P A G E
Monday, May 3, 1999
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E D I T O R I A L P A G E |
Monday, May 3, 1999 |
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Two
hoots for public health
CONSTITUTIONAL
CONVENTIONS
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President:
more sinned against than sinning
Skeletons
in socialite cupboards
Hot
cross bun vs the croissant
Communal tension in Bengal |
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Two hoots for public health THE fact that the right to life includes the concept of healthy and wholesome living has not been given due emphasis by the succession of governments in this country. The Union Ministry of Health has been christened again and again and the scope of healthcare has been seemingly enlarged. The rapidly growing population has put several formidable problems before those who lay down healthcare policies on behalf of the Government. Society is dependent upon hospitals and clinics, both public and private, for the elimination of numerous kinds of physical suffering. Mainly, the infrastructure has to be provided by the State. During British days, civil hospitals headed by civil surgeons or assistant civil surgeons tried to maintain a certain level of healthcare. There were several concessions for the poor and relief was provided according to the prevailing scientific standards in subdivisional and district hospitals. All medical colleges had hospitals attached to them and the treatment provided in such places happened to be of a rather high standard. From the municipalities to the level of the apex department concerned with the preventive and curative aspects of diseases, there was the all-round awareness that the public needed protective health measures and services. The situation has worsened particularly during the past five years. “Effective primary healthcare centres” exist only on paper. Government dispensaries are ill-equipped in terms of manpower and medicines. Hospitals at various levels have certain facilities but their dispensation is not possible according to the prescribed norms because of corruption, lethargy and a glaring lack of supervision by the department concerned. Ask Dr Satnam Singh, formerly of the WHO, or Dr M.L. Kataria of the old-age-care movement. They will tell you the facts. The report published in
The Tribune on Sunday about the oppressive cost of
hospital services is just an example. The poor have no
chance of availing themselves of medical and surgical
assistance possible at, say, Government Rajendra
Hospital, Patiala. Where from can a rickshawpuller or a
daily-wage-earner in a private shop get Rs 350 to pay as
the initial security charges? All diagnostic
investigations have become unaffordably costly. Patients
have to leave the wards at their own risk because they
cannot pay for the treatment. What does the future have
in store for the ailing poor? Suffering, private-sector
exploitation and death? We have forgotten the concept of
public health, which “includes all actions taken to
maintain and improve the general health of a
community”. The government health programmes are
expected to offer public health services. In addition,
many voluntary health agencies receive contributions from
the Exchequer to combat specific diseases. These agencies
have to provide medical services, campaign for health
legislation and implement health educational programmes.
Preventive medicine is getting scant importance. Hospital
services have not improved in proportion to the hike in
the charges for the facilities. There is an urgent need
for evolving an all-embracing national health insurance
scheme which should truly be a government programme that
finances essential health services to the majority of the
people. In many countries such services are part of
“socialised medicine”. National health
insurance should be an obligatory public health measure.
If the hospitals do not control the hike in various
charges, there would be catastrophic consequences. Is the
government withdrawing from the health sector because of
the shortage of funds? Perhaps not. It should divert
money from other schemes to win the battle of life
against death. |
Regrouping exercise IT demands suspension of disbelief to comprehend and accept the political regrouping taking shape in various states. Old ideological fig leaves, which were used to justify alliances, are being joyously tossed away in the heat of new compulsions. Even hardened cynics and nihilists will be aghast at this display of raw opportunism. The most garish example naturally comes from the South where the film world still dominates politics. DMK chief Karunanidhi, whose script writing once made or marred Tamil films, has drafted a new one for his party which has more twists than an average pot-boiler. He is eager to hold the BJP in an electoral embrace and has gone through several verbal contortions to justify it. If somebody had predicted this development just a month back, he would have earned the membership of the flat earth society. The DMK is the only rationalist party in this country. It feverishly campaigns against all forms of superstition and considers religious worship and wedding and death rites as blind belief. It has the reputation of being a Tamil chauvinistic party, opposed to Hindi. For a long time it railed against what it called North Indian “exploitation” and dubbed the local RSS front organisation, Hindu Munnani, a “fascist outfit”. Until the trust vote on April 17, it said that it would fight against communalism first and against corruption (of the Jayalalitha variety) later. Now it lusts to cohabit with the same BJP. The DMK is also ready to align with the Vaiko-led MDMK, which broke away from the Karunanidhi party after accusing it of letting down the Tamils of Sri Lanka. There are reports of a similar political rope trick from the AIADMK camp. It has started negotiations with the PMK, now in the BJP-led alliance. And the great lady has regally declared that if the Left is so willing, she can spare a few seats for it. The Left in the Jaya camp? That will be the ultimate irony. It has been the most consistent and tireless critic of her corrupt ways and autocratic style. Even if the two Left parties face a real threat of being friendless in Tamil Nadu, it should not, by past policies, plump for the Jaya option. Similar bizarre dramas
