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Thursday,
August 14, 2003, Chandigarh, India  
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Attempt to mislead Ragging is a sickness Sports awards muddle |
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India needs to be cautious
When the cry is heard
An Indian joins the race for US Senate
Call for sovereign parliament
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Attempt to mislead PAKISTAN President Pervez Musharraf remains a rigid military leader though he controls the reins of power. Whenever he opens his mouth on a serious matter he seems to create the feeling that he is playing games. This is not the way the head of government should go ahead while dealing with tricky issues involving another country. One can notice the lack of sincerity in his offer of “ceasefire” along the Line of Control if India reduces the strength of its security forces in Jammu and Kashmir and stops what he calls “atrocities” there, etc. The government in Delhi has rightly described his statement as “propagandist” in nature, having “nothing new” in it. In fact, what the General has said is contradictory also. On the one hand, he expresses his inability to end completely terrorist infiltration from across the border and on the other he declares that once India agrees to his suggestion he can “facilitate” a truce in Jammu and Kashmir. Indirectly, he has admitted that the Government of Pakistan can eliminate terrorist infiltration if it so wants to. He has been only fooling the world by saying that there are “freelance elements” in Pakistan indulging in terrorism in J and K. This is a new name for the ISI-trained terrorists. It is obligatory on Pakistan to rein in the terrorists and dismantle their infrastructure as per the commitment made to the international community by General Musharraf in the wake of 9/11. And once cross-border terrorism ends and Pakistan dismantles the training camps there and those in PoK, there will be no need for India to deploy additional forces in J and K. This is how an appropriate atmosphere for India and Pakistan to start a dialogue process for resolving all issues, including Kashmir, can be created. Track-2 diplomacy is contributing a lot to achieving this objective. This is how well-meaning governments try to demolish the wall of hatred. Any problem, how difficult it may be, can be resolved to the satisfaction of all in an atmosphere of trust. President Musharraf appears to be impatient about formal talks. But can talks be possible when he makes irresponsible statements and continues to insist on Kashmir as the “core issue” besides describing terrorist violence as “freedom struggle”. The General must learn to respect India’s sentiments if he wants the dialogue to begin early. |
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Ragging is a sickness RAGGING is a menace that can easily be classified as a criminal act of physical and mental torture of freshers by groups of senior students. It is an annual sadistic ritual that claims new students as its victims. The more disturbing aspect of the problem is that the so-called brilliant students, who get admission to engineering and medical colleges, become social deviants on acquiring the status of "seniors". The present academic session has barely begun and two cases of ragging-related trauma have been reported from such prestigious institutions as the Army Institute of Technology, Pune, and the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi. Gaurav Malhotra of Patiala does not want to return to Pune because of the physical and mental abuse he was subjected to by a group of senior students. Parkash Rajpurohit of Ghaziabad does not want to return to the IIT, Delhi. He is being treated for psychological damage at Apollo Hospital there. Last year, Anup Kumar, a first-year engineering student, ran away from the Institute of Engineering and Technology, Lucknow, and committed suicide. He was sexually abused by a group of senior students and neither the hostel warden nor the principal took notice of his complaint of harassment. In 2000, Harsh Aggarwal became a mental wreck after being abused for one month by a group of senior students at MNL Medical College, Allahabad. In October, 2001, the acquittal of the main accused in what came to be called the "ragging death" case by the Madras High Court caused a state-wide uproar. The victim was a first-year medical student at Annamalai University who was beheaded for trying to resist being ragged. Several state governments have introduced anti-ragging laws. In 2001, the Supreme Court delivered a landmark verdict against ragging. It observed that "failure to prevent ragging shall be construed as an act of negligence in maintaining discipline in the institution on the part of the management, the principal and the persons in authority of the institution. Similar responsibility shall be liable to be fixed on hostel wardens/superintendents. If an institution fails to curb ragging, the UGC/Funding Agency may consider stoppage of financial assistance to such an institution till such time as it achieves the same". However, the menace cannot be checked through judicial directives or interventions alone. Society should shed its indifference to the horrifying acts of humiliation and torture in the garb of ragging. It should force educational institutions to adopt a zero-tolerance policy for preventing ragging from becoming a crime against humanity. |
