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Saturday,
April 28, 2001, Chandigarh, India   |
Parroting master's
voice One election, two rules Chandigarh's uncivil
corporation |
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American signals and signatures
Good advice is bad
advice!
Tavleen Singh
Implications of Punjabi Conference
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Parroting master's voice THE All-Party Hurriyat Conference (APHC) has proved yet again that it is only the executing agency for the unholy agenda drawn up and dictated by Pakistani masters. Its "no Pakistan, no talks" drone should be music to the ears of the puppeteers, but diminishes the moral standing of its leaders sitting pretty in Srinagar. Obviously, they are not interested in peace or a permanent solution. Their hidden objective is to somehow hand over Kashmir to Pakistan on a platter. Anyone wanting to hold meaningful negotiations has to be hustled into silence. To make sure that the Indian peace initiative is duly punctured, it has put in conditions galore. The first and foremost is to make Pakistan a party, a prerequisite that India rightly rejects. Two, the APHC wants its delegation to be allowed to go to Pakistan. But the most fantastic stipulation that it has made is that it should be considered the only representative of the people of Jammu and Kashmir. It is another matter that it has not tested its standing through any elections and some of its members are leaders sans followers. The announcement made by the executive committee is a blow to the aspirations of the moderate elements within the 23-party conglomerate who are serious about peace parleys. Rabid hardliners like Syed Ali Shah Geelani, who went so far as to say that the inhuman mutilation of the bodies of BSF soldiers by Bangladesh was a "poetic justice", have finally won the day. The shape of things to come was clear when bombs were hurled at the APHC headquarters itself. The moderates were suitably gagged into silence. The Hurriyat knows that if it rejects the talks in so many words, it will pave the way for other leaders to step in. It also knows that the world opinion is all for peaceful negotiations. So it has kept its stand ambivalent on whether it accepts the talks or rejects them. This way, it has also kept an escape route open. It has accused the Centre of inviting a crowd (for talks). Perhaps it does not realise that democracy is all about talking to everybody. Trying to have a monopoly over the talks only betrays its autocratic tendencies so dear to military dictators. Chief Minister, Farooq Abdullah has called this stand a betrayal of the people of the State. But then, the APHC is not the sole representative of the people. Its fulminations have made the job of Mr K. C. Pant difficult; not impossible. |
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One election, two rules FORMER Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalitha’s nomination papers have been rejected because she is under a three-year conviction. Former Kerala Electricity Minister R. Balakrishna Pillai’s nomination papers have been accepted although he carries a five-year conviction. Elections in both Assembly constituencies are being held under the same Election Commission (EC) and under the same set of rules. How is this for a legal quirk? In Tamil Nadu all four returning officers went strictly by a set of EC instructions issued way back in 1997 and invoked the two-years-or-more-conviction clause to deny Ms Jayalalitha her right to contest the election. In Kerala the returning officer in Kottarakara totally ignored these orders but went by a subsection in the Representation of the People Act (RPA) to wave the convicted candidate through. This rule simply says that a convicted legislator will continue to enjoy all rights and privileges pending the disposal of his appeal in a higher court. He pitted this commonsense provision against the unambiguous thrust of the 1977 guidelines and lifted the convicted former Minister to place him above law. The returning officer had obviously done his homework. He has relied on a Calcutta High Court judgement in support of accepting the nomination papers although newspaper reports are silent on details. He makes too much of a distinction between a sitting MLA and a person aspiring to be an MLA, and showers the sitting one, Mr Pillai, with the right to contest an election. Thus he makes the right to fight an election an inalienable part of an MLA’s privileges. This is making all legislators latter-day Tughlaqs. There is a convention that neither the court of law the Election Commission will interfere once the election process has started. It is both healthy and warranted. If the courts could entertain petitions after the filing of the nominations, the whole process will be clogged and the time schedule will go haywire. As for the EC, it should remain totally neutral and above pressure and partisan biases and that is ensured by blocking its powers until the results are announced. But there are occasions when the EC should wade into the process to uphold the legitimacy of the whole process. Luckily, it has done this twice in recent years. It asked the returning officer of Lucknow to delete the name of an independent candidate after his papers were accepted. In Delhi in 1998, it restored the papers of a former corporation officer, which were wrongly rejected. Maybe here is the third opportunity, equally compelling. The EC should seek a detailed report from Kottarakara and review the returning officer’s arguments and why he ignored the 1997 instructions. From a distance it appears that here is another instance to force a change in the acceptance of Mr Pillai’s papers. The EC should also formulate its policy on allowing a person not eligible to contest an election to stake claim to become Chief Minister. The time to tackle a possible move by Ms Jayalalitha starts now.
