E D I T O R I A L   P A G E

EDITORIALS

The passport tangle
There are three unalterable facets to the Kashmir problem, each affecting one of the three main players. First, the central government. It is committed to peace in the valley in the short term and normalisation of relations with Pakistan in the long run. It cannot afford to say or do anything that will act as a speedbreaker in this process. Two, the Hurriyat Conference. Its claim to leadership of all people is yet to be tested as is its ideological unity.

Signals from Jakarta
Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee’s visit to Indonesia has revived memories of the period when Jawaharlal Nehru and Sukarno along with Nasser and Tito played a key role in fashioning the Non-Aligned Movement. The personal friendship between Nehru and Sukarno, of course, translated into equally warm ties between India and Indonesia. However, the prolonged spell of dictatorship in Indonesia resulted in the two countries drifting away from each other.

HP construction ban
THE modern-day Kumbha-karna called the government is not an early riser at all. It wakes up at leisure. The Himachal Pradesh Government’s decision to put a complete ban on construction activity in certain areas of Manali, Dalhousie, McLeodganj and Dalhousie is true to form. Decades upon decades of a free-for-all culture has already turned these beautiful towns into concrete jungles.

OPINION

LI PENG IN INDIA
Many vexed issues trouble relations 
by Rakshat Puri
SENIOR Chinese leader Li Peng’s official goodwill visit here provides the Government with an opportunity to clarify and to seek closed-door clarification on a number of thorny issues that trouble India-China relations. The India- Tibet border issue is, of course, one of these — by no means unimportant, but perhaps not basic to friendly relations either. However, Mr Li Peng, prior to his departure from Beijing did comment at some length on the border issue. He is reported to have said: “I hope that, in the spirit of mutual understanding and mutual accommodation, this issue can be resolved. Of course, given its complexity, it requires patience and right conditions for its settlement.”

MIDDLE

Religion mine, culture ours
by Anurag
IT was a rain-swept afternoon. There was nip in the air. I had refreshed myself after a short sleep. It was time to set forth for the Sangam area where preparations had begun on a war footing to bring into being the majestic Kumbh nagar where about four crore, may be more, devouts from far and wide are expected to congregate to seek the divine bliss in the wintry weather of January and February. The sprawling temporary township would become the abode of saints, pilgrims, believers and followers besides curious onlookers, whose coming and staying together should once again reaffirm our much-vaunted and valued unity in diversity.

WINDOW ON PAKISTAN

ON THE SPOT

SPIRITUAL NUGGETS

The passport tangle

There are three unalterable facets to the Kashmir problem, each affecting one of the three main players. First, the central government. It is committed to peace in the valley in the short term and normalisation of relations with Pakistan in the long run. It cannot afford to say or do anything that will act as a speedbreaker in this process. Two, the Hurriyat Conference. Its claim to leadership of all people is yet to be tested as is its ideological unity. It is united only in its opposition to New Delhi but on policy issues the score or more parties who comprise the conglomerate called the Hurriyat are pitted against one another. The long hours, often five or more, it spends in taking decisions on seemingly simple questions explain how the seven executive committee members use the occasion to accuse one another rather than grapple with the main issue. The third are the people of the Kashmir valley. They want peace and an end to the militant-sponsored bloody anarchy. A section of them is against the gun-toting killers but also against the Centre, a hangover of the years of manipulated mandate. Another section demands that the Centre should stoop to conquer. But all of them are pro-Kashmiri elements and not Pakistan sympathisers, excluding a fringe group. All this is elementary but warrants repetition in the wake of the simulated controversy over issuing travel documents to Syed Ali Shah Geelani and Sheikh Abdul Aziz. They are indeed hardliners, Syed Geelani a bit more articulate than the Sheikh. But they are in the Hurriyat executive precisely for their hawkish stand. Their party programme talks of accession to or merger with Pakistan and treats the ongoing violence in the state as a religious one. For them it is the unfinished part of the two-nation theory and the Muslims wanting a nation of their own. Happily for others, theirs is a voice in wilderness, or so it would seem if the opposition they face from the so-called moderates like Mr Abdul Gani Lone and Yasin Malik is any indication. The best way to silence an unreasonable extremist voice is to give it free play. The ordinary people will reject it if they want peace and that should be the ultimate test. And not confining them to the valley by impounding their passports. It is actually counter-productive. Their limited mischief potential gets an unwarranted official recognition.

