E D I T O R I A L   P A G E

EDITORIALS

A loud no by states 
RESURGENT regionalism was on show on Saturday when Chief Ministers came together to kill one central proposal, stall another and pour cold water on a third. This despite the presence of the Cabinet A team both to display its seriousness and the urgency of the issues. 

OPINION

A loud no by states 

RESURGENT regionalism was on show on Saturday when Chief Ministers came together to kill one central proposal, stall another and pour cold water on a third. This despite the presence of the Cabinet A team both to display its seriousness and the urgency of the issues. Home Minister L.K.Advani’s pet idea of setting up an Indian version of the famed FBI of the USA as a central enforcement agency received a near-unanimous no, one of the exceptions being Haryana Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala. As Punjab’s Mr Parkash Singh Badal spiritedly fought against the move, any central police force with the power to operate anywhere at will is an assault on the authority of the states. Law and order is very much a state subject and must remain so. The Chief Ministers tended to see in this move an attempt to abridge the powers of the states and even the fact that the meeting came within days of a massacre in Kashmir did not soften the collective opposition. First Prime Minister Vajpayee and then Mr Advani vividly described the terrorist and subversive threats from across the border and hence the need to analyse and act on them in a national perspective. Their passionate plea for endorsing the agency suggestion went unheeded. It does not mean that the states care less for confronting the multiple threats to national security but that they value more the few powers they still have. Sensing the mood of the assembly, the Prime Minister asked the states to beef up the police force and improve its training and arsenal. The Centre will from now on grant Rs 1000 crore every year towards this; until now it was Rs 100 crore. Of course the Chief Ministers want more money. The police everywhere lacks motivation, is ill-paid and training is rudimentary and, no wonder, it fails in every aspect of work — intelligence gathering, investigation of cases, collection of evidence and winning the confidence of the people. More funds will not change things, particularly in these days of increasing alienation.

The Chief Ministers’ negative frame of mind extended to the next item on the Home Ministry’s agenda: the proposed anti-terrorism Bill. Here again Mr Badal led the attack. Drawing from the experience of Punjab and its decade-long existence under TADA, he bluntly said that a draconian law could not be used; it can only be abused as it often was in the state. Others referred to the stiff opposition by the NHRC (National Human Rights Commission) to firmly say that the existing laws were adequate to meet any situation and a harsh measure like the anti-terrorism bill was not necessary. This is all the more so now when the police attitude towards poor people and villagers has coarsened considerably. Another ambitious plan was to issue a national identity card to every citizen. The states questioned the need for the card and then assigned whatever be its role to the voter identity card. A sad Home Minister announced at the end of the meeting that the Centre has decided to abandon the central enforcement agency and will now seek to win over the states to support the anti-terrorism measure. In all this, there was no reference to strengthening and sharpening the intelligence network, whose failure led to last week massacre in Kashmir. Whatever goes by that name is either patchy or unreliable. What the country cries out for is an extensive network of intelligence-gathering involving both central and state agencies. Its efficiency is inversely proportionate to the emerging threats to national security.

Lala Amarnath

FREE India’s first cricket captain, who made a Test century on debut, returned to the pavilion on Saturday after staying at the wicket for 86 long years. No one outside his close circle of friends is likely to notice the passing away of Nanik Bharadwaj, because throughout his colourful and often controversial career, and thereafter, the world of cricket knew him as Lala Amarnath. His personality had more shades than the coloured clothing Kerry Packer gave to one-day cricket. He was proud of his Punjabi roots. But his rumbustious and robust approach to life and the game of cricket made him both popular and unpopular. He was popular with the crowds, but never with the administrators who simply hated his guts. In the early years after India was granted Test status the game was controlled by members of the princely states. The Maharajkumar of Vijaynagram, popularly known as Vizzy, who did not deserve a place in the team, was appointed captain for India’s tour of England. And it was during that infamous tour of England in 1936 that Lala Amarnath was sent back to India on disciplinary grounds. It would forever remain a disgraceful chapter in the history of Indian cricket. Lala was victimised, not penalised, for reasons which had nothing to do with cricket. It is a different story that he was later reinstated and allowed to go on to lead the country. But his no-nonsense attitude to life and the game invariably resulted in confrontation with the administration. There are at least three Indian families in which both father and son have represented India. Vinoo Mankad and Ashok Mankad, Iftikhar Ali Khan Pataudi and Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi and Vijay Manjrekar and Sanjay Manjrekar are just four examples of father and son having donned the national cap. Of course, the two Pataudis are the only instance of father and son having led the Indian cricket team.

