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A council for
judges Not a happy
situation The Tata-Corus deal |
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Time for a dialogue
Epidemic hit
Iraq, a nation in
flight Ropeway to a
forgotten village in Kashmir Delhi
Durbar
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Not a happy situation It
is universally acknowledged that the key to the progress of any group, be it based on caste, community or gender, is the level of its education. In other words, if a set of people is to move up in life, its young ones have to have adequate educational qualifications. Unfortunately, this vital weapon is not there in adequate measure in the armoury of Muslims, which comprise the largest minority in India. According to a report in the Indian Express, the Rajindar Sachar Committee constituted by the Prime Minister to prepare a report on the social, economic and educational status of Indian Muslims, has come to the conclusion that they figure behind even the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes in enrolment in literacy schools. The report is yet to become formally public, but this tendency is very much visible in everyday life as well. It is not as if the number of Muslim children going to school has not gone up during the 1965-2001 period that the report covers, but the rate of improvement lagged behind even those of SCs/STs, putting them at a great disadvantage. The alarming situation has developed because of a double-edged misfortune. Many misplaced taboos have deprived them of their birthright. Semi-illiterate zealots persuade them to not even take polio drops, leave alone sending children to schools. The enlightened ones must ensure that this kind of irrational resistance comes to an end. The community as a whole has to come forward to send more of its children, especially girls, to school. At the same time, authorities must also go out of their way to encourage their enrolment. Anyone who keeps them out due to any kind of prejudice against Muslims must be dealt with severely and effectively. No country can make progress if a large chunk of its population is lacking in education, and consequently in jobs. An across-the-board upliftment has to be brought about, not through the quota route but by involving all citizens in a voluntary manner. A plural society cannot afford to see a large minority of its people left behind the rest. |
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The Tata-Corus deal It
is natural for the Tata-Corus deal to provoke parallels with the Mittal-Arcelor merger. Since the Tatas are known to be a benevolent employer and reputed for honesty in business, there have been no howls of protest or arguments of national pride getting hurt — as it was in the Arcelor case — against the Rs 9,100 crore takeover, the largest by an Indian company. Mittal Steel was seen by many Europeans as a predator; Tata Steel is seen as a friendly business rival. The Tatas will retain, at least for the time being, the present Corus identity. The British reaction to the deal has been low key, though company workers in the UK and the Netherlands fear job losses in restructuring. Compared to Corus, Tata Steel is a low-cost producer of steel and the integration will benefit both. Raising money for the prized acquisition will not be a problem. Problem, if any, may come from rival Brazilian firm CSN which has appointed a noted banker, Lazards, as an adviser to snatch the deal from the Tatas. If a bidding war breaks out, the Tatas have made it known that they would withdraw. That is typical of the Tata mindset. The group is reputed for not paying bribes to officials for getting what they want. That is saying a lot in the Indian work culture. That is what commands respect at home and abroad. Mergers and acquisitions are common in steel. The past two years have seen 305 such deals. After taking over a company three times its size, Tata Steel will become the sixth largest global producer of steel with Arecelor-Mittal occupying the top slot and featuring in the Fortune 500 list. The Tatas began their acquisitions with Daewoo of South Korea and include British tea giant Tetley and NatSteel of Singapore. How many such deals prove beneficial in the long run remains to be seen. But the regret remains why for so long Indian enterprise had remained tied in chains. By breaking shackles that had bound industry for decades, globalisation has allowed Indian ambition to spread. |
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Cheerfulness gives elasticity to the spirit. Spectres fly before it. — Samuel Smiles
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Time for a dialogue Culture, as commonly understood, is the sum total of a country’s, or region’s, traditions, historical memory, language and evolution. Religion is part of these attributes although it has taken a larger-than-life role in today’s discourse. Perhaps it has become a more important prop in these bewilderingly changing times, with technology racing ahead of human capacity to absorb change. Concepts such as the clash of civilisations have surfaced because technology has shortened distances in the real and virtual worlds. Images of a racial incident in one part of the world are immediately transmitted around the globe. Space has shrunk. Rioting in the Paris suburbs by a migrant underclass or a neo-Nazi march or racial profiling at airports are the currency of television viewing for anyone sitting in front of the box. These perceptions have been exacerbated by the manner in which distinct minorities in the affluent West have been unable to integrate in European societies in particular, which allowed them to live their own lives, often as an underclass. Islam assumed salience because many could not reconcile their concept of a good life with what they saw around them. The West’s initial disinterest in the Muslim diaspora was