The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

EDITORIALS

Three cheers!
Sehwag walks into cricket’s hall of fame

EVER since Virender Sehwag burst on the cricket scene, he has been considered a poor country cousin of Sachin Tendulkar whom he unabashedly hero-worshipped and perhaps even copied. It was taken for granted that he would be an understudy of the little master who happened to be far more consummate in all the departments of the game. The holy grail of Test cricket, the scoring of a triple century, was also an achievement which everyone thought would be Sachin’s prerogative. But it is not for nothing that cricket is called a game of glorious uncertainties. Sehwag, the street boy from Najafgarh in the national Capital, has pipped his idol to the post and how! Only he could have hit an audacious six to barge into the exclusive triple-century club. Sachin gamely cheered and also played the second fiddle. On the second day the maestro did complete his century but the domination of Sehwag was complete. A triple century is a wonderful achievement for which the country had to wait for 72 years (it started playing Test in 1932), but it is all the more significant that it comes from a player who has not had the benefit of scientific coaching in his early days.

Technically, Sehwag comes nowhere near men like Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Sunil Gavaskar and Gundappa Vishwanath whose innings were a symphony in motion. But he has put aside his shortcomings admirably to essay an innings which will feature as an all-time great. Natural talent was always there. But it was laced with recklessness which made him gift his wicket on many an occasion. But he has shed that delinquency to emerge as a mature player who can wait ages to remain stuck at 199 as he did on Sunday.

What is remarkable is that he has achieved the landmark so early in his career. Hopefully, he can go upwards from here. Sehwag can never become Sachin, just as Sachin can never be Bradman. But one thing is for certain. India’s cricketing sky will be illumined by these two for a long long time to come. The scarce few who witnessed the duo rewrite record books in Multan have a tale fit to tell their grandchildren some day.

Notionally national
It’s regional chieftains who call the shots

COME to think of it, who calls the shots in these elections? It is neither the Bharatiya Janata Party nor the Congress. A look at the seat-sharing arrangements they have made in various states suggests how easily they have been bullied into accepting the crumbs thrown at them by the regional satraps. Take the case of the Congress, which had to accept a measly four seats in Bihar offered by Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Laloo Prasad Yadav. In sharp contrast, Mr Rambilas Paswan, who floated a party a few years ago, was able to get away with seven while the RJD kept to itself most other seats. In UP, the Bahujan Samaj Party and the Samajwadi Party have been playing shuttlecock with the Congress with the result that the party finds itself friendless in a state which accounts for 80 seats in Parliament.

Had the Congress leadership realised that the party had over the years become a caricature of its former self in UP, it would not have been haughty enough to expect the BSP and the SP to knock on its doors for seat adjustments. The leadership mistook the inquisitive crowds that awaited Sonia Gandhi’s roadshow in the state as a measure of the party’s resurgence. Worse, it tried to sail in two boats little realising that there was no love lost between the BSP and the SP. Yet, the Congress is hoping against hope that the SP would eventually enter into a tie-up with the grand old party.

Though the BJP has everything to go in its favour like the leadership of Mr A.B. Vajpayee and the feel good factor, the fact is its allies had an upper hand in the selection of seats in state after state. The BJP had to give in to every demand of AIADMK chief Jayalalithaa. She saw to it that one of the party’s ex-MPs is not fielded this time because he had once fallen out with her. In Andhra Pradesh, it was Telugu Desam which played the decisive role. Despite all the BJP’s protests in Bihar and Karnataka, the Janata Parivar was able to obtain the seats of its choice. If anything, all this shows how the national parties have become playthings in the hands of the regional parties.

Slanderous campaign
Need to exercise self-restraint

THE manner in which some political parties and organisations have been indulging in a slanderous campaign against their opponents in the run-up to the Lok Sabha elections is unfortunate. In this deplorable game of name-calling, almost all parties, including the BJP, the AIADMK and the Congress, deserve to be blamed. They are equally responsible for lowering the standards of electioneering. This time, campaigning seems to have reached an all-time low. An advertisement, courtesy an association called the Kamakshi Education Society, aired on a Hindi television channel, shows video footage of the country’s freedom struggle and asks the people whether they want to have a foreigner as their leader after people like Mahatma Gandhi, Subhash Chandra Bose, Lala Lajpat Rai, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel and Jawaharlal Nehru sacrificed their lives to oust foreigners from the country’s soil.

