E D I T O R I A L   P A G E

EDITORIALS

Mamata’s own oil shock
MS Mamata Banerjee, the iron lady of Calcutta, looks awefully rusty and restless. She has just secured one more rejection slip from the Union Cabinet in the form of a refusal to roll back petro goods prices. She has to be content with a vague offer to “relook” the prices after Prime Minister Vajpayee returns from Mumbai after his knee surgery. Her revolt provoked a counter-revolt by senior Ministers and the final decision swung away from her. 

Political pointers in UP
THE Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party have stepped up pressure for early assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh. While Ms Mayawati believes that the tide is in favour of the BSP, Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav sees a more valid reason for wanting the electoral battle to start straightaway. 

OPINION

PAKISTAN-TALIBAN NEXUS
Entire region is under threat
by Satyabrata Rai Chowdhuri
AMIDST the atmosphere of bonhomie and effusive cordiality, some hard issues were squarely addressed by President Clinton and Prime Minister Vajpayee when the latter recently visited the USA. Among them Afghanistan emerged as a key item. Indian anxieties over Afghanistan’s terrorist connections led both leaders to agree that Pak-Taliban nexus constitutes not only a force of destabilisation but also a threat to the peace and security of the region. Both leaders, therefore, agreed to set up a “policy framework” so that the Afghan threat could be thwarted.

Tackling the growing crime
by H. L. Kapoor
CRIMES are generally committed for certain motives, gains and even for fame though it may be adverse. In old times crimes used to cover ordinary theft, robberies, desecration of places of worship, treason etc. The scenario has changed altogether. Most of the crimes are committed for personal gains and revenge. Murders and kidnapping have become the order of the day. Several mafia gangs have come up, each trying to eclipse the other and attain supremacy by creating a fear psychosis. Abductions/kidnappings are done to make money.

Keep academics out of courts
Anupam Gupta
UNNOTICED by journalists and lawyers, the Punjab and Haryana High Court pronounced a terse but vital order last fortnight, firmly declining an invitation to plunge in to the hyper-sensitive area of religious historiography.

Diversities — Delhi letter

1963 batch bureaucrats on the top
by Humra Quraishi
Bureaucratic changes at the Centre have been further postponed, till the third week of October. And as of now it is the 1963 batch which seems to be there on the top — new Cabinet Secretary T.R. Prasad is from the 1963 batch IAS, Foreign Secretary Lalit Mansingh is also from the 1963 batch IFS (in fact, the topper of the batch) and CBI chief V. Raghavan is also from the 1963 batch IPS. 

Mamata’s own oil shock

MS Mamata Banerjee, the iron lady of Calcutta, looks awefully rusty and restless. She has just secured one more rejection slip from the Union Cabinet in the form of a refusal to roll back petro goods prices. She has to be content with a vague offer to “relook” the prices after Prime Minister Vajpayee returns from Mumbai after his knee surgery. Her revolt provoked a counter-revolt by senior Ministers and the final decision swung away from her. It was a tame and disspirited end to a drama she enacted with her customary panache. She thundered “do it or else” and backed the threat with several acts. She asked her staff in New Delhi residence to return the furniture to the Railway Board and pack the rest to be ready to move out at two hours’ notice. In Calcutta she sent back the 14 Railway Protection Force (RPF) security guards and the second telephone given to her as a Minister. She was curt to the emissaries of the Prime Minister. It was all a rerun of her famous 1996 ultimatum to hang herself near Alipore court to protest against something or the other which everyone has since forgotten. As then so now, she found a small escape valve and squeezed herself out. The fuzzy fax message is no assurance and definitely does not mitigate anybody’s suffering. The emissaries have told her and cunningly also the media that the rollback if it comes about will be a token one. An LPG cylinder will cost Rs 5 less (as against an increase in price of Rs 39.25) and kerosene 50 paise less (Rs 2.83). That will be no victory but then Ms Banerjee has not had one in several months now. She wanted President’s rule, scaled it down to declaring five districts as disturbed area, demanded a fat cheque as flood relief and now a reduction in petro prices. No luck so far and that is a bit too much for a leader who has built her reputation on melodrama and irrational expectations.

