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Sunday,
September 2, 2001, Chandigarh, India   |
The privileged culture of colonial
schooling MIDSTREAM |
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Of level playing fields in USA, Africa and
India Kashmir, the core issue for us
too KASHMIR DIARY
Tehelka’s methods don’t justify the end
Harihar Swarup
Digvijay’s diplomatic deeds
Humra Quraishi
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The privileged culture of colonial
schooling THOUGH some of my most vibrant and lively recollections are drawn from my time at school when the ‘best’ of India’s colonial and postcolonial crop was educated for a role first as the subordinated elite and then as the ruling caucus, I have always been amused to note the verbal exchange that goes on at most social gatherings. The sub-text of comments and manners reveals at once the ingrained snootiness that such education spawned first in the children and than in those parents who vicariously lived their imaginings through their offspring because they had not been ‘providential’ enough to be the harvest of a public school. Their public standing now depended on the form and type of education they could provide their children. We all habitually have the urge to reminisce about our days in school. There is nothing incorrect about it. But to brag about the school you went to when you have no other credentials to write home about is ridiculous as well as amusing. The school we go to must never be a hollow boast. A short time ago, a pompous father of a run-of-the-mill son observed that his son had done well in his B.A. examination because he had studied in Doon School. This counters an occasion when a class fellow of mine who had studied in rural institutions all his life stood first in M.A. Another arrogant father never lets pass the opportunity to throw in a reference ever so often about his children having gone to Sanawar, when he himself studied in a village school at Baharampur. One incident is hilarious when I remember a Cottonian (student of Bishop Cotton School, Simla) snobbishly talking of his alma mater to another friend, scarcely realising that the friend had studied first at Eton and then at Trinity College, Cambridge. During my college days, most of my public-school-educated contemporaries would park themselves outside in the college quad while I attended classes. They would wait for me to emerge so that they could then sit around for some more time engaged in futile talk about either the Founder’s Day or some boxing bout that had made history during their school days. They did not do it out of any swank behaviour and it was fun. But they did finally fall upon bad days after they had depleted the inherited washed-out farms of their ancestors. At the end of the day, they had no higher education; what they do have is a life of empty talk about the glorious past consisting of golf, scotch and public stature indulged over a glass of rum. For a cold drink, there is usually a glass of Ruh Afsah. Living in dilapidated havelies, the walls weighing with framed certificates gifted by the British Viceroys and group photographs of the Atchison hockey or cricket teams – that is all they now remember and live for. On the other hand, E. M. Forster was vehemently against the constricting atmosphere of the school that he went to and always mourned the terrible days at such institutions which stifle the growth of young minds. He experienced deep unhappiness and detested the conventional values of the public school system, which pressed students to conform and thus stifled their imaginative and emotional life. He came to believe that such an education produced ‘well-developed bodies, fairly developed minds and undeveloped hearts’. Body and spirit, work and play, laughter and seriousness, life and art here do not work in unison. Take another case of George Orwell who reacted so strongly against the years he spent in Eton that he refused to ever wear a suit after leaving school. An open collar, tweed coat, broad-toed shoes and baggy trousers became his sartorial getup, influenced as he was by the Bolshevik Revolution of 1817. I mention this because all these institutions and their products were a part of an imperial or colonial inheritance. I also ‘went up’ to one of them but I became cognisant of the partiality that was inbuilt in them towards the dominant power. As Edward Said, the distinguished literary critic writes, ‘Since one of the purposes of colonial education was to promote the history of France and Britain, the same education also demoted the native history’. Some of my friends who studied in Doon School or at Simla, and who are now either among the foremost academics in western universities or imbued with a left political ideology that has taken them into