A ray of economic hope
THIS time of the year is the economic equivalent of the silly season. The World Bank and ESCAP have come out with their analysis of the previous year and the forecast for the next.

Lockerbie trial
IN the context of the USA’s irresistible urge to be seen as the protector of human rights across the globe the handing over of the two Libyan Lockerbie suspects for trial would appear to have been grossly under-played.

A reminder to the media
PRESIDENT K. R. Narayanan has underlined the universal role assigned to newspapers, widely described as the print media, at the diamond jubilee celebrations of the Indian Newspaper Society in New Delhi.

OUR UNIVERSITIES
by Chanchal Sarkar
THE only statue raised to an academic figure in Allahabad’s 112-year old university is of Pandit Amarnath Jha, Vice-Chancellor for three terms in the late 1930s.

Currency trade and capital controls
by Martin Khor
CURRENCY speculations and capital controls were part of the talks at the Davos meeting of world corporate and political leaders in late January, amidst continuing uncertainties arising from the Brazil crisis and the increasing number of debt defaults in the world.

Cong playing political kabaddi
by Tavleen Singh
EVER since Sonia Gandhi became President of the Congress Party her spin doctors have gone out of their way to convince the general public that the party’s character has changed.

The lost art of interviewing
by Amita Malik
NEXT to panel discussions, the most common spoken word programmes on TV these days are longish interviews. They seem unending.

The “approachee” cometh
by Avay Shukla
UNKNOWN to lexicographers all over the world, the English language has been quietly evolving in the valleys of Himachal Pradesh.

75 Years Ago

Alleged fraud on Lloyd’s banks
MR Thanawala, Police Prosecutor, instructed by Deputy Inspector Lyons of the CID, applied for an extradition warrant against Thomas David Lawson, Accountant in the Lloyds Bank, now in England, before Mr Frank Clice, I.R.A., acting Chief Presidency Magistrate, at the Esplanade Police Court, Bombay.

A ray of economic hope

THIS time of the year is the economic equivalent of the silly season. The World Bank and ESCAP have come out with their analysis of the previous year and the forecast for the next. The visit of Mr Leon Brittan, Vice-President of the European Union, and the dramatic crash of the sensex have sharpened this impression. From the welter of information and inferences what emerges is a mixed bag of hope and despair. India has done well and is poised to do well in terms of overall economic growth — 6 per cent last year, which is likely to go up to 6.8 per cent this year. The figure for the world at large is a puny 1 per cent. This country has succeeded in containing inflation and fighting poverty — that is, comparatively speaking. At the retail level though prices have risen by 9 per cent, but will be down to 7.5 per cent next financial year. Elsewhere in Asia, rather in those crisis-ridden countries, inflation continues to rage at more than 20 per cent. India has fumbled in exports, but then so has most countries. World trade grew by a mere 2 per cent. Devaluation of the rupee is no cure for sluggish exports and that is the experience of all countries with shrunken currencies. Yet another pat comes for attracting foreign capital. Last year about $ 3.5 billion came in despite the furore over the nuclear blasts.

The economic picture for the world as a whole is pretty depressing. Growth is still down, the economy of many countries is yet to get out of the shock of the 1997 currency crash. Trade is down, with no prospect of an early revival. Commodity prices — that is, the prices of raw materials that the developing countries sell to sustain themselves — have plummeted and are destined to stay there. Capital flows have weakened and interest rates on investment capital and bank borrowings are high. This is at a time when stagnant economies need a healthy infusion of capital to get over the shock and suffering of the numbing crisis two years ago. The larger picture should worry all those market warriors. Globalisation of both trade and capital movement has taken a beating and is unlikely to regain the old vigour, nor is there any economic Viagra in store. So, the talk of the trade route to easy prosperity stands discredited. The reality of low commodity prices and tight and costly credit proves that in a world of equal trading partners, the poorer countries are less equal than the rich, and shall remain so. The sharp rise in drug prices in all Third World countries in the wake of the WTO compact tells us how the “commodities” the western nations sell will become dearer by the day. That is the curious effect of free, unfettered and tariff-free trade. The World Bank as the authentic handmaiden of the rich block of countries, does not say it, but the fine print in its report is that whatever the policies, the system shall remain unchanged, and there is very little place in the sun for the poor of the earth.

