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By-election breeze Foggy logic |
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Cyber cops
Only motions of negotiating
PV’s predilections
Khaps fail to keep pace with change Flaunted emotions are often suspected
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By-election breeze It is not often that Lok Sabha by-elections, even if they are in Uttar Pradesh, evoke wider interest. Two Lok Sabha constituency results would have been too little to take note of but for the political breeze it has created, including the prospect of a BJP-SP axis. The Samajwadi Party was expected to retain Mainpuri, which is a pocketborough of Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav and had been vacated by him when he opted to stay back in the state after the last general election. Wresting the Akbarpur seat from the Bahujan Samaj Party is no mean feat considering that this was former Chief Minister Mayawati’s bastion. The BSP supremo had won thrice from this Lok Sabha constituency, where not only has the SP won by a margin but even the Congress party managed to net over a lakh of votes almost four times as much as it had polled during the Lok Sabha elections earlier this year. The party which figured nowhere in the reckoning is the BJP as its nominees lost their security deposit. Yet, it is the BJP that has set off ripples. A day before polling on December 19, former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee hinted at the possibility of a grand alliance between the BJP and the SP while praising Mr Mulayam Singh. Mr Vajpayee said that the BJP and the SP could get together in the “national interest”. Although there is every indication of the two parties moving closer, especially with the SP having been kept out of the UPA coalition, the BJP’s public overtures are being more pronounced. Surprisingly, these makeovers are not making the SP squirm like it used to in the past. During the Lok Sabha elections, when Mr Vajpayee had hinted at a similar possibility, Mr Mulayam Singh was distinctly uncomfortable. In contrast, now the SP welcomes the BJP’s suggestive invitations to “come closer”. Fair wind or foul, both parties are evidently trimming their sails with an eye on getting into the same boat. And this is the way the cookie of a third front crumbles |
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Foggy logic IT’S that time of the year when fog rolls in and everything is grounded, cars, buses, trains and even airplanes that are meant to soar in the sky. Why this is allowed to happen confounds everyone, since there are technical means to allow flights to take off and land even in the worst weather conditions. As for trains, crores of rupees are spent every year on bursting primitive detonators to warn other trains of the hazard of stalled trains. This happens in a nation that boasts of an ultra-sophisticated Metro designed and run by world-class Indian personnel! Technology exists but it is the foggy logic of dense minds that acts as an impediment. The Instrument Landing System (ILS) at various airports is supposed to help aircraft fly blind, in fog or other low visibility conditions. Delhi airport is equipped with a CAT-IIIA ILS that allows trained pilots to land when the visibility is over 200 metres. An upgrade would allow aircraft to land in even poorer conditions. Proposals for installing CAT-IIIB, which allows planes to land in visibility till 100 metres or even better, and CAT-IIIC for zero visibility have been on the cards for a number of years, but have not been implemented, reportedly because of financial considerations. Exactly this reason is cited for airlines not training their pilots. The training is expensive, and thus only international airlines, including Air-India, give proper training to their pilots. Consequently, even the system that has been installed in Delhi is not used by many airlines. This is not right since the economics worked out by such airlines are based on short-term savings and are not in the interest of the industry, or the poor passengers. Any airlines that gives a ticket to passengers is expected to make the best possible effort to get them to their destination on time. Fogy logic has been used to arrive at faulty conclusions. |
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Cyber cops The world has entered the computer age. But our good old policemen are happy to be in the lathi age, thank you. Every now and then, they take upon themselves the responsibility of thought-police and woe betide any man and woman they lay their hands on. They gave a fine display of this traditional brutality during raids on cyber cafés in Aligarh the other day. Nothing objectionable was found, but they did find some girls working there and harassed and humiliated them to their hearts’ content. They freely engaged in obscene language and gestures. Shockingly, the raiding party was not accompanied by women personnel. Nor did the policemen have any qualms about physically intimidating the girls. That this was routine for them was obvious from the fact that the presence of TV cameras was no deterrent. Rather, a