 |
| Wednesday,
August 1, 2001, Chandigarh, India   
|
UTI’s high drama “Water man” gets his due No enquiry, this |
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Being always on the defensive won’t do Who cares for Kashmiris in Pakistan?
Spillover effect of Pak-sponsored terrorism
Of women’s hearts and problems
377 cases filed against Magsaysay winner
|
UTI’s high drama TUESDAY witnessed emotional scenes and angry protests in relation to the US-64 fiasco. In the morning Prime Minister Vajpayee offered to resign in the wake of Shiv Sena charges that his confidantes and a close relation were somehow involved in the UTI scam. He told the BJP parliamentary party that he was ready to quit since he had failed to make the alliance (National Democratic Alliance) partners behave in a coherent and disciplined manner. The reference was to the damaging remarks made by a Shiv Sena Rajya Sabha member, Mr Sanjay Nirupam, linking a senior PMO (Prime Minister’s Office) official to influencing the investment decisions of the UTI, particularly in buying Cyberspace shares worth Rs 30.80 crore . The charges are based on cellular telephone conversations which are recorded in a computer and can be recovered any time. He read out from a print-out of the numbers of the cell phones and matched them with the subscribers. It was an unimpeachable evidence and the Prime Minister’s anguished offer to resign shows how serious it really is. Mr Nirupam’s performance is not a solo effort. Sacked UTI Chairman Subramanyam’s lawyer hinted before a Mumbai court that his client had acted under instructions from the Union Finance Ministry and that documented evidence would be available later, perhaps during the trial. This threat of exposure galvanised the CBI to selectively release the statement of Mr Subramanyam to a select group of journalists. The dismissed UTI chief has accused the Finance Ministry (not the Finance Minister) of forcing him to invest in Cyberspace, which has turned sour. Union Finance Secretary Ajit Kumar is also linked to this tangle. In this exchange of charges and counter-charges, the truth should not be the casualty. The government is aware of the fact that a concerted attack on its way of handling the Cyberspace case will recoil on it very badly and should do everything to control the damage. |
|
“Water man” gets his due HOUNDED at home, feted elsewhere! That is the life story of many a bright Indian. Hargobind Khurana, Anna Hazare, Khairnar, Nek Chand, Kiran Bedi …. Another name has been added to the long and inconclusive list with the announcement in Manila that Rajendra Singh has won the prestigious Ramon Magsaysay Award for community leadership. That will be some help and consolation for the man who has brought greenery, crops, trees, milk, prosperity and, above all, water to the arid regions of Alwar district of Rajasthan. The lone Indian among the seven recipients of the Asian equivalent of the Nobel Prize has been spearheading a mass rural movement for water conservation which has changed the face of the area, while the establishment has been more busy with carrying out a smear campaign against him. The Rajasthan Government filed a case against him for making one dam, and threatened to demolish another. It will be interesting to see the government attitude towards him, now that he has won the signal honour for that very work. But, then, the bearded Thakur from Uttar Pradesh has always had a larger share of brickbats than bouquets. When he founded the Tarun Bharat Sangh and started working in Rajasthan, he was considered a terrorist and a kidnapper. Even now he is called arrogant and a publicity seeker. However, the 4,500 check dams that he has built during the past 15 years stand testimony to his missionary zeal. Whatever his personal weaknesses may be, he has managed to revive the traditional method of water conservation and successfully recharged aquifers in the area. The result is that even when there is drought in the rest of the state, the wells in this area yield water. Among those who have congratulated him for his effort are the United Nations and the President of India, Mr K.R.Narayanan. What is most important is that while carrying out his mission, he has managed to galvanise the community, something that the government has never achieved. He is accused of ignoring the safety aspect while building the dams. Perhaps, the allegation holds some substance, although eminent persons like Dr M. S. Swaminathan have visited the dam sites and found them to be safe. However, this problem would not have occurred if the babudom had acted as a facilitator instead of a critic. Dead rivers have come alive; perhaps the administration too will. Rajasthan should take pride in the fact that it is the second time in succession that the award has come to it. Last year, IAS officer-turned-social-activist Aruna Roy had won it for her pioneering work in the area of right to information. Her battle against corruption too had been disliked immensely by the establishment. |
|
No enquiry, this AT
