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Saturday,
April 6, 2002, Chandigarh, India  
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Atal’s Gujarat balm Grim power scene Railways on the mat |
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Significance of electoral reverses
Kya “Tum” Bola?
NHRC had to remind us of our duty & responsibility
Modi as CM is part of what has gone wrong in Gujarat Chaudhary Devi Lal: a messiah of the farming
community
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Atal’s Gujarat balm Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee's day-long visit to Ahmedabad and Godhra was expected to put to an end to the phase of madness that has spread its ugly shadow all over Gujarat. He did well to explain to the victims of hate crimes why he did not visit the benighted state at the first sign of trouble. That would have meant diverting security and police personnel away from the places of arson, rioting and killing. He did what Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi should have done at the first sign of trouble following the massacre of train passengers near Godhra. The Prime Minister spoke the language of love, compassion and humanity. There was not even a hint of politics in what he said at the relief camps he visited. The package that he announced is not such a big deal. What is important is that he got the comatose administration to promise to give priority to the need to draw up long-term and short-term plans for the rehabilitation of the victims of the one month of unrestrained acts of hatred and madness in the state. But there is limit to what the Prime Minister's personal intervention can do. A collective political initiative is necessary for pulling not just Gujarat but the country from the creeping sense of insecurity reflected in the muted whispers of concern and anxiety among members of the minority communities. The ghastly acts of arson and killing have made them wonder about their future in the country that belongs to them as much as it does to members of other communities. Of course, Mr Vajpayee was aware of the disturbing situation in Gujarat even before he was finally allowed to visit the places that witnessed the execution of the most rabid forms of hate crimes in post-Independence India. Now that he has seen the situation himself, the least he should do is to set up a temporary Gujarat monitoring cell. It should be on the pattern of the one that was set up for disaster management after the devastating earthquake flattened most parts of Bhuj and Kutch. His continued personal interest is important to ensure that the process of healing of wounds that his visit has started is not discarded by an insensitive political leadership in Gujarat. Mr Modi did not appear to have decided to change his style of functioning for dealing with the human tragedy that is also threatening to damage the sound economic base of the state. The reaction of the Sangh Parivar to Mr Vajpayee's honest expression of concern and grief too provided some clue about the general mood of defiance among Mr Modi's followers. The next few days would provide more clear evidence whether Mr Vajpayee's visit to Gujarat was successful in starting the process of the healing of the wounds of hatred or Mr Modi's agenda and attitude remain what they were before April 4. |
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Grim power scene After years of dillydallying, central public sector power utilities like the National Thermal Power Corporation have decided to get tough with defaulting state electricity boards. SEBs have failed to clear dues running into thousands of crores of rupees. Following a green signal from the Union Energy Ministry, the NTPC has warned the SEBs that it will stop supplying power to them if they continue to play truant. Such warnings have been issued in the past also, but it appears that this time the corporation means business. The situation is indeed critical. The failure of the SEBs to pay up has put central utilities also in dire straits and they have no option except to punish the erring power boards. The problem is that a majority of SEBs are the culprits. There is a flurry of activity now but it is doubtful if the situation can be remedied soon enough. The reasons are obvious. Political masters indulged in vote-oriented populism for long to milk the power boards white. The boards, in turn, did not pay the NTPC and the others. The latter could not recover their dues, again because the governments at the Centre forced them to take a lenient view. The cookie had to crumble sooner or later. Unfortunately, SEBs are so much in the red that it would be near impossible for many of them to pull themselves back into reckoning. Their bane are major transmission and distribution losses (a euphemism for theft) and large subsidies. The victim of this sorry state will be the consumers. Long power cuts may be the order of the day as the summer months approach. The situation is already hopeless, especially in rural areas where there is no power for the better part of the day. Now even urban areas will suffer a similar plight. The tragedy of public services in India has been that warning signals are always ignored till the situation goes totally