Why did she give in so meekly? Because she realised that she has everything to lose and nothing to gain. Walking out of the NDA may win her some of the 24 per cent Muslim votes in West Bengal but Hindu voters may desert her when Mr Vajpayee comes canvassing for the BJP. In popularity sweepstake he is an unknown commodity in the state but with a lot of promise. Led by Mr Ajit Panja, at least five of the nine Trinamool Congress MPs were ready to defy her, more as a protest against her politically wayward actions. All NDA allies had roundly rebuked her for creating a crisis after agreeing to the price rise at a meeting of both the NDA and the Cabinet. Senior Ministers like Jaswant Singh and Yashwant Sinha were very angry at her truculent stance and told the Prime Minister that if she wanted to walk out, she was welcome and surely there was life after Ms Banerjee. What was worse, all this was in the media the next day, causing much anguish to Trinamool Congress workers. She was truly cornered. Her farce looked a crude blackmail attempt that it indeed was and the CPM did not lose any time in exposing her hallow concern for the so-called common man. There is something remarkably similar between Ms Banerjee and Ms Jayalalitha. Both tried to bend the alliance and both failed. But in the process they dragged several others down as losers. Ms Jayalalitha held up the alliance and even the Congress as bumbling entities and now it is the turn of the BJP-led NDA. Like her, it too looks like a vacillating outfit vulnerable to pressure from any quarter. Individuals can act first and think later; an alliance should avoid this.

Political pointers in UP

THE Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party have stepped up pressure for early assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh. While Ms Mayawati believes that the tide is in favour of the BSP, Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav sees a more valid reason for wanting the electoral battle to start straightaway. The fact that the Samajwadi candidate polled more than the combined votes of the BSP, Congress and BJP candidates in the Karhal assembly byelection does indicate a political buildup in favour of Mr Yadav. The political arithmetic after the creation of Uttaranchal too suggests early elections in UP. The bifurcation is likely to create political uncertainty in Lucknow. And Chief Minister Ram Prakash Gupta with his limited political talent cannot be expected to tackle his problems tactfully as Mr Kalyan Singh did during the infamous mike-throwing incident in the state assembly. The creation of Uttaranchal will destroy the "brute majority" Mr Kalyan Singh had managed to create for the BJP-led coalition. Replacing Mr Gupta with a more capable leader at this stage will merely expose the panic within the BJP in UP, rather than help it stem the anti-incumbency tide building up slowly but surely even in pockets where the Samajwadis and the BSP are politically weak. After the division of the state which used to send the most number of members to the Lok Sabha a swing of only three votes will decide the fate of the government in the truncated assembly. The fact that five BJP MLAs are still close to former Chief Minister Kalyan Singh cannot be ignored for assessing the chances of victory of the Samajwadis and the BSP in the event of early assembly elections. If they decide to follow their leader out of the coalition, neither new UP BJP President Kalraj Misra nor Mr Gupta, individually or collectively, can do much to stop the BJP-led government from sinking.

Ms Mayawati has set up committees in all the assembly segments of a "reduced" UP for starting the process of shortlisting the names of candidates. She is keen to give the BSP the image of not only the protector of the interests of the Bahujan Samaj but also of other segments by giving tickets to upper caste Hindus and those representing the minority communities. It is not only the disarray in the BJP which the BSP and the Samajwadis hope to take advantage of by forcing early elections. The Congress too is in total disarray. The recent changes in the state's leadership have widened the chasm between various factions. With Congressmen working at cross purposes and the BJP on the backfoot, the ultimate battle for the political control of UP may ultimately be fought between Ms Mayawati and Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav. The Samajwadi chief has even found emotive issues for sustaining a "sarkar hatao, pradesh bachao" campaign. Party workers have spread to sensitive areas for mobilising public opinion against the BJP-led government for the police firing on sugar mill workers in Padrauna and the lawyers in Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav's hometown Etawah. There is an additional reason why Mr Yadav wants early elections. The BJP leadership has virtually gift-wrapped and handed over the Muslim votes to the Samajwadis. The turmoil in Aligarh Muslim University over the arrest of a student on the charge of being an ISI agent has snowballed into a major controversy. The attempt of the rabid elements in the Sangh Parivar to paint the entire university as an ISI extension counter has hurt the feelings of even such Muslims as had begun to come close to the BJP after Mr Bangaru Laxman's inaugural presidential address at Nagpur. Against this backdrop, it is clear that the Opposition in UP is keen to strike while the iron is still hot. The subtle shift in political loyalty among the Loktantrik Congress members of the coalition away from the BJP is, of course, more bad news for Mr Kalraj Misra and Mr Ram Prakash Gupta.

