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Tuesday,
June 26, 2001, Chandigarh, India  
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Fighting female foeticide Protest & police inaction Pension explosion |
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Negotiating with Naga rebels
A buddy in Gurdaspur
Fallout of Centre-state divide
Newly fat, not newly stupid!
High BP can hit youths too
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Protest & police inaction TIMELY and tactful police action could have avoided much of the pain and inconvenience caused by the death of two Bangala youths which led to a seven-hour traffic jam on the busy Chandigarh-Kharar highway on Sunday. So poor is police credibility that simple assurances don't pacify the aggrieved. They have to place the bodies of their dead dear ones on the road to seek the registration of an FIR. The two youths of Kharar died, or were murdered as the families alleged, at Gaddulian village in Fatehgarh district on Thursday, but the FIR was registered only on Sunday, that too seven hours after the traffic blockade. Such delayed action encourages protesters to resort to and justify traffic jams. The message given out is: unless you protest this way, no one will listen. Whenever foul play is suspected or alleged in any case of death, the police should be duty-bound to take prompt action and should not only be, but also appear to be, impartial. The families of Siau village, near Mohali, whose two children were done to death a few days ago over a land dispute, are still seeking the arrest of one of the suspects, an Akali leader. Traffic blockade is becoming a frequent mode of protest, particularly in the Kharar area. When residents of Khanpur village were at the receiving of police action, they too blocked traffic. Traffic jams were also resorted to on the Kharar-Banur and Landran-Sohana roads recently. Newspaper reports suggest the involvement of certain political activists of the area in the frequent traffic jams. They instigate the aggrieved families and other villagers to resort to such drastic action. Political speeches were made at the Kharar dharna site on Sunday. The police needs to isolate and book these elements. The protesters should realise that no matter how genuine their demands may be, they lose public sympathy when they stop the flow of traffic. There may be patients in need of urgent treatment, the aged and children holed up in vehicles in an unkind weather, not to speak of the inconvenience caused to common citizens. |
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Pension explosion A time bomb is ticking away and it could cause as much havoc to government finance as interest payment is doing today. Pension payment is shooting up not only because the grey generation is increasing but also because the fifth Pay Commission has sharply increased the liability. As is its wont, the government is trying to force the
beneficiaries to share the burden. An extreme idea is to deduct a small percentage of the pay (say, 10 per cent) every month with a matching or bigger contribution from the government. At present a similar amount, and in some cases 12 per cent, goes to build up the provident fund. Nothing has been heard of this idea; obviously the government has killed it fearing a mighty uproar from the employees. Take first of all the numbers. A study sponsored by the Social Welfare Ministry has found that while the population will increase by 46 per cent by 2016, the number of pensioners will more than double. This is both because improved living standard and a general increase in lifespan. In the railways, for instance, there were one lakh pensioners in 1973 and it jumped to seven lakh by 1990. By 2015, this number is expected to swell to 14 lakh. Interestingly, the staff strength has remained more or less the same - about 16 lakh. And the railways is a small part of the central government! The cash outgo brings out the full picture. To start with the railways, total pension payment in 1990 was Rs 1000 crore; last year it ballooned to Rs 5167 crore. There will be another quantum jump in the present decade. As a share of the operating costs, pension payment has more than trebled in the past 20 years or so. The railways have a dedicated pension fund but it has an emaciated balance of Rs 76 crore. A fuller and somewhat disturbing picture emerges from a look at the pension payment of both the Centre and the states. In 1994-95 it was Rs 6146 crore or 4.84 per cent of the revenue expenditure. In last financial year it zoomed to Rs 23,790 crore or 8.48 per cent. In rupee terms, the increase is understandable in view of the after-effects of the Pay Commission. But the percentage factor is quite worrisome. The payment is outstripping the increase in revenue collection. It can spell trouble, big trouble, in the near future. The government may introduce desperate changes disturbing the peace of mind of senior citizens. |
