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Sunday,
April 14, 2002, Chandigarh, India  
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‘It was like a military operation against an external armed enemy’ |
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Musharraf is fulcrum in ‘axis of evil’ KASHMIR DIARY
Harihar Swarup
TDP likely to retain Speaker’s post
Humra Quraishi
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SPECIAL FOCUS Coverage on Gujarat carnage in both print and electronic media has attracted immense attention. The issue had become so important the Editor’s Guild had to rush a team to make an on-the-spot assessment and suggest corrective measures. While the team found the vernacular Press partly responsible for sowing the seeds of discord and helping the communal virus to spread fast, it had good words for the national Press and major TV networks. Interestingly, the BJP Government and a section of its police and other officers were more critical of the national Press and ignored, despite available powers under the law, rumour mongering by some newspapers in Ahmedabad, Vadodara and other places. Clearly, this suited their interests and showed their indoctrination to a particular ideology of Hindutva. With television presenting instant powerful images, the role of the media has assumed greater significance. News is shown as it happens. But the media can colour the events by using them or by not using them at all. By being selective, it often misinforms and acts as a propaganda tool. What gives the media a complex dimension is the daily exposure of multiple items in juxtaposition. Nevertheless, the media remains a major source of information, particularly in a violent situation. How did the local Press presented the riots to the readers? Has the print media in any way aggravated the relentless tensions through inflammatory or communal reportage? These questions bother all right thinking people. We are all aware what the national Press reported; we have also watched the reports of major national TV networks. But what were the local papers reporting? The role of Gujarati newspapers like Sandesh (Baroda), Gujarat Samachar (Baroda) and Gujarat Today were analysed for the purpose. Concerned citizens, Shanti, painstakingly collected data for the study. Sandesh crossed all limits of responsible journalism.Its major characteristic was to feed on the prevalent anti-Muslim prejudices of its Hindu readership and provoke it further by sensationalising and distorting news. Sandesh used headlines to provoke, communalise and terrorise people. Most reports concerning the post-Godhra violence usually begin with a preceding sentence, ‘In the continuing spiral of communal rioting that broke out as a reaction to the ‘demonic/barbaric, Godhra incident...’. The denunciatory adjectives used liberally to describe the Godhra incident were strikingly absent while reporting subsequent killings. Introductory statement reinforces an hierarchy in the two sets of crimes.This hierarchy has been established by the VHP and even Chief Minister Narendra Modi when he justified the genocide in Newtonian terms. This brings to the fore the supposed objectivity of Sandesh as a newspaper. Repetitive justification of the post-Godhra violence serves to neutralise the horror and injustice of the subsequent violence. The most horrific acts of violence were repeatedly sensationalised with the use of a few devices. For example, large bold letters were used as headlines particularly when referring to gruesome acts like the burning alive of people. Photographs of burnt, mangled bodies were a common feature on the front page or the last page which usually carries local news. Most colour photos have the colour of red for blood accentuated in a gory, visual fashion. Alternatively, photographs of militant, trishul wielding karsevaks were splashed across the front page. Both kinds of photographs serve to instill fear or terror and to provoke intense passions and mutual hostility between the two communities. Similarly, the reports of Gujarat Samachar (Baroda) did not give the sources of information in its reports. For instance, the front- page report on March 6 was apparently based on a conversation the reporter had with the Railway Police Force personnel. The way these reports have been presented is questionable. This is the day when the top story on the last page is about how gradually the situation is returning to normalcy. A report on March 16 describes incidents in Machchhipith as if Muslims were the culprits. The report ‘Private firing on Rambhakts’ described the whole incident as pre-planned. Nowhere has it mentioned if the Ram Dhun procession was taken out with the police permission and what were the conditions laid out by the police for taking out such a procession. The role played by the mob in the procession was not mentioned. In a Sunday supplement, an article by Bhalchandra Jani justified the demand for Ram Janmabhoomi temple. Gujarat Today is an 11-year old Gujarati daily with a circulation of 70,000. Published by the Lokhit Prakashan Trust of Ahmedabad, it was started by Muslim liberals. It is probably the only daily with a large Muslim readership. It is important to analyse the role played by Gujarat Today given that it caters to the very section of people in Gujarat affected by the state-wide violence following the Godhra incident and