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| Tuesday, November 28, 2000, Chandigarh, India   
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Peace offensive Pep talk to industry Signals from UP |
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U.S.-Vietnamese relations Proxy war: time for fresh
strategy
The narrow dividing
line
by P. Raman
Male “midwives”
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Peace offensive THE olive branch offered by India has caused extreme allergic reaction among the enemies of the country. As has happened many times in the past, a concerted attempt is now being made to scuttle the peace initiative. The series of violent incidents in places like Banihal and Kishtwar has been unleashed to ensure that the bold ceasefire offer during the Ramzan month becomes meaningless. It is necessary not to be provoked by such cowardice because this kind of upsurge had already been factored in while making the offer. At the same time, it is mandatory to display restraint and maturity so that the trigger-happiness of the other side becomes apparent to the world. That, in any case, has already happened and now is the time to let Pakistan and others display their perfidy in full glory. While in the heart of hearts of every peace-loving human being is the fond hope that the Id after Ramzan would usher in a dawn of peace in the troubled valley, every level-headed person also knows that this is too big and unrealistic an order, given the old mischief that is at work. As such, one has to think of the worst-case scenario instead of the best one. To that extent, the "peaceful" month is beginning quite according to the prepared script. Even if Pakistani agents, foreign mercenaries and nationals make sure that the second peace initiative - the first being the Lahore bus yatra - does not get off the ground, some positive spinoffs are simply inevitable. One, the Muslim world has responded positively to the historic significance of the gesture. Two, the
Kashmiris, even the militants, stand alienated from Pakistani agents. They have come to realise that the puppeteers sitting across the Line of Control are determined to keep the AK-47s blazing at any cost. While the hearts of the breast-beaters avowedly bleed for "Kashmiri brethren", they have no qualms about continuing to shed the blood of the very same
Kashmiris. A few years ago, similar sympathies were being shown towards the Sikh community. Today, Sikh residents and truck drivers are being inhumanly targeted. All these incidents expose the real intent of the warmongers. And three, the hollowness of the religiosity of the "jehad" backers too has become manifest. To keep up the tempo of the peace gesture, Home Minister L.K. Advani has made another significant announcement. Speaking at the Wagah border on Sunday, he made it bold to say that while there would not be any tripartite talks with Pakistan on Kashmir, bilateral talks with that country were possible, provided it stopped cross-border terrorism. So far, India was wary of a dialogue with the usurper military regime. While "talk talk" is always better than "war war", it has to be a sincere and genuine effort. India's misgivings in this regard are more than justified. After all, Islamabad was planning and executing the Kargil mischief right at the time when it was publicly welcoming Prime Minister Vajpayee with open arms in Lahore. Being once bitten twice shy is fully justified. Here it is rather being thrice bitten once shy. The undeclared Pakistani policy is to make sure that bushfires continue to erupt in India's various states, be they Jammu and Kashmir or Punjab or others. But keeping in view its own political and economic collapse, won't it be better off calling a halt to the short-sighted policy of blinding itself totally for the sake of piercing India in one eye? After 50 years, it can surely give good-neighbourliness a trial! |
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Pep talk to industry PRIME
MINISTER Vajpayee was in a bit of an introspective mood when he addressed the India Economic Summit-2000 on Sunday. He started by admitting that from now onwards economic reforms will get increasingly difficult. What this means is that some sections of the population will be called upon to sacrifice. That will create a general impression that changes are elitist in character. In other words, the poor will be affected in terms of higher prices (because of the withdrawal of subsidy), joblessness (brought about by changes in labour laws, sell-off of state-run industries and free import of foreign goods) and stagnant wages (due to competition). Above all, the revenue will shrink as taxation has to be brought down to the global level and that means less government spending on social services like education and healthcare. No, the Prime Minister did not spell out in such stark details but left no one in doubt what he had in mind. In one respect he was less equivocal. He said globalisation has to be assimilated with care and caution. And it should be unambiguously Indian industry-friendly. Those components which tend to damage or destroy local industry and business had to be either suitably modified or shut out completely. He did not elaborate on this but his warning indicates a new awareness caused no doubt by the recent increase in import duty on edible oil and select items from China. The floodgates of free trade will open on April 1 next year when this country’s capacity to stand up to competition will be on test. Curbing