transformed into too much attention after the 2001 terrorist attacks in the United States. The West’s perception of a Muslim threat in Europe stems from the new realisation that efforts at integrating the Muslim minority have failed. Britain prided itself on its multiculturalism but discovered that it had largely left migrant minorities to their own devices. Traditional families from Muslim societies of the developing world were under no compulsion to integrate. In the French experiment, with the constitution giving equal rights to all citizens, a new underclass from the former colonies in the Arab world was consigned to the banlieue where the young, often unemployed, developed their own sub-culture and were outside the mainstream French experience. On the Muslim side, Palestine and the continuing occupation of Palestinian land by Israel have always been deeply felt and evocative issues. A feeling of grievance was merely exacerbated by the American-led invasion of Iraq. Many Muslims’ inability or unwillingness to adjust to the Western world and its mores were simply strengthened by the belief that the West, particularly the US and its faithful ally Britain, was out to get Muslims, be it in Palestine, Iraq, Afghanistan or Iran. At present we have the dialogue of the deaf. Talking to moderate Muslims is not a problem, but the Muslims whose real and imagined grievances are to be addressed are not listening. Many well-intentioned men and women from both sides of the barricades are propagating the need for reconciliation, but it is like preaching to the converted. Moderates do not plant bombs or kill innocent civilians. Pope John Paul II showed empathy for different religions and cultures and began a slow process of reconciliation with Islam. But Pope Benedict XVI has inherited a more flammable world and blotted his copybook by his quotation from an obscure Byzantine emperor impinging on the basis of the Islamic faith. This makes his task of seeking a dialogue with Muslims that much harder, despite his efforts to express regret over the offence he has given. And he has promised to undertake a scheduled visit to Turkey next month. While a number of Muslims have displayed their anger over such issues as the Danish cartoons depicting the prophet Muhammad or, more recently, the Pope’s remarks, there is a growing Western feeling that self-censorship with a view to placating volatile Muslim opinion is against liberal values and needs to be condemned as much as Muslim acts of violent protests. The recent instance of the postponement of an opera in Berlin because it might attract a hostile and violent Muslim reaction is a case in point. Indeed, the last incident stimulated a debate in Germany in which many politicians, including Chancellor Angela Merkel, waded in to decry what she construed as self-censorship. The upshot of the controversy was wide agreement that it was cowardly to indulge in self-censorship merely because it might cause offence to a community or religious group. Even more explosive has been the debate set in motion by the former British Foreign Secretary, Mr Jack Straw, suggesting that he asked fully veiled Muslim women constituents to uncover their faces when they met him because he felt uncomfortable conversing with a person whose face and expressions he could not see. He has won support from many others, including Prime Minister Tony Blair, who felt that a full veil was a sign of separation. So, how can we begin a dialogue under such circumstances? Is the party to dialogue with ready? There can be some pointers in the Indian experience. Mahatma Gandhi sought to address Hindu-Muslim strife, the basis of the subcontinent’s partition in 1947, through his advocacy of non-violent protest relying on people’s inner strength. His dialogue between Hindus and persons of other faiths was essentially a dialogue of religions through the common threads of ethics and morality to be found in every religion. That he did not fully succeed is clear from the very fact of Partition and the bloodshed that accompanied it. But India gave itself a secular democratic constitution and Hindu-Muslim strife in independent India, often spilling into riots and murders, is largely contained, but for aberrations in Gujarat, Mumbai and Uttar Pradesh. The dialogue process between civilisations, in particular between Christian and Muslim faiths, must begin by public opinion in the West forcing their ruling establishments to reject policies that are patently unfair and unjust to Muslims. The Israeli-Palestinian confrontation looms large in Muslim consciousness, with Israel being encouraged by the sole superpower in its occupation of Palestinian lands since 1967. It is the duty of Muslims, on the other hand, to find a voice in condemning acts of violence that do their cause no good, apart from strengthening extreme elements in Western societies. Muslims are not the only religious group short of leaders of substance or courage, but their predicament is graver than those of others after the consequences of Nine Eleven — the September 2001 terrorist attacks on the New York Trade Centre and on the Pentagon — and the exaggerated American response to it. Surely, the essence of the dialogue must be to bring into its fold those who decry Western culture and values. There is a dichotomy here. For instance, foreign women in Iran are required to follow Iranian custom in how they dress in the streets in line with the old adage of doing what the Romans do in Rome. But Muslim societies want to retain their distinctiveness in a European setting, to the total disregard of local customs and values. The ultimate answer for traditional Muslims in Western societies is that if they do not accept the local mores, they can go home. Unless there is sufficient groundswell of opinion in the Western and Muslim worlds for a genuine dialogue, the two sides will be condemned to talk to one another in the virtual
world.
