Escalating militancy
PRIME MINISTER Atal Behari Vajpayee had the worsening Kashmir insurgency in mind rather than the task of soliciting voter support while kicking off the Akali Dal-BJP poll campaign at Ludhiana on Saturday.

Growing exports
IT is a matter of great happiness that India’s performance on the export front has been encouraging during the first quarter of the current fiscal year.

SEASON OF POLITICAL REALIGNMENTS
Socialists choose a constructive role
by P.K. Ravindranath
THERE is more to it than meets the eye in the manner in which the socialists in the Janata Dal and the Samata Party have got together under the banner of the Bharatiya Janata Party. It is significant that the regrouping in the Janata Dal and the Samata Party is confined to the ideologically committed socialists.

Ugly face of ethno-politics
by Praful Bidwai
THE assassination of Neelan Tiruchelvam, the towering Sri Lankan public intellectual, is a serious blow to the cause of democracy, peace, federalism, and ethnic reconciliation — not just in that country but in all of South Asia. The method of killing used — typical of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, with a suicide-bomber hurling himself at Tiruchelvam’s car—points to the logical course that obsessive rabid, ethno-nationalism is bound to take in this region.

“Mea culpa,” says SC, and three cheers
by Anupam Gupta
IT was the Kargil of judicial activism. And though it has taken three years for it to do so, it has been retaken by the Supreme Court of India with a comprehensiveness that is breathtaking.

Dalai Lama releases “The Fate of Tibet”
by Humra Quraishi
THE season seems to be picking up. And one of the major events of last week has been the release of a book on Tibet — The Fate of Tibet — on August 6. Written by Frenchman Claude Arpi, this book release function was graced by the Dalai Lama who had reached New Delhi the same morning but couldn’t stay for the panel discussion that followed the book release as he had to catch a flight for Europe.

“ A good change”
by J.L. Gupta
I NEVER forget a favour: Especially, if I have done it. However, I am making an exception. I recall a favour that a friend had done to me. At his instance, my wife and I had been invited for a “swearing-in ceremony” at Rashtrapati Bhavan.

75 Years Ago

Situation on the frontier
THE recent demonstrations in Khost did not apparently subside entirely and reports now state that there has been a recrudescence of the excitement during the last ten days.

Escalating militancy

PRIME MINISTER Atal Behari Vajpayee had the worsening Kashmir insurgency in mind rather than the task of soliciting voter support while kicking off the Akali Dal-BJP poll campaign at Ludhiana on Saturday. That is only to be expected. A few hours earlier insurgents, apparently pushed into the valley from across the border, had laid a military-style ambush and killed a Colonel and three others travelling in his vehicle. A day earlier an army post was attacked and an officer was killed. The top BSF man policing the Kargil region had talked of more than a thousand trained mercenaries occupying some ridges along the border. A rerun of the Kargil game? An equal number is holed up in newly built camps on the other side of the border. In Delhi top intelligence agencies sounded the alarm on the same day. It appears that the ISI is busy monitoring the election tours of several top leaders with a view to making a soft target of them. Mr Vajpayee, Mrs Sonia Gandhi and others have been asked to resist their travel urge and be content with sending video recordings to the venue of election meetings. This warning may be routine, now that the coming elections are crucial for the political masters of the mercenaries in Pakistan. But it fits in with the sharp escalation and dramatic change in the tactics of the militants in Kashmir. Starting with the reckless attack on the headquarters of the BSF near Srinagar in the middle of last month, the mercenaries have brought the uniformed forces in their gun sight. Not that they have given up the earlier terrorist depredations of killing civilians. But the strategy to directly confront the armed forces is a post-Kargil development. And also the occupation of dense forests near urban and rural settlements and the employment of local girls to carry arms from one place to another. Armed as they are with the latest weapons and communication equipment, the mercenaries are under orders from their ISI bosses to befriend the locals or bribe them into collaboration. That explains the huge cash most of them seem to carry.

