The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

PERSPECTIVE
Hijacking regulation of metabolism
Is gene therapy risky?
by Akshay Anand

gene therapy is an attractive and promising technology which holds bright prospects of curing genetic as well as other diseases by introducing a synthetic (correct) gene directed and intended to replace a defective gene responsible for a particular disease. A number of methods to introduce the gene are being developed, for which various viral and non-viral vectors are being improvised to act as safe vehicles or carriers. With more and more research being done to usher in an era of gene-based therapies, it has become an issue of ethics — whether the alteration of the genome is right. Questions are also being raised about the risks associated with such genetic intervention.

The preparation of the final draft of the human genome project has boosted the morale of prospective gene therapists. There is a call for weighing the pros and cons of gene therapy before is adopted. While progress in medicine has solved many problems facing humanity, it has at the same time led to many new ones. There is no reason to believe that this ambivalence will cease to exist in future. A sober and differential assessment of the chances of success and risks is, therefore, necessary.

Among the biological risks associated with gene therapy, the impending danger of reversion of pathogenicity of viral vectors looms large. This may lead to disease and death. Viruses, used as vectors, are genetically engineered to remove genes responsible for pathogenicity. However, these can revert back to the pathogenic state, endangering the patient. Like the acquisition of resistance by bacteria and some tumours due to widely prescribed antibiotics and drugs, hazards associated with the development of resistance (at the genetic level) and immunological reactions could be very real in world-wide practice of gene therapy. Interference in the very gene pool of an individual is an attempt to hijack the regulation of the metabolism of the body that has evolved over millions of years, driven by both chemical and physical forces. An attempt to tinker with the vital genome may endanger the individual to new diseases and tumours/cancers hitherto unknown. The insertion of the gene transcript in a tumour suppresser loci or similar sequence elsewhere may lead to many unanticipated disorders.

Till date, knowledge about the causation of a certain defect or a mutation in a gene is almost negligible, and any attempt to replace is very appealing. However, the risk of playing with the carefully preserved genome may loom large over the entire human population. Moreover, the likelihood of a replaced/defective transcript recombining at another complementary sequence cannot be ruled out. With the success of the human genome project the entire sequence of the much sought-after genome governing our very existence is being deciphered. Almost all diseases, ailments and metabolic regulatory machinery involved in the homeostasis of a cell owe their description to this sequence. With public access to this vital knowledge through various public domains, this vital data will have the potential to determine susceptibility to particular diseases apart from yielding information about IQ, temperament and other aspects of personality.

The tendency to manipulate the DNA of an embryo by germ line therapy will be overpowering. It is already assuming an important place in the public eye given the controversial and unprecedented issues it raises over ethics. Visualising the post-genomic era, one can see a radically different world — with the present definition, understanding and conceptualisation of health, spirituality, and law being entirely changed. The long-term implications of gene therapy may be transforming the willingness to struggle and dismantling the uniqueness of one’s existence, which may result in disillusionment.

Research scientists are yet to experiment on the risks of gene therapy by exhaustive genetic testing, particularly in the context of new mutations after gene therapy. Without this important data any adventures in genetic intervention may prove counterproductive. Among other known systems of therapy, gene therapy has yielded very few successful results despite claims to the contrary. Nevertheless, a growing coterie of scientists is generating an imagined world of a genetically controlled state. It may be worth taking a second look at the system of therapy that genetic intervention promises to offer. The complex milieu of genetic networking borne out of physical forces manifest at the level of atoms and electrons needs to be exhaustively unravelled and their interaction with other cells and tissues needs to be studied in detail before any huge budget proposals for gene therapy are considered. To give a small example, the gene delivery mechanisms, like the basic molecular processes involved in the uptake of foreign DNA, are largely unknown and yet gene delivery systems are not only being used but being religiously claimed to be regularly improvised.

A battery of available tests like SOLS, Ames test, Microsomal Assay, etc. can be performed on individuals and animals undergoing experimental gene therapy. The biological incorporation of a corrected gene can be tested by PCR to assess the risks of genetic intervention. Gene therapy may lead to a shift in the focus of pharmaceutical industries more to common diseases like Cancer and AIDS than the rarer diseases that would remain unattended. The tragic death of Tessa Gelsinger, an 18-year-old patient with OTC deficiency, who died apparently as a result of experimental gene therapy in the University of Philadelphia, is alarming. This leads us to reflect on the non-conclusive nature of pre-clinical studies, which could not even predict that diet medication fen-phen is associated with potentially life-threatening cardio-vascular damage.

Gene therapy may also interfere in the process of evolution and its application should, thus, be restricted to only serious diseased states. Primary health care workers would need adequate training for managing such diseases before the technology is smoothly transferred from the lab to the clinic.

