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Sunday,
April 21, 2002, Chandigarh, India  
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Bridging
the Hindu-Muslim divide Water wars or water
peace?: Preparing for the Earth Summit |
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Asutosh
Mookerjee: a role model for VCs H. S. Virk SIR Asutosh Mookerjee was the Vice-Chancellor of Calcutta University from 1906 to 1911, a record unbroken till date in India. He was knighted by the British Government in 1911 because of his excellent work as an educationist. He founded the Mathematical Society of India and became the first President of Indian Science Congress in 1914. He continued as honorary VC of Calcutta University while presiding over the Calcutta High Court as a judge and later as its Chief Justice.
His resignation
should stir our rulers’ conscience
Mercurial
Mamata is her own worst enemy
War of
hatred won’t remain confined to minorities
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Bridging the Hindu-Muslim divide COMMUNALISM has reached such proportions that every thinking Indian with a minimum sense of civic responsibility needs to define a position on this issue. Do Hindus and Muslims in a country like ours need to waste time on a temple or a mosque when there are far more serious economic, educational and social problems crying for attention? Each Indian needs to contribute in his or her small way to the amelioration of this problem. Modern India is a land not of a solitary religion but of diverse religions. The state does not sponsor or foster any one religion at the expense of the others. This is in keeping with the greatness of India, which through times immemorial, has been the cradle of composite culture. The great poet Iqbal once said about Ram: “Hai Ram ke wajood pe Hindostan ko naaz/Ahle nazr samajhte hein us ko Imam-e-Hind!” We believe that this process of assimilation has to go on continuously. Sufi texts record that after saint Kabir, the inspired poet-weaver of northern India, died his lovers and the connoisseurs of his dohas — both Hindus and Muslims — fought for the claim of cremating or burying his last remains. As the quarrel started to communal passions, an elderly gentleman requested both communities to cover the saint’s body and wait till next morning. Astonishingly, when the sheet was taken off, the warring communities found that in place of the body, two heaps of flowers were kept. The Hindus cremated the tulsi flowers while the Muslims buried the jasmine heap, and the problem was sorted out. The moral of the story is that the two diverse cultures of Muslims and Hindus are inseparable and need to run like the parallel lines of a railway track — always together socially but also retaining their religious identities that are separate. Religion needs to be separated from politics. It can be best done by the truly religious. The minority community needs to be led by an unquestioned leadership of deeply religious persons who will stamp out any chances of flaring communal flames. Maulana Abul Kalam Azad was a deeply religious Muslim leader, a renowned Islamic theologian like Maulana Maududi, but communal harmony was dearest to him. He never stirred Muslims to political action through their faith. Zakir Hussain, who devoted his life to Jamia Millia, did not take that platform to espouse a communal cause; nor was Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed that sort. Today Azads, Fakhruddins and Hussains would have been needed to counter inflammable propaganda. Their very presence and action would have kept the majority community in check. Instead, small time leaders of the minority community have adopted the view — the best defence is offence. This is a tactic that helps no cause. Just before the dismemberment of the subcontinent, the Muslim peasant in Bengal participated as joyously in the village Durga Pooja as his Hindu neighbour. In Bangladesh Hindus celebrated
Id. If entire Muslim villages in Malaysia can watch the Ramayana performed on stage, there is no reason why they cannot do the same in India or include Hindus in tazia processions and Karbala enactments. Meena Kumari, Nargis, Waheeda Rehman and Mumtaz umpteen times played the role of the devoted Hindu wife with sindoor on the forehead. What about bhajans sung in Muhammad Rafi’s sonorous voice? Should we ban his cassettes? Should we stop seeing a Dilip Kumar or an Aamir Khan or Salman Khan film? Likewise, after the namaz when the Muslims stepped out of the mosques, in almost all the walled city locales of India, one could observe Hindu men and women standing with their sick children to be blessed after the prayers. A Maulvi sahib used to wake up a Panditji for his morning ringing of the temple bells or for sounding the shankh. Our composite culture has been that as Sir Syed once described India as a beautiful bride whose two bewitching eyes were — the Hindus and the Muslims! According to “Muraqqa-e-Delhi” of Nawab Dargah Quli Bahadur, Mughal emperors consumed only Gangajal. Their celebration of Holi, Diwali and Dasara is