E D I T O R I A L   P A G E

EDITORIALS

Go, Governor, go
IN UP, first it was the transfer of power from Mr R.P.Gupta to Mr Rajnath Singh. Now it is the transfer of Governor Suraj Bhan. Originally it was explained that his posting in Shimla was a routine affair and nothing more should be read into it. But this specious defence evoked a hoot of derisive laughter and the PMO intervened to contain the damage.

The battle in Chhattisgarh
The newly installed Chief Minister of Chhattisgarh, Mr Ajit Jogi, who is yet to constitute his Cabinet, has to fight a three-cornered battle to ensure his survival in the present position. His immediate problem appears to be how to put his detractors within his party — the Congress — in place.

OPINION

MIDDLE

Seductions of the bed
by M. K. Agarwal
SOME seek bread as their foremost want, others seek wealth and ease. Many seek power and fame, but all — irrespective of age, sex, race, and community — seek the bed. There is no doing without it, neither for the mendicant nor for the king. Its ubiquity, indispensability and irresistibility are amazing. Bed is the very symbol of life, comprehending every phase of man’s existence, and all his passions and emotions, afflictions and joy.

POINT OF LAW

by Anupam Gupta
Narmada dam: not a case but a war
“THE millions of displaced people don’t exist anymore,” wrote Arundhati Roy in her famous 1999 essay on the Narmada dam. “When history is written they won’t be in it. Not even as statistics. Some of them have subsequently been displaced three and four times — a dam, an artillery proof range, another dam, a uranium mine, a power project. Once they start rolling there’s no resting place.

DIVERSITIES—DELHI LETTER

by Humra Quraishi
Another round of ‘mild changes’ on cards
IS THE bureaucratic reshuffling at the Centre finally over and done with? No, not really. After the former Secretary Coal, Dr E.A.S. Sarma, quit in disgust (said to be unhappy by the shift from the Finance Ministry’s Economic Affairs Department) there is talk of another round of mild changes taking place.

SPIRITUAL NUGGETS

Go, Governor, go

IN UP, first it was the transfer of power from Mr R.P.Gupta to Mr Rajnath Singh. Now it is the transfer of Governor Suraj Bhan. Originally it was explained that his posting in Shimla was a routine affair and nothing more should be read into it. But this specious defence evoked a hoot of derisive laughter and the PMO intervened to contain the damage. The former UP Governor was trying to set up a rival power centre at Raj Bhavan, the PMO said, and was taking a direct hand in the day-to-day administration. He used to write letters to senior officers, instructing them to do a dozen things. He went as far as to demand that the government should set up a cell at his residence to monitor cases of attacks on and discrimination against dalits. This was going far beyond his constitutional powers and was an encroachment on the elected government’s well-defined responsibilities. And so he had to go. And he went. Several disquieting implications flow from this. The ugly tradition of punishment transfers and postings is being extended from bureaucrats to Governors. First it was Mr Sunder Singh Bhandari, from Bihar to Gujarat. In the process a protocol was violated. Mr Anshuman Singh, a former Judge, was posted in Rajasthan, his home state. (The BJP-led alliance government was about to repeat the blunder in Chhattisgarh when it woke up in time to realise that its nominee, Dr D.N. Tiwari, was from that region.) Active Governors are not all that unknown. Mr P.C. Alexander summoned the Chief Secretary and other officers of Maharashtra when the state faced a financial crisis during Shiv Sena-BJP rule. Why, Mr Bhandari was making provocative political statements every day from Patna and was in Delhi every fortnight to canvass for the imposition of President’s rule. At that time the BJP and the alliance government supported him to the hilt. Why discriminate in the case of Mr Suraj Bhan, another veteran BJP leader?