Lockerbie trial

IN the context of the USA’s irresistible urge to be seen as the protector of human rights across the globe the handing over of the two Libyan Lockerbie suspects for trial would appear to have been grossly under-played. The two Libyans are charged with planting the bomb which blew up Panam flight 103 over Lockerbie in Scotland a decade ago. The United Nations (read the USA) slapped sanctions on Libya because of Col Muammar Gaddafi’s refusal to hand over the suspects for trial by US courts (because of the fact that a Panam plane had been blown up). The handing over of the suspects for trial means that the sanctions against Libya now stand revoked. Logically, it was a momentous event and yet the international media did not give it the coverage it deserved. Why? Because in this story anyone seen blowing the trumpet would have looked stupid. To be fair, the entire operation of transferring the suspects from Tripoli for trial in a neutral territory was deliberately kept secret. Of course, at the end of the delicate operation handled by Mr Hans Corell, the chief legal counsel for the UN, Secretary-General Kofi Annan may claim some sort of a moral victory for the global organisation which has otherwise been pushed to the margins, as it were. It took the handpicked diplomats eight months of intense negotiations for ending the decade-old impasse over the fate and future of the two suspects.

The end of the global isolation means that the Libyan leader can once again been seen (and shown) doing business with the international community. However, Col Gaddafi is not celebrating the event because he has had to hand over two Libyan nationals for trial as quid pro quo for lifting of the sanctions. The USA and its minions have little to celebrate because they have been talked out of insisting that the suspects be tried either in England or the USA. Ultimately a UN-brokered deal was accepted both by Libya and the “global community” as represented by the USA under which the suspects are to be tried under Scottish law but in neutral territory. The two sides agreed that the Netherlands was adequately neutral to ensure a fair trial. However, had the deal not been worked out it is doubtful whether the UN, represented by the USA, would have been able to ensure continued compliance with the economic and travel sanctions against Libya. Chad, Niger and Gambia were among the African countries which had already begun to ignore the trade and travel restrictions imposed against Libya. What evidently prompted Mr Annan to rush to the US and the NATO leaders with the request for an early end to the impasse was last summer’s meeting of 53 members of the Organisation of African Unity voting in favour of ignoring the sanctions. The deal has offered the key players in the unfortunate drama what can be called a “face-saver”. However, it is doubtful whether those who try to lead (or rather mislead) the UN would ever realise that the weapon of global sanctions should be sparingly used for it to be effective.

A reminder to the media

PRESIDENT K. R. Narayanan has underlined the universal role assigned to newspapers, widely described as the print media, at the diamond jubilee celebrations of the Indian Newspaper Society in New Delhi. According to him, journalism in the printed form will continue to maintain its supremacy in spite of the invasion by the electronic media. The reasons he has given are convincing: There is a close communication between the human being and the printed word. The printed matter brings a soul-stirring experience; when you read something, your whole being reacts to it. Newspapers have become a staple diet of the people. They are closer to the hearts of readers because they read their pulse and purvey the news that is acceptable. However, the trivialisation and commercialisation of news hurt one deeply because through these degrading ways age-old values and cultural heritage get undermined.... When the Head of State, who worked as a journalist during the freedom struggle, gives such sage advice, one should pause and ponder. The electronic media and the print media are unfortunately working as rivals. Their purpose is the same — to disseminate information, to educate and to entertain, when possible. Napoleon used to call the Press “the fifth great power”. German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer called it “the second hand of world history”. He clarified: “This is to say, it captures the immediate past, places it through accounts, reports and commentaries in the present and thus takes an active part in future developments — in that which is to come.” Recently, investigative journalism and the violation of the established journalistic norms by the quick, highly resourceful and pictorially beguiling electronic media have created a normative crisis and the President’s concern about the fall in the standard of reporting is appropriate.

The media makes knowledge and thought public. In the process, it can become either a bringer of light or the root of all evil. The consequence depends on those who make the media. Karl Jaspers was being a little too generous when he said that great journalists beget veracity. They often do not get it. The garden path is always before them and the temptation to be led up is perpetual. However, Jaspers is right, like our President, in asserting that the sort of journalists a nation produces is an essential factor of its destiny. Few people remember that a regular 14-point Code of Ethics for Journalists and Newspapers was prepared by a committee of 17 eminent editors and presented to the Rajya Sabha in 1976. Even if four of its items are adhered to scrupulously by people in the media — both print and electronic — much of today’s aberrations in journalism will be brought under check. One, no sensational or tendentious report of a speculative nature shall be published. Any report or comment found to be inaccurate shall be rectified by prominent publication. Two, confidence shall always be respected; professional secrecy shall be preserved. Three, journalists and newspapers shall not indulge in personal controversies in which no public interest is involved. Four, journalists and newspapers shall not give currency to public rumours or gossip and even verifiable news affecting the private lives of individuals. The product of journalism endures because of the intellectual weight and inner independence of journalists. The President has emphasised holistic points in a murky hour. His thoughts should lead one to the conclusion that only one who is in a position to identify man and deed will be able to make one’s own way in the street of ink or in that of stink.

