 |
Saturday,
April 20, 2002, Chandigarh, India  
|
Defence deal The dead and the dying Ban asbestos |
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Parties, Hindutva & Muslim alienation
Crazy times
From illicit to genuine spirit
Forget harsh reality, read a fairy tale
To do or not to do? Click for answer
|
Defence deal During the past three decades India has purchased most of its defence equipment from Russia or European countries. The USA has hardly been on the main screen. Under such circumstances, the $ 146-million deal with the latter for the purchase of eight gun-locating radars can indeed be called a landmark agreement. It is expected to pave the way for the acquisition of equipment totalling more than a billion dollars from Washington. The top priority was given to the AN/TPQ-37 gun-locating radar because its absence had hindered India's attempts to retake the Kargil heights from Pakistani intruders. This radar is capable of pinpointing long-range mortars, artillery and rocket launchers after tracking a shell for only a few seconds. The system then relays precise information so that counter-fire can be directed with uncanny accuracy. The purchase of this particular equipment was finalised following a spirited competition from Russia, Ukraine and Sweden. What is obvious is that the USA agreed to sell such sophisticated radars only in the wake of the September 11 incidents. Pakistan already has the equipment and India's bid was cleared quite quickly because it is considered a force-equaliser. Suddenly, Washington has woken up to the security needs of Delhi. Army chief S.Padmanabhan is to visit the USA in the near future while the US Assistant Secretary of State for Politico-Military Affairs Lincoln Bloomfield is coming to India next week. India has reportedly submitted a shopping list of 21 systems. However, because of the tension prevailing in the region, the sale of other equipment may not be approved quite so readily. What is noteworthy is that the deal has been struck under the Foreign Military Sales (FMS) Agreement, in which the governments virtually underwrite the pact. That means that India does not have to deal directly with the company that makes the equipment. The FMS programme also makes it simpler to handle any possible sanctions. This entry of the American military industrial complex in the Indian market has been facilitated following successful talks between India's newly established Security Cooperation Group (SCG) led by the Special Secretary in the Ministry of Defence Ajai Vikram Singh and officials of the Pentagon's Defence Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA). Defence acquisition had slowed down following the Tehelka expose and US-specific SCG was formed to expedite the process. Now that the first sale has been finalised, Indo-US military ties are expected to gain considerable momentum. Its impact will also be felt on foreign policy and national security interests. |
|
It is natural for a human being with a conscience to speak out the way Mr Shanta Kumar, the Union Food and Consumer Affairs Minister, did during his interview to a Hindi TV channel. He was disgusted at the Gujarat carnage and its mishandling by Chief Minister Narendra Modi. “Those counting votes on dead bodies are not Hindus,” he said. “Those who think of consolidating Hindutva by shedding blood in Gujarat are the enemies of Hindus.” Normally, the moderate and cool-headed leader from Himachal Pradesh does not react so strongly. But the tragic developments in Gujarat and sinister attempts to fish in troubled waters there evoked very strong emotions. Remember the reaction of Prime Minister Vajpayee when he visited Gujarat to see the devastation wrought by communal hatred and blood-letting. The poet in him used very strong words to express his emotions in the very presence of the Gujarat Chief Minister. Mr Vajpayee, despite his volte-face subsequently at the party’s Goa conclave, and Mr Yashwant Sinha along with Mr Shanta Kumar represent the moderate face of the BJP. But they are under pressure from the hawks who have gained the upper hand after the party’s electoral reverses in UP, Punjab and Delhi. At Goa, Mr Vajpayee let down the doves in the BJP and outside. By accepting the party National Executive’s criticism that the Budget was responsible for the electoral defeat in Delhi, Mr Yashwant Sinha too has chosen to meekly toe the party line. By saying “I am sorry”, Mr Shanta Kumar has buried his conscience under the weight of party discipline. All the three leaders have, instead of leading the party or at least raising the voice of sanity, have preferred to join the crowd. The party that rules the world’s largest democracy has not yet learnt its basic rudiments. A party that does not tolerate dissent and punishes leaders who tend to speak out their mind will soon be bereft of any new ideas and lose direction. An objective self-analysis by the BJP would have revealed that Mr Shanta Kumar’s remark about “counting votes on dead bodies” was not altogether untrue. Instead of taking steps to remove that perception, it has decided to stiffle the dissenter. The vast silent majority looks up to the Prime Minister to stop dithering, resume the task of leadership and ensure that the rule of law prevails in Gujarat. Former Prime Minister Chandra Shekhar was speaking for many in this country when he advised Mr Vajpayee to “break the chains, arise and do something for the nation.” |