As he told the media after his transfer, Mr Suraj Bhan himself had been a victim of anti-dalit prejudices and has been voicing his feelings. He wrote a series of letters to Chief Ministers Kalyan Singh and R.P. Gupta. When there was no response he wrote a few notes to senior officials with the same result. He then shook the state government by unveiling a catalogue of dalit woes at a conference of Governors convened by the President. The meeting decided to set up a committee to go into the continued denial of justice to this segment and fittingly asked Mr Suraj Bhan to head it. Perhaps it was in this new role that he sought statistics and found himself demanding action. One thing is sure, the BJP leadership was embarrassed by his taking up an assignment that was bound to project it as ineffective in presenting atrocities on dalits. That made him a marked man. Also, it is a novel experience for dalits to have a friendly soul in Raj Bhavan and that led to a consolidation of their votes. It is not difficult to realise that such a consolidation cannot help the Sangh Parivar and it may even cut into its electoral base. As it is, the backwards are irritated that the state BJP and administrative heirarchy is completely in the hands of the Brahmins and Rajputs. The new Governor is a Brahmin from West Bengal, the Chief Minister is a Thakur, and the BJP president, the Speaker, the Chief Secretary and the police chief are all Brahmins. This bunching of caste men may have helped the BJP woo back the upper castes but has done no good to its claim of working for social harmony. This dilemma too has something to do with the abrupt transfer of Mr Suraj Bhan. He was not even told about his new state. The office of Governor is being dangerously devalued.

The battle in Chhattisgarh

The newly installed Chief Minister of Chhattisgarh, Mr Ajit Jogi, who is yet to constitute his Cabinet, has to fight a three-cornered battle to ensure his survival in the present position. His immediate problem appears to be how to put his detractors within his party — the Congress — in place. The Shukla brothers, who used every weapon in their armoury to prevent Mr Jogi’s elevation, are unlikely to take things lying down. Of course, a clear warning from 10 Janpath not to put a spoke in the wheel of the new Chief Minister — which may ultimately benefit the main Opposition party in Chhattisgarh, the BJP — may provide him relief, but only to an extent. It is only his political management that can insulate his position from the Congress dissidents’ attack. He has to satisfy the Digvijay Singh loyalists in the Chhattisgarh Congress Legislature Party who gave their valuable support in the fight for Chief Ministership. In fact, he has to take care of all the MLAs who have thrown in their lot with Mr Jogi. It is thus going to be his most difficult trial as a political player. One cannot doubt his dexterity. He has been a successful spokesman of the All-India Congress Committee for a long time. But as we know, it is not so easy to keep so many people in good humour. The solace for Mr Jogi is that the Shukla brothers’ camp has only seven of the 48 Congress MLAs in a House of 90. Even if one or two more MLAs move over to the dissidents’ side, they will not be in a position to upset the applecart of the Chief Minister by engineering a split in the party.

The BJP will, however, be looking for an opportunity to repeat what it did in Goa. There are reports that moneybags are ready to buy those willing to put themselves on sale. This is not the only threat Mr Jogi has to face from the Opposition ranks. The BJP chief, Mr Bangaru Laxman must be fully aware of the aspirations and apprehensions of the tribal and other people of the new state. The RSS, which has given birth to the BJP, also has a widespread network of its schools and other institutions there. Conversion continues to be a sensitive issue. Since Mr Jogi is a tribal Christian, one can imagine what kind of a trouble he may have to face from the main Opposition group. He can, however, hope to trounce his adversaries of every variety by learning a few tricks from one of his well-wishers, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Digvijay Singh. This means that Mr Jogi’s work in the area of governance can prove to be his most effective weapon. People of Chhattisgarh have been faced with an unending drought or drought-like condition. If the Chief Minister takes up this problem to fight it on a war-footing, he will obviously command the support of the majority of the people. Then there will be no need for Mr Jogi, a former IAS officer, to worry about the designs of his detractors within the Congress or in the Opposition.

UNENDING DISPUTE IN W. ASIA
The UN can restore peace
by Sunanda K. Datta-Ray

Fever any strife spot cried out for United Nations intervention, it is the territory that Israel seized from Jordan and Egypt at the end of the Yom Kippur war and which it has controlled for 33 years. This is something that India can propose and press for without taking sides in West Asia’s bloody war.

