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Looking for allies MDMK follows DMK |
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Yen windfall
The Sri Lankan mess
Lend me your ears, Mr President
FLASHBACK ‘03
— CINEMA Tagore didn’t have
Aishwarya in mind
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Looking for allies THE Congress party’s plan to put together a broad-based national alliance of secular parties seems to be running into rough weather. Party chief Sonia Gandhi’s vague statement in Mumbai that the Congress would not impose its leadership on the alliance partners has not really settled the issue. Rather, it has led potential allies speaking in different languages. At the root of the problem is the leadership question. While the National Democratic Alliance has a tried and tested leader in Mr Atal Bihari Vajpayee, the Opposition alliance does not have one. The Congress position is that the issue can be decided after the elections, which means the Opposition will be deprived of the advantage of a leader who can counter Mr Vajpayee at the hustings. A few political parties will have difficulty in joining the Congress-led alliance if it is led by Ms Gandhi. The Nationalist Congress Party is not the only one opposed to her leadership. The Samajwadi Party has its own reservations about her leadership. Even within the Congress, there is a section which feels that she should allow the projection of someone who carries conviction with the rest of the Opposition. Veteran Congress leader C.K. Jaffer Sharief articulated this viewpoint in Bangalore on Sunday. NCP leader P.A. Sangma has added to the confusion among the Congress ranks with his suggestion that former Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao should be brought in to lead the alliance. However, the leadership question is not the only one troubling the alliance. UP Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav has ruled out joining any alliance which has the Bahujan Samaj Party as its constituent. This itself narrows the scope of Congress party’s search for an ally in UP. Both the Congress and the CPM will have great difficulty in sharing seats in states like West Bengal and Kerala, where they have always been rivals. In Tamil Nadu, it will be difficult for the Congress unit to work under the leadership of the DMK’s M. Karunanidhi, given the fact that there is no love lost between the two parties. Under these circumstances, the success of moves for forging alliances will depend upon the kind of leadership the Congress can provide. |
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MDMK follows DMK THERE was speculation that the MDMK would quit the NDA when the BJP did not come to the rescue of its general secretary, Vaiko, arrested by the Tamil Nadu Government under POTA on charges of extending support to the banned LTTE. It has done so only now, after the DMK has taken the plunge. The timing is obviously linked with the polarisation of forces in the state politics. It has quit blaming the BJP for moving close to Ms Jayalalithaa's AIADMK in Tamil Nadu. With its four MPs in the Lok Sabha, the MDMK-DMK strength was 15. There is no threat to the stability of the Vajpayee government due to their departure, particularly because they will continue to extend "issue-based" support from outside. But the development will certainly liven up the political scene in Tamil Nadu. An anti-Jayalalithaa movement is very much in the making. MDMK presidium chairman L. Ganesan has already said that DMK chief M. Karunanidhi will be the leader of the Dravidian alliance in the state while Mr Karunanidhi on his part has announced that the doors of his party are open to all except the BJP. The Pattali Makkal Katchi is also claimed to have joined his progressive front. Interestingly, CPM general secretary Harkishan Singh Surjeet has also held discussions with Mr Karunanidhi on the political situation. All this should be seen in the backdrop of Mrs Sonia Gandhi's statement on Sunday that the issue of prime ministership will be decided by the people at the elections. Mr Karunanidhi has never made an issue of her foreign origin. It will be interesting to watch whether the Congress would accept the MDMK, which has been extending moral support to the LTTE, as an ally in case the DMK and the Congress come together. There may be reservations in the MDMK as well. The decision to quit the NDA government was reportedly not unanimous. |
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Yen windfall IN "A Tale of Two Cities" a cask of wine breaks open and there is bedlam on the street in a Paris slum. Something similar happened in Nagoya, in central Japan recently. A 26-year-old jobless man climbed up a television tower and started throwing thousands of US dollar bills. It was literally an unexpected windfall for the passers-by. How did a jobless man lay his hand on one million yen, which he converted into more than $9,000? And pray, why did he have to blow it all up? The first question has a simple answer. He made money dealing in stocks. The second question would require a detailed analysis of human psychology, which may tell us that being mean and miserly is one of the secrets of making money. Since the jobless youth had seen so much money evidently for the first time in his life, he never got to know what it takes to become rich and famous. He never thought of activating his mean bone. The first thought that occurred to him was to climb up the television tower and "recycle it (the money) to the citizens all around". The tower is the most crowded place in Nagoya. Understandably, the police was not amused by the jobless man's act of generosity. In Paris, people fell on each other to lick the spilled wine. Had the jobless youth been born in 1775, the period which Charles Dickens describes, the police would not have had to deal with the traffic jam that the windfall caused on the streets leading to the tower. Not surprisingly, there were more gentlemen than paupers falling over each other and on the dollar bills, in the stampede that the man's spontaneous celebration of wealth caused down below.
