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| Tuesday,
July 10, 2001, Chandigarh, India   
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Pandits have a point A-I, IA in air turbulence Manipur imbroglio |
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Religion and politics in Turkey
Search for a regicide survivor
Ex-terrorists’ threat to Punjab peace
BJP leader wants editor sacked
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Pandits have a point THE
reported SOS by organisations representing the Kashmiri Pandits to the United Nations Secretary-General, Mr Kofi Annan, has given a new and valid dimension to the controversy regarding Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf's proposed meeting with the Hurriyat leaders during his July 14-16 visit to India. Representatives of Panun Kashmir and Panun Kashmir Movement in their representation to Mr Annan have mentioned the issue of the displaced Kashmiri Pandits. According to them, dialogue between India and Pakistan about the status of Kashmir should take into account their legitimate concerns. And why not? The All-Party Hurriyat Conference claims to represent the views of all the people of Kashmir. It is in this capacity that its leaders are insisting on an audience with General Musharraf when he visits India. But the Panun Kashmir leaders have effectively called their bluff in their representation to the UN Secretary-General. Hurriyat leaders as representatives of the people of Kashmir did not raise their voice when the Hindu sons of the soil were forced to leave the valley of their forefathers because of the threat to their safety from Pakistan-trained militant groups. Their plight in their own homeland as refugees has to be seen to believed. The Kashmiri Pandits represent the talented, educated and secular communities of the country. They take pride in sharing a common civilisation and culture with the Kashmiri Muslims. Unfortunately, those who launched the proxy war against India ignored the common element of reverence and respect among Kashmiri Pandits and Muslims alike for their heritage of which Charar-e-Sharif and the Amarnath Cave are powerful symbols. The Kashmiri Pandits have chosen the moment with care for attracting attention to their plight in their homeland. The position which the Pandits have taken should have a bearing on the not so subtle attempts for making the Hurriyat at least a noticeable factor when President Musharraf sets his foot on Indian soil. Of course, as of today there are conflicting reports about the proposed tea party by the Pakistan High Commissioner for "creating" an opportunity for the General to meet the Hurriyat leaders if not officially, at least "informally". However, the picture about the tea party actually taking place is still not clear. If the tea party in honour of President Musharraf is not cancelled by the Pakistan High Commissioner for reasons which hardly need explanation, the Ministry of External Affairs will claim victory. But if the party is held, there is no way the Hurriyat leaders can be kept out of the Pakistan High Commisioner's rather long guest list. It is equally true that MEA cannot force the High Commissioner to appear to be fair to all sections claiming to represent the people of Kashmir and invite the Panun leaders. Nevertheless, their representation to the UN Secretary-General has already exposed as hollow the concern of the Pakistani leadership for the welfare of the people of Kashmir. |
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A-I, IA in air turbulence DISINVESTMENT plans are getting messier with each passing day. The latest victim of muddy thinking and ego clashes is Air-India. After the Department of Disinvestment disqualified Hindujas from bidding, the Tata-Singapore International Airlines is the sole potential buyer. The UK-based brothers were suddenly found to be a security risk and handing over the national flag carrier was thought to be a threat to vital interests. This argument sounds spurious and a perfect point to spark a controversy. Their suspected involvement in the Bofors payoff case is the stated reason but there are dark hints of their links with Dawood Ibrahim and through him with ISI. Really? Somebody’s imagination is running wild. This is clearly an afterthought. So is the bit about not handing over government-owned companies to those caught on the wrong side of law. These units are only for saints and not sinners. By the same yardstick Videocon has been thrown out the Indian Airlines race and Sterlite out of the Hindustan Zinc and Hindustan Copper. How come state-owned Balco was sold to the same Sterlite only a few months earlier and long after SEBI indicted the company. Law Minister Arun Jaitly disagrees with the decision. The government cannot stop tainted companies from taking over any public sector unit through creeping acquisition — that is, increasing its holding in a gradual and legal manner. This holier-than-thou attitude will make it impossible to launch any meaningful disinvestment since all