The UN has sent peacekeeping forces in the past to Congo and Cambodia, Somalia and Serbia. The world body’s raison d’être is to maintain law and order in areas where there is no legal or effective national sovereignty. Only UN troops, with India playing a leading part in the operation, can protect Palestinian life and property in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, ensure that Israeli settlements are not threatened, and possibly salvage some shreds of the peace process.

The USA which has undertaken the responsibility of knocking Arab and Jewish heads together can never be an honest broker because all administrations in Washington are hostage to the powerful Zionist lobby. One week after President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s death, his successor, Harry S. Truman, called together State Department officials and explained to them that he could not be bound by his predecessor’s promise to King Abdul Aziz of Saudi Arabia regarding a Palestinian homeland.

“I’m sorry, gentlemen,” said the new President, “but I have to answer to hundreds of thousands who are anxious for the success of Zionism; I do not have hundreds of thousands of Arabs among my constituents.”

That explains why Mrs Hilary Clinton no longer says that an independent Palestinian state on the West Bank is the only solution to the problem. The run-up to the presidential election would have imposed its own compulsions even if Vice-President Al Gore’s running mate had not been so conscious of his Jewish identity. President Bill Clinton is more interested in the symbols by which his tenure will be remembered than in the substance of peace.

Speculation about likely governmental changes in Israel serves no purpose. As the old Indian saying goes, it makes little difference to ordinary men whether Ram or Ravana rules in Heaven. Similarly, when the chips are down – as they now are — the difference between one Israeli politician and another is only of style. For all his supposed liberalism, Mr Ehud Barak, the Prime Minister, is a former military chief of staff. He has barely 30 assured supporters in the 120-member Knesset (Parliament). There was never any chance of him being able to push through a just settlement with Mr Yasser Arafat even if he had wanted to.

Mr Barak has held office on sufferance for 16 months mainly because his opponents knew that his government was ultimately their hostage. Any major decision he takes will have to be approved by the Likud bloc’s hard-line Mr Ariel Sharon, a 72-year-old former army general, who is held responsible for the 1970s pacification of Gaza and the 1982 massacre in the Sabra-Shatila Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon. Reportedly, he appeared on Italian television a few days before the Palestine National Council’s Algiers session in 1988 and emphasised the need to eliminate Mr Arafat. The present crisis erupted only because of his decision to visit Jerusalem’s Temple of the Mount on September 28.

Tragic though violence and bloodshed must always be, the revolt might help to clarify issues and remove some of the scales from the world’s eyes. Of course, the Palestinians over-reacted to Mr Sharon’s provocation, but they did so on their own, not at Mr Arafat’s bidding. Secondly, the explosion – this second Intifada – would have come sooner or later as the Palestinians realised that the Oslo process, started seven years ago and supposed to have been completed by now, was selling them down the Jordan river. In some ways, the insurrection is more against

Oslo than Israel, though it is also a response against the military occupation. The facts that are central to Palestinian resentment deserve reiteration. First, at no time have the Israelis supported the vision of a sovereign Palestine that Mr Arafat dangles before his people. On the contrary, they speak only of a future “Palestinian entity” and always describe the West Bank in Biblical terms as Judea and Samaria. Whereas non-aligned governments might accord Mr Arafat the honours of a Head of State and call him “President”, Israel persistently refers to him as simply “Chairman”. Mr Arafat should know from this alone that Israel will not countenance independence. To dream of independence in spite of Israel is wishful thinking. Second, none of the major Jewish settlements in the West Bank, which is criss-crossed by access roads for the movement of Israeli armour and troops, have been closed. Israel still controls most of the territory with only little scraps here and there under Palestinian local authorities.

Finally, though Jerusalem figures on the Oslo agenda, albeit as the last item, Israeli conduct and statements make it abundantly clear that the status of the city, holy to Jews, Muslims and Christians, is not negotiable. For all its much-publicised show of support for the peace process, the Clinton administration backed this recalcitrance by agreeing to move the US embassy to Jerusalem.

All this plays into the hands of militant organisations like Hamas that were never reconciled to negotiations. They have a powerful argument in as much as it was the 1987 Intifada that gave birth to the peace process. The extremists probably reason that another armed revolt will extract further concessions. They may at last have persuaded even moderate Palestinians to recognise that Oslo will not deliver more than a pockmarked Arab variant of apartheid South Africa’s pitiful “Bantustans.”