Some analysts have gone to the extent of seeing a Prime Minister versus Home Minister divide on the passports issue. Mr Vajpayee is rated as an unabashed peace-monger, what with the Lahore bus yatra and all. Mr L. K. Advani is a toughie, wanting to emerge as the latter-day Sardar Patel. Once this tenuous human face against harsh face is accepted, arguments can be dug up to support the great divide theory. The Prime Minister announced the Ramzan ceasefire and extended it by another month. He softened the old stance on talks with Pakistan by partially opening the door to restricted negotiations. But Mr Advani is still talking tough. He told media on Monday that he would issue passports only to three or four executive members of the Hurriyat and his officers made it plain that Syed Geelani and Sheikh Aziz were on the hit list. This ensured that the two figured in the five-member team to visit Pakistan. Excluding them would make the effort look like a command performance of the central government and that will do no good to anybody. Already Lashkar-e-Toiba has warned the visiting team not to carry an Indian agenda. It is in the interest of peace that the delegation retains its independent, if not an anti-New Delhi, image at least till the process of consultation gets going. The idea is to issue passports to everyone, including the hawks, and even provide funds for their travel. No, they will not be won over, hardboiled as they are. But the common man and woman in the valley will be. He or she is the ultimate arbiter. Go for him or her.

Signals from Jakarta

Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee’s visit to Indonesia has revived memories of the period when Jawaharlal Nehru and Sukarno along with Nasser and Tito played a key role in fashioning the Non-Aligned Movement. The personal friendship between Nehru and Sukarno, of course, translated into equally warm ties between India and Indonesia. However, the prolonged spell of dictatorship in Indonesia resulted in the two countries drifting away from each other. Against this backdrop the credit for the revival of warmth in bilateral relations between the two countries should go to both Mr Vajpayee and Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid. In a manner of speaking Mr Wahid was the one who took the lead in breaking the ice when he set foot on Indian soil in February last year, the first leader of stature to do so after the restoration of democracy in Indonesia. The Non-Aligned Movement, for all intents and purposes, is dead, but the spirit of mutual trust and accommodation which Mr Vajpayee’s visit has generated did send out a strong signal that the two greatest democracies of the region have set their eyes on playing a more crucial and purposeful collective role in ensuring a fair economic representation of all sections of society in the evolving global village. It is unfortunate that the two countries lost meaningful political contact with each other during the prolonged spell of dictatorship in the post-Sukarno Indonesia. But Mr Wahid is an astute statesman and as a student of comparative religion realises the importance of refashioning the bonds of business and trust between the countries which in civilisational terms share more or less the same platform. By according Mr Vajpayee a warm welcome the Indonesian leader succeeded in sending out a positive message to the people in India about the shared cultural heritage which binds the countries rather than the geographical distance which separates them.

Mr Wahid’s personal views on Kashmir and enunciation of his country’s official position on global terrorism should serve as a pointer of better shared future for the natural spiritual “soul mates” of the region. It is not just the popularity of the Ramayana and other Hindu traditions and symbols in the largest Muslim nation in the world which have for long commanded the respect and admiration of the people of India. Mr Wahid’s appreciation of the Indian stand on Kashmir has given a new and exciting dimension to the bilateral relations. Indonesia is the largest Muslim country in the world which displays its liberal tradition, crossing narrow religious barriers, through elevating the story of the Ramayana to a popular art form. India has the second largest Muslim population after Indonesia. Between the two of them, they represent a preponderant majority of the Muslims of the world. Where does it leave Islamic Pakistan and its claim over Kashmir? Of course, Mr Wahid’s promise to back India’s claim for a permanent seat in the UN Security Council is only a minor part of the “new deal” between the two countries. A point which Mr Vajpayee can use with telling effect at home is the coming together of the countries who between them representative the bulk of the Muslim population of the world without, in any way, diluting their reverence for Lord Ram.