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Chandigarh's uncivil corporation THE Chandigarh Municipal Corporation was expected to be a civic body with a difference. The positive economic and educational profile of the city was what made most people believe that the city fathers of Chandigarh would set high standards of civic administration for the rest of country. The creation of the municipal corporation was meant to end bureaucratic indifference to addressing the civic problems of the City Beautiful. However, the "tu tu, main main" over the past few days among the people's representative on issues which have nothing to do with improving the basic civic amenities has pushed the Chandigarh Municipal Corporation close to being counted among the worst administered civic bodies in the region. The sense of relief among the people on getting rid of an overbearing bureaucracy would now appear to have been unjustified. The remedy in the form of a municipal corporation made up of elected representatives is turning out to be worse than the "disease" of making an indifferent bureaucracy pay attention to the mounting civic problems of the city. Look at the state of upkeep of the roads and the streetlights. Add to it the erratic water and power supply and the sharp deterioration in the quality of disposal of garbage. The picture that emerges is hardly reassuring. There are reports that the administration may take the unpleasant step of ordering the dissolution of the Chandigarh Municipal Corporation. The sooner it is done the better. Both the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party members are responsible for turning the corporation into a non-functional organisation. Not one elected representative can offer a valid reason for stalling the business of the civic body. Mayor Raj Kumar Goyal appears to have taken lessons from Mr P. V. Narasimha Rao in the matter of turning a minority into a majority. However, instead of demanding his resignation the BJP should hold an enquiry to find out why its own members helped Mr Goyal of the Congress get elected as Mayor in spite of his party being in the minority. Nevertheless, he would be doing the city a huge favour if he were to resign. Not because the BJP says so, but because of the unhealthy precedent he has set by having the pavement in his immediate neighbourhood paved with expensive tiles. He has also placed himself above the municipal laws by refusing to knock down the hedge in front of his place of residence. Why? The overall picture too is dismal. The city fathers have made Chandigarh look like an orphaned city. |
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American signals and signatures IN my two earlier pieces — one on Bill Clinton’s Visit (of April 1, 2000 and the other on EI Gore-Bush tenancy of the White House (Oct 17) (The Tribune of Oct 17, 2000), I had quite clearly voiced my apprehensions in regard to the Bush “victory” and the cold war prospects, as also to the reversal of the Clinton “tilt” towards India after a triumphant visit resulting in “the Vision Statement”. This wasn’t any act of great perception, for the American political attitudes and their hegemonic dreams are by now so stereotyped as to leave little to the imagination of resilience. Democratic-Republicans, as I observed in that article, basically remain a pair of political Rosencrants and Guildersterns (like fork and knife) where their foreign interests are concerned. Even in their domestic perceptions and predilections, most of the apparent differences melt away under a proper scrutiny. Still, the Democrats from the days of the great FDR have regarded India with understanding, sensing its potentials as a country with a unique heritage, and quite capable of rising from the levels it had been reduced to by the British imperialism of colonial loot. I trust, though President Jimmy Carter, the Democratic President, did make some efforts to present India as a great entity, a state of mind rather than a geopolitical piece of real estate in the Indo-Pak “game”, his presidency remained non-functional largely. And that warm-hearted, insightful statesman-like figure remains till this day an unobtrusive peacemaker, the peanut gentleman farmer from Georgia turned a global “ambassador”. Bill Clinton, a strong person and a strong intellect with a whole range of rhetoric and ideas naturally understood India better. And he left us in a state of euphoria and warm nostalgic memories, and Pakistan in a state of shock and sullenness. And now that George Bush whose presidency remains “suspect” in most American eyes, and who’s keen to assert his power at the very start to forestall erosion and a possible derailment both at home and abroad, if only to prove his credentials, has already done a couple of nasty things — the invasion of Iraq (rudely ignoring the