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Epidemic hit Much
before chikungunya and dengue became household names, I had fallen victim to another fast spreading epidemic — vegetarianism. I got it from my wife who is a hardcore herbivore and blames all problems of humanity on meat-eating. She enforces her creed at home with the zeal of a terrorist. And since the bird flu scare, she has ruled out even egg at the dining table. The two most hapless victims of her injunction are I, and our poor dog “Puzo” (hope sister Maneka is reading it). Our eating habits have made us a family of pariahs. Who would like to be invited to a meal of
ghaas-phoos or take the trouble of cooking an array of vegetarian dishes just to accommodate an odd family? Moreover, the slightest symptom of my being unwell invites the inevitable query: “Did you eat something non-vegetarian outside?” You can’t imagine how tired I am of telling lies. Recently, when some members of a friend’s family were down with Chikungunya, she was at it again. “Serves them right! Have you seen how they gorge on chicken at parties?” She said. “But what has that got to do with chikungunya?” I said. “A lot. Only non-vegetarian people get such diseases. It’s the nature’s way of punishing them.” She said. “That’s unfair. There is no connection between the two.” I said dismissively. “Why, it is elementary! First, it was the mad-cow disease, then the bird flu and now chikungunya and dengue.” She said emphatically. “But surely you know that Chikungunya is spread by a mosquito.” I said. “I know that. But what you don’t know is that this mosquito bites only meat eaters.” She said hinting that she would brook no further argument on the issue. I have learnt to take such hints, the hard way. A few days passed. It was only a miracle that no one in the family fell sick. Then, one day my driver, who is Brahmin and a vegetarian to boot, also came down with chikungunya. I couldn’t let this opportunity pass. At dinner, I asked her, “What do you say now?” “Yes, we need extra protection against mosquitoes.” She said grudgingly. “But now let us have eggs at least.” I begged gulping down the tasteless spinach soup. “Not eggs but eggplant soup. That is what you will have from tomorrow. Just today I found out from the net how good it is for body resistance.” She said knowing how I hate
Baingan. That was worse than having Chikungunya. |
Iraq, a nation in flight It
is one of the largest long term population movements in the Middle East since Israel expelled Palestinians in the late 1940s. Everywhere inside and outside the country, Iraqis who once lived in their own houses cower for safety six or seven to a room. Others are simply leaving. Many go after they have been threatened. Often they leave after receiving an envelope with a bullet inside and a scrawled note telling them to get out immediately. Others flee after a relative has been killed believing they will be next. Out of a total population of 26 million, there are now 1.6 million Iraqis who have fled the country and a further 1.5 million people displaced within Iraq according to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. In Jordan alone there are 500,000 Iraqi refugees and a further 450,000 in Syria. In Syria alone they are estimated to be arriving at the rate of 40,000 a month. Few of the Iraqis taking flight now show any desire to return to their homes. The numbers compelled to take to the roads have risen dramatically this year with 365,000 new refuges since the bombing of the Shia shrine in Samara in February this year. Rich and poor are both vulnerable. “I’ll need more than five bodyguards if I am to live in Baghdad,” said one political leader who has left Iraq. “One evening the police came to my antique shop and drove me around Baghdad in their car,” said an antique dealer from the formerly well off shopping district of al-Mansur. “They wanted money or they’d charge me with illegal traffic in antiques. I gave them $5,000 in cash, closed my shop and went with my brother to Jordan the same night. I haven’t been back.” One well-established consultant doctor fled after escaping his kidnappers in Baghdad to the Kurdish capital of Arbil where he reopened his surgery. Bakers are often Shia and have been frequently targeted. Some now make bread with a Kalashnikov machine gun propped against the wall beside them. Many have left Sunni districts in some of which it became difficult to buy bread. Former pilots who are Sunni and served in the air force believed they were being singled out by Shia death squads because they might have once bombed Iran and many fled to Jordan. Jordanian immigration is more welcoming to Sunni than Shia Iraqis. The latter often find it easier to go to Syria. Every day heavily laden buses leave central Baghdad for Damascus. All sorts of Iraqis are on the run. Sunni are disappearing from Shia districts and vice versa. But the Christian minorities from Karada and Dhoura in Baghdad are also fast disappearing. Most of their churches are closed. Many leave the country while the better off try to rent expensive houses in Ain Kawa, a Christian neighbourhood in Arbil, the Kurdish capital. Nobody feels safe. Some 70,000 Kurds have taken flight from the largely Sunni Arab Mosul city. Among their