PAKISTAN-TALIBAN NEXUS 
Entire region is under threat
by Satyabrata Rai Chowdhuri

AMIDST the atmosphere of bonhomie and effusive cordiality, some hard issues were squarely addressed by President Clinton and Prime Minister Vajpayee when the latter recently visited the USA. Among them Afghanistan emerged as a key item. Indian anxieties over Afghanistan’s terrorist connections led both leaders to agree that Pak-Taliban nexus constitutes not only a force of destabilisation but also a threat to the peace and security of the region. Both leaders, therefore, agreed to set up a “policy framework” so that the Afghan threat could be thwarted.

Afghanistan’s strategic importance to Pakistan cannot be over-emphasised. Afghanistan is key to Pakistan’s geopolitical access to Central Asia. Due to the abundance of natural resources in Central Asia, the economic potential of the region is immense, which in turn bestows upon it a unique geopolitical significance. Pakistan’s main interest in Central Asia is motivated by its need to generate trade and capital for a reforming economy. Pakistan has in the last few years stepped up efforts to integrate itself with the Central Asian Republics by strengthening trade and communication links.

The Central Asian Republics are landlocked countries and, therefore, require an access to sea for their growing trade, commerce and industry, which can easily be provided by Pakistan. In fact, the major communication routes from Pakistan to the Central Asian Republics lie through Afghanistan. The Central Asian Republics are just 16 hours by road from North West Frontier — through Afghanistan. It is for this reason that Gen Abdur Rahman Soman of Pakistan recently said: “Pakistan must keep its close ties with Afghanistan at any cost. The future of our geostrategic access to Central Asia and our security depends on it. We will achieve a tremendous ‘strategic depth’ through our close relationship with Afghanistan and the Central Asian Republics. To gain this most vital ‘strategic depth’, our military establishment must not leave any stone unturned to strengthen the hands of the present Taliban leadership, which is extremely friendly to us. In the long run this friendship will stand us in very good stead in our jehad against India.”

Evidences are now available to show that when Prime Minister Vajpayee was visiting Lahore on February 20-21, 1999, on the inaugural run of the Delhi-Lahore bus service, top-level Pakistani army and Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) officials were in Afghanistan holding secret talks with the Taliban leaders and giving final touches to their gameplan of the Kargil operation. During these talks the Saudi billionaire terrorist Osama bin Laden was also present and it was on his advice that the Taliban leaders agreed to place their militia under the command of the Pakistani army. As revealed by Lt Gen Akram Masood, one of the participants in the talks, the main purpose of the Kargil operation was to give a broader dimension to the Kashmir issue, and to bring to the focus of the international community the danger of another Indo-Pak war, one in which nuclear weapons could be used. By fabricating this kind of danger, Pakistan would be able to urge them that there should be international intervention to defreeze the Kashmir issue.

In regard to Pakistan’s offensive in Kargil three strategies were drawn up. First, the Srinagar-Leh road would be cut off so that movement of supplies to Leh garrison and Siachen would become impossible. Second, the Zojila Pass would be blocked and this would make an intrusion into the Kashmir valley from the north easier. Third, the Pakistani army would have to take control over some strategic Himalayan ranges so that it would have unopposed access for insurgent-terrorists going into the Kashmir valley and Doda district of Jammu. To these three strategies, Laden added a fourth one: the Pakistani army would have to outflank the Indian troops deployed on the LoC in north-western Kashmir and the Siachen glacier through the Shyok valley.

When the conflict broke out in Kargil, the Pakistani forces were found to be composed of regular Pakistani army units, mercenaries and a good number of Taliban war veterans. A survey of various articles written by various defence analysts in Pakistan leaves no room for doubt that Taliban militia was directly involved in the Kargil war. It is no longer a secret that the Taliban had also been involved in the hijacking of the Indian Airlines IC 814. It was admitted by the External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh himself. In a written reply to the Rajya Sabha, he said: “The Taliban authorities, while adopting an attitude of correct facilitators, consistently had their sympathies with the hijackers and their other supporters.” He then added that the hijacking had made the world better appreciate the way Pakistan sponsored terrorism posed a threat not only to India’s security but also to that of the entire region.

This statement did not come as a surprise to anyone, because it is no longer a secret that the Taliban has been a spin off of the ISI gameplan to secure control of the strategic communication modes and land routes in Afghanistan. Finding the main Termez-Salang-Kabul highway blocked, the ISI concentrated its efforts on securing the Kushka-Herat-Kandahar-Quetta highway. This road is the only strategic artery in relatively good shape that can be rebuilt to carry massive convoys with relative ease.

