The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

PERSPECTIVE

GUEST COLUMN
Exercise daily for your heart’s sake
H.S. Wasir

THE World Health Organisation (WHO) observes April 7 every year to focus on public health awareness and their active involvement at global level to prevent and control the increasing death and disability from various diseases. As this year’s theme of World Health Day is physical exercise, it is pertinent to discuss its role on heart and health. Heart attack is no longer the disease of the affluent and the developed world; it is equally prevalent in the less privileged nations due to the changing lifestyles.

Regular physical exercise adds not only years to life but also life to years. Today is the World Health Day and this year’s theme is ‘Physical exercise’.

The living habits which have adversely affected the heart health. are: lack of physical exercise; wrong eating habits including consuming more of refined carbohydrates (sucrose) and dairy products (whole milk, candy, creams etc) and less of complex carbohydrates and high fiber diets such as tubers, roots, legume, whole and coarse whole grain; cigarette smoking; and the increasing lack of interpersonal tolerance and ability to cope with the stressful situations in daily life.

Along with balanced diet, physical exercise has a major role in achieving long and healthy life in general and prevention of heart attacks in particular. There are several studies showing that physically active populations have a higher longevity than the sedentary or physically inactive.

The famous Harvard Alumni Study showed that when medical students were followed for 20 years, those who continued to remain physically active had a longer lifespan than those who turned to sedentary living. According to the ayurvedic texts: “By physical activity one gets lightness in the body capacity to work, firmness, tolerance of difficulties, diminution of impurity and stimulation of metabolism. It should be done in moderation”. The review of modern medical literature sums up the role of physical activity in health as “Regular physical exercise adds not only years to life but also life to years”.

The positive role of physical exercise in preventive and cure of heart disease also dates back to centuries. William Heberden, who was the first physician to give the classical definition of angina in the 18th century, described the relief of chest pain in a coronary patient in 1772. He wrote in his book. “Commentaries on the History and Cure of Diseases,” “I know one (patient) who set himself a task of sawing wood for half an hour every day and was nearly cured”.

It is the experience of many modern-day physicians also that some patients of angina (chest pain or discomfort on physical or mental exertion or after meals) do get relief with regularly done physical exercise, mostly in the form of brisk walks, 3-4 kilometres in one hour. One should not continue walking if the chest discomfort increases on walking, and must consult the cardiologist without delay. Strenuous physical exercise must be avoided by heart patients.

Importance of exercise: Atherosclerosis or narrowing of coronary arteries that supply oxygen and nourishment to the heart is the basic underlying cause of heart attacks. Factors like overweight, high blood cholesterol, diabetes, high blood pressure, cigarette smoking, low HDL (High Density Lipoprotein — a cardioprotective or friendly cholesterol fraction) and mental stress are some of the risk factors that initiate and aggravate atherosclerosis and thus heart attacks. Physical exercise helps in modifying these risk factors to prevent heart attacks.

Modern research tells us that the beneficial effects of physical exercise are through: (a) increase in the life of certain types of proteins (b) decrease in insulin resistance (c) decrease in hyper insulinemia (excess insulin in the blood which is a biochemical risk factor for atherosclerosis) (d) decrease in cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein (LDL) and increase in the friendly cholesterol HDL.

When translated into clinical benefits at individual and population levels, doing regular physical exercise will help in reducing the occurrence of heart attacks in normals and optimum management with minimum use of drugs and devices for those who have suffered a heart attack, through the following beneficial effects:

(1) Control on body weight and avoiding obesity. (2) Increase in exercise capacity and muscle power through training of muscles to extract more oxygen and work more efficiently at a given oxygen availability. (3) With regular exercise, the rate-pressure product (systolic pressure x pulse rate) stays low and does not rise to undue levels during physical or mental strains, thus economising on the overall oxygen requirement of the heart. (4) There is an overall improvement in body chemistry through fall in blood sugar, cholesterol, triglycerides and rise in the heart friendly cholesterol HDL. Higher the HDL levels in blood, lower the chances of that person getting heart attack and physical exercise is the best means to increase blood levels of HDL. (5) Physical exercise is an important non-drug measure to normalise blood pressure in those with mild hypertension and decrease the drug requirement in those with moderate and severe hypertension. (6) An overall feeling of wellbeing and mental relaxation is a unique advantage of regular physical exercise which partly comes through liberation of endorphins (morphine like substances) into blood circulation. This combination of physical and mental relaxation achieved through physical exercise is unparalleled by any drug or tonic. Increased Nitric Oxide (NO) blood levels also contribute to the beneficial effects of physical exercise.