|
The concern voiced by a group of experts against mining of asbestos in the country because of its harmful effects on human beings and the environment as a whole has not come a day too soon. The medical experts, who were participating at an international symposium on the theme “Harmful effects of hazardous material” in New Delhi have urged the government to stop mining of asbestos in the larger interest of the country. Asbestos is widely used in India. In the last few years, its importance has increased by leaps and bounds following a phenomenal rise in the house building and construction activity. According to a study conducted by an NGO, the annual consumption of asbestos is about 100,000 MT, of which one-fifth is mined within the country. But the problem is that the increasing demand for asbestos has also led to an increase in the pollution levels. The New Delhi symposium has made a startling revelation that a small asbestos piece could break into thin fibres, some 700 times smaller than human hair, and once they enter the air, they pollute the atmosphere. The extent of danger can be gauged by the fact that the fibre-like substances remain suspended in the air for days together. Moreover, asbestos fibres are carcinogenic and lead to lung cancer. Scientists of Ahmedabad’s National Institute of Occupational Health have confirmed that workers exposed to mining at Lucknow, Ahmedabad and Hyderabad suffer from “asbestosis”, a lung problem caused by inhaling these fibres. The same would be true in the case of workers at other places as well. The demand for a ban on asbestos mining should be carefully examined by the government. It should specifically draw lessons from the West while reviewing its policy on mining asbestos. While most developed countries have banned it, the European Union is in the process of phasing out asbestos by 2005. Keeping in view its dangerous effects, India too should seriously look into the possibility of imposing a ban on mining asbestos expedetiously. India’s bulk requirement is met through imports from Canada. With the rapid advancement in science and technology, it should not be difficult for the authorities, experts and structural engineers to explore alternatives for asbestos in the event of a ban on its mining and the consequent shortfall in the supply. |
Parties, Hindutva & Muslim alienation The Hindu-Muslim divide has been blamed on the British. Even as the imperial rulers were practising the divide and rule policy and doing their best to intensify this mutual ill will, the fact of the matter is that they were only making use of a pre-existing divide. Muslim separatism in India was not the product only of the jehadi ideology but in a considerable way a reaction to the Hindu social exclusivism. For even if there is no doubt that Hinduism does not have proselytisation as its objective and is to that extent a tolerant religion, its rooted aversion to the “mlechchas” resulted in the Muslims not being admitted to social equality with the Hindus. For that reason, some of the obviously insulting Hindu practices gave to the Muslims a feeling that they have no place of honour in the Hindu society. It was common among Hindu households to keep separate utensils for entertaining Muslim guests, whatever their social standing. With such an attitude, even inter-dining, much less an inter-community marriage, was unthinkable. Between the communities, therefore, on both the scores, a give and take simply did not exist. Partition made this separation at the psychological level chronic. Before Partition, there was undoubtedly a very wide subscription among the Muslims to the Pakistan idea resulting in the non-acceptance of those described as “nationalist” Muslims and the latter’s point of view forcefully expressed by Maulana Azad that the partition of the country would be to the great disadvantage of the Muslims themselves as the two-nation theory flew in the face of reality. Thereafter, there has been no organised and conscious effort at a genuine resolution of Muslim alienation. The Muslim upper class migrated to the Promised Land to become the outcaste Mohajirs — a likelihood very clearly predicted by Maulana Azad. The vast number of Muslims that were left behind were economically extremely poor and such Muslim leadership as existed was all the time weighed down by the guilt of Partition. No socially liberating programmes by way of special educational effort, NGO work among Muslims, especially women, and a steady awareness programme to disroot the “mlechcha” concept out of the Hindu mind, were undertaken. Pakistan’s implacable hostility and bigoted jehadi ideology hurt the Indian Muslims by aggravating Hindu apprehensions and distrust. It was hoped that with the spread of education and economic advancement, even if slowly, and the modernisation of Muslim-Hindu societies, the old ideas of Hindutva and Islamic fundamentalism would yield place to a composite culture, leading to the emergence of a new way of thought. Sadly, even after 50 years away from Partition the Hindutva ideology has injected virus that will not abate unless political parties realise its danger. The chain reaction following the demolition of the Babri Masjid is nowhere near ending. The communal ill will is qualitatively different from what it was before the Babri Masjid-Shah Bano pandering to communal ideologies. It is in this background that the Godhra and Ahmedabad events and