This criminalised politics
THE gory nature and dimension of India's criminalised politics get fully exposed as certain murky details about self-styled politician-cum-business operator Romesh Sharma trickle down in the newspaper columns every day.

Fire-fighting won’t do
MANY think that the relentless and abnormal price rise has acquired crisis dimensions, while also containing a thinly concealed warning of worse things to come. But not the bureaucratic top brass, if the decisions of the one-day meeting of Chief Secretaries are any indication.

Benegal’s lament
DURING his visit to Chandigarh last week Shyam Benegal expressed unhappiness at the fall in the quality of popular cinema.

The criminal justice system
by K. F. Rustamji
THE Principal Sessions Judge of Bombay has put the police in place on encounter deaths. I wish he had told us what to do with criminals that are rampaging over the land. Conviction in a court of law is rare, even a decision takes years.

Kosovo crisis and NATO
by O. N. Mehrotra
IT appears that the Kosovo crisis has for the present been defused, and the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation has decided to suspend its option to launch air strikes on the Serbs’ heavy weapons in Kosovo.

Women’s welfare sans finances
By Alka Gadgil
MUMBAI: In yet another — and rather absurd — example of the marginalisation of women’s issues by the largely male dominated world of politics, two male members of the Women and Child Welfare Committee of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation requested Mayor Nandu Satam to transfer them to another committee on the grounds that they were outnumbered by women and “have nothing to do”.

Delhiites queue up for
celebrated play
by Humra Quraishi
THE people of Delhi seem to be living in a state of suspended animation. Waiting as they are for a reluctant winter, for affordable subzis, for that pinch of salt with which to handle its ostensible shortage.

Unbreakable bonds
by J. L. Gupta
IT was a nice and pleasant evening. I had an invitation for dinner at a friend’s place. Poets from Pakistan, who were in town to participate in a “mushaira”, were the guests of honour. I went.

75 Years Ago

Municipal Government
THE very first general principle laid down in the Joint Report of 1918 is that the British Government is “pledged in the clearest terms to the adoption of a new policy” towards India...

This criminalised politics

THE gory nature and dimension of India's criminalised politics get fully exposed as certain murky details about self-styled politician-cum-business operator Romesh Sharma trickle down in the newspaper columns every day. And even these stray revelations are mind-boggling. In the first place, they suggest that the country's criminalised polity knows no political frontiers. It is all-embracing, netting in persons from different political groups and parties in the criminal nexus that the N.N. Vohra Committee had once highlighted in its report. (Investigative agencies are said to have identified at least 52 MPs who had been in touch with Romesh Sharma since he floated his party in August this year.) Second, the existing system is shamelessly exploited by the new class of political operators for the benefit of their patrons at home and abroad. Third, investigative agencies have confirmed that Romesh Sharma was working as a frontman of Dawood Ibrahim, notwithstanding his denials. Not that everyone who came in contact with him for political and business purposes could have known about his dubious links overseas. All the same, it is a poor commentary on the quality of our governance that those with money and muscle power manage to sabotage the system from within in connivance with some influential persons.

While we have to await full details of the various operations of Romesh Sharma and his henchmen, a number of questions need to be examined and answered honestly by the powers that be. How do the Romesh Sharmas get into the corridors of power? What is their modus operandi? How widespread is this criminal net for easy money and other lucrative crumbs? How come such people could operate for years and spread their tentacles among all political parties and also among influential segments in the police and the bureaucracy? How vulnerable is the system? Romesh Sharma is, of course, not an isolated case. Several such cases have surfaced in the past. We have known about criminal elements in Mumbai, Lucknow, Delhi and other parts of the country who have acquired respectability by hobnobbing with sections of the ruling elite. Regrettably, criminals no longer finance elections and extend money and other favours to those in the business of power. They themselves are now entering the political arena in a big way. It is said that Romesh Sharma too had an ambition of getting into Parliament and therefore flirted with various political parties before launching his own Bharatiya Congress Party after failing to win the 1996 Lok Sabha election from Jawaharlal Nehru's constituency, Phulpur in U.P. For the election, he reportedly hired a helicopter which he allegedly grabbed subsequently. This is not all. He is said to have grabbed property worth crores. The Delhi police is said to have prepared a list of 31 properties, 28 of which have been illegally acquired by Romesh Sharma. A number of cases are pending against him. Apparently, the arm of the law seems to be soft on such money-flushed operators!