Types of exercise: It is the isotonic (dynamic) exercise that is beneficial for the heart and not the isometric (static) exercise which should be avoided by heart patients. Weight lifting, carrying heavy suit-cases while travelling, pushing a car are some of the examples of isometric exercise. Examples of the beneficial type of physical activity (dynamic exercise) are: brisk walking, swimming, golf without power carts, badminton and tennis (doubles for those with old heart attacks but fully recovered — to be started only on the physician’s advice).

Walking is the best mode of doing regular physical exercise which requires no equipment, money, material or membership of a club! A brisk walk for 30-60 minutes even on alternate days has proved to be equally beneficial. Stationary cycling or walking on a treadmill at home are the other alternatives. Some simple ways to have a walk every day are: (a) walking up through stairs instead of using a lift if going upto three or four floors or getting off the lift two or three floors before the destination and walking up the rest through stairs. Going up several floors in a overcrowded lift with limited fresh air to be shared by so many may also prove unhealthy. While coming down at least use stairs and avoid lift. (b) Parking a little away from the work place and walking that healthy distance. (c) The best time for brisk walk would be early morning before the traffic flow picks up and walking in the parks with thick plantation. Jogging on the roads with heavy traffic should be avoided as you will be inhaling air polluted with the toxins from vehicular exhaust such as dioxides of sulphur and nitrogen.

Before starting any physical exercise programme for the first time, one must get fully evaluated by a cardiologist so as to avoid any harm being done by exercise if there is a serious underlying heart disease needing treatment.

While moderate physical exercise through the various means detailed above, is beneficial for the body including its protective effects on heart, any strenuous exercise may be harmful. A rough guiding rule to the magnitude of exercise to be done may be to observe the pulse rate during peak exercise which should not go beyond 220 in persons below 60 years of age and 200 for persons above 60. The pulse rate may be easily measured by counting the pulse beat in one minute by feeling the radial pulse on the thumb side of hand just over the wrist. Those starting exercise programmes for the first time must do so after getting the heart check up done by a medical specialist.

Dr Wasir is Chief Cardiologist and Medical Adviser, Batra Hospital & Medical Research Centre, New Delhi.

Consensus needed to tackle corruption
S.S. Dhanoa

IT is a pity that the five-year term of Mr Parkash Singh Badal, who came to power promising a corruption-free administration, has ended with a pathetic letter from Ms Nisha Kaura begging for a loan of Rs 2 lakh to pay bribe for the job for which she was otherwise fully qualified. Whatever the truth, rampant corruption in recruitment, promotions and transfers was the talk of the town. This impression is largely responsible for the debacle of the Badal government.

Mr Badal was perhaps a bit helpless in this regard. The SAD had come to power after a 11-year gap and the jathedars had to be given some freedom to help themselves if his government was to survive and his rivals in the party had to be kept at bay. I came to know from the then Vigilance Secretary that he found no interest to tackle corruption in public services. If the Chief Minister would agree to transfer a competent secretary on a minister’s complaint because he would resist the minister’s arbitrary orders on postings and transfers, then one cannot say that he was not aware of corruption in his government.

Mr Amarinder Singh made corruption an election issue. He promised that he would appoint an inquiry commission to expose corruption involving Mr Badal and his family. Such a promise may be alright as an election gimmick but such commissions have proved to be counter productive, wasteful and harmful. Bihar’s decline started after the Aiyar Commission was appointed in 1967 to expose corruption in the K.B. Sahay government. It demoralised the bureaucracy so much that officers who took initiative or risks came in for adverse comment from the commission.

Punjab’s bureaucracy is known for getting things done and, if properly guided and motivated, it is capable of achieving the impossible. Let not the new government turn its energies to expose the latches of its predecessor government; it should take measures to tackle the precarious finances of the state, the falling rate of growth and the mounting unemployment problem with rampant corruption. It has already reaped a political dividend from the voters’ antipathy towards what they perceived as a corrupt administration. It will gain little from a commission’s report and ultimately, as in Tamil Nadu and Bihar, people will become indifferent towards corruption. By the time a commission’s report is out, new issues will come to light and engage the people’s attention. One may recall that the Shah Commission’s hearings during the Janata government led to Indira Gandhi’s return to power after the 1977 election.

