PERSPECTIVE

Tackling US presence outside its borders
V. Gangadhar

THOUGH US President George Bush and the Japanese Prime Minister, Koizumi did meet at the recently G-8 summit at Genoa, Italy, it was as well that the US Secretary, Colin Powell did not include Japan during his around-the-globe trip. The US-Japanese relations were once again strained following the rape of a 20-year old woman by an American airman, Timothy Woodland in Okinawa, where the US continued to have a large military presence.

The incident which had created a fierce controversy in Okinawa comes at an inconvenient time for both the nations. The Japanese Prime Minister, an intellectual and a liberal, is totally different from the run of the mill politicians who had ruled the country. He had to face increasing economic problems at home and would not be liked to be saddled with the rape issue which had angered millions of Japanese. President Bush, was keen to have better relations with Japan with whom it had always engaged in economic sabre rattling while vying for economic supremacy in the region.

The rape and its sequel provided the Japanese people with some painful memories. At least in Okinawa, there were two sets of laws one for the locals and another for the Americans. Why this situation should exist more than 55 years after Japan surrendered in the Second World War is a clear puzzle to the Japanese, at least to the members of the younger generation. Was Japan a still a ‘conquered’ nation that the US should keep a vast array of troops in Okinawa?

That problems cannot be solved immediately. But the poor people of Okinawa, had had enough of American bullying and the need to cope with excess libido of the soldiers. Some years back, a small group of US soldiers were accused of molesting a local school girl and the issue raised a stink. The US which appears keen to save the necks of its unruly soldiers appears to care little for the sentiments of the local people. It appeared that the Americans treated Okinawa as a colonial region where no local law existed.

It was after considerable delay and a great amount of reluctance that the alleged rapist was handed over to the local authorities. Air Force Sergeant Timothy Woodland his lawyer told the Okinawa court that his detention was unnecessary as he was not interested in leaving the country or destroying any of the evidence. The US military authorities who kept with them, Woodland’s passport claimed that he was actually under house and would not leave the island.

But this stand did not satisfy the Japanese officials who believed that the US military personnel had dragged its feet in handing over the rape suspect for questioning. The Bush Administration went to the extent of claiming that the US military authorities in Okinawa had acted responsibly and within the legal framework of the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA). After the furore over the rape of a school girl by three US solders in 1995, both the nations had agreed they would consider handing over the suspects to the local authorities prior to their indictment for serious crimes including rape and sexual assault.

What had been put down in paper had not been carried out in action. The US and Japan once agreed on the immediate aftermath after the current instance of alleged rape. The US defence authorities would not hand over Woodland to the Japanese in a hurry and the haggling went on for several weeks on the grounds that the Sergeant would not receive a ‘fair deal’ from the locals, Such an attitude naturally aroused the ire of the local population and the media who began once again the very presence of the US troops in the region.

This is stunning humiliation for a nation whose economic, military and political recovery from the devastation of the Second World War had been remarkable. Inspired by the free economy system of the US, the Japanese looked to America as their role model and took to the Coke and chewing gum culture with gusto. Baseball became the national game of Japan. In less than 40 years after the humiliating defeat in the Second World War, Japan was challenging the economic domination of the mighty US. In the 1980’s and 90’s, the Japanese leapfrogged over the US and took the lead in the automobile, electronics and computer industries. And when the US economy sagged, the Japanese industrial giants like ‘Sony’ boldly encroached into American industry and bought over such prestigious acquisitions like movie studies, real estate including the prestigious Rockefeller Centre. The Japanese car industry started plants in the US and taught the legendary auto makers of Detroit a point or two on the business.

Japan’s progress in politics did not match its economic miracle. But once this was achieved, the Japanese began to feel they needed to play a more active and positive role in world affairs. Naturally, they wanted a permanent seat in the UN Security Council. The Japanese had lavished aid on several developing nations and were sure of their support if the issue came up for voting in the UN General Assembly. And as Japan began to enjoy its status as a world power, the presence of a large number of US troops in Okinawa was viewed as a cancerous growth.

The largest US presence outside its own borders was at Okinawa. Earlier, the US military presence was needed because the region was in turmoil. The World Powers, the US and the Soviet Union, were keen to assert their superiority in the region. As China came under the Communist yoke and developed into a world power, the US was keen to check the spread of the ‘yellow presence’. The Division of Korea into North Korea and South Korea added to the regional problems. While the South took to the American presence, the North came under its own bamboo curtain under the mysterious Kim and remained inaccessible to the rest of the power.

