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Monday, July 6, 1998
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Clinton's pro-China tilt President Bill Clinton's nine-day China tour was a mixed fare, depending on how one looks at it. For China, it was a success. It extracted from the US President the right response and concessions it had been looking for. The Americans too are delighted at new business prospects generated during the trip. Mr Clinton was generous to the hosts, both in words and action. At the press conference in Hong Kong he spoke warmly of President Jiang Zemin and Prime Minister Zhu Rongi for hastening the pace of reform. Right. But he seems to have entertained "unrealistically excessive hopes" on China's emergence as a democracy. He probably has no appreciation of the Communist Party's iron hold on different segments of life in China. But then democracy is the most exploited term in global diplomacy and business. China has a long way to go on the road to democracy. And Mr Clinton will sooner or later know who is on "the wrong side of history" on the future Sino-American cooperation vis-a-vis South Asia's nuclear capability. He may be well-intentioned but his lack of perspective so far as India is concerned is regrettable, to say the least. Mr Clinton has given a definite pro-China tilt to America's Asia policy, adjusting and compromising his country's stance on several sensitive matters. This does change the USA's known equation with a number of countries, especially Japan. Not that Japanese-American ties will be under strain. But Tokyo too has reasons to be worried about the "new US-China era" which shifts the focus away from it — and that too at a time when Japan is facing a grave financial crisis. The fact that US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright had to rush to Tokyo to assuage the feelings of Japanese leaders shows the delicacy of ties between the two countries. Even the USA's relationship with Taiwan will have a question mark put over it. Opinions within America seem to be divided on this issue. At least the State Department in Washington does not share President Clinton's perception on Taiwan. President Clinton's visit was actually part of America's business diplomacy. As it is, there is a trade deficit of over $50 billion which has prompted the President's critics to lambast him for granting the most favoured nation trading status to Beijing. America's trade deficit is likely to reach $60 billion this year. The seven contracts worth $2 billion signed between the two countries will surely help bridge this trade gap to some extent. However, the most significant of these agreements is the nuclear deal. It is no secret that the US nuclear industry has been in bad shape without outside orders. The latest nuclear accord will enable some of the American giants to dominate the nuclear power market in China estimated to be $60 billion in the next 10 to 15 years. China wants to raise its nuclear power production 10 times to 50,000 megawatts by 2010. There is a touch of irony in this accord. China is known to have violated nuclear proliferation rules as many as 21 times. But only once has the Clinton Administration imposed sanctions against it. This is a sad tale of American double standards in global diplomacy. President Clinton has oversold China's image back home. In his overenthusiasm, the US President has conveniently forgotten some of the delicate questions of human rights and the suppression in Tibet. Such a volte-face in US policy is not uncommon. But what is disgusting is the way President Clinton has gone about the business of consolidating ties with China. This is nothing but a marriage of convenience. Of course, it is for American policy-makers to evolve new relations with the countries of their choice. What is disturbing from the Indian point of view is some of the negative facets of this axis. President Clinton has been indifferent to Indian sensitivities. What is more, he has joined hands with China to debunk this country on Kashmir and nuclear issues. In the months to come, President Clinton's China policy will be under a severe scrutiny of the American public. A large number of American critics see his extra generosity towards China to be part of his anxiety to shower extra favours on it in return for the poll campaign funds reportedly received by him. The people in the USA are still very serious about principles, values and democratic norms. Herein lies the hope for a possible corrective in the American tilt towards China. History is a mirror. It does not go according to the whims and fancies of individuals, howsoever powerful. Right now, President Clinton has no proper appreciation of how history gets written. It will take him some time to understand and absorb the invisible facts of his China odyssey.  |