perilous terrains like Kosova to offer some pedagogic or psychiatric assistance, have always felt that our generation and the later ones mostly inculcated the privileged culture of colonial schooling blindly. I realise I had similar education, but like Edward Said, I sometimes painfully recall the English schoolmasters who between whippings and beatings, attempted to inspire imperial values. The British Empire was fast collapsing and we all knew of it; if not ‘all’, at least a few of us who could see through the design of such an education. The severity of Eton or Harrow was blended with the ‘complications of an imploding empire thrown into the mix’. We had to speak in English, and if we did not so as to deride the English teachers, the headmaster took us to the back of his office where the rebellious were given a sound thrashing. Our teachers were imported from overseas and some of us mocked them behind their backs. Early on in life, I become conscious of how peculiar such schools were, an incongruity in the Indian cultural and social milieu. I know I was very happy at school but on the other hand it was paradoxically a dreadful place. My present work, values and attitudes are most unquestionably shaped by these unforgettable days and so is the case with a few others I know. I began to recognise what it was to be an English gentleman with all its accouterments within a world fundamentally constructed by Eurocentrism. But more than this, I realised what it is to be the ‘other’. The school education that I received lies noticeably and effectively behind what I later wrote or pursued in my profession. The alternative historical narrative of my own place became more important to me. The public could not be separated from the private. The inscribing of the imperial discourse upon the colonised and almost mapping the internal and external space of the taught through the educational institution slowly became clear to me. As Spivak would say, ‘the (public school) is obliging the native to experience his home ground as imperial space.’ |
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MIDSTREAM ZHU RONGJI, China’s Prime Minister is due in Delhi on an official visit shortly. Sino-Indian ties are in full swing now. One of the Shankaracharyas is due to visit China shortly to strengthen cultural relations. In the politico-economic sphere, there seems almost an unprecedented measure of ‘China wind-bagging’ especially in Indian industry circles. Much is being held forth about the Chinese development model, export and investment opportunities in China, low cost of inputs such as electric power and high industrial efficiency in factories and elsewhere. Recently, Indian industry organised a trip to China in which MPs, trade unionists, bureaucrats and others joined. Assocham, Confederation of Indian Industry and the Punjab-Haryana-Delhi Chamber of Commerce and Industry were the main hosts. The guests included Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman Najma Heptullah. They visited special Chinese economic zones in Shanghai and various cities including Beijing. Ostensibly, the CII-PHDCCI purpose was to help MPs and others to study the development in China and India. The CII has suggested the Centre to establish joint working groups in many areas. Would these function more efficaciously than the India-China Joint Working Group on Boundary Issues and the bilateral experts group which examines the boundary dispute issues in detail? That the MPs were impressed by the visit was evident when Parliament discussed recently about the economic slowdown and its effects and remedies. The points that the MPs touched upon related to the “difference” between the Indian and Chinese approaches, and to the “need for cooperation” between the two. However, in the midst of the apparent return of the sentiment of “Hindi-Chini-Bhai-Bhai”, there have been some discerning and cautionary voices too. For instance, reports say, China’s export figures might usefully be considered by those who rush to hold up China as a prime economic development model. Not that China has not done better than India in development. But there is a need for a balanced perspective. What might one say of the lengths to which India is going in order to please Beijing in the revived sentimental phase of “Hindi-Chini-Bhai-Bhai”? Sameer Kochhar of Skoch Consultancy Service says that China is “no threat” to Indian software exports. He says Indian companies are already in China teaching the Chinese and helping them fight India in software exports. Last January, senior Chinese leader Li Peng came on an official goodwill visit. The results of the visit were not clearly indicated. It is to be hoped that the euphoria created by the renewed “Hindi-Chini-Bhai-Bhai” mood will not prevent the country’s leaders from