P A G E
Saturday, August 15, 1998
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E D I T O R I A L P A G E |
Saturday, August 15, 1998 |
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The
issue is terrorism
Dismissal
of Rane |
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Church
case: |
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The issue is terrorism PAKISTAN can hardly derive any satisfaction from its conference on Kashmir at Muzaffarabad in PoK. Barring one, all British MPs and members of European Parliament kept away from the meeting, meant to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the passage of the UN Security Council resolution on Kashmir. Even otherwise, such sponsored shows are meaningless and irrelevant to new global realities. Islamabad has been harping on matters which have not only become outdated but also carry little conviction, at least in knowledgeable circles. Pakistan and its friends can hardly gain anything by internationalising the Kashmir issue. Nor will Islamabad be able to grab Kashmir by a show of force or by smuggling in mercenaries to strike terror in the valley and beyond. It has been playing these dirty games for the past 50 years. But what has been the end result? Even its nuclear blasts at Chagai hardly improve its position on Kashmir. Mr Nawaz Sharif is, of course, a prisoner in the hands of the military establishment which alone calls the shots in Islamabad. However, as a successful businessman, he is known for his shrewd commonsense and pragmatism. Why can't he utilise his brute majority within the National Assembly to exercise a sobering effect on the ISI and the military establishment? The people of Pakistan want peace and higher standards of living. And these twin objectives can be achieved if the Pakistani leadership adopts a reasonable posture vis-a-vis India. Mr Nawaz Sharif has everything to gain and nothing to lose if he picks up the requisite courage to mend fences with India instead of creating an atmosphere of tension and conflicts. Kashmir is a symbol of
Indian secularism. It has been politically, economically
and emotionally a part of the rest of India. So, it
cannot be snatched away from the mainstream of Indian
life and commitment. This message should be clear to
Pakistani leaders. They should learn to come to terms
with the ground realities instead of indulging in
chest-beating and creating war hysteria on the Kashmir
question. Kashmir is certainly not for sale; nor is it
for any barter deal. Certain adjustments can be worked
out, provided Mr Nawaz Sharif adopts a conciliatory
approach for an amicable settlement. By his intransigent
attitude, he is virtually forcing India to take a
position which may not be conducive to Pakistani
interests. In fact, Pakistan's friends in Washington,
China and Islamic countries should understand certain
basic facts and ask Pakistan to be positive and friendly
towards this country. The question here is not of
grabbing Kashmir or New Delhi giving it to Islamabad on a
platter. The real issue in the subcontinent is terrorism
which has created conditions of destabilisation in South
Asia. Terrorism is nobody's ally. It boomerangs on the
very sponsor. The USA should know this better after its
experience in a number of countries, especially in Kenya
and Tanzania. The problem with Islamabad is its shameless
sponsorship of terrorism. So, even before any bilateral
issue is discussed and sorted out, Islamabad must end its
terrorist activities. Indeed, it should stop forthwith
its business of sponsoring terrorism in Kashmir in the
name of Islam. Pakistan may not tire itself by proxy war,
but the militants will. Islamabad must understand this
reality. If the USA and China do not make Pakistan see
reason, one day they might have to pay a heavy price for
having supported Pakistan in its nefarious games. The
point to be borne in mind is that terrorism is nothing
but crime against humanity and hence it ought to be
challenged resolutely and with full determination. |
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Blow hot, blow cold ANOTHER threat, another deadline, another bout of mollification, another temporary truce, and the AIADMK’s “blow hot, blow cold” policy monopolises the national media. Whatever may be her hidden agenda, Ms Jayalalitha does not seem to be gaining anything, even while her whimsical actions whittle down the legitimacy of the Central Government, very much like a wicked mother-in-law would attack the self-confidence of a new bahu. Her arguments lack logical rigour; her abrupt decisions betray lack of understanding of or indifference to collective action and consensus and her eagerness to change gear attests to the absence of ideology. These failings should normally marginalise a leader but the competitive Dravidian politics in Tamil Nadu needs two bitterly opposed leaders and she occupies the pole first created by MGR, the most potent adversary of Mr Karunanidhi. In a manner of speaking, Ms Jayalalitha leads her party in the name of MGR, even though her political attitude almost always negates the late film star’s overall philosophy. It is the popular
realisation of the dichotomy between the politics of the
mentor and the madam that acts as a speedbreaker on her
unpredictable behaviour. It is the same factor that has
persuaded many to believe that a good section of her
party MPs, numbering 18, may break with her if she
precipitates a crisis without an attractive alternative.
