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Farmers in distress Win
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Foreigner,
foreigner Wake up, Swadeshi Jagran Manch MRS SUSHMA SWARAJ had a close shave. Ms Uma Bharti just about managed to save her gaddi. Mr P. A. Sangma will remain a member of the Lok Sabha. However, like the ghosts of Hamlet and Macbeth the invasion of India by foreigners has become a permanent feature.
CPM decides against
pro-active role
Answerable to God
News
analysis Delhi
Durbar
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Farmers in distress IT is indeed sad that farmers in Andhra Pradesh have been committing suicide even after Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy announced a series of measures soon after assuming office — free electricity to farmers, waiver of electricity dues, concessions in debt payments and a Helpline to those in distress. He has also announced a package for those who ended their lives due to debts, loss of crops and other reasons during the last six years. He has, in fact, fulfilled his major poll promises such as Rs 50,000 for the family of each such farmer for one-time settlement of his loans and Rs 1 lakh assistance to help make the family economically independent. But the crisis continues. When Dr Reddy was the Leader of Opposition in the State Assembly, he had been demanding such a package. However, the Chandrababu Naidu government turned it down saying that it would be counter-productive and encourage more farmers to end their lives. The continued cases of suicide have started ringing alarm bells for the new government. Apparently, the Chief Minister is worried whether his package for the families of farmers who committed suicide has boomeranged. The National Human Rights Commission has directed the State Government to explain within four weeks why it has failed to comply with its directions. The new government should launch developmental projects in drought-prone districts to provide jobs and a social security scheme for the unemployed, as recommended by the NHRC in April 2003. There is need for a comprehensive strategy to tackle the problem of suicides on a war footing. The Chief Minister can’t blame economic reforms or the failure of the previous government for the ongoing crisis. He must get to the root of the problem. Remunerative price to the farmers for their produce, accessibility of institutional credit, and breaking the nexus between the officials and businessmen who also act as input suppliers, moneylenders and traders in agricultural commodities are a must. As the main cause of agrarian distress is the market orientation of agriculture and mono-cropping culture, the government should evolve suitable solutions to these problems. In other words, the problem of suicides calls for innovative measures. |
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Win some, give up some REDOUBTABLE Laloo Prasad Yadav has dashed the hopes of former Union Minister Rajiv Pratap Rudy, winning the Chapra seat with an impressive margin. This despite the fact that the latter appealed to the voters that since Mr Yadav already stood elected to the Lok Sabha from Madhepura, they should not waste their votes on him. The predictable will now happen. Mr Yadav will give up one of the two seats. This may not matter much to the Railway Minister but will entail a lot of botheration and expenditure for the nation because the process of election will have to be gone through yet again. If it is Chapra which he sheds, the constituency will be witnessing voting for the third time because the first election was countermanded due to violence. That is a highly unacceptable situation, although this is not the first time that such chaos is being created. Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav contested and won the Mainpuri Lok Sabha seat while safely ensconced as the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh. He thus had a bird in each hand. Finding the climate in the national Capital less favourable he conveniently gave up the Delhi bird in favour of the Lucknow one. He has had his pleasure but should the country pay for it? It is hardly a justification that men like N T Rama Rao have contested from three constituencies (some have even done four). The argument that prominent leaders contest multiple seats to escape being stranded in case the election in a particular constituency is countermanded is specious because even two elections can get cancelled. A leader can become a Prime Minister or minister even without being elected immediately (thanks to the six-month grace period). The reality is that some file their nominations from more than one place merely because they are not sure of winning. This should not be treated as a fundamental right because of the complications that it causes. Time has come to carry out changes in the statute books to ensure that the facility is not brazenly misused. |
