The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

Back to tolerant age

INDIA celebrated a nervous Independence Day, with New Delhi turned into a garrison city and the Union Home Ministry ordering red alert all over the country. It is not known whether this is the result of intelligence assessment or a cautious reaction to threats of bomb blasts from across the border. Of late security is becoming ever more tight; even so it has been very different this year. Kashmir is at the bottom of all this and fittingly it figured prominently in the Prime Minister’s address to the nation as it did in Pakistan President Rafiq Tarar’s brief speech yesterday. There was nothing new in what Mr Vajpayee said but he felt that a reiteration of the old stand had become necessary after the withdrawal of the ceasefire by the Hizbul Mujahideen and the massacre across the valley. As the Head of Government and as tradition demanded, he also announced new projects like a nationwide rural road scheme and an integrated health scheme, apart from accelerating economic reforms. As expected, he declared the first ten years of the new millennium as the decade of development and set before the nation an ambitious target of doubling the per capita income which is the same thing as doubling the GDP. Many would think it is over-ambitious and given the state of key infrastructure sectors, nearly impossible to achieve. But it is not surprising though since successive Prime Ministers have used the Independence Day address to unveil grand plans and promise instant relief to the people. He underplayed his warning to fanatics not to see imaginary enemies and violate the country’s liberal culture. It cried out for greater stress since it is not only weakening the social fabric but also bringing a bad name to the country. Communal hatred or violence is a reflection of primordial passion and has no place in a wired world.

President Narayanan too touched on growing intolerance in his I-Day eve address. But he was lamenting the loosening grip of morality and decency in society. The many cases of proven links between politicians and criminals have not raised the alarm they should have. Worse, a plain criminal is these days receiving hero’s treatment in the media. He is also the subject of ill-thought out articles, giving him a kind of exposure he would love any day. Mr Narayanan’s was a fireside chat, as one newspaper described, but one that brought out his anguish at the steadily deteriorating situation and his appeal to the people to join hands to halt this slide. Like the Prime Minister, he too talked of a decentralised administration to enable the poorest man in the village to write his own destiny. Mr Vajpayee was referring to economic growth and social development and how empowered panchayats can play a role in it. Looking at the success of Kerala and the present enthusiasm in Madhya Pradesh for district-level planning, it will not be a bad idea to declare a decade of decentralisation, the process starting with the Centre itself.

Airport security and safety

INDIAN airports are among the worst in the world in terms of passenger amenities and the infrastructure for the smooth take-off and safe landing of aircraft. To cope with the increased volume of air traffic in the global village the civil aviation authorities have compounded the problem by granting a large number of "bullock cart airstrips" the status of international airports. The fact of the matter is that even Indira Gandhi International Airport falls short of the globally accepted standards. To silence the critics, rather than improve the facilities, the Civil Aviation Ministry had set up what came to be known as the R. C. Jain Committee on Management of Airports. However, even after the Jain Committee submitted the report the authorities concerned have done little to give Indian airports the necessary facelift. In fact, the Jain report too has been put on the shelf where most official documents are allowed to gather dust. The only redeeming feature is that the committee itself has done a thorough job in identifying the reasons why most Indian airports fall abysmally short of international specifications in the matter of improving passenger amenities and airport safety. Lack of awareness about how to cope with emergencies, shabbily organised mock drills for testing airport safety, inadequate security measures and ill-trained airport personnel are among the factors which have made Indian airports being counted among the worst in the world. The freak escalator accident at the IGIA in Delhi which claimed the life of a girl exposed the poor emergency response system at most airports. Neither the ground personnel of international and national airlines nor the staff of the Airports Authority of India have been trained to at least treat the passengers with courtesy.

