Assertion phase begins
A POLITICAL decision and a policy declaration project Prime Minister Vajpayee in a new light. He is the boss and let everyone know this, he seems to say. His induction of three very close aides in the party into the government and his no-nonsense views on purging politics of religion make for a firm statement that a Prime Minister is much more than a party leader.

Women for sale
HISTORY of sorts was made on Thursday when members cutting across party lines raised in Parliament the issue of auction of women in certain pockets of Andhra Pradesh. Unanimity of views among members even on the most pressing matter is rare — take, for instance, the confusion and the conflicting statements on the status of the Insurance Bill.

ERA OF ECONOMIC POWER
by Chandra Mohan
THE deed is done and long past. Endless speeches and empty promises have turned the entire population of the country into cynics. The power of TV for raising societal aspirations is so great that no one is prepared to wait.

Labour reform: a cautious approach
by S. Sethuraman
THE Vajpayee government, bogged down in ideological divide within the ranks of the Bharatiya Janata Party, intends to go slow with insurance and labour legislation, and the reform of the industrial relations structure.

A true judicial voice takes
the bow
by Anupam Gupta
A GREAT Judge has retired. Supreme Court judge M K Mukherjee retired last week on December 1, a fortnight short of 5 years after he donned the mantle of that high office. A master of the criminal law, his tenure coincided with the most turbulent, activist phase in the country’s judicial history.

No let-up in ‘ethnic cleansing’ of Christians
By Humra Quraishi
I OWE it to the Christian missionaries (nuns of Loretto Convent, Lucknow), that today I can write this “letter” to you all; for if it hadn’t been for the good and affordable educational facilities provided by them my middle-class parents would have had no option but to stuff me in one of those Urdu medium schools. And I am sure this fact holds true for most of the English-speaking Indian middle class.

Long live onions!
by Iqbal Singh Ahuja
NEWSPAPER reading is an art. Almost 90 per cent of the readers scan through the newspapers turning pages and planning to read later. But that time rarely comes. Certain reports compel the scanner to read the news in toto.

75 Years Ago

Indians in Transvaal
IN the great and epoch-making meeting at the Town Hall, Bombay, if there was one feature more remarkable than the rest, it was the striking unanimity and solidarity of all classes and sections of the people.

Assertion phase begins

A POLITICAL decision and a policy declaration project Prime Minister Vajpayee in a new light. He is the boss and let everyone know this, he seems to say. His induction of three very close aides in the party into the government and his no-nonsense views on purging politics of religion make for a firm statement that a Prime Minister is much more than a party leader. A simple, old truism but needed to be asserted at this juncture when men with little voice within the party and little standing with the people have started pushing him in different directions. The choice of the three Cabinet Ministers bears his personal stamp. Mr Jaswant Singh, Mr Pramod Mahajan and Mr Jagmohan are his own men, whom he can trust and work with. They are in the government despite known RSS reservations. Mr Mahajan is a lifelong RSS member but his life style has recently alienated him from the state-level Sangh Parivar in Maharashtra. The other two have no association with the RSS and Mr Jagmohan is a johnny-come-lately in the BJP. His elevation neatly blocks the entry of both Ms Sushma Swaraj and Mr Sahib Singh Verma into the Ministry, notwithstanding the claims they make. There cannot be more than two Cabinet members from Delhi and there are already two, including Mr M.L.Khurana. And Ms Swaraj’s resignation from the Delhi Assembly and remaining an MP is easily explained. The BJP cannot afford to lose one MP at this uncertain time, nor face a byelection in Delhi in the present hostile atmosphere. Newspaper reports claim that the Prime Minister neither consulted his senior party colleagues nor the alliance partners (this job he left to Mr George Fernandes). And the resigned silence of his critics within the BJP is hugely significant and the feeble protests from the allies are non-threatening.

This new-found tough attitude of the Prime Minister has been widely welcomed, to go by Press reports. He is the only top BJP leader who still enjoys a mass following. But people were getting disenchanted with his prolonged inaction. After all, he was projected during the mid-term elections as the “Man nation awaits”. Before Saturday many began to wonder if he was the man the government awaited. He has to take more steps to clear this doubt. And he has to take several more to build on the initial impression. For instance, he should allow his heart to decide on such thorny issues as insurance privatisation. Equally eloquent was his categorical statement that his government (note the term) will not allow any damage to the secular structure of Indian society. Hopefully, the hotheads in the Hindutva brigade would take note of this.

