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More promises Boycott is ill-advised |
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Iraqis up in arms
Is it back to square one?
Love Friday to Good Friday
Human Rights Diary Delhi Durbar
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More promises THE inclusion of the Ayodhya issue in the election manifesto of the National Democratic Alliance shows the domineering influence the BJP has on its allies. Four years of successfully leading the NDA has given the party the necessary clout to insist on its inclusion. But few can find fault with its assertion that the issue should be resolved either through a negotiated settlement or by a court verdict. Had the party realised this a little earlier, there would have been no need for rath yatras, ultimatums and all the strife it caused in the past. Other contentious issues like Article 370 and the uniform civil code have been kept out of the manifesto for reasons of political convenience. However, they have been referred to in the BJP’s Vision Document in ambiguous terms. Like all manifestoes, this one too promises the moon. It commits itself to take the nation to the frontiers of science and technology and make it some sort of a superpower. It lists several steps to achieve this objective, including some which have long-term implications like the linking of river waters. Its promise to usher in a second green revolution, which will make India the “food factory” of the world, is so inspirational that one is tempted to overlook the fact that it does not even know how to utilise the present grain stock. For a better appraisal of its promises, it would be instructive to see its performance vis-à-vis the National Agenda of Governance that guided the Vajpayee government. The NDA can claim credit for its achievements on the infrastructure front with most highway projects remaining on course. Against a promise of $10 billion in foreign direct investment every year, it could manage to get only one-fifth of it. With Kalahandi and other places hogging the headlines for starvation death, the promise of a hunger-free India remained distant. The growth rate hovered between 4 and 6 per cent against the promised 7-8 per cent. Spending on education remained at 3 per cent of GDP while the promise was 6 per cent. No effort was made to bar persons of foreign origin from occupying certain high posts, a promise it reiterates again. Yet, it has no compunction in claiming that it has fulfilled all its promises. But then manifestoes should always be taken with a pinch of salt. |
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Boycott is ill-advised THE Hurriyat Conference led by Moulvi Abbas Ansari had never categorically said that it would be taking part in the elections, but there were media reports that it had promised Mr L.K. Advani during their last talks on March 27 that it would not call for a boycott of the national elections. But it has belied those hopes by asking people to "stay away from the electoral process". The conglomerate is evasive on the issue whether it would be launching an anti-election campaign like those launched by other separatist leaders, Syed Ali Shah Geelani and Shabbir Shah, but it has clearly divorced itself from the poll process. There is nothing new in that, given that such boycott has continued right since 1989. By doing so, the All-Party Hurriyat Conference leaders are undermining their own relevance as well, because they cannot possibly claim to be true representatives of the people unless they have tested their strength in elections. They just claim to speak for the common man but are trying to remain aloof from them. While the Ansari faction has begun breakthrough talks with Indian officials, it has fought shy of taking part in elections for obvious reasons. Suggestions from Pakistan in this regard must have been persuasive, considering that Islamabad has all along sought to derail the democratic process in Jammu and Kashmir, fearing that it will give the lie to its skewed picture of the situation prevalent there. It is no doubt important to restore peace in the troubled valley, but that can be brought about only through elections. Just as the Vidhan Sabha polls brought to power a representative government headed by Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, the forthcoming general election can fulfil the Kashmiris' aspiration to have their voice heard in Parliament through the six members that they send to the Lok Sabha. The APHC’s decision does not seem to be in conformity with the people’s mood. |