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| A relief-packed budget HIMACHAL Chief Minister P.K. Dhumal claims that his BJP government has inherited a big financial mess. He is right and the budget figures loudly attest to it. But he is over-simplifying the issue when he blames the previous Congress government for all the sins. As he rose to present his first budget on Friday, he must have realised that apart from Congress profligacy, the geographical features, social structure and the limited revenue raising power of the state have generously contributed to the huge debt and its inevitable debilitating effect on the budget. There is one striking difference between the strategy of the Congress and the BJP. One preferred to raise loans to implement its favourite projects and thus has added to the long-term liabilities in terms of capital repayment and recurring interest charges (this year the state has earmarked Rs 634 crore). Mr Dhumal is equally keen on stepping up investment in economic and social infrastructure, but hopes to persuade the Centre to increase its grant; the Rs 300 crore gift by Prime Minister Vajpayee has no doubt brightened his hopes. The key provisions of the budget themselves are a testimony to Mr Dhumal’s keen political instincts and to a total absence of a coherent state-specific developmental model. The Chief Minister had obviously the party manifesto in front of him while dictating the taxation measures and benefits for the poor. Most election pledges seem to have been kept, the important ones like increasing daily wages to Rs 60 and making all daily wage-earners regular government employees, only partly, thanks to financial constraint. And there is something for every one — children and expectant mothers (a slightly higher dole for nutritious diet), increased old age pension and that to the Scheduled Castes and Tribes and a series of gestures — meaningful or modest — to government employees in terms of dearness allowance, pension, gratuity and that portion of the pension which they can forgo to receive a lump sum on the day of retirement, and ex-gratia grant to the family members of those who die while on duty. All very pleasing and touching most families. And it would cost only Rs 130 crore. In what appears to be the other side of the same coin, Mr Dhumal has halved the sales tax on shakkar and tea and spared diesel from a broad range of higher levies. Among the commodities expected to yield Rs 50 crore in additional revenue are automobiles, tyres and tubes, petrol, refrigerators, photographic goods, motor cycles, cigarettes, cosmetics and, yes, “videshi daru” like rum, whiskey and gin. That the list suggests elitist consumption is very much intended, and not incidental. If the budget is about mood making, this Himachali figure-smith will earn high marks. Alas, this cannot be repeated year after year without plunging the state into a debt trap. The budget has increased the deficit to Rs 705 crore and has merely carried forward last year’s deficit of Rs 616 crore. |
| LIFE IN THE NATIONAL CAPITAL The missing accountability factor A lot of things are being said about the acts of commission and omission of the BJP government which has completed more than hundred days. It is not correct to put all the blame on the political hierarchy in the BJP for the various lapses. The ministers do not function in a vacuum and it is the bureaucracy which is the vehicle or the instrument which plays the vital role in carrying out the various tasks of administration. The bureaucrats should share the blame more than the politicians.Take the case of the most trying problem of Delhi’s residents these days — the power crisis. Except in the Lutyen’s New Delhi complex which houses the MPs and VIPs, including senior bureaucrats, the rest of the “Greater” Delhi is suffering from regular systematic power cuts ranging from the two to six hours on an average every day. Even well-known colonies like Hauz Khas have been deprived of power for 10 hours at a stretch on more than one occasion. In outer Delhi it is anybody’s guess how much sufferings the people are undergoing. The Chief Minister of Delhi and the Delhi Vidyut Board Chairman are making promises which are not being translated into action.While the Chief Minister is bound to say what he is saying, the civil servant, who heads the DVB and is known to be a person of some learning, should know the problems inside out. Conceded that continuous supply of power is not possible because of lack of assured inflow from outside Delhi, due to periodical trippings and overdrawal by other consuming states. The citizens are aware of such problems even though they may not be fully conversant with all the technicalities. What they would like to know is when power supply is cut off, how soon it is likely to be restored. There should be someone senior enough and responsible enough to tell anyone ringing up his telephone number what the correct position is and when electricity is likely to be restored in that particular colony. At present the Junior Engineer and the Assistant Engineer or his subordinates of the Delhi Vidyut Board manning the area telephones are never available, and their phones are either always engaged or not attended to. It is known that when power failure takes place for a long time the DVB staff manning the telephones in the various sectors just put the receivers off the hook to avoid continuous telephone enquiries. Why is it not possible for the DVB authorities to install telephones manned by responsible officers who can inform the enquiring public of the correct