P A G E
Monday, April 5, 1999
today's calendar
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E D I T O R I A L P A G E |
Monday, April 5, 1999 |
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ISRO
regains elan
KOSOVO
AND KASHMIR |
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The
House was right,
Jaya’s
visits and earthquakes
Life’s
like that
Hindus
and Frontier Province |
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ISRO regains elan ISRO is back in business, big and high business. After two disastrous setbacks with Insat 2A and Insat 2D, the successful launch of the indigenously designed and assembled communication satellite Insat 2E is what the doctor ordered. With the spring returning to its step, ISRO is now confidently looking forward to the next Insat 3 series with one ear turned to the jingling dollars from hiring out transponders. It has been two years of hard work, first analysing patiently and painfully the mysterious loss of Insat 2D which went dead barely four months after launch. That was a big jolt to the organisation’s pride and creditable record. It was made worse by the earlier failure of Insat 2A, because of the combined effect of a Japanese chip blowing up the electric circuit and fuel spilling all over the delicate craft. It was easy to identify the reasons behind the failure of Insat 2A but the other one created many problems. Scientists had to plot the last minutes, even seconds, of Insat 2D’s life and draw the right lessons. The latest satellite is the end product. Mainly it carries a liquid-fuel engine, giving it more staying power, and hence more earning power. Two, this time Isro hired an Arianne rocket just for Insat 2E, so that it is plonk on the spot from where it can move over to the final destination. Isro has manifestly earned the respect and trust of the technologically advanced nations whose organisation, Intelsat, has hired one half of the transponders of Insat 2E. These are the marvels which reflect thousands upon thousands of pulses they receive from the earth back to those giant dish antennae. The loss of Insat 2A and
2D led to a loss of several transponders. Isro promptly
hired Arabsat with 26 transponders to tide over the
immediate crisis. With nine more available to it now,
there are as many as 33 transponders from the Insat 2
series. After next year the number should jump to nearly
60, just about enough to meet India’s
telecommunication, television and meteorological needs.
In fact, a unique feature of Insat 2E is the two highly
sophisticated cameras it carries to beam a whole load of
information about wind speed, vapour density, cloud
formation and other relevant data to forecast the
monsoon, cyclone and even drought. The latest launch
marks a quantum jump in this country’s weather
monitoring capacity. Similarly, there are transponders
which provide zonal beam, that is they transmit high
quality data to a specific region and not scatter data
over a wide area. This will help regional private
television channels to offer quality picture and sound
and it will cost half as much as for the conventional
transponders. Since the transponders are right now
partial to the South, the immediate beneficiaries will be
the active and cantankerous language channels in Tamil
Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka. Incidentally, ISRO
too is a bright star from the same part of the country. |
Shades of an interview THE controversial interview with Dara Singh, the main suspect in the Staines triple murder case, telecast by a private channel last week was evidently arranged by elements close to the Sangh Parivar. It is not just the interview but related developments which lend support to the theory that an attempt is being made to trivialise the issue by spreading rumours and misinformation. If the needle of suspicion points in the direction of the members of the Sangh Parivar, there is a reason for it. Even before the charred remains of Graham Staines and his two sons could be given a burial the country’s Home Minister issued a statement absolving the Bajrang Dal of any involvement in the crime. The Orissa police promptly issued a statement that Dara Singh had fled to his native state — Uttar Pradesh. To cause further confusion the patrons of the main suspect in the heinous crime have reportedly let loose a number of petty criminals in the villages of Orissa to instil the fear of Dara Singh among the simple folk. Reports from Orissa suggest that a number of small-time crooks are terrorising villagers with each one claiming to be the “real Dara Singh”. It is not that the police is not able to nab them. They are released on the grounds of being “fakes”. Only the most devious mind could have thought of causing public confusion about the actual identity of one of the most ruthless killers in human history even before the judicial commission is able to complete its investigation in the killing of the missionary and his sons in Manoharpur about three months ago. The so-called interview in
which Dara Singh has reportedly offered to give himself
up if the Wadhwa Commission finds him guilty too has a
Sangh Parivar stamp over it. It is a clumsy attempt to
gain public sympathy for the killer by showing someone
who may or may not be the man the police is looking for.