dumping by erecting a tariff wall is not the best option. After FICC came out with its made-to-order findings analysts have pointed out that several ideas vigorously canvassed by industry are violative of not only WTO rules but also Indian laws. Any court will throw out these intended measures. As for suggestions to improve competition, none is practical and none is even possible. China produces a variety of goods at world-beating prices and quality because (a) it produces in bulk and the economy of scale pushes down the price and (b) the wage component of the production cost is low without affecting the standard of living of the labour force. It is necessary at this point to make two statements. In all Third World countries globalisation is all about opening the door to foreign goods, capital and technology. It is definitely not about penetrating foreign markets. Free trade will benefit India as it benefits China only if it can produce goods at a fraction of the cost in western countries but of a high quality. Not many countries can bring it off and the mid-1997 crisis in several Asian countries is proof of this. Today South Korea, the most powerful of Asian Tigers, is being preyed on precisely by those multinationals which it sought to confront and conquer. Globalisation is not a painless short-cut to economic nirvana. It is a long haul and in the process several sections will suffer, some with hope and many cursing their condition. This has been stressed by Mr Montek Singh Ahluwalia, member of the Planning Commission and an ardent advocate of globalisation. He wants the tariff rates to come down to stir up the investment market. Investors love lower import and excise duties and inversely dislike higher rates. At 35 per cent mean import duty, India is at the bottom of the table; it has company of the basket case called Nigeria. And this rate is several times more than the international norm. What he says is pure globalisation mantra but molten lead to the ears of Indian industry. Globalisation is a tough task master and the country has the Prime Minister saying it. Everyone should listen to him. |
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Signals from UP UTTAR
Pradesh Chief Minister Rajnath Singh had a good reason to call a press conference in Lucknow on Sunday. On the second day of the counting of votes in the nagar panchayat elections the Bharatiya Janata Party made the prophets of doom eat their words. The pundits had forecast a total rout of the BJP in the local bodies election and a tight race for political supremacy between the Bahujan Samaj Party of Ms Mayawati and the Samajwadi Party of Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav. It was to be a close finish between the ruling party and the Congress for the third and fourth spots. Only the Congress gave pollsters a reason to celebrate through its expected comatose performance. However, not even an incurable BJP supporter could have foreseen a reasonably good performance by the saffron party because of the lack of political focus after the departure of Mr Kalyan Singh. Mr Ram Prakash Gupta’s lacklustre term as Chief Minister gave momentum to the downhill slide of the BJP. As far as Mr Rajnath Singh’s role in the good performance of the party in the local bodies elections is considered, it can only be confirmed after the politically more crucial assembly elections next year. Both the BJP President of the UP unit, Mr Kalraj Misra and Mr Rajnath Singh are veterans, but relatively new to the duties assigned to them. Although a combination of the Brahmin-Thakur factor may have played some part in helping the BJP spring a surprise, the fact remains that the assembly elections cannot be won by ignoring the Dalit-Muslim factor in UP. Can national BJP President Bangaru Laxman help the state leadership in increasing the acceptability of the party among the vast non-upper caste voters? The voting in the local bodies elections followed a predictable pattern. The Brahmin-Thakur leadership revived the interest of the upper castes in the BJP. However, there is no escaping the fact that for short term gains the party may have caused some damage to its long-term political prospects in UP by handing over the reigns of leadership to Mr Kalraj Misra and Mr Rajnath Singh. A major reason, which has helped the BJP remain afloat and even nurse the hope of retaining control of the assembly next year, is the division of the Dalit-Muslim votes between Ms Mayawati and Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav. Although the Samajwadi Party bagged more seats and key posts in the nagar palika elections, the BSP may still bridge the gap in the crucial assembly elections on the basis of its greater acceptability in the rural areas. As of today, the only party without a future in UP appears to be the Congress. In spite of the audacity to have challenged Mrs Sonia Gandhi for the Congress President’s post the suave and smooth-talking Mr Jitendra Prasada cannot claim to enjoy the kind of grassroot support which made Rajesh Pilot a political force to reckon with. Mr Salman Khursheed, who was replaced as UP Congress President by a virtual non-entity from Kanpur, too has not added even an inch to his puny political stature. The grand old party in UP is virtually leaderless. The process of Mandalisation has taken away from the Congress its real source of political strength. Be that as it may, the real winner in the urban bodies elections, in a manner of speaking, were the voters of Gorakhpur. By electing Asha Devi, a eunuch, as their mayor they sent out a clear message to the politicians of all hues. By first sending Shabnam Mausi to the assembly in Madhya Pradesh and now appointing Asha Devi as the first citizen of Gorakhpur the Indian voters have shown their unqualified contempt for the professional politicians and their promises. |