Most frequent air travellers would have quite a few stories to tell about being literally abused and ill-treated while checking in to and checking out of most airports in India. The pot-bellied policeman on airport duty and corrupt customs officials take special pleasure in tormenting air passengers. The airports become jails and the aircraft cages in which passengers inevitably lose their right to being treated with dignity. Even the conduct of the cabin crew is not always exemplary. Not too long ago a high court judge was curtly told to vacate the seat allotted to him merely to oblige a self-important politician. The record of the airport staff in coping with emergencies is equally embarrassing. The committee noted that the International Aviation Organisation's insistence on conducting specified drills for dealing with unforeseen situations has been ignored by the staff of most Indian airports. The situation at domestic airports is particularly appalling. Not surprisingly the committee expressed displeasure over the "general lack of awareness... about the existence of emergency plans" and the need for undertaking mock exercises for dealing with a real emergency if and when it arises. Consequently in an emergency, like the hijacking of the Indian Airlines plane from Kathmandu, the entire system gets "stressed out". Training for coping with emergencies should also include handling questions, with tact and diplomacy, from the relatives of the passengers and the media. Among other things the committee recommended the setting up of a civil aviation training institute, creation of an aviation security force and infrastructure for dealing with airport and air travel-related medical emergencies, reduction in the number of personnel allowed access to sensitive areas and introduction and upgrading of the baggage x-ray facilities at airports. However, to expect Civil Aviation Minister Sharad Yadav, who literally masterminded the hijacking of a Lucknow-bound flight to Patna for the convenience of some Bihar MPs, to implement the recommendations is to expect the impossible to happen. A minister who did not mind putting at risk the lives of other passengers and crew members cannot be made to understand the domestic and global benefits of upgrading the existing facilities and introducing new ones for improving passenger comfort and airport safety.

Diplomatic misuse

THERE have been many cases of misuse of diplomatic immunity, but the latest one that has come to light has created an embarrassing situation for India. There are a number of embassies and high commissions belonging to the Third World which together owe to public sector Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited (MTNL) crores of rupees by way of uncleared bills. Despite pressures from the External Affairs Ministry, MTNL has launched a drive against the erring missions after about a year of such a decision having been taken by the higher authorities concerned. Though it is not known, some of the affected countries might have approached the Government of India to ask MTNL not to be so ruthless as the harsh step may tell upon their relations with this country. One possible reason that might have been given by the countries concerned could be their unstable economic and political health. If this is the truth behind the non-payment of their bills for years together, one can sympathise with them. But a close look at the problem shows that there has been a conscious attempt to take undue advantage of being the official representatives of their countries by those who have been using the telephone connections against which hefty amounts as arrears are due.

Since the law has it that diplomatic staff members cannot be given telephone connections in their own names, they get this facility in the name of their embassy or high commission. If any telephone line is disconnected owing to the non-payment of bills, one can always get another connection in the name of one’s diplomatic mission. The law is such that MTNL can take no action against an employee of a foreign mission whether he remains in India or goes back home without clearing the dues against his telephone facility. The reason: he enjoys diplomatic immunity plus the telephone connection is not in his name. This is too much. Diplomatic missions themselves should be careful about such matters. After all, a country whose name figures in the list of the foreign missions owing hefty dues to MTNL is bound to feel uncomfortable if the matter gets wide publicity in the media. Depriving MTNL of crores of rupees is unfair, to say the least. It goes against the spirit of diplomatic immunity.

EMANCIPATION OF WOMEN
On the path to power
by J. L. Gupta

WOOING and winning women! By making the proposal for 33 per cent reservation. To facilitate their entry into Parliament. Also in the state legislatures. To put them on the primary path to power. Is it merely a game being played by men? Will the hand that rocks the cradle rule this country? Ever?

Man owes so much to woman. Life itself. And all that makes life worth living. A woman gives all that she has. To man and her family. To make them happy. She plays different roles. At considerable personal discomfort. Of a companion. A mother. A sister. A wife. And a good friend. She is a source of comfort. Of joy and pleasure. She is an aid in the hour of affliction. A support in the moments of sorrow. While man has sight, the woman has insight. Man works. She works and worships. She is epitome of self-effacement. Women is truly a wonder of the world.

Yet, at the end of the prayer we say, “Amen”! Not “Awomen”. We sing “hymns”. Not “hers”. In daily conversation we say, “Mankind”. Not “Womankind”. And what would a man do for a woman? Just nothing. An Arab, it is said, cares more for his camel than his wife. If a man’s wife is stolen, he thinks the best revenge is to let the thief keep her. Why? Simple selfishness? Or is it the typical male ingratitude?