Women for sale

HISTORY of sorts was made on Thursday when members cutting across party lines raised in Parliament the issue of auction of women in certain pockets of Andhra Pradesh. Unanimity of views among members even on the most pressing matter is rare — take, for instance, the confusion and the conflicting statements on the status of the Insurance Bill. However, the issue on which members of the two Houses expressed their collective anguish is indeed one which should make every sensitive Indian hang his head in shame. Both Houses were virtually on “fire” as member after member made liberal use of adjectives to condemn the despicable practice. The last time the male members had closed ranks was on the question of 33 per cent reservation of seats for women in Parliament and the State Assemblies. But the “Andhra episode” helped bridge the gender divide and in the process exposed the collective lack of appreciation of a sensitive issue. Raising the subject through a special mention, as voluble Mr Pranab Mukherjee did in the Rajya Sabha, is not enough to secure for Indian women a place of honour, respect and dignity in the complex social structure. What is equally regrettable is that it took a newspaper report, describing the process of auction of women, to alert the members to the shameful goings-on in certain villages of Andhra Pradesh. Mr Mukherjee sought to hold Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu morally responsible for the “incident”. If it had been an isolated “incident” or had taken roots during Telugu Desam rule the charge against Mr Chandrababu Naidu would have stuck.

If anything, the Congress is more to blame for not putting an end to the custom of auctioning women during the years it was in power in Andhra Pradesh. From the sharp reaction to the report it is evident that the members need to be taken on a conducted tour of India to show them the communities which still earn their living by pushing their women into prostitution. They would find that the tradition of training girls for a career in the flesh trade among certain backward communities in pockets of Himachal Pradesh and the hills of Uttar Pradesh has not been totally stamped out through lukewarm official intervention. In Rajasthan, it is a common practice among certain communities for men to act as pimps for their daughters, sisters and wives. Andhra Pradesh is not the only state where women are either auctioned or sold. A better bargain can, perhaps, be struck in the overflowing markets of northern India. Remember a journalist who bought Kamala for Rs 500 to expose the dirty business of selling women? In Orissa women and girls are sold to fight starvation. Unfortunately, not a single member raised the economic factor which forces communities to introduce a practice which, over a period of time, becomes a sacrosanct “custom”. Give the members of the unfortunate communities education and the power to earn a decent living and they would stop selling or auctioning their women for two square meals.

ERA OF ECONOMIC POWER
Curb consumption, have revenue surpluses
by Chandra Mohan

THE deed is done and long past. Endless speeches and empty promises have turned the entire population of the country into cynics. The power of TV for raising societal aspirations is so great that no one is prepared to wait.

Such being the harsh realties, it is time we put our house in order and acted as live managers. In today’s world, economic strength alone commands respect. The MFN status to China despite the disrespect it has shown to every human value, and the chaos facing the mighty Japanese economy amply prove it.

It is an established fact that development entails sacrifice and savings today for investment in a better tomorrow. This is as true for societies and countries as it is for individuals and families. For sustained economic growth, therefore, not only should savings remain high but investments must also generate returns and multiply. It is indeed ironical that even when we rank among the top-saving nations with a rate of around 25 per cent, goals fail with regular monotony, and growth stagnates. While we continue to quibble over theoretical growth rates, the economy limps and the prices of essential commodities rise painfully. Global capital is already acting on credit downgrading while we continue to haggle endlessly. It is time we realised that deliverance will come only through mending our ways and managing our affairs properly.

The first imperative is reducing the current level of consumption and generating revenue surpluses. We have violated this financial tenet since the mid-eighties for every conceivable excuse. The consequence is the burden of piling up interests on escalating internal and global debt eating into out vitals. The interest burden today accounts for 80 per cent of our budget deficit and still continues to rise. Inevitable corollaries are inflation and failing growth plans, tearing our social fabric. It is time we stopped playing with the future of our children for our luxuries of today.

The second imperative is to learn the value of money and its effective management. We will have to remember that money bears an unbelievably high time-cost. The interest on Rs 1 crore piles up at the rate Rs 70,000 per day. Delay penalties are thus phenomenal. The interest clock ticks relentlessly till a project is fully complete and starts delivery. Projects once begun must, therefore, be completed at express speed. No denial of funds till completion is axiomatic. Thin spreading of resources with hundreds of projects drifting through decades benefit no one. It only blocks funds in waste. Weeding out whims and fancies in project selection and giving priority to the projects with cascading returns thus become crucial.

