Flashes of brilliance not enough
by T.V.R. Shenoy
“LORD,” Neville Cardus, doyen of all cricket-writers is said to have prayed fervently, “let Victor Trumper score a century in England’s win!”

The stormy petrels of Indian hockey
by Harihar Swarup
ONE wonder if India’s triumph at Bangkok is resurgence of hockey in the real sense but it is a great event, perhaps, the only bright patch in the otherwise gloomy 1998.

An idea whose time has come
by Rahul Singh
Not nearly enough notice has been taken here of Russian Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov’s call for a “strategic triangle” of Russia, China and India to ensure regional geo-political stability.

75 Years Ago

Political prisoners in England and in India

Flashes of brilliance not enough
by T.V.R. Shenoy

“LORD,” Neville Cardus, doyen of all cricket-writers is said to have prayed fervently, “let Victor Trumper score a century in England’s win!” The beauty of that decidedly mixed sentiment is explained when one realises that Trumper was Australia’s premier batsman in the first decade of this century. Cardus loved the game far too much to want an English bowler to get Trumper’s wicket cheaply but he was also far too much of a patriot to see Australia take the Ashes.

The Carduses of today in New Zealand will have got their wish. In the Test at Wellington, only two men made centuries. Both happened to be Indians — the Indian captain and his predecessor (probably the finest active cricketer). Yet, sad to say, India lost the match.

There is a lesson in that for the Vajpayee Ministry. During the Assembly elections, the BJP’s most fervent critics steered carefully away from attacking the Prime Minister. They realised that it would have been counterproductive to attack a man who is still the most popular politician in India today. Yet the BJP lost the polls.

The lesson is that flashes of brilliance from individual members of the Union Government does not enhance the image of the ministry as a whole. Both as human beings and as politicians, men such as Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee , Union Home Minister L.K. Advani, External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh, and several others are head and shoulders above their counterparts in other parties. But it is asking too much to demand that they should carry the entire government all by themselves.

There have been far too many lapses of omission and commission by other men in government. There are the AIADMK Ministers who make no secret of the fact that their primary allegiance is to “Amma” in Poes Gardens, and not to the Prime Minister. The Akali Dal squabbles far too often with itself. Rumours of a split in the Samata Party are doing the rounds in Delhi and the Biju Janata Dal has already broken. Finally, the BJP itself gives the impression of being a house divided against itself.

Party matters aside, even some Ministers have been making mistakes. Not, I hasten to add, that any of them have been accused of corruption; the Vajpayee Ministry is generally acknowledged as the cleanest in recent memory. But there is a whole bagful of errors great and small —the way that bureaucrats bamboozled an inexperienced Minister of State into raising petroleum prices behind the Finance Minister’s back, or the way that the Tata Airlines proposal was delayed for no discernible reason. And then, of course, there was the great onion crisis...

Set against such a catalogue of ducks, one might think the Vajpayee team had lost the match before the first 15 overs were bowled. Not so! Plenty of centuries have been scored in the BJP innings. Industrialists and financiers, both Indian and otherwise, openly admit that the BJP is taking tough decisions that both Dr Manmohan Singh and Mr P. Chidambaram flubbed. Pokhran-II has enhanced India’s security. Kashmir has been in turmoil since 1990, but it is now rapidly regaining its status as a prime tourist attraction rather than an undeclared war-zone.

Even the recent brouhaha over the sacking of the Navy Chief of Staff was a pretty gutsy decision. Admiral Vishnu Bhagwat has been asking for trouble since at least as far back as 1990, when he went to court (a recurring pattern) alleging that the then Prime Minister, V.P. Singh, wasn’t “applying his mind to national security”. Such irresponsibility feeds on itself if it goes unchecked. It was time to stop the rot.

But the rare century doesn’t win matches, does it? The captain may make a century, perhaps even more. But the Opposition will carry away the trophy if the bowling and the fielding are sloppy. But 1999 is not 1998, and captain Vajpayee seems determined not to repeat the errors of the past. Happy New Year!

An idea whose time has come
by Rahul Singh

Not nearly enough notice has been taken here of Russian Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov’s call for a “strategic triangle” of Russia, China and India to ensure regional geo-political stability. He made the call during his recent visit to India. It must have taken the Indian authorities completely by surprise because New Delhi reacted in an uncharacteristically cool manner. Normally, whatever Moscow has said has been warmly welcomed by New Delhi.