God created man first. Since then it has been a man’s world. The Garden of Eden. Not the Eve’s. The patriarch. Running a patriarchal world. With home as the only suitable place for woman. She must learn chemistry. But just enough to know cooking. And geography? To know the four walls of her house. That is all.

For centuries man has treated woman as a mere slave. As just a “sex object”. Today she objects. She feels indignant. And why not? This is a legitimate reaction. The right change. The man must realise that the woman is no longer willing to remain in purbah. Or be confined to the four walls of the house. To rule the heart of man by merely batting the eyelids. Today she is panting for a breath of fresh air. She wants to get out of the four walls and be everywhere. And she is. In the army. On the battlefield. In business. In court. In office. In the outer space. On the television. In the university. Flying planes. Fighting war. Running offices. Ruling countries. And she has done it well. Not to talk of India or the UK, even an Islamic state like Pakistan had, only recently, a woman running the affairs of the country. She has tasted success. Now she is wanting to play a fuller role. In Parliament. Even in other legislature. To be a force to reckon with. To make laws. To govern men. To lead the nation.

Let us remember that women may be numerically a little less than a half of the country’s electorate. But they are the better half. And some wise man had the foresight. He could see the writing on the wall. He made the move. In time. To capture votes. But it turned out to be a large-scale move by a small-scale mind. The people who made the proposal now seem to be paying only lip service to it. But the inevitable is happening. The seeds are sprouting. And the proposal cannot be shelved. Not now. Nor it should be.

We have experienced the rule by men. For a better part of the five long decades. What do we find? Corruption. Inefficiency. Red tape. Drought. Floods. Rail accidents. Plane crashes. Lack of ordinary civic amenities. Men, women and children being sucked into uncovered manholes. Dying by the roadside. Under the nosy gaze of the people-in-charge. Unattended and uncared for.

Despite all the five-year Plans, independent India continues to be badly dependent. We are looking for aid. From everywhere. We have not created an infrastructure. To meet the sad situations that keep on arising. Actually, each emergency exposes our weaknesses. The lack of preparedness. And we seem to learn no lesson. Human lives appear to have no value. Human beings get no respect. Human dignity is invariably the first casualty. And things are not improving. If at all, the slide is downward. With little hope of improvement. Probably, we are about to hit the rock bottom. It should not be too far.

We need a change. It is imperative. We have to bring it about. The women might know a little less than men about the nitty-gritty of administration. But they understand more. There should be reservation for them. So that they can play their role in the progress of this country. And why not? Women must have an opportunity. To make their contribution.

It is true that a change of 33 per cent cannot bring about a miracle. Nothing may happen overnight. By merely changing a few faces in the legislatures, we may not be able to clean the whole system. It would take time. But a beginning has to be made. Hopefully, the presence of women would bring some order to the proceedings. We must try. Sooner the better.

There are some who ask, “Why should we allow women to enter the legislatures by making reservation? Why should they not contest elections like everybody else? Why must they enter through the backdoor? Why not by being treated as equals? Why should women be given an undeserved advantage? Have we forgotten the days of the Emergency?” Even the propounders of the proposal are changing their tone and tenor. Some even call it an unfair favour. Each dawn brings new excuses.

The answer is simple. We must make a special provision for women for the same reasons for which we have done so in the case of the weaker sections of society. For we have not allowed women to grow to their full potential for a long time. We have treated them as lesser beings. We must undo the injustice.

True, the Constitution that we have given unto ourselves bars discrimination on the basis of sex only. But it permits the making of a special provision for women. Like the rule for the grant of maternity leave. For women only. Men do not get it. And there is reservation for women in panchayats. At the grassroot level of our system. Why not in Parliament? There is no reason to say “No”!

And for women, it is not an effort to get more and more. Nor can we accuse them of climbing the ladder of success — “wrong by wrong”. The “fierce female” of today must get her due. Now. In the new millennium. We cannot wait till the women grow bald and paunchy. Having initiated the move, men should stand by it. To maintain their own credibility. We must make women equal partners in the governance of this country. The two must walk together on the path to power. The two wheels of our bullock cart must move equality. Only then can we hope to achieve our goal.

Shall we?