Every manager knows that results only stem from clearly defined objectives, realistic plans supported by financial resources, quick and determined action and continuous monitoring, correction and improvement.

Here are the universally proven tools for achieving these goals.

Standardisation: This alone leads to volume markets and mass production, and makes the investment in better technology viable. Leaving aside wide usage, it is ironical that standards, whether BIS or ISO, find bare mention even in our technical syllabi.

Management systems: In modern societies objectives drive the systems and are constantly updated. It is unfortunate that in our case century-old systems built by a colonial regime for a different objective not only dictate but also stifle objectives.

Drive for continuous improvement: Systematic training in scientific methods for step-by-step and project-by-project improvement is universally recognised as the most potent tool for the improvement of efficiency of organisations in every facet, including the financial one.

Technology: Better Technology always entails capital investment which becomes viable only if the resultant higher production finds a market. This in turn means the products which carry value to a sufficient number of customers against competing alternatives.

Entrepreneurs: Post-1991 liberalisation has unfortunately shifted the focus of the new generation of educated entrepreneurs to the products of the West meant for the affluent. The products and tools which raise the productivity of the deprived 80 per cent and raise their living standards will only be provided by entrepreneurs with Indian eyes, who see their needs and create products for their use. It is that breed which our financial system has to foster and upgrade.

Time has also come for us to understand without ambiguity that today’s world is a brutally harsh economic animal showing no mercies. This holds true whether it is an individual, a corporation or a country. In the over-riding search for profit, every sacrifice is valid — principles, jobs, businesses. Sermons on the dignity of human values, child labour and saving the environment are only tactics to soften the landing. In the end, it is my job, my life-style, my comforts. Increasing profit dominates action. The linkage of the CEO’s emoluments to quarterly profits via stock options adds. In that quest, what counts is the balance sheet in New York, Tokyo or London. Thrust towards subsidiaries becomes a natural consequence as minuscule dividends from joint ventures or knowhow payments lose relevance. Profits, which propel continuing growth, will move out in some form or the other in due course.

The unparalleled economic growth for five post-War decades provides developed countries financial and technological muscle for this task, which the power of global capital multiplies. This clout makes the acquisition of today’s pigmy-sized Indian companies easy. The legacy of socialist curbs on expansion and protected markets has made our industry hopelessly weak-kneed to withstand the combined onslaught.

The demon of developed countries today is stagnating markets. Despite massive down-sizing and shutting-down of plants in the last decade, ruthless global competition has left 30 per cent excess capacity in every industry. The axe of relentless drive for raising organisational efficiency has also primarily fallen on the blue-collar section, and income disparities have risen sharply. The ensuing social revolt is forcing industry and governments to collaborate and join hands in protecting the domestic market from external competition and creating new markets.

China and India with their teeming millions provide that infinite market. Unlike other less developed countries, they also have a segment affluent enough to purchase some of the goodies of today’s developed world. That this segment is not large enough, and volumes will only grow with increased purchasing power, has come as a rude shock. Ensuring higher purchasing power unfortunately calls for long-term investments with all the attendant risks. Quick profit with low investment at zero-risk being the driving motive, a clash of interest is natural.

A question is often asked as to why we should not welcome foreign investment. Foreign exchange reserves have risen. Jobs in the service industry are being created. Consumers are getting a choice. Billions of FDI have been promised and are in the pipeline. A close analysis shows that the substantial component is hot money for speculative gain. The crisis now engulfing half the world proves the scale and power of hot money on the prowl for a quick buck. Our own crisis of recent weeks corroborates it. FDI is primilary directed into fast-growth consumption goods, the FMCG, where investments are low and returns fast.

A wider consumer choice is confined to the products for the upper strata of society. Juicy jobs are also for the affluent few. The fall-out on the rural poor is tertiary and a long-chain down is there.

To sustain the pressure on opening up our market to imports, the impediments to export growth will get raised time and again. The recent crash of the garment exports market on the quota issue and that of carpets on the issue of child labour bears it out.

The exploitation of the weakness of others is an inborn trait of man. The cost of foreign money has already risen by 200 points and will only rise as our desperation mounts.

The question that we have to address ourselves today is: Do we want to relegate ourselves into a second-rate economic nation living on the crumbs of others for all times to come? Or will we pull up our socks and act as a nation determined to stand on its own feet and surge ahead?

