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Sunday,
May 11, 2003, Chandigarh, India  
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GUEST COLUMN VIEWPOINT |
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A CASE STUDY ON RECORD
From swimming to Pulitzer
Bilateral mechanisms may help Pakistan
Is BSP a divided house?
Will Farooq get a berth?
Born together, died together
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GUEST COLUMN SECONDARY and post-secondary education without a well-thoughtout manpower forecast can have a significant negative impact on the level of employment. The data included in the UNDP Human Development Report for 1993 indicate that in developing countries the rates of unemployment have a tendency to rise as the level of education rises. The rates of unemployment reported for India for the year 1989 are 2 per cent for those with no education, 3, 9, and 12 per cent for those with primary, secondary, and post-secondary education respectively. The phenomenon is awaiting explanation from growth economists as all historical experience in the Western countries is to the contrary.
India’s educational system was designed for a different time and a different purpose. It is not based on the conception that society needs education to prepare men for tomorrow. The relationship between education and development was also overlooked. This resulted in the system continuing to produce an increasing number of unemployable persons. Against this background, the recent emphasis on vocational and technical education is a step in the right direction. Vocationalisation of education was initially thought of by the Americans. In 1861, President Lincoln signed the Morril Act whereby every state in America was provided a university and 30,000 acres of land. This led to the establishment of land grant colleges which subsequently grew into state universities mandated to focus on the study of applied subjects such as engineering and technology, agriculture and forestry, medicine and animal husbandry, commerce and business management. Basically, the innovation was intended to make education an important instrument of development and in course of time elevated America to a superpower status for all time. The English view at that time did not favour admitting vocational and technical subjects into the field of education and derided the American practice by calling it a system that taught people how “to throw manure about and act as wet nurses to steam engines”. The lack of vision reduced Britain to a satellite economy within a few decades. However, promoting vocational and technical education without a clear view of the needs of emerging society can be counter-productive. This is what is now happening as many educational institutions which were expressly set up to promote professional courses and either closing down or taking many such courses off their programmes. In the absence of population control policy and constricting nature of labour laws which encourage enterprises to invest more in machinery than would otherwise be the case in a labour-surplus economy, unemployment is bound to grow even when there is an improvement in the rate of growth of the economy. That this presumption is grounded in facts would be clear from the following statement included in the latest Economic Survey of the Government of India: “As per the results of the latest quinquennial survey of the National Sample Survey Organisation on Employment and Unemployment... the rate of growth of employment... declined from 2.7 per cent per annum in 1983-1994 to 1.07 per cent per annum in 1994-2000...The decline in the rate of growth of employment during the 1990s was associated with a comparatively higher growth rate in GDP, indicating a decline in the labour intensity of production. Although there is a certain trade off between more growth and more jobs, the fundamental policy requirement is the same, namely, to base its formulation on manpower forecasts which indicate the changing requirements of the economy for different types of skills in the coming years. The National Policy of Education (1986) accorded a high priority to vocationalisation of education but having realised that creation of skills alone was not sufficient to deal with the problem of educated unemployed it was stipulated that we will have to “first build a picture of what we want India to be, like 15 to 20 years from now” and then “work back”. This was also made a primary function of the All-India Council for Technical Education when it was set up in 1987. At present, we have neither such forecasts nor the data to develop occupational analysis. This is a major gap which needs to be filled. Forecasting is a highly skilled job which can be handled only by experts. What is needed is sector-wise forecast. This is normally developed separately for the three major sectors of the economy — agriculture, industry, and services. The long-term forecasts are not easy to build. The changing socio-economic scenario and the occurrence and application of inventions make the task difficult. Nonetheless, if the vocational educational programmes are to be “grounded in the labour market realities”, there is not getting away from the forecasts, howsoever imprecise. Given data and forecasts, the system has to decide the appropriate institutional mode of delivery. At