The Japanese arrogance, military strength and eagerness to conquer had wreaked havoc on China and Korea. Both these nations remembered with a shudder the mass killings and rape of their citizens by conquering Japanese during the 1930’s. Though Japan was humiliated in the Second World War, it had emerged as a major economic power once again in just over 30 years. How long would it take for Japan to become once more a military power? This was the question which troubled the Chinese and the Koreans. Japan was aware of these fears. It had no intention of any more military adventures and concentrated on economic development. But it had to eye with suspicion the emergence of China as a world power and the military strength of North Korea. Since the US, because of its commitments to Taiwan and Seoul, was determined to have a role in the military developments of the region, the presence of a large number of US troops was a comforting thought to the Japanese. If China and North Korea thought of any military adventures, the US presence at Okinawa would be of great help.

Both China and Japan were Big Powers in the region. But the US had accepted Japan as an ally while China, to many US politicians, was an ‘enemy’. The lack of political freedom in China and its alleged violation of human rights were sore points in the US. In any confrontation between Japan and China, the US sympathies would surely be with the former. As for North Korea, despite the partial lifting of the secrecy curtain, the country remained unpredictable. The US did station troops in South Korea, but if there was any trouble, the garrisons at Okinawa could come in handy.

But the more sensitive Japanese are getting a bit tiresome of the Okinawa issue. They feel that neither China nor North Korea was keen to start any military adventures and the time had come for a drastic reduction of the US forces in Okinawa. They are equally keen that the US military personnel, for any misdeeds, should be held accountable as per local laws. Any self respecting nation would demand the same.

Midstream
Of witchcraft and superstition
Rakshat Puri

A day hardly passes when newspapers do not carry reports relating to witchcraft and sorcery. These reports speak of human — usually child — sacrifice; about dayens and tonahis (witches) who are either employed by others or supposedly work for themselves and are killed in barbaric ways in India’s villages for casting “spells” and “magic” and “curses” on people; and about basahas or sorcerers or “witch-doctors” who are similarly employed by others or work for themselves. Or the reports speak of individuals, claiming to possess “interior knowledge” that makes witches and sorcerers, who thrive on the faith in witchcraft and sorcery that prevails in India’s villages and towns — and often even in metropolitan areas.

A few weeks ago, the body of a child was found floating in Delhi’s Prasad Nagar lake. Morning-walkers who espied it informed the authorities. It turned out eventually that the father, a tailor by profession, had sacrificed the life of his youngest child to ward off ill luck. He had, apparently, sought and obtained the advice of a “knowledgeable person” described in the report as a “maulvi”. The report said investigation was in progress and a search was on for the “maulvi“.

More recently, a couple in Jharkhand’s Lalganj village, Budhwa Oraon and his wife Baili, were suddenly surrounded by a crowd of raging fellow-villagers. The villagers claimed that Budhwa and Baili were sorcerer and witch. The crowd accused them of causing, with spells and magic, the death last year of four children. The crowd is said to have begun by pushing and generally roughing up the couple — both past their mid-fifties. Then, as rage mounted in the mobsters, they began to beat them and continued beating them until both died. Six persons were said to have been arrested and to be facing the charge of murder.

Not too long before the killing of Budhwa and Baili, a ghoulish incident of witch-hunting was reported from Bijli village in Raipur. A woman called Lata Sahu was accused of being a dayen, stripped naked and paraded around the village. It emerged later that among the prime reasons for her being described as a witch and “duly punished” was the intention among the chief accuser or accusers to settle political scores: Lata Sahu had previously expressed the intention of contesting for the office of sarpanch in the village.

As in the case of Lata Sahu, material reasons are often summoned in also other cases to explain recourse by accusers to a charge of sorcery or witchcraft. The other reasons may include, for example, family disputes on various matters, most often to do with property. Or, the accusers may be people of some higher caste interested in keeping down lower-caste aspirations and initiatives. Such material consideration will of course be there. But the most important fact is not that the reasons for the accusations are motivated by material considerations. The most important fact to consider is the prevalence of the social background, customs and atmosphere in which accusations of witchcraft and sorcery are so barbarously effective.