undoubtedly plays an important role in giving information and building opinion among Muslims. Given the terror, insecurity and alienation that Muslims in Gujarat felt over those first few weeks of violence following Godhra, it is commendable that Gujarat Today consciously sought to project the more humane side of inter-community relationships to Muslim readers through its reports. For example, there was a report on how the lives and properties of 175 Muslims of Naroda in Ahmedabad were protected by the local shepherds; how Hindu doctors of Bhavnagar saved properties from burning and made efforts to treat the injured; relief of foodgrain and clothes provided by Hindus to victims in Jhagadia; and a group marriage of Hindu and Muslim youth in Mangrol. Also reported was news of Prantij, where a woman sarpanch successfully stopped riots occurring in her village. The March 8 edition gives news related to peace committees in Vagra, Palej, Dholka and Bharuch. On March 10, the paper had a report on how Hindu families saved the lives of 15 Muslims in Kavitha village near Borsad. While there are reports of Juhapura, where Hindus were saved by Muslims, there is also a report on how looting of both Hindus and Muslims took place. The paper attempted to maintain a balance on the role of the police over the first two and a half weeks of the violence. Peace in Padra was attributed to the local police, while the arrest of 28 Muslim youths in Vadodara was criticised. Gujarat Today maintained a good balance in its editorials and commentaries on the violence. Several editorials reflected concern with the fall-out of the riots and how their effects might be mitigated. The editorials surveyed did not always address the violence. Editorials on only five of the 13 days were about the violence in the State. |
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Of indifference & callousness At the conceptual level, the current drift within the media is quite visible. The perils of hijacking the media as a product with colourful wrappings of scanty-clad females or some other cosmetic product must now be realised. It cannot be left to the market forces alone that in what shape information should be presented before its readers or viewers. Institutions like the Press Council of India too have failed to raise the issues before us at this crucial hour. The worst part of the current reporting on Gujarat is that its central theme has been the statistical data, meaning how many Hindus or Muslims have been the victims. The media — print or electronic — has failed to evoke the country’s conscience on this tragedy. The human tragedy cannot be described or camouflaged in numbers. Even a single death means a lot to a family. It orphans the young and brings the entire family to a precipice, causing innumerable difficulties. The media has also failed to discharge its duty in properly highlighting factors behind the flare-up, the changing psychology of the people indulging in senseless violence. In some cases even the rich were seen indulging in looting shops and houses. Objective reporting is a far cry. If media persons had some sense of history and a little background of the forces that led to the partition of the country, they might have handled this sensitive area with caution and courage. In the name of objectivity, the media has invariably highlighted the carnage and the destruction of property in such a way that instead of evoking anger against the perpetrators of the crime, it furthered the chasm between the communities. The media should have followed the National Integration Council’s guidelines that it should not reveal the identities of the victims or attackers and efforts should be made to maintain social and communal harmony. A communal incident is not a battle between two communities, but a crime against the entire humanity. Instead of generating repulsion against those who tried to further their communal agenda, they were projected as genuine leaders of the two communities. Instead of taking bytes from these so-called Muslim and Hindu leaders, the media should have focused on the difficult task and role of the local leaders irrespective of their political affiliation. Instead of reporting the ground realities, the interviews and statements of religious chiefs and self-styled religious leaders were given undue projections on the television, adding fuel to the already surcharged atmosphere. Even though it was reported that the attackers were generally outsiders, the thrust should have been on how local residents tried to save the life and property of the other religious groups. The commendable work of certain police officers did not receive adequate media attention. During the past six weeks, the media has also exposed itself that it lacks sensitivities to handle such a delicate issue. No background documents and visuals were projected about the earlier incidents in Gujarat detailing how communal riots flared up in the state during the late sixties and how the people of Gujarat in their tradition of brotherhood had saved the situation and the state was brought to peace and progress. The media should have highlighted that during the earlier incidents, Gandhiji, Nehru and Sardar Patel used to enter even in the worst riot-scenario without being afraid of their personal life. But today it took Prime Minister Vajpayee 35 days to visit the riot-hit people. Leaders