 |
| Saturday, February 26, 2000, Chandigarh, India  
|
Show
with substance
INDO-PAK
RELATIONS |
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Growing corruption in China by S. P. Seth NEWS reports about China’s ever-widening corruption are quite disturbing, to say the least. A major contraband and smuggling scandal, involving about $10 billion in imports, has led to the detention and questioning of about 200 people, including the wife of Beijing party boss Jia Qinglin, who is also a politburo member. Jia is a close confidante and political ally of the party chief and the country’s president, Jiang Zemin.
Old
order changeth
‘Media
picking up wrong stories’
February 26,
1925 OUR news agencies seem to be specialising in the art of killing men prematurely. Lenin was killed several times before he actually died. So was Enver Pasha. Now it is the turn of Dr Sun Yat Sen.
|
Show with substance LEAVE it to Ms Mamata Banerjee to make it a big show even when the occasion is as dry as presenting the railway budget. And she did it on Friday with a combination of friendly banter, combative dialogue and finally provoking a raucous interruption. But despite all this, she ensured that it was her day: she increased the freight rate by a flat 5 per cent but only on non-essential goods and spared passengers of any additional burden. What this means is that essential items will attract the old tariff and travel cost to near or far-off destinations will remain unchanged. This announcement was widely welcomed as was her beginning and ending her very, very long speech by thanking the Prime Minister and the leader of the opposition, Mrs Sonia Gandhi, the party she belonged to until a few years ago. (She disarmed almost all by this touching gesture.) Given her known opposition to causing further economic hardship to the common man, her freight and fare ideas have not come as a surprise. What has, and in a pleasant manner, is her philosophy of raising revenue. With a number of innovative plans she hopes to increase the railway share of goods traffic by a hefty 25 per cent over the next 10 years. These reforms include setting up warehousing and improved information facilities at important stations, container service to deliver the booked commodities at the doorstep or factory gate as truck owners do, and fast freight trains running to fixed time schedule. If this scheme is worked with a degree of commitment, there is no doubt that the railways will once again emerge as a competitor to road transport. At present railways carry only about 40 per cent of the total goods traffic, down from about 70 per cent three decades ago. Ms Banerjee wants to push this share up to 50 per cent in the coming decade. She also hopes to mobilise revenue by putting to commercial use the vast tracts of land with the help of HUDCO (Housing and Urban Development Corporation) and by an aggressive campaign to attract advertisers. The railway budget flies
in the face of the new approach of taking hard decisions.
The reason is not far to seek. The most important is the
Minister’s reluctance to adopt this line. The second
is her choice (rather that of her advisers) to tap
unconventional sources to tide over what she has readily
admitted as a difficult financial situation. Nor has she
shelved any ongoing projects or frozen new ones. She had
two options to tackle the problem. One was to be
conventional and touch the pockets of consumers of bulk
and essential goods like petroleum products and
foodgrains and all passengers. She rejected it without a
thought. Her long years as an activist of the
left-leaning Chhatra Parishad in West Bengal decided the
issue for her. The second was to try out unconventional
ways by roping in the private commercial sector in
mutually beneficial ways. She should succeed since an
advertisement in the railways enjoys tremendous
advantages over the one on television. The exposure time
is indefinite and the number of those exposed runs into
millions. As it is, the experiment of handing over a busy
Mumbai suburban station to a private company for upkeep
and advertisement has been a great success. It is the
inspiration behind her novel venture. What this means is
the Union Finance Minister too can strike out daringly
new paths to mop up resources instead of treading the
beaten track. Maybe he is already under pressure. Not
many could follow her heavily accented speech delivered
at Rajdhani Express speed but those who did admired her
refusal to victimise the common man and the readiness to
try new ways of raising resources. |