a sangat darshan function in Faridkot on Monday, Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal ordered an enquiry into the now infamous fake arms licence scandal that has surfaced in Ferozepur district. Normally, it should not come as a surprise because the border district of Punjab had already distinguished itself in the past for opium, gold and arms smuggling from across the border before it was fenced. After the fencing, officials of the district, it
seems, had found for themselves another easy way of making money. They were supplying fake arms licences to criminals from Haryana and Uttaranchal, obviously for hefty
consideration. If they can supply such arms licences to criminals from outside the state, those from within the state cannot be expected to be discriminated against. Obtaining fake driving licences and ration cards are crimes which are usually ignored. But the decision to what can be called regularisation of illegal arms should and cannot be treated lightly. No one knows for how long this racket had been going on until the Haryana police, playing a spoilsport, intervened and put an end to it. Typical of Mr Badal’s style of functioning was the decision to deal with the issue of bogus arms licences in a casual manner at a sangat darshan function. He ordered the Deputy Commissioners all over the state to scrutinise the official records of arms licences issued in the recent past and complete the enquiry within 15 days. On the face of it , the enquiry at the Deputy Commissioners’ level seems fair enough. But the racket has ramifications beyond the border state. Besides, there are allegations, though not yet fully substantiated, but serious enough to warrant a close scrutiny, about the involvement of at least six MLAs and one Cabinet Minister of Punjab. Will the enquiry by the Deputy Commissioner of Ferozepur be able to identify those involved in the racket? Besides, given the possible direct or indirect involvement of the top district-level officials, how can one be sure that he would not bail out his junior colleagues, presuming that he himself has clean hands? The Haryana police has, it may be noted, recommended an enquiry by the CBI. Given the possible involvement of influential persons in the racket as also criminals from other states, this is the best option available to the Punjab
Government. To be credible, an enquiry should not only be fair, but also appear to be so. Already, the track record of enquiries in general and of the Punjab Government in particular is not very creditable. One can understand Mr Badal’s compulsions. With the Assembly elections fast approaching, Mr Badal would not like to see any skeletons falling out of his cupboard. Besides, he would not like to risk losing the hard-earned gains of the sangat darshan functions if his senior colleagues are seen selling arms licences. The Deputy Commissioners understand his position and won’t embarrass him with any unpalatable
revelations. The Chief Minister also understands the electoral needs of his party men. If they don’t raise money for the
elections on their own, they would have to depend on him or the party. Why not let them help themselves? |
Being always on the defensive won’t do I
wonder why we are always on the defensive in dealing with Pakistan. “Kashmir is the core issue”, General Musharraf keeps saying, regardless of the fact that Jammu and Kashmir is in India, and he insists that he will keep on sending terrorists to kill people unless we agree to give it to him. A military man always believes that it is only victory and conquest that can set him up as a ruler, like the conquerors of the past. He does not believe in elections. He needs to be reminded, I think, that both General Ayub Khan and General Yahya Khan had similar dreams of conquest that led to their downfall. The General is known to be a first class commando officer, brave and resolute. He convinces himself about his cause and his duty and then instructs his men on what he wants them to do, without question, unto death. He seems to have tried the same method with us, and is surprised that we want to raise doubts, question his legitimacy, even ask him questions like “What the hell are you up to? Why are you interfering in our affairs?” He makes a good General but a rather poor politician. The trouble is he cannot change his spots; he does not convince us about his case. Perhaps he does not want to do that, all he wants is to be accepted as President of Pakistan. Why can’t we take the offensive in our dealings with Pakistan? Are we so sensitive that we do not want to hurt a neighbour’s feelings? What about Sind? That is the core issue for us. People of Indian origin, the Mohajirs, are being victimised relentlessly, even deprived of water, and shot down when they protest. Is this none of our concern? “Kashmir”, the General says, “is the core issue. Without solving that, there can be no peace” he asserts. But the Pakistan government can oppress the migrants from India for years, and not a word is said from our side in protest against this. Altaf Hussain may cry himself