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Poll wonders Transparency matters Peace-meal approach |
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No alternative to reforms
A meeting with Satyajit Ray
Women officers in the Army Chatterati
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Poll wonders If the Lok Sabha elections had proved the poll pundits wrong, the Assembly results have further discredited them. The voters have pooh-poohed their calculations everywhere from Punjab to Maharashtra. While in the latter, some exit polls did predict a neck and neck race, none came anywhere close to the eventual tally. The Congress has swept both seats in Punjab and has brought itself to the ruling position in collaboration with Mr Sharad Pawar’s NCP in Maharashtra. This has been achieved despite the anti-incumbency factor. It is true that Mr Sharad Pawar has managed to win more seats than the Congress and has even staked claim for the Chief Minister’s post for his party’s nominee, but that does not take much away from the Congress’ performance. The only fly in the ointment is the loss of Guler in Himachal Pradesh and the inability to make any impact in Uttar Pradesh. The consequences of the overall Congress victory are going to be far reaching. The party not only gets to retain power in Maharashtra, it also strengthens its hold in Delhi. Had it not posted these victories, the Opposition as well as the Left parties backing it would have started tightening the screws on it. To that extent, the triumph is a personal vindication for Mrs Sonia Gandhi, who is no longer a one-election wonder. In fact, it is her “sacrifice” of declining the post of Prime Minister which has been a deciding factor at many places. The success comes as a shot in the arm for Mr Amarinder Singh too, who has been lurching from one controversy to another. Defeat in the byelections would have cooked his goose. Not only have his candidates won by big margins, his party has also marginalised the BSP in Garhshankar. Ms Mayawati’s party has had to bite the dust in Maharashtra too. The Guler reverse will tell on the fortunes of Mr Virbhadra Singh and he will have to do something urgently about the feeling of neglect nursed by voters in the Kangra region. The Congress can take solace from the fact that it has claimed four out of five Assembly seats in the Northeast and its coalition with the PDP has cornered all the four Assembly seats in Jammu and Kashmir. What is disconcerting for the nation is the fact that men like Arun Gawli and Pappu Yadav have darkened the taint. |
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Transparency matters PUNJAB Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh can explain away the two major court orders which went against his government on Saturday. But this does not detract from the severity of the indictment. By ordering re-auction of liquor vends, the Supreme Court has rejected the state’s contention that the auctions early this year were above board. Because of questionable methods adopted by the government that favoured some and discriminated against many, the state has suffered a huge revenue loss. The court may not have found the government guilty of corruption but lack of transparency in the auction of liquor vends certainly did it in. In the case of selection of seven DSPs under the sportspersons’ category, the High Court has quashed the whole selection process. That some of the beneficiaries of the selection were close to the Chief Minister clearly pointed at nepotism. For a Chief Minister who came to power on the promise of cleansing the corrupt system, these orders should be seen as a body blow. As someone who has been claiming credit for fighting corruption, the Captain should have known that transparency in all government dealings is central to maintaining people’s confidence in the bona fides of the government. In both cases, the government's conduct was far from exemplary. Having promised exacting standards of probity, the Chief Minister cannot complain if the people find him unable to measure up to the same yardstick. A government's determination to fight corruption is not measured by the size of the chargesheet it files against a former Chief Minister but by its own conduct. The victory in the byelections in Punjab may be touted as a barometer of the people’s confidence in the government's popularity. But such victories do not mean an endorsement of the government’s policies. In any case, matters of corruption and nepotism are not judged on the basis of electoral verdicts. Instead, a government is judged by the manner in which it upholds the Constitution. It is on this ground that the Punjab government’s actions have been found wanting. In other words, all the perfumes of Garhshankar and Kapurthula will not remove the stink of liquor auctions and selection of DSPs. |
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Peace-meal approach The start of negotiations between the Andhra Pradesh Government and the Naxalites is a positive beginning. If the first round of talks holds out hope – of sustaining the end of armed hostilities – it has also given rise to questions about the approach, the agenda and the process. On the plus side, the atmospherics reinforce the expectation that, tactical considerations apart, both sides are keen to impress others that they are earnest about the negotiations. Despite differences over having a written agreement to formalise the ceasefire that is already operational, neither side wanted the issue to be blown up. The state government also sought to keep at a low key the contentious issue of the Maoists laying down arms during the period of negotiations. On the eve of the talks, the People’s War and the Maoist Communist Centre of India merged to form a new organisation