That distinct possibility is a major source of the newly
found confidence of the BJP-led coalition and it can only
grow in the days to come. It does not mean the days of
uncertainty and instability are over for the Vajpayee
government. What it means is that the Chennai lady’s
capacity to whip up an atmosphere of extreme danger will
have less buyers, waning media attention and hence will
carry less conviction with her staunch supporters. To
fully exploit this built-in plus point, the Prime
Minister downwards should go beyond ensuring her support
for the longevity of the government and acknowledge her
genuine problems. Her sense of misplaced pride stops her
from discussing it: she has to come to power before the
present pro-AIADMK mood dissipates. Or, she has to have
enough achievements to keep alive her chances of success
in less than three years time. Politically and
electorally this is unattainable. And hence her frequent
tantrums. There is no ready cure, but the Vajpayee
government can learn to get less distracted by these. |
Only bus driver's fault? YET another collision between a train and a bus has resulted in 19 deaths, this time in the distant Tamil Nadu. The railway authorities have promptly announced that the bus rammed into the Chennai-Kanyakumari Express train at a manned level crossing on the new Karur-Salem bypass road on Thursday night when the bus driver forced his way on the tracks while the gate was being drawn shut. The man responsible for 19 deaths, including his own, was thus the bus driver. That makes it an open and shut case. But is it really so? In their eagerness to give a clean chit to their own department, the railway authorities have kept silent on an extremely disturbing fact. The communication network between the Karur junction and the cabin of the gatekeeper at the crossing was reportedly down for the past several days. This had been brought to the notice of the authorities concerned but no action was taken. As a result, the gatekeeper used to open and close the gate by standing outside his cabin and seeing the approaching train. Just imagine the grave risk that it posed. The gatekeeper had to wait till he could see the train and then hurriedly close the gate because he was never too sure when a train was coming. Of course he had the railway timetable but we all know how dependable it is. In most cases it is useful only in finding out by how many hours a particular train is late. If the train that he had sighted happened to be moving faster than he had anticipated, anybody using the road would have got killed for no fault of his. When the horrendous accident took place, it was 2 in the night. The gatekeeper closed the gate after seeing the headlight of the train, which was said to be moving at almost its maximum speed. The bus driver was indeed at fault for rushing across when the gate was just being closed. But if the gate had been closed well in time, the accident would perhaps never have taken place. It is this aspect which should be carefully examined. Why is it that the fault in the communication network was not promptly rectified? It is necessary that in place of putting the entire blame on the killed bus driver, the railways set their own house in order. The fact of the matter is
that in its zeal to appear in the public eye better than
it perhaps is, the Railway Ministry has been focussing on
"achievements" which make news. New tracks and
faster trains are full-page advertisement stuff; ensuring
safety is not. A casual approach is considered good
enough in this low-priority area. In a typical case of
being wiser after a mishap, the Railway Minister has
asked his officials to explore the possibility of
introducing louder booms and strengthening measures to
minimise the risk of accidents at level crossings. It
will be a worthwhile exercise to make a note of this
grand exhortation and study after a month or two what has
actually been done in this regard. |