like Mr V.P. Singh and Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav did not care to tour the affected areas. Neither the Centre nor the State administration responded to the challenge of the riots. There is a seize within their media organisations. Journalist-MPs like Rajiv Shukla, Vishwa Bandhu Gupta, Dinanath Mishra, Balbir Punj and Narendra Mohan did not visit Gujarat. Instead of guiding local media persons on reporting the violence, they delivered homilies as paid panel members on various television channels. Our filmstars attend election campaigns, but not riot-affected areas. The mass media seemed insensitive towards the affected people. It is also exploiting the Gujarat situation for blatant commercial gains. Riot reports are being generally brought before the viewers sponsored by either cola companies, undergarment manufacturers or cosmetic manufacturers. Thus, the media, despite its holier than thou claim, is trivialising the worst tragedy of post-Independence India. |
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‘It was like a military operation against an external armed enemy’ Numbed with disgust and horror, I returned from Gujarat ten days after the terror and massacre that convulsed the state. My heart is sickened, my soul wearied, my shoulders aching with the burdens of guilt and shame. As you walk through the camps of riot survivors in Ahmedabad, in which an estimated 53,000 women, men, and children are huddled in 29 temporary settlements, displays of overt grief are unusual. People clutch small bundles of relief materials, all that they now own in the world, with dry and glassy eyes. Some talk in low voices, others busy themselves with the tasks of everyday living in these most basic of shelters, looking for food and milk for children, tending the wounds of the injured. But once you sit anywhere in these camps, people begin to speak and their words are like masses of pus released by slitting large festering wounds. The horrors that they speak of are so macabre that my pen falters in the writing. The pitiless brutality against women and small children by organised bands of armed young men is more savage than anything witnessed in the riots that have shamed this nation from time to time during the past century. I force myself to write a small fraction of all that I heard and saw, because it is important that we all know. Or may be also because I need to share my own burdens. In Ahmedabad, most people I met — social workers, journalists, survivors — agree that what Gujarat witnessed was not a riot, but a terrorist attack followed by a systematic, planned massacre, a pogrom. Everyone spoke of the pillage and plunder, being organised like a military operation against an external armed enemy. An initial truck would arrive broadcasting inflammatory slogans, soon followed by more trucks which disgorged young men, mostly in khaki shorts and saffron sashes. They were armed with sophisticated explosive materials, country weapons, daggers and trishuls. They also carried water bottles, to sustain them in their exertions. The leaders were seen communicating on mobile telephones from the riot venues, receiving instructions from and reporting back to a co-ordinating centre. Some were seen with documents and computer sheets listing Muslim families and their properties. They had detailed precise knowledge about buildings and businesses held by members of the minority community, such as who were partners say in restaurant business, or which Muslim homes had Hindu spouses were married who should be spared in the violence. This was not a spontaneous upsurge of mass anger. It was a carefully planned pogrom. The trucks carried quantities of gas cylinders. Rich Muslim homes and business establishments were first systematically looted, stripped down of all their valuables, then cooking gas was released from cylinders into the buildings for several minutes. A trained member of the group then lit the flame which efficiently engulfed the building. In some cases, acetylene gas which is used for welding steel, was employed to explode large concrete buildings. Mosques and dargahs were razed, and were replaced by statues of Hanuman and saffron flags. Some dargahs in Ahmedabad city crossings have overnight been demolished and their sites covered with road building material, and bulldozed so efficiently that these spots are indistinguishable from the rest of the road. Traffic now plies over these former dargahs, as though they never existed. The unconscionable failures and active connivance of the state police and administrative machinery is also now widely acknowledged. The police is known to have misguided people straight into the hands of rioting mobs. They provided protective shields to crowds bent on pillage, arson, rape and murder, and were deaf to the pleas of the desperate Muslim victims, many of them women and children. There have been many reports of police firing directly mostly at the minority community, which was the target of most of the mob violence. The large majority of arrests are also from the same community which was the main victim of the pogrom. As one who has served in the Indian Administrative Service for over two decades, I feel great shame at the abdication of duty of my peers in the civil and police administration. The law did not require any of them to await orders from their political supervisors