Nature has successfully maintained the sensitive balance between its various species by the diversity in their unique genomes. Any mediation by manipulation of the genome may disturb this delicate balance. Already a wide range of pathogenic bacteria has mushroomed, possessing antibiotic-resistant genes.

Similarly, the altered genome may become host to pathogens hitherto unknown. Scientists can direct their work to immunological studies associated with gene therapy. Such studies are warranted in order to augment the present therapeutic approaches with safe and successful genetic mediation.

Widespread use of gene therapy may lead to social and philosophical problems. Perhaps of even greater concern are repeated predictions of a golden age for gene therapy in near future. The very definition of disease and health shall undergo a major paradigm shift in the future generations. There is still disagreement about the scope or application of the concepts of health and disease or normality to gambling, sexual promiscuity, pre-menstrual syndrome, hyperactivity or homosexuality. The debate over the classification of these behaviours and traits has been fierce. Uncertainty about weather or not to treat short children, low blood sugar and hypertension have also produced heated controversies as to their health classification and therapeutic intervention. The messy problem of how to fit new knowledge about heredity into existing categories of disease, normality and health can, perhaps, be forestalled by arguing that the sole therapeutic goal of the human genome project is somatic gene therapy for obvious, clear-cut instances of human disease.

Screening for eligibility for government benefits to certifying people as fit to play sports or serve in the military, the fight against disease occupies centre stage in what people expect health care providers to do. So, if it is possible to become clearer about what disease is then it may be possible to have a better understanding of the boundaries of what is and is not normal with respect to the application of new knowledge arising from the human genome project and gene therapy trials.

E. Q. Murphy has cogently observed in his book, The Logic of Medicine: “The clinician has tended to regard the disease as that state in which the limits of the normal have been transgressed.”

For example, many physicians believe that blood pressure readings, which vary from normal for specific age groups within the population, are, in themselves, indicative of disease. For American physicians, variations skewed towards higher numbers are disturbing. For German physicians, both high and low numbers are equally likely to be diagnosed as disease. Critics of ‘disease as abnormality’ approach point out that there is nothing inherent about difference that makes a particular biological, chemical or mental state a disease. Moreover, since variation is an omnipresent feature of human beings, it is odd to argue that extremes of variation are somehow indicative of disease. Indeed, critics of the view that equates difference with disease note that this equation has, throughout the history of medicine, led to the classification of differences with respect to race, gender and ethnicity as diseases. That, in turn, has been the basis for unfair and even harmful interventions against people suffering from nothing more than dark skin colours or the presence of ovaries. After all, those who are unusually smart, strong, fast or prolific are not classified as diseased.

Subjectivity and a lack of consensus could bode ill, especially for the uses to which new knowledge of human heredity might be put since applications might be controlled by the powerful or the economically privileged to advance their own values. The problem with linking values and abnormalities is that not all states commonly recognised as diseases are necessarily indicative of difference or abnormality. Nor is all dysfunction or impairment always disvalued—every human being suffers from common cold, acne, anxiety, dental caries, etc. Those who do not wish to have children may rejoice to discover that they have ovaries that are incapable of ovulation, lack of uterus or possess testes that can not create sperm. Someone born with one kidney may remain entirely indifferent to and even unaware of this dysfunction.

The role of values in defining genetic disease and the need to link genetic disease to dysfunction will be critical with regard to what is done with the knowledge generated by the ongoing work to map and sequence the genome.

It is instructive to study how disease is currently defined in order to try and forecast how new knowledge about human heredity will be absorbed into clinical and gene therapeutic practices. Not so long ago a genetics counsellor informed a woman at a large medical centre that the foetus she was carrying possessed an abnormal chromosome—the child had xyy syndrome—an extra y chromosome. The couple was told that researchers had proven that criminality was related to this chromosome abnormality, besides certain correlation between this and tall physical stature. The couple decided to abort the pregnancy. Is xyy syndrome a disease? Does it merit abortion? OCA albinism is associated with extreme sensitivity to light (photophobia), nystagmus, severe impairment in visual acuity and a greatly increased risk of skin cancer. But unless albinism is a disease, why should any one try to detect it, much less provide information about it to parents?

Clinical genetics is still in its infancy. As such, it ought to proceed with great caution in labelling states or variations as abnormal, much less diseases. And it should assert clearly that the central goal of human clinical genetics is the prevention or amelioration of disease, not the improvement of the genome. It is important to note that abjuring eugenics as a proper goal of clinical genetics is not the same thing as foregoing any effort to meddle or intervene with the genetics of reproductive cells.