There may be truth in the observation that belief in witchcraft, sorcery and magic prevails in most places — even in emancipated Europe. In his introduction to the essays in Witchcraft and Sorcery (Penguin Education) editor Max Marwick, for instance, agrees that in European countries “from time to time newspaper reports appear about the esoteric practices of present-day ‘witches’. These accounts sustain the belief that witchcraft has never died in modern society, that it has continued as an underground movement . . .” . The difference between belief in magic-and-witchcraft in Western developed societies and belief in magic-and-witchcraft in developing countries such as India — as well as most other countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America — is that in the developed West the general attitude has changed from what it was in the Inquisition and witch-burning days. Sorcerers and witches are not taken seriously as casters of effective spells and as specialists in effective magical remedies. In much of India — rural India mainly — and most of the rest of Asia, Africa and Latin America the attitude to magic and witchcraft has hardly changed since medieval times.

In fact, there appears almost invariably to be in India some kind of quasi-religious approach to the prevailing belief in sorcery and witchcraft. This, again, is not a feature exclusive to India’s villages and to other areas in undeveloped Asia, Africa and Latin America. In medieval Europe, the Church played a leading role in witch-burning and the Inquisition, torturing and killing thousands of heathens, heretics and pagan unbelievers. People in the developed West of today have largely come out of and away from magic-and-witchcraft’s “religious connection”, even if it be true that belief among Europeans in magic-and-witchcraft has never really died. Superstition persists.

In essence, religion may connect with superstition. A passage from Voltaire’s writing has often been quoted — for example in Gustav Jahoda’s The Psychology of Superstition (Pelican) — in which the line between religion and superstition is shown implicitly to be ill-defined and blurred: “It is hard to mark out the boundaries of superstition. A Frenchman traveling in Italy finds almost everything superstitious, and is hardly wrong. The archbishop of Canterbury claims that the archbishop of Paris is superstitious; the Presbyterians levy the same reproach against his Grace of Canterbury, and are in their turn called superstitious by the Quakers, who are the most superstitious of men in the eyes of other Christians.”

By this token, where shall we place the “Islamic” and the “Hindutva” fundamentalists? The common factor between “religious” fundamentalists of various sects, creeds and communities is that their prime common concern is with the other person’s religious belief, not with their own. Possibly, this follows from two factors. First, no real and genuine saint, wali, prophet, paeghambar, or mahatma has himself or herself founded a religion. Religions are founded by their followers. Secondly, in the process of their founding, religions assume the character usually of social organizations. The question of spirituality in socially organized religions hardly arises. Spirituality is by its character and definition individual, personal. It involves a self-ward movement of mind and aspiration. Religious adherence involves outward, socially-led movement of mind.

There are instances of people stopping in their tracks after seeing a cat. In the towns and cities, the seeing individual may just about turn, take a step or two than about turn and continue to proceed. In village India, an individual who sees a cat in his travels may decide to return to his previous starting point in order that the “curse” of cat-seeing might be neutralized! There are also some generally harmless but none the less deep-rooted superstitions — such as the “touch wood” phenomenon. Often, much too often, these and other kinds of superstitions and beliefs in magic-and-witchcraft tend to blend into the individual’s religious approach —- possibly, because the religious approach is largely dictated by social creed and custom.

Consider in this connection the crowd of “religion” driven persons who destroyed a sixteenth century mosque in Bhilwara district of Rajasthan, and started to build a temple in its place. The superstition in this instance being, presumably, that this direction of violence would give them a visa to heaven! Or take the other side: “religion” driven terrorists — calling themselves jehaadis without reflecting on what jehaad means — holed up in a mosque at a village near Srinagar, intending to kill and destroy eventually innocent and unconcerned people in the name of Allah! That would give them a visa to heaven. A great many jehaadis seem to favour mosques as strategic bases, and a great many Hindutva “warriors” are straining at the leash to bring down more mosques and build more temples — all for easy visas to heaven. Through superstition, religion connects with magic-and-witchcraft. Report has it that tribal people in Bastar carry images of their deities with them convinced that the idol would warn them of the presence of sorcerers and witches, and would protect them. Because of the quasi-religious connection it would not be easy to persuade people out of their adherence to superstitions and out of their apprehensions of magic and witchcraft.