There is further circumstantial evidence. The anchor-man
of the programme, who obtained the exclusive clips of the
interview from the freelance journalist, too, is known
for his proximity to the Sangh Parivar. Chief Minister
Giridhar Gamang should order a separate enquiry into the
antecedents of Binay Bhushan Patnaik, the journalist who
obtained the so-called interview in the “jungles of
Orissa” — while the police believes that Dara
Singh has fled to UP. The enquiry should also try to
establish whether he tried to sell exclusive rights of
the sensational interview to other TV networks, including
Doordarshan, and whether they turned down the offer for
ethical reasons. There should be no doubt whatsoever that
the Dara Singh interview did go against the principle of
journalistic ethics. However, as far as the Sangh Parivar
is concerned, the parallel drama being enacted evidently
at its behest, is worth the effort if it helps to support
the Union Home Minister’s statement on the killings
and the circumstantial innocence of the Bajrang Dal.
Notwithstanding these murky goings-on, the people have a
right to information and they must know the truth. |
KOSOVO AND
KASHMIR SOME 70,000 Kosovo Albanians have been driven out of their homes in the Kosovo province of the Republic of Yugoslavia during the past 10 days. The plight of 3,50,000 Pandits forced out of their centuries-old home of Kashmir stares us in the face everyday of the year. The “ethnic re-engineering”, to use the phrase given currency by the NATO spokesman, taking place in Rajouri, Poonch, Doda and Udhampur districts of Jammu and Kashmir, with Hindus being systematically driven out of their villages, has become so routine that nobody even cares to mention it any more. Nobody, for instance, is asking the question how come even now, when Indo-Pak relations are supposed to be on the mend, foreign mercenaries continue to pour into Jammu and Kashmir from the Pakistani side of Line of Control. Or, why only Hindus are being thrown out of their mountainous hamlets? That’s your problem, someone might shoot back. And it indeed is our problem just as Kosovo is NATO’s problem. Milosevic, to be sure, is nobody’s cup of tea. He is arrogant, authoritarian and unbending when it comes to having his writ run. Furthermore, he is one of the last Communist rulers in the world. He won’t tolerate opposition even as he goes through the motions of getting himself re-elected President of the country one term after another. Most objectionable, as Clinton and Blair will bear out, is his refusal to resist any attempts to tamper with the territorial sovereignty and integrity of his country. This, last one, is the only laudable trait in the man’s character but then Clinton has his own agenda to pursue. The devil called Milosevic, however, says he has seen the Yugoslav federation’s breakup from close and how the West and others had stood by to see the nation put together by Marshal Tito at the end of a long and painful resistance movement led by him throughout the years of World War II falling apart. You may or may not agree with him when he says Kosovo represents yet another attempt to chip and chop the federation. The Kosovo Liberation Army is indeed an organised band of secessionist terrorists funded by a flourishing drug mafia, a fact that has been acknowledged even by the moderate Kosovan liberation leadership. Even Clinton and Blair, in their less charged moments, accept this as a fact. Milosevic, on the other hand, knows that if he accepts the presence of NATO peacekeepers in Kosovo, the province will be a separate nation soon enough. He sees the KLA and its agenda, funded by drugs trade, as a threat to the integrity of what remains of the old Yugoslavia. And against that background he believes he is well within his rights to protect the sovereignty and integrity of his country. The fact is that the Serbs, of whom Milosevic is one, are a fiercely patriotic people. During the years of World War II the Serbs resisted the Germans till the very last, even when Yugoslavia as a nation had come under Hitler’s iron heel. Those were the days when the Allies hailed Tito’s bravery. If a Yugoslav leader today says that he sees no difference between the bombs Hitler showered on them and those being thrown at them by NATO planes, he is only airing the irony of the situation. And it’s not as if Yugoslavia, or even the brutal Milosevic, have attacked another country or committed aggression on a neighbour. As the