UN Secretary General-BBC World), an “unfinished” paternal obligation, and the announcement of the “Star War” programme, The news for India therefore, cannot but be unhappy. And he has already asked Russia to stop the supply of nuclear fuel to India’s Tarapur reactors, and he has proposed an Indo-Pak high-level meeting in “a third country” under the benign watchful eye of Uncle Sam. Before I enlarge the argument, I take the liberty to return to my Clinton article, particularly to the concluding paragraph in which I had hinted about the possibility of the Cold War ethos if the Presidential Plane “Air Force One” landing at the Dulles International Airport in Washington did not escape the “Dulles touch” soon after arrival. As we know, John Foster Dulles was the architect of “the Cold War” era and “brinkmanship”, as also a champion of McCarthyism — that anti-communist virus which had in the fifties poisoned the American mind, and started a new order of “witch-hunting”. I go into such forgotten details only to provide sinews to my thought in the case I’m seeking to state. Already, his two major acts — the raids on the innocent suffering people of Iraq under the UN garb, supported by a supine, “spaniel” British — “the Lion” with the tail in its legs, and the decision to go ahead with the stalled “Star War” anti-nuclear umbrella despite loud protests from Russia, China and some Western allies have created conditions of the chill that signals the advent of the cold blasts. And to add to President Bush’s misery, the killing of nine Japanese fishermen in a disaster involving a US nuclear submarine has put the entire US-Japanese relationship in a state of anguished suspense. The Japanese have never forgotten Hiroshima and Nagasaki — America’s first and only victims of the nuclear bomb to date — and the sentiment in that regard runs deep enough in Japanese corporate psyche to cause shivers in the Pentagon, and in the Oval Office. These are ominous signs for the man seated in that exalted place. Again, another bad news for him to ponder and weigh. The first-ever President to be elected to the White House without a popular majority vote, and a President facing hostile Black voters of Florida “cheated” out of their rights has now to contend with the news (I heard it on the BBC World) that over 20000 votes were “deliberately” omitted from the final Florida count....Prospects of a humiliating litigation — and perhaps impeachment must be haunting his mind. A grim reminder also of the Republican Nixon’s disgraceful exit after Watergate. Ironies of history, if you like. And who indeed knows what the soothsayers have yet to tell him, Bush is no Clinton who managed to get out of his impeachment crisis, thanks to his wonderful ingenuinty of mind and rhetoric, the Lewinsky affair fading out into dots and dashes. A frigid, stuck-up face (as I said in my El-Gore-Bush piece, compared to the open-warm-hearted handsome Gore), the ultra-conservative President has now to remain a troubled mind. Even such sops to the Blacks as the appointment of General Powell, as Secretary of State are going to come a cropper if Providence does not intervene to ... In a manner, the Cold War which apparently was over after the collapse of the Soviet Union has been there all along, for entrenched suspicions and shelved anxieties do not get dissipated so soon. Indeed, the stunning news (BBC World, Feb. 21) that a ranking FBI agent working in the heart of the American secret service headquarters has been found guilty of working for the Russian Embassy in Washington during the last 12 years or so, receiving his greenbacks in huge packets. It was “a crushing blow” to the US Intelligence Services. And he was caught red handed, and shown on the TV screen. The event has upset each quasy stomach in the American Establishment — and President Bush looked bewildered and lost. One wonders though, why the governments cause so much furore over this kind of business when their own agents and spies “who come from the cold” are doing exactly the same thing. The
Locker by verdict and Col Gaddafi’s incensed Algerians again look “time-bombs” for the American secret service agents and the “frame-up” in question. Patriotism is often a very weary and vagrant sentiment. No wonder, the French De Tocqueville in his classic statement said this of the 19th century capitalist America” ... the people seem to be stinking with national conceit”. Perhaps the most disquieting thing for President Bush and his cold-war warriors is the growing unrest over the American mess in Iraq right inside the USA itself. One recalls how the American youth and campus scholars rose in anguish and flaming anger protesting the American bombings and brutalities in Vietnam. I was right there in those inflammable moments, and I saw in the Harvard University yard pitched battles between