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Fighting militants A step forward |
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A tame draw
Shame, rape is on the rise
Musings on evil
Special for The Tribune
Human Rights Diary
Climbdown for Congress
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Fighting militants THE nation cannot but watch with trepidation the goings-on in Jammu and Kashmir. There has been a series of incidents in the recent past, which has been causing grave concern to the people who have been watching the situation in the border State. It is difficult to say that the militants have gained the upper hand but they have definitely succeeded in giving the impression that they are a force to reckon with. The high watermark of their success was their ability to breach the security cordon around the Chief Minister’s official residence. It is not much of a consolation for the security forces that they could kill the two fidayeen after a 24-hour encounter. This is so particularly after the militants succeeded in taking hostage five villagers at Shopian. These incidents suggest that the law and order situation has been deteriorating in the state. The Chief Minister, Mufti Mohammed Sayeed, has blamed Pakistan for the stepped up violence. While there is no disputing that Pakistan is the source of trouble in the state, this does not provide an alibi for the government’s inadequacies. One year in office should have been sufficient for the Mufti to get a clear understanding of the ground situation, the threat the militants pose and the preparedness or otherwise of the security forces to meet them. He enjoys considerable goodwill, both within and without the state for he has been taking a bold stand against Pakistan-inspired militancy. He has the wherewithal to unite the common people against the enemies of the nation. But it seems he has a long way to go. Otherwise, there would have been an adequate flow of intelligence to the security agencies to nip all the terrorist attempts in the bud. Instead, every time the terrorists strike, the security forces are caught unawares. No one knows this better than the militants which is why they have been targeting the Chief Minister and his family in the hope that they will be forced to lead a secluded life, cut off from the people. It is also time for the Central government to have a relook at its policy on J&K. After all, it is now one year since the Mufti government came to power. The Centre’s appointment of an interlocutor has not yielded the desired result. There are doubts whether he has the necessary political mandate to hold meaningful talks with all the major representative organisations of the Kashmiri people. There are hawks in the administration who would like to arm the security forces with more powers so that they can be ruthless in dealing with the militants. While nobody advocates a kid-glove treatment to the militants, there cannot be any support for a strategy that has the potential to alienate the common citizens. In other words, there has to be a balanced approach, which while breaking the backbone of terrorism will cause little problems to the people. The first step in this direction is a review of the situation by both the Central and state governments. |
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A step forward A SIGNIFICANT outcome of Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe’s visit to New Delhi this week is the decision of both countries to begin negotiations on a Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement. Apparently, there was earnestness in the talks he had with Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee because both decided to start the talks “immediately”. Their tentative plan is to complete the talks by January 2004. As a trusted friend of Sri Lanka, India has been coming to the aid of the war-ravaged island-nation from time to time in its hour of crisis. On October 15, India signed an agreement with Sri Lanka for releasing $30 million as the second tranche of a $100-million Line of Credit to rebuild the country. India is the third largest investor in Sri Lanka, with approved investments to the tune of $392 million. Three years ago, it was the largest investor. Equally significant is the agreement “in principle” to a defence cooperation agreement. This would include training of Sri Lankan security personnel by India and consultations between the defence chiefs of the two countries. Reports in the past few weeks suggest that there is heightened awareness on the part of both countries to build on the success of their Free Trade Area (FTA) accord signed in December 1998. According to an UNCTAD report, Sri Lanka’s exports to India and vice-versa have considerably increased in the past two years. Both countries are now planning to include services like tourism and other sectors under the FTA’s ambit. The “FTA