before they organised the decisive use of force to prevent the brutal escalation of violence, and to protect vulnerable women and children from the organised, murderous mobs. The law instead required them to act independently, fearlessly, impartially, decisively, with courage and compassion. If even one official had so acted in Ahmedabad, she or he could have deployed the police forces and called in the army to halt the violence and protect the people in a matter of hours. No riot can continue beyond a few hours without the active connivance of the local police and magistracy. The blood of hundreds of innocents are on the hands of the police and civil authorities of Gujarat, and by sharing in a conspiracy of silence, on the entire higher bureaucracy of the country. I have heard senior officials blame also the communalism of the police constabulary for their connivance in the violence. This too is a thin and disgraceful alibi. The same forces have been known to act with impartiality and courage when led by officers of professionalism and integrity. The failure is clearly of the leadership of the police and civil services, not of the subordinate men and women in khaki who are trained to obey their orders. Where also, amidst this savagery, injustice, and human suffering is the ‘civil society’, the Gandhians, the development workers, the NGOs, the fabled spontaneous Gujarati philanthropy which was so much in evidence in the earthquake in Kutch and Ahmedabad? The newspapers reported that at the peak of the pogrom, the gates of Sabarmati Ashram were closed to protect its properties, it should instead have been the city’s major sanctuary. Which Gandhian leaders, or NGO managers, staked their lives to halt the death-dealing throngs? It is one more shame that we as citizens of this country must carry on our already burdened backs, that the camps for the Muslim riot victims in Ahmedabad are being run almost exclusively by Muslim organisations. It is as though the monumental pain, loss, betrayal and injustice suffered by the Muslim people is the concern only of other Muslim people, and the rest of us have no share in the responsibility to assuage, to heal and rebuild. The state, which bears the primary responsibility to extend both protection and relief to its vulnerable citizens, was no where in evidence in any of the camps, to manage, organise the security, or even to provide the resources that are required to feed the tens of thousands of defenceless women, men and children huddled in these camps for safety. The only passing moments of pride and hope that I experienced in Gujarat, were when I saw men like Mujid Ahmed and women like Roshan Bahen who served in these camps with tireless, dogged humanism amidst the ruins around them. In the Aman Chowk camp, women blessed the young band of volunteers who worked from four in the morning until after midnight to ensure that none of their children went without food or milk, or that their wounds remained untended. Their leader Mujid Ahmed is a graduate, his small chemical dyes factory has been burnt down, but he has had no time to worry about his own loss. Each day he has to find 1600 kgs of foodgrain to feed some 5,000 people who have taken shelter in the camp. The challenge is even greater for Roshan Bahen, almost 60, who wipes her eyes each time she hears the stories of horror by the residents in Juapara camp. But she too has no time for the luxuries of grief or anger. She barely sleeps, as her volunteers, mainly working class Muslim women and men from the humble tenements around the camp, provide temporary toilets, food and solace to the hundreds who have gathered in the grounds of a primary school to escape the ferocity of merciless mobs. As I walked through the camps, I wondered what Gandhiji would have done in these dark hours. I recall the story of the Calcutta riots, when Gandhi was fasting for peace. A Hindu man came to him, to speak of his young boy who had been killed by Muslim mobs, and of the depth of his anger and longing for revenge. And Gandhi is said to have replied: If you really wish to overcome your pain, find a young boy, just as young as your son, a Muslim boy whose parents have been killed by Hindu mobs. Bring up that boy like you would your own son, but bring him up with the Muslim faith to which he was born. Only then will you find that you can heal your pain, your anger, and your longing for retribution. There are no voices like Gandhi’s that we hear today. Only discourses on Newtonian physics, to justify vengeance on innocents. We need to find these voices within our own hearts, we need to believe enough in justice, love, tolerance. There is much that the murdering mobs in Gujarat have robbed from me. One of them is a song I often sang with pride and conviction. The words of the song are: “Sare jahan se achha Hindustan hamara.” It is a song I will never be able to sing again. The writer has resigned from the Indian Administrative Service (1980 Batch, Madhya Pradesh cadre) very recently in protest against the administrative inaction in Gujarat. |