Who can, then, venture to say when child-sacrifice might end, when couples like Budhwa and Baili can go about without fear of being murdered for witchcraft, when the Lata Sahus will be safe from the social fear of sorcery? It seems urgently necessary that concerned authorities all over the country at every level start dealing with the problem — as best they can and to whatever extent. To at least the extent of belief in witchcraft and superstition not becoming cause of murder and other crimes.

— Asia Features

Mismanaging money-monetary mechanism
Shyam Ratna Gupta

IN real life truth can be stranger than fiction in early 1980. Claude Cheysson, the then Commissioner of European Community Union (ECU) made a startling statement at a public meeting in Delhi that an international monetary cartel controls 33 per cent of the hard currency of the world. A gadfly among leftist economists, Cheysson believed in the existence of international speculators. When he was questioned, he confirmed that the cartel members operated from New York, Tokyo, Paris, London, Hong Kong and Brussels.

According to Cheysson, members of the cartel had split-second communication facilities. Each of them also held a portfolio of hard currencies. In the early hours of the day, they decide which hard currency may be revalued or devalued, not only on economic but also on political grounds, and of course, on their own prejudices and predilection. If, for instance, the US dollar was to be depreciated in relation to Deutsche Mark (DM), it will not imply any loss to members of the cartel because appreciation or depreciation of a hard currency unit will be set off by parity value with other currencies.

As a member of the audience, the writer was amazed by his statement. Soon, there was wild fluctuation in the exchange values of hard currencies. Strangely, at that time the US dollar had hit the lowest point of Rs 10.11 in India, while the UK pound and DM appreciated to higher levels.

A former World Bank Vice President and a retired American economist argued illogically that the US dollar should be appreciated to Rs 15 or higher which would benefit India.

The writer pointed out that if Indian imports exceeded exports, the Balance of Payment (BoP) would further deteriorate. The World Bank economists declined to respond to this as he insisted that India should benefit from such an appreciation of the US dollar. Today, amazingly enough, the US dollar fetches around Rs 47 - 48 and it is becoming the highly valued currency in the world. Obviously, political and not economic considerations govern exchange values, and the international speculators are pseudo economies, being just mercenaries of economic buccaneers, unmindful of the consequences of the repercussion of their actions in the money-monetary mechanism.

Almost a decade later, this writer read an account of what happened in the Wall Street, the citadel of world capitalism. In an article, it was stated that everyday a group of six or seven neo-economists meet at an undisclosed venue, to design which currency should be depreciated or appreciated on that particular day. These speculators design which country’s currency should be depreciated or appreciated, mainly on political considerations. According to this article, these wise men do not disclose their identity and change each day. None of these wise men are permitted to converse with each other for any possible review of the decision taken in that morning.

Each of them has a brief from his boss in Wall Street because the group changes everyday with no consistency in their views.

These incidents prove how the money market mechanism is mismanaged, reflecting the logic of capitalist world. In India, the flux in stock shares and markets since the presentation of the Union Budget (2001-02) highlights the irrationality of the money market mechanism.

Reports say, quite a few stock market operators committed suicide because their shares had been devalued. Recently, the UTI Unit-64 fiasco has affected the fortunes of more than 5,000 million people in the country.

No agency dealing with economic crimes, whether it is a wing of CIA, API, Interpol, RAW or IB can catch international speculators who are in league with unknown politicians and capitalists. While it is good that in India, quite a few cricketeers are tainted and speculators booked, the international ramifications of the capitalist world governed by the cartel or the wise men of Wall Street cannot either identify or be wiped out, unless ethics of business commerce and money governed are national and international transactions.

The writer was Editor-in-Chief of Indian Council for International Economic Relations.

KASHMIR DIARY

Spirit of fellowship among pilgrims
David Devadas

ADNAN is a soft-spoken, well brought up boy but, that day, his blood boiled. He felt like doing an Amitabh Bachchan type angry young man act and overturn some furniture. “I felt like slapping him,” he says. He is talking of his interviewer. Adnan had gone to Delhi from Kashmir to seek admission to a Bachelor of Business Administration course. The principal of the college, which has highly liberal antecedents, was interviewing him. What got Adnan so angry was his demand that Adnan should sing ‘Vande Mataram.’

He felt as if his patriotism was being questioned and his bona fides as an Indian put to test. This was, after all, an interview for a business administration course, nothing to do with either singing or the specifics of Bankim Chandra’s hymn. He was quite sure that no Hindu, or even perhaps Muslim from any other part of the country, would be asked to sing his way into business administration.