out of hand. Just because the victims so far were people from far-flung areas who did not have any say in the corridors of power, the long shutdowns did not cause any concern. Even when the problem gripped urban areas, VIP localities were given special treatment. The end result is that the decline is now complete. And it is not a question of individual suffering alone. Power is the essential requirement for the country's march towards progress. In fact, the right word is not "march" but "crawl". Shortfall of power will make the industrial climate murkier and this vicious circle will make the position of SEBs worse. Only a concerted effort comprising a slew of tough measures by state governments can remedy the situation. For that, all parties have to come to an understanding to stop competitive appeasement and develop a consensus on harsh but essential decisions. That, however, is an impossible demand in the prevailing scenario. |
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Railways on the mat The scathing indictment of the railway administration by the Comptroller and Auditor-General of India for its poor track record in providing amenities to train passengers has not come a day too soon. In its report for 2001, the CAG noted that the railway authorities have failed to provide even basic amenities like drinking water, booking office, waiting hall and seating arrangements to train passengers in most stations. This is inexcusable because the Indian Railways is a major public utility service with over 12 million passengers travelling daily in 7,500 trains criss-crossing the country. Providing amenities to passengers on such a gigantic scale is a challenging task. But there is a general impression that the railway officials and the staff are apathetic and insensitive towards the problems of second class passengers, especially on low priority routes. What else would explain the rationale behind the Railway Board’s categorisation of all stations into six groups and its guidelines to all zonal and divisional headquarters to improve amenities in these stations only on the basis of their earnings in terms of passenger and freight traffic? Clearly, if amenities should depend upon a station’s earnings alone, there is no need for the Railway Minister and his officials to tom-tom about their Citizens’ Charter on Passenger Services. Apparently, the entire focus of the railways has all along been on improving the amenities for upper class passengers and increasing the fleet of fast trains. Remember, even before the Shatabdis and the Rajdhanis were introduced, Rail Bhavan’s focus was on the Zero Missing Amenity Fitting Scheme in only 12 long-distance superfast trains? The latest scheme for Jana Shatabdis merits a fair trial, as the quality of services remains to be seen. Admittedly, fund crunch is a major constraint in improving the passenger amenities. As it is, the railways suffers from a paucity of resources such as coaches, line and terminal capacity. The fall in freight traffic has added to its woes. As the occupation of most popular long-distance trains during the holiday rush and of suburban trains during peak hours exceeds 100 per cent, the potential areas for people’s dissatisfaction on the quality of services being rendered at present is bound to be pretty large. Nonetheless, given the constraints mentioned, the kind of grievances being aired by passengers such as the apathetic attitude of the staff, non-functioning of both the railway enquiry phone and the Interactive Voice Response System for information on reservation status, the failure of air-conditioning on trains and subsequent hassle about obtaining refund, poor quality of food, waiting rooms and train berths full of bugs, soiled toilets in both waiting rooms and trains are a clear pointer to the need for prodding the management to pay greater attention to such grievances. There is nothing wrong with the railway officers and the staff. They possess high technical and managerial skills, but their seeming ineffectiveness is due largely to the absence of a congenial environment conducive to enterprise, initiative and speedy decision-making. There is need for a change in the mind-set of the railway staff. Why speak of funds if a passenger, out of sheer frustration, complains about dry taps or dirty toilets? |
Significance of electoral reverses It is amusing to be in Delhi and watch the BJP leaders expressing surprise at the electoral verdict they have just been handed out by the people of India’s capital city. With their swollen egos, they had taken the people of Delhi for granted. And now they go about blaming their own Minister of Finance for the debacle. Of all of them, only Mr Sahib Singh Verma, the BJP Vice- President and former Chief Minister of Delhi, has resigned. The BJP has ruled the Delhi Municipal Corporation for over a decade — a period during which the city has suffered as never before. On a visit to the capital in 1997, the Queen, with justification, remarked on its dirty condition. What was Mr Verma’s reaction ? He was then the Chief Minister of Delhi. A very rude tongue-in-cheek remark about the visiting Head of the Commonwealth? At the time I was moved to write a response, detailing the huge amount — running into hundreds