The Prime Minister’s call at Ludhiana to the USA to brand Pakistan as a terrorism-exporting country is timely but does not go far. The USA may not immediately oblige, preferring to give time for Islamabad to formalise its relations with the Islamic fundamentalists. Then there is the army which is not very happy with the decision of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to direct the regular soldiers and mercenaries to pull back from Kargil. This time it may persist with its plans and thus deeply embarrass the USA if it were to insist on the July 4 conditions. Mr Vajpayee is aware of this dynamics of the army-to-army and army-to-“mujahideen” relations and their limitations and this is reflected in the warning he has issued to Pakistan. In the final analysis, India’s options are somewhat limited, short of crossing the Line of Control. That is no option now, what with the repeated declarations during the hot days of Kargil operations and with the UN General Assembly session fast approaching. It is better not to make the Kashmir issue more live than what it already is. That explains the thinking behind Pakistan’s latest adventure. It wants to keep the fighting live for a few more weeks and drag the General Assembly to debate it. India wants the exact opposite, silencing the mercenary guns well before the elections and the UN session. That calls for adroit diplomatic and military manoeuvring. Will the Kargil outcome provide the inspiration?

Growing exports

IT is a matter of great happiness that India’s performance on the export front has been encouraging during the first quarter of the current fiscal year. In April-June, 1999, exports grew by 6.5 per cent compared to the position during the same period last year. The figures for May and June separately are 11.68 per cent and 11.14 per cent, respectively. The average for the quarter could have been much higher if April had showed a picture similar to that of the succeeding two months. During February-April India’s export growth rate was 5.8 per cent which put the country on top of the list of Asian exporters, if we ignore the performance of the Philippines which was far ahead of India.This is quite creditable as even the Asian Tigers of yesterday have recorded a negative growth save for Malaysia (3.7 per cent). This is, however, not as happy a situation as it appears on the face of it. India is ahead of the former economic tigers not only because of its faster march forward but also because of the poor results of the former as they had been hit hard by the recent currency crisis. India’s export volume today is not even 1 per cent of the world’s total. The situation has always been like this; definitely not the ideal thing.

The principal item which has been adding to the country’s export volume is software. The increase in the export of software, which has been 50 per cent and above since 1990-91, is projected to be over 70 per cent in 2001. Even in the case of this item with a high growth potential the major export destinations remain nearly the same—-North America, including the USA and Canada. There is an opportunity in Europe because of the Y2K factor but how much benefit India’s software industry would get remains to be seen. So far, only 158 of the Fortune-500 companies are sourcing their software requirement from this country. The figure should go up to 250 to enable India to bring its export volume to over 1 per cent of the world’s total. The National Association of Software and Service Companies (Nasscom) is on the job, but the success is not so easy to achieve, specially after the emerging threat from China to overtake India in this prime area. India’s export applecart can also be upset by regional crises. Hence the crying need for establishing its foothold in new markets as also to include fresh items in its export basket, as pointed out by the Confederation of Indian Industry. The Asian currency crisis provided an excellent opportunity, but India failed to make use of it. Why? The nation must get a convincing explanation.

SEASON OF POLITICAL REALIGNMENTS
Socialists choose a constructive role
by P.K. Ravindranath

THERE is more to it than meets the eye in the manner in which the socialists in the Janata Dal and the Samata Party have got together under the banner of the Bharatiya Janata Party. It is significant that the regrouping in the Janata Dal and the Samata Party is confined to the ideologically committed socialists.

It does not embrace “non-socialists” like Mr H.D. Deve Gowda and others who had been adopted by the Janata Dal at some stage as rallying points in that party’s march to power.

The hardcore socialists, Mr George Fernandes, Mr Ram Vilas Paswan, Mr Sharad Yadav and Mr Ramakrishna Hegde — are sworn to work together in the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance. They have all unanimously hailed Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee as the ideal choice to lead the country after the next elections.