For Adnan, it was an especially galling experience. The son of civil servant, he had been sent to school in Jammu, far from his home in Srinagar’s upmarket Rajbagh, so that he was protected from the vagaries of Kashmir’s decade-old insurgency. He had been assiduously brought up to feel like an Indian, far from all the alienation and separatism that had swirled in his homeland for most of his life. As it happened, therefore, he knew and was able to sing ‘Vande Mataram’ — and, indeed, emerged second on the admission merit list. But it still rankled: Was he going to have to prove his patriotism at every significant point in his life just because he had a Muslim name and his home address was in Kashmir?

There are several such instances, in which ordinary Kashmiri Muslims are subjected to suspicion and mistrust that only pushes them farther from the Indian mainstream. The head of a department at the University of Kashmir was looking for a hotel room in Delhi’s Paharganj a few years ago. He had just returned from representing India at an international conference. As soon as he wrote his name and address in the hotel register, the man behind the desk suddenly discovered that no room was available. The professor raised a stink and ultimately obtained an apology but, sadly, many a less connected Kashmiri would have simply walked away with a bitter feeling, far more susceptible than before to secessionist propaganda.

It’s vicious cycle, actually. The more people across the country see reports of Kashmiri Muslims being anti-national in one way or another, the more they react to any Kashmiri Muslim with antagonism or at least suspicion. That in turn only pushes the victims of their antagonism to anti-national behaviour.

Unfortunately, the same sort of antagonistic attitude seems to motivate many of those who have been undertaking the Amarnath yatra in the last few years. Only a small fraction of the current number of yatris ever undertook the arduous pilgrimage before the insurgency began in Kashmir a decade ago, and most of them were sadhus and older devotees. Now, the yatra lasts for well over a month and hundreds of cars, jeeps, buses and trucks roar down the highways in the valley every day. Many of the pilgrims now are young men. Some of them are apparently motivated by a desire to, in an oblique sort of way, re-establish mainstream, Hindu India in Kashmir. It’s the same sort of mindset with which Murli Manohar Joshi set out to unfurl the national flag in Lal Chowk in 1992.

Such gestures may be well meant but they actually do more damage to national integration than those making them can imagine. Indeed, they would do far more good if they had the gumption to overcome their suspicions and fears enough to be welcoming and warm to Kashmiri Muslims whom they might encounter in any other part of the country. The recipient of that warmth may possibly be a terrorist, but is more likely to be just another fellow citizen. While one’s warmth may not convert the terrorist to the mainstream, one’s antagonism could very well push the ordinary Kashmiri citizen towards secessionist thinking.

I have been struck over the last few days in various parts of the valley by the warmth with which yatris are generally welcomed, despite the inconvenience they cause to traffic and other aspects of routine life. Village kids wave and lustily yell “bhum, bhum, bhole,” as yatris vehicles pass. Of course, the kids know that their yells could elicit some sweets or biscuits from the passing vehicle, but the point is that their elders don’t stop them from uttering the chants of another religion. There is, in a sense, a spirit of fellowship, of being together citizens of one nation. That is what all of us have to try and build in our own little ways if Kashmir is ever to be fully integrated into the Indian nation — in the minds of its people, for it is in the human mind that wars are ultimately won.

READERS' RESPONSE

Tuition menace

MS Anuradha Gupta, in her ‘Private tuition: a different perspective’ (July 15) has rightly asserted that private tuition has grown into a menace and a social evil prompted only by those who have taken teaching as commerce and not as a mission. It is no secret that students are coerced and forced to take tuitions in the lure of admission to professional courses. But taking 50-60 students in a group is neither of any academic worth to the learner nor would a teacher be in the healthy and active state of mind to give his best, when he disposes of 8-10 such groups in a day.

No doubt the devotion and dedication to his profession is lacking amongst teachers but more shocking are the parents who rather force a teacher to include their ward to an already overcrowded group of 50 or so students. Why should such parents be also not taken to task as committing and forcing one into crime are equally punishable?

We also need to go deep into the root cause of this malaise i.e. the over-ambitious parents, limited avenues of opportunity and a complete lack of vocational counselling in our educational institutions. Every parent wants his or her ward to be admitted to some prestigious professional institution irrespective of the capability and interest of the student and also of their own capacity to bear the expenses of such a course. This naturally leads many not only to frustration but is converted into an opportunity by the unscrupulous to earn undeserved and hefty amount of money.