The Americans have always known this. But US conduct at the UN confirms that its agenda does not include criticism of Israeli policies. The Sharm el Sheikh summit was a failure. The Cairo summit, promising rhetoric rather than action, brought more joy to the Israelis than the Palestinians. There remains only the UN whose involvement would underscore the fact that the West Bank and Gaza are not internal Israeli matters.

They are foreign territory, conquered in war and, therefore, live international issues. The passage of time and American connivance does not make occupation legal. Namibia was the former German Southwest Africa, taken from Germany after World War I, entrusted to the League of Nations, then transferred to the UN which asked South Africa to administer it until it attained independence. Even apartheid South Africa did not dare assimilate a trust territory. The Soviets disgorged East Germany and India pulled its troops out of Bangladesh. Aware of these parallels, Mr Barak refused Mr Arafat’s demand for an international commission of inquiry into the conflict. By supporting him, Mr Clinton tried to legitimise the fruits of conquest.

The UN alone can restore the rightful status of the conquered Arab territories. It can separate the warring sides and restore peace. It might even be able to inject fresh life into the wounded, bleeding and all but dead peace process. India argued when establishing full relations with Israel that friendship would enable it to help the Palestinians. Let Mr Jaswant Singh now try at least to fulfil that claim by calling for a UN peacekeeping force.

Hard task ahead for UP’s new CM
by A. N. Dar

IT was not easy for the BJP leadership to choose Mr Rajnath Singh as the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh. Had it been easy Mr Ram Prakash Gupta would have had no chance of being taken out of the mothballs a year ago to be installed on the gaddi at Lucknow. He came to be there precisely because the UP leadership did not agree on the first choice then, which also was Mr Rajnath Singh. All the top local leaders, Mr Lalji Tandon, Mr Kalraj Mishra and Mr Om Prakash Singh, had opposed him even as the leadership insisted on installing Mr Rajnath Singh as the successor to the expelled Chief Minister, Mr Kalyan Singh. Those who opposed him were not individually considered up to it if anyone of them was thought off for the top job either because none of them would carry the entire party with him or administratively would not control the bureaucracy. The leadership at the time had to make the surprise choice of calling upon Mr Ram Prakash Gupta who had been nowhere in the reckoning.

As time went on it now dawned on the Central leadership that UP demanded quick action. The BJP leadership came to the conclusion that it could not go on waiting with a makeshift choice who everyone thought must go sooner than later. The sword of Damocles was the assembly elections less than a year away. And this important state which sends the largest number of members to the Lok Sabha could not go on waiting for the BJP leadership to choose a leader who would win the state for it. This was the time to make the choice. Delay would spell disaster. Mr Ram Prakash Gupta kept on giving a clean chit to himself, which no one else endorsed, while the time was running out for the party.

The fortunes of the BJP had been dwindling in UP. The worst warning was the fall in the numbers of the MPs the party could get elected in the general election last year. The leadership in UP would be facing a number of trials in the coming months. In the third week of this month municipal elections are to be held. These will give a fair idea of the strength of the parties in the urban areas. The BJP could do well because it traditionally enjoys a good support in cities, but in the present conditions it cannot be certain of it. The support in the rural areas is a major question mark. Another trial started with the formation of Uttaranchal. While the MLAs from Uttaranchal were preparing (or fighting) to elect a leader who would become the Chief Minister of the new state, a warning came when it was realised that with members of the legislature going over to the new state, the majority of the present government in UP would be reduced to perhaps only two.

With this realisation came warnings from its allies. Before Mr Rajnath Singh was installed, the Loktantrik Congress Party leader, Mr Naresh Aggarwal, had said that his group would fight the coming municipal elections on its own. Would he follow up the warning now that Mr Ram Prakash Gupta has been sent home? Within the party Mr Ram Prakash Tripathi had stoutly opposed Mr Kalraj Mishra becoming the UP BJP chief until Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee intervened and asked Mr Tripathi to comply. Is he having no grudges now?

