(Fwd) Banning Foreign Scholars in India.

[Gail Coelho]

At 01:23 PM 9/11/99 -0700, you wrote:
>
>Readers must note that Justice A. G. Noorani was arrested by the government
>of India more than 2 decades ago for suspected espionage for Pakistan. Of
>course this fact is well know to all Indians, except his blind followers
>like Comrade N. Ram who is the editor of newspaper 'The Hindu' and also the
>Frontline magazine
>

What is well known to Indians? That Noorani *was* a spy or was *suspected*
of spying? I'm glad to say that not everyone in India blindly accepts the
government's accusations of spying -- because (a) suspicion is not the same
as proof and (b) you'd have to be naive to believe that such accusations
are always politically unmotivated ones. So it really does not tell us
anything about Noorani -- either for or against him -- to say that he was
arrested on suspicions of espionage.

Also can we keep such irrelevant personal details out of it and get down to
discussing the issue of preventing foreign scholars from working in India?
Does Indian academia suffer because of it, and what can we Indians do?

Gail Coelho