are being played out in other states. In Karnataka, a
section of the Janata Dal is getting ready to join the
BJP while the other is eyeing the Congress. That is
Karnataka’s seminal contribution to evolving a
two-party system. In Maharashtra, the Mumbai unit of the
Samajwadi Party and the state RPI have broken away from
the Congress. If Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav decides to throw
his lot with any other party, the Mumbai unit will follow
suit. Today an electoral agreement between the BJP and
the SP in UP looks impossible and in fact has been
officially denied, but the BJP may want it to counter the
effects of a likely Congress-BSP line-up. After three
years of a spirited anti-corruption drive in Bihar, which
in effect was an anti-Laloo Prasad Yadav campaign, the
Left is ready to fight the election in his company. But
the real sting in the tail comes from Punjab. Former SGPC
president G.S. Tohra is mobilising the anti-Akali forces,
including the two Communist parties and the BSP, to take
on the SAD-BJP combination! |
CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTIONS MR Atal Behari Vajpayee has very fairly acknowledged the limitations imposed by his government’s caretaker status but added that he would “take appropriate steps at the appropriate time in order to meet national and international obligations”. This has been echoed by his ebullient Minister of Information and Broadcasting. It is half-truth to suggest that the word “caretaker” is the figment of the journalists’ imagination, and that the word does not figure in the Indian Constitution. To the innocents who present this point of view, it may be pointed out that the word does figure in the dictionary. It means a government or person who is temporarily in charge. As for the absence of express provision in the Constitution, it may be pointed out that the Constitution of a country is basically founded on constitutional morality and conventions, and precedents are as much part of the Constitution as are the express provisions. This is particularly so in the case of the British Constitution, which, as everybody knows, is an unwritten one. The Indian Constitution has written into the document itself certain British conventions, and the Constitution-makers hoped that the other conventions would be followed faithfully. Among these conventions is the practice that a ministry, which has resigned but which has been asked by the President to continue the job until suitable arrangements have been made, must not take basic decisions which would embarrass a newly elected government. It was Mr Charan Singh, who never faced Parliament and yet became a caretaker Prime Minister, who first argued that the word “caretaker” did not figure in the Constitution and hence he would work as a full-fledged government. He got away with many things he did, but President Sanjiva Reddy put his foot down when Mr Charan Singh wanted to promulgate an Ordinance in order to provide State funding of elections. The caretaker Prime Minister pleaded that his government was incurring expenditure of a much larger magnitude for other purposes and hence there should be no objection to an Ordinance on State funding of elections. The President said the question was not the quantum of money involved but a major change in the electoral law, which he could not allow a caretaker Prime Minister to bring about. He left Mr Charan Singh in no doubt that if he persisted with his proposal, he would have to overrule the caretaker Prime Minister. President R. Venkataraman had to deal with two caretaker governments, of Mr V.P. Singh and Mr Chandra Shekhar, and has now given an account of how he dealt with them in his book, “My Presidential Years”. The V.P. Singh government had decided to license a large number of sugar mills after he was defeated in the Lok Sabha and was functioning in caretaker capacity. Mr Venkataraman has said there was widespread suspicion that these might be fund-raising operations. When the minutes of the Cabinet meeting came to Mr Venkataraman, he noted that the decision should be deferred till a newly elected government was formed. Mr V.P. Singh saw the point. In its caretaker capacity, the Chandra Shekhar government wanted to issue new licences on the plea that this was in accordance with the existing guidelines and no new policy was involved. The President ruled that the issuance of new licences during the course of an election was against the norms of democratic practice. Mr Chandra Shekhar readily agreed to observe the convention in spirit. However, Dr Subramaniam Swamy, who was then Law Minister, pestered the President for being allowed to sign a contract with the Hyundai Heavy Industries and another with British Aircraft. He readily became