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Foreigner, foreigner MRS SUSHMA SWARAJ had a close shave. Ms Uma Bharti just about managed to save her gaddi. Mr P. A. Sangma will remain a member of the Lok Sabha. However, like the ghosts of Hamlet and Macbeth the invasion of India by foreigners has become a permanent feature. The influx has taken new forms. Sixty years after our freedom fighters pushed the Raj out of the country a set of desi-born firangis is threatening to undo it all. The cleansing operations will have to begin with Bollywood, which for decades was the torchbearer of Bharatiya parampara. When Shekhar Kapoor received an invitation to direct a film on the colourful life of the controversial Queen Elizabeth I, the Indian film industry hailed it as a unique landmark. It was indeed a rare honour. After all, the invitation had come from the country’s former rulers. Nevertheless, Bollywood had no business to return the British compliment and go all the way to London for spotting acting talent. What would become of the dreams of the countless boys and girls who “run away” to “Bumbai” to become stars? The Shiv Sena and the Swadeshi Jagran Manch should put up obstacles all the way to the film city to stop the likes of Heidi Mumford from entering Mumbai. The idea to go talent hunting all the way to Blighty came from Mahesh Bhatt. It received support from Shiamak Davar and Bally Sagoo, who would fall in the category of the most un-Indian Indians. Heidi had the audacity to assert that her “gori” skin will not be an impediment in playing Hindustani roles. There is skin of difference between their fair and ours. The only point where she may have an edge over the desi woman actors is in playing anglicised roles. She would tell the male lead effortlessly that “hum tumse pyar karna mangta”. Of course, Aishwarya Rai would stomp all over and scream that no British-born woman actor can beat her in speaking Hindi with an angrezi accent. |
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Life is a matter of luck, and the odds in favour of success are in no way enhanced by extreme caution.
— Erich Topp |
CPM decides against pro-active role In January, 1993, veteran Marxist and intellectual, Mohit Sen, found at least half a dozen senior journalists arguing his case, with lots of passion. His case was that the CPM and the CPI should stop targeting the Congress. A United Front against fascism, they argued, was the need of the hour. The Sangh Parivar had ensured that the Babri Masjid was demolished. There were sections within the Congress who were enthusiastic with the idea of a joint front with the Left. But then, they were the men who belonged to the generation who joined the Congress when Indira Gandhi was keen to display her fascination for the socialist ideas. The Congress high command, then steered by P.V. Narasimha Rao, was not enthusiastic about the idea. The same was true of the CPM and the CPI too. The two Left parties and their unions were gearing up for a drawn-out battle against the government on its economic policies. In addition, there was the perception that the Congress party was keen on appropriating the Hindutva agenda. But then, the Left leaders were also clear, even then, that while the BJP was fascist to the core, the Congress was only guilty of showing tendencies of compromise with communal fascism. Hence, the CPM had let its floor leaders in the Lok Sabha (Somnath Chatterjee and Saifuddin Choudhury) to keep communicating with the Congress. The situation changed soon. Charges of corruption against members of the cabinet and the brazen manner in which the Narasimha Rao regime managed to garner a majority in the Lok Sabha by ensuring splits in the Janata Dal and the JMM (recall the infamous events involving G.C. Munda and the huge amounts found in fixed deposits accounts of Shailendra Mahato) were good enough reasons for the Left to put an end to the “informal” arrangement. This was when the CPM held its session in Chandigarh and Saifuddin Choudhury was dropped from the Central Committee. Chaudhury, according to the party leaders, had got “close” to the Congress. It is another matter that there was no official word from the party to confirm that Chaudhury was sent out of the all-powerful Central Committee and subsequently from the party itself on this very ground. All this was in 1994. A decade after all this, the CPM played a critical role in installing a Congress-led coalition Government at the Centre. Without the 60 MPs from the Left combine, the Congress could have landed in a terrible mess. Ms Sonia Gandhi must have found it extremely difficult to negotiate with Mulayam Singh Yadav; and even that was not going to give her the necessary numbers. That would have meant getting Ms Mayawati to support the formation. The BSP chief could have posed problems as long as Mulayam was around. Support from the Left saved the Congress from a lot of trouble. The CPM and others in the Left combine have put into practice what Mohit Sen prescribed. And this they did unconditionally. