MIDSTREAM
The global mindscape of Durban conference
Rakshat Puri
THE World Conference on Racism scheduled to be held at Durban in South Africa has included in its agenda a discussion on caste prejudices and its ill-effects. Dalits in India have for centuries been at the receiving end from “upper castes”. Mahatma Gandhi endeavoured to give them a feeling of self-respect, and called them “Harijans” — children of God. He lived and moved among them. He did not succeed in changing the general attitude of “upper castes” towards them. But he did lay among Dalits the seeds of revolt against the system which condemned them to life of misery, illiteracy and poverty.

PROFILE

Harihar Swarup
A saga of tragedies and triumphs
PERCY Bysshe Shelley’s immortal lines “Our sweetest songs are those that tell of saddest thought” come to mind like a flash as one writes about Indira Goswami, popular Assamese writer, honoured with Jnanpith Award, the country’s highest literary decoration. Her life has been a saga of personal tragedies and triumph. From pathos rose creativity that pitch forked her to the first rank of Indian writers; her works have been translated both in Hindi and English and make most absorbing reading. Had she written in English, she might have got a Magsaysay or a Pulitzer long back.

DELHI DURBAR

DIVERSITIES — DELHI LETTER

Humra Quraishi
Joshi’s half-truths, misleading statements
IF I were to write once again about saffronisation of the syllabi you’d accuse me of stifling you with the heady smell of saffron so let’s move on, but not before this: on August 24, five eminent educationists / academicians got together and addressed a joint press conference in which they blasted HRD minister Murli Manohar Joshi for “ the half truths, disinformation and misleading statements which he had been making even in the Parliament”.

• Other distractions

READERS’ RESPONSE

Tuition menace
MRS Anuradha Gupta, Haryana’s Commissioner for Higher Education has become a bete noire for a minuscule section of teaching community turned shopkeepers spawning and spinning money ruthlessly at the expense of the students.

PERSPECTIVE

Call me ‘mad’, but Tejpal is right
L. H. Naqvi

PROVE me mad or prove me wrong. Otherwise, go along with my line of argument in defending Tarun Tejpal, the controversial Chief Executive Officer of the equally controversial Tehelka.com. If he goes down today for merely daring to re-write the rules of fair journalism, the same group of people who are demanding his head will start gunning for all such scribes who still have dreams of exposing acts of wrong-doing in the high-security corridors of power.

Yes, Tarun Tejpal and his team were guilty of violating many laws. I am a firm believer that the media should not be extended any favours for discharging its primary duty of exposing acts of wrong-doing in high places. In the case of the Tehelka team they should be tried for committing the offence of giving bribe (not offering), instead of reporting the matter concerning the officers to the police. They should also be tried for meeting the (not offering as an allurement) demand for the supply of prostitutes. Of course, it goes without saying that for proving the charge of pimping against the Tehelka team, the prosecution will have to show as evidence the officers with their pants down!

Sleaze upon sleaze won’t cleanse the system
V. Eshwar Anand

THE use of prostitutes with a view to unearthing corruption in defence establishment by the Tehelka website is a matter of serious concern. The issue is not just a question of journalistic ethics and propriety. The nature and extent of the latest revelation suggest that the issue goes far beyond the realm of investigative journalism.

The purpose of this piece is not to deflect the public attention from the issue of corruption but to examine the serious implications of the methods adopted by the Tehelka team in the furtherance of its objective. The use of call-girls by a website is fraught with dangerous consequences. All the more so because the website is said to be part of the institution of the Press.

Over the years, the Press has been carrying out its duties and responsibilities as a sentinel of democracy and watchdog of public interest. It has been highlighting the failures of the government of the day, the omissions and commissions of the powers that be and the injustices and inequality of the system. If the mafia networks succeed in their mission, blackmail the Press and destroy the institution, what would happen to the citadels of democracy and the future of the country?