cruelest persecutors are Arabs, settled in Kurdish areas by Saddam Hussein over the last 30 years, who were in turn expelled by returning Kurds after the US invasion in 2003. In Basra, the great Shia city of the south, Sunni are getting out after a rash of assassinations. Baghdad is breaking up into a dozen different cities, each under the control of its own militia. In Shia areas this usually means the Mehdi Army of Muqtada al-Sadr. In Sunni districts it means that the insurgents who are also at war with the Americans, are taking over. A new sectarian geography is being created in the capital: The Sunni control the south and south west; the Shia the north and east. There is heavy fighting in mixed districts like Amel and Baya or places where there is still an out-numbered Sunni minority as in Hurriya. Some neighbouring Sunni and Shia districts now bombard each other with mortars every night. The worst slaughter – and consequent flight – is happening in the towns and villages on the outskirts of Baghdad where Sunni and Shia live side by side. For instance Shia are fleeing from Mahmoudiyah 20 miles south of Baghdad towards Suwaira and Kut. The Iraqi army does little to help, and Shia complain that the US is more intent on attacking the Mehdi Army than rescuing Shia villagers. According to one report from the Mahmoudiyah area: After two days of fighting a platoon of Iraqi soldiers “was despatched from the Sawaira base to break the siege. They turned up for two hours and evacuated some of the women and children to the safe zone of Sawaira, but had to turn back as they were not fully equipped to handle the situation without [US] air support.” The Shia accuse the US gunships of attacking their own defensive lines. Nineteen people were killed and scores injured in a bombing and mortar assault yesterday in Mahmoudiyah, in attacks blamed by the main Sunni bloc on the Mehdi army. Shia do have relatively safe areas to flee to (so far as any part of Iraq is safe) in east Baghdad or the Shia south of Iraq. Almost all the Sunni areas are beset so they may move only a few streets to a house they deem more secure. Otherwise they must leave the country, as many have, to Jordan or Syria. Flight often brings a host of difficulties with it. For instance much of the Iraqi population is unemployed and depends on state funded rations bought cheaply from a local grocery shop. A refugee in Baghdad cannot go to another shop even if he has taken up residence elsewhere, but if he goes to the shop near his old home he risks being murdered. The lumbering state bureaucracy makes no allowance for this and only shows flexibility on receipt of a bribe. By arrangement with
The Independent |
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Ropeway to a forgotten village
in Kashmir Dhulanja
(Uri, J&K) – In this remote village in Uri district of Jammu of Kashmir, poised precariously across the gushing
Jhelum, is a lone trolley attached to a ropeway. This is not something set up for tourists under the garb of adventure tourism. This is the lifeline for nearly seventy families who depend on it as their sole means of staying connected with the outside world. Harsh rocky terrain and absence of roadways characterises
Dhulanja, where the absence of connectivity with the National Highway has a deep impact on the lives of the residents who view themselves as a neglected lot. The manually operated trolley attached to the ropeway seats two; it halts for the day at about 5 p.m. every evening. After that, the little village is a world unto itself. “It is very difficult for the ailing and elderly to travel by this trolley. One cannot even imagine the problems that we people have to face. It is indeed a horrible life we are living and cannot be expressed in words,” says Rasheeda
Bano, a local. Parsa Begum shares the tragic tale of how her daughter, Gulshan, developed some medical complications. All efforts were made to treat her with herbal medicines but her condition only worsened by midnight. “We could not take her to the hospital as the ropeway was closed. Consequently, she dies for want of medicine,” she laments. Reflecting on the difficult conditions of the people, she adds sorrowfully, “After 5 pm, the jhula (ropeway) is locked and people, especially patients, have to suffer. It is all the more difficult for expecting mothers. On a number of occasions, death has been the only outcome.” Only four students could be traced in the entire village, three in Class Twelve and one in Class Nine. Rubeena studies at a school in Ishlam and has to cross the Jhelum by ropeway everyday to get there. “We are often late by an hour or two because of a sudden rush at the ropeway but the school authorities do not understand this and we are punished almost everyday,” she rues. Adds
Mudasir, another student, “Had a bridge been there, we would reach our respective schools on time and more children would be encouraged to go to school. At present, the village is educationally backward.” The absence of any educated people or any government employee in the village is self-explanatory, avers Masrat
Bano, a widow. “The absence of connectivity with other parts of the state is the main reason for our backwardness,” she insists. People living in the village report that nothing grows on this land. “It is dry land here and nothing – fruit, crops – grows here. To purchase anything, we have to cross the ropeway – it is not an easy task, explains Mohammed