The greatest challenge to securing continuing funding for the genome project and gene therapy trials does not originate from concern about privacy, confidentiality, or coercive genetic testing. It is eugenics manipulating the human genome in order to improve or enhance the human species that is the real source of worry. Promising not to do anything that remotely hints of germ line engineering is relatively easy for those connected with the genome project since none of them believes that anyone is even remotely close to knowing how to alter the germ line of human beings, much less whether germ line engineering will actually work.

Any genetic intervention might lead to unanticipated side effects or introduce dangerous genes into the gene pool. The other major reason for not undertaking germ line intervention is that hereditary information, which is of value, not to the individual but the species, may be lost. If lethal or disabling genes are removed from a certain individual’s gametes, it may be that benefits conferred on the population when these genes recombine with other, non-lethal genes will be lost.

The argument against germ line therapy is that no one would really want to use it for eugenics. But this is patently false. Even putting aside Germany’s three-decade embrace of race hygiene and eugenics, there are examples of private and government organisations avidly and unashamedly pursuing eugenics. The government of Singapore instituted numerous eugenics policies during the 1980s, including a policy of providing financial incentives to ‘smart’ people to have more babies. The California-based Repository for Germinal Choice, known colloquially as the Nobel prize sperm bank, has assigned itself the mission of seeking out and storing gametes from men selected for their scientific, athletic or entrepreneurial acumen. Their sperm is made available to women of high intelligence for the expressed purpose of creating genetically superior children.

Should scientists or clinicians really promise never to try to eliminate or modify the genetic messages contained in a sperm or an egg even if that message contains instructions which may cause sickle cell disease, Lesch-Nyhan Syndrome or retinoblastoma? The grim history of eugenically inspired social policy tells why it is important to protest and even prohibit the activity of the “Nobel sperm bank” or to vehemently criticise the birth incentive policies of Singapore. But it does not provide an argument against allowing voluntary, therapeutic efforts using germ line manipulations to prevent certain and grievous harm from befalling future generations.

It is at beast cruel to argue that some people must bear the burden of genetic disease in order to allow benefits to accrue to the species. At best, genetic diversity is an argument for creating a gamete bank to preserve diversity. It is hard to see why an unborn child has any obligation to preserve the genetic diversity of the species at the price of grave harm or certain death.

The writer is working with the Department of Immunopathology, PGI, Chandigarh.

UN’s game of civilisations
by Rakshat Puri

THE UN General Assembly has declared 2001 as the Year of Dialogue Among Civilisations. A resolution to this effect was passed without a vote in the Assembly last month. The resolution, according to a UN press release, invites “governments, the United Nations system and other relevant international and non-governmental organisations to continue and intensify planning and organisation of cultural, educational and social programmes to promote the concept of dialogue among civilisations through such means as seminars, conferences and the distribution of information.”

In the session where the resolution was adopted, a large number of delegates dwelt on history, ethnicity, custom, religion, politics, culture and cultural exchanges, globalisation, modern technology and communication, and a host of other subjects which were solemnly interwoven in varying tones, styles and tenors. Evidently, the idea for making 2001 the Year of Dialogue Among Civilisations came first from President Khatami of Iran. In the words of UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, he proposed this to make real his “ideal of a global society based on compassion and tolerance.” (Not too long ago, Iran was a “rogue state” in US eyes!)

Kofi Annan, who was speaking at a meeting on Dialogue Among Civilisations, declared that “the UN, at its best, can be the true home of the dialogue among civilisations — the forum where such dialogue can flourish and bear fruit in every field of human endeavour. That is why I have warmly welcomed the proclamation of the year 2001 as the UN Year of Dialogue Among Civilisations. Without this dialogue taking place every day among all nations — within and between civilisations, cultures and groups — no peace can be lasting and no prosperity can be secure.” After mentioning dialogue among civilisations, the UN Secretary-General added, for good measure, that “along side an infinite diversity of cultures, there does exist one global civilisation in which humanity’s ideas and beliefs meet and develop peacefully and productively.” One global civilisation.

In the Year of Dialogue Among Civilisations. Fine words don’t make bread. It would be futile to count the number of fine words that have gone into hailing the UN Year of Dialogue Among Civilisations. But the UN Secretary-General and the many delegates who spent hours in lofty rhetoric to celebrate civilisation, culture and globalisation are unlikely to make thereby the promised bread which starving millions in the Third World are perennially waiting for. Among those who waxed eloquent over the Dialogue Among Civilisations — without feeling the need to pause for the meaning of the term “civilisation,” and without wasting time trying to distinguish between civilisation, culture, religion etc — was India’s own Jaswant Singh, External Affairs Minister. He was with those who led the rest.

