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Bharat bandh called on July 5, 2010, by the Opposition brought life to a standstill in many states. The loss to the country ran into hundreds of crores of rupees. The reason for the bandh call was understandable as the prices of petrol, diesel and edibles like dals, vegetables and just about every thing have gone up three to four times. But it would have been better if the Opposition leaders had specified what they would do to bring these down if they were in power, rather than simply blaming the government. Their inability to do so exposes their sinister motives; they came together even though they are bitterly opposed to each other, as the BJP and other Right-wing parties are to the Communists, to try out their joint strength to see if they could bring down the Congress-led UPA Government, and make a bid for grabbing power.
The shortcut is to prevent government functioning, no matter what it costs the country. Unfortunately, we, as a people, are prone to abstain from work on the slightest excuse. This is very different from the Chinese, who are well known to work eight days in the week. We, on the other hand — notably our civil servants — take as many holidays as we can wangle. We take earned leave, sick leave (whether sick or not), religious holidays and gazetted holidays as a mark of respect to the leaders who kick the bucket. At times we take holidays with no excuse whatsoever. That is the main reason why the pace of our progress is lower than China’s. Besides, we have the largest number of beggars, whose only work is to beg on roadsides. We also have a large number of shirkers, who justify not doing any work on religious grounds — sadhus, sants, Nihangs and their likes. We have to cultivate a work ethos and erase words like hartal, bandh, gherao and chakka jam by making them outdated. From across Wagah Last month 11 Pakistani journalists came to visit India. Some of them expressed the wish that besides calling on the Prime Minister and the Home Minister, they wanted to meet journalists like Kuldip Nayar and me. Who even thought refugees from Pakistan went out of their way to foster Indo-Pak friendship? I am now too old. One of them claimed to be from Hadali, where I was born 96 years ago, and spent the first five years of my life. So Asim Awan, Political Reporter of The Express Tribune of Islamabad, turned up at 7 pm. He was not from Hadali but from the neighbouring town Khushab, along the banks of the Jhelum. All I remember of it is the railway platform, and the story I was told by one of my great grandmothers, who lived there. This particular lady used to go to the river before the break of dawn to have a bath. One early morning she felt something sting her in the back. She hurried back and died. When they were bathing her corpse for cremation, they found the mark of a snake bite behind her back. How many people can boast of a great grandmother who died of a snake bite? I can, and she lived in Khushab. Both Khushab and Hadali have undergone a great change in their population since the Partition of India in 1947. In Hadali Hindus and Sikhs were replaced by Muslim refugees from Rohtak. In Khushab they were replaced by Muslims from Ambala. In both Hadali and Khushab remained original Muslim clans comprising Awans, Tiwanas, Waddals, Mastials and Noons. I asked Asim Awan whether he found any anti-Pakistani bias in India. "Not at all", he replied. "On the contrary, when people found out that I was from Pakistan, they went out of their way to be extra friendly." I was happy to know that. He added: "After all, we are the same kind of people and speak the same languages". At the end of the meeting, I asked him where they were staying. "In Maurya Sheraton. Even the staff is very friendly." "It is amongst the most expensive hotels in Delhi", I remarked. "We are not paying out of our pockets; we are guests of your government", he clarified. I was happy to hear that. However, the next morning I read in the newspapers that the number of Pakistanis visiting India had dropped by half because our Embassy in Islamabad does not grant them visas. I was baffled. Is this what our Home Minister believes to be the way of reducing the "trust deficit" that he often talks about?
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