position? Sufficient telephone numbers with hunting facilities should be provided for the purpose. The consumers who pay enhanced electricity charges, with the threat of power being cut off in the event of non-payment in time should have the right to have at least this information. This is where the accountability factor comes.But if the experience with the DVB is going to prove to be a replay of what the average telephone owner in Delhi undergoes then the accountability factor becomes meaningless. The telephone directory gives the names of supervisors upward who could be contacted in case of telephone problems but all these are only in theory and none of them is ever available. If the telephone gets answered occasionally, the reply is invariably that he has gone to a meeting or gone out. When the telephone is out of order and a complaint is registered with 198, nobody from the exchange ever enquires later on whether the complaint has been attended to and if the telephone is alright. Even in cases of simple faults it is very difficult to get in touch with officers of even the SDO level to listen to public complaints and attend to them. When new telephone exchanges come into being or when new telephone numbers are allotted to the existing telephone connections, anyone ringing up to the old number is either told that there is no such number or that the telephone has been disconnected. Why is it not possible for a computerised telephone answering machine to give the new exchange and the new telephone number when a telephone call is received for the old number. Where is the accountability in all these cases?A lot of South Delhi residents go for early morning walk to a well-known DDA park whose gates are supposed to be opened by a chowkidar at 5 a.m. In the winter months when it is dark till 7 a.m. the lights are to be switched on at the same time. But the chowkidars for the two tasks are different and none of them is regular and the public is put to a lot of inconvenience. Do the civil servants of the Delhi Municipal Corporation and the DDA, who have been going all over the world to learn how garbage is disposed of or goats are slaughtered scientifically in abattoirs, bother about finding out why there could not be a mechanical system whereby the gates are opened automatically at 5 a.m. and the lights also switched on at the same time? A simple mechanical device could do the job, but in any case any computer-buff could devise the system for both purposes. They could also feed instructions for switching off of the lights at sunrise and for the closure of the gate at a given time. In advanced countries this is what is done because they cannot afford to pay heavy salaries to attendants who are to be at least three, if not four, for each of the tasks mentioned and hence computer-operated mechanical devices are the only answer. In a third world country like India where wages are lower, chowkidars are employed and nobody bothers about whether they do their job properly or not.Sanitation and garbage removal in Delhi has been discussed at the highest level of the judiciary. The municipal authorities were summoned and time-bound instructions were issued. What happened to all those judicial instructions and the promised compliance? A suggestion was made some time back to one of the seniormost officers in the Government of India that for the purpose of improving the quality of life in the Capital, at least three subjects should be taken up for sustained action under the supervision of senior officers. These were the removal of garbage from the streets, the impounding of cattle which are on the roads all the time and the removal of beggars, including urchins, lepers and the maimed from traffic junctions and roads. The functionary passed on the communication to the Delhi Administration for appropriate action and the state of affairs has remained the same.There are repeated complaints that unwary foreign tourists, particularly women, are systematically duped and deprived of their money and other articles by touts. These touts are permanent fixtures at Indira Gandhi International Airport, and are hand-in-glove with the taxi operators and the policemen on duty. Without police connivance, these touts cannot operate at the airport premises, where security is supposed to be strict and a careful watch is maintained on all suspicious elements.All that is necessary is for the Delhi Police official in charge of the airport to round up these touts, transfer out the tainted policemen, and rotate the posting of policemen regularly to ensure that there is no nexus between them and the undesirable elements at the airport. Why is this not being done?There are many more important things pertaining to the Delhi Administration which affect public life and need improvement, but I have referred to only some of them to show how even simple things are not being given the requisite attention or any thought by civil servants.The writer is a former Governor of West Bengal and Sikkim. |