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U.S.-Vietnamese relations NO, the great Ho Chi Minh, whose larger than life bust towered over the ceremonies in Hanoi, would not have disapproved of the lavish state reception and the effusive crowds that greeted President Bill Clinton and his wife and daughter in Vietnam. For, long before the domino theory or doi moi, the victor of Dien Bien Phu told the French, “If we wish to administer our own country and if I ask you to withdraw your administrators, on the other hand, I shall need your professors, your engineers and your capital to build a strong and independent Vietnam.” That is Southeast Asia’s no-nonsense pragmatism, reflected in the old Vietnamese saying, “One thousand friends are not enough, but one enemy is one too many.” It also explained the slogan — “Vietnam-America: Close the past, open up a new horizon” — that some students had put up outside Vietnam National University. Such realism must make our own comrades, as sentimental as they are dogmatic, stranded on the littoral by the receding tide of history, pungent with disapproval. The American presidential tour could not have been more unlike the churlish reception that some patriotic Indians thought fit to give to Britain’s Queen Elizabeth. Yet, Vietnam’s human losses far exceeded the Jallianwala Bagh death toll. The contrast between the two events makes me think that Nirad C. Chaudhuri must have been right when he said that an easy and natural relationship would have been possible between India and Britain only if a full-fledged war of independence had exorcised years of servitude and purged the festering bitterness. Having fought and won, the Vietnamese can afford to be upfront with their former foes. But that is not all. Southeast Asia is straightforward about its aspirations. It craves for the good of life. It revels in the culture that is symbolised by those ubiquitous totems of American lifestyle. Coca-Cola and Pepsi Cola. The daredevil young men who race fiercely around Ho Chi Minh City on their monster motorbikes also speak of impatience with suffocating tradition in a land where half the population is under 30. It does not pretend to revolutionary or yogic austerity; neither does it find it necessary to berate the West even while lapping up western largesse. War veterans from the US air force, like Mr John McCain the politician and Mr Pete Peterson the diplomat, who were both shot down, sense no lingering rancour when they return to Vietnam. The young have no memories of the war, and are unabashed about setting their social and economic ambitions by the American clock. But they are not alone in looking ahead. The Prime Minister, Mr Phan Van Khai, did not mind seeking Mr Clinton’s help to dismantle an estimated 3.5 million hidden landmines. Vietnam has suffered grievously. Three million people were killed in fighting the American invasion, 300,000 are still missing, nearly 10 per cent of the population of 72 million is disabled, thousands of them from the toxic defoliant, Agent Orange, and thousands are still killed or injured every year from the landmines that the Americans left behind. In contrast, and for all the deep psychological scars of which we hear so much, the Americans, got off relatively lightly. Their dead numbered 58,000, and the number of soldiers missing in action has fallen from 2,239 to 1,498. It might all have been avoided if a nationalist leadership had taken over when Dien Bien Phu surrendered in 1954 with 13,000 French soldiers. But there was no non-ideological nationalist. There was only Bao Dai, the last Annamese emperor. Graham Greene wrote of him, “Did he, linked by education and self-interest to France, really desire the independence of his country if independence threatened the security of the royal domains — the palace in Dalat, the hunting lodge in Ban Me Thuot, the palace in Hue?” Ho had nothing to protect but his country. The Americans invented the domino theory to thwart him. If Vietnam became communist, they said, so would the rest of Indochina, all Southeast Asia, Burma and even, perhaps, India. In 1987, Vietnam’s rulers invented doi moi to save what Ho fought for. The term means renovation, but Gavin Young, the English travel writer who covered the Vietnam war, interpreted it as “Communism with a human face” in his sensitive book on Vietnam, “A Wavering Grace”. Vietnam is a country, not a war, said Mr Clinton. It is also symbol and memory. As a junior college student in 1954, I recall the thrill of the Vietnamese victory at Dien Bien Phu. Years later in Paris, I covered the peace talks and was much impressed by the savoir-faire of Hanoi’s high-heeled delegate, Madame Nguyen Thi Binh. In London, I watched from the sidelines the biggest demonstration ever against the war and heard the stirring resonance of the chant, “Ho, Ho, Ho ... Ho Chi Minh!” In Calcutta, it meant a monstrous traffic jam, the verse, “Amar nam, tomar nam, Vietnam, Vietnam”, and the renaming of Harrington Street, where the American Consulate-General and British Deputy High Commission are located, to Ho Chi Minh Sarani. The realistic Vietnamese probably couldn’t care less. They were pleased when the Americans