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Wednesday,
September 19, 2001, Chandigarh, India   |
Death dance in Kashmir Mending Muslim fence A smart rally |
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Vivisection of terrorism
To smile or not to
smile
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Death dance in Kashmir THOSE
who were expecting that the universal condemnation of terrorist acts following the World Trade Center collapse would chasten the killers active in Kashmir into mending their ways have been proved wrong. The bloodlust and depredations of the terrorists continue regardless in defiance of the will of civilised society. In the latest instance, a three-member suicide squad of the Lahskar-e-Toiba attacked a camp of the Special Operations Group of the Jammu and Kashmir Police at Handwara in Kupwara district on Sunday night and killed at least nine police personnel. The martyrdom of the securitymen was made all the more poignant by the suicide committed by the mother of one of the victims. One hopes the world has tears to spare for these people also and thousands of others who have lost their lives during the past decade. The carnage also shows how deceitful are Pakistan’s pious claims about joining the rest of the world in fighting the scourge of terrorism. While it is making a show of negotiating with the Taliban in Afghanistan, its stooges continue to indulge in activities similar to the suicide attacks on the USA. In fact, there are reasons to suspect that with Pakistan acceding to the demands of the USA, the terrorists have felt emboldened that they can step up their activities in Kashmir, while the attention of the world is entirely on Afghanistan. It is necessary for India to hammer home the point that while the fountainhead of global terrorism may be Osama bin Laden’s group, the proprietary rights on the dreaded export have been obtained by Pakistan. War against terrorism cannot be won unless all its branches and tributaries are eliminated systematically. Islamabad has told its men to close their camps in PoK and also lie low within Pakistan. This is nothing but a temporary measure. The moment things return “normal”, it would signal its men to get active like before. And to be sure, these merchants of death would not be hawking their wares in Kashmir alone. The global community needs to listen to representatives of the exiled Burhanuddin Rabbani government of Afghanistan, who have been crying themselves hoarse that if terrorism has to be eradicated, the USA and others should train their guns on Pakistan instead. Meanwhile, it is equally essential for the Indian security forces to change tack in Kashmir. The methods adopted so far have proved to be ineffective. Most of the recent attacks have been on the security forces themselves. That has had a highly demoralising effect. The uneasy feeling that has developed is that the people who cannot protect themselves are in no position to provide safety to the civilians. It is imperative to revamp the system in such a way that these men are safe themselves and can also evoke confidence in others. An immediate and decisive strike on the enemies of the nation is also necessary at this stage when their camps across the Line of Control are in disarray because of the global turmoil. |
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Mending Muslim fence THE
diabolical magnitude of the devastation caused by terrorists in New York and Washington on September 11 made just about everyone in America lose that all important sense of balance in reacting to it. Even before the intelligence agencies could get down to the task of identifying the perpetrators of the heinous crime, word had already spread that it was the handiwork of a group of Islamic fundamentalists. Evidence collected thereafter proved the conjecture to be correct. But in the process Islam received a bad Press that it did not deserve. Even President George W. Bush in his zeal to appear to be in total control of the post-attack situation made certain comments and observations that were not politically correct. He did try to do a bit of damage control by stating publicly subsequently that not all Muslims were fundamentalists. But it was a case of too little, too late. The thoughtless and unhappy references spread dismay among such sections of the Islamic world as have consistently opposed the Wahabi brand of fundamentalism, manufactured and exported by Saudi Arabia. This interpretation of Islam is the basic source of inspiration for Osama bin Laden and the Taliban. It is against this backdrop that the decision of Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri not to cancel her US trip, as most world leaders have done, assumes more than routine significance. Indonesia has the largest Muslim population in the world. The fact that like Sheikh Hasina Wajed of Bangladesh she too is head of government of an Islamic country is in itself important for countering the regressive interpretation about the status of women in Islam offered by the Taliban school of fundamentalists. It is said that President Bush personally persuaded Ms Sukarnoputri to visit America. For most world leaders a visit to the USA at this time of the year is a kind of an annual pilgrimage on the occasion of the