big companies have had a brush with one authority or the other. Congress MP Priyaranjan Das-Munshi sees in all this an ill-conceived plan to help Tatas. He points to two incongruities. One, Tatas faced charges of donating money to ULFA to protect its managers in Assam tea estates. Yet no one has raised the security issue. Two, their Singapore partner is a government-owned airlines and hence Air-India will be run by a foreign government. There is a third angle as well. The boss of the valuation agency had close ties with Tatas and thus has compromised his independence. In the face of this stinging criticism the government has decided to bring in two other agencies to rework the valuation. There are more troubles. The agreement bars the new owners from selling their share to any other airlines. This is curious. Two, there is no guarantee against retrenchment, as there was in the case of Modern Food. This despite the promise held out to the workers. Nor is there protection for Indian Airlines to continue to operate flights outside the country. They bring in lot of profit. Air-India disinvestment has been grounded for some more time. |
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Manipur imbroglio THE Centre is gasping for breath, caught as it is in a cleft stick of its own making on the issue of a ceasefire agreement with the National Socialist Council of Nagaland (Isac-Muivah). Under tremendous pressure from the Manipuri agitationists, it has agreed to review the agreement, particularly the offending words in it, “without territorial limits”, but even that steep climbdown is unlikely to buy peace. The removal or change of the words may allay the fears of the Manipuris, but may not be acceptable to the NSCN. In fact, there is reason to believe that New Delhi is only out of the frying pan and straight into the fire. To persuade the NSCN (I-M) to accept its new stand will be a near impossibility. To that extent, the Vajpayee government has only bought itself some time (up to July 31) before the crisis blows into its face with all its fury. The NSCN has already warned that it would be forced to return to the path of violence if the Indian government did not fulfil its commitment relating to the extension of the ceasefire to Naga-dominated areas. In an interview to the BBC in Bangkok, NSCN (I-M) secretary-general Thuingaleng Muivah gave an ominous twist to the controversy by asserting that the Nagas had been living in the “so-called Manipur” from time immemorial. “That has been the land of the Nagas and no other. The same applies to Assam”. The words are tailor-made to cause indignation in Manipur and other North-Eastern states. The Centre might find it impossible to go back to these people, given the intensity of the passions that have already been aroused, all over the region. It tried to reassure them through a parliamentary resolution but found no takers. The situation has gone out of hand mainly because it did not consult people who matter before signing the agreement. The meek appeal that Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee has now made to the agitating Manipuris would not have been necessary if the fact that there was no question of redrawing the boundary of Manipur or any other state were highlighted suitably before signing the agreement. Today, the situation is so bad that even the state unit of the BJP is
dead set against the Centre’s stand. Non-Nagas are not the only ones whom the truce scripted by K. Padmanabhaiah has annoyed. There are other groups of Naga insurgents who feel left out and now want similar concessions. What is worse, separatist groups elsewhere in the Northeast as also the rest of the country are seeing the placatory terms offered by the Centre as a precedent. As far as the anger in Manipur is concerned, it shows no sign of abating. In short, New Delhi has landed itself and the country in a quagmire. Right now, it just does not know how to pull out! |
Religion and politics in Turkey TURKEY'S ban on the Islamist Virtue Party has given offence to Europe’s liberal democrats who like to believe that all opposition can be vanquished through honest, open debate. But the action has also set an example in firmness for other countries where religion threatens to overwhelm politics. Turkey’s chief prosecutor accused Virtue, which was the main opposition group with 110 deputies, of “exploiting religion like blood-sucking vampires.” It was described as a centre of fundamentalist activity and a threat to the constitutional order. Like India, Turkey is officially “a democratic, secular and socialist state governed by the rule of law”. When Mustafa Kemal, the Ataturk, created the post-Ottoman republic in 1925, he made a clean break with the previous regime whose ruler was not only temporal sultan but also caliph of Islam, the shadow of God on earth. The reformist Young Turks identified secularism with modernism. But a mix of bigotry, political opportunism, lofty rhetoric and official high-handedness afflicts Turkey, as it does India. In both