We are at the threshold of an era of opportunities; the vision of a 21st century when every citizen will have a chance to realise his dream of happiness. Forgetting about the differences of region, religion, caste and colour followed by action in a disciplined manner will alone convert hope into reality. In the words of Nobel Prize-winning Irish poet Heaney, “That moment when hope and history rhyme” has come.

(The writer is a well-known management expert.)_

Labour reform: a cautious approach
by S. Sethuraman

THE Vajpayee government, bogged down in ideological divide within the ranks of the Bharatiya Janata Party, intends to go slow with insurance and labour legislation, and the reform of the industrial relations structure.

Its will to go ahead with financial sector reforms such as extending privatisation to insurance will be severely tested during the winter session of Parliament, notwithstanding the Prime Minister’s commitment to allow foreign direct investment in life and general insurance. The Cabinet has already decided in favour of a limit of 40 per cent for both FDI and investment by foreign institutions and NRIs, though it appears that this limit will have to be lowered to 26 per cent.

As a first step in the area of labour reform, the government has opted for setting up the second Labour Commission which will go into the working of labour laws. Taking shelter under the need to make a comprehensive review of existing labour laws, the government has deferred the proposals already mooted for amending the Industrial Relations or Trade Union Acts.

The Labour Ministry says it will adopt a “cautious policy” to bring about amendments to the ID Act in order to ensure that labour laws are consistent with the economic liberalisation and globalisation policies. This would mean that the government would simply plod with the existing problems of industrial sickness and the drain on the Union budget to meet the losses of Central public sector undertakings.

Governments, past and present, have done very little to take care of workers in the unorganised sector, and a report of the commission in this regard has been gathering dust for a decade. There is no uniform wage policy in the country. Workers in the organised sector secure wage revisions through negotiations with employers. Public sector employees and workers are well protected with rounds of wage negotiations on the basis of guidelines from the Department of Public Enterprises.

The only safeguard available for workers in the unorganised sector is the Minimum Wage Act, 1948, and it covers a schedule of employment where minimum wages are to be applied. The minimum wage was recently raised from Rs 35 to Rs 40 per day by the Vajpayee government. The enforcement of minimum wage for workers in the unorganised sector is more difficult, and there is no adequate administrative machinery to ensure implementation by those hiring workers who remain casual labour.

Agriculture absorbs the largest chunk of labour in the unorganised sector, and wage levels vary from state to state depending on the availability of farm workers. The Minimum Wages Act is applicable to agricultural workers. One of the proposals long talked of, but not coming closer to fruition, is a piece of central legislation for agricultural workers, constituting the largest segment of labour force.

Barring a little over 27 million in the organised sector, some 308 million are employed in the unorganised sector, according to the National Sample Survey, 1993-94. Of them, about 14 million work in small-scale industries.

Improving the economic and social conditions of rural labour is linked to the well-directed, efficiently-implemented development programmes in regard to the basic infrastructure like roads, minor irrigation, drinking water, education and health services, and the creation of the network of processing facilities and rural markets.

While unemployment has been a massive challenge and political parties promise millions of jobs every year in their election manifestoes — The BJP’s target was one crore jobs every year — successive Five-Year Plans have not made a real dent on the problem. Official statistics as of 1993-94 report total employment in the country at about 335 million as compared to 291 in 1987-88 or a 2.37 per cent growth rate per annum.

The growth process in India has not been sustained at a level high enough to make an impact on employment generation. Indeed, the thrust of liberalisation and globalisation policies is more towards enhancing the competitiveness of industry through technological upgradation and cutting down production costs which is generally seen in terms of reducing the number of workers and looking for greater productivity through the induction of greater skills. There has been no serious attempt to launch labour-intensive growth programmes which are largely left to market forces.

Labour reform has been recognised as an essential part of the country’s industrial restructuring and its expansion and modernisation. Since 1991, when India entered the era of liberalisation, there has been a move to give employers the right to “hire and fire” labour with an effective provision for compensation to the discharged workers. —IPA

Long live onions!
by Iqbal Singh Ahuja

NEWSPAPER reading is an art. Almost 90 per cent of the readers scan through the newspapers turning pages and planning to read later. But that time rarely comes. Certain reports compel the scanner to read the news in toto.

A few days before the elections I was woken up from by slumber when I read “Hamein Chahiye Aloo Pyaj, Nahin Chahiye Sushma Swaraj.”