The main purpose of the advertisement and the leader it has targeted are self-explanatory. Needless to say, the advertisement is in bad taste and it does not behove on the part of an organisation, with or without the support of the BJP, to target political opponents in this manner. The foreign origin of Congress President Sonia Gandhi may be a major issue in the ensuing elections. But there are better ways of addressing it to put across one’s viewpoint and convince the electorate.

There is a need to maintain decency and decorum during the campaigning. The use of abusive language and mudslinging or character assassination should be avoided at any cost. There is no point in referring to the Election Commission’s Model Code of Conduct in this regard. While codes and laws are only general guidelines to be followed by all concerned during the elections, it is for the political parties and candidates themselves to exercise self-restraint in their conduct and follow the rules of the game with sincerity. The need of the hour is to increase the level of political discourse during the campaign to help people make an informed choice in the elections.

Thought for the day

Never be satisfied with what you achieve, because it all pales in comparison with what you are capable of doing in the future.

— Rabbi Nochem Kaplan

ARTICLE

The Israeli agenda
US is also muddying the water
by S. Nihal Singh

THINGS are going well for Israel’s Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. He is not only setting the agenda for the George Bush administration but has succeeded in sabotaging the Arab nations’ summit, planned for March 29 in Tunis. After destroying the infrastructure of the Palestinian Authority and confining the Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat to his battered headquarters, he revels in declaring that he has no counterpart among the Palestinians to talk to. And having adopted a unilateral agenda, he ordered the assassination of the Hamas spiritual leader Sheikh Yassin to tell his critics he is not cutting and running by proposing the evacuation of Jewish settlements on the Gaza Strip.

A Bush administration trying to cope with the fallout of its invasion and occupation of Iraq is gratefully accepting the crumbs Mr Sharon is offering to tell voters in a presidential election year that there is “progress” in West Asia in a non-existent peace process. And in a flurry of activity meant as a sop to critics at home and abroad, Mr Sharon is invited to the White House on April 14, with President Bush all set to adopt the Israeli leader’s plan as his very own. Earlier, having decreed that Mr Arafat was “irrelevant”, he became so for the Bush administration as well. Some appearances have to be kept and President Bush will meet Mr Sharon after seeing Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and has scheduled a meeting with King Abdullah of Jordan the subsequent week.

Decades ago, during my first comprehensive visit to West Asia, I was appreciatively telling an Egyptian how fortunate the Arabs were in speaking one language, admittedly with regional variations, across a host of frontiers, unlike the many languages we in India have. His answer was pertinent: “And look, what a mess we have made of our lands and region!”.

Arab countries like to call themselves collectively as the Arab nation in the singular. Iraq’s invasion and occupation of Kuwait, leading to the previous Iraq war, was only the most striking example of disunity in Arab ranks. The centrality of Egypt in the Arab world is not in doubt. But having made a separate peace with Israel, Egypt subsists on an annual $ 2 billion grant from the US and the central role of Egypt in the Arab world lies mainly in its ability to obfuscate issues by rhetorical flourishes. How far President Mubarak and King Abdullah will become supporting actors in the play President Bush is to enact in Washington and Texas will unfold over time. As a small vulnerable country, Jordan’s own separate peace with Israel is understandable.

Mr Sharon, for his part, is anxiously awaiting to receive President Bush’s imprimatur on his plan to evacuate settlements from the Gaza Strip in order to set the stage for the permanent colonisation of much of the West Bank, the Palestinians being relegated to ghettos behind high walls and barbed electrified fences, divorced from their work, fields and schooling and health facilities. Mr Sharon appeals to President Bush’s unilateralist impulses and, in any case, Israel represents not merely a strategic necessity but an overriding domestic compulsion, given the clout of American Jewish lobbies.