countries, representatives of the many are seeking to remould a state, fashioned on idealistic Western lines, in the crucible of their own antique beliefs. It is not that Turkey is atheist like China. Article 24 of its constitution guarantees “the right to freedom of conscience, religious belief and conviction”, promises that “acts of worship, religious services, and ceremonies shall be conducted freely” and forbids discrimination on grounds of “religious beliefs and convictions”. But the constitution also clearly forbids the exploitation or abuse of religion “or things held sacred by religion, in any manner whatsoever, for the purpose of personal or political influence, or for even partially basing the fundamental, social, economic, political, and legal order of the state on religious tenets.” Those noble sentiments sound familiar. But, of course, there are many differences. Historically, Turkey has treated its minorities (Armenians and Kurds) with a brutality that would be unthinkable here. Turkey did not become a multi-party state until 1946. There have been three military coups since 1960. The army sees itself as the watchdog of constitutional propriety, and has no time for Islamic theocracy. It will give no quarter either to extraneous forces — Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi and the Iranian clerics, in Turkey’s case rather than Saudi Arabia — which are suspected of funding fundamentalists. When Virtue was banned last month, the European Union bluntly declared that “the question is to find ways to render the undemocratic powers ineffective through democratic means”. In short, obscurantist elements must be won over, not suppressed. Fine though that advice is in theory, Turkey has done well to remind critics that Western governments also outlaw parties that peddle fascist or racist views, no matter how much voting support they might be able to muster. As the battle over the Babri Masjid demonstrates, pussyfooting with public sensibilities and legal niceties only panders to popular prejudice while eroding the foundations of the state. Ultimately, the question arises: who is the most effective guardian of what our judges have called the basic features of the Constitution? Should ultimate authority lie in legislators who must be beholden to a vacillating and unlettered public or some institution that is removed above the hurly burly of the political fray? In Turkey, the military fills that role. In India, the judiciary would dearly love to. Ironically, Turkey’s strikingly similar conflict between religion and politics has a sartorial dimension that would not baffle Indian legislators who set as much store by such symbols of devoutness as saffron, shaven heads, kirpans, turbans and fezzes as nationalists once did by khadi. The challenge to Turkish secularism became dramatically public at a swearing-in of deputies in 1999 when a woman member appeared in the headscarf that is becoming popular with Muslim women from Malaysia to Manchester. Merve Kavakci was only 30, and, being a computer analyst, no ignorant backwoodsman either. But she was ardent in her faith and had called at international seminars for a jihad against her own country’s ungodly rulers. Headgear acquired revolutionary symbolism twice before in Turkey. In 1825, Sultan Mahmud II banned turbans whose colour and folds flaunted the wearer’s status and replaced it with the simple fez. But in the century that followed, the fez, too, acquired all the telltale signs of the class system and was, moreover, seen to typify Asian backwardness. So, Ataturk forbade the fez exactly 100 years after the Ottomans had made it de rigeuer. The now ubiquitous headscarf, which prevented Kavakci from being sworn in, was also forbidden in schools and public offices. The question that Turkey must now face is: will the ban on Virtue prove as pointless as the dress restriction? One Islamist party after another has surfaced since January 1970 when the first of them, the National Order Party, was formed. It was proscribed, as was its successor, the National Salvation Party, even though it attracted 11.8 per cent of the vote in 1973. The next manifestation, the Welfare Party, won an impressive 16.7 per cent in alliance with the nationalist Turks in the 1991 election. Four years later its share of the vote went up to 21.4 per cent, which translated into 144 seats in parliament, to say nothing of dozens of municipalities and mayors. Welfare was banned in early 1998; just months after 33 former Welfare deputies formed Virtue. Islamist ingenuity can be relied on to find yet a fifth incarnation that mobilises small traders, artisans and people on the geographical periphery in its campaign to identify millet (nation) with devlet (state). In other words, they want the official apparatus to abandon its ideals and reflect the religion of the people. Turkey is experiencing a groundswell of religious fervour. The real similarity between Turkey and India lies in the cynicism of conventional politicians who are expected to uphold the moral props of