In choosing Mr Rajnath Singh the BJP chose a leader who has the reputation of bolstering his party’s electoral strength by any means available to him. He is said to have the ability to not only hold the party together but also organise defections. He is said to have good contacts in the ranks of Samajwadi Party and his eye is said to be on the Congress party. Can he organise defections from these parties? The way the BJP managed the defections in Goa shows that it is not shy of carrying on such exercises. Mr Ram Prakash Gupta would not have been able to manage this.

This is why the BJP leadership went in for inelegant hurry to effect the change, not letting a hapless Ram Prakash Gupta to complete one year in office. He had only 20 more days to go. This was one of the decisions in which Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee and Mr L.K. Advani agreed wholeheartedly. So while only a few days before Mr Ram Prakash Gupta was saying that there was no threat to his term, when the signal came from 7 Race Course Road through Mr Kalraj Mishra, he said that he had himself asked for a change on health grounds. But he is a gentle party worker and he would make no trouble.

One of the wise decisions Mr Rajnath Singh has taken has been to keep Mr Ram Prakash Gupta’s Cabinet in tact. This would perhaps help him keep his party together. But what would the party do with the caste equation? This is now a major challenge for the party. One of the reasons why the BJP was delaying a decision on choosing a new Chief Minister was to get the caste equation correct. But it failed. It has surrendered to appearing as an upper caste party. The BJP’s desperate anxiety is to find a backward class leader to help it get over its current reputation. If this situation does not change the BJP would go to the electorate next year as an upper caste party which will be detrimental to it. Mr Rajnath Singh is a Thakur and Kalraj Mishra a Brahmin. The most august representative of the party at the Centre, Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee, is also counted as an upper caste leader, so far as the caste equations in UP are concerned. As for the Muslims, Mr Bangaroo Laxman, the BJP President’s well-timed and wise call to the party to come closer to Muslims and the other minorities has not yet brought it any great rewards. In this the Congress is better placed than the BJP. Although Mrs Sonia Gandhi changed the Pradesh Congress chief, Mr Salman Khurshed, this has not yet taken away the Muslim vote. Personable and active, he was never a mass leader.

The Congress headache should be how to take away the Muslim supporters of Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav. This is not easy and rumours are afloat that despite the talk of the formation of the Third Front, the BJP is cosying up to Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav so that it could fight the BSP. Yet Mr Mulayam Singh is trying his best to gain support of Rajputs, Yadavs and Muslims. Reports also say that Mr Rajnath Singh has had parleys with Mr Ajit Singh, the Rashtriya Lok Dal chief, but he seems to be keen on the Third Front.

What would the Rashtriya Kranti Party of Mr Kalyan Singh do? There is as yet no clear estimate of his strength after he was expelled from the BJP. He is displaying great confidence and has said that Mr Rajnath Singh would be the last BJP Chief Minister of UP.

Mr Rajnath Singh has not only to keep his party together but also to hold fast to his allies. He has to fight the caste combinations and beat off the Congress, the Samajwadi Party and the BSP. Ms Mayawati says that the BJP will be the third party to emerge from the elections. This is not the time yet to make calculations. What can now be said is that if the BJP loses UP, its strength at the Centre will be weakened considerably.

Seductions of the bed
by M. K. Agarwal

SOME seek bread as their foremost want, others seek wealth and ease. Many seek power and fame, but all — irrespective of age, sex, race, and community — seek the bed. There is no doing without it, neither for the mendicant nor for the king. Its ubiquity, indispensability and irresistibility are amazing. Bed is the very symbol of life, comprehending every phase of man’s existence, and all his passions and emotions, afflictions and joy.

For, isn’t it true that in bed we are born, in bed we live, and in bed we die? Don’t we laugh and enjoy in bed, and also cry and sob in bed? A woman achieves her hour of fulfilment in bed when she gives birth to her child, forgetting all the accompanying pangs. It is here that the lovers experience the ecstasy of togetherness, the warmth of intimacy, and the rapture of love and its consummation. Their bed itself becomes animated and joyous: it heaves and sighs, bends and murmurs, as if in response to their own frenzy. Bed is also the kindred refuge for the ill and the suffering. Those who breathe their last in the bed, take their final respite here before they commence their journey for the life hereafter.