helped doi moi in 1994 by at last lifting the wartime trade embargo. Some three million war veterans objected, but Mr Clinton had the support of big business which was not wholly satisfied with China and disappointed with India. Vietnam is seen as the third generation Asian Tiger, which explained the presence of senior executives of Boeing, Citigroup, General Electric, General Motors, Nike, Proctor and Gamble and about 44 other corporations in the presidential party. Ford has already set up shop in Hanoi though sales are still low. An American-Vietnamese trade agreement signed last July is expected to improve business opportunities when it becomes operative early next year, and the $ 6 billion that the USA is providing to implement the pact is really long-term investment. Of course, the relationship will not be free of hiccups. Both sides have causes to uphold. From time to time the Americans will have to demonstrate their commitment to political democracy, human rights and religious freedom but, having done so, will be well content if the Vietnamese continue to open their markets. Some Vietnamese will pledge their troth to socialism, as the Communist Party Secretary-General, Mr Le Kha Phieu, did during Mr Clinton’s visit, while everyone becomes rich on the new consumerist economy. His hosts agreed with the American President’s advice that “a painful, painful past can be redeemed in a peaceful and prosperous future.” Tomorrow matters more than all our yesterdays. Gavin Young has a strange tale about Ho. Mae West, America’s sex symbol long before Marilyn Monroe, told him that when she was playing at London’s Haymarket theatre in the 1920s and staying at Carlton Hotel, “there was this waiter, cook, I don’t know what he was. I know he had the slinkiest eyes, though. We met in the corridor. We—ell....” the man with whom she implied that she had a passing dalliance was Ho Chi Minh. That, too, would be part of Southeast Asia’s matter-of-fact approach to life. The writer, a former Editor of The Statesman, is a well-known political commentator. |
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Proxy war: time for fresh
strategy A HIGH-LEVEL Israeli team visited the Kashmir valley, just as an in-house document circulated within South Block admitted that the Army was unfit for counterinsurgency warfare. For over a decade the Indian Army has been embroiled in low-intensity conflict in Jammu and Kashmir, and it has undoubtedly refined some of its tactics to respond to a mixed threat of terrorism and insurgency. Taking stock of this decade-long involvement, we find the following: (a) More Army units have been sucked into J & K, an estimated three times that was originally deployed in 1989-90. (b) The insurgency has spilled over from the valley into the Doda region and Rajouri-Poonch belt. (c) The intensity and scope of insurgency has enhanced significantly. (d) This has considerably stretched and fatigued the Army. This is in keeping with Pakistan’s grand strategy of bleeding India and tying down a considerable portion of our Army. We have obviously not hit the ideal strategy to combat Pakistan’s proxy war. Looking up to Israel, we could get their expertise in tackling terrorism along with some high-tech equipment to assist in surveillance, intelligence gathering and bomb disposal. Although the security environment confronting Israel is a whit different from what confronts India in Kashmir, neutralising the transborder sponsorship of terrorism had been a primary concern for the beleaguered Jewish state. Israel talked it with a fair amount of success by making it prohibitive for Egypt, Jordan, Syria and even Lebanon for being used as terrorist bases. We face the same dilemma of transborder sponsorship of terrorism in Kashmir. If Pakistan were to put an end to its proxy war or “jehad”, the problem could be solved soon enough. A background and scrutiny of Israel’s defence doctrines and philosophy will help if we are to evolve our own strategy. Israel’s doctrines, tactics and organisational structures are the original creation of the Israelis themselves, and they have evolved these the hard way in the face of war, surrounded by adversaries. Shaping Israeli defences and doctrines from the beginning have been men and ideas rather than military hardware. Ideas are important in Israeli thinking, and they encourage new thoughts and innovations without being tied down to tradition. Instead of allowing itself to copy and borrow from others, the Israeli defence forces took the tough line of experimentation. With a trial and error method to innovate for itself, Israel shaped its defence forces and formulated doctrines most suited to its requirements. Because the Jews lacked military tradition, it gave them the window of opportunity to scout for new ideas and original methods. Since the armed forces commanders were not experienced, they adopted the intellectual and non-authoritarian path to handle military problems, giving full rein to imagination. Open debate formed the basis of formulating orders, rather than the use of sheer rank which tended to subdue sound arguments and imaginative thoughts. However, we cannot exactly replicate the Israeli response to terrorism which has been founded on the principles of deterrence, pre-emption, prevention and reprisals because the dynamics of Kashmir insurgency is different. India has to deal with its own people who have been misled to become insurgents or militants besides those sitting across the border providing them sustenance. We need to