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Sports awards muddle IT is rare to find everyone happy at the announcement of awards in any field, be it arts, science or cinema. There are always those who feel that their talent has been ignored. But the sports awards have been unnecessarily dragged into a controversy this year because of the insensitivity of the authorities. The Arjuna Awards selection committee precipitated the crisis when it recommended more names for the awards than stipulated. Not only that, the list was leaked to the media. Contradictory reports appeared in newspapers and television channels. The committee had to prune the list under the government guidelines. Naturally, the players who were dropped at the last minute were heart-broken. The unsavoury situation developed because many applications came in late while there was also a question mark on the eligibility of the nominating authorities. In the normal course, the panel would have recommended 15 names (plus one disabled sportsperson). But it left the contentious issues of deadline and eligibility to the Ministry of Sports and categorised its selection into two parts: a top list of 16 and a bottom one of five. In the case of the Khel Ratna Award also, it picked up two players, instead of one. When the ministry said it would be sticking to the practice followed in the past, there was bound to be tension, tears and disappointment. Even otherwise, there is a lot of dissatisfaction with the selection criterion. There are dark rumours that it is very difficult to get an award if one doesn’t happen to have a godfather. It is also alleged that there is a bias on the basis of one’s region, discipline as well as political connections. Many players insist that if there is no member of a particular sport in the selection committee, it is impossible for anyone from that sport to win an award, even if his or her performance has been outstanding. Some of it may only be a case of sour grapes but there is certainly a kernel of truth. This feeling is bad for sports. As it is, the prevalent impression is that sportsmen are considered secondary to the politician-administrators who run the show. If the awards are also to be announced on considerations other than merit, the disillusionment in the fraternity is going to be worse. The selection process should not only be fair and transparent but also appear to be so. Top-level performers are a sensitive lot. They can give their best only if they are certain that their interests are being watched without prejudice. Thought for the day I must be cruel only to be kind.
— William Shakespeare |
India needs to be cautious ON July 26 an All-Party Conference (APC) held in Islamabad that included representatives of 28 political parties and of the Supreme Court and High Court Bar Associations adopted a 19-point Islamabad Declaration that rejected the Legal Framework Order from which General Musharraf derives his power. The APC called for full restoration of the 1973 Constitution of Pakistan. Rejecting General Musharraf’s claims to be President, this declaration was the first publicly supported document questioning the hegemony of Pakistan’s army in the country’s national life. The declaration demanded: “The military’s involvement in politics, industry, trade, banking and real estate which has turned the defence services into commercial ventures should be terminated and all attention of the armed forces should be focused on their constitutional obligation of defending the country”. The declaration also demanded that the “millions of acres of land, including the Okara Military Farms (from which thousands of peasants were arbitrarily evicted), occupied by the army in the name of defence needs should be vacated and the ownership of these lands transferred to the peasants”. It is difficult for anyone living in a civilised democratic society in which the military is subject to the control of an elected government to understand the pernicious role that the military plays in Pakistan, or the perks and privileges that it claims more or less as a divine right. The army runs organisations like the Fauji Foundation that own and control sugar mills, cereal production, corn complexes, natural gas supply, polypropylene products, fertiliser production, cement production, power production and oil terminals. The Army Welfare Trust (AWT) is also a similar diversified conglomerate that controls financial institutions like the Askari Commercial Bank that is the largest commercial bank in Pakistan. The AWT runs stud farms, rice mills, sugar mills, fish farms, pharmaceutical companies and woollen mills. It