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Monday,
May 14, 2001, Chandigarh, India  
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Reprieve
for Congress PM’s
“internal” problems |
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Commissions
of enquiry and JPCs
A matter
of taste
Got 10
minutes for your country
Supreme
Court move on polygamy 295
wanted criminals dodge UP police
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Reprieve for Congress THE waiting is over and the verdict is in. The Congress has two more Chief Ministers and if there is a miracle, even Pondicherry may join Kerala and Assam to anoint the party. There is not much surprise since the exit poll has broadly indicated the trend. Tamil Nadu is still a revelation. The margin of defeat of the ruling DMK is stunning as is the huge majority of the AIADMK-led front. The scale of the electoral victory can either cause a crisis or strengthen democratic tradition. Ms Jayalalitha can bask in the glory of the sweeping win and nominate somebody like Mr Thambidurai to keep the Chief Minister’s seat warm for her. She can concentrate on getting her right to contest in the Supreme Court. But, given her overbearing attitude, she would demand to be invited to form a government, forcing her emotional supporters to take the fight to the street. It will be a pity though. There is nothing personal about her triumph. Tamil Nadu has regularly alternated between the two fronts led by rival Dravidian parties. This year it was the turn of the AIADMK and so it has turned out to be. This thought should have a sobering effect on the iron lady and influence her to strike a moderate and statesmanlike stand. But recent history makes this possibility problematic. Another fire-spitting lady is not so lucky. Ms Mamata Banerjee hoped to capture the Writers’ Building. As one newspaper put it, it was a question of six (wins) in a row for the Left Front, but she wanted to make it once in 25 years. The voters of West Bengal have voted with and for the Left Front, investing the Chief Minister on probation with a degree of charisma. Mr Buddhadeb Bhattacharya is the first bhadralok communist leader, ready to confess his love for literature and admit past mistakes. He swears to seek inspiration from the southern states and wire the state to computers and industrial liberalisation. This shift to reforms talk brought in votes from urban areas and entrenched his leadership in the CPM and the Left Front. He is 53 and quite energetic and the election fright must have jolted him and the party to realise the need to rebuild the rusted organisational structure. Many feel uneasy that in a vibrant democracy, a front should be in power for 30 uninterrupted years. It is indeed odd but this also shows the weakness of the Opposition, the Congress in this case, and the internal, personality-based politics in the party. The Trinamool Congress-Congress combine has five more years to prepare itself to topple the Left Front. In Kerala the ruling Left Democratic Front was expected to lose, what with a mounting agricultural crisis sealing its fate. And it promptly lost. Assam is punishing the AGP and the BJP for their last minute unprincipled alliance and the Congress is the unexpected gainer. The BJP is right to say that the poll result is not a referendum on the performance of the NDA. But its high voltage campaign was responsible for giving that impression. A bad judgement. |
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PM’s “internal” problems NORMALLY, the government of the day faces criticism of its policies mainly from the expected quarters, the Opposition. But the situation is different in the case of the government headed by Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee. His ministry's economic policies in particular have been under attack not only from those sitting on the opposition benches in Parliament but also from people belonging to the RSS and its front organisations. Things came to a head when in the course of addressing a rally on April 16 RSS veteran and Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh chief Dattopant Thengdi called Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha a "criminal minister". Though Mr Vajpayee pacified Mr Sinha, who had reportedly threatened to resign, the uneasy atmosphere in the Sangh parivar seemed to be getting worse. Hence the Prime Minister's idea of hosting a lunch on Friday in honour of three senior Sangh parivar members. Whether or not this bears the desired fruit will be known in the days to come, but the Prime Minister is believed to have told those sitting