Negotiating with Naga rebels THE North-East is in turmoil. The ceasefire agreement with the National Socialist Council of Nagaland led by Mr Muivah and Mr Issac Swu beyond June 14 to cover Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur and Tripura has resulted in a very serious situation in the entire North-East. The jurisdictional extension appears to have been done without examining all the pros and cons and without the concurrence of the states concerned. There are two basic questions concerning this issue. One, if the Centre had not agreed to extend the ceasefire jurisdiction to territories beyond Nagaland all these years, thereby upholding the concern expressed by the states concerned of the North-East, why was it necessary to extend now? Two, does this step assure a settlement with the NSCN and what sort of settlement would that be? It is doubtful if any satisfactory answer would be available to either of these questions. The recent interview of Governor Marwah of Manipur adds to the confusion and reflects sadly on the decision-making process at the Centre on this sensitive issue. The people of the North-East have justifiable ground for opposing the extension of the ceasefire agreement to their areas. The negotiations are between the Government of India and the Muivah-Issac Swu group of the NSCN representing Nagaland. They cannot be taken as Naga leaders representing all the Naga people living throughout the North-East. Mr Muivah himself is a Tangkul Naga from Manipur while Mr Issac Swu is a Sema from Nagaland. Mr Khaplang, who is yet another Naga leader representing a small faction, comes from a Myanmar area bordering Nagaland. Mr Khaplang is reportedly being favoured by Chief Minister Jamir of Nagaland, who has been pressing that negotiations should be held with the Khaplang faction as well. Mr Jamir has declared his willingness to step down if the Naga rebels are prepared to contest the elections in Nagaland and come to power. However, this does not suit the Muivah-Swu group which has an unspecified agenda. The jurisdictional extension to other areas in the North-East has given hope to the NSCN that some day their Greater Nagaland idea, consisting of the adjoining areas of Assam, Manipur and Arunachal Pradesh, would materialise. The reaction from Manipur to the jurisdictional extension has been particularly explosive since the non-tribal Meiteis, who are Hindus in the valley and the plains, are surrounded by Nagas, Kukis, Zemis and several other tribes. The sense of outrage in Manipur has cut across party lines since it was a princely state by its own right until it acceded to the India Union in 1947 and subsequently became a fulfledged state. The Nagas who were only in one district of erstwhile Assam now covert the Naga inhabited areas of the North-East. Mr Muivah has tried to explain that the ceasefire extension does not mean anything more at present, but this denial is deceptive. More importantly, the ceasefire extension to areas other than Nagaland will result in Naga rebels of the NSCN moving about openly and extorting money from people in the newly extended areas, and this will throw a big burden on the law and order machinery of the states concerned. What do the Naga rebels want? We need not go into the various stages of negotiations and the agreements entered into between the Government of India and the Naga leaders since Independence. Phizo and his successors, including Mr Muivah, say the Nagas are not Indian nationals, and the Nagaland was never part of India. Mr Phizo resorted to insurgency and eventually left India and settled in London where he died. In 1977 Prime Minister Morarji Desai was in London when Phizo sought an appointment with him. Morarji ignored Indian High Commissioner B.K. Nehru’s advice and agreed to meet him, and the meeting turned out to be acrimonious. Towards the end of the interview Phizo loudly asked Morarji, “So, you say you are going to kill all the Nagas?” Morarji replied, “No, I said I will kill all the Nagas who make war on India”. Phizo had clandestinely carried a tape recorder on his person which recorded the conversation. The conversation was, however, doctored and the words “who make war on India” were erased and cassettes carrying the Indian Prime Minister’s threat that “I will kill all the Nagas” were distributed throughout Nagaland soon after. One of the most fundamental mistakes made while negotiating with the Naga rebels was to agree to meet them on foreign soil. Mr Muivah and Mr Issac Swu have had meetings while Prime Ministers and their representatives at the most exotic places abroad like Paris, Davos, the Hague, Geneva and Bangkok. Bangkok has now become a favourite meeting place because of its proximity to Nagaland, an indulgent administration in Thailand, etc. The negotiations on behalf of the Government of India were held by Mr Swaraj Kaushal, Mr N.N. Vohra, the late Rajesh Pilot and Mr Padamanabhiah, Mr Muivah and Mr Issac Swu have periodically urged that the final discussions should be held at the level of the Prime