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Musharraf is fulcrum in ‘axis of evil’ The Government of Pakistan knows that the Taliban and Al Qaida fighters are regrouping with logistical support from Pakistanis. The raids on Taliban and Al Qaida hideouts in Lahore, Multan and Faislabad or on the basis of intelligence gathered by the Americans are indicative of the US pressure on Musharraf. “Rogue elements” within Pakistan Army’s Inter-Services Intelligence are supporting the remnants of Taliban and Al Qaida fighters. One way of doing that was denying intelligence to US forces about the whereabouts of the top leadership these terrorist organisations. In fact General Pervez Musharraf removed some ISI officers from their posts and shifted them out of the institution to try and placate the Americans. It worked for some time, with President George Bush publicly praising Musharraf as a bulwark in the “War against terrorism”. The Pearl murder and the church attack have blown the veneer of respectability that Washington has carefully tried to invest in the Pakistan military dictatorship. This, in spite of the fact that any assessment of the Afghan developments cannot but come to the conclusion that the total immersion of Pakistan in Afghan affairs cannot be attributed to the activity of “rogue elements” but that the Taliban was a catspaw of Islamabad and the Pakistan Army is the focal point of power there. That puts General Musharraf squarely in the middle of the terror networks. It also exposes a kink in President George Bush’s overtly exhibited inclination to extend the “War against terrorism” to what he describes as the “Axis of Evil — Iran, Iraq and North Korea. Even members of the coalition against terror are clear that this a personal agenda of the Bush family because the elder George Bush, even after winning the Gulf War and crushing Iraq into the dust in 1990, lost his presidency in the next elections and Saddam Hussain continues to rule Iraq to the present day. It must rankle that there is no one in the whole of Iraq who covets the Presidential Palace which Saddam Hussain occupies. Attempts to involve him in the conspiracy to disperse the deadly anthrax in America have turned into a public relations disaster with evidence increasingly pointing to a “rogue element” within the American society itself who apparently has gained access to a type of anthrax that was developed exclusively in an US biological warfare laboratory. That is why President Bush had to coin the “Axis of Evil” to make out that Iraq, Iran and North Korea are involved in the development of weapons of mass destruction based on nuclear, biological and chemical ingredients. Evidence that Pakistan is the fulcrum of terrorism worldwide lies in the utterances of Sheikh Sayeed Omar, the man arrest for the murder of Daniel Pearl. Omar has threatened the USA of a recrudescence of terrorist acts against it if he is deported for trial there. Read with General Musharraf’s assertion that because Pearl was meeting dangerous characters, his death was a foregone conclusion, this callous remark cannot but be interpreted in Washington to mean that any attempt to uncover the nexus between the terrorists and the State apparatus (which was what Daniel Pearl was trying to do by investigating the angle that the Pakistan government’s move to ban the terrorist organisations and to freeze their bank accounts was a farce) will not be tolerated by either the terrorists or the State. The attack on the church in a high-security zone was one more pointer to Musharraf’s pre-eminent position within the “Axis of Evil”. The USA is fast learning that it cannot run with the terrorist hares while hunting with the anti-terrorist hounds. Hence the overt show of coercive diplomacy and the rather public diktat that Musharraf must hand over the terrorists that India wants. Whether Washington can lean more heavily on him to be able to lay hands on the Taliban and Al Qaida leadership that has gone underground remains moot.
ADNI
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KASHMIR DIARY It’s spring and the wedding season is back in Kashmir. Time to put on a lot of weight. Actually, the major wedding season is autumn. That’s when the rice crop, Kashmir’s staple, is in, the sheep that Kashmiris prefer to other meats have been fattened through the summer, and chillies, onions and walnuts too are fresh. Last September and October, it had begun to seem that the entire valley was getting married. Kashmiris spend huge sums on weddings. The families of both the bride and the groom often purchase 500 to 800 kgs of meat each for the feasting that lasts for at least a week after a wedding — and for several days before too. It has become the norm over the past five to ten years to slaughter vast numbers of sheep and, at the end of the day, to waste a colossal amount of wonderfully well cooked food. This vast consumption is not an old tradition. Even 15 years ago, seven dishes were the maximum anybody served, except perhaps the exceptionally rich and famous. Older Kashmiris say that, particularly in rural Kashmir, only three or four dishes would be served at a wedding in the years before