Three worrisome issues
by Arvind Bhandari

THREE worrisome aspects of national life demand drastic measures as early as possible. These are: exploding population, rampant corruption and an administrative system which is among the worst in the world.

Ever since Independence, these three problems have been pushed under the carpet because they require tough decisions. And the chances are that they shall continue to be neglected by the present coalition government also.

Five decades ago, Gunnar Myrdal, Swedish Nobel Laureate who wrote the famous “Asian Drama: An Enquiry into the Poverty of Nations”, predicted that India would be a “soft state”. By this he did not mean that India would be lacking in cruelty, violence and brutality. What he meant was that India would not be able to throw up a leadership equipped with sufficient vision and capable of taking hard decisions for the amelioration of the nation.

Even as the country’s population has crossed the one billion mark, our leaders continue to twiddle their thumbs. The so-called national population policy, announced with much fanfare recently, is an unmitigated farce. After talking about a dozen concerns pertaining to the health of women and children, it again puts emphasis on voluntariness in the area of family planning. But experience of the last five decades shows that India’s population problem is of such a magnitude that mere recourse to persuasion and propaganda — which means voluntariness — is just not enough. There is urgent need for a centrally-sponsored nation-wide scheme of incentives and disincentives — a carrot-and-stick policy.

A carrot-and-stick policy has engendered opposition in this country because it has been experimented in a totalitarian state like China. It is true that communist China has wielded the stick to some extent to nudge its population towards a one-child family norm. But democratic India can use more humane methods and, moreover, we would have the more acceptable two-child family norm.

Needless to say, an incentive-disincentive scheme would initially cover the organised sector, which means employees of the Central and state governments as well as the public and private corporate sectors. The incentives-disincentives would entail monetary rewards, promotions and concessions relating to the education of children, housing and transportation. The details are not difficult to work out and have been written about ad nauseam.

Corruption has been corroding the very innards of the Indian nation. First, there is need for an attitudinal change. We should eschew the despicable habit of throwing up our hands in despair and lamenting that nothing can be done about corruption. Because of the innate avariciousness of human nature, it may be difficult to eradicate corruption, but it can definitely be reduced. For this, it is equally important to remember that we must attack corruption at the highest echelons of power because, like liquid, it flows from top to bottom.

The Central Vigilance Commission is there to check corruption among bureaucrats. But what about corruption among ministers and parliamentarians who occupy a higher position than bureaucrats in the hierarchy of power? It is here that the Lokpal comes in, an ombudsman-like institution independent of the government which would also cover the office of the Prime Minister.

It is indicative of the potential effectiveness of the Lokpal that all the Prime Ministers, from Indira Gandhi downwards, have avoided the institution, resorting to subterfuge to consign the measure to the dung-heap of unimplemented legislation. Prime Minister Vajpayee has shed so many tears on the malaise of corruption that even a crocodile would be embarrassed. Unless he takes a concrete step to bring in the Lokpal, Mr Vajpayee will remain a hypocrite in the eyes of corruption-watchers.

Central Vigilance Commissioner Vittal is performing the task entrusted to him with exemplary zeal. His hands need to be strengthened. Newspapers could help by publishing the names of those officers who are being prosecuted for corruption and whose names appear on the CVC’s website.

There is also need to strike at the root cause of corruption by breaking the corrupt politician-businessman nexus. Politicians take black money from businessmen in order to fight elections. If there were state funding of political parties, this need would to some extent be obviated. Considering that the quinquennial expense of elections in India is estimated around Rs 1000 crore, it means that there is an annual need of just Rs 200 crore for state funding of political parties. For a country of India’s size this is a manageable amount. Several advanced democracies, the USA and Germany among them, have state funding of political parties.

An atrocious administrative system is not only retarding the country’s economic progress but has also become the average citizen’s nightmare. At the time of Independence our leaders blindfoldedly adopted the colonial type of administration left behind by the British and imposed it on the nation. In the last five decades, despite a constant clamour, there has not been a single piece of administrative reform, with the result that the situation has been going from bad to worse.

When the Fifth Pay Commission recommended massive hikes in the pay scales of Central Government employees, it did so in the expectation that a whole lot of administrative reforms suggested by it would also be introduced simultaneously. The Central Government succumbed to the blackmail of the employees’ unions and outdid even the Pay Commission in effecting hefty increases in pay scales. But as for reforms, there was no sign of them.

