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Chandigarh is IT Salman in soup |
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Pottermania, again
When Indira deflated Nixon’s ego
A little ‘aristocrat’
Justice under seige What makes a suicide bomber tick? Chatterati
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Chandigarh is IT Chandigarh and the contiguous townships of Mohali and Panchkula are laid out in a grid, which would look somewhat like the orderly arrangement of an enlarged computer chip. Le Corbusier was always ahead of his time and today this "greater Chandigarh" tri-city area is emerging as a new destination for information technology (IT) and IT-enabled services. The three administrations need to work together; not compete at the cost of each other, but cooperate to maximise the magnetic pull of their area. The recent "e-revolution 2005" initiative brought out both the extent and the limitations of this cooperation. It is hoped that the Punjab Government will soon invest the promised Rs 200 crore to improve Mohali's infrastructure. Haryana should focus beyond Gurgaon and there is no reason why Panchkula should be left out of the IT party. Greater Chandigarh is not only a preferred business destination, but also an educational hub with a student population of almost three lakh, an enormous human resource. The region is served by seven universities and 63 engineering colleges. Over 3,000 IT professionals work in various companies in Chandigarh and Mohali and this figure is likely to increase to 30,000 in the near future. With so many jobs in the offing, there is need for business and residential accommodation with attendant support services, which should be planned for and provided. Some matters that need immediate attention include the need for good public transport. The present system must be improved and, at the same time, the administration should work towards providing a mass transit system on a priority basis. Besides, there is a case for more and speedier transport connection between Delhi and Chandigarh. There has been persistent demand from business and industry for upgrading the Chandigarh airport as an international one. As for industry, it should focus not only on exports and profit, but also on meeting the domestic demands for software towards overall development, especially in the matter of e-governance for a more responsive and transparent administration. |
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Salman in soup Salman Khan has a long record of landing head first in trouble. But the present mess, which has been seized upon by lumpen elements to organise violent protests against his film, is about the most serious of them all. What he is alleged to have done is bad enough. But that should not be reacted to with mindless violence. As it is, there are enough self-styled protectors of morality on the street. Not allowing an actor’s film to be screened because of what he did in his personal life will only make the situation more intolerant. Widespread violence and protests may also give a communal colour to the ugly episode. Mayhem of the kind let loose by the saffron brigade will not serve any useful purpose. It will only hamper a drive to purge the film industry and other sectors of the stranglehold of inimical elements. The threats he allegedly issued to his colleague and friend Aishwarya Rai run true to the allegations that certain personalities in the film world are hand in glove with the underworld. This impression pre-supposes that the tapes that have been unearthed by a newspaper and later played repeatedly by TV channels are genuine. There are many question marks about their authenticity. The very delay in their release is intriguing. Salman Khan is not available for comments. Oddly, even Aishwarya has decided to remain silent. She owes it to her fans to tell the truth. Hence her lawyer has said that action should be taken if these are genuine. That means that the former Miss World will steer clear of the controversy at least till the courts ask her to speak. It goes without saying that the matter is extremely sensitive. If Salman Khan is hobnobbing with terrorists and enemies of the nation, he must be tried and punished like any other citizen of the country. But that will require other evidence besides the tapes in question. First of all, the voice in them is not very clear. Secondly, boasting about links with the underworld is not the same thing as actually having such connections. In any case, these are not grounds for causing public disorder and intimidating theatres from screening films in which he acts. |
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Pottermania, again WHAT is a mere muggle to do when confronted with a phenomenon like Harry Potter? A muggle, in case you didn’t know, is Potterspeak for an ordinary human being in a world full of wizards, ghosts, and beasts. A muggle, you see, doesn’t have any magic powers. The same can’t be said for J.K. Rowling, 39, creator of a publishing sensation that has sold more than 250 million books translated into 60 languages, since the release of the first book Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone nine years ago. The latest, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince again saw those massive pre-orders at book shops and websites, the midnight queues, and the rustle of pages across the world as millions settled down to read the new offering with delicious anticipation. Rowling stepped