hoarse, he may sing “Saare jahan se acchha Hindostan hamara” in the Acton Hall meeting in London but all we can do is to look the other way. Why not have a plebiscite in Sindh? Is it because we want to be diplomatically correct that we don’t say this? Our neighbour can shoot down our citizens and call it a freedom fight, and all we can do is to worry about semantics, about phrasing, about the wording of a document of discord, a word here or there, when in truth we have no signs of accord with him. Did we think that the General came to sign a treaty of peace with us? Did we expect a military dictator to say that all his Military sinews, built up over the years, after bleeding his country white, would not be required? Did we expect him to go back to his men and say, “Boys, I am sorry, but you are being disbanded because I have decided to have peace with India.” Would the military in Pakistan have tolerated him even for a day if he had said that? Then, did we expect that he would sign an accord of peace with us and go back to tell the jehadis, “Boys, the game is up. We have to put a stop to cross-border terrorism. So I’d like you to go back and settle down in Afghanistan, or wherever you have come from. I have promised the Indian people that terrorism from our side will be stopped by me. I am sorry I have to close all your jehadi schools, confiscate all your weapons because if I do not do so, the Indians will take it up before a world body and get us branded as a terrorist state.” Do we think that if the General had said this, he would have been able to prevent the jehadis from turning on Pakistan and looting it? Religion is only an excuse, it is really a fight for roti”. Or did we expect that the Islamic clergy, who have accepted the General as the apple of their eyes, would listen quietly to the General’s plea for a secular Pakistan? Can he ask them to wind up all their fund collections from foreign countries in the name of Islam to kill Muslims in India? Who are the people that suffer owing to the Islamic clergy’s rabid pronouncements — not the Hindus but the Muslims of India. It is they who are their major victims. It is their tragedy that we have to deal with. We are prepared to listen for hours to the diatribe of the Pakistan President. Have we said a word to support the democratic forces which have been systematically pulled down and deprived of leadership? We even seem to agree that Mr Nawaz Sharif was corrupt. We have swallowed every one of the lies that have been spoken about him. It is a great regret of mine that we have not said a word in support of a man who had to sacrifice so much because he wanted to live in peace with India. What have we said in support of Ms Benazir Bhutto of the PPP? Have we shown sympathy with a brave woman who has been punished in a way that no democracy would dream of doing. Do we believe that Pakistan is condemned forever to live under military rule, or a new idea — a military democracy? There are many other questions which we ought to have asked when the General came sauntering over to our side. What about the massacres of the Ahmediyas and the Shias? There are many of their faith in India who feel deeply hurt about the way their brethren have been treated. What about the blasphemy law? Are the Christians to bear forever the injustice of this draconian law? If he is a right-thinking person, why does the General not annul this law? All dictators depend upon such laws, combined with lashes and disappearances, to retain their position. The conditions in Pakistan are serious because of the drought followed by a severe cloud-burst. At this time, when we ought to be working together to deal with distress in Pakistan and Afghanistan, Pakistan wants to train terrorists to give them employment and direct them to kill people on this side of the divide. Our opinion does not matter. World opinion does not count. The US-Russia-China accord on terrorism has no meaning. President Musharraf does not like the expression cross-border terrorism. The IPC calls it “murder” (Sec 302,
IPC). |
|
Who cares for Kashmiris in Pakistan? WHAT'S the reality in Pakistan so far as the interests of Kashmiris are concerned? Is the sympathy for Kashmiris real or propped up by artificial pillars formed by media hype intended to divert public opinion? Opinion within different segments of society in Pakistan has been portrayed as ranging from diehard support for the Kashmiris to one where the man on the street is concerned more about rising inflation and keeping his