Three administrative reforms should be introduced immediately. One, no file should be required to move more than three levels before a decision is taken.

Two, there should be a moratorium on government recruitment till the size of the bureaucracy is reduced by 30 per cent over 10 years. Three, the foolproof security of service in government jobs should be rescinded.

But, considering our pusillanimous leadership, who will bell the cat?

Cycling through time
by V.N. Kakar

MY grand-daughter Shilpi rang up from Bangalore to enquire about the health of my wife. She is down with one of those infirmities which strike men and women beyond 75. I gave her the result of catscan and MIR, to the extent I could understand it. “I am coming,” said the girl, who is doing her house job in dentistry in a dental college in Bangalore. “Will it not interfere with your training?” I asked her. “Never mind,” said she, apparently prepared for my question, “I have a few days’ casual leave due to me. I will fly to Delhi on Saturday and be back in Bangalore the following Thursday. I have already done my air booking and I have informed Mom and Dad. If they can go on a holiday to Goa, why can’t I spend a bit on air-travel to look up my dadima in Delhi?”

“You can, my dear,” I whispered to myself, silently, “and I value your sentiments.” The call over, the mind lost no time in travelling back to 1947. I had just landed in Lucknow, after having been uprooted from my home-town, Peshawar. I was badly in need of a job. Not any job, but job of a journalist in the National Herald or The Pioneer. One day, I got myself registered in the Employment Exchange. Next few days, I walked up to the two papers in an effort to meet their editors. I had to walk all the distance, three miles or so, to the two papers from the little hut improvised with the aid of tarpaulin in the verandah of a house in which I had taken shelter. I had to walk that distance for I could not afford a cycle-rickshaw or a tonga. The money I had borrowed from someone was just sufficient to enable me to buy some bananas and monkeynuts that kept me going.

My father suggested that I should take a cycle on hire. I went to the Lalkurti bazar in Lucknow cantonment and talked to a cycle merchant. Seeing my credentials as the son of a retired army officer, the merchant agreed to give me the cycle. The hire was Rs 12 a month. But there was one condition. Someone had to stand surety for me to pay to the cycle merchant Rs 120, price of the cycle, in the event of the cycle getting lost or I myself disappearing along with it. I had none in Lucknow who could stand surety for me.

How I managed to get that cycle and how that cycle helped me in making a fresh start in life? That is a tale the likes of which so many have told so many times in words better that I can command.

Shilpi came and she has gone back. Has her visit prolonged the life of her dadima? Nobody knows. Discernibly, it has made her pain less unbearable. And discernibly also, it has strengthened her will to look into whatever remains of the future with greater hope and courage.

Congress: groping for relevance
by P. Raman

WHILE the Vajpayee Government has begun floundering on issue after issue and the NDA allies showing signs of discomfiture, an important aspect of national politics stand out. The inability of the Congress to encash the Government’s failures and project itself as an alert Opposition. The party’s imposed inertia, political confusion and outside lobby power have reduced the status of the main Opposition to that of a supporting party.

Last week a prominent BJP Minister explained to a group of mediapersons the secret of transacting too many important Government business in the first two weeks of the monsoon session. The Government, he felt, faced real resistance not from the main Opposition party but from some of its own allies. At times it seemed the BJP and the Congress had a neat arrangement to allow the transaction of controversial business with least resistance. During the Budget session, this passivity had led to comic situation when the reform lobby allowed even the offending party of the Budget without a show of protest. This had led to considerable criticism within the party over the effective leadeship’s kidglove approach.

At least on one occasion, there were heated exchanges during the strategy meeting with Pranab Mukherjee angrily defending his line of “dignified” responses both in Parliament and outside. Though he had won the day, the mounting criticism of “gagging” has taken the party to the extreme. Thus as compared to the first fortnight, the following week witnessed overaction by the Congress stalwarts on certain issues. They wasted so much time and energy on Jethmalani, who could have patched up with the BJP any day. The party clung to its censure motion on the Amarnath massacre despite its isolation from even other Opposition groups.