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and the Finance Minister P. Chidambaram have begun asserting themselves on the reforms programme and it remains to be seen as to how far the Left will succeed in getting the new government agree to implement the reforms-with-a-human-face. Meanwhile, the CPM Politburo has decided against committing itself to the Common Minimum Programme (CMP) even when it endorsed it. The party merely gave its own wish-list (where it has expressed that the new government effect reforms in the land ownership pattern) but left it to the Congress to decide on including them. In other words, the CPM has decided against playing a pro-active role in the new government. And in this sense, the Left has refused to make use of an opportunity to intervene in the new government’s functioning, in the ideological sense. And after all this, its leaders agreed to let Somnath Chatterjee be the Lok Sabha Speaker. True that the CPM leaders were realistic when they decided against insisting that the CMP be turned into a revolutionary programme. To expect the Congress (especially with Manmohan Singh as Prime Minister) to turn against the market mantra would indeed be infantile. That will be a denial of the party’s programmatic understanding on the “class character” of the Indian state and by extension that of the Congress party. The Marxists would have been unrealistic if they hoped to accomplish whatever was achieved by Mohan Kumaramangalam and
K. D. Malaviya in the sixties. Recall their contributions in the steel and oil sector when they left the CPI and joined Indira Gandhi’s Cabinet. The CPM Politburo could not have glossed over the fact that the Congress leadership is no longer committed to the socialist rhetoric as it was in the sixties. But then, there are areas such as education and culture, including the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. These are areas where the Congress as a party is certainly innocent of any ideology. In other words, these were areas where there is no scope for conflict between the Congress and the Left. Moreover, these are areas where the Left alone can play a meaningful role. The Left alone can claim to possess the ideological framework to locate culture as not merely an instrument in its day-to-day agenda but as an integral component in the nation-building project. In other words, it is imperative that the sangh is confronted in the ideological sense. Take for instance the effect of the changes in the history texts and the school curriculum brought about by the mandarins at the NCERT during the six years it was under Murli Manohar Joshi. This is one area where there is need for intervention. Such intervention will have to be immediate and based on a sound ideological premise. The Congress as a party, innocent as it is of any clear ideology, cannot effect the necessary intervention. And if anyone were in doubt, Arjun Singh has indeed clarified as to what his priorities are when he pressed, through the media, the need for an inquest into the Rajiv Gandhi assassination! This is where the Left could have played a role. An opportunity was lost. True, the party would have found it incongruous to join a Congress-led government, particularly when at least 50 of the Left party MPs had fought a no-holds-barred battle against the Congress party in the elections. This was how Sitaram Yechury explained the party’s position to stay out of the government. But then, this is no explanation for the Left has committed itself to ensure the survival of the United Progressive Alliance Government even if that meant compromising on its opposition to the reforms agenda. That the Left has decided to vacate the opposition space, at least for five years, is clear. The ideal course in this context would have been to participate in the government and insist on such portfolios as Education and Information and Broadcasting. These, after all, were the ministries that the Jan Sangh bargained for and took over when they were part of the Janata Party regime between 1977 and 1979. They were able to carry out their political agenda in a big way. In other words, the Left will have to draw some lessons from its
adversary. |
Answerable to God When I first landed at Chennai airport I was as usual taken for a ride by the taxi driver. The very night I was again fleeced by the manager and then a bearer of the guest house where I had checked in. On every move they would fleece me, whether to get me a bottle of Coke or a packet of cigarettes. I had been posted to Chennai by The Tribune and being a Bengali from Kolkata and having lived in almost all the major cities in other parts of the country like Mumbai, Delhi, Chandigarh and even Guwahati, I was very confident. I thought I could handle any place in India. But Tamil Nadu was a different ball game altogether. As instructed by my editor I immediately was on a war footing looking for a residence-cum-office. I contacted all the persons whom I saw on a popular website. All failed. I saw an advertisement in a local daily and telephoned him. “Hello, is this Suriyaa Real Estates? I have come from Chandigarh and looking for accommodation.” “Saar, you have to first register with us with Rs 200 and then we will respond.” “What?” I asked, “ two hundred bucks just to register.” As I was running