plus” arrangement covering investment and services is expected to bring down the trade balance gradually and enable Indian companies to import more things from Sri Lanka under the FTA. Unfortunately, SAARC has not made much headway because of the attitude of the member countries. Why can’t they look beyond SAARC and forge bilateral economic ties? Consider, for instance, the conduct of Pakistan. It fears that the Indian goods would swamp Pakistan but is doing little on the ground. Both countries could gain from effective economic cooperation. India wants to expand economic ties, particularly with Bangladesh, Nepal and, of course, Sri Lanka. SAARC members could view the Indo-Lankan initiative as a model to look beyond the regional forum and expand relations among themselves. In fact, it would be very much in each other’s interests to turn SAARC into a viable Free Trade Area and thus make it an engine of economic growth for the region. |
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A tame draw CONVENTIONAL wisdom is that even underdogs roar like lions on their home turf. But the Indian cricketers have belied even that fond hope while playing at home. The draw in the Mohali Test is particularly a sore point because of the humiliating follow-on and the abject capitulation even in the second innings. And to think that this series was supposed to be an opportunity to get even with New Zealand after the kiwis outplayed India in New Zealand! Ironically, while Indians had cribbed about the pitches in New Zealand, they had the same excuse to bandy about even at home. That the visiting bowlers could trouble the Indian batsmen no end even on an unresponsive pitch is something which cannot be explained away. It is not only greenhorns who were in trouble. Even the big names struggled for runs. Imagine Sachin Tendulkar having to plod like a minnow! That was a nightmare which the devoted fans will take long to forget. It’s true that the absence of Saurav Ganguly did make a difference but should the unavailability of one player - even if he happens to be the captain - make the rest launch surrender proceedings? What must be conceded is that we just do not have a world class bowling attack at the moment. In such a situation it is the batsmen who have to compensate for the shortcoming. Unfortunately, exactly the opposite happened. Even the top order was casual in its approach. New Zealand is not even on top of the world cricket. If the performance against them is any indicator, there is not much to be expected from the triangular series involving India, New Zealand and the mighty Australia beginning on October 23. Yes, there are ups and downs in cricket. But a fancied team needs to have more of the former and less of the latter. In India’s case, that is in the realm of expectations and not reality. Committed fans who bestow demi-god status on their idols are right in asking as to what is wrong with the team. No doubt, it has to make do with available resources but these have to be marshalled effectively. The kind of application expected from them has not been visible so far. Unless they pull up their socks immediately, cricket lovers would be justified in reaching the unfortunate conclusion that the hype and hoopla associated with the game has swollen their heads. At least give off your best, men in flannel, even if that does not win matches. |
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Thought for the day All the world over, I will back the masses against the classes. — W.E. Gladstone |
Shame, rape is on the rise SOME rapes hit headlines, a few are reported but most remain covered up, hidden in the deep recesses of the scarred minds of the victims. The reported figures are heart-wrenching: a rape case after every 54 minutes. There has been an alarming increase of 54.5 per cent cases during the decade 1991-2001. Why does rape take place? Is it a condition peculiar to India? Who are the perpetrators? What can we do to stop this crime? These questions are again dogging the nation after the shame of the past 15 days. In Delhi, the crime capital, a Swiss diplomat was raped in a moving car by educated men. A school teacher raped an eight-year-old in West Delhi, a college student was gang-raped in broad daylight by four Presidential bodyguards. The list of rapes is endless if we scan the whole of last year. In fact, the year experienced many headline-grabbing incidents. Many frivolous reasons are touted, like the breaking of the old social system, migrant city population, consumerist culture that worships high status and objectifies women. The way women dress up, the Indian tradition of not allowing the sexes to intermingle, etc. The answers are not simplistic; these are to be found in a multi-layered reality.. Rape is the ultimate violation of a woman’s dignity with use of violence; it is an outrage against society. But this very society is the root cause of rape