Zaman. There are no shops in the vicinity of the village. The devastating earthquake on October 8, 2005 only added to their woes. According to the local residents, 22 people lost their lives in the disaster. The quake also rendered the ropeway non-functional for almost a month. “No one came to us and for the first ten days, we had nothing to eat, reminiscences Shahida
Bano, a local. “Isham, Chakra, Udoosa and other surrounding areas got adequate relief from voluntary organisations and other agencies. People thronged to these areas to help the needy but no one bothered to visit us. Either there was no connecting link or it was difficult for them to cross over. We were left at the mercy of the Almighty,” she
adds. Naseema Begum came forward to share her woes, “It took us over three days to bury the dead. It was a horrible experience for us all. “Four or five families had to share a common shed. People had to take turns to go in and have their meals because the shed could not accommodate all at the same time. The approaching winter did not help matters. “No one could sleep because of the bitter cold. We sat up for hours trying to pass time. Words cannot express what a tough time we had.” Landslides are a common phenomenon. Says
Zafar, a local, “Rough weather increases the incidence of landslides so we have more fear. Yet, we are helpless and have no option but to stay back. Mumbles an orphaned Masrat, “On Eid celebrations, sweets were being distributed among the quake survivors. We wept as no one turned to us. We kept waiting, only to realise that we had been left out.” Perhaps this year, Eid will usher in a period of celebration and
joy. — Charkha Features |
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Delhi Durbar The
slew of sops and the publicity blitz unleashed by the Amarinder Singh government in Punjab is unnerving the Shiromani Akali Dal. Though keeping up its public posture of total confidence, they were rattled enough to petition the Election Commission to notify the elections so that the model code of conduct could come into force. When asked how the poll panel can notify election dates so early, an Akali leader insisted that legally the Commission can announce the date or dates six months before the poll. However, asked if they wanted Governor’s rule during the democratic process, the Akalis did not want to commit themselves at this juncture. Ajatashatru Vice President Bhairon Singh Shekhawat, who is one of the aspirants for the Rashtrapati Bhawan when President A P J Abdul Kalam completes his term in the middle of next year, likes to emphasise that he may have opponents, but he has no enemies. He maintained that he has endeavoured to conduct the proceedings of the Rajya Sabha as its Chairman with impartiality and dignity and has always received the support and goodwill of all the members. Shekhawat made these observations at a get-together organised in the Capital last week on the eve of his birthday last Thursday. It was attended by several senior union ministers, Karnataka Governor T N Chaturvedi and many MPs and eminent personalities. While union home minister Shivraj Patil said Shekhawat was an epitome of virtues, MP and former Maharashtra Governor P C Alexander said the Vice President has held high offices with distinction and lent dignity and lustre to them. L.M. Singhvi said Shekhawat represents the finest aspects of consensual politics and called him Ajatashatru. Tussle over Buddha’s relics Always looking to score brownie points over his political rivals, union minister for Rural Development Raghuvansh Prasad Singh has seemingly created a dilemma for Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar. Raghuvansh has sought an appointment with him as an MP from Vaishali to demand relocation of the holy relics of Lord Buddha from the Patna museum to his town. Faced with constant reminders, Nitish Kumar has been forced to respond verbally saying that the senior RJD leader did not need an appointment to meet him. However, Singh is insisting on a formal appointment in the firm belief that Nitish Kumar will be left with no other option but to accept his demand of relocating the holy relics to the place in Vaishali from where they were discovered. To queries about what the RJD did to meet the demand for relocating the holy relics to Vaishali during its 15-year rule in Bihar, Singh was on a weak wicket. He could only say that the proposal was very much on the agenda of the state government. Contributed by R Suryamurthy, S Satyanarayanan, and Prashant Sood
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Who can stand without legs? Vedanta are the legs on which the Supreme Consciousness stands. — The Upanishadas An adversary may not possess the arms and armies that a king does. But if hatred lurks in his heart coupled with a bitter desire for revenge it can make him perform unbelievable feats of strength. — The Mahabharata People are divided into various groups (religions) and that’s how the whole world is misguided. One who performs devotion to the Almighty God, being impartial to worldly groups (religions), is the true saint. — Kabir
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