children's tummies full than feeding “jehad” at a tremendous cost. It is important to gauge the exact contours of public opinion within Pakistan towards Kashmir, because one found General Musharraf constantly looking over his shoulders to pander to the domestic audience. Through the live telecast of his breakfast interaction with a group of Indian editors and intellectuals — timed during the summit — he appeared to be speaking to his people, sending back the impression that the “Kashmir dispute” was topmost on his agenda that couldn’t be displaced by other issues. Ditto in the press conference on his home turf. To get an inside view of the thinking in Pakistan, Mehtab Ali Shah’s “The Foreign Policy of Pakistan, Ethnic impacts on Diplomacy” provides an unusual insight. The four provinces of Pakistan are located in close proximity to different geostrategic centres — the Frontier Province adjoining Central Asia, Baluchistan an extension of West Asia, and Sindh and Punjab bordering South Asia through India. Because of this geographical divergence, the inhabitants of these four provinces have different cross-border ethnic affinities, in turn shaping different foreign policy perceptions. The Punjabis are close to and have ethnic affinity with the Kashmiris. Informed Sindhis, on the other hand, due to their lack of physical proximity to Kashmir, do not support the accession of Kashmir to Pakistan. The Sindhis, however, support the idea of “self-determination”, just as they want their own aspirations to be met. In marked contrast to the hawkish Punjabis, the Sindhis tend to stress the need for revitalising their commercial relations with India, particularly with Rajasthan and Kutch in Gujarat. Since Baluchistan and the NWFP are oriented mainly towards West Asia and Central Asia, India and the whole of the South Asian region are peripheral to them. Thus while most Baluch politicians and the elite share the Sindhi perception of India, the Pashtuns of the Frontier Province borrow the Muslim Punjabi attitude vis-a-vis India. A more exact opinion on Kashmir within Pakistan is contained in the report of the Kashmir Study Group (KSG), a US-based forum. The study team, comprising academicians, diplomats and specialists in South Asia, interacted extensively in 1997 with a wide range of people in India and Pakistan to acquire a sample of opinions and attitudes in the two countries with regard to the Kashmir issue. Within Pakistan there was divergence of opinion in the public’s own view of Kashmir and normalisation of relations with India. Some respondents felt that the public opinion with regard to India and the Kashmir conflict was so deformed by years of propaganda and the suppression of facts that it now formed a huge obstacle to normalisation. A serving Pakistani diplomat said the younger generations in both India and Pakistan, far from being emancipated from the deeply-entrenched hostility and distrust of their elders, had instead been weaned on vicious media and schoolbook propaganda that produced mutually opposing and mainly negative stereotypes. Even young educated Pakistani professionals, he disclosed, tended to lean towards dogmatism on friendly relations with India. At variance with this viewpoint was the opinion expressed by numerous respondents that the principal trend in Pakistani public opinion in connection with Kashmir, far from being blind hostility for India, was a sharply declining interest in Kashmir. Confirmed in the report of this study group are the significant regional variations in public outlook towards Kashmir. Among the Sindhis, a senior journalist disclosed, echoing others, Kashmir was probably not an issue. At the popular level, he suggested, it “probably wasn’t much of an issue either in Baluchistan or the NWFP”. Even in southern Punjab there was little interest in Kashmir, he added helpfully. It was only in northeastern Punjab, especially urban Punjab (and most especially Lahore) where substantial consciousness about Kashmir existed. Did public opinion really matter when it came to Kashmir? “Not at all,” said a journalist to the Kashmir Study Group. “There is no civil society in Pakistan, no organised action.” The government was free of virtually all constraints from the non-governmental sector. It consulted only businessmen because they could shut down their shops. But it didn’t listen to journalists, students or academics. The educated community, he observed, was “completely out of the opinion-making process”. Commenting in the same vein, a serving diplomat said that so long as the Prime Minister had the army’s backing, he could do virtually anything in regard to Kashmir. So what is the bottomline? The majority of Pakistanis are not much concerned about Kashmir. Riding on a wave of imaginary public opinion, Pakistan has remained hostage to the Kashmir issue more for reasons of internal power politics than any other thing. The elected Head of Government remains wary of the army. And during army rule the General is more guarded about his legitimacy and remaining in the saddle, like General Musharraf in Agra. The Kashmiris actually don’t matter much to Pakistan. The writer is a retired Colonel. |