General Assembly session of the United Nations. The meeting between President Bush and President Sukarnoputri is expected to send out the politically correct message that the support of the global community was being garnered against the likes of Osama bin Laden and not Islam, which advocates universal brotherhood, and followers. Ms Sukarnoputri deserves a special word of praise for sticking to the decision to visit the USA at a time when the post-September 11 developments have caused religious tension in the Islamic world. If the proposed attack on Afghanistan takes places during her visit to America, the fundamentalist elements within Indonesia may even try to organise street demonstrations. However, they are not likely to succeed because a vast majority of the people of the orld’s largest Muslim country would be busy giving final touches to the staging of the Ramayana during the Divali season. |
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A smart rally STOCK
markets across the country opened strongly on Tuesday, shedding the melancholy mood of Monday. Analysts described it as a “technical rebound”, a sort of course-correction after hitting the bottom in eight years. Many feel that the bearish phase has spent itself out and another bull cycle is due. The rule of thumb in this regard is that when several pieces of good news fail to perk up trading but one single bad news plunges the sentiments to depression, it marks the end of the downward trend. It is then time for stabilisation and an upward movement. In this respect Indian markets tended to go with other Asian markets, a look east policy. The ones in Tokyo, Seoul and Hong Kong recorded a healthy 2 per cent increase in share prices, in sharp contrast to the nosedive of the previous day. That was the way European market reacted, although the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq moved in the reverse direction. It was to be expected. The American market was shut down for four working days and objective economic conditions and the traumatic experience of the destruction of the twin towers of the World Trade Center presaged a hammering of share prices. In the wake of a steep increase in unemployment and dwindling consumer spending, business confidence is very low. There is this creeping economic slowdown, shrinking imports and sliding dollar. Americans easily panic and now is a really panicky situation. The Securities and Exchange Commission has liberalised the rules to help corporations buy their own shares to boost prices and increase their holding. India too has taken this route but without any dramatic results. The ever-green optimist, Mr Yashwant Sinha, Union Finance Minister, finds the situation absolutely normal. It is not. Companies are selling less and the profit level is declining. The demand for both consumer goods and machinery is dipping and this affects production. The steady layoff of workers is the fallout. This is a worrisome situation but also opens up an opportunity to rewrite the ground rules. For one, tax collection, both of direct and indirect kind, is slipping below the budget estimate. There is a strong feeling that sizeable evasion is behind this and a half-hearted attempt was made to bring to book the tax cheats. But it has been quietly given up. Instead the government wants to impose a surcharge on income and corporate tax like it did in the wake of the Kargil intrusion. Another idea is to slap a cess on petrol and cooking gas to balance the public finance. These are soft options and thus distort economic forces. |
Vivisection of terrorism THE use of hijacked aeroplanes as missiles by terrorists to strike at the two prominent symbols of the US economic and military might — New York's World Trade Center and the Pentagon in Washington — provides an occasion for introspection for American policy-makers. Why is America despised so much in certain parts of the world? Why are people prepared to sacrifice their most valuable asset — their life — if it can hurt the interests of the surviving superpower? Are there any serious weaknesses in America's foreign policy which has brought it to this state? Is the tragedy that has visited it a result of its arrogance coming in the way of a drastic policy review in view of its new responsibilities in a unipolar world? The USA had been talking of terrorism for decades but never took it with the seriousness it deserved. When terrorist guru Osama bin Laden and his disciples presented the trailer by striking at US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998, it reacted in a lackadaisical manner, leaving the problem where it was. The reason: the terrorist camps in Afghanistan which India wanted to destroy at that time were perceived by the Americans as posing a threat to mainly India's interests, and hence the snub to New Delhi. The USA never realised that Osama's activities were aimed against India as much as against the superpower. The former Saudi financier represents religion-driven terrorism, which owes its birth to America's flawed West Asia policy. The USA has been courting Israel ever since its birth in 1948, knowing well that it was established over the ruins of Palestine. The Jews deserved sympathy for their suffering under Nazi rule, but not at the cost of the poor Palestinian Arabs. During the presidency of Mr Bill Clinton the USA provided some proof of the realisation of its new and complicated responsibilities as the sole surviving superpower. He made strenuous efforts for taking the 1993 Oslo peace process to its logical culmination. Success eluded him because of Israeli intransigence and his own limitations as the Head of State of a country considering itself as the guarantor of Israel's existence. The situation took a turn for the worse when the rightist Ariel Sharon ministry was formed in Israel and Mr George W. Bush came to occupy the US presidency. The extremists on both Israeli and Palestinian sides, opposed to the peace process ever since it was set in motion, got an excellent opportunity to derail it. Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat found himself helpless in reining in the enemies of peace in his camp owing to growing Israeli provocations. The result was a fresh Palestinian uprising last September, leading to increased suicide bombings. Israel was now back to its old eye-for-an-eye policy. It indulged in "target killings", another name for cold-blooded murder by the armed forces. Israel felt encouraged as the USA looked the other way. Had Washington continued to play the role of an active facilitator of peace, as was the case during the Clinton presidency, Tel Aviv could never think of likening Mr Arafat to Osama bin Laden as it has done. It could also have avoided its more aggressive and irresponsible military campaigns inside Palestinian Authority areas like the Gaza Strip after the tragic happenings in New York and Washington. It is such developments that sustain terrorism. Terrorism gets its birth in aggrieved people's minds, sometimes because of their being misguided as can be seen in the case of Kashmir. Then it makes its presence felt in the world outside. Thus, it must be fought at two levels. The move to destroy the infrastructure for training terrorists should be accompanied by serious efforts to quickly find answers to the sensitive problems agitating the people's minds. Here the USA should not forget its obligations as the most powerful and resourceful nation today. Terrorists are known for springing surprises. Even the Americans, the world's greatest strategists with their technological advantage, could not foresee the kind of tragedy that has visited them. They are known for their efficiency and carefulness. They were justifiably proud of all this. Yet they are a bewildered lot today. Their pride lies shattered. They admit it in their interviews with the media. They have no face to show to the world that they are the greatest power on earth. This is mainly because the USA has been the least bothered about its policies so long as these led to the loss of non-American lives. It has been crudely justifying the unjustifiable, the death of lakhs of innocent Iraqi children because of the US-inspired UN sanctions. Last year's 44-page report of the US National Commission on Terrorism provides proof of the hollowness of American policies. It warned the American government to prepare itself for "a future terrorist attack that may employ biological, chemical, nuclear or radiological materials". This was the result of a six-month study by 10 experts headed by former US Ambassador-at-Large for Counter-Terrorism L. Paul Bremer. It talked of preparedness for cyber-terrorist attacks also but the Americans had no idea about the biggest surprise of history that came in less than 15 months (the report was circulated to the media on June 6, 2000). The USA has, however, been conscious of the terrorist threat to its interests. A summary of the report clearly mentioned: "International terrorism poses an increasingly dangerous and difficult threat to America. This was underscored by the December, 1999, arrests in Jordan and at the US/Canadian border of foreign nationals who were allegedly planning to attack crowded millennium celebrations. Today's terrorists seek to inflict mass casualties, and they are attempting to do so both overseas and on American soil. They are less dependent on state sponsorship and are, instead, forming loose transnational affiliations based on religious and ideological affinity and a common hatred of the United States. This makes terrorist attacks more difficult to detect and prevent. "Countering the growing danger of terrorist threat requires significantly stepping up US efforts. The government must immediately take steps to reinvigorate the collection of intelligence about terrorist plans, use all available legal avenues to disrupt and prosecute terrorist activities and private sources of support, convince other nations to cease all support for terrorists, and ensure that federal, state and local officials are prepared for attacks that may result in mass casualties." There is no mention of the requirement that, keeping in view the USA's superpower status, it should review its strategies to play the role of a facilitator in resolving sensitive conflicts in various parts of the globe. It should not appear to be blatantly siding with any country as it has been doing in the case of Israel. In a bipolar world, this could have some justification as the aggrieved party had the option of getting solace from the other superpower —the erstwhile Soviet Union. In the changed circumstances the responsibilities of the surviving superpower have increased manifold, and it must realise this. |