It is well known how underworld elements have been using call-girls the world over to destroy governments, political systems and leaders.

Consequently, questions are bound to be raised on the real intentions of the Tehelka team in using call-girls. What if a mafia group takes charge of such an operation? One cannot overlook the rebounding effect of the mafia network on the political system and the democratic institutions.

Imagine the consequences of such an eventuality. Imagine its effect on the Indian political system and its institutions. If mafia networks penetrate the Indian political system and pursue a policy of blackmail and intimidation in pursuit of their nefarious ends, they can wreak havoc on the country's sensitive areas like defence. To say this is not to suggest that we should lower our guards. The fight against corruption in all walks of life, including defence, must be continued vigorously and ruthlessly. All that is necessary is the question of means.

The latest revelation apparently raises doubts about the Tehelka portal's fairness, objectivity and professional standards. It has not done a fair job and its credibility is at stake. If transparency holds the key to good governance and administration, the same rule applies to investigative journalism as well. One may ask as to why the Tehelka chief, Tarun Tejpal, had failed to bring to the attention of the people about the use of call-girls when he first broke the story. His argument that he had not suppressed evidence and had given the tapes to the Army five months ago as also to the Venkataswami Commission three months ago is not convincing.

Similarly, there is no logic in his argument that had he not made use of prostitutes, his mission to expose corruption would have failed. For, corruption is endemic at various levels in the system. In fact, it was Indira Gandhi who had acknowledged the all-pervasive influence of corruption in the system and called it a global phenomenon. The issue in question is whether journalists — of both print and electronic varieties — have the freedom to adopt even impure methods. It is also a question of law and jurisprudence because all the three actors in the game — the pimp, the call-girl and the customer — are liable for prosecution under the law.

Gandhiji strongly believed that the means and ends are inextricably intertwined. While giving primacy to the means over the ends, he made it very clear that ``the means are in no way subordinate to the end; they are an integral and indispensable legitimisation of it.'' In Young India (December 26, 1924, p. 424), he said, ``The means may be likened to a seed, the end to a tree; and there is just the same inviolable connection between the means and the end as there is between the seed and the tree.''

Similarly, in Hind Swaraj (1962, p. 71), Gandhiji said ``...They say means are after all means. I would say means are after all everything. As the means so the end...There is no wall of separation between means and end.''

As degeneration has set in the system, Gandhiji's views might not be given the due attention they deserve today as earlier. This is as true as the fate of our rich value system, nurtured and followed for decades. All this has led to a situation where the end seems to have been given primacy over the means.

And for this sordid state of affairs, the Press is as much responsible as all other institutions in the world's largest democracy. With its image of an industry having come of age, some newspapers seem to be thriving on sensationalism and vulgarity to market their product or commodity.

Though a website, the Tehelka is no different and the latest revelation doubly proves that it has compromised its integrity and social responsibility.

The latest revelation underscores the importance of a Lakshman rekha. Not that the Press has no boundary line. In fact, the Press has always had a Lakshman rekha, but it has not been followed in letter and spirit. It should scrupulously conform to the code of conduct formulated by the Press Council of India so as to protect the sanctity and promote the healthy growth of the Press.

Admittedly, if the Press is to function effectively as the watchdog of public interest, it must have a secure freedom of expression, unfettered and unhindered by any authority, organised bodies or individuals. But this freedom would carry weight and legitimacy only if it is exercised with a due sense of responsibility.

The Press Council has been of the firm belief that a comprehensive, rigid code of ethics for a journalist is neither feasible nor prudent. It feels that as society keeps changing with time, formulation of ``cast-iron rules or guidelines'' would be a futile exercise.

It, however, believes that there is need for the code of ethics in the form of a statement of broad moral principles which will aid and guide journalists, and which will help them in the process of self-appraisal and self-regulation.

Accordingly, even though the Press Council is against cast-iron rules, it has formulated guidelines from time to time. Worthy of mention in this context is the one issued by the Press Council in July, 1993. The council advises a ``proper balance between openness and secrecy and placing the public good above everything while doing an investigative story.''