But Lala Amarnath had the good fortune of seeing two of his three cricket-playing sons represent India. However, in his case the “sins” of the father appeared to have had an affect on the careers of both Surinder and Mohinder Amarnath. Surinder repeated the feat of his father by scoring a century on debut. But the powers that be never really let him establish his place in the national team. Mohinder was slightly more lucky. He became the “in and out man” of Indian cricket. He must hold some kind of a record for the number of times he made a comeback after being dropped. While Surinder quietly faded away from the scene, Mohinder continued to attract attention for much the same reasons which had made Lala perhaps the most controversial cricketer of his time. The selectors too treated him as shabbily as they had his father. On one occasion the selectors named Jimmy Amarnath, as Mohinder is better known, but changed the decision on the morning of the Test match. Jimmy must have received a pat on the back from his father for calling the selectors a bunch of jokers the last time he was dropped after a good performance in the Asia Cup. Lala Amarnath had undergone hip-bone surgery in February. Before he could recover the death of his son-in-law in a freak accident he broke his will to live. He had countless admirers in Pakistan, and always received more than a warm welcome whenever he chose to visit old friends across the border. However, his death has deprived not only India and Pakistan but also the rest of the cricketing fraternity of a controversial cricketer. After him a number of cricketers have scored a century on debut. But who can take away from him the credit of having scored the first-ever Test century by an Indian?

ROLE OF LAWYERS, POLITICIANS
Meaning of people’s anger, frustration 
by Joginder Singh

COMMENTING on the criminal justice system in the country, the Supreme Court observed recently: “If the criminal justice is to be put on a proper pedestal, the system cannot be left in the hands of “unscrupulous lawyers and the sluggish state machinery”. It calls for honest investigation uninfluenced by any political or other pressure in such cases. About the frequent adjournment of cases by trial courts without any valid reason and the harassment of witnesses on this count, the Supreme Court said: “In adjourning matters without any valid cause, a court unwittingly becomes party to the miscarriage of justice. A witness is then not treated with respect in the court.”About the plight of witnesses, the apex court said: “He (witness) is pushed out from the crowded court room by the peon. He waits for the whole day and at the end of it finds that the matter is adjourned, and he does not even get a glass of water and proper place to sit.” The court felt that it was one of the reasons why a person “abhors” becoming a witness. “He has to come to the court many times and at what cost to his own self and his family is not difficult to fathom. It had become more or less a fashion to leave a criminal case adjourned again and again till the witnesses got tired and gave up. It is the gain of unscrupulous lawyers to get cases adjourned on one excuse or the other till witnesses are won over or are tired of coming to the court.”

The judiciary is the only pillar which does not hesitate to call a spade a spade. Its limitations spring from the fact that the other wings concerned with governance do not put their best foot forward. The judiciary is not the panacea of all ills. Mostly, it is the executive wing of the government which has to take corrective action. The judiciary comes in at the last stage when a case, after investigation, is put up before it for trial. A recent report indicates that a Rajasthan MLA, heading the youth wing of the ruling party, was booked for copying on May 3, 2000, by a flying squad of Maharshi Dayanand University, Ajmer. The MLA denied the charge calling the entire case politically motivated. Earlier, an IAS officer, now serving as the Collector in a district, was caught copying in the same state. Ultimately, nothing may come out, as it happens most of the time.

With a few honourable exceptions, politicians have brought a bad name to the country, the functioning of the government and democracy. There has been a proliferation of political parties. Their present registered number stands at 550. Anybody who is thrown out of any major political party opens his own shop and starts collecting funds. Living on party funds, such people do not distinguish between the party expenses and their personal expenses. The idea of such parties is to jump on the bandwagon of power, irrespective of the means or expenses. Bihar, the poorest state in India, has 84 ministers, UP has 91 and Manipur, out of the total 60 MLAs, has 34 ministers. Such jumbo Cabinets are guided only by the principle of ensuring a stable tenure and not by any desire for public service. In any case, when the situation is such, it is easy to mislead the ministers to make any statement to cover the sins of omission and commission.