overbearing and asked the President whether he was returning the Cabinet’s advice for reconsideration. On being told that he was merely being given advice and it was for him to take it or leave it. Dr Swamy aggressively asked him what would happen if the Cabinet did not follow his advice? The President sternly told him that he would examine his responsibility in such matters under the Constitution and act accordingly. President Venkataraman was able to prevent major decisions by the Chandra Shekhar government but thought the grant of telephone connections and gas agencies to be too trivial a matter to attract his attention. It can be safely argued that the constitutional convention has developed in this country that, when a government is acting in its caretaker capacity, the President functions as the watch-dog and it is his job to ensure that constitutional morality and conventions in this regard are maintained. What did Mr Venkataraman mean when he told Dr Subramaniam Swamy that he would examine his responsibility in such matters and act accordingly? It is my reading of the Constitution that, if push came to a shove, the President could have dismissed the caretaker Chandra Shekhar government and appointed another person as the caretaker Prime Minister, for the only constitutional requirement is that the President “shall” have a Council of Ministers to aid and advise him in the discharge of his functions. That the Prime Minister who has lost the majority support in the Lok Sabha is asked to function as a caretaker, is a matter of convention. Those who are prepared to defy the convention of limited powers for a caretaker government deserve to lose the convention that a defeated Prime Minister should act as caretaker. However, Mr Chandra Shekhar showed more maturity than Dr Swamy, and Mr Venkataraman has acknowledged this in his book. It can be argued that the demands of a global village are different from those of a colonial power, and, therefore, the British conventions, on which our own are modelled, cannot be a guide. National and international obligations have to be met. However, there are ways
and ways of doing it. The Vajpayee ministry would be well
advised to consult the President on major, but
inevitable, policy decisions, as also the major political
parties in meeting international obligations, and to
eschew decisions whose main purpose is to garner votes. |
E. Timor towards independence THE long-winding and at times bitter process of decolonisation in Africa and Asia is now complete, except in Western Sahara in North Africa, now under the illegal control of Morocco, and in East Timor in South-East Asia, under similar control of Indonesia.While Western Sahara may be free in December after the Sahrawis vote in the UN-backed referendum, there is a great deal of political confusion over the future of East Timor, a former Portuguese colonial outpost, which was forcibly annexed by neighbouring Indonesia in December, 1975. The United Nations and most individual countries still view Portugal as the legal administrator of the territory. At the same time, the East Timor liberation movement, Fretelin, has been fighting for the liberation of the territory from Indonesian control. For nearly three decades, the Suharto regime in Indonesia unleashed a policy of repression, adamant on its stance that it would not allow secession of any part of the archipelago. In the process, the East Timorese suffered inhuman atrocities. According to media reports, nearly 200,000 were killed by the Suharto regime. The latter’s record is one of worst human rights abuses — of rapes, killings and summary executions. But the political scenario concerning Indonesia and East Timor suddenly changed for the better with the assumption of power by President B.J. Habibie last year. His government started taking steps to rid itself of East Timor expeditiously. He is on record as having said that East Timor was a “pebble” in his shoe. Some of his colleagues, however, felt that East Timor was a “millstone around our neck”. There was also realisation in Jakarta that holding East Timor against the wishes of its population was not worth the trouble — especially in view of the economic crisis. During the days of Suharto, any talk of autonomy for East Timor was considered a treasonable offence but with Habibie coming to power, every Indonesian started talking of wide-ranging autonomy for the territory. President Habibie declared: “We do not want to be burdened with the problem of East Timor as of January 1, 2000”. From then on things started moving rather swiftly. Xanana Gusmao, popular leader of the East Timorese people and head of the Fretelin, who was arrested in 1992, was released from high security prison and kept under house arrest, where he was allowed to interact with the outside world. In a significant international move, a meeting was held between Indonesia and Portugal in New York in June last year, under the auspices of the United Nations, where the two countries agreed to hammer out an autonomy plan and to accord a “special autonomous status” for East Timor. It was also agreed that in case the people of the territory rejected the offer for autonomy, Jakarta would recommend to the new parliament, which will be convened after the general election in June, 1999, that East Timor be given independence and recognised as a separate state. But how the popular will of the people should be tested has become a matter of controversy. Jakarta is opposed to the idea of a referendum because it could open a Pandora’s box. The Habibie government