Yugoslav, government puts it, it is only trying to defend the country’s territorial integrity. Whether you agree with the Yugoslav view of the Kosovo situation or not, the stark reality is that the NATO’s attack on Serbia (Yugoslavia) is the latest example of the era of international disorder which Clinton is hellbent on leaving as his legacy to mankind. After his latest exploits in Iraq he has shown yet again that he has scant regard for international law and that, when it suits his interests or his whims, he has no use for the United Nations and its Security Council and not even for the NATO charter itself. By roping in his Western Allies and illegally invoking the NATO charter he has set a very dangerous precedent, one, which the international community can ignore only at its peril. To restate this point, the attack on Serbia clearly violates the UN Charter to which all NATO members are signatories. The charter forbids any use of force except in self defence, unless it is specifically authorised by the UN Security Council. NATO’s bombing attacks on Serbia are clearly not an act of self defence and nor had it been ordered by the Security Council. As in the case of the unilateral decision to attack Iraq, China and Russia, two members of the Security Council had opposed action against Serbia. Contrary to the explanation offered by the US and Britain there was no UN dispensation favouring military attacks on Serbia unlike in the case of the Bosnian conflict when the Security Council had approved air strikes against Serbs but only in support of the UN peacekeeping force operating on the ground. NATO has supposedly intervened in Kosovo to stop a disaster. In the event, it could only precipitate one. Its Serb minority has been forced to accept a peace agreement that forces it to remain as part of Bosnia. If the Kosovans of Yugoslavia are enabled by the NATO action to gain independence, then the Bosnian Serbs will feel free to ask why they do not have the right to independence. The question also arises, must the NATO continue to exist. Its creation was viewed as a bulwark against Soviet expansionism 50 years ago. With the demise of the Soviet Union what is NATO supposed to be doing? In any case throughout the first 50 years of its existence it was never really called upon to intervene in any military action. By bombing Serbia, NATO may have achieved a first. Or it could well be an opportunity for Bill Clinton to uphold the relevance of NATO when he presides over the 50th birthday bash of the organisation to be staged, very appropriately, in Washington later this year. Forget the birthday bash for a while. It’s time for the international community to ponder the consequences of the USA and some of its cronies acting as the world’s lone cop, accountable to none except the whims of the US President. Unnoticed by many, Washington for the first time since 1945 has involved German troops in an operational mission. Ironical that Germany troops, who devastated Yugoslavia during World War II, should be seen in action in the same region again. As one report has it, even former German Chancellor Helmut Kohl did not anticipate that German troops could be used against the places once devastated by Hitler. The Kosovan crisis has a
particular message for countries like India which are
faced with secessionist activities fuelled by other
countries. NATO’s intervention in a civil war, which
the Kosovan crisis in reality is, can only be seen as its
support to the so-called liberation movement there. By
the same logic it can be said that by offering air
support to further the objective, NATO is in effect
providing an air force, as it were, to the Kosovan
liberation army. It may seem far fetched but given the
twisted logic of the West, it might well decide one day
that to support secessionist movements in this country is
a moral obligation which it must fulfil. In that context
it might even justify direct foreign intervention in a
situation like the one obtaining in Kashmir. Do try to
remember the overwhelming welcome the Pakistan government
gave to the NATO intervention is Serbia. Don’t also
forget that one nation’s terrorists are other
nation’s freedom fighters. The sensible way to deal
with ethnic problems, as pointed out by a French
authority on the subject, is to accept the fact that
there are about 5,000 peoples and ethnic groups in the
world. “The difficulties involved in managing the
planet if each one had its own nation-state are obvious.
