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SOME time ago Punjab was torn by terrorism. Industrialists were paying ransom. They were absenting themselves from their factories. The labour had fled the state. The customers had deserted the market. All these factors badly affected the industries in the border belt.

The government decided to rehabilitate the terrorists with liberal aid. But the victims of terrorism, the industrialists, were left high and dry. Because their industries were destabilised, now they are facing difficulty in their dealing with financial institutions, including banks. The banks have dragged them to the doors of the Debt Recovery Tribunal, which is recklessly auctioning their units.

If the crop is ruined the farmers are helped by the state. If industries are ruined due to terrorism, these too should be helped by the state. The cases of the brave heroes of yesterday should be settled by showing leniency.

Sonia and Sonali

Mr Rai Singh, who once served as a diplomat in Rome, has related an incident involving reciprocity, a cardinal feature of international relationships. In the mid-fifties, Italian film director Roberto Rossellini married a Bengali actress called Sonali. As his legal wife, she acquired Italian citizenship after duly renouncing her Indian one.

However, more than a decade later, when she wanted to stand for an elective office at the municipal level, she was told that she wasn’t entitled to do so under the law.

Sonali approached the Indian Embassy in Rome. After informal inquiries, Mr Rai learnt that there’s no reciprocal protocol, treaty or law between India and Italy.

So much for Sonali’s being an Italian citizen of Indian origin. And at the municipal level too.

Before Sonali got married to Rossellini she was the wife of a Bengali film-maker, Harisadhan Dasgupta. (This anecdote is in Dasgupta’s memoirs, “Recantations.”)

We might take a deeper look into the Sonia fiasco, and see it in the light of the Sonali Rosellini (nee Dasgupta) case.

NABENDU PAL,
Associate Professor, Dept of Mathematics
University of Southwestern Louisiana
Lafayette (Louisiana, USA)
(Received in response to the Internet edition)

History is supposed to make men wiser. As the present has its roots in the past, it is said that the man must know his history, interpret it, learn from the errors committed in the past and bring further refinement in himself.

History lends a dimension to the foundations of sociology and psychology too. It brings home the message that no one, howsoever powerful at a time, may be Hitler or Mussolini or Akbar or Ashoka, can continue to rule the world forever — everyone has to obey the laws of Nature and leave this world one day. So every human being wants to create history before his departure.

Had there been no chronicles, the desire to create history wouldn’t have been that strong. History should, therefore, act like a time-machine transcending the man to old times, making him view the evolution of society and the development of civilisation, and take lessons!

The actual position, however, is a lot different. Taught to the students in an extremely burdensome manner, history loses its purpose and charm when little students are made to cram the Battles of Plassey and Buxor, draw the maps of India in 1765 or 1817, fill their minds with the British methods of annexations of Burma or Punjab or Sindh, write long answers on Sanyasi, Wahabi and Faraizi rebellions, and stuff their already tired minds with the Carnatic wars, Farrukhsiyar’s role, Dupleix, Clive Wellesley, the Peshwas and so on.

How many of us remember the dates or the details of the methods adopted by the old timers to capture power? Then why burden the students? Can’t our historians make history more objective for the students? I remember that during my student days history remained the most boring and taxing subject for me, but later in life I read the most illustrated books on history as there was no burden of examination. At that time, it evoked great interest. Can’t we evolve such methods as impart classified knowledge to the students for their use in future while the balance of the subject is just explained? This will certainly help them in retaining more than what the students remember these days.

It is a pity that members of a religious body — the Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee —owing loyalty to Mr Parkash Singh Badal and Mr Gurcharan Singh Tohra behaved most irreligiously and that too at a sacred shrine place — Gurdwara Rakab-ganj. They indulged in fisticuffs, abused each other and stripped a few members of their turbans.

Even the Jathedar of Akal Takht, Giani Puran Singh, was manhandled and contumely used about him. All this happened in the presence of Sri Guru Granth Sahib. Was it not the sacrilege of the Holy Book?

What is more painful is that neither any religious leader nor either of the two titans has condemned the brawl. Even none of the persons involved in it has shown contrition for his misbehaviour.

Gone are the days when self-abnegation was the hallmark of the Akali leadership. Now Akali leaders hanker after high position in religious institutions. Apparently, it was not the spirit of selfless service to the “Panth”, but the Rs 40-crore budget of the DSGMC that provoked the two groups to win the election of its executive board by hook or by crook. Offers of five to nine lakh rupees were allegedly made to purchase some members. Can the opportunistic and self-seeking leaders, lacking credibility and honesty, and indulging in wheeling and dealing, provide direction to the community?

I am reminded of an Urdu verse: “Karein gey kya rafoo voh qaum key chaak-e-girebaan ko/Jinhein apna phata daaman abhi seena nahin aata.” “Chaak-e-girebaan” means collar slit.

Mr T.N. Kaul, former Foreign Secretary, and a witness to the Simla Agreement, in his detailed article, “In search of stability: parties must change strategy” (May 14), is unnecessarily apprehensive about the role and education of the national and state political parties during the 13th Lok Sabha elections.

The former Ambassador to the USA and the then USSR is not unaware about the role of national political parties in external affairs and that of the state-level parties taking little interest.

The voters of the country will educate during the 13th Lok Sabha elections both national and state political parties as to how they are to conduct themselves in the rapidly changing political scenario around the world.

The performance of the BJP, the Congress and the Left parties is worth appreciation, but certain provincial political parties are still to update themselves for the overall development of the country in various fields.

	M A I L B A G	Friday, May 21, 1999
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