The real reason for all this delayed responses, slow reflexes and the inability to assail the Government on wrong actions has been its tactical confusion. The CPP leaders regularly meet but on many issues conflict of ideas prevents it from adopting an effective role. Sonia Gandhi’s role as an honest referee makes the confusion confounded. Thus individual Congress MPs feel hamstrung to pin down the Government on its wrong decisions and measures that would adversely affect the common man. These curbs are on the ground that such actions would hurt the party’s image as a party of coherent policies and dignified behaviour.

Often it has led to absurd situations. On the Amarnath killings, the party went on debating whether assailing the Government’s failures will be “dignified” until the ruling BJP leaders themselves joined the VHP-sponsored all-India bandh. It made a considerable impact. An embarrassed L.K. Advani had even offered to resign. There were police firings in BJP-ruled Gujarat. While all this was going on, the main Opposition party was content with a couple of belated local youth rallies. Then to compensate for this, the party went to the other extreme with its censure motion on the Amarnath killings. In the course of the whole Kashmir fiasco beginning with the release of the Hurriyat leaders, Farooq Abdullah’s autonomy tantrum and Hizbul adventure, the Home Minister and Prime Minister went on taking shifting positions. But the Congress felt simply lost when all this went on, and allowed others to steal the limelight.

True, as a former ruling party, the Congress could not slide to the level of any irresponsible outfits. But as a live political party it also cannot keep off such sweeping developments. To pick holes in Government lapses is part of the Opposition dharma — if one borrows a term from Vajpayee. Even peripheral protests were left to the RSS outfits which went on lambasting Vajpayee for shifting position and making contradictory statements on Kashmir in the past few weeks. This marks an interesting phenomenon. The RSS parivar is fast emerging as the bitterest critic of its own Government on a wide range of issues.

It takes up the closure of thousands of small units and loss of jobs to lakhs of workers and sellout of the national sector to outsiders. The affected constituency essentially belonged to the Congress and this has been Indira Gandhi’s dependable popular base. True, the BJP and the RSS parivar are at loggerheads. But in a broader sense, the new trend also tends to assign the role of both the Government and that of its critics to the parivar. Thus the latter is trying to find an alternative also within its confines. On the other, the main Opposition by its passive approach and unwritten blank support to the Government’s economic decision becomes a loser both ways.

Naturally, despite the Congress support, the Government alone appropriates the credit for the smooth decisions. It is simple practical politics that a docilely supporting party can never retain its own individuality and thus approach the electorate on its own programmes and performance. Shorn of idealism or ideology, this has been Mulayam Singh Yadav’s rationale for not associating with the Congress after the fall of the Vajpayee Government last time. The Congress is yet to learn this simple lesson.

Apparently, no end is in sight to the ongoing bitter ideological clashes within its top leadership. The differences from the economic policies to the practical aspects of dealing with the Vajpayee Government in Parliament and outside. While an influential section within the Congress argues in favour of an aggressive approach as a true Opposition party, the other side led by Pranab Mukherjee has been against any kind of ‘undignified behaviour’ and ‘unprincipled’ stand on national issues. The latter argues that rather than projecting an image of protesting ‘too much’ to grab power, display of ‘maturity’ will play in the long run. This section refers to the Congress strategy during 1977-79.

The mismatched analogy apart — Indira Gandhi had vociferously challenged her opponents during the period, and she was the best when cornered — today we have an entirely different political scenario. The Congress is no more in a position to create an Indira-like wave as non-Congress, non-BJP parties remain in an unassailable position, unaffected by national waves, in more than half of India. The post-1991 Congress has lost its moorings among its traditional constituency. More than this, unlike the earlier Opposition dispensations at the Centre, the Congress can nurse little hope of the disgruntled NDA allies walking out in a huff.

In the past one year, the NDA has developed a coalitional code under which the allies will not quit it even if they had strong differences with the Government. Instead they would confine it to vocal protests. After the pro-LTTE Tamil allies, Farooq on the autonomy issue, BJD on Oriya areas in Vananchal, Akalis on the inclusion of Udham Singh Nagar and the TDP on so many issues have displayed how effective such a compromise could be. They are more pragmatic than the Congress which had pulled down a Government on the basis of a false leak of an inquiry report. Thus any early implosion in the NDA can be safely ruled out. This means a long haul for the Opposition. The only factor that can reverse this code is popular revulsions against such political expediencies. Fierce political campaign by the Opposition on such issues alone will generate this kind of popular sentiments.