There is something strange in Mr Ram Vilas Paswan, the most ardent campaigner against communalism for over 15 years, now asserting that “the BJP no longer has a hidden agenda” and that it is the Congress which is more communal than the BJP. His fight now is against corruption, embodied by Mr Laloo Prasad Yadav.

He even swears that Mr Vajpayee would make the ideal Prime Minister after the next elections. The National Democratic Alliance has pledged to bring in Mr Vajpayee as the Prime Minister. “This is the resolve of the unified Janata Dal parivar,” according to him.

The Dal parivar would contest the next elections under a common flag and with the symbol of “wheel” and would target Mr Laloo Prasad Yadav and his Rashtriya Janata Dal to get rid of its “misrule.”

It is strange that Mr Paswan — an ardent follower of the late Dr Ram Manohar Lohia, Acharya Narendra Deva and Jayaprakash Narayan — should consider Mr Yadav as more detestable and accept Mr Vajpayee, who has spent his lifetime in the Jana Sangh and the BJP. Mr Yadav is product of the Navnirman Samiti launched by Mr Jayaprakash Narayan. Mr Vajpayee has always been what he is.

If sworn socialists accept Mr Vajpayee as their ideal leader, hardcore Rashtriya Swayam Sevaks like Mr Govindacharya still tend to dismiss him as the presentable mask of the BJP. The fact remains that the committed socialists have quietly jettisoned partymen lacking in intellectual accomplishments like Mr Deve Gowda and Mr Jaipal Reddy.

Since over the last two decades the socialists of India have acquired the stigma of political wreckers of governments and parties, the current turmoil in the socialist parivar could pass unnoticed. It, however, has far more significance in the context of the developing politics of the next century.

With or without the proclamation of the socialist group that Mr Vajpayee is the fittest candidate for the Prime Ministership, he is generally perceived to be the winning leader. It is equally widely accepted that he has proved to be the most liberal-minded leader of the Hindutva parivar and that he may not go whole hog with the fundamentalist fringes in his own party. It is also accepted that with a wider support base, he may not be averse to ticking off his own partymen if the need arises.

That is where the socialist demolition squad would go into operation. Under a nationally acceptable leader not given to an overload of ideological baggage, he could provide a rallying point in a polarisation of political forces in the country.

Every political leader had been talking about and waiting for such a polarisation without doing anything about it. Mr Fernandes, Mr Hegde, Mr Paswan and Mr Nitish Kumar may get into history books as the cataclysmic forces that made it a reality. If it comes about it will be a significant step towards a two-party political grouping between the secularists and the fundamentalists of all faiths and hues.

Mr Vajpayee had been known to dream about and work for a new agenda for the country since his first term in the Union Government ended in 1980, with the return to power of Indira Gandhi. He worked towards moving his BJP from the extreme right of the political spectrum to its centre. It did not work then because he could not find people on the same wavelength in the Congress or even the rump of the Janata Party to help him make a clear stand.

In 1980 when the Janata Party split on the question of the “double membership” of the RSS men in it, Mr Vajpayee chose the name Bharatiya Janata Party for the new outfit and laid stress on Gandhian socialism as its credo, in preference to the rightist economic thinking of the Jana Sangh.

The Govindacharyas in the party waited patiently for their chance. When Mr Vajpayee expressed his anguish over the demolition of the Babri Masjid, the RSS openly gloated over it. The BJP could not sideline him since he was popular both within the party and outside it. They made him the Prime Minister in 1998. When he proved his merit in the office it now has no option but to project him as “the pride of India,” particularly after the Kargil episode.

The Kargil crisis has hit the Congress the hardest, as is evident from the blabberings of legal luminaries-turned-spokesman of the party. The mood of the country and the common man is that Mr Vajpayee has steered the country to victory over Pakistan, as did Indira Gandhi once. The Congress is merely reinforcing this belief when it persists in attacking the government over Kargil and issues like the “failure of intelligence”.