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Iraqis up in arms THE anti-US revolt across Iraq has acquired a new dimension with the Shias joining the resistance movement in a big way. Their leader is a young and firebrand religious figure, Muqtada Al-Sadr, who seems to have replaced in popularity supreme Shia cleric Ayatollah Ali Sistani. Al-Sadr’s militia, the Mahdi Army, has virtually taken control of three major towns and its men are fighting to capture a few more. The US and allied troops will obviously recapture these towns, and destroy the militia as the Americans have vowed to do. But it may not be possible to revert to the situation that existed before Al-Sadr came into the limelight. The emergence of the Shia armed opposition to the US-led occupation of Iraq with the Sunnis already on the warpath is an alarming development for the Americans, when they are preparing to hand over the country’s sovereignty to the Iraqis by June-end. The Shias have been greatly upset after the adoption of the interim constitution, which has certain clauses not to their liking. They had thought that, being a majority community, they would be able to run the affairs in a democratic Iraq in their own way. This is not possible under the constitution. The future rulers will have to take into confidence the minorities too for implementing any programme and policy. This will prevent Iraq from openly aligning itself with Shia Iran, not in the good books of the US. The Iraqi Shias, like the Sunnis, are angry with the Americans for another reason also. They have come to realise that the Americans will not leave Iraq to the Iraqis in real terms even after the handing over of sovereignty and the promised elections. Those in the moderate camp led by Ali Sistani want to find an answer to the question in a peaceful manner, but this is not acceptable to the radicals like Al-Sadr. For the present, the Al-Sadr factor may relegate to the background the power struggle within the Iraqis. But this is likely to be a temporary phase. If the occupation forces are unable to contain the violence in Iraq, the situation may lead to a civil war, affecting the entire region. |
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Party is organised opinion. — Benjamin Disraeli |
Is it back to square one? GEN PERVEZ MUSHARRAF pulled no punches while interacting with the India Today conclave on March 13. Pakistan’s military ruler made it clear that “everything would slide back to square one” unless there was progress in resolving the Kashmir “dispute”. He repeated this theme over a dozen times during the question and answer session that followed his address. He added that he saw little prospect for progress in improving trade and economic relations, promoting people-to-people links and formulating nuclear and conventional confidence-building measures (CBMs) unless he was satisfied with progress in resolving the Kashmir issue. The more ominous part of his argument lay in his assertion that he did not regard the events in Jammu and Kashmir as terrorism, but as a “freedom struggle”. His message was that unless India satisfied his expectations on Kashmir, he would not rule out the escalation of terrorist violence. He has now served India with a deadline of July/August to fulfil his expectations. Enlightened public opinion in Pakistan realises that jihad in Kashmir, support for the Taliban and unrestrained transfer of nuclear knowhow has led the country to the brink of disaster. But time alone will tell whether General Musharraf and the military establishment he heads share this view. In the meantime, New Delhi should go ahead with its efforts to promote people-to-people contacts, enhance trade and economic cooperation and reduce tensions with Pakistan, through a series of imaginatively crafted CBMs. The opening of the Khokrapar-Munnabao rail route along the Sindh-Rajasthan border will certainly help in promoting people-to-people contacts. New Delhi should unilaterally promote group tourism from Pakistan to places like Delhi, Agra, Jaipur and Ajmer. General Musharraf has no interest in establishing normal trade and economic relations with India. It is thus important to move ahead on establishing the South Asian Free Trade Area (SAFTA), so that Pakistan is compelled to ease trade restrictions. New Delhi should not be in a hurry to agree to projects like the Iran-Pakistan-India gas pipeline till such time as Pakistan is ready to establish normal trade, business and investment relations with India. The Foreign Secretaries of India and Pakistan are to meet again in May/June for discussions pertaining to peace and security and Jammu and Kashmir. These talks will be preceded by expert-level discussions on nuclear CBMs at the level of Additional Secretary. It is at these discussions that New Delhi should expose Pakistan’s propensity to indulge in crude nuclear blackmail of India and the international community. Pakistan is the only country in the world to use the threat of use of nuclear weapons to further its territorial ambitions (on Jammu and Kashmir). It has constantly harped on the theme that Kashmir is a “nuclear flashpoint”, signalling that there could be a nuclear conflict unless this issue is settled to its satisfaction. It has also sought to deter India from taking military action by threatening that any Indian retaliation against cross-border terrorism would result in nuclear escalation. But all sensible Indians know that this is a bluff. The Pakistan Army may be adventuristic. It is not suicidal. Pakistan has not officially enunciated a comprehensive nuclear doctrine. It uses nuclear ambiguity as a tool for nuclear blackmail. But the Director-General of the Army’s Strategic Plans Division Lieutenant-General Khalid Kidwai recently stated that Pakistan would resort to the use of nuclear weapons if India attacks it and conquers a large part of its territory, or if India renders it defenceless by destroying a large