However, corruption is one issue on which the new government must be seen as being serious. The seriousness has to start from the top. If the new Chief Minister and his ministers submit a statement of assets, moveable and immoveable, held in their names or in the names of their family members within three months of assuming power, it will go a long way in convincing people that the government is serious in fighting corruption.

The people seem to be very angry about corruption in the recruitment to public services. The rates fixed ranged from Rs 1 lakh to 50 lakh. Nisha Kaura needed Rs 2 lakh for recruitment as a teacher. This evil has to be rooted out with firmness. The chairmen and members of the recruiting commissions or boards and vice-chancellors of the universities should be men and women of proven integrity and those whose credentials are suspect should be shown the door. The action against the Punjab Public Service Commission Chairman has generally been appreciated.

The next in order is to put a stop to the transfer industry which has become quite a moneyspinning one for many of the outgoing ministers and MLAs. There were standing orders in Punjab to transfer personnel only once a year in the beginning of school/college sessions. This should be strictly enforced.

I used to have one check against arbitrariness in decision-making which generates rumours about corruption or highhandedness by the executive authority. This was participatory decision-making even in areas where the authority was vested in the executive head of a department or organisation. This improved the quality of decision-making through valuable inputs from junior colleagues, checked rumours and ensured transparency. I would commend fostering participatory decision-making as a policy in all the departments of the government.

Transparency International, on the basis of surveys, brings out a corruption perception index for various countries. According to this index, Denmark is the least corrupt country. While Cameroon tops the list of corrupt nations, India ranks 68th and Pakistan 72nd. The study observes that the fight against corruption can succeed and there can be a turnaround if there is a will and consensus in society to root out corruption.

Such a change has been brought about in the last two decades in other countries. As in Hong Kong, Singapore and Japan, the solution lies in creating an environment where private goals of individual employees, organisational goals and public goals of society can be converged. The morale and the salary structure of the services has to be raised and the political masters should refrain from interfering in the service matters and transfers of the employees. Hong Kong set up an independent commission against corruption. It had powers to hear complaints against public servants, hold inquiries and recommend punishment including confiscation of property amassed through bribes and corruption. This commission’s most important function is to educate people about their rights and the redress available from the commission and the government. Punjab can surely benefit from the experience of these countries.

It would be perfectly legitimate if political leaders and workers at the grassroot level are involved in the formulation and prioritisation of policies and projects at the local level. It would, however, be perverse if, as was done by the previous government, the local leaders are made decision-makers in matters of postings, promotions and transfer of government functionaries. DIGs and Deputy Commissioner had to be transferred soon after an important leader parted company with the previous Chief Minister. The new Chief Minister would do well to resist such compulsions, pulls and pressures.

The writer is a former Chief Secretary, Punjab.

Ensuring free, fair and fearless elections
Laxmi Kanta Chawla

HAVING seen the undesirable but dominant roles of money power, muscle power and all kinds of manoeuvres and manipulations in the electoral process, the then Chief Election Commissioner T.N. Seshan, had repeatedly called for “fair, free and fearless elections.” He had given an impression that he would transform his utterances into practice, and that some welcome changes were bound to take place in the conduct of elections. Many years after he had retired from the job, one can still hear these words from several quarters. These slogans are often mouthed not only by the Central and State administrators but also by the Election Commission.

Voting for democracy: Women queuing up to exercise their franchise.

As a result of the utterances of the commission officials, and the discussions and reports in the media, some confidence had begun to gain ground that the nocturnal dealings of the politicians with businessmen, unlawful elements, communal forces and managers of the caste voters would be stopped, that the election expenses of the individual candidates would be within permissible limits, and that the election observers would catch hold of the violators of the commission’s model code of conduct.

Unfortunately, no such thing has happened. The truth is that the commission is not sharp enough to view from behind the silken curtains of its office what transpires in the remotest corners of the villages and towns from Amritsar to Kanyakumari. By simply sending a few observers, the commission cannot get its own code of conduct implemented in toto.

One wonders how much politically conscious are our people. How many of us could locate the offices of the commission in our cities? Who are its officials and employees? How can the State Election Commission conduct elections efficiently when it does not have a good, clearly visible infrastructure? After the election schedule is announced, the District Collectors/Magistrates become District Election Officers. Naturally, they remain well-wishers and helpers of the ruling party and the government.