Jaswant Singh, according to a UN press release, was confident that the dialogue “would bring enhanced appreciation of different ways of life. He visualised the dialogue as a confluence of many streams. Those streams must merge, leaving humanity enriched to create a world free from want and violence.” Dream-bread. One might have expected Jaswant Singh to ponder on the import of terms such as civilisation, culture, race, religion etc. Schools here in India teach students — at least, they did teach them once upon a time — the significance of terms such as civilisation. There was the ancient Indian civilisation (not the distorted saffron-Talibanist variety!), the ancient Chinese civilisation, the ancient Jewish civilisation, the old Maya civilisation, the old Inca civilisation, the ancient Egyptian civilisation, and the various other African civilisations.

When Western, or Euro-American, civilisations peaked in the modern age, its spokespersons — historians, sociologists, scientists and the rest — tended to downgrade most other civilisations. The American mathematician, Richard L. Thompson (who writes under the name of Sadaputa Dasa, and has written extensively on the Vedas and Vedic times), observed, in a commentary written in June 1993 (and available on the Internet), that orientalist, “(John) Bentley and pioneer Indologists such as Sir William Jones and Max Muller worked hard, and quite successfully, to convince people that the Vedic scriptures are nothing but fables and fiction. They started a school of thought that is solidly established in modern universities, both in western countries and in India itself.”

“One of the teachings of this school,” he added, “is that all Vedic literature, from the Rig Veda to the Puranas, is essentially a fraudulent concoction written in recent times. In the early days of Indology, writers such as Bentley openly expressed the opinion that the authors of the Vedic scriptures were impostors, cheaters, and superstitious fools. Today, scholars customarily express these conclusions in moderate language, which often gives the impression that they are favourably disposed toward Vedic culture.”

Terms such as “primitivism,” applied mostly to various ancient civilisations of Africa and elsewhere, also obviously have their basis in western superciliousness. There was, during the speech making in the UN Assembly on the Dialogue-Among-Civilisations resolution, repeated reference to globalisation, in the context of civilisation and culture. Is it possible that those who look with suspicion on the concept of globalisation, which entails along with its economic ideas and edicts also cultural implications, have a valid point for their misgivings and opposition?

There was no less confusion in the use and misuse by delegates to the UN Assembly of terms such as culture and religion. Nobody was reported attempting to differentiate between them. A phrase often used in everyday parlance is “Islamic civilisation,” or, equally often, “Islamic culture.” Islamic religion, yes. Islamic culture or Islamic civilisation, no. A Muslim Indonesian is worlds apart from a Muslim Arab. A Muslim Arab is part of the same culture as a Christian Arab. He is different in his religion. A Hindu in Indonesia’s Bali region and a Hindu in Varanasi may have the same kind of prayer and mythological belief, but they are distinct from each other culturally.

The speakers who enlarged lavishly in the UN Assembly on the Year of Dialogue Among Civilisations might have paused fruitfully to reflect on the meaning-systems in their discourses.

They didn’t. So the UN has another feather in its cap, 2001 as the Year of Dialogue Among Civilisations, whatever that means to hundreds of millions of people looking for food, shelter, security, peace, freedom from want, freedom to be. Fine words don’t make bread. — (Asia Features)

Kashmir and the crisis of terrorism
by Darshan Singh Maini

IN the early nineties when militancy in Kashmir became increasingly more lethal and fundamentalist - jehadi in character drawing most of the local Muslims compulsively into its fatal web, and forcing the Pandit population into an unending, heart-breaking exile in their own country, I wrote a series of articles relating to the painful phenomenon, highlighting the qualitative change in the situation. Today, after a decade of that “turn of the screw”, there are some signs of another change whose dialectic and dynamics are a part of the process which had, in the first instance, thrown the valley into a state of moral miasma and spiritual confusion. Our argument today can at best be tentative, for the elements of Pakistani insanity and other imponderables can make nonsense of any human calculation.

It must be, in retrospect, recognised that few political pundits were aware of the huge swell of discontentment under the surface calm, and that a dangerous turn had begun to create a new mindset chiefly because of the mullahs and the religious schools run by extremists mushrooming in the valley with Arab money and Pak strategies. These subversive nursries had come of age, and a whole new generation of indoctrinated youth was ready to convert wide-scale resentment into a bloody battleground for possessing the soul of Kashmir. And I may add that the confused politics of the National Conference, whose leades had turned to profitable and pleasurable pastures compounded by the Machiavellian politics of the successive Congress governments in New Delhi, had made the valley fertile for Pak mischief.