of crores — that the city authorities had spent on the municipal services, giving in return a corruption-ridden, dirty, polluted city that rendered the Queen’s judgement remarkably restrained. Her concern for this city was genuine, for it was her grandfather who had laid the foundation stone of India’s new capital — the first ecologically planned garden city of its time. Mr Verma’s response to my article was to seek me out for dinner, and when I declined, he sent me a gift packet, which was returned with the bearer. I recall asking my friend L.K. Advani if these were the kind of leaders that the BJP was expecting to bring hope to this great land? It has taken the people of Delhi too long to see through them and consign them to the dustbin of history. The significance of the electoral result in Delhi goes far beyond the city. Delhi is truly the image of India’s people. They all live here, speak all its varied languages, profess its diverse religions, and make the city an image of India’s unity in diversity. They have recoiled in horror as the elected public servants have sought to be their masters. They have watched the civic services deteriorate as the lifestyle of the BJP corporators and local leaders has blossomed. They have witnessed the Municipal Corporation of Delhi become one of the most corrupt bodies in the country. The much-touted transparency in governance was never achieved. Repeated requests by residents’ welfare associations to be told of the budgetary provisions for their areas were stonewalled. No one knew how the corporators spent the annual discretionary amount of seven million rupees which each was given to be spent in their wards. Any enquiry about the numbers and names of civic employees, such as sweepers, sanitary inspectors and gardeners, assigned to an area was never answered. One thing did prosper during BJP rule in Delhi — illegal construction and encroachment on public land. This was daylight robbery of government land in the name of “encroachment” as though it could be compounded? When an honest-to-God man like Jagmohan tried to bring some discipline and stop the loot of public assets and retrieve what had been taken away, the BJP’s local warlords cried foul. Sure they had all participated in the spoils of such loot of public land. They now seek to blame him, among others, for their rout at the polls. Mr Vijay Kumar Malhotra, the Parliamentary spokesman for BJP, produced a report that authorised residents of the city to raise up to four floors over their homes. He did not bother to ensure that the civic services were capable of meeting the inevitable increased demands. Certainly, the policy did much for the “builders’ lobby”; they made big money converting small homes into multi-storeyed apartments. But the city’s civic services, already stretched, were totally overburdened — thanks to the BJP’s shortsighted policy. The BJP has been wiped out in Delhi, but its defeat goes beyond the nation’s capital. All over the country people have watched in anguish and fear as the BJP’s extra- constitutional centres of power, such as the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and Bajrang Dal, have made a mockery of the nation’s values. Whoever gave them the authority to speak for the Hindus of India or of the world? They most certainly do not have representative character to speak in the name of Hindus. They can hardly speak for themselves, yet they have been allowed to instigate violence and cut at the roots of India’s unity in diversity. Is the Hindu religion really all about a temple for Lord Rama? One would have expected, perhaps naively, that the BJP or the RSS would have attempted to correct the evils that have crept into the practice of Hinduism in India. They should take note of the Hindu island of Bali, where the Ramayana and the Mahabharat are the cornerstones of culture not just on the island but all over Indonesia. The people of Bali worship Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva, as Hindus have done since the dawn of civilisation, and where each day is governed by Hindu prayers and rituals, even in Muslim-owned shops and hotels where a prayer place is set aside for the Hindu employees. The totality of life in Bali revolves around the faith. Here in India, Hindu society is beset with evils and problems as never before. Caste divisions are tearing Hindus apart. The curse of dowry deaths and other social evils is so rampant that it is beginning to impact upon other segments of Indian society as well. A Hindu wedding has taken the form of a vulgar festival and show of riches by the well to do. Are not these the issues that should first be tackled by those who wish to speak in the name of Hinduism ? The study of the Upanishads, the Vedas or the Gita has virtually been abandoned. Semi-literate priests fail to interpret the religious Hindu thought. Arya Samaj Bhavans are lying virtually derelict. Instead, the towns and cities are becoming crowded with strange temples rising in the names of “God-men” and “ammas” — living and dead. That is not the Hinduism of my upbringing. I wonder how many of the VHP leaders even know that a little mountain just outside Kabul, called Rish Koh, was the place where the writing of the Vedas began. Several Western