Spillover effect of Pak-sponsored terrorism CANADA has joined the growing list of North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) members who have identified Pakistan as the cradle of Islamic fundamentalist terrorism and has expressed the fear that immigrants, inspired by Pakistan’s intelligence apparatus, will “import extremist tendencies.” Canada is acutely aware of how it was brought centrestage in the destruction of Air India’s Kanishka airliner and the death of all aboard over the North Atlantic by a bomb placed by Khalistani Sikh extremists operating out of Canada, also under the inspiration of the Pakistan Inter-Services Intelligence, in the late 80s. It is only recently that the Royal Canadian Mounted Police was able to positively identify the culprits and has brought them to face trial. The Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) in a report released to Time with the arrival of Pakistan Foreign Minister Abdul Sattar in Ottawa has bluntly laid the onus of continued tension in Jammu and Kashmir as Pakistan’s doorstep. The report states: “The protracted Indo-Pakistan conflict over Kashmir featuring periodic open warfare and Pakistan-backed insurgent activity continues to be a major concern. Pakistan’s endorsement of the Kashmiri militant movement ensures the continuance of conflict along the Line of Control... Pakistan’s long-standing support of the Sikh extremist issue is a major factor in its endurance.” The report emphasises the “spillover effect” of ongoing support by Pakistan’s intelligence apparatus of the Jammu and Kashmir conflict, with its growing linkage with the Taliban, the Islamic militia that rules most of Afghanistan, into expatriate communities around the world. Not long ago, Britain too, for the same reasons, announced that it is considering a ban on two of the favourites of the ISI — the Lashkar-e-Toiba and the Jaish Mohammad — Pakistan-based “jehadi” terrorist organisations. This followed rocket-propelled grenade attacks on the headquarters of British Intelligence Mi-6 headquarters in London after British politicians identified Pakistan as the fountainhead of international terrorism. Britons, expatriate Pakistanis, were using religious institutions to impart terrorist training and sending them to Jammu and Kashmir to conduct terrorist attacks. Similarly, the USA recently identified Pakistan as being the sponsor of cross-border terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir but it stopped short of declaring it as a state that sponsors terrorism and imposing blanket sanctions, including a ban on air traffic into and out of Pakistan. More recently, US officials have been talking of “engaging Pakistan” which implies an accommodation that could only encourage Pakistan in the export of cross-border and international terrorism. This is particularly true because of the avowed perception in Pakistan’s military junta that India was forced into inviting Musharraf for talks by pressure exerted by Washington on New Delhi something vehemently denied by India. Track Two diplomacy too has thrown up suggestions that insist on Indian accommodation of Pakistan’s craving for more territory in Jammu and Kashmir. One such is the “Chenab Plan” by which India would benefit by a redrawing of the Line of Control along the river and Pakistan would acquire concessions in Siachen. British Prime Minister Tony Blair did not help matters any when he spoke of “self-determination for the people of Jammu and Kashmir” when addressing Pakistani immigrants after his landslide election victory. The concept of “self-determination” does not quite square with the British claim that Pakistan is sponsoring terrorism. Cross-border terrorism cannot be allowed to become the underpinning for “self-determination”. The consequences will be as horrendous as the events in the former Yugoslavia and Indonesia. India will have to contend with this dichotomy in international diplomacy — the clearly enunciated perception that Pakistan is the fountainhead of international terrorism and yet the need to “engage it”. “Self-determination” is an anachronism if it is being promoted through terrorism exported across boundaries it then is nothing but a blatant attempt to grab territory through war by proxy. The underlying logic of this dichotomy is that by “engaging” Musharraf the world would be averting Pakistan’s irrevocable descent into Islamic fundamentalism. This is a complete negation of recent history in Afghanistan where the Taliban was brought in from Pakistani madrassas by the very person who is now the Head of State. The “Talibanisation” of Pakistan itself is now complete and attempts to vest Musharraf with the mantle of a “moderate” and force India into accommodating his wishes in Jammu and Kashmir would be a travesty of all the evidence about Pakistan’s involvement in the promotion and dissemination of fundamentalist terrorism. The international community led by the USA, Britain and Canada who have put the evidence of Pakistan’s involvement in the propagation of terrorism in focus must know that pandering to terrorism and its practitioner is hardly the way of controlling the phenomenon. More so because the terrorists are busy buying sophisticated military hardware through the expatriate communities that are resident in their societies. The arrest of two persons of Pakistani origin by the USA while they were negotiating purchase of Stinger missiles and other artillery is a pointer to what is intended to be perpetrated.
