A missed opportunity
THE torture of six Indian soldiers by the Pakistani authorities saw the entire nation stand behind Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee in demanding action against the criminals.

Much-delayed rail link
THE talk of a Chandigarh- Ludhiana rail link was in the air for so long that it had become some kind of a joke. After a seemingly endless wait of three decades there is some tangible forward movement at last with the Railway Minister, Mr Nitish Kumar, laying the foundation stone of the project on Sunday.

Inflation as illusion
PRICES of all commodities — the so-called inflation rate — are increasing by a mere 3 per cent, says an official communication. This is at the wholesale rate and reflects the situation in select cities across the country.

KARGIL AGGRESSION
Double-talk at G-8 meeting
by V. Gangadhar
WHENEVER the most powerful nations meet, the tendency is always to pussyfoot on issues to which they were not directly related. This vagueness is enhanced if the issues concerned poor Third World nations.

Centre-state row over Plan funds
by S. Sethuraman
LIKE a leap in the dark, the Planning Commission, functioning under a caretaker government, has told the states that the release of Central Plan assistance will be subject to the fulfilment of certain criteria related to their record in the utilisation of Plan funds.

Alliance politics — changing dharma
by P. Raman
THE recent developments in Haryana have to be viewed not in terms of who has emerged victorious in the trial of strength on the floor of the Assembly. Rather, with so many legislators ready to switch sides for a political price, the outcome entirely depended on the ability of the main players to strike the right bargain behind the scene. But those who are familiar with Haryana politics will vouchsafe that what happened last week is not going to be the last word.

Telephone hiccups and hassles!
by Darshan Singh Maini
I’VE yet to come across an Indian who hasn’t a litany of lamentations when the question of the telephone services crops up. Almost each ordinary subscriber in varying degrees has been reduced by this beauty instrument (whatever its complexion or seductions) to hiccups and hassles, to tears and tantrums, to sighs and prayers in the end.

75 Years Ago

Khalsa High School, Kurali
SARDAR Gurbakh Singh, B.A. LLB, Vakil, High Court; Member, Punjab Legislative Council; Manager, Khalsa High School, Kurali (Ambala Distt); has made an appeal to “our brothers in foreign countries”, in which he says that a Khalsa High School is working at Kurali.

A missed opportunity

THE torture of six Indian soldiers by the Pakistani authorities saw the entire nation stand behind Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee in demanding action against the criminals. The mutilated and highly decomposed bodies of the soldiers were returned by Pakistan three weeks after they went missing from near the LoC in Kashmir.

However, instead of mobilising global opinion against the most barbaric form of torture evidently used by the unnamed Pakistani criminals India itself seems to have forgotten about the incident even before the ashes of the brave soldiers could turn cold. There is enough evidence for the nation to demand an explanation from the Centre and the Bharatiya Janata Party why they have virtually written off the sordid episode even though our young and brave soldiers are suffering heavy casualties in a logistically unequal battle in Kargil. The BJP reminded the nation about the “sacrifice of the first soldier” Syama Prasad Mookerjee who died in jail in Kashmir on June 23 in 1953. The next day the Prime Minister was in Mumbai for taking part in a function associated with Chhatrapati Shivaji. On June 25 Union Home Minister L.K. Advani through television interviews sought to remind the nation of the acts of horror associated with the Emergency declared on this day in 1975.Yet June 26,observed as the UN International Day in Support of Torture Victims, was ignored by the Government and the political class. A strong collective stand against the act of barbarity by Pakistan would have sent the message to our officers and soldiers that we are not going to ease pressure for appropriate action against the criminals.