the incensed students and the City mounted police — abusive slogans, incendiary scenes and what have you! The affluent American youth today are a class apart, but one must not forget that the Jefferson-Lincoln streak in them can become a menacing signal if the economy slows down further, and becomes stagnant under the Bush Administration. And to add to its miseries and wrongdoings, the stand-off between the US Administration and a powerful and proud China over the American Spy imbroglio the Bush Presidency appears to be heading for a huge crisis. The repudiation of the Global warming treaty by it is another calculated step to queer the pitch with a view to asserting its supreme supremacy and appeasing the vanity of the Americans at home. All these may precipitate old conflicts and antagonism. The cold war “call” is thus, a wild call in the end, and the Americans would do well to recognise the moment of truth. |
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Good advice is bad
advice! YOU may dismiss me as a crank or a dim-wit. But one thing you cannot brush off is that the plethora of advice good samaritans unload on you, is trash. (Include me out!) The reason is simple: Like a bulletproof coat, it is good for others only. No one follows it, in any case. But good advice has become an all-weather umbrella. The law of diminishing return follows. The more you give, the less it is taken. That is one reason why “moral values” thrust upon kids by well-meaning parents go down the drain. Family magazines, women magazines, youth magazines, Soaps, dignified newspapers with female body pictures, to protect their cushy but undeserving jobs, are generous with good advice. We have colour pages of this-and-that which fill space but create “space” in the mind! Advice columns in homoeopathy, allopathy, predictions by astrologers and “columnists” yet in the “cradle,” have their say. What do they give? Sugary “wisdom” which, if you follow, makes your life harder! Here are examples. One columnist says, “Spend 30 minutes in body exercises before starting the day.” Obviously, this oracle assumes that human body has no bones in it! And everyone going to office, especially wife and husband, have the time to go through the drill — if they have time to read his column! Now, comes deep-breathe for 30 minutes every day. It promises “spiritual fulfilment”. Earthy men and women, hustled and harried, look first and work for physical and emotional fulfilment. Even for that they cannot squeeze out 10 minutes. Only idlers can do that. Good-living articles are well-meaning. You want to give up drinking but your affair with the green-snakes has a hold on you. It makes you and your family miserable. You curse yourself for being weak-willed. Next time, when you announce the decision to be cruel to your bittery, tell your wife that if you “slur” this time, you will buy her a gold ring. Your wife will sing for the gold ring gift and you your sundowners! They say that wine and women are a source of misery. But the votaries of “100 per cent purity” forget that these two are also sources of happiness. With the former you go to the latter; and with the latter you forget the former! Dust-bin the hoary theory that money must be saved for a “rainy” day. This phrase is the coinage of a kill-joy who was in league with rainy day and nights. He did not know that this has another side, too. Rainy days and nights bring in romance and love making in the life of even indifferent couples. Gloom-heads spread clouds all over. If we follow them, we gather the gloom, leaving sunshine, to others (read enemies). Money is earned hard, not hardly. It is supposed to be saved for a rainy day. And spent on a rainier day. If rains persist, find a shelter as Padmini did in R.K.’s “Joker.” If dark days/nights persist, buy a multi-coloured umbrella. Bright colours affect the psyche. They change sorrow into sunlight! |
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Border incident revives ugly memories of Kandahar IS
it true, I asked my BJP friend, that your MPs are really upset with the way this Bangladesh incident was dealt with. “Why just us”, the BJP MP replied, “who isn’t upset? That picture of the BSF jawan’s body being carried with his arms and legs tied to the pole like some dead animal. That really caused rage. And, then the fact that we seemed almost to be apologising on Haseena’s behalf.” Within an hour of this conversation I ran into Pramod Mahajan, or to be more accurate, grabbed him after he had expounded on the digital divide at the CII’s annual meeting. We spoke briefly as he was rushing down a corridor in the Ashoka Hotel so I had a chance to ask him only two questions. Were BJP MPs really upset with the External Affairs Minister at the party meeting last week and why was the government dealing with Bangladesh in such