It has asked the reporters not to assume the role of a ``prosecutor''; the approach should be ``fair, accurate and balanced.''

The council suggests that investigative reporters should always avoid conjecture or imaginary facts and in all proceedings, they should be guided by the principle of criminal jurisprudence that ``a person is innocent unless the offence alleged against him is proved beyond doubt by independent reliable source.''

India is a country with a glorious civilisation which is 5,000 years old. We believe in a particular system of laws that not only governs our lifestyle but also regulates our moral conduct and behaviour. And when an attempt is made by someone to transgress this moral conduct, there are genuine apprehensions among the people about the purpose and motive beyond this transgression. The Tehelka website owes an answer to the people and to the country as to what kind of public interest it has sought to achieve by hiring prostitutes. Had Tarun Tejpal not used call-girls, would public interest not have been served?

Exposing corruption in high places, yes. The task has to be taken up ruthlessly. But for fighting corrupt practices in defence deals and the system as a whole, should we throw up and strengthen a parallel system of black money, sex and sleaze — the system in which the underworld will have the last word as well as the last laugh!

No, Mr Tarun Tejpal. This is unprofessional, unethical and immoral. This is not investigative journalism. I would call this sick journalism that will only throw up a sick mind and a sick society, opening the doors to mafia gangs, and even to ISI agents.

MIDSTREAM
The global mindscape of Durban conference
Rakshat Puri

THE World Conference on Racism scheduled to be held at Durban in South Africa has included in its agenda a discussion on caste prejudices and its ill-effects. Dalits in India have for centuries been at the receiving end from “upper castes”. Mahatma Gandhi endeavoured to give them a feeling of self-respect, and called them “Harijans” — children of God. He lived and moved among them. He did not succeed in changing the general attitude of “upper castes” towards them. But he did lay among Dalits the seeds of revolt against the system which condemned them to life of misery, illiteracy and poverty.

The attacks by the “People’s War Groups” in various parts of the country indicates that the seed is sprouting. The violence by Dalits is certainly not to be condoned, nor might there be agreement with the means they have too often adopted to obtain some kind of justice. But the reasons are not far to seek. Dalits are seeking their due as provided in the Constitution, their many rights and reparations for centuries of abuse, contempt, oppression and exploitation in society.

The Hindutva group comprising the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, the Bajrang Dal and others is suddenly concerned over Dalits having embraced Christianity, Islam and most recently Buddhism. So, Hindutva fanatics have taken to attacks on Christian nuns, priests and churches, and to “re-convert” Dalits to “Hinduism”.

Conversion or re-conversion to “Hinduism” is strange because the Hindu religion and way of life cannot, in truth, be packed and encompassed in an “ism”. Its scriptures are extensive in dimension and interpretation, deep in meaning and perspective. The leaders of Hindutva tend to reduce this great religion into a religion of rituals. The oppression and exploitation of Dalits by upper castes is possibly a part of this kind of “Hinduism”. Deep-thinking and widely-read BJP leaders such as Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee and some of his party colleagues are presumably aware of this. So in the circumstances, why should the BJP-led Government appear to be afraid of caste prejudice being included in the World Conference Against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance?

In fact, the Durban Conference may not have any real effect on racial, caste and other groups that trouble mankind globally. Almost every society, every people, in the world today nurses resentment against other social groups and people for past doings, and seeks compensatory imposition and retribution. That is why UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan stated last month, referring to the Durban Conference in course of an address to the US Afro-American National Urban League: “We need to acknowledge the tragedies of the past but not become captive to them.” Speaking at about the same time at the session of the preparatory committee of the Durban Conference, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson warned that it “would send an extremely negative signal if agreement could not be reached on a worthwhile declaration and Programme of Action”. The UN High Commissioner also warned against equating Zionism with racism, and said that reopening the issue would put the success of the conference at risk: “The UN has already dealt with this issue at great length. The resolution was repealed a decade ago.” (Was it the business of the UN High Commissioner to give direction to the preparatory committee’s deliberations?)

