E D I T O R I A L   P A G E

EDITORIALS

An eye-opener for Pakistan
FOR more than half a century, Pakistan has tried to project itself as a genuine sympathiser of the Kashmiri cause. It is another matter that this “sympathy” has been expressed only through terrorism export. But even this policy of murder and mayhem does not seem to have fooled the Kashmiris.

Instability haunts Goa
GOA, the 3,500-sq km lilliputian state, has got everything — majestic sea beaches, excellent tourism getaways, delicious fish and delectable feni. However, political instability haunts the 25th state of the Indian Union. In the last 12 years, Goa has witnessed 13 Chief Ministers, two rounds of President’s rule and two prematurely dissolved Houses.

OPINION

From Kiloi to Kandela
Wages of Populism in Haryana
D. R. Chaudhry
The districts of Rohtak, Jhajjar, Sonepat, and the adjoining areas of the districts of Jind, Bhiwani and Hissar constitute what is called the Jat heartland of Haryana. This belt is in a state of ferment.

Waiting for Godot...
Suchita Malik
Scene:- outside the classroom of a college ... the bell has just rung ... a lecturer is trying to smooth her way through the corridor ... bustling with the laughter of care-free students hurrying towards their destinations. Some are moving towards the library, some towards the canteen, while the hep ones are heading towards the college gate. It’s fun-time for all galore!

Sidhu’s case: transparency restored but battle not over
Anupam Gupta
This is how history is made, even in the legal system. The pull of morality, the impetus of public opinion, the hydraulic pressure of accountability to the community — all contribute to the making of the law no less than cold logic or the dry text of statute or precedent.

Where did we lose that proud Punjabi spirit?
Chandra Mohan
Ever since I was born in Lahore in 1932, one thought was repeatedly grilled into me by my parents; teachers, friends and the entire community: we were the inheritors of a proud, courageous and fun-loving clan which drove hard.

SPIRITUAL NUGGETS

EDITORIALS

An eye-opener for Pakistan

FOR more than half a century, Pakistan has tried to project itself as a genuine sympathiser of the Kashmiri cause. It is another matter that this “sympathy” has been expressed only through terrorism export. But even this policy of murder and mayhem does not seem to have fooled the Kashmiris. An on-the-spot survey conducted by a highly respected UK-based research group, Mori International, in the state has found that as many as 61 per cent of Kashmiris want to remain Indian citizens. Even more important than that, only a negligible 6 per cent want to cast their lot with Pakistan. The results of the survey conducted in April could not have come at a worse time for General Musharraf because they give a lie to all his tall claims. Since the survey has been conducted by an independent firm, he cannot even dismiss it as Indian propaganda. Nor is it possible for him to allege that these have been rigged, like the referendum that he conducted in his country allegedly was. The war clouds can disperse considerably if only the General and his men accept the results gracefully, although the chances of that happening are almost nil. Whatever the reaction from across the border may be, the survey mirrors the real aspirations of the Kashmiri people. It has been felt all along that for every gun-toting terrorist who hogs the headlines, there is a meek majority of several thousands in Jammu and Kashmir which swears by Kashmiriyat. In fact, Pakistan is not only aiding and abetting terrorism. The Frankenstein is entirely its own creation. Remove the puppeteer’s hand and the puppet will not survive beyond a few days.

Other conclusions of the survey are equally encouraging. A full two-thirds of the population of Kashmir believes that Pakistan’s involvement in the region for the last 10 years has been bad for the state. There is also near unanimity that foreign militants are damaging the Kashmiri cause. Eightysix per cent people want an end to militancy while 80 per cent are keen that displaced Kashmiri Pandits must return. This accurate reflection of the people’s psyche should be taken note of by India also. The biggest grouse of the people seems to be that self-serving politicians have managed to come to power time and again. That is why the majority feels that a new political party is needed to bring about a permanent solution in Kashmir. Perhaps the disillusionment that has set in because of bad governance can be removed by ensuring that elections are 100 per cent free and fair and true representatives of the people come to power. Those who took part in the survey have virtually drafted the blueprint for peace. An overwhelming majority has said that the proper way to bring about peace in the region is through, one, economic development; two, democratic elections; and three, ending violence. Now it is for the Central leaders to work on this plan. At the same time, the biggest imponderable remains: will Pakistan allow any of these three hopes to materialise?

