Crisis in the Congress

MR Sharad Pawar, the Maratha war-horse at long last, has emerged out of his backyard stable and galloped into the battle field to fight. For national pride and ethos as well as for his personal esteem.

A full-blooded foreigner, even when born in India (much less the one born in an alien land) by the compulsion of circumstances, should not aspire after the Presidency or Prime Ministership of this country.

There were scores of Englishmen born on Indian soil during 200 years of British rule (sons of ICS officers, judges, Army generals, etc) but nobody could imagine that even the most brilliant and noblest of them could be made free India’s Prime Minister. Could Gandhiji or Jawaharlal Nehru ever visualise this phenomenon? How painful and ridiculous it is that a country that boasts of a civilisation going back to five millennium should not be able to find a single individual capable enough to lead this nation.

It is not a question of Mrs Sonia Gandhi’s competence or talent or charismatic hold on the people. It is a question of India’s national pride. Unless a person has been born in India, has grown up in a truly Indian ambience, has one of the Indian languages as his mother tongue, understands the people’s myriad nuances and suggestions, has in his blood the mellifluence of its songs and fables and instinctively enjoys the colour and glow of the country’s fairs and festivals, he is not truly an Indian. William Makepeace Thackeray was born in Calcutta.

Pawar, Mr P.A. Sangma and Mr Tariq Anwar have walked out of the assemblage of cronies and done India proud. It is blasphemous to call them the hangers-on of the Sangh Parivar. Have they turned traitors overnight? Their conscience must have been long pricking them, but they could not summon up the necessary courage earlier. Better late than never!

If Mr Pawar as the leader of the Congress Parliamentary Party had been authorised to meet the President to stake his claim to Prime Ministership (which was the most appropriate thing to do) after the fall of the Vajpayee government, the present crisis in the Congress and in the life of this noble and innocent lady would not have taken place. But inscrutable are the ways of destiny!

R. L. SINGAL
Chandigarh

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Political stability a must

A recently conducted opinion poll warns of gloomy days ahead in Indian politics — yet again a hung Lok Sabha. One may interpret it as a decisive progress towards the coalition culture, or may term it as voters’ disappointment with all the major political parties.

In the absence of a clear vision of political leadership on national issues, voters want at least their regional problems to be tackled. But sadly enough, regional political parties are dominated by their respective leaders who are more of feudal lords than public servants.

In brief, politics has reached a point where we must find a way to achieve political stability, failing which our economic and political sovereignty may be in danger. Of the many constructive suggestions is the German model of procedure regarding a no-confidence motion, where such a motion can be moved only when accompanied by the name of a successor Prime Minister. But not all governments fall only because of a no-confidence motion. What about the situation when the government is defeated on a particular Bill, say the Annual Budget ?

I think the solution to this problem of instability leading to frequent elections lies in a minor amendment in the anti-defection law. In Parliament or a state assembly, when a coalition government is formed, all coalition partners should be treated as a single party on the floor of that House. So, when a coalition partner wants to withdraw from government, it should have either one-third members of the combined strength of the alliance on its side, or it must lose the membership of that House under the anti-defection law. If we had such a rule, the BJP government could not have been toppled with just 16 members of the coalition withdrawing their support.

VED GULIANI
Hisar

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Threat to Prasar Bharati

Apropos of a news item (May 16), under the caption “Mahajan’s remark triggers resentment”, regarding the winding up of an autonomous corporation — Prasar Bharati — it is unfair on the part of leaders like Mr Pramod Mahajan to think of giving up the idea of greater autonomy for Doordarshan and AIR.

The very idea of Prasar Bharati was the brainchild of Mr Mahajan’s mentor, Mr L.K. Advani, during the Janata Party regime in the late seventies.

The idea of winding it up has been based on the plea of competition from other television channels. This shows utter lack of vision. Competition is the hallmark of a democracy. If India has to tread on a democratic path, the thought of the electronic media remaining in government control presents a bleak future for the country.