The solution is to reinforce the concept of the
nation-state where everyone regardless of their origin
can live in harmony and freedom”. This may not
necessarily make sense to people to whose ears the roar
of the B-2 and Stealth bombers is like music. They, like
Bill Clinton and his cohorts, believe in might being
right. — ADNI |
Service sector has big potential THE economic reforms for the past eight years have mainly focused on the manufacturing sector and very little attention has been paid either to the service sector or to the agriculture sector. Apart from the agricultural sector, it is high time we also gave serious attention to the service sector for a number of reasons. First, as the experience of many developed countries has shown, after a certain point in economic development and with increasing urbanisation, it is the service sector which grows at a relatively faster pace than either the manufacturing sector or the agricultural sector. India can also be said to have reached a point when its service sector can expect to grow at a relatively faster pace and this needs to be provided all the necessary support and perhaps a gentle push. Second, it has also been observed that this sector generates the largest number of jobs and has the capacity to absorb a large number of the labour force. In other words, it has large potential of employment generation. In most of the developed countries less than 10 per cent of the population is engaged in agriculture, less than 30 per cent in manufacturing and the rest in the service sector. Third, the role of imported inputs like machinery, equipment etc., in the service industry is very limited and most of the equipment needed can be easily procured from within the country for a large numbers of service subsectors. It may need import of certain specialised equipment or some latest equipment which will not be a drain on foreign exchange. And the equipment once imported will have less wear and tear compared to the use of equipment in the manufacturing or agricultural sectors. Fourth, the service sector has a very good potential of earning foreign exchange, especially the service sector related to tourism like hotels, travel agencies, restaurants, specialised transport of all kinds, services of guides and so on. In fact, the foreign exchange used to import certain equipment to modernise the service industry would be only a small proportion of potential hard currency earnings. The Thai experience here can be quite illustrative. The tourist industry of Thailand is the most important foreign exchange earner. Compared to Thailand, India is a vast country and there are a large number of places of historical and cultural interest to foreign tourist, beaches to spend their holidays; India is the birthplace of Buddha, yet a large number of Buddhist pilgrims go to Thailand and rarely come to India. It is because the tourist infrastructure facilities in India are not well developed: good hotel accommodation is limited, taxis are rickety, domestic flights seldom keep the schedules, facilities for converting foreign exchange are limited and so on. In Thailand, every tourist facility, be it hotel, restaurant, taxis or exchange bureaus, all are of very high standard compared to India. For this reason tourists arrive in Bangkok by hordes. This is just an example of one service industry where both foreign and domestic tourists expect something much better. The service industry in the wider sense of the term would include the services of law advisers, artistes, technical consultants, health clubs apart from the tourist industry, financial sector like banking and insurance, transport sector covering rail, road, air, river and sea transport, telecommunications, medical services and so on. It is high time attention was paid to the expansion of this industry in the country. It will also serve the wider purpose of creating more jobs as well as earning more foreign exchange. As a first measure there is a need to have a comprehensive investment policy with regard to each sub-sector of the service sector and wherever necessary it be supplemented with fiscal concessions etc., as for instance for development of hotel industry in Bodh Gaya for Buddhist pilgrims or for development of tourist infrastructure in north-east and so on. Almost all modes of transport are in need of modernisation, some more than others. The air sector has been opened up to the private sector and private investment yet the quality of service leaves much to be desired. The ground services are not up to the mark — sometimes the weighing machines are not working and something the luggage belt is not working and sometimes the bags are mixed up. The behaviour of the ground staff towards the passengers, whether domestic or international, is far from courteous. Therefore, what is needed in this sector is upgradation of ground support facilities, proper training of ground staff in human relations as all this will attract more people which in turn will generate more employment in various sub-sectors of the tourist industry. The surface transport — whether intercity or intracity — is really in very bad shape. The buses are rickety, the seats are uncomfortable, doors are missing; so is true of taxis and other means of transport. All of these things are manufactured in the country with the kind of technology which is very backward and long discarded by almost all the countries. The buses manufactured in the country and in other countries stand class apart. This is an area in the service sector which requires upgradation of technology either through import of technology or through development of indigenous technology. The situation is much
worse in the health sector. It calls for big investments
in this sector, including investment on the technical
staff to run and maintain the sophisticated equipment.