Instability haunts Goa

GOA, the 3,500-sq km lilliputian state, has got everything — majestic sea beaches, excellent tourism getaways, delicious fish and delectable feni. However, political instability haunts the 25th state of the Indian Union. In the last 12 years, Goa has witnessed 13 Chief Ministers, two rounds of President’s rule and two prematurely dissolved Houses. Almost every legislator has enjoyed ministerial position, for short periods though. Unfortunately, Goa is heading for a fresh bout of political uncertainty as no party could get majority in the May 30 elections to the State Assembly. The Bharatiya Janata Party emerged as the single largest party with 17 seats in the 40-member House. It is also backed by an Independent, increasing its tally to 18. The BJP is followed by the Congress with 16 seats. The United Goans Democratic Party (UGDP) and the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP) have got three and two seats respectively. The remaining seat has gone to the Nationalist Congress Party. As both the BJP and the Congress have failed to get a clear majority, small parties such as the UGDP and the MGP hold the key to the formation of the new government. It is a bane of the present Indian electoral system that a fractured mandate gives rise to more problems than it solves. In particular, it encourages defections and the pernicious role of money power in ministry formation.

With hindsight, it can be said that despite the fractured mandate, the BJP could improve its position in the new Assembly. While it had 10 seats in the last House, its strength has gone up to 17 now. This can be interpreted as an achievement of sorts considering the fact that the BJP had to contest this time against heavy odds, particularly in the Gujarat aftermath. The Congress, which boasts of having 14 states in its kit, made the Goa elections a prestige issue and what is more, its leaders right from Mrs Sonia Gandhi downwards played the communal card in the run-up to the elections. Worse, attempts were made to foment communal tension in the state by showing doctored clippings of Gopal Menon’s film Hey Ram. Some video cassettes were also seized from South Goa’s Congress candidate. Later, the Election Commission banned the cassettes. If Goa is considered as a test case for the BJP today in the background of the negative publicity it got in Gujarat, there is every reason for its leaders to be happy with the election results because the Congress has failed to stick the communal label on the BJP. What lends credence to this is the fact that Goa has a huge minority population. It is said that every third Goan belongs to a minority community. The results also demolish the theory that the BJP’s influence is limited only to Goa North, which is said to be a Hindu-stronghold. Moreover, four Christians have been elected on the BJP ticket. Compared with the BJP, the Congress suffered a series of setbacks. Its State unit president, Nirmala Sawant, who has lost the election, has resigned from the party post, owning moral responsibility for the party’s debacle. The Governor has invited the outgoing Chief Minister, Mr Manohar Parriker of the BJP, to form the government. The new ministry will be sworn in on Monday. However, it will not be able to ensure a stable government. Not a happy augury from the development point of view.

OPINION

From Kiloi to Kandela
Wages of Populism in Haryana
D. R. Chaudhry

The districts of Rohtak, Jhajjar, Sonepat, and the adjoining areas of the districts of Jind, Bhiwani and Hissar constitute what is called the Jat heartland of Haryana. This belt is in a state of ferment. The area between Kiloi village in Rohtak district and Kandela in Jind district constitute the epicenter of the Jat hinterland. This epicentre has been the flash point of the peasant discontent bordering upon rebellion of late. It has seen an open confrontation between the Bhartiya Kisan Union (BKU) activists on the one hand and the administration on the other. Keeping several police officials and others, including two DSPs, hostages in the two villages coupled with the kidnapping of the daughter of S.P. Fatehabad and their subsequent release under typical circumstances marks a watershed in the socio-political history of Haryana and the state has taken a quantum jump from embittered placidity to open rebellion with a distinct tinge of anarchy.