Dismissal of Rane THE Pratap Singh Rane government was dismissed on the night of July 28 followed by the immediate appointment of Mr Wilfred De Souza, with the swearing-in ceremony taking place on the same night at Raj Bhavan, Goa. The sequence of events was suggestive of a coup — only it was a constitutional coup carried out by Governor Jacob. Goa has had a notorious political history revolving around three or four personalities such as Sushila Kakodkar, Pratap Singh Rane, Wilfred De Souza, Churchil Alemao etc. After the eclipse of the Maharashtra Gomantak Party in Goan politics and the brief interlude of Mr Churchil Alemao’s chief ministership, it has been a ding-dong battle between Mr Rane and Mr De Souza and both of them belong to the Congress. There must be something sinister about the old Portuguese-built mansion which subsequently became Raj Bhavan. In 1994 Governor Bhanu Prakash Singh dismissed De Souza, who was then the Chief Minister, in an arbitrary manner, but Mr Bhanu Prakash Singh had to pay the price and demit his office. Now it was the turn of Mr Jacob to dismiss Chief Minister Rane. In the present instance,
10 out of 18 Congress MLAs withdrew support from Chief
Minister Rane and switched over to Mr De Souza. They
marched to Raj Bhavan and demanded the removal of Mr Rane
and the swearing in of Mr De Souza as Chief Minister. The
Goa Assembly has 39 members with the Congress
constituting the largest single party and the BJP having
four members. The Speaker of the Assembly tried to
disqualify the defecting Congress MLAs by expelling them
in batches of five and thereby denying them the status of
a split of more than one-third. However blatant his
action was, under the Constitution the Speaker was
supreme in so far as the proceedings within the Assembly
were concerned and his action could only be challenged on
the floor of the House by bringing in a motion of no
confidence and remove him. After the split in the
Congress party, Governor Jacob asked Chief Minister Rane
to obtain a vote of confidence in the Assembly and the
time given for this was only 90 minutes. However, with
the Speaker’s assistance who had declared the 10
defecting members as expelled, Rane claimed to have got a
confidence motion passed in the Assembly by voice vote.
This was not accepted by the Governor who dismissed him
followed by the appointment of Mr De Souza in his place. Governor Jacob’s action was unconstitutional, arbitrary and unwarranted. Article 164 of the Constitution which he cited for his action gave him no such power. This article deals with the procedure and reads as follows: “The Chief Minister shall be appointed by the Governor and the other Ministers shall be appointed by the Governor on the advice of the Chief Minister and the Ministers shall hold office during the pleasure of the Governor”. There are four other minor provisions under this Article which deals with salaries etc. To cite this Article for dismissal of the Rane government was disingenuous and indeed surprising on the part of a first time appointed Governor with about only three months’ experience. As early as 1971 President V.V. Giri had dealt with political defections in his address to the Governors Conference that year — “In some states, I regret to say, political parties, due to internal squabbles and personal jealousies, have contributed to instability in government. One of the major causes for this development, especially after the 1967 elections, has been the large-scale defections that have taken place in the ranks of these parties. According to a recent survey, during 1967-70, a total of about 800 defections occurred of whom 85 per cent crossed the floor affecting the majority of government. Nearly two-thirds of these defections, it is further noted, involved losses to nationally recognised parties thereby impeding the proper development of a healthy and viable party system. A good number of these defections take place because of the promise of reward of office or other official patronage —a circumstance which directly lends itself to indiscipline and political corruption. A person who changes his party affiliation in this manner, after having been elected on the basis of a party mandate, is no longer entitled to represent his constituents except after seeking a fresh mandate”. President Giri went ahead
and appointed a committee of five Governors to go into
the various aspects of Governors’ responsibilities
and functions and lay down certain guidelines. The
Governors Committee, in its report of October 1, 1971,
recommended that defecting members should be disqualified
and directed to seek fresh elections and that it would
“certainly restrict defections prompted only by
reasons of self-interest or pursuit of power”. It
was sad that this healthy recommendation was not pursued.