— INFA |
Life’s
like that WHEN Uncle Talwar died in Gloucester a few years ago, he declared in his will that his ashes should be immersed not only in the Ganges at Hardwar but also where he was born, namely Jhang in Pakistan. So his wife and four daughters, all of them married to Englishmen and settled in England, came to New Delhi and proceeded to Hardwar. It was only when they returned to New Delhi that Aunty Talwar spoke to me about the proposed journey to Pakistan. That was a particularly bad year in Indo-Pak relations. The Talwars had no friends or relatives on the other side. My colleagues in the MEA were not too keen to involve our mission there with their visit, so I was unable to provide any “official” assistance. That is when the “informal” channel worked. A friend of a friend, doing business in Mumbai, who had “trade links” with Pakistan, arranged the visit. Mrs Talwar and her daughters were not only received at Lahore airport, but taken home and rested, and given vehicles the next day to ferry them to and fro Jhang. The ladies came back to New Delhi, visibly excited and gushing over the warmth and hospitality received. After the death of her husband, Aunt Talwar came to India every winter thereafter to maintain her links here. She did this 1999 winter also. Except that this time around, she succumbed to a sudden – and massive – cardiac arrest while watching telly at a relative’s house. We were informed about the tragedy that afternoon around 4 pm. Her daughters had been informed in Gloucester who, in turn, were required to locate and inform their only brother who lives in America. Aunt Talwar died on a Saturday. The daughters panicked. They required visas to be able to catch a flight to New Delhi. The visa guy in the Indian High Commission said he would wait till 2 pm that day for them to come from Gloucester and to collect their visas. The hour being what it was, and Gloucester being four hours’ run from London, the girls pleaded with our visa section not to close down for the weekend. The guy just wouldn’t listen. Till the Gloucester crowd got in touch with a friend in London, who drove across to the visa section, and “induced” the guy to hang on. While this was going on, we had no idea when the daughters would finally arrive in India for the cremation. There was no news about Aunt Talwar’s son — he, too, was away somewhere, enjoying his weekend. There was no way of finding out whether he would be able to make it for the last rites. So Aunt Talwar’s body was shifted to the morgue in the AIIMS. The AIIMS had just reopened after a fortnight’s strike by its doctors. The Delhi High Court had reserved orders till the following Monday, and we were worried whether the docs would resume their strike if the High Court did not pass favourable orders. In which case, would it be possible to “retrieve” Aunt Talwar’s remains for the final journey? It was 6.30 pm that Saturday when London called to say that the visas had been obtained, and that the four daughters, a granddaughter, and a cousin, would reach New Delhi by British Airways on Sunday afternoon around 1 pm. There was still no news about the son. Not wanting to take any chances, Aunt Talwar’s final journey from her relative’s house in Jangpura, where she had died and where she was brought back from the AIIMS, to the crematorium in Lodhi Road, began at 5 pm that Sunday. Her daughters and granddaughter had arrived. And as their mother’s body was consigned to flames, Myra – youngest daughter – shrank back in horror, or was it fear? The rest of the rituals were completed in comparative calm and acceptance of what had happened. There was a prayer meeting in memory of the departed soul, at which Myra spoke in glowing terms, tears rolling down her cheeks, about her mother and all that she had done to bring up her children and to keep them together. The ashes were dutifully
carried to hardwar. This time, however, there was no
requirement about visiting the other side, for Aunt
Talwar was born in Jammu. And that, said Myra as she
boarded her flight to Heathrow, is yet another reason why
J&K must continue to remain an integral part of
India. |
The House was right, My Lord!