It is mainly through this road that huge quantities of arms are supplied to the Taliban militia units. According to a correspondent of the Christian Science Monitor, enormous quantities of weapons first arrive in Pakistan by ship and sometimes by air, after which they are effectively under the control of the ISI officials. Then these weapons are trucked from Karachi to the arms dumps at Ojhiri and Peshawar. From there “ISI passes” ensure that a steady stream of trucks push the weapons to the Afghan border, from where again they are moved on by various transport like mule, truck and human labour.

Although Pakistan has armed the Taliban militia units to the teeth, Pakistani strategic planners’ agenda for Afghanistan remains largely unfulfilled. High on this agenda has always been their design to engage these units in carrying out terrorist activities in Kashmir and in the event of a war with India to utilise them as “frontline spearhead campaign” — as they call it. And no Pakistani policy planner seems to be clear how this perceived strategic objective is going to be implemented in the complex situation that is emerging in the ongoing Afghan civil war. With Pakistan having a new government on an average every two years during the 1990s, the armed forces continue to pursue their own policies in Afghanistan. In this process, Islamabad has already alienated most of its immediate neighbours. Moreover, in the process of pursuing this adventurist policy, the country has paid dearly in terms of socio-economic equilibrium. Not a few Pakistanis see a direct linkage between the “AK-47 culture” and ethnic violence and Shia-Sunni clashes in Pakistan. They argue that the country’s economy is a shambles because of the black economy created by Afghani smugglers with Taliban protection. They point out that Afghani smugglers regularly carry truck-loads of consumer goods from Quetta via Kandahar to Herat to Turkmenistan and onwards to Uzbekistan. They bring back cheap Russian tyres, airconditioners and raw cotton bound for Pakistan. The smugglers also trade with eastern Iran from where they return with fuel for the Taliban.

As and when saner elements come to power in Pakistan and assert their authority vis-a-vis the armed forces effectively, then only Islamabad will be able to redefine its strategic objectives in Afghanistan in far more pragmatic terms. If that does not happen soon, the spillover effects of Pak-Taliban nexus, which are already there for a discerning observer to see, may engulf not only Pakistan and India but also the entire region.

India sees its interest in having a broader approach to the entire problem arising out of Pakistan’s policy to encourage the Taliban to bring the entire Afghanistan under their control and to play a “decisive role” in the region. In this highly portentous situation, there are three critical points which are the key to India’s national interest. First, any external meddling in Afghanistan must be stopped, allowing the people of that country to settle the issue on their own. Second, India’s interest would be served if a broad-based government is formed in Afghanistan, involving all the ethnic groups in the power structure. Third, the territorial integrity of Afghanistan must be kept intact, because any dismemberment of that country would have a negative fallout in all directions, threatening even the territorial integrity of India.

In a recent article an eminent British defence analyst has rightly said that “The Taliban phenomenon must be seen in the context of collectively combating the menace of international terrorism, religious fundamentalism and political extremism which must be checked before they become more dangerous for the entire region and far more difficult to control”.

Tackling the growing crime
by H. L. Kapoor

CRIMES are generally committed for certain motives, gains and even for fame though it may be adverse. In old times crimes used to cover ordinary theft, robberies, desecration of places of worship, treason etc. The scenario has changed altogether. Most of the crimes are committed for personal gains and revenge. Murders and kidnapping have become the order of the day. Several mafia gangs have come up, each trying to eclipse the other and attain supremacy by creating a fear psychosis. Abductions/kidnappings are done to make money.

Even the capital, which is the seat of the central government, is not free from the menace. In the present era of terrorism, the militants and the criminals, who have a lust for money, have started indulging in kidnapping and abduction with the sole objective of getting money, are getting their colleagues released.

Kidnappings/abductions are thus generally done to demand ransom, take a revenge out of enmity or keep the person as hostage. Some of the criminals who head these mafia gangs describe the same as a “flourishing business”. They describe this as the easiest form of making money and ensure a comfortable and good living.

Such crimes are increasing by leaps and bounds. These criminal activities and external forces of enrichment are definitely responsible for social imbalance and disorder.

The projection of a desperado’s image in pictures, by the cinema producers and the media leave an imprint on the minds of the youngsters who get an allurement to commit crimes. Police officers and men are projected in a negative way.