Kargil report: wake-up call THE Kargil committee report, in spite of its blacked-out sensitive portions and the mention of an enormous amount of known facts, is a comprehensive post-mortem record with corrective advice and sensibly futuristic suggestions. The 228 pages tabled in Parliament give an account of glaring failures, inexplicable deficiencies and causes of a surprise invasion of strategic positions by trained Pakistani personnel which cost us about Rs 2000 crore and took a toll of at least 470 brave lives. Certain facts needed official documentation and reiteration. The K. Subrahmanyam panel has made some blunt statements. The Pakistani intrusion came as a complete and total surprise to the Indian government. The intelligence agencies were not only inactive but also somnolent. The fact is that the awakening came after the receipt of alarming reports from shepherds, as in folklore, and not from any civil or military wing of the Union Defence Ministry or the Farooq Abdullah government's surveillance channels. And what about agencies like RAW? It could not identify as many as five infantry battalions deployed by Pakistan across the Line of Control! Even Northern Light Infantry (NLI) formations could not be noticed. No organisation had any idea of Pakistan's Order of Battle (ORBAT). Could anything be worse than all this? Yes. Besides staying uninformed in the intelligence arena, the government found itself terribly ill-equipped in respect of combat instruments which decide the outcome of battles like that of Kargil. Politico-strategic interaction was just not there. Defence Minister George Fernandes often talked in his trade-union style and made untenable projections and claims. How abundant or reliable
were the information inputs available to the Joint
Intelligence Committee and the National Security Council
Secretariat? Did they ask for what could be expected in a
scenario involving Pakistan? Did they keep in view the
continuing proxy war in Jammu and Kashmir, the spurt in
terrorist activities, the on-going disastrous economic
sabotage and the nuclear blackmail? The Pakistanis had
begun to pitch their tents in the territory encroached
upon in Batalik in November, 1998. The major movement
came only in the later half of April, 1999. In sum, the
committee has mapped out the routes that led the nation
to the Kargil crisis. But more important than the
findings of the autopsy are the suggestions for future
action. The aerial surveillance capability should be
strengthened with the acquisition of specific satellites
and unmanned air vehicles. The multiple agencies of
communication and intelligence should be consolidated.
There should be a special defence-task-information unit.
The paramilitary forces should be restructured and
upgraded to deal more effectively with insurgency. The
relationship between the civil government and the Armed
Forces should be made closer, more coordinated and free
from bureaucratic red-tapism. The report underplays the
impact of the much publicised "bus diplomacy"
and the "Lahore Declaration" on already
complacent minds. After reading whatever is available of
the full report and the whole truth, one must thank one's
stars as an Indian because in the circumstances
prevailing then, worse could have happened. The action
taken should be seen as the beginning of security
alertness. If the eminent men on the committee would have
mentioned along with what went wrong at least a few names
of those who went wrong, they would have nipped in the
bud the possibility of some suspicion of the element of
incidental cover-up sneaking into their authentic
writing. |
To the trees’ rescue THE Supreme Court's instructions to the Himachal Pradesh Government not to implement the controversial decision on green felling of trees is a reiteration of the widespread public concern over the possibility of indiscriminate axing of the scarce tree cover. The Tribune and many other friends of trees have been vigorously campaigning against any succumbing to the timber mafia which has been active in the state. Perhaps the government is right in claiming that it has not allowed commercial felling and its decision was confined only to silviculture felling for scientific growth of forests. But the experience so far in this regard has been very bitter. Even the most well-meaning permission is exploited for merciless axing. There are some personnel in the forest department who join in the loot. Such avarice is not exclusive to this department. Such nexus exists in many other departments also. It is just that the price that the country has to pay for this unholy link is exceptionally high. The ecology of not only Himachal Pradesh but of the entire country gets compromised. Himachal Pradesh is one of the few states in the country which still have a considerable area under trees. But even here, there is urgent need for increasing it further. Unfortunately, exactly the opposite has been happening. That is why there are reasons to suspect that even silviculture felling may become an excuse for mass murder of green trees. Perhaps one way out is have a mechanism to ensure that commercial felling is totally eliminated. But the old dilemma remains: where is the guarantee that this body will not succumb to the lure of the lucre? Those who rob the state
of its timber wealth have felt encouraged because very
few of them have ever been punished. How can they be when
those meant to protect the trees have been in cahoots
with them? Since these bureaucrat-businessman-politician
bonds have been unbreakable, it may be necessary to
involve the common men in the fight. There are many
non-government organisations which have been protesting
against the wanton denudation. Their energies can be