Independence. The new trend is no doubt a symptom of the pressure to keep ahead of the neighbours that comes with rapid socio-economic mobility. At one wedding I attended in village Haripora near Kangan last October, the waza (chef) told me he was preparing 23 dishes for the barat that was to come the next day. The bride was the daughter of a milkman. The family business is evidently flourishing, since they have a well patronised shop in Kangan. One of their neighbours estimated that they must deal in 500-600 litres of milk every day, selling some of it as yoghurt and some as paneer (cottage cheese). Whatever their income, they were clearly spending lakhs of rupees on just the feasting. The bride’s chacha (uncle) told me 700 kilos of meat was to be served. I happened to be invited as part of the barat too. When I arrived for the feast, I found that, in addition to the meat dishes, there was a paneer curry, a mushroom curry, a spinach preparation, a curry of Kashmiri apples and another of apricots. Needless to say, it was almost impossible to get up after that gargantuan meal. Like every Kashmiri feast, the guests were seated on sheets in a vast tent and a large platter, called a trami, placed between every four guests. Each trami was heaped with rice, over which was placed a curry made from a mince, in each quarter of the trami. The trami is so large and the mound of rice so large that no one really needs to touch anyone else’s food. The rice itself becomes a sort of dam separating each quarter. Over the initial mince were placed two long seekh kebabs (grilled mince rolls), one large shammi kebab (round cutlet), two racks of ribs (singed into the famous tabak-maz), two halves of chicken grilled differently, a smallish raan (leg of mutton) and another large chunk of mutton. All that was just for starters. Almost immediately, the wazas’ boys began to make their rounds with one delicacy after another. These would be expertly tossed into the centre of the trami, from where each guest could pull whatever he wanted into the little pit formed by the rice in his quarter of the trami. Gravy was dished out separately into each pit. I lost count but there were certainly at least seven meat curries, apart from the vegetarian ones I have already listed. Actually, the apricot curry wasn’t really vegetarian. It too had meat in it. On the side, the four guests around each trami were provided a large bowl of yoghurt, a 2-litre bottle of Coke, a couple of bottles of mineral water and a plate containing half-a-dozen chutneys, onion salad and pickles. All this suggests people have more money in Kashmir, particularly over the last three or four years. |
Prabhakaran doesn’t look as ferocious as his deeds
Was he remorseful at his press conference for hatching the conspiracy to assassinate Rajiv Gandhi ten years back? Apparently, he showed little repentance, merely describing the ghastly murder as tragic and told the questioner to forget the past. As of now, he wanted to forge closer and better ties with India since the role of New Delhi was important to the success of the peace process. Pressure on Prabhakaran began mounting since the worldwide crackdown by the USA on terrorists networks following September 11 attack on the World Trade Centre towers. The LTTE too felt the heat. This is said to be among the reasons for the Tiger Chief to agree to talks with the Sri Lankan Government in Thailand, preceded by last week’s press conference. Will the reign of terror end in the island nation and the people be able to breath freely? Chances appear bleak unless he gives up the demand for Eelam. Prabhakaran has horrible record of cold-blooded murders including that of Rajiv Gandhi, Sri Lanka’s President, Ranasinghe Premadasa, UNP’s Presidential candidate, Gamini Dissanayake, Rajan Wijeratne, Minister of State for Defense and A. Amrithalingam, Secretary General of the Tamil United Liberation Front. People still shudder to think how his men chased in the fields his main Tamil rival, Sri Sabaratnam, and shot him like a dog. Even an abortive attempt was made on the life of President Chandrika Kumaratunga. New York Times once compared Prabhakaran to Pol Pot and wrote: he leads a movement whose deeds in scale, pale alongside the genocide committed by Pol Pot’s Khemer Rouge in the 1970s. Though a ruthless killer, Prabhakaran has many faceted personality; he is either worshipped or hated. His hardcore followers venerate him, see him as their saviour and, some among them, consider him an incarnation of “Vishnu”. His victims despise him and call him a heartless killer who has no emotions. A section of Tamilians consider him a total maniac, somewhat like Hitler and think that he is irredeemably sub-human being. Both his friends and foes, however, admire his courage and organising ability. He successfully created a highly disciplined and motivated cadre a manifestation of which is inherent in what has come to be known as “cyanide cult”. Each regular member of the LTTE carries a cyanide pill and is pledged to committing suicide rather than being captured by the enemy. The LTTE consists of four wings; army, navy, anti-aircraft wing and Black Tiger wing which consists of members who sacrifice their own lives in suicide attacks on major military installations and political leaders. Personally, Prabhakaran has his own character and personality; disciplined, austere and passionately committed to the cause of what he calls liberation of Tamils of Sri Lanka. The Supremo of Tigers neither drinks nor smokes; his only weakness is good food. He has