In nutshell, the initiative of the Haryana Higher Education Deptt has brought to the focus a socio-academic malaise, which is quite complex and deep-rooted. Now it is for the society to take up a thorough and healthy debate to rid the system of this gangrene.

Ved Guliani, Hisar

II

I agree those who oppose the practice of tuition. But I would like to differ from those who wish to paint Dr Bhim Singh Dahiya as a petty tuitionist. I think Dr Dahiya is one of the most outstanding and original scholars of India. As one of his students at the Kurukshetra University, I found his class lectures were well-researched literary essays. He always encouraged and helped students from ordinary peasant families.

No scholar can outshine him in fluency, originality and lucidity of expression. No amount of money is enough to purchase his services. Every private tutor can’t be like Dr Dahiya. Most of the owners of coaching centres are men and women with average intelligence and they operate like clever and money-minded traders. Their teaching method is boring, mechanised and bereft of originality. They are always worried about making more and more money. They cannot experience the pleasures of teaching.

Raj Bahadur Yadav Dehati, Rewari

PROFILE

In the footsteps of Raj Narain
Harihar Swarup

SHIV Sena MP Sanjay Nirupam is fast acquiring the icon of the irrepressible socialist leader, the late Raj Narain, who too was once a member of the Upper House. Both have a penchant for picking up cudgel at the drop of a hat, irrespective of the consequences. They would not hesitate to train their guns at their own dispensation and drive the leadership to the point of desperation.

Raj Narain made life hell for Prime Minister Morarji Desai with fierce attacks on the then PMO and the PM’s son, Kanti Bhai, during the Janata Party rule. Nirupam has hit out at Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee’s PMO and his foster son-in-law, echoing a stark similarity. Nirupam was very young — only 32 — when he was elected to the Rajya Sabha while Raj Narain was in his late fifties when he entered the house of elders.

Nirupam kicked up a storm in the Rajya Sabha by alleging the involvement of the PMO in the UTI scam and an emotionally upset Vajpayee offered his resignation, sending shock waves in political circles. The youthful Shiv Sena MP is, however, unrepentant and says: “ I have not questioned the credibility of the Prime Minister. I will believe he is an honest person. I have respect for him but how about the people in the PMO who are close to him”?

A persistent Nirupam argues that in a democracy everyone has the right to question the government on why two crore investors today were at the crossroads . “What is wrong if I have questioned the role of the PMO and the Finance Minister” ? “Yes, we are a ruling party, but that does not mean we should not speak the truth”.

Nirupam minces no words in saying that he acted with the knowledge and approval of “my boss Balasahib Thackeray”. Apparently, neither the Shiv Sena supremo nor Nirupam are happy at the way attempt is being made to suppress the reality. As a protest the Sena chief has directed his MPs to extend only “silent support” to the Vajpayee government. Asked what does this mean, Nirupam says “it means we will not speak in Parliament. We will also not ask supplementaries when questions listed against our names are taken up”.

Nirupam has always been in the forefront in criticising the BJP-led NDA government and has drawn flak from the Chair many times for his unruly behaviour. He was reprimanded by the Chairman, Mr Krishan Kant, as far back as December, 1999, for kicking up an uproar by making an objectionable remark evoking a protest by film star member, Shabana Azmi. The remark was expunged by the Chair.

The reprimand, read out by the Chairman said: “Yesterday, this House witnessed a disorderly scene after question hour was over. Shri Sanjay Nirupam by his conduct eroded the dignity of the House. I denounce and deprecate the conduct of Shri Nirupam and reprimand him.”

Sena MPs claim by bringing to the fore the UTI scam, Nirupam’s stock has gone up. He fiercely took the government to task on the Tehelka tapes expose too and showered praises on the journalists who had undertaken the investigation. His words were: “I salute those journalists who dared to conduct the sting operation to expose arms dealers and middlemen who thrive in all the power centre”.

Nirupam, incidentally, is himself a journalist and edits the Hindi edition of the Shiv Sena mouth piece “ Dophar Ka Saamana”. Though he speaks fluent Marathi, he belongs to Rohtas district of Bihar and began his career as a journalist in Patna contributing to many Hindi newspapers. Later, he shifted to Delhi and had a two-year long stint with the RSS journal “Panchjanya”, published from the organisation’s headquarters at Jhandewalan. “I have worked in the temple of Hindutva”, Nirupam told Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pramod Mahajan sarcastically in the course of an argument.