fears that other provinces like Acheh and Sulewesi, which are justifiably afraid of political and economic domination of the people of Java, may also start asking for a referendum. This may eventually lead to the balkanisation of Indonesia. Another complicating factor is the fear of violence getting escalated between pro-Indonesia and pro-independence factions in East Timor. The militia fighters of the former group are openly backed by the Indonesian army. There are media reports that the pro-Indonesia group is already being provided with weapons. While the pro-Indonesia group is mainly of Islamic faith, like the rest of the country, the pro-independence wing led by Fretelin is predominantly Christian. As in Goa in India, East Timor came under the influence of Portuguese Roman Catholic priests, who converted a majority of the population to Christianity, making them distinct from the rest of the population. Analysts fear that if there is an increase in violence in East Timor, refugees will start moving into Australia and New Zealand, further complicating the existing difficult situation. The divide and rule policy of the military authorities in East Timor may also come in the way of independence of the territory. The delay in East Timor gaining independence and the fear of violence erupting in a big way is frustrating Fretelin leader Gusmao, who recently made a statement through his legal counsel that the guerrillas seeking the territory’s independence from Indonesia should renew their armed rebellion. — IPA
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Hot
cross bun vs the croissant MAY I commend for your consideration two thoughts on the conflict in the Balkans. Before you say: “Not another piece on this far-off conflagration”, I beg you to read at least the next couple of paragraphs. They are not the efforts of my grey matter being put to work. The first is from Mary Kenny, the writer married to Richard West who has known the area for 50 years. She says that she loved Albania and the Albanians ever since she visited the country in the eighties. She thinks they are a beautiful people with many children (her own words, and she continues): The nub of the conflict in the region is birth control. The Serbs have low fertility and high rates of abortion and have been outbred by the Albanians, who have neither. Experience on the home front — her husband does not agree with her — has made her believe that one can never helpfully interfere in the Balkans. “It causes more trouble than it relieves.” She is certainly right on this count, if not on the other (though I think she could have a point.) Petrick Leigh Fermor has another succint theory: it is the age-old struggle between the hot-cross-bun and the croissant. (A Time of Gifts which is an account of his walk across Europe before World War II broke out.) He tells of the great siege three hundred years ago when Vienna almost fell to the Turks. He wonders what would have happened if the Turks had taken the city. They may well have reached London, because till then they had been invincible. “Might St Paul’s, being rebuilt after the great fire of London have ended up with minarets instead of its two bell-towers and a crescent twinkling on the dome? Well, the Turks did not win and Suleiman the Magnificent strangled and decapitated at Belgrade his Grand Vizier Kara Mustafa for his failure. And the Viennese took to drinking Turkish coffee. The earliest coffee houses in Vienna were kept by some of the Sultan’s Greek and Serbian subjects who had fled to Vienna. And that’s not all; now comes the croissant. When I had my first croissant at Vallorbe at dawn as the train crossed over from France to Switzerland — it was not at all like the ones we get over here, being ever so flakey and buttery, and the jam was Swiss black cherry — I did not know how it had come to acquire the shape of a crescent. But these many years later I know why from Patrick Leigh Fermor. “But the rolls which the Viennese dipped in the new drink (of coffee) were modelled on the half-moons of the Sultan’s flag. The shape caught on all over the world. They mark the end of the age-old struggle between the hot-cross-bun and the croissant.” He is doubtless right,
but not about it being the end of the struggle. He lives
in Northern Greece, not far from where the NATO bombers
are playing havoc. Surely he would agree. |
President: more sinned against
“AN appeal to the electorate,” wrote that immortal doyen of constitutional scholars, Sir Ivor Jennings, “is an appeal to the supreme constitutional authority.” It is true, he said, citing Lord Balfour, the British Prime Minister from 1902 to 1905, that “no constitution can stand a diet of dissolutions”. But dieting (he clarified) would be demanded only because the Constitution failed to carry on its proper function of providing a government with a stable majority. Occurring in Jennings’ hallowed classic on the Cabinet system of government, whose utility seems to enhance with every passing day even though the facts which it interprets become progressively more dated, these words bear a remarkable relevance to President K.R. Narayanan’s dissolution of the Lok Sabha last Monday. We have with us by now, one, a complete official statement of the developments leading up to the dissolution and its raison d’etre, contained in the press communique issued by Rashtrapati Bhavan on April 26, and two, an excellent unofficial reconstruction of events by the weekly, India Today, in the latest (May 10) issue of the magazine. Reading the two together, it is difficult, if