around his dining table that he could no longer tolerate "uninformed" and "frivolous" diatribe against the BJP-led NDA government. Those who faced the Prime Minister's anger were Mr H. V. Seshadri, Mr Madan Das Devi and Mr M. G. Vaidya. The RSS chief, Mr S. Sudarshan, could not respond to Mr Vajpayee's invitation because of his unavailability in the Capital, but his absence is not significant as the former is supposed to be close to the Prime Minister and must be realising his plight. For the time being it appears that Mr Vajpayee has been able to have his way. However, it is difficult to believe that Mr Thengdi, an RSS veteran, will listen to his colleagues to stop using “intemperate” language while commenting on the functioning of the BJP's Central ministers. No one is able to rein in Mr S. Gurumurthy of the Swadeshi Jagaran Manch, who has been accusing the government of sacrificing the nation's interests to satisfy multinational corporations. Thus it will be interesting to watch how long Sangh parivar leaders succeed in eschewing public criticism of the Vajpayee government as ageed to at the Prime Minister's residence. Mr Thengdi is scheduled to address a series of public meetings in different parts of the country, and the trade unionist in him is unlikely to spare the economic direction adopted by the NDA government. These meetings will lead to a massive rally in August, which may be used by certain other Sangh parivar members also to express such views as are considered embarrassing for the government. It will be a miracle if the Prime Minister's problems from within the Sangh parivar come to an end, though he never needed as much support from the "internal forces" as he does today in view of the growing onslaught from a rejuvenated Opposition. |
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Commissions
of enquiry and JPCs THE entire question of the commissions or courts enquiry and of the JPCs (Joint Parliamentary Committees) and other such bodies set up by the ruling party since the dark and infamous days of the 1975 Emergency when Indira Gandhi openly and brazenly disregarded the majesty of law, and subverted the Indian Constitution, has become academic, if not irrelevant, in view of its sad and cynical history. And, therefore, when we ponder the fate of such commissions and committees today, and see the process and the proceedings done dirt upon regardless of the public outcry, it cannot but touch the imagination of moral imagination. The drama of the Tehelka expose and the JPC has, once again, compelled all thinking persons to consider the matter as yet another episode in the swelling theatre of the absurd. In my own case, I’ve been watching closely nearly all such farcical shows since the Delhi massacre of Sikhs in 1984 in the wake of Indira Gandhi’s assassination, and for my argument and its dialectic here, I feel impelled to recall some of the dark conclusions in relation to the commissions instituted by the Centre. And I quote a few relevant lines from the article, “The politics of commissions” from my volume “Cry, the Beloved Punjab, 1987”, to indicate why the mechanics and the methods remain despairingly unchanged, no matter who occupies the New Delhi “throne”. (a) “It may be pertinent to add here that the word ‘commission’ (from the Latin commissio: “a bringing together” and from the French committe’re) ‘to commit, is almost a loaded expression that has, from a simple meaning and context, come to acquire, over centuries of exercise, an ethical aura and a judicial resonance that no government would like to undermine if only because to mock its own creation would be an act of le’se majesty in the ultimate sense....” (b) “Nearly all the commissions that have so far been set up — if we exempt the Sarkaria Commission in view of its larger ambit — the Thakkar Commission, the Misra Commission, the Mathew Commission and its irrational offspring the Venkataramiah Commission and the Desai Commission were so constituted as to scuttle the thing en route and