the continuously disturbed law and order situation in Gujarat, the high scale of mass involvement, call for a collective response. There is some recognition, however, feebly asserted by the BJP leadership a la General Musharraf that if these forces are not handled, they will devour the so-called moderates among them. There is, therefore, great need for initiating around the happenings in Gujarat a combined movement of all parties, with the BJP also drafted into it, without treating this as a government versus Opposition match, for solid rehabilitation measures. Former Finance Minister Manmohan Singh had instituted a very big fund in the Ministry of Home Affairs for helping the victims of communal violence. Not a word has been uttered about funneling as large an amount as may be required into the rehabilitation work. The Rajiv Gandhi Foundation could have also channelled funds into this work. On the whole, this could have built into a kind of rehabilitation effort, which the country witnessed in the context of the Kutch earthquake and the Orissa cyclone or the Kargil war. Political parties appear to have been callous to this aspect of human suffering and are losing a golden opportunity of healing the wounds of the divide. Mass education calculated to drive home the point (again a la General Musharraf) that we may also very soon start lamenting the fact of the government’s writ not running needs to be undertaken. The secularists are not seeking out and working for the recognition of a large and educated Muslim middle class for joining in this movement and promoting them as the true spokesmen of the Muslims. Instead, we have populists like Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav, Mr Laloo Yadav, Ms Mamta Banerjee and the Left leadership in West Bengal which, as per its electoral need, does not mind recourse to communal support, whereas the need is for an equidistance from both varieties of communalism and dealing with them ruthlessly. In dealing with those who play with the law of the land, the State can have no religion except for the impartial protection of life and liberty of all citizens, no matter to what faith they belong. Even now, it is not too late for political parties to launch a campaign of constructive work and mobilisation of resources for quick achievement of rehabilitation. The long-term obligation of all political parties again is not securing something through caste or communal reservation but a programme of education, skill building and entrepreneurialisation of the Muslims with a view to narrowing down the economic disparities. The same is true of the need for special measures for the professional advancement of the Muslims by creating an enabling environment (not by cheap political reservation) so that we may have more numerous Dr Abdul Kalams in the country. It is to be hoped that our shortsighted political parties do not find these matters too small for their attention. Goodwill is not a one way affair and cannot be achieved by imposing one’s own terms. The writer, a retired IAS officer, is a former Chief Secretary of Punjab. |
Crazy times Mr impressions of my father, who I lost fairly early in my life, were of an upright man, meticulous on all counts. One of the most important lessons that I imbibed from him was that of being punctual under all circumstances. Punctuality was drilled into us at home, and at my school in Dehra Dun, where I can proudly say, that all events moved with clockwork precision. We took immense pride in saying that we were NEVER ever late. Today, I see mothers not sending their children to school on time since they overslept after a late evening spent socialising. From school to college and then, to a career in the Army — one could proudly claim to have been on time, every time. My marriage to an army man made me even more meticulous because if, there is one institution, which prides itself on organising events according to the clock, it is the defence forces. A job in a leading public sector undertaking was however, an eye opener for me. I couldn’t understand how people arrived late, not by just 10-15 minutes, but by hours. However, people living around my clinic told me that they could set their watches by the time I drove into my office — I suppose, old habits die hard!! My husband once had to go as a chief guest to a function in Punjab. When we reached there, the ladies present told me triumphantly that they were there so early, since they had been warned, repeatedly, that the General was the chief guest. One of them told me: “You must be used to being on time”. So I told her that, we had been told that from our residence to the place of the function, it would take us 27 minutes. So precisely 27 minutes prior to the scheduled time our cars had left home. The lady looked at me aghast — then, very slowly, she said: “You must be leading a life full of tension!!” From the defence functions to being a part of the civil stream is a different ball game altogether! At a function or a private party, when you turn up, you don’t even know whether your host will be present. People take immense pride in loudly proclaiming that this is the third or fourth party they are attending, never mind if they arrive when the dinner plates are being taken away — the later, the more noticeable the grand entry!! Even for those who wish to arrive at a reasonable hour — how do you know what the traffic congestion will be like? Driving in Delhi is a nightmare in the evenings and such horrendous experiences can only get worse if the lights don’t work due to major power breakdowns, which have been more and more frequent lately. Is it worth looking at your watch a dozen times, watching the minutes go by with a sense of mounting panic? Is it worth the argument when you tell your husband: “I told you we should have left half an hour earlier!” I think at this stage of my life I have slowly, though reluctantly, come to the conclusion that punctuality is a dead virtue and only somebody “soft in the head” will make the effort to be on time! |