police officer held a teenage girl by her hair and forced her to look into the camera. Even senior officials seemed to have no clue that the law restricts media from using real pictures and real names of even those held on charges of prostitution. Now that the National Federation of Indian Women (NFIW) is seized of the matter, it should go to the very root of the problem. It would be shocked to find that the malaise is not confined to Aligarh. Only recently, the beasts in khaki meted out a similar treatment to a couple in a public park in Mohali. Only if the errant cops are served exemplary punishment can the menace subside. Every now and then, policemen demand stricter laws to curb crime. And this is how they misuse even normal laws! Apparently, more severe laws in their hands would be like knives in the hands of juveniles. It would be well worth pondering whether less intrusive laws would be a better option. That, of course, presupposes that policemen have respect for any law at all. |
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Truth is not determined by the volume of the voice. — Chinese proverb |
Only motions of negotiating
Yet another opportunity has been missed: Two groups of Indo-Pakistani officials met in Islamabad and failed to agree on anything except to continue talking. One group discussed CBMs (confidence building measures) and the possibility of strategic stability; the second discussed Sir Creek. This was a part of second round of composite dialogue, the first having ended in fiasco. It too appears to be going nowhere. A dialogue by bureaucracies can make no political deviation or concession; they are bound by earlier decisions of their governments. A secretary can only reiterate the laid down position. At best, these officers can better define the differences for politicians to decide whether they should alter their basic positions. It means that only ministerial-level discussions are indicated. Not that Foreign Ministers will necessarily succeed. They too may not find it easy to make serious concessions. Proper forum for actual give and take on sensitive matters can be summits. But summits require elaborate preparations; a lot of hard work goes into them, not all of it by bureaucracies. Public opinion in both countries will have to play a crucial part in creating the political will necessary for substantive mutual accommodation on sensitive matters. There is a certain credibility deficit: Persistent assertions in America about its facilitation between India and Pakistan for these talks suggest that both sides do not have their heart in the negotiations. They are going through the motions of negotiating in deference to American wishes. Whether or not this is true in India’s case, Pakistan has been under American pressure to stop insurgents going into Kashmir. The US wants a modus vivendi in the subcontinent to prevent another 2002-like confrontation. Anyway, both countries are strategic allies of America and it has expectations from both. Which is why it is cooperating with both. But the issue of war and peace between India and Pakistan is primarily a concern of their peoples. Even if the Americans are knocking the heads together, peace, friendship and cooperation between the Indians and Pakistanis constitute a noble aim. The fact that the Americans are nudging the two sides toward the negotiating table does not mean that the Indo-Pakistan negotiations should not continue. This aim should be pursued resolutely and in good faith for its own sake. That underlines the nub of the matter: what do the ruling elites of the two countries actually aim at and where their domestic preferences are likely to take their countries. Factually, the aims of the two are mutually incompatible. Which is why their officials are unable to agree even on things that are mutually beneficial. Factually the Indian political class is pursuing the objective of being recognised as a great power, with a veto-wielding permanent seat in the UN Security Council. India is, therefore, acquiring military means of projecting power and has gone a fairly long way toward the objective. In contrast, Pakistan has viewed this as a threat to itself. Actually Pakistan is a national security state par excellence. It has subordinated everything else to what it conceives to be national security. Pakistani rulers’ perceptions are based on the belief that Indian intentions are inimical. While India projects its great power role over large stretches of Asia, they see the net effect of its military buildup is to radically threaten Pakistan. That perception has impelled Islamabad to counter India’s overwhelming superiority in conventional armaments by an ever-growing reliance on nuclear weapons in addition to some modernisation of conventional weapons. Now nuclear weapons confound everything, producing profound uncertainty and instability in the region. For obscure reasons the Indian government decided in May, 1998, to test-explode five nuclear weapons. Pakistan felt compelled to follow suit and has created a nuclear deterrent against India. Nuclear weapons are a destabilising factor anywhere. They are far more