Pakistan, despite the disastrous wars, had failed till the early eighties, to touch the Kashmiri hearts and minds, by and large, for the Kashmiri cultural character, is rooted in benign, cheerful rhythms of life in a land blessed by nature. Also, it had been brought to a new pitch of political and patriotic pitch during the long Indian Independence Movement under the leadership of Gandhiji, Nehru and Sheikh Abdullah. Even the unfortunate incarceration of “the Lion of Kashmir” which Nehru deeply mourned till the end had not ended the deep sentiment, even as it had caused wide resentment and pain. During my own visits to the valley in connection with university seminars, and during my meetings with the Chief Minister, Dr Farooq Abdullah, gave me little indications of the disaster brewing around. A monumental mistake in our perceptions, if you like.

Thus when the hell broke loose in “paradise”, it toppled many a cherished dream, many an old temple of trust. A blind wall seemed to have dropped suddenly in front of the Banihal Pass, as it were, causing a psychological divide between India and the valley. The Indian Army had to stop in to contain the chaos. It wasn’t understood that when insurgencies take revolutionary aspects, security forces can never solve the imbroglio; they can only prolong the agony on either side, as in Ireland, Palestine, Bosnia, Cosovo, etc. And the blood-stained story of the last decade told endlessly in articles and books gets lost in circular arguments depending on the perceiving eye.

We also know that the Kashmir issue has many a complex aspect now. Basically, there are two major aspects, diversionary and nuclear or core, and Pakistan has been using these in tandem. And this complexity was bound to create what I call the crisis of terrorism. After their major diversionary ploys, the Kargil debacle, and the consequent increase in infiltrated violence, including the Singhpura tragedy during President Clinton’s visit to India, it began to dawn upon the local mujahedin that no amount of insurgency, bloodshed and suicidal attacks on the Army posts could succeed if the local population that had harboured all manner of terrorists out of mixed mitives — genuine support, fear, insecurity, etc — could no longer bear the immense weight of tragedy. They could no longer bury their own sons with their own hands day after day, week after week, month after month. And that point of despair, desperation and sense of waste was bound to come one day, for there’s a limit to the people’s capacity for unavailing sacrifices, whatever the nature of their compulsions.

A state of spiritual fatigue is reached — in years or in decades — and a tripple alienation becomes almost inevitable. The alienation of the locals, the alienation of the local terrorists within their own ranks, and the inner alienation of the individual terrorist himself. It’s only when their convergence and the contingencies begin to create a climate of doubt and even revulsion that one feels a slight change in the air. But if we read the political weather chart — the surrender of increasing number of local mujahedin before the security forces, the willingness to welcome truce with some conditions, the longing for peace in the valley — against the backdrop of terrorism as a world phenomenon, we may be in a position to understand the nature of the change in question.

And for this, we would do well to recall briefly the history of Sikh militancy and terrorism, supported by Pakistani agents and weapons, for the two insurgencies are not only inter-related but also commonly supportive, despite some obvious differences. It was no accident that the decline and fall of militancy in Punjab almost synchronised with the rise of Kashmiri insurgency. The support to the Sikh militants in the countryside was at heart halting and troubled, and it ran out of steam in about a decade’s time; the longing for peace prevailed over the Punjab police actions and excesses which are commonly supposed to have effected the change. One waits for that moment in the valley, and it may arrive sooner than we imagine.

To wind up the argument, we may refer to some of the aspects of terrorism which as the study of terrology shows begin to cause its erosion in the end:

(a) The youth are often attracted to the romance of terrorism as an armed adventure into the unknown. Its fascination has nearly all the features of the romance associated with the wild, the mysterious and the irresistible. When the ground realities catch up with the state of the mind, often regression sets in, and the romance wears out.

(b) When the romance turns into “game” and “theatre” and the media “circus”, it keeps the terrorist hooked. Once, the lure of fame and publicity begins to yield diminishing returns, another step towards the return to normalcy becomes inevitable.

(c) Again, the terrorist excesses — slaughter of innocent, women and children among other crimes at some point begin to cause moral revulsion within their own ranks, and divisions and schisms are the consequence.

(d) The disenchantment of the individual terrorist and his inner awakening make his alienation inevitable.

There are yet only some faint stirrings in the valley, and the government and people of India would do well to help create a hope of peace with honour and power. From the Lahore bus yatra to the latest offer of ceasefire are steps in the right direction, and they need to be sustained. Pakistan-trained and smuggled terrorists from across the border would be helpless without local shelter and support. And the Pakistani armies and agencies would find it a hard going in the valley, though they are not likely to accept such a moral defeat.