complexity the issue beyond any reasonable conclusion.... Under the tattered umbrella of the clich’e, ‘in the national interest’, are gathered all such acts of commission and omission that a guilty government would do its damnest to keep away from the eye of doubt and enquiry.” I may be pardoned for using these longish excerpts from a critique written nearly 15 years ago, though the grim irony of its use here becomes transparent when we remember that the 1984 outrage of “disgrace abounding” still remains unsolved, and that the present (NDA) government has now added the Nanavati Commission to the ignominious list. I trust the drift of the argument in question naturally leads us to the painful scenes of the hangama in each session of Parliament. We see scenes of pit-occupation, lung-power, windblown rhetoric, disrespect to the Chair by the Opposition as much as by the Treasury Benches. What’s most laughable is the stance of each political party in power and out of power — a stance that is so upside down as to make the loudmouths look miserable and pathetic in the public eye. The biters bitten turn into apologists when the context changes. This theatre, no wonder, degenerates always into a wild polemics, and not surprisingly, therefore, both the media and the people lose interest in its noisy proceedings. And soon enough, even a major scam or scandal which shakes the entire nation is forgotten, consigned to the lower levels of our corporate memory. As one Indian diplomat recently put it in a TV panel discussion, the Indians do not have, unlike the Americans or the British, “an institutional memory” which alone keeps a nation continually aware of the need to bring to book those guilty of misconduct in high places or low even years after the event — an act of terrorism, of national betrayal, of plotting assassinations. If we have become cynical in the process, only the nation’s rulers and their minions are to blame. In 53 years or so, they have destroyed, one by one, each institution of the state, and put the world’s so-called largest democracy to shame and ridicule. Hardly any major offender has landed up behind the bars, and the punishment, if any, has largely been the fate of scapegoats, expendable “courtiers” and their kind. When one compares our record in this regard with that of the British or the US-Canadian, we would know the truth of such acts of dishonour. Even a US President (Richard Nixon) when caught in a shameful act has to leave his office in disgrace. The most recent example is that of a British Cabinet Minister who was forced to resign in the Hindujas’ passport case. And here not “Watergates”, but Niagras of corruption and crime have been consigned to the sands — and thus driven out of the corporate consciousness. I’m no longer surprised by the intellectual gymnastics of a Harvard scholar like Dr Subramanian Swamy, or of a sophisticated Mani Shanker Iyer, or of the writer and Cambridge student of E.M. Forster, Natwar Singh, for having been drawn into “the destructive element” of politics; they seem to have lost their original moorings and their moral verve. In fact, they at times, look dispirited and blase’ on the TV screen when arguing the Congress case as though the spirit waste were weighing upon their minds. Some of their circular arguments may even “make worms weep and the sheep cry”, to use a memorable Dickens line. Nor do I grieve now over the fall and decline of a George Fernandes (an archetypal case of character succumbing at last to the unquenchable thirst for power, and falling from grace), or of a lower species of the intellectual called Jaipal Reddy, now a spokesman of the Janata Party, now “her Majesty’s” mouthpiece in the Congress party. But I do grieve to see Dr Manmohan Singh, a gentleman of unimpeachable integrity, or Mr Arun Shourie whose intellectual integrity is unquestionable, to find himself reduced to a discreet silence in the face of really great moral challenges. Somehow, each lost his authenticity, and falsified his true self. At least, that’s how I feel about them. But, really, few in the world can achieve the greatness of a Naom Chomsky or of a Nobel laureate like our Prof Amartya Sen in the midst of huge temptations! I write all this in considerable anguish, for the Eternal India is still around us, the India of the Buddha, of Nanak, of Vivekananda, a state of mind that remains inviolate in some sections and parts of our large nation to appease the imagination. The rulers and politicians, our “kings and clowns”, have reduced India to a huge personal fief, but no matter what their antics, India has a future which even “thugs” in power cannot take away from us. Returning, finally, to the theme of this piece, I recall ruefully the comments of an irate British member of Parliament who had this to say on the question of the government commissions: comparing the sitting of a commission to a sitting on the commode, he quipped: “There is a sitting, there is loud report, and the matter drops.” Of course, the British papers made much of such excremental humour, even when the language did offend the more sensitive British noses. Here in India, the people in general lost their sense of smell long ago. So, where then is the need for even some hand-shakings, or for tut-tutting? Have we, then, any options? Hardly, at the moment. We have to wait for another Gandhi to rouse the corporate sensibility of the lost, bemused masses. And as Einstein observed, “A Gandhi is born once in a century.” Wait then for the Mahatma.... |