Film producers and the media who yearn to make money, glorify the villains who are projected as heroes. In some cases, they are shown as messiahs of the poor. Actually, criminals help locals financially only to establish a base for themselves in the areas of their stay and operation.

Not only the corrupt police officers but also the media are to be blamed for the sorry state of affairs. The media and the film producers and others should refrain from such wrong projection because it affects the tender minds. Only true happenings with a positive role of the police in combating crime would help minimise the chances of youngsters turning into criminals. The media must assume the responsibility to expose the mafia gangs and criminals.

The lust for easy money and the aid being given to the criminals/ militants have been the contributory factors to the rise of crime. Even educated unemployed have been lured by the leaders of these gangs to commit the most heinous crimes like murder and rape. Militants’ propaganda supported by vested foreign interests has polluted the minds of the misguided youths. Of late, politicians and criminals have become complementary to each other. The politicians support to criminals and interference and pressure on the lower echelons of the police force often result in the concoction of evidence for the benefit of the wrongdoers who are hand in gloves with their political masters. The dreaded criminals and musclemen are protected because they constitute politicians’ striking force. Some policemen get allured when handsome amount is offered to them to carry on their illegal “trade” and seek favours for criminals who are harboured by them for narrow political gains. Policemen who fall prey to the machinations of politicians do not realise the harm they do to the police force and people in general. Not realising that these are the disgraceful acts on their part, they tend to be corrupt and get mixed up with dreaded criminals who indulge in heinous crimes and operate to the detriment of society’s welfare, which they are supposed to serve and extend all help.

Both Press and the police are front line organisations having many similarities in their nature of work. The Press plays a vital role in disseminating information. It is regarded as the watchdog of the public interest. It is, therefore, essential that the police and press should develop a cooperation culture instead of confrontation. a mutual understanding based on constructive approach must be established between the Press and the police. In many cases the Press gives very useful information in their writeups which enables the public spirited persons to furnish valuable information to the police about the involvement of culprits in heinous crimes. The police sometimes is able to solve very sensational cases. Therefore, investigative stories may be published which would send positive signals even to the criminals who would refrain from taking to crime as career.

Analytical study of crimes committed by various criminals enables the law-enforcement agencies to devise ways and means to combat crime, which being a social problem, prevention not only lies with the police but with society also. Crime is interwoven with almost every concept of community living. values and instructions, the political ideology, unstable or weak government, protection to wrongdoers by certain vested interests, leaders having a shady past very profoundly affect the socio-political environment having a bearing on nature and extent of crime. It has been seen that during pre-election periods, instability and violence dominate, leading to corruption, nepotism and payoffs.

There is a wrong impression in the minds of some people that the wrong-doers and criminals belong to the lower strata of society. The technique and the extent of crime committed by offenders indulging in white collar crimes should remove this wrong notion from their minds. White collar crimes apart from economic offences like foreign exchange racketeering, are illegal acts committed by deceitful means or concealment or guile to obtain money or property. The offenders may indulge in falsification of company accounts, preparation of wrong balance sheets to meet illegal expenses, payoffs and kickback.

Social organisations, the police, the judiciary, the legislature and community as a whole have a very important role to play in prevention, detection and control of crime. Though the police occupy the most strategic position in combating crime, yet in certain cases especially noncognisable ones they do not have any jurisdiction. The policemen are the first line of defence and are organised by the government for the prevention and detection of crime and prosecution of the criminals. They have, in fact, been set for the direction and implementation of societal response to crime.

The government may enact legislation for imposing severe punishment for kidnapping, abduction and rape. In some countries the culprit against whom the offence is proved is awarded the capital punishment, a deterrent to others. Strict censorship on the screening of films exhibiting extreme vulgarity and criminality may be imposed. Instead of showing a negative role of the police, its positive role should be projected so that its professionalism, capability and efficiency may have an impact on the minds of criminals. Politicians who come to the adverse notice for their complicity in crimes must be exposed and debarred from contesting elections. Likewise, the police officers who are found conniving with criminals and indulging in bribery should be ruthlessly dealt with. Further proper surveillance, both in jails and outside, on the activities of criminals and proper documentation of criminals would pay dividends.

Keep academics out of courts
Anupam Gupta

UNNOTICED by journalists and lawyers, the Punjab and Haryana High Court pronounced a terse but vital order last fortnight, firmly declining an invitation to plunge in to the hyper-sensitive area of religious historiography.