Indeed, the invasion and occupation of Iraq was determined in part by Israel’s interests and the overthrow of President Saddam Hussein has been a great relief to Tel Aviv, with American troops now a semi-permanent presence next door. Next, Israeli sights are fixed on Iran and Syria (Israel’s occupation of the Syrian Golan Heights has, for the present, receded to the background.) Washington is seeking to stir the pot by promoting a Greater Middle East Initiative ostensibly aimed at democratising and reforming the region.

Israel is watching these developments with glee even as it is becoming clear with each passing day that by aiding and abetting Israel’s continued occupation of Arab lands, America is not helping Israel to live in peace and security and is merely muddying the waters of Arab reform. The American formula is to put the cart before the horse on the premise that Israel will succeed in appropriating much of occupied Arab land by the time Arabs come round to reforming their societies.

The outlook looks particularly bleak - witness the almost routine nature of the US veto in rejecting a resolution condemning Yassin’s assassination - because several American interests have combined to elevate Israeli interests to the status of US state policy. Since President Bush’s interpretation of the “war on terror” folds into the Israeli view of the Palestinian intifada, he condones the brutal Israeli methods of fighting terrorists by the panoply of modern war machines and assassinations of Palestinian leaders.

The promotion of pro-American regimes in the Arab world, starting with Iraq, is good for Israel as it is good for America. The Israeli assassinations of Palestinian leaders, as the most recent instance has shown, has the added merit of sowing further division in the Arab world, most of it divided between those dependent on US military protection and others of a more independent bent. A feeble Arab attempt at reiterating the offer to Israel of peace and normal relations if it withdrew from all occupied land was stymied by Sheikh Yassin’s assassination and served Israeli objectives.

It is an indication of the lack of will on Europe’s part that while the European Union remains the greatest aid-giver to Palestinians and comprises the quartet that espouses the doomed “road map”, it is incapable of influencing American policy on Israel. Belatedly, Europe has been critical of the American Middle East Initiative - reforms cannot be imposed from outside - but there is no way the EU can make a contribution to resolving the Israeli-Palestinian confrontation without the acquiescence, if not approval, of the US.

Sheikh Yassin is dead, other Palestinians and some Israelis will die and the spiral of violence will continue. For President Bush, support for Israel is part of his imperialist urges laced with a missionary zeal. But the region, the Arabs and Israel itself will pay a heavy price for Mr Sharon’s folly unless the scandal swirling around him delivers the world from his Machiavellian designs. America condemns itself to decades of turmoil it will face in West Asia because oil is a precious commodity and Israel a precious asset for pursuing hegemonic goals.

MIDDLE

Umpire Abdulla
by K. Rajbir Deswal

WITH the Indian team in Pakistan, my mind goes back to the childhood cricket we played in my village. In fact, having been given an opportunity to have my schooling in public schools, I introduced the game to my urchin cronies in the village. And who would be our umpire? None else than Abdulla, who we reverentially called Dada—matching his status to that of my grandfather.

Abdulla’s cousin Fazal Hussein came from Panipat. He was my grandfather’s bosom friend. More than this association, they had family interactions without typical reservations against each other, of Hindu and Muslim households, prevalent in those days. Hussein was a railway contractor and his cousin Abdulla from Lahore was a regular visitor to our home in Anta village. My father addressed both of them as Taya Ji.

After the country’s partition Abdulla stayed back in India despite the fact that Hussein had migrated to Pakistan and Dada Abdulla knew none else than my grandfather here.

Even back in Pakistan Abdulla had none to count on as his kith and kin since having become an orphan at an early age in life, it was only Fazal Hussein who had brought him up. He remained a bachelor all his life. His opting to stay in India surprised many but not all in our family.

Dada Abdulla was a favourite of the children in particular. He knew how to conduct himself when in company of elders, women and children.