But this is only one of the claims and charges that may be brought up at Durban. In addition to Jewish claims (some seeming more than strange, such as attempted acquisition of the word “holocaust” exclusively to describe what happened to the Jews under Hitler and an insistence that it be spelt with a capital “H”), there will be claims and charges by Palestinians and other Arabs, victims of terrorism, tribals from Africa, Asia and Latin America and other countries, Kurds, Iraqis and Iranians, women’s groups including those affected by restrictions imposed by “Islamic” terrorists, Shiah and Sunni organisations, “Muslim” fundamentalist organisations and so on. Many groups that consider themselves to have been victims in a tragic past may oppose one another.

Apparently, the most pointed claims and charges relating to racism will involve whites on one side and blacks, browns and coloured on the other. It is said that members of the racist or oppressor group tend to behave as if being born as and where they have been is their own achievement! This kind of racism — white against black and brown and coloured — might be described as traditional racism. Its range extends from individual to group to nation. It may sneak into petty things at the individual level when it is not naked contempt and group violence as reported frequently in Britain, Germany, France and other European countries. Individually, it may operate in ways casually concealed — such as, for example, trivially in an educational authority’s finding ways and excuses to withhold due merit-and placement in school or university results from a non-white immigrant and in various other similarly small ways. Or racism may operate at a broader international and exploitative level.

At the international level, racism seems to signify continuation of exploitation once thought to have disappeared after the end of the colonial era. According to a recent report, in the last 40 years, the “world’s wealth has increased eight times. But half of the world’s population lives on less than $ 2 a day, a quarter on less than $ 1 a day (this average includes evidently some fairly well-to-do Third World countries including Thailand, Malaysia, Brazil etc; one third has no access to electricity; a fifth has no access to clean drinking water; one sixth is illiterate; one in seven adults and one in five children suffer from malnutrition”). The UNDP and the UNICEF are said to reckon that “$ 80 billion a year for the next ten years would ensure basic education, adequate health care, enough food, clean water and sanitation for every human being on this planet”.

This, according to a report, is “less than a fourth of the average external debt repayment of $ 200 billion to $ 250 billion a year by the Third World to the advanced countries”. If the Third World debt were to be cancelled without indemnification, it would mean “a loss of a mere five per cent at most in the portfolio of creditors. But neo-liberal economists say, developing countries must repay their external debt to keep foreign capital inflows coming”. This aspect has its own story to tell. In 1999, recalls the report, the 48 least developed countries got 0.5 per cent of the FDIs destined for the developing countries. The rich countries get over 80 per cent of all such flows.

In other words, “the centre (from where the FDI flows start) overwhelmingly invests in the centre even as it insists on debt repayment from the periphery (Third World countries) in the name of encouraging foreign investment possibilities there”.

This, then, appears to be the global mindscape of the Durban Conference. It is difficult to see how “a worthwhile declaration and programme of action” acceptable to all the participants can be hammered out, unless the declaration and the programme are so general as to be ineffective. (Asia Features)

PROFILE

A saga of tragedies and triumphs
Harihar Swarup

PERCY Bysshe Shelley’s immortal lines “Our sweetest songs are those that tell of saddest thought” come to mind like a flash as one writes about Indira Goswami, popular Assamese writer, honoured with Jnanpith Award, the country’s highest literary decoration. Her life has been a saga of personal tragedies and triumph. From pathos rose creativity that pitch forked her to the first rank of Indian writers; her works have been translated both in Hindi and English and make most absorbing reading. Had she written in English, she might have got a Magsaysay or a Pulitzer long back.