HP construction ban

THE modern-day Kumbha-karna called the government is not an early riser at all. It wakes up at leisure. The Himachal Pradesh Government’s decision to put a complete ban on construction activity in certain areas of Manali, Dalhousie, McLeodganj and Dalhousie is true to form. Decades upon decades of a free-for-all culture has already turned these beautiful towns into concrete jungles. In fact, calling these jungles of any sort will be a misnomer; perhaps ghettoes will be a more appropriate word. Haphazard construction has mushroomed at the unlikeliest of places in the name of development and promotion of tourism. It is not just the pristine beauty of these hill towns that has been destroyed forever. The never-ending eruption of tall buildings threatens the very existence of certain areas. Landslides have become a common occurrence. Hill slopes can bear load only up to a reasonable level. Unmindful of this reality, concrete buildings have been coming up almost round the clock. Just look at what has happened to Lakkar Bazaar in Shimla. Add to that the large-scale felling of trees and the poisoning of rivers through pollution and the picture of disintegration is complete. All this should have galvanised the government into action a long time back, but alas, that was not to be.

The damage is done. If it is any consolation, the ban imposed even at this late stage will at least help in ensuring that the alarming situation does not become any worse. At least, such strictness can become a model for other lesser-known towns that are also on the verge of a calamity. All that presupposes that the new rules will be enforced in letter and spirit. That, however, does not happen too often. As soon as new rules are made - and we make far too many of them — the habitual lawbreakers get down to the task of detecting and inventing loopholes in them. There are always a few influential persons (read VIPs) who just have to bypass the law. The law-enforcers are made to bend rules for their sake. Lest others make a hue and cry, a few other people are also allowed to go scot-free. The quorum is completed by moneybags. Thanks to such marshalling of resources most of the laws remain on paper. For the sake of the future of Himachal Pradesh, one wants to hope that such standard short-circuiting will not take place this time. The situation is far too serious to allow such a liberty. It is high time everybody realised that high-rise buildings and high hills do not go well together. And what is the point in converting a whole town into a row of ugly hotels if there is no scenic beauty around to attract the lovers of nature? Civic amenities too are conspicuous by their absence. Tourism in the hill state is like a goose that lays golden eggs. Killing it through greed will be nothing short of harakiri.

LI PENG IN INDIA
Many vexed issues trouble relations 
by Rakshat Puri

SENIOR Chinese leader Li Peng’s official goodwill visit here provides the Government with an opportunity to clarify and to seek closed-door clarification on a number of thorny issues that trouble India-China relations. The India- Tibet border issue is, of course, one of these — by no means unimportant, but perhaps not basic to friendly relations either. However, Mr Li Peng, prior to his departure from Beijing did comment at some length on the border issue. He is reported to have said: “I hope that, in the spirit of mutual understanding and mutual accommodation, this issue can be resolved. Of course, given its complexity, it requires patience and right conditions for its settlement.”

Mr Li Peng also recalled his talks with the late Rajiv Gandhi in 1988 when the “India-China Joint Working Group (JWG) on the boundary question” was set up; and his talks with former Prime Minister Narasimha Rao in 1993 when they signed the agreement “on the maintenance of peace and tranquility in border areas along the Line of Actual Control”. The agreement, he emphasised, “played a big role in maintaining safety and security along the border areas”. To some extent, this may be true after many fruitless meetings, some maps of the LAC areas were exchanged for the first time at the last JWG talks.