OUR UNIVERSITIES
Obsolete and unstable
by Chanchal Sarkar

THE only statue raised to an academic figure in Allahabad’s 112-year old university is of Pandit Amarnath Jha, Vice-Chancellor for three terms in the late 1930s. He must be surveying his former parish with pained and baleful eyes. In his time, and a little later in 1952-1953 when Mr Justice O.H. Mootham chaired a committee on the university, the students numbered 6195. Today, the Vice-Chancellor told me, it exceeds a lakh when the three relevant categories are totted up - those in hostels (2500), in the degree colleges (about 27000), and in correspondence courses (the rest). One important caveat is that almost all figures for the university are guesstimates as the registry has no data base. One report says that the number in correspondence courses is eight times that of undergraduates in the university and in the degree colleges. One of the realities of the university is that it has, in and around it, large number of students neither admitted by the university nor taught by it.

There is much more to upset Mr Jha. Although not removed officially the taking of attendance in classes has stopped. There are no teaching seminars, tutorials or extracurricular activities to speak of. Women students - they said this to me straight out - feel insecure the vulnerable; the university itself is deserted after 2 p.m. In the Hindi medium, joint classes for boys and girls cannot be held for fear of harassment. Examinations have been disrupted and put off so often that, in several disciplines, they are running years late, making the students feel trapped and dissuading students from other parts of India and from foreign countries from joining Allahabad.

The playing fields are silent, inter-institution matches have stopped, the swimming pool is unserviceable and there has been no annual sports meet since 1987. In some hostels admissions have not been held for as many as eight or 10 years; residents continue to stay on forcibly. I was even told of someone who occupied three rooms and practised law from a hostel! In the Sir Sunder Lal Hostel even the Warden’s living quarters have been annexed by invasive students. Most hostels have had to give up catering and students run cooperative messes. Priyadarshini, a women’s hostel, is an exception and provides food at a subsidised Rs 8 a meal. The university library has no permanent librarian, only an honorary one. The library itself is open for only three or four hours and, the Union President told me, has no photocopier. There was no complimentary report about the library’s stock of books and journals. Few, if any, departmental libraries exist in these days when students find buying books beyond their means.

This is the state of a university which, even till the fifties, was one of the best in the country. It has declined with the city itself which was a pleasant, spacious and attractive place to live in and a centre of literature and culture especially of Hindi. Now it is just one more smaller Eastern UP city which by the year 2008 is expected to have a population of two million. From the 80s there is a two-track road to promotion for teachers — through stipulated procedure and selection and by “personal promotion” through seniority and a nominal sifting. Of the women professors today only one has gone through the cadre procedure, the rest (60 men and women) are personal promotees. Out of some 543 teaching posts 172 (i.e. 32%) are vacant.

The university is the alms-receiver from the State Government, which accounts for 92.11 per cent of its total income. No one dares to raise the teaching fee, which has been for many years between Rs 13 and 15 a month with a few additional collections. The head of one of the best science laboratories told me that the fee charged for the use of computers in his lab was Rs 3 a month! The university itself has a very skewed perspective about spending. It pays out 71.3 per cent of its maintenance grant on pay and allowance and 6.19 per cent on library, laboratories and research. It is breaking down under the burden of organising frequent and mammoth examinations. There is a fair traffic in multiple enrolments, fake certificates and copying. As far as I could gather there has been no hard-nosed survey of research.