I am not a voracious onion eater. I have rarely liked to eat it. In fact, most of the time I have avoided it on the basis of the dining table etiquette. Suddenly the onion has turned nuclear. The chair of the Prime Minister has been shaken. Two Chief Ministers have been shown the door. “No Onion, No Vote”, was the slogan.

Being closely associated with a former Chief Minister (at least I think so), I decided to find out if there was any foreign hand in the whole issue. I rang up Joga and Sharma whom I considered as the encyclopaedia of agricultural stuff to help me find out how the onion entered India. Was it an original product or implanted by foreigners on our soil? Every time our leaders talk of a foreign hand, we don’t believe it. This time when they had not uttered a word I felt there was a foreign hand.

We had a closed-door meeting, and our agriculture books showed that the onion is a bulb crop and belongs to genus allium. The area of origin is a mystery. The onion was being cultivated by man before history was first recorded. Probably the Middle of Asia comprising north-west India, Afghanistan, Tazikstan, Uzbekistan and Western Tien-Shan were the primary centres of its origin.

There are documents which describe its importance as food and medicine. One of the most important testimonials to the use of onion as food in ancient Egypt is from the Bible (Number XI 5) and that makes it around 1500 BC. It is mentioned even in the Quran (161). It has also been mentioned in “Charaka Samhita”, a famous early medical treatise of India. Charaka, who probably lived about the beginning of the Christian era, base much of his material upon the teachings of an earlier authority of about sixth century B.C.

The thing that surprises me is that the entire world is related to the onion in one way or the other. Some export while others import it. In the USA more than one lakh acres of land is cultivated for onion alone, The leading onion producing countries in order of importance are the USA, Japan, Spain, Egypt, Turkey and Italy. The German call it “Queen of Kitchen” In India Lasalgaon, Pimpalgaon and Manmad produce more than half of the onions purchased by our country.

I was upset over the fact that when the entire nation was crying for onions, and our leaders were quiet. Perhaps they did not feel the sting of the onion shortage. Onion was once considered the poor man’s food. Chapati and onions satisfied the appetite of the poor. Now it has become the delicacy of the rich. The poor man used to have tears in his eyes while cutting the onion. Times have changed. Now tears roll down their eyes when they even think of onions.

There was an encouraging news in the paper: “Income tax authorities raid onion traders”. I was happy that the government had deputed the right people because they could see things even hundred feet deep in the earth. Alas! they found assets worth Rs 2.74 crore and missed the onions. I wish they could have found onions worth Rs 2.7 crore instead of the other things.

Our meeting seemed to be getting longer. They did not want me to interrupt but their hunger compelled them and they said let us eat food and discuss later. We went to the nearby dhaba and were welcomed by the new signboard: “Pyaz Maang Ke Sharminda Na Karein”.

Long live onions!

A true judicial voice takes the bow

by Anupam Gupta

A GREAT Judge has retired. Supreme Court judge M K Mukherjee retired last week on December 1, a fortnight short of 5 years after he donned the mantle of that high office. A master of the criminal law, his tenure coincided with the most turbulent, activist phase in the country’s judicial history. Aware yet unaffected by the passion of the moment, he remained, amidst all the turbulence, firmly wedded to the paramount judicial ideal of even-handed administration of the law. And though comparisons are odious, few before him and during his time heeded and acted by Cicero’s admonition more than he did — “Ye judges who give judgements by law, ought to be obedient to the laws.”

The hawala case, the ISRO espionage case, Kalpnath Rai’s TADA case, the ULFA case of the Tata Tea Company, appeals arising out of the Bombay blasts case (regarding a Magistrate’s power to issue warrants of arrest), the anticipatory bail petitions of former Prime Minister P V Narasimha Rao’s son, Prabhakar Rao in the urea scam case and former Union Telecom Minister Sukh Ram’s son, Anil Sharma in the corruption case against him — it is a measure of the general confidence that Justice Mukherjee inspired that most of the major criminal cases of recent times were assigned to be heard and decided by Benches presided over by him.

Earlier during his tenure when he ranked as low as 14th on the Supreme Court in order of seniority, he had written as member of a Bench presided over by the present Chief Justice of India the court’s opinion in the KPS Gill-Rupan Deol Bajaj case.

And on his last working day in the court, November 30, the distinguished Judge had heard though inconclusively the bail pleas of two former Bihar Chief Ministers, Mr Laloo Yadav and Mr Jagannath Mishra in the fodder scam case. And, heading a three-member Bench, had the previous week struck a vital blow for the principle of non-discrimination in criminal justice by ordering the transfer of the two VVIPs from the police guest house where they were lodged to the Patna Central Jail.