This writer in these columns (Tribune, December 22, 2001) had drawn pointed attention to a utter sense of disgust and demoralisation in Haryana peasantry as evidenced in the BKU’s novel method of protest by lighting a heap of dung cakes in front of the residence of the three main opposition leaders and at Haryana Agriculture University, Hisar. After having written off the ruling dispensation in the state, peasants led by the BKU made the opposition leaders and the farm scientists as their target of attack. The successive failure of the cotton crop in the state, the dwindling size of the landholdings throwing up a large number of unemployed youth, the shrinking job market made worse by the retrenchment of more than 10,000 government employees by winding up several government corporations, the callous indifference of the government to address the question of making small-scale farming viable and exploiting the potential of industrial growth in the state — all these factors have bred a deep sense of disillusionment in the peasantry in the state.

The announcement by the state Chief Minister of the government’s decision not to enter the market to buy wheat in future when the wheat procurement was at its peak this season, the reality of price tag attached to government jobs made all the more agonising by the exposure of the mega scam in the recruitment in the adjoining state of Punjab, the state ending as a family fiefdom with unabashed loot of the government resources by the elements operating the state structure, the growing lawlessness in the state with murders, rapes, highway robbery, dacoity, extortions and ransom killings becoming everyday phenomenon in the state — all this proved to be the proverbial last straw to break the camel’s back and filled the robust Haryanvi peasant’s cup of sorrow and patience to the brim. With the ruling setup relying totally on empty rhetoric and the mainstream opposition parties counting their possible gains with the anti-establishment curve rising rapidly with their cynical smugness to reap the electoral harvest at an opportune moment without mobilising the masses to give vent to the mass discontent, the desperation of the peasantry became too vehement to be controlled and erupted into an open confrontation with the establishment.

The BKU activists first took four police men hostages at Kiloi. The present ruling party in its crusade to snatch power in the state has been promising a virtual paradise to the peasantry for many years in the form of free supply of electric power and water and a host of other promises. The BKU launched agitation to seek fulfilment of these promises. Finding the gap between rhetoric and reality too wide to be filled easily, the government took recourse to repression launching court cases against the BKU activists.

In case of the Kiloi affair the government succumbed completely, withdrawing all cases against the peasant leaders, releasing the impounded jeep of the BKU and waiving the condition of getting all-dues-clearance from the electricity office for getting any job done in any government department. This whetted the appetite of the BKU agitators and they went in for a bigger kill at Kandela by making two DSPs hostages along with half a dozen others, including the wife of one DSP. As expected, they demanded the release of all the BKU activists imprisoned in an earlier agitation at Kandela and waiving of all power dues.

Anyone with even mean intelligence and low wit could predict that the top criminals in the state to get their companions released could use this tactic. This happened rather too soon. A top gangster of the area kidnapped a three-year-old daughter of S.P. Fatehabad when the crisis at Kandela was at its peak. The release charade happened almost simultaneously at both the places. Several companions of the Fatehabad kidnapper were released from prison with promise to release more and then the hapless kid was restored to her parents. At Kandela all the hostages were released after hectic negotiations between the agitators and the nominees of the government. There are conflicting versions. The BKU leaders claim that all their demands have been conceded while the administration denies it. The matter rests here at the moment with the confusion worse confounded but the moral of the story is clear.

The total surrender of the government at Kiloi and Fatehabad and its attempt to save its face at Kandela by taking recourse to subterfuge show that it has lost its legitimacy and the strongman of Haryana has turned out to be a colossus with the feet of clay. The teeth of the police have lost their sting and the iron fist of the administration has turned out to be a jumble of shattered nerves. The desperate peasantry in the Jat heartland and the demoralised administration facing each other eyeball to eyeball can have ominous consequences in times to come. Time is a continuum and the complexity of the present scenario can best be understood by casting a look at the past.

The battle-like scene at Kiloi and Kandela with thousands of peasants armed with pick axes, swords, spears, lathis, jelis and lethal arms, licensed as well as illicit, itching for a conflict is the legacy of Lok Dal politics in Haryana. The mass of agitators in fact have been Lok Dal (LD) activists and fed on mindless militancy for many years.