has its own general insurance company, welfare savings scheme, power supply company, travel agencies and commercial plazas. The governing body of the ‘trust’ is headed by General Musharraf and its board includes all senior army officers. Needless to say, all these activities are not undertaken on a level-playing field. The army’s institutions enjoy tax exemptions, get free land and subsidised electricity and are immune from external audit. The Pakistan army is today the largest investor in the Karachi Stock Exchange, controls the largest network of elite public schools, owns the largest construction company and the largest transportation company — that National Logistics Cell — that has the dubious distinction of not only transporting weapons for the ISI and the CIA, but also heroin from Peshawar for export from Karachi. With cantonments spread across the country (Pakistanis describe their country as a “Garrison State”), cantonment lands are controlled and distributed by the army at nominal prices that bear no relation to market value. Virtually every military officer gets two plots of land in urban centres — one on a concessional rate and the other subsidised, along with a house built on it, on an instalment basis. Military officers are also allotted agricultural land along the Indus Basin. Retiring Chiefs of Army Staff are allotted around 400 acres of agricultural land virtually free of cost. General Musharraf is often criticised for being an adventurer and opportunist. But there is no reason to question his financial integrity. Yet, when he declared his assets in 1999, General Musharraf acknowledged that he and his immediate family owned substantial property in Karachi, Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Peshawar, Lahore, Gwadar and agricultural land in Bahawalpur. The estimated market value of the property he owns is anything between 50 and 80 million rupees. The army has acquired rights in Pakistan by which the acquisition of such properties by its officers hasz been legitimised. If the activities of the army were confined to money-making alone there would be little cause for concern and disquiet about the future of democratic freedoms and institutions in Pakistan. General Zia often proclaimed that the Pakistan army had a God-given right not just to defend the country’s “geographical” frontiers but also its “ideological” frontiers. He meant that the army would play a decisive role in the country’s politics. General Zia emasculated mainstream political parties like the PPP, supported and armed fundamentalist parties like the Jamaat-e-Islami and created his own faction of the Muslim League made up largely of feudals loyal to him. After his death, General Mirza Aslam Beg and his ISI chief Lt-General Hamid Gul found it irksome to salute a female Prime Minister, Ms Benazir Bhutto. They connived to overthrow her and then funded and supported an alliance of “Islam pasand” parties to ensure her defeat in the next elections. General Musharraf regularly uses the ISI to intimidate his opponents, manipulates and amends regulations to disqualify politicians he regards as inconvenient and finally gets politicians who cannot hope to win in a free and fair poll elected. The army also extends its powers by getting its officers appointed to key civilian posts. In recent days these have included four provincial governors, 15 ambassadors, and heads of crucial institutions like the National Accountability Bureau and the Federal Public Service Commission. New Delhi cannot afford to ignore the pernicious role of the Pakistan army as it moves ahead with its “peace process”. The army is not about to relinquish the powers and patronage it enjoys. It is not without significance that even as General Musharraf proceeded with negotiations with the opposition MMA alliance that demanded that he should set a date to relinquish his uniform, he called a meeting of his Corps Commanders that endorsed his continuing as Army Chief as long as he desired. Compulsive hostility with India is a necessary prerequisite for the Pakistan army to retain its perks and privileges. One has only to recall the recent speech by General Musharraf’s closest crony during the Kargil conflict, Gen Aziz Khan, who asserted that because of religious and social values prevailing in India, relations couldn’t be normalised even if the Kashmir dispute is resolved. General Musharraf himself has aired such views in the past. These are realities that one hopes will be borne in mind even as our MPs and journalists are welcomed with kebabs and halwa in Lahore and Islamabad and given syrupy sermons laced with nostalgia. While such tranquilisers may make one feel good, they should not divert attention away from hard facts. Any negotiating process with Pakistan will be prolonged and torturous. Basic differences cannot be wished away. Bonhomie and back-slapping alone cannot resolve issues like Kashmir. Pakistan is today under growing international pressure and perceived as the epicentre of global terrorism primarily because of the mistakes and misjudgments of its rapacious military establishment. Even as Pakistani nationals are being arrested in New York and Washington for supporting jihad by the Lashkar-e-Toiba and Al-Qaeda, the Indonesian Defence Minister openly alleges that those responsible for the recent terrorist outrage in Jakarta were trained in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Similar allegations are commonplace in a number of world capitals. Pakistan is an international basket case incapable of economic growth without large doses of foreign aid — aid that India should ensure is made conditional on a dismantling of its terrorist infrastructure. Sentimentality and haste should be eschewed if we are to ensure that past mistakes and misjudgments are not