MAHESH INDER SHARMA
Delhi

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Debunking astrology

This is to express my deep contempt against the middle, “Star Struck” by Ram Verma published in the May 8 edition of The Tribune. The author has tried to denounce astrology which in my opinion, is one of the oldest and the less practised sciences. It tries to relate the cosmic and celestial happenings to the events of a human’s life, which is completely justified, as I’d highlight later. The following are the weak points of the article:

(1) Astrology presumes that the planets and the moon, the heavenly bodies closest to us affect our lives through their radiations and waves just as they cause tides in the sea and affect the mental framework of lunatics. Moreover, ancient astrologers were completely aware of the distances of the planets from earth and therefore lesser importance has been attached to the farther planets like Neptune, Pluto, Uranus etc. Rahu and Ketu, the two imaginary planets in fact are scientific concepts too, both being the either node of the moon lying on the either side of the earth’s axis. Therefore the so-called “absurd idea” can be fully understood if one tries to do so in conformity with the modern science and ancient text.

(2) Regarding the accuracy of the astrological predictions, as questioned by the author in paragraphs 6-7, I’d like to add that the level of accuracy of predictions depends upon the level of knowledge of the astrologer concerned, of this difficult science. If you looked up the predictions in the editions of the astrological magazine under the editorship of Dr B.V. Raman, you would find that most of them have turned out to be true. For example, Dr Raman had predicted about the rise of the Nazi power during the late 30s and its decline in the mid-forties along with all the major events of World War-II much before they really took place. Moreover in this context I’d like to quote the following verse from the Vedas:

Phalani Grahacharen Suchyanti Manishineh Ko Vakta Tartamyasya Tamekam Vedasam Vina.

(Those who know astrology can only in a way indicate what will take place in future, that is, what the future tends to bring. Who else, except the creator Brahma, can say with certainty what will definitely happen.)

(3) Regarding the Rajiv Gandhi assassination and the corresponding predictions, I’d say that the predictions of his ascent as PM were regarding his political planetary position. In astrology, we do not deeply consider the yogas of death normally, till death of a person is evident. Had anyone concentrated on this aspect in the Gandhi case, he’d certainly have picked up the indications of his death. The so-called doomsday prediction of May 8, was a bogus one and had been widely resented by ace astrologers of India, till it proved wrong.

Regarding the doubts raised by the author in para 4, I’d like to assert the following:

Though man no doubt is a mere speck of the universe, but the set of time, place and date of birth is unique for every single human. If these are the same, astrology has it that their lives would run parallel to each other. The speculation of future of this tiny speck, the idea that seems to the author fanciful in extreme”. (God knows, what is his definition of this phrase), is in fact the very basis of astrology.

(4) Regarding the lotas full of mustard oil referred to in the article, I’d say that astrology suggests use of certain articles of the nature of the planet concerned to soothe out its influence on man’s life according to the position it occupies in the birth chart, e.g. iron, blue sapphire and mustard oil for Saturn etc. This too has a scientific basis and forms a separate branch of astrology called Remedial Astrology. Complete description of this massive branch is beyond the scope of a tiny writeup like mine.

Thus I’d like to emphasise, in the light of above that the article seemed to me “fanciful in extreme” as in the words of the author and it was apparent that he had taken no pains to understand the conceptual scientific bases of astrology, before setting out to condemn it. In my opinion, denying astrology would be like denying any other established science. As hypotheses sometimes go wrong in the other sciences, in the same way astrological predictions do, I confess, not have a 100 per cent accuracy rate. This reason I believe is too small to denounce a whole system of learning, a school of critical analysis of the human life that has been flourishing for ages now. Though advocacy of astrology does not mean that I’m not a believer in the system of Karma, but condemnation of a truth is unbearable for anyone acquainted with the same. Some bogus astrologers and fluke predictions do not undermine the greatness of the science of astrology.

SAMARTHA VASHISHTHA
Ambala City