talking hard with the Chinese Prime Minister about some relevant matters such as China’s substantial missile-related technical assistance to Pakistan as also its more than substantial assistance to Pakistan’s safeguarded and unsafeguarded nuclear programmes. Both China and Pakistan have denied such assistance. But the American CIA has re-stated its charge, categorically and emphatically. It is no secret that China has aimed consistently at keeping a China-friendly Pakistan army hostile to India to tie it down. This prevents India from realising its potential which could provide a balance to the Chinese position in Asia and the world. Then, there are things such as Chinese aid and encouragement to insurgents and non-Indian terrorists on Indian soil; there is the dumping of cheap consumer goods in India, which organisations such as the CII and PHDCCI leave the impression of not having noticed; there is the alleged Chinese support to narcotics smuggling into and through India on which clear and unambiguous information and remedies are needed; an indication to the Chinese leadership in clear terms that any kind of agreement on the Line of Actual Control, and eventually on the India-Tibet border, could not be a formal treaty. It could become a formal treaty only after final agreement between the Chinese regime and the Tibetan government-in-exile on the status of Tibet. We have l not come out of the hurt that “Hindi-Chini-Bhai-Bhai” brought us in the 1950s. And, led ostensibly by organisations such as CII and PHDCCI, we are rushing into that sentimental mood again. What could be the reason or inspiration for this? Merely good business and good profit, making India play second fiddle to China in the bargain? |
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Of level playing fields in USA, Africa and
India A friend offered a formulation: America plus Africa is equal to India. I did not follow it and wanted an elaboration. Was it about the population of India which has crossed the one billion mark? Was it about the degree of progress between two countries? Or was it about the calculated exploitation and the ignorant victimisation? I went on with my list of questions. It is all this and much more, he observed and left me thinking about his formulation. He had two newspaper clippings in his hands. One said that nationalised banks had written off about Rs 8,000 crore which were due from about 200 corporate sector units. The other newspaper clipping referred to seven teachers of Orissa who had been thrown out of employment and had attempted self-immolation after months of peaceful agitation. Those in manufacturing goods in India are feeling the heat following WTO and facing international competition. Not many among them are prepared to give a fight, improve their standards, reduce their prices, pay the workers their due and keep the country’s economy afloat. Many among them would opt for the easy way out. They are giving up the world of industry and taking to the world of trade. They have started and will be trading in the goods made by foreign companies. Those who want to remain in the field have been crying hoarse for level playing field. They have a point, their counterparts in foreign countries have a better deal, more reasonable taxation, efficient administrative structure, reasonable and better educated political rulers, favourable labour laws like the freedom to hire and fire, and so on. They should have such conditions here too. What I am saying sounds so simple. More knowledgeable persons, experts and scholars, consultants of the corporate world can come up with grand theories and complex, difficult-to-understand explanations why things are as they are, why they cannot be changed for the
better. With their knowledge and skill, they will be able to win an argument but questions of life and death are not answered by these arguments. Why life, and sometimes even death, should be so expensive to sustain is difficult to understand by laymen. If there is a weight in the argument, it should be supported by evidence which will come only with transparency. Where is transparency? Had it been there, financial scams would not come as a surprise not only to common people but even to ministers who are supposed to be overseeing conditions. One thing that the people find it difficult to digest is that all the money and resources they are playing games with belong to the people. Governments, public sector undertakings and even private sector units are run with the people’s money. The money with the financial institutions including banks is also the people’s money. How can they squander it, waste it, even destroy it without the people even knowing it? How much of this money is spent on projects and programmes that concern the people? And when we say “spent” we mean the