out of a secret panel in a medieval castle in Edinburgh, Scotland, to read from chapter six to 70 children, who must be the most envied kids in the world. By now, many readers would have turned the last page, and soon, those detailed discussions can begin on the identity of the half-blood prince, revealed at last. The book is more complex, more mature, and is intensely emotional. A major character dies. Yes, this time, it is really a “major” one – the same warnings had strategically been issued before earlier releases too. In India, 75,000 orders have been pre-booked, and a final sale exceeding 150,000 is expected, unmatched by any Indian publication. Harry Potter’s fans can’t be bothered about debates regarding its “literary merit”, and in any case, the books can be credited with having revived and kept alive the reading habit in a new generation of children, who might otherwise have been permanently and not very innocuously taken over by television and Internet games and chats. Some might lament that our children don’t know the Panchatantra’s characters as well. But consider the fact that the book is being read in China, Germany and Japan as elsewhere. It is difficult to resist a magician’s spell. And worldwide, we are all muggles after all. |
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Be nice to people on your way up because you will meet them on your way down. — Wilson Mizner |
When Indira deflated Nixon’s ego
THE disclosure about Nixon and Kissinger using foul language against Indira Gandhi calls for closer analysis as to why both of them hated her so much. The obvious answer, of course, is that they somehow found her personality tougher than they expected. Most probably, in the arrogance of US military power they thought that it was easy to browbeat India which was economically weak. But they forgot that they were dealing with India which had its history of independence and with Indira Gandhi who was the daughter of Jawaharlal Nehru, the top-most freedom fighter. Even Nehru could not withstand her stubbornness, as she had shown in 1957 when in a planned manner she had the Communist Party government of Namoodiripad dismissed notwithstanding Nehru’s opposition. At that time, it was reported in the press that Nehru, when asked whether he was going to impose Article 356, had stated “no”, but when Indira Gandhi was told about this, her immediate response was that the Namboodiripad government has to go, and that Pt. Nehru might be the Prime Minister but she was the President of the Congress and the party had so decided. It is in this background of personality traits that the following event may be helpful in understanding the Nixon-Indira Gandhi confrontation. As is known, Nixon and Kissinger first visited India in 1971 when conditions in East Bengal were very serious. Mass fleeing from East Pakistan and acts of terror by the Pakistan Army were creating havoc in West Bengal and the rest of the country, especially in West Bengal. There was great disruption and a very serious situation had arisen. Millions of people coming over to India were causing great strain on the economy and Mrs Gandhi, the then Prime Minister, was obviously under much pressure. At that time Nixon and Kissinger were in Delhi and were invited for breakfast by her. I am repeating the story and I have it from absolutely authentic sources that it is true. It is stated that on the eve of the breakfast meeting at her residence with Nixon and Kissinger, Mrs Gandhi phoned General Manekshaw, the then Commander-in-Chief of the Army. She just told him to come for the breakfast in the morning. She did not disclose as to who her other guests were. She further told the General that when he comes for the breakfast, he should come in uniform. Naturally, the General felt surprised and asked whether he had heard rightly that she wanted him to come in uniform because it was naturally a very strange suggestion. Mrs Gandhi was straightforward and told him “yes, she wanted him to come for breakfast but in uniform. So, General Manekshaw went for breakfast and soon they were joined by Nixon and Kissinger. Mrs Gandhi was persistent in pleading with Nixon that he should try to restrain Pakistan for what was being done in East Pakistan because the conditions there were becoming intolerable and it was almost becoming impossible for India to remain silent at the mass migration from East Pakistan following the atrocities being committed there. Nixon and Kissinger were prevaricating and would not really give a straight answer. Rather they tried to underplay the situation. Mrs Gandhi, however, still insisted, but of no avail. Rather, Nixon in half annoyance is said to have told her that the US could do nothing about it. Obviously rattled, she made a last minute appeal to Nixon to do something otherwise she might have to do something herself which she was reluctant to do. At this Nixon again expressed his inability to do anything and asked her rather ironically as to what she intended to do. At that time she stood up and, pointing towards the General (who was in full military uniform), told Nixon that if he could not control the situation then she was going to ask him (meaning the General) to do the same. There was stunning silence for a minute and the sharp message was conveyed to Nixon in a very stark manner. As a matter of fact, the General was himself surprised and suddenly understood the purpose as to why he had been asked to come in uniform rather than in civilian clothes at