To smile or not to
smile PASSING through the corridors of my daughter’s school one day, I came across a notice written boldly on the school notice board: “You are incompletely dressed if you do not wear a ...” What, a tie? A ribbon? Or a right coloured pair of socks? I wondered as I read on further, ...a smile”, it said. I smiled instantly as though it was a tall order. Smile is the most inexpensive gift you can give to others, and in return harvest heaps of goodwill. Smiling is just an expression to show that you are happy. We often do not realise that it takes only 12 muscles to smile and 47 to frown. You stand before a camera and the photographer says, “smile please”, because smile reflects the best part of you. A smile is a born winner. Walking into a new social circle with nobody to introduce you, a smile would do the trick for you. How rare and wonderful is that flash of smile that suddenly wins you a friend among a group of strangers! People who keep stiff upper lips do so because they find it pretty difficult to smile at anyone. Andy Rooney says if you smile when no one is around, you really mean it. But if you do so and somebody happens to be watching you, he or she would think that you are off your rockers. I have been often caught in such situations and it was really hard to explain. However, smiling can be dangerous too. It is a body language that can invite problems for you at times. When you smile at strangers, they try to use you as a ready bait either for some mean purpose or for solving their problems which you may do so at great inconvenience to yourself. Sycophants are great winners because their bosses always smile upon them. When mischief mongers at school/colleges do mischief at the cost of others they are all smiles. When their teachers discover the smile they threaten to wipe the smile off their faces. Such a smile can end up in a great frown. For example let me relate an incident to you. I was studying in the eight standard. Somebody in the class passed a naughty remark. A wave of smile passed through the whole class. It reached me too. As the teacher looked sternly at the whole class, they managed to switch on to the control mode, while I smiled a mile. I was instantly picked up and sent out of the class. My 12-muscle exercise ended up in a 47-muscle (or may be more) fiasco, because as I left the classroom in tears, I went up the teacher and said: “God is watching you, okay?” That brought a smile on his face and made him realise that the smile for which I was being punished, was just infectious. Some people are very good at smiling. They are great actors. They either have plastic smiles fixed on to their faces or don a smiling mask whenever necessary. Others just have nature-customed smiling faces. They probably have never learnt to frown due to some probable muscular disorder. They look out of place in mourning situations. To differentiate a genuine smile from an artificial one, one has to look into the eyes of the smiler. A genuine smile originates from the eyes, radiating on to the whole face. A feigned smile is limited to the lips and cheeks only. A smile is a precursor of laughter, just like a baby is a precursor of an adult. That’s why as a kid when I used to publish my jokes I used to write, “smile a while” instead of “laugh a while”. A word of caution to the beauty conscious people. Crow’s feet develop around the corners of eyes by too much smiling. Nevertheless, smiling brings warmth to the hearts of the donor and the recipient. Weighing the pros and cons I leave it up to smile or not to smile. |
Calcutta  |
I have no form or fancy; the all-pervading am I; Everywhere I exist, And yet am beyond the senses; Neither salvation am I, nor anything to be known; I am eternal Bliss and Awareness - I am He! I am He! Shivoham. — Shankaracharya, Nirvanashatakam *** Sant mat does not enslave, but teaches the disciple to be really independent by means of self control and self knowledge. *** There are two ways of killing desire and attaining desirelessness: one that is generally followed by common folk is to fulfil the desire and get satiated. The other is to create in the mind indifference to desire by means of reasoning and self control. Self control would require an effort of one’s will power. The mind is like a restive colt and loves to go where it is forbidden to go. Like a colt, it should be restrained by degrees and not all at once; otherwise it will break the restraining chains and fly in the prohibited direction with force. — Sardar Bahadur Maharaj Jagat Singh,
The Science of the Soul *** Now this body of mine is ready to turn into dust, The vital breath goes to meet The breath of the Universe. May my immortal Soul blend with the Universal Soul. O pious devotee! Meditate on Aum. Recollect your deeds and pious aspirations. — Yajurveda, 40.15 *** Fear not, death is imperative For all men and animals; For bipeds and quadrupeds, But I shall liberate thee from the clutches of death. Be not afraid, O man, trust me, Thou shalt not die, Neither go to the lowest depth of gloom. — Atharvaveda, 8.2.23 |
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