channelised to ensure that the state's interests are
safeguarded. After all, trees are a public property and
each and every citizen has an interest in their
protection. Since hundreds of thousands of people will be
looking after the forests, it will not be possible for
the interested parties to bribe or coerce them into
inaction. Even otherwise, it is not as if all the forest
officials are hands in gloves with the mafia. There are a
large number of upright ones, who have to lie low because
of pressures of the political kind brought to bear on
them. Now that the courts are seized of the matter, they
can do their task fearlessly and effectively. But they
have been clamouring for more facilities and powers to
tackle the menace. There is no reason why their demands
should not be accepted. |
INDO-PAK RELATIONS INDO-PAK relations have taken a nosedive and have reached a state of crisis. It is not exaggeration to say that never in the history of the two countries had the relations been so hostile. Are the two countries slowly edging towards a war? Worse, are they heading towards a nuclear showdown? It is difficult to say, but none of the two scenarios can be entirely ruled out. India feels justified in taking the stand that unless the cross-border terrorism, which is one way of describing the intensifying proxy war in J and K, is stopped by Pakistan there could be no meaningful discussion with that country. As Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah stated recently, not a day passes without a bomb going off in some part or other in the state. Suicide squads consisting of Mujahideens from Pakistan have brazenly attacked camps of armed forces and para-military forces in the valley. The serious clash in the Akhnoor sector on January 22 could be the forerunner of serious clashes taking place in future along the LoC. There are reports of Pakistani gun positions being moved forward towards the LoC and the possibility of Pakistani forces mounting attacks at select places along the LoC cannot be ruled out. It is possible that Gen Musharraf is deliberately upping the ante in J and K to impress upon President Clinton of the seriousness of the J and K problem. Gen Musharraf has made it clear on more than one occasion that he wants to take up the Kashmir problem for discussion with Indian leaders without any reference to the past agreements and understandings. The General does not believe in the validity of the Simla Agreement nor does he attach any importance to the Lahore Agreement. The June, 1997, understanding between India and Pakistan that eight issues, including Kashmir, will be discussed by the two countries has also been discounted as Gen Musharraf wants the Kashmir issue to be discussed first and apparently sorted out before taking up any other pending issue. It is known that it was Gen Musharraf who drew up the plan for the Kargil war and executed it. The plan was abruptly aborted by the intervention of President Clinton. The pullback from the LoC in the Kargil sector was taken as a humiliation brought about, or at least connived at, by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. Musharraf has claimed that Nawaz Sharif was fully involved in the Kargil Operation and he knew the plan from the beginning. It was probably so but it is doubtful whether Nawaz Sharif was fully aware of the dimensions and objectives of the Kargil Operation. He did not apparently anticipate the strong response of India and the adverse reaction of Western powers, particularly the USA. The hijacking of IC-814 in December last year has been traced to Harkat-ul-Mujahideen militants and others closely linked to them. The US administration has disapproved the activities of Harkat-ul-Mujahideen and urged that the General should take effective action against it. However, the General apparently expressed his inability to do so. The Washington Post reported on February 5 that Gen Musharraf had rejected the US call for banning the militant outfit Harkat-ul-Mujahideen which is already placed by Washington in its list of terrorists. Musharraf reportedly told the US officials that he could not crack down on the Harkat-ul-Mujahideen since there was pressure from Islamic groups in Pakistan and also because of public opinion in support of the insurgency in Kashmir. Addressing the Kashmir Solidarity Day in Muzaffarabad in the PoK on February 5, Gen Musharraf claimed that violence in Kashmir was not terrorism but freedom struggle and that those who were fighting in Kashmir were jehadis. His speech was warmly welcomed by Lashkar-e-Toiba’s chief, Hafeez Mohammed Saeed, who expressed his happiness over the General’s implicit declaration that the Mujahideen militancy in Kashmir was not terrorism but a jehad. Saeed went on to say that the Kargil war was the first round, the post-Kargil attacks on Indian military camps the second and that very soon the jehadis would be starting the third round. However, it is now reported that Maulana Masood Azhar, the top leader of the Harkat, has been detained by Pakistan and it is likely that he may be held until President Clinton’s visit to the sub-continent is over. How does India react to these serious