actual expenditure and not the amounts grabbed by so-called experts and pocketed by the functionaries who are supposed to be implementing those programmes. It will serve no purpose quoting some former prime ministers and ministers as to how much of the development funds actually reach the people and how much of them are eaten up on the way. The people are worried about the money which they give to financial institutions, public sector or private sector, for safe keeping. What they are concerned most is why the scams which leave them poorer are repeated in the same fashion time and again. Moreover, those persons who benefit from money in the financial institutions by way of loans and investment are supposed to generate wealth with this wealth. Maybe, they do so. But do they generate more wealth for only themselves or for the nation? And whether such money is available to all on merit or to the select few. When they talk about the level playing fields, is it for all irrespective of whether they belong to what may be equated with the US or Africa symbolically? |
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Kashmir, the core issue for us
too AT the time of the Bangladesh struggle for independence, when the Pakistani army was on a virtual orgy of genocide, burning villages, raping women and shooting young men and even children at random, the Pakistanis described them all as traitors. Self-determination for the East Bengalis was ‘treason’, so General Yahya proclaimed. Yet it was the most natural and legitimate case of democratic assertion of nationhood that has been witnessed in recent history on the sub-continent. It demolished Jinnah’s two-nation theory, of course, and after thirty odd years, the rulers of Pakistan haven’t forgiven India for helping the East Bengalis. They are still seeking revenge against India. General Musharraf made that much clear when he came to India. For him, the murderous hordes that shoot down innocent Kashmiris in their homes in the middle of the night are merely asserting their craving for democracy and self-determination. Never mind if half of them have come from Afghanistan and the other half from Pakistan itself. After all, Jehad knows no frontiers. Musharraf himself cannot plead ignorance about the cross-border terrorism of which too much has already appeared in print in India and abroad. Frontline recently reported (in a despatch from Karachi) the elaborate process of producing Jehadis in what it calls Jehad factories. There are thousands of madrassas all over Pakistan, which are meant to prepare young boys (girls are not recruited) to become Islamic militants. Nearly three million youths study at these institutions, we are told. The large-scale breeding of militants in Pakistan is a comparatively recent phenomenon. It began in the 1980’s with General Zia-ul-Haq’s martial law and the entry of Soviet forces into Afghanistan and the Iranian revolution. Since then, Pakistani Jehadis have been going to Kashmir, Afghanistan, Sudan and Algeria to join militant groups. Some of them, we are told, have gone to Sinkiang province in China where the Muslims have become increasingly hostile to the Chinese authorities. Most of the militants training for Jehad come from impoverished families, but funds are made freely available, from domestic donations as well as from rich Arab countries like Saudi Arabia. The philosophy that is taught in the madrassa is simple: Islam is in danger throughout the world, that USA, Russia, India and Israel are Satan’s agents. The Jehadi outfits in Pakistan keep close links with militant groups abroad, as in the United Kingdom, USA and other western countries. This has prompted the British government to ban twenty such organisations. General Musharraf should realise, (or he will soon be made to realise) that the danger to Islam today is from its own fanatics and not from any outside force. It is Pakistan’s own self-determination and democracy (whatever form it may take in his scheme of things) that is at stake if the Jehadis are given a free rein. Their poison is bound to paralyse its limbs. The difficulty in dealing with Musharraf is that like other Islamic rulers everywhere, he is insensitive to the philosophy of secularism. For India, secularism is the foundation of its democracy and its strength and stability. In that sense, Kashmir is for India the ‘core issue’. Indian democracy would not survive for long if secularism is compromised. Another division of the country on the basis of religion and ‘transfer’ of population is unthinkable. It will destroy whatever peace and stability has been achieved on the sub-continent in the last fifty-five years. And supposing the Pakistani rulers’ wish is granted and Kashmir is handed over, how long can we assure that the State will stay with Pakistan. It will be an invitation to another Bangladesh. |