unparallel gifted military abilities, a genius, a master strategist and tactician. So committed he is to his cadres that he named his three children after his “martyred’ comrades. He may be criticised for his ruthlessness but everyone agrees that he has an inner fire and unmatched dedication. So much so that he is able to raise the status of the LTTE as a dominant politico-military force. There was a time when Prabhakaran proudly called himself an ally of India and described this country as “father land”. He had a villa in Chennai and given armed escort. But deployment of the Indian Peace Keeping force in 1987 to Sri Lanka changed the situation. The IPKF returned in 1990 and a year later he planned the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi. Indian intelligence agencies now consider tigers a threat to the country’s security and New Delhi has issued a warrant of arrest for Prabhakaran’s and return to India where he may face death penalty. The LTTE Chief has his heroes too and they include Alexander, Napoleon, Subhash Chandra Bose, Bhagat Singh and Bal Gangadhar Tilak and he draws inspiration from their lives. |
TDP likely to retain Speaker’s post Last week, Prime Minister’s perceived man for all seasons, Vijay Goel, visited Hyderabad. Ostensibly he had gone there to attend a conference of Aggarwals. He also met the Andhra Pradesh chief minister. Originally, Naidu had given him15 minutes but the meeting went beyond the usual courtesies. The meeting lasted over an hour. The issue of TDP retaining the post of Lok Sabha Speaker came up for discussion. Naidu told Goel that the issue would be sorted out during his forthcoming visit to Delhi. Naidu is reaching here on April 15 and is expected to meet the Prime Minister on April 16. South Block grapevine has it that the TDP would not only formally agree to retain the post but also announce the name of the candidate. Naidu has no choice because the Congress has stepped up political attacks on him and the TDP. Besides, he is also aware that the so-called Third Front is nothing but a gas bag, a political mirage. So, the man with 29 MPs in the Lok Sabha would seemingly be obliging the BJP for continuing to support the government from outside. It is another matter that this outsider is much better off than any insider. Power
play Union Power Minister Suresh Prabhu was in news last week for wrong reasons. Coinciding with the conclave of the Shiv Sena in Shirdi, word spread that the young Chartered Accountant Minister had put in his papers due to differences with the party supremo Bal Thackeray. With Prabhu nowhere in sight and the Shiv Sena camp refusing to comment on the news the speculation gained credibility during the day. What made matters worse was that the Prime Minister and top officials of the PMO were away on an overseas trip and there was no formal confirmation or denial of the news. An enterprising scribe called up the Power Ministry and posed a loaded question by enquring the portfolio of Suresh Prabhu. The puzzled officials obviously did not volunteer any information as they really did not know whether they could call him a former Union Minister. It was only in the evening that the Shiv Sena camp clarified that Prabhu continues to be Minister. The clarification notwithstanding, the very emergence of the news has led to speculation on what caused it. One theory was that Bal Thackery was not happy with Prabhu’s style of independent functioning. The idea was just to recharge the remote control and ensure that it is effective even in far away Delhi, a Shiv Sena watcher said. Laloo
arrives Former Bihar Chief MInister Laloo Pasad Yadav will be the cynosure of all eyes in the Rajya Sabha when the Budget sssion of Parliament resumes this week. He is all set to occupy the much coveted seat in the House of Elders. Known for his quick and witty remarks, the Bihar strongman’s quips are hailed by the so-called ‘sound bite’ journalists and dreaded by the ruling party. Laloo is bound to take the government to task about the the ill-effects of the budget proposals on the common man in his inimitable style. The BJP is hoping that its bollywood star and eminent Bihari Shatrugan Sinha would be able to challenge Laloo. In the clash of the Biharis, it remains to be seen who will emerge victorious. Widening gulf The print and electronic media are at loggerheads in the capital. They seem to have carried their fight to Goa. It is learnt that the television channels had booked strategic rooms at the venue of the BJP national executive meet and positioned themselves at vantage points for gathering news from those attending the office bearers meeting. This was strongly objected to by print journalists and electronic media journalists had to vacate the place. This led to heated
exchanges between the personnel of the two mediums. Business
ties There were days when political parties shunned business houses. However, in the changing times parties don’t mind flaunting their connections. In this context the presence of the Dhirubhai Ambani group at the ongoing BJP meet at Goa is being talked about. For one, the national executive meeting is being held in Goa’s Hotel Mariott owned and run by famous industrialist Salgaonkars who have strong matrimonial ties with the the family of petrochemical giants. But the connections don’t end here as the plane bringing Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi to Goa for attending the executive meeting is also said to have been arranged through the good offices of the Ambanis. Monitoring Gujarat NHRC Chairman Justice J.S. Verma’s visit to Gujarat and meeting with the victims following the Godhra tragedy seems to have left an indelible impression on his mind. Justice Verma, who severely criticised the Gujarat government for its inaction and intelligence failure and gave preliminary comments, is keeping a close watch on domestic developments related to Gujarat and human rights violations from overseas. He left for Geneva on April 8 along with member, Virender Dayal and Joint Secretary, S. Jalaja to attend the conference of national human rights institutions. He will then go to Copenhagen and London. Though he will return on April 25, his staff has been keeping him posted of developments by sending copies of news reports by e-mail and fax. Contributed by Rajeev