developments in Pakistan? Both the Prime Minister and the Home Minister had held high-level consultations on J and K and an elaborate plan was apparently approved for a unified command for tackling terrorism in J and K. At the diplomatic level, Foreign Minister Jaswant Singh got the USA to agree, during his discussions with the US Deputy Secretary of State Talbott, for setting up a joint working group on terrorism. Meanwhile, Defence Minister George Fernandes has spoken about India’s preparedness to fight a limited war at a place and time chosen by Pakistan. The concept of fighting a limited war has no meaning since it could plunge both the countries into an unexpected war. Since both the countries have nuclear capabilities the scenario could become even more dangerous. It is unfortunate that such half-baked ideas should have been put forth. Pakistan has recently announced its National Command Authority to control and command Pakistan’s nuclear weapons. The nuclear button is controlled by the Chief Executive Gen Musharraf, who has on more than one occasion, threatened to unleash a nuclear war against India if it becomes necessary. The state of affairs is indeed frightening. President Clinton’s visit in March is unlikely to resolve the differences between India and Pakistan or the Kashmir issue. In his recent interview with Doordarshan, Musharraf said that if India escalated the situation on the LoC or when Pakistan’s national integrity was threatened, they could resort to nuclear weapons. That is also probably Pakistan’s answer to the talk of a limited war by India against that country. What then is the solution? Prime Minister Vajpayee should seriously consider inviting Gen Musharraf to Delhi for talks, especially since the General has expressed his readiness to meet him. The Lahore bus trip was perceived, at least by some informed circles, as answer to persistent signals from USA that both the countries should talk. Let us not wait for President Clinton to nudge the P.M, after his visit in March, to resume discussions. It is unlikely that a meeting between the Prime Minister and the General would lead to a break-through in the complicated situation. At least India would have demonstrated that it was prepared to discuss with Pakistan and resolve the issues peacefully. After such a meeting has
taken place, where both the parties would have put forth
their points of view on the Kashmir issue, the Track-II
diplomacy should take over. Gen Musharraf is aware of the
Track-II talks being carried out by the Indian and
Pakistani interlocutors before and after the Kargil war.
These discussions had reportedly reached a stage of a
near-solution and only a few minor points remained to be
sorted out for a solution of the Kashmir problem. As a
politician, hurt by the Kargil experience, Nawaz Sharif
knew that the Kashmir imbroglio had to be sorted out by
peaceful means only, even as Zulfikar Ali Bhutto had
tentatively realised and agreed at Simla in 1972. The
Track-II efforts were nullified after the military coup
and the incarceration of Nawaz Sharif. Track-II diplomacy
is the most sensible option which Gen Musharraf should
seriously consider. Pakistan’s former Foreign
Secretary Niaz Naik, who was the principal interlocutor
on Pakistani side, is fortunately persona grata with the
new Pakistani regime and he should be allowed to resume
and take up the thread where it was left. |
Growing corruption in China NEWS reports about China’s ever-widening corruption are quite disturbing, to say the least. A major contraband and smuggling scandal, involving about $10 billion in imports, has led to the detention and questioning of about 200 people, including the wife of Beijing party boss Jia Qinglin, who is also a politburo member. Jia is a close confidante and political ally of the party chief and the country’s president, Jiang Zemin. For political convenience apparently, Jia and his wife are now estranged from each other. Jia, though, might not escape the net as he was earlier the party chief of Fujian province, with its Xiamen port serving as the conduit for smuggling operations. Corruption is now institutionalised in China, involving party functionaries of all ranks and descriptions. In 1998, for instance, Chin Xitong, a former Beijing party chief and a politburo member, was sentenced to 16 years in prison on charges of embezzlement. Chin’s removal was also a part of a political purge to rid the important Beijing party centre of elements not friendly to Jiang Zemin as party leader. It is, therefore, quite possible that the latest corruption drama might also be part of a political power tussle at the highest level. But who is doing what to whom is still a mystery. China’s auditor general has reportedly revealed that corrupt officials made away with $ 15 billion from state funds in 1999 alone. If this is the annual norm over the last decade, one would only marvel at the functioning of the Chinese State! He Qinglian, a mainland economist, has sought to establish a nefarious link between politics (the party establishment) and economics, calling it “the marketisation of power.” Her book, China’s Pitfall, is