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Train
of accidents Promotion
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More tax, less revenue Making sense of mid-year review In a mostly self-congratulatory mid-term review, the government has at least admitted a revenue shortfall. Obviously, the government is spending more than it earns. The shortfall is attributed to the delayed clearance to the Budget, lower-than-expected tax collections and post-Budget duty concessions.
Musharraf’s
new strategy
A sweet
evening
No
takers for National Hockey Championship due to IHF politics Suraj
Parkash — a magnum opus
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Train of accidents TUESDAY’S collision between two passenger trains near Mansar village in Punjab’s Hoshiarpur district on the Jalandhar-Pathankot section that claimed dozens of lives and caused injuries to many others once again brings to the fore the issue of railway safety. Despite an alarming increase in the number of train accidents, the authorities are doing little to improve traffic and passenger safety. Whatever steps have been taken so far pale into insignificance in the light of the sickening regularity of accidents. Preliminary reports suggest that the accident occurred due to the failure of the interlocking system, poor communication links between the station masters and the cabin man’s error. Considering the fact that the Indian Railways have been experimenting with many hi-tech anti-collision devices and train protection and warning systems, any of these reasons cited seems inexcusable. Since it was a head-on collision, that too on a single line section, questions are bound to be raised as to how the two speeding trains were allowed to proceed on the same track. Are there no adequate safeguards to prevent failure of the interlocking system? If the communication system was not working well for over 24 hours, why did the station masters not get it restored expeditiously? Technological failure apart, there is the problem of human error. Studies reveal that over 60 per cent of train accidents in the past occurred because of human error. The Railway Minister and the Railway Board Chairman may list out any number of measures to improve safety. Ultimately, however, the proof of the pudding is in the eating. The railways can win the people’s confidence back only by improving their safety record. For most people, train is the only affordable mode of transport for both short and long distance travel. In any case, the authorities ought to streamline their disaster management system. Unfortunately, they took a long time to extricate the bodies of the passengers from the mangled coaches of the Jammu Tawi-Ahmedabad Express and the Jalandhar-Pathankot DMU. The information system, too, should be speeded up. And all help should be provided to those who lost their kin and to the passengers injured in the accident. |
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Promotion muddle With the Supreme Court ordering the Indian Air Force to re-evaluate the promotions of all six officers, including the four quashed by the Delhi High Court recently, the entire procedure of promotions in the IAF has come under a cloud. The apex court has not minced words while expressing its displeasure over the way things are functioning: “Less said is better about what is happening in the Ministry of Defence and the IAF. Such happenings will have a demoralising effect on officers ….” Read with similar remarks made earlier by the High Court, the stringent criticism is a slur on the reputation of the IAF which it must clear at the earliest. The Division Bench had termed the recommendations of last year’s IAF Special Promotion Board as “arbitrary and irrational” and had severely criticised Chief of Air Staff S. Krishnaswamy who could not “exonerate himself from the obligation to be fair and impartial as the head of the air force”. Ironically, the MoD still filed a special leave petition before the Supreme Court which, too, has now rejected the IAF contention. The faults pointed out by the Supreme Court and the High Court in the promotion of Air Marshals are glaring. If this can happen in the case of such senior officers, the fate of junior officers can only be worse. Yet, the official highhandedness has been going on because of the traditional veil of secrecy. The dissatisfaction that this causes in the force can reflect in its performance. The increasing number of cases filed in civil courts by servicemen are indicative of the extent of the malaise. An aberration in the promotion policy or other official matters is undesirable but not entirely unexpected. But there has to be an internal redressal mechanism in place. That apparently is missing in the IAF resulting in the matter going to civil courts. This is not a new phenomenon and yet nobody has addressed it. The Defence Minister recently said that the ministry was considering to set up an Armed Forces Tribunal (AFT) to deal with legal matters related to the personnel of the three services, but the matter seems to be handled at the typical bureaucratic pace. Can the armed forces do with the same sloth which is the hallmark of the civilian administration? |
