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Bus for peace
Lost in the wood |
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Fighter race
India’s ailing democracy
What’s VAT?
Human
Rights Diary Saul Bellow: author
of modern world Delhi
Durbar
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Lost in the wood THOSE who thought the BJP would do some serious introspection on its 25th anniversary must be a disappointed lot. The party was in a self-congratulatory mood, instead, and patted itself repeatedly for the so-called achievements that it had accumulated during the quarter century of its existence. Things did not stop there either. While doing an analysis of last year’s resounding defeat, it got its diagnosis all wrong. According to party president L.K. Advani, the defeat was because of its neglect of its “core constituency”, meaning thereby the Sangh Parivar. If it sincerely feels that had it not antagonised the Hindutva lobby, it might not have been deprived of power, it is living in a fool’s paradise. Now that the damage is already done, it must realise and acknowledge that the real cause of the electoral reverse was its exclusivist, religion-specific politics. Since it identified itself with men like Mr Narendra Modi, it ended up scaring away many moderate voters. It was not done in by the loss of strident Hindus but that of this much-larger lobby. Thanks to its warped logic, the party seems set to hitch its wagon to the Ram Temple star once again. While the national executive made no mention of the Ayodhya issue, the national council was full of it. The old war cry is going to be heard loud and clear for all it is worth. Not only that, Mr Advani has resurrected another emotive issue. It is the unabated infiltration from Bangladesh. This too is likely to be tom-tommed forcefully, much to the discomfiture of the minority community. It is high time the BJP shed this mindset and thought rationally about the space that it wants to occupy. It must reconcile itself to the fact that the voters have ordained that it must sit on the Opposition benches. To do so in a constructive manner, it must focus on the commissions and omissions of the UPA government which impinge on the everyday life of the common man rather than harping on issues which paid it rich dividends once but are no longer top priority. |
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Fighter race THE submission of the first part of the Kelkar Committee report stressing private participation in defence production in particular and self-reliance and changes in the acquisition process in general coincides with Pakistan and China formally launching production of their joint fighter, the JF-17. Also known as the Xiao Long and the FC-1, it is widely billed as a rival to India’s light combat aircraft, Tejas. Only sketchy details are available about the JF-17. But it is a fact that the project has moved quickly since the aircraft first flew in August 2003. The prototypes are reportedly flying with Russian RD-93 engines, courtesy Mig, and the aircraft itself has been linked to an abandoned Mig-33 design. However, reports from China suggest that they are making good progress in the development of an indigenous power plant for the JF-17. Pakistan is looking at about 125 to 150 JF-17s to form the backbone of its air force. The Indian Air Force has already announced its intention to purchase 20 LCAs with options for 20 more, all of which will be flying with the American General Electric F-404 engine. A sum of Rs 2800 crore is being spent on developing an indigenous power plant for the Tejas, christened the Kaveri, which is still some ways from a flight test. The agency struggling with the project evidently needs help, particularly after the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) had abandoned the search for a development partner. The DRDO leadership has of late been vocal about being open to private participation at all stages of research, project development and production. It needs to be translated into action. This is where the Kelkar recommendations come in handy. The Kaveri is a test case, as far as self-reliance and the establishment of win-win partnerships are concerned. It needs to be made a success, and soon. The onus is on the defence ministry and organisations like the DRDO and the Hindustan Aeronautics Limited which come under it. |
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Money speaks sense in a language all nations understand. — Aphra Behn |
India’s ailing democracy IN an earlier article on the mess in the two mainstream parties, the Congress and the BJP — and thus in the national polity as a whole — I had promised to suggest some remedies for the steadily worsening political ills. A search for these has become all the more necessary after the failure of the too-clever-by- half plans of crafty politicians of Bihar to somehow rig up a ruling coalition in the hopelessly hung state assembly, now in suspended animation. If this is an indication of the consequences of the great and growing fragmentation of the Indian political system, another indication of the debilitating state of affairs is the Manmohan Singh government’s inability to appoint advisers to the Governor in Patna for a whole month though normally this is done within a few days of the imposition of President’s rule. What this will do to cohesiveness and efficacy of the government in New Delhi, with Mr Laloo Prasad Yadav and his archenemy, Mr