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A matter of taste FORTY years ago — when I was a young man of 30 — I invited to lunch an old classfellow who had been recently posted as sub-divisional magistrate in the town I lived in. When the lunch was over, he complimented my wife on the delicious food. Not something unexpected of a polite guest. But he pointedly added that the chillies were in the right proportion. Both my wife and I could not appreciate the import of the remark about chillies. We could appreciate it only a few months later, when we went to a different place to attend the marriage of a relative’s daughter. The food that was served — particularly raita — contained so much of chillies that our noses began to flow. We looked aghast at each other. Later on, when we tried to know in the politest possible manner the reason for such a liberal use of chillies, the host explained that in this part of the country the food containing less chillies would be dismissed as insipid by the barat. Similar are the variations in people’s taste regarding salt and sugar. Once I saw a man terribly losing his temper with his wife over low-salted dal. Then I had in the department of English a colleague who considered low-sugared tea as a contradiction in terms. “Tea means”, he used to say vehemently, “a lot of tea leaves, a lot of sugar, and just a touch of milk.” Well, this is OK with the individuals who have no health problem. But what about those who are afflicted with such diseases as hypertension, diabetes, or both? And the number of such patients is alarmingly on the increase. The other day there was an article opening with the words: “Every fourth Indian is a diabetic and every second Indian (including those in their 20s and 30s) is threatened by it.” I fully sympathise with those who have to sacrifice their taste on medical advice, for it is highly difficult for them to bid farewell to a life-time food habit. Once an old man being treated for diabetes in a hospital was caught red-handed hiding under his pillow a packet of pista-burfi to eat on the sly. Poor soul! It is actually under such rigorous conditions of forbidden food that the practicability of the dictum: “You should eat to live; not live to eat” comes under serious trial. The patient’s diet plays a very important role in curing certain diseases. “Take your food as medicine,” says a great physician. “and your medicine as food.” So, considering the grave danger to his health, nay, even his life, a sensible patient must develop a taste for the food that is tasteless. Not a bad bargain, I believe. The other day there was a press report with the headline: “PM ignores taste-buds to prove a point”. It said that Mr Vajpayee had cut down on snacking between meals. “That means”, the report said, “less of his favourite kachauri, samosas and imrati.” By taking this self-disciplinary step, however unpalatable, the PM wants to reduce his weight and prove to the world (particularly political) that after his knee surgery he can walk upright and is fit as a fiddle. |
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Got 10
minutes for your country You say that our government is inefficient. You say that our laws are too old. You say that the municipality does not pick up the garbage. You say that the phones don’t work, the railways are a joke, the airline is the worst in the world, mails never reach their destination. You say that our country has been fed to the dogs and is the absolute pits. You say, say and say. What do You do about it? Take a person on his way to Singapore. Give him a name — Yours. Give him a face — Yours. You walk out of the airport and you are at your International best. In Singapore You don’t throw cigarette butts on the roads or eat in the stores. You are as proud of their Underground Links as they are. You pay $5 (approx. Rs 60) to drive through Orchard Road (equivalent of Mahim Causeway or Pedder Road) between 5 PM and 8 PM. You come back to the parking lot to punch your parking ticket if you have over stayed in a restaurant or a shopping mall irrespective of your status identity. In Singapore You don’t say anything, do you? You wouldn’t dare to eat in public during Ramzan in Dubai. You would not dare to go out without your head covered in Jeddah. You would not dare to buy an employee of the telephone exchange in London