How long can he stand up to the military rulers?
by Harihar Swarup

Two pictures of Mrs Benazir Bhutto's millionaire husband, Mr Asif Zardari Zardari, emerge as one sees the plight of the once powerful spouse of the twice elected, first women Prime Minister of a Muslim country. One is of "Mr Ten per cent" (commission) which changed to " Mr Forty per cent" with his appointment as Minister for Investment in his wife's Government. Another is that of a valiant fighter who has been languishing in jail for years but who steadfastly refuses to buy freedom for exile and surrender some of his assets. With the banishment of Mr Nawaz Sharif, Mr Zardari, perhaps, remains the only voice of dissent against the military regime even though he is not as bitter against Gen Pervaiz Musharraf as against Mr Sharif.

Mr Zardari celebrated his 47th birthday in July in prison for the fourth successive year. To live without his wife, now in exile in London, and children must have been a traumatic experience for him. He disclosed in an interview to The Guardian: ‘‘I do try to communicate with my wife and children by sending them flowers and cards with short message. I receive letters from them and even poetry from my children which cheers me. I sometimes ask for photos to be sent to me so that I can see what they look like and how they are growing. I do miss my children.’’

Mr Zardari married Benazir 12 years back of which seven he spent in separation — a victims of political persecution. At the time of tying the nuptial knot he was warned that he would run into difficulty but there was no getting back for him. Mr Zardari says he greatly admired his father-in-law, the late Z.A.Bhutto. ‘‘I draw inspiration by thinking of him and the greater difficulties he endured.’’ His hope is that ‘‘our martyrs’’ and ‘‘PPP workers should be proud of me that I upheld the legacy of a great party committed to upholding human rights.’’

The only child of his parents, he was a pampered one and his every wish was fulfilled by his loving father, Hakim Ali Zardari. He studied in Britain, almost at the same time Benazir was a student in Oxford, went to Cadet College in Pakistan, loved polo, had a personal team and lived in luxury. He has a high opinion of Pakistan's army and admires ‘‘the discipline, determination and professionalism of the officers’’ but says ‘‘the army is taught to defend the country and not govern. I would like to see the generals discuss an exit strategy and go back to the barracks.’’

In sharp contrast to the luxurious days, Mr Zardari is now languishing in virtual solitary confinement. He could get a cooler for the blazing summer months after a year-long battle in court and after yet another 18 months of pleading, the jail authorities made available to him a television set. His spinal problem has worsened following long years of imprisonment and lack of specialised medical treatment. In his words ‘‘my eyes have also suffered due to the long nights when I was made to stand under blazing lights and denied sleep. I would be woken up at odd times in the night to be taken to airports in overheated armoured vehicles. The pain from the spinal problem and the disorientation of being denied sleep and proper medical attention led to hypertension and I am in need of specialised treatment.’’

Ironically, Mr Nawaz Sharif was also taken in the same type of armoured car to jail in which Mr Zardari was made to travel. Benazir's spouse is very bitter against the exiled Prime Minister and holds the ‘‘Sharif brothers’’ personally responsible for his torture. His charge is that he was nearly poisoned by them. His foes have been former President Leghari and Mr Nawaz Sharif. ‘‘I was subjected to military torture under the direction of President Leghari and to police torture under Mr Nawaz Sharif where my neck and throat were cut in a bid to make me implicate my wife.’’

Though Mr Zardari claims that the charges of corruption against him are baseless, the fact remains that he was implicated in such offences as obtaining illegal gratification, pecuniary advantages, commissions and kickbacks and stacking money in foreign banks. The latest charge he faces relates to purchase of a mansion in Surrey, allegedly by using drug money. He is also accused of complicity in the murder of Benazir's brother, Murtaza. Benazir is accused of overlooking her husband's corruption, nepotism and human rights violation. According to a New York Times report the Bhuttos might have stolen a staggering $ 1.5 billion.

One does not know what would be the ultimate fate of Mr Zardari. Benazir and her husband have been convicted in some cases and many of other them are still pending because of lack of clinching evidence. The army rulers do not appear to be as hostile to him as Mr Nawaz Sharif's dispensation. Gen Musharraf wants him to leave the country like Mr Sharif but Mr Zardari has so far decided not to run away but face suffering. How long can he stand up to the military rulers ?

Delhi durbar
Nari shakti surrounds Vajpayee

The proposed introduction of the Women's Reservation Bill in Parliament had members divided over the issue on party lines. But, when it came to the affable Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, it was him versus the women.