Abdulla knew the sensibilities of each and every member of our family. While presiding over the wrestling bouts of the other village boys he would never allow me to take on anybody since he knew I wasn’t as tough. But when it came to playing cricket, he knew that I could score well and outdo everyone else. In his umpiring, he never let an opportunity go when he would not unduly favour me. Pronounce me out? He would never do that. His siding with me was purely emotional though un-umpire-like.

Dada Abdulla had a very strange habit of going away for weeks altogether without informing anybody in the house. But he would often come back giving us all a feeling whenever he went that he would surely return.

And then the unusual happened. My father received a missive from Fazal Hussein’s son in Pakistan. I remember father reading out the letter written in Urdu. “Ek buri khabar hai ! Cha’cha Abdulla faut ho gaye!” He explained with damp eyes to us that Abdulla was no more.

I can still recall the tiny frame in loose kurta-pyjamas and the aroma of the attar he applied on his temples. I wish the emotional bond of the two separated nations seen during cricket matches — in my village and this time in Pakistan — would grow.

OPED

Punjab is losing its shine
Rising expectations can create problems
by P. P. S. Gill

WHAT would be the Zodiac sign of Punjab, if there were to be one? This question often props up on the mind’s radar, as one gazes at the people and ponders over the state of affairs in Punjab. The state no longer seems to be vibrant and its people too seem to have lost their spirit of resilience. Who will put Punjab back on the rails?

What Punjab today presents is not what one had ever perceived it would. Today, the state is in the news for the wrong reasons. All past impressions and expressions of “Punjab Shining” seem to have got erased. Once Punjab’s shine used to reflect its contributions to the country’s freedom movement, sacrifices as well as prosperity of its people and their high per capita income, highest per unit production and productivity of its agriculture, rapid growth of its small sector industries etc. Sadly, it is not the same Punjab now. Today, it is “Punjab dimming”!

Who is to be blamed if the state has lost the lustre of its shine, if its political and administrative systems have become corrupt and if its prosperity has dipped? Who should be questioned if Punjab’s economy has slowed down, if its debt burden has accelerated, if its social sector has stopped ticking and if its health delivery system has failed? These are just a sample of things that have gone terribly wrong in Punjab. For all this and more, it has been the collective failure of all Punjabis — we the people, the politicians and the bureaucracy. It is also for all of us to collectively find solutions to the problems, mostly man-made. A word of caution as the next crisis is waiting to happen.

Punjab is in the midst of the elections to the Lok Sabha. Politicians are busy finding excuses for unfulfilled promises and yet holding out new assurances, repeating allegations, creating artificial divisions in the name of isms to seek votes. Will any political party or candidate stop in its election campaign to talk of Punjab, its problems and prospects? Political parties come out with election manifestoes. And promises are made without responsibility.

As one looks around, one only finds a circle of darkness, which is getting darker by the day. If one finds the lack of political wisdom and commitment, the people too have resigned to their fate. One hopes that political parties would take a holistic view of Punjab as a state and join hands to work in tandem to draw up such election manifestoes that would reflect the stark ground realities in terms of people’s aspirations, expectations and problems that confront Punjab today. Even a common minimum progamme, if adopted by key political parties as an alternative to separate election manifesto, to reconstruct, rejuvenate and resuscitate Punjab would be in order.

That common minimum programme should be based on the state’s fiscal situation, economic health, agricultural and industrial needs, social sector requirements, sound education and health delivery systems, environment protection etc. If this format were to be treated as the election manifesto by all parties, irrespective of their ideologies or lack of them, only then can a dimming, flickering Punjab hope to be “shining” again. At present, the only calling of the politicians is name calling in the name of “corruption” or accusing the other party of betraying the interests of Punjab. The downhill slide of the state do not seem to be either visible or of concern or worry to the key political parties, ever at each other’s jugular vein.

In this context, one cannot overlook the process of implementation of certain reforms initiated two years ago to correct the fiscal imbalance, improve financial management practices, invigorate the economy, diversify agriculture, attract investments in industry and infrastructure, recast the administrative set up, rightsize the government, discipline the public sector undertakings, strengthen the power sector and even bring about gender equity. Progress may be tardy on most of these. However, a beginning was made.