an apparently harmless function. Obviously, Nixon and Kissinger had their egos deflated and were not going to forgive Mrs Gandhi for such an attitude. There is no denying that the Nixon-Indira Gandhi confrontation shows her strength when facing a very hazardous situation. But I wish equal attention was given to an equally important aspect of open society in a democracy. Here are the lapses which are so damaging to the highest in public life in the US and also could create some strain in the diplomatic circuit but are nevertheless being made public on the formidable and accepted wisdom that in a democracy, citizens are the ultimate sovereign and no secret can be withheld from them for all times to time — that is because the highest in the government must be held accountable to the “Little man with pencil” (a phrase made popular by Winston Churchill) in a democracy. But, unfortunately, in our country, political parties of all hues treat government information as a special preserve of the elite rulers for the time being. Is it not time that all the political parties unanimously demand of the government that a similar rule of archives being available for public inspection after a period of 30 years be applied in India. We have too many secret closets which the Congress government never allowed to be opened. Even when the NDA was in the government openness was denied. The same situation continues even under the UPA government. Maybe, governments, whatever is their colour, have a tendency, even though unnecessary, of trying to conceal the facts of which quite a number are fairly well known. Thus, in India, the inside working as it happened at the time of the 1962 war with China, the Henderson Brook’s report — “The Secret Talks on Kashmir Still continue to be Kept Under Raps” — all this false, secret mania must go if the government’s claim to be people-oriented is to be accepted. The writer is a former Chief Justice of the High Court of Delhi. |
A little ‘aristocrat’
Occasionally, I have been drawn to do little water-colour sketches of the children close to me — of a baby bibliophile who at the age of three would start browsing the tomes on the shelf as though she were engaged in some metaphysical research beyond the ken of her family, of a baby-boy who wouldn’t utter a syllable for the first two years of his life, and then started spouting songs like a canary one fine morning to the utter amazement of his parents and doctors. And then another piece about a daughter who would be a princess at the royal age of six, and would challenge the highest heavens if anyone had the appetite for argument. So my “portrait” portfolio of those adorable creatures remains a distinctive part of the genre which sits pretty in the “middle” of the edit page, and helps blow away some of the blues in the midst of so much “world-pain”, so much “sea-sorrow”. Today’s piece is essentially another sketch in the series except that the girl called “Khushboo” is not from our vast clan of cousinage, and their offspring, but a little “angel” that lighted suddenly on our door one fine morning some six years ago — the only child of our new tenants upstairs. To such a little “personage” in her mercurial, myriad aspects — of mimicry and histrionics, of impersonation and clownage, of nursery rhyme jingles in action, of sweet and sour tantrums etc. — is to watch one of nature’s wonders in flesh and bone. There’s in God’s dappled glory so much to please the eye, and the ear, so much to charm the senses into a state of the mind where the sacred and the profane come together to mock us out of grand edifice of theory and thought. A wayside wild flower in a crumbling crevice, a frisking squirrel cutting capers on a tree near you, a school of pigeons and doves cooing away to glory at sunset or sunrise — all these and a thousand more such little sights are enough to stagger a cynic, or quieten a critic. And yet, I think one of these sights has the energy of intelligence that runs through sentiment humans, though a beaming child, a cavorting, little puppy, a lark streaking in the sky; all connect us mysteriously with the sources of life’s infinite riches. And that’s how Khushboo, now in her fifth year, and so aptly christened, leaves a strong wash of fragrance in her wake whenever she chooses to see her foster “grand-parents” downstairs. From her “good day” to “good night”, we see that sweet lyric in and out of the lexical symphony she works up, flitting about the place like an elf from nowhere, a moment here, a moment there, breaking eggs for a fanciful omelette, playing “sweet heart” to Shah Rukh Khan, acting the school “Madam”, using the same idiom and accent, and winding up with her animated powvow with her “boy-friend” during the roll-down in a school-rickshaw, overflowing with a whole big packet of chatter, mischief and high fun! I picture her, then, as a bud opening out in the sun, and gathering the ambience of a full blown flower — a little lady whose native innocence tempered and annealed during her encounter with the world would somehow abide. But who knows the ways of Providence. So, let me not tempt the fates, but wish her a home of bliss where, to quote W.B. Yeats’s poem, “A Prayer for My Daughter”, “all is accustomed, ceremonious”, and where the wheel of her happiness would come full circle. Now settled with her parents and a baby-brother in the U.S., we occasionally call them up on the telephone, and the memory of their brief stay with us lingers like a sweet fragrance.