The people cannot accept the present sickening state of affairs. What is strange is that the police has acted only now and that too on information it had with it since 1993. The Sharma-Dawood nexus came to notice again in 1997 after the recovery of 10 kg of RDX from South Delhi. What sort of system are we sustaining? Is it run for the good of the common man or for the benefit of the Romesh Sharmas? This is not the kind of democracy honest Indians want. There has to be a multi-pronged war for cleansing the polity. The criminal nexus must be smashed with an iron hand, irrespective of the political colour of the likes of Romesh Sharma. Over to Mr L. K. Advani.

Fire-fighting won’t do

MANY think that the relentless and abnormal price rise has acquired crisis dimensions, while also containing a thinly concealed warning of worse things to come. But not the bureaucratic top brass, if the decisions of the one-day meeting of Chief Secretaries are any indication. The nine points they have thought of will not affect the movement of prices, nor will they prevent a similar situation in the near future. What is more, the meeting simply ignored the possibility of the long chain of middlemen succeeding in maintaining prices at the present high level. In other words, the days of onions at Rs 5 a kilo are over and most vegetables, seasonal or otherwise, will tend to cost Rs 15 or Rs 20 a kilo. The expertise to work this high-price regime has been learnt in the onion school of regulating supply and neutralising the administration. Also instructive has been the passive attitude of the consumers who panic all too easily and stock up all kinds of commodities, creating the right atmosphere for profiteering. Barring isolated pockets across the country, high prices have gone with low motivation of the lower rungs of the administration to crack down on hoarding and the absence of consumer demand for punitive action. This is a far more disturbing trend than the so-called seasonal factors causing temporary shortages and a consequent spurt in prices. A trader-friendly government at the Centre is an undeserved encouragement as also the bogus official claim that onion prices have soared by a mere 280 per cent while the market shows it is close to 700 per cent. The bigwigs of the BJP, the leader of the ruling coalition, have cautioned against upsetting the present food chain, which implies that “normal” hoarding and “normal” profiteering have to be winked at lest the present private network protests and brings the whole thing to a halt.

There is also this fear of rice going the potato way, if not the onion way. It is a distant possibility, but a possibility all the same. Even the meeting of the Chief Secretaries has recognised it but feels this can be easily controlled by releasing more rice in the open market. The conditions inducing this apprehension include the huge rain damage to the crop, heavy buying by mills and traders and, well, the entrenched psychology of scarcity. The meeting has suggested preventive action by setting up a monitoring mechanism, but upgrading a cell into a section and a section into a department does not increase efficiency, but only promotional avenues. In this gloomy environment a little cheer has come from Washington. The USA has decided to lift some sanctions, saying it is satisfied with the progress in bilateral talks. The government is cool, not wanting to give the impression that other sanctions can stay in place. But businessmen see the beginning of a process and think that their American counterparts will step up lobbying if they see promise of good profit in this country. Which means that pressure for urgent reforms in insurance and investment will mount in the days to come.

Benegal’s lament

DURING his visit to Chandigarh last week Shyam Benegal expressed unhappiness at the fall in the quality of popular cinema. He produced statistics to show that the annual turnover of films had come down from 900 over three years ago to barely 400 and yet the rate of failure of even big budget and “star-studded” productions has gone up during the post-liberalisation period. However, the maker of highly acclaimed non-mainstream films failed to explain why the quality of popular cinema has gone down and what could be done to revive its appeal among the masses. There is no denying the fact that cinema is a medium of mass entertainment just as a newspaper is a source of providing information to the literate section of society. In the early years films based on Indian mythology, history and social structure were popular because of the “captive audience” factor. In fact, what film historians call the golden period of Indian cinema had a very short life span. That was the period which threw up actors of the calibre of Raj Kapoor, Dev Anand, Dilip Kumar, Balraj Sahani, Nargis, Meena Kumari, Madhubala and Kamini Kaushal. Poets like Josh Malihabadi, Raja Mehdi Ali Khan, Shakeel Badayuni, Khumar Barabankvi, Sahir Ludhianavi and Kaifi Azmi lifted the art of writing songs for films to literary heights. Each one of the music directors and playback singers of yore became a legend in his or her lifetime. Bimal Roy, Guru Dutt, Mehboob and their contemporaries gave Hindi cinema a purposeful yet popular face.