Bed is the place of repose and comfort for worn-out bodies. For distraught minds it is a retreat from the outside world and its activity, hypocrisy, wheeling and dealing. Lin Yutang has remarked that after you have gone through a strenuous day, after you have met all your friends who tried to crack trite and silly jokes, after you have received all the sermons intended to improve your performance, rectify your conduct and save your soul, after you have interviewed all the people who thoroughly got on your nerves, after you have dined and wined to your heart’s content, what you need most is complete relaxation — physical as well as mental. Where to find it, except in bed?

For people who love solitude, peace and contemplation nothing is more conducive, nor more fascinating than bed. With muscles at rest, nerves calm, respiration steady, concentration is deep and more absolute. It has been observed that nine-tenths of world’s most important discoveries — both scientific and philosophical — are come upon when one is curled up in bed. So much of immortal poetry, exalted thought, and sublime writing are the benedictions of the bed. The thinker, the inventor, and the man with originality can get more inspiration and ideas by one hour in bed than by endless sittings before their disk. In the absence of distractions (no visitors, no telephones, no secretaries) the high executive — stretched out comfortably in his bed — can ponder over the day’s achievements, mull over yesterday’s mistakes, and chalk out his schedule for the day that lies ahead.

Innumerable, indeed, are the seductions of the bed, and variegated its charms! This is what Napolean says: “The bed has become a place of luxury to me! I would not exchange it for all the thrones in the world”. In our own life we find that some of our best moments are spent in bed. Parents and children both look forward to bedtime stories — the former with love and encouragement, the latter with anticipation and excitement. All good music is most enjoyed in the lying posture. Idle rumination in bed, without straps and buckles on the body or the mind, is so very soothing. There is, after all, such a thing known as “sacred idleness”, the cultivation of which is everybody’s duty. In bed, while dreaming, one sees the accomplishment of all one’s unfulfilled aspirations and repressed desires.

Not only this. A hot cup of bed-tea cheers the spirits and prepares you better for the chores ahead. And to browse through the morning newspaper, as your sip your tea, is supremely satisfying. The gratification you get by having your breakfast in bed, especially on a holiday, is not easily described. But, the proviso is that you should have a good servant or an obedient wife (alternatively, a husband who can cook and serve).

And how pleasure some to close a book at midnight in the bed, on a spectacle of splendour and glory, thrill and adventure, wonder and delight! How ravishing to roam with the author, in the stillness of night, on the bylanes of passion and intrigue, suspense and mystery, or the highway of rise and fall of empires. Even if you are not reading or doing anything in particular, it is a delicious moment, certainly, says Leigh Hunt, that of being well nestled in bed and feeling that you shall gently drop to sleep.

But, it is a paradox that while we go to bed with pleasure, we quit it with regret. Those last few minutes in bed are so intoxicating and so deliriously blissful! One wrenches oneself from its seductive embrace with effort and a heavy heart.

As I write the concluding part, quietude of the late hour, heaviness of the lids, and a feeling of languor are creeping over me. Consciousness is on the wane; there is a gradual dulling of perceptions. The bed is beckoning me, temptingly. I must, therefore, dear reader, take leave, to slip into my bed, and then into the world of sleep, dreams and bliss. Adieu!

Narmada dam: not a case but a war
by Anupam Gupta

“THE millions of displaced people don’t exist anymore,” wrote Arundhati Roy in her famous 1999 essay on the Narmada dam. “When history is written they won’t be in it. Not even as statistics. Some of them have subsequently been displaced three and four times — a dam, an artillery proof range, another dam, a uranium mine, a power project. Once they start rolling there’s no resting place. The great majority is eventually absorbed into slums on the periphery of our great cities, where it coalesces into an immense pool of cheap construction labour (that builds more projects that displace more people).”