One could go on itemising the skeletons in the cupboard but of what use would that be? The crucial question is if Allahabad, the 13 other universities in UP, and many others in the country scrape along in this fashion then what is the future of university education? If that is to be a battle of wits between the university and the government, with the university being the mosquito and government the armadillo, then who is likely to win every time? According to State law the Chancellor of the University (the Governor) can dismiss a Vice-Chancellor at any time after the figment of an enquiry. A relatively minor official in the Lucknow Secretariat can decide whether or not Allahabad should have a professor of Microbiology. The university sometimes retaliates by not appointing non-academic staff on a regular basis, taking them on at daily wages and creating a thorny problem for itself. With so many disruptions, examinations, reexaminations, revisions and admissions to the university go on all the year round making an orderly schedule impossible. Both girl students as well as the boys complain that the “open” campus is overflowing with “outsiders” putting discipline out of the question.

The “delegacy” — covering scores of thousands of students who are not in the hostels — is just as bad and unsupervised as I saw it decades ago, with sometimes eight or nine students renting a single room to live in. In the departments there are “soft options” with 2700 students in Philosophy and 3300 in Ancient Indian History. The story in some of the science departments is however, different. A group of articulate humanities students told me sadly that they are not well taught and that there is no “guidance”. Of course there are exceptions but they are few. The “guidance” they spoke of is different from what a professor in the psychology department described as the “counselling” it does for students needing it.

All these are formidable problems but are probably nothing compared to the really jagged ones: Can a university (Allahabad or some other) work squashed under the thumb of a State Government which has even passed an Act (not yet implemented) saying that all the universities in the State should have an identical syllabus? What spirit can a university have if the State Government pays out of the dinosaur’s share of the university’s pitifully inadequate dole? Can there be a revision in the role of the Vice-Chancellor who has an impossible, 14 hours-a-day, seven days a week, fire-fighting job with no time to think or plan about academic matters? Can there be a change in a situation where the highest functionary in the university told me that nothing in the university can happen without the police? Will the policy-makers ever understand that the road to equality and opportunity does not run through reservation alone? And can there be a realisation — in the universities, among politicians and civil servants, parents and the general public — that things simply cannot continue in this way without more decay and more danger? Those are questions impossible to answer.

Currency trade and capital controls
by Martin Khor

CURRENCY speculations and capital controls were part of the talks at the Davos meeting of world corporate and political leaders in late January, amidst continuing uncertainties arising from the Brazil crisis and the increasing number of debt defaults in the world.

Although so much has been said about the global crisis, ranging from corruption and poor governance in Asia to the wrong policies of the International Monetary Fund, the role of currency speculators has not been sufficiently highlighted. It was no surprise that Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohammed chose to focus again on currency trade and the greed of a few speculators when he gave a luncheon address at the World Economic Forum.

According to the DCLC: ‘The MAI is unconstitutional under Canadian law because it gives entrenched rights to international banks and foreign corporations guaranteed by international law which Canadian citizens do not have. This is contrary to the principle of equality before the law which is part of the Canadian constitution enshrined in the Charter of Rights and Freedom’.

The Applicants challenge the jurisdiction of the federal government to sign a treaty, in the form of a Multilateral Agreement on investment on behalf of Canada which “would be outside of the power granted by and ultra vires of the Constitution Acts of 1867 and 1982 and that, generally, such a treaty would not be in the best interests of Canadian citizens!

The legal challenge constitutes more than an embarrassment to the government’s negotiating team headed by Trade Minister Serge Marchi, it underscores the blatant violation of democratic procedures; it questions the honesty of elected politicians and bureaucrats involved in behind-the-scenes negotiations, including consultations with international business groups.

“The government of Canada has no authority to sign a treaty without a mandate from Parliament. To do so is a violation of the fundamental principles of democracy and representative government. Exercise of prerogative power must be subject to the Constitution.

Three top lawyers well versed in constitutional and human rights issues are acting on behalf of the DCLC. Government witnesses have been interrogated, the submission of confidential government documents has been demanded by the Applicants’ lawyer. At the hearing in Vancouver, the federal government witness provided many new documents, most of which were heavily censored with large portions blacked out.

The government is now attempting through various means to stall the legal challenge and prevent it from going to the trial stage. Already the government has been calling for adjournments.

Assigned to the court case in the January, 1998, hearings in Vancouver was Judge Dube, a former Cabinet Minister and personal friend of Prime Minister Jean Chretien, who is a defendant in the proceedings. Judge Dube has refused to step down. The Applicants’ lawyers (pointing to a blatant conflict of interest) have demanded that judge Dube be replaced by a more qualified individual.