Benegal, during his interaction with the media, did not highlight the difference between popular cinema and commercial cinema. Popular cinema need not always be commercially successful. Gulzar’s “Maachis” on the theme of terrorism in Punjab was acclaimed as a sensitive film by all sections of society. Yet it bombed at the box-office. Audiences demand and get what is known as escapist fare. However, the rate of failure of Hindi films, which Benegal spoke about, shows that audiences have lost interest in the over-dose of violence and vulgarity packaged as “popular entertainment”. Going by the success of “Bade Miyan Chhote Miyan”, starring Amitabh Bachchan and Govinda at the box-office, it can be said that Indian cinema has now entered the age of “total nonsense”. It may help revive the career of the ageing superstar, but it is bad news for sensitive film-makers like Benegal. If he cares for the growth of meaningful cinema, he should at least try to launch a movement with the help of Saeed Mirza, Ketan Mehta, Govind Nihalani and Prakash Jha for reviving what was discarded by market manipulators as unsaleable popular cinema. The new generation is not as tasteless as the success of “Bade Miyan” suggests.

The criminal justice system
Drowning in a flood of litigation
by K. F. Rustamji

Man’s capacity for justice makes democracy possible, but man’s inclination for injustice makes democracy necessary.

— Reinhold Niebur

THE Principal Sessions Judge of Bombay has put the police in place on encounter deaths. I wish he had told us what to do with criminals that are rampaging over the land. Conviction in a court of law is rare, even a decision takes years. The political side supports encounters, and is prepared to provide the laws to check gangster crime. Between the two masters, political and judicial, the police stands today not knowing what to do because they unwittingly contradict each other. It is the devil and the deep-sea situation, with an angry public reaction to crime being the third master. Meanwhile, how do we prevent the escapes of dangerous criminals from custody if the trial goes on for 10 years?

We have never been able to bring the principal constituents of the criminal justice system together — judges, lawyers, policemen and jail officials — to frame an effective and consistent policy. To depend on old laws and procedures is not possible. Besides, we have violated all the canons of crime control by delaying trials, giving bail to criminals who are wanting to eliminate witnesses, and not improving the watch on criminals. When will we realise that we are literally drowning in a flood of litigation. Cases of murder, robbery and those covered by the IPC accumulate in courts in thousands, and usually end in acquittal. Add the PIL cases concerning the neighbour’s drains or his dog, and we have a full house. Yet lawyers threaten to strike in case there is any move to reduce trial delay. We have to convince them that stepping up the pace of trials will increase their work, not reduce it, particularly if lawyers are appointed as special courts to clear up arrears in their offices or homes.

Security duties have made good policing impossible, apart from making it damnably expensive. Yet, neither the Union Home Minister nor the Prime Minister could stop this extravaganza which has been going on for years. It was the judiciary that had to step in to bring reason.

Hardly any criminal of a dangerous type has been convicted in a court of law in the last 50 years: many of them have jumped bail. Most of them now operate from abroad by satellite telephones. Their names are used by unemployed youths to extort money, even kill their targets because weapons are so easy to secure. In the last few years, the fraternity of criminals has grown by a hundred-fold because of economic hardships, lack of deterrent punishment, and the failure to work out extradition.

What should be the main ingredients of good policing to deal with crime? First, we have to correct all that has gone wrong in the police administration owing to the lack of discipline, for which the Central and state governments are clearly responsible. Politicians have usurped the powers of senior-most police officers to punish, reward, transfer, and position police officers. Today the SHO is afraid of the MP and the MLA of his area, not of his own officers. Secondly, the laxity in discipline is reflected in corruption that has become a menace even in the senior ranks of some states. There is a total breakdown of good police practices. Crime and criminals are not known to the SHO and his Superintendent of Police because of frequent transfers. The watch on criminals is almost nil because of the size of each jurisdiction and the increase in population. Investigations are neglected. Patrolling is neglected. The sanctity of police records is violated, and if there is a riot we cannot depend on the police for impartial performance and control because senior officers have less say in such matters than politicians, who want to direct operations to suit their politics.

Our attempt to make the judicial system pure and independent had the best of intentions. During British rule we strove continuously to separate the judiciary from the executive to weaken the British government, even made that a constitutional icon. But the result was not the purity of justice. A big distance gradually appeared between the judiciary and the citizen. Today they live in different worlds. A time limit on trials is imperative.