also. An example: when Bhanwari Devi (the Sathin from Rajasthan whose gang rape on September 22, 1992, was much reported) went to lodge a complaint at the police station, the DSP who examined her for outer signs of injury dismissively asked her superior accompanying her, “Madam, do you know the meaning of rape?” Implicit in this question is a critique of female bodily experience. It also points to the ease with which men occupy position of strength. The state and society had made Bhanwari Devi an agent of change, but these very institutions (represented by the DSP, the MLA, the judge and upper caste farmers) tried to suppress her. The reasons can further be found in the divergent forces of power, the patriarchal mindset, the law, the social position of women and the primordial misogynistic thinking. These traverse each other in a complex relation of contestation, implication and solidarity to subvert the experience of rape. In a world defined by man, the trouble with woman is that she is at once an object of desire and an object of exchange. Further, man’s structural capacity to rape and woman’s corresponding structural vulnerability are basic to the physiology of both sexes. Rape becomes not only a male prerogative but also man’s basic weapon of force against woman, the principal agent of his will and her fear. His forcible entry becomes the vehicle of his victorious conquest over her being, the ultimate test of his superior strength, the triumph of his manhood. The reason for Delhi leading the pack is the northern concept of macho “boys will be boys” culture; it is also its history of strife and displacement, to which has now been added increasing disparities and irreconcilable social tensions. However, the biggest reason is that even the most publicised rape cases do not end in conviction. The syndrome of “we can do it and get away” with it is at the crux of the spate in rape cases. Violence against women is not confined to India. It is a widespread malaise rooted in a culture that sees women as inferiors. America records a rape every five minutes. The difference lies in the conviction rate. Our conviction rate is a dismal 20 per cent. In India, legally and socially, only one form of rape is criminalised — vaginal penetration. The other forms of penetrative injuries such as those caused by bottles, sticks, fingers or cigarette butts are not legalised as rape. In this country, the justice dispensers have not covered themselves with glory. The Bhanwari Devi gang-rape verdict in 1995 is a stark reflection of this fact. The Sessions Court judgment upheld that the charges in the case were “against Indian culture and human psychology” and that the alleged rapists were all middle-aged men with a respectable position in their community; and that they were upper caste people while the victim was of a lower caste, so they could not have raped her. In another case, the Supreme Court reduced the jail sentence because the victim had lodged the complaint five days after the incident without keeping in view that it is a Herculean task to lodge a complaint for rape. The scale and frequency of rapes by the security forces are quite startling in India. It can exceed one-a-day. This figure vastly understates the actual number of such rapes, for it does not cover incidents of mass rape and gang rape like the Rameeza Bee case of Hyderabad in 1978, where the woman was raped by several policemen and her rickshaw-puller husband murdered because he had protested. A massive agitation had ensued, President’s rule had to be imposed and a commission of enquiry set up. But despite the commission’s establishment of policemen’s guilt, they were acquitted by the Sessions Court. The police has been an accused in the much-reported Mathura rape case and the rape of Maya Tyagi of Baghpat. In most cases, the police personnel involved have had an easy time with the law. The question is what should be done to eliminate this evil. Legally, Section 376 of the IPC provides punishment for the offence of rape ranging from life to two years of imprisonment. This question of what should be done has been hotly debated in Parliament time and again with the same result. Each time a case hogs the headlines, the Home Minister’s resignation is demanded; there is talk of capital punishment for the rapist, platitudes are mouthed, “rape of a woman is rape of the country”, “woman’s honour is the country’s honour,” etc, but nothing concrete is achieved. Today, rape is not just an expression of a man’s lust, it has also become an instruction to intimidate, and also to fulfil certain grievances and grudges. We need to address the problem of social conditioning, tackle the issue of glorification of aggression, change the power relationship of men and women by equipping woman to stand on her own. On the practical front, women should be taught self-defence. In several other countries, a number of gadgets are