so in the densely populated South Asia where attack time ranges between three and six minutes. In this duration no government can react meaningfully on a matter of highest importance. That forces both countries to remain on permanent high alert. That totally destroys trust between each other. Nuclear weapons’ mischief is enhanced by the reason of their birth. They issue from Kashmir dispute — clearly so in the case of Pakistan while the reasons for India going nuclear remain a mystery. But a Pakistani is not best suited to explore why Indians chose to become a nuclear power. Perhaps their quest for greatness made them acquire nuclear capability. But no matter what the Indians think or aim at, Islamabad believes that the Indian nuclear weapons are primarily aimed at Pakistan and can be fired the minute India so decides. That perception leads to counteraction in kind: Pakistan has to keep its nuclear deterrent in much the same state as India does. This results in an unending arms race for improving and increasing the number of nuclear weapons and constantly adapting their missiles to match the improved weapon designs and sizes. This creates a quasi-war atmosphere. The two sides have virtually been in this twilights zone ever since May, 1998. What chance do the peacemaking efforts have of succeeding? Bomb-loving notables of both sides had advocated in earlier 1990s that nuclear weapons would reduce the need for high levels of conventional forces and the Bomb provides security on the cheap. They actually shortchanged us. The famous Neemrana Group made these virtual promises. The two governments bought them. The idea of peace and stability at smaller economic costs turned out to be a fraud; the two countries are not only updating the nuclear deterrent all the time, at great cost, they are also hectically accumulating conventional military hardware at ruinous prices. A subject like Siachen Glacier on which there was an initialed agreement hangs fire. During the current goodwill based solely on popular expectations the two can easily revive it to mutual advantage. There is Sir Creek where what is required is determining approximately 10 km of sea frontier. Any basis for agreement on it would be beneficial to both. The recurring sight of two para-militaries flexing muscles to catch poor fishermen is silly. Pakistan arrests 45 poor fishermen accused of poaching in Pakistani waters. Somehow Indians quickly find 55 illiterate Pakistani fishermen poaching in Indian waters. These wretches rot in each other’s jail for extended periods and are released after elaborate negotiations. Commonsense and decency can prevent this farcical tragedy. There are proposals such as a bus service between Srinagar and Muzaffarabad or the Monabao-Khokhrapar railway link. If giving relief to the people was intended the two countries should have agreed quickly. The Indian government announced not too many months ago a unilateral decision, permitting certain categories of Pakistanis to obtain multiple visit visas easily and for the whole country. It has not been implemented. Perhaps Pakistan refused to make a matching decision. If so where is the unilateral part? Kashmir is a major subject. But second is perhaps the biggest hurdle to friendly relations, though unrecognised; this is nuclear weapons in the two arsenals. The last one is not even perceived as the biggest hurdle to normal friendly relations. But trade is mutually beneficial. Since the Pakistan government has few cards up its sleeve, it has converted trade and people-to-people contacts into levers to apply on India. It is less than wise; it hurts Pakistan equally, if not
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PV’s predilections
I
THOUGHT that it wasn’t such a good idea but my senior colleague said that the beer at the Delhi Press club could wait. He said emotionally that he owed this one to the “old man packing his bags to return to his hometown.” He promised to make it short and sweet so that we could be in the bar before the last-order bell rang. PV Narasimha Rao opened the door of his crammed flat himself. He was wearing a vest and a dhoti. He was so pleased to see us that it seemed he had not met a soul for days. The two-room set was full of neatly packed cardboard boxes and the only thing operational was a computer on his desk. It displayed a game of chess. A few weeks later, PV Narasimha Rao was sworn in as Prime Minister. He was fresh into office when I went to interview DK Barooah, former Congress president of India-is-Indira fame. Talking about his years with the party, Barooah said that Rao was the most erudite man he had met in recent politics. He spoke at length about Rao’s intellectual abilities and narrated an episode about him when he was the country’s Foreign Minister. “One day I got a call from PV asking me if I was disposing of my old books. I said yes. He requested me not to sell the set of Encyclopaedia Britannica. I asked him why he wanted an old edition when he could buy a new one? He replied: ‘I can’t afford it.’ The next day he himself came to my house to collect the set.” Rao was nearly two years into his premiership when one of his political aides took me to meet him at his residence. It was late evening and he had retired to his bedroom. We were, however, ushered in and again I found Rao in his trademark vest and dhoti. I was not introduced as a journalist but as a college mate of this aide. By way of striking a conversation, I remarked that the silence of the room was inviting enough to spend a 100 years in solitude. Suddenly, Rao’s eyes lit up. “Have you read Hundred Years of Solitude?” I said, “Yes. And, it is one of my favourites.” The remark started a half-hour long monologue on Gabriel Gracia Marquez’s works. Later, I was told that Rao was an authority on Spanish literature. Interestingly, when I was formally introduced to Rao several months later at an iftar party, he gave me a knowing smile and said, “Hum log ekant mein pehle mil chuke hai.” But the most telling pointer to Rao’s personality was the gift that he gave to a go-between who had helped him buy the MPs for his government’s survival. It was a brightly gift wrapped copy of Ramacharitamanas. Rao had signed it and also written, “Samaj aur rajniti mein maryada ati avashyak hai.” Look who was
talking!
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Khaps fail to keep pace with change The khap system represents interests of the community associated with a particular gotra that defines primarily the nature and rules for inter-and intra-gotra relationship. This relationship has acquired a complex character, particularly in view of the distribution of different gotras in different villages even across the state boundaries. There are many villages of one gotra while, at the same time, there are more than one gotras in one village. The villages with more than one gotra practise “bhai-chara” (brotherhood) that is followed by all the members of the community irrespective of the gotra. Since gotra is the basis of settling matrimonial relations, every caution is observed not to disturb or harm “bhai-chara”. Thus, the “gotra-khapmatrimony” relationship makes sense and any disturbance in this relationship is viewed as a matter of concern. The affairs of the khap should not be viewed in isolation but as a part of the broader social system that governs village life. Khap is basically part of a multilayered social structure in villages. At the first layer, the social organisation is based on the traditional four-varna system that defines the role and status of different caste groups. Then each caste group, in the subsequent layer, is divided into a number of gotras scattered over villages. The khaps represent the social organisation at the gotra level. Activities in this multi-layered social structure are coordinated and regulated through the system of panchayats that is operational at three levels i.e. the caste panchayat, the village panchayat and the khap panchayat. Adhering to the objectives set for this social structure forms the basis of the social behaviour and conduct of the members of the village, the caste and the khap. And it is now this conduct and behaviour, emanating from these social institutions, that has come under scrutiny and has been a subject of concern and criticism. The major cause of conflict or crack in the social edifice emerges for it being inconsistent with change. The inability of the social order to accommodate change — social, political and economic — is fast rendering it irrelevant. Social institutions and norms and values advocated by them remain relevant so long as these address problems of people. The issue in question is not the integrity of the khaps of the past, but their social relevance in the changed circumstances — their capacity and capability to deliver goods to people instead of creating fissures or divisions among them. The stand adopted by certain khaps on the gotra issue speaks of an inadequacy of understanding of its ideals and commitments. It has seriously eroded the efficacy of the khaps. Besides, socio-economic constraints and tensions in village life find a little reprieve and the situation is quite depressing. Fragmentation of land holdings, cost-intensive character of agriculture, shrinking employment opportunities in rural areas, lack of quality infrastructure, uncompetitive education, absence of proper health and medical facilities, rise in the incidence of drugs and crime — all have made village life a cesspool of despair. The situation has developed apathy, blocking the flow of fresh winds of growth and optimism. Economic development has registered a positive note in the state but the pattern or distribution of development is not uniform. Infrastructure development has bypassed the village and is concentrated in the urban areas that again leads to number of socio-economic problems like that of employment and migration. The Green Revolution-led prosperity no more gives a greener look. Rural industrialisation has yet to mark its serious presence in the state policy. The future of the khaps will be greatly determined by the role of its leaders who ought to have possessed a deep understanding, open mind, moral credentials to give a seasoned leadership to the people to whom they belong and represent.