pretty dismal about China’s prospects, with the country “headed towards rule by the government and a mafia.” Indeed, recent reports suggest that China’s new “princelings” (sons of top party leaders, including President Jiang Zemin and Premier Zhu Rongji) are thirsting to make their mark in the new internet and telecom economy. The funny thing about corruption in China is that while almost everyone knows about it, it is a taboo subject in the official media. Unless, of course, the party leadership decides to use it politically to purge its enemies. In that case, it will make a song and dance of it to underline the party’s reformist credentials. For instance, the current $ 10 billion smuggling scandal, involving the wife of the Beijing party boss, has been completely blacked out from the official press. Which would suggest that the leadership hasn’t yet worked out its political contours. To put it another way, its political direction and consequences are still unclear. Be that as it may, Jiang Zemin probably is secure in his leadership until he decides to vacate it. There are a number of factors favouring him. First and the foremost is Jiang’s ordinariness. He is a boringly predictable leader. He is happy being “first among equals” in the party hierarchy to carry out largely the line laid out by Deng Xiaoping, his political mentor. The general feeling among China’s political elite seems to be that even though Jiang has no real leadership merit, but “there is peace and stability (under him) and that’s the most important thing”. According to Prof Orville Scheel, in The New York Review of Books, “The truth is that China is not only in the midst of a vast economic transformation, but is also suffering from a crisis of identity. China’s Marxist-Leninist Party was committed for 60 years to a Stalinist-Maoist form of socialism which emphasised class struggle at home and left it in a state of deep antagonism toward the West and Japan abroad.” He adds: “Now it is trying to rule a society that is mutating into an almost un-categorisable form of crypto-capitalism dependent on global markets.” The resultant confusion about old Confucian values and culture, Marxist ideology, and market capitalism has left them with no idea “where to turn in order to achieve cultural and political direction.” In the midst of such uncertainty and confusion, Jiang Zemin is an oasis of mediocrity and stability of sorts. But this is precisely the danger facing China — a resigned acceptance of the abnormal as normal. Not that people like the existing state of affairs. They simply have lost direction, not knowing how to resolve the country’s growing contradictions. It would seem “that almost every aspect of its {China’s} society exists in a state of unresolved contradiction.” But the process of modernisation has its own inexorable logic of loosening traditional authoritative social and political structures. At best, Jiang Zemin-led party oligarchy is engaged in a holding operation, with the country having reached a plateau. They now have no idea where they want to lead China. At worst, it is a lull before a storm likely to overtake China over the next 5 to 10 years. China has no safety valve against a sudden popular explosion, because the country is under one party dictatorship. There are no popular institutions and platforms for people to vent out their frustrations and/or voice alternative economic and political blueprints. At the same time, the communist leadership of the country has very low opinion of its people. According to a close confidante and adviser of President Jiang Zemin: “Someone who is illiterate does not have the ability to choose.” Therefore, universal franchise in China would simply de-stabilise the country. As he puts it, China’s “200 million illiterates... might form an illiterates’ party and fight everyone else”. With this kind of elitist and dismissive attitude about popular politics, the Chinese leadership is sitting on a powder keg — refusing to see that when things are bad people do not have to be literate to sense the rottenness of it all. They do not have to be literate to sense that the party bigwigs and their “princelings” are helping themselves generously, at a time when unemployment is on the increase and there is growing social unrest. Because these things are not reported in the official press, it doesn’t mean they are not happening. China’s leadership appears to be suffering from collective amnesia, chanting the slogan of social stability and actually believing in it. At the same time they are afraid of some sudden eruption. For instance, they are mighty scared of the semi-religious movement, the Falun Gong, just appearing on the scene, as if from nowhere. The South China Morning
Post has reported that President Jiang Zemin recently
told his party officials that the Falun Gong was a
serious threat to China’s communist rule on the
lines of the Polish trade union movement, Solidarity, in
the eighties. But their only response is even more
repression and greater media blackout. Which defies
logic. But then dictatorships are not expected to follow
logic, with disastrous results sooner or later.