For instance, the Defence Minister has blamed the tall grass and winds blowing in the direction of the ammunition depot in Bharatpur for the colossal loss of 10,000 tonnes of ammunition in a fire there. It does not stand to logic that the Army had not done any exercise to examine the possibility of such mishaps. What is the point of increasing the Defence budget to Rs 58,0000 crore if such negligence is going to burn the money? It is too much to believe that flames from the burning grass outside jumped over the perimeter wall and caused the fire. The report as an afterthought might have added that after lighting the fire, the flames went back to burn the grass.

Ultimately, the so-called court of enquiry will repeat the obvious and fix responsibility on some junior functionaries. Incidentally, more than 59 per cent of the Indian Army’s ammunition lies in the open, in makeshift facilities of tents and under tarpaulins in more than 16 major Ordnance Depots. A fire at Jabalpur on March 23, 1988, had led to the destruction of three magazines containing heavy artillery ammunition. Another incident, perhaps the worst in the history of ammunition depots, had happened at the Central Ordnance Depot, Pulgaon, on May 10, 1989. There also a court of enquiry had recommended that elephant (tall)grass should not be allowed to be grown in the vicinity of ammunition depots.

Despite the country having suffered grievously in the war with China and Pakistan, no action has ever been taken against any General or other senior Army officers. It is for this reason that once is not enough, and the same lapses are being repeated again and again. No one is ever punished or held accountable, and nothing happens for any misdeed. We have never learnt lessons from the past drags and losses. If learnt temporarily, they have been forgotten in shibboleths and propaganda, which is not the same as dealing with hardcore realities. Our inadequate intelligence collection, its analysis and fixing responsibility are still far away from our ethos. Tall promises are substituted, for action. The government has to make up its mind about fixing responsibility whether it is in the case of bureaucrats or Generals or politicians for their failure to take preventive action to ameliorate the conditions of the poor.

There is frustration, anger and desperation among the people over the inertia in tackling their long-standing grievances. Instead of lowering the rhetoric, the same promises for a better future have been touted again and again. Inefficiency, bad planning and no accountability are at the back of all the travails staring the country in the face.

The Comptroller and Auditor-General in his latest report has pointed out that faulty manpower planning and inefficient utilisation of human resources in the five years upto March, 1999, have contributed alarmingly to wilful revenue losses amounting to crores of rupees in both Indian Airlines and Air-India. Air-India’s wet leasing agreement from 1994-1997 caused losses to the tune of Rs 321.92 crore (with this amount a good number of aircraft could have been purchased, instead of leased). For carrying Haj passengers, which is supposed to be on a no-loss no-profit basis, it suffered losses to the extent of Rs 66.55 crore. The number of employees per aircraft in Air-India was a colossal 664, although the passenger per employee was 153 against 573 in British Airways, 703 in Emirates and 1589 in Japan Airlines.

Charging Indian Airlines with both the absence of pragmatism and arbitrary and ad hoc methods in manpower planning, the CAG has rued that the number of employees per aircraft in Indian Airlines was the highest among airlines operating in South-East Asia. The productivity measured in terms of the available tonne kilometres per employee of Indian Airlines was the lowest among all. It is a crying shame that even after five decades of Independence our rulers have not learnt to ensure that we are not caught in our rhetoric. There is a constant talk of the country making impressive strides in several fields such as info-technology.

It is pathetic and strange at the same time that very few political masters have the courage to call a spade a spade. How things work at cross-purposes in the context of drought in the country was aptly put by the Water Resources Minister in the following words: “Water management in the urban areas falls under the Urban Development Ministry, rural areas under the Rural Development Department, irrigation under the Agriculture Ministry, forests under the Environment Ministry and whatever is left falls within the purview of the state governments. On the other hand, all specialised departments relating to hydrology, be it study or research and development or human resources required for the job, follow the guidelines of the Water Resources Ministry.”

The same is true of the entire government, despite hundreds of commissions, enquiries and committees set up to suggest remedial measures. It does not need a Solomon’s intelligence to learn that charity has to begin at home. Approximately, 8,000 elected representatives of state assemblies and Parliament have in their power to transform this country into an efficient and bribeless paradise. Would they, please?