present, vocational education and training is being imparted by nearly every type of educational institution — by universities and colleges, post-secondary and secondary schools, specially created institutes for vocational and technical education such as polytechnics, industrial training centres, artisan training centres, and institutes imparting training to teachers. There are also non-formal modes such as apprenticeship schemes and inservice and on-the-job training programmes. The skills to be taught, the curricula and the institutional design, and the testing and certification systems vary considerably across these modes, so do the costs. There is a marked overlap, duplication, and waste in the system is to be found in the Kothari Commission Report. The evidence presented to the commission showed that while in the industrialised countries the ratio in which engineers and technically trained labour was deployed was 1 to 4 or 5, in India it was 1 to 1.4. The system is in dire need of planning, monitoring, and coordination if it has to be saved from its impending doom. Perhaps it requires a national regulatory body to lay down norms and build a supportive ethos. Subsequent to the building of manpower forests and the decision on institutional modes, the development plans require to be formulated against the backdrop of three significant developments. One, the universe of technology is changing very fast. This means that as the economy grows, the emphasis on vocational and technical education will gradually shift from middle-level to high-level skills, necessitating continuous upgradation of schools to post-secondary institutes and colleges. Two, the system is likely to have a reduced level of support from the state and the global institutions like the World Bank. This is because of the lately discovered instrumental value of basic education in the fight against poverty which is going to claim a larger proportion of available resources. Three, declining rates of return to investment, both private and social, because of rising costs of education and low employment outcomes. The rate of employment in India is almost touching an historic peak. In France and Germany, it is already the highest since the Second World War, in Japan since 1933. The situation in Punjab is particularly worrying as Punjab has the lowest rate of employment growth among all the major states — 0.73 per cent per annum against 2.27 per cent of that of labour force. There are two other developments in the offing which cannot be overlooked: the economic downswing in the industrial economies following the two recent wars — the Afghan and the Iraq — and its impact on India, and the return of some skilled labour from the West Asian countries which outmigrated earlier. An important lesson to be learnt from India’s recent history is that there are few things more disastrous than the disappointed aspirations of the educated youth. The data on unemployment included in the Ninth Five-Year Plan show that Kerala, which is generally regarded as an epitome of all that is best in the field of education, is among the three states which have the largest imbalance between creation of employment and growth of labour force, the other two states being Bihar and Punjab. The Approach Paper to the Tenth Five-Year Plan does not carry any specific comment on technical and vocational education but describes the performance of the education sector as a whole as “one of the most disappointing aspects of our development strategy” and calls for a resolve to integrate the country’s educational system “with the economic needs of the people”. Anyone who has given thought to the central issue that has been raised in this article will be overwhelmed by its perplexity. The vision to which a reference was made in the beginning is essentially a “vision of the untravelled world with its numerous uncertainties, probabilities and prospects”. But if India has to emerge as a power in the developing “production-line civilisation”, itwill have to rise to the challenge. Already, much of the equipment, material, and apparatus that we use it on its way to the archaeological museum. We must learn to foresee things and plan our life accordingly. The writer, a former Vice-Chancellor of Punjabi University, Patiala, is Emeritus Professor of Economics  |
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VIEWPOINT VIOLENCE on women has been on the rise. Sriganganagar district in Rajasthan, which shares 21 km of international border with Pakistan, has been facing mounting tension and insecurity. This has led to migration of people from the border villages. Armed conflict, passive wars and tension in the border areas is of central concern of those working on issues of poverty and injustice. It is in this context that the relationship between gender, development and conflict becomes relevant. Conflict affects men and women differently. In the absence of men, women bear the burden of maintaining their families under situations of physical insecurity. The general breakdown of law and order which occurs during conflict and displacement leads to an increase in all forms of violence. Women also experience specific trauma resulting from sexual violence. Few women have demonstrated courage, resilience and coping skills to fulfill their daily and assumed roles. Most women acquire skills