Devoid of members who can intelligently analyse motives, attitudes and changes in political trends, the Congress can only think in terms of power concentrated in the hands of the few chosen by it. If the realignment, now in motion, comes about soon after the elections, the party and all its decadent symbols and shibboleth would be consigned to the flames at the ghats at Varanasi.

It has to be taken note of that all through the time it was in power, the BJP never raised issues that had been dear to it at one time: the construction of a Ram temple at Ayodhya, the Mathura controversy, Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir and the need for a common civil code. Any wonder then that Mr Ram Vilas Paswan and Mr Nitish Kumar find Mr Vajpayee as the most acceptable leader among the likely candidates for the Prime Ministership?

It is strange that the Bihar unit of the BJP should welcome the tie-up with the Sharad Yadav faction of the Janata Dal since along with the Samata Party it can hope to take on Mr Laloo Yadav’s Rashtriya Janata Dal.

The season of realignments in Indian politics seems to have dawned with the socialists, cursed for over two decades for their propensity to divide and sub-divide, this time playing a more constructive role. Its ripples could touch every secular, non-communal party, split them into two and create new forces for healthier politics.

Ugly face of ethno-politics
by Praful Bidwai

THE assassination of Neelan Tiruchelvam, the towering Sri Lankan public intellectual, is a serious blow to the cause of democracy, peace, federalism, and ethnic reconciliation — not just in that country but in all of South Asia. The method of killing used — typical of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, with a suicide-bomber hurling himself at Tiruchelvam’s car—points to the logical course that obsessive rabid, ethno-nationalism is bound to take in this region. It highlights the LTTE’s menace to Sri Lanka and India. No other group in South Asia has better deserved the appellation “Pol Potist”. There are lessons for us Indians in Tiruchelvam’s assassination and in New Delhi’s response to it.

Tiruchelvam was a splendid example of the scholar-activist — Sri Lanka’s best-known fighter for human rights, who dedicated his life to ending the ethnic crisis that 16 years ago took an especially vicious turn. He put the conciliation issue on the international plane as no one else did. A Tamil, he formed a unique bridge between the ethnic minorities and the Sinhalese majority. A constitutional lawyer, he was the architect of the boldest political devolution package South Asia has seen. An intellectual, he personified the highest level of refinement to be found among scholars in our part of the world. A political strategist, he combined theory with activist practice.

Tiruchelvam was the most powerful dynamo of pluralist, federalist and democratic ideas in Sri Lanka’s peace process. It is this role, not his status as a (nominated) MP, nor his membership of the moderate Tamil United Liberation Front, that put him high on the LTTE’s list of enemies. His dedication to peace, reason and conciliation was anathema to the Tigers. They killed not just a political leader but a fount of creative ideas and original thinking. Tiruchelvam’s Sri Lanka project, based upon inclusion, sharing, protection for the minorities, and respect for universal rights, was the opposite of the monolithic, fear-based, ruthlessly regimented Eelam (Tamil homeland) that the LTTE wants.

It was, perhaps a coincidence that Tiruchelvam’s killing happened during the anniversary of “Black July” the terrible anti-Tamil riots of 1983. There were intelligence reports that during this period the LTTE reportedly infiltrated suicide-bombers (“Black Tigers”, grotesquely revered in that group) into Colombo and into Tamil Nadu. Perhaps it wanted to send out a hostile message just before the impending introduction of the devolution package in parliament by President Chandrika Kumaratunga. At any rate, the LTTE has again announced that it brooks no opposition; no political tendencies may flourish that question its monopoly claim to speak for all Tamils. Tiruchelvam was a “threat” to it not because he represented a rival mass base — which he did not — but because he stood for ideas it finds loathsome: freedom and democracy, pluralism and secularism, consultation and negotiation.