gentle fashion? No, he said, to both. The MPs had not attacked Jaswant Singh, as reported in the press, and no they were not being gentle with Bangladesh. What else could they have done? Well, quite a lot actually. Instead, of the namby-pamby first response from the External Affairs Ministry which absolved the Bangladesh Government from involvement in the ugly incident on grounds of “local adventurism” we could have heard a severe reprimand. Then, when by the next day it began to dawn on the government that ordinary Indians were furious about what had happened whispers started in Delhi about the “local adventurer” being an Islamic fundamentalist and sympathetic to Pakistan. Neither of these things absolves the Bangladesh Government and, if newspaper polls are any indication, most Indians find our government’s behaviour spineless, timid and inexcusable. The incident has revived ugly memories of Kandahar. It also revived the same old questions. Why did we kowtow to the Taliban when they have made it clear that they support the worst kind of Islamic fundamentalism? Could we not have taken some action — either covert or overt — after the Indian Airlines passengers were freed? If the United States could bomb Afghanistan on the suspicion that Osama bin Laden was involved in the bombing of their embassies should we not have done something similar? Why have we been so unable to catch the hijackers of the Indian Airlines plane or even shoot them dead in some dark street in Karachi or Lahore? These are all valid questions and there are equally valid questions that can be asked about the murder of 16 Border Security Force personnel by Bangladesh Rifles (BDR). Delhi’s attempts to shift responsibility from Sheikh Haseena to Major-Gen Fazlur Rehman, the BDR commandant, is not just incredible but foolish. Stories have been leaked about how he was a protege of Gen Ziaur Rahman whose wife, Khaleda, is considered anti-India and who is Sheikh Haseena’s main rival in the forthcoming elections. Frankly, will it make much difference to India who wins? A couple of years ago I visited Dhaka to interview Sheikh Haseena for a television programme. She was charming and did me the honour of spending a whole day on the programme and even agreeing to allow my crew to film her wandering through her father’s home in which her whole family was massacred by Bangladeshi soldiers. I also met some very charming Bangladeshi journalists and academics, ate delicious smoked hilsa at the Dhaka club and was invited into the homes of Bangladeshis I hardly knew. But, beneath the surface of all this good neighbourliness and bonhomie ran a distinctly anti-India current that I would have had to be blind and deaf not to detect. Bangladesh had, that year, just discovered vast reserves of natural gas and western companies were sniffing around in the hope of exploiting it commercially. In their view the best use of it could be made if it was sold to India, always desperate for fuel of every kind. So, naturally, I asked my newly made Bangladeshi friends about whether this was a possibility and it surprised me when they said that it could not be done because Sheikh Haseena was afraid of being seen as pro-India. But, would it not benefit Bangladesh as well, I asked, genuinely puzzled and they said that yes, of course, it would but any activity seen as being pro-India was viewed badly by ordinary Bangladeshis. Sheikh Haseena’s problems were compounded by the fact that her major opposition came from political groupings that were not just openly anti-India but Islamic fundamentalist as well. Why did we liberate them, I remember thinking, if all we were going to get for our pains was the hostility they earlier directed towards Pakistan? It is an even more valid question when you consider that what we have also got our millions (14 million according to one estimate) of desperately poor Bangladeshi illegal immigrants whose main contribution to Indian cities are slums and crime. To return, though, to the torture and murder of our 16 jawans, and the government’s unacceptably police reaction it needs to be said that our policy-makers are clearly unaware of public sentiment. It should be clear, even in Delhi’s distant corridors of power, that when Indians are murdered in cold blood and their bodies mutilated so badly that they could not even be returned to their families then it does not matter whether the murderers were from a friendly country or an unfriendly one. If this is the kind of ‘friendship’ Bangladesh offers us then we may as well have enmity. Our government has gone to considerably lengths to assure us that our multitudinous agencies cannot be charged with failure. Oh really? With unaccounted amounts of taxpayers’ money available to them in secret funds should we not at least admit that they are doing a seriously bad job. Not just in