The writer is a former Director of the CBI.

Indian fare
by Noel Lobo

DID you know that when it comes to a tour of our subcontinent England’s cricket selectors give marked preference to players who can stomach our type of food?

No, I did not have a video camera going when their selectors met, but I have Tony Lewis in the Telegraph to vouch for this titbit. Here is Frank Keating on the rumours as to why Jack Russell was left out of the team: The rumours hardened that Russell would be missing out on India once Tony Lewis suggested in the Telegraph that the selectors were looking to choose curry lovers for the subcontinent. Foodwise Russell is a risk (wrote Lewis)... he is known to be a bit choosy, even eccentric, about his daily menu. (Mind you, just to set the record straight, this was about the 1992 tour.)

Of course, these days some of our dishes are staple British fare; and not just chicken tikka masala and onion bhaji. (To digress, I beg you to see the film “Bhaji on the Beach” should it come your way.) The Spectator restaurant critic recently wrote of starting his dinner” with some crisp chickpea and coriander fritters.” For his sake I trust that it was not just coriander leaves friend in besan.

And in the modest hotel in Goa last March I overheard an Englishman ask for poorie bhaji for breakfast. He had it every morning we were there while his young Indian companion — yes, he was that way inclined — had toast and jam. Me? I asked for the local poey — a brown bread speciality — and butter. Alas, it wasn’t a real full wheat poey. Now don’t get me started on the great variety of breads we used to get from the small paderias (bakeries) in Goa — now a thing of the past.

Frank Keating agrees with me about Brit culinary tastes: Best curry of my life (says he) was a dozen or so years ago under a star-strewn sky up at Kanpur in Kipling country with “Tiger” Pataudi, the “Noob” no less. He had lost an eye in a car crash but could still put English bowlers to the sword. “Tell me, Tiger”, I asked the one-eyed monarch, “how long after the accident did you know you would still be able to bat?” His good eye out-twinkled the stars up there. “As soon as I saw the state of the English bowling”. (The Spectator 12 September, 1992.)

I first heard the epithet “Noob” 50 years ago. An Oxford contemporary of the senior Pataudi lived in the village of Giggleswick — yes, there really is such a village (and a minor public school) in the Yorkshire Dales — and told me a tale or two concerning the “Noob”, as he was known to his friends.

In the varsity cricket match one year, a Cambridge batsman hit 211 runs (though I can’t be sure of the figure). The Noob told his captain: “Tomorrow I shall make 212”. And he did. True enough, but what about this one. Idly watching a game of billiards in his college common room, he was asked if he knew the game. Feigning ignorance, he walked up to the table and picked up the proferred cue — and wiped the pants off everyone present (or whatever one does to the losers in billiards.)

One last one. There were separate tables of course for the two varsity cricket teams for lunch at Lords. Putting on an air of innocence he went and took his place at the Cambridge table.

Cricket was a game for gentlemen in those far-off days. Nothing was said as the Light Blue players made room for him.

Kashmir: is there a wayout?
by K. F. Rustamji

“MARK my words”, a military analyst told me, “Kashmir will bring India and Pakistan together again but only after bloodshed and conflict, even a nuclear bomb scare, deliberate or accidental.”

I thought of his words while reading a write-up based on an interview given by Amanullah Khan, chief of the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF), in Islamabad, on July 2. It was quite a refreshing account. He seemed to think more of the future than of today. He spelt out how an independent Kashmir could be constituted step by step. First, a committee of 11 with the UN and world powers, and of course India and Pakistan, to reach an agreement on a new state. Then the divided state of Jammu and Kashmir to be reunited (that is the part with Pakistan and the part with India to come together again) followed by the withdrawal of armed forces, disarming of all militants, return of the Pandits to the valley, a new national government to be constituted, and a referendum to be held after 15 years on the future.

Amanullah Khan seems to speak a language we can understand, even if we do not agree with what he says, or feel that he is too optimistic. We have to take it from him that “Azad Kashmir” would like to join the new state, that Jammu and Ladakh would also be willing. His debonair attempt was clothed in the language of secularism and tolerance, but would it be accepted by India and Pakistan? Not a hope. In this part of the world we still live in the middle ages — fighting over religion, listening to all the clap-trap of clerics, which the world gave up centuries ago. Poverty needs religion.