part of its land or air forces. General Kidwai also spoke about the possibility of Pakistan resorting to the use of nuclear weapons if India attempts to economically strangulate Pakistan, or plunges Pakistan into political destabilisation by internal subversion. The Pakistan nuclear arsenal is thus entirely India-centric, though the possibility of its being used as an asset of the “Islamic Ummah” cannot be ruled out. India should insist that Pakistan should spell out General Kidwai’s comments in an official nuclear doctrine and stop using its nuclear weapons as a tool of diplomatic blackmail. New Delhi can propose a number of CBMs that Pakistan will find it difficult to reject in view of its professions of being a “responsible” nuclear power committed to a “nuclear restraint regime”. There should be no difficulty in finalising an agreement for advance notification of missile tests and for the avoidance of untoward incidents in international waters between the two navies. Escalating tensions could also be avoided by establishing direct communications between the Operations Directorates of the two air forces and between counterpart field commanders. The deployment of short-range nuclear capable missiles at close proximity to the borders can cause concern, should tensions escalate. New Delhi should propose that neither its short-range Prithvi missiles nor Pakistan’s Chinese supplied M 11 missiles should be stored or deployed at any location that is less than 500 kilometres from the border or the LoC. This can be later extended to suitably cover India’s Agni-1 missiles and Pakistan’s Chinese supplied M 9 missiles, named as Shaheen-1 by Pakistan. Because of considerations of developing a “feel good” factor before the forthcoming general election, New Delhi has built up high public expectations from recent moves to normalise relations with Pakistan. People in Pakistan do want good neighbourly relations. But the entire process of normalisation is going to be long-drawn and accident-prone. Given the American decision to label Pakistan a “major non-NATO ally”, General Musharraf could infer that the Americans need him too much to inhibit him from continuing support for jihad in Jammu and Kashmir. The recent humiliating setbacks that the Pakistan Army suffered at the hands of a small group of Pashtun tribals, Chechens, Uzbeks and Chinese Uighurs, in the tribal areas of the NWFP could well tempt the army establishment to divert attention by reinvigorating its support for jihad in Jammu and Kashmir. While hoping that its efforts to normalise relations with Islamabad will succeed, New Delhi has to be prepared for
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Love Friday to Good Friday IT will be appropriate to discuss time-honoured tradition associated with Good Friday since time immemorial as countless folk tales achieved popularity in archaic societal pattern. It falls on 13th of Nisan, a Hebrew month i.e. one day before the Passover festival. It is the day observed throughout a great part of Christendom as the anniversary of passion and the death of Christ. It was called “Love Friday” by the Anglo-Saxons and Danes. The origin of the custom of a yearly commemoration of the Crucifixion is hidden in some obscurity. In Asia Minor, Syria and Mesopotamia the 14th and 16th of Nisan were specially observed together irrespective of the day of the week and for this apostolic sanction was urged by Polycarp (then Bishop of Jerusalem). For the early period of its observance, the day was marked by a special rigorous fast and also on the whole, by a tendency to greater simplicity in the public service of the church. The bells and organs are silent and in every possible way it is sought to deepen the impression of a profound and universal grief. In churches the passion history is read and the Cross is adored; toward evening a dramatic representation of the entombment takes place, amid open demonstration of contempt for Judas Iscariot and the Jews. Originally the concept of celebrating Good Friday was taken quite differently due to conflicting reasons and clashing of traditional spring festivals. The Passover was a religious festival commemorating God’s deliverance of the Jews from bondage. Scholars have difficulty reconstructing the origin and historical development of Passover festival due to the relative paucity of information in the Bible and elsewhere and the differing perceptions of literary sources and traditions. The Jews were given rations to celebrate Passover next day. According to archaic popular tradition, Good Friday was in fact a Ration Day. Anglers abundantly brought their catch in the market. The heapful helping of spicy fish in the plate was considered a sign of prosperity. Honest intellectuals teased Jews for celebrating “Friday” because offals and other waste of meat and fish they used to burn before sunrise on the day of Passover. Some scholars think that Passover was originally a spring New Year Festival, similar to the autumnal feast of Tabernacles. On the occasion each family would choose a lamb to be slaughtered at twilight on Friday. The blood was to be smeared on the doorposts and lintel of the houses, which God would see and thus spare the inhabitants from the destructions of Egyptian first
born.