called the Communist Party of India (Maoists). The state government has chosen not to make much of this development, although it has wider implications, especially for states other than Andhra Pradesh. The merger, despite the Maoist claims that it was long in the making and not timed to coincide with the start of talks, suggests that the CPI (Maoist) has not given up its armed struggle. Even as they sit across the table for talks in Hyderabad, the Maoist groups continue to wage an unrelenting violent campaign in other states. This explains the disapproval, by other states, particularly Chhattisgarh, Orissa, and West Bengal of the Andhra Pradesh Government’s initiative for talks with the Maoists. More importantly, if the Maoists do not put aside their weapons during the talks, it implies that they would continue to procure arms. These are issues that should be settled before the government moves on to discuss the 11-point agenda including economic, social and welfare policies and programmes. Unless the priorities – of the Maoists renouncing armed violence and laying down of weapons – are agreed upon, the suspicion would persist that both sides are playing a political game with hidden motives. This would reinforce the skepticism about the progress of the negotiations as well as any tangible gain emerging from the process. |
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A verbal contract isn’t worth the paper it is written on. — Sam Goldwin |
No alternative to reforms The
Left has always been a marginal force in India. Given the belief that its ideology has a special appeal for the poor, it can seem odd that the Left has never made much headway in this country, except at a regional level such as other non-Left parties like the Dravida Kazaghams or the Akali Dal or the Rashtriya Janata Dal. But there are reasons why the communists have never been a major force at the national level. One is that their ideology, for all its pro-poor rhetoric, has an alien tint. It wasn’t only that Marx and Lenin were foreigners. After all, the concepts of one man-one vote, the separation of the church and the state, the principle of checks and balances, too, are foreign. What is more, these were bequeathed to us by a colonial power, which wasn’t exactly popular when it ruled India. So, there is obviously something more to the foreign origin of Marxism which doesn’t appeal to Indians. In all probability, it is the doctrine’s inherent atheism. But this, too, is not a full explanation, for atheism is also a part of the Indian tradition via the Charvaka school of thought. Therefore, it is probably the mistake made by the communists in flaunting their belief about religion being the opium of the people in an aggressive manner which put off a majority of Indians. In addition, the communists made a point of distancing themselves not only from the Indian religious traditions, but also of denigrating respected national leaders. They called Gandhi an agent of imperialism and Subhas Bose a quisling. It is this stubborn conviction in the correctness of their philosophy which may have led to their marginalisation, first in the political and now increasingly in the economic sphere. To take their political mistakes first, the faith in the ingrained truth of “scientific socialism” made the communists susceptible to political changes outside India, with unfortunate consequences for their organisation at home. As is known, the provocation for the 1964 split in the undivided communist party was not only the Sino-Soviet schism, but, even more directly, the Chinese incursion into north-east India. Since the “Left” communists wouldn’t admit that a “socialist” country could commit aggression, they broke away from their “right-wing” colleagues (who were less willing to write off India as a lackey of the imperialists) and formed a new party - the CPM. Within five years, however, the CPM itself split, with the Naxalites breaking away on the grounds that the Marxists were not pro-Chinese enough. Since then, the Naxalites have split into numerous factions as a result of developments in China. What is noteworthy is that right from the days of their conformism to the policies pursued by the Soviet Union, reflected in their opposition to the Quit India movement of 1942, the communists have been guided by extraneous factors which had little relevance to the Indian scene. The same proclivity to put dogma above political and social factors is evident again today in the economic field. A possible reason why the communists paid little attention to fitting their ideology to local conditions is the success they had in states like West Bengal, Tripura and Kerala. Their electoral victories there presumably made them feel that they were on the right track and that it was only a question of time before they would be able to raise the red flag on the Red Fort. It was the success of the BJP, however, with its aggressive championing of the causes which had been neglected and even denounced by the communists, which made the latter realise that their game plan might be flawed. Since then they have been apologising for what they had said about Gandhi, Tagore and Subhas Bose and have been brushing up on Vivekananda rather than Marx. But it is a safe bet that the communists have reached a dead end. A sign of their predicament is the failure to expand beyond West Bengal, Tripura and Kerala. The influence they once had in Bihar and Andhra Pradesh has now been (mis)appropriated by the Naxalites. The latter are, of course, communists, but there is little chance that they will ever emerge as a major political force. In all likelihood, they will continue to function like the dacoit gangs of Chambal, living by the sword and perishing by the sword. For the mainstream communists, the collapse of their