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More tax, less revenue In a mostly self-congratulatory mid-term review, the government has at least admitted a revenue shortfall. Obviously, the government is spending more than it earns. The shortfall is attributed to the delayed clearance to the Budget, lower-than-expected tax collections and post-Budget duty concessions. The increased expenditure is on the food-for-work programme and the fertiliser subsidy. Besides, the Centre claims it has passed on Rs 5,235 crore more to the states. However, it has saved Rs 3,400 crore on food subsidy due to lower offtake of foodgrains and consequent savings on transportation. When Finance Minister P. Chidambaram talks of rationalising subsidies, it means LPG, kerosene and other petro products and fertilisers will become more expensive, while subsidised foodgrains supplied through the PDS (public distribution system) will be confined to the poor only. Finance ministers are usually incorrigible optimists and take credit even for a good monsoon just to show that they are doing a good job, while passing the blame for target failures on poor or deficient rains. Mr Chidambaram does it with finesse. Even a bullish stock market is, for him, a government achievement. Instead of focussing on its ballooning expenditure, the government is planning to do away with tax exemptions, while promising to keep taxes “moderate and stable”. Despite projecting a lower growth rate of 6 per cent against the RBI’s prediction of 6.5 per cent, the review finds solace from its own claim that India is one of the fastest growing economies in the world. What does the government propose to do in the coming days? It will “rationalise” the minimum support price regime. This means no significant rise in the MSPs of wheat and paddy. Farmers, however, can borrow more from banks to buy more tractors. The government will, hopefully, modify the access deficit charge regime to make telephone calls cheaper for villagers. There is, of course, the usual government concern and proposed thrust on building infrastructure and attracting investment. |
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To do nothing and get something, formed a boy’s ideal of a manly career. — Benjamin Disraeli |
Musharraf’s new strategy
NEWS, newspaper columns and drawing room gossip normally sustain Pakistani politics. These are now being used to sidetrack and divide the Opposition. The Opposition is making preliminary moves to start a mass agitation. Everybody recognises that only one group’s agitation without others’ participation is bound to be ineffective. Pakistan has evolved a whole mystique of popular mass agitations. Some were of rare intensity as in 1953-54, 1968-69, 1977 and 1983. Apparently, unshakable regimes were brought down like Field Marshal Ayub Khan’s in 1969 and Z.A. Bhutto’s in 1977. These movements succeeded only negatively; autocratic regime did go but what came in their place was another General’s dictatorship. Only the 1953-54 movement in East Bengal the opposition Jugto Front formed the government after convincingly decimating the Muslim League. All other movements failed to destroy dictatorships. Today there are three major political groups: the first is the bureaucratic power structure, effectively working under army supervision, with its
awful coercive apparatus; it has become adept in the art of being selectively ruthless while keeping the people diverted and divided by one ruse or another red herring. It uses intelligence agencies and media management to manufacture a bogus popular consent. American training has made many military officers adept in psychological warfare; this expertise is now being effectively used in domestic politics. The second is religious parties’ grouping known as the MMA. Its power and reach have apparently increased after the 2002 elections. They are shrewd politicians. They have been the army’s allies for decades, mobilising jihadis for both Afghanistan and India’s Jammu and Kashmir. Not surprisingly, in the 2002 polls official agencies helped MMA candidates to win a large number of Provincial and National Assembly seats. The regime badly needed sufficient strength in the National Assembly to adopt constitutional amendments with a two thirds’ vote. The MMA helped pass the Constitutional Amendment Bill and repaid the regime’s debt. General Musharraf can now veto any governmental action and sack all the assemblies and governments at will. The third is the ARD (Alliance for the Restoration of Democracy). It comprises chiefly two big parties — Ms Benazir Bhutto’s PPP and Mr Nawaz Sharif’s PML. It also contains several parties and groups with influence in their region or province. These parties and groups, especially those in the NWFP and Balochistan, have a long record of popular national or regional following. The ARD is the true Opposition. There is talk of starting a popular protest movement against the constitutional amendments that were approved with the MMA’s vote. The fact is that General Musharraf wants not only to remain the President of the republic but also the Chief of Army Staff indefinitely and simultaneously. Rumour mills are working overtime and news items are being planted that aim at setting the PML (Nawaz) against the PPP of Ms Benazir Bhutto. It is said that General Musharraf is negotiating a deal with Ms Bhutto. He has released Mr Asif Ali Zardari, her husband, after keeping him in jail for eight years despite his seven acquittals in eight court cases. The deal supposedly involves fresh elections in 2005 and if the PPP wins it will be allowed to form its government. It is