researchers of history are busy looking for an ancient lost civilisation that was said to have mastered astronomy and its people were sea faring. Initial findings bring the researchers close to ancient Hindu roots. Why cannot the VHP, flushed with cash as it is, fund research at least on Rish Koh to trace its ancient Hindu heritage ? Hindus need to look at their roots to realise that a great religion, the inspiration of a great civilisation, is being torn asunder by petty men who have assumed the role of “thekedars” of the religion. They have no right to speak in the name of Hindus of the world. It is all this and more that has weighed heavily with the electorate in Delhi. The casual and disrespectful manner in which the BJP and its storm troopers, such as the VHP and the Bajrang Dal, treat Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee speaks volumes for the kind of ungrateful and petty people they are. They, and for that matter the NDA, should not forget that they are in power today at the Centre, only because of the high respect in which Mr Vajpayee is still held all over India. The people of India trust him like no one else. The election was fought in his name and for his leadership. It is also becoming clear by the day that the BJP does not have any plan for turning India into “Mahaan Bharat” that for them is a mere slogan. The VHP types have only degraded India. The time has also come for Atalji to take stock of the situation and stop the rot before it spreads further. He needs to move decisively against the divisive elements. Godhra was indeed a horrible atrocity, yet no specific enquiry has been ordered into how and why it happened. How could an intelligence failure take place yet again? The guilty need to be exposed and punished. Even if Pakistan’s ISI was responsible, there must have been conspirators to achieve such cold-blooded efficiency. There are many awkward questions that demand answers about the incident that threatened the fabric of Indian life. How can the government in New Delhi allow Mr Narendra Modi to get away with the kind of explanations he gives for the aftermath of Godhra ? What about allegations of Hindus looting Hindu shops in Ahmedabad? Has India lost all respect for law and order or rule of law? How long will New Delhi continue protecting a thoroughly inept Chief Minister? Such a policy is bound to hurt the Central Government itself sooner than later. The electorate of the capital has in one decisive action ended the honeymoon of the Vajpayee government. Although the Rama temple is important to a section of BJP supporters, the mass of people are more concerned with the temples of modern India that are waiting to be built — schools, for example. If the record of Delhi’s municipal and government schools is not good, equally the education policy of the Central Government is in a mess. It is time that not just the BJP, but all other political parties, took notice of what the electorate is trying to tell them. The people are tired of non-issues dominating the political agendas. They want specific agenda of action. They read of China making rapid strides towards being a modern state fighting poverty, and wonder why India cannot do the same. So long as there is bankruptcy of thought and planning, it cannot be done. There has to be a vision, a plan, single minded devotion to the cause and only then can India be turned into “Mahaan Bharat”. Instead the people wonder why real issues are pushed under the carpet and emotive ones given primacy to win votes. It is time also to give youth a chance. The BJP itself is a party controlled by men who are mostly over seventy. So is its mentor RSS and its allied VHP. The Congress benefited by fielding many young and fresh faces in Delhi’s poll. One hopes that these young corporators do not fall into the rotten ways of their elders. The BJP itself needs to allow its own younger people take charge — not just in Delhi but at the Central level, too. Do the elders of seventy-plus really understand the global culture that is now engulfing us all ? Have they tried to analyse why China is firmly set on a road to being a super power while India is muddling along? Perhaps the young in BJP will have to break loose and assert themselves before it is too late. The people of newly independent India paid high taxes and responded to each call of Jawaharlal Nehru, for they knew that the issues and programmes that he talked about had a bearing on their quality of life. If India’s middle class is angry with the government and its Finance Minister today for the kind of taxes he has levied, it is because these taxes have been imposed to cover the inefficiencies and deficits of a burgeoning government. These taxes are not aimed at making India great. The Finance Minister is seen to be presiding over a ministry that produces scams yearly and fails to produce any economic recovery plan. The people trusted Jawaharlal Nehru and paid taxes willingly. Because of his devoted work India’s institutions have survived. Today the people have as much trust in Vajpayee as they had in Nehru. But Vajpayee must break loose from the constraints that diehard BJP elements and the VHP and Bajrang Dal have put on him. He must emulate Nehru, who, in his time, had to fight reactionary elements within the Congress Party. There is still time to achieve what the Prime Minister himself has described so often — “Mahaan Bharat”. But that India will emerge only out of victory in the struggle against poverty and superstition, by promoting education, protecting women, and, in general, taking the country to the enlightened self that Hinduism so much teaches. India is now waiting for the Prime Minister to act. Or else the party could be over. ANI |