“I DOUBT,” said Edward R. Murrow in a broadcast in February, 1946, “that the most important thing was Dunkirk or the Battle of Britain, El Alamein or Stalingrad. Not even the landing in Normandy or the great blows struck by British and American bombers. Historians may decide that any one of these events was decisive, but I am persuaded that the most important thing that happened in Britain was that this nation chose to win or lose this war under the established rules of parliamentary procedure.” It was this unparalleled, unwavering commitment to the institution and processes of Parliament that inspired the founding fathers of the Indian Constitution to adopt the mother of parliaments as their model and enact, in Articles 105 and 194, that the powers, privileges and immunities of Parliament and States legislatures respectively “shall be those of the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom”. Under the House of Commons’ powers and privileges, B.R. Ambedkar told the Constituent Assembly on June 3, 1949, it is open to Parliament to convict any citizen for contempt of Parliament “and when such privilege is exercised, the jurisdiction of the court is ousted.” Then again, he said, it is open to Parliament to take action against any individual member of Parliament “for anything that has been done by him which brings Parliament into disrepute”. The privileges of Parliament, he said, cover both the rights of Parliament as against the public and its rights as against the individual members. Disregarding Ambedkar’s clear declaration of intent, Parliament’s rights as against the public were gravely impaired by the Supreme Court in 1964 when it ruled in Keshav Singh’s case that a citizen convicted for contempt by the House could be released by the courts. But Parliament’s right to proceed against its members for contempts by them within its own walls is a part of its privilege to regulate its own proceedings and stands on an entirely different footing. “..... no precedent has been or can be produced in which any court has ever interfered with the internal affairs of either House of Parliament, though the cases are no doubt numerous in which the courts have declared the limits of their powers outside of their respective Houses.” Whether in England or in India, this statement of the law by the court of Queen’s Bench in Charles Bradlaugh’s case, decided 115 years ago, enjoys the authority and elegance of a locus classicus. The jurisdiction of the Houses over their own members, added Chief Justice Lord Coleridge in the same case, “their right to impose discipline within their walls, is absolute and exclusive. To use the words of Lord Ellenborough, they would sink into utter contempt and inefficiency without it.” Even if there were no precedents upon the subject, Lord Ellenborough had stated previously in 1811 in Burdett versus Abbott, no legislative recognition, no practice or opinions in the courts of law recognising such an authority, it would still be necessary for the Houses of Parliament to have it; indeed they would sink into utter contempt and inefficiency without it. The Madras High Court turned a blind eye, therefore, to almost 200 years of constitutional history and law when it intervened last fortnight to release an MLA imprisoned by the House for assaulting a minister on the floor. Even on the first principles of political morality — though morality, as I have so often argued in this column, is never a safe guide to legal interpretation — the High Court’s response is difficult to appreciate. The crescendo of rowdyism in Indian legislatures would surely call for greater powers to them to punish and discipline their delinquent members, rather than justify a stance of helplessness. However else it may be flawed, judicial activism in aid of morality has a popular support base that is not easily eroded. But activism that is neither ethically oriented nor technically correct is a sport no democracy can afford to indulge in for long. In all fairness it must be stated, however, as I did last time, that the High Court’s interference with the Speaker’s original warrant of detention was wholly unexceptionable. The position that the Speaker can act only on the asking of the House and never on his own also has an interesting historical pedigree. It goes back, in fact, to 1641. The House of Commons voted that year to publish and present to the King a long list of grievances called the “Grand Remonstrance”. An enraged Charles I demanded that the House deliver up the five members who had led the debate so that they could be tried for treason. Seeing no sign of compliance, he subsequently marched into the House with an armed guard of 400 men and commanded the Speaker to identify the five members. Defying the King in words that have gone down in history the Speaker, William Lenthell, replied: “May it please your
majesty, I have neither eyes to see, nor tongue to speak
in this place but as this House is pleased to direct,
whose servant I am here.” |
Jaya’s visits and earthquakes