The then editor of the RSS journal was a hard taskmaster and taught him subbing and news writing. “So strict was he that he would throw the copy at my face if it was not properly subbed and ask me to do it again and again. I learnt a lot from him”, he recalls.

Young Nirupam soon got a chance to work as sub-editor in the Mumbai edition of the Hindi Daily “Jansatta” and during his four-year stay there made steady headway in the profession. He had many times interaction with Thackeray and the Shiv Sena chief was, apparently, impressed by the dash of the young journalist.

He invited Nirupam to take over the editorship of the Hindi edition of the “Saamana” and improve its contents. Soon he earned the confidence and goodwill of Balasahib who decided to send him to the Rajya Sabha in a by-election in 1996. Nirupam was reelected in April, 2000, for a full-term of six years. 

DELHI DURBAR

Political Secretary for Sonia Gandhi!

SOME far-reaching changes in the Congress President’s office appear to be on the anvil. Sonia Gandhi, as the Numero Uno of the Congress, might soon have a Political Secretary who is bound to emerge as a critical centre of power in the party organisation. This assumes importance as her Secretary, Vincent George who has been calling the shots all along suddenly finds himself embroiled in several controversies.

The candidate she has in mind for the slot of Political Secretary is the suave Jairam Ramesh, who is known more for his prowess in the economic field rather than politics. Ramesh emerged on the Indian scene in the mid eighties as a team member of Rajiv Gandhi’s Technology Adviser Sam Pitroda. In P.V. Narasimha Rao’s time Ramesh suffered a minor setback when he was shunted to the Planning Commission as an Officer on Special Duty but then bounced back in the corridors of power as the Economic Adviser to Finance Minister P. Chidambaram in the United Front Government.

His timely switchover to the Congress has been fruitful as several Congress State Governments have been seeking his advice on various matters. So deep and crucial are his economic tips that even Andhra Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu wanted to have him as his economic adviser but then partymen took strong objection to his working for a political opponent.

Sonia Gandhi has been quick to notice his merits and elevated him as her speech writer at the cost of Mani Shankar Aiyar. The Congress President also included him in her team to the United States along with Dr Manmohan Singh and Natwar Singh. His choice as her speech writer obviously has not gone well with Mani Shankar Aiyar who made his own enquiries and discovered that Jairam Ramesh was drawing his power from a powerful CWC member.

Phoolan’s legacy

Even as the police is desperately trying to cut through the web of deception and intrigue spun around the sensational slaying of the Samajwadi Party MP and former bandit queen, Phoolan Devi, another controversy has erupted around her death. There is considerable concern among the Samajwadi party cadres over the decision of her husband, Umaid Singh to jump into active politics, which translated into simple English, amounts to his staking his claim for a ticket to contest the byelections from Mirzapur, the parliamentary constituency his wife represented.

What prompted Umaid Singh to take this decision since till a few hours before his surprise announcement at a hurriedly convened press conference he was vehemently opposing his entering politics? The party grapevine has it that it could be the fact that the Samajwadi Party leadership, particularly Mulayam Singh Yadav had indicated that he would prefer the slain bandit queen’s younger sister, Ms Munni Devi as the party candidate.

Politically savvy as he is, Mulayam Singh Yadav had concluded that the sister would be able to garner the sympathy vote and walk home with the seat intact for the party, specially since Ms Munni Devi has an uncanny resemblance to her late sister. With Umaid Singh and Ms Munni Devi having already crossed swords over the property, it is only natural that they would now be adversaries in the political arena as well unless the party leadership decides to quell the family feud.

Tamil politics

The AIADMK-DMK duel in Tamil Nadu has spilled over to the capital if the happenings in the Lok Sabha has been any indication. Members of the two parties never miss any opportunity to take a dig at the opponent even if it means using unparliamentary means. Last week saw the Lok Sabha members seeking clarifications on the statement of Union Home Minister, L.K. Advani on Phoolan Devi’s killing. AIADMK member P.H. Pandian promptly seized the opportunity and pointed to the reference of criminalisation of politics.

He went on to say that while Phoolan Devi had left her criminal past to enter the Lok Sabha, there were members who behaved like criminals by attacking police officials. It took time for other members to realise that he was referring to the Central Ministers T.R. Baalu and Murasoli Maran. A clash ensued and members of the DMK and the AIADMK abused each other in Tamil.