Of course, the National Human Rights Commission did have the good sense to discuss the global trends against State-sponsored policy of torture of political or social dissenters. There was no reference to the latest incident of war crimes committed against Indian soldiers by unidentified men in Pakistan. Mr Vajpayee would have earned the gratitude of the entire nation had he used the occasion to make a unilateral announcement on its behalf for ratifying the UN charter against torture, adopted after protracted debate on June 26 last year. He would have earned more points had he adopted as official the open letter of Mr N. K. Kalia, father of Lt Saurabh Kalia, on behalf of the six victims of torture, in which he appealed “to every Indian to generate strong public opinion and bring these facts to the notice of agencies like Amnesty International, International Red Cross and the NHRC and urge them to take immediate and appropriate action to book and punish the culprits for this ghastly act. This would be true homage to these brave soldiers.” But who can reason with the BJP [and its leaders] which forgot to include the name of Lt Saurabh Kalia, one of the victims of Pakistani torture, in the list of those killed in action in Kargil included in the advertisement issued by it on June 23. However, the people need not wait for official direction or political patronage for renewing their resolve for banishing all forms of human torture, particularly by the State, in India and the rest of the globe. This would be the most appropriate tribute to the memory of the latest victims of torture by Pakistan.

Much-delayed rail link

THE talk of a Chandigarh-Ludhiana rail link was in the air for so long that it had become some kind of a joke. After a seemingly endless wait of three decades there is some tangible forward movement at last with the Railway Minister, Mr Nitish Kumar, laying the foundation stone of the project on Sunday. Since hopes have been belied many times in the past, there is no dearth of pessimism among some even now. They suspect that since no timeframe has been announced, the prestigious project may take inordinately long to complete. Then there are those who see the foundation-stone-laying ceremony as nothing more than an election-eve exercise. It is hoped that the doubting Thomases will be proved wrong for once and the work will move full steam ahead immediately. The sooner it is executed, the cheaper it will be because nearly 30 years have already elapsed and the further passage of time may take the cost much above the anticipated Rs 248 crore. Although the Railway Ministry has provided only Rs 10 crore for the project during the current financial year, the Minister’s assertion that the project will not suffer because of shortage of funds seems reassuring. Still, there is every possibility that there will be considerable cost over-run if the Chandigarh Administration sticks to its demand of nearly Rs 100 crore as compensation for the land falling in its jurisdiction which has to be acquired by the Railways. The Punjab Government and the Railways say this price is excessively high and unreasonable. One hopes that such wrangles will be amicably settled soon enough. The rail link is indeed a project of national importance that has great value for the socio-economic development of the region.

All these years, one facetious argument for the delay was that the link might not be commercially viable. That was a clear case of putting the cart before the horse. Tremendous traffic can be generated considering that the railway line will pass through important towns like SAS Nagar, Samrala, Khamano, Morinda and Kharar, which are gaining importance on the industrial map also. Even otherwise, it is really ironic that most of Punjab does not have a direct link with the State Capital. The direct rail link will undo to some extent the disadvantage of having the Capital in a corner of the State. Then there is the added advantage of providing better connection with Jammu and Kashmir. As such, the argument about the route lacking adequate traffic does not really hold water. The factual position may be quite the opposite, given that the track that is to be laid is to be the most modern and may permit the running of trains up to the speed of 160 km per hour. If enough fast trains are run, this route may take the load off the bus service and may prove to be a great boon for the people who have to travel to Chandigarh regularly. Equally vital is the broad-gauge rail link provided to Parwanoo with Kalka. Parwanoo’s growth as an industrial town was hampered by the absence of a railhead and the 5.3-km link might act as a catalyst in its speedier development.

Inflation as illusion

PRICES of all commodities — the so-called inflation rate — are increasing by a mere 3 per cent, says an official communication. This is at the wholesale rate and reflects the situation in select cities across the country. Also, the index covers all commodities not always used by a common man, like raw jute and manufactured goods. Finally, it is a provisional figure, meaning the final calculation may be less appetising. All this makes the WPI a bit of an economic maya, one which no one sees but has to believe in. The market does not go by illusions but by harsh reality and that is the reason why often the officially announced inflation rate manifests itself in a blown up form across the shop counter. Needless to say, the regular publication of the WPI serves no particular purpose. The variable dearness allowance for government employees and organised labour is based on the consumer price index for industrial workers (CPI-IW). There are also separate indices for agricultural labour and urban non-manual workers. The CPI-IW comes closest to reflecting the real situation and right now it is above 11 per cent. Yes, nearly four times the provisional WPI.

