 |
|
|
Retrial is the only option
Troubled Valley |
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Lankan peace-meal
Moral policing
White rice and yellow dal
Dateline Washington China orders
pollution crackdown Chatterati
|
Retrial is the only option The storm over the acquittal of all accused in the Jessica Lall murder case has had some impact after all. The Delhi High Court has in an unprecedented suo motu action sought details of the case from the city Police Commissioner. These are so murky that now there is some hope that there will be a retrial. The Delhi Police headed by Mr Ajay Raj Sharma at that time had done a scandalously bad job of investigation. Although there are reasons to suspect that most of the vital evidence in the Jessica Lall murder case would never come to light, at least the shocked nation might get to know what was the motive behind the “lopsided investigation and shoddy prosecution”, as admitted even by some senior police officers. Shockingly, all this happened despite the fact that the High Court had taken cognisance of the matter earlier too. It had also entertained a PIL on the shoddy probe of the case soon after the incident when it was highlighted in the media. The court had closed the proceedings at that time after senior officers of the Delhi police had given a categorical assurance that the investigation would be done in right earnest. Just look at the investigation that they have done! As far as the common man is concerned, it is a clear case of the brazen misuse of power and influence by persons in high places who know the art of buying/intimidating/cajoling witnesses and investigating policemen into silence. The circumstances are too shocking for words. The murder was committed in the presence of hundreds of well-heeled persons, including senior police officers. Very few dared to come forward to depose. The few who did turned hostile. The clout of the accused can be gauged from the fact that now even advocates give their opinion on the matter from behind the veil of anonymity. As we advocated in the previous editorial as well, the case must be reopened and investigated impartially and the guilty subjected to a fresh trial. The verdict then might be as severe as in the case of the Best Bakery massacre.
|
|
Troubled Valley
THE killing of four innocent boys at Chak Dudipora in Kupwara district of Jammu and Kashmir on Wednesday, allegedly by Army personnel, has created an embarrassing situation for the security forces. Few people in the Valley are prepared to listen to the Army explanation that they were gunned down in crossfire by two militants hiding in the village and that one of the victims was associated with the Lashkar-e-Toiyaba. There is a general belief that the security forces are trying to hide their “guilt”. As details of the incident are not known except in closed circles, rumourmongers have a field day. And when they have a vested interest in showing the Army in a poor light, they use their imagination for vile purposes. Small wonder that the Dudipora killings are being used by separatist politicians to organise protests in the Valley almost everyday. On February 23 protesters blocked the road that connects Kupwara to Srinagar. The Valley was virtually shut off the next day as protest demonstrations were held in Kupwara, Srinagar, Sopore and elsewhere. The agitated people are not satisfied with the magisterial enquiry ordered by the government and the compensation offered to the families of three of the four victims by the Army. They want summary punishment of the jawans concerned. Of course, the guilty must be identified quickly and punished adequately. The incident occurred at a time when the round-table conference on Kashmir was to be held in New Delhi. It must have caused considerable embarrassment to the government. It is true that the security forces fighting an invisible enemy sometimes find it unavoidable to engage themselves in crossfire, when there are chances of innocents being killed. But it is also true that the battle against terrorism cannot be won by antagonising the common man. The security forces must ensure that no innocent person suffers under any circumstances. In fact, they should do everything possible to protect the innocent people, who are the worst sufferers of militancy. They should also realise that even a single mistake of this nature by them can cause a setback to the anti-militancy operation in the state.