and become income earners and decision-makers, often the preserve of men. This empowerment changes are positive indicators for women’s development. Conflicts pose a major challenge for relief and development agencies working in the affected areas. The use of military and army personnel in relief and peacekeeping operations has been linked to a growth in violence against women. At the grassroots level, women can build on the new skills acquired and on new social organisations formed during conflict. We have the examples of women refugees in Gautemala and the widows group formations in Punjab and Rwanda. Such initiatives need to be sensitive to ethnic and other social divisions. The polarisation of gender roles in conflict enhances the vulnerability of single women, children of foster care, old women and those with physical and mental disabilities. Around 70 per cent of the adult population in post-conflict are women and many widows face the risk of losing their land or are unable to return because of their limited property rights. Widowhood changes the economic and social roles of women and even alters the structure of the family. As the Sriganganagar economy has been predominantly agricultural, their alienation was clearly seen in the distribution of Rs 50 crore (Rs 13 crore in the first phase). In one project, agreements were drawn up between the widow, the local authority and the former husband’s family to ensure that the property is legally owned by the widow and that the family will not reclaim it after rehabilitation. Such initiatives could strengthen women’s property rights in other areas. If agricultural rehabilitation is to succeed in post-conflict situations, the access of women farmers to land and other resources must be addressed, raising the question of women’s, especially widows’ land rights. The health implications of prolonged conflict are tremendous. Besides the physical and psychological consequences of violence, the impact on the social health of women is negative and widespread. Despite the enormous impact of conflict on women, they do not play a decisive role in conflict resolution and post-conflict reconstruction. Women are either perceived as victims or as healers, but never taken in as decision-makers in the process. Increased representation of women in conflict resolution and peace negotiations is important, although it should not be assumed that all women are non-partisan. This must be combined with efforts to address gender issues in peace agreements. While full attention must be given to the victim-survivors of conflict, the method of reconstruction and rehabilitation must necessarily be within the empowerment and equality framework. This concept of peace begins from one’s immediate family and goes on to cover the state and finally the international sphere. The extremely low participation of women in decision-making bodies — be it traditional bodies or modern democratic institutions like legislative assemblies — has also largely contributed to the impasse in the conflict resolution process. The lack of political will among our MPs to pass the Women’s Reservation Bill speaks volumes for their concern for women’s empowerment. Though it would be easy to assume congruence between building peace and facilitating women’s empowerment, experience shows that these two processes do not always go together. Working towards gender equality can raise conflicts especially when social institutions and communities have just experienced enormous strain and disruption. Conflict is on balance more likely to disempower women, as it attacks their physical and mental health, places obstacles in their path of economic self-sufficiency, and enhances the social attitudes which maintain their subordination resulting in greater marginalisation and vulnerability. Thus, the argument is not just that women and men have different conflict experiences, but that the mobilisation of gender identities influences the resolution of the conflict. Though there are questions about the relationships between the construction of gender identities, the gender divisions of labour and what happens during the pre-conflict to post-conflict reconstruction, there are insights that can contribute to a better understanding of the entire gamut of human security. The key questions are: will the emerging political system recognise and protect women's rights and interests enabling them to influence and participate in the political process? Will the emerging economic environment be conductive to women’s empowerment or will it reinforce economic marginalisation and increase women’s vulnerability? Will the social sector suitably address women’s particular needs and concerns? Will women’s capacities and skills be recognised and incorporated into the provision of social services? Will social reconstruction generate socio-economic relationships advantageous to women? This means involving women at all levels of the peace process, especially in decision-making, and ensuring that all peace building and reconstruction activities fully integrate a gender perspective. The writer, a senior IAS officer, is Commissioner, Command Area Development & Colonisation, Bikaner (Rajasthan) |