If only defecting or splitting MLAs were disqualified and
compelled to seek fresh elections and if there were also
a provision that no defecting or splitting MLA or MP
could be invested with any office of profit or
ministership the defections which had made the
country’s political life a mockery would have been
stemmed. It was not surprising that Mr Romesh Bhandari, who was at the centre of serious controversy over his dismissal of Kalyan Singh’s government, promptly asked a few inconvenient questions. He asked how the Goa Governor’s action was different from his own, why the Speaker’s ruling was not upheld as he did in UP, and how Governor Bhanu Prakash Singh’s action of 1994 was wrong while Governor Jacob’s was right. There was no answer from the BJP stalwarts, but the correct answer is that all the three Governors were wrong in their arbitrary dismissal of the Chief Ministers. It has been laid down by the Supreme Court time and again and it was recommended and adopted by the Governors Conference in 1971 that the correct place for testing the majority of the government was the floor of the House. When 10 out of 18 MLAs in a House of 39 went to the Governor of Goa saying that Chief Minister Rane had lost support and that they backed Mr De Souza, the proper thing for the Governor was to direct Mr Rane to prove his majority on the floor of the House within a week’s time. Possibly Mr Rane would have reasoned with his dissatisfied MLAs and brought peace to the party and stability in the administration of the state. Curiously, the Governor’s action has not been taken adverse notice of by the powers that be at the Centre. It is a sad reflection on the state of affairs of the country that here are more and more Governors willing to let themselves commit blatant unconstitutional acts in dealing with the Chief Ministers and state governments, obviously to suit the interests of important political functionaries or the party in power at the Centre. These acts are in no way different from the splitting games indulged in by political parties, followed by swearing in of jumbo ministries without any scruples. The only way out is to bring about certain constitutional amendments as follows: (i) Defecting MLAs and MPs should be automatically disqualified, whether they are one third or less. Even if they returned to Assembly after re-election, they should not be eligible for ministership or any other office of profit for a period of five years, (ii) The size of the ministry should not be more than 10 per cent of the Assembly or Parliament, and (iii) MLAs should not be appointed to office of profit such as Chairmen of Corporations/Public Sector Undertakings, Commissions, etc. Easier said than done. None of the political parties would be interested in bringing about such constitutional amendments and hence the endless political skullduggery will go on with no end in sight. (The writer is a
former Governor of West Bengal and Sikkim) |
Strikes against the strikes THE nurses went on strike. Then came the strike of postal staff, electrical workers, water employees, medical workers and so on ad infinitum. There is no segment of workers that has not gone on strike or is not planning to go on strike, to extract maximum payment from the community. Strike is the word; it is indeed in fashion. Union chiefs make headlines in the press, else they would relapse into obscurity. The more vocal among their workers also keep egging them on: you are sleeping. Look what other “active” unions have got for their members. Most of strikers’ demands are accepted, after a little dilly-dallying. No strike has drawn blank. The success of one strike raises the expectations and greed of others. Much demands more. Aggressive trade unionism is the way to the doubling and trebling of salaries and perks. According to a government advertisement, the government proposed to raise the college teachers’ salaries from existing Rs 2200-4000 to Rs 8000-13500 (actuals being Rs 13583 at the start); that means raising them three or four times. For this “gross injustice” they have gone on a nation-wide strike; from August 11; their grievance being that the UGC had recommended Rs 2000-plus extra. This is against the background of India’s poverty, where 40 to 50% (40-50 crores) live below the poverty line and don’t have two square meals a day. Every concession to aggressive trade unionism is at the expense of these undistinguished millions. Even the poorest of the
poor has to pay more taxes (prices of matchboxes and
kerosene rise) in order to finance these princely pay
packets. They claim parity with IAS and other central
services. With every steep raise in the salaries, prices
of essentials and other articles shoot up, the employees
get protection of increased DAs twice a year to
neutralise inflation. It is only the semi- starved masses
that have no DA nor any special allowances. It is general
experience that with every raise in emoluments the
quantity and quality of work steeply goes down —
notwithstanding the self praise of the employees. The
lowly paid workers of the older generations gave much
greater satisfaction, to the public — their real
paymasters. The size of the national cake can’t keep
up with the rapid growth of population; if some one
extracts a larger share, it is at the expense of the less