not impossible, to agree with the criticism of the President’s conduct during the crisis emanating from motley quarters. I have in the past in this column spoken candidly, even severely at times, about Mr Narayanan — faulting him for his concept of a “working President” alien to our Constitution, for his going public over disagreement with the BJP government on vital issues of policy and for his advocacy of a quota of sorts for the scheduled castes in appointments to the nation’s Supreme Court and the High Courts. His conduct, however, during the present crisis leading to the dissolution of the Lok Sabha has been almost exemplary from the standpoint of the Constitution, and I would be failing in my duty if I did not say so. Was it right for the President to have asked Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee to seek a fresh vote of confidence from the House following withdrawal of support to his government by the AIADMK leader, Ms Jayalalitha? The answer to that seminal question, the first question that must be asked in any objective appraisal of the President’s conduct, is provided by two important precedents of the recent past. Precedents which Mr Narayanan could have ignored only at the risk of causing a deep dent in his reputation for impartiality and which have now, after Mr Narayanan rightly chose to follow them in the present case, acquired the status of a constitutional convention. Unfortunately for the BJP, the party itself was responsible for the first of the two precedents. Following Mr L.K. Advani’s spectacular rath yatra through Bihar and his arrest by the Bihar government under the NSA, the BJP withdrew on October 23, 1990, its support to the National Front government led by Mr V.P. Singh, reducing it to a minority in the Lok Sabha. “A delegation of the BJP led by Atal Behari Vajpayee met me on October 23,” the then President, Mr R. Venkataraman, recounts in his memoirs My Presidential Years “and presented a letter withdrawing support to the V.P. Singh government.” Prime Minister V.P. Singh met the President an hour later and took note of the withdrawal and, again, on October 24 to convey the Cabinet’s decision not to tender the resignation of the Council of Ministers. V.P. Singh had earlier won a vote of confidence (recounts Mr Venkataraman) and was carrying on as Prime Minister. “In my view he was entitled to continue in office until he was thrown out by a vote of the House. To allow the President or Governor to guess whether the ruling party enjoys the confidence of the House, is to allow free play for the likes and dislikes of holders of the impartial office (of President). Consistent with this view I asked V.P. Singh to take a vote of confidence in the Lok Sabha as early as possible.” Parliament was not in session and a one-day emergency session was convened for the purpose, when the government was voted out. Having created this precedent by its own initial action and a successful precedent to boot (for the confidence motion failed and the government fell), how can the BJP now complain that the President acted unconstitutionally in requiring Mr Vajpayee to seek a fresh confidence vote? And how, with great respect for Mr Vajpayee, can the President now be blamed for not adopting a course of action envisaged neither by the Indian Constitution nor by the conventions of Westminster democracy on which it is based but by another and totally different Constitution? The Constitution or Basic Law of the Federal Republic of Germany, Article 67 whereof provides that “the Bundestag can express its lack of confidence in the Federal Chancellor only by electing a successor with the majority of its members....” Such a provision if introduced in India, let us not forget, would help a Narasimha Rao in office as much as a Atal Behari Vajpayee. Its value as a measure of stability can, therefore, easily be offset by its potential for the corruption of power. The second precedent — again a successful one — in the same line of action was established when President Shankar Dayal Sharma asked Mr H.D. Deve Gowda to seek a fresh vote of confidence immediately following withdrawal of support by the Congress president, Mr Sitaram Kesri. That was in March-April, 1997, and the spectacle would still be fresh in the readers’ minds. More on the President,
more sinned against than sinning, next week. |
Skeletons in socialite cupboards
SO skeletons are emerging out of socialite cupboards. Political instability took a backseat here as by Friday noon news spread of the murder of former model Jessica Lal. A furore of sorts. For one, this incident took place at the Mehrauli situated restaurant — Tamarind Court — owned and run by the well connected socialite Bina Ramani and also the fact that the young man who is said to have shot is said to be closely related to a top VVIP of the country. And then those details which are now lagging not too far behind — the fact that liquor was served in this restaurant even without a valid licence; the list of who’s who that frequented it especially on Thursday nights in the name of ‘private partying’; and the security bandobasts which seemed inadequate for even though the shoot out took place during the ‘party’, yet none could overpower or chase the culprits. Says a visitor to Tamarind Court who, however, adds that he wasn’t present at his particular party “lately I had stopped going there as I began to find the atmosphere too hi-fi. Basically the crowd consisted of designers, models and socialites, which includes Malini, the Lawrence School (Sanawar) educated daughter of