But wait a minute. His plan has some ideas which are worth consideration. If India and Pakistan jointly guarantee the independence and security of a new Kashmir, would the next step be a confederation of India, Pakistan and Kashmir on the lines of the European Union? I am afraid religious caterpillars would eat up the new plant as soon as it germinates. In the words of the military analyst, we have not suffered enough to think of anything constructive and hopeful for our area.

I wonder whether the autonomy question has come at this time by accident or design. If the whole area is reorganised, we may bring Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Myanmar (Burma) and the Maldives into the union? We could even keep the door open for Afghanistan. It would be a victory for all of us if South-East Asia could be registered as a vibrant union. But will the Pakistan army agree to such an arrangement which may lead to an erosion of its position? It may also not agree because of the pointless feeling that Pakistan may get reduced to a tiny state. Its reaction may be positive if it apprehends that fundamentalism will destroy that country. Will India, the richest of this brave new world, agree to bear the burden of the states which are economically in the red? Will Prabhakaran forget warfare if Eelam is allowed to confederate separately with Sri Lanka? Will the leaders of Afghanistan, after being ostracised by the world, see a hope for their beleaguered country in a wider confederation, beards and all? Probably not. We have not suffered enough to see reason.

“Pipe-dreams”, many may say. What does history say regarding such unions? Was the formation of the European Union expected even as a possibility during the two world wars? Was the formation of the European Union mentioned when Hitler’s tanks roared across Europe? And the whole world watched the destruction and agony of war with tears. Eventually it was the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki that transformed the thinking in Europe, and spurned the French on to become the leaders of a united peaceful Europe. Did the USA look like a strong union when rival armies of the north and the south clashed in a bitter civil war? There was, however, one man, a Lincoln, that produced a union. Was China considered stable when Mao embarked on the Long March, and struggles for supremacy went on in every area relentlessly? Was India united till Gandhiji appeared on the scene? In many parts of the world, there was just one man and his idea for unity. And yes suffering and confusion was the precursor of order and peace.

When dawn appears on the horizon, all the birds begin to sing. Dr Farooq Abdullah was the first. Mr Inderfurth of the USA has played a role which will be remembered in the way he has brought around groups in Pakistan, notably the Hizb-ul-Mujahideen, to accept a three-month ceasefire in Kashmir. Dr Abdullah has welcomed it. The Hurriyat seems doubtful. Obviously, the move has been made with the approval of General Musharraf. That opens the door for a meeting with the Prime Minister of India and the CE of Pakistan. Let us hope that there are no quibbles about agendas and meeting places, or reservations about recording conclusions.

If we move step by step towards reconciliation, and the formation of a new South-East Asian Union, we will be in line with world opinion, which is tired of listening the word “Kashmir”.

Executive-judiciary tension is Nehruesque
by Anupam Gupta

“A PRIME MINISTER has a right to choose his company,” former Union Law Minister Ram Jethmalani told the Rajya Sabha on August 1, “and it is his prerogative to rid himself of a colleague whom he perceives to be discordant. His action in asking me to resign is both legal and constitutional.”

It was, even by Mr Jethmalani’s constantly changing standards, all equally self-righteous, a remarkable climbdown.

Just two days earlier, on July 30, The Asian Age had carried a lead story captioned “ED put on Jethmalani hunt”.

The Enforcement Directorate, said the story, is learnt to have sent the former Law Minister a notice seeking clarifications on “huge sums of money reportedly received by him from abroad over a period”.

The money, said the paper, quoting unidentified sources, had been routed through a New York Citibank account. The account is in the name of Mr Jethmalani’s son settled in New York.

Though the amount of money allegedly received by Mr Jethmalani is not yet specified, the paper continued, it is “substantial”. The money was allegedly sent from a numbered account in the Cayman Islands, off the Bahamas.

The story could well be untrue and unfair to Mr Jethmalani and, unlike him, one must not rush to judgement. But it does afford a not entirely irrelevant cause for speculation for the highly chastened mood in which the House of Elders found Mr Jethmalani in last Tuesday, when he was finally allowed to make a statement.