|
|
Lankan peace-meal JAW-JAW is better than war-war. This seems to be the only principle upheld by the two-day talks, in Geneva, between the Government of Sri Lanka and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). The “resumption” of talks, suspended in April 2003, comes on the fourth anniversary of the ceasefire agreement that has held in place, despite violations, the longest period of no-war since the Tamil-Sinhala conflict broke out in the early 1980s. The only notable aspect of the just-concluded talks is that there were talks, between the two sides after more than three years; a period during which the LTTE, more than the Government of Sri Lanka, threatened to drag the island republic back into a military confrontation. Given this background, no breakthrough was expected in Geneva. However, there are positives that have emerged. First, both sides have agreed to meet again for talks in April. Second, differences over the ceasefire agreement and violations notwithstanding, parties to the conflict have explicitly committed to respecting and upholding the agreement. A joint statement released after excluding contentious issues is a pointer to the many differences that continue to separate the two sides from reviving the actual negotiations for a resolution of the conflict. And, that is unlikely to happen in the near future. The political issues can be taken up only after an element of trust – which is admittedly at rock bottom between Colombo and the LTTE – is restored. As of now both parties are sizing up each other with an eye on leveraging their respective positions. The government of President Mahinda Rajapakse has every reason to be wary of the LTTE. For its part, the LTTE jumps course or raises new demands every time talks appear to be leading to a conclusion on any one issue. That being the drift of the negotiations, forever haunted by doubts of the LTTE’s sincerity, the question marks over the larger peace process remain.
|
|
The true use of speech is not so much to express our wants as to conceal them. — Oliver Goldsmith
|
Moral policing
We have had much more than our share of incidents of “moral policing” and plain intolerance over the recent period. Much has been said and written about these stories that can only pain a truly proud Indian. Far less noticed, however, has been the link between the phenomenon and a process from which the country’s middle class hopes to gain rapidly — “globalisation”. Such incidents, which disturb our drawingroom comfort and traumatise our TV-watching, provide a growing mass of evidence from across the country of our maladjustment with the social and cultural consequences of the phenomenon popularly associated with outsourcing of Western jobs and the satellite television. No, I am not talking of any “corruption” of our culture by the process. I am talking of an unstated, panicky reaction to the process that such complaints actually seek to conceal. Of the incidents of moral policing, the most noticed one has been the Khushboo affair of Tamil Nadu. It attracted attention, in particular, for being reported from a state credited with a 60-year-old politics of social reform. In these columns some time ago, we discussed what the campaign against the actress for some plain speaking about pre-marital sex revealed about the character of the “Dravidian” ideology and politics. The question still remained: why were we witnessing such a campaign in Tamil Nadu only now? Why are such incidents on the increase elsewhere in the country as well? As, for example, in Meerut. Without at least a recent precedent was the swoop on couples by policewomen in a public park, in front of officially assembled cameras. What followed — demonstrations of solidarity with the cops and emulation of their example by far-right groups and sections of the public sympathetic to them - revealed the new degree of social sanction for such violations of privacy and personal liberty. Observations made in defence of such campaigns leave little doubt that women’s rights were their main target. Khushboo and her defender Suhasini Maniratnam, for example, had choice invectives and rotten eggs hurled at them for daring to relax the rules of chastity for women, especially the Tamils of the species. Citizens following in the footsteps of the Meerut police, too, cited only the waywardness of women college students as sufficient justification for their strong-arm methods. They were all articulating the anxious and even alarmed reaction of a patriarchy to the social changes that the two aspects of the globalisation process threatened. They had been complaining for long about the satellite channels that were removing metaphorical veils and exposing women even within four walls to hitherto forbidden sights and visions. Added now to this affront was the offer of a working life and a measure of the economic independence for women, especially the young increasingly visible and audible in a wide range of new workplaces including cybercafes, public call offices, collection centres of courier services, call centres and super markets. The reaction of the patriarchal middle class is reminiscent of its shudder, a generation or two ago in many parts of the country, at the idea of sending girls out to a residential campus, or at the prospect of their pre-marriage employment. The reaction also bears a strong resemblance to parental apprehensions that used to ensure a young man’s traditional marriage before he went abroad for education or employment. It is fear of a loss of patriarchal authority that prompts these pre-emptive strikes against women and their rights. The tradition-bound middle class sees its comfortable cocoon crumbling whenever it sees patriarchal control over women and their lives weakening. It is even less ready to recognise women’s sexual and reproductive rights when it sees the prospect of the “weaker sex” gaining economic strength and independence. Along with women, the campaigns now also target the youth in general. The gender divide now is also a generation divide. The generation gap today is more real than it ever was in India. It is becoming something like the