalist economies like the United States of America. But China’s prosperity, he argues, has a strong domestic base because of its earnings through a firm hold in export business. How could a learned economist like him ignore the fact that almost all the export oriented companies of China are owned by the Americans who have established factories there because of cheap labour? The day these American companies move out of China looking for even cheaper labour elsewhere, the Chinese economy shall fall like a house of cards.

Yours faithfully,
Asoke Banerjee, Calcutta

Sir — There is indeed something called the Confucian work ethics innate to the Chinese people, which enables them to work tirelessly regardless of the political turmoil in their own land. Singapore — which has turned into an international city because of the resident Chinese — is another perfect example of the diligence of the Chinese population. Singapore also has a sizeable number of Indians but their contribution to the development of the city-state is nothing to write about. Unfortunately, Indians, all over the world, seem to prefer words to action.

Yours faithfully,
Saroj Kumar Mehera,Calcutta

Sir — Comrade Ashok Mitra should be told that in spite of the fact that China shoots its corrupt politicians while India promotes the ones here, Transparency International surveys reveal that both India and China are located in the upper half of the list of most corrupt countries.

Yours faithfully,
Subhas Banerjee, Calcutta

Sir — India’s utter failure in comparison to China in all aspects of nation-building has been laid bare brilliantly by Ashok Mitra in his article. China’s central leadership can take business decisions without wasting time or compromising on quality, but India can do neither.

In spite of being the largest democracy in the world, India, unfortunately, has failed to resolve some of the most critical problems that continue to threaten to destabilize the country: burgeoning population that binds the nation to eternal poverty, a self-serving political class that is only concerned with petty gains, a perverted police system and a judiciary that functions at an incredibly slow pace. Illiteracy, lack of health services, communal riots are some of the other problems that Indians live with day in and day out. Mitra’s comparison of India to its northern neighbour only shows that these two ancient civilizations are now worlds apart.

Yours faithfully,
Asit Kumar Mitra, Calcutta