An analysis of the lowest inflation rate in 14 years shows that the decline is entirely due to lower prices of cereals and vegetables. These articles have not crashed, but have only climbed down a bit from high pedestals. There is a marginal downward trend in the price of wheat and rice, thanks to a record harvest and bulging godowns. Seasonal factors and normal level of growth have kept the vegetable prices under check. This too has pushed down the WPI since the humble onion and its several cousins became prohibitively costly in November last and later. Another contributing factor for the very low wholesale index is the unchanging price structure of all manufactured goods, partly due to a demand recession. The continuing fall in the inflation rate finally explodes an old belief. Textbooks proclaim that an increase in money supply, represented by budgetary deficit, pushes up the inflation rate. In the past few years money supply has always overshot the target of about 15 per cent and this year it is close to 20 per cent. Yet there has been no proportionate spurt in prices. Two, it is time this country gave up compiling the WPI, both provisional and final, and completely switched over to the consumer price index, as is the practice in all countries. The revolution in information technology has made it both possible and inevitable. That should be the starting point to renovate the ramshackled structure of collecting and collating economic statistics.

KARGIL AGGRESSION
Double-talk at G-8 meeting
by V. Gangadhar

WHENEVER the most powerful nations meet, the tendency is always to pussyfoot on issues to which they were not directly related. This vagueness is enhanced if the issues concerned poor Third World nations. Thus one should not be surprised at what happened at the recent meeting of the G-8 group of nations at Cologne, Germany.

Some of the newspapers in India had editorially welcomed the stand taken at the G-8 summit on the Kargil issue as a “moral victory” for India. According to them, the summit had recognised the basic fact that Pakistan had committed aggression and would do well to pull back its forces beyond the Line of Control (LoC). But a more detailed study of the G-8 stand makes it clear that India, the victim, cannot be overjoyed at how the big powers viewed the Kargil aggression. It was only the West German government which came out with a categorical statement identifying Pakistan as the aggressor in Kargil. But this stand was taken by the West German foreign office and had nothing to do with the Cologne summit.

The summit, instead of coming to terms with the harsh realities of the issue, chose to pontificate. Predictably, it urged both India and Pakistan to cease the hostilities in Kashmir, respect the Line of Control and resume negotiations. This is a typical case of bracketing the aggressor with the victim, and that was why the G-8 reaction had been welcomed both in Pakistan and India. India was quite happy that the world powers had recognised the fact that armed intrusion had taken place in Kashmir. Pakistan crowed in the summit’s call to end military confrontation, to resume negotiations while choosing to ignore the references to the armed intruders.

Obviously, the G-8 summit did not want to antagonise either of the two parties — India and Pakistan. The reaction was a typical whitewash job, and ignored certain basic realities of the region which had been hampering a peaceful solution for several years. The statement was an astute balancing act which was open to favourable interpretation on both sides. Pakistan, while welcoming the statement, washed its hands off any responsibility associated with the presence of the intruders. Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif stated that the intruders did not take orders from him and warned of future incursions in different areas. This was the most alarming statement from a responsible leader. Over the years, successive governments in Pakistan have adopted the same ostrich-like stand, explaining to the world that the intruders are patriotic citizens of Kashmir, who feel their land has been occupied illegally by India.

What about the Indian stand? It appeared to be one of “Thank heavens for small mercies!” India’s stand on Kashmir had not been acceptable to the rest of the world for several decades because our publicity blitz on this issue had failed miserably. Pakistan had been able to portray the role of an aggrieved party, bullied by a Big Brother on its border. On the current crisis in Kargil, there can be some consolation for India because the West has finally accepted the fact that the intruders have come from Pakistan, clearly violating the Line of Control.