evolve and write our own prescription, possibly a two-pronged strategy. To win over the people in Kashmir should be our first strategic objective, which will itself need a multi-directional approach. The other plank can be to make it prohibitive for Pakistan to continue its proxy war, for which India needs to develop a riposte capability. This is an equally challenging task in the context of a nuclearised Pakistan and its passionate pursuit of annexing Kashmir. According to Pakistani calculations, their nuclear capability would degrade India’s conventional edge and paralyse its decision-making. With daring and fresh ideas not given in copybooks, a riposte capability needs to be worked out at the politico-military level if we are to avoid drifting as in the past. Therein lies the solution to the festering malaise. The Army may have developed a fatigue syndrome because we have been pushed into a reactive mode and have limited our thinking and responses to just fighting militants. Dealing with the proxy war unleashed by Pakistan involves more than just routine counterinsurgency operations. Just as Pakistan has enlarged the scope of the proxy war in terms of time, space and costs of India, reason dictates that for Islamabad to continue with this mindless game the stakes should be similarly enhanced and made extremely prohibitive. The writer is a retired Colonel. |
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The narrow dividing
line THERE must have been umpteen occasions when we take the normal and mundane things in life for granted. Throughout life we burden ourselves with depressing thoughts of what we do not possess, little realising that life itself is so precious, so beautiful. There is after all just a narrow dividing line separating life from death; in fractions of seconds we pass into nothingness. It was New Year’s Eve in 1993. The whole world was enjoying, perhaps dancing the few hours of the remaining year into the wee hours of the morning of the New Year. Or the others, who sat closely huddled, cosily in front of the television set, watching the routine programme with the announcer merrily ushering in another year. My father lay on his bed, perhaps breathing the last couple of hours of his life. A life well spent in providing us with so many ideals and lessons — teaching us utter conviction in ourselves. This wise man with his lively sense of humour had even fought nasty death after a long and protracted illness of six years, bravely, tolerantly and ironically “a never-say-die” attitude. While the New Year meant hope and cheer for most, we realised dejectedly that this year we would be unkindly severed from our ever loving and guiding spirit. The next day, my father’s condition deteriorated, so much so that he had to be rushed to the emergency wing of the hospital. I, being the only doctor in our family, was allowed to sit next to him while my mother and sister stayed outside. I sat helplessly watching him breathe laboriously, life slowly trickling out of his frail and diseased body and calling out to me incoherently. Here, I had learnt medicine to save patients, and yet I could do next to nothing as the giant clock rudely ticked every minute of his life away. My mind was flooded with memories. My father was saying: “Since I do not know how long I would live, let me enjoy life to its fullest, living each day as the last day of my life”. The other doctors asked me to bring some medicines. There were not many friendly souls around as it was New Year’s day and people were out rejoicing. As I came back, I saw the doctor on duty vigorously trying to do a cardiopulmonary massage on my father, trying fervently to revive him. Finally, he flashed a torch at his eyes, then with tears in his eyes, looked at me and shook his head. I was absolutely rooted to the spot until someone patted me and I dissolved into tears. On breaking the news to my mother and sister, they were totally uncontrollable, I could feel a horrible stabbing ache from the depths of my heart. All of a sudden, someone rudely shook me out of my shocked stupor to say: “What do we do with the body”. It was like a splash of ice cold water on my face bringing me back to normalcy. It was such a painful, humbling realisation that within minutes my father had been transformed from a living, breathing person to just “a body” lying there in the cold! So many achievements, so many beautiful moments in a life well spent seemed to have vanished as suddenly as bubbles burst on the surface of water. I had to quickly dry my tears and take action like a responsible person. Uncompromising, hard and practical life did not even offer me a few moments to drown in my sorrow. The revealing sentence about a human being converting into just an impersonal body haunted me for years to come. It taught me never to take life for granted, the little things in life we do not attach importance to can only be there as long as we are living. As we all must embark on an unknown journey one day, where we must travel without any identity, let us not lose this precious gift of life in false ego problems and self created uncomfortable situations. |