out of time I asked him to come over to my guest house. A friend in Chandigarh had warned me: “Be very careful of those lungiwalas! They will sweet talk you and cheat you.” The next afternoon he came with all the horizontal white marks on his forehead instead of a usual “tika”. “Saar, my name is Chitanathan. Please give me Rs 200 as per the rules of my company.” I said, “Sorry, I am not going to give you a penny for just showing me a few flats.” “Saar, I sow (sic) you selected accommodations. You pay me only Rs 100.” I thought I spend more than Rs 100 everyday on cigarettes and coffee, so why not take a chance. What turned out was an eye-opener for me. Chitanathan, DME, which means a diploma in mechanical engineering, had struggled hard to get it being from a poor family but never got a job, not only argued with an autorickshaw driver and showed me six places but also got me a flat. “Saar, parking space Rs 500. Geyser Rs 500 and AC Rs 1,000. Good flat just for Rs 7,500 in prime location as you wanted,” he said. I told him that I did not own a car, not interested in either an AC or geyser and would like to settle for something much less. The surprise came the next day. He had convinced the flat owner that I am journalist having a very small family and reduced my rent, which meant a reduction in his brokerage. When I asked Chitanathan why he did so, his reply was: “Saar, each morning when I wake up, I look myself in the mirror. I have to answer to God then. I do not want to be told then that I am a cheat like the politicians in Tamil Nadu.” I learnt a very good lesson in my life because we journalists always sermonise but never
practise.
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News analysis
Chandrababu
Naidu, the TDP Supremo who always advised his party men to change their mindset, had to change his own in the aftermath of the worst-ever performance of his party. Still smarting under humiliating defeat in the recent elections, the Telugu Desam Party went into the self-introspection mode at the just-concluded Mahanadu, the party’s annual general body meeting. The two-day event, held every year on the eve of the birth anniversary of the party founder N T Rama Rao on May 28, witnessed a refreshing change with the party rank and file openly expressing their anguish and displeasure at the way party affairs were conducted during Chandrababu Naidu’s helm in the last nine years. Naidu, who has been the unquestioned leader of the party all these years, for the first time had to listen to speaker after speaker criticising his style of functioning. Most of the party activists who spoke – in a major departure from the established tradition, no senior leader, including former ministers, was asked to speak — held Naidu responsible for the failure to gauze the mood of the people on the eve of the poll. “This was because the coterie around you never allowed the real picture to come anywhere near you. Workers like us who wanted to meet and tell you about the disillusionment of the people with the government over a variety of issues were shooed away like untouchables,” said Mani, a delegate from Nellore. Another delegate Prakash Naidu from Anantapur pointed out how Naidu completely lost touch with the people when he had gone for early poll. “You always entertained only officials, leaving party legislators in the lurch and got carried away by what the bureaucracy told you about development.” Many of the candidates who lost the poll told the gathering that the rural areas were completely neglected by the government, and farmers, especially, were alienated from the party, which seemed more interested in IT and urban development. The two-day soul-searching meet resulted in identifying the causes for the rout of the party and the steps needed to be taken for rejuvenating the cadre. The party recognised the following causes for the debacle: Naidu neglected the party and relied too heavily on bureaucracy, opting for early poll was a mistake, the plight of the farmers was not sufficiently recognised by the party, minorities were distanced for the first time post-Godhra, internal squabbles cost the party dearly. Government staff acted against the TDP during polling fearing reforms, The Congress promise of free power for farm sector worked against the party. Naidu, who sat through the not-so flattering speeches during the two days, provided his own insight into the defeat. Reiterating that the vote was not in favour of the Congress, Naidu said that the anti-incumbency wave against the TDP government was very much evident in the results. Stating that the delay in holding the poll after the dissolution of the Assembly worked against the government, he said that had elections been conducted in January or February, as the party wanted, the outcome would have been different. Naidu uncharacteristically admitted that he had failed in taking party workers into his confidence on various issues and that he could not devote as much time to the party machinery as he wished because of his preoccupation with governance. “I failed to see that there was so much of discontent