| Sanctions: blessing in disguise by Bharat Jhunjhunwala THE exercise of the nuclear option by India has brought forth the suspension of economic aid from many industrial countries. In the short term it will certainly be painful. But not necessarily so after some time. The reason is that we have been using foreign aid as a pain killer. Instead of attending to the rot in our own system, we have been covering it up. And foreign aid has been the main instrument of this cover-up.Prima facie more funds should mean more growth and prosperity, but it may lead to the opposite effect as well. The situation is similar to that of a company. A company may prosper if it is making profit and raises fresh equity for expansion. Another company may get into more trouble if it is incurring losses due to its inefficiencies and raises fresh equity to pay its wages. In fact, it may worsen the situation by hiding the fact of losses and preventing corrective action. So also with foreign aid. A country is helped if it is using its own money well and seeks aid to expand its activities. However, if it is wasting its own money, then aid will only increase that waste. In fact, it may even worsen the situation by taking the waste out of public glare.Take education, for example. The state school system does not work. The teachers do not come to school on time. They resist being posted out of their home districts. Living at home, they saunter into schools occasionally and tell a student from class 8 to read a book to class 5 while they themselves sit around discussing how to deal with the school inspector. The money received for mid-day meals is misappropriated by the principal along with his cohorts. They are least interested in newer methods of teaching. Their results are dismal but their unions strong; thus the government dare not dismiss the errant.Now the state government has two entirely different approaches to deal with the problem. The obvious solution is to deal firmly with the teachers. Take action against those who deliver poor results. The money that the government is paying to these teachers should beget results. Education and literacy should spread. But such disciplinary action against the government teachers is politically sensitive”. The teachers are “organised”. The government does not want to take the risk of losing their votes and face their resentment. In other words, the government is unwilling to see that its own money delivers. It prefers an ostrich-like posture of ignoring this colossal waste.Instead, the government takes an easy way out. It supports its own former secretary to set up an NGO. It itself seeks foreign aid and supports the NGO to do the same. The same former secretary of education who failed to set the government system right, now goes about setting up a parallel system. New teachers are recruited at half the wages of those paid to the incompetent government teachers. And lo! these low paid teachers indeed produce better results.So what is the net result, though? Ostensibly the people have got education under this parallel system. Foreign aid has been beneficial. Without aid we would not have been able to set up this parallel system. But at the same time the rot in the government system has deepened. The government teachers are now not even expected to teach. The NGO is there to take care of the teaching. More importantly, the former secretary openly indulges in government bashing and the present secretary revels in self-denigration. Both unabashedly acknowledge before the donors that the raison d’etre of the NGO programme is that the government system does not function. The foreign government is requested to step in because the Indian government cannot manage its teachers! And because some such NGO palliatives are available, the agenda of reform of the state education system is pushed back farther.Everyone is happy with such a situation. The minister of education is relieved. He does not have to face the problem of reforming the rotting state education system. He can inaugurate NGO schools and take the credit of ushering in a new era in education.Or take power sector reforms. Every SEB is mad after foreign funds. Why? They are unable to generate their own funds because of nearly 50 per cent power being stolen, mostly in connivance with their employees. Now the state government has two entirely different approaches to deal with the problem. The obvious solution is to stop the pilferage. But this is politically difficult. The minister does not want trouble on his hands. If he starts confronting the SEB bureaucracy, there will be a strike, and lots of hue and cry. So why take all this trouble, he asks himself. Why not simply approach one of the generous industrial countries for aid?As things stand today, these funds are leading to more bad than good. It is only because we fail to manage our own money that we need foreign funds. |
| The
days of