Kya “Tum” Bola? Tambola, an indoor game, which is played in every kitty party and has now invaded the elite clubs of city beautiful, including the media dominated Press Club, was not so popular a few years back. I was attracted to this when my granddaughter, hardly five years, was playing “Bingo” in Sweden with a sheet of paper in her hand before television and won a prize of thirty thousand rupees. Back in Chandigarh I found Tambola had all the ingredients necessary to make the game interesting and a good thriller. The numbers are so programmed and imaginatively placed that these have lasting effects. It wipes the despair off the faces of the participants and replace it with hope. It is fascinating and a break away from other games. There are one to ninety numbers printed on a full sheet of six tickets with each ticket getting 15 numbers. The conductor of the game picks up one number at a time and calls it one by one using many metaphors. One discovers delightful little details like the contours of the body, hidden messages, historical dates of important events etc. For instance while calling number 14 he would add “Unkissed”. Sixteen is whistling time, 18 marriageable age, 33 lovely lips, 36 vital statistics, 47 independence 58 retirement, 88 two fat Majors, 89 nearer to Heaven, seven James Bond and two is Kaala Dhan. Some TV, shows have become so popular that a few new additions have been made like two is Tulsi, nine Crorepati Time and so on. The participants cut the numbers on their tickets and whosoever completes it first, gets the declared prize. Many innovative prizes are announced for each round. Recently tambola had got a shot in the arm when a question concerning this was posed in the TV game show “Kaun Banega Crorepati” by the star of the millennium Amitabh Bachchan. What is tambola was the simple question and there were, as usual, four options of answer displayed on the computer. Out of the four, one was a musical instrument and the other a game of skill. The occupant of the so-called hot seat was blank, sat stunned and had a lump in his throat. It was after using the option of deletion of two incorrect answers on the computer that he hesitantly picked up the correct one. A game of skill was his option which was declared right by the star. All this while, when the player was in search of the correct reply, my wife watching the game show was fretting, fuming and was surprised that he was not conversant with the game when even a housewife of Chandigarh could shoot the answer in a fraction of a second. There were many terse and uncharitable comments. One of these was in the light of the prevalent attitude of people in all walks of life. “He must be one of the blue-eyed boys of the organisers” which I accepted unhesitatingly in view of the happy future of our married life. |
NHRC had to remind us of our duty & responsibility Recently I saw a live coverage of Mr. Justice J.S. Verma’s press conference on Star News. It was unusual for a former Chief Justice to speak out his judicious mind and share his observations publicly and frankly. The novelty was that it was being relayed unedited. The issue was on the communal riots in Gujarat and Justice Verma’s visit there. What kept me glued to the television was Mr. Justice Verma’s clear views about the legal and constitutional duties which police officers are bound by under all circumstances. He said “The police officers should not ask for permission to perform their duty under the law. They must act. This is their constitutional duty to do so.” Mr. Justice Verma then referred to earlier judgements of the Supreme Court wherein these directions were clearly reiterated. The first one he mentioned was that of a two-judge Bench of the Supreme Court in Abhinandan Jha Vs. Dinesh Mishra. In this the court had said, I quote “ We have already pointed out that the investigation, under the Code, takes in several aspects, and stages, ending ultimately with the formation of an opinion by the police as to whether, on the material covered and collected a case is made out to place the accused before the Magistrate for trial, and the submission of either a charge-sheet, or a final report is dependent on the nature of the opinion, so formed. The formation of the said opinion, by the police, as pointed out earlier, is the final step in the investigation, and that final step is to be taken only by the police and by no other authority”. Unquote. Justice Verma also recalled his own judgement delivered in Vineet Narain Vs. Union of India case wherein same principles were reiterated. Interestingly since then the NHRC report is public. And it is