available to help women during such incidents (sprays which blind the rapist temporarily, pins to immobilise the man for some time). These should be made available here also. Though the focus should still be on strengthening our legal system, the onus of proof should not be on the woman. The law enforcers should get an exemplary punishment if they digress. As long as the perpetrators can walk free to commit another rape, we cannot tackle the problem. The conviction rate will have to improve. Combating rape has to be a multi-pronged strategy with the emphasis on prevention by equipping women, better investigation to nab the perpetrators and ensuring a high conviction rate. Conviction is much more important than the quantum of punishment. The writer is on the faculty of the Department of History, Panjab University, where she also teaches gender relations in modern India. |
Musings on evil THE theme of evil is as old as the story of Adam and Eve, and the world scriptures, literatures and myths are as widely and deeply concerned with it as with the themes of goodness, grace and redemption. However, evil always appears more energetic, more powerful and more primordial than the forces of good. While it prevails, it overwhelms the imagination, and rides the mind in a manner, one feels lost and confused. It may eventually be routed or destroyed, here and there, but its inexplicable nature still remains to lead man into mazes of feckless thought. These musings, I may add, were ignited, in the first place, by a tragic story (The Tribune, August 12) in which a man from Shimla on a visit to Patiala with his wife and three daughters committed the heinous crime of drowning his entire family in the Bhakra Canal and his own suicidal leap into those fast-flowing waters after a visit to a village “holy man”. There are so many ramifications, so many skeins in this tapestry of evil as to lead us into all manner of surmises and speculations. That, however, is not what I propose to touch upon here. My concern here is to explore briefly the phenomenon of evil as something ubiquitous, universal and unending. Since everyday, the newspapers and the TV films, serials, etc carry such frightening stories in detail, we tend to become blase in the end, taking such eruptions of evil in our stride, which reminds me of the well-known phrase, “the banality of evil”, by Hannah Arndt. Since I’ve been reading and writing on Western writers for a long time, my understanding of what Henry James styles as “the sense of evil” has naturally been deepened in my close touch with certain great playwrights and novelists such as Shakespeare, Dostoevsky, Kafka, Poe, Melville, Eugene O’ Neil, amongst others. There is no space here even for a passing reference to their work in which evil overtops the situation, and great human tragedies are enacted in frame after frame of excruciating pain and suffering. Indeed, it appears, suffering as such, is a constitutive part of such tragedies, and it’s via suffering, and suffering alone, that the protagonists achieve catharsis, and some type of transcendence. In sum, suffering is a cleansing agent of the trash lying in our hearts, and is a detergent of the human spirit. All great writers have, sooner or later, acknowledged the reality and mystery of evil. For, in the end, this pursuit becomes an ontological necessity. Since evil, like the insidious fog, creeps in through crevices, nooks and crannies, one can only deal with it when equipped with certain insights into the nature of this disquieting phenomenon. The dialectic of growth is, then related to one’s vision of evil — and to one’s later transcendence. One should be able to recognise “the mark of the beast” if a hold on reality is to be purchased. In his critical study, The Power of Blackness, the noted Harvard critic, Harry Levin, commenting on evil in American fiction writes thus: “The issue is as old as the black snow of Anaxagorus and as enigmatic as Rilki’s image of black milk”. Evil manifests itself both overtly and covertly. And it can wear many a demonic mask. From “filial ingratitude” in its most diabolical form as in Shakespeare’s King Lear to parental or spousal tyranny as in Henry James’s Washington Square and The Portrait of a Lady, evil remains an active agent. In that “heart of darkness”, to recall Corrad’s African Story of that name, there are depths within depths. The jungles inside even the educated and the so-called cultured persons rouse the tiger and the viper in them. In fact, oddly enough, evil in high places has a most unusual eruption, for the lust for power, woman and wealth can lead such personages into all manner of crimes and sins. The few literary examples cited above are meant only to show how evil possessed the man from Shimla, who impelled by some dark forces within his deranged psyche felt driven into a most foul and heinous crime on a day sacred in our calendar — the Rakhi
day.