The matter did not end there. When the DMK’s turn came to seek clarifications, their member pointed out that MPs were not only unsafe in Delhi but faced risks in the States too. He was referring to the manhandling of the two Ministers by the Tamil Nadu police recently in the Karunanidhi episode.

‘PMH’ in PMO

With the name of Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee’s foster son-in-law cropping up in connection with the UTI muddle, the question doing the rounds in Congress circles was whether PMO (Prime Minister’s Office) also includes PMH (Prime Minister’s House). Since the JPC into the stock market scam has also been entrusted the task of looking into the UTI crisis without any change in its terms of reference, there was curiosity if the role of the PMO would also be probed.

Congress spokesman Jaipal Reddy, who is a member of the JPC, said an emphatic yes when asked if the committee would probe the role of PMO officials in the UTI crisis. “But what about PMH,” he was asked. The “PMH,” Mr Reddy emphasised, would not be excluded.

Contributed by Satish Misra, T.V. Lakshminarayan, Ravi Bhatia, Rajeev Sharma and Prashant Sood.

DIVERSITIES — DELHI LETTER

Are all Kashmiris suspect?
Humra Quraishi

EXCEPT for a much-awaited downpour, everything else has been happening here, in the Capital city. The highlight of the week has been the manner in which a senior police officer from J&K, Sheikh Abdul Rashid who is SP (Prisons) in Baramulla district, was picked up for questioning and detained for nearly five hours. The reason — because Abdul Rashid who was visiting New Delhi to attend an official seminar is a Kashmiri and was putting up in a Kashmiri’s home in South Delhi. Tell me is this enough reason to ground a citizen of the country? Do we have the right to make all Kashmiris suspects ? In fact it was almost shocking to hear the so-called official explanation to this police officer’s questioning, which bordered on the theory that since a new Kashmiri face was spotted in the locality, the police got into action and took him away for questioning. What if Abdul Rashid wasn’t a police officer but a lower middle class businessman or an illiterate shawl seller? Would he have been let off in five hours or made to sit as an undertrial for months to come?

In fact, several Kashmiris who have made New Delhi their home after turmoil increased in the valley say that they are made to feel as though each one of them is a suspect. And why Kashmiris alone — a year-and -a-half back, soon after the hijack of one of our Indian Airlines planes to Afghanistan, I had gone to interview (with appointment) the then Aviation Secretaty (GOI ). And the minute I began to query him on the safety measures the Civil Aviation Ministry was undertaking, he started looking uneasy. Probably he didn’t know his facts, but then looking straight my eyes said, “But you er...but you are a Quraishi... why should I tell you about the safety measures we ’re undertaking? After all you are er ….and could tell others about our safety measures..”

It was the most shocking and disgusting experience I have ever had for his words implied that Muslims cannot be trusted or something along these lines. And since it was not a recorded interview I couldn’t take that senior bureaucrat to task either. Though soon after that experience, I had written about it, but I am bringing it up once again just to highlight the fact that with this wave of communal politics, you cannot make every member of a minority community a suspect.

Actually not very ironical situation for if you have ministers like Uma Bharti and Murli Manohar Joshi manning a sensitive ministry like the HRD, what else can be expected but bringing about communal twists to simple texts and historical facts....A very dangerous trend for with communal mouthings and communally slanted films like ‘Gadar’ getting clearances from the Censor Board, what are we heading towards?! Ask SP Baramulla Prisons Sheikh Abdul Rashid if he will ever forget that he is a Kashmiri ‘valley’ Muslim because our chaps here made him so very conscious of the fact. Forget about the government’s moves, I think it is time that citizens’ groups take it upon themselves that divisive forces are brought to task.

An anti-dote

In fact, almost as an antidote, comes the refreshing fact that even today we have gentlemen who are bridging gaps and as I write this column on the eve of raksha bandhan, I must mention my ‘rakhi’ brother — Raja Jaswant Singh — who is not just the former Chief Justice of J&K but also one of those whose immediate family members had been killed by Afghan rebels in Meerpur and yet he has made me, a Muslim, his sister. A remarkable man with those impeccable qualities, and it’s people like him who ought to be invited for communal integration programmes for he is a living example of what our democratic fabric stands for, what our culture means in the real sense, what goodness is in totality....