From where will neutral staff come for the election process, if the commission does not have its own employees? Primary and high school teachers have frequently been picked up for addition or deletion of names from the voters’ list by drafting them for election work. Employees of municipal corporations and committees are no better. This time even private teachers were assigned election duty. Such employees have been whipped to do certain duties. It is the constant fear of punishment on the recommendation of the commission that they do the work.

Deletion of names from the voters’ list has become common. Though the revision work requires 10 days or more for completion, the staff are told to do it within two days. The easiest method is to delete half the names and retain the other half in the list. Thousands of people in the country are thus deprived of their voting rights. The voice of the people is muzzled. The legal procedure drags on and no one pays any attention. In this connection, during the last five years, I wrote many times to the Election Commission but in vain. Sadly, even the complaints of the elected representatives are not heeded to or acknowledged.

Some complaints are taken quick notice of and employees transferred with lightning speed. One does not know on whose advice or complaint, about 90 officers of the Municipal Corporations in Punjab were transferred to different places. No one realised or even thought of the repercussions of such large-scale transfers. Apparently, no election observer might have informed the Election Commission of the consequences of such large-scale transfers because these observers stay in government rest-houses and circuit houses with all amenities. On the contrary, no action was taken on the complaints against the open loot by an officer because he continued to replenish the pockets of a minister.

Complaints of voters in Uttar Pradesh, Uttaranchal and Punjab against the deletion of their names from the lists regularly pour in, but was any inquiry held into them? Or has any responsibility ever been fixed and punishment given? The commission representatives have also not refuted these complaints. Some months ago, complaints were sent to the commission but no followup. Why did the Election Commissions of Punjab and other states not respond?

According to a newspaper report, after this February elections, a sackful of voters’ identity cards were found dumped on a heap of garbage in a city in UP. God alone knows how many voters might have been denied their voting right! Lakhs of rupees were spent on photo identity cards. Who is responsible for this?

The commission should ensure that any person could go to a definite office to check his/her name in the voters’ list. Anyone attaining the age of 18 years should be able to include himself in the list. For the smooth functioning of the electoral process, the commission borrows on deputation some employees from government offices. They make a visible show of good work, complete the formality and go back. Could the vehicle of democracy be run in this manner? Why cannot retired employees of the Central and State governments, known for hard work and integrity, be converted into a reserve force and entrusted with election work once the polling dates are announced? The amount spent on additional wages and allowances for the deputed employees on election work can be spent on the retired employees. Even the educated and unemployed youth with some short training course can be assigned this work.

While boasting of fair and free elections, The commission could not even protect the voting rights of its election-bound employees. One wonders whether these employees ever get an opportunity to cast their votes. During Punjab elections, did the commission help the election staff to exercise their franchise?

Is it fair to deprive a large number of educated people from voting? If a serious investigation is made on the voters, it would be found that majority of them are uneducated. I begin to have a lurking suspicion that the authorities and heavy-weight politicians want to gain something from the poor, helpless and uneducated voters by depriving educated voters of their voting right.

Even otherwise, the Election observers cannot see from the closed doors of the Circuit House all that they were sent for, and the Chief Election Commissioner and his other member associates cannot achieve what they are supposed to do by merely transferring employees. If the commission awarded exemplary punishment to those who viciously, mischievously or even carelessly delete the names of genuine voters from the voters’ list, and restore the voting right of eligible voters, that would be a first small step to ensure free, fair and fearless elections.

The writer is a former member of Punjab Legislative Assembly.

In the name of Ram
Abu Abraham

NUMBED as we all are by the happenings in Gujarat, we are scarcely in a mental state to understand the reason why ordinarily sane people suddenly behave like wild beasts. If I say that religion is the cause, a thousand apologists for religion will immediately say to me, 'Ah, but true religion teaches love and harmony.'

The history of religion is full of violence, yet we persist in the belief that such a history has nothing to do with 'true' reli-gion. In the last few weeks, we have been flooded in our press with sermons on religion and spirituality. Indian 'spirituality' consists of bogus words and useless ideas. We are at all times exhorted by saints and swamis to surrender to God and all will be well.