this incident where they appear not to have even known what was happening till it happened but generally. While we, inadvertently, praise Pakistan’s ISI (Inter-Services Intelligence) by crediting them with every act of terrorism against India our own intelligence agencies rarely catch anyone before an act of violence has been committed. Then, there is a sudden flurry of activity and we hear that some unknown terrorist or other has been shot for an incident that has already happened. If they know who the terrorists are why are they so unable to prevent them from committing their evil acts? Anyone even vaguely familiar with the way the government works in Delhi knows that our intelligence agencies are frighteningly incompetent and that almost nothing has been done so far to improve the way they function. We hear that the Home Minister is among those who have been upset by the government’s weak-kneed response towards Bangladesh. That is, quite simply, not good enough any more. The Home Minister needs to order a complete revamp of our intelligence agencies at the very least. As for the Ministry of External Affairs it is making us feel increasingly as if India was a minor power in South Asia, liable to be slapped around by anyone. Who is it going to be next time: Bhutan? |
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Implications of Punjabi Conference THE recently held World Punjabi Conference, having the blessings of the governments both in New Delhi and Islamabad, has evoked a definite response, notwithstanding the sharp criticism about its mismanagement in this part of Punjab. One columnist in the daily Dawn wrote that the conference, though ill organised, was a move towards peace. Otherwise how could a large number of writers from India come and talk passionately about brotherhood and peace? Earlier most newspapers like Nawa-e-Waqt and The Nation provided detailed coverage on a daily basis. Some were critical, indeed. But Zafar Samdani in his article made pithy comments. This article throws ample light on how Punjabi politicians have politicised their mother tongue. We are certainly not alone in this game. It is worthwhile to quote Samdani in detail. “The World Punjabi Conference gripped Punjab’s capital for four days during the past two weeks, possibly more by sheer number of guests from India and a few other countries than themes addressed by participants. Not that the topics discussed were unimportant, but the intriguing issue of how the people of Pakistan’s Punjab have ignored the Punjabi language was not a priority concern for the local participants though they dilated on many aspects of the language and culture of their region. “The moot was inaugurated by Malik Mairaj Khalid who is a multiple ex-personality — Chief Minister of Punjab, Speaker of the National Assembly, (twice) and caretaker Prime Minister. He was on PTV’s political discussion, “Mukalma”, a few days before the conference, arguing for staggering Punjab into smaller units as the province was too big and unwieldy to administer, he also cited the demand of some regions for the creation of independent provinces. “This was a surprising line of thinking for a former Chief Minister of the province and a person with the reputation and track record for being a lifelong protagonist of Punjab’s language and culture. “Any province can be dissected if administrative requirements of a region so warrant and, more importantly, if people of the concerned regions so desire. The demand has to come from the people. Mairaj Khalid is a long distance democrat, his stewardship of the country as caretaker chief executive in a dubious setup and dissatisfaction with the poll’s outcome at the end of his 90 days in the saddle notwithstanding. The question that prompted him to back a break-up of Punjab at this juncture needs to be clarified. “The Seraiki belt voters have consistently refused to return candidates campaigning for a separate province; they were squarely defeated in the polls presided over by Mairaj Khalid. He cannot contest the results of elections under his administration like some political parties and politicians. There has not been a mention worthy of demand for a Pothwari province though thoroughbred locals have been winning from prime constituencies of the area. This backdrop did not make his presence as the principal local personality of the moot as inspiring”. The article further said: “The conference chairman, Fakhar Zaman, who had worked hard to organise the moot, could be wondering at times about where he went wrong. He is unlikely to have been amused by some speakers referring to him as ‘Fakhar Imam’ the Pakistan Muslim League (like-minded group) leader who is under sharper political focus these days than the former Senator and chairman of the Academy of Letters. Whenever that happened, he blushed and produced