also believed that General Musharraf insists on keeping both Ms Bhutto and Mr Nawaz Sharif out of Pakistan till 2007. Ministers, whistling in the dark, say that there will be no national elections in 2005. Confusion is growing. There are other leaks that say that General Musharraf’s aides are in touch with the daughter of another prominent PML(N) leader in jail - an MP in her own right - for a deal to release her father, Mr Javed Hashmi. She is now said to be in Jeddah to talk to Mr Nawaz Sharif. General Musharraf is keen on keeping Mr Nawaz Sharif out at least till 2007. If there are no elections now, what is in it for the PPP or the PML in the so-called deal? Ministers can be ignored. They stand to disappear from the political field once major parties are allowed to work freely and fight elections. Outlines of a possible deal remain hazy. There are rumours or hunches that the American overlords are unhappy with the MMA’s government in the NWFP and its partnership in the Balochistan Ministry. They would want the PPP and PML(N) to operate freely so that the MMA doesn’t have the entire field to itself. They would like to have a national government. The regime too supposedly wants a national government (and no polls in 2005), comprising the king’s party (the Q League), the PPP, the PML (N) and a few of especially chosen General Musharraf’s nominees like Mr Shaukat Aziz — minus Ms Bhutto and Mr Nawaz Sharif. The MMA is, however, talking loudly of forcing General Musharraf out of power if he does not resign from the army. True, the General had promised to doff his uniform by December 31, 2004. He now has parliament’s approval through a Bill it passed to renege on his pledge. Besides, which military dictator did not break his promise? Didn’t Ayub Khan promise to quickly revive democracy and go? He was to stay not a day longer than required for cleaning up the stables. Didn’t General Yahya Khan break his promises? He even refused to accept election results that he himself had held, breaking up the country into two. Didn’t General Zia-ul-Haq promise in Mecca’s Grand Mosque and in the UN General Assembly that he would hold elections within 90 days? He stayed on for 11 years without them. What if another General, Musharraf, also breaks his pledge? Didn’t all these Generals break their oath to defend the Constitution? Apart from the news management by the regime, there is commonly expressed fear that the MMA is taking the people for a ride: it first enabled the General to acquire the powers of life and death over the whole parliamentary system by voting for his draconian powers and is now straining at the gnat of his uniform after swallowing the whole camel born of the “prostituted” constitution. Supposing he agrees to take off his uniform to outwit the MMA. What then? He will remain a civilian dictator. What will the people or polity get? Except for its use of a tough language, the MMA is cooperating with the regime in its own interest — safeguarding its share in governance. May be, all this talk of a deal is a psychological war to divide the Opposition and prevent or weaken its threat of a mass agitation. |
A sweet evening
Oh God, I am a victim of various fears — with or without reason. Till recently, I had a phobia about Pakistanis. I would dread a Pakistani as a wild creature. I invariably found them rebellious, defiant and combative. The long years of contention between India and Pakistan had bred feelings of hostility towards Pakistanis. Ruthless demeanour of Pakistanis, reported in media, would leave me panic-stricken. I could never convince myself of paying a visit to Pakistan, even though I got a chance. The very thought of them would make my blood freeze. But, often majority of our apprehensions turn out to be false. The same is true of my fear of Pakistanis. Today it is a matter of honour to see a Pakistani and I fervently long to visit Pakistan in a short while. Sports has been making long strides in reconciling the two nations. India-Pakistan friendship hockey match was played in Chandigarh on October 6. After the match, a goodwill dinner was hosted by the CHA (Chandigarh Hockey Association) in honour of both teams. Incidentally, I received an invitation. I found the invitation both exciting and alarming as it would be my maiden encounter with Pakistanis. With my revived curiosity, I reached the spot and entered with a sense of misgiving. Contrary to my fears, it was one of the best social gatherings in Chandigarh. The well-decorated Lake Club was celebrating the long-awaited fusion of two drifted apart communities. I found the most happiness I had known in my life. I thoroughly enjoyed the relaxed ambience of joining together. The long ceremony washed off all of my earlier fallacious opinions of my neighbours. I found them, to my surprise, very lively, tender, affectionate, full of etiquette and sensitive. I had long chats with them as if we were never apart. I shared my emotions with them and discovered that they were equally sick of violence. Common heritage is the strongest link between India and Pakistan. Masses on both sides are eager enough to work out a solution that may bring happiness on both sides. An elderly affectionate Pakistani presented me a beautiful bouquet. “Please visit Pakistan”, he said soberly, “it will further remove your unreasonable fears about your brothers”. We vowed eternal friendship. I came back intoxicated with a strange bliss.