repeated. The writer is a former High Commissioner of India to Pakistan |
When the cry is heard MY guide, whom I called Boswell, because of his abiding attachment to well-known Hindi writer Phaniswar Nath Renu, introduced me to a bullock cart driver in the writer’s ancestral village in Saharsa district in Bihar. Boswell was at that time busy meeting all those persons in the area who figured as characters in Renu’s novels for what would have been a pathbreaking book. As providence would have it, Boswell had a massive heart attack and died a few years after I met him. Those who have read Renu’s novels like Maila Anchal (The Soiled Border) and short stories like Panchlight (Gas light) would remember the bullock cart driver, who in real life ferried the writer from and to the railway station. As it turned out, the bullock cart driver was a great character in the works of Renu but an ordinary illiterate villager who was too shy even to talk to a visitor like me. It is not an unusual phenomenon to find fictional characters, modelled after persons, dead or alive, assuming a larger-than-life dimension, particularly in historical novels. Often, the fictional character stays in mind while the real one is easily forgotten. This was brought home a year ago when a visiting priest, asked to give a quick sermon, offered to narrate, instead, a short story by an eminent Malayalam writer. Blessed with the gift of the gab, he narrated the story with such finesse and drama that everyone in the church listened to him in pindrop silence. The priest left the story open-ended so that the parishioners could draw their own inferences. I was particularly delighted as the story was written by a friend, N.S. Madhavan. Immediately on reaching home, I made a long-distance call to tell Madhavan about the story but he did not seem much interested. Perhaps, he might have been embarrassed by my enthusiasm. In any case, Madhavan is too seasoned a writer to be swayed by my anecdote. Nonetheless, the priest’s narration was a tribute to the kind of impact his stories make on the readers. The first time I read Madhavan was when he won the first prize in a story writing competition organised by the Malayalam weekly Mathrubhoomi in the early seventies. I remember because it was with difficulty I managed to get a copy of the special issue in which the prize-winning stories appeared. I lost track of him until I reached Patna, Madhavan’s karmabhoomi, in the eighties. In between, I had, of course, read a few of his stories, including one on the land of a thousand gardens, Hazaribagh, now in Jharkhand, that appeared in various magazines. A few months ago when The Little Magazine editor Antara Dev Sen gave me a copy of his short story Nilavili (The Cry) and wondered whether I could translate it for her magazine as Madhavan’s own favourite translator Catherine Thankamma could not be contacted, I was thrilled. I read it again and again but only to be told that the translator had finally been contacted and she would do the job. I was not disappointed as it offered an opportunity to read one of the most poignant stories I have ever read. The protagonist of the story is Qutubuddin Ansari, the face of the Gujarat riots, who is now beginning a new life in the metropolis of the east. Written in the first-person format, Ansari recalls that incident when he became a familiar face the world over: “The next day’s newspapers carried that picture of mine taken by the Reuters photographer — the green of my unfocussed eyes heightened, the brimming tears and cry stifled and sealed off forever in the cold pages of the newspaper; my joined palms begging to be rescued gave you a glimpse of imminent death. I became Ahmedabad’s symbol.” Ansari lost many things in the riots, including his ability to smile. “I decided to try something I had not done for many days, something I had almost forgotten — to smile. But however much I tried, I could manage only a grimace. Like a masseur working on a paralytic, I began to work on my laughter muscles. I pressed and massaged my cheeks, the muscles around my mouth. Yet the reflection did not smile. The laughter muscles remained rigid, immobile.” Qutubuddin Ansari does not seem to have recovered that ability even now as his photograph in The Tribune (August 13) shows. I recalled Madhavan’s words, “fear still lurked in the eyes”, as I looked at the picture depicting his new neighbour Dabasmita tying a rakhi on his wrist. For the benefit of those who have not heard about Madhavan, he also holds elections in Bihar as the State’s Chief Electoral