statehood. Islamist parties that were in breach of both constitutional provisions and the law regulating political parties were nevertheless coalition partners in several governments. Bulent Ecevit of the People’s Republican Party, Justice Party’s Suleyman Demirel and Tansu Ciller of the True Path Party all relied on Islamist support. Formally, they continued to swear by Ataturk and secularism. In practice, they gave free rein to Islamists to set up their own secondary schools, and also allowed them to build mosques, some on controversial sites. There is no means of knowing whether this was only rank opportunism or whether Turkey’s mainstream centre-right parties are also secretly infected by Islamist sympathies. The Congress might have been asked a similar question when it partnered Kerala’s Muslim League. It can still be put to National Democratic Alliance constituents. In suppressing fundamentalists, Turkey’s military has often had to act against mainstream politicians. There is sound sense in Turkey’s defence when criticised for banning Virtue that religious obscurantism is as much a social and political evil as fascism or racism. Ideally, of course, it should be countered through education, as Jawaharlal Nehru argued ceaselessly, but India bears witness that education does not always lead to enlightenment. Even if it did, it would be a painfully slow haul during which primeval forces would entrench themselves in modern garb. When the process falters, only exercising the authority that is vested in it can save the state. It is Turkey’s good fortune that in spite of the pusillanimity and prevarication of ruling politicians like Ecevit, Demirel and Ciller, the state has not hesitated to take firm action. Presumably, this was at the military’s urging. That option is not open in countries where the vote delivers the state into the hands of populists whose own survival depends on playing to the gallery. The contrast highlights the limits and weaknesses of democracy. After all, Hitler, too, was elected to power. |
Search for a regicide survivor AT least four glaring instances of the wiping out of heads of states with their closest ones have taken place in recent memory. In all these cases that took place in Russia, Burma, Bangladesh and most recently Nepal, the most sought after survivors were young girls/ladies like Anastasia, Suu
Kyi, Hasina and a princess-to-be, Devyani, who escaped the encirclement and survived the carnage. In each case, however, the degree of interest in them of the successor governments was different. In the case of Devyani the quest for her whereabouts is only to know more about the regicide which took place on June 1 in Kathmandu. Grand Duchess Anastasia Nicolai was considered to be the closest regal survivor of the regicide after the last Czar with other members of his family was done to death by the revolutionary Bolsheviks in 1917. She escaped with some of the loyalists and took shelter in various capitals of Europe while the Soviet commissars were in hot pursuit. By 1940 there were strong rumours that she was seen in Bucharest, Vienna and in Belfast, changing names several times and finally marrying and settling down. But the strong church monarchist lobby of Ireland wanted solid proof to move further. One of the catholic homes located in the famous Shankil Road of Belfast had even informed me that Anastasia of Russia was seen in a church in Armagh county of Northern Ireland in 1955. The old royal lady dressed as an ordinary housewife used to talk elaborately about the intimate details of Czar family and its tribulations. Regal blood returning to political scene in Spain and Bulgaria are some of the other recent examples. In 1957 I was posted in Belfast. My neighbour, Mr Cecil Roberts, was a senior officer in Royal Ulster constabulary. He hinted that there was going to be an interesting function organised by an Irish group shortly and I must attend it out of general interest. Next Monday while I was returning from the sea-trials of the Canadian aircraft carrier HMCS Bonaventure I noticed a large hoarding close to the Belfast railway station inviting public members on coming Saturday morning in the Queens Theatre for participating in a universal search to identify Her Royal Highness the Grand Duchess Anastasia Nicolai of Russia. Many Catholic as well as Protestant colleagues from the shipyard, there were excited and I joined them. The programme started with a brief history of the Czar’s family and introduction of each member of his family as well the Chief Bishop of Russia. Soon after this a large group portrait showing about 17 members of the royal family was shown from different angles. A tiny cross mark with the world Anastasia was put across a young girl in her white laced frock and broad flat hat. The master of ceremony appearing in front of the main screen requested the audience to watch the royal girl intently. Soon a new set of coloured pictures was shown on the screen taken in 1930 and 1948, respectively, both in crowded places. Each figure was numbered. We were given blank forms to indicate the number resembling the Royal Highness out of a total of 37 images shown. It was a daunting task. On completion of the opinion test all sheets were forwarded to an address in France for further scrutiny. The programme was followed by high tea, including serving of Irish shamrock tea and distribution of tiny flags depicting a harp on Irish linen background. Till I left Belfast in 1959 I did not know whether Anastasia was finally located or not. Considering her present age any survival