For all the attention devoted by the Supreme Court to the issue of relief and rehabilitation (R&R), an issue which, contrary to most press reports, dominates its October 18 verdict on the Narmada dam, there is nothing in the verdict, nothing at all, which would dispel this profound sociological comment by one of India’s youngest and best known writers-turned-Narmada activist.

Except a bland conclusion which assumes a vast range of facts in dire need of proof.

“The displacement of the tribals and other persons,” holds the Supreme Court, “would not per se result in the violation of their fundamental and other rights. The effect is to see that on their rehabilitation at new locations they are better off than what they were. At the rehabilitation sites they will have more and better amenities than which they enjoyed in their tribal hamlets. The gradual assimilation in the mainstream of society will lead to betterment and progress.”

And a host of statistics dished out by the concerned state governments and faithfully reproduced by the court in its majority verdict.

The civic amenities, says the court, for example, citing the 1979 award of the Narmada Water Disputes Tribunal and mistaking promise for performance, required to be provided at the resettlement sites include one primary school for every 100 families, one panchayat ghar, one dispensary, one seed store, one children’s park, one village pond and one religious place of worship for every 500 families, one drinking water well for every 50 families, an approach road linking each colony to a main road, electrification, water supply, sanitary arrangements, etc.

What more, it means to say, can the government provide, what more can the displaced desire?

True, absolutely true, but only if wishes were horses and the displaced could ride. Only if an inch of the voluminous paper-work that bureaucracies do, and private management consultants do even better, were ever translated into habitable reality on the ground.

The judgement, wrote Pamela Philipose of The Indian Express in a withering satire last Wednesday, is a “simple demonstration of the power of positive thinking.”

Reading the majority judgement as a whole, however — and putting aside for the moment its vice of procedural unfairness discussed by me last week — it is apparent that the judgement is a reaction to the sweeping attack mounted by the leaders and ideologues of the Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA) on not only the Narmada dam but all big dams in general. And on the entire process and perspective of development that underlies big dams and constitutes an essential birth-mark of nation-states like India.

“(T)he fight against the Sardar Sarovar dam,” confesses Arundhati Roy in her essay “The Greater Common Good” (quoted at the beginning of this article), “has come to represent far more than the fight for one river.”

In the 50 years since independence, she charges, unfolding the larger dimension of that fight, after Nehru’s famous “dams are the temples of modern India” speech, his “footsoldiers threw themselves into the business of building dams ......Dam-building grew to be equated with nation-building.”

“Big dams are to a nation’s development (she continues, clubbing development with war and rubbishing both) what nuclear bombs are to its military arsenal. They’re both weapons of mass destruction.... They’re both malignant indications of a civilisation turning upon itself.”

Whether or not it was reflected in the pleadings and arguments of the NBA in court, it is irresponsible, immature rhetoric such as this, forming the ambience around the Narmada dam case, that converted what was essentially an issue of relief and rehabilitation into a much bigger, and scary, issue of development vs anti-development. And even of nationalism vs anti-nationalism. And compelled the court into a complete, implicit acceptance of the official point of view on virtually all the points in contention.

Rather than fight the case like a case, the NBA took upon the entire system and fought it like a war. Having been inflicted a crushing defeat, it has, in retrospect, only itself to blame.

Another round of ‘mild changes’ on cards
by Humra Quraishi

IS THE bureaucratic reshuffling at the Centre finally over and done with? No, not really. After the former Secretary Coal, Dr E.A.S. Sarma, quit in disgust (said to be unhappy by the shift from the Finance Ministry’s Economic Affairs Department) there is talk of another round of mild changes taking place. And contrary to rumours that Sarma could be ‘adjusted’ sources insist that he is all set to getting back to his home town, Vishakapatnam. In fact, the joke doing the rounds here is that Subramaniam Swamy could have advised Sarma to quit — lets not overlook the fact that Sarma’s only son is married to Swamy’s daughter (no, not his only daughter. In fact his second daughter is married to former Foreign Secretary Salman Haidar’s son). And contrary to the belief that the new Cabinet Secretary T.S.R. Prasad had a prominent role to play in these latest series of changes, it is the former Chief Secretary, Mr Prabhat Kumar, who was consulted and even had a say.