In the long drawn out political struggle popularly known as “Nayay Yudh” in 1985 in the wake of the Rajiv-Longowal agreement putting Haryana to disadvantage in matter of sharing of the river waters between Haryana and Punjab, the LD workers were exhorted to keep a blade in the pocket to chop off the noses of the Congress leaders if they ventured into countryside and blacken their faces (an LD worker did venture to blacken the face of then Governor of Haryana at a public function at Faridabad), fell the trees to block the roads, get the shops closed forcibly in towns whenever the call came from above and so on. This bred unbridled militancy in the ranks of the unemployed peasant youth of Haryana and one day it sought unsavoury outlet when LD workers looted shops at Rohtak to their heart’s content.

Concerted attempts were made during “Nayay Yudh” in Haryana to sell the ideology of extremism. A leaflet under the name of the second-in-command in the struggle entitled “Burning Questions in Haryanvi Hearts” was distributed in thousands in the state during the course of the struggle. In the leaflet questions about the burning of the Indian Constitution, giving armed training to the youth in Haryana, getting help from Pakistan, Canada and America, storing arms in temples, holding out threats to kill the national leaders etc were raised. It was impressed on the youth of Haryana that they could secure justice only by following the path shown by Bhindranwale.

This writer condemned this kind of mindless militancy being bred into the youth of the state by addressing a press conference at Chandigarh on September 4, 1986. The press release issued by him, inter alia, stated: “After the distribution of this pamphlet and further indoctrination of the youth along extremist lines, some of the Lok Dal activists are getting more and more intolerant and aggressive in their attitude and conduct. Indiscipline and anarchy are on the increase among them......The unemployed and desperate youth are being mobilised to follow the extremist path. The unruly, antisocial and lumpen elements are becoming active. Anybody who questions their line is being bullied into submission”. In those days, the hoodlums constantly harassed this writer and they assaulted a member of the staff of a weekly newspaper edited by him.

The LD reaped the crop of this mass hysteria and got a resounding victory in the ensuing assembly elections, decimating the Congress party, with only five of its members being elected to a House of 90. The promises made in the LD election manifesto were forgotten after the party came to power. The paradise promised during the militant mass struggle turned out to be a chimera. The question of sharing of river waters between Punjab and Haryana went into oblivion and the issue of completion of the SYL canal was never raised, with Akali Chief Minister of Punjab and its LD counterpart in Haryana being “pagri badal” (swapping of turbans) brothers.

In the subsequent years, the empty radical rhetoric of the LD continued unabated in the state. The mass of the BKU agitators in the state is the progeny of this rhetoric. The wide gulf between rhetoric and reality is beyond the capacity of being fulfilled by the present LD ruling dispensation in the state. Sow the wind and reap the whirlwind. Now the chicks have come home to roost. The wheel has turned full circle. The ferociously restless progeny is in a foul mood and is keen to devour its progenitor. The clouds of anarchy are looming large on Haryana’s horizon. The political system to give a constructive direction to the mass discontent stands paralysed. One can wait for the consequences to unfold anxiously.

MIDDLE

Waiting for Godot...
Suchita Malik

Scene:- outside the classroom of a college ... the bell has just rung ... a lecturer is trying to smooth her way through the corridor ... bustling with the laughter of care-free students hurrying towards their destinations. Some are moving towards the library, some towards the canteen, while the hep ones are heading towards the college gate. It’s fun-time for all galore!

Five minutes have passed since the bell rang. The lecturer looks at her watch and mutters to herself: “oh! the students must be on their way to the classroom”. Another five minutes tickle by. She meets another colleague in the corridor and starts a conversation in the hope of passing a few more innocuous moments till the students show up. She brings the chat to an evergreen topic of dress, jewellery and movies. The colleague does not mind. She herself is on her way to the classroom dreading to face the same scenario.