Adopting the same strict standard — the standard of “the cold neutrality of an impartial judge” (Edmund Burke) — a successor Bench warned the CBI last Friday, December 4, that it might grant bail if the CBI failed to provide the court as well as the accused copies of all the documents relied upon by the prosecution by the next date, December 17. The seriousness of the allegations against the accused, the court observed, could not be legally appreciated without examining the documents. That is well said though an incidental, and disturbing, question arises. How were the bail pleas of Mr Yadav, Mr Mishra and the other accused in the fodder scam case declined by the trial court in the first place without the CBI having filed, and the trial court having considered, any of the said documents? How, indeed, could the trial court have taken cognisance of the case without this having been done?

That the documents in question run into about 70,000 pages adds, and adds grievously, to the irony.

A day before Laloo Yadav was despatched to the proper rather than a contrived judicial custody, Ms Jayalalitha was refused stay of her various corruption trials before three special courts at Chennai. “We will not stay the proceedings before the special court on any ground,” said the concerned Bench headed yet again by Justice Mukherjee, while issuing notice on the SLPs moved by the AIADMK supremo and some of her alleged partners in crime.

A firm and fair refusal of interim relief which bolsters the common man’s faith in the inaccessibility of the judicial process to men and women in high places, though the question raised is highly debatable and it would be interesting to watch how the Supreme Court finally decides. Should not the principle of non-discrimination in criminal justice apply here as well, the obesity and ugliness of corruption notwithstanding? This is not to say that the question admits of an easy answer. From Indira Gandhi in 1978 to Jayalalitha in 1998 the jurisprudence of special courts is an enigma wrapped in a riddle ensconced in a mystery.

Going back three years, the Gill-Bajaj case also saw Justice Mukherjee step forward too surely for justice to remain even-handed. Or, to put it more precisely, for the trial court to remain uninfluenced.

The caution administered by him towards the tail end of his judgement while setting aside the High Court’s order and remitting the case for trial — “We make it abundantly clear that the learned Magistrate shall not in any way be influenced by any of the observations made by us relating to the facts of the case...” — was buried deep under the avalanche of factual assessments made in the body of the judgement. And the finding that, if the facts alleged were taken to be true, a clear case of “outraging of modesty” as properly understood in law was made out, had a sharp flavour of pre-judgement about it.

Even if the High Court had stretched the law to accommodate Mr Gill and quash the FIR against him, the Supreme Court through Justice Mukherjee spoke too strongly and too decidedly for the trial to remain unaffected. One does not have to disagree with the court’s ultimate conclusion — that the FIR lodged by Mrs Bajaj disclosed a triable offence and could not have been quashed — to protest its comprehensive mode of expression.

This, however, is but a minor blemish in an outstanding judicial record. The technicalities of criminal law do not permit a fuller discussion of Justice Mukherjee’s many opinions in a newspaper column like this. And of his singular, if not single-handed, contribution to keeping the nation’s apex court steady in that field despite the savage pressures of populism. To that end, even if he had written no other judgement, just the hawala verdict would suffice.

No let-up in ‘ethnic cleansing’ of Christians

by Humra Quraishi

I OWE it to the Christian missionaries (nuns of Loretto Convent, Lucknow), that today I can write this “letter” to you all; for if it hadn’t been for the good and affordable educational facilities provided by them my middle-class parents would have had no option but to stuff me in one of those Urdu medium schools. And I am sure this fact holds true for most of the English-speaking Indian middle class.

Yet, today we sit back in our secure positions and accuse the very people who have taught us the very basics, of trying to convert us! Not only that but in the past one year a small section of communally-charged fanatics are trying to terrorise this small minority by planned attacks on them.

“Since January there has been more violence against the Christian community than in the 50 years since Independence. Nuns have been raped, priests executed, Bibles burnt, churches demolished...even the body of a Christian was not allowed to rest in peace — a corpse was dug out from a graveyard in Gujarat. In fact this state alone (Gujarat) has seen more than 40 cases of violent atrocities in less than six months of 1998”, says a spokesperson of the United Christian Forum for Human Rights, which called for a day-long protest against these atrocities by the 23 million Christians all over the country.

And ironical it may sound that though they have pinpointed the culprits, yet no action can be taken against them for where is the gap between the culprits and those governing the country.