to date appears doubtful. |
Ex-terrorists’ threat to Punjab peace THERE have been some ominous developments in Punjab, which to my mind could be a wake-up call for the nation. Mr Jagjit Singh Chohan, a self-styled chief of the Council of Khalistan in the UK, has returned to India after staying in that country for about 10 years where he resorted to all kinds of gimmicks to keep himself in the limelight of the Khalistan movement. On his return, he has made several press statements that “I would continue to pursue the Khalistan movement in a democratic manner. I shall give an ideological lead to it. We cannot have Khalistan in England. It has to be here”. He also states that he and Wassan Singh Zaffarwal, erstwhile chief of the Khalistan Commando Force, had planned to come to India together and that three Panthic Committee members are already in Punjab on this mission. He wants Punjab to be named Khalistan. Sometime earlier, Zaffarwal, a terrorist responsible for sniffing out of many precious lives, managed to land in the secured haven of political patronage. He was a hardcore follower of the Damdami Taksal who was appointed a member of the five-member Panthic Committee which declared Khalistan from Akal Takht on April 29, 1986. Harmeet Singh Bhakna, self-styled chief of the Kama Gata Maru Force, says: “All militant groups have unanimously decided to shun violence and achieve Khalistan through peaceful and democratic means”. There is another report that all the former militants, who had served jail sentences under TADA are now proposing to regroup and pursue “the cause of Punjab on a political platform”. Dal Khalsa activists want their chief Gajinder Singh, at present ensconced in Pakistan, to come back and lead the movement. Gajinder Singh has called for “new planning in the changed environment” and accepted that many mistakes were committed during the quami struggle which need to be rectified now. He has also changed his stance and advocates attaining Khalistan through peaceful means. Of late there have been vociferous demands from some Panthic circles to announce general amnesty for all those who are in jail or are facing trial in the cases of murder and other terrorist crimes. What an irony of fate! What an ungrateful nation! The terrorists who masterminded the massacres are being welcomed with open arms and feted whereas the police officials who combated terrorism at a grave risk to their lives are being prosecuted. It is worth mentioning here that as on January 12, 1999, 1678 writ petitions were pending in the Supreme Court and the high court against police officials of Punjab for dealing with the menace of terrorism. There were 67 CBI investigations going on in addition to 27 judicial enquiries. Trials are going on in 12 cases. One SP, two DSPs, two Inspectors, three SIs and three head constables have already been convicted. Nineteen police officials are in jail and 99 are on bail. In all 123 police officials are facing trial. How can one forget the decade-old spectre of violence which resulted in the loss of 12,000 precious lives of the civilians, martyrdom of about 2000 policemen, besides their family members? After terrorism had been wiped out and peace prevailed, the elections were held in Punjab. The Congress formed a government in 1992 and since 1997 the Akalis have been enjoying the fruits of power. Who made it possible? It was the Punjab Police, of course, with the assistance of the Army and paramilitary forces. If terrorists who took away innocent lives are being favoured with the dropping of the cases, why should dedicated police officials be punished? At that time whatever they did to contain terrorism had the full backing of the state and the nation. As reported some time ago, Lieut-Gen Javed Nasir, Chairman of the Pakistan Sikh Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee and former ISI chief, while talking to select journalists at a reception given to Sikh pilgrims at Lahore, stated that Khalistan could be achieved through peaceful means and that Sikhs must get their basic demand for a separate identity incorporated in the Constitution of India. It is rather mischievous. It was the major demand of the combined morcha of Bhindranwale and the Akalis. They wanted explanation II of Article 25 of the Constitution to be amended in such a way that it established the distinct and separate identity of the Sikhs. Big processions were organised and copies of Article 25 burnt. It was the beginning of the decade-old period of violence and mayhem. One