Ten minutes later, the chit-chat is almost at an end and has been reduced to the disdainful disarray of monosyllables. It’s time to move on ... the colleague marches towards the library where she had “requested” her bunch of “Honours” students to assemble ... in order to discover an empty classroom or a corner to catch up fast on their never-ending junk of syllabus. On reaching the mutually agreed destination, this one also starts her wait ... wait ... wait ... till she is lucky.

Twenty minutes pass by ... the first one looks at her watch impatiently and fumes ... “the students these days ... look at them ... the teacher is waiting for the students ... courtesies are missing ... they could have at least informed me ... may be one of them could have stayed back with a message ... God knows whether they would be coming or not ... what shall I do ... let me go and sit in the classroom itself ... oh God! ... sitting in the empty class-room and waiting for these nincompoops ... it’s absurd ... but at least I ‘seem’ to be on duty and working at my job to the best of my ability ... now, I should’t make it an ego question ... it’s o.k.”.

Crest-fallen, she slithers towards her chair, bangs her register and purse on to the desk listlessly. May be, even now, a few might turn up ... she doesn’t lose hope ....

A couple of minutes later ... a few students hurry towards the classroom and literally barge in amidst peals of laughter and say, “oops!” On seeing the teacher sitting alone in the room, they hesitate a little and then exchange sly, meaningful glances at one another with mischievous grins on their faces and a glint in their eyes.

The teacher welcomes them with a broad smile and thinks “... Thank God! the wait has been worth after all ... it is never too late ...”

“So students, let us start with the lecture for today”.

“Lecture? ... No ma’am ... not today! We are not in the mood ... half of our class is sitting in the canteen ... listening to the cricket commentary and having bread-pakoras and cups of tea ... we just came to have a ‘dekho’ at the classroom ... next class, definitely, ma’am ... by the way, which book we are supposed to be starting today, ma’am”.

“Waiting for Godot ... by Samuel Beckett”.

“Waiting fo...r?” —- demanded the students.

“G...o...d...o...t”, she replied emphatically.

“Who is he, ma’am?” the students asked in a low whisper.

“He ! ... er.... Godot ... er ... well ... the students!” she replied sullenly.

“Oh!” exclaimed the students sulkily and made a quick march out.

The teachers was left waiting. She muttered to herself ... what do I tell them ... who is Godot ... it is a quest ... even Beckett didn’t know ... had he known he would have said so in the book ... Godot could be anybody ... God ... hope ... happiness ... death ... De Gaulle the future ... or even the students?

Waiting for Godot is no different from waiting for these students ... well, it’s one and the same thing.

POINT OF LAW

Sidhu’s case: transparency restored but battle not over
Anupam Gupta

This is how history is made, even in the legal system. The pull of morality, the impetus of public opinion, the hydraulic pressure of accountability to the community — all contribute to the making of the law no less than cold logic or the dry text of statute or precedent. Police officer, politician, journalist, Judge, every practitioner of power is on trial here and must constantly prove himself.

Less than a month after it failed the test, evoking a storm of protest, the Punjab and Haryana High Court revived and proved itself again last week in the Ravi Sidhu case, the case in which history will sit in judgement over us all and spare none.

Full credit for Operation Salvage must be given not only to the members of the Division Bench, Justice G.S. Singhvi and Justice Mrs Bakhshish Kaur, who ruled for the court on May 31, throwing Sidhu’s petition out of court, but also to the Chief Justice, Justice Arun B. Saharya, without whose backing as institutional head it may not have been possible.

The first corrective step was taken, in fact, as early as on May 8, when the Division Bench, realising the gravity of the controversy created by the earlier Single Bench order of May 3, ordered the clubbing of all cases pertaining to the Punjab Public Service Commission (PPSC) scam, including Sidhu’s petition filed on the criminal side.

Wasting no time, the Chief Justice fixed all the cases before the Bench headed by Justice Singhvi itself.

The significance of the move, which might otherwise be lost on the lay reader, is that all criminal matters in the Punjab and Haryana High Court (except murder appeals and appeals against acquittal) are, as a matter of established practice, heard by Single Benches or Benches consisting only of one Judge.