ADNI |
Alleged discovery of Bombshell
Shamapada Roy, his brother, Bishnu-pada Roy, and his uncle, Asutosh Ghosh who were arrested in their house at Domjor Howrah in connection with the alleged discovery of a pistol, explosives and bombshell, were formally placed before the Dy. Magistrate of Howrah today. Shamapado made a confession before the Magistrate stating that the articles had been kept with him by a Calcutta man. The accused have been remanded to custody pending further enquiry. |
|||||
Of women’s hearts and problems IN the wake of recent study findings that hormone replacement therapy (HRT) may not protect older women’s hearts as once thought, the American Heart Association (AHA) is cautioning doctors not to prescribe HRT for heart reasons alone. In new guidelines issued, the AHA states that women with cardiovascular disease should not be given HRT for the sole reason of preventing future heart attacks. In fact, its panel of experts advises, heart health should essentially be left out of HRT decisions for these patients. For these women “the issue about whether it protects your heart is a non-issue,” the lead author on the panel’s report, Dr Lori Mosca of New York Presbyterian Hospital, told Reuters Health. The results from controlled trials now show that HRT does not cut the risk of heart attack and death for women with established heart disease, she said. As for healthy post-menopausal women, it remains unclear if HRT can help prevent the onset of heart disease. So the panel advises that while these women can take heart health into consideration, HRT should ultimately be prescribed for its established benefits of reducing menopause symptoms such as hot flashes and preserving bone mass. “Primarily the decision should be based on osteoporosis prevention and menopause symptoms,” Dr Mosca said, noting that these benefits must be weighed against the potential risks — namely, higher odds for blood clots, gallbladder disease and possible breast cancer. Experts still await the outcome of trials looking at HRT and the prevention of heart disease, the AHA panel points out. So for now it concludes that there is insufficient evidence to recommend HRT for preventing heart disease. Researchers have long believed HRT may protect women’s hearts for several reasons. For one, before menopause women have a lower risk of heart disease than men do, suggesting that their higher estrogen levels help shield the heart. In addition, HRT has been found to improve women’s cholesterol levels, a key factor in heart disease risk. There remains the possibility that HRT may yet cut the odds of developing heart disease in the first place, Dr Mosca noted. “I think there’s still hope it will help,” she said.
Reuters
Vengaboys to perform in Chandigarh The Scorpions, the Vengaboys and Bryan Adams. Some of the world’s greatest music acts are going to hit Indian cities in the next three months. The remarkable response that Deep Purple and Adams received in India earlier this year appears to have set the pace for the Scorpions to perform on August 9 in Bangalore. Event organisers DNA Networks, are bringing the Vengaboys on a six-city trip to India September 15-25. The Vengaboys will perform in Ahmedabad, Chandigarh, Lucknow, Kolkata, Guwahati and Hyderabad. And October 26-30, “Prince of Pop” Adams returns to India for three concerts in Delhi, Kolkata and Chennai. “The response to our two shows this year, Deep Purple and Bryan Adams, has been rather remarkable. Deep Purple got a 25,000 crowd and so did Adams show in both Bangalore and Mumbai. And, we expect a fair bit of business from both the Vengaboys and Scorpions show,” said Venkat Vardhan, M.D.