privileged sectors. Time was when strikes carried general public’s support. Poor workers fighting against the over-rich capitalists for a better share in the huge profits of their own productions, were backed by the public. No longer so. When electricity workers struck work, making the life of citizens, hell the strikers had to hide their heads; a few were even assaulted by the sufferers. The strike was termed anti-people. The nurses’ strike was anything but popular. A wit said, it was a crime against humanity; many critical patients dying and others grievously suffering for want of medical care. Common masses can’t afford the expenses of costly private doctors or clinics, the public hospitals are their only hope. As a desperate sufferer remarked, if some section has a grievance against the government or their employers, they declare war against the general public, causing it maximum damage and harm to bring the government on its knees. This is pure blackmail. Every such strike carries the curses of the general public; causing grievous hurt to public weal in maximum greed. Daily their unpopularity is on the increase. The weak government must succumb to their pressure, otherwise, opposition parties take their side in a bid to create their own vote banks. The strikers have no use
for public backing; they depend only on the unity and
solidarity of their ranks that can bring the whole
machine to a creaking halt. They boast: six lakh persons
joined the strike; it was unanimous. This unanimity is
based on common greed and is sometime even artificial. No
conscientious objector can be tolerated. Absolute
unanimity is the need of the hour. the black sheep’s
heads would be broken and practical demonstrations are
given, lest these be dismissed as empty threats. Good
peace-loving people are denied their right to independent
action. Also if a strike promises the trebling or
quadrupling of the pay packet, a man must be stark mad to
stand against the promised prosperity. |
Flight of fancy
HARYANA Chief Minister Bansi Lal has said that his government will take advantage of the Centre’s liberalised “open skies” and aviation policy and establish a “no-frills” airline that will link important towns and cities in the state and bring air travel within reach of the common man. THIS is your captain speaking and welcome aboard the inaugural flight of the Haryana Government owned Tughlaq Airlines. As you perhaps know, this is a “no-frills” airline which means we have dispensed with all non-essentials like engines, wings, fuel tanks and fuselage. I don’t have any navigation equipment in the cockpit and I shall be much obliged if one of you passengers will kindly lend me his pocket transistor so that I can tune to Vividh Bharati and get my bearings and find out just where the heck I am. To save on fuel, I switch
off the engines while in flight, depending solely on luck
and a heart-felt prayer to stay aloft. Being a government-owned no-frills airline, we don’t have fashionable young air hostesses flashing winsome smiles as they serve you choice French liquors and five-course gourmet lunches. Instead, a toothless old ayah will trundle down the aisle pushing a wooden cart and you may buy your requirements of sliced raw mangoes garnished with chilly powder and cucumber pieces. You may also buy pan masala and bhelpuri. This is the choice in-flight meals our no-frills airlines serves. We might occasionally hit an air pocket and being a no-frills airline, we haven’t provided vomit bags. Kindly, therefore, feel free to throw up on your fellow passenger’s kurta pyjamas. A temporary case worker in the Chief Minister’s office ruled that fuel tanks were an unnecessary frill and therefore, this plane doesn’t have fuel tanks. We’re carrying the fuel in small pickle jars kept in the aft galley. I apologise that passengers in the Executive and Business class have to stand. For reasons of economy, we haven’t provided overhead railings and straps. Kindly, therefore hold on to the passenger standing next to you. We have taken out unnecessary frills like seats. In an emergency, it might become necessary for all of you to jump out without parachutes. Please open your umbrellas and hop out without any ado and best of luck. I don’t have a co-pilot in the cockpit and I request one of you able-bodied passengers to help me manually push down the landing gear. During take-off and landing, a red warning light will flash, asking you to fasten your trouser belts. We haven’t provided seat belts. Those of you standing near the door are requested to be particularly careful as it is only secured with a plastic string and chewing gum. A Second Division Clerk in the General Administration Dept. in Chandigarh ruled that secure door locking arrangements were an unnecessary frill. The windows don’t have plexiglass and please ensure that your children don’t put their hands out. I thank you for
patronising our no-frills airline and I wish you a
pleasant flight. We’re great people to go down with! |
AT a resumed hearing of the Church case, Mr Hugh Alexander Craig, Locomotive Superintendent of the Burma Railway, now in England on leave, giving evidence for the defence, said that the contracts entered into by the defendant were fixed for the three years with the option over a further seven years. The contracts were discussed by the witness and the Agent of the Burma Railway. Personally, the witness was averse to entering into any forward contracts as he did not consider there was any real risk of the railway being left without coal, but he later ascertained that other railways were buying forward. Consequently, he consented to the forward contracts. He now considered the contracts favoured the Burma Railway. Other firms had given them quotations exceeding the prices in the contracts arranged by the defendant. The Magistrate has ordered