Suharto’s Indonesia is its most recent example. |
Old order changeth A MIDDLE aged lean and thin Muslim gentleman, clad in sherwani and pajamah, riding an old second-hand cycle making lot of noise and with a bundle packed with stitched materials, was a welcome visitor to our house. He was none other than Tully Mian, the one and only tailor during our school days, who would make dresses for ladies, gents, boys, girls and the tinytots, anything from salwar-kameez, lehnga-choli to coat, pants and baba-suits. He was the fashion designer as well whose styles could not be challenged and had to be accepted. Those were the days when females, would observe purdah and could not emerge out of their hideouts easily. Tully Mian was the privileged person who could cross the out-of-bond areas, go anywhere, take measurements and discuss the styles within permissible exposures of the body. There was no lifting of an eyebrow. It was for him to decide if the youngsters were to be provided with new set of dresses or the old ones of the elders could be reshaped to their measurements. He was tough, would not shy away from compromising on his designs but had a soft core that had 100 per cent tolerance. His decision was final and no protest could be lodged. In fact, he was not only a all in one tailor but also a respected member of the family and occupied a unique position. He did not carry any measurement book but would ask for paper and pencil and scribble. No names against each measurement would be written. He was conversant with “who’s who”. There was no prescribed delivery schedule. We never knew when he would pay a visit again with the completed jobs. Any reminder would be sternly brushed aside. His residence cum workshop was in the same building with a number of workers sitting before old sewing machines on the floor along with him. He was “Ustaad Ji” to all of them. There was a story that once a new customer handed him a warm suit piece but did not get it back stitched for two winter seasons. It was during the onset of the third winter that he went to the shop and with a harsh tone asked for his suit. Tully Mian was annoyed and asked his worker to return the suit piece and never to accept a cloth from such a “tattay gahak” — customer in a hurry. Graduation from a college was a big accomplishment then and one will feel elated to suffix B.A after his name. One such young graduate from our city went to Bombay and returned after completing a course in tailoring and fashion technology from a reputed institute. He opened a shop by the name of “Graduate Tailoring Shop” equipped with modern machines. People gasped in disbelief that a graduate had adopted a career in tailoring instead of going in for other good profession or government job. However, he gave scant attention to these criticism and gossips. In a short time he showed that he could accomplish garments for festival occasions, give the emerging styles by twisting the traditions, make low-necked tops with exposed mid-riffs and flooded the market with vibrant coloured outfits. The impact was more apparent in the youngsters who wanted to look dashing with personal styles. The traditional tailors became a major casualty and so was our Tully Mian. Then one day we learnt
that our family tailor had disappeared. Perhaps he had
smelled danger from those very persons with whom he had
grown up and served. I wished that this was incorrect
when suddenly I found myself inside his house which was
empty. The machines and half completed dresses lay
scattered all over. It was like a graveyard that bestowed
solace and tranquillity with whiff of Tully Mian. It was
so touching that tears were rolling down my cheeks. I
came out murmuring to myself “badal rahee hai zamane
ki aaj hava yaaro, banana hoga hamein ab naya khuda
yaaro”. |
‘Media picking up wrong
stories’ IN a hidden corner of Mumbai, in a cavernous temple filled with the sound of Vedic chanting and the scent of jasmine and incense I was granted an audience with the Shankaracharya of Kanchipuram last week. I had, in fact, been summoned and it is the sort of summons that mere backs like me can hardly refuse. Also I was interested in his views on the recent rise of militant Hindutva which has manifested itself in the attack on Deepa Mehta’s film in Varanasi and Valentine’s Day in Kanpur. It was early in the morning when I arrived at the Shankara Mutt in Matunga but the temple was already crowded with bare-chested South Indian gentlemen in white dhotis. I was led up several flights of stairs decorated with pictures that depicted moments from the life of the original Shankaracharya then down some more stairs to a room with plywood walls and steel cupboards filled with old books. The younger of Kanchipuram’s two Shankaracharyas, Vijayendra Saraswati, was seated on the floor and he was in the process of discussing the finer points of Hindu culture with a Tamil family. The young woman in a green sari who sat before him was, he explained, working for Zee TV and he was giving her some pointers on how programmes that brought out the virtues of Hindu civilisation could be made. Modernity is something that is not yet in favour in Kanchipuram but modern technology clearly is as I gauged from the fact that several of the Shankaracharya’s young acolytes carried mobile phones which rang frequently and were handed reverentially to His Holiness from time to time. In the midst of this peculiar mix of religiosity and modern technology the Shankaracharya expounded on the virtues of kings of yore. “In Tamil Nadu” he told the lady from Zee TV “the kings would give forty per cent of their land to the temple. They supported the activities of the temple in other ways as well but these days they (the government) only take our wealth. There are rich mosques and churches but they take only from the temples. They call this secularism”. He laughed when he said this but he was serious about his concern for the neglect of Hindu religious Institutions in the name of secularism. In Kanchipuram