only hopes that the history does not repeat itself. Nasir also stated that Pakistan would complete the construction of the corridor linking Gurdwara Dera Sahib with India in about a year to facilitate the Sikhs from India to visit this historic gurdwara without passport and visa. It will be welcomed by Sikhs as it saves time and drastically reduces the distance. Jathedar Jagdev Singh Talwandi, President of the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee, has already requested the government of India to reciprocate this gesture of the government of Pakistan. It is a diabolical plan of Pakistan to make this, the most revered Sikh shrine, a nerve centre of secessionist movement. It will be a very tricky situation for the government of India. If it does not agree to the corridor plan of Pakistan, it incurs the wrath of the Sikh community and Pakistan will be better placed to exploit it. Lieut-Gen Javed Nasir’s unsolicited offer of Pakistan giving representation to the Indian Sikhs on the Pakistan Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee on a reciprocal basis will have serious implications. It is again a sinister plan to have a foothold in the Sikh politics of India. Mr Simranjit Singh Mann has already supported this proposal of Pakistan and urged Mr Talwandi to accept it. The reported resolution of the SGPC urging the government of India to accord the Vatican status to Amritsar will generate secessionist undercurrents. Surprisingly this demand went unnoticed by the media. It is being interpreted by the radical Sikhs as a step towards the realisation of Khalistan. Mr Simranjit Singh Mann, a known votary of Khalistan, has described this resolution as “nothing less than a demand for Khalistan”. He congratulated Mr Talwandi and the SGPC for passing this resolution. Kanwar Pal Singh, a spokesperson of the Dal Khalsa, has also supported this resolution and said: “Vatican is an autonomous zone with full nation status having its own security services, coinage, postal stamps, flag and Constitution” and has urged the other Panthic organisations to support this resolution. It is certain that ex-terrorists along with the ISI of Pakistan have worked out a long-term plan to gradually decimate traditional Akalis and seize power through democratic means. Such a situation came up in the year 1991 also. Assembly elections had been ordered in Punjab. Terrorism was at its peak. It was generally believed in the responsible circles that elections would not be free and without fear. The terrorists would dictate terms and that in all probability the Assembly, when constituted after the elections, could pass a resolution favouring Khalistan. Mr T.N. Seshan, the then Chief Election Commissioner, for whatever reasons countermanded the elections. Doesn’t the Pakistan Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee want a platform for radical Sikhs the world over? It is obvious. At least the ISI has learnt its lessons from the way the secessionist movement has been built up in Kashmir. In 1965 Operation Gibralter conceived by President Ayub Khan failed as the Razakars sent by Pakistan into J&K could not elicit any support from the people there in the name of Islam. Thereafter, General Zia planned Operation Topac, the aim of which was to create feelings of alienation in the Muslims of Kashmir, orchestrate local uprisings, indoctrinate and train the local Muslim youth as jehadis. This plan of the ISI has been reasonably successful so far. It is apparent that peace in Punjab is very tenuous. Though I have no intimate knowledge, it may be an electoral strategy of the Akalis to accept ex-terrorists in the socio-political mainstream of the state. But in the ultimate reckoning, it may boomerang. The Akali Dal will be repeating history. Just think of the early eighties when the Akali Dal shifted its morcha from Kapoori village to the holy precincts of the Golden Temple. It was taken over by Bhindranwale and he continued to ride roughshod over the Akali leadership till Operation Bluestar. Radical Sikhs are fervently hoping for some Bhindranwale to emerge. Former terrorists and secessionists are making a beeline for Punjab, obviously under some well thought-out plan of capturing the mainstream Akali Dal and then using this platform to carry forward the struggle for Khalistan. Pakistan has not given up its strategy of continuing to stoke fires in Punjab. The writer is a former Director General of Police, Punjab. |
Women & Legislatures THE resolution unanimously passed by a public meeting of the women of Bombay, requesting members of the Bombay Legislative Council to remove the sex disqualification as regards the eligibility of women to stand as candidates for the local Council, and the Legislative Assembly and the Council of State to remove the same disqualification in their case, has our hearty sympathy and support. It is a natural sequel to the removal of the sex disqualification as regards the exercise of the franchise and the fact that in England itself it was only a few years ago that women for the first time took their seats in Parliament is no argument against the introduction of the reform in our own case at the present time. it is only right that in these and other matters a country which begins later should profit by the experience of a country which began earlier. |