Sharma, T.V.Lakshminarayan, Satish Misra and Tripti Nath. |
Muslim IAS officers feel insecure in Gujarat It gets depressing as those returning from Gujarat are recounting first- hand experiences with all the detailing. The levelof intolerance on the streets of Ahmedabad was such that last week SAHMAT’s Shabnam Hashmi found it difficult to move about in a particular market place after her son called for his father. The moment a shopkeeper heard the child saying “Abbu” he sensed they were Muslims and he could be heard telephoning other shopkeepers, subtly relaying the message that Muslims were spotted in his shop...fortunately before they were attacked Shabnam and her family managed to move away. But then, she recounts the names of those who were killed and looted because of their Muslim names and surnames. A couple of hours back , I was attending a reception where a Gujarat cadre bureaucrat was stating that civil servants with Muslim names and surnames were finding it increasingly difficult to function and move around in the state and the IAS Officers’ Association is in a hopeless state because most are feeling disillusioned. Three IAS officers of the Gujarat cadre (all non-Muslims) have resigned as they couldn’t come to terms with what they had witnessed — blatant use and misuse of State machinery to bring about a reign of
terror. Yet, Chief Minister Narendra Modi sits secure. Season's end Around this time of the year there’s immense activity here. On April 11, High Commissioner of Bangladesh Tufail Haider hosted a reception to celebrate the national day of his country. It was well attended. He is yet to present his credentials to the President. I had met him and spouse Raana at Bhai Chand Patel’s Valentine’s Day do and the couple seemed extremely enthusiastic about their posting here. Last week , art writer and curator Alka Raghuvanshi’s book “Pathfinders — Artistes of one world”, published by Wisdom Tree was launched by the Director of the British Council . The book is a collection of interviews with 20 world famous artists, dancers, musicians, writers and poets from Britain, France, the USA, Pakistan, Germany, and of course India. It features luminaries like Pina Baush, Malika Pukhraj, Ghulam Sabri, Surinder Singh of the Singh Bandhu duo, Marcel Mareau, L Subramaniam, Manjit Bawa, Raja and Radha Reddy. “Artistes across the board share one thing: Pangs of creativity. Creativity, that drives them to dream the impossible and make it come true. It takes a lot of courage. And a lot of living. This collection is a peek into the persona of those who walked the lonely path and having found their destiny, rejoined the mainstream”, says Raghuvanshi who not just interviewed these personalities but talks passionately about them “Very often during the course of one’s life, one meets people who leave an indelible impression. They then, become a permanent part of the landscape of one’s mind. Some of whom, even change the way one is — forever. I have had the privilege of meeting some such people. It was then that the idea of having a collection of such moments in a book form took root and Pathfinders is a result of this”. After Cuban cigars, Manish Dutt is all set to market cognac. With The Oberoi, he pooled together enough bandobasts for the launch of Davidoff Cognac in the country. And some of the who’s who of the city could be seen going absolutely berserk at the poolside party to mark the launch. So much so that one of the diplomats was heard telling another, “Anyway, this isn’t the real India”. |
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LTTE Supremo, Velupillai Prabhakaran, has changed his attire now puts on blue-gray safri suits instead of battle uniform but can a tiger really change its stripes? Possibly not. His orders to his cadres have been shoot me if I compromise on the goal to Eelam (Tamil homeland). And, true to his commitment he adhered steadfastly to the demand for an independent Tamil state at his much hypedpress conference last week. This was, for the first time, that 200-odd journalists were face-to-face with the world’s most dreaded man at his jungle hideout in Northern Sri Lanka. A few have seen him before and fewer talked to him; he didn’t look as ferocious as his deeds. Why did Prabhakaran speak in Tamil only and needed an interpreter? A school dropout, having mastered warfare all by himself he, possibly, could not get proficiency in English but, besides being a brilliant military strategist, he has a razor sharp mind.
If politics is nothing but a great art of survival, then N Chandrababu Naidu is a pastmaster in this. His Telugu Desam Party has floated a news story in the media that the party is having a rethink on whether or not to retain the constitutional post of Lok Sabha Speaker after the death of G M C Balayogi some 40 days back. The reports did not go unnoticed by the BJP.