Minister or a Cabinet Minister. Mr B.K. Nehru was the Governor of Assam and Nagaland during 1978-83, and in his memoirs there is an interesting and educative chapter on the Nagas. He asserts that the Naga problem has nothing to do with the Nagaland’s constitutional status, and the Naga insurgents are “nothing more than a bunch of ignorant brigands living on money extorted from their own people and charity of foreign countries”. Mr Nehru also refers to his discussion with T.N. Kaul, Ministry of External Affairs, which was then dealing with the Nagas affairs. When asked by Mr Nehru whether there was any possibility of the Centre making further concessions to the Nagas, Kaul’s answer was that there was nothing. Mr Nehru thereafter asked him what was then the point in continuing with the charade of negotiations for which there was no answer. The question put to Kaul is relevant even today. What can India really give to the Nagas and not give the same to the other tribal states? The Naga territory, which constituted just one district in the state of Assam until 1963 when it was made a full-fledged state at the instance of Jawaharlal Nehru. Periodic assembly elections have been held, and there is a Chief Minister with all the trappings of democracy. Nagaland is given a minimum of about Rs 1000 crore from the Plan funds, apart from other special grants for specific schemes and additional grants from the North-Eastern Council budget. The per capita allocation for Nagaland far exceeds, by as much as 20 times, compared to that for states like UP and Bihar. Thanks to the Baptist church and its educational institutions, the literacy percentage in Nagaland is very high, and bright boys and girls who had studied in Shillong and Delhi have got into all-India services under the 7.5 per cent tribal quota provided for in the Constitution. The standard of living of the average Naga is far better than the average Bihari or Oriya. Mr Muivah and Mr Issac Swu, who emerged as Naga leaders in the late 1960s, had their links with the Chinese which were established much earlier. In the post-1962 climate of bitterness between India and China, the Chinese were only too willing to give the Naga rebels arms for fighting the Indian Army. The Chinese also “educated” them which explains the designation “National Socialist Council of Nagaland”. The truth is that the organisation, which is nothing more than an insurgent outfit, is neither national nor socialist. The links with the Chinese continued till 1978 when Deng Xiaping became the Chinese supremo, Deng’s priorities were to develop China into a strong industrial country, and he did not want China to waste its resources by meddling in the neighbours’ domestic problems. The linkage with the Chinese thereby abruptly ended in 1978. Pakistan was more than willing to fill the vacuum and the liaison between Pakistan’s ISI and the NSCN has continued ever since. When Mr Muivah was arrested at Bangkok airport in January, 2000, for travelling on a false passport, he was flying from Karachi after meeting his ISI contacts. While the trial was on, Mr Muivah, who was on bail, tried to flee from Thailand under a false name and was arrested. The trial has been going on in both cases in Bangkok for quite some time. We have had the spectacle of certain senior journalists and human rights activists from India attending his trial in Bangkok and writing for newspapers later that India should intervene and get Mr Muivah released. Well, India is a liberal democracy and can take all this in its stride. The writer is a former Governor of West Bengal and Sikkim. |
A buddy in Gurdaspur THE other day when a fellow-walker in the morning remarked that he had never been to Gurdaspur, I felt sorry for him the way our elders used to feel when they came across a person who had never seen Lahore. I felt sorry for him since Gurdaspur is not just a district town but a distinctive way of life — the way which “fronts only the essentials of life”. And the essentials comprise a fine amalgam of simple joys, innocent fun, quiet camaraderie and uncanny inventiveness. The only person who exemplifies this ethos is Shanti, my college mate of the fifties, who continues to be as vibrant as he was when both of us acted in a college play and later participated in a session of mock parliament. An early bloomer — he got married when we were still in the fourth year — he sailed to Tokyo at an age when some of us had a problem locating it on the world map. And when he returned from the cruise, he enchanted us with all those close-ups on his adventures. That is the time when we had just read a course poem by Tennyson. So we began to salute our comrade as the Ulysses of the town who had been out there at that young age to have the raw taste of life. While my other city-bred friends like Onkar and Surinder found nothing sensational in his narratives, I being an unvarnished country boy simply blushed at the dramatic disclosure of his oceanic experience. “Do you know about the creative