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A CASE STUDY MADHUSUDANPUR in South 24 Parganas district, about 100 km away from Kolkata. It’s main characteristics are extreme poverty, unsanitary living conditions, dusty pebble paths and stark unemployment. Its prime activity is to sell its girls into the lucrative trade of prostitution. In fact, the incidence of trafficking in women and children is so high here that the village has gained the notoriety of being an integral link in the organised network of traders engaged in the trafficking of women and children for commercial sexual exploitation. The complicity of the family members of the victim, coupled with the apparent ease with which they negotiate the deplorable transactions opens yet another disturbing element to the practice of sexual slavery. Fourteen-year-old Lata (name changed) can sense the excitement behind the murmured conversation between her parents and her elder sister who is on a visit from the notorious red light area of Sonagachi in Kolkata. “My sister works in a bad place. She took me there when I was nine years old and I worked for a couple of months as a domestic help in a house with strangely dressed women and men who came at odd hours”, she recalls. “I cried and cried until I was allowed to return to the village, but now she has come again to persuade me to work like her”. When passed, Lata admits she has some idea of the kind of job her sister is engaged in. According to her, many girls who had left the village for “jobs” or marriage often visit and boast of the wealth they have earned in their new settings. “Some try to lure us to join them by showing their glittering ornaments. But many of the girls warn us to stay away as those are bad places”, she discloses. Like many of her contemporaries, Lata is aware how fragile and uncertain is her future.Concerned over growing reports of the brisk trade in women from this area for commercial sexual exploitation, “Sanlaap”, a Kolkata-based NGO, decided to intervene. It recently undertook a situational analysis in six areas of South and North 24 Parganas. The findings have revealed that though all six areas are severely affected by sex trafficking, the situation in Madhusudanpur is by far the worst. In certain localities in the village between 20 to 80 per cent of the families are victims or perpetrators of the crime. The analysis also found that every second to third household lives off the income of a trafficked victim whose age ranges between 13 and 15. “Wealth is coming into this village from trafficking and prostitution”, states Sanlaap Executive Director Indrani Sinha. “Agents come with job offers and marriage offers and the demand is always for girls aged between 12 and 16 years”, she maintains. According to a UNICEF study, Kolkata today has 27 red-light areas compared to 18 identified in 1993. The city is home to an estimated 100,000 women and children in prostitution, 40 per cent of whom are below 18 years of age. Given these startling figures, it’s not hard to see why the stakes are enormous in this high supply region. Though Madhusudanpur village is characterised by severe poverty, this is not the main push factor for entry of girls into the sex trade. The socialisation of sex trafficking in the community, the breakdown of constitutional machinery in law enforcement and the highly organised networking between traffickers has resulted in this human catastrophe, Ms Sinha observes. Alcoholism and addiction leading to increased domestic violence are other strong push factors. The “Child Protection Unit” (CPU) project got underway in the village in January this year. Though still in its infancy, the initiative has already started to make some inroads within the community. According to Project Coordinator Tapati, the endeavour is to have links between adolescent girls by way of imparting to them some basic education, skills training and awareness about the dangers of trafficking. “We found that girls here study up to Class IV at the village school, but drop out after that as provision for higher classes is not available and parents don’t want to spend money on sending their girl children to schools outside the village”, she observes. Within the panchayat infrastructure there are no skills training facilities available for girls. What clearly emerges, says Tapati, is that girls spend their time in domestic and field work after Class IV and by the time they are 13-14 years their families think of their marriage which normally translates into entry in the flesh trade. According to Shaktipada Mondal, senior field worker at “Suchetana”, the local group with which Sanlaap is coordinating the project, prostitution is an open secret here. “Girls are regularly being inducted into the sex trade but nobody wants to discuss it”, he regrets. Though the villagers have welcomed the CPU and allow their daughters to attend the daily lessons, the programme faces resistance. Suchetana activists are aware of the sensitive nature of their programme and the need to tread very carefully. Girls like Lata are excited about the CPU which gives them a welcome relief from domestic drudgery and the space to discuss their needs and desires. But they also know their boundaries. One positive outcome of the new initiative is the interaction between the project staff and girls who are informative about trafficking activities in the area. Earlier, Suchetana members only interacted with adult women who had already been trafficked or went voluntarily.