“Since the matter has been examined by an expert body and it has evaluated all its aspects,” ruled a Division Bench of the High Court on September 27, “we do not deem it appropriate to interfere with those findings at this stage. There is a serious dispute regarding historical facts as stated in the textbook and the court does not possess the requisite expertise to judge the correctness of those facts. The learned Single Judge was, thus, right in holding that in view of the disputed facts, there was no ground to stay the publication of the next edition of the textbook during the pendency of the writ petition.”

The textbook in question, titled “Medieval India”, is recommended by the Central Board of Secondary Education for students of CBSE-affiliated schools who opt for history as an elective subject at the senior secondary stage. First published by the National Council for Educational Research and Training (NCERT) in 1978, the book has undergone several reprints. A revised edition came out in 1992.

The author of the book is the renowned historian and former Chairman of the University Grants Commission, Prof Satish Chandra.

The part of the book sought unsuccessfully to be interdicted by judicial action are two pages which relate to the Sikhs and their conflict with the Moghul Empire, particularly Aurangzeb.

At the heart of the controversy, which the High Court has carefully avoided to adjudge, lies the author’s analysis of the reasons which led to one of the most highly inspirational events in the history of the Sikh religion, the martyrdom (or execution) of the ninth Sikh Guru, Guru Tegh Bahadur.

“Here (as always),” writes W.H. Macleod, Emeritus Professor at the University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand, and amongst the most distinguished authorities on Sikhism in the world today, “we are involved in the counterpoint of history and tradition, in the reciprocal exchange between the actual course of events in all its complexity and the comparatively simple interpretations with which these events are glossed.”

This is not to suggest, says Macleod, in his undelivered Radhakrishnan memorial lecture at Oxford published by Clarendon Press in 1989 and now republished by OUP, “that we should dismiss the latter and focus our attention only on the former..... If we are seeking answers to the question ‘What is Sikhism?’ or ‘Who is a Sikh?’, the double focus must be maintained. Traditional interpretations can be just as important as the actual facts....”

Scholarly study of Sikhism has been rather limited, opined another leading scholar, the late Prof Harbans Singh, in 1970 in the highly competent Journal of Religious Studies brought out by Punjabi University, Patiala. His article was republished by the University last year on the tercentenary of the Khalsa as part of a specially compiled anthology “The Sikh Tradition: A Continuing Reality (Essays in History and Religion)”.

Most of the Sikhs’ own work, Harbans Singh added, “falls into the category of what may be described as apologetics. They have a peculiar complex about their own religion — a mixture of the defensive and the assertive. This is perhaps the result of the odium theologicum to which their faith was subjected at the beginning of the century when leaders of the Singh Sabha renaissance were attempting to redefine the identity of Sikhism as a distinct faith. Their strong concern about self-preservation and their sensitiveness to criticism make the Sikhs impervious to a free discussion of their religious belief.”

The writ petition before the High Court, out of which the September 27 order arose — the main petition still awaits adjudication and the order refuses only interim relief, though it will be difficult for the High Court to take a different view at the stage of final judgement — reflects a similar imperviousness to free discussion, even though the traditional interpretation of the circumstances and causes of Guru Tegh Bahadur’s martyrdom does definitely exert a pervasive and powerful influence on the Sikh mind, constituting a potent actual force in itself. Ideas are power much more than Marxists will ever admit.

“To consider an unbiased account of historical developments as interference with the rights of minorities,” says the NCERT in its reply before the High Court, “and to seek the support of the Constitution and the judiciary to enforce this view is nothing but perverse.”

To be very frank, Prof Satish Chandra’s observations in the NCERT textbook are not entirely free of ideological bias. At the best, they are rather perfunctory and fail to convince. Whatever be its faults in other respects, modern Sikh scholarship appears to be closer to the truth on the subject of the Guru’s martyrdom. Dr Fauja Singh’s superb essay “Development of Sikhism under the Gurus”, published by the Punjabi University in 1969 and again in 1990, is a case in point.

But to use the courts, even the High Court for a debate that is better waged elsewhere, and for which the courts are singularly ill-equipped, is to employ the Constitution for a purpose for which it was never intended.

Judges do often make history with their judgements but they can neither write history nor rewrite it.

To that extent, and without attempting to anticipate the final judgement, the NCERT is clearly right.