In relation to the India-Tibet border there are three aspects that need to be considered. First, that, despite the 1993 JWG agreement, and despite the many JWG meetings that followed, unwarranted intrusions by Chinese troops across various points of the LAC have continued. During Pakistan’s Kargil encroachment, Chinese military patrols were reported sporadically challenging Indian forces in various parts of Ladakh. In the autumn of 1999, Chinese troops were reported staging aggressive military manoeuvres in the Tawang sector. Secondly, The border between India and Tibet cannot be settled finally without a clear resolution of the issue of Tibet’s status — the Tibetans in and outside Tibet continue to be engaged in direct or indirect struggle against Chinese occupation of their country. This, despite the Dalai Lama’s reportedly moving to a conciliatory position.

In this connection, India needs to take a lesson from the Chinese themselves — from, among other things, their note of May 31, 1962, to the government of India on the position of Kashmir. The note — after asking in paragraph 2, When did the Chinese government accept without any reservation the position that Kashmir is under Indian sovereignty?” stated in paragraph 3 that the negotiations “between the Governments of China and Pakistan made it crystal clear, that after the settlement of the dispute between Pakistan and India over Kashmir, the sovereign authorities concerned shall re-open negotiations with the Chinese Government on the question of the Kashmir boundary so as to conclude a formal treaty to replace the provisional agreement to be signed after the Sino-Pak negotiations”.

Any negotiations with China on the LAC in the areas of the India-Tibet border, as well as eventual negotiations for a formal agreement on the border itself, might fruitfully be modelled on the approach described in the Chinese note and be considered provisional. It would seem necessary for the Indian Government to indicate clearly that negotiations on the provisional India-Tibet border would be re-opened between India and the sovereign authority concerned after final decision on the status of Tibet had been determined; and only then would a formal treaty on the India-Tibet boundary be signed. There seems little doubt that a democratic impulse is awakening among people in China consider the Tiananmen repression and its results; and lately, the democratic protests of the Falun Gong group. The coming of democracy to replace the present authoritarian regime in Beijing seems a matter of time. The coming of democracy into China is likely to bring with it changes that ramify into almost every sector of that country’s life.

Thirdly, it may be noted that, while there is number of major issues which need to be detailed, clarified and resolved between India and China, the regime in Beijing appears to concentrate almost exclusively on the India-Tibet border issue. While Mr Li Peng before his departure from Beijing on his present visit preached patience mutual understanding and mutual accommodation, Chinese spokesmen in even the recent past are on record stating that New Delhi is to blame for the delay in settlement of the border and other issue between the two countries.

It is almost as if the Beijing regime were attempting to demonstrate to the international community that India was being exclusive, unreasonable and unduly aggressive and obstructionist in negotiating issues with its neighbours examples being “reasonable” China and equally “reasonable” Pakistan. such a ploy is not beyond Beijing’s conjuring and practice no matter how remote it might seem to China’s apologists in this country. A study of the history of China of its people, of its policy making from ancient times, of its secret societies, and of the Chinese mind in intrigue and intricate entanglement should bear this out amply.

Other issue that trouble India-China relations, and on which clarifications might urgently and frankly be sought from Mr Li Peng include Beijing’s unremitting encouragement to and sophisticated arming of an anti-India Pakistan, with the transparent intention of keeping India ties down in South Asia; the dumping of cheap consumer goods in this country, adversely affecting some sections of India’s own industry; aid and encouragement to insurgents and non-Indian terrorists in Indian territory; alleged backing, direct or indirect, to narcotics smuggling into and through India; and so on.

Mr Li Peng himself, on a visit to Islamabad in April, 1999, vowed” trustworthy and reliable” friendship with Pakistan “no matter how the international situation changes China and Pakistan.... always support and assist each other”. American intelligence has pointed out repeatedly that China has been selling M-11 missiles to Pakistan. China has been building a 300-megawatt nuclear power plant for Pakistan. Very noticeably, while China has expressed rage over India’s Pokhran-2 tests, it is among the few countries that proclaimed “understanding” for Pakistan’s explosion of nuclear devices in the Chagai Hills.