For a Division Bench, then, to hear a criminal matter such as Sidhu’s petition — a petition which sought to turn the process of criminal law upside down by demanding the prosecution of the investigating officers and their punishment for contempt of court — was, in the circumstances of the case, a corrective of the highest practical importance for the further course of adjudication and its ultimate outcome on May 31.

The complete text of the May 31 judgement is not yet available and it must, therefore, await a fuller analysis but the contrast between its operative part, carried by all newspapers, and the May 3 order of the Single Bench, virtually allowing Sidhu’s petition ad interim, is impossible to miss.

“In the meanwhile,” said the Single Judge on May 3, issuing notice to the State, “it is in the interest of a fair and impartial investigation and trial that the respondents are completely prohibited from disclosing the contents of statements of witnesses recorded under Section 161 of the Code of Criminal Procedure or the contents of statements or confessions, if any, recorded of the accused in the case diaries and the contents of the case diaries themselves recorded under Section 172 of the Code.”

“The prohibition (the order continued) shall continue in force until the investigating officer files the final report under Section 173 of the Code. Furthermore, the Area Magistrate, Kharar, shall ensure that this order is strictly complied with and no selective or controlled leakage of information takes place either to the Press or to the public.”

I have analysed the order at length before (May 6) and a re-run would hardly be proper, especially after May 31 when the order has been put completely out of harm’s way.

“(T)here was no valid reason,” ruled the Division Bench on May 31, “for imposing any restriction, much less a ban, on the publication of news items and reports on the progress of investigation being conducted by various agencies of the Punjab Government” into the PPSC scam.

“The reports appearing in the Press and the electronic media,” said the Bench, “about a case involving PPSC chairman Ravinderpal Singh Sidhu, suggesting that he had amassed wealth running into crores of rupees by corrupt means and polluting the process of selection... to Class I and II services in the State of Punjab, do not in any manner violate his fundamental right to free and fair trial under Article 21 of the Constitution”.

In retrospect, it is difficult to believe that the May 3 order was actually passed, that too upon a petition filed by Ravi Sidhu himself.

But the damage that the order caused to the credibility of the High Court is now known to all and is, on the larger plane, best conceptualised in the concluding words of Justice John Paul Stevens, the seniormost puisne Judge of the American Supreme Court, in his now famous dissent in the US presidential election case of December, 2000, the case which finally pushed George W. Bush Jr into the world’s most powerful office.

“(T)he majority (decision) of this Court,” he said, “can only lend credence to the most cynical appraisal of the work of judges throughout the land. It is confidence in the men and women who administer the judicial system that is the true backbone of the rule of law. Time will one day heal the wound to that confidence that will be inflicted by today’s decision. One thing, however, is certain. Although we may never know with complete certainty the identity of the winner of this year’s presidential election, the identity of the loser is perfectly clear. It is the Nation’s confidence in the judge as an impartial guardian of the rule of law.”

Upholding as it does the ethic of transparency in the Ravi Sidhu case, the May 31 judgement of the High Court will, to a considerable extent, heal the wound inflicted by the May 3 order.

But so much has happened in the last one month — including a virtual revolt by the High Court Bar Association, on a scale not seen before — that it would be naive to believe that nothing more is required to be done.

The real genesis of the controversy over the right to information can be traced back to the media disclosure of the involvement of certain High Court Judges in the PPSC scam.

While one of the Judges named has been established to be innocent, the name of another — perhaps the most important of all — has not surfaced at all till date. The loss of transparency, even if for a brief while, has already taken its toll.

Post-May 31, it is on that front that the real battle for transparency lies.

DEBATE

Where did we lose that proud Punjabi spirit?
Chandra Mohan

Ever since I was born in Lahore in 1932, one thought was repeatedly grilled into me by my parents; teachers, friends and the entire community: we were the inheritors of a proud, courageous and fun-loving clan which drove hard. And, it was at both work and play. Schooling and college in Ferozepur drilled this conviction deeper. Punjabis fought through the roughest of situations with a smile and conquered. Defeat was not in their book.