The ‘dignitywalas’ with their insistence on backing the Government on all reform-related legislative business have already turned the party lifeless and infirm. A perpetually supporting Opposition can never expect to attain its own identity and seek mandate on its own programmes. Its obsession with reform and globalisation lobby is well entrenched in the Congress with their own men drafting the party’s policy papers. Grapevine has it that along with every Cabinet clearance of the reform-related decisions, lobbyists make available the supporting documents to their men in the Congress. This explains the passive approach of the Congress when such issues come up in Parliament in quick succession.

The kind of foreign lobbying with the members of the AICC’s economic policy panel suggests that very little will come out of its deliberations. A section of its members are still pressing for a flexible approach by distinguishing the Congress policies from that of the BJP Government’s second generation of reform. This section argues that even as initiator of the reform, the Congress can disagree on its implementation on the basis of the experiences the world over since then. Therefore, the party should study each proposal from the point of view of India’s domestic interest. This section is opposed to the Pranab Mukherjee line of blind support to all reform measures like wholesale privatisation and globalisation. Instead, they seek to introduce reform measures that would take care of the interests of the poor, the small sector and indigenous industries. The Congress should present an alternative plan within the confines of reform and in view of the past experience. However, the powerful outside lobby is so strong that nothing much is expected of the exercise.

The central leadership’s failure to function as an agile Opposition has led to anomalous situations. While the party has lost its national stature, it rules more states than the BJP. Barring Delhi, the party does not show any sign of downtrend in other states where it rules. This riddle could be explained by the local initiatives to politically and programmatically combat the political rivals.

At the Centre, the pro-reform lobby and “dignitywalas” have made it impossible for the party to project its own identity. In Andhra Pradesh, the local Congress has been running an agitation against the power tariff hike. If the pro-reform lobby at the Centre has its way, it might not have been permitted. This is how many state parties try to maintain their own relevance.

SPIRITUAL NUGGETS

Mind, thou art a Spark of Divine Light, so grasp the True Source of thy Being.

The Lord is ever with thee; through the Guru's teachings rejoice in His presence.

By grasping thine own true nature, thou graspest God's,

And the meaning of birth and death.

When through the Guru's grace thou hast grasped the Supreme One

Thou shalt lose the illusion of otherness.

Thou shalt abide in peace, honoured and acceptable.

Nanak Saith: O, my mind, thou art an image of God,

Grasp the True Source of thy Being.

— Guru Amar Das, Rag Asa, Sri Guru Granth Sahib, p.441

***

Kabir, do not follow the dictates of your mind

Give up this habit which is ages old;

Just as the yarn spun on the spindle,

On the spindle is wound again,

So bring your mind back to the centre from where it came.

Do not follow the trends of your mind,

There is no end to its tricky ways;

One who tames his mind, Kabir, is a real sage.

The lane leading to the Home is narrow, O Kabir,

But like a thief the restless mind

To other's houses runs;

Even when the devotee believes he is absorbed

In the Lord's worship,

His mind is engaged in thoughts other than God.

Mind knows well what is good, what is bad,

But knowingly adopts evil ways;

What happiness can a man obtain

When he falls into a well

With a lamp in his hand.

Kabir you made no efforts to curb your restive mind,

Nor the onslaught of the Five did you try to repulse,

No purity, truth and faith did you inculcate;

Shamelessly your senses run to pleasures one should shun.

— Sant Kabir, poems, translator, V.K. Sethi

* * *

The mind grows narrow in proportion as the soul grows corrupt.

— Jean Jacques Rousseau (1712-78), Swiss Philosopher

***

A man is greater in proportion as he can control his mind. When the mind's activities are perfectly at rest, the Atman manifests Itself. The struggle which we observe in the animal kingdom for the preservation of the gross body obtains in the human plane of existence for gaining mastery over the mind or for attaining the state of balance.

— Swami Vivekananda, Complete Works, Vol. VII