From illicit to genuine spirit Why do we see repeated news of deaths due to illicit liquor consumption? Such news is always followed by the ordering of an inquiry, suspensions and transfers of police officers concerned. Also what surfaces is the evidence of protection accorded to the sources of illicit liquor by local agencies and authorities — the very same agencies responsible for detection and prevention. Money and power are obviously the driving force. Power protects and money buys. But it is at a heavy cost for the poor and foolish men who drink cheap liquor and put themselves up for sale for onward journey to the graveyard or cremation ground. The rich of course drink expensive labels and die of overdose and we do not even get to know of them. The poor and foolish men further drink at the cost of their families with the money meant to be spent on the essentials i.e. education, food and health care. While their children and wives starve, beg and lose out on education, and even die due to ill health, the government coffers and pockets of officials fill with blood money by protecting the bootleggers. A very sad commentary on our humanity, our system and the individuals entrusted with the responsibility to administer it. My experience of dealing with boot-legging goes back to my first district charge when I was posted as Deputy Commissioner of Police, West District. It was then not called “West Delhi” but “Wet” Delhi. This was because the district was known to be housing thousands of bootleggers belonging to a particular community and traditionally brewing and selling illicit liquor. Many colonies then were notorious for it and everyone knew of it. The families and individuals were known too! The lanes and by-lanes would reek and stink of the illicit brew from a distance. Evenings were overcrowded. For that was the peak time for sales. Naturally, it was a tough time for the police. Calls of stabbings, brawls, hurts, fights, teasing of women, domestic violence would all happen at that time. One evil fed on the other. We in the district police decided to break this vicious cycle once and for all. We vowed that no more will “West” be “Wet”. We called a meeting of all known bootleggers, men and women- based on police records and told them that it is not on number of cases we detect of illicit liquor, or number of persons we will arrest which we will hereafter take pride in but by the extent of prevention. That means each detection of illicit liquor will also lead us to an assessment as why and how was the sale still going on. The beat police officers would be held fully accountable. We also held meetings with the respectables of the area, men and women urging them to inform us, in any way they felt comfortable, even telephonically to our police control room, they need not disclose their identity. We started getting calls. We responded instantly. This increased our credibility. Still more information came. The very fact that there was a fear of increased information to the police and a certainty of a check, the bootleggers were now on the run. They started looking for places outside the colonies to sell. Once out, it was easier still to apprehend them. For now they were out in the open. No more was it a residential shelter. Detection and arrests went up and bails became difficult, so did the price of a lawyer. The profits of crime also fell and prison days increased. The Magistrates started believing the district police. The determination of the police was relentless and within months the bootleggers gave up. They marched to my office asking for relief! For them, they said, it was never so dry. They now wanted other options so that they did not starve. Their grouse was that the police was not allowing them to carry on their traditional business, which was the sale of illicit liquor. An amazing admission for the first time. They all asked for help and time. We brought in the Department of Social Welfare to help rehabilitate them in all possible ways. We succeeded. The police-public team work won and the women appreciated it the most, being the prime targets of alcoholism. In the process our detection of cases under the Excise Act fell and so did the number of arrests. I was asked to explain the fall in number of cases since other districts were claiming credit for increased detection and arrests. Ours was a case of increased prevention without major detections and numbers in arrests. For us the area residents were the real evidence. But who should our Supervising Officer, then Mr M.B. Kaushal, who recently retired as Spl Secy (Home), Govt of India, believe? He of course knew what we were doing. But he had a dilemma. To defend the increased detection in other districts or increased prevention in our district? I do not know how he did it but we were never told to change our method of crime prevention. The “West” was no more “Wet”. All due to sheer determination to prevent crime and not merely to detect crime and claim credit for enhanced detection and arrest figures. The objective was to give a better quality of life to the citizens of the area. There were obviously no deaths, no probes but genuine peace, gratitude and prevention. All this is possible any time, any where, provided illicit spirit is replaced by a genuine spirit of crime prevention. |