Last week in the Rajya Sabha, when women members were agitated over the Bill not being introduced in the House, they were stopped short of letting out their full steam after the Chair adjourned the House. Not one to give up easily, these members surrounded the Prime Minister and engaged him in an impromptu discussion. A charming Mr Vajpayee diffused the situation with ease when he told the women MPs that he could not withdraw the Bill from the Lok Sabha to bring it to the Rajya Sabha. While the women had a hearty laugh, an amused Agriculture Minister Nitish Kumar remarked to his colleague, the Information and Broadcasting Minister, Mrs Sushma Swaraj, that she could go to the rescue of the Prime Minister. Mrs Swaraj retorted that Mr Vajpayee seemed to be enjoying their company.

Amidst peels of laughter, a woman member commented: ‘‘Just as he is enjoying our company, we are also enjoying his company.’’

Secular allies

All the allies of the BJP in the NDA Government may claim themselves to be equals but the Opposition has its own terminology and preferences for them. There are ‘‘secular’’ allies in the TDP and the DMK, ‘‘communal’’ ally in the Shiv Sena, ‘‘kisan’’ ally in the Indian National Lok Dal and the Akali Dal and ``demanding'' ally in the Trinamool Congress. It is not difficult to judge the allies which the Opposition, particularly the Congress, is coveting. This was very much in evidence during the Ayodhya debate in the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha where the Congress went hammer and tongs at its main political rival — the BJP. However, towards the ‘‘secular allies’’ it had a different approach. It regularly appealed to their ‘‘secular conscience’’ to vote for the censure motion it had tabled.

Remote control

If you thought that the remote control of the BJP Government at the Centre vanished after it snapped ties with Jaylalitha's AIADMK, you may be wrong. While the BJP may deny the existence of any remote control, the allies think otherwise. Reminding the principal party in the NDA that if it deviated from the NDA agenda, they may be forced to review their support, the allies were equally emphatic that this would not be allowed. Since the remote control of the government is with us, no deviation from the NDA agenda is possible, said a TDP member in the Rajya Sabha the other day. Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, who was present in the House at that time, faintly smiled.

Iftars

In the rush of Iftars in Delhi in the past fortnight, it is the politicians who took the lead. The rush was such that sometimes two Iftars by leading politicians were scheduled for the same day. Locals say that the number of these parties has been growing over the years and the number this year was largest. Since a politician from UP hosted the first Iftar party some years back, politicians of all hues have taken to it in a big way, ‘‘finding it a way to prove their secular credentials.’’

The Iftar's also enable the politicians to show their clout. For instance the Iftar thrown by the BJP President, Mr Bangaru Laxman, had all the bigwigs attending it. The nation's who's who were virtually lost in the crowd. For instance, the diarist noticed that the former Deputy Prime Minister, Mr Devi Lal, was standing all alone with the host busy attending to the Prime Minister.

Chautala's party

Talking of Iftars, Haryana Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala, decided to do it differently. He held a grand Iftar at Nuh where an entire village was invited. A little bird says that the Iftar with the difference at Nuh has an interesting story behind it.

It may be recalled that the Chief Minister held a similar party during the Assembly elections in the State. The purpose then was to woo the minorities. An Iftar in such a grand scale looked unusual but then Mr Chautala explained it as his style. This year he would have liked to have the Iftar at Chandigarh or Delhi but then it was compulsion which forced him to have the Iftar again at Nuh. After all, Chautala did not want to face unwanted criticism.

Balancing act

The Union Parliamentary Affairs Minister, Mr Pramod Mahajan, was on test in the Rajya Sabha when he had to face the women's ire in the House. On occasions he was seen doing the balancing act.

For instance, the other day agitated women members threatened to disrupt some important business from being conducted when soon after question hour they demanded to know the fate of the Women's Reservation Bill. With women members not wanting to listen he made personal request to members to return to their seat and postpone their agitation at least till the important business was done. Finally it was Chairman Krishan Kant who took the lead in helping the House proceed with the business. Even as women members shouted he kept conducting the business, including laying of various reports. It was surprising to see the usually vociferous Congress member, Mr Suresh Pachauri, silent on that day. It was realised later that he too was to present a report.

Mr Mahajan, however, found moving a motion amidst the bedlam impossible and urged the Chairman to restore peace. Mr Kant, however, retorted that the women members would not listen to him. Mr Mahajan finally managed to have his way when his motion was passed by voice vote.

Guess who was responsible for Mr Mahajan's predicament. Ms Jayanthi Natarajan was seen egging on every women member just before question hour got over.

(Contributed by Satish Misra, T.V. Lakshminarayan, Girija Shankar Kaura, Prashant Sood and P.N. Andley).