among the cadre. People around me did not allow me to see the real picture,” he candidly admitted. The silver lining for the party was the enthusiasm among the party workers. Though the event was expected to be low profile, the turnout of the delegates – around 10,000 — in such large numbers surprised even the party leadership. “This shows the confidence of the workers in the party. It will be no time before the party recoups its image and plays the role of a strong opposition,” said a former minister. Though the party that has been in power since its existence in 1983 except for one Congress tenure during 1989-94 will need more time to adjust to the new reality, the just-concluded Mahanadu showed the way to the TDP. The party will first set its own house in order before it goes all out against the newly installed Congress government. Naidu’s larger-than-life image will certainly keep the TDP flock together and help it move forward. His middle-class icon status is intact even in defeat, and there are many in the state who miss him sorely in the Chief Minister’s seat, used as they have been to Naidu’s relentless pursuit to bring about changes in governance. It is this undercurrent of sympathy for Naidu across various sections that gives him the strength to survive politically the next five years. Not without reason that many TDP men believe that Naidu would have to just wait for the next elections to come back to power. |
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Delhi Durbar The composition of the 14th Lok Sabha provides some interesting statistics. The average age of the Cabinet ministers in the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government is 60.5 with six of them being septuagenarians. Nearly one-third of Dr Manmohan Singh’s Council of Ministers belong to the upper caste while there are 15 OBCs, 8 SCs, 6 Muslims and four Tribals. Despite the presence of the western educated, youthful MPs from political families, the new Lok Sabha is older than many past Houses. Nearly 80 MPs are under the age of 40 and 250 others are in the age group of 41-55 years. The unofficial average age of the present Lok Sabha is 53 years and has a blend of youth and experience. While the youngest MP is the Congress’ 26-year-old Sachin Pilot representing the Dausa constituency in Rajasthan, the BJP’s Ramachandra Virappa, hailing from Karnataka, is the oldest at 94.
The first day in Parliament The fourth-generation Gandhi was the centre of attraction when Rahul, the son of Congress President Sonia Gandhi, reached the Parliament House on Wednesday, the opening day of the first session of the 14th Lok Sabha. He shook hands with everyone and bowled out everybody when he reparteed to a suggestion from a scribe that he should become the Congress spokesman. With a straight face, the dimpled Rahul shot back: “Do you want me to commit suicide?” Irrespective of their party affiliations, the new MPs were seen greeting one another amid much bonhomie. The parliamentarians took the oath in their mother tongue, including the tribal language of
Santhali.
Dharmendra on familiar track First time Lok Sabha MP and matinee idol Dharmendra, elected from Bikaner in Rajasthan, appears to be eager to learn the parliamentary ropes. He took the help of none other than his senior in Parliament, though junior in the celluloid profession Vinod Khanna. Keen on solving the problems of his constituency, Dharmendra desired being a part of the standing committee of the Rural Development Ministry. Dharmendra felt it would not only help him understand the problems of the countryside but facilitate him in better utilisation of the funds meant for rural development. He had obviously learnt his lessons well as his BJP colleague Vinod Khanna in his first term was also in the standing committee of the Rural Development Ministry.
Natwar Singh’s press meet On June 1 when External Affairs Minister K Natwar Singh held his first press conference, the XP Division staff of the MEA were instructed to transcribe the press conference at the earliest. The 90-minute press conference ended at 6.30 pm. Guess, what time the transcript was ready? Some 12 hours later and the MEA staff remained in office the whole night to work on the transcript. There were numerous difficulties. The audio quality was very poor at times. The questions were hardly audible. But the most important factor was that it was the EAM’s first press conference. So the MEA staff took extra pains in ensuring the correctness of the
transcript.
Contributed by S. Satyanarayanan, Satish Misra and Rajeev Sharma |
The greatest name man ever gave to God is Truth. Truth is the fruit of realisation; therefore seek it within the soul. — Swami Vivekananda The most superb task, the truest deed, to be done in this world, is the praise of God. — Guru Nanak Control the Self, restrain the breath, sift out the transient from the True. Repeat the holy name of the Lord and still the restless mind within. To this, the universal rule, apply yourself heart and soul. — Sri Adi
Sankaracharya |
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