Humour is emotional chaos remembered in tranquillity. |
The Sri Lankan mess ONE is intrigued by the way all parties in the Sri Lanka triangle, President Chandrika Kumaratunga (People’s Alliance), Prime Minister Ranil Vickremesinghe (UNF), and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), expect India to facilitate ethnic conflict ensuring the country’s integrity, and, at the same time, help the bickering southern political parties to sort out their differences. Emissaries from the offices of the President and the Prime Minister are seeking the help of Indian officials to overcome the impasse created by the former. Visiting academics and foreign policy operators, considered close to the Indian establishment, are given easy access by the two. The Jantha Vimukthi Perumana (JVP), a chauvinist Sinhala party, which is seeking to join the Chandrika-led People’s Alliance, also wants India to intervene in Sri Lanka and ensure the island nation’s integrity. The JVP, it may be recalled, twice launched insurgencies against the Sri Lanka government, once in 1972 and then a most serious one, in 1987-89. India responded to Sri Lanka’s appeal for assistance unhesitatingly. The JVP then assailed India as a meddling power, which wanted to help carve out a Tamil homeland in the North and the East of the country. Since then the JVP has revised its view about India’s intentions in Sri Lanka or its sympathies for the LTTE. India is now considered by the JVP a friendly power interested in ensuring the island’s integrity. The LTTE, which is banned in India, since it carried out the assassination of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, is sending strong signals, seeking better relations with India and promising that it would never again hurt India’s politico-strategic interests. LTTE supremo Velupillai Prabhakran, it may be recalled, was tried and sentenced for his abetment to the killing of Rajiv Gandhi, in absentia, in India. Reacting to warnings given to the LTTE by two Indian security and foreign policy experts attending the First India-Sri Lanka Strategic Dialogue in Colombo in the first week of December, and the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, Ms Jayalalithaa, urging the Government of India to take firm action against the LTTE, which had detained some Indian fishermen, LTTE theoretician Anton Balasingham appealed to the Indian government to rethink and reorient its approach towards the LTTE. He asserted that the LTTE wanted a healthy relationship with India and assured India that the LTTE would not act in any way prejudicial to India’s interests. He wanted friendly relations with the Government of India and urged New Delhi to radically change its attitude towards the LTTE. Addressing a 12,000-strong rally in London, Mr Balasingham said that if India wished to play a significant role in the current peace process, then it should not treat the LTTE as a hostile force. Both India and the LTTE have made mistakes in the past (obviously referring to the killing of Rajiv Gandhi by the LTTE and the sending of the IPKF by India) and wanted to put their differences “behind us and look forward”. He asked India to adopt a new, creative approach and initiate friendly relations with the LTTE. While making this conciliatory statement, Mr Balasingham, however, said that while he welcomed the efforts of the international community in the conduct of peace talks, the LTTE would not like India or other international well-wishers to determine the future political and constitutional framework for Sri Lanka. He also warned India not to be taken in by conciliatory statements, which have been made by the JVP. Its real intention was to create a wedge between the LTTE and the Government of India and involve the latter in the domestic political quagmire of Sri Lanka. The Vickremesinghe government, meanwhile, has renewed its efforts to strengthen its defence and economic relations with India. The Sri Lanka Prime Minister’s joint statement with the Indian Prime Minister, Mr A.B. Vajpayee, a few weeks back, sought to strengthen its defence relations with India. The Sri Lanka government was keen to sign the defence pact, envisaging an enhanced procurement of arms and ammunition, enhanced training facilities for Sri Lankan defence personnel at Indian training establishments, and joint naval exercises and patrolling. Though the defence agreement has not been signed, the Sri Lankan government has already increased the procurement of weapons and enhanced the training of Sri Lanka defence personnel. Sri Lanka, on its part, has already reduced dependence on countries such as Pakistan and Israel. It is mainly the economic area in which Sri Lanka and India have strengthened their relations. The presence of Indian oil, retail outlets and the ONGC, and the Indian railways’ greater commitment to oil exploration and consultancy are some of the indicators. India already has its presence in strategic Trincomalee. The task for the Indians is not easy. It realises that the parties that were once suspicious and critical of India (JVP and PA) and considered it a “meddling” power are now urging New Delhi to help find a solution to the vexed ethnic conflict mainly for their selfish reasons. That each party to the dispute expects India to find a solution which will suit that party’s interests, is easy to