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Justice under seige THE rape of a daughter-in-law by her father-in-law in any community anywhere in India is a criminal offence. It would be interesting to trace how in the Muzaffarnagar rape case the focus shifted from the rape to a questioning of the legitimacy of the survivor’s marriage, resulting in forcing upon her a sort of community sanctioned separation. It is here that we have to examine the role of the extra-judicial caste panchayats, the so-called Shariat laws, its interpreters, and the role of the media. Caste is clearly against the spirit of Islam. Yet, it is a reality in South Asian Islam. Two days after the mother of five was raped in her marital home in Charthawal, men of the Ansari caste to which she belonged, sat and agreed that the father-in-law had to be punished. The survivor was asked to keep quiet else she would bring a bad name to the village. The Imam of Bhaura Wali Masjid, Shamim Ahmad, evidently not qualified to intervene in the matter, floated the theory of the rape survivor becoming ‘impure’ for her husband who had now become her ‘son’, and that she could marry the ‘rapist’. The arguments sound familiar enough. There have been at least two instances in the recent months where civil court judges offered rape survivors the choice of accepting their rapist as their future husbands. One such scene was enacted in a court in our national capital in New Delhi not so long ago. In the Muzffarnangar case the victim’s brothers were called and informed of the Imam’s views. Nafees, the brother-in-law of the victim, was sent to Deoband to seek sanctity for it and the victim was packed off to her natal home. All that Nafees received from Deoband was an opinion stating that this is a matter for the Shariat court and they will make a statement after studying the issue. According to the Shariat as applied in India, only the husband or wife can initiate proceedings for divorce. The Shariat does not grant permission to third parties, however well read or well-placed, to dissolve marriages. The ulemas can give opinions; in fact, anyone with a degree of Mufti from an Islamic theological institution can give an opinion, popularly known as “Fatwas”. However, opinions are not decisions, which by the letter and spirit of the Muslim Personal Law (Shariat) Application Act 1937 are to be given by the formal civil courts of the country. However, the interpreters of the Shariat would not like any of us to know any of this. But we will come to that in a while. Let us now see the role of the third point in the triangle — the media. The local media the next day carries the story about the panchayat declaring the husband a son and father-in-law her husband. This in this case was factually incorrect. Nothing is sacred — let alone facts when dealing with the women of any community, particularly those of the minority community. The news item forces the local police to act. The father-in-law is arrested on June 16, three days after the filing of the FIR. The game plan of the caste panchayat -cleric combine had failed to protect the rapist. Their combined wrath is now focused on the survivor who dared to challenge the so-called Shariat law. In this they are ably aided and abetted by the media. The desire to paint a community as “barbaric, savage and ignorant” is to be expected from a communal force or a right wing group. It is when the media with its educated, sophisticated, so-called objective neutrality decides to prove it that one needs to revisit the rationale and logic of the exercise. The excuse provided is that ‘this is what they were saying’. It is after all “their” clergymen, obviously the leaders of that community, which have mouthed the retrograde sentiments about women! So, why should the media not carry them? Every time there is a case of community based violation, if it is related to the Muslim community, there is an immediate dash by the entire media towards the nearest clergyman or any one who physically looks like one: and perhaps that is where the answer is. It is the dramatic appearance: the beard, a white kurta, and skullcap; with the red and white chequered scarf making an optional and recent entry. It is a different matter altogether that in Islam there is no role for the clergy just as there is no place for caste hierarchies. One also wonders about the contrasting approach of the same media in the case of a caste Hindu woman. Recently in Banda there was the mysterious case of sati by an old Brahmin widow. Yet the case created no debate. Why was it not placed on the public agenda by the media by seeking quotes from so-called Hindu leaders? Would their quotes have been less retrograde? Finally, let us look at the proactive role of the Muslim ulemas to pass strictures against the rape survivor in this case. Two