ideology in the Soviet Union and its transformation into “market socialism” in China may be a blessing in disguise since they are no longer influenced directly by either Moscow or Beijing to formulate their policies. But their problem is that they still turn to the tomes of Marx and Lenin to decide on their next step. And since these tomes predict the imminent demise of capitalism - as they have done for a hundred years - the communists are still tilting at the windmills of imperialist conspiracy and railing at the World Bank and the IMF. The communist mistakes of the pre-Independence period were the result of their belief that the Congress represented the “exploiting” bourgeois-landlord-capitalist class. Hence their “yeh azadi jhooti hai” cry in the years immediately after 1947 and their launching of an armed struggle in Telengana, like the present-day Naxalites. The communist blunders in the social field stemmed from their belief that the downtrodden could be made to believe that religion was a tool in the hands of the “exploiters”. These misconceptions based on their bookish tenets are now being replicated in the economic field. When the communists first decided to support the Manmohan Singh government, they probably presumed that the Congress, with its 1955 Avadi preference for a “socialistic pattern of society”, could be persuaded to turn away from the process of economic reforms. But what the communists apparently failed to take into account is that the Congress, as a “broad tent” party, has always been far more attuned to popular perceptions than almost any other political formation. As a result, it has generally managed to avoid taking sectarian positions. For instance, the BJP fell into the trap of regarding the all-too-apparent religiosity of the common man as the party’s political capital while neglecting his ingrained sense of tolerance. Similarly, the Left concentrated far too much on the prevailing poverty, ignoring a poor man’s desire to improve his lot by means which may be anathema to his doctrinaire well-wishers. The Congress, on the other hand, has the advantage of being far less inhibited either by communal considerations or dogmatic injunctions. It also has the advantage at the moment of being led by some of the foremost economists of the present time, who have the support of others in the background like Amartya Sen and Jagdish Bhagwati. It is obvious that whatever the Left may say, economic reforms with a focus on foreign investment are the only way to alleviate poverty. The communists’ objections on ideological grounds will increasingly be seen, therefore, as obstacles to the path of progress. Clearly, they are fighting a losing
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A meeting with Satyajit Ray When I read a comprehensive article about Satyajit Ray in The Tribune written in a nostalgic vein, I suddenly recalled my visit to Calcutta 17-18 years ago. I could be wrong about some dates and places, for my fading memory in old age sometimes gives me a slip. Anyway, what matters is the providential meeting with the celebrated film-director, that brings to my mind several images — of the evening I was asked to see him in his house where he lay upstairs after he had had a heart-stroke. When I summon those memories to “the sessions of sweet, silent thought”, the images begin to rise of the events that led to that meeting, a dream meeting, if you like. I had been familiar with his work, and seen the Apu films which had, then, left a deep impression on my mind. In fact, around that time, I had written an article on “the New Wave Cinema” for the Amrita Bazar Patrika in which I had sought to comment on his down-to-earth realism, as also on the influences that had shaped Satyajit Ray’s art. The Italiam film, “The Bicycle Thief,” had earlier been screened in India, and I had had the opportunity to see it. That film and others in that genre had been hailed as “the New Cinema” — quite different in style, themes and technique from the Bollywood films. One has to understand the difference between realism and naturalism as literary movements. For instance, the novels of the French writer, Emile Zola, were considered “naturalistic” in which ugly, mean, dirty aspects of life were shown in pitiless detail. On the other hand, “realistic” novels of Balzac or of Henry James, to quote only two examples, had a deeply poetic vein, and that realism was a mix of the everyday life and a brooding, moral tone. Satyajit’s films, I think, fall into that category. The scenes of abject poverty and hunger are presented with compassion and understanding. A realism in which technique becomes vision, and suffuses one frame after another in his films. A Bengali Professor of English knew the film-director personally, and when he discovered my interest in his films, he managed to fix my interview with Ray. That evening, after the seminar session was over, he, finding no taxi around, hired a man-driven rickshaw, though I was reluctant to board it. It had reminded me of the indignity of human flesh being hauled by their own kind. Bimal Roy’s film “Rickshawala” was fresh in my mind. Anyway, there was little choice, and we duly took the rickshaw and reached Ray’s residence. When we reached our destination, the lights were on, and we were welcomed in Ray’s house by some helper. After some time we were taken from the drawing-room to his bedroom. Ray, a tall figure and keen eyes, greeted us. And soon he started asking me about my university, my published books, my knowledge of films, my work as a teacher of English etc. And when I saw we had been there for over half an hour, we begged for leave, for we could see a sense of exhaustion in Ray. Thus ended this most fascinating interview. Ah when shall we see another Ray in India? No ray of hope
yet.