an expression that was something between a broad smile and compressed laughter. But he did not let that interfere with his handling of the conference. “However, had the PPP, the political party that elected him Senator, given a thought to the promotion of Punjabi in its three tenures, last weeks conference would have been considering issues from another level. Like democracy, other issues endear themselves to politicians only when they are out of office”. Samdani says, “I was lucky to have listened to one particular speech, an impromptu address by bureaucrat Kamran Lashari, the man who is deservedly accorded credit for the beautification and preservation of Lahore. It is desirable that speakers are given sufficient advance notice to produce serious papers. Inviting them for off the cuff articulation of views, to put it mildly, tends to devalue the authority of an international event. But Lashari acquitted himself convincingly by informing the moot of his reasons for his concern for meeting long overdue needs of Punjab’s capital. “Mr Lashari identified the source of motivation — his family has been living in the city for over three centuries, and the source of his inspiration: posting in Sindh during the first 10 years of his career. There he came across love for Sindhi language and culture that came from the heart; he was impressed. He also narrated incidents relating to his interaction with the late Masood, his name is never mentioned without reference to his attire, khaddar-posh, because he was always dressed in homespun cotton cloth made world famous by Gandhi; unlike the great leader, he was always fully dressed. He was a genuine and dedicated promoter of Punjab’s language and culture. “It would be easy to pinpoint the shortcomings of the conference because there were quite a few. It could certainly be more slickly organised. But a non-government effort of this scale merits praise, regardless of where it faltered. The organisers could, however, have raised its level of authenticity without additional resources. Its programme explored almost every important avenue of Punjab’s language and culture, but the proceedings lacked research-oriented approach.” In the opinion of Samdani, “Some members of India’s prestigious delegations were eminently qualified to fill that gap and there is no dearth of serious scholars and major writers in Pakistan, either. To name a few: Shafqat Tanvir Mirza is an authority on literature and folklore, Ahmed Bashir could have reviewed Punjabi cinema and Munno Bhai’s has been a path-breaking and trend-setting contribution to Punjab’s drama on Pakistan Television. Then there is Ashfaque Ahmed and his incomparable Talqeen Shah. Researched articles from these and some other personalities would have enhanced the impact of the conference. Narrating double-edged stale jokes evoke laughter, but at the cost of class and quality. “While the conference served ends for which it was held, it had its fallout and byproducts. It had implications that may not have been envisaged, at least not concretely realised. The moot was a boon for the supporters of normalisation of relations with India through cultural exchanges. That the administration provided indirect assistance by not blocking the organisers’ efforts should be seen as a policy of the Pakistan government — in fact, a policy favoured by both New Delhi and Islamabad.” |
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In the dark, fathomless night of ignorance, love is a torch that brings light. From it emanates a Melody that enraptures lovers' hearts! *** In the court of the Lord, an ounce of love weighs more than tons of religious faith. *** When love gave the call to prayer, my heart responded: I purified myself - I performed my wuzoo (cleaning face hands and feet with water before namaaz) With the blood of my heart. *** A seeker can quickly become a saint when he loses himself in love: His self becomes subdued and friendly; his heart becomes refined and transparent as he sacrifices his self to the beloved. *** Love has pulled out huge trees of wordly attachment by the root.... Love has dissolved huge rocks of carnal passion as though they were salt. *** When smitten by love, even priests would forsake their priesthood. — From Abyaat-e-Baahoo, 96, 58, 120, 44, 160, 135. *** Bliss is the Everest. There is nothing higher than that. And unless you reach the Everest of bliss you have not fulfilled your mission in life, your destiny in life... Bliss is a strange wine - strange because on one hand it makes you fully aware, and on other hand, it makes you fully intoxicated - intoxicated with the divine, fully aware in your being.... Blissfulness is our birthright. We just have to claim it. And meditation is our claim. —
Osho, The Sound of one hand Clapping. |
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