After Independence we had intended to replace the control of the District Magistrate on courts by a three-member board consisting of the District Judge, the District Magistrate and the Superintendent of Police. But it does not seem to be working well because of personal antagonism over protocol, wrong ideas of crime prevention, and the indefinite position of the District Judge. If we give the District Judge the senior position in this arrangement by law, combined with the power to discipline all those who stray, and hold the District Judge responsible for justice in every sense of the word — which means freedom from crime and freedom from improper methods — the system may show some improvement. If it does not work, we will have to think of some drastic measures of the type that we have had to fall back upon to deal with terrorism.

Pakistan has introduced the Shariat laws to stiffen punishment. We have resisted all change, partly because we respect justice, but also because we felt we should not tamper with a system which has worked so well in the past. We have abandoned several of the old methods, but we have not devised a new method which is in conformity with democracy. We have to think of new methods of apprehending and restraining criminals, depend on mohalla committees and panchayats, and take special measures to free the police from wrong political interference. The Ribeiro Committee, which is looking into the question of police reform, will have to give the lead on all these measures. (Let us hope this is the last evaluation of the Police Commission Report.) In addition, a whole lot of measures recommended by the Law Commission to limit appeals and attempts at delay need to be implemented.

Above all, states must not reject the findings of a judicial enquiry on political grounds. If this is done, the judiciary will refuse to undertake arduous enquiries with an enormous ambit of work. Any disrespect shown to the judiciary is an affront to democracy. Some way has to be found to justify rejection. Perhaps an appeal to the Supreme Court would be the best.

There is no doubt that our method of dealing with the law and order problems has gone wrong from British days. The movement for freedom was not countered by the law, or prosecution in courts. Some notable trials were held only to show how much the British cherished justice. It was the police that dealt with the freedom struggle even the Army was kept out. Communal rioting was not curbed by the prosecution of offenders. It was only the Army and the police that had to deal with it. On hundreds of occasions they succeeded. Once in a while the police made mistakes and we had Meeruts and Malianas, and all the others like post-Ayodhya rioting, (mistakes, I regret to say, are increasing). A revolt in Nagaland. The Army faced it courageously, and Nehru insisted that all norms of conduct must be observed. Mizoram erupted, the Army marched incredible distances to reach the trouble-spots. Punjab terrorism was not curbed by court cases. It was too dangerous to take terrorists to court — five magistrate were murdered when that was done. It was the police that did the job: made some mistakes to get it done, lost men, even endangered the security of their families. But it never got credit; only PIL cases and vicious criticism.

We have made the police play a major role all these years in crime control. The judiciary now must take a fair share of the burden. In fact, it has to do more — keep control on all parts of the system — and answer for any inability to contain crime. We are in the peculiar position of depending on the police and the Army, but we hate to say so, and fail even to try and change the system so that the rule of law may be correctly enforced in a democracy.

Kosovo crisis and NATO
by O. N. Mehrotra

IT appears that the Kosovo crisis has for the present been defused, and the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) has decided to suspend its option to launch air strikes on the Serbs’ heavy weapons in Kosovo. NATO decided to take military action against Serb armed forces because they were allegedly engaged in suppressing Kosovo Albanians whose guerrilla units were fighting against them for achieving an independent state for themselves.

The pertinent point is whether NATO has the legitimate right to take military action against the armed forces of a sovereign independent state engaged in resolving an internal crisis? How has the Kosovo crisis begun and involved other countries? It will not be out of place to discuss the Kosovo crisis and involvement of NATO in resolving the crisis.

The Kosovo crisis is basically an ethno-religious problem. Kosovo, which is officially known as Kosovo and Metohija, is a province of Serbia which is a former republic of erstwhile Yugoslavia. After the disintegration of Yugoslavia in 1992, its two republics — Serbia and Montenegro — again reconstituted Yugoslavia. While other four republics became independent sovereign states. It is an irony of history that the Serbs, who belong to the Slav race, had come to the Balkans and settled primarily in the present province of Kosovo at the end of the sixth and seventh centuries and made it as their permanent place of residence, have been reduced to a minority in their own homeland.