“I have no bombs to explode,” he said, “or dynamite. I am sorry to disappoint you. I have only a simple statement to make in self-defence.”

On one point, however, he remained unrelenting. And totally unrepentant. His relationship with the Chief Justice of India.

“I will not surrender any executive privilege (he said) to please a judge even if he happens to be the highest.” And went on to advance a formulation, a doctrinal formulation, which has all the trappings of profundity. And the intimations of disaster.

“Tension between the judiciary and the executive (he told the Rajya Sabha) is a welcome sign. The so-called harmony of the two may well be at the expense of constitutional democracy itself.”

Tension between the judiciary and the executive in India is as old as the first amendment to the Constitution, adopted in 1951 to protect anti-zamindari laws struck down, or threatened to be struck down, by the courts as unconstitutional.

“(T)his question of land reforms in this country,” an animated Jawaharlal Nehru told Parliament in 1951, leading the charge against the judiciary, “is the most important question before which every other question is irrelevant. In this question of land reform here, we are year after year held up (by the courts).....”

“The courts are functioning (he said) as they should in interpreting the laws and we respect their interpretations and abide by them. But we also have the power to change the law if they construe a law in a way which does not fit in with our intentions, because it is a major thing in India that the land reform must come and the zamindari system must go and everything that pertains to it. It has been held up long enough, and the process that some of our friends opposite suggest means holding it up longer and longer till this court decides and that court decides.”

“We have had enough of this holding up business (said Nehru) and if you and I hold it up (any further), there will be marching in the field which will not help either the hon’ble members or the country.”

Indira Gandhi apart (and I will not discuss her here), few Prime Ministers, or Law Ministers, after Jawaharlal Nehru have dared to take on the judiciary so boldly, even menacingly. But it was not for any executive “privilege”, or out of personal hubris, that Nehru — who knew his Constitution better than anyone else — acted as he did.

The relationship between the executive and the judiciary (during Nehru’s time), writes Granville Austin in his latest book, was “at once mutually respected and highly conflicted. The respect was between the individuals involved and the institutions. The conflict was over the constitutionality of legislation and the Supreme Court’s power of judicial review.”

Several generations and wholesale deterioration of political and legal culture later, the areas of respect and conflict have been reversed.

The political elite is no longer morally, or intellectually, capable of engaging the judiciary in a larger debate over first principles or of questioning the jurisdictional transgressions of the judiciary. A process which reached its nadir in the 1990s especially during the tenure of Mr Narasimha Rao as Prime Minister.

The institutional critique has now been replaced by personal equations, whether familiarity (masquerading as respect) or hostility. Much of the controversy over judicial appointments or the spoils of power is, on either side, explicable only in this context.

Mr Jethmalani’s recipe of permanent tension between the executive and the judiciary, an extension of his own hostility to the Chief Justice of India, is as far removed, then, from a proper understanding of the issue as a Jethmalani himself is from a Nehru.

Judicial probe into J&K killings ‘needed’
by Humra Quraishi

AMIDST a mood laden with condemnation, shock and grief vis-a-vis the latest developments in the valley, an average citizen wishes for greater transparency.

In fact, a few minutes before filing this column I spoke to Dr Karan Singh. Sounding upset he said: “It’s true that the base camp should have been protected and our demand for a judicial inquiry isn’t unreasonable at all. Not a departmental inquiry for that’s of no consequence.” Is he still optimistic that a solution would be found?

“Of course, there can’t be an overnight mantra. And whilst being cautious and alert we have to continue the talks and be patient.” And when I asked him whether happenings in the valley could lead to communal disturbances elsewhere (Surat, for instance, witnessed communal clashes yesterday), he quietly said: “I just hope not”.

Moving ahead, Kuldip Nayar has a more concrete formula and told me. “ About six weeks back I was at a media conference in Islamabad where I met General Musharraf. We had a detailed discussion and to my suggestion that for six months there should be total ceasefire (which would include suspension of all ISI activities and suspension of firing along the LoC) and then there could be talks and he not only agreed to that but even added that he was ready for immediate talks. Anyway, when I returned I got in touch with Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, but though he told me that “I shall come back to you” but hasn’t so far. I think it is important we start the talks, at least we would know whether Musharraf is serious or is bluffing for there has to be complete peace. Limited peace serves no purpose and let me tell you that people in Pakistan are also keen for a peaceful settlement and they realise that they are being isolated on the international front.”

