I really think you enjoy this and are intentionally missing the point. But lets carry on if this is the path you want to go..
First, lets look at what Dalrymple said in his final paragraph...
Sixty years after its birth, India faces a number of serious problems -not least the growing gap between rich and poor, the criminalisation of politics, and the flourishing Maoist and Naxalite groups that have recently proliferated in the east of the country. But Pakistan's problems are on a different scale; indeed, the country finds itself at a crossroads. As Jugnu Mohsin, the publisher of the Lahore-based Friday Times, put it recently, "After a period of relative quiet, for the first time in a decade, we are back to the old question: it is not just whether Pakistan, but will Pakistan survive?" On the country's 60th birthday, the answer is by no means clear
And this was in 2007, significantly before the $hit hit the fan in 2008 in Pakistan. As I said before, I dont buy into the whole arguement of failed state anyway, but there is no place in his article that this gentleman says that Pakistan is better off than India.. Actually quite opposite as highlighted above..
And this is the thrust of your thread anyway.. Not to debunk the notion of India - superpower and pakistan - failed state...
About misleading, its fairly visible on who is trying to do that.. But sorry to say, unsuccessfully...
Here is what Dalrymple says:
""On the ground, of course, the reality is different and first-time visitors to Pakistan are almost always surprised by the country's visible prosperity. There is far less poverty on show in Pakistan than in India, fewer beggars, and much less desperation. In many ways the infrastructure of Pakistan is much more advanced: there are better roads and airports, and more reliable electricity. Middle-class Pakistani houses are often bigger and better appointed than their equivalents in India.
Moreover, the Pakistani economy is undergoing a construction and consumer boom similar to India's, with growth rates of 7%, and what is currently the fastest-rising stock market in Asia. You can see the effects everywhere: in new shopping centers and restaurant complexes, in the hoardings for the latest laptops and iPods, in the cranes and building sites, in the endless stores selling mobile phones: in 2003 the country had fewer than three million cellphone users; today there are almost 50 million."
Watch this more recent Intelligence Squared video for more.
But it's clear that your only interest is to want to perpetrate the myth of the western and Indian media...which has no basis in reality. Nothing would convince you otherwise.
I can't change your wishful thinking, just debunk it with incontrovertible data I have provided about India as the home to the largest population of poor, hungry, illiterate people most of home defecate in the open in the 21st century.
It's laughable to even think about an ill-fed and illiterate superpower whose next generation is being condemned to brain damage.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article6837585.ece
http://www.riazhaq.com/2009/09/is-india-nutritional-weakling.html
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