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No takers for National Hockey Championship due to IHF politics
The National Hockey Championship for the Rangaswamy Cup was once the most prestigious event in the hockey calendar of the country. Many careers were made and many decimated at the altar of the National Championship. It was the flagship tournament of the Indian Hockey Federation (IHF) as it offered a perfect platform to unearth new talent and weed out the worn-out. Selection to the Indian team was mostly based on the performance at the Nationals. But times are a-changing. The relevance of the National Hockey Championship seems to have lost on the top brass of the Indian hockey. Now the National Championship makes only occasional appearance. There are really no takers for the National Championship now. The championship has been held only four times since 1990, and never after 2000. Hockey fans can come to their own inferences for not holding the championship but one glaring truth that sticks out is that ever since K.P.S. Gill and K. Jyotikumaran assumed charge as President and Secretary-General, respectively of the IHF in 1994 (they were subsequently re-elected twice and still hold office), the Nationals were held only thrice—at Bangalore in 1997, at Hyderabad in 1999 and at Jammu in 2000. Interestingly, the last one at Jammu attracted a record participation of 45 teams. It’s ironic that the death-knell of the Nationals was virtually sounded when Jammu hosted the championship in 1990 as the very next year, the Nationals were not held and thereafter the event took a back seat before making a total
disappearance, almost. But IHF Secretary Jyotikumaran has a “plausible” reason for not holding the Nationals after 2000. “We allot the championship to the State units, but if they are not able to mobilise resources and find sponsors, the IHF cannot do much”, he argued. Jyotikumaran quotes the example of the FIH (Federation Internationale Hockey) which allots prestigious championships like the World Cup and the Champions Trophy to the associate countries, but it’s the latter’s job to actually executive the event. Jyotikumaran says lack of sponsorship was just one of the reasons for the State units not holding the Nationals, not the whole reason. He says dynamic officials with organisational capabilities at the helm can easily pull it off as Bangalore, Hyderabad and Chennai have done over and again. But clearly, there seems to be lack of enthusiasm among many of the State units to conduct the Nationals. “IHF politics” is cited as a major reason for the State units not coming forward to host the Nationals. It costs upward of Rs 25 lakh to conduct the National Hockey Championship, and most State associations cannot mobilise that kind of money. But if an independent body like the Nehru Hockey Society in Delhi can mop up crores in sponsorship deals to host its sub-junior, junior and senior Nehru Championships in Delhi without fail for the past 40 odd years, the State units can as well find sponsors for the National Championship. Apparently, there are reasons beyond the obvious to deter the richer State units from bidding for the Nationals. For example Punjab, who have an enviable record in the National Championship, last hosted the championship way back in 1981. Jalandhar had played host to the Nationals on three earlier occasions too, but for the past several years Punjab has evinced no interest in hosting the championship, though the State continues to be a major nursery of hockey talent. But the IHF has no plans to consign the nationals to history, as Jyotikumaran says that the federation is on the job to revive the championship next year. With the Premier Hockey League (PHL) all set to roll out at the Gachhibowli Stadium in Hyderabad on January 13 next year, the future of the National Championship looks uncertain. IHF President K.P.S. Gill has made it known that plans are afoot to phase out the Nationals to once in two years. But Jyotikumaran says that the next edition will be played immediately after the PHL. The IHF is holding parleys with the Services to hold the event in Delhi as there are definitely no plans to shelve the championship. “The National Championship was the main platform for the players to display their skills to catch the spotlight, and the attention of the coaches and the IHF bosses. This was the only championship in which players from every State unit and institutional teams like Railways, Services and Indian Airlines could participate”, recalled a former Olympian. He fears that with the PHL offering a staggering cash prize of Rs 71 lakh and ESPN Star Sports promising to package Indian hockey as never before, the National Championship may “fade out” in the coming years. The teams for the PHL will be directly selected by the IHF, and if the league clicks, the importance of the Nationals may get whittled down. “It was a sheer joy to play in the Nationals. In our time, the National Championship was one event we all eagerly looked forward to playing as it afforded the players a chance to get into the Indian team, or secure jobs either in the Border Security Force or Railways, or some other institution. But now, no one seems to give much thought to the National Championship”, lamented another former Olympian. Hockey is not dead and gone in the country. A good match always attracts a packed house in Delhi. But sadly, such matches are now few and far between. |