Tiruchelvam straddled many spheres: political theory; conflict resolution; constitutional reform; parliamentary debate; activism and advocacy. He was at once at home in Sri Lanka and India, in seminars at the International Centre for Ethnic Studies (of which he was co-director), and in parliament lobbying for the equality of opportunity. He was a committed modernist, and yet rooted in his own culture. His was a renaissance personality. He thought big. He radically reconceptualised Tamil politics. And yet he made it immediately relevant and accessible. His commitment to emancipatory ideas could be seen in all his work. He could argue spiritedly for minority rights while transcending the limitations of ethno-centrism. He could highlight both the particular (e.g. the plight of Tamils) and the general (universal freedom). His perspective was internationalist, unconstrained by the narrowness of vision or language, and contemptuous of ignorance and insularity.

He rose above the stereotypes of victimhood and oppression, which are recipes for a minority ghetto mentality. He refused to give legitimacy to revenge and retribution, even though he fully recognised the fact of minority oppression. He was not just a thinker, nor only a doer. He was that rarity among scholars: an institution-builder. He set up the ICES (probably the most prestigious institution of its kind in South Asia), and the Law and Society Trust. He was also intimately involved in the Human Rights Task Force, the Official Languages Commission, the Human Rights Commission and the Office of the Ombudsman. He pioneered independent citizens’ monitoring of South Asian elections. He organised some of the most exciting conferences, seminars and talks ever held anywhere in South Asia.

Tiruchelvam created networks and structures of like-minded South Asians. When I last met him, in April, he was planning a publishing venture. Acutely aware that non-Sinhala publishing, in any developed sense of the term is virtually non-existent in Sri Lanka, he wanted to get the ICES to collaborate with an Indian publisher and set up an indigenous capability and market. Tiruchelvam had immense personal charm. He was soft-spoken but without false modesty. He was not given to hyperbole or strong words. But he did not pull his punches when that was necessary. He was secure enough to admit to his faults — for example, his naive early belief that the 1987 Indo-Lanka accord would work.

He was a committed friend of India. But many Indian reactions to his death do not appreciate this. In its official reaction, our Ministry of External Affairs, for instance, only described him as “a member of the Sri Lankan parliament, an eminent lawyer and distinguished leader of the TULF”. This trivialised the man. A national daily reduced him to a mere mediator in the 1987 accord, who assisted G. Parthasarathy, the architect of India’s disastrous Sri Lanka policy. This is a parody of the core truth about this remarkable intellectual.

“ A good change”
by J.L. Gupta

I NEVER forget a favour: Especially, if I have done it. However, I am making an exception. I recall a favour that a friend had done to me. At his instance, my wife and I had been invited for a “swearing-in ceremony” at Rashtrapati Bhavan.

A nicely printed card. Calligraphically written address. A sticker for the car. A smooth access to an exclusive area. Each guest properly received and escorted. An impressive stairway. The red carpet. Men in uniform lining the passage. Erect. Looking straight. No movement. As if they were not even breathing. Not batting an eyelid. All looked alike. How could the young and vibrant human beings look like Nek Chand’s creation at the Chandigarh’s Rock Garden? All alike? And alive? I had almost felt tempted to touch one. To see if they were living men or mere statues.

Once in place, we had surveyed the hall. Magnificent. Elegantly furnished. Soon after the arrival of the Prime Minister, the buglers had signalled the entry of His Excellency the President of India. On the dot. The ceremonial forms were punctiliously observed. There was a solemnity. A quiet dignity in the air. Every ritual was performed with a clockwork precision.

Throughout, the flashguns were firing. The photographers were shooting. Yet there was a brief session for the photographers. Temporarily, the celebrities appeared to have shed their solemn looks. To put on happy smiles.

Then, the usual cup of tea. Good crockery. Nice silver. Sumptuous tea. Liveried bearers. The quickness of their movement indicated the years of experience. The atmosphere was formal. But, friendly.