they were trying to make up for this by training people to man what he called ‘religious infrastructure’. Priests came from distant parts to learn how to perform religious rituals in accordance with traditional practice and craftsmen came to study the art of building temples. Last year, in response to another summons, I had gone to Kanchipuram and been given a guided tour of some of the Vedic educational Institutions that are run under the aegis of the Shankaracharya. I saw little boys learning how to chant the vedas properly and a college which taught a variety of courses, from both the sciences and the humanities, but with an emphasis on the connection with traditional Hindu culture. The younger Shankaracharya continued with his theme of secularism. He spoke in Hindi for my benefit and with another laugh said; “There are people in our country whose shwas (breath) depends on Bharat but whose vishwas (faith) lies elsewhere”. Did he mean Muslims? Not all Muslims he clarified but there was no denying that terrorists, whether Muslim or Hindu, had no loyalty to India. It was his view that this was because Indians had lost their sense of pride in who they were and were becoming overly influenced by Western culture. But, he said with a touch of pride, there are still good things left, “Yesterday, I went to the Siddhivinayak temple and saw people queue up in the most disciplined fashion to enter the temple for darshan. Some had waited many hours in the queue but there was no pushing and shoving, no irritation. This discipline is the essence of our religion.” Then, as if to illustrate what he was saying, he summoned two young boys, in their early teens, who were bare-chested and in dhotis and bad hairstyles that looked like the wigs actors wear when they perform in the Ramlila. They looked like Ram and Laxman and they chanted prayers and then verses from Kalidasa which they translated for us into English. “The great poet, Kalidasa, says here that only good people should read this work because they will take only what is good in it and not what is bad just as gold when it goes through fire loses its impurities”. I decided that it was time to broach the subject of Deepa Mehta’s film. “We will talk about that later” he said and returned to the subject of patriotism and loyalty to things Indian. “Why do young people wear t-shirts which say New York and London.... why not Ooty or Simla. Why are they not proud of what we have? It is something to do with education, we need to make many improvements in our system of education”. The discourse continued in this vein till the older Shankaracharya. Sri Jayendra Saraswati Swamigal, arrived. His younger colleague indicated that he was the right person to talk to about Water. So, I asked him whether it was not bad for Hindutva that violence should have been used to stop the making of Deepa Mehta’s film? Did it not reflect poorly on Hinduism’s vaunted reputation for tolerance. He closed his eyes as if he were giving the question some thought then said: “If she was concerned about the condition of widows she should have made a documentary or she could have gone about it another way by saying that she would donate the money from the film to improve the lot of Hindu widows. She should not have tried to make a commercial film.” He then explained that in his view the subject was too sensitive since it was Hindu traditions that were coming into question. It was a difficult thing to deal with so it would be better for it to be dealt with by society and not through a film. There would have been no problems if the film had been about dowry or bride-burning, he added, and also pointed out that Deepa had acquired herself a bad reputation because of Fire. The Shankaracharya made it clear that he did not approve of violence so I asked him whether he did not think the violence against Christians was wrong. “Where has there been any violence? Orissa? It has been established that the killings there had nothing to do with religion.” I pointed out that the RSS and its various sister organisations had been constantly targeting Christians and he said he did not think there was any harm in talking about these things. He did not agree that talking about them necessarily led to violence, nor did he accept that the violence had anything to do with the Hindu religion. There are bad people, he said, in every community but you cannot blame a whole culture or religion for this. “It is the media
which seems always to pick up the wrong kind of stories.
Why do you not write about the good things that
happen?” Perhaps, because when you live in the world
that lies beyond Kanchipuram you see things from a very
different perspective. |
February
26, 1925 OUR news agencies seem to be specialising in the art of killing men prematurely. Lenin was killed several times before he actually died. So was Enver Pasha. Now it is the turn of Dr Sun Yat Sen. They seem to be taking their cue from the famous humorist who, in his anxiety to read his obituary notices, got the news of his death circulated, with only this difference that their anxiety is more altruistic, and then some months later contradicted it by saying that it was a little exaggerated; with only this difference that their anxiety is more altruistic, because it is not their own obituary notice which they are anxious to read, but the obituary notices of someone else. * * * * India and the Empire Exhibition As will be seen from a
telegram published today, the Government of India are not
taking part officially in the Empire Exhibition this year
(1925). This is as it should be. We are glad that the
Government have acted in accordance with public opinion
in this matter. |
 |
| Punjab | Haryana | Jammu & Kashmir | Himachal Pradesh | Regional Briefs | Nation | Editorial | | Business | Sport | World | Mailbag | Chandigarh Tribune | In Spotlight | 50 years of Independence | Tercentenary Celebrations | | 119 Years of Trust | Calendar | Weather | Archive | Subscribe | Suggestion | E-mail | |