at 10 pounds (Rs 650) a month to “see to it that my STD and ISD calls are billed to someone else.” You would not dare to speed in Washington and then tell the traffic cop: “Jaanta hai sala main kaun hoon (Do you know who I am?). I am so and so’s son. Take your two bucks and get lost.” You wouldn’t chuck an empty coconut shell anywhere other than the garbage pail on the beaches in Australia and New Zealand. Why do YOU do all this in India? Fits the Bill If you close your eyes when you hear North Carolina Democratic Sen. John Edwards speak, he sounds like a dead ringer for Bill Clinton in all his Southern patois glory. Which is perhaps why the state Democratic Party in Arkansas declined to pay Clinton’s way home to speak at its annual Jefferson-Jackson Day dinner in early June, and invited Edwards instead. Edwards is mulling a presidential run in 2004, and apparently views the dinner as an opportunity to see how his Southern good ol’ boy shtick plays in a more conservative Southern state. “It’s a good deal for Edwards,” says an Arkansas Democratic Party source. “We wanted Clinton, but he wanted us to cover his expenses. He supposedly lives here for God sake. You’d think helping out the party to raise money would be something he’d do for nothing, but then maybe we still haven’t learned our lesson from Clinton.” Two months ago, state party officials presented Clinton with a proposed full two-day “Welcome Home Bill” celebration. But Clinton declined to participate after the state party couldn’t do more than pay basic expenses to get him home. Edwards was more than willing to sub for the same deal. |
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Supreme
Court move on polygamy A leading Indian Muslim body has denounced attempts to change laws governing the community, after the Supreme Court acted on a petition by a Muslim woman seeking a ban on polygamy. The All India Muslim Personal Law Board, which oversees community affairs throughout the country, said it bitterly opposed any intervention in the conduct of civil rules and regulations governing Indian Muslims. Board president Mujahiddul Islam Qasmi said in a statement: “We cannot accept any attempt to intrude into our religious freedom and religious laws.” Two other Muslims, including a lawyer and a woman activist, however welcomed the Supreme Court move, saying polygamy violated Islamic values and tarnished the community’s image. Their comments came a day after the Court issued notice to the Indian government on a petition filed by a divorced Muslim woman seeking a ban on polygamy among Muslims in the country. Qasmi, however, said the Board’s legal experts would study the petition. Hasina Hassia, a woman member of the board, told IANS that while some Muslim men “misused” polygamy, “nobody should interfere with our personal laws. There cannot be any ban on polygamy because it is permitted by Islam.” She added that polygamy was not as widespread among Indian Muslims as it was thought to be, and added that many Hindus and Christians in the country married more than once although it was illegal. The Muslim woman who sought the Supreme Court’s intervention contended that she was a victim of polygamy. She was married in 1989 at the age of 20, but refused to live with her husband when he married another woman two years later. She said polygamy should be declared “illegal, unconstitutional and void.” The woman’s counsel said: “The custom and usage of polygamy and extra-judicial divorce practiced by Muslims is a denial of equality, personal liberty and human rights guaranteed to all citizens by the Constitution.” Syeda Saiyidain Hameed, who runs a non-government organisation (NGO) called Muslim Women’s Forum, said: “We welcome the principle of declaring multiple marriage and triple talaq (whereby a Muslim man divorces his wife by uttering the word ‘talaq’ thrice at one go) as violating the Indian Constitution. We feel that this misuse of triple talaq also violates Islamic teachings.” She said her NGO, which works among slum women, had approached the Muslim Personal Law Board to bring about reforms within the community to benefit Muslim women. “We would welcome judicial intervention if the board does not take action. The Supreme Court move is in keeping with the spirit of Islam.” Supreme Court lawyer Anees Ahmed said: “The question of polygamy has been raised for the first time. In many Muslim countries it has been done away with. The clergy in India should take the initiative to do something about this.” Muslims form the largest minority in India. The country is home to the largest Muslim population in the world after Indonesia.