This was like throwing half a loaf to a starving man. The world community had once again bracketed India and Pakistan. The G-8 statement was worded in such a manner that both countries had been asked to halt the confrontation. Pakistan, the aggressor, had not been condemned publicly. The G-8 nations, while acknowledging that the intruders did come from Pakistan, had not clearly stated they were Pakistani soldiers.

The most disturbing factor in equating India and Pakistan is the tendency of most countries in the world to ignore the fact that while India is a democracy and thrives on an open society, it is the armed forces and the ISI which call the shots in Pakistan. The West, while shedding tears for the survival of democracy in the Third World, has often acted against the one genuine democracy in this region. The Kargil conflict is no exception.

The double standards practised by the Western powers become clear when one views their stand on Kargil and Kosovo. In Europe, the Western powers used the strength of NATO to take prolonged armed action against the marauding Serbs, who were accused of ethnic cleansing. The armed action was so ferocious that hundreds of civilians were killed. The Chinese and Indian embassies were not spared in the bombing raids, with the former suffering civilian casualties. India did not want any military help from the West. Yet one is appalled at the lack of sympathy and understanding on an issue of clear aggression across the Line of Control.

One is also surprised that the G-8 summit was less specific than President Bill Clinton’s letter to Mr Nawaz Sharif urging him to pull out the infiltrators from Kargil. The tone and contents of the letter clearly implied direct Pakistani involvement in the aggression. Moscow, a long-time friend of India, acted swiftly and condemned the intrusion. Yet both nations went along with the mild and one-sided statement issued by the G-8 group, which ignored the fact that a bilateral treaty, recognised by international law, which had helped to maintain peace between India and Pakistan, had been breached with impunity. Even if one accepted the arguments that the infiltrators were acting on their own, their armed action was clearly a terrorist action, launched from the Pakistan territory. Perhaps, the G-8 meet feared that a strong statement would increase the tension in the region. But, then, ignoring certain basic facts would never help in finding a solution.

Such an ambiguous attitude could have unpleasant reactions for India. Former Prime Minister I.K. Gujral cautioned that the summit statement, which “did not say anything at all”, could result in the Kargil issue being raised at the United Nations, during its forthcoming September session. Our acceptance of the G-8 stand will mean we cannot oppose a discussion on the issue. Mr Gujral has condemned the vagueness of the statement and wondered if it is deliberate. Once the Kargil issue is raised at the UN, Pakistan will take the stand of an aggrieved party and seek a discussion on the entire Kashmir issue. This has been the familiar strategy of the Pakistan rulers, who have never reconciled to the fact that Kashmir is a dead issue.

The USA and the rest of the world are justifiably nervous at religious fundamentalism which is sweeping the entire world. How can they afford to miss the significance of the presence of the well-trained Afghan mercenaries among the Kargil intruders? They are also fighting with the sophisticated weapons provided to them courtesy the CIA during the recent Afghan war. The torture and mutilation of the bodies of the captured Indian soldiers must be the work of Taliban elements who have received numerous favours from the USA in the past. It is all the more important for the USA and the rest of the G-8 members to have taken a stronger stand on the intrusion. You cannot launch a war against religious fundamentalism in one part of the world and ignore it in other parts.

What are the other “achievements” of the Cologne summit? Of course, it did write off a large portion of the debts incurred by some of the poorest nations in the world. There was nothing unusual in this because the debt-ridden countries were in no position to pay. The move was also unfair to other poor nations who had actually managed to repay their debts. The decisions at the G-8 summit were aimed at making liberalisation more effective in the poorer regions of the world. Globalisation, of course, could bring some benefits to the Third World nations. But the recent economic crisis in East Asia clearly showed the inherent dangers of thrusting such a policy without adequate groundwork. Since the private sector benefited mostly from foreign investment, it should also take adequate investment risks. But this has not been happening particularly in Asia.