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KASHMIR DIARY HAMID
was walking in the lane next to his house in Srinagar’s upmarket Rajbagh after dinner one night when a friend came running towards him, evidently distraught. He asked if he could hide himself in Hamid. Perplexed, Hamid asked where he wanted to hide. Just allow me, said his friend, and I will hide. He seemed to be in an utter panic. Hamid agreed and his friend immediately disappeared. Hamid, an 18-year old just out of one of Srinagar’s better schools, tells this bizarre story himself. There’s more. He says he started doing things he had never done before, stealing car stereos after opening cars with an ease that amazed him. He also began to get violent and, one evening, his family and friends had to tear him off a woman, whom he had thrown to the ground on the road. Hamid was throttling her with great force when he was pulled off her with some difficulty. After that, his family took him to a pir (saint) who specialises in exorcism. Hamid says the pir prayed over him before calling in a young woman who is reputed to have the power to exorcise. After asking her if she was ready, the pir recited some Quranic prayers and she then went into a trance and began to wave a charm and blow over him. She then blew hard into Hamid’s mouth and pressed his stomach hard until the djinn that they were all convinced had possessed him was forced out. The story may sound fantastic but is accepted as a matter of fact by most Kashmiris. It is not superstition but Quranic text. Djinns exist, according to Islamic faith, and sometimes possess persons. Muslims believe that one passes thousands of invisible djinns all the time and that one’s clothes fray because of friction with them. There is a corresponding belief in
Paris (fairies), which possess good looking young men and pious women. They carry away those whom they delight in at night to sing and dance with them before returning them to their homes. Kashmiris, who have traditionally been inspired by sufi faith, charms and miracles, many of which are not strictly Quranic, are certainly strong believers in djinns. Even a senior banker who has an M.A. and an M.Sc. degree, says a djinn once hitched a ride on the pillion of his Enfield motor cycle when he was returning home many years ago from a shikar. It was only when the rider on his pillion asked to get down next to a Hindu cremation ground and then appeared in front of the motor cycle, its eyes burning red like cinders, that he took flight, riding for miles in first gear until he reached a patrolman, his rear tyre burning from the friction. Most Kashmiris are very careful about where they relieve themselves in the open and about lurking too close to bushes and trees because djinns are believed to lurk around these and to take grave offence at being disturbed. There are several pirs who specialise in exorcising djinns. They are generally holy men but, with the increasing incidence of djinn sightings over the past few years, some have taken to exorcism to make money. The families of those possessed are willing to pay large amounts to get rid of the unpredictable spirit. Others ask for nothing for their services.
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Tehelka’s methods don’t justify the end “ONE
Theme Two Views” (Sunday Tribune, August 26) on the Tehelka expose by Mr L.H. Naqvi and Mr V.Eshwar Anand is worth reading. After going through both viewpoints, one thing is crystal clear that the methods adopted by the Tehelka team are not appreciable but at the same time the goal they have achieved is of no less importance. Gone are the days when moral values were given primacy in one’s day-to-day life. Had there been no vacuum in the social bonds and relationships, such a situation of exposing top Army officials would not have arisen. In no case should the unethical, unprofessional and immoral methods adopted by the Tehelka portal justify the ends. The Press should work as the sentinel of public interest and should be free to do anything but it should be within the limits of the code of conduct. Harish K. Monga,