Ram Vilas Paswan, in the Union Cabinet, is anybody’s guess. For its part, the BJP, busy celebrating its silver jubilee, is tormented by the revolt in Gujarat against its one-time icon, Mr Narendra Modi, and is dropping broad enough hints that in its determination to be “back to the basics”, it wouldn’t mind stiring yet again the communal cauldron over Ayodhya. In short, the trend towards the accretion of strength to divisive forces persists ominously. There can, of course, be no panacea for these and other ills afflicting the body politic, but a few bold steps would surely help stem the rot that is eroding and polluting the otherwise lively Indian democracy that is the envy of the Third World, and has started receiving kudos from the major powers. At the heart of the ailments Indian democracy suffers from lie four main factors. The first is the stark fact that during the 58 years since Independence the country has never been ruled by a majority of the people. All through the Nehru era — memorable because it was so civilised — the Congress never won more than 45 per cent of the national vote. Indira Gandhi’s assassination enabled her son, Rajiv, to win 410 seats in a House of 540, but his share of vote did not exceed 49 per cent. In UP and Bihar different parties have come to power on no more than a third of the total votes polled in election after election. The second menace flows automatically from the first. Political parties and wily politicians have found it expedient to capture a hardcore of votes by cynically exploiting caste, communal, regional, parochial, feudal and other dubious loyalties as a short -cut to power. Thirdly and most unfortunately, there is the mind-boggling paradox that the world’s largest democracy is run by political parties each one of which, without exception, is run on dictatorial lines. And fourthly and finally, the much-hailed Anti-Defection Law has become a classic case of the remedy being worse than the disease. The legitimacy accorded by this law to a party split, provided a third of its members leave the parent party — combined with making the Speaker of the legislature the sole judge of this matter — has played unending havoc. Forty UP MLAs who had defected from the Bahujan Samaj Party to support Mr. Mulayam Singh Yadav face the daunting prospect of being disqualified by the High Court. But he is declaring gleefully that before the case can be decided one way or the other, the term of the present state assembly would be over! Against this dismal backdrop it is arguable, to say the least, that one simple and sensible reform of the electoral law — there is no need to amend the Constitution — could greatly mitigate all that has distorted the Indian democracy, thanks to the present first-past-the-post system. In future to win a seat in Parliament or the state legislature a candidate must have 50 per cent plus of the votes polled. This is unlikely to happen in the first round of voting for a long time. That is where the mandatory second round between the candidates with the highest and second highest votes would come in. This single change in the system would greatly reduce the kind of fractured verdicts that have become the system’s bane. It will also loosen the stranglehold of caste, religion, region, etc, on the voting pattern. Hopefully, it may also slowly compel the major, over-centralised parties to be more democratic and devolutionary in the choice of candidates than they are. In fact, in today’s India it makes no sense that the choice of candidates across this vast and diverse country should be made by the party’s “high command” in New Delhi. Why shouldn’t the constituency unit of the party have a say in the choice of its representative-to-be? Doubtless, the current system of selection of candidates began with the Congress party from the first general election onwards when its dominance of the national polity was overwhelming. However, through most of the Nehru era the leaders from the states had an ample say in the choice, if only because several Chief Ministers such as Govind Ballabh Pant, B. C. Roy, K. Kamaraj, Morarji Desai, et al, were also towering individuals. Moreover, Nehru was respectful of democratic decencies. The present pernicious practice of the party’s “supreme leader”, surrounded by a coterie of courtiers, being the sole arbiter began with Indira Gandhi who could win elections almost single-handed even after her humiliating defeat in the post- Emergency poll. That situation no longer obtains, nor is likely to recur in foreseeable future. It is, of course, true that Ms Sonia Gandhi can win more votes for her party than any other Congress leader or combination of Congress leaders. Similarly, among the BJP leaders Mr Atal Bihari Vajpayee has a greater appeal to the voters than anyone else. But the point to ponder is that, with all the advantages of strategic alliances with other secular parties during the Lok Sabha elections Ms Sonia Gandhi could win for her party only 145 seats. Atalji having led the National Democratic Alliance government for six years, was wallowing in the hype over “India Shining”, only to discover that the strength of his party in the Lok Sabha had plummeted from 181 to 138. The Congress party’s illusion that it was on the verge of regaining its past position in the Hindi heartland and could, therefore, cut Mr Laloo Yadav to size has cost it dearly in both Bihar and
Jharkhand. |