scathing. There also exists a Govt. of India communiqué (No 19/69/70-Poll.1(A) dated June 10, 1970, wherein a clear distinction has been made between communal riots and other law and order situations and emphasis has been laid on the need for taking the most stringent action at the first sign of communal trouble. The National Police Commission in its sixth report states, “We would wholly endorse the views expressed in this communication and would strongly recommend that the authorities in dealing with communal riots should not be inhibited, by any consideration, to adopt luke-warm measures at the early stages of any communal trouble which may push the situation beyond a point of no return.” Further in its sixth report at paras 47.34 and 47.35, the Commission has said “We recognise that a communal riot could take place in spite of all possible measures taken by the police and the administration to prevent it. Several communal riots in recent years have been allowed to escalate and to continue for several days because of lack of decisive action on the part of the authorities. A communal riot is different from any other law and order situation because it has its origin in deep seated passions and jealousies. Its consequences can be harmful not only to a particular locality but may also seriously affect many other areas. Therefore, in dealing with communal riots the authorities should recognise the distinction and should show extreme firmness from the very
beginning. We note the requirement of administrative instructions that the use of fire arms in dispersing an unlawful assembly should only be the last resort and should be preceded by several lesser methods, like the bursting of tear gas shells, lathi charge etc. We understand that for this reason many authorities hesitate to use fire arms till the situation goes entirely out of hand. Firing is usually resorted to after considerable damage has already occurred, and such firing makes no impact on goondas and anti-social elements who by then withdraw. Immediate and exemplary action should be taken against those who willfully fail to go to the trouble spot or slip away from there after trouble has erupted. Officers who have successfully controlled the situation at the initial stages with firm action should be suitably rewarded. An impression should not be allowed to remain that it is wiser to face the accusation of no action rather than go through the harassment and humiliation of an inquiry into the accusation of excessive use of force.” Had the Police response to Godhra and subsequent communal violence in Gujarat been prompt, adequate, firm and fair, the senior police officers of Gujarat would not have pleaded before the political leadership “to give them a free hand”, (which they seemed to have asked for as per reliable reports). They additionally also requested the political leaders to stop providing patronage to elements encouraging and instigating violence in the state. A question which comes to my mind is that if the police officers had simply performed their duty without fear or favour, as few of them are known to have individually done and the people of Gujarat know about them, what would they have suffered? Perhaps a transfer — in the process saved hundreds of lives for which they were trained and trusted for. They would have stood out as the real protectors of life and property. While doing their duty these police men and women would have done their service and the country
proud. Most of all they would have lived up to the trust the country reposes into them at the time of their
induction. And while in service expectations and trust increases with each rank. Is it not a matter of regret that NHRC has to remind us of our duty and how we ought to perform — higher the rank, greater the responsibility. Forgetting this is a breach of trust — towards the service and the nation. |
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Modi as CM is part of what has gone wrong in Gujarat For those of you who are as shocked as I am by Narendra Modi not being given the boot when he called on the Prime Minister last week let me explain to you why he has managed to keep his job. What preceded him to Delhi were BJP MLAs and other sundry carriers of tales and what they told the party high command was that Modi had become something of a Hindu hero and would help garner the Hindutva vote when Gujarat goes to the polls next year. The propaganda campaign was so strong that it was rumoured even before he met the Prime Minister that he would be asking him to announce a snap election. Now, though, we hear that he does not want an early election because the latest Intelligence Bureau reports indicate that he is not quite Hero Number One. And, from my own visit to rural parts of Gujarat may I report that what I managed to gather was that the average Gujarati is not happy with the terrible violence that has swept across that state. So, in my view, Modi is unlikely to ever emerge as Hindu Hero in a future election. What is saddening, though, is that Delhi’s corridors of power are filled not with people talking about Gujarat’s horrific violence but only with those who talk of whether it will benefit the BJP or not. An evil cynicism has crept into these corridors in recent times and the men and women who come here get quickly infected no matter how good they were to start off with. Those who walk them are mainly politicians and journalists