Cultured capsules

There’s such a rush of activity here that my mid years seem to come in the way — you know what I mean. Before they actually intrude lets get going. The Germans are here, in a big way. Along with the ongoing activities related to the German Festival in India there’s focus on Indologist Max Mueller. Does it ring a bell? All German cultural institutes in India are named after him. And rightly so, for he was one of those Germans who took to learning Sanskrit in 1844, even translated the Rigveda, published a collection of ‘The Sacred Books of the East’, and it is said that his indepth knowledge of Indian history, Indian mythology and his analytical grasp of ancient Indian languages still remains unparalleled. Yet there is a paradox or say irony to it all. He never touched the soil of India! Managing it all from Berlin and Oxford. In fact, exactly 100 years back, on October 28, 1900, he breathed his last in Oxford.

And this weekend, the Austrian Ambassador and spouse Shovana Narayan Traxl are hosting an evening of classical music with Viennese artists Albert Sassmann (pianist) and Wolfgang Gollner (violinist). And after performing in New Delhi the duo will be visiting Goa, Pune, Bangalore, Calcutta. And thankfully they are not confining themselves to giving performances but will also conduct workshops for music enthusiasts/lovers.

On November 2, the Embassy of Poland had arranged for the screening of the noted Polish filmmaker Andrzej Wajda’s film, Pan Tadeusz. In fact, earlier this year he received the Academy Award, Oscar, for a whole lifetime achievement in cinema and if one was to go through the turns in his life there could be enough material for a book — Wajda was born in 1926 when turbulence was at its peak, at the

age of 16 he fought with the resistance movement against German occupation of Poland (1939-1945) and around the same time his father was killed together with other Polish officers by the Soviet Secret Police NKGB in Katyn and though the then young Wadja studied painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow but soon gave up studies, instead moved towards theatre and films. Making his debut in cinema in 1953, with the film ‘A Generation’.

Coming to our own artists, it certainly is the happening time. At this time of the year almost all art galleries are booked. On Friday afternoon I happened to be at the Triveni Kala Sangam and as expected works of art peeped from each end. From four different ends, to be precise. On display are F. Tarannum’s abstracts and though this is her first solo show but the works stand out and leave an impact. There’s something about the foreplay or say interplay of colours that make her works stand out. Then, at the terrace garden there is a display of photographs and paintings by Naina Kanodia, Ajit Rao, Anjalie Ela Menon. And the basement (Art Heritage) is alive with Professor Gayoor Hassan’s sculptures which he has aptly titled “The Tranquil Mind”. Hassan is the former Principal and Dean of the Faculty of Music and Fine Arts, University of Kashmir. He is also a founder member of the Kashmir Artists’ Guild and above all this he comes across as a nice, soft spoken man. One of those gentleman variety, difficult to come across in New Delhi. Perhaps that explains why his works stand out as uncomplicated. He told me that the response had been overwhelmingly encouraging, so much so that though this exhibition had to conclude last week, it had been extended (till November 8).

The paintings of senior artist Ravindra Verma (exhibited in the main Shridharani Gallery) can be best described in Dr Lavlin Thadani’s words: “The child in Ravindra Verma is alive... there are pebbels and boats, moon and clouds, dawn and night that carries the promise of day and the day itself of happy hues...”

Let me add here that though I spent a short time amidst these artists and their works but I came back happy. There was something positive about them, something gentle and genuine. Not one of them seemed the over ambitious variety nor the extra pushy sort — a type which puts me off.

Before I end I must whisper this bit — Bangalore based artist cum creative director cum poet cum meditation guide, Tarun Cherian, is holding an exhibition of symbolic art (at the IIC, from November 8 to 14) and whatever little I can make out by the invite it sure will be a very bold show. Cherian’s poetic lines are sensual and forthright: “There is a moment of unbearable longing as spirit holds in its arms the sensual possibility of the body, feels its contours with what I take liberty to describe as fingers...” Fingering around with poetic flow!

— Max Beerbohm, And Even Now: "Hosts and Guests"