Indira Goswami was a cursed child when she was born. A renowned astrologer had carefully studied her stars and predicted that misfortunes “would come upon her thick and fast to bedevil her life”. So much so that he advised Indira’s mother: “This girl’s stars are so bad that you will do well to cut her in two pieces and throw her into the Brahmaputra”. Misfortunes did come one after another as per forecast but the astrologer could not foresee another facet of her life. Says the noted Punjabi writer Amrita Pritam:

“The astrologer had not visualised the metamorphosis the girl would undergo after her baptism of fire engendered by her misfortunes”. The astrologer did not live to see Indira being decorated with Jnanpith but he had seen her gruelling struggle in life and subsequent achievements. Virtually baffled at the strides made by her he remarked: “Only you are capable of reaching such heights of imagination. Your stars are a pointer to something special”.

It was a mere coincidence when I was interviewing Indira Goswami, at her modest house in Delhi University campus that her telephone gave a long ring. The caller was Amritaji herself. “Indira, how about that astrologer ? Did he hear about your achievement (Jnanpith Award)”, she asked. “He is no more”, Indira told Amritaji. “Do you believe in astrology”, I asked Indira instinctively. She replied: “Yes, I believe in astrology but to a certain extent only. The astrologer, who had predicted my misfortune and suggested to my mother that I should be cut into two and thrown in the Brahmaputra, could not foresee other side of my life”.

The Assamese writer is now Professor of Modern Indian Languages at the Delhi University.

Indira Goswami, a widow (her husband died within two years of marriage), now proposes to complete “An Unfinished Autobiography”. She has already thought about it and frankly spoke to me some of the ideas — events in the last decade and half — which she may incorporate in the revised story of her life. She had met both “good guys” and “bad guys” in this period and she may write about her experience with them. Asked which were the good guys, she named few; Kamla Ratnam, Amrita Pritam, Prof Sisir Das, Padma Sachdev, Rajiv Seth and so on. She would not like to name the “bad guys” now but could not forget a Professor, a scholar of “Ramayana”, who got attracted to her when she was still young. “He proposed to me when his wife was on death bed”. Indira says: “I developed an instant repulsion for him; how can a man do such a thing”. She also proposes to write about her experience in academic life; how some scholars do not allow bright youngsters to come up.

Right from the days when the astrologer wanted her to be cut into two pieces, tragedy after tragedy struck her. When Indira was 16, her father who she loved most, died. So desperate was she that she attempted to take her own life. She wanted to become a writer from her childhood and as agony and despair continued to haunt her, she picked up her pen and the latent creativity burst into open; she churned out stories after stories.

Fate took another twist when an young engineer from South India came to stay in her neighbourhood . Both developed liking for each other, fell in love and married in 1965. Indira left Assam, for the first time, having accompanied Madhavan Roysom Iyenger to Kutch and then to Kashmir where he worked as a civil engineer. His company — Hindustan Builders — undertook heavy civil works like construction of bridges, roads in difficult mountain terrain and dams. She lovingly called him “Madhu”.

Indira recalled in the interview her first brush with harsh reality outside Assam. As she was driving along her husband at the work site — the Chenab bridge project in Kashmir, she saw half a dozen pyres burning and the yellow — red flames leaping towards sky. “Who are these people”, she asked Madhu but he evaded the question. Later, Indira discovered they were labourers employed in construction works and were killed in accidents. Casualty on such projects was quite high and the compensation paid was a meagre amount. She was moved by their plight, worked amidst them and it was here she conceived her novel — “The Surge of Chenab” — little knowing that the same tragedy was to befall on her.

As she was returning from nearby temple one evening, she noticed a crowd had gathered in the verandah of her house. She was informed by a Sikh foreman that a jeep had overturned near the tunnel. “Sahib is alive, but the driver is dead”. She rushed to the hospital and in her own words: “the doctor advanced towards me and asked me to follow. He stopped abruptly in front of the emergency ward. I was utterly perplexed. He had not the heart, I felt, to ask me to go in. I rushed impulsively in, and what did I see before my eyes ! Madhu was lying unconscious, in blood-splattered clothes.