Centre-state row over Plan funds
by S. Sethuraman

LIKE a leap in the dark, the Planning Commission, functioning under a caretaker government, has told the states that the release of Central Plan assistance will be subject to the fulfilment of certain criteria related to their record in the utilisation of Plan funds.

Prima facie, such an arrangement should be welcome provided the commission and the Union Finance Ministry have arrived at a consensus with all the states on any new arrangement that makes for effective Plan implementation, and acts as a check against misallocations or other irregularities on the part of the states.

There is understandable concern on the part of the commission that development expenditure has been declining as a share of total expenditure with the bulk of resources going for non-development purposes while the state Plans are being increasingly financed by borrowings.

The fiscal stress on the states has been aggravated by the hefty rise in the salaries of government employees, and the failure of the states to generate a higher level of their own resources through tax and levy of user charges along with containing non-Plan revenue expenditure.

The Finance Ministry has also been trying out the method of finalising the memorandum of understanding with the states, setting out the steps needed to be taken by them for improving the finances over a medium term.

Some states like Kerala have openly denounced the Planning Commission’s new approach to the release of Central assistance for state Plans. The Kerala Chief Minister, Mr E.K. Nayanar, has sought the intervention of the President with the plea that the caretaker government has no right to alter the procedures for the allocation of Central assistance to the states.

One of the experts in Centre-state fiscal relations, Dr I.S. Gulati, at present Vice-Chairman of the Kerala Planning Board, says the “unprecedented step” being taken to subject allocations to a “certificate from a bureaucrat” at the Planning Commission is against the spirit of cooperative federalism. Any change in the existing system of allocation should only be effected after a thorough discussion at a National Development Council meeting. The Centre’s proposals would also introduce scope for “discretion, subjectivity and arbitrariness” in the allocation of Central Plan assistance, he feels.

The Central government’s defence of the MoU arrangement is that without strict criteria, the states cannot be made to exercise fiscal discipline and it would compel them to make greater efforts at resource mobilisation and arrest the drain on non-Plan expenditure.

Planning Commission sources contend that the communication to the states was part of the consultative process, and a meeting of state government officials would be called before implementing the new guidelines.

Financing of the state Plans becomes the responsibility of the governments concerned once they seek and secure a larger outlay on the undertaking that they would raise the requisite order of additional resources. Invariably, the states, with few exceptions, have looked to the Centre for extra funds, and these are used up in ways other than financing development projects.

The issue of Centre-state finances remains as vexed as ever, notwithstanding the Centre’s expressed willingness to share 29 per cent of all its tax receipts with the states — which requires a constitutional amendment — and accommodate them to the extent possible for other burdens thrown on by them in the aftermath of the Fifth Pay Commission’s report. More importantly, the states await the report of the Eleventh Finance Commission, chaired by Prof A.M. Khusro, on the devolution of the Centre’s tax revenues to the states for the period 2000-2005. — IPA

Telephone hiccups and hassles!
by Darshan Singh Maini

I’VE yet to come across an Indian who hasn’t a litany of lamentations when the question of the telephone services crops up. Almost each ordinary subscriber in varying degrees has been reduced by this beauty instrument (whatever its complexion or seductions) to hiccups and hassles, to tears and tantrums, to sighs and prayers in the end. From the absence of the dial tone to the inflated, unwarranted bills, it’s a story of an affliction which can, in extreme cases, first raise your hackles, trigger a “Niagra” of crises against “the deaf gods,” and finally make you feel like a limp wet waif, moaning in “sound and fury, signifying nothing”. The Shakespearian lines from Macbeth’s world-weary speech, torn out of context here, perhaps sum up best my worked-up but wilting emotions more than a whole ton of curses.