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Human Rights Diary
“MEDIA and the police” was the topic at a seminar in New Delhi recently. The participants included the top brass of the police. I was in the chair. The criticism of the Press was on many counts. But the burden of observations was that the Press was too “commercialised” to care for its obligation towards society. Instances were cited to support the contention that the pressmen had used their position to “blackmail” the police. It was also alleged that journalists planted stories against the police when refused favour. I admitted that most of the allegations were correct. With an eye on the revenue, a newspaper was like any other product which must sell to make money. It is sad but true. I told them that I accepted all their criticism. Still the ills of the media did not justify the excesses the police committed and the human rights it violated. The force was found wanting, not because of the media’s deficiencies, but because of its mindset that it must use harsh methods to keep society in tow. Even if all praises were showered on the police, it would not give up the lathi, which has become an integral part of its functioning. No amount of media’s wrongs could make up for the wrongs the police committed. However, we all agreed that the autonomy of the police, as proposed by the Dharamvira Committee some 25 years ago, was the best way to make the force accountable and to keep it above the din and dirt of politics. The Police Act, which was as old as 1861, said that superintendence over the police force was exercised by the state government, which in effect meant the ruling party of that area. The word “superintendence” remained undefined in the Police Act or in any other law. I have attended many seminars on the media and the police. Nowhere have I found the police admitting its mistakes or explaining why the force had to carry out highhanded and arbitrary orders with impunity. The argument that it had to obey political masters did not wash. My experience at the National Police Academy in Hyderabad after the Emergency was devastating. I had chided an assembly of senior police officers for not having discussed among themselves the reason why they or practically all of them had tumbled at the feet of the then extra-constitutional authority, Sanjay Gandhi, son of Mrs Indira Gandhi. At lunch, after the session, none of them spoke to me. Still worse, the academy never invited me again. My impression is that the police has come to develop a vested interest in the power it enjoys. It does not want to give up the clout it is enjoying for showing loyalty to the political party in power. The force is getting contaminated. I have found many retired police officers making a beeline for the BJP. *** Strange, Home Minister L.K. Advani should wake up to the excesses by the Army and the police in Kashmir after the All Party Hurriyat Conference underlined the point. Human rights activists have written scores of reports to show how in the name of militancy, hundreds of innocent Kashmiris have been picked up from their homes. Many of them are still missing. Advani and the BJP would not even consider in the past any report of false encounter or wrongful detention. They would call human rights activists “anti-national” or describe them as “the overground face of the underground”. A mere threat by the Hurriyat to boycott the talks with the government has resulted in a series of circulars by the security forces to ensure that no violation of human rights take place. Advani has himself presided over a meeting of the Army top brass. Why the Hurriyat’s threat worked, and not the numerous reports and pleas of human rights activists, is not difficult to make out. Human rights activists have no clout because they make their point through peaceful protests or petitions and depend on institutions like law courts and human rights commissions to come to their rescue. I do not know how the instructions contained in circulars will be followed because the Army goes on saying that it does not indulge in the excesses. The much-publicised action against the Army personnel for having reportedly used five labourers as a shield to fight against the militants in Kashmir have not been transferred yet. An intrepid reporter has done a on-the-spot check and found all of those involved in the labourers’ killing were very much at the position which they held before the incident. Advani’s advice to the police must be on the usual line: patience and forbearance. But the police itself has not reacted in any way. It has already a string of instructions which it has dutifully filed. That is probably all. The poor, on the one hand, and the adivasis, on the other, continue to be a target of the police “zulam”. Only the other day 15 policemen went into a village in Maharashtra’s Raigad district and mercilessly beat up innocent tribal people. The police showed no mercy even to pregnant women, who were dragged by their hair into a police van for more rounds of torture at the police station. Officially, the police was in the village looking for illicit liquor. *** Similar things are happening in the central UP during the election campaign. The police is helping Samajwadi party workers by beating up Dalits. I can understand the hostility between Chief Minister Mulayam Singh and former Chief Minister Mayawati. Theirs is a long fued, personal and uncompromising. But why should the sins of Mayawati visit the poor Dalits? False cases are being registered against them everyday. Pre-poll clashes are nothing new in UP. But the already suppressed Dalits becoming a target of further suppression does not speak well of our institutions or the democratic system we claim to have. However crucial the UP election maybe for Mulayam Singh, he or, for that matter, any political leader in the country, cannot violate basic norms. Both the Home Ministry and the Election Commission should look into the incidents of increasing violence. |