Ferozepore II Both Mr Tarun Tejpal and Mr L.H. Naqvi need to be commended, the former for daring to make optimum use of the new medium of journalism for maximum effect, and the latter for having come out in defence of a person who is under siege by powerful politicians and vested interests but also from his peers in the profession. The Tehelka gathered a lot of information about how defence deals are made in this country. The editor, performing his duty, found that a great deal of the information was neither germane to the story nor added anything to it, therefore he discarded it, just as the print journalist discards some of the notes he had taken or recorded. One thought that was the end of the matter, and the story that first emerged said it all. For, the reader, in this case the surfer, the story was complete and it did not really matter if voluminous unused footage was lying in the waste paper basket. Now it transpires that those portions which the editor of Tehelka, while performing his duty, had discarded fell in the hands of a national daily. The story now is no longer about corruption in high places or how the defence deals are pushed. It is all about the methodology of the Tehelka people. Suddenly, the focus has shifted from Mr Bangaru Laxman’s acceptance of bribe, to the methods adopted by Tehelka. We can no longer fool people by maintaining that conventional methods are good enough to expose corruption. Consider Bofors. Since 1987, not a single person has been convicted, though victory claimed and prizes appropriated by all those who appeared to be the knights-in-shining-armour. If this is all that ethical journalism can do, then let us be done with it. Journalists need to introspect deeply and rally behind the Tarun Tejpals, and also give a little pat to Mr Naqvi for coming in defence of Tehelka. Harbans Singh,
Chandigarh III I do agree with Mr L.H. Naqvi’s views “Call me ‘mad’ but Tejpal is right” because the very objective of Mr Tejpal was to expose corruption in defence deals. It is another matter how the Tehelka portal team has managed to record the proceedings of the deal. However, Mr V. Eshwar Anand has taken the support of Mahatma Gandhi’s views on “means and ends’’ to divert from the main issue of corruption to another issue under the theme “Sleaze upon sleaze won’t cleanse the system”. If we analyse Gandhiji’s views on means and ends, Gandhiji is correct. However, the use of this theory does not look pertinent in the case of corruption. Basically he says that if all are naked in a pond, what is wrong about it. I would like to add that if some wrong has been committed in the interest of the mankind, it will be appreciated by the people. In Ramayana and Mahabharata, it has been seen and accepted by the whole world. Vikas Kumar Goel,
Parwanoo |
Milkha Singh: A legend in sports MILKHA SINGH has become a legend in Indian sports in his life time, loved and admired by thousands of fans across the land. More out of love for the “Flying Sikh”, now 66, than malaise, his fans have invented many popular jokes, centring around his personality; some have been quite popular but few are little known. Therefore, when a sportsman of his stature raises an issue, the “Babus” in the Ministry of Sports and self-serving, politicking and intriguing office-bearers of the Indian Olympic Association should take him seriously and try to rectify the damage done to the system of honouring the country’s top sportsmen. He has rightly declined to accept the “Arjuna Award” with the contempt it deserves and described the procedure of choosing the recipients of the honour as “tamasha”. Indeed, political lobbying and corruption have reduced the award to a sham and, still worse, clubbing an extra-ordinary athlete of Milkha’s stature with what he calls “Sifarish (those who get recommendation) and dopers” is an affront to the genius of sportsmen as a whole. The younger generation has started forgetting the “Flying Sikh” and this column is written with a view to acquainting them of his legend. Moral of his life story is so revealing. Why India could not produce another Milkha Singh? The answer is simple and straight; because of nepotism and favouritism which resulted in gross neglect of the talents like Milkha.... Many sports wizards might have withered away because of lack of support and encouragement and, of course, prevailing nepotism. This is what is worrying the “Flying Sikh”. September 6, 1960 was a red-letter day for Indian athletics. On that day in Rome, 25-year-old, barefooted Milkha broke the Olympic record in the 400 metre race. He had been a naturally born athlete and needed no training; a genius was never trained. Without any formal training, without any financial reward, he successfully took on the greatest athletes of his time. The burst of speed with which he broke the previous Olympic Games record of 5.9 seconds in 400-metres is now a part of folklore in Punjab. Milkha became very popular in Rome because of his sheer speed, long hairs and beard. People there thought he was some sort of a saint from India. The story behind Milkha earning the sobriquet — the “Flying Sikh” — is moving indeed? He was invited to run against Asia’s best runner, Abdul Khaliq of Pakistan in Lahore. As the 200 metres race began, Milkha outpaced the Pakistani from the word ‘go’ and won in most convincing manner. The people were wonder struck at the pace at which Milkha had run and many were heard saying he virtually flew. It