THOUGH last Monday’s earthquake should have been the focus of attention but alas, it lay eclipsed by the socalled “human earthquake: Ms J. Jayalalitha”, on a visit to New Delhi around the same time. And the joke going round here is that much in keeping with the prediction that another earthquake is likely to follow soon, it could as well coincide with Jayalalitha’s next trip to the Capital, around April 10, when she is likely to meet the President. Unless of course, political developments brew even more quickly and she is here even sooner than that — quake or no quake. And the person left greatly irked or call it disturbed by her demand to remove Defence Minister George Fernandes, was none other than Jaya Jaitley. Interestingly that very day, when Jayalalitha came up with those stinging off — with — George demands, Jaitley was in Pondicherry and was seen making frequent telephone calls to New Delhi, to check whether any serious aftermath takes place. Isn’t it naive on her part to get so rattled, knowing too well that verbal dialogues are only for political effect and public consumption! Two major events First was the show put up by the national folk dance ensemble of Croatia. In fact, an evening before the public show there was a preview of sorts, at the poolside of the Oberoi hotel. The visiting Croatian parliamentarian delegation headed by Vladmir Seks and the Ambassador of Croatia to India, Dr Zoran Andris, were also present. To be matched by our parliamentarians strength, in the form of P.A. Sangma, Shiv Shankar, Saifuddin Soz and several others. And as the group danced in their traditional national wear/costumes on the edge of the blue waters of the pool it did create a pretty picture. And as I got talking to the art director and director of this group, Ivan Ivancan and Josip Guberina, respectively, one was told that traditional dances were not only very popular all over Croatia but even to this day remain intact with their traditionalism: “No, no change is introduced because it isn’t needed ... people just love dancing and singing in the traditional format”. And when I asked the young interpreter — a Croat studying in the USA who had come down especially to help with the translation whilst this troupe is on this overseas tour — about his reactions or that of the average Croat to the ongoing NATO attack on Yugoslavia he very spontaneously quipped: “I think it is very good, they deserve it... first they (Yugoslavia) had troubled us and now they are being attacked, so I feel it is good....” He couldn’t say more as just then Josip Guberina probably caught on to what he was saying and took to scolding him in Croatian. And as the boy tried to say more he was snubbed. To an abrupt stop! Moving on to the next event. Well, it lay well fitted in that very evening — that is March 31 — at the Mexican ambassador’s residence: A homage to the well known Mexican poet Jaime Sabines who passed away very recently, on March 19 at Mexico City. This homage was in the form of readings of Sabines’ poetic verses and a short documentary film on his life and works and rather definite views. And here let me add that it is the first time that I visited Mexican Ambassador Edmundo Font’s residence and was rather taken aback by the rather ethnic setting. In fact all the way down from the front gates to the back gardens of his home earthen ‘diyas’ were lit and the back verandah stood thatched in the typical Kerala style. And interspread with Roshan Seth’s poetry recitations and screening of the documentary was a special ‘moon’ dance by Mexican dancer and choreographer Patricia Torres. And though I hadn’t ever read Sabines’ work before but hearing those lines recited that evening were enough to reveal the simplicity of his thoughts and our bare wants. Just to quote few lines from what he’d written in awe of Tagore .... “Reading Tagore, this is what I thought: the lamp, the path, the pitcher in the well, my bare feet, are a lost world. Here are the light bulbs, the cars, the water faucet, the jet planes. Nobody tells stories. The television and movies have replaced grandparents and all of technology approaches the miraculous in order to announce soap and toothpaste ... the girl in the office wants to love too. And in the midst of the chaos of papers that defile her everyday there are leaves of white dreams that she saves carefully, clippings of tenderness toward which she saves ventures when she is alone. Someday I want to sing of this great poverty of our life, this nostalgia for things that are simple, this luxurious voyage upon which we have embarked toward tomorrow without having loved yesterday enough ....” Health of the family? And though two important
days are round the corner — World Health Day on
April 7 and International Day of Families on May 15, yet
the condition on both these fronts couldn’t have
been worse. In fact the latest trend here (that is, in
our metropolitans) is that a rising number of couples are
going in for divorce much later in life. Specialists,
lawyers and marriage counsellors confirm this trend and
add that here again it is more the women who are opting
out of the marriage, towards divorce. “Women even in
their ‘50s are going in for divorce. This is
primarily because women are no longer willing to bear
injustices or silently suffer ... you will surprised to
hear that even the so-called upper middleclass women talk
frankly about their turbulent marriages ...,” says
Mohini Giri, former chairperson of the NCW. |
Hindus and Frontier Province THE Hindus and Sikhs of Bannu, in a specially convened meeting, unanimously passed the following resolutions: — That the Local Government be requested to kindly pay special consideration to the claims of the Hindus and Sikhs who form an important minority in the Province in the matter of communal representation in the proposed Provincial Council on the lines of the important minorities in other provinces. That a copy of the above
be sent to the Local Government, Bannu, to the Hindu and
Sikh Sabhas in the Province and to the Press for
publication. |
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