Last January, when General Musharraf was paying a visit to Beijing, “accepted at short-notice”, Mr Li Peng repeated these sentiments, accompanied in similar vein by China’s President Jiang Zemin and Prime Minister Zhu Rongji. It may be worth observing, against this background, that China has retained continual links with the terrorist-supporting Afghan Taliban ever since the Beijing regime joined the USA and Pakistan to equip and train the Mujahideen against Soviet forces; and that General Mushrraf has so far not said a word against the Pakistan-based Islamist groups who are carrying cross-border terrorism into Jammu and Kashmir and elsewhere in India.

Meanwhile, India’s intelligence Bureau is reported to have suggested that the Union Government take urgent steps to counter “the Chinese militants (who) have spread their area of operations in all the seven North-Eastern States and are running parallel administrations with the help of local militants in the entire region, posing a serious threat to internal security”. Many months ago, it may be relevant to recall here, a newspaper report said India had gathered” crucial evidence of Chinese naval officials working in at least nine Myanmar naval bases, and Chinese vessels visiting certain islands close to the Indian coastline to monitor signal communications”.

Recently, China is reported to have rejected an Indian invitation to participate in the International Fleet Review which is scheduled from February 15 to 19. So far, 27 of the world’s 29 , major navies have, from all accounts, agreed to participate in the Review. Is the Chinese rejection of the Indian invitation on account of India’s not having invited Pakistan?

In other related developments, it is reported that the Pakistan armed forces have forged business links with sections of Chinese People’s Liberation Army which continues to enter into trade and other ventures despite Mr Jiang Zemin’s reported frowning at this. Among other businesses, it is said, the armies of the two countries are cooperating in “the lucrative trade in narcotics headquartered in Xiamen and Macau” in China. Telltale?

All this and more needs urgently to be discussed frankly with the Chinese leadership. Mr Li Peng is said to be among the influential elements in China’s leadership today. He will presumably play a major role at the Communist Party’s 16th Congress in 2002, which is likely to be eventful, and at which Mr Jiang Zemin, it is expected, will relinquish the party’s general-secretaryship. Li’s visit to New Delhi provides an opportunity now for urgent and important India-China consultations and clarifications. These may have close relevance to the direction in which events in Asia move as the new century unfolds.

Religion mine, culture ours
by Anurag

IT was a rain-swept afternoon. There was nip in the air. I had refreshed myself after a short sleep. It was time to set forth for the Sangam area where preparations had begun on a war footing to bring into being the majestic Kumbh nagar where about four crore, may be more, devouts from far and wide are expected to congregate to seek the divine bliss in the wintry weather of January and February. The sprawling temporary township would become the abode of saints, pilgrims, believers and followers besides curious onlookers, whose coming and staying together should once again reaffirm our much-vaunted and valued unity in diversity.

My team of officers took me round the Mela premises in a couple of hours. The purpose of my visit was to have a first-hand assessment of the size of the pilgrim population who would throng various railway stations in the Allahabad area soon after taking an auspicious dip in the sacred waters and making offerings to the Sun-God on the peak bathing day of Mauni Amavasysa. One is supposed to observe silence and introspect while dipping oneself into the holy waters, hence the epithet “Mauni”, informed my inspectors.

Tracking the route likely to be taken by the devouts after their maiden millennial bath which, I was told, has as much therapeutic value as theological significance, we reached the nearby Daraganj railway station. Normally a forlorn two line railhead, it wears a festive look and acquires an amazing ambience during the Mela period. Keen to ascertain a typical pilgrim’s itinerary, I asked the station master to produce someone who could give reasonably reliable information so as to facilitate our planning for the special trains on the occasion. Swift and smooth dispersal of the pilgrims is a crucial component of the Mela arrangements. An eye for detail is a must for accomplishing this mammoth task.