The present crisis has a certain providential “kick” in it. During the last few years I noticed a strange coincidence — the thing going out of order exactly on the eve of the long weekend and the bonanza of tagged-on State holidays. You have to make tearful efforts to get your complaint registered, remain in the limbo till “India on holiday” for a week or so returns to the table or “the Exchange” after a gratuitous, reckless and ruinous holiday. If there’s an emergency staff on duty, it too often goes into a long snooze in times of distress. You may grash your teeth or tear your hair, the communication cabal of the region has the last laugh.

Now, imagine the plight of sick old men and women whose only link with the outside world — with their hospitals and doctors, with their grieving sons and daughters settled in distant places or in foreign parts, with their local relations, friends and helpers — suddenly gets snapped, throwing them into a world of new despairs, and queering the pitch of suffering at times, beyond your reckoning! The “small gods” of the machine and of the administrative machinery can, they realise, be, in such circumstances, more powerful than Hardy’s or Melville’s malevolent Lord! Such little ironies compel one to muse over the element of the absurd and the irrational in human life. The seductive “siren” that connects you with romance and sweet dreams turns into a slut when “she” (notice the anatomical contours of the instrument) begins to play tricks of the trade.

Such thoughts inevitably put my mind on a long, fanciful hunt. Telephone troubles, I know are common enough in India, and therefore, to milk one’s miseries out of those dry teats does strike one as something extravagant, if not fanciful. But then one has seen the telephone services in the West or in other advanced countries, the temptation to link the repeated telephone traumas with one’s karma becomes a strong argument. Why, I agonise, does my telephone go out of order at the fall of a sneeze, and then remain a mocking reminder of some obscure crimes — of wilful incommunication, of wanton silences etc in relation to those who loved me, and those I loved? Is the telephone instrument, then, a weapon of remote revenge, an agent of poetic justice”?

This is a question that leads me to the well-known home-truth that people are destined to be lucky in some areas or facets of life, and unlucky in some others. For instance, when I cast a nostalgic backward glance over my past life, I do come up, like a diver, with a fistful of pearls, even as I pluck thorns and thistles as I wander back through the wildernesses I have crossed, and the rockcrop that I have reaped! To put the telephone business in this larger context is, of course, to be “off-centre,” and to slide into fields of frivolity. But when I reflect on my fortunes, in general, I find that prior to the punishing illness in old age, I have had a fairly good measure of luck — in my jobs, visits and assignments, houses, family marriages etc, and it hurts me somehow to know that in one department (love apart) where I have had to face keen disappointments is — well, the telephone connection! Some imp has been riding my instrument, unseen, and pushing me into a feckless fury.

Years ago, I wrote a light essay “A Telephone for my Grandson” — a highly charged and pungent piece — in which I lamented the long queues and the long delays in the allotment of the first connection — and the result, well, you can guess. After a cooling of heels for nearly 10 years the “prodigal” arrived — within days! Will this “song” of my late years be heard and acted upon, who can say?

P.S:- As I conclude this note, I hear “the sound of music.” The agony ends for the moment. The top authorities have proved most sympathetic and helpful. We pray the grace lasts and lasts....But enough!

Alliance politics — changing dharma

by P. Raman

THE recent developments in Haryana have to be viewed not in terms of who has emerged victorious in the trial of strength on the floor of the Assembly. Rather, with so many legislators ready to switch sides for a political price, the outcome entirely depended on the ability of the main players to strike the right bargain behind the scene. But those who are familiar with Haryana politics will vouchsafe that what happened last week is not going to be the last word.

Haryana is not only the original home of aya ram-gaya ram politics, it has also been the state where one could see the first empirical evidence of deideologisation of politics even as early as 1970s. It has been a time when politics in states revolved round strong national or local issues. But in Haryana, it has been, by and large, a personal war of the three ‘Lals’. Issues were to be invented to suit their interests. Even the all-India parties had to adjust to the political expediencies of the local bosses. This veritable laboratory of realpolitik has made many more significant contributions like en masse elopement and forced custody of MLAs and overnight coup d’etat by a whole assembly party.

