• As Saubhik Chakrabarti points out in ‘Mao TV, MoU TV. And Mahatma’, in recent television appearances discussing Naxalite violence, Arundhati Roy and several other activists have made certain claims about socio-economic issues that are factually incorrect. For example, Roy argues that since Independence the rich have got richer and the poor poorer. This is wrong. The poverty ratio fell from 54.9 per cent in 1973-74 to 26.1 per cent in 1999-2000. These figures are based on official estimates, but several independent researchers, in India and abroad, have confirmed that the poverty ratio has declined significantly in both rural and urban India. Roy might find it interesting that almost the entire decline in the poverty ratio happened in the years since 1980 when India followed relatively market-friendly economic policies.

Why then do Roy and her fellow activists keep making the claim that capitalism, economic growth and globalisation have impoverished the poor? Perhaps because if they admitted the evidence, it would be harder for them to continue advocating an economic philosophy and approach abandoned by China in 1978.

— Sinchan Mitra

Brisbane

Remembering Bhabha

• The birth centenary of the father of India’s atomic energy programme, Homi Jehangir Bhabha fell on October 30. Bhabha was an outstanding scientist, innovator, social reformer, diplomat and organiser, who envisioned a bright future for India. His contribution to India’s success and development is widely acknowledged. Bhabha had a vision to make India a nuclear superpower almost 60 years ago.

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