IANS |
|
377 cases filed against Magsaysay winner RAJENDRA Singh, who won the 2001 Magsaysay Award for Community Leadership on Monday, quit a cozy government job 16 years ago determined to transform the lives of the rural poor. A thoroughly gentle and an extremely articulate Indian, Rajendra Singh took a bus to the interior of Rajasthan in 1984 to see what he could do in the sprawling drought-stricken desert state. Within a year he had embarked on a mission to provide water to tens of thousands of parched men and women spread over 750 villages, earning their eternal gratitude and kudos from far and wide. The 43-year-old told IANS: “What I saw in 1984 was pathetic. People did not even have drinking water, forget irrigation and other needs. They were migrating in droves. But I had no concrete plan in mind and felt helpless.” After six months of wandering, an incident in the Gopalpura village decided his fate. “That was when Mangu Patel, a village elder, told me, ‘if you really want to help, bring water.’ The simplest way to that is to dig a ‘johad’ (crescent-shaped pond),” Mangu told him, and drew a line on the dusty ground with his feet. Rajendra Singh picked up a spade and started digging. Just like that. “By God’s grace” that year and the next, there was good rainfall, enough to fill Gopalpura’s tiny johads with water, and filling up wells and yielding better crops. Soon news of Gopalpura’s prosperity spread and there began a huge success story of self-help. In this, the burly, bearded Singh and the villagers have had to wage the usual battle against bureaucracy. “A total of 377 cases have been filed against me and the villagers for illegal structures. But if an activity helps people why should useless government rules obstruct it?” he asked. He now heads the Tarun Bharat Sangh (TBS) from Bhikampura village, some 150 km from Jaipur. It is a name synonymous with mobilising villagers to build 4,000 water-harvesting structures that trap rain, leading to increased groundwater levels — from about 200 ft to 30 ft. Two-thirds of these structures, built without the help of a single trained engineer and at a ridiculously low total cost of Rs.80 million, still have water despite the third continuous year of drought in Rajasthan. Today, when Rajendra Singh steps into a village, people rush to him with “Hare, Hare” (traditional greeting hailing lord Krishna), hug him and look at him with the hope of deliverance. The man who grew up in Meerut, Uttar Pradesh, doing a bachelor’s in Ayurveda and master’s in Hindi, takes the adulation in his stride. Has his personal life suffered? “Why should it? This is what I wanted to do. The only people who made sacrifices are my wife and two children whom I meet once or twice a month in Jaipur.” Rajendra Singh, who is perennially clad in his trademark “kurta-pyjama,” is content. He has made the harsh terrain at the dry Aravalli foothills — where there are few tarred roads, where power supply is as erratic as a whim — his home, giving up the luxuries of urban India. But he is happy. So are the villages that once craved for water. Thousands of people in Rajasthan are today grateful that Rajendra Singh chose to make the journey in 1984 that has completely transformed their lives.
IANS |
In the state of samadhi, one realises one's true self.... the Sadhaka loses his body-consciousness. Everything including the consciousness of times and space vanishes away.... Self can be realised only through practice and samadhi is effected only through personal experience. — Sudarshan Kumar Biala,
***** A devotee sitting in meditation diligently working within himself, will in the course of half an hour change the colours of his aura from three to four to five times, as he moves his awareness from the instinctive- intellectual areas into the brilliancy of sub-superconscious realms. His aura will take on shades of light blue and light yellow interlaced with white. Then as he moves into superconsciousness, rays of light from the central source of energy will begin to emerge from the core of his spine and flood out through his aura and penetrate the atmosphere of the room. You feel his presence as a darshan. — Satguru Sivaya
***** You respect not the rights of others, you gobble then up — the burden will be on you. You will have to come back to atone for this and get your precious field plundered. Having played your hand in the gamble of life. you will lose a winning game. — Bulleh Shah ***** Do not covet the wealth of anyone. — Ishavasya Upanishad, ***** Greed blinds man and consequently he is incapable of distinguishing between right and wrong. — Baba Hardev Singh,
|
 |
| Punjab | Haryana | Jammu & Kashmir | Himachal Pradesh | Regional Briefs | Nation | Editorial | | Business | Sport | World | Mailbag | In Spotlight | Chandigarh Tribune | Ludhiana Tribune 50 years of Independence | Tercentenary Celebrations | | 121 Years of Trust | Calendar | Weather | Archive | Subscribe | Suggestion | E-mail | |