People had started moving. Even before the President. A while later, we had also walked back to leave. The way we had come in. The sentinels were still there. As they were when we had come in. The car number was announced. A moment later, we were driving out, I had a second look at the imposing structure. The stately spire and dome. One cannot help but be impressed with the building and its grandeur. It symbolises power. It gives pleasure.

Sir Edwin Lutyens had planned it. The British had built it. As the residence of the English Viceroy. For his comfort. But with our money. At our cost. Our people had laboured. Our artisans had worked. Our people had shed their blood. They had sweated. And still, we were not even allowed to enter its portals. This was the curse of slavery.

Today, everything has changed. For our good. We are a free country. We elect our own representatives to the national Parliament and the state legislatures. They make the laws to govern us. They elect the President too. Our Rashtrapati lives here. Not the English Viceroy. Our President!

We have probably, the most magnificent Presidential Palace in the world. The largest. With an equally big retinue of aides. And why not? We are the second greatest nation of the world. Our President must have a residence befitting the august office. Sometimes, the visiting Heads of States stay with him. Important ceremonies are performed here. The rituals, though expensive, are essential. These add a gloss and grandeur to the occasion. Divested of the form, the office may lose some of its aura and authority.

More than everything else, even the commoners could witness the gloss and the grandeur.

Some change? A good change!

“Mea culpa,” says SC, and three cheers

by Anupam Gupta

IT was the Kargil of judicial activism. And though it has taken three years for it to do so, it has been retaken by the Supreme Court of India with a comprehensiveness that is breathtaking.

Constitutional law, administrative law, criminal law, the law of torts — last week’s judgement in Capt Satish Sharma’s case, setting aside the award of Rs 50 lakh slapped on him as damages to “compensate the government by the people” and recalling his prosecution by the CBI, spans almost the entire LoC of judicial review. And firmly secures the boundaries of the rule of law against any further intrusions or violations in the future.

The legal position, the Supreme Court had declared in 1996 (its confidence getting the better of the truth), that exemplary damages can be awarded in a case where the conduct of a public servant is oppressive, arbitrary or unconstitutional is “unexceptionable.”

The “controversy” whether punitive or exemplary damages should be allowed, the Supreme Court has now found after keenly researching the subject, “still rages almost internationally and remains unresolved”. It continues to be debated even in England, despite the decision of the House of Lords in Rookes vs Barnard summarily applied to mulct Capt Satish Sharma three years ago.

“If we were to apply the rule in Rookes vs Barnard (said the court on August 3) in every case involving government officers or government servants, the result would be appalling.”

The executive, says the Supreme Court and let the entire judiciary hearken, “have as important a role to play in the governance of the country as the judiciary or the legislature.” The executive should not, in the administration of the country, “be cowed down and should be allowed to have full confidence in its own existence so that its decision-making process is not, in any way, affected.”

Was then the judgement under review an attempt to “cow down” the executive and undermine its confidence in its own existence?

If Ministers and civil servants, continues the Supreme Court, were “constantly under the fear or threat of being proceeded against in a court of law” or under “constant fear of exemplary damages being awarded against them,” they will develop a defensive attitude which would not be in the interests of administration.

The “prospect of claims,” cautions the court, citing and emphasising Lord Keith’s opinion in the House of Lords in 1987, “would have a detrimentally inhibiting effect” on the administration. “A sound judgement would be less likely to be exercised if the (Minister or civil servant) were to be constantly looking over his shoulder at the prospect of claims against him, and his activities would be likely to be conducted in a detrimentally defensive frame of mind. Consciousness of potential liability could lead to distortions of judgement...”

Consciousness of potential liability could lead to distortion of judgement. That is a remarkably felicitous phrase and I cannot help remembering what I wrote in this column three years ago on September 30, reacting to the original verdict in Capt Satish Sharma’s case. It prescribes an impossible standard for the exercise of discretionary power, I had said, and “renders every wielder of power potentially suspect.”