Officer. |
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An Indian joins the race for US Senate
New Delhi-born Chirinjiv Singh Kathuria, who was instrumental in raising MirCorp, the world's first company to privately launch and fund manned space programmes, has now set his eyes on a seat in the US Senate. He hopes to become the first-ever Indian-American to be elected to the US Senate. MirCorp made history on April 4, 2000, when it sent Dennis Tito, the first “citizen explorer” to space, and is building the world’s first private space station. Chirinjiv, who emigrated to the US with his parents when he was just eight months old, is a 1983 graduate of Downers Grove North High School, where he was a Valedictorian. A Bachelor of Science (B.Sc.) and a Doctor of Medicine (D.M.) from Brown University, Dr Kathuria also earned a master's in business administration from Stanford University. His mother is a physician who worked for the Veterans Administration Hospital in Hines, Illinois for over 30 years. His father worked for New York Life Insurance for 25 years. Dr Kathuria helped set up Morgan Stanley’s investment banking operations in India before launching a career in technology, medical and space entrepreneurship. Dr Kathuria also served as an adviser to the Integrated Child Development Service in New Delhi. “No candidate in the multi-candidate race for the Republican nomination for the Senate has a better base of loyal core supporters than me,” feels Dr Kathuria. “The South Asian community is the wealthiest ethnic community in America with an estimated wealth of $30 billion and I am positioned to win the Primary and in November will become the second Indian-American elected to the Senate,” he told The Tribune in an interview on the Internet. Dr. Chirinjiv Kathuria has measurable success in building businesses which are valued at a combined $1 billion. “It is natural that my appearance has invoked curiosity. I don't let this turban and beard fool Americans. I am an American first. I was brought from India when I was eight months old and I was raised in this tolerant country. With hard work and diligence I managed to live the American dream. My father came to this country with a few dollars,” he says during his campaign. “I am sure not many people are aware that the first Sikhs arrived in North America in the late 1890s. The first settlers were generally men who served in the British army and they came to North America to make money to send home. They got work building railroads and chopping trees before settling down as migrant farm workers, and then eventually as farm owners. As Sikhs we understand the value of the farming community. With global competition opening up from Argentina and Brazil for soyabeans, an important crop in Illinois, farmers are finding it harder to compete at the lower prices,” says Dr Kathuria in his campaign speeches which he concludes with this sentence: “Winston Churchill said if you are 20 and not a liberal you have no heart and if you are 40 and not a conservative you have no mind. So since I am close to 40 you know where I stand.” Excerpts from the interview: Q. What is your stake in MirCorp? A. At present I am a small
shareholder. The major shareholder is Rocket and Science Corporation (RSC), Energia and Gold & Appel, a venture capital firm. The company’s focus is on space tourism. I always wanted to be an astronaut when I was a kid. Q. Can an Indian afford space tourism? A. I think it gives a country like India a chance to send someone to space as they are not part of the International Space Station (ISS). The price will come down eventually. More important is the benefits of space in manufacturing of antibiotics and cancer-fighting drugs. Q. What are your India connections? A. My grandparents used to live in Delhi and Chandigarh. They have now passed away. I wish they had visited my Senate run. At present my mom’s brother lives in Delhi and my dad’s sister lives in Chandigarh. Hopefully, I will visit India after the primary elections. Q. Can a Sikh run for the Senate? A. I am running for the Senate. Mr Dalip Singh Saund was elected to the House of Representatives (Congress). No Indian-American has ever run for the Senate (upper house). Any US citizen who is above the age of 35 can run for the Senate. Q. What next? A. I think this is hard enough. This is my focus for now. Next on mine and my mom’s agenda is to find a Miss Right to get me married. It will have to wait till after the primaries. Q. Tell me more about your family. A. My father is an engineer who was trained at Roorkie. He works with New York Life Insurance. My mother is a doctor and she went to Lady Harding Medical School in New Delhi. I have one brother, Bobby, who is married to Seema and they have three kids — Ariana, Crissa, and Natasha. I have a sister, Hasmeena, who is married to Karan and they have one son, Johar. Q. What is your interest in Smithsonian Museum on Sikhism? A. I helped the museum a little as there were many people who contributed much more than me. Q. Any investments in India? A. At present no. The Senate Ethic Rules do not allow any new business or investments in blind trusts. I recently started one business of sending medical BPO i,e, medical images to