Diversities — Delhi letter
Mamata attends Sonia’s Iftar party
by Humra Quraishi

JUST a few days left for the holy month of Ramzan to end. And with that, the practice prevalent in political circles here, of hosting Iftar feasts, will also come to an end. Almost ironical that several of these feasts are being hosted by men who’ve been mouthing not so secular statements. But there is apathy to such an extent that we make no hue or cry about it, rather meekly go about and devour those qormas and biryanis. I have been told by very reliable sources (no, I wasn’t invited so didn’t see this for myself) that at the Iftar hosted by the BJP party, the prayer mats for the evening prayers (to be said just after the opening of the fast) were spread in the wrong direction. And confirmed sources state that at the Iftar hosted by the PM a good number of people were got from “outside”. And the one hosted by HRD minister Syed Shahnawaz Hussain had few takers — probably because he simply didn’t have the means to cart people from “outside” because he is new on the scene or probably lacking in confidence — in fact at another Iftar get-together (hosted at one of the restaurants at Pragati Maidan) I witnessed barely three persons talking to him and the man was looking so insecure.

In fact, the two well-attended Iftar get-togethers of this year were those hosted by the President of India and by Sonia Gandhi. Not much change in the guest list at Rashtrapati Bhavan — members of the Cabinet, Opposition, Ambassadors and High Commissioners of the Muslim countries and the prominent Muslims of the town. And there was virtual who’s who at the Iftar hosted by Sonia Gandhi at 24 Akbar Road, the Congress headquarters, on December 21. The trump card being the presence of Mamata Banerjee and Laloo Prasad Yadav. Political analysts present commented that the very fact that Mamata Banerjee opted to attend this Iftar and not Sharad Yadav’s (also hosted the same evening) did signify an obvious shift. In fact she was virtually gheraoed by Congressmen but refused to make any noteworthy comments. The other person who drew attention was Jitendra Prasada who had come with his wife. I went up to Prasada and asked him whether Sonia Gandhi had personally invited him. His reply was “nobody could come here without the invitation card..yes I was invited and that’s why I’m here”. Much along expected lines he denied having any differences with the Congress President. On the Congress appearing as a weak Opposition party, Prasada said they were working on several formulas to strengthen it, but didn’t oblige with a more specific answer.

Another noteworthy aspect of this Iftar was the absence of the Prime Minister and his Cabinet colleagues. One probable reason could be that Sharad Yadav’s Iftar coincided, and the second reason is the all-too-obvious one. But barring the absence of the members of the Cabinet there was virtually the who’s who — a mix of politicians, diplomats, businessmen, media persons and bureaucrats — both the serving ones together with the prominent retired ones. I noticed many people milling around Dilshad and Akbar Khan (Sanjay Khan’s sister and brother who reside in New Delhi) and one was definitely surprised to see them here — I mean weren’t they invited to Bangalore for the wedding of the decade or whatever the Hrithik Roshan-Suzanne Khan wedding is being called. Or did they attend it and come back within a day? Anyway moving on, like last year the cuisine was excellent and in great abundance. And again, like the previous practice there was a separate enclosure for the diplomats — some of them did come out of that enclosure and were seen mixing with the rest of the invitees.

Jordan’s Foreign Minister in town

Last week Jordan made its present felt in the Capital — within a span of a week a top level Jordanian business delegation arrived here, followed by Prince Rashid Al Hassan of the Jordanian Royal family (he was here with his friends from Cambridge to play at the Polo tournaments). And within days of that, the Foreign Minister of Jordan, Abdel Elah Mohammed Khalid, was here for a day-long official visit to sign an MOU for periodic political meetings between the two countries. Anyway, one went with much expectation for his press conference but returned without any quotable quotes. And though queried by two media persons on the tilt (towards Israel) in India’s foreign policy and the effect it would have on Indo- Arab relations he came up with those safe diplomatic answers. And it is with the same ease that he managed to wriggle out of questions related to US Secretary of State, Colin Powell’s, appointment by the new President of the USA. This when Powell has already made some very telling statements. Only on two issues was the Foreign Minister absolutely clear — the Israel-Palestine conflict (what with Jordan housing 40 per cent Palestinian refugees which means approximately four million refugees. It is not just housing them but even spending money on them) and together with that, he also spoke on the embargo against Iraq.

Living on hope

The UN has declared these ‘days’ for 2001 — United Nations Year of Dialogue Among Civilisations International Year of Volunteers, International Decade for a Culture of Peace and Non-Violence for the Children of the World (2001-2010).

A stamp after the strike

Confirmed sources state that the Minister for Communication, Mr Ram Vilas Paswan, is releasing a special stamp on Ustad Hafiz Ali Khan. Special ceremony will be held on December 28, where the chief guest will be first lady Usha Narayanan.