Politics in anti-reform mode AN unmistakable message from the first week of Parliament's winter session has been that the politics of the country is getting into an anti-reform mode. Beneath all the wranglings between the ruling group and the Opposition and among themselves, the one-upmanship and our own failure to report what the MPs' spoke in the House, the discerning can clearly feel the trend. Every party, including a section of the BJP and all its allies, is getting ready to make political capital out of the painful side-effects of globalisation. Since the monsoon session, the BJP allies have been making it a point to openly criticise their own Government's reform-related decisions. It may be petroleum price hike, denationalisation of banks or sale of PSU shares to foreigners. The allies support the Government within the Cabinet and assail it at public platforms back in their own states. They employ many a clever trickery to disown their moral and legal responsibility in such unpopular decisions. Mamata Banerjee quietly skips Cabinet meetings if the agenda papers indicate discussion on ‘‘anti-poor’’ issues. And when the CPM and the Congress make them an issue in West Bengal, her standard response is to charge Vajpayee with taking decisions without ‘‘consulting’’ her. A senior BJP Cabinet Minister cites several instances to highlight Mamata's ‘‘dubious’’ role. The Shiv Sena Ministers perform jugglery by giving their own interpretations to controversial Cabinet decisions. The BJD Ministers from Orissa are more blunt. They admit their dual role — consent in the Cabinet and protest outside — on the ground that their objections might not have made any material difference. And then they gleefully join the protests against their own decisions. No one — the Prime Minister, the allies or the Opposition — hardly bothers about the demise of the very concept of joint responsibility of the Cabinet, some thing sacrosanct to the parliamentary system. By its sheer use, such opportunism has become part of coalition politics. A helpless Vajpayee embarrassingly keeps silent when his NDA allies publicly question his Government's collective decisions. Gone are the days when Ministers who differ with a Cabinet decision honestly resigns or is asked by the Prime Minister to quit. Now Vajpayee is happy so long as the allies vote with the Government in Parliament. He does not mind even if they assail his actions. If a Mamata threatens to resign, he would hurriedly pacify her even if at the cost of the dignity of his office. For the allies, the prime concern is to keep their pro-poor constituency in their states intact without losing the loaf of power in Delhi. So the double-talk suits every one. The picture is strikingly similar to that prevailed in the EU countries like France at this stage of their globalisation. Then the political parties there were torn between the global pressures above and the sweeping internal thrust. Prevarication worked for some time but as a big section in polity chose the swadeshi path of the French, the political parties were forced to adopt a clearer position. In India, pressures on political parties have been building up for quite some time. If they were resisting the temptation of succumbing to what is called populism, it has been mainly due to the middle classes' seeming enthusiasm for the promised dreamland. The political parties now seem to realise that they cannot any more ignore the pressures from a wider section of their vote bank who have come under the rigours of globalisation. When Mamata Banerjee threatened to quit over petroleum prices, the BJP had dismissed it as prank from a whimsical person. Vajpayee had succumbed to the threat when he found certain other allies were also endorsing her demand. Now she is bent on obstructing the government's decision to denationalise the banks. She alleges that the Cabinet decision on this was taken without her knowledge. Her junior, Sudip
Bandopadhyay, has sought a discussion on the issue within the NDA. As a mark of protest, she herself had boycotted Vajpayee's dinner to the NDA leaders. The Shiv Sena is the latest to join the anti-reform bandwagon. Angry over the Disinvestment Minister's bid to upstage him, Shiv Sena Minister Manohar Joshi went to the extent of contradicting the former's claim of a decision to sell Maruti shares to Suzuki or any other MNC. Joshi says the Government could also buy back Maruti shares from Suzuki — something diametrically opposite to what his BJP colleague had claimed. The Prime Minister hardly bothers to restore a semblance of harmony and collective responsibility. Adding to the bickering, the two sides went on feeding the media with unsavoury stories against each side. The BJP attributes Joshi's ‘‘tantrums’’ to his ‘‘loss’’ of the potentially profitable Disinvestment Ministry. The Shiv Sena allegedly wanted to gain from the cushy PSUs. Many in the BJP blame the style of functioning of their Disinvestment Minister for the troubles. There are also political explanations like the ‘‘conspiracy’’ by the Swadeshiwalas to win over Thackeray to hurt the reform. The increasing influence of the large reform-hit sections like bank and insurance employees, cotton and sugar farmers and industrialists is another factor. Now the Sena chief Bal Thackeray himself has followed it up with a missive to the Prime Minister opposing the mindless sale of all PSUs. On the issue of the farmers' plight marked by suicides, the Trinamul Congress was joined by other allies like the TDP, the Biju Janata Dal and the Shiv Sena. In Parliament their views were similar to that of the Opposition. In fact, the debate showed that the BJP alone was left to defend the Government. The allies went short of voting against the Government. Several factors contribute to the politicians' change of track. The most important has been the change of the public mood itself. Apart from the Left and