discern. The problem with India is that it cannot allow the Sri Lanka imbroglio to continue festering, as it would have debilitating consequences for India’s political-strategic interests. India and Sri Lanka are strategically situated on the sea-lanes in the Asia Pacific, the area in which most powerful military powers have their presence. The situation has radically changed after the terrorist attack on the US on September 11. Its perception about India’s role in the area has undergone a radical change. It has, in fact, conceded India the role that it had been demanding all these years as a regional power. This has sent strong signals to countries in the region. The Vajpayee government’s “look east” policy and the signals it has been trying to send to smaller nations that India is not interested in its hegemony, has also helped. India, however, must remember that a low-profile diplomacy, without giving the impression of siding with any one side or the appearance of a hegemonic power is alright. Once it gives the impression of partisan or imperialist intentions, things could be difficult for India. Many well-wishers of India , therefore, want this country not to abandon its present policy of doing things in Sri Lanka in tandem with other interested nations, including the US, the EU, Norway and Japan. It must also not be taken in either by the JVP or the LTTE. Recently there were reports that encouraged by the Sri Lanka President, the JVP has been trying to enhance contacts with New Delhi. India must also be ware of the facile argument advanced either by the JVP or others in Sri Lanka that the creation of a Tamil homeland could lead to a demand for a greater Tamil homeland, incorporating Tamil Nadu state of India. Political interests of the Tamils in Jaffna and the eastern province of Sri Lanka are quite different from those of the Tamils in India. India must not try to meddle in the internal affairs of the island nation. There is no contradiction between having better political, strategic and economic relations with Sri Lanka and not meddling in its internal affairs. The temptation must be
resisted. |
Lend me your ears, Mr President “HEARD melodies are sweet, but those unheard/Are sweeter; therefore, ye soft pipes, play on….” When John Keats wrote these magically mellifluous lines, he was not being a futurist and putting himself in the place of Jacques Chirac. Nor do we know for certain whether the French President can really hear or not hear. Or whether he pretends to hear or feigns not to hear. Maybe the truth, which neither his friends nor his foes may like to hear, is that, sometimes, he does one thing and, at other times, the other. What is more than mere hearsay, however, is a noisy campaign that the presidency deserves no public support because the President wears a hearing aid. It was only a whispering campaign until Environment Minister Roslyne Bachelot broke official silence on the subject. Asked in a radio interview about the rumour that Chirac wore an earpiece, she said: “Yes, I believe he does”. No one could hear properly in the din that ensued. There have been unconfirmed reports that she received no patient presidential hearing when she sought to explain the statement which the opposition, savaging Chirac about his senility, seized promptly upon. For her colleagues, the message was loud and clear. Facing a deafening barrage of questions about the President’s hearing, Culture Minister Jean-Jacques Ailagon said: “It’s none of my business and I would never allow myself to make such an offensive observation” The rather uncultured comment was greeted with a roar of protest from Entendre, a group for the hearing-impaired, which said: “Deafness is not offensive. It’s a problem to be corrected.” Problem? It seemed to be a solution for the President, so the critics sneered. As, for example, when confronted with an inconvenient question at a media conference or when someone sounded a discordant note of dissent in a Cabinet meeting. Like children, so Chirac’s defenders seemed to suggest in turn, dissidents and detractors may be seen, but not heard. It is not only the exalted occupant of the Elysee who has such a paternalistic view of politics; several of his peers in other palaces and high places share it. They share, too, his deemed disability, even if not many of them have been caught with their earpieces down. The disability, in these cases, often takes a different and deadlier form. Selective deafness might be a better description of Chirac’s specific affliction, but no less common is the condition where the personage concerned hears something vastly different from what the people are saying. The classic example, of course, was provided by a distant predecessor of Chirac in a French palace. When Marie Antoniette made her famous queenly crack about cake and bread, it was obviously because of a hearing problem. When her starving subjects said they had no bread to eat, she heard them asking actually for a better alternative; and no thought of the guillotine stopped her from giving them a gourmet’s answer. Some might say that the royalty in this case did not evince the same degree of deafness as certain elected rulers who gave bombs to their bread-seeking peoples. Is someone listening out there, with or without an earpiece, in one of those palaces of a parliamentary
democracy?