the return of Mr Church to India for trial. |
Nothing really changes
ATAL Behari Vajpayee's teetering, tottering government may not not have many credits to its name, besieged as it has been by the fat lady from Chennai and the thin lady from Turino. But, one thing that can be said in its favour is that it has so far been relatively scandal-free. It came, then, as something of a surprise to me when the first scandal to erupt concerned the ministry of my old friend, Naveen Patnaik. I have known Naveen for many years. Long before becoming Cabinet Minister for Steel and Mines was even the smallest glint in his eye and the one thing I could never have suspected him of was a tendency to corrupt practices. Yet, according to the stories I read in the press he appeared to be preventing an investigation into a massive scandal in his ministry while his diligent Minister of State, Ramesh Bais, appeared to be the knight in shining armour. There was Bais, demanding CBI inquiries and all manner of other investigations while Naveen, as his senior Minister was, according to these news reports, preventing them from happening. It seemed like an odd sort of story so I began to make a few inquiries of my own and stumbled upon a tale of convoluted plots and sub-plots. Those of us who have the uncertain pleasure of covering the activities of the Government of India at close quarters know that the economic ministries are dens of intrigue and iniquity. Touts and lobbyists haunt their corridors and perform so useful a task for the vested interests they represent that many businessmen hire them as “liaison men”. In the old licence raj days it was almost impossible for businessmen to function without the services of a liaison man or two. It was through them that they would usually hear about some new project, through them that they would get to meet Mantriji and through them, more often than not, that they would find out who could be bought in which ministry and at what price. When the licence raj ended it became necessary to find liaison men who were not obviously liaison men, for instance a Minister or a bureaucrat could start to act in the interests of some company. So, in these economically liberalised days you tend to meet liaison men in disguise, usually as Ministers because which politician is not constantly in need of cash for the next election. Especially, in these uncertain times. The Steel and Mines Ministry is no exception to the rule and apparently, according to the first reports of the scandal that appeared in the press, crores of rupees were being made by crooked businessmen because the ministry was selling advance import licences (Value based advanced licences or VABALs) to the wrong people and at a loss to the ministry. The bare bones of the
story are as follows. Advance licences accrue to two arms
of the ministry, its steel plant in Vishakapatnam which
against its exports is entitled to Rs 588 crore worth of
licences and SAIL (Steel Authority of India Limited)
which gets approximately Rs 90 crore worth of VABALs.
These two government companies use what they need for
their imports of scrap and sell what they do not need
through another company called MSTC (Metal Scrap Trading
Corporation). The MSTC, as an honourable government
undertaking, is not allowed to profiteer from these sales
so there is a limit to how high their price can go and
the sale is through the reasonably transparent method of
allowing buyers to tender for the licences. This is when the plot begins to thicken. Apparently, a Rajasthani lawyer businessman called Anil Shroff has been deeply interested in buying VABALs but missed his chance because another company called Baron Impex won over him. This, naturally, annoyed Mr Shroff so, according to my inquiries, he began to play the usual game of winning friends and influencing people. He did not have to try very hard because the Minister of State, Ramesh Bais, was apparently a close friend. The problem appears to have been that Mr Bais was not being given enough chance to interfere in the sale of VABALs as he would have liked so be decided that one way of coming very clearly into the picture would be by using the press. So, in early May, mere weeks after the new government took office, Mr Bais spoke to The Economic Times and complained about irregularities in the process of licence distribution. This led to Naveen Patnaik ordering an inquiry. According to my sources the Minister is technically not involved even slightly in the business of selling VABALs, it is entirely in the hands of the MSTC, but he had to order an inquiry once his Minister of State went public. The departmental inquiry he ordered concluded that there were no irregularities but, meanwhile, pressure from various lobbies caused the deal with Baron Impex to get cancelled. Since the inquiry was still under way it investigated the cancellation, found it to be wrong and legally untenable, and restored the licences to Baron Impex. Then, to cut a long story short, things got murkier and murkier with powerful forces coming into play and some journalist by the name of Raman Swamy taking the matter to the Delhi High Court on July 22 and managing to get the Court to pass an order on his writ by the following day. At this point the Minister of Steel and Mines appears to have decided that the best solution was to order an outside inquiry and appointed a retired Secretary to the Government of India, B.L. Das, to conduct it. But, his Minister of State was not satisfied even with this and demanded that the CBI be handed the inquiry. Before anyone could stop him from making this demand he leaked it to the press. Now, what do you think a