(Incidentally, this writer along with The Link editor M.V. Venugopal Rao, was present at the late Babu Jagjivan Ram’s residence that night when Bhajan Lal was finalising the deal for the en masse defection to the Congress. It was in 1980. We had gone for a recorded interview of Babuji for a special edition of The Link. A smiling Bhajan Lal with hordes of his MLAs simply fooled us, and we came to know about the defection at a Press conference the next morning).

The latest Haryana episode also heralds three significant trends in Indian politics. First, it marks the beginning of the swap of alliance partners not on any valid political reasons or on the basis of policy differences. On the other, it is just because the new partner, at the given time, is perceived to have more electoral potential. It has set a new dharma for alliance politics. Every one knows there is nothing much to choose between a Bansi Lal and Om Prakash Chautala. Both rely on the narrow caste politics and resort to highhanded methods whenever found necessary. Both can stoop to any low if that meets their objectives. Atal Behari Vajpayee’s explanation that Bansi Lal government was ‘corrupt’ and did not perform holds no water, especially when most other BJP allies elsewhere had a worse track record. In fact, Vajpayee had no answer when the Congress challenged him to prove his allegations of corruption against his erstwhile ally. Even if there is an iota of truth in it, the BJP owes an explanation as to why did not it remain with such a ‘corrupt person so long. Why does the party still continue to sup with Sukh Ram and the defector ministers of UP with worse criminal records? Apparently, the Prime Minister did not respond to the Congress challenge because the power politics has already muddied the atmosphere and he himself has become part and parcel of it.

We have a long record of regional parties shifting loyalties for what they thought valid local factors. If the Congress had chosen DMK or AIADMK alternatively, it has been due to local compulsions and antagonism. Chandrababu Naidu deserted the UF in 1998 for a valid reason. He just cannot be seen as supporting the Congress because it is his main political rival in Andhra Pradesh politics. After the AIADMK switched to the Congress, the DMK has every reason to look to the other side. There is no such logic in an all-India party jettisoning one regional party to opt for another similar one without any convincing reason. The truth behind the BJP decision has been that of late Bansi Lal’s stock has gone so low as compared to his rival Om Prakash Chautala. The BJP had taken full advantage of Bansi Lal’s popularity during the last Assembly elections. In the 1998 Lok Sabha poll, Bansi Lal and the BJP were to contend with just one seat each.

Now the BJP hopes that a tieup with Chautala will enable it to bag most of the 10 Lok Sabha seats from Haryana. It was with this in mind that the party was wooing Chautala into its alliance soon after his better showing in the last elections. The party had given an assurance to him to pull down Bansi Lal and make him the Chief Minister if he sided with the BJP in the crucial trust vote in the Lok Sabha this year. Sometime back, Realpolitik had used the term ‘Bali-Sugriv syndrome’ to describe the phenomenon of the all-India parties taking advantage of the antagonism among the regional parties to rope in them into alliances. For this purpose, it is necessary to sharpen the contradictions between Laloo Prasad Yadav and Nitish Kumar, Jayalalitha and Karunanidhi, TDP and Congress and Mulayam Singh Yadav and Mayawati.

The latest Haryana episode marks another political application for the Bali-Sugriv syndrome. Earlier, the alliances were based on the availability of the party, quality of its relationship and the homogeneity. Now all this is being replaced by the presumed ability and potential of the suitor to win more seats for the alliance. There is a qualitative difference in seeking alliance with a party and drop one in the midstream in favour of a prosperous one. Its implications are far and wide. It should sound a warning to other BJP allies elsewhere. Supposing the Tohra faction of the Akali Dal manages to wrest an upper hand over Prakash Singh Badal, under the new dharma the BJP might desert the latter as well. Immediately, it faces a similar problem with the two factions of the Orissa Biju Janata Dal

Second, the brinkmanship in Haryana should come as a warning to the practitioners of coalition politics about its inherent fragility. Keeping aside the laudable track record of the Left coalitions, the quality of coalition has suffered over the years. It was only after 1996 that the BJP had adopted coalition as an all-India strategy to wrest power. Since then it has been taking maximum care to keep its allies in good humour. Even in the case of Mayawati, the BJP had tried to make all possible concessions despite an uncompromising Kalyan Singh. Its treatment to Bansi Lal marks a clear departure.