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Special for The Tribune
Human Rights Diary THE National Human Rights Commission has received a petition from the Tamil Nadu People's Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL), giving details of threats to the family of K.G. Kannabiran who heads the PUCL. This is in the wake of assassination bid on Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu. Unfortunately, the threats are from the police supporters, if not the police itself. At about 9 pm on October 2, 2003, Dr. Kalpana Kannabiran, daughter of Kannabiran, Professor of Law in Hyderabad, received an anonymous telephone call warning that her two young daughters would be kidnapped and done away with. The following day, two youths came to the residence of Kannabiran appearing to sell cane furniture. When their attempts to enter the house of Kannabiran were stopped by his wife, they left the house. To her utter shock and horror, she found the two youth, who appeared like itinerant traders, getting on to a motorcycle whose front head lamp had the words POLICE printed on it. Obviously, the two persons were either policemen in mufti or belonged to a group supported by the police. Such incidents are not unknown in Andhra Pradesh. In the case of Kannabiran, several years back, an attempt was made on his life. Human rights activists have to live with the public excesses. But I do not know why the People's War Group (PWG) or other radical formations do not realise that their acts of violence are also an attack on human rights. Killing the innocent is no revolution. Nor does it help any ideology, much less people. In fact, human rights activists are punished for the sins of Naxalites. It is unfortunate to see the state government adopting the policy of reprisals against human rights activists to avenge the PWG's attack. Any killing without the due process of law is a murder. False encounters — Punjab has known this from its experience — are no less reprehensible than the killings by the Naxalites, whether of the PWG brand or any other. Naidu may have many holes in his administration. His own performance may not be to the liking of several. But do the opponents have the right to eliminate him physically? In democracy rulers are defeated at the polls, not put to an end by the gun. If it comes to guns, the state has many more. This is what I told the proponents of Khalistan at the height of militancy in Punjab. They did not listen to me. In the process, many were murdered in cold blood. And till today the count of bodies does not tally with those missing. Even the Supreme Court has not been able to get a satisfactory reply from the government. What needs to be eliminated is poverty and caste oppression. Some years ago I, along with a few activists, undertook a padyatra in the Naxalite-infested areas of Bihar. Mine was a khoj (search) and I described it so before beginning the five-day journey. On the third night when I was sleeping in the open, four or five young men woke me up. They were armed. They said they had been following me and wanted to talk to me. If my memory serves me right, they were from the PWG. All of them were highly educated, two double MAs and one Ph. D. They made no bones about their feelings: They had been driven to take up the gun because they could not get any suitable job. One of them talked at length how the upper caste forced the lower caste members to work without wages or at a pittance. Their anger was just.They attributed it to the system which did not deliver. They were right. The areas where they operated had no road, no electricity, no drinking water and no avenues of employment. The state was not just bothered. Every state is so distant from even human rights activists, that it is difficult to imagine that the government will ever look at things in the way they and the Naxalites do. But is violence the alternative? What the different groups are articulating is for establishing a society sans exploitation, sans oppression. But violence will never get them anywhere. India’s ethos is different. However, some human rights activists should take upon themselves the responsibility to retrieve the naxalites. The society needs angry young men. To drive them to the wall is a waste of rare material of idealism which can help reshape things. From where do we begin? The first step should be to improve conditions in the countryside where the economy is deteriorating and forcing hundreds of farmers to commit suicide. *** Epoch-making decision Top NGOs at Wardha have taken the right step in deciding to put up their candidates in the next general election. It is not a hurried conclusion. They have been meeting for the last one year at different places and discussing the pros and cons of participating at the polls. Now that they have decided to take part in elections they should string together the hundreds of NGO groups spread all over the country so that they are a force. How formidable would be the combination if the PWG and other radical formations were to join hands with the NGOs. Together they should formulate a common electoral strategy. It will give the nation a platform which it has been seeking for a long time. Political parties have got too tagged to power and money. There is very little idealism left. If the joint efforts of NGOs and the Naxalites could send even 15-20 candidates to Parliament, a new culture might take over the Lok Sabha. The voters may stop returning criminals and communalists who are cheaper by the dozen in the state assemblies and Parliament. It is a big challenge. But the Greenpea who are a force to reckon with in certain parts of Europe made a small beginning in politics. The youth had grown disillusioned by the general run of politicians. People wanted a change and voted for the Greenpea. This may happen in India. The decision taken at Wardha may prove to be epoch-making. It is a call to cleanse process. |