members of the All India Muslim Personal Law Board addressed the press upholding the fatwa of Deoband. None of them even bothered to confirm the veracity of the fatwa and its legal basis. As the AIMPLB technically represents all schools of opinion in Islam, the Board had to officially distance itself from the outrageous statements made by two members of the Board largely reflecting the Hanafi School of Islamic jurisprudence. Later, in their eagerness to appear fair, AIMPLB sent an all-men ‘fact-finding team’ to the rape survivor’s marital village. Its team concluded and made it public through the media that there was no “circumstantial evidence of rape”. What kind of evidence were they looking for in a rape case? Isn’t the survivor’s statement in court evidence enough? The fact that the husband of the survivor has admitted that his father behaved in the same manner with two of his sister-in-laws, forcing his brothers and sister-in-laws to quietly walk out, was not mentioned by anyone. One last question, for our learned ulemas. Why did they not pass any strictures against the old Hakim who had fathered three children from two of his own daughters in this very city? Why did that case not provoke them enough when it hit the headlines a year and a half ago? |
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What makes a suicide bomber tick? JUST what is it that powers the breed of desperate terrorists the world calls suicide bombers? The question, never far from the public consciousness, is back in the reckoning after the terror attacks in Ayodhya on July 5 and the multiple bombings in London two days later. The two incidents, thousands of miles from each other and very different in intent and implementation, have refocused attention on the varying motivations and technologies used by suicide bombers. Depending on their circumstances, it could be ethno-nationalism, the burning sense of individual and collective injustice or the lure of posthumous rewards that provoke them to commit this act of insanity. But if one digs deep into the tangle of motivations, one can discern a method in their madness. Says Rohan Gunaratna, a specialist on terrorist organisations in Asia: “The reasons for engaging suicide bombers vary from the push for independence by the LTTE in Sri Lanka to the obtainment of religious martyrdom by Hamas bombers. The Tamil Tigers, who have staged two-thirds of all the suicide bombings in the world, are driven by ethno-nationalism. Islamist groups are driven by religious ideology. When I say religious ideology, it is a political ideology fashioned by misinterpreting, misrepresenting and corrupting the religious text,” he said in a recent interview. However, Prof Robert Pape in a provocative new book, Dying to Win: The Strategic Logic of Suicide Terrorism, has a different take on the spurt in suicide bombings. Pape, who teaches political science in the University of Chicago, argues, “There is little connection between suicide terrorism and Islamic fundamentalism, or any of the world’s religions.” After studying 315 suicide attacks during 1981-2004, Pape concludes that the suicide bomber’s main motivation stems from logical military strategies, not their religion and especially not Islam. “What nearly all suicide terrorist attacks have in common is a specific secular and strategic goal: to compel modern democracies to withdraw military forces from territory that the terrorists consider to be their homeland,” maintains Pape. Gunaratna describes the suicide bomber in slightly romantic terms as having a “mind of steel” and a “heart like the petals of a flower”. “He is moved by emotion and is willing to kill and die for his cause. A common thread in what a suicide bomber hopes to gain by dying is to become a hero. Someone special. Someone different.” In India, terrorism expert B. Raman makes a distinction between “suicide killers” and “suicidal killings” in the various attacks in strife-torn Jammu and Kashmir and other parts of the country. “Except for the assassination of former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi and a few attacks on installations and individuals in Kashmir, the other strikes, even the Ayodhya attack are ‘suicidal’ as the assailants perceived there was a slender chance for escape,” Raman told IANS. In recent years, intelligence officials have found at least five instances where kamikaze attacks have been led by educated youths. This shows a recent mutation in the profile of a potential suicide bomber. “He is no longer ghettoised. Madrassas (Islamic seminaries) are not the favoured sanctuary of these bombers any longer. The modern day suicide bomber is hi-tech, net-savvy and educated. That is what is worrisome,” says an intelligence official posted in Jammu and Kashmir. — Indo-Asian News Service |