However, I believe Moscow was dead serious. Admittedly, the strategic triangle idea was mooted in the shadow of the US bombing of Iraq, a bombing, incidentally, which did not achieve its purpose and which was nothing less than an act of joint US-British aggression. All it succeeded in doing was to make Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, who has brought so much suffering on his hapless people, even more popular. And it only delayed the motion for US President Bill Clinton’s impeachment in the American Congress by a day.

Be that as it may, the rest of the world could only watch helplessly. There was barely a squeak out of New Delhi, too anxious not to displease Washington. The only major countries that made their outrage plain were Russia and China and, to a lesser extent, France. But they could do little in the circumstances except condemn the bombing and point out that no prior approval had been sought from the United Nations.

In the old days, a powerful Soviet Union and a Nonalignment Movement (NAM) might have checked the USA. No longer. Since the break-up of the Soviet Union and the demise of communism in Europe, almost a decade ago, Russia has had problems of its own, on both the economic front and with its neighbours. An ailing Boris Yeltsin has made matters worse. As for NAM, it may still exist in name but it stopped counting for anything after the Soviet Union ceased to exist.

The reality is that, for the time being, there is just one super-power in the world, the USA. China and Japan have the making of super-powers. But the Japanese economy is not what it used to be earlier and, besides, it is not allowed to rearm. So, it is not the picture yet. China has been busy developing economically and has done a great job of it in the last two decades, with annual economic growth rates averaging between eight and 12 per cent (the best that India has done is about 7 per cent and that, too, only for a couple of years). But it will probably take China at least another decade before it has the necessary financial clout — the military clout is already there — to be called a super-power and to challenge the USA.

There is also the European Community, another super-power in the making, but only economically, not politically or militarily. The European Community is far too diverse to be able talk in one voice against the USA. It, too, will take some years to become more cohesive and get its act together.

By about 2010, there will be five main super-powers: the USA, Japan, the European Community, China and Russia (if it can overcome its current problems). India, sadly, will not be among them. It will continue to remain a “potential” super-power.

Which is why the Russian Prime Minister’s concept of some kind of alliance between Moscow, China and Delhi makes sense. It must have sent alarm bells ringing in Washington. Such an alliance could be an alternative to NAM.

India would have no problems in drawing closer to Russia. Jawaharlal Nehru was always partial to the Soviet Union, perhaps a little too much so, and his daughter, Indira Gandhi, cemented the relationship with a formal Indo-Soviet Friendship Treaty, just before the formation of Bangladesh.

The main problem is China. It fought a brief border war with us, in which the battle-hardened Chinese troops humiliated the unprepared Indian Army. That defeat still rankles. Beijing has also had border clashes with Moscow and China claims quite a bit of Russian territory. Clearly, China has to solve its border problems with both India and Russia before any kind of strategic alliance between the three countries is possible.

India also has to remove the suspicions that its nuclear tests have aroused in Beijing. Union Defence Minister George Fernandes made matters worse by implying that the tests were directed at China, rather than Pakistan, when he said that China was India’s ‘main threat’. That was a foolish statement, not the first foolish statement he has made.

The truth of the matter is that the nuclear issue aside, India, China and Russia have much more in common than we imagine. The three countries can learn a great deal from each other. There is tremendous scope for economic cooperation which has barely been touched, at least not between India and China nor China and Russia. Russian Prime Minister Primakov has set the ball rolling. It is up to Beijing and New Delhi to give it a further push.

The stormy petrels of Indian hockey
by Harihar Swarup

ONE wonder if India’s triumph at Bangkok is resurgence of hockey in the real sense but it is a great event, perhaps, the only bright patch in the otherwise gloomy 1998. The message of Bangkok is loud and clear that hockey can be revived to its pristine glory provided there is less of politicking in the Indian Hockey Federation, its top brass shuns prejudices and personal likes and dislikes and has only one objective; select the best of the talent.

What can be more revealing than the outbursts of the captain of the Indian team Dhanraj Pillay and that amazing goalkeeper, Ashish Ballal, against the selectors. They have nothing but contempt, just hatred for those who condemned them, humiliated them and yet mercifully included them in the Bangkok team. Real sportsmen, like real artists, have a sense of pride; hurt their self-esteem and their talents slide down. This is what has been happening over the years and explains India’s decadence in the sphere of hockey.