gulf between non-resident Indians of the first and succeeding generations. The NRI, fearful of his children going beyond the control of his “culture”, now sends them home for schooling. Like-minded resident Indians send their kids back home from permissive parks. It is no accident that incidents of moral policing have been accompanied by those of general intolerance. Among the examples has been the ban on an insufficiently reverent book on Shivaji by the “secular” government of Maharashtra, whose leaders used to berate the Shiv Sena for such actions, and the vetting of Amir Khan’s “Rang de Basanti” by defence chiefs. For, moral policing comes also as part of a broader attack on human rights and civil liberties. The connection with globalisation is clear in this case as well. Globalisation, after all, is nothing but global capitalism. And capitalism was, historically, the harbinger of bourgeois democracy, or democracy as we know it. Behind the multi-pronged offensive against human rights lurks, too, the fear in a still largely semi-feudal society of a more democratic socio-political order on the way. We in the middle class want the gains of “liberalisation” and “globalisation” without the attendant liberties. This is immediately evident in the dominant, economic aspect of the process. We have votaries of the process who believe that it is incompatible with trade union rights and a welfare net, who do not realise that unions with their collective bargaining rights were a product of capitalism, that state-run welfare schemes were an invention of a free-market West. The inadequate commitment of this class to human rights and civil liberties, even to parliamentary democracy by which it swears, finds other illustrations as well. A striking one is a loud demand we hear now and again for denial of the right to contest an election and enter the legislature for an Indian citizen who breaches the sacred two-child norm. It should not need to be argued that the need for population control negates the most fundamental of the citizen’s democratic rights. Yet, people professing commitment to democracy see nothing incongruous about arguing for such a measure by citing the examples of countries that they otherwise call “totalitarian”. A recent television news headline provided another example: “End of the goonda raj” it screamed and went on to show policemen in Patna beating up an “extortionist” on the street in front of cheering and clapping urchins and other bystanders. The channel has a right to rejoice over the electoral rout of Lalu Prasad, but it had none to join the applauding crowd of Bihar’s capital. The point is not only that the channel was probably making heroes of the police that had let the extortionists flourish. It is that the class, which the channel represents and caters to, is insufficiently aware of the importance of the due process of law in a democracy. Women may be the worst sufferers in the entire process. But fear of democracy, fostered by the most influential section of Indian opinion, bodes ill for the country and its people as a whole.n
|
White rice and yellow dal
I was an awkward child — awkward and lonely. I had no athletic ability, no social skill and this effectively precluded me from any attention from my peers. All I got from them was ridicule and contempt. Smarting from the hurt, aching for the warmth and security of home, I would hide behind the dormitory and weep my heart out. It was here that Mary Ayah found me and drew me close to her comforting bosom. This became routine - straight after lunch I would rush to her and she would share her lunch, usually white rice and yellow dal, with me and in the eating of the simple but delicious meal, the hurt, the pain and the loneliness all slipped away from me. The two years in prep school flew past and I was propelled into the senior school. Even here Mary’s support remained with me, in the extra share of cake that her brother John, the head cook, slipped my way and in the sharing of her lunch on the occasional Sunday when I went to prep school. Her rice and her dal had become a symbol of warmth and love and caring and even now, after well over 50 years, I have only to close my eyes to smell and taste that meal again. When I began to study music, much to the amusement of my peers, Mary would often come and stand at the window of the music cell and listen to my practice and in her admiration and praise the taunts of the children were forgotten. She has gone to her rest and there is only the memory of her warm, cherubic face, the mustiness of her clothes, her rich chocolate voice and, of course, the rice and dal, which come back to me. Then, miraculously, at the beginning of this year, 53 years after I last met Mary, I got a phone call from Karnal - it was her granddaughter. She was with the Haryana Sports Department and needed help with her posting. Fortunately I had the right contacts and she got what she wanted. She came to thank me. There was awkwardness between us, which was not helped by the fact that I had failed to find any sign of Mary in her. She finished her cup of tea and produced a small steel container which she shyly handed across the table, to me. “I made it myself,” she said. My heart missed a beat, the blood rushed to my face. I knew it was impossible, yet with every fibre of my being I wished — yes, you know what I wished! But when I opened the container it was filled with “pinnis”, small and brown and perfectly round. I was disappointed though I shouldn’t have been. When I bit into one of them, it was delicious. Obviously some of Mary’s culinary skills had been passed onto her granddaughter, because the pinnis too, like the rice and dal, tasted of warmth, and love and caring.n
|
Dateline Washington
Mr
Richard Celeste served as the U.S. Ambassador in New Delhi at the time
of President Bill Clinton’s visit to India in March, 2000. The trip,
the first by a U.S. President in over two decades, marked an upswing
in U.S.-India relations. Mr Celeste, who currently serves as
President of Colorado College, and his wife Jacqueline Lundquist,
forged their own special bonds with India. On the eve of U.S.