Soon showed up a man, a lowly railway staff in his forties, wearing an air of confidence with caution. “Sir, as soon as they have performed the ‘snaan’ and the ‘pooja’, the pilgrims head for the temples of Venimadhava, Nagavasuki, Alopidevi and Jagadguru Shankaracharya, all of which are located within a radius of three kilometres. Time permitting, some of them may visit the Anand Bhavan also”, he affirmed. He had a smattering of the mythological references relating to the origin of the Kumbh Mela which, he confided, found mention in one of the Vedas. “Kumbh was held in 1965 and 1966 successively,” he revealed. This dichotomy, I discovered later, occurs after every eighth Kumbh to square up the astronomical accounts.

Realising that I might need to know more on the pilgrim-pattern while firming up the railway plan, I casually asked my secretary to note down his name.

“Bismillah Khan”, he intoned.

I stood dazed and dazzled. My return journey was lost in thoughts, profound and penetrating.

Had I been to the Sangam of the Ganga, the Yamuna or the mythical Saraswati, or to a place where history, culture and religion created a confluence? I had returned home, wondering if it was the return of the native.

Bismillah Khan symbolised, nay celebrated, the victory of culture over religion. Culture transcends region. It has more to do with region than religion. That’s why they take collective pride in the Punjabi culture, the Gujarati culture, the Rajasthani culture et al. Religion divides but culture unites. Long live Indian culture.

Is Musharraf riding a tiger?
By Syed Nooruzzaman

Despite repeated warnings by thinkers and other well-meaning people through newspapers, the Pervez Musharraf regime has not realised the consequences of its policy of pampering the extremist and militant organisations surviving in the name of religion. These “jehadi” outfits revel in violating the law of the land. Besides their destructive activities (they call it jehad to earn the sympathy of the gullible public) in Jammu and Kashmir and elsewhere in India, they are bent on subverting the system in Pakistan, the country which provides them moral and material sustenance. Yet the ruling General refuses to come down heavily on them. Why?

One obvious reason is that these “lashkars” are fighting his proxy war on this side of the border. The other is that these outfits, launched by short-sighted and ill-educated people operating as men of religion, have acquired enormous muscle power enough to frighten the government of the day. The third reason that comes to one’s mind is that perhaps because of their appeal among certain sections of the masses, these “jehadis” are close to the levers of power.

This amounts to riding a tiger, which may one day not only devour the ruling General but also the country feeding the beast. The growing lawlessness in Pakistan is to a large extent the handiwork of the “jehadi” outfits. In fact, the situation seems to be leading to anarchy. This is no exaggeration. It is the bitter reality. Here is proof.

According to newspaper columnist Anwer Sindhu, one of the venues of the Eid prayers in Lahore — Qaddhafi Stadium — was under the control of a dreaded terrorist outfit, the Lashkar-e-Toiba, on that special occasion. The devout were subjected to a body search by the gun-toting men of the Lashkar. Those who refused to bow to their dictates were denied entry to the stadium. The policemen present were silent spectators. Those who approached the police for help were disappointed. Rather the response of the police added to their discomfiture. The police would ask them to keep quiet and go to some other venue for offering their annual prayer. The Lashkar-e-Toiba, which claimed responsibility for terrorist attacks at Delhi’s Red Fort, is among the organisations which enjoy official patronage. This fact exposes the duplicity of the Musharraf regime. On the one hand, it tells the world that Pakistan wishes to begin talks with the Government of India afresh for reducing tension in South Asia and, on the other, it patronises the outfits which excel in creating instability.

The official patronage to “friendly” terrorist organisations has led to the emergence of a dreaded gun culture in Pakistan. This painful development has created an atmosphere of intense fear, impacting on the growth of the economy. Foreign investors (institutional as well as others) are showing little interest in this part of South Asia. Job avenues are fast shrinking. Students of professional courses feel depressed. When asked about their future plan, their stock reply is: we will look for employment abroad.