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Delhi Durbar WHILE the heat is tiring out many a politician, the “Bharat Uday Rath” of Deputy Prime Minister L K Advani seems to have almost passed the litmus test with only a few days to go before he concludes his 8,000 km yatra criss-crossing the country. With the temperature soaring, the BJP leaders accompanying Mr Advani are taking special care that the air-conditioner of the “rath (bus)” works at its best. April 16 being the last day of the yatra, the party leaders have already started the reverse count. Quipped one of the leaders, as a seasoned politician one can easily withstand the political heat, but it is absolutely a different ball game to brave the weather god. Farmhouse weddings The farmhouse owners in Delhi got a setback recently with the Delhi Government refusing them permission for organising farmhouse weddings. But earlier this week, the Sheila Dixit government did another flip-flop on the subject and gave a major relief to the owners and lovers of farmhouses. The organisers have to deposit a fee between Rs 20,000 and Rs 40,000 depending upon the size of the farmhouse. Adequate parking inside farmhouses has to be ensured and the onus lies on the farmhouse owners. They have to inform the Municipal Corporation about the parking capacity. The traffic police will be free to take action against vehicles if these are parked outside. It has also been stipulated that each farmhouse owner is allowed to hold only 120 parties in a year. Free from corruption Let’s not get into the endless debate whether India is shining or not. But Delhi is definitely shining. Ask any Dilliwala, particularly the residents of eastern and western parts of the Capital. The Trinagar-Shahdara stretch of the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation was operationalised last year itself. On March 31, the DMRC operationalised its second service between Rithala and Trinagar, thus offering thousands of commuters a fast, airconditioned and pollution-free travel. The roads have suddenly become less congested. The travel time for scooterists and motorists plying through these areas has come down significantly. The DMRC has demonstrated how dream projects can be implemented well before the stipulated deadlines. What’s more, the DMRC has showed how projects worth multi-thousand crores can be completed without an iota of corruption. Vinod Bhatia, who executed a multi-crore project of installing fire-figting systems at the DMRC stations, swears of a corruption-free DMRC. “If the entire country is run like the DMRC, India can become a superpower much before 2020,” Bhatia says with a confident smile. Congress Vision Document The Congress party released its vision document with much fanfare on Wednesday. In outlining its 20-point plan for the economic resurgence of the country, senior Congress leaders Manmohan Singh and Pranab Mukherjee expectedly alluded to the far-sighted leadership of Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi. The sad part was that when some scribes who had failed to lay their hands on the document went to the Congress headquarters late in the afternoon to pick up a copy, those lounging in the party’s media cell tersely said there was no copy available. Why? Because those in charge of distributing the Vision Document had done their job at the press conference and made a grand exit! Election law manual The Legislative Department of the Ministry of Law and Justice has brought out an updated edition of the Manual of Election Law. It is a compilation of statutory provisions governing elections to the Parliament and state legislatures. The two-volume manual has been updated till March 1 this year. The Election Manual was last published in September, 1997. The manual provides useful information to the candidates as well as the public. Contributed by S. Satyanarayanan, Syed Ahmed Ali, Rajeev Sharma and |
What is here is also there; What is there, also here. Who sees multiplicity but not the One indivisible Self must Wander on and on from death to death. — The Katha Upanishad Liberation is not an ultimate retreat from all individual and universal play of God’s delighting creation into His immutable transcendence, but a perfect manifestation of His love, light, power and bliss in and through the mental, vital and physical. — Sri Aurobindo The most sublime thing in the Kali-age is the name of God. — Guru Nanak Birth is the conjunction of the soul with the body and death their disjunction. — Swami Dayanand Saraswati A page digested is better than a volume hurriedly read. — Macaulay |
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