What’s VAT? MY only acquaintance with VAT till now was the one that either referred to the premium Scotch or to the wooden cask storing vintage wine in the vineyards of France. The very word brought on thirst for a greedy gulp of the elixir of life. But cold water has been thrown on all such fantasies by the new avatar that the V word has taken. As the head of the family I’ve been asked to demystify this cryptic buzzword and its impact on our lives — by my wife, my son, our cook, our mali and even our monthly raddiwala. So help me God. This the distilled wisdom worked out by me of the tangy “bubbly” brewed by the FM. Take the case of a bottle of IMF — Indian made foreign Liquor — which I unscrew every weekend with my buddies. Would it now be dearer in its value added passage from malt to the “water of life” flowing down our parched throats — or burn a hole in our pockets and singe my gullet? It’s hard to figure out such economic dimensions of a bottled beauty. Perhaps, the best one can do under such gloom is to take a large swig to drown one’s sorrows. And what about my wife's addiction for icecreams? Would they too now melt under the heat of VAT or continue to cool her down during my spirited evenings? My son is equally alarmed about the fate of chocolates — which he has to buy in plenty out of his meagre pocket money to charm his pretty college mates. The cook’s pulse is going up with the expected rise in the costs of pulses in the post-VAT khichdi. The mali has been calculating the value added cost of desi khaad in its passage from cow-dung to matured fertiliser. And we have been led up the garden path in our plans to buy a fancy garden umbrella, when I found out that only the ordinary chhata had been exempted from the tax. Maybe, we should fix a big danda beneath the good old kali-chhatri and sit under it for “spring in style”. The most confused person, of course, is the corner shop Lalaji, who stores a large inventory of goods ranging from plastic buckets to creams to jharu-pochas for the housewife. What percentage of VAT on what, is the big question? Or is it just another April Fool’s Value Added Turmoil. All those who understand VAT may please enlighten dim-wits like me by sending copies of the said document in triplicate, duly attested by competent authority in any language other than Greek and
Latin.
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Human Rights Diary A couple of close relatives, a handful of friends and a few who knew him intimately comprised the audience. I did not expect any dignitary or politician. Nor did I think that anyone from the media would be present. Tarkunde was not the P3 material. But I vainly looked for human rights activists. They owed him their existence. The movement came to be recognised in the country because of him. Still more shocking was the presence of not more than 30 people at the annual JP memorial lecture which was held the following day. It was the same city where people flowed in the Gandhi ground endlessly to hear him when Mrs Indira Gandhi announced the 1977 poll. Jaya Prakash Narayan epitomised the struggle against the darkness of dictatorship towards which India had been pushed in 1975. At the lecture, there was no Vajpayee, no Advani, no Laloo Yadav, no Paswan, not even Mulayam Singh, who had come to power after JP ousted Indira Gandhi. I know that he is an anathema to the Congress because he removed the party from power for the first time after Independence. It does not realise that the government would have, in any case, fallen under the weight of sins it had committed during the Emergency. After seeing thin attendance at Tarkunde's anniversary and JP's memorial lecture, I feel that we do not honour heroes in the field which is removed from politics. In fact, they are the ones who sacrifice their all to make our life a bit more meaningful. Still the attention-and publicity-is focused on those who are in authority. Power is what counts with most of us. Political parties laud their own leaders and recall their memory. But those who helped them come to power — as JP did — are forgotten even in their life time. At least, NGOs should make it a point to flock to functions held in honour of social activists and such other persons. JP, along with Tarkunde, founded several bodies to protect human rights and to bring about an economic change in the country. It is another matter that some of the organisations have fallen by the wayside. They have become a personal fiefdom of NGO leaders. They see to it that they get elected and re-elected to the position where they can control the organisation. But then this is their claim to fame. They forget the cause since their priority is how to perpetuate themselves. The malady was confined to politics but human rights organisations have also got contaminated. The real danger to human rights movements is from those who do not want to vacate the office for any other, particularly the young. There should be a convention whereby nobody in NGO holds any office for more than two terms. Still another evil that has crept into some organisations is that even the defiance by a member of basic requirements does not invite any punishment. Take the PUCL. Its constitution lays down that no person with communal credentials can be its member. George Fernandes and Arun Shourie are among the founder members of the PUCL. They should have voluntarily resigned after they joined the BJP-led government. Shourie is even a BJP member. We talk of standards and try to occupy high moral