— The writer is a Reader in the Department of Tourism. & Hotel Management, Kurukshetra University |
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Flaunted emotions are often suspected It has been a cracking week for young Charlie Boonker. He has had his first rotten. His dad has written him a letter all about how he came into the world, from the moment that his mum's waters broke, and ending with the heartfelt message, "Thank you for coming into my life Charlie Boonker. I love you. Dad." As it happens, Charlie has been sharing that touching, if only marginally literate, thank you from Dad, as well as the rest of the letter, with quite a few other people. His father is the actor Russell Crowe, on whose website the letter to the boy whose family nickname is Charlie Boonker has appeared. Maybe, when he is slightly older, Russell's lad will be able to appreciate this very public gesture of affection. Once he is able to go on-line, Charlie will be able to read about his birth and discover in his father's words just what he meant to his parents. "I can truly tell you, it has been the most wonderful year of our lives. You are a very special little boy, so affectionate and lovely." Then there will doubtless be responses from fans on a message-board. Perhaps Charlie will be able to make his own contribution, sharing some early thoughts on what it is like to be brought up by the ex-hellraiser and his lovely wife Danielle, formerly a star of Home and Away. Open declarations of love have become quite the thing among famous fathers, what with Russell's love letter to his son and the now legendary "my little lad" declarations of David Blunkett. For many people, it is reassuring that even a Hollywood star, or one of the fiercest and most powerful members of the British government, is prepared to lay himself emotionally bare and admit that he is as vulnerable and human as any other man, perhaps more so. The fact that an abrasive politician has turned out to be not only a victim of love but can become overcome by emotion at the thought of his little one losing out on his company, must surely be a sign of a kind of emotional integrity. For these anti-cynics, a loud-hailer approach to
love confirms the genuineness of the feelings. In fact, the more openly that public dads confess to their sensitivity, to the great surge of emotion within them, to the sacrifices they are prepared to make, then the greater their love is judged to be. Of course, there is nothing new in men playing the vulnerability card: over the past decade, blubbing has paid handsome dividends when it comes to establishing a man's credentials as a fully functioning emotional being. Until now, though, all but the most hard-bitten celebrities have resisted gurgling over their children for the benefit of their image. None of which is to say that the love of these men for their children is not genuine. But it is a useful rule that the louder people pronounce their feelings, the more suspicious the rest of us should be. Sometimes, behind emotional declarations that are expressed too openly, there lurks another love of a rather more self- interested kind.— By arrangement with
The Independent |
The earnest person is like fire. Fire burns away everything big or small. The greatest man the smallest are equally consumed by fire. The fire of earnestness demolishes all the vanities, passions and terrors of life. — Buddhism Dreams are very nice while they last. But when man wakes up, he suddenly realises that there was not truth in them. The same happens with the enjoyment of worldly objects. They seem pleasant at first but when realization dawns, they appear hollow. — The Bhagavadgita Do your duty as a service to the Lord and see alone in everything in a spiritual frame of mind. — The Mahabharata There are many in the world who are dying for a piece of bread, but there are many more dying for a little love. —Mother Teresa Satyagraha teaches us the art of living as well as dying. — Mahatma Gandhi  |
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The recent judgments by the clan-based khaps in Haryana in certain matrimonial matters have raised a storm for being insensitive to the dignity and prestige of women. The khaps, through their dictates, have earned widespread criticism necessitating a review of their rationale to the extent of disbanding them — socially and legally.