1963 batch bureaucrats on the top
by Humra Quraishi

Bureaucratic changes at the Centre have been further postponed, till the third week of October. And as of now it is the 1963 batch which seems to be there on the top — new Cabinet Secretary T.R. Prasad is from the 1963 batch IAS, Foreign Secretary Lalit Mansingh is also from the 1963 batch IFS (in fact, the topper of the batch) and CBI chief V. Raghavan is also from the 1963 batch IPS. Interestingly, both the new and the outgoing Cabinet Secretary (Prabhat Kumar) had done their Masters in Physics and Mathematics from Allahabad University (not sure whether the Physics professor-turned present HRD Minister Murli Manohar Joshi was their teacher and rubbed off some of his political thoughts).

And with Mamata Banerjee and Ajit Kumar Panja back, to the fold, so as to say, the slight turbulence that the Vajpayee government faced has settled down. And contrary to reports that Mamata and Panja were in the process of shifting bag and baggage to Calcutta, their staff completely and sincerely deny that rumour. Maybe, in these days of fusions and confusions (the two quite linked!) the fact that they had temporarily shifted to Calcutta (voicing those resignation threats from constituency quarters can be helpful) got mixed up with the rest of the bandobasts -political and otherwise.

Distractions and more

And we would all drop dead if there weren’t distractions around — romantic and otherwise. Well, you have guessed right. That evening of ghazals in memory of Begum Akhtar had many in the audience humming those sentimental lines and looking nostalgic and lost. I wish space could permit and I’d fit in at least some of those poetic lines. But with wants/desires rarely matching realities, I give up. But let me quickly fit in the names of those spotted that evening — Begum Akhtar’s students Rita Ganguly and Shanti Hiranand, KPS Gill, Tunisian Ambassador and spouse, Ashok Vajpeyi, Laila Kidwai — (the late singer Talat Mehmood’s sister), O.P. Jain, L.M. Singhvi (happens to be ghazal singer Anita Singhvi’s father -in-law), Amar Singh. In fact, Singh was sitting in the row just next to mine and I couldn’t help noticing that he got up to give his seat to one elderly woman. This when the IIC auditorium was not just packed but several music lovers had to go back from the entrance itself as the hall couldn’t take in more. And so that particular evening Amar Singh went high on the graph. For this gesture is indeed a rarity in a city like Delhi where gentlemen are rarely to be seen. In fact, to be absolutely honest most men of this city look and behave like weaklings. Absolutely unmanly, that is.

Then, though the International Day of Older Persons (October 1), went off without much fuss and fuming but just wait for this particular prediction to come true — As soon as it will be announced that the Second World Assembly on Ageing will be held in Spain in 2002 many of our political men and women will try to fit in slots, to represent the country’s aged and ageing. “One in 10 persons today is over 60. By 2050, this proportion will have doubled to one in five.” (UN figures). And how would the average citizen try to cope with this new demographic revolution. With healthcare facilities reduced to no-facilities the old and the aged might start surrendering themselves to dear God.

Anyway, this brings me to write about Pavan Kumar Varma and Renuka Khandekar’s book on the middleclass. Originally published by Penguin, it lists the dos and don’ts, we, the middleclass people, ought to indulge in, to make life and the surroundings a better place to live and breathe in. I am told that the book has been widely read and much appreciated. And now to widen the reach its Hindi version ‘Adarsh Nagrik Jeevan’ (Prabhat Prakashan) is all set to be getting launched here, on October 11. Pavan’s next book -that is his seventh or eighth — should be on how an individual can manage to fit in so much. And he ought to know this, for this 46-year-old foreign service officer (at present posted as JS — Africa Desk but scheduled to go as India’s High Commissioner to Cyprus) manages to work, write, socialize, talk — not along the usual bureaucratic strains but on a full range. Not to overlook the fact that together with all this, he also manages a wife and three children. And seems a well managed lot. So Pavan get set go and your next book should be on this alone! Management of time and much more....

Tailpiece

Though I sincerely try to keep away from bureaucrats but recently met a retired bureaucrat and he told me this interesting fact. Thought I must share it with you. “One out of every six persons in the world is an Indian and one out of every six bureaucrats in India is from the U.P. cadre.”

Then why is my home state in such a pathetic state? Maybe too many of them (bureaucrats) are responsible for the messed up state.

SPIRITUAL NUGGETS

I am neither from earth nor from water,

—Atharva Veda, 7.65.2