Grassroots Feature Network |
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ON RECORD Q: The Prime Minister has assured women’s organisations that another attempt would be made to table the Women’s Reservation Bill in the next session of Parliament. Do you see any hope in his promise? A. (Smiles). Let us always hope for the best. Actually, our brothers don’t want to share their seats. After all it means that quite a sizeable number will have to vacate their seats. I don’t want to attribute motives to anybody. I would like to mention that the National Assembly in Pakistan has about 70 members. Socially, we know, we are much advanced. If Pakistan can do it, why can’t we have more women in Parliament? I would like to express solidarity to my friends demanding reservation for women in Parliament. But, I feel that women have the strength and the merit to achieve what they aspire for. When India became free, women had to do nothing to get political rights because their equal participation in the freedom struggle was recognised by the makers of the Constitution. In the UK and the US, women had to fight to get voting rights. It is not an accident that Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka have had women Prime Ministers. The Indian subcontinent has had women leaders. This has something to do with the philosophical concept of equality in our culture. Q: A parliamentary delegation from Pakistan is in India at the invitation of Pakistan-India People’s Forum for Peace and Democracy and other peace activists. How would this visit serve to further ease tension? A: The visit was planned two months back. It is a happy coincidence that they are visiting India in a changed atmosphere. It is a goodwill visit aimed at promoting peace, friendship and better understanding. After communication links between the two countries were snapped in January 2002, we thought of inviting a parliamentary delegation to take advantage of the privilege of travelling to another SAARC member country without the hassle of travel formalities. Q: When did you decide to set up the Women’s Initiative for Peace in South Asia? What are its objectives? A: WIPSA was set up in 1998 by a group of women including former Chairperson of the
National Commission for Women Mohini Giri and other women activists including Syeda Hameed, Padma Seth, Kamla Bhasin and Meera Khanna. The main objective of WIPS is to express solidarity for women of all SAARC countries. The problems faced by women in these countries are similar — domestic violence, lack of empowerment and discrimination against the girl child. Q. Has the government done enough to help widows and disabled women? A: The government alone cannot address this issue. Society also needs to change its attitude towards women. Q: The National Commission for Women (NCW) has recently deputed a person in each State to report indecent portrayal of women in the media. Is this adequate to check this? A: Awareness should be created to arrest this trend. Indecent representation of women has increased and ought to be stopped. Women should be treated as individuals. Misuse of a woman’s body for commercial purpose is totally wrong and against any civilised culture. Q: Is the NCW playing a satisfactory role in dealing with problems of domestic violence? A: I would say that every organisation is doing its best but a lot needs to be done. Legislation can stop domestic violence but it is not enough. A woman should be able to protect herself. Once her inner strength is awakened, nobody can dare do anything. “Stree Shakti Jagran” (awakening of women’s inner power) is what Mahatma Gandhi and Vinoba Bhave taught. Q: It is often said that Gandhi is no longer relevant. A: If anybody is relevant today, it is Gandhi. During all peace marches held in London, New York, Rome, Sydney, Washington and other places in the world before the US-led attack on Iraq, references were made to Gandhi’s concept of non-violence and its relevance today. We should read more of Gandhi to see how empowered women were in his time. During the Dandi March in 1930, an American journalist took note of the upsurge of women and observed that Gandhiji may not be able to achieve his goal of liberating India but has been able to achieve something greater by the liberation of Indian women. He encouraged equal participation of women in the freedom struggle. |
From swimming to Pulitzer Of the ten stories included in the Pulitzer-winning entry, one was exclusively by Geeta. Her article, “History and Science: In Waksal’s Past”, involved a biotech company that was researching a new cancer drug. Sam Waksal, CEO of the company had dubious past; already fired by four institutions for misleading scientific work. He adopted the same method in the new company which Geeta’s story exposed in what was termed as “charges of insider trading”. Waksal had to quit in disgrace. She probed several questionable tactics used by analysts and investors to get an edge in the volatile world of biotechnology. She and her team mates sometimes sneaked into clinical trials pretending to be doctors or sick patients to gain inside information. Her another big story was exposing the cost over-runs at the Boston’s “Big Dig” public construction project that led to federal investigations and the resignation soon after of the project’s chief. Career