|
|
Forget harsh reality, read a fairy tale As a political columnist I generally get to see India only through a very, narrow prism and of late what I see looks really bad. Since the attack on the Sabarmati Express in Godhra the India I see through my political prism has looked so depressing that writing about it is a painful exercise. What is there left to say about a Prime Minister who sheds — as PTV has frequently pointed out — “crocodile tears” in Gujarat one week only to end up virtually justifying the violence the week after? What happened to the shame he felt in Gujarat? Did Goa’s balmy breezes carry it away? Or has he realised, as this column predicted last week, that Hindutva is the only way forward because building the BJP into a proper right-wing political party with a recognisable, rightist economic programme will not be possible before the next general election. Much easier, always, to stir up hatred and religious passions so that Hindus forget their deep caste divisions to face a common enemy: Muslims. And, most importantly, vote en bloc for the party that invented Hindutva. If the Prime Minister’s Hindutva speech in Goa was not depressing enough we got clear indications that Narendra Modi will try to consolidate his throne of blood by seeking a mandate from the people (read Hindus). There are nearly 100,000 Muslims living in temporary camps in the cities of Gujarat. Most of them have seen loved ones murdered before their eyes, nearly all have lost their homes and means of livelihood. The Modi government’s efforts to rehabilitate them have been minimal, to put it mildly, and now they are likely to stop altogether because his party and ministers will become fully absorbed with campaigning. If you think this is already depressing enough you should have watched the hero’s welcome that Modi was given when he returned to Ahmedabad from his party’s national executive meeting in Goa last week. My television screen was so suffused with saffron flags and bandanas I had to turn the colour down. Indian politics is currently going through a truly dismal period in more ways than one. The choice on the other side, as Sonia Gandhi made it clear in Guwahati last week, is an Italian Prime Minister leading a political party that has not had a new idea since Jawaharlal Nehru came up with secularism. Sonia’s meeting with her 14 Chief Ministers and the pronouncements that came out of it were as discouraging as the BJP’s meeting in Goa. So, this week I have decided to write about something else. Something about that other, magical India that lies beyond the sordid world of rajniti. Mark Shand, a friend who spends his life making fascinating journeys to places other people fear to go, was in India recently and brought me a proof copy of his new book. Reading it made me realise how much you and I forget about that wondrous India that lies beyond those sleazy corridors of power. Mark’s new book is called “River Dog” and is about his journey down the Brahmaputra with a street dog (who became a river dog) called Bhaiti. For those of you who are as sick with the state of the nation as I am I recommend it as a tonic. I picked it up one evening — when the news from Gujarat was particularly horrifying — and got so completely absorbed that I did not put it down until Mark’s journey down the Brahmaputra ended where the river meets the sea beyond Chittagong in Bangladesh. This is Mark’s third book on India. His first was called “Travels on My Elephant” and was about his journey on an elephant called Tara from Orissa to the Sonepur mela in Bihar and the second was about the only woman mahout in India, called Parvati Barua. “Travels on My Elephant” made it to international bestseller lists and “River Dog” when it comes out this month could do the same and for the same reason. Mark manages to capture an India that even most Indians believe no longer exists. When you and I look at the Northeast of India we see murder and mayhem caused by militant movements we hardly understand and secessionist struggles so old that it’s hard to remember why they started. When Mark travels through Arunachal Pradesh, he escapes the ugliness of politics into another world, almost another country. Listen to this. “It was early evening when we reached the Assam-Arunachal Pradesh border. My passport and permit were scrutinised thoroughly by the border police, and then we were waved through. It was, in the space of literally a few yards, like entering another world. The road suddenly became smooth-surfaced again, and we seemed to glide through a Garden of Eden. It was so green and empty. I wound down the window. The air was deliciously pure, scented by the foliage that surrounded us as we sped down a long, green tunnel under a canopy of soaring bamboo groves”. Mark’s journey takes him through remote villages in Arunachal Pradesh where he and Bhaiti are entertained by Adi chieftains and up through the dense forests along the McMahon line from where you