This surrender takes the form of pujas all day and night. Doesn't it surprise anyone that these pious offerings can suddenly take the form of murderous attacks on one's neighbours — women and children included? Not since the days of Partition has this nation witnessed the kind of lunacy as has taken place in Gujarat. It is not just the scale of the violence that has shocked us, but the manner of it, the cruelty and obscenity. Even to repeat some of the incidents would fill one with shame.

The spirituality that Indians are famous for is, in reality, a shutting-off of one's life from actual living, from one's own neighbours and fellow beings. It is in creating a personal world of one's own, in exclusive communication with God. This fellowship with the Almighty is promoted by thousands of 'godmen' who fatten themselves on it.

In a secular society, communities must interact with one another and work together. If each one lives for himself, and his community, where is secularism or equality? The problem is that organisations like the RSS have no conception of equality in the modern sense. Otherwise, why should they tell the minorities that their safety lies in the goodwill of the majority? In other words, as Sarvarkar and Golwalkar have enunciated, the minorities (Muslims and Christians) should accept their inferior status, or else. It is the equivalent of saying (as Manu does) that the Shudra is created by the Almighty to serve the Brahmin. I wonder whether the RSS definition of 'majority community' includes the Dalits as well.

It is tragic that what could have been achieved as a harmless Ram temple, should have ended as an orgy of murder and mayhem. But then the truth is that the purpose of the temple is not and never has been the worship of Ram, but the humiliation of the Muslims — to rub in their inferior status.

Two special features mark the Gujarat riots. One is the callous indifference of the police and the administration to the attacks on the minority community. The other, more weird is the participation of women in large numbers in the actual massacres — women carrying swords, women distributing kerosene-soaked rags to the men folk. Nothing so dramatically shows the brutalisation of society that has been going on since the Ram mandir agitation began a decade ago.

According to reports, there has not been a single voice raised by any of the Hindu women's organizations in condemnation of the atrocities committed by mobs against Muslim women and even small children.

READER'S RESPONSE

Time to rectify flaws

THE members of the Bar owe a great debt of gratitude to Justice S.S. Sodhi, former Chief Justice of Allahabad High Court for his timely, bold and illuminating article “The ‘injustice’ of justice: Neglecting the flaws may affect credibility” (March 10) highlighting the serious problems being faced by the legal fraternity.

The latest trend in the high court in handling the pre-arrest bail applications shows that Section 438 Cr.PC relating to the directions for granting bail to a person apprehending arrest had become virtually redundant thereby depriving the citizen of his fundamental right of liberty guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution. According to this Article, no person will be deprived of his life or personal liberty except according to the procedure established by law.

The power under Section 438 Cr.PC can be exercised by sessions courts as well as high courts. Having seen the present legal approach of the high court in deciding the anticipatory bail applications, the sessions or additional sessions judges find it safer to decline than to accept the above applications.

In the well known judgment “Gurbaksh Singh vs State of Punjab” the Supreme Court held that an order of bail can be passed under Section 438 without notice to the public prosecutor but now the relief of staying the arrest is generally granted only after hearing the state counsel entailing a lot of delay thereby putting the citizen in an embarrassing ordeal and also on tenterhooks.

Justice Sodhi’s plea of liberal approach in deciding pre-arrest bail application merit serious notice and attention by the judges.

The other points raised in the article like the delay in writing the judgements and filling up 50 per cent vacancies of the full judge strength deserve utmost attention of those at the helm of affairs both in the executive and judicial sides.

The above said vacancies and the going on leave by 7-9 judges on each and every working day had hampered the justice delivery system. In case the points raised in the article are not seriously pondered over and the remedial steps not taken soon, the working of the judicial system is most likely to come to a grinding halt and people will start taking law into their hands.

GUR RATTAN PAL SINGH
Advocate, Supreme Court
Chandigarh

PROFILE

He devoted his life to Palestinian cause
Harihar Swarup

YASSER Arafat has been a friend of India for decades and enjoyed personal rapport with Indira Gandhi and successive Prime Ministers. The Indian leaders too extended whole-hearted support to the PLO and Arafat. Images of the PLO leader’s frequent visits to New Delhi conjure up as his dream of a home land for Palestinians lies shattered and he is holed up in his headquarters in the West Bank city of Ramallah with power and water cut off. Indira Gandhi had immense liking for Arafat and the PLO leader would not get tired of calling her “my sister, my sister”. Arafat was overwhelmed when Mrs. Gandhi visited his high security headquarters in Tunis in April 1984 and, this correspondent accompanying her, saw the genuine concern the Indian Prime Minister had for the PLO leader. She went to Tunisia while on her way back to Delhi after paying a state visit to Libya at the insistence of Col. Muammar Gaddafi. That, unfortunately, turned out to be last of her foreign visit; she was assassinated on October 31, 1984. Arafat was the one who cried bitterly.