genius of your dad?” I asked Suraj, the upcoming tycoon of the town. I narrated two incidents that testify to Shanti’s gravitas and vision. One relates to our English teacher who often said in the class that he loved swimming. One day Shanti invited him to the exclusive swimming pool in the rear of his marble mansion. “After the swim, sir, you’ll have lunch with me”, he said and asked me to join them one April afternoon. And what a pool that was! I found the professor floating in a rectangular enclosure filled to the top by the adjoining tubewell. The other incident relates to Chandana, the tailor from Babehali, a nearby village of wrestlers, who owned a shop in the Lower Bazaar of Gurdaspur. I always envied the perfect fit in which my buddy arrived in the morning. Compared to his sartorial elegance my own pants and jackets looked baggy and oversized as if I had picked them up from some relief agency. Even some of the faculty members, especially that swimmer, looked admiringly at Shanti’s attire. In the beginning I hesitated but one fine morning I did ask him about his fitter. I forgot to mention that his body language was as exquisite as his verbal ability. Equally striking was his passion for Anglicization of names. With a little twist of his shoulders he caressed the left arm of his tweed jacket and remarked: “Oh, this is from Chenna of Bably”. After every two or three years my wife and I go on a secular pilgrimage to my pastoral birthplace girdled by two canals. When we are through with a round of my primary, lower middle, middle and high schools, we drive on to enjoy the phenomenal hospitality of Shanti and his charming wife Chanchal. Just last week as we reminisced about those good old days, I kept wondering why time suddenly stopped when you sat with an old friend, whom Emerson calls a “masterpiece of nature”. |
Fallout of Centre-state divide WE had a few occasions in the past when the political divide between the Centre and the states had been quite wide. When the Janata wave swept across the country in 1977, the new rulers at the Centre ordered elections in the Congress-ruled states to restore what was claimed political conformity. Later the Congress had also resorted to the same doctrine of political parity when it swept back to power at the Centre. Anomalies of coalition politics have now created a similar situation though in the reverse. The Vajpayee government continues to enjoy a comfortable majority at the Centre. But the political complexion of the state governments tells an altogether different story. In the entire country, the two dozen partners of the ruling NDA together control only 11 states, if one includes the outside supporter TDP. The main opposition Congress alone has that many states under it. Opposition parties other than the Congress rule in another four states. Of these, Bihar and Tamil Nadu, two big states, are the electoral allies of the Congress. An overwhelming majority of the state governments politically remain opposed to the NDA government. They are in no way obliged to follow the national policies and programmes dictated by the present establishment in Delhi. Even among the 11 NDA governments, the Prime Minister has effective control only on the Chief Ministers of Gujarat, Uttaranchal, Jharkhand, UP and Himachal Pradesh. Goa is an entirely different kettle of fish. While the TDP and the Akalis use their position to gain maximum leverage for their states, others plough their own furrow. Thus politically, the nation and states are moving in different directions. This is not to argue in favour of imposing an artificial political conformity through a fresh election to the Lok Sabha. That is some thing the politicians do only when it suits their calculations. But the fallout of this precarious nation-state divide on political, economic and administrative decision making is proving disastrous. The “Rajya Sabha hurdle” in pushing through the Vajpayee government’s controversial Bills is a logical reflection of this dichotomy. This is bound to widen after the subsequent elections to the council of states which are supposed to reflect the complexion of the states. This widening divide has considerably eroded the Prime Minister’s authority — moral as well as substantive. For all practical purposes, his government’s writ runs only in what falls under the central schedule. Even here he often faces stiff resistance from some of his aggrieved allies and the parivar. All his government’s grandiose schemes that are not to the liking of the Opposition, invariably fail to take off. Some have got stuck up at the meetings of the Chief Ministers or state ministers. At the Chief Ministers’ conference, the Prime Minister can spot very few friendly faces. On issues like seeking intrusive powers for the central police, the isolation has been startling. The globalisers always lament over the states’ ‘disinterest’ in pushing reforms. The issue might not have even cropped up under a politically legitimate Prime Minister enjoying the