The proceedings are to continue. The Applicants’ lawyers have demanded that the federal government produce documents and answer questions they have refused to answer on the grounds of “Cabinet Privilege. — (TWNF)

The “approachee” cometh
by Avay Shukla

UNKNOWN to lexicographers all over the world, the English language has been quietly evolving in the valleys of Himachal Pradesh. As with all evolutionary processes which are otherwise slow, sustained cataclysmic events sometimes speed up this process, as when the humble ape in times bygone, walking on all fours, stood up to have a better look at a female of the species and instantly became “homo-erectus”. The democratic processes have provided this catalytic input in this idyllic state. The rapid change of governments in the last few years has meant that these governments have been working harder and harder at what they are naturally best at — transferring government servants. The latter, on their part, have correspondingly devoted themselves gleefully to what they are best at — avoiding transfers! In the process new words have been coined to adequately express the depth of feelings of the transferee and the ingenuity of the transferor.

One of the jewels of the lingua franca of the Himachal Secretariat these days is the word “adjust”. Applied to a government servant it acquires a richness and potential that would have surprised Dr Samuel Johnson. In today’s socialistic ethos an employee is never transferred by the powers that be: he is “adjusted”. This can mean all things to all men. For an inconvenient employee who has attracted the ministerial wrath it can mean banishment to snowclad regions where he would be grateful if the Yeti dropped by for a bite, as it were. On the other hand, for the chap who sees eye to eye with these latter-day satraps and works shoulder to shoulder with them { if not hand in hand or hand in glove} it can mean being posted even where no post exists, or to a station where the gravy train makes long unscheduled halts. “Adjusting. means looking at Rules with an innovative eye and shaping them in the image of the Master. It tells the bureaucratic cog in the governmental wheel that management is not about justice and fairplay — it is all about being the genie in the bottle: finding ways to carry out the ministerial wishes. In other words, like the quality of mercy, the quality of “adjusting” too is twice-blessed: not only is the employee adjusted, so are the Rules!

As part of the same evolutionary process there is a new creature stalking the corridors of power these days — the “Approachee”. You would certainly not find this derivative of “approach” in any English dictionary, and perhaps not even in an American one, but you cannot bumb into one in the ministerial ante rooms. An “Approachee” is the living proof of two hypotheses: first, that English is a living language; and second, that all living creatures adapt to their environment. Just as the Howler monkey developed a limb-like tail so that it could better hang onto the branches while howling away at the more pedestrianised apes passing below, so did the more Darwinian bureaucrat develop skills to survive in his own jungle, and became the “Approachee”.

An “Approachee” is a civil servant who has the resourcefulness, the daring, and the contacts to make an approach to the powers that be, or at least the powers that see that the powers that be continue to be {otherwise known as the “personal staff”}. In other words, an “Approachee” is one who can approach. The actual methodology of approaching can vary but it is usually done on all fours, an example, if you will, of stooping to conquer! Of course, this strategy is not without its risks, as was discovered by one officer whose dimensions were of the large, economy size, as modern marketing jargon would have it. Having prostrated himself before the then reigning deity, the unfortunate gentleman was unable to return to the vertical axis again! It took six of Shimla’s finest to haul him away — to civil service oblivion, needless to say, for the only thing worse than an upright bureaucrat is a fallen one!

In the art of approaching it helps being a relative. It is important if you are a constituent. But being a school or college mate is the ultimate connection. It is even better if you can claim that you have been “victimised” by the previous government. Exactly what constitutes such victimisation, however, it is difficult to say. Ingenuity helps, of course: one couple claimed victimised status because, though posted as Deputy Commissioners, their districts were not adjoining ones. Yet another officer felt that he had been wronged because a vigilance case was registered against him, whereas the offence only warranted a charge sheet! Be that as it may, whenever governments change the line of such self diagnosed victim outside the Secretariat resembles nothing more than the queue outside the casualty ward of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences.

And finally of course, there are those bureaucrats who have failed to evolve, and are therefore doomed to become extinct as a species. Having no affinity for any particular party or government, they are discarded like so much flotsam, the desiderata of the democratic process. We of course have coined a word for them — we call them the “Reproachees”.