President George W. Bush’s visit to India, Mr. Celeste discusses the
transformation of the U.S.-India relationship and some of the
challenges ahead in an interview. Excerpts: Q. In what
way has the U.S.-India relationship evolved since President Clinton’s
visit to India? A: President Clinton’s visit was historic —
the first [to India] by a U.S. President in 22 years. Staying five
days and travelling well beyond the official venues in Delhi, Clinton
captured the imagination and affection of ordinary Indians. In his
remarkable speech in the Central Hall of Parliament, Clinton laid out
the framework for an emerging partnership — one welcomed and
strengthened by Prime Minister [Atal Bihari] Vajpayee on his
reciprocal visit to the U.S. in September, 2000. Q. Some analysts describe President Clinton and his administration as pioneers of the new U.S.-India relationship. Could you describe the role you played in this change and the challenges you faced? A:
I worked hard to keep a high-level dialogue going between our two
nations in the difficult aftermath of India’s decision to declare
and demonstrate its nuclear capability. Q. What expectations do
you have from President Bush’s visit to India? A: I believe that President Bush is every bit as committed to a strong relationship between the United States and India as President Clinton was. He has recognised the importance of our cooperation in fighting global terrorism; he has been a powerful advocate for reopening and expanding high-tech collaboration between our nations, including the arena of civilian nuclear energy; he will promote more open markets and expanded cooperation in science (especially health care) and education. Q. The U.S. and India are now hailed as natural allies. What in your opinion was the turning point in this relationship? A:
Certainly the end of the Cold War and India’s decision to open its
economy to global markets were important enabling factors. I would
cite two more recent factors that mark late 1999 and early 2000 as the
turning point in my mind. One factor was political leadership-the
Vajpayee speech to the Asia Society in September 1999 when he first
referred to our two nations as “natural allies” (to the surprise
of many, remember) and then the Clinton visit in March 2000. The
other factor is the Y2K crisis that obliged business leaders in the
U.S. to scour the world for IT skills and introduced India’s
enormously talented manpower to our business leaders. Today the 24/7
bond between companies in the US and service providers in India is the
stuff of books and myth-making. Q. Secretary of State
Condoleezza Rice has said the Bush administration wants to help turn
India into a “major world power in the 21st century.” Why does
India matter to the U.S.? A: India does not need our “help”
to become a major world power: that is bound to happen and the only
question is how soon. The fact is that the political and economic
systems of our nations are complementary in many ways. We need to
explore them and expand them in ways that benefit the people of both
lands. India and the U.S. have deep intellectual ties, nurtured by several generations of scientific collaboration. We have deep genetic ties with over two million Americans of Indian origin who have assumed leadership roles in every profession and even every level of political life. We have shared strategic interests - particularly in fighting terrorists who have repeatedly threatened both countries. Q. To what extent is the threat of China responsible for the closer relationship between the U.S. and India? A:
I do not think the leaders of the United States or of India see China
as a “threat.” I do think that we see China as a challenge. Part
of that challenge is how China transforms itself into a modern
democratic state, because without that its growing market economy is
going to generate social stresses that may explode. In India, those stresses simply lead to an election defeat for the incumbents. The other part of the challenge is how China resolves disputes along its borders. This directly impacts India, of course. But it also impacts the U.S. because of our historic relationship with Taiwan. Q. What are some of the areas in which India and the U.S. can continue to build on their relationship? A: Clearly there is a great opportunity for India to encourage more foreign direct investment, especially in retail, real estate and infrastructure. We should nurture robust collaborations in science and technology-and I would put health care, nanotechnology, alternative energy and information security at the top of the list. Q. What are some of the challenges that face the U.S.-India relationship? A:
We need to find a way to cooperate in curbing nuclear proliferation,
and preventing rogue states or terrorist groups from obtaining weapons
of mass destruction. We need to protect each other’s intellectual
property in an age where that will drive commercial value. We need to
invest in trade and development strategies that spread the fruits of
economic growth more broadly to those at the margins of both
societies. |
|
China orders pollution crackdown Turning
a blind eye to environmental degradation could now cost Chinese officials
their jobs, state media announced Tuesday. However, environmentalists raised
concerns about enforcement of the new regulations. The government announcement comes in the wake of a string of embarrassing pollution incidents that forced Beijing to grapple with the downside of a runaway economy and its impact on the ecosystem and public health. “By
cracking down on corruption and environmental destruction, we are correcting
the wrong principle of pursuing fast economic growth by sacrificing
environmental quality,” Liu Yufu, vice minister of supervision, told the
Chinese media. Local corruption has been a major stumbling block for the
central government’s effort to rein in environmental violators. Under the
new rules, officials who fail to shut down projects that cause widespread
pollution, who reduce or cancel fees imposed for violations or who allow
factories to illegally discharge industrial waste will be severely
disciplined. However, the government did not spell out what punishment might
be imposed other than to note that helping to cover up environment accidents
could result in dismissal. Environmentalists said the announcement was a good sign that Beijing recognises the urgency of adapting a more sustainable developmental policy. “The
Chinese government knows if we continue at this pace of development the harm
to the environment can only be greater,” said Kevin May, toxics campaign
manager with Greenpeace China based in Guangzhou. “There have always been
laws, but very little enforcement. Now we have new laws. How will they be
different? That remains to be seen.” To show this time they mean business,
Beijing also last week announced Cabinet level directives to clean up the
country’s damaged environment in the next 15 years. Top on the agenda is to
improve the country’s water, air and soil quality. By the government’s own
admission, most of China’s rivers are polluted and over a third of the
country is ravaged by acid rain. “The issue of pollution has become a ‘blasting
fuse’ of social instability,” Zhou Shengxian, director of the State
Environmental Protection Administration, or SEPA, told the New China News
Agency last week, referring to the rising number of public protests over the
country’s environmental problems. Earlier this month, SEPA threatened to shut down 11 companies and 10 factories, including riverfront smelters and chemical plants, if they fail to control the contaminants. But the toxic spills continue. Since the November spill, SEPA has received about 45 reports of pollution accidents, according to state media. Just last week, industrial waste from a power plant was flushed into a river in Sichuan province, forcing the shutdown of water supplies to 28,000 residents for at least four days. To
help the environmental agency combat protectionism, the central government
plans to link local officials’ performance ratings not just to their ability
to promote economic development but also environmental protection. “China
went from the relentless pursuit of class struggle to GDP growth; now it’s
environmental protection and the so-called green GDP,” said Zhou Xiaozheng,
a sociologist at People’s University in Beijing. — LA
Times-Washington Post |
|
Chatterati Millionaires,
celebrities. And all the wannabies dancing to balle-balle and pop music. You
guessed it! I am talking about the great Chatwal wedding where Clinton, the
Mittals, VIPs were all under one roof. The jewellery was large enough to
blind you and the menu was enough to feed millions of our starved people. The
same Chatwal, whose only claim to fame is 8 restaurants in America, made the
best of his huge PR spend and Indian “kababs” to rope in the Indian
community to fill the banks of politicians in America. Hence, Clinton dotes on Chatwal and many like him. The same Chatwal, who had declared bankruptcy nearly twice, made the wedding of his only son into a big fat Indian media splash. Of course, 40 models from New York added to the glamour while industrialists stared wide-eyed at this over-the-top wedding of the year. A lot of celebrities were there like Deepak Chopra and the Hindujas. But
our very own politicians were not anywhere around. Wonder what kept them away?