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FLASHBACK ‘03
— CINEMA
AN assessment of Bollywood's film industry during 2003 is possible only against the backdrop of the happenings of the previous year. And 2002 happened to be "annus horriblis" of Indian cinema. Films fell like nine pins, with only 10 per cent of them turning out to be commercially worthwhile. Having reached the rock bottom, the film industry showed some upward movement in the year under review with the number of boxoffice hits being more than double that number. But to emerge out of the dark and long tunnel, the industry had to wait for the second half of the year. It was as if the cineworld was celebrating its freedom from the clutches of the underworld. "Koi... Mil Gaya" was the sci-fi flick which lifted the clouds from the career of Hrithik Roshan as well as the film industry. It was the biggest money spinner of the year. "Kal Ho Na Ho" and "LoC" have the makings of big hits but have come at the end of the year to be suitably slotted. Another film which did well at the box office was "Baghbaan". The theme could not be more melodramatic but Amitabh Bachchan buoyed it with his stellar performance. Other films which had a good run at the box office were "Chalte Chalte", "Qayamat", "Andaaz", "Humraaz", "Bhoot" and "Hungama". Among the biggest disappointments was "Main Prem Ki Diwani Hoon" from the house of Barjatyas. Sunny Deol's mega-budget "The Hero" too fell by the wayside. Other notable failures were "Talaash", "Dil ka Rishta", "Dum", "Chura Liya Hai Tumne", "Armaan", "Khushi", "Kaante", "Satta", "Jaal" and "Khel". However, Indian cinema is not all about hits and misses. The thematic content too matters a lot. While the cinema in general remained faithful to the age-old boy-meets-girl-meets-villain template, there was a feeble attempt to cater to niche audiences as well. A new breed of directors came out with crossover films like "Pinjar", "Jogger's Park", "Out of Control" and "Tehzeeb". The advent of multiplexes increased the audience for slick cinema. This translated into the production of films targeted at city viewers. Indian cinema during 2003 tried to look beyond the shores of the country like never before. Overseas ticket, video and DVD sales now account for more than 40 per cent of revenues of Bollywood. "Kal Ho Na Ho" is a case in point. Tearjerkers or comedies were shown the door. Their place was taken by unconventional "Jhankaar Beats", "Bhoot" "Qayamat", "Ishq Vishq", "Jism" and "Jogger's Park". But don't think Indian cinema has come of age. There was not even one film which could be called outstanding or world standard. And to think that we have repeated dreams of making it to the Oscars! Among the heroes, Amitabh continued to tower over others, despite turnips like "Boom". If only we could have scripts matching his histrionics! Shahrukh continued to be the man for complicated roles, whether it was "Kal Ho Na Ho" or "Chalte Chalte". On the other hand, Aamir Khan was happy to be in the one film, one-shift bliss. Ajay Devgan had a decent run with "Bhoot", "Ganga Jaal" and "Qayamat". Not only that, he won his second National Award (2002) for the "Legend of Bhagat Singh". Among the heroines, Preity Zinta was in the ascendant, what with creditable performances in "koi... Mil Gaya", "Kal Ho Na Ho" and "Armaan". Even otherwise, heroines have started getting central roles (Sushmita Sen in "Samay" and Perizaad Zorabian in "Jogger's Park"). What Aishwarya Rai did not have by way of hits was more than made up on the periphery. She pierced the international festival circuit with "Chokher Bali" and was on the jury at Cannes. Among the directors who made their bow were (the late) Anant Balani ("Jogger's Park", "Mumbai Matinee" and "Ek din 24 Ghante", Robby Grewal ("Samay"), Roshan Sippy ("Baghbaan"), Deepak Tijori ("Oops"), Sujoy Ghosh ("Jhankar Beats"), Amit Saksena ("Jism"), Nikhil Advani ("Kal Ho Na Ho), Ken Ghosh ("IshqVishq") and Honey Irani ("Armaan"). We will be hearing more of them in the days to come. The year was bad for actors-turned-producers. Sunil Shetty, Aishwarya and Raveena lost heavily on "Khel", "Dil ka Rishta" and "Stumped", respectively, although Milind Soman broke the jinx with "Rules - Pyaar ka superhit formula" while Shahrukh scored with "Chalte Chalte". Shahrukh and Sunny Deol were laid low by their back problem. Karishma Kapoor's wedding to industrialist Sanjay Kapoor was the event of the year in the tinsel town. A shocking development was Amir Khan's divorce. There were some unusual landmarks. Financial institutions started financing films in a big way. The IDBI itself financed a dozen of them. In November, Hindi film "Supari" became the world's first film to be offered to end-customers for downloading from the Internet, using the emerging peer-to-peer technology. Made by Yash Raj Films, the gangster drama starring Nandita Das and Rahul Dev was offered for download from the popular Net filming resource Kazaa (www.kazaa.com) at a cost of $2.99 (about Rs 150). More than 200 copies of "Supari" have been sold. The trend may grow in the days to come. The responsibility of wielding the scissors fell on Anupam Kher. Versatile actor and chairman of the National School of Drama has a tough assignment considering that the changing times demand less of censoring than an excess of it. Optimism is the second name of Indian cinema. Trade pundits feel that "LoC", "Chameli" and "Plan" may help lift the fog. |