longing by K.K. Khullar It is a true story and, therefore, hard to tell. Mother used to celebrate all the festivals but the fervour and devotion with which she celebrated Ram Naumi was something unusual. On the morning of Naumi after eight days of rigorous fasting she made foolproof arrangements for cleaning, feeding and distribution of alms. The entire household revolved around her. Even the animals were bathed before feeding. On that day, which she called the day of all days, mother’s strict instructions to father were not to consume any liquor.But father somehow succeeded in doing it. He was not a very religious person but he partook in the festivities, feeding even the passersby.“I told you not to do it on this day”. Mother was never angry but she would resent.“But I took it at night,” Father always took her lightly.“You see it Rama’s grace”. She would say most gracefully.“But don’t forget your God is on my side.” The deist in father taunted.“Never say that. Say that you are on the side of God.” And Ram Naumi would end happily. Her mild reprimand was: “OK, don’t do it next time.” So we waited for the next year, next to next year and year after year. We waited for its simple “daal” soaked with “Hing” (asafoetida). Sometimes we children wondered why there were two Ram Naumis instead of one in a single year — one near Baisakhi and the other near Dasehra. And why the dates always went on shifting.Once mother discovered a bottle of red wine in the bathroom. She did not say anything to anyone but poured it down the drain and got the bathroom washed 101 times. She was happy that she had taken timely and appropriate action although I was sure that the orderly who had hidden the bottle in the bathroom must have brought another. In any case, mother was the focal point round Ram Naumi. Without her Naumi did not mean anything to us.And that is exactly what happened when mother died suddenly and unexpectedly. That was the first death in our family and the tenor of the whole life was changed. We had never seen death from so close quarters. She died without notice. Father suppressed his grief but was not the same again.On mother’s 10th death anniversary I and father went to Hardwar. I went from Delhi and he came from Jalandhar. We met at Saharanpur railway station from where we boarded a slow passenger train for Haridwar. I found him very sad and unusually quiet.“Why are you so silent, father?” He looked into the distance in the moving train leaving the railway lampposts behind. “What is troubling you, father. We are all there to look after you.” He understood the reference to his sons and daughters but, yet, kept quiet.Realising that my voice had choked and eyes moist, he put his hand on my shoulder and tried to console me. Then suddenly he asked me in a rather low tone: “Do you know when exactly Ram Naumi is?” It brought back a vanished era to my mind. “No father, mother alone knew it”, I said it on the spur of the moment. We reached Hardwar in total silence, and returned by a noisy UP Roadways bus. I had no heart to leave him alone at Saharanpur. So I accompanied him to Jalandhar.Father is no more, and I have myself become old. Recently a child from the neighbourhood came to me and called me “uncle”. My age took a U-turn.“Uncle, mother has sent this rice and daal for you”. When asked why, she said, it was the day of Ram Naumi. “You know she is feeding the poor”. |
| Flexible agenda, no framework By S. Sethuraman The Vajpayee Government has apparently settled for a broad, flexible economic agenda, without a coherent policy framework, which a Five-Year Plan would have projected. The Ninth Five-Year Plan is not ready, as the earlier draft for the period beginning April, 1997, ceased to have relevance by the way the economy performed in 1997-98.With limited faith in the planning process, Mr Vajpayee nominated Mr Jaswant Singh as Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission, but that was only a base from which he was launched into political and diplomatic assignments as the Prime Minister would entrust to his confidant.Mr Vajpayee did not constitute the full Planning Commission and seems to prefer internal task forces to do the necessary exercise to be vetted by Mr Jaswant Singh so that the Plan incorporates the socio-economic objectives listed in the national agenda for governance.Plan outlays were included in the Union Budget for 1998-99, presented by Finance Minister, Mr Yashwant Sinha, on June 1, without specific reference to any medium-term Plan, making it appear that the country will have another Annual Plan as in 1997-98.By the time a new Ninth Five-Year Plan is drawn up and approved by the National Development Council, the current financial year will be more than half-way through so that a meaningful start for the new Plan can be given only from 1998-99, if political realities do not materially change by then.After a 7 per cent GDP growth on an average for three years, the economy slowed down to 5.5 per cent in 1997-98 (recently revised up from 5 per cent) while the projection for the current year is a mere 5 per cent. Even as the year began, an industrial revival was not considered likely until the latter half, and developments in the first quarter (April-June), which included the nuclear weapon tests, the first Budget of the Vajpayee Government, and the sanctions against India, have made the prospects for overall growth more bleak.In mid-1998 there is a multitude of negative factors so that economic management in the current fiscal year will be extremely difficult, as in typical crisis years. Mr Sinha had talked of addressing problems of reviving industry and export growth and reactivating the capital market, when he laid his interim Budget, at the end of March. But he