Date: 4/4/2004
IN THE FOLLOWING WRITE-UP BY A MUSLIM JOURNALIST FROM THE PROVOCATIVE, FILTHY, SAVAGE AND REBELLIOUS ISLAMIC REPUBLIC OF PAKISTAN, WE SEE THE SAME RELATIVE (RELATIVE) DIFFERENCE REFLECTED IN THE PROGRESS BETWEEN INDIA AND AFGHANISTAN OF 1940.
...........THEN WHAT HAPPENED TO BOTH?
NOW INSTEAD OF ADMIRING THE INDIAN PROGRESS AND PROSPERITY, PAUSE AND THINK FOR A MOMENT: THE ENEMY THAT DESTROYED THE PROSPERITY OF LAHORE AND RAWALPINDI IN 19I47 IS NOW TEN TIMES MORE LETHAL AND EFFECTIVE IN TODAY'S BROKEN BHARAT. IT IS ALSO MORE HUNGRIER, POORER, AND AUDACIOUS.
FULL SCALE DESTRUCTION OF INDIA CAN RESULT FROM THE WAR OVER KASHMIR. FULL SCALE DESTRUCTION CAN RESULT FROM THE GROWING SEPARATIST MUSLIM FIFTH COLUMN IN INDIA. ONE DAY THEY WILL ALL LIKE TO GO FOR THE HINDU'S CAR, HOUSE, TELEVISION, WIFE AND DAUGHTERS.
THEN WHAT, IF SUPREME COMMANDER ABDUL KALAM ASKS HIS ARMED FORCES TO STAND BY LIKE BOFORS CHORS' ARMY IN NOVEMBER 1984 WHEN THE SIKHS WERE BEING MASSACRED ALL OVER?
IF THE HINDUS WISH SO SURVIVE, THEY WILL HAVE TO DO ONE THING AT FIRST, ALL TO UNITE AND SHOUT,
........."ABDUL KALAM AND SONIA KHAN, QUIT INDIA!"
IF AT THE VERY THOUGHT THE TROUSERS OF HINDU LEADERS HAVE BECOME WET, THEN THIS APPARENT PROSPERITY IS WAITING FOR THE INVADERS AGAIN: THE MUSLIMS FROM WITHIN, AND FROM BANGLADESH AND PAKISTAN.
INDIAN PROSPERITY, INDIAN DISUNITY, INDIAN WEALTH AND INDIAN WOMEN WILL PROVE TOO MUCH FOR THEM TO RESIST THE CALL OF "JEHAD".
JUST RECALL THE MANNER OF HINDUS FLEEING IN ALL DIRECTIONS IN 1947. NEITHER THE HINDUS NOR THE MUSLIMS OF THE SUB CONTINENT HAVE CHANGED THE LEAST.
DEAR PROSPEROUS HINDUS, LOOK AT SOUTH KASHMIR. AND SHOW UP IN AYODHYA. THE PRICE OF LIVING IN PEACE IS TOO MUCH CONCESSIONS AND SURRENDERS TO THE MOHAMEDAN BANDITS AND CONGRESS RASCALS AND THE BOFORS CHORS.
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WRITE UP by Masood Hasan. (The writer is a Lahore-based columnist and a well-known journalist)
The sight of Indian actress Urmilla on the rooftops of the old city of Lahore is a sight for sore eyes at any time of the day.
(THAT IS THE FIRST THING THAT CAUGHT HIS EYE! GUARD YOUR FEMALES!)
This week another 270 delegates from India among which are Naseeruddin Shah and Shabana Azmi, are expected to cross over into Pakistan.
As both countries take a series of steps, gingerly to start with, there is just that little light at the end of the dark and endless tunnel that has held us "prisoners of our own device" - as The Eagles put it in the famous number Hotel California. Will these measures lead to peace is a question for which even Tauqir Zia has no answers.
All we can do is hope, pray and contribute in whatever way we can to normalise relations and bury the many hatchets that we have brandished for the last half-century.
Travelling last week on the Wazirabad-Sambrial road towards Sialkot, the potholes and bumps on that narrow ribbon strip road began to revive memories of long forgotten journeys made on that same road. I could have, after a few violent and rib-shaking miles, sworn these holes and craters were the same when one was in Kindergarten.
Nothing seemed to have changed except that the dust was thicker, the pollution dismal and the people in numbers too large to comprehend.
Perhaps in most of India the situation is not very much different and our much-touted smirking observations that India has huge problems might have given us years of self-induced smugness, but things across the divide are changing at a speed that baffles the mind.
Some years ago, an Indian said to a Pakistani, "It is true we are both in the gutter. The difference is, we are looking at the stars. You are looking at the gutter."
Many of us associate India's new progress with its IT revolution and it is partly true. Indian companies like Moser-Baer located in an equally unknown Noida are now the world's third largest optical media manufacturer and the lowest-cost producer of CD-Recorders. Exports? Only Rs 1,000 crore - Indian rupees I might add. This firm sells data-storage products to seven of the world's top 10 CD-R producers.
There is another unknown. Tandon Electronics. Its hardware exports are Rs 4,000 crore. There is more depressing data, all of it quite true and impartial. 15 of the world's major automobile makers are obtaining components from Indian companies.
This business fetched India $375 million last year and in 2003 the number will be $1.5 billion. In half a decade, they will reach $15 billion.
Hero Honda with 17 lakh motorcycles a year is now the largest motorcycle manufacturer in the world.
The prestigious UK automaker, Rover is marketing 1 lakh Indica cars made by Tata in Europe, under, wait a minute, its own name.