Cong playing political kabaddi

by Tavleen Singh

EVER since Sonia Gandhi became President of the Congress Party her spin doctors have gone out of their way to convince the general public that the party’s character has changed. Instead of being an irresponsible opposition party, which it has been most of the times that it has been out of power, it would henceforth be responsible and constructive, we were told, after Madame President gathered her flock together at last summer’s party meeting in Pachmarhi. Most of the national Press bought the line they were sold if only because the average Delhi journalist has a pathological dislike of the Sangh Parivar. So we have aided and abetted Congress in its creation of its shiny, new image of itself. Sonia Gandhi is not after power, we have written, she would like the government to fall of its own accord before making any move to form an alternative government.

Those of us with connections in the party’s upper echelons have known all along that the only reason why this ‘responsible’ new line was being taken was because the numbers were quite simply not working out in the alternative government sphere. But, we have preferred to continue propagating the myth that the new Mrs G was generally disinterested in toppling Atal Behari Vajpayee’s government. So, in view of the events of the recent weeks, we should be eating our words and pointing out that behind Jayalalitha’s manoeuvres lies the fair hand of the Congress. The same one that helped topple Charan Singh’s government in 1979. The same that toppled Chandra Shekhar’s government, over some flimsy excuse, and the same that toppled the governments of H.D. Deve Gowda and Inder Gujral. Strangely, though, there are not many in the national press who are doing this.

It is Jayalalitha’s irresponsible behaviour we have mainly highlighted not the fact that she would probably not have moved a muscle if she had not been relying on the Congress Party’s total support.

Barring a few exceptions, the national Press has sided with the toppling moves with only a few editorials condemning the irresponsibility of political destabilisation in a Budget session. Imagine the damage to the country’s economy if the government falls before it is able to pass the Budget. Imagine how much worse it looks when you consider that Mr Vajpayee’s government was finally coming to grips with the economy and things, since the last budget, were actually, beginning to look up. Agriculture has been doing quite well, inflation is reasonably under control, the stock exchange was going up and if we had not been hit by Jayalalitha’s ‘political earthquake’ there may even have been signs of the industry recovering.

Now, let us look at what has been happening and if we are prepared to do this dispassionately what we will see is the same pattern, behind Jayalalitha’s moves, that brought down all those earlier governments. What, after all, are Jayalalitha’s ostensible demands? When she came into town for her tea parties and made her so-called ‘reasonable’ demands that George Fernandes be moved to a less sensitive ministry than Defence and that Admiral Vishnu Bhagwat be reinstated was she not echoing the very demands that Congress leaders were making when they made Parliament non-functional just before the session took a break? Does the fact that Sonia Gandhi made a special effort to attend Subramaniam Swamy’s tea party not tell us the whole story? Behind the smiles and bonhomie with which the Madames of Poes Garden, Chennai and 10 Janpath, Delhi, was there not evidence of complicity? If you are not taking a partisan view you will end up answering yes to both questions. So, let us not nurse any illusions about Jayalalitha being some kind of loose cannon. She is very much a guided cannon and those who are guiding her to loosen the cannonball that will bring the government down are either within the Congress Party or at least acting at its behest.

If you remain unconvinced of this please examine the political activity that started up in the Capital as soon as Jayalalitha ordered her two ministers to resign from the government. Instantly, Delhi came alive with what we like to call ‘hectic political activity’. The two Yadavs — Mulayam and Laloo — called a meeting to announce that they would be prepared to support a Congress government even if they preferred a coalition in which they were participants. We then had the CPM’s arch political wheeler-dealer, Harkishan Singh Surjeet, leap into the fray. With television cameras following him around he flitted between the various ‘secular’ camps and did not hesitate to admit on camera that efforts were under way to find an alternative to the BJP government. Clear isn’t it that Jayalalitha was no loose cannon?

Jayalalitha may have started her political earthquake with her personal agenda in mind. It is no secret that behind her sudden affection for Bhagwat and dislike for Fernandes lay some hidden and not so reasonable demands. Those who attended the Coordination Committee meeting of the BJP and its allies report that she was unusually aggressive during it and that it was clear to almost everyone that she wanted some key ministries to be handed over to her party. When she discovered, though, that the Prime Minister had no intention of conceding either her ‘reasonable’ or her hidden demands she appears to have realised that the game she was playing had taken a different turn. A turn in a direction from which backtracking had become difficult. Whether she is prepared to admit it or not she has ended up a pawn in Congress hands.

So, governance, the economy, the Budget session of Parliament, everything takes second place now to the fact that the government could fall any moment.