The 1974 constitution of Yugoslavia granted autonomy to Kosovo. But in 1989 Kosovo came under the control of central authority because of internal crisis. As far the current movement for independence of Kosovo is concerned, it began in 1981 after the death of Josip Broz Tito. It gained momentum as Yugoslavia began to disintegrate in 1991, and in May, 1992, the Kosovo Albanians elected their own 130-member assembly, which was declared illegal by the Serbian assembly.

But Ibrahim Rugova was elected “President” of the self-proclaimed “Republic of Kosovo.” However, the Kosovo crisis remained in the background because it was overshadowed by the Bosnian problem. It exploded early this year when guerrillas of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) launched offensive against the Serbian forces.

While the Kosovo Albanian political leadership has been demanding autonomy and republican status in today’s Yugoslavia, the KLA refuses to accept the leadership of Rugova, and demands independence for Kosovo. The Western countries, including the United States of America, are in favour of autonomy for Kosovo but not for its independence. Basically, the Kosovo crisis is an internal issue but the USA has taken the initiative to resolve it when the media projected a picture of bloodbath in the area and abuse of human rights of Kosovo Albanians by the Serbian armed forces. It has hardly mentioned the atrocities committed by terrorists in the name of an independent movement.

Be that as it may, the Clinton administration has claimed that the United Nations Security Council has authorised NATO to take appropriate action to defuse any crisis in the former Yugoslavia. However, it was contested by Russia, and its leadership threatened to intervene if NATO took any militarily punitive action against the Serbian forces. Nonetheless, the NATO forces were deployed and ultimatum was given to the Serbian leader, Slobodan Miloseric, to withdraw his forces by a given date or face punitive air strikes. On October 27 it was reported that thousands of Serbian troops in tanks and trucks left the province or returned to their garrisons.

The Serbian armed forces and the special policemen in the province are supposed to respect a ceiling of 15,000 troops and 10,000-strong Interior Ministry police force — roughly the number there before the crisis exploded in February-March this year. The KLA leaders have also reportedly agreed to observe ceasefire in Kosovo. Unarmed civilian “Verifiers” deployed by the organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) will monitor the uneasy truce between Serbs and ethnic Albanian guerrillas of the KLA. The Kosovo problem has now been internationalised and it will be difficult to be resolved because of the diametrically opposite views adopted by the two involved ethnic leaderships. — INFA

The author is associated with the Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses, New Delhi.

Unbreakable bonds
by J. L. Gupta

IT was a nice and pleasant evening. I had an invitation for dinner at a friend’s place. Poets from Pakistan, who were in town to participate in a “mushaira”, were the guests of honour. I went.

The poetry was “music in words”. It was a narration of heart-felt truths. Some of us had actually witnessed certain events. Their verses gave a vivid and truer version of history.

Good time invariably gallops. The dinner was announced sooner than we expected. However, this had given the guests an opportunity to talk to each other. One among the guests of honour was the famous Urdu poet, Qateel Shifai Sahib. He stood out. Not merely because he is bald like me. But because of the sensitivity of his poetry. We got talking. And almost nostalgically, he recalled the good old days of his childhood in Samana. That rang a bell. Loud and clear.

“You were born in Samana — just 16 miles from Patiala?” I asked.

“Yes! Very much so”, he said. And almost in the same breath he asked, “Have you been to Samana?

“Of course. My father, uncles and aunts were born there. I belong to Samana”.

Hearing this, he almost hugged me. Very affectionately. He was so happy. One could see, like the dew at dawn, the dampness in his eyes. Pure emotion seemed to have overtaken him.

“Aapke Abba Huzoor?” (Your father?)

“Of course. You well see him tomorrow at the mushaira”.

“Main unke paer chhoona chahungaa”. (I would like to touch his feet.)

They met. Very, very warmly. And they talked of the days that had gone by. Of the childhood. Of the school. Of their younger days. Even of old friends and families.

I heard them talk about Justice Mohammed Munir. He was elevated to the Bench in the year 1943. It was India then. He had retired as the Chief Justice in 1954. It was in what is now Pakistan. His work on the Law of Evidence is an epitome of excellence. He belonged to Samana. So did Justice Jamil Hussain Razvi, who had been elevated to the Lahore Bench in April, 1960. Thus, a small unheard-of place — Samana — had produced two distinguished judges and an eminent poet. Just in one generation? No! May be in two. But Samana suddenly, appeared to have grown in size and importance. I felt a sense of pardonable pride within me. I felt as if we were bound together by unbreakable bonds. Of love and affection. Of friendship. The geographical border could not be a barrier.