India for reading. Q. What are your comments on hate crimes against Sikhs? A. I think it was because of immediate anger and also of mistaken identity. Hopefully, my race for the Senate will help Americans know more about the values of Indian culture. Q. Any plan to visit India? A. After the primaries i.e. March 16, 2004. Q. What are your most memorable moments? A. Three: April 4, 2000, when MirCorp launched its first private manned mission to space; Second, the official announcement that I am running for the Senate last month; and third, my parents’ 25th wedding anniversary. |
Call for sovereign parliament KARACHI: Alliance for the Restoration of Democracy chief Nawabzada Nasrullah Khan has stressed the need for recognising parliament as a sovereign and independent body to steer the country out of the prevailing crisis. He said the country could survive only under a federal parliamentary system, ensuring the rights of its autonomous units. The ARD leader was speaking at a meeting held here on Monday to commemorate the 14th death anniversary of veteran politician Mir Ghous Bakhsh Bizenjo. The Nawabzada bitterly criticized the role of the army in the national politics and held it responsible for the present mess, saying it had “decimated” all the institutions to perpetuate its rule. —
The Dawn Mistrust hampers
govt-MMA deal ISLAMABAD: The government may not concede the demand of Mutahidda Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) for the election of President Gen. Pervez Musharraf through parliament even if the talks, halted after the alliance disagreed to enter into a secret deal with the rulers, restart, sources disclosed to The Nation. The sources said that Musharraf’s legal aides are advising him not to accept the MMA’s demand for his election through parliament after he takes off the army uniform if the religious alliance does not accept the government’s demand to keep the accord secret. “The government-MMA talks have come to a halt over the issue of President’s election through the parliament demanded by the latter,” the sources said. Qazi: Pervez can’t change statute LAHORE: Jama'at-e-Islami Ameer Qazi Hussain Ahmed has said that their stance on the Legal Framework Order (LFO) is very clear, as they will never accept amendments by a single person at any cost. Addressing a seminar “Has Pakistan become the country dreamt by the Quaid-i-Azam, if not, why” jointly organised by Mir Khalilur Rehman Society and National Youth Council at a local hotel here on Tuesday, he said that the 1973 Constitution was in danger, as the Supreme Court had no right to empower any person to amend the Constitution according to his sweet will. He said that in which decision of the superior court, it was written that a person or President Pervez Musharraf had right to amend the Constitution and if anyone made such attempt, he would be stopped by force, or he would have to go. Democracy fails to take roots LARKANA: Democracy has failed to take roots in Pakistan till now and tyrannical activities are in vogue in the country. Sindh National Council Chief Husain Bux Thebo said this, while addressing a seminar on “Future of Pakistan and Democracy”, here. Dodo Maheri, Sabiha Mughal, Khalid Chandio, Zulfiqar Rahoojo, Panah Khatoon and others also spoke on the occasion. Thebo said that small countries were being plundered through the World Trade Organisation. He said that on one hand the agricultural sector of Sindh had almost been devastated and on the other the province would be destroyed even more with the projects like Kalabagh Dam and Thal Canal. The SNC chief demanded abolition of Jirga system and added that law should be made to stop killing of innocent people underKaro-kari. Dr Dodo Maheri and other speakers said that democracy had been held hostage by vested interests. They maintained that the country could not be pulled out of the crisis, unless democratic norms were practiced. —
The News International |
Service to saintly souls is the open gate to liberation. Hence a prudent man should eschew evil company, associate himself with pious and Godly men, chant all the time the name of Lord Krishna. — Chaitanya Mahaprabhu Human nature is not so much depraved as to hinder us from respecting goodness in others, though we ourselves want it. We love truth too well to resist the charms of sincerity. — Steele Wherefore God? The world itself suffices for itself. — Vedanta Verily, there are two modes of Brahman — that with form and the formless, the mortal and the immortal, the fixed and the moving, the actual and the beyond. — Brhad Upanishad |
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