support of a majority of state governments. As against this, even Sonia Gandhi has been able to prescribe a uniform policy for as many as 11 states under her party. This crisis of political authority vis-a-vis the states has been steadily worsening with the NDA losing control in state after state. Since it came to power, six states comprising over 160 MPs have slipped out of the NDA control. The recent assembly elections have further confirmed the trend. The panic with which the BJP is seeking allies in UP signals the impending disaster in India’s largest state. The widening Centre-state political divide has its own curious twists and turns. Foreign governments and multinational lobbies have been the first to scent the disturbing change. What had begun in tickles in the late ‘80s when the single-party majority in the Lok Sabha came to an end, has now got institutionalised. For the visiting foreign dignitaries, a meeting with Sonia Gandhi has become an essential itinerary. During the National Front rule, the dignitaries and envoys met L.K. Advani. The practice continued even under what was considered stable government of Narasimha Rao. Those like media baron Rupert Murdoch had paid courtesy call on the leader of the then main Opposition. 10 Janpath too makes it a point to send greetings, etc, to the world leaders and dignitaries, signalling its own importance. What were courtesy calls have now become full consultations. Often these consultations are direct and at times through the AICC foreign experts and those dealing with economic affairs. Incidentally, the date and venue of the Vajpayee-Musharraf talks and the issues proposed by both sides were known to 10 Janpath before it was announced in Washington (not in Delhi). Pakistani High Commissioner Ashraf Qasi had detailed discussions with her — much before Vajpayee thought of consulting the opposition leaders on the issue. The envoy has also been meeting other major opposition leaders. US Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage during his India visit had also met Sonia Gandhi. Diplomats and senior staff frequently meet opposition leaders, mainly from the Congress, to gauge their mood on various issues. Sonia’s US trip this month epitomises this new kind of ‘two-track’ diplomacy. Among others, a meeting with Armitage has been arranged for her. She is accompanied by a team of party experts who stress that from her side she had not sought meetings with any one. Apparently, no one wants to keep all eggs in one basket. Foreign investors with serious proposals, governments dealing in long-term arms and other contracts, desi business dealers, PSU grabbers, etc, have begun taking additional precaution. This parallel trend has expressions in many ways. Political parties, including those of the NDA, are quietly charting out their own policies and programmes independent of the official central framework. The 11 Congress Chief Ministers’ meeting with Sonia Gandhi was not to endorse the reform as was made out by the media. They will now follow a judicious approach to various reform measures with special emphasis on the interests of the weaker sections whom they would like to win back. The message is that since the Centre is free to implement its policies, the Congress governments will do so the way they deemed fit. Even the NDA state governments begin feeling the political burden of central decisions and are looking for their own voter-friendly programmes. |
Newly fat, not newly stupid! SOME people strive for thinness, some have thinness thrust upon them, and up until recently, I was in the latter category. I was thin, and not in a good make-lots-of-money-and-travel-the-world supermodel way. I wasn’t thin and gorgeous, I was thin and ordinary. Thin and nice-enough. But I was thin. Freakishly thin. Bonkers-thin. Too thin. Sometimes so thin that I’d need to take my tights in. (Boom, erm, boom.) For the longest time, thin-jokes like these were part of my conversational repertoire. For ex-smokers, weight gain is the cruellest blow of all, and it’s not taken nearly seriously enough by the Give Up brigade. The leaflets say things like: ‘You may find that your appetite increases.’ They don’t say: ‘You will attempt to eat the sofa.’ They say: ‘You will be able to enjoy food again.’ They don’t say that you’ll wake up ravenous, in the early hours, like some doped-up student with the munchies. There’s other indignities, too, like how, suddenly, your clothes hurt. Trousers cutting into you like cheese wire, tops leaving pathology lab-style weals all over your body. Nobody tells you any of this, it just happens. One day, you look in the mirror and realise you’ve sprouted an all-over body cleavage. ‘It’s a good thing,’ a friend said. ‘There were times when you looked a bit, well, you know, food disordery.’ Food disordery? ‘Yeah,’ she smiled, warming to her theme. ‘Haggard and hideous, like a witch!’ This friend wasn’t the only one to attempt to ‘comfort’ me with tales of how ghastly thin-me used to look, as if that’s all fat-me requires to feel better. However, anti-thin remarks never impressed me when I was skinny, and they certainly don’t now. Nor do I relish patronising garbage about ‘how much better your face looks’ or ‘how well you seem these days’. I’m newly fat, not newly stupid — I know that comments like these are little more than euphemisms for ‘You’re huge’. I also know that I’ll never be as thin as I used to be, ever again. The thing is, I don’t want to be; I just don’t want to be fat, either. A wise woman once said that there must be a time, just before death, when a woman is as thin as she’d always wanted to be. With me, it’s backwards — there must have been a time, when I was fattening up, when I was the size that I’d always wanted to be, but, like buses, deadlines and everything else in my sad excuse for a life, I must have missed it. It didn’t help that, when the fat first hit me, I was in denial, practising a kind of reverse anorexia every time I looked in the mirror. All I could see was thin-me, the same thin-me that I’d seen all my life, when actually I was spilling out of my jeans in the manner of an erupting volcano. When I finally accepted what was happening, it was like going through puberty all over again — breasts, hips, buttocks all rearing up out of nowhere, and demanding special attention. One of the good things about being too-thin, I belatedly realise, is that, without a body to worry about, getting dressed is easy. Is this anorexic thinking? Is this food disordery? I don’t think so. To my mind, it’s more about confusion. People who’ve fought with their weight all their lives don’t like to hear this, but at least they know what to do when they hit a flabby patch. People like me, having been skinny all their lives, don’t actually know how to be fat. I, for one, don’t know how to dress myself, go on a diet, count calories or sit down quickly without endangering myself and others. I simply haven’t had the training to be fat, so I’m lost in this strange new world where clothes hurt me and crisps are The Enemy. It’s as if I need some kind of manual, not unlike those you get with motorbikes, that can tell people like me how to cope with being newly fat. Or a mentor, perhaps — a chubby-buddy to take me under her wing and show me the fat-ropes, if you like. And while we’re at it, a special grant wouldn’t go amiss, just to tide me through the early days. Most of all, I probably need some exercise. Or a cigarette! But that’s another story.
By arrangement with The Observer, London. |
Unemployment in India
Geneva: The accusation that the Government of India had failed to ratify important conventions was levelled by Mr Daud, the Indian worker's delegate to the International Labour Conference, who declared that 100,000 played partly due to the Government licensing brokers who charge one quarter of the seaman's wages to give him a recommendation to an employee. Mr Daud demanded an immediate enquiry into unemployment conditions among Indian seamen. Mr Gilchrist, the Government of India's delegate, replying, said that Mr Daud was more emphatic than accurate. |
High BP can hit youths too YOUNGER men should be just as concerned about high blood pressure as middle-aged and older men because it puts them at significant risk of dying from cardiovascular diseases such as heart attacks and strokes later in life, a study found. The findings suggest that prevention should begin in childhood, said Dr Martha Daviglus, one of the study’s authors and a Professor at the Northwestern University Medical School. The study, based on data collected on 10,874 Chicago men aged 18-39 who were studied from 1967 to ’73 and then followed for an average of 25 years, is the most comprehensive yet on the long-term effects of high blood pressure in young men. After 25 years, 197 of the men had died of coronary heart disease, 257 of cardiovascular disease and 759 of all causes some of which might also be attributed to high blood pressure because other diseases, such as renal and kidney diseases, are affected by high blood pressure, Daviglus said. Life expectancy was shortened by 2.2 years for men with high-normal blood pressure and by 4.1 years for those with stage 1 hypertension. Men with high-normal blood pressure had a 34 per cent higher risk of dying from coronary heart disease, and those with stage 1 hypertension had a 50 per cent higher risk of dying of coronary heart disease, Daviglus said. “When you’re young, you never believe you’re going to have heart disease,” Daviglus said. “But if we educate young people and show them the data — that yes, this is really going to affect you — they may change their lifestyle.” She said many doctors do not prescribe medication to treat high blood pressure in young men because of concerns about potential side effects of long-term drug use. But she said the study may indicate that some men need to begin medication earlier. Also, young men should be screened for blood pressure and doctors should stress lifestyle changes early.