Immediately after capturing power by staging a coup in October, 1999, General Musharraf announced grand schemes to improve the health of the economy. But so far he has been a total failure. An independent study of the economy’s performance, “Social Development in Pakistan — Towards Poverty Reduction”, has it that the regime’s poverty-reduction programme and the related projects have been “ineffective”. Today Pakistan, with a population of 140 million, has 46 million people classified as “poor”, whose number may go up to 60 million in the near future.

In an analytical report carried recently in The Nation, Mr M. Aftab says the research team which produced the revealing report was led by a highly respected economist, Dr Aziz Pasha, head of Karachi’s Social Policy and Development Centre. The Pasha study warns: “There is the likelihood of a rapid increase in poverty in the coming years, which can lead to a systemic breakdown and shake the foundations of the state. The situation needs a close and coordinated working of the government, donors, civil society and people at large to avert this outcome.” 

Laxman very much his own man
by Tavleen Singh

IN my mail, last week, arrived an invitation to lunch from Bangaru Laxman, BJP President. I could not go for one reason or another but other hacks who went reported mainly on the food that was served (delicious) and on the bonhomie that prevailed. Since I had never met Mr Laxman I decided to call him and see if I could not have a private audience. He suggested we meet in the BJP office on Tuesday at 12 noon where I duly arrived at the appointed time. Mr Laxman’s presence was evident from the moment I got to the gates of 11 Ashoka Road, New Delhi, in the form of a large, gaudy hoarding of him in the company of Atal Behari Vajpayee and Lal Krishan Advani. His, I thought, was a new face in the pantheon and there was much else about the BJP headquarters that was a new face in the pantheon and there was much else about the BJP headquarters that was new. From being a tumbledown, sleepy bungalow the office had now acquired the airs and graces of a political party in power. A refurbished reception area, new gates and an almost tangible sense of importance being among them.

Mr Laxman was delayed at a meeting so instead of sitting idle on my plastic chair in the ante-room I sought the resolutions of the party’s National Executive meeting and perused them while I waited. There were two political resolutions — one on Kashmir and the other on the North-East — and an economic resolution on the agricultural situation. For a party that started off as representative mainly of shopkeepers and small entrepreneurs the party has come a long way if the agricultural situation is now concentrating its mind.

The resolution made some radical suggestions: economic reforms to be extended to the agricultural sector, limiting the role of the Food Corporation of India, decentralisation of the public distribution system. But, basically it supported the government in the things it was doing ‘the Antyodaya Anna Yojana — announced on the Prime Minister’s birthday — is a timely step. Interesting, when you consider that this is a party that has been vociferous in its criticism of Congress leaders for their grandiose gestures.

Its hard to think of anything more grandiose than a Prime Minister considering his birthday an important enough event to announce serious economic programmes. Is this not what Maharajas used to do?

The political resolution on “peace initiatives in Jammu and Kashmir” was anodyne and devoted mainly to welcoming the Prime Minister’s peace moves and warning him not to talk to Pakistan. ‘The question of trilateral talks does not arise’. The only hint of the BJP of yore was in a paragraph that pointed out that it would be tragic if the plight of the displaced 2.5 lakh Kashmiri Pandits were not taken into account while seeking peace in Jammu & Kashmir. On the North-East, the BJP voice, often interpreted as one that targets Muslims, was more clearly heard. The ISI (Inter-Services Intelligence) was blamed for most of the violence and illegal immigration from Bangladesh was blamed for causing ‘serious political, social and economic impact.’

At some point during my perusal of these resolutions Mr Laxman arrived and I was summoned into his office. He sat behind a large, shiny desk under a large shiny (laminated) picture of women standing around the BJP’s lotus symbol drawn in white rangoli on the ground. The first thing I noticed about Mr Laxman was that he was more articulate and sophisticated than BJP Presidents have been since Messrs Advani and Joshi moved on to higher things. He is fluent in English and Hindi and has a confident, resolute air about him. Poor old Kushabhau Thakre, his predecessor, always seemed strangely diffident not just about what he had to say but even in the manner he said it.