of journalism was not in her mind when Geeta represented India in swimming event at the Asian Commonwealth Games in 1982. She became a leading national-level swimmer and had tea with Queen Elizabeth representing India. Her only experience at that time was editing her school magazine for which she had interviewed Salman Rushdie soon after the writer won his Booker Prize for “Midnight’s Children”. Swimming was too taxing and time-consuming for her requiring hours of rigorous practice. She then thought of choosing a career in medicine and becoming a doctor but realised she would better be a writer than a medical person. Geeta made her way in American journalism the hard way, covering initially local school boards in the US town hall events, and small town debates. Her first job was with a free weekly newspaper where she covered town government for two years. Then she moved to a daily where she spent four years covering a range of beats, from local government to courts and crime. Her next job was with Boston Globe where she spent another four years covering politics. She broke several stories including a turf battle in which emergency medical technicians and firefighters clashed over dying patients at rescue scenes and Boston police flouting parking rules. She moved to Wall Street Journal in 1998. Hailing from Mumbai, Geeta studied in Cathedral School and later graduated from Dartmouth College, New Hampshire, with a major in history and a women’s studies certificate. Besides writing about a dozen stories for the campus daily, she was a campus activist . It was Cathedral’s Principal of that time, Col. Simeon, whose excellent moral and academic training shaped her personality. Married and now 36, she lives in Manhattan with her husband, Greg Krotzsh and has two daughters, three and five years old. She is, apparently, very excited about winning the Pulitzer and says: “I felt very lucky because you can go through life writing good stories and never win big awards”. She does not think that the honour bestowed on her would change the course of her life and says: “I don’t think you should let awards change your life and I am sure this one won’t change mine. I am in journalism because I think it is important work and I enjoy my job very much”. She plans to continue investigative journalism. She greatly enjoys reporting and writing stories for the Wall Street Journal. |
Bilateral mechanisms may help Pakistan THOSE in India and Pakistan who are angrily suspicious that their respective governments’ recent conciliatory moves were pushed by the hyper-power should take a look at history. It has been that way ever since the two nations were born. Of course Britain was the hyper-power in 1947, as far as the subcontinent was concerned. On October 26 that year, the day India accepted Jammu and Kashmir’s accession and dispatched troops to Srinagar, Prime Minister Nehru received a telegram from British Prime Minister Attlee. “You must of course give serious consideration to an appeal from the Ruler of the State,” it said, “but I beg of you not to let your answer to this appeal take the form of armed intervention.” It is difficult to imagine that the British government did not know troops were already on their way, for both nations’ Commanders-in-chief were British. Attlee advised instead that the two nations’ leaders meet and sort things out — exactly the advice Messrs Powell, Armitage and Hoon are now dishing out. The patterns of responses too have not changed. Jinnah immediately invited Mountbatten (as India’s Governor-general), Nehru, Maharaja Hari Singh and his Prime Minister to visit Karachi for talks. That was the first edition of the trilateral structure that Pakistan still advocates. Then too, India would not hear of it, insisting that the State had no separate locus after accession. Only Mountbatten finally went but his stand reflected British policy more than Indian: He pressed hard for the matter to be referred to the United Nations. Ironically, it was Jinnah who at that stage dismissed third party intervention, insisting on a bilateral mechanism. By 1949, the US had begun to replace Britain as hyper-power but they worked in tandem — as they still do. President Truman and Prime Minister Attlee proposed that year that US Admiral Chester Nimitz could arbitrate between the two deadlocked neighbours. By that stage, it was Nehru who angrily rejected the Anglo-American proposal as “intervention.” The duo was shaken off only after the two prime ministers, Nehru and Mohammed Ali Bogra, met at the coronation of Britain’s Queen Elizabeth — exactly 50 years ago. There were no more offers of arbitration but the US remained doggedly interested. It got a chance to intervene during the Indo-China war in 1962. The similarity in its role then and now is uncanny. It first restrained Pakistan (then, from attacking India while it was embattled on its eastern front; now, from allowing training and infiltration). Then it forced India, which was in desperate straits, to engage in talks with Pakistan. Though nothing came of the six rounds, the Anglo-American hand was openly at play. Just before the fifth round, India’s High Commissioner to Pakistan was handed a proposal from both. It advocated that India cede much of the valley to Pakistan and give portions of the state that remained with it more “self-rule.” Pakistan pressed the proposal during that round of talks. The Anglo-American axis lost clout during Indira Gandhi’s regime, not least because she had roundly defeated Pakistan six months before the most significant round of talks during that period at Shimla. However, talks between the two countries’ foreign secretaries between 1982 and 1984 were broken off at the last moment, apparently, because India had got an extra clause