ground, but we falter when we are in the dock. What surprises me is why the PUCL has not thrown out those who have become part of political parties fostering communalism? The organisation may lose credibility if it does not enforce the constitution it adopted when it came into being. Another danger facing human rights movements is funding from abroad. A preponderant majority of NGOs have a large sum of foreign money at their disposal and this is all in the name of social service. A few among them are doing an excellent job. But the rest are fattening themselves on the funds they get. Now even bureaucrats have jumped into the arena. They have one NGO or another in the name of their wife or some close relation to collect money. They can easily do so because of their official clout. The government should come with a heavy hand on such organisations because they give a bad name to the movement. Inquiries into their work have been ordered in the past but the government's purpose has been political: to defame genuine activists, not to weed out the undesirable. Lok Sevak Sangh is not strictly an NGO but an organisation of constructive workers in the service of the nation. It is doing a tremendous job in fighting against crime and corruption. It justifiably feels exasperated over the non-appointment of Lokpal, an institution the successive governments have promised to set up so as to look into the cases of corruption and misuse of power by ministers and others in high places. Two more demands of the Lok Sevak Sangh are: all those whom law courts have found involved in moral turpitude should be debarred from contesting elections; two, the property acquired illegally by ministers, MPs, MLAs and public servants should be forfeited straightaway. These demands should have been met long ago for cleansing public life. But none in the government has taken notice of what the Lok Sevak Sangh has been saying. It has now decided to start a "satyagraha" from the monsoon session of Parliament and continue till the first day of winter session. If the government does not do anything until the end of "satyagrah", the Lok Sevak Sangh group will begin their fast unto death. Their number may not be large but they are a determined lot. They should be taken seriously before it is too late. I recall how former Attorney General Soli Sorabjee, Justice Rajinder Sachar and some others had a hard time some three years ago to convince them not to go on fast unto death. If ignored again, the Lok Sevak Sangh group can take any desperate step. The government will be well advised to talk to them about their demands. |
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Saul Bellow: author of modern world Within four days, the world's two boldest neoconservative voices have fallen silent. Neither devotees of John Paul II nor admirers of Saul Bellow might wish to admit it, but the resemblance is striking. Both the Polish pontiff and the Jewish-American novelist — who died on Tuesday aged 89 — became strangely similar defenders of the embattled soul and time-honoured social principles against the snares of the contemporary world. Both were at ease with attention and controversy, advocates and publicists for heritage and tradition in the din of a media-managed culture. Yet both believed that human reality lay within: in the individual struggle for meaning, identity and value. Thanks to the neocon triumph in economics and politics, it could be claimed that the values of mid 20th-century Chicago - the commercial city and the university - now dominate the planet. So Bellow's great novels, with their matchlessly intense portraits of Windy City thinkers and doers, ought to be essential reading for allies, enemies and victims of Wolfowitz and friends. The Canadian-born child of Russian Jewish migrants, Solomon Bellows (as he was) came to maturity in the Chicago of the 1930s and 1940s. In this political killing-floor
and ethnic boiling-pot, a culture of dispute and dissent sent a generation of young intellectuals first sharp left, then hard right. Bellow took the same route. In summer 1940, the novice writer actually travelled to Mexico to find Trotsky (the expedition appears in his 1953 masterpiece, The Adventures of Augie March). Stalin's assassin, with the ice-pick, had got there a day before him. Immensely well read but socially marginal, the young Bellow had to find his own way and his own voice: "free-style", as Augie says. Early novels such as Dangling Man (1944) combine existential questioning with a first taste of the vivid social realism that would make the flavour of Bellow's major works as sharp and sensual as anything in US literature. For some critics, he never improved on the joyful zest and punch of Augie March. Martin Amis, on whom Bellow is probably the greatest single influence, thinks the hunt for the Great American Novel "ends here". For others, the tormented but absurd mid-period heroes of Herzog (1964), Mr Sammler's Planet (1970) and Humboldt's Gift (1975) set a benchmark for moral and literary integrity in postwar fiction. Always anguished, often comic, Bellow's mid-career blunderers, moaners and doubters (all with real-life models) have one foot in the world of Woody Allen as well as that of Kafka and Dostoyevsky. After a clutch of Pulitzers and National Book Awards, they won Bellow the Nobel Prize in 1976. A fixture of Chicago campus life from the early 1960s, Bellow became less of a seeker and more of an ideologue. From the 1980s, starting with The Dean's December (1982), the angry conservative often comes to the fore, as characters rail against the decadence around them. Yet the late work seldom loses a taste for mischief, an eagle eye, and a spry style. Bellow's twilight gloom is fanned with laughter, best of all in More Die of Heartbreak (1987). Its tirelessly witty author would never have died of heartbreak, although he did have to be saved by his fifth wife from death by food poisoning after encountering a dodgy Caribbean fish in 1994. That he fathered his last child in 1999, aged 84, was treated by fans as a sort of genetic proof of his awesome creativity. — The Independent |