was in Pakistan that he earned the title of the “Flying Sikh”....The whole stadium was packed to capacity and the people had gathered there to see the key contest between two of Asia’s finest runners. As Milkha breasted the tape, thousands of ‘Burqa’ clad women uncovered their faces to have a clear view of the Sikh wonder. He was taken to the VIP gallery and introduced to the then President, Ayub Khan. It was said that Milkha ran at Lahore out of vengeance. Memory of gruesome murder of his parents during the Partition days still haunted him. They were hacked to death as they were escaping to India during the bloody days of “Partition . Young Milkha hid himself among the corpses in the train bound for India to save his life. Let us have a look at the lighter side of Milkha; the jokes invented about him by his supporters. It is even said that no “Sardarji” joke will be completed without a few about him. One, heard a few months back, runs like this: After retiring from track, he was appointed Director of Sports, Punjab. One fine morning as Milkha was reading the newspaper, his neighbour dropped in. Apparently, his telephone was out of order. Neighbour: “Director Sahib, phone karna se”. Milkha: “Karo ji Karo”. He handed over the cordless he was carrying to the neighbour. The neighbour looked in his pockets for the piece of paper in which he had jotted down the number. Not finding it, he thought he could look it into the directory. He asked Milkha Singh: “Director sahib, directory kithe hai”. “Directori nahondhi hai”, (My wife is taking bath), Milkha replied innocently. Of course, the joke after a race in 1964 Olympics in Tokyo was well known. As Milkha was sitting on the grass, half asleep and spreading his legs, a passing by white athlete asked : “Relaxing huh”. Pat came the reply from him, who had by then earned the sobriquet of “Flying Sikh”, “No, I am Milkha Singh”. This was the most popular joke in all circles in sixties and even remembered today.
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Digvijay’s diplomatic deeds AFTER the July Indo-Pak Agra summit, Union Minister of State for Commerce and Railways Digvijay Singh has got another international assignment having a diplomatic fallout. Singh, who surprised everybody by landing the plum job of Minister-in-Waiting of the visiting Pakistani military ruler Gen Pervez Musharraf, raised many an eyebrow. The government’s decision to send Singh to Colombo foxed many because the Sri Lankan invitation had come to the PM himself. Singh’s detractors felt that in case the PM could not find time to go to Colombo himself, he should have nominated some senior Cabinet minister. But it appears that Vajpayee’s choice of Digvijay Singh was conscious and deliberate. Singh has apparently studied along with Sri Lankan President Chandrika Kumaratunga in the Jawaharlal Nehru University. It is said that he was made Musharraf’s minister-in-waiting because of his personal rapport with the Musharrafs for years. Singh has been an old acquaintance of the General as well as his wife, Sehba. At his first press conference in Islamabad after the Agra summit, Musharraf had made a particular mention of Singh in his long list of thanks giving in which the name of L K Advani was conspicuously absent. The Musharrafs presented a beautifully packed gift of six CDs to Digvijay Singh from Pakistan. But the CDs are still lying packed. The reason: Singh does not have a CD player. Difficult choice It is easier for the Congress to elect its president than to select office-bearers of its various Pradesh Congress Committees. While there are nearly seven states where PCC executive has not been constituted several months after the party organisational elections were held, the selection process has not been easier in the states where the lists of office-bearers have been declared. After the general secretary concerned takes months to prepare the list, it is sent to the Congress president for clearance. In cases where there are reports about leakages and dissatisfaction, the list may be held back by the the Congress President as happened in the case of Haryana recently. Unlike other states, whose PCC executive was declared at the AICC office at Akbar Road, in case of Haryana, it was done away from the Capital by the Haryana PCC chief. And the general secretary-in-charge, who is normally at the AICC when the list is announced, was away on a tour of Jammu and Kashmir. In its effort to build a consensus and settle the clashing ambitions of various faction leaders in the PCC, the Congress does not mind being late in forming its core team. No wonder, the party is normally up against the wall. Hobnobbing Chohan Khalistani ideologue Jagjit Singh Chohan’s return to Punjab before the Assembly elections was expected to re-define political equations. Contrary