Would he like to talk on the record, I asked, or off. “Well, let’s just talk”, said Mr Laxman “and then you can decide what to do”. So, I put away my notebook and told him that I was mainly interested in finding out his views on the temple in Ayodhya that the Vishwa Hindu Parishad was threatening to start building from March.

Was he worried that an announcement during the Kumbh Mela by the VHP’s Dharam Sansad (religious parliament) would put the government between a rock and a hard place. He looked thoughtful for a few moments and then choosing his words with care said that it was important to understand the VHP’s position. They did, after all, have their own constituency to think about. It was a constituency that would be arriving en masse at the mela in the form of holy men of various hue and disposition. Some were beginning to get a bit impatient, he said, and were not prepared to trade the temple off against the survival of the government. The VHP needed to play a delicate political game in their attempts to control those who considered the temple far more important than the survival of Mr Vajpayee’s Government. Mr Laxman did not say it in so many words but I interpreted this to mean that the VHP was likely to try and persuade the more impatient of its religious supporters to hold things off for a bit.

What then was the BJP’s position on the temple, I asked, and here his answer came without hesitation. “The Prime Minister has made this position clear in his musings from Kerala”. The law will prevail, whatever happens will happen with due consultation between Hindus and Muslims but the temple will be built. “Everyone is clear about this” said Mr Laxman “you will notice if you go through the debate in Parliament that not a single speaker from any political party said that the temple should not be built. And, not a single speaker said that the temple that already exists (where the mosque once stood) should be removed.”

But, what of the pillars and carving that were piling up in Ayodhya and seemed to indicate that work on the temple would begin soon? Mr Laxman said that this work had been going on since 1989 when Rajiv Gandhi laid the foundation shilanyas of the temple so this was nothing to worry about.

Was he worried, though, that the BJP’s more lunatic fringe supporters may not get carried away in the religiosity that the Kumbh Mela usually unleashes and head straight off to Ayodhya to start building the temple. Would this not threaten the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government that the BJP heads in Delhi? No, he said firmly, there was no threat to the government at all.

Then Mr Laxman rang the bell on his table indicating that it was time for his next visitor and I was dismissed. The overwhelming impression I left with was of a man who knew exactly the direction he wants to take the BJP in and this direction has little to do with the religious and ideological baggage it carries from the days of the rathyatra. Mr Laxman is very much his own man.

Spiritual Nuggets

Death is a change that will usher you into light from darkness, and bestow eternal bliss upon you. You need have no fear of death, for apart from the physical body you have other bodies. Therefore, do not be afraid to come out of this body.

*****

O friend! If you wish to attain life eternal, then die before death overtaken you. O good-natured friend! So long as you do not die while living, how can you ever get the fruit of life? Therefore, die while living and avail yourself of the value of this human life.

— Maulana Rum, Masnavi

*****

How wonderful it would be, if you should take your soul out of the body some night and rise above to higher realms after leaving the 'tomb' of your body. If your soul does it you would forever escape death's sword.

— Diwan-i-Shamas-i-Tabriz

*****

By dying before death we go beyond all delusion and darkness and find true bliss and beatitude of spiritual planes just now and here.

— Lekh Raj Puri, Mysticism, the Spiritual Path, Vol. II

*****

To die daily mans to practice the withdrawal of the consciousness to the eye-centre every day... Meditation is nothing but a preparation to leave the body.

— Maharaj Charan Singh, Die to Live

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You are easily led astray by the vagaries of the mind. That is why I say, WATCH!

W is for watch your Word;

A is for watch your Actions;

T is for watch your Thoughts;

C is for watch your Character;

H is for watch your Heart.

If the watch reminds you every second of the need to watch these five, you can be quite happy.

*****

The mind swings like a pendulum between one pleasant object and another. To stop the pendulum, the easiest means is to stop winding. That will put an end to the swing. So, too, stop encouraging the mind by following its whims and fancies.

— Sathya Sai Speaks, Vol. VI, chapter 21