and last week in Delhi I met a few and all I got were calculations. Nobody had much to say about the horror of women being stripped and killed in public, of children being burned alive. Nobody seemed to care and even the journalists who analysed why such terrible things had happened spoke of them as if it was part of a phenomenon, an idea in which human beings were not involved. They talked of trying to understand why there was so much hate among the communities, its causes and its consequences. Will Modi manage to win? A Minister, who shall remain nameless, said, ‘Our reports from Gujarat are that removing Modi would hurt Hindu sentiments, so he is not going to lose his job’. And, so it came to pass. Modi emerged smiling happily after his meeting with the Prime Minister and — without taking the smile off his face — told TV cameras that he had not been ticked off or anything like that and all the Prime Minister had wanted to know was how he was tackling relief measures. He added that he had asked for Central Government help for this and had been promised it. The BJP’s senior leaders are behaving as if they were proud of what Modi has done in Gujarat. First, he was given a certificate of good conduct by the Home Minister who congratulated him for controlling the situation in 72 hours and during his Delhi visit he got an additional medal of honour from the BJP president, Jana Krishnamurthy, who told a newspaper, ‘I am sure no other government in Modi’s place could have handled (the situation) better than this’. Mr. Krishnamurthy is old enough to remember the anti-Sikh pogroms in Delhi in 1984 so it is strange that he did not notice that they were controlled in less than 48 hours. He has also forgotten that the BJP was in the forefront of those who attacked Rajiv Gandhi’s government for what they said was state collusion in the violence. Ironically, to prove this the Vajpayee government ordered yet another inquiry into the 1984 violence when it came to power this time. But, the inquiry commission has become irrelevant in the context of what a BJP chief minister has just done in Gujarat. He has emulated the methods that the Congress party allegedly used in 1984 right down to the last little detail. So, just as the mobs that roamed the streets of Delhi hunting for Sikhs knew exactly where to look for them so also did the mobs in Ahmedabad know exactly which houses and shops belonged to Muslims. Where did the killers get voters lists from? Why have policemen who tried to stop the violence been transferred? Why did Modi make it clear that he was on the Hindu side by announcing Rs 2 lakh each for the victims of Godhra and half that for the Muslims who were killed by the mobs? Why were the killers in Godhra arrested under POTO while Ahmedabad’s Hindu killers got away with arrests under lesser laws? Modi has much to answer for but he will not even be asked the questions because in the face of the battering the BJP got in the recent assembly elections its leaders now cling desperately to Hindutva and Hindu heroes as their last hope. So, Modi will survive this time but hopefully will be punished by Gujarat’s voters when elections come round next year. Why do I think he will be? Because I spent a couple of days driving around rural Saurashtra in towns like Rajkot, Morvi, Dhrangadhra and Wankaner and have to say that I did not see signs of this great outpouring of hatred that I had heard of in Delhi. Of all the people I talked to I met only one man who told me that people were very upset by the incident in Godhra and that many people in the villages were preparing to go to Ayodhya to help build the temple. But, even as he told me this he was interrupted by others who said that although there was anger over Godhra there was no hatred and they were very upset by the reports of what was happening in Ahmedabad and Baroda. There was communal trouble in Rajkot and curfew for a couple of days but in the smaller towns people I talked to were angry that the virus had spread even to them so I saw much anger but no signs of hate. What I also saw was confusion and despair among the Muslims. One gentleman of refinement and education said he had been more shocked by the violence this time than by anything he had ever seen before. He woke one night to find his house filled with women and children and was told they were hiding from a Hindu mob in the street outside. ‘When I looked out from my terrace I saw them on one side and a Muslim mob on the other. Had there been a clash we would have been killed for sure but at the last moment the Hindus dispersed. There were no policemen anywhere in sight’. This gentleman who has spent most of his life in a small Gujarati town said he was now thinking of moving to another country. He said he found it hard to go on living in what Gujarat had now become. It never used to be this way, he said sadly, Hindus and Muslims lived peacefully together, what went wrong? That is too complicated a question to answer in this column but what is clear is that Narendra Modi as chief minister is part of what has gone wrong. |
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Chaudhary Devi Lal: a messiah of the farming
community
I was associated with Chaudhary Devi Lal for well over three decades.