missed the golden opportunity of providing a “kickstart” to the economy and launching bold reforms which would have helped overcome negative effects of sanctions, when he presented the regular Budget on June 1.The Budget appeared directionless with its principal concern being only that of flaunting its swadeshi touches with protection to domestic industry. The desire to double the foreign direct investment flows was not matched by policy initiatives and the Budget was viewed as inward-looking and weak in controlling fiscal deficit by global investor firms and financial institutions.Mr Sinha also did not give attention to export growth in his Budget, though subsequently the Reserve Bank lowered export credit rate for “incremental exports” over the level recorded in 1997-98. The significant fall of the rupee by 10 per cent within a month to Rs 43 plus to the dollar has been taken in the stride by RBI, which is now more sanguine about the exchange rate, unlike its tough response in January, bowing to the market forces and minimising erosion of reserves. Yet, the reserves are down by $ 1 billion to $ 24 billion.Mr Sinha will be unable to control expenditure during the year, having already yielded ground on the question of subsidies, while a fairly large addition to defence expenditure is anticipated through supplementary demand for grants later in the year, an indication of which has been given by the Defence Minister. The additional resource mobilisation measures have been whittled down by Mr Sinha and any revenue buoyancy associated with growth of the economy should be discounted at this stage.More than the Centre’s fiscal deficit, which may end up close to 6.5 per cent of GDP, unless the Government mounts a disinvestment strategy aggressively going far beyond the Rs 5,000 crore assumed in the Budget, there is cause for concern on the balance of payments front. Even if there is a modest revival of export growth, the current account deficit in 1998-99 will exceed 2 per cent of GDP, after a long interval, and this will require not only increases in invisibles surplus but also investment flows.The sanctions — no matter the ministerial attempts to downplay their effects on the economy — and Moody’s downgrading of India’s investment status have made the Vajpayee Government realise that swadeshi politics and swadeshi economics cannot go together.With some visible desperation, the government is trying to lure foreign private capital into more sectors though here again there is no policy formulation. Both foreign direct and portfolio investments — after the recent outflows — are being sought by holding out sops while placing considerable reliance on NRIs.A fall in net capital flows including direct investment and portfolio flows to developing countries in 1998 has been projected by IMF and the decline will be sharper for Asia. India, with its present state of the economy, the capital market and exports, is unlikely to attract foreign direct investment away from the traditional large recipients which have been thrown into recession by the currency turmoils of 1997. No net addition to portfolio investment in Asia is also projected for 1998 though this may not exclude some limited inflows into India depending on market conditions.Reacting to developments in the wake of the Pokhran explosions, the Vajpayee Government, whatever its strident postures in the international arena, realises that economic development, with large parts of the world moving toward globalisation, cannot be achieved by swadeshi-driven inward-looking policies. — IPA |
| Nikhilda — one of the last few men of the
old school Last week-end saw the passing away of veteran journalist, the 84- year old Nikhil Chakravarty. Though his death was not sudden, rather expected as he had been suffering from cancer, yet it did leave you feeling depressed. For he was of those last few men who belonged to the old school (of principles), one of those on whom you could depend on, one of those who believed in living with the basics, be it even travelling in buses. His Kaka Nagar DII type flat, with post-office red painted doors and windows was as sparse as possible and except for rows and further rows of books there was nothing to boast of .... but, then, it needed no such frills for with Nikhilda in it what else was needed. I had been to his house several times, but can’t forget the first time I had met in March ‘87, for a magazine interview, for that is the day he spoke to me on a full range of subjects. Though I’d asked some awkward questions too but the man didn’t hesitate. On being asked whether he fears death this is what he told me “death just doesn’t upset me because I have myself cremated about 40 people so far (till early 1987) but I would prefer that it is not a lingering sort of death ....” On being asked for his comments on modern India he said “in modern India, society has less taboos and individual freedom is encouraged .... in my personal case I have encouraged my only child, my son, to live separately after his marriage. But do let me add, with emphasis, that with all our so-called modern living a great amount of insensitivity has crept in. Norms have been shattered, there is no concept of Indianness