A resolute Arafat now sits isolated in his headquarters at Ramallah with his electricity and landline phones cut off by the Israelis leaving him no option but to use his cell and satellite phones to communicate with the outside world. He has rejected Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s offer of a “one-way ticket” out of his besieged headquarters and prefers to “die a martyr” rather than accept exile from his homeland. Arafat has reportedly asserted that that “there is not a single Palestinian who will accept going into exile under any circumstances”. The USA too has rejected Sharon’s suggestion that Arafat be forced into exile and the Secretary of State, Colin Powell is quoted as saying that the PLO Chairman has an important role to play in the Middle East peace process.

Terrorism to achieve a goal anywhere in the world is bad and it has to be unequivocally condemned but the motivation and commitment of Palestinians to their cause is dumbfounding indeed. Look at how smashingly beautiful 28-year old Wafa Idris made a deep strike inside Israel; she was compared by Palestinians with Joan of Arc. Another suicide bomber, Ayat Akhras was just 16 as she set off explosives strapped to her body at a Jerusalem supermarket. She was to be married this month. Fouad Hurani, 20, wearing a bulky football jacket blew up at a place only a few steps from Sharon’s residence. There were many blood-curdling examples of the mindless deaths of young men and women, the cream of any society. Arafat could not desert his people so committed to him. Will Israeli dare touch the PLO leader ? One hopes Sharon desists from embarking upon such a misadventure for that will be worst than terrorist type attack on Israeli towns.

The year 1994 was the best both for Arafat and then the Israeli Prime Minister Rabin and Foreign Minister Simon Peres. They were decorated with Nobel Prize for peace. In 1993, Arafat and the Israeli Prime Minister had signed the Oslo peace accord, raising the hope of achieving the goal of an independent Palestinian state through negotiations. While accepting the Nobel Prize, Arafat made an emotional speech, reflecting hope for bright future for his people and the Israelis. His words are worth quoting: “We invoke the powers of creativity within us to reconstruct a home destroyed by war, a home overlooking our neighbour’s, where our children will play with their children and will compete in picking flowers”. Just the reverse has happened in a span of nine years; an intense Israeli attack in retaliation for brutal terrorists attack left Arafat imprisoned in his home.

Arafat’s real name is Mohammed Abdel-Raouf Arafat As Qudwa al-Hussaeini and he was born on August 24, 1929 in Cairo. His mother died when he was five-year old. One of his childhood memories — British soldiers breaking into his uncle’s house after midnight, smashing furniture and beating members of the family — never fades from his mind. Even before he attained the age of 17, Arafat used to smuggle arms to Palestine to fight British and Jews. As the war between Jews and Arab states raged on, Arafat left his studies at the Cairo University to fight the Jews in the Gaza area. He devoted all his life to the Palestinian cause and political activities even after he took up job early in life. He contributed all his earnings to the movement.

Arafat has been a constant traveller, moving from country to country, promoting Palestinian cause, always keeping his movements secret. Even his marriage to Suha Tawail, a Palestinian girl half his age, was kept a secret for fifteen months. She has since undertaken humanitarian work at home, especially for disabled children. Their daughter, Zahwa, was named after Arafat’s mother.

DELHI DURBAR

Sonia steals the show at Venkaiah’s expense

UNION Rural Development Minister Venkaiah Naidu had high hopes from the conference of panchayat chiefs of the country which his ministry organised in Vigyan Bhavan on Friday and Saturday. But it proved to be a flop show not only for Naidu but also for the Bharatiya Janata Party. As soon as Leader of Opposition Sonia Gandhi arrived in the conference hall to deliver the keynote address, the entire hall reverberated with slogans of “Sonia Gandhi Zindabad”. Thousands of panchayat chiefs participated in the conference.

Much to the chagrin of the BJP leaders, the panchayat chiefs were up on their feet as soon as Sonia entered. They clapped and shouted zindabad slogans as bemused BJP leaders like K C Pant, Arun Jaitley and Uma Bharti looked on. The Congress wields an emphatic majority in most panchayats across the country. The most non-plussed man perhaps was Venkaiah Naidu. He would have cared two hoots for the grandiose welcome to Sonia but for the fact that Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee was also present.