His rise in politics was slow and fluctuating. For the first time he became Parliamentary Secretary in Pratap Singh Kairon's cabinet. After that, he became the Punjab Congress Committee President for a brief period during the Kairon regime. But unfortunately he could not become a minister despite being a prominent Congress leader of Haryana. He was instrumental in the removal of Mr
Kairon from the chief ministership of Punjab. After Haryana became a State in 1966, Devi Lal became a force to reckon with. He was instrumental in the ouster of Haryana’s first Chief Minister Bhagawat Dayal Sharma and the appointment of Rao Birendra Singh as the Chief Minister of the first United Front Government. Devi Lal, fondly called Tao Devi Lal, was popular among the Haryana peasantry. He was the man of the masses and a great fighter. He became the Chief Minister of Haryana twice and joined the V.P. Singh cabinet as Deputy Prime Minister. He held the same post in the Chandra Shekhar cabinet. Devi Lal played a pivotal role in making Chaudhry Charan Singh, Mr V.P. Singh and Mr Chandra Shekhar as Prime Minister. Devi Lal was stoutly built, tall and possessed great personality. Although he looked rustic, rough and tough, he was a successful operator. He commanded great confidence and could succeed in life through sheer commonsense. Devi Lal was responsible in installing Mr Bansi Lal as the Chief Minister of Haryana in 1967. Earlier, when Devi Lal was the PPCC chief, he appointed Mr Bansi Lal as president of Hisar District Congress Committee. When Bansi Lal became Chief Minister, he appointed Devi Lal as the Chairman of the Haryana Khadi Board from which post he resigned following differences with Mr Bansi Lal over some minor issue. Devi Lal also helped Mr Bansi Lal in his election to Rajya Sabha. Though Mr Bansi Lal ruled Haryana for a decade, he was never recognised as a leader of the Jats. After Sir Chhotu Ram and Chaudhry Charan Singh, who were popular among the jat community, Devi Lal was recognised as its leader, particularly in Haryana — a position which no other Jat could occupy. Devi Lal was a great follower of Charan Singh. He played an important role in making him the Prime Minister. Devi Lal celebrated Charan Singh's birthday at New Delhi's Boat Club when he was removed from Morarji Desai's government where lakhs of farmers attended the biggest-ever kisan rally. Devi Lal was a great fighter, strategist and planner. He knew well how to hit the target successfully. He used to hit at the right time and at the right place. He thus got removed Morarji Desai and installed in his place Chaudhry Charan Singh as the Prime Minister in a shrewd operation. Even at the age of 75, Devi Lal was full of energy and the most powerful man. He was the chief architect of the Janata Dal. He was the kingmaker in the Janata Dal government. Devi Lal became the hero of the farming community. The country will never forget his valuable contribution and his role for the betterment and uplift of the farmers. Devi Lal's image got a boost when, after his election as the leader of the Janata Dal Parliamentary Party, he bestowed this honour on Mr V.P. Singh and nominated him as the Prime Minister though he himself could have easily occupied the coveted position. Devi Lal will always be remembered as a messiah of the kisans. He will always be worshipped by the farmers for his contribution to agriculture and the peasantry. |
One who partakes of human flesh, the flesh of a horse or of another animal, and deprives others of milk by slaughtering cows, O king, if such a fiend does not desist by other means, then you should not hesitate to cut off his head. — Rig Veda *** The purchaser of flesh performs himsa (violence) by his wealth; he who eats flesh does so by enjoying its taste; the killer does himsa by actually tying and killing the animal. Thus there are three forms of killing: he who brings flesh or sends for it, he who cuts off the limbs of an animal, and he who purchases sells or cooks flesh and eats it — all of these are to be considered meat-eaters. He who desires to augment his own flesh by eating the flesh of other creatures lives in misery in whatever species he may take his birth. — The Mahabharata,
Anushasan Parva *** Those who are ignorant of real dharma and, though wicked and haughty, account themselves virtuous, kill animals without any feeling of remorse or fear of punishment. Further in their next lives, such sinful persons will be eaten by the same creatures they have killed in this world. — Srimad Bhagavatam *** I have no doubt that it is a part of the destiny of the human race, in its gradual improvement, to leave off eating animals, as surely as the savage tribes have left off eating each other when they came in contact with the more civilised. — Thoreau, Walden: “Higher Laws” *** As life must live on life in this world, the saints say that we should limit our intake to things containing one element, and that means vegetation, the plant kingdom.... Christ said, “Love thy neighbour”. All creatures are our neighbours. The surroundings in which we are living, that is, the whole universe is our neighbour.... and when we love the whole creation, we cannot kill intentionally nor could we find it in our heart to have it done for us by someone else. — Maharaj Charan Singh, The Masters |
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