left, only RSS and Arun Shourie’s views are thriving in this so-called modern India, we have not developed culturally and that’s the root cause of our decay”. On the Indian male’s hypocritical attitude towards the woman he said “Yes, it is very much there. It is a complex situation, deep rooted because of our social background of the mixture of feudalism and modernisation. Then our society is one of extremes, the balance is missing. But someday we’ll definitely be able to get out of this; take the case of China where women were very oppressed but Mao’s regime changed the whole nation”. On being asked whether such a phase called the men’s menopause existed he first looked taken aback but, then, in his characteristic frank way did say: “I have never felt it ... I think it is like climbing a mountain and when you have reached the top you sit back and pause and look back.” Describing himself and his daily routine he went on to say “I carry on doing a lot of work, for my principle is that if an old car is kept in the garage for too long then it stops working ... so I will never stop....”Perhaps, in keeping with this motto though ailing but till the end he didn’t quit working as chairman, Prasar Bharti Board.Butalia reconstructs partitioned people. Whether you do or not but I firmly believe that there is something called ‘woman’s power’, which, however, only few women are able to execute. Urvashi Butalia is definitely one of them, for she is not only the co-founder of India’s first and only feminist publishing house “Kali for Women” (Hauz Khas, New Delhi) but one look at her and her work surroundings is enough to sense that for her publishing is a mission and no business (Infact, one of the reasons she continues with her college job of teaching book publishing in one of the South Delhi colleges is so that the cost of running this publishing house is met). And, perhaps, it is with the same sense of commitment that she took on the project of delving into the human havoc that the Partition of India brought along. Her recently released book “The Other Side Of Silence: Voices From the The Partition Of India” (Viking, Penguin India) is woven along this human tragedy and the tale gets compounded as Butalia unfolds in it her own family tale of such deep sorrow that you feel the throat tightening amidst certain paragraphs. Her mother’s family hailed from Lahore and during Partition when they all fled to India her maternal uncle refused to do so; the lure of acquiring the ancestral house kept him back. He stayed on, converted to Islam, married a Muslim, has children from her and if changing his own entire life or pattern wasn’t enough he didn’t let his aged mother move away from Lahore. The tragedy is complete when he even changed her name and on her death buried her, instead of cremating her according to Hindu rites or when he recounts that in spite of his conversion he is ridiculed to this day ... his shattered voice and voices of other affected people would have remained unheard if Butalia hadn’t undertaken this mammoth project of travelling to and fro to Pakistan and to our cities here, to record the sentiments of her own uncle and of the hundreds of others affected. What seems ironical is that though the Partition left 12 million people displaced, 1 million dead, 75 thousand women said to be raped/abducted, not to mention the hundreds of families that were left. Totally ruined yet few in recent years have written about it. It is after hiatus that a book on the Partition has been written and written sans the political or politicians’ viewpoints, rather focusing on the shrieks of dismay of the common man and woman. For Butalia to hear those shrieks, in the accounts/narrations of the people was an immense emotional strain but she had to carry it on, so that those anguish ridden voices can be heard by us. As she says, “I feel that it is important for people to talk about it so that these horrors are known and such havocs are never repeated in the times to come.” |
 75 YEARS AGO Swaraj in 10 years IT will be remembered that when some months ago we suggested in these columns, as we had, indeed, done times out of number, that for proper solution of the Indian problem it was essential that the British Government and the British Parliament should definitely specify the limit of time within which the transfer of all political and governmental power to the representatives of the people should be completed, and that this limit should under no circumstances exceed ten years, a writer in a vernacular journal, who evidently had no idea of what he was writing about, ejaculated:-Has The Tribune become an entirely moderate paper?; the word “moderate” in the vocabulary of the journal being synonymous with all that is opprobrious. It would be interesting to know what this journal thinks of a similar pronouncement which has just been made by the accredited leader of its own party in the Congress.“A demand for Swaraj would be made by the Swaraj Party”, said Mr Das in his recent Madras speech, “and if Parliament were to recognise that India would get Swaraj within 10 years, making definite provision for the same, then I should accept it.” |
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