RSS campaigns, the second generation of reform has hurt almost the entire spectrum of the people. The affected groups have also changed their strategy. Instead of taking to the streets, they have begun using their vote power to influence the individual politicians. This is in tune with the new trend of marketisation of politics. The insurance and bank staff have been doing business-style lobbying with the Congress, the NDA allies and the vulnerable sections of the BJP. This, it is felt, has been found more effective than all-India strikes and rallies. This PR-style lobbying covers the bosses and their close aides and relatives of the state parties. There are many kith and kins of leading politicians and their aides among the affected PSU staff. A rather new addition to the ranks of frustrated middle classes has been the high-bracket salaried MBAs and technicians who had initially benefited from the post-reform surge. Of late, realisation has dawn on them about the uncertainty of their jobs. Their average tenure is so short. Often they lose jobs without notice. High and middle-level executives are the worst victims of the frequent mergers and takeovers. Each of these results in a change of executive staff. This has caused a sense of insecurity among the high-profile executives. The miseries of over four lakh small units and their employees all over the country and the uncertainty being faced by the large units have been discussed in these columns. This had brought about anti-reform alliances by traditionally antagonistic groups like the workers and owners. In the case of closing small units, truck and bus strikes, removal of units from metro areas, farms and plantations hit by the globalisation virus, the workers and owners have joined hands to protest against the common disaster. A week back, Assam and West Bengal tea planters had decided to suspend operations due to the fall in prices. The planters' influence on politicians is well known. Barring the traders and shopkeepers, practically every section of the polity is in the grip of uncertainties. Politically, the change of the Congress position is most significant. Though the initiator of the reform, the party now thinks that the BJP Government has ‘‘distorted’’ it to the detriment of the common man. The party has been facing the backlash of the reforms in Kerala, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar etc where the rival parties have been working on the popular resentment. In the past six months, many PCCs have been conducting agitations against the anti-poor policies like raise in power tariffs which they have found quite rewarding. At the Centre, the professional pro-globalisation elements like Jairam Ramesh are being replaced by practical politicians with an ear to the ground. The new thinking in the Congress is that the only way it can break the deadlock is to champion the cause of the downtrodden. In any case, it considers the second generation of reform as the BJP's baby. The Congress has already begun floor coordination with the Left and all available Opposition groups on the reform issues, especially the PSU sales. The combative mood of the Congress is bound to influence the attitude of regional parties who cannot any more ignore the impact of such campaigns on the voters' mind. This has been the major reason for the TDP, the Shiv Sena, the BJP and the Trinamul Congress adopting an aggressive posture with regard to the PSU sales, the plight of the farmers, small units and the languishing industries. Naidu has met Vajpayee to discuss the farmers' problems. Some BJP allies have joined hands with the LF-Congress on the issue of amending the Mining Act that would benefit the MNCs at the cost of tribals. Thus most political parties are fast moving away from competitive endorsement of the reform to competitive opposition to its adverse aspects. True, even while displaying the anti-globalisation ardour, the allies are not likely to sink the NDA boat. For the present, this will be a great consolation for the BJP. |
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Male “midwives” WOMEN
at the Syntien villages of Mawsynram in East Khasi hills district of
Meghalaya fondly call him, “Babu Ham”. Hamlet Kynter, an ordinary
Khasi man of Mawkaphan village, is a sort of a celebrity in the area
for his unusual expertise in child delivery. “He is always sought
after, especially by women who feel safe in his able hands,” said
Kong Jop, who runs a tea stall at Mawsynram market. In fact, in these remote villages where modern medical facilities are a mere dream, the job of “midwives” is carried out by men. And incidentally, some of the best known male birth attendants come from the Kynter clan. Being the matrilineal tribes of Meghalaya, how come all the “midwives” are men? Is the job a product of the Khasi culture or ritual? “Well, in the Syntein area — comprising five small, poor hamlets called Mawkaphan, Domskong, Jynpiat, Kenbah and Kynmyn saw — it has almost assumed a tradition,” observed Bah Phlang. Of course, he could not explain why all the traditional birth attendants were men, and not women. Why not women? “Ngam Tip (I do not know),” Kong Jop giggled. She is one of the enterprising village women engaged in setting up Self Help Groups (SHG) to improve their family income. In most cases, it was the circumstances that made men get involved in this work. “Take the case of Bah Ham,” said Rashmi Goswami, Director of the Northeast Network (NEN) a Shillong based NGO but involved in training and capacity building of rural based, grassroots organisations in the region. “Bah Ham was working in the paddy fields when his sister-in-law went into labour. He told us that he could not tamely watch, while she was in pain. He had to take the risk but performed well,” Goswami said. Since then, Hamlet was a hero. He not only learnt it better, he also trained himself about various aspects of reproductive health care, including the techniques of traditional Khasi massages to correct the breach positions of the foetus, she said. He also inspired others to learn the work so that they could help people. (Grassroots Feature)