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BJP leader wants editor sacked
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veteran BJP leader on Monday sought the sacking of the editor of a party journal for publishing a map of Jammu and Kashmir showing the disputed Aksai Chin as part of China. K.R. Malkani, (79), said he wanted to see the back of Praful Goradia, editor of “BJP Today” magazine, for publishing the map. Malkani said he would take up the matter with Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee. Malkani has been the Editor-in-Chief of “BJP Today” for a decade. But the magazine’s control passed to Goradia last year. The magazine published the map along with an article by Goradia on his recent visit to China. It showed the glacial Aksai Chin territory within China’s political boundary. Said Goradia: “The wrong map was an oversight. I took it from ‘The Chinese’, a book by John Murray. I did not think it was a wrong map.” The mistake came to light after furious party leaders wrote to both Vajpayee and Home Minister L.K. Advani. The magazine then carried an apology, but the row has refused to die down. Malkani told IANS that the choice of the wrong map was “no oversight. Goradia was appointed without consulting me. He must be removed. Either he will remain in the journal or I.” China seized Aksai Chin, an area roughly the size of Switzerland, during the 1962 war with India. Each claims the territory as its own and includes it within its boundaries in officially approved maps. Under the law, publishing a wrong Indian map is a criminal offence.
Worldwide trial of diabetes drugs
Efforts are on in 18 countries to enroll 4,000 volunteers for clinical trial of two drugs that could reduce the risk of developing diabetes. The Canadian Cardiovascular Collaboration (CCC) is coordinating the study, which focuses on the drugs ramipril and rosiglitazone. The project, called Dream, will also look at factors that may contribute to the development of diabetes, said Milan Gupta, an Indo-Canadian cardiologist acting as a local site investigator in Toronto along with Dr Narendra Singh. Gupta and Singh said people at the highest risk of developing diabetes are those who have a close relative suffering from the ailment and those who are overweight or have high blood pressure. The ethnic groups more prone to diabetes include South Asians. “South Asians are at a higher risk than others in getting diabetes and so for the Dream study it makes sense to target South Asians to volunteer for this trial,” Gupta said. Contrary to the general impression that South Asians or those who eat oily food are more prone to get diabetes and have high cholesterol, Gupta said their study has shown that the average cholesterol level of South Asians and persons of European origin “are not dramatically different”. Gupta said according to their findings, South Asians have “insulin resistance and that puts them at much higher risk” for diabetes, high blood pressure and certain other cholesterol-related abnormalities, which increase the risk of heart diseases. It will take 18 months for cardiologists to enroll volunteers for Dream clinical trials in India, the USA, Canada, Britain, Sweden and Australia.
IANS |
To ensure one’s own spiritual growth, self thought and self criticism are a necessary condition. *** We have to be like swans who pick up pearls but never like the crow that feeds on rottenness. ***
Fault-finding is the greatest obstacle to spiritual development. ***
Give of your love to others and you will get their love. ***
Sex, anger, greed, attachment, pride and lethargy rob man of his treasures and mental peace. ***
The soul’s fundamental qualities are purity, love and peace. As long as the soul is grounded in these qualities and is aware that the soul enthroned in this physical frame is making its organs work as a ruler.. there can be no question of lack of fulfilment or of dissatisfaction. — B.K. Jagdish Chander, Human Values, Moral Values and Spiritual ValueGenerosity is the real richness. And to be generous you do not need many things to share. To be generous you just have to share whatsoever you have.... Cannot you smile when a stranger passes by?.... Cannot you sing when somebody is sad? You can be generous — smiles cost nothing. But you have become so miserly that even before smiling you think thrice: to smile or not to smile? To sing or not to sing? To dance or not to dance? In fact, to be or not to be. ***
Miserly, you become poor. Generous, you become rich. And you can become generous right now, as you are, because there is nothing else to it. You have simply to understand and become. — Osho, Journey to the Heart, (originally a Hindi discourse)  |
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