The ongoing dialogue with the World Bank for project-specific financial aid or getting structural adjustment loan has also slowed down due to elections. The Bank will keenly watch the final results of these elections and only thereafter Punjab can hope to get some funding. Political populism and economy have to match.

Needless to say, though Punjab Chief Minister Capt. Amarinder Singh showed sincerity and determination when he began to introduce reforms, he was quickly tripped by his own party colleagues and the Congress high command. If the reforms have today got stuck, the Congress has to blame itself as much as the media and the bureaucracy. All had failed to present the intended reforms to the people in proper perspective, convince them of their utility, or even caution them of the impending crisis that the state would face in case these reforms failed.

No wonder, Punjab has earned the sobriquet “Punjab not shining” as also the label of a “failed” state. There is apprehension of the return of terrorism in a different form, even as social tensions escalate due to economic disparities, frustration among the youth due to the lack of job opportunities and consequent drug abuse. Contribution to this situation is no less of an unresponsive administrative system and vested political interests.

It is time all political parties and Punjabis got together to help the state brace itself to face opportunities and challenges of a new world order, whose demands and needs grow from scientific discovery and are disseminated and communicated through information technology and cyber space. It is also time Punjab gave preference to bio-technology, agro-industry and human resource development and provided to its youth skills, technology and knowledge so that when it comes to global competition, Punjab is not failed for want of quality.

DELHI DURBAR
Channels fight over cricket

AS India and Pakistan are engaged in an epic cricket series, some news channels are involved in a competition of their own and are battling it out in the studios to take the credit for the match analysis.

Besides Doordarshan, Zee, Aaj Tak, NDTV and Sahara Samay have all roped in special invitees, famed cricketers from both sides of the border to make their match analysis not only interesting but also to ensure that they are able to grab the maximum viewership.

As the match analysis goes on till late in the night, it is the ability to hold the viewers which would be considered as the benchmark for the quality of the show being put up all the news channels. Although it is still time for the Indian team to come back specially with the Test series going on, Sahara Samay with Azharuddin, Ajay Jadeja, Ashok Malhotra and the former fastest bowler, the famed Waqar Yunis from across the border, on its panel seems to have taken an early lead after the one-day series.

Row over NRS figures

The raging controversy over the National Readership Survey (NRS) projecting the popularity of a newspaper seems to have been given a halt with the Delhi High Court allowing publication of its report with a rider that no newspapers would mention rival’s name to downgrade it. Two leading English dailies — The Times of India and The Hindustan Times — had been locking horns on the superiority issue and the latter had questioned the authenticity of NRS.

The court allowed the publication of the survey report, saying that withholding it back would affect the interests of subscribers. The court, at the same time, was at pains to observe that “sorrogate proxy war” between the rival publications on the higher readership issue had thrown all the norms and ethics to the wind.

Meaning of secularism

These days, the term securalism is taking interesting connotations. The word remains a politically correct term among the political parties. However, among psephologists, economists and statisticians, secular data is regressive analytical tool used for studying long-term empirical evidences.

Thus, in any time series data, which is used extensively in election analysis, secular trend would indicate long-term patterns and nothing religious. And by this meaning alone, secular trends of the Congress party would suggest that its seat share in the Lok Sabha is steadily falling since the 1991 elections even as the party seeks to come to power on by forming broad political alliance among like-minded political parties.

Presidential ride on submarine?

Dr A.P.J. Abdul Kalam is an iconoclastic President. He can’t be confined to the traditional image of the President of India. He is due to visit Siachen glacier on April 2, the first time ever when the President would be going to the highest battlefield in the world. But there is a problem. He would be visiting the Army and the Air Force facilities, leaving the Navy high and dry.

The buzz word in the Rashtrapati Bhavan circles is that the Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces may well have to visit an Indian Navy facility in the coming weeks to correct this unintended anamoly. President Kalam taking an unprecedented ride in a submarine is not ruled out.

Girja Shankar Kaura, S.S. Negi, Gaurav Choudhury and Rajeev Sharma