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Suraj Parkash — a magnum opus Kavi Chooramani Bhai Santokh Singh produced the best work of his life Sri Gur Partap Suraj Granth, also known as Suraj Parkash, at the fag end of his life. It is a history of the Sikh Gurus along with Banda Singh Bahadur in a chronological order. Bhai Santokh Singh was a master craftsman of word and meaning. His voluminous work contains 51,829 couplets, two and a half lakh lines and has 14 volumes. The only flaw, if it ever contained, is the mythological content, which will be the main concern of Sikh scholar Kirpal Singh to purge it from the main text and include it in appendix. Earlier, Bhai Vir Singh had begun the first editing of Suraj Granth in 1926 and accomplished the task in 1935. Though Bhai Santokh Singh was proficient in Arabic and Persian, for writing Gur Partap Suraj Granth he chose the Braj bhasha. The poet goes in great detail in the characterisation of Guru Hargobind and Guru Gobind Singh. Bhai Santokh Singh weaves such a magic web of words around the battles that the Tenth Master fought that a reader is left spell-bound by the lucid details of the great encounters. Such is the appeal of this inspiring verse that every Sikh preacher considers it a privilege to narrate anecdotes from Suraj Granth to the Sikh sangat. The book has a great hold on the Sikh masses. You cannot conceive of a gurdwara without a katha of this composition. It is even taught at certain deras. Six original works - Naam Kosh, Guru Nanak Parkash, Garb Ganjni Teeka(teeka means translation and explanation of a work), Balmik Ramayan, Atam Purayan Teeka and lastly his magnum opus, Sri Gur Partap Suraj Granth — are credited to Bhai Santokh Singh. Towards the fag end of his life, Bhai Santokh Singh had grown weak. Yet, he along with his family went to present the hand-written copy of Suraj Parkash at Akal Bunga in Amritsar. Three months later, he died on October 21, 1844. Bhai Santokh Singh would have been consigned to the dustbin of history had it not been for Bhai Vir Singh, who introduced him to the Sikh Panth with full justice. Bhai Santokh Singh was a poet of great intellect and inquisitive mind. He had the good fortune of spending a decade under the tutelage of Giani Sant Singh, a great scholar, where he studied all earlier accounts of Sikh Gurus. Later, his research took him to Benaras. Bhai Santokh Singh spent five years at Kanshi. He married Ram Kaur of Jagadhri at the age of 34 and had five sons and three daughters Bhai Santokh Singh first translated Amar Kosh, a Granth in Sanskrit, as Naam Kosh into the Braj language in 1821. On the insistence of Raja Udai Singh of Kaithal, he translated Balmik Ramayan in verse. Work on Sri Gur Partap Suraj Granth began around 1835 and continued for the next nine years. As the project started taking shape of a book, its copies were made alongside. It is also said that Bhai Santokh Singh wrote the first few chapters very fast but as he laid hand on more valuable material, he revised them and expanded them further. Unfortunately, the luminary did not live long to see such universal appeal of his mammoth work on the Sikh Panth. Today not only every Sikh scholar considers it a privilege to narrate stories from Suraj Granth at gurdwaras, it is also a subject of study and research for scholars of the Sikh religion. While Piara Singh Padam and Kartar Singh Engineer have written tracts on Santokh Singh, Dr Jai Bhagwan Goel did his Ph. D on the subject. |
A clean heart can see God, can speak to God, and can see the love of God in others. —Mother Teresa An error does not become truth by reason of multiplied propagation, nor does truth become error because nobody sees it. — Mahatma Gandhi In the performance of this service sacrifice was also needed and this, the gurus as well as their disciples, willingly offered. —The Sikhism Those who are earnest should not be led astray by the vain flutterings of the thoughtless. They should delight in earnestness. Their knowledge is the knowledge of the select few. It is not easily available to everyone. — The Buddhism Let us remember, if we want to be able to love, we must be able to pray! —Mother Teresa  |
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