Was it over-the-top arrangements or Sonia Gandhi’s directions to keep
Congressmen away from such elaborate stuff? The wedding left Delhiiets a bit wide-eyed. There is a lesson for all of us how to plan a big fat wedding. One is to announce the arrival of international celebrities like Naomi Campbell and Gwyneth Paltrow. We all know that they will not turn up. But the hype is created. Invite
the whole town whether you know them or not. Hire at least two PR agencies a
month in advance. The wedding might have created all the hungama it was
supposed to but unfortunately most of Delhi’s real A-list social-set decided
to give it a miss. There was, however, a full view of hordes of “firangi”
guests in pink “saafas”. Hundreds of bodyguards and bemused guests, but
despite the hype, this Chatwal wedding failed to impress.
Jessica case It is astonishing how the hype of the Jessica Lal case has overshadowed everything else, thanks to the media. Any high profile case in court becomes a matter of media speculation and hype whether it is the Best Bakery case in Gujarat, the Nanda case where the car became a truck, thanks to the witnesses or the Jessica Lal case. Witnesses turning hostile is nothing new. Right or wrong judgment is not what we are talking about here. What we are asking is: why do these witnesses turn hostile so quickly? Money, power and musclemen are what the media is blaming it on. I
think it is an actual failure of the system where witnesses are not punished
enough for changing their stand for whatever reason. Zahira is the one who
should be put behind the bars for lying in court several times. Manu Sharma
was behind bars for nearly four years. The case is seven years old and one
must keep in mind that Manu’s father, Vinod Sharma, resigned as PCC chief
that very day on moral grounds. The media, of course, shows what sells. Haunting the family and friends of Jessica and Manu has become a nightmare. Even though high-profile witnesses like Bina Ramani were given protection, they still managed to rub off evidence. So these people should be hauled by the law and punished severely for keeping the truth away and making a mockery of the law and I think half of our cases would be solved in an easier and simpler way. Protection should be given to witnesses and cases should be solved with urgency so that matters are put to rest at the earliest possible. |
|
From the pages of “Red letters” galore We
seem to be passing through an epidemic of red letters. Government
officials, shopkeepers, municipal commissioners, even newspaper
editors have received such letters threatening them with death if they
do not mend their ways. At one time these letters might have inspired
the addressee with fear, but as their number increased they were
treated as mere bluff and now one regards them as a humdrum sort of
affair. The mystery behind these letters has, however, deepened, as
the police has failed to trace the authors of these practical jokes
who sign themselves as “General Officers Commanding,” “Officer
Commanding,” “Commander-in-Chief,” “Minister of Justice” or
as holding some other equally exalted officer in the “Hindustan
Socialist Republican Army.” It is reassuring to learn that “the
red letters which have become so common now-a-days” are no genuine
but are the work of C.I.D. agents and that the unoffending men,
including members of our own fraternity, who were threatened with
instantaneous death are safe. We hope that this much-needed assurance
will bring relief to many a troubled mind.
|
Cowardice, whether philosophical or otherwise, I abhor. With Brahmanical paste-marks on their foreheads and their loin-cloths with stuck-up ends, They are actually the butchers of the world, holding knives in their hands. The wise man takes great care to gaurd his thoughts. They are subtle, very difficult to perceive and slip out of control at the tinniest opportunity. A well guarded mind brings happiness.
|
| HOME PAGE | |
Punjab | Haryana | Jammu & Kashmir |
Himachal Pradesh | Regional Briefs |
Nation | Opinions | | Business | Sports | World | Mailbag | Chandigarh | Ludhiana | Delhi | | Calendar | Weather | Archive | Subscribe | Suggestion | E-mail | |