Grand plans

Having tasted victory in recent elections, Congress president Sonia Gandhi decided to do some stock taking in states where the party is not in power. To begin with she chose Andhra Pradesh. She summoned 70 top Congress leaders of Andhra Pradesh to prepare a strategy to dislodge N. Chandrababu Naidu from chief ministership of the southern state. Naidu’s stranglehold on the party and the government remains and the state assembly elections too are not due until 2004. Sonia had summoned the meeting to get a feedback about Andhra and infuse a new air of confidence among the State Congress leaders. But the state leaders started fighting among themselves and making insinuations against one another in front of Sonia and an array of national-level leadership.

Congress heavyweight from Andhra Pradesh P. Shiv Shankar surprised everybody when he demanded to know from Sonia that before talking about anything else she should first make it clear whether she was pro-poor or pro-rich. Shiv Shankar, a former union minister is angry these days because he was given a royal ignore by the party high command in the just-concluded Rajya Sabha elections. Though he had made it known to the persons who mattered that he was a ticket aspirant, the dirty rich politician-film producer-businessman T Subirami Reddy was given the RS ticket and he managed to win.

A number of Congress MLAs who spoke at the Constitution Club function spoke against one another and many targeted the AP Congress president Rajshekhar Reddy. Sonia was obviously embarrassed. However, this embarrassment was made good the very next day at another function at a panchayat chiefs’ conference.

Guessing game

Congress circles have been rife with speculation of a reshuffle at the AICC for the past week. No one among the present incumbents wants to leave the AICC while the contenders outside are equally keen to get in. Removal of Ghulam Nabi Azad as general secretary came as a bombshell for party leaders and the message it seemed to convey was that the AICC revamp exercise to be carried out by Mrs Sonia Gandhi would be sweeping. Ghulam Nabi Azad was one of the most visible general secretaries, articulating the party’s views on various national issues. He was often chosen by the party president to represent the Congress in important meetings and was given charge of states facing elections.

The news about Azad’s removal and his new assignment as PCC chief in Jammu and Kashmir came on his wedding anniversary when his son had also come from abroad. Some heads were expected to roll after the unimpressive performance of the Congress in Uttar Pradesh polls but no one perhaps imagined that Azad, who was in charge of UP, would be the first to face the axe. Azad goes to violence-torn Jammu and Kashmir where Congress prospects of returning to power seem dismal. Senior leader Pranab Mukherjee was also sent to West Bengal as PCC chief before the assembly polls and despite his wish to give up the post, he continues to be the Congress chief in the state. While the proposed revamp at the AICC has kept the Congress leaders guessing, the resulting limbo would have affected their work too.

His rajdharma

People, who know Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi for long were not startled when he interrupted Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee during the press conference in Ahmedabad on Thursday saying that he was already performing “Rajdharma”. Immediately after Vajpayee left for New Delhi, Modi confided to a Parivar member that his Rajdharma was to correct the wrongs of history and he was performing it well. After all the Prime Minister had not defined the State’s duty, he said. Rajdharma was to maintain law and order and it can never be ensured until citizens feared the state and that is what he was doing, he told his friend.

Special ties

New Railway Board Chairman I.I.M.S Rana has a special relationship with The Tribune and Chandigarh. Rana’s association with the paper dates back to April 1955 when it carried his photograph for setting a unique record in cycling. At the age of 10, Rana along with his elder and younger brothers, covered the entire country and were the youngest cyclists in the world. Later, he graduated from Punjab Engineering College, Chandigarh. As Chief Engineer, he played a crucial role in setting up the Rail Coach Factory, Kapurthala. During his first interaction with mediapersons, Rana came across as rather unassuming. While promising to be accessible, he asked journalists how often they would like to meet him — once or twice a month.

CBI hospitality

People on the wrong side of law have a different impression about CBI hospitality. However, for people on the right side of law the impressions seem to differ. Attorney General Soli Sorabjee is one who is thrilled with the hospitality extended to him by the intelligence agency.