What happens then? Well, if things go according to the Congress plan then an alternative government — weaker and more unsteady than the one we have had — will take over for a few months. It will be unable to govern and will probably find it even harder to control Jayalalitha’s megalomania than Mr Vajpayee did so, willy-nilly, in the not too distant future we will end up with yet another general election.

A general election that the Congress believes it can win. That is what the game is all about. It is not about the country’s defence or its security interests. The political kabaddi that is being played out is very much in keeping with the usual Congress pattern so anyone who thinks that dramatic changes have taken place in the Congress character since Sonia Gandhi took over needs to think again. Nothing has changed, nothing at all. It’s just the old story of history repeating itself as farce.

The lost art of interviewing

by Amita Malik

NEXT to panel discussions, the most common spoken word programmes on TV these days are longish interviews. They seem unending. And the more one watches them, the more one begins to believe that most of the interviewers are illequipped to conduct them. Generalists take on scientists, dancers, film-makers, meteorologists, women activists and act as if they know everything about the subject. Their manner is that of what in Hindi are called sabjantawallahs. Their manner is often overbearing, sometimes positively frivolous. They out-talk the interviewee, interrupt at the wrong moment and leave the viewer as frustrated as the interviewee, who is often visibly annoyed at the tenor of the interview. For instance, telling Shyam Benegal all about himself in a series of statements which are not questions, and then expect him to confirm or deny them is plain presumptuous. Quite often, the interviewee corrects what the interviewer has said about him or her. I have known a film actress to indignantly deny a statement about one of her films being a flop. She quoted statistics to prove the sabjantawallah wrong. Doing one’s homework on facts is one thing. Thrusting one’s half-baked opinions is usually bad manners.

Sometimes even the homework is not done. Sonali Verma of the Hindi Limelight has by and large coped with her interviewees although she has a tendency to flourish her nose-ring and be excessively arch at times. But she was obviously unprepared for a generally soft-spoken and modest person like Raghuvir Yadav. The questions she asked him were mostly plain silly. Raghuvir has a quiet sense of humour, but this was not given a chance. Because the trouble with Sonali, as with many interviewers, is that they are thinking more of their own performance, their own accents, what they are wearing and how they are coming across, than of the subject, who is the main person in the interview. I should advise these interviewers to have a look at Tim Sebastian in Hard Talk on the BBC, Rajat Sharma in Aap ki Adalat, or Prannoy Roy doing a specialist interview during the elections or on the day of the budget, all doing different types of interviews but with style and finesse and always with the focus on the interviewee. If you can draw out the interviewee without trying to be the star yourself, you would have arrived. Because there is nothing more unprofessional or irritating than a self-conscious interviewer trying to hog the limelight by showing off their knowledge.

In her own Aunty Agony style, one must concede that Simi Garewal does solid research, then draws out her subjects first by stunning them with unpredictable questions then letting her eyes ooze compassion as the poor victim walks into the trap. It is no mean achievement to induce Jayalalitha to sing a Hindi filmi geet on screen and to ask her if she was in love with MGR. “Of course, everyone was”, smiled the canny politician-actress. Perhaps unconsciously timed for the day of the big crisis, it carried the day. Still looking out for the rare good interviewer I have high hopes of the coming interview programme by Vir Sanghvi whose panel discussions have been chaired with finesse and firmness. I am afraid this is more than can be said of some of the interviews on DD and Zee, the ones ending in a self-conscious handshake across the table being particularly outlandish.

I started with reservations about Saboot, mainly about the main character. Lajoji does look a bit floppy as a police inspector, although, as she personally explained to me, that was part of the trap for criminals. She has kept up the subterfuge with admirable consistency and Saboot has started growing on me, particularly as the other whodunits on TV are so crude and amateurish that one immediately switches off. In Saboot, the casting and acting are very professional the locales and plots convincing. The direction is controlled, the dialogue and editing to match. I am enjoying it as much as Saans, although it is getting a little long in the tooth, particularly with another Neena Gupta serial in the offing.

75 YEARS AGO

Alleged fraud on Lloyd’s banks

MR Thanawala, Police Prosecutor, instructed by Deputy Inspector Lyons of the CID, applied for an extradition warrant against Thomas David Lawson, Accountant in the Lloyds Bank, now in England, before Mr Frank Clice, I.R.A., acting Chief Presidency Magistrate, at the Esplanade Police Court, Bombay.

Mr A. Richard Andrews, complainant in the case, is the Sub (Cox’s and King’s Branch) and the accused is an accountant in the same bank.