By Dr. Shabir Choudhry

London, Jan 5 (ANI): In response to my article ”Why Jews are powerful and Muslims are powerless” I got a lot of response. Many appreciated it but some, once again, called me a ”Yahoodi agent” – agent of Jews, just because I have highlighted some of the contribution made by Jews to science and learning. Some said Jews are killing innocent Palestinians and you are praising them.

First of all I wrote that piece before the present crises started in Gaza. What Israel is doing in Palestine is condemned by people through out world and I also condemn it. But does it mean no one should talk of achievements of Jews just because Zionist government is killing innocent people? In any case a lot of contribution of Jews was made before the establishment of the Jewish State, and without its patronage.

As for blame game is concerned it is part of political culture of Pakistan and Kashmir to call those people ”agent” with whom there is political or ideological difference or personal goal to settle. Agencies of both India and Pakistan have been successful in creating this social and political environment where they no longer have to point fingers at anyone, as people are too eager to do it themselves. I got this ”title” of being ”agent of Jews” in 1999 when I wrote ”Pakistan should recognise Israel”.

Since that I have been ”awarded” with such more ”titles” for my political and literary work, but I have not given – in to this harassment, intimidation and blackmailing; and continued with my jihad of speaking truth and providing knowledge which I think is based on facts, and by promoting culture of tolerance, moderation and accountability.

Pakistan is one day older than India and is gifted with enormous natural resources and strategically very important geography. Apart from that Pakistan was the biggest Muslim country with close relationship with the Muslim world, which added to Pakistan”s potential to enhance its influence and power.

Today what we witness is (which is acknowledged by some Pakistani writers and politicians) that Pakistan stands alone in comity of nations; and majority of the countries, including Muslim countries stand with India; and take pride in having relations with India. Economically, politically, democratically, militarily and financially both countries are miles apart, emotionalism aside there is no comparison between them; both countries had to travel a long journey to reach this stage.

Victory always has more than one claimant, and no one likes to share blame in failure; and as Pakistan”s failures is too obvious in many fields I would not like to point them out as it could upset my Pakistani brothers, hence more allegations against me. Fact however remains that Pakistan cannot even provide sufficient food for its people, even though its economy is agrarian. Apart from that there is severe shortage of power, clean water and many other vital things. However there is no shortage of suicide bombers, bomb blasts, internal fighting, extremism, undemocratic decisions and American attacks. All these are recipe for disaster for any country and any society.

India”s success is mainly due to its democratic system. Despite corruption and other contradictions and problems in the society, the democracy and investment in education, science and technology has helped India to advance; and play an important role in world politics. Let us look at some achievements made by Indians.

Richest man in the world is an Indian, Mukesh Ambani who was born in April 1957. He completed his graduation in Chemical engineering, and studied for MBA at Stanford University, and joined Relinace Industries in 1981. He is a Chairman and Managing Director of Reliance Industries and resides in Mumbai. He is the richest man in the world with total value of 63.2 billion dollars not because he is Hindu or an Indian, but because he is an entrepreneur who has worked hard for his position.

The fifth richest man is also an Indian, Lakshmi Mittal with total value of $50.9 billion. He was born on 15th of June 1950 in Rajasthan. He heads the multi national steel company Mittal Steel, which is one of the largest steel companies in the world, with steel making facilities in fourteen countries with 150,000 employees.

General Manager of Hewlett Packard is an Indian, Rajiv Gupta; creator of Pentium chip (90 percent of the today”s computers run on it) is also an Indian, Vinod Dahm. Creator of world”s No1 web based email program – hotmail is also an Indian – Sabeer Bhatia. The president of AT & T-Bell Labs – creator of programmes like C, C++, Unix etc is an India, Arun Netravalli. Microsoft Testing Director of Windows 2000 and responsible for all initial problems is an Indian, Sanjay Tejwrika.

There are 3.22 million Indians in USA – 1.5 percent of population, yet:

38 percent of doctors in USA are Indians;
12 percent scientists in USA are Indians;
36 percent of NASA scientists are Indians;
34 percent of Microsoft employees are Indians;
28 percent of IBM employees are Indians;
17 percent of INTEL scientists are Indians;
13 percent of XEROX employees are Indians.

Indians constitute ten percent of all medical students in America.

Indians own nearly 40 percent of all the small and mid-size hotels in the country.

Four out of 10 Silicon Valley startups are run by Indians.

Indians are the richest immigrant class in the US, with nearly 200,000 millionaires.

Between 1990 and 2000, the population of Indian scientists and engineers (S and E) in Silicon Valley grew by 646%.

Apart from that India consumes a fifth of the world”s gold output. India is the largest producer and consumer of tea in the world, accounting for more than 30 percent of global production and 25 percent of consumption. India is the world”s premier centre for diamond cutting and polishing. Nine out of every 10 stones sold in the world pass through India. India”s Hero Honda is the world”s largest motorcycle manufacturer, with 2002 production of 1.7m units. India has the second-largest pool of scientists and engineers in the world. India has the third-largest investor base in the world.