CBI inquiry will do? It will, naturally, put a stop to
the deal with Baron Impex and the direct beneficiary of
this will be those who wanted the licences but did not
get them. I tried to get Mr Bais to tell me why he was
personally so interested in VABALs and whether he was
acting on behalf of Mr Shroff but repeated attempts to
get him to speak to me on the phone failed. I did,
though, manage to speak to the Secretary, Steel and
Mines, Mr Ashok Basu, who said: “It is between the
two Ministers. Why are you trying to drag me into
this”. So, governments come and go but nothing
really changes. |
An extravagant exercise
THE present duo of I and B Ministers has been so busy gunning for the Prasar Bharati chief in an underhand way, that they seem to have forgotten that equal attention should be paid to some extraordinary programme extravaganzas commissioned by one of his predecessors, Mr K.S. Sarma, who was DG at the time and is now being tipped by some interested parties to be the next CEO of Prasar Bharati in case Mr Gill is removed.Most glaring of all is the manner in which some top Indian feature directors were given Rs 1crore each to make special programmes for the 50th year of Indian Independence. Young feature and documentary directors would have done a far better job. It is time to take stock now since the year comes to an end on August 15, 1998. Of those commissioned Mr
Buddhadeb Dasgupta has completed 13 episodes of a serial,
Colours and Lines of Freedom, dealing with folk and
tribal art and the freedom struggle. The first episode
was previewed rather belatedly last week by DD, and
watching it I found that while Dasgupta was strong on
visuals and folk music, particularly from Bengal, the
commentary by Jaggannath Guha was slow, ponderous and
omnipresent, like a drone. I could not help thinking what
a wonder job Prof Goswami of Chandigarh would have made
of it. He lectures all over the world, but DD and Star
and the rest have yet to discover him. All this, of
course, is purely academic. Because, for some strange
reason, Dasgupta’s serial has yet to be telecast.
Perhaps it will go into DD’s non-existent archives? I watched the first episode only of Shyam Benegal’s Sankranti, because so poor is DD’s publicity that most of us had not watched the rest of the 10 episodes, the last of which is over this week. Shyam is a professional, he has his old faithfuls like Ranjit Kapur and Vanraj Bhatia for the music. The first episode, showing the brutality of Partition was a mini-Tamas and Train to Pakistan all over again, of course competently done but nothing extraordinary. I cannot express an overall opinion without watching the whole serial. The two other programmes which I found interesting and watchable were Saeed Akhtar Mirza’s A Tryst With The People and Bhupen Hazarika’s Glimpses of the Misty East, for vastly different reasons. Saeed takes us on a travelogue of India, beautifully shot and edited, where he chats with people to find out what they got out of Independence. Saeed does all the interviewing himself, and as with all his work, it has an element of human warmth and naturalness which not only introduce us to the variety of landscapes and peoples in India, but makes us empathise with them. Such as a mother in Andhra whose little daughter has been to school but now breaks stones from economic necessity, who says to the crew while their car is leaving: “Take her with you.” The first two episodes are amongst the best actuality I have seen on South India. After the bitter disappointment with Bhupen Hazarike’s Dawn, which is contrived and badly made, it was like a breath of fresh air to watch his documentary on Assam (last week, the so-called Assamese boy in Dawn called his sister, who looked thoroughly Maharashtrian bew-dew, a distortion of Baideo, Didi in Assamese, and Nongkrem, famous for its annual dance, was pronounced as Nongkram.) There are two good points in Hazarike’s documentary. He does the narration himself and the scripting is by Sanjoy Hazarika formerly of the New York Times with TV experience (his weekly programme on the North-East has been replaced by a Films Division style amateurish effort). I had a sentimental interest in the region where I grew up, and whether it was the Kamakshya Temple or the steamers on the Brahmaputra, it all rang true for a change. But it must have been a Mumbai art or costume director who make the Bihu girl dancers wind a discordant and untraditional black cloth round their middles. While on the subject of
August 15, I am glad the BBC is re-telecasting its epic
on the Nehru-Gandhi family, Dynasty. Those who missed it
last time should catch up. |
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