The verdict (I wrote) suffered from a grave conceptual fallacy, a fallacy which could prove the undoing of public administration in India and lead to a paralysis of administrative will and decision-making.

Swept off their feet by judicial populism, not many readers agreed with me then. Doubting Thomases, I am sure, will still remain. But the Supreme Court has shown intellectual honesty and courage of a high order in admitting its mistake and rectifying it.

The powers of the Supreme Court under Article 32, said the three-member Bench last week, and of the High Courts under Article 226 of the Constitution are plenary powers not fettered by any legal constraints. “If the Court, in exercise of these powers, has itself committed a mistake, it has the plenary power to correct its own mistake....”

Rarely before, especially in the 1990’s, has the concept of its own “plenary power” been so humbly stated by India’s apex court. Whether the people and the media, or even the Bench and the Bar, have noticed it or not, we are witnessing the emergence of a new apex court out of the crumbling ruins of its activist past. A court manned by statesmen, not merely men or judges. A court for whom power is synonymous with responsibility and constitutional discipline. A court which does not, therefore, seek to carve out its own “sphere of influence” in the polity, or use its judicial power to “settle scores” with the executive or to “punish” it even when confronted by arbitrary exercise of power by the latter.

“A man has to be left alone (says the August 3 judgement) to enjoy life without fetters. He cannot be hounded out by the police or CBI to find out whether he has committed any offence or is living as a law-abiding citizen. Even under Article 142 of the Constitution, such a direction cannot be given.”

This part of the judgement, which deals with the criminal liability of a Minister for breach of “trust reposed in him by the people’’ or any other offence which may be discovered during investigation, is even more important than the part relating to administrative decision-making. More on it next week.

Dalai Lama releases “The Fate of Tibet”

by Humra Quraishi

THE season seems to be picking up. And one of the major events of last week has been the release of a book on Tibet — The Fate of Tibet — on August 6. Written by Frenchman Claude Arpi, this book release function was graced by the Dalai Lama who had reached New Delhi the same morning but couldn’t stay for the panel discussion that followed the book release as he had to catch a flight for Europe. And in his brief speech he emphasised that he would like to see Tibet as a zone of peace and was optimistic that Tibet and Tibetans would get justice because “truth has to prevail...... truth its own strength which cannot be suppressed”. And the writer of this book Claude Arpi who though based in Auroville has been studying Tibetan culture for the last 25 years also emphasised that the entire thrust of his book is the fight for justice. And seeing the who’s who present that afternoon one can easily say that there are many amongst us who want justice for the Tibetans.

Moving ahead, another book, to be precise a novel, with thrust on the foreign service was released last week. S.K. Banerji — 1937 ICS, who’d earlier served as our ambassador to several countries — has written this novel which revolves around a Foreign Service officer. And the chief guest for this book release function was I.K. Gujral and though that very morning (August 2) news was that SAD had backed out from fielding I.K. Gujral so one was all prepared to see a glum-faced Gujral but he looked relaxed and unperturbed.

Three deaths

On August 6 morning two men connected with the Food Ministry passed away. Kalpnath Rai who at some stage was Minister of State for Food died on August 6. And the same morning the Chairman of the FCI, Mr B. Narasimhan, also passed away. It was touching to see the Narasimhan family making sure that his wish for donating his eyes being carried out soon after his death. And last week the death of policewoman Yamin Hazarika, of the 1978 batch of the Delhi, Andaman and Nicobar police cadre, left totally depressed and shaken. Yamin was not only a close friend but so very forthright and uncomplicated that sometimes it was difficult to believe that such people are present in the times we are living in. Or rather... not quite present any longer. For having quietly battled with leukaemia for the last nine months, the end came on July 24, and as her body was being lowered into the gaping earth the reality was difficult to comprehend. The reality of death compounded as one spotted that close to Yamin’s grave lay the grave of Captain Haneefuddin, whose remains were burried barely a week back. And then came the sound of another grave being dug... as though the earth was only too willing to take in more.