Trustworthiness has been an important factor in the survival of the coalitions based purely on power sharing by the disparate groups, each one constantly trying to strike bigger bargains for itself. This was what Jayalalitha, Mamata Bannerjee and sections of the Samata Party have been doing. Now if the major players also start giving overriding priority to bagging more seats, choosing of alliance partners will become an open auction. This is bound to evoke instantaneous response from the Congress and other opposition groups.

In 1998, the BJP had entered the alliance market in a big way and got into its fold a major chunk of the regional parties which had hitherto lined up behind the non-Congress, non-BJP combines. This had changed the complexion of the entire alliance politics. For this, the BJP had in its new benign avatar successfully used a mix of anti-Congressism, antagonism among the local parties and a display of its ability to wrest power at the Centre. Local parties like the AIADMK and Haryana Vikas Party have now shown that they too could retaliate by switching over to the other side. The Congress, through its prompt response in Tamil Nadu and Haryana, has given notice of its determination to enter the regional alliance market whenever found profitable.

Third, the events in Haryana have also conclusively demonstrated the change of power structure within the RSS parivar. The effective power centre of the party has undoubtedly moved away from 11 Ashok Road headquarters of the BJP to the South Block. In the case of Haryana, Vajpayee has been virtually authorised to take a final decision. He exercised it with full authority. Ever since the venerable Kushabhau Thakre took over as party president, there has been a power vacuum within the party hierarchy. His decisions lacked the moral authority unless got approved by L.K. Advani and Vajpayee. For this reason, even some of the purely organisational decisions taken by the Thakre team had failed to take off.

Recently, the party had announced with great fanfare the celebration of Kashmir Day on June 23. Sadly, it went totally unnoticed by the ranks. With an extremely weak party president, partymen from states look to the PMO for guidance even on purely organisational matters. Often, the party chief had to confirm from the PMO about the decisions concerning the party after having known from other colleagues or media. Some of the wizkids, hitherto active with Advani, have quietly switched to the real power centre. ‘Papers gone to PMO’ — some thing so common at the AICC office in 24 Akbar Road during the Indira and Rajiv days — is the frequent remarks at 11 Ashok Road these days.

As a result, formal party forums are losing their clout. Announcements coming from Vajpayee alone are considered as the last word whether it is on the question of postponing the election or demand for a Rajya Sabha session. Perhaps, this is the logical conclusion of creating an all-powerful Prime Minister and seek vote on his or her image. The Congress has a built-in structure to legitimise the total authority of its supremo. But even without the dual post system Vajpayee has wrested the total control — along with the inevitable coterie. His bold rejection of the proposal for a ‘watchdog’ panel at the Bangalore session of the national executive has been a landmark in this regard.

75 YEARS AGO

Khalsa High School, Kurali

SARDAR Gurbakh Singh, B.A. LLB, Vakil, High Court; Member, Punjab Legislative Council; Manager, Khalsa High School, Kurali (Ambala Distt); has made an appeal to “our brothers in foreign countries”, in which he says that a Khalsa High School is working at Kurali.

It has at present more than 400 students on the rolls and the number is going up day by day. As feeder to this central institution a middle school at Kainaur and a number of primary schools have also been started in the surrounding illaqas.

The school management is facing a heavy deficit every month and has practically given up all ideas of expansion. The building operations, which were started a few months back, had to be given up half-way because of the exhaustion of funds.

A sum of two lac rupees is wanted. Deputations headed by S. Kabul Singh, Secretary, Managing Committee, and S. Sawan Singh have been sent for raising subscriptions. An appeal is made for subscriptions.