inserted at the end. It provided that neither side would allow a foreign military base. M.S. Rasgotra, who engaged in those talks as India’s foreign secretary, told this writer that “it was perhaps on the advice of the US that Pakistan walked away at the last moment” from what he called “a comprehensive agreement.” It is intriguing that although Pakistan’s position as a valued ally of the US has not changed, the tilt towards Pakistan that marked US policy on Kashmir for almost 50 years shifted in the mid-’90s. So much so that by the time Clinton visited in March 2000, he explicitly urged respect for the Line of Control, adding that borders can no longer be redrawn in blood. There could be several reasons for this shift. All Parties Hurriyat Conference Chairman Abdul Ghani Bhat once pointed out to this writer that the China factor must be kept in mind when one considers the geopolitics surrounding Kashmir. It is indeed possible that the US has become wary of Pakistan’s closeness to China and sees India as the only counterweight to the emergent Asian superpower. Whatever the reason for the shift, the Anglo-American axis has in any case become Enemy Number One of the jihad-inspired boys — often from the North-West Frontier and Baluchistan — who are now the backbone of Kashmir’s militancy. In their view, and that of their patrons, the government of Pakistan has sold its soul to the Anglo-American axis. Whatever role this axis may have played on Kashmir — or indeed may want to play — matters little to them. So, if the objective of inter-governmental talks is to end the bloodshed, the perception of hyper-power involvement of any kind is more likely to hinder than help. There is even a danger of the backlash recoiling on the Pakistan government. For once, then, bilateral mechanisms might be in Pakistan’s best interests.
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Is BSP a divided house?
IAS defends IFS People talk of rivalries between IAS and non-IAS cadres in different government departments and institutions. The CBI and all paramilitary bodies like BSF and CRPF etc are playfields for IPS versus non-IPS lobbies. Similarly, the IAS-IFS rivalry is said to be legendary. But the Rajya Sabha provided a different spectacle the other day when Congress member Mani Shankar Aiyar, a former IFS, had a no-holds-barred spat with External Affairs Minister Yashwant Sinha, a former IAS. Aiyar raised the issue of “poor” draftsmanship in MEA’s recent annual report and contended that a sentence in the report created an impression that because of terrorist strike in the US and on the Indian Parliament, the two democracies have come together. Sinha contested this argument but Aiyar stuck to his guns and demanded that the minister should accept that it was a “ridiculous” sentence and pull up the officer concerned. The sentence went as follows: “The terrorist attacks in the US on September 11, 2001 and on the Indian Parliament on December 13, 2001 have led to a deepening of Indo-US cooperation in this field.” Sinha flatly refused to pull up anyone saying that there was “no mistake”. But Sinha had not finished yet. He quipped: “The Indian Foreign Service, as Mani Shankar Aiyar will know, is one service which is sought after internationally for its drafting capabilities. If Mani Shankar Aiyar believes that that quality has degenerated after he left the Service, I am sorry, I do not accept it.” Here was a rather unusual instance of an IAS minister coming to the aid of his IFS subordinates.
Sonia’s
biography Friendly fire Recent history is witness how Naqvi’s loss has been Hussain’s gain. Naqvi had lost the 1999 Lok Sabha elections from Rampur while Hussain had won from Bihar. So the party
recommended Hussain’s inclusion in the Cabinet. First-time MP, Hussain hit the jackpot when Vajpayee made him a Cabinet minister. And here was Naqvi left high and dry. A victim of friendly fire. Contributed by S. Satyanarayanan, Prashant Sood, Satish Misra and Rajeev Sharma |
Will Farooq get a berth? AS talks are doing rounds that in the next Union Cabinet reshuffle, former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah will get the Health portfolio, there are those who have already begun to quip whether Shahnawaz Hussain be given a breather — off his Cabinet berth, that is — for there can’t be two show pieces. Though in usual times before the heat would begin to play havoc, Dr Abdullah would take off on one of his trips abroad, this time he’s still around. This alone has whipped up the theory that his face will be the next to be fitted and displayed in the show piece galaxy. However, as I went checking the list of the who’s who, it does surprise that the while temperatures are soaring high, the travel plans have been pushed beyond. The majority of the take-offs are in June. That could explain the new patterns here. Every evening, there’s an opening and closing ceremony, not of strings but of a string of events. This weekend alone at least five events are lined up with Satish Gujral inaugurating the Capitol Art Cafe at The Ashok. It’s one of the ITDC hotels which seems to have bounced back to life after a near fall. Given two of its restaurants and the pub on lease to the Amla family and getting to be known as an upcoming venue for book releases, exhibitions and meets around the swimming pool. I shouldn’t forget mentioning about the French season here, seasoned by the Embassy of France. Screening French films all through till June, summer evenings can no longer be boring, if you break free from the traditional...