Bharat Forge has the world's largest single-location forging facility. It produces 1.2 lakh tonnes per annum and its clients include Honda, Toyota and Volvo among others.
Asian Paints now owns 22 production facilities over 5 continents and is the market leader in 11 of these countries.
Hindustan Inks has the world's largest single stream fully integrated ink plant of 1-lakh tones per annum capacity and 100% owned subsidiaries in USA and Austria.
EsselPropack is the world's largest laminated tube manufacturer with presence in 11 countries and a global marketing share of 25% already.
Ford has just presented its Gold World Excellence Award to India's Cooper Tyres. Other industries are winning equally prestigious awards all the time.
While on cars, Aston Martin has contracted prototyping its latest luxury sports car to an Indian-based designer and is set to produce the cheapest Aston Martin ever.
Suzuki, which makes Maruti in India has decided to make India its manufacturing, export and research hub outside Japan.
Hyundai India is set to become the global small car hub for the Korean giant and will produce 25,000 Santros to start with. By 2010 it is set to supply half a million cars to Hyundai Korea, HMI and Ford.
India are leaping ahead, posting astonishing results in the global markets from Brazil to China.
The Indian pharmaceutical industry is blazing ahead too. At $6.5 billion and growing at 8-10% annually, it is the 4th largest pharmaceutical industry in the world. Its exports are over $2 billion. India is among the top five bulk drug makers and at home, the local industry has edged out the MNCs whose share of 75% in the market is down to 35%. Trade of medicinal plants has crossed Rs 4,000 crore already.
As for technology, India is among the three countries that have built supercomputers on their own. The other two are USA and Japan.
Not a bad club to be in, is it?
India is among six countries that launch satellites and do so even for Germany and Belgium. India's INSAT is among the world's largest domestic satellite communication systems.
India is one of the world's largest diamond cutting and polishing centres. About 9 out of 10 stones sold anywhere in the world, pass through India.
With China, India's arch enemy, trade has grown by 104% in the past year and in the first 5 months of 2003, India has amassed a surplus in trade close to half a million dollars.
In the recession-hit West, Indian exports are up by 19% this year and the country's foreign exchange reserves stand at an all-time high of $82 (Now over 100) billion. India is dishing out aid to 11 countries, pre-paying their debt and loaned IMF $300 million!!
And since we think banning fashion shows is the way ahead, it might be interesting to know that Wal-Mart sources $1 billion worth of goods from India - half its apparel, GAP about $600 million and Hilfiger $100 million.
These success stories are not propaganda and haven't happened overnight or by good fortune.
The Indians have the same bureaucracy and many of the politicians simply play politics, the infrastructure creaks and poverty abounds, corruption flourishes and there are huge pockets of inefficiency and walls that block meaningful progress.
Sure, it has an army that is not bursting with power-grabbing and subjugating its people every few years, but India's success can no longer be denied and the gap between us and them grows wider by, if I may use my childhood idiom, leaps and bounds.
What makes them tick? The answers are not simple and require great space and analysis by minds far superior to that of a weekly hack, but Cost and Brains are two factors.
Add to that, a determination to rise above what faces you everyday, a vision of the stars as the man said.
India provides IT services at one-tenth the price. No wonder more and more companies are basing their operations in India.
An Indian MBA costs $5,000. An American MBA $120,000.
Development of an automobile in the US costs $1 billion. In India, less than half.
A cataract operation costs $1500 in the US. In India, $12.
Bypass in the US anywhere up to Rs 6 lakhs. In India, it is Rs 40,000.
Over 70 MNCs have set up R&D facilities in India in the past five years.
100 of the Fortune 500 are now present in India vs 33 in China.
Intel's Indian staff strength has gone up from 10 to 1,000 in four years.
GE with a $60 million invested in India employs 1,600 researchers, while it has only 100 in China.
With better systems comes efficiency.
The turnaround time in Indian ports is down to 4 days from 10.
Its telecom infrastructure in 1999 provided a bandwidth of 155 Mbps. Today, it is 75,000 times more and with fibre optic networks in 300 cities, it will change the face of business.
Mobile phones are growing by about 1.5 million a month.
Long distance rates are down by two-thirds in five years and by 80% for data transmission.
The facts go on and on.
So what are the answers?
They lie in the way we look at things, our discourse, our vision, our ability to look ahead and our desire to genuinely put our country on the right road.
The people of the subcontinent are naturally talented and bright.
And now they win the one day cricket series after 14 years. The End.
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O HINDU, UNDER YOUR PALACE WE SEE THE SAND MOVING AND SHIFTING.
O HINDU, MAY YOU BECOME RICHER AND WEALTHIER. IN THE END IT WILL ALL BE OURS LIKE NORTH KASHMIR.
AND MAY YOUR DAUGHTERS WIN MORE MISS WORLD PRIZES. THAT WILL MOVE OUR WARRIORS AS IN THE PAST CENTURIES WHO BRAVED WEATHER AND HOSTILE TERRAIN TO GET TO THEM FROM KABUL, GHAZNI AND KANDAHAR.
OUR WARRIORS CAME RIDING DONKEYS, HORSES AND CAMELS AND FOUND THE TEMPLES, SHOPS, WAREHOUSES AND HOMES AN EASY PICKING.
THAT YOU HAVE NOT LEARNT A SINGLE LESSON FROM THE PAST IS GIFT OF GOD AND THE PROMISE OF FUTURE FOR US.
....WHICH BUTCHER BEMOANS THE FARMER FATTENING HIS SHEEP?
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