Partition was a living proof of this great inheritance. Vivid is still the image of the smiles and sky-rending “jaykaras” of Bharatmata Ki Jai” of carawans of five million refugees which we received at the Hussainiwala border in 1947. They had lost every material possession. Families of many, had been wiped out. Graduates plied rickshaws, sold vegetables and did shoe-shining to earn enough to spare for the evening classes. Never a whimper. No begging. Whatever the vocation, the evening was full of loud laughter and songs. Within a couple of years, everyone had begun a new life. In a few years, the entire community, wherever it had migrated to, had become a prosperous and valued component of their new communities; language, food, religion no bar.

Lesson from those experiences became part of the sub-conscious mechanisms of my mind. Self-reliance. Self-confidence. Never say die. Readiness for fun. That spirit only grew deeper over the years.

The main reason of my leaving a smooth and prestigious career in the Railways in 1965 was in that same mould. Their inaction on the implementation of my research during my spell with the RDSO. Had they moved ahead on the improvement solutions proved in prototype trials, high-speed Shatabadis would have come at least a decade earlier and the riding quality of Indian coaches would have matched that of European TGV. We would have saved the fancy monies that we shelled for LHB coach-technology to the European consortium a few years ago. And, the pity is that despite fancy prices, a ride in the new LHB coaches is nowhere as promised. In many ways, it is poorer than our 50-year-old horse.

In 1970, the same never-say-die spirit again breathed life into Swaraj and gave birth to PTL. Swaraj had been rejected at the highest level of the land in New Delhi: still in prototype-stage; unproven; not a chance of survival against global names. PTL not only survived, but grew in the face of competition of every hue and colour. It rose into a blue-chip and outshone the best.

A wider exposure to the real-world in the three decades of PTL only steeled my conviction that in today’s world of brutal competition, social and political clout was totally dependent upon technological and economic might. and this held true, whether it was a nation or business. There are no free lunches and beggars can never be choosers. Recounting past glories and sermonising is hollow and deluding yourself. Nobody cares a damn. The world just laughs you away. You soon become a forgotten non-entity.

If such indomitable spirit was our inheritance, I was hurt to the core when we turned into beggars a few years ago. Wild profigacy. Freebies galore and on an unending run. Begging did not stop at one round. The moment “kamandal” Round 1 got filled, out began Round 2. A new cause, a new style. The chain became endless. To the begging run was added borrowing through every possible avenue. Cost or damage was no consideration. Junk bonds is the name for such borrowing in financial parlance. In a matter of a few years, not only our own, but the future of our great grandchildren had even been purloined.

And pray, what for? Just for today’s pleasure and lifestyle for a privileged few. A once proud and affluent community has been brought down to its knees. It is left with no choice but to beg for lunch. State income does not even cover Revenue expenses; forget spare cash for investment for a better future.

As a Punjabi of the old school, I would not relish making the souls of my forefathers hang their heads in shame. They will never forgive us. Time to get onto the recovery trail is still available. It is time we all wake up to rebuild Punjab as a collective enterprise in the heritage of our forefathers. Sacrifice of today’s pleasures is an essential ingredient of this rebuilding.

But then, just vision the smiles that our endeavours will bring to our children and then, their children. they will bless us for the legacy of the happier world that we leave behind. What greater reward can a man seek?

The writer is a former Vice-Chairman and Managing Director of Punjab Tractors Ltd.

SPIRITUAL NUGGETS

The face of Truth is covered over by a golden vessel. Uncover it, O Lord, that I who love the Truth may see.

O Lord, sole seer, controller, Sun, son of the Father of beings, shine forth. Concentrate your spendour that I may behold your most glorious form. He who is yonder — the man yonder — I myself am He!

Go, my breath, to the immortal breath. Then may this body end in ashes! Remember, O my mind, the deeds of the past, remember the deeds, remember the deeds!

O Lord, lead us along the right path to prosperity. O God, you know all our deeds. Take from us our deceitful sin. To you, then, we shall offer our prayers.

— Ishavasya Upanishad, Raimundo Pannikers’ translation

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— Erwin Schrodinger, My View of the World