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Women officers in the Army Tough she indeed was. In all the training activities she was an equal. However, one morning she came to me sobbing. During night, sensing that someone was present in her tent, she had opened her eyes and found a man peering down at her. When she tried to raise an alarm, the intruder slipped away. Luckily nothing serious happened, but the experience left her quite shattered, and understandably so. Their joint secretary now wanted to follow my original advice of housing the girl in Delhi. However, it now became a prestige issue for us as an organisation. We, therefore, did not agree to her going away. Instead, we made special arrangements to make her feel safe and at ease. She completed the course happily and did well. But the downside was that the special arrangements involved inter alia erection of a barbed wire fence around her tent, installation of a sodium light, provision of a call bell for her to raise an alarm in an emergency etc. To respect her privacy we also put up a canvas screen behind her tent where she could hang-dry her personal clothing. In addition, we detailed a double-sentry duty exclusively for her, thus tying down six men every night. Recall of this incident becomes relevant in view of the recent incident where a girl appearing for the Services Selection Board refused to be examined by a male gynaecologist. Armies all over the world have traditionally been a male preserve. The Indian Army has been no exception and has been manned by males over the centuries. There have been only a few women and that too in the softer trades such as the medical and nursing. However, in keeping with the global trends in general and national sentiments in particular the entry into the Army’s officer cadre was opened to women in the early nineties. The scheme is confined to taking women officers in the logistic services and supporting arms of the Army. The women are still not taken in the combat arms of armoured corps and the infantry. Introduction of women officers into the Army had generated considerable debate and discussion. Those that supported the policy naturally had in mind the right of equality for women and were looking at the larger canvas. The sceptics on the other hand had their arguments centred more on the specific conditions prevailing in the Indian Army. In the latter category some went to the extent of suggesting that women would be more of a hindrance than help. With over 10 years’ experience of the scheme, it is possible to examine the issue empirically. The Indian Army has peculiar conditions of employment and deployment. Unlike western countries, whose models undoubtedly served as an inspiration and a guide, we have a large part of the Army deployed perpetually under field conditions. Though there have been improvements over the years, the soldiers and officers continue to live under ad hoc, primitive conditions and that too in remote areas far removed from facilities such as schooling, hospitals, habitation etc. That the living conditions are hard is not the point — because women can take all the hardships. What is relevant is that it is not practicable to provide the privacy needed by the women in our relatively conservative society. And if is so provided, it entails a cost, as in the before mentioned incident. Our Army is result-oriented. Means are devised and improvised; even rules are sometimes bent, to achieve the assigned goal. Mission accomplishment is prime and this focus never shifts. This gives the Army a unique identity. (That is why the Army seldom fails the country in whatever tasks are assigned; from fighting insurgents to controlling floods, to providing assistance during earthquakes, cyclones etc). The Army draws its manpower from the same source as any other force or organisation in the country. What sets the Army apart is its unique culture and its well-established and time-tested systems. The individual liberties and sensibilities get subjugated to the interests of the organisation. If the Army is to retain this uniqueness — and in the interests of the country it must — then nothing must be done to hurt that ethos and that culture. Their strength must not be sapped away by bowing to popular social sentiments. Coming to the specific incident of the girl candidate and her medical examination. She deserves total sympathy at the perceived invasion on her privacy. But the media and others who have taken up cudgels on her behalf are generally unaware of the system prevailing in the Army. (The fault for this lack of awareness may lie mainly with the Army itself for its penchant for exclusiveness and secrecy with every facet). In the Army a doctor is never looked upon as a man or a woman. He/she is simply a person, an expert in the chosen field. It needs to be emphasised that the gynaecological examination of the families of Army officers and men is routinely carried out by any available gynaecologist, male or female. Of course, whenever a male doctor examines a female patient it is mandatory to have the presence of another female medical attendant. My knowledge of the incident in question is limited to what has appeared in the media. As I know, among the many candidates so examined, only one complained. Therefore, it is obvious that the complaint was individual and not general in nature. It would have been a different matter if all or several candidates had complained, in which case the doctor concerned would surely have been hauled up for misdemeanour. Here it