“We are all aware of the forces behind these acts of violence. The National Commission for Minorities, various commissions of inquiry and the Director-General of Police, Gujarat, have identified the organisations and their associates. The venom of communalism is spread by the Sangh Parivar, its allies and other communal forces to further their vested interests.... At many places it seems as if the Central and state governments have tacitly supported the communal groups. Otherwise, how is it that the state governments have not taken any action against the virulent and anti-national statements of the VHP, RSS, Jagran Manch and Bajrang Dal?

The Centre and the Rajasthan Government are yet to act against those who have threatened the ethnic and religious cleansing of Christians in Banswara district of Rajasthan.”

Their memorandum to Parliament has put forth 10 demands. Foremost they seek from the Union and state governments a White Paper with full details of violence inflicted on the Christian community in ’98. Then, of course, are the demands for the safety of the minorities in the country — not only of their physical being but also that “Parliament be vigilant against attempts to subvert human resource development, education, history, culture... and must enact legislation to give statutory powers to the NCM that are required to make it into an effective watchdog of the rights of the minorities in India and also enact legislation to give Dalit Christians the constitutional rights that were taken away from them in 1950....”

I could go on and on about the fears, insecurities and disgust at the atrocities on minorities, spoken about at the national protest day rally here on December 4 but let me also fit in a ray of hope that I witnessed that morning: many amongst the rallyists were non-Christians, including over 1,000 students from JNU. And till that sensitivity remains, we shouldn’t fear unduly.

Poetry laced with emotions

As though in the same vein that very afternoon a book by a senior scientist with the CSIR, Gauhar Raza, of Urdu poetry was released at the IIC by Ali Sardar Jafri. The very title, “Jazbon ki lau tez karo” (increase that intensity of emotions), seems apt for the poems have been written in response to various social and historic upheavals.

As though giving explanations to that title he admits that he was influenced by Homi Bhabha’s comment that if one is not capable of increasing the years of living one can at least increase their intensity.

Probably Raza took this very seriously for each line of his poetry, read out by Zohra Sehgal to a rapt audience which included the police chief of the Capital and several known names, hung heavy with emotions. Particularly touching were the lines he wrote in memory of the Jallianwala Bagh massacre and also those he wrote to “get over the depression” he suffered from soon after the demolition of Babri Masjid.

But, then, all these lines wouldn’t have been made public if Kaifi Azmisahib hadn’t insisted that they be published. Thankfully Gauhar relented and there you hear an anguished man’s cry over what is happening to the country. As Hindi poet Manglesh Dabral, also present there, said: “We are passing through one of the worst times... our “badkismati” is that we have to see a decay of sorts all around....” Moving ahead, another book gets re-released here this evening. I purposely used that word because though “Lucknow — Fire of Grace” (Harper Collins) was officially released in September but, then the author, Amaresh Misra, probably wanted a thorough discussion on the renaissance, and the aftermath the city has witnessed since 1772 till date, and so has arranged for an elaborate discussion on it.

A taste of Arunachal

Last week ITDC’s Ashoka Hotel arranged for an elaborate festival of the state of Arunachal Pradesh. There were folk dances, foodspreads and about 80 people especially transported from there to mingle with us. I was definitely impressed by the warmth of the people of Arunachal Pradesh, but cannot say the same about their food. Absolutely and so totally different that beyond the baby corns and spoonfuls of rice I couldn’t quite proceed. Thereafter I managed to go towards the general manager’s suite and partook of a hearty Punjabi meal with his family.

75 YEARS AGO

Indians in Transvaal

IN the great and epoch-making meeting at the Town Hall, Bombay, if there was one feature more remarkable than the rest, it was the striking unanimity and solidarity of all classes and sections of the people. As Sir Currimbhoy Ibrahim, president of the gathering, pointed out in his feeling pronouncement from the chair, “in South Africa itself all our countrymen have felt and acted and suffered together as Indians without distinction.”

Indeed it would be an eternal shake if Indians at home, be they Hindus, Mohammandans, Sikhs, Parsees, or Christians, fail to be impressed by the courageous sacrifices and manly sufferings of our patriotic brethren who, in the interests of their motherland and for the honour and good name of their countrymen, have stood shoulder to shoulder in the constitutional fight for the pledged rights of the Indian people. All honour and glory to them. Honoured shall be their name with the coming generations of Indians as it is with their own.