Ramani, and her close friends, one of whom was Jessica, who not only frequented the place but even worked as a bartender. Speculation is also rife whether it was just the denial of liquor by Jessica (who was the bartender that particular night) to the young man, that was the sole reason behind this shoot out. “Even though there are talks about some sexual escapades I wouldn’t be aware .... for as far as I know drinks were definitely served and people danced but nothing beyond that... if a couple already knew each other and showed physical intimacy then it was purely their problem “says another socialite of this city who has seen the entire complex taking shape in the last few years.” After Ramani first set up a shop and a restaurant ‘Bistro’ in partnership with Suresh Kalmadi at the Hauz Khas village and the experiment did wonders she opened this particular restaurant and the shopping place and Thursday evenings were primarily reserved for art shows, talks, get-togethers and somehow inbetween all this, the partying concept took off... Though there was the camouflage of private partying but in reality you had to pay for your drinks. The music, the dance, the ambience probably came along with the drinks....” About a decade back I had witnessed the launch of Ramani’s former restaurant ‘Bistro’ and amidst a lavish spread, to be spotted were several senior civil servants and politicians and of course the big names of the ramp world. If I’m not mistaken that was the time she had played the liaison’s role in filmstar Rekha’s marriage to Delhi based businessman Mukesh Aggarwal, for Ramani’s links with the Bollywood people are well known and it is said that her parties always had a share representation from that quarter. And like I had mentioned in one of my previous columns late partying here doesn’t just get limited to food or liquor but men make it a point to extract that extra pound of flesh, by patting your back, shoulders, arms and so on. And unlike KPS Gill manage to get away with it all! Anyway, it’s to be seen whether in this case who all don’t really manage to get away. The other happenings In the backdrop of the political chaos there has been the launch of a special ‘Book Club’ by the Living Media group. “The idea is to bring the latest books at your doorstep and even at a reduced price. Not just that the Book Club member will have the facility of the selection of new titles — a quarterly magazine with all the latest information about the latest in the print media — whether it is bestseller lists or reviews or exclusive extracts and articles,” informs Ashok Chopra who’s not only a writer-cum-publisher himself but the publishing director of this exclusive club. And so taken up are readers by this unique offer that though this club was launched only three weeks back but already 10,000 enthusiastic readers have become its members. And in the midst of this instability the visit of the Cambodian Prime Minister, scheduled to have taken place last week, stood postponed. I suppose till a time we are over with the elections and selection of the new government. In fact no foreign dignitary and head of State is likely to visit us till the elections are over and nor are there any scheduled visits by our Head of the State. And midweek a four day long Kuchipudi Natya Mahotsav took off, where the Kuchipudi duo Raja Radha presented not only the present day Kuchipudi dance form but traced its very origins — back to the ‘Kuchipudi village, which is a hamlet lying 65 km away from Vijayawada and it is in this village that Siddhendra Yogi the very architect of this particular dance form was born. The chief guest on the inaugural day was the former President Shankar Dayal Sharma but the man has become so frail that he couldn’t sit through the entire function (left midway as he was said to be feeling ill) and the Japanese ambassador took on the role of presenting the various mementos etc. A thing that struck me as pleasantly surprising is that several dancers of different forms —Kathak, Bharatnatyam, Mohiniattam etc — were to be spotted that evening as was Amjad Ali Khan and other well known classical maestros. And as attention once
again got focused on Tibet let me bring to your notice
that in a few months time the English version of Xavier
Moro’s book on Tibet — The Mountains of Buddha
— will be published here (Full Circle) and this
young nephew of Dominique Lapierre has many a tale to
bare about the ongoings in Tibet in this book...
“The Chinese are completely ruining the culture...
twice I visited Tibet in the guise of a tourist and this
book revolves around the way two nuns had to flee from
there to here ...” |
Communal tension in Bengal IT is a matter of common knowledge that for some time communal tension has been increasing in Bengal, as in some other Provinces, and the recent controversy over the Hindu Muslim Pact and its reverberation in the Council has materially accentuated the evil. Today it has attained such proportions that it has actually become possible for mischief-mongers to exploit it for the purpose of asking the Muslims to boycott the Provincial Conference which will hold its sittings at Serajgunj in June next. Happily, Bengal can
boast of at least some Muslim leaders who are as good
nationalists as any to be found in other communities, and
eight of these, headed by Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, have
not only seen through the tactics of these fomenters of
communal strife, but have had the courage to publicly
expose them. |
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