is a question of one candidate’s sensibilities and not of any wrongdoing on the part of the examining doctor. While I have the highest regards for the sensibilities of the individual concerned, I have equally high regards for the Army and cannot support anything that, in my view, would hurt its interests. If individual sensibilities were to override, then where do we draw the line? Tomorrow some lady would object to a male taking her ECG where the sensors are glued to various parts of the body around the heart. Next someone would object to a chest X-ray being taken by a male attendant, or even to a male surgeon operating upon a female patient. And what about taking pulse and blood pressure, or an eye or ENT check, all of which involve physical contact? Admittedly these examples do not exactly correspond to a gynaecological examination, but sensibility being such a personal and subjective issue, it would be impossible to make a distinction. If exceptions were to be made for all women, it would only hamper the functioning of the Army where the medical resources are already over-stretched. The women joining the Army must aim to be assets and not liabilities to the
organisation. — The writer is a retired Deputy Chief of Army Staff |
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Chatterati Lalu
has given us so much entertainment for free. Now, we have BJP’s Saryu Rai who Lalu has given fodder for yet another film. Lalu may be the star attraction of a Bollywood film, but this BJP leader has cast this RJD chief in a villain’s role in the film called “Chara Chor Khazana Chor”. The script is being prepared by a group of people who have, it seems, a very good knowledge of the scam and its background. The BJP plans to use the film during its poll campaign in Bihar and Jharkand. In this film they will make use of cartoon characters to show how live stock fodder and medicines of the State Animal Husbandry Department worth crores of rupees were misappropriated, and how the fodder mafia carted away bulls worth Rs 30 crore. The first scene of the film will show the Patna High Court ordering a CBI probe. So now we have, fiction and comedy all in the form of Lalooji, for free.
Heartfelt speech by Schroeder It
was clearly a controlled and extremely carefully chosen cognoscenti that turned up to hear Gerhard Schroeder, the Chancellor of Germany, deliver the Rajiv Gandhi Memorial Lecture. With the likes of Nelson Mandela having delivered earlier speeches, Schroeder was clearly keen to make his point to an audience that had come to expect international quality orations. Schroeder did not disappoint, despite the fact that he spoke entirely in German. Attentively placed simultaneous translation devices allowed the audience to keep up with him as he spoke. A significantly large German contingent, travelling with the President were here for a quick dekko at the emerging economic power of India, and were rapt listeners to a heartfelt speech by their President. He revealed the inner inter- connections between a more globalised world and its implications for freedom and democracy. Sonia Gandhi in welcoming Schroeder said that India’s commitment to globalisation, and our understanding of the process and its perils and opportunities were now part of our world view. She clearly had thought out her position, given the fact that the world today looks to her as one of the most influential voices from this part of the world. Manmohan Malhotra, the Secretary of the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation, certainly added a light and erudite touch to proceedings with his humorous thank you speech. Ever the diplomat, he sprinkled in a few carefully chosen German phrases that cheered the President and his entourage as they left Jawahar Bhawan directly to catch their flight at the airport.
In aid of Khurja artists The
ambience perfect, a slight breeze, wine flowing, fun and yummy grub. But this was not a mere socialising affair for Sofia Blake, wife of Deputy Chief of Mission at the US Embassy and Lady Plaxy Arthur of The British High Commission. The non-profit organisation Navina Jafa’s Foundation For Arts had organised this “Paint A Pot” lunch in aid of the Khurja artists in U.P. The vases, plates etc were given to celebrities like Muzaffar Ali, Bulbul Sharma, the former U.S. Senator Larry Prerslar and other diplomats who demonstrated their own creativity on the canvas at hand. The painted pots and plates will now be auctioned to raise funds for the cause. Sofia Blake who hails from a family of artists wants to help in providing better education for these child potters. |
Very powerful indeed is the Lord’s name. It may not bring about immediate results, but it must one day bear fruit, just as we find that a seed left long ago on the cornice of a building at last reaches the ground, germinates, grows into a tree, and bears fruit, when perhaps the building cracks and is demolished. — Sri Chaitnaya Mahaprabhu I would love to be a fish living in water, if by doing so I could cherish the Sustainer-of-all and meet Him who dwells on this side and that, with my arms stretched forth for a close embrace. — Guru Nanak He who yields to lust for pleasure Leaves his frame a prey to disease; Yet, though death is the final ending, None forswears his sinfulness. — Sri Adi Sankaracharya The practice of knowledge (meditation) thoroughly purifies the ignorance-stained Self and the knowledge itself disappears as kataka-nut in water. — Atma Bodha, Verse 5 |
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