There were big blotches of blood all over his head and chest. Moving closer to him, I faltered. Softly I took his hand in mine; it was cold ! Ice cold it was. Madhu is dead ! I shrieked. Madhu is dead! I shrieked again”. The compensation given to her was only Rs.10,000, she recalls and says, “ you can imagine the plight of poor labourers, who lose rapidly their lives at construction site”.

It was widowhood that motivated her to go to Vrindavan, near Mathura, to study the lives of widows and write two novels based on her experience.

DELHI DURBAR

Tehelka aftershocks turn spotlight on George

NOW that the heat is on Tehelka.com, the Samata Party is the happiest of the affected lot. Samata was the most affected political party as the heads of its two leaders, George Fernandes and Jaya Jaitley, rolled because of the Tehelkaquake. Now Samata is said to be pursuing a two-pronged strategy : to ensure that action is taken against the portal and its chief Tarun Tejpal for using sex workers in “Operation Westend”; and to exert pressure on the Centre for reinstatement of Fernandes in the Union Cabinet.

Similar pressure was brought on the Vajpayee government by Fernandes loyalists when J Jayalalitha was sworn in as Tamil Nadu Chief Minister despite her conviction in two cases. Their argument was that when Amma can be made CM, Fernandes was on a much different footing. After all, he had resigned as Defence Minister owning moral responsibility for the Tehelkagate. This time, the Samata’s argument is that Tehelka’s whole investigation had a creaky foundation as it was based on sex and sleaze. Means are as important as the end, they contend. The Vajpayee Government has however, said that Fernandes’ return to the Cabinet would have to await the completion of the Venkatswamy Commission probe.

Action plan

Commissioner of Delhi Police is not such a top rank that the incumbent can have long meetings with top leaders of the government. And, when it does happen, people take notice of it. Among the IPS officials, this privilege is reserved for chiefs of Intelligence Bureau, Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) and Central Bureau of Investigation. Naturally, eyebrows were raised when Delhi Police Commissioner Ajay Raj Sharma met Union Home Minister L.K. Advani in his North Block office on Thursday evening and remained closetted with him for nearly an hour. It is understood that Sharma was summoned by Advani to discuss what action can be taken against Tehelka.com and its chief executive officer Tarun Tejpal for wilfully violating the Prevention of Immoral Traffic Act (PITA). The meeting also led the Home Ministry watchers to believe that the Delhi Police would be launching vigorous investigations in the case soon. However, it remains to be seen whether the police would suo motu register a First Information Report (FIR) or whether this job would be done by others. MPs of Samata Party, the argument goes, fit into this category of “others”.

Lakshadweep calling

Union Territories are administered by the Central government, which in this case, means the Ministry of Home Affairs. And it is the responsibility of the Union Home Minister to see to it that UTs are run properly. For this purpose, the Home Minister keeps visiting the UTs. This weekend, Union Home Minister L.K. Advani is in Lakshadweep. Incidentally, the Home Minister was to make his first official visit to Lakshadweep way back in May 1998. But the visit had to be cancelled as a day after the scheduled day of Advani’s visit, Pokhran-II was to happen. But this Home Minister is a stickler for discharging his ministerial responsibilities. For more than three years now, Advani has been pursuing a policy of touring across the country during the weekends as this is one schedule he can keep up even during Parliament session. And during these weekend tours, Advani loves to do three things during the flight. He carries a trunkful of official files which he keeps clearing while in the air. He spends at least half an hour with some select news reporters whom he invariably takes along with him. Lastly, he always keeps one or two books which he reads while travelling. Of course, Advani’s Man Friday and Personal Secretary, Deepak Chopra, assists him in clearing files.