As individuals, we love and respect each other. As human beings we look alike. We speak the same language. We wear similar clothes. We eat and enjoy almost the same food. We fought together for freedom. Man to man, we admire and love each other. Yet, the two nations are at war. Virtually, all the time. Why?

Women’s welfare sans finances
By Alka Gadgil

MUMBAI: In yet another — and rather absurd — example of the marginalisation of women’s issues by the largely male dominated world of politics, two male members of the Women and Child Welfare Committee of the Brihanmumbai (Greater Mumbai) Municipal Corporation (BMC) requested Mayor Nandu Satam to transfer them to another committee on the grounds that they were outnumbered by women and “have nothing to do”.

The 16-member committee has 14 women and two male corporators, Hemant Doke and Sakharam Gawali.

Both members of the extreme right-wing Shiv Sena, the ruling party in Maharashtra, Doke and Gawali, have not attended even a single meeting of the committee.

It has taken the BMC 120 long years to set up in 1998, a special committee for women and child welfare — only after the 73rd Constitutional (Amendment) Act, which laid down not only a one-third representation for women in all local self-government bodies, but also that such bodies should establish women and child welfare committees. One of the country’s first municipal corporations, established in 1879, the BMC instituted a women and child welfare committee well after a number of smaller corporations and municipalities had done so.

The BMC Act of 1879, formulated by Phirozeshah Mehta, exponent of self governance and freedom fighter, itself states that the corporation should look into the issues of women and child welfare.

Sudha Khire, BMC Secretary, says the Women and Child Welfare Committee is considered “unimportant” — for “unimportant”, read “politically unimportant”. There is no money and power assigned to the committee.

“Smaller corporations have gone ahead and constituted such committees long ago. But they decided to form this committee just this year, as a major political change took place — in March 1998, the BMC introduced the Mayor in Council, which means that the municipal council has administrative, legislative and executive powers, whereas earlier all powers rested with the Municipal Commissioner and the administration, with a elected representatives, the corporators, playing the nominal role of merely endorsing decisions taken by the administration.

But even now, “no budgetary allocations have been made for the women and child welfare committee,” said Khire.

On the participation — or lack of participation — of men in the new committee, she said: “Actually men have a role to play in women’s issues, as with the functioning of clinics, maternity homes, immunisation. These are not the responsibilities of women alone. But men cannot tolerate women’s dominance. Important portfolios are not given to women. Last year we had a woman mayor.

Shraddha Jadhav, committee chairperson, has no misgivings about the disinterest of the two male members. “I tried to make them understand that they have a role to play. They can look after the implementation of the Jawahar Rozgar Yojana.

Jadhav has no qualms about the committee not having any specific role to perform or not having any finances. In fact she seems “we are still trying to prepare the proposal. There is a concrete plan to start health clubs for poor women in slums,” she informs.

Sakharam Gawali was not very forthcoming about his seeking transfer to another committee. “The mayor has assured me to look into the matter in a month’s time. I could not attend any meetings because I was out of Mumbai. I have nothing more to say”.

Mayor Nandu Satam has, meantime, expressed himself in “empathy” with Doke and Gawali.

— Women’s Feature Service

Delhiites queue up for celebrated play

by Humra Quraishi

THE people of Delhi seem to be living in a state of suspended animation. Waiting as they are for a reluctant winter, for affordable subzis, for that pinch of salt with which to handle its ostensible shortage. However, this week the more optimistic sort of Delhiite waited in long queues for the celebrated play by Samuel Beckett — “Waiting for Godot”. This modern classic was first staged in Paris in the early 50s, and focuses on time’s changelessness — “Then it’ll be night/and we can go/then it’ll be day again (pause, despairing)/What’ll we do, what’ll we do ... perhaps so very fitting with our helplessness at today’s living.

“Waiting for Godot” is directed by Benjamin Gilani who also plays Estagon to Naseeruddin Shah’s Vladimir — the two tramps who seems to be caught in space and forced into a futile and eternal waiting. Though many see the play as nihilistic but Shah, playing the more optimistic tramps, says it is a play about hope rather than despair. It is useless asking who Godot exactly is. Beckett’s own impatient reply to this was that if he knew who Godot was he would have told us! The word has been interpreted as God, love, death, silence, and even a Paris red light street. However, for Delhiites I am sure Godot is simply a code name of all our wants — from water supply to onions to love to ....