IANS |
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295 wanted criminals dodge UP police TWO hundred and ninetyfive criminals on the “wanted” list have been eluding the Uttar Pradesh police for years and alleged political pressure in favour of the outlaws is making the job harder for the law enforcers, according to official sources. Each of the criminals carries a reward on his head, but despite the much publicised manhunts launched by the police over the years, they have failed to track them down. According to a senior official at police headquarters here, a reward of Rs 2,00,000 each has been offered for the handing over of four of the criminals on the list, dead or alive. A reward of Rs 1,00,000 has been offered for the heads of six others and Rs 50,000 for the handing over 11 of the criminals. There are 13 wanted men with a reward of Rs 25,000 each on their heads, 37 with a reward of Rs 20,000, 61 outlaws with Rs 10,000 and 163 carrying a reward of Rs 5,000 on their heads. Successive chief ministers have pledged to catch these criminals, but their words amounted to little more than lip service as their governments could not withstand the political pressure mounted in support of most of these criminals. As a consequence, even the top 10 have not been held or eliminated so far. The current head of the state government, Chief Minister Rajnath Singh, followed the same course and issued firm directives to the state police to intensify their operations against the wanted criminals. “At least those in the Rs 2,00,000 and Rs 1,00,000 list must be put behind bars over the next few months,” Singh is understood to have told a meeting of top state police officers. What analysts find strange is that neither Singh nor any of his predecessors entrusted the assignment to the special task force (STF) created to contain top criminals. The STF has an excellent record, including the recent gunning down of three terrorists, allegedly from Pakistan, in Lucknow. So when Rajnath Singh said with much conviction that “enough is enough, you will soon see an end to this menace,” he didn’t inspire much confidence. On top of the list is Dadua, whose name spells terror in the Bundelkhand region of southern Uttar Pradesh. Dadua, who proclaims himself as the “bandit king” of Uttar Pradesh, was in the spotlight sometime last year when he shot off a letter to the forest department chief, complaining about the complacence and connivance of forest officials in the illegal felling of trees. He was also reported to have taken some such “guilty” officials to task and his action reportedly curbed the otherwise uncontrolled felling. Dadua is followed by Brijesh Singh of Varanasi, Tribhuvan Singh of Ghazipur and Dilbagh Singh of Saharanpur. Sattu Pandey of Ambedkar Nagar is on top of the list of those carrying a reward of Rs 1,00,000. However, when the police recently cornered him, top political leaders of the state, including some ministers in the Rajnath Singh government, allegedly came to his rescue and helped him escape. Others in the list are Kulwant Singh and Surjeet Singh of Saharanpur and Ram Asrey of Kanpur.
IANS |
Fire in jute godown
Calcutta It may be mentioned that during April, the Brigade had to attend to 227 calls, the highest number ever recorded in a month. |
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SPIRITUAL NUGGETS God is not a king sitting away in one corner of the universe to deal out punishment or rewards according to a man's deeds here on earth, and the time will come when man will know the truth, and stand up and say 'I am God', am life of his life. Why teach that God is far away when our real nature, our immortal principle is God? — From Swami Vivekananda's lecture on "The Destiny of Man" at Memphis, January 17, 1894. ***** Oh, how beautiful I am! I shine in the lightening; I roar in the thunder; I flutter in leaves; I hiss in winds; I roll in the surging seas. The friends I am; the foes I am. To me no friends, no foes. Away, ye thoughts, ye desires which concern the transient, evanescent fame or riches of this world. Whatever be the state of this body, it concerns Me not; all bodies are mine. Franklin I was; Newton I have been; Lord Kelwin I am; mighty Rama and lovely Krishna I am. It is I that worked in the brain of Kant. It is I that inspired the hearts of Buddha and Shankar. It is I that lend light to all Shakespeares and Platos. They come unto Me, the fountainhead, and they are filled, get luster and shine.... In Me is this universe. In Me is everything. What can Contain Me? How can I be limited? ....I am in the minds and thoughts of each and all. I am in the throbbing breast of the lover; I am in the laughing eyes of the proud beloved.... I am in you! Nay, there can be no you and I, no difference I am I. — Swami Ramatirtha, "The Way to the Realisation of Self", In Woods of God Realisation, Vol. Iv, lecture IX. **** The tongue of a wise man lies behind his heart. — Ali Ibn-Abi-Talib, Sentences, 95 |
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