Happy days again

After being on the receiving end for months, fortune seems to be finally smiling on the BJP. First, it was the issue of Tehelka using sex workers in its sting operation on Defence deals that helped the BJP-Samata combine to corner the website company and deviate attention to the debate over “means and ends” of an investigative operation. And then there came the assertion in Parliament that one of the documents, cited by senior Congress leader Priyaranjan Das Munshi in the debate over disinvestment in Air India, was forged. The government, hard-pressed for issues to turn the tables on the Congress, grabbed both the opportunities that came its way last week. It said that the Home Ministry would examine if a case can be made out against Tehelka for using questionable means in its investigation. In the case of the controversial document cited by Mr Munshi, it has ordered a CBI probe. Both these developments are bound to sidetrack the original issue of corruption. The battle for occupying people’s mind between the BJP and Congress has began in earnest.

Stop Press

The Bharatiya Janata Party, which never gets tires of talking about its concern for a free media and the right to information, has a different view when it comes to implementing its ideals. The Agra summit was a case in point where it neglected the media and paid a heavy price in the information war with Pakistan. Though the Prime Minister and the External Affairs Minister had given an assurance that they would take appropriate lessons from the Agra summit failure, they are far away from it.

Scribes covering the Ministry of External Affairs, headquartered at South Block, discovered the other day that their accreditation card issued by the Press Information Bureau and endorsed by the Home Ministry was no more valid in the MEA office. Senior journalists were instead provided special cards issued by the MEA. The new measure in the name of security would in fact help the officials to keep away unwanted journalists from visiting the South Block office. Unlike the PIB card holder, who could walk in and out of any Government office at will and talk to any officer, the special pass would enable the officials at MEA to keep a tab on the exact mission of the scribes. They would be able to know who is coming when and talking to whom. This would help prevent selective leakages from the Ministry. So much for right to information.

Jaswant’s men

Defence Minister Jaswant Singh’s decision to back the appointment of Arun Singh as Special Adviser in the Ministry and senior journalist B.G. Verghese as Adviser, Information, has triggered off a debate in the Ministry. There is a split in the MoD over the issue with some officials saying that the Minister did the right thing by defending in Parliament the appointments he had made while some others criticised this action. Some of the officials are even attributing motives behind the very ‘rehabilitation’ of Arun Singh, who was a Minister in the Rajiv Gandhi cabinet.

It is being pointed out that relations between Jaswant Singh and Arun Singh go back a long way, in fact to the ‘Bofors days’. When the Bofors deal was signed, Arun Singh was the Minister of State for Defence, but no allegations were levelled against him. This is where, the officials say is the link.

Contributed by Satish Misra, T.V. Lakshminarayan, Rajeev Sharma, Prashant Soodand Girija Shankar Kaura).

DIVERSITIES — DELHI LETTER

Joshi’s half-truths, misleading statements
Humra Quraishi

IF I were to write once again about saffronisation of the syllabi you’d accuse me of stifling you with the heady smell of saffron so let’s move on, but not before this: on August 24, five eminent educationists / academicians got together and addressed a joint press conference in which they blasted HRD minister Murli Manohar Joshi for “ the half truths, disinformation and misleading statements which he had been making even in the Parliament”.

In fact, Prof Romilla Thapar, Prof.Arjun Dev, Prof Anil Sadgopal, Prof Prabhat Patnaik and Prof Zoya Hassan couldn’t have been more vocal, when they took on, point by point and criticised the HRD minister for having “misled Parliament with the statements he made in the reply he gave to the Lok Sabha on August 20, 2001”. These aforementioned academicians had come armed with files, facts, figures and even the dates and details of meeting-proceedings, and on the basis of these refuted him on eight different points.

And each one of them is so glaring that the minister should be immediately asked for an explanation. In fact, the most shocking is this , “The HRD minister reeled out a list of universities where astrology is already being taught at home and abroad. The case of foreign universities is really revealing. The HRD minister has gone to the website FindAstrologer.com, clicked on it, deleted the correspondence courses from it, and taken the entire nation for a ride.....as far as the universities of Plymouth, London and Manchester in the UK are concerned, we have visited their websites and found no match for astrology...also why such a fervent proponent of ‘ indigenism’ wants to imitate foreign universities is beyond comprehension.....”