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Tagore didn’t have
Aishwarya in mind New Delhi: Dust was brushed off a literary gem penned a century ago by Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore when a film starring Aishwarya Rai hit the screens this year. “But I don't think Tagore quite had Aishwarya in mind when he wrote ‘Chokher Bali’!” says Radha Chakravarty, who took on the mammoth task of translating the Bengali novel into English on the occasion of its centenary year in 2003. “The film is very different from the book. Even the time period and narrative are different,” Chakravarty told IANS. “I thought the sophisticated Aishwarya did not convey the Bengali ethos.” The 46-year-old English teacher at a Delhi College — who is the wife of Pinak Chakravarty, Chief of Protocol, Government of India — speaks with a quiet passion about the book that ruffled quite a few feathers in its time with its story of an educated Bengali widow and her relationships in the late 19th century. “It addresses gender issues, it dares to debate the position of women in society. It is about a widow who is intelligent and educated,” says Chakravarty. The radical widow is portrayed by Aishwarya, no doubt increasing the film’s commercial viability. But not many know the significance that “Chokher Bali” holds in Bengal's literature. “The book speaks in a modern voice. It is a bold and honest treatment of man-woman relationships and yet refuses to romanticise.” The novel has been translated several times before. But some of those are archaic! “Translating ‘Chokher Bali’ was a challenge. I had to do a modern translation that would interest today's readers and yet retain the quality, the authentic atmosphere of that time.” In fact, Chakravarty even retained the original ending that Tagore had initially struck off but later restored. “Many other translations of the novel don’t have the original ending. I felt that if that was what Tagore finally wanted, we should stick to it.” And it’s not just the Nobel laureate’s work that Chakravarty has chosen to spin into English. She is working on major Bengali writers from India as well as Bangladesh, such as Sunil Gangopadhyay, Mahasweta Devi, Syed Shamsul Haq, Showkat Ali and Selina Hossain. “Crossings”, a collection of short stories translated by her from Bangladeshi and Indian works, came out earlier this year. “Our rich regional literary heritage has to be available in English, otherwise a lot of very valuable writing will be lost.” It was while doing her doctoral thesis on women writers that her journey as a translator began. “I refused to leave out the bulk of Mahasweta Devi’s work just because it was available only in Bengali, so I set off translating them myself.” Despite being as busy as the proverbial bee — she is an Indian diplomat’s wife, a mother and a teacher — her third book of translations in a year is set to hit the stands, the author this time being Mahasweta Devi. While working on “Crossings”, Chakravarty realised how despite having a common language, content can differ vastly in Indian and Bangladeshi literature. A vast body of Bangladeshi literature deals with the liberation war. The landscape, the socio-political context is very different. Chakravarty laments that today’s youngsters prefer British and American authors to Indian and other South Asian writers. She candidly admits that her own college-going son has not read her work on “Chokher Bali” yet. Perhaps her earnest efforts will ignite that interest some day. — Indo-Asian News Service |
I salute the Lord of the world, the limitless, the wielder of disc and mace, remover of afflictions of devotees, forgiver of all my errors and omissions, the Lord of all. — Shri Adi Shankaracharya The heart of the devotee is the abode of God. It is the drawing room of God. — Sri Ramakrishna Peace and detachment accrue from resting our hopes on Him who creates them in us. — Guru Nanak ‘It is the coward and the fool who says, “That is fate” ‘— so says the Sanskrit proverb. But it is the strong man who stands up and says, ‘I will make my fate.’ It is people who are getting old who talk of fate. Young men generally do not come to astrology. — Swami Vivekananda |
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