This pilgerisation of India didn't mention caste. So is Pilger in favour of caste?

The caste system used to mean rule over India by Brahmins and visiting Englishmen (Viceroys and officials) with strong opinions as to how India should be run.

Is Pilger the next in the Vice-Regal line?

'An investigating commission heard that Modi had ordered officials not to stop the rioters – which he denies. Admired by powerful industrialists, he boasts the highest "growth" in India'.

Pilger neglects to mention that the investigating body, established by the High Court, cleared Modi of any complicity in the riots, while criticising him for not acting quickly enough to quell them. Modi, who was only a few months into his first term as Chief Minister, has consistently said that he did everything in his power to halt the rioting. It is true, as Pilger says, that in subsequent years Gujarat has become a model of economic development and job creation.

Yes, India has some shocking economic and social data, and is a long way from catching up with China. But every key measure of human welfare has improved dramatically since the “neo-liberal” economic reforms that Pilger so bemoans. Since the early 1990s:

- The poverty rate has fallen from nearly 50% to 22%
- Economic growth per capita has picked up from about 2%pa to about 5%pa
- Life expectancy has risen from 60 to 66
- Infant mortality rates have halved

http://data.worldbank.org/country/india#cp_wdi

The spectre that haunts India is a return to the socialist policies of the past that resulted in widespread impoverishment, even starvation. India has a long way to go, but it is heading in the right direction.

And, anti-capitalism sure throws up some strange bedfellows. Vandana Shiva is an anti-technology, anti-development ideologue who opposed the distribution of food aid to starving Indians because it included GM maize (the same maize regularly consumed by Americans and Canadians). She also opposes golden rice as a means to address vitamin A deficiency. I remember when the left used to pride itself on being progressive.

Dear Mr. Pilger,

There is always something in your articles that allows us to see you for what you really are.

You say << In 2010, David Cameron took the heads of the major British arms companies to Delhi and signed a $700 million contract to supply Hawk fighter-bombers. Disguised as "trainers", these lethal aircraft were used against the villages of East Timor >>.

India did purchase 37 Hawker Trainers however, this was much earlier than 2010, they already had 12 of 37 in operation by 2010.

The Hawker Hunter, in service in 1950 as the first jet, sub sonic, is widely used by many nations as a trainer. In fact I can’t think of any other use for these.

Let me ask you this question. If you have a very modern Air Force with a total compliment of 1,370 modern aircraft including 785 fully operational advanced fighter aircraft. Comprising Sukhoi SU 30, Mikoyan MIG 29, Dassault Mirage 2000, MIG 21 Interceptors, Mikoyan MIG 27, Why on earth would you try to reconfigure/disguise a 1950’s vintage jet to attack anyone.?

How on earth you can “disguise” an aircraft is beyond me. If you fly without an authenticated “Squawk Code” you will be shot down by everyone.

"Disguise"? what an idiot.

Sometimes John, I really worry about you.

Yes spindoc,
India is also buying 200 new fifth generation PAK-FA fighters from Russia, Mr Pilger seems to have this weird obsession with the Hawk trainer being some sort of "secret weapon" to be used on civilians in contrast to it's stated purpose. We all know by now where this "dual purpose" technology meme comes from and it's always used as a sort of cymbal crash- smoking gun when Marxists want to accuse people they don't like of oppressing a group they do profes to like. "They bought training jets which COULD be fitted with cannon and rocket pods!"

Pilger is a master of spewing what little he knows.