Meanwhile, JIC chairman and consultant with the Union Home Ministry, Mr Keki Daruwalla, had this to say on the present developments in the valley: “We lost a great opportunity in 1996 because the benefits of a democratic government did not reach the people at the grassroot level. But despite that the indigenous insurgency went down... but from October 12, that is ever since General Musharraf took charge in Pakistan, he’s done his best to restart insurgency in Kashmir. And now it is obvious that Pakistan is speaking in two voices — on the one hand, Hizbul is offering the olive branch, whilst the other militant groups are doing exactly the opposite.”

Ali Sardar Jafri

Though I shouldn’t claim to know the late Ali Sardar Jafri who died last week in Mumbai, just the one meeting with him left quite an impact. Before I could hurl queries at him his single question left very little to be said. He looked at me and said: “Do you know Urdu?”. To my reply in the negative he refused to talk. Fair enough, for I had no business to interview Urdu poets when I didn’t know the language myself.

And another aspect of his personal life will also remain memorable - the way he got married to his beloved, Sultana. In fact, the whole of Lucknow (I mean people of that generation who knew him) still remember the way his romance blossomed, particularly when Sultana was not only already married but even the mother of a child (from the first marriage). Breaking all traditions he married her and till the last years seemingly remained in love, as is evident in the following lines: “Har ashiq hai Sardar yahan /har mashuqa Sultana hai....” Sultana is definitely one of those fortunate women who had such an intense lover...

Events and more events

Life continues here with more and more events getting stuffed onto the socio-cultural calendar. On Monday (August 7) Outlook Editor Vinod Mehta is hosting a special bash to launch India’s premier vacation hub — Outlook Traveller.

Moving ahead, on Friday, ITC, Maurya Sheraton and Roli Books are hosting a reception for the launch of the biography of Siddheshwari Devi. Written by her daughter, Savita Devi, it will be released here by former Union Minister Vasant Sathe.

Still ahead, on August 7 and 8, animation films by Lotte Reiniger will be screened at the IIC. Needless to add, a detailed introduction, for in the fifties Reiniger created a series of films using themes and motifs from fairy tales by Grimm Brothers, Hans Christian Andersen and the Arabian Nights. Her work comprises of a total of 40 silhouette films.

And in the midst of all this, Shovana Narayan and her diplomat husband, Herbert Traxl, celebrated the monsoon mood. Songs, dance and lot of heady laughter filled the entire evening. Prominent to be spotted that evening were the Vasudev sisters, Raja Reddy, Sudhir Tailang, Anurag Mathur, Alka Raghuvanshi, Sunita Kohli, Naresh Kapuria, Sharon Lowen, Divyab Manchanda and diplomats from the various embassies here.

SPIRITUAL NUGGETS

Come, Beloved Lord,
Grant me Thy glimpse
Away from Thee
I cannot stay alive.

Live the lotus without water,
Like the night without moon,
Is Thy dear One
Without Thee, O Lord.

In anguish I wander day and night
Pangs of separation keep gnawing at my heart;
Days drag without hunger,
Nights without sleep,
And lips fail to narrate
The tale of my woe

What can I say?
I have no words
To express my urge;
Pray come and quench
This fire that is searing my heart.

Lord, you know all;
Then why do you torment me thus?
Pray, have mercy,
Come and meet Mira
Who for ever your slave,
In love surrenders at your feet.

— Mira Bai, "Pyare darshan dijo aye"

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If you long for the bliss of his love,
Then break the fetters of your reserve
And through intense love become his own ....

Remove your veil;
With vibrant abandon
Efface your self
In his loving embrace;
Adore Him, entice Him
With your love-hungry eyes ....

Says Kabir: Listen dear friend
Only she who has such love
Will enjoy the bliss of union.
But she who is devoid of longing
for her Beloved,
Vain are her adornments,
Wain, the collyrium she applies
To enliven her eyes.

— Sant Kabir, "Nis din khelat rahe ...."

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Each human being is like a mine — gold, silver or jewel. Excavate their goodness so that you may have peace.

— Hazrat Mohammad-ebne-Abdollah, Nahjol-Fessaheh