New Hindu temple The Hindu community of Bakerton, a small South African Indian residential area near the town of Springs, about 40 km east of Johannesburg, had special cause to celebrate when the streets of the area came alive on Sunday with a procession of deities. The Springs Sanathan Ved Dharam Sabha (SVDS) began the official opening ceremonies of its new temple and community centre with the procession, during which the deities were taken through Bakerton in the morning. There was a chariot procession at 2.30 p.m. Formal religious ceremonies to install the deities in the temple will be held on December 2 and 3. It will be a particularly proud moment for the local Hindu community, as 110 Hindu families have contributed 90 per cent of the 750,000 rands cost of the project. Besides the temple, the centre boasts of an auditorium that can seat 500 people, a library, two fully fitted kitchens and housing for the resident priest. “We started the building in 1995 and undertook construction in stages as the funds came in,” said Baboo Boodhram, the secretary of the institution. “We wanted to be sure that the premises were not encumbered in any way by the time they came into use.” He commended the families, most of which were average workers, for their contributions. (IANS)
Royal shopper CATHERINE II, Empress and autocrat of all Russia, can stake a claim to being the world's greatest shopper - or collector, as rich obsessives prefer to call themselves. Between the coup that put her on the throne in place of her husband in 1762 and the stroke that laid her out in her toilet in 1796 she picked up more than 4,000 Old Masters, 10,000 engraved gems, 16,000 antique coins and medals, at least 38,000 books, and many, many thousands of drawings. She had Rembrandts and Rubens and Watteaus; Lorrains and Murillos and Raphaels, most picked up in job lots abroad. The scale of Catherine's afluence becomes clear in the inaugural show at London's revamped Somerset House, Treasures of Catherine the Great. In 1779 Britain lost what might have become the core of a national collection when she struck a deal with the grandson of Sir Robert Walpole, the country's first Prime Minister. Despite protests in the British Parliament, she spirited away 204 of the works that Walpole had acquired, including a number of Rubens and Van Dycks. One of the Poussins from that spree, Moses Striking the Rock, has returned to the UK as part of the show. It wasn't just objects that Catherine collected: generous, intelligent and well-read, she was popular with philosophers and writers such as Diderot and Baron von Grimm, both of whom acted as her art scouts, and Voltaire, with whom she corresponded for 15 years. She saw herself as completing the process begun by Peter the Great, a moderniser who liked to say that he had opened a ``window on the west''. A Wedgwood plaque in the exhibition depicts her as Minerva, Roman goddess of learning, ``rewarding art and protecting commerce''. The highlight of the show, however, is the dazzling display of gewgaws and trinkets and thingumabobs, just a tiny portion of what Catherine bought, was given or inherited. Enough dinner services that you'd think she didn't know crockery could be reused. Enough snuffboxes that you wonder she didn't sneeze to death. Enough hairpins and dangly bits of jewellery that you imagine her clanking in a high wind.
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Sow in the field of your heart the seeds of good thought charged with humility. Irrigate it with the waters of love. Protect the growing crops with the pesticide called courage. Feed the crop with the fertiliser of concentration. Then the Bhakti plants will yield the harvest of jnana - the eternal wisdom that You are he. And when the revelation comes, you become He for you were always He, though you did not know it so far. —From the discourses of *** Man alone has the capacity and the privilege to realise God.... within himself. Neither Gods nor angels can do so and have necessarily to be born in a human form to reach Him. It, therefore, behaves us to utilise this opportunity for God-realisation. —Maharaj Jagat Singh, *** To know many things is
ajnana, ignorance. To know only one thing is jnana, knowledge - the realisation that God alone is real and that He dwells in all. And to talk to Him is
vijnana, a fuller knowledge. —The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, *** Those who have not realised God will wander, homeless in this world, destitute in the next. But watch the lovers dance with
ecstacy, as they merge into the oneness of God. —Abyaat-e-Baahoo, 7 *** Traversing the regions within, I beheld the cosmos; The beginning and the end of Time stand revealed to me.... Not only the macrocosm within the microcosm did I behold, But piercing the veil, I also perceived the One pervading all. —Tulsi Sahib of Hathras, |
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