to expectations, all the parties that matter in Punjab are keeping a cold distance from him. Be it the Badal faction of SAD, Mann or Tohra, none of the leaders have bothered to acknowledge Chohan’s presence in the State. Chohan was last seen looking for greener pastures in the capital. He has been hobnobbing with the RSS chief K.S.Sudarshan and former Prime Minister Chandra Shekhar. Chohan has had two secret meetings with Sudarshan and confabulations with Chandra Shekhar in his serene environs of Bhondsi Ashram. Is Chohan planning to lend a saffron tinge to the Punjab elections? Forget the retreat Should Beating the Retreat, a ceremony held with much fanfare as the finale to the Republic Day parade be folded up? If the general awareness about the colourful ceremony reflected in the popular quiz show, Kaun Banega Crorepati, is anything to go by, it may not be a bad idea. A contestant from Jamnagar was asked... when is Beating the Retreat held with four options which included the Republic Day and also the Independence Day. He had all the three life lines intact then. He first used the fifty fifty and was left with Republic Day and Independence Day options. Then he rang a friend who is working as a chemical engineer in Pune. Even he could not answer. Finally, he used the audience poll. And shockingly even the audience, which comes from a supposedly aware city like Mumbai, polled 49 per cent in favour of the Independence Day. A sad commentary on the state of affairs as Beating the Retreat is considered one of the important ceremonies over the past fifty years and is part of the general knowledge curriculum in schools. It has been telecast live now for years on Doordarshan, which claims to have the largest viewership, at an enormous cost and the Defence Ministry spends a huge amount in hosting this. No Onam this time For the first time since President K R Narayanan has been in Rashtrapati Bhavan for about four years, there was no formal party on Friday to celebrate Onam. President Narayanan, like all Keralites, is an Onam enthusiast. But this time, his illness forced him not to throw a lavish party.
Contributed by Rajeev Sharma, Girija Shankar Kaura, Pra-shant Sood and
T.V. Lakshminarayan. |
Signs of political insecurity at the top THE much-talked about Union Cabinet reshuffle is over. But were there any major changes? It’s almost been like reshuffling a pack of old cards with none of the jokers being caught off guard. These changes have been made to improve the government’s image. However, some of them appear to be hasty for political mileage. Signs of political insecurity at the top which probably explains why some heads did not roll. And after this, there would also be a bureaucratic reshuffle with each one of the new ministers bringing in his favourites on the hot seats. The show should go on , but how long will it go on ? The minute the nexus is broken or a loophole revealed, the bubble of complacency will burst. Look what’s happening to our high society people — with the arrest of a top hotelier here last week for cocaine possession , the names of other addicts from the high society hierarchy are being read out like a roll-call in a de-addiction centre! And though no further arrests have been made,, after the arrest of the the owner of hotel Hans Plaza and the Afghan drug-pedlar who supplied him with the drugs, investigations have begun. And since drug trafficking (together with trafficking in women ) can’t function without the presence of a strong network, until the guilty are booked, the exercise would remain incomplete. THE SEASON HAS BEGUN Despite the heat and humidity, the season has begun! Last Monday, New Zealand High Commissioner Caroline McDonald hosted a reception in honour of eight artists — four Indian — Meena Baya, Usha Biswas, Nitasha Jainee and Jaya Vivek and four from New Zealand — Helen Kedgley, Suzy Pennington, Diane Prince and Kura Te Waru Rewiri , as their joint exhibition Cross X Links opened at the Triveni Kala Sangam. I had seen the earlier works of Nitasha Jainee (from Amritsar). I ws impressed with her bold attitude towards the male body. Last year, she had travelled with her works — revolving aroud the ‘male nude’ — to Germany. The idea of artists putting up group shows from two countries is certainly commendable. But just as music and love know no boundaries, the same is true for art. At this reception, there was an effective interaction between artists , critics and lovers of art.
FULL CIRCLE And now comes Dominique Lapierre and his nephew Javier Moro with their latest literary offering — ‘It Was Five Past Midnight In Bhopal’ (Full Circle). This book will be released here on September 5 at the residence of the French Ambassador to India, Bernard de Montferrand . |
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