Yamin has died young, at the age of 43 years, but in these years she had left a mark on the Delhi scene. In fact she was Delhi’s first woman non-IPS Assistant Commissioner of Police and when she was posted as DCP- Crime Against Women Cell she did some tremendous work for the woman in need. She used to tell me some unnerving facts of how women are being tortured; not those usual tales of wife beating but tortures beyond those including sexual and economic deprivations of the worst dimensions even in the so-called educated and upper middle class homes of Delhi’s well knowns. And one could sense that she could empathise with every one of those woman who’d seek her help. And during her burial I could spot several of those whom Yamin had helped in overcoming many a hurdle.

Right to information

And as the cliche goes.... life must go on .... and as it does so I can see a quiet but distinct change — call it a diluted form of a revolution — coming along. Space will not permit me to go into much detailing but on July 29 at a meet arranged at the Bahai House by Media Watch Group and Small and Medium Newspapers, several prominent citizens and activists spoke on the right to information and how the importance of this very right can bring about a change in our day-to-day living. Aruna Roy, a former IAS officer and spouse of the well known social activist Bunkar Roy, who quit service to get completely submerged in the social awakening in rural Rajasthan spoke at length on the hurdles that come along and the need to fight those to obtain the information, which is our constitutional right. S.K. Sharma, a former HUDCO chief who has floated his own movement, spoke convincingly on the very thrust of democracy and together with that the importance imparted to every citizen under that democratic umbrella. Another prominent citizen R.J. Sehgal even went to the extent of saying that once the right to information exists, or is brought about, there will be a decline in corruption for every government document will be laid threadbare. And Kuldip Singh Arora, one of the main organisers of this meet informs that their aim is to see to it that a Bill gets introduced, which could guarantee us the right to information “The State of Tamil Nadu and the UT of Goa already have this Bill and we would be holding a dharna here for three days — August 9,10 and 11 at the Rajghat to press for the right to information....”

In fact, before I move ahead I must add that during the course of a recent interview, former Police Commissioner of Delhi, Ved Marwah, had told me “Though the scenario in the country is gloomy — one is ashamed of the sub-human living conditions still prevailing in our country and of the lawlessness around where two sets of laws prevail (one for the top few and the other for the masses) and of the perversity of the system wherein politicians lie and still manage to get away with it and the entire civil service yields power without accountability — yet today I am not bitter and nor am I pessimistic of the future because I definitely feel that people of our country have found a voice and will no longer tolerate injustice, rather they would soon come out in the open and ask for their rights....” Infact, I kept recalling these words of Ved Marwah whilst I sat hearing some of the speakers at this meet.

Kamala Nehru

Till I received the invite for Kamala Nehru birth century (1899-1999) lecture by Sonia Gandhi on August 1 at Allahabad, one was completely unaware that this is the birth century year of Kamala Nehru. No doubt she died young but how can we forget that in spite of her illness and unhappiness she had managed to do some important work for our freedom struggle. If she’d died unsung, does that mean that even her birth century would pass away so very quietly. It’s really a shame that because of the petty politics of this day more importance is showered on Bollywood stars than on the freedom fighters of yesteryears.

75 YEARS AGO

Situation on the frontier

THE recent demonstrations in Khost did not apparently subside entirely and reports now state that there has been a recrudescence of the excitement during the last ten days. Various officials from Kabul have arrived at Gardez and are discussing the question of Nizamanaina with the representatives of the Mangal tribe, which is again stated to be in an excited condition and to have collected in large numbers round Gardez and Matun.

Rumours are afloat that the Mangals are endeavouring to persuade various other local tribes to join their demonstration and to cut the communications between Matun and Gardez.

Meanwhile, the discussions at Gardez continue and it is hoped that the authorities will succeed in pacifying these excitable and headstrong tribes without having to resort to the use of armed force.