WASHINGTON: A harsh and dismal account of India communal and social tensions by a Washington Post journalist, who has just finished his tenure in Delhi, raised the hackles of several Indian officials and businessmen and marred what was otherwise ‘an engaging and positive dialogue on the first day of the conference last week on ‘Big Emerging Markets’ organized by the US Department of Commerce.
John Ward Anderson, who along with wife Molly Moore till recently constituted the Post’s south Asia bureau, injected a sour note into the proceedings with remarks Indian officials said were “based on a poor understanding of a country he claims to have reported rom for three years.”
Ina brief speech he delivered to the US and American businessmen, Anderson painted a bleak picture of India, focusing on communal riots and social tensions’ and saying the country’s 130 million Muslims were an oppressed minority, as were Indian women. Most of his comments were in negative vein and presented India as a basket case, though he wound up by saying Indian’s were a persevering people and he thought they would succeed, Officials and businessmen at the meeting acknowledged that there was a modicum of truth in what Anderson said but agreed he was needlessly negative and presented an exaggerated account.
“It was plain rubbish…Of course; we have problems in our country… Which country does not? But I think we have more minorities and women occupying high places than most countries, the Commerce Secretary Tejinder Khanna, who was presiding over the meeting, said later.
“It was disgusting…and simply not the place or occasion for such vituperative talk,” Mrs. Kiran Pasricha, representative of the Confederation of Indian Injustices in Washington said.
Anderson’s remarks were pointedly rebutted at the meeting by Shabbir Rangwala, a Bombay entrepreneur with the Admiral Shipping Company, who said he was Muslim and doing fine in India. Anderson defended his remarks after, saying he was clear about taking what he believed upfront and grappling with problems and not contributing to any self-delusion, “We have had the finest three years of our lives in India…but I am not going to sugarcoat anything,” he said.
Article extracted from this publication >> August 4, 1995