What an absurd renunciation

Here a group of personalities went to the other extreme: Amidst full media glare former CBI chief Joginder Singh, former Miss India Nafisa Ali, HD Shourie and many others proclaimed that they have quit eating onions! As though that would harness the situation. Next time, some other groups in need of media attention would call another press conference and state that they have given up the usage of electricity or of running water or salt or medical facilities. All of these, including the eating of onions, are essential for the upkeep of the average man so why should their usage be denied. And if this trend is encouraged, that is give up this or that, then in the end we’d be left breathing just about polluted air.

Now a ‘day’ for minority rights

It seems the chairman of the National Commission for Minorities, Professor Tahir Mahmood, is not giving up his fight for minority rights. The latest news from this particular Commission is that he has declared December 18 to be celebrated all over the country as Minorities’ Rights Day. And if you were to ask him reasons for this sudden decision he is quick to point out: “On December 18, 1992, the United Nations had adopted the declaration on the rights of persons belonging to national or ethnic, religious, linguistic minorities. Today, that is even after six years of that declaration, there is the need to highlight the fact that the right of the minorities is no charity but provided in the UN resolution and also in our Constitution. There is an urgent need for minority rights literacy, esp amongst our bureaucracy and the police. For, like the human rights even the basic awareness about these rights is completely missing and in our country things have worsened in the past one year. One blatant example of this is the way the government is tampering with the education system, which is totally against the rights of the minorities promised in the Constitution. After tramping the rights of the minorities the UP government has now gone a step further when very recently it decided against setting up of the State Human Rights Commission with these wordings: “The government has considered the desirability of setting up a Human Rights Commission and decided against it”. Mind you the usage of word ‘desirability’. This when UP has the “worst record of human rights violations”. Let’s see whether the declaration of a ‘day’ for minority rights would make a difference to the state of affairs.

Elder Jadeja can still bowl!

Last week at the National day of Panama a small group of well wishers had gathered in the Embassy to wish the ambassador and the two other diplomats. And amongst this group the man who seemed to stand up was Ajay Jedeja’s father, Daulat Singhji P. Jadeja. A former parliamentarian, who got the ticket for the first time when Ajay was three months old and thereafter won for four consecutive terms, seems to have opted out of politics because “they (Congress party) are not giving me a ticket but I will never change my party .....never”. Keeping himself busy now with fish farming and looking after his estate in Jamnagar he says once a month he travels down to Delhi “as a former parliamentarian you are entitled to free rail travel so I avail of that facility ...”. When I asked him whether Ajay was romantically involved with a particular Bollywood filmstar he smiled wryly and said: “No, no this is just what these magazines write ...at least he hasn’t told me about it ...”. Whether Ajay would follow in his father’s political footsteps he again smiled “Maybe, anyway he is more inclined than my elder son. “And though senior Jadeja’s eyes seemed to have been badly affected by a messed up cataract operation but that didn’t seem to have any effect on his personality.

Train to Dhaka?

Though it is still at a premature state but talks are going on to link Calcutta and Dhaka by a train service. Going by the number of our artistes going to Bangladesh for cultural performances and their’s coming here to get trained at the various institutes a train service would come in very handy!

75 YEARS AGO

Municipal Government

By J.C.S.

THE very first general principle laid down in the Joint Report of 1918 is that the British Government is “pledged in the clearest terms to the adoption of a new policy” towards India, a policy which “so far as western communities are concerned is an old and tried one,” a policy of responsible government, which “Englishmen believe in as the best form of government that they know.” The cooperator reconciles himself to that part of the proposition. The non-cooperator mistrusts and rejects the conditions set out in the announcement. Both approach the method and the manner of progress to the ideal of responsibility from their own standpoint.

Pari passu, the attainment of Indian self-government involves a steady advance in the case of state as of municipal government. What are the conditions of the municipal government of Western communities, the basis of the new policy for India?

In England, generally speaking, all persons are entitled to vote at municipal elections. Universal suffrage, it is acknowledged, is not immediately attainable in any country in the world; but there are cities and towns in India today which are in every way as worthy of that degree of responsibility which is granted by the charters of incorporation to similar areas in England.

It is the privilege of the citizens of Britain to petition for such responsibility.