Finest guest Congressman Dr. Manmohan Singh is perhaps the finest chief guest material. He doesn’t speak more than a couple of minutes, never focuses on himself and he’s there on the dot. Last week, he was the chief guest to mark the release of the book on the Sikhs living abroad — “Amongst the Sikhs: Reaching For The Stars” (Roli) by the US-based Surjit Kaur. The function was hosted by Khushwant Singh at his Sujan Singh Park home. I think a rare honour for Surjit Kaur, who comes across an exceptionally different woman so much so that she continued writing this book although she had been diagnosed with breast cancer and was battling with the ailment as she wrote page after page.
Postscript Dotted are UN days — World Day for Safety and Health (April 28), World Press Freedom Day (May 3), International Day of Families (May 15), World Environment Day (June 5), with postscripts attached to these days, with the worst shocker for this environment day — two billion people are actually dying for water. With that SARS and AIDS seem still waterlogged or clogged!
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Born together, died together
Ahmedabad: They came into the world together, and now a pair of septuagenarian twins have left it together too. Ibrahimbhai Jummabhai and Ismailbhai Jummabhai were twins who were born 72 years ago. And both died here on the same day — May 5 — within hours of each other. Suffering from breathlessness, Ibrahimbhai died at 11 a.m. When family members and relatives returned after burying him, they found that Ismailbhai, younger by a few minutes, too had passed away in the afternoon. The two, apparently, had the same health problem. Relatives who were yet to recover from the grief of Ibrahimbhai’s demise returned to the same burial ground and laid Ismailbhai to rest next to his twin brother. For long had Sultan Mohalla of Dariyapur in Ahmedabad been witness to the unique story of their intertwined lives. The twins spent their childhood together in the same house. They were married to two sisters. The wedding took place on the same day. Their children too were raised in a common household. “This is unparalleled, almost like fiction. The two brothers came together, lived together and even they died together. I have never heard of a case like this,” said Farooq Shaikh, who represents Dariyapur in the State Assembly and is a distant relative of the twins. While there was nothing unusual about their lives, both had chosen to be washermen. Moving in and around the area, collecting clothes and delivering them back, they were popularly called ‘chacha’, or uncle. “I had seen them moving around since my childhood and I and my friends used to marvel at their pair,” Shaikh said.
IANS
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“IF there is anybody who is relevant today, it is Mahatma Gandhi,” says Nirmala Deshpande, Chairperson of the Association of People of Asia and Indo-Pakistan Soldier’s Initiative for Peace. The 73 year-old Gandhian does not like to call herself an activist. She likes to stay away from electoral politics and is focussed and clear about her mission to bring about a social revolution by non-violent means. Former Rajya Sabha MP, Nirmala Deshpande, embodies the Gandhian principle of simple living and high thinking. She is also the President of the Akhil Bharat Rachnatmak Samaj — a federation of Gandhian voluntary institutions and workers. Her association with Acharya Vinoba Bhave’s Bhoodan Movement is well known. In the Eighties, she organised peace marches in Punjab. She is happy to introduce herself as a “Brahmachari” and has no regrets over her decision to remain single. “Being single means having no worries. I ask others to follow my example,” she said in a free wheeling interview to The Tribune. Founder member of Women’s Initiative for Peace in South Asia (WIPSA), she led an Indian women’s peace delegation to Pakistan by bus leading to a reciprocal visit by Pakistani women peace activists in March 2000. Excerpts:
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