While emotionally too surcharged to speak at the restoration of India’s glory after 32 years, Pillay cried like a child, Ballal could not restraint himself. And, he burst out at Indian hockey’s officialdom: “ Hockey Federation’s officials are a bunch of shit .... (used unprintable language). I wanted to prove that I am still the best goalkeeper in the country. I also had a point to prove to those selectors who had axed me from the World Cup squad early this year. I am proud of my country, my team, my captain, coach and my parents. This is the greatest moment of my life”. Had Ballal not saved decisively twice in the penalty shootouts, enabling his team beat the defending champions South Korea 5-3, the hour of glory would have eluded India. He is evidently the hero; he was the villain till recently with his credentials as goalkeeper questioned.

Apparently, the treatment meted out to Ballal two years back had haunted him ever since; he was forced to walk out of the World Cup preparatory camp in Chennai in tears. So humiliated he felt that he drove throughout the night covering a distance of 350 km to his home in Bangalore. He did not cry at Bangkok but gave vent to his anger.

One advantage of the Bangkok victory has been ensuring India’s direct entry into the Sydney Olympics in 2000. The last time victory smiled on India was in the 1975 World Cup in Kuala Lumpur. The Indian hockey gold at the Moscow Olympics in 1980 was somewhat devalued.

The skipper, Dhanraj Pillay, too is known for his temperament. His determination to show his worth became more firm with each snub of hockey officials. He was often denigrated as having “slowed down, lost touch and we need fresh legs”. His reply to the disheartening remarks was: “I will show them what Dhanraj is capable of. I have two more years of world class hockey in me”. He did demonstrate his skills in Bangkok. With his dazzling stick work, Pillay has come to be known as hockey wizard — the title given to the legendary Dhyan Chand. In a spectacular show of speed and dash he scored 10 goals at Bangkok, including the equaliser against South Korea. No one can now raise doubt about his stamina and leg power.

Pillay was at the receiving end after India’s performance at the Utrecht World Cup and Commonwealth Games. He also spearheaded a revolt in a payment dispute making him unpopular with the power centres in the hockey world. Even though his tiff with coaches over team tactics hogged headlines, Pillay remained India’s star striker over the years. Unlike many of his team mates, Dhanraj is a deeply religious man. He once visited Balaji’s temple at Tirupati and offered his hair?.

Skipper Pillay’s eyes are now set on the 2000 Sydney Olympics which may bring the curtain down on his 10-year long career as the hockey star. He has reportedly said on his return from Bangkok that he may call it a day after Sydney. Pillay has been lucky in the sense that he captained an excellent set of players and three of them — Ramandeep Singh, Baljit Singh Dhillon and Baljit Saini — belong to the Punjab police. The Punjab Chief Minister, Mr Prakash Singh Badal’s gesture in rewarding them with promotion and cash is a welcome step. Hockey lovers would have appreciated had the Chief Minister showed a little more magnanimity by honouring captain Dhanraj and goalkeeper, Ballal too. It is worth reproducing the career graphs of the two shining stars of Indian hockey.

Dhanraj Pillay: The senior-most member of the Indian team, 30-year old skipper Dhanraj began his international career with a silver medal in the Asian Cup in 1989. After that he has been a regular member of the Indian team. In 263 international matches he has scored 69 goals. A speedy centre forward, Dhanraj has also played for India in the Barcelona and Atlanta Olympics, Commonwealth Games and the Champions Trophy. He is employed with Mahindra and Mahindra in Mumbai.

Ashish Ballal: A Deputy Manager with Indian Airlines, 28-year old Ashish Ballal was a member of the Indian team which won a silver medal in the last Asian Games at Hiroshima. He also assisted India in winning the Azlam Shah Cup and the Indira Gandhi Gold Cup. Ashish first represented India in the 1989 Indira Gandhi Gold Cup at Lucknow and now has 219 caps. He has played in the Barcelona Olympics, World Cup and Champions Trophy. A commerce graduate Ashish loves music.

75 YEARS AGO

Political prisoners in England and in India

REFERRING to the declaration of the Under Secretary of State in the House of Commons that Lord Peel is still considering what proposals he should place before Parliament on the subject of the modification of the rules debarring political prisoners from standing as candidates for the Legislature, an Anglo-Indian journal gravely tells its readers that “anxiety to relieve the law-breaker of the consequence of his wrongdoing is happily not a popular sentiment in England, but that it flourishes in India”.

Perhaps the journal will explain to a bewildered public how, if this theory is correct, it so happens that it is in India and not in England that political prisoners actually labour under the disability.

If the law-breaker must suffer this particular consequence of his wrongdoing, why does not suffering, like charity, begin at home?