While delivering the D P Kohli Memorial Lecture here at Vigyan Bhavan the other day, Sorabjee said “I have been appearing as counsel for many a multi-national company like Enron but now-a-days I am very happy to appear more on behalf of the CBI for the royal treatment one gets”. There

was a peel of laughter when Sorabjee said that he has decided to take only CBI cases in the future.

Contributed by Rajeev Sharma, Prashant Sood, Satish Misra, Tripti Nath, S. Satyanarayanan and T.V.Lakshminarayan.

DIVERSITIES — DELHI LETTER

Growing unease among Delhi-ites over Gujarat
Humra Quraishi

I don’t know about the reaction to the Gujarat carnage in your towns and cities, but here one can sense growing unease among Delhi-ites. On April 7, several organisations and well known citizens are meeting at the Constitution Club at Rafi Marg not only to examine the continued violence but also to draw attention to the recent RSS resolution passed at its Bangalore meet.

The RSS has come out with a “unique formula for prescribing how the minorities can earn their safety and security”. It exposes the “real purpose behind Gujarat violence and the purpose is to force upon the minorities the status of second-class citizens”.

Perhaps, there couldn’t have been a more blatant exposure of the communal role played by the State machinery in Gujarat, especially by the police. In this context when I met Kiran Bedi, IG (Police Training) last weekend, I couldn’t help asking her whether the training of cops includes teaching them to imbibe some shades of secularism and humanism.

She replied that it was indeed part of the training. Whatever happens after that is no mystery. For then the lure of plump postings which perhaps can only be achieved by being a solid part of the political nexus at work, gets going into action. Wasn’t it evident by the way the few outspoken police officers had been shunted out of Ahmedabad and the rest couldn’t react to that because of the hackneyed alibi — service rules don’t permit that .

In fact, it is only around the time of retirement — or post retirement to be on the safer side — that the civil servant readies to open his mouth or uncap the pen. Otherwise, he is hand in glove with his political mate. And now as the focus shifts to Prime Minister Vajpayee’s visit to Gujarat, there’s cynicism around. What with the Sangh Parivar speaking in four or five different voices and Vajpayee’s voice being one of them, the strength of it can be ascertained by the fact that till date he hasn’t been in a position to uproot Narendra Modi from the chief ministership.

Political activists at rallies, dharnas, sit-in protests, relay fasts here have been almost screaming their heads off for Modi’s immediate dismissal, followed by trial for the carnage.

New worry

In my last interaction with JKLF’s Yaseen Malik at New Delhi’s Hurriyat office a couple of months back, when I had asked him why he took to the freedom movement , he told me with a wry smile on his face that when he was 17, he had made a poster with the word ‘freedom’ scribbled on it. Just for that, he was only arrested but also imprisoned for months, leaving a deep scar.

I write this in the context of those of us returning to Delhi after witnessing the havoc in Gujarat. I am told that when Arif Mohammad Khan returned he was so shell-shocked that for a day he couldn’t even speak and there are many like him. There’s a new worry that with families ruined and looted, the survivors might turn anti-establishment and then, once again, you will here these politicians screaming that there is a rise in terrorist activity. Without going into the why of it all. And without even bothering to remove Narendra Modi from the hot seat of destruction.

Yasser's envoy

In this disturbing scenario when we are unable to control violence in our own backyard, it does seem rather strange that Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat’s special envoy Hani Al Hassan is here to talk to Prime Minister Vajpayee. On a pressure building trip, Hani outlined not just the numbers dying, civilian areas getting bombarded but also stressed on the helpless state the Palestinian leader sits reduced to.

In his homeland, Arafat is almost in siege, his survival dependent on the US -Israeli moves. Yet, it seems a pity that there’s not one strong voice of protest emerging from any of the Middle East countries. I am reminded of what Libyan leader Gaddafi’s son Saif-ul-Islam had told me on his last visit here.

“Till there’s unity amongst the Arab nations, we would continue to be humiliated by the US-Israel combine.

Though there is enough unity amongst the Arab people, the same cannot be said about the governments, several of them are dependent on America”.

Probably this factor alone is enough to prove why the Arab governments are not reacting to this latest round of terror by Israeli forces on an unarmed Palestinian people.

PLO’s Ambassador to India Dr Khaled Al Sheikh told me that “Palestinian children in the occupied territories are treated in the most inhuman way by the Israeli soldiers. Israel is using rocketsand bulldozers to demolish the entire settlements and then they expect no retaliation. Now there’s a whole generation of Israel and American haters”.