AP
To whip or not to whip? Horse racing in the country is in for a change. No more will the equines be beaten into submission, but only goaded to run faster with a synthetic cord that is not as cruel as the traditional leather whip. Coming to the rescue of the animals is Union Minister for Social Justice and Empowerment Maneka Gandhi, who seeking to classify horse racing as a performing animals act, has ordered the racers to switch over to “sympathetic means” if race they must. But the recent order has raised a storm in the racing circle, for jockeys say the “sparing rod” does not work and have tapped the doors of the minister and courts to retain the enthusiasm of the multi-billion activity. Ms Gandhi’s ministry has ordered that the “applicant owner of any equine shall not use any whip other than an air cushioned absorbing whip, which has been scientifically tested to prove that it will not cause any weals, pain or damage to the horse.” Opposing the ban of traditional whips, the Jockey Association of India (JAI) has moved the court for restraining the Turf Club authorities from making the use of the fibre whip mandatory for them and also obtained an injuction from a Bombay civil court against the order.
PTI
Indian killer of ex-wife surrenders A 36-year-old Indian accused of killing his estranged wife near Adelaide in South Australia has been refused bail by Parramatta Bail Court in Sydney. Dharmender Singh telephoned the Sydney police from Turra Murra Gurdwara in North Sydney on Saturday night to give himself up. The dramatic surrender was preceded by a massive manhunt for Dharmender Singh after he gunned down his separated wife in a car park in a tourist spot near Berri, about 230 km east of South Australia’s capital Adelaide, during a routine custody exchange of the couple’s two-year-old daughter. The two-year-old daughter, Savvannah, is said to be at the centre of the dispute between the couple. The child, who suffers from cerebral palsy, is reported to be safe and well.
IANS |
A single good deed rendered to a good man spreads like oil poured into water; hundred deeds rendered to a wicked man shrink like ghee in cold weather. ***** There is no treasure the gift of which will cancel the debt of a disciple owes his guru for having taught him no more than a single syllable. ***** There is indeed one thing poverty which worries the whole world; I bow to the grammarian who has made it neuter in gender. ***** Just as milk is of one colour only in cows possessing various colours, so the essential truth of dharma is one and the same though there is diversity in its exposition. ***** The water of one lake, you may see, turns sweet in sugar-cane; the same (water) turns bitter in the margosa tree; thus (the merit) in offering food to the deserving and the undeserving. ***** You alone have to bear and enjoy the results of actions done by yourself previously; the others do not ever help you in the matter of happiness and misery; they are merely an assembly of hangers-on come together for the sake of their own livelihood. ***** From the same one tree are produced sacrificial vessels, sacrificial ladle, boat, wooden basket, and pestle. Oh! king, understand from that what I say that verily from the same stock are born both — the good and the bad. ***** In one and the same family is seen the birth of a coward and of a great warrior; just as in one lordly tree of the forest there are two branches, one with fruit, the other without them. — From Maha-Subhashita Samgraha, Vol. IV, 7518, 7520, 7530, 7537, 7540, 7560, 7562, 7570 |
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