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A page three book launch by Devi Cherian THE lady who has literally changed the shape, size and looks of millions of the fair sex once again made news. Vandana Luthra of VLCC threw a page 3 bash to launch a book. Well, knowing Vandana’s great marketing skills and shrewd PR she did put together a set of has been page 3 sorts. The Indian designers who are so like the Siberian birds. As and when the sun reaches its zenith, they head towards the west and vanish towards the mountains. But as the rains gods have started blessing the capital, the hibernation period is over and this fraternity is back in full swing, air-kissing, smiling and posing. The book was launched by chief guest Shabana Azmi. And of course, Shabana being Shabana only told the gathering about her various roles in her forthcoming movies and how she merges into them all. It was actually “the power of I”. In fact, how even her husband Javed Akhtar at times finds her behaviour strange. Hey! Talking of Javed he is really busy lobbying for a Rajya Sabha seat for himself. Well, if Shabana could be there why not Javed. But nobody talks like Shabana dear. And this evening was no different. Can someone get me a drink? Will you stop breathing down my neck? But let’s give the devil her due — VLCC has helped many ladies lose tonnes of kilos. But the guests could not help notice that her old powerful friends like Amar Singh were missing. Captain’s party hangover The ‘leisure and pleasure’ set in Delhi is grinning about Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder’s escapade to Dubai. Perhaps because of his royal lineage, Amarinder has got the reputation of being a five star CM more than a grassroots leader. Delhi was not surprised therefore that after returning from Dubai he got into trouble. While it is routine for Delhi’s party set to go to Dubai for weekend parties and breaks, it is a matter of some amusement that a C.M. should break protocol, security restrictions and other norms by escaping to Dubai. At 24, Akbar Road, the rap on the knuckles for the C.M, is seen as mild. After all, cabinet ministers from other states in the North have to bend and plead with their Congress CMs before they can come even to Delhi for a wicked week-end. Saddi Dilli On the whole, in Saddi Dilli, as the cool breeze coaxed a smile out of everyone and the prolonged showers brought a spring to every step, Dilliwalas have been having fun. Whether it was with the band “Joshilay” or it was the fair sex cruising night at Athena, the opposite sex giggled, guffawed, screamed and generally made hay while Vodka cruises did the rounds. So, all these women’s nights at Athena are rocking and the fair sex have a blast. |
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From the pages of The Sepoy: striking contrast IT is worth noting that the hardest part of the toil falls on the sepoy when in the cantonments. While having to work the hardest while in camp, in the field his place is, if not in front, at least by the side, of his British comrade. But observe the difference in their pay and treatment. Can such an efficient and obedient soldier be got for nine rupees a month in any other country in the world? Do the natives of the class that enter the army, except in the poorest parts of the country, live in such miserable hovels as are assigned for the use of Her Majesty’s Indian soldiers? In the field the sepoy has to face the same danger as the British soldier, but the former is given a gun far inferior to that of the latter and a bayonet which is, it is said, smaller in length. As to rewards and decorations it will be enough to say that in despatches the lion’s share of the much-coveted Mention goes to the British troops, and the Victoria Cross has been placed beyond the reach of the sepoy, though so much is said about his heroism, loyalty and all that…. There is no betterment observable in the position and prospects of the Indian soldier. His pay has been increased, true, but how could Government help doing that when day-labourers in the bazaars are earning five annas a day? By their narrow policy of distrust the British have shut out the higher classes of Indians from the Army of their own country. |
Be happy with what you get and don’t keep craving for the riches of others. If you did not have possessions, would you not be craving them too? Think about this seriously and try to be content. — Book of quotations on Hinduism As the shadow is to the sun, so is the soul to the Supreme. — The Upanishads The heroes who fall in quest of victory or in defense of their faith are immortalised by the bards. But who remembers the widow they leave behind, some of them taken in the first flush of youth, some of them with little children to rear. — The Mahabharata  |
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