can look into Tibet where the Brahmaputra is still the Tsangpo. As you travel with him through the pages of “River Dog” you realise with relief that there is still a magical, wondrous India left that has not yet been destroyed by the corruption of our politicians and officials. You also realise that what is left of this other India needs urgent preservation if we are to retain what remains of our forests and if unplanned urbanisation is not to destroy what is left of the local, tribal culture in the Northeast. My only experience of the Northeast has been in Assam and Meghalaya and in both states there are already signs of severe deforestation caused mainly because of the collusion of corrupt officials and businessmen. The only way this can be stopped is for the citizens of these states to become aware of the need for preservation. Strong action on the part of citizen groups appears to be the only way to stop our political class from destroying our country. To come back gloomily to politics, it was the absence of citizen groups in cities like Ahmedabad and Baroda that led to the violence getting as bad as it did. In Delhi in 1984 it was vigilante groups set up in most middle-class localities that prevented the mobs from invading. Direct involvement of ordinary Indians in politics, governance and social and environmental issues is the only way to stem the rot we have seen in its ugliest form in Gujarat. Meanwhile, if you need to relax and forget about the bad side of India for a moment read “River Dog”. It is a little like a modern Indian fairy tale and we need a few fairy tales to lift the gloom. |
Lahore  |
To do or not to do? Click for answer Can’t decide whether to dump your boyfriend, move house or sell your car? The answer may be just a click away. Two British men and three women will let the Internet play God for 15 days from today by handing over their daily, sometimes life-changing decisions, to a potential jury of 12.7 million people, Internet news portal MSN said in a statement. The five people were chosen as part of a project to give the Internet a chance to help ordinary people make important daily decisions. This latest venture comes three decades after the publication of Luke Rhinehart’s bestselling book “The Dice Man,’’ the story of a man who gives up his control of life to the dice, and follows the worldwide success of reality TV show “Big Brother.’’ Each of the five will put a decision a day to the Internet community and will have to act on the outcome of the decision, although they will be given a “joker’’ — meaning they can back out of one decision — during the period, MSN said. Internet users around the world will be able to vote on the decisions each day by visiting www.liveyourlife.msn.co.uk. A dedicated site has been created around each participant, giving information about their backgrounds, their mentors, their loves, hates, their hobbies, hopes and daily diary updates. Pictures and feedback on the decisions will be posted on the website the following day, MSN said. “We are all a nation of agony aunts and uncles and love nothing more than giving advice or speculating what people should do next. This is an unmissable opportunity to have your say and watch your advice being lived out for real on the net,’’ said MSN Marketing Manager Tracy Blacher. At the end of the 15 days, web users will decide which of the five has let the Internet live their life to the maximum and he or she will win £ 10,000 ($ 14,370). The two men are Miles, a 31-year-old Londoner who dreams of petite pop star Kylie Minogue and managing the England soccer team and John, a 36-year-old balding Scot who loves the simple things in life and wants to be a travel writer.
Reuters |
“I am male”. “You are female”. “I am Russian”. “You are American”. “I am white”. “You are black”. “I am a Christian”. “You are a Buddhist”. “I am rich”. “You are poor”. “I am old”. “You are young”. The body-conscious soul thus classifies the world, has desires, adopts a perspective and responds according to its limited vision.... If you examine deeply what causes sorrow, you will see it is due to the misidentification of the true Self with one’s own or others’ physical identities. — New Beginnings (A Brahma Kumaris’ publication) *** There is an imminent principle of Consciousness in the whole cosmos. This imminent consciousness is what is called the Absolute.... We call it the Self i.e. the Atman.... You are like waves in the sea of consciousness and... there is nothing like matter or inorganic stuff in the world — this is universality of perception, as different from individual perception of objects. — Swami Krishnananda, Yoga, Meditation and Japa Sadhana *** If you have the habit of waiting for others, you will get left behind. If you spend an hour in worthwhile actions there is 1,000 fold gain. If you waste an hour in useless actions there is 1,000 fold loss. Do not just be concerned about your rights, but consider whether or not you are right. — From Thought for Today (A Brahmakumari Publication) *** The eyes have one language everywhere. — George Herbert, Jacula Prudentum |
 |
| Punjab | Haryana | Jammu & Kashmir | Himachal Pradesh | Regional Briefs | Nation | Editorial | | Business | Sport | World | Mailbag | In Spotlight | Chandigarh Tribune | Ludhiana Tribune 50 years of Independence | Tercentenary Celebrations | | 122 Years of Trust | Calendar | Weather | Archive | Subscribe | Suggestion | E-mail | |