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Delhi Durbar Strange but true. Former Kerala Chief Minister A K Antony, while in Delhi recently, was supporting K Karunakaran, who saw the back of him last year. Karunakaran has been constantly attacking Antony during his Chief Ministership and bayed for his head all the time. Karunakaran’s defiance has been a headache for the Congress High Command, but the party has not been able to curb his antics. Nevertheless, Antony does not want any action to be taken against Karunakaran or his family as it will split the Congress in Kerala. This despite the fact that some rapid-fire realignment of forces is taking place with assembly elections in Kerala scheduled for next year. Advani
to visit Pakistan BJP President L K Advani will be paying a goodwill visit to Pakistan in June. He will visit Karachi, Lahore and Peshawar. Advani is likely to inaugurate a temple in Lahore, according to ruling Pakistan Muslim League Secretary General Musahid Hussain. Former Pakistan Prime Minister and PML chief Shujaat Hussain will accompany Advani to Karachi and Peshawar. The Sindh government has sought details of Advani’s school and birthplace in Hyderabad as the BJP leader has expressed a desire to visit his birthplace —Totki Gaddi and the Hyderabad Government High School where he studied before migrating to India in 1948. Hindu human rights report The Hindu American Foundation, which held its National Executive Council meeting in Fremont, California, from March 25 to 27, has decided to come out with the first-ever Hindu Human Rights report later this year. While reaffirming its commitment to promoting tolerance and pluralism, HAF is striving for better awareness of Hindus in America. HAF expressed its concern about the state of human rights all over the world. It noted the deaths of Hindus in Bangladesh and Pakistan continuing to support terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir. HAF said there is discrimination against Hindus in almost all Islamic countries. HAF plans to counter Hindu hate with a public education campaign as also a Hindu American perspective on issues facing Hindus in the US. Big school functions The National Council for Educational Research and Training (NCERT) Director wants schools to refrain from large-scale celebrations. Pointing out the hazards of this trend, he said so-called dignitaries, who have nothing to do with children’s education, are the ones who get invited as chief guests to annual functions and in trying to impress these “VVIPs” the annual days in schools have started resembling “marriage pandals”. Recalling the Dabwali fire incident as a perfect example of a small school trying to put on a pompous act, he said the tragedy that left many dead could be used as a lesson in disaster management by schools. An evening of ghazals Punjab National Bank has networked 1,000 branches and its technology partners — Sun Microsystems and Infosys — held an evening of ghazals on Tuesday by maestro Jagjit Singh. PNB Chairman S S Kohli bids adieu on April 30. Jagjit Singh said he and his troupe also had accounts in the bank. Jagjit Singh regaled the select audience with some of his most popular ghazals as well as lilting Punjabi and film songs. Rabbi and
success With singer Rabbi Shergill on a roll and his number “Bulla” being a runaway hit, he believes success needs to be redefined. Now that he has a financial back-up, Shergill is thinking of giving vent to his creative side. He likes to read and write fiction. A comic books freak, Shergill’s current favourite is Asterix and Tintin. *
* * Contributed by S Satyanarayanan, Prashant Sood, Tripti Nath and Smriti Kak Ramachandran |
All comforts of salvation lie in the hearing of God’s name, in reciting His word and enshrining it in the heart. — Guru Nanak He is born in vain who, having attained the human birth, so difficult to get, does not attempt to realise God in this very life. — Sri Krishna Pure is the body wherein abides the true name of the Lord. — Guru Nanak Anger spoils good relations, pride destroys humility, deceit destroys amity and greed destroys everything. — Lord Mahavir Varuna is that which exists lengthwise and crosswise. Varuna is of our own land. He is of foreign land. Varuna is divine. He is human. — The Vedas Nothing can be achieved without His grace. — Sarada Devi Ye are the salt of earth: but if the salt hath lost its savour, wherewith shall it be salted? It is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men. — Jesus Christ If the mind is defiled by sin, it is cleansed with the love of God’s name. — Guru Nanak Action cannot destroy ignorance, for it is not in conflict with ignorance. Knowledge alone destroys ignorance, as light destroys darkness. — Sri Adi Sankaracharya  |
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