Climbdown for Congress DESPITE the outward bravado, discriminating Congress leaders are worried about some disturbing trends. The first of these is the apprehension that the attack on party president Sonia Gandhi because of her foreign origin might become shriller in the run up to next month’s assembly elections. The Congress has had to come down several notches to keep the coalition government going in Maharashtra following the hard hitting approach of the Nationalist Congress Party supremo Sharad Pawar. Rocking the boat in Maharashtra would have had an adverse impact elsewhere. At the same time, the NCP remains firm that it might be advisable for them to go it alone in next year’s general election considering the dipping graph of the Congress popularity in Maharashtra as evidenced by the party’s defeat in the recent Solapur byelection to the Lok Sabha. Season of boasts Every political leader with the tag of a registered party is busy making tall claims these days that his or her party is going to contest the coming Assembly election in Delhi on December 1. Janata Party chief Subramaniam Swamy, Indian Justice Party’s Udit Raj, Rashtriya Janata Dal’s Laloo Yadav, Samajwadi Party of Mulayam Singh Yadav, Janata Dal of Sharad Yadav, Shiromani Akali Dal Delhi, Rashtriya Jan Chetna Manch of D.P.Yadav and many others have gone on record declaring their intention to contest as each one of them is dead sure that his party is going to win at least a dozen seats in Delhi. Samajwadi Party leader Amar Singh, BSP’s Mayawati and others are not tired of boasting that their party has the best chance of winning 20. With Delhi Assembly’s strength being just 70, are the two contending parties — Congress and BJP — going to be wiped out of the Delhi scene, a veteran Delhi leader wondered. He observed that all of these parties have their political arrangements with either the Congress and the BJP and their claims are the “seasonal boasts” which are heard every time elections are round the corner.
Beleaguered Jogi The going is getting tougher for Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Ajit Jogi as assembly elections approach. First it was the case over his tribal status, then the CBI charge-sheet in the forged document case and now the controversy over his son’s citizenship. His tribal colleague, Arvind Netam, has joined the Nationalist Congress Party in the state and the BJP is linking his insistence on a Chhattisgarhi Chief Minister to the foreign origin of Congress president Sonia Gandhi who is a candidate for the post of Prime Minister. Jogi, who was in the capital last week, had a hard time answering questions on the citizenship of his son. He maintained that his son had became an Indian citizen after turning a major and had given up his US citizenship. Espousing the cause of youth, Jogi repeated his promise not to continue in active politics after he turns 60. This is seen countering veteran partymen who are positioning themselves as his replacement.
Zohra Sehgal enthrals Zohra Sehgal held theatre audiences spellbound by providing choice vignettes from five plays during a theatre
festival the other day. Once the leading actress of Prithvi theatre, the 91-year-old Zohra found a spellbound audience asking for an encore. Among the plays, Zohra also did a part from “Aik Thee Nani” which she recently staged along with her sister Uzra Butt from Pakistan. Belying her age, Zohra acted out the roles of Manthara from the epic Ramayana, a granny who teaches her grand-daughter and a freedom fighter. She has acted on the British stage and in TV productions like “Bend it like Beckham,” “Tandoori Nights” and “Jewel in the Crown.” Zohra was given a standing ovation and asked to recite “Abhi to main jawan hoon.” She did it sportingly. Contributed by T.R.
Rama-chandran, Satish Misra and Prashant Sood
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People worship Gods and not stones. At least not until other people tell them so. One has deliberately to confuse them, before they will begin to think on those lines. — Sree Narayana Guru O Son of Utterance! Turn thy face unto Mine and renounce all save Me; for My sovereignty endureth and My dominion persheth not. If thou seekest another than Me, yea, if thou searchest the universe for evermore, thy quest will be in vain. — Baha’u’llah Without You, O God, everything is false. — Guru Nanak O death, thou terrifiest everyone, not me, who’s filled with utter joy at thy sight. — Kabir Wealth is like the dew on a blade of grass, so give alms without covetousness. — Milarepa |
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