It’s time the HRD minister gives an explanation to the eight points that these academicians have raised. Space constraints come in way otherwise it would be interesting to share with you details of how the minister stands cornered, for these academicians have simply bared out the his “ half truths “.

Other distractions

Out of the saffron grove, to the other distractions. Days before the furore around the news item that Tehelka used call girls to get to the bottom of their investigative stories, there have been talks on the circuit here about the private lives of the not-so-private amongst us - the politicians and bureaucrats. Infact it began with Assam’s former chief minister Prafulla Mohanta’s alleged second marriage and the fallout thereafter. And it is being said that if a survey was to be conducted, the second woman syndrome certainly wouldn’t be an exception, and together with that another debate should start off - do we have a right to get into the private lives of the men who run the country?

Yes. Why not! Since they survive on the taxpayers’s money so we have every right to know how they live, with whom, and what are the distractions around them that unable them to function properly in public interest. In the US and UK, with all their socalled liberal outlook, men in public life have been forced to resign the minute skeletons pop out of cupboards but here, ofcourse, layers after layers conceal relationships and even sexual flings. With some even trying to bypass the tehelka findings on grounds of the rather absurd plea “why were call girls used!”

Why such emphasis on just call- girls for if reports are to be believed, several of the Delhi men in the who’s who category use young boys. A fact revealed to me by photographer Anita Khemka who somehow managed to shot some of these men in action for a particular book on prostitution.

Khemka says that there is a disturbing trend of a large number of young boys being used as male prostitutes by some of the well knowns around, and though there is no data available on the numbers or the modus operandi, but according to her every locality has several such boys and they are often picked up by and taken to hotels and even homes. But, of course, we refuse to talk on the subject because we are Indians! I think the subject requires an exposure!

READERS’ RESPONSE

Tuition menace

MRS Anuradha Gupta, Haryana’s Commissioner for Higher Education has become a bete noire for a minuscule section of teaching community turned shopkeepers spawning and spinning money ruthlessly at the expense of the students.

In fact, this minority section is, to a large extent, responsible for downgrading the image of the college teacher. It is only these beneficiaries who have reacted very sharply to the recent ban on tuitions by the government. Such teachers appear to have joined hands in defending their one-point programme of making black money in a way not entirely uncharacteristic of extortionists.

Let me remind the pro-tuition lobby that engaging in tuitions or in any business activity has always been against the statutory code of conduct. The Honourable Commissioner has done nothing more than implementing a provision which had been lying dormant for want of implementation, thanks to official apathy and indifference. The pro-tuitions lobby, therefore, cannot be allowed to plead that the recent ban is the brainchild of a mindset fuelled by idealism.

Narender Prabhakar, Sonepat

II

Haryana’s Higher Education Commissioner Anuradha Gupta’s response to the article on tuition issue by Dr Bhim Singh Dahiya left me with a bitter taste. She started her letter maintaining that he is running a coaching centre at Yamunanagar. It was ludicrous to note that to emphasise her point she used quotes of Shakeapeare, Yeats, Pirisig which were out of place, irrelevant and unnecessary. There is a saying that hate the sin not the sinner. Mrs Gupta uses it in two ways : I hate the tuition and tuitioner both and every college teacher is a tuitioner. She has no regard for teachers.

L. M. Sharma, Karnal

III

It is certainly unfair to make the ‘tuitioners’ wear “The Scarlet Letter” around their necks. Most of the doctors, engineers, civil servants, MBAs owe much to private coaching. The issue needs to be scrutinised in its right perspective. The teacher-student ratio, the syllabi and the admission system to various courses need to be re-structured as to avoid extra coaching.

I. P. Anand, Yamunanagar