well known. If the rulers were Muslim, the economy was run by Hindu administrators and officers. Muslim monarchs trusted Hindu accountants. In the military field if Aurangzeb had brave Rajput generals, Shivaji trusted only Muslim generals. The sufi saints like Sheikh Muinuddin Chishti, Hazrat Nizamuddin Aulia, Khwaja Qutubuddin Bakhtiyar Kaki and other pirs like Haji Malang in Mumbai are highly revered by all Indians irrespective of the faiths they follow. The rath percolated in the Muslim society as the tazia. The Lord of the Seven Hills of Tirupati was given a Turkish wife — Thuluka Nachiyar in the temple of Srirangapatnam. How long the RSS, the VHP and the Shiv Sena will deny this history? There is no danger of India becoming a Hindu theocratic state so far as we have secular and peace-loving Hindus, and fortunately they outnumber the 10 per cent or less bigoted and rabid ones. One hopes the Hindu majority will prevail. Fortunately, the Shudra and Malecha syndromes in Hindu thought have been attacked. Likewise, the Muslim leadership has to interpret its sacred texts to explain the role of a Muslim citizen as a useful, participating minority member of a state. The distinction between the mosque and the state or theology and religion needs to be clarified so that it can be understood by the meanest intellect. Sri Aurobindo’s “Looking from Within” describes aptly the solution to the communal impasse: “Hindu-Mohammedan unity cannot be effected by political adjustment of Congress flatteries. It must be sought deeper down, in the heart and in the mind, for where the causes of disunion are, there the remedies must be sought... We must strike to remove the causes of misunderstanding by a better mutual knowledge and sympathy, we must extend the unfaltering love of the patriot to our Mussalman brother, remembering that to him too our Mother has given a permanent place in her bosom; but we must cease to approach him falsely or flatter him out of a selfish weakness and cowardice... What is wanted is some new religious movement among the Mohammedans which would remodel their religion and change the stamp of their temperament”. Rabindranath Tagore once wrote, “When natural differences find their harmony then it is true unity; but artificial unity leads to lifelessness”. Pluralism presupposes rejoicing in other’s joys. The great time-honoured religious festivals of India need, by legislation if necessary, to be made into national festivals. Not exclusive “iftars”but by ensuring full participation of every section of the public. What the country needs is a willingness not to turn away from embarrassing confrontations but to tackle them with sincerity and knowledge. Indians need to be openly religious rather than being apologetic about their faith. This in turn will lead to constant and informed debate within society. This will get the cross-cultural juices flowing. To brush communal questions and religious politics under the carpet for fear of antagonising opponents only creates unhealthy animosity. The way the rudderless Muslim leadership hoodwinked and hurt the feelings of the community by its inaction and mere lip-service during the Babri Masjid impasse, has in the aftermath resulted as a catalyst in the process of rationalising the relationship with Hindus, as both share a lot in common. A Hindu of Kolkata is more akin to a Bengali Muslim than a Delhi Hindu. Similarly, a Maharashtrian Muslim shares more in common with a Mumbai-ite Hindu than a Muslim in Punjab. Hindus and Muslims in their respective states are like a beautifully spun harmony on the pleasing graceful Indian fabric. The irrational, fundamentalist and vote-hungry political hawks never wanted this concord and hence reaped communal dissidence, raped peace and researched in differences rather than reconciliation. Rabble-rousing and fire spitting Muslim representatives, both inside Parliament and outside it, with their manipulations and vote-bank calculations, rolled in affluence every passing day, while those whom they represented were seen with a begging bowl. Besides, they never highlighted the real issue of the Muslims; rather they harped on the ones that suited their vote calculations. What hurts Indian Muslims is that in spite of the community having repeatedly asserted its identity as Indians, it finds its patriotism being suspected. In fact, during the Afghan war and the jehad call after that not one Indian Muslim went to Afghanistan to fight there, though there were many from Pakistan and even Bangladesh. Despite umpteen Muslim leaders, ulema and commoners having sacrificed for the nation, their allegiance is in question. Every time there is a communal divide, Indian Muslim have to get their certificate of loyalty renewed! About a decade ago while in London, I reacted vociferously as an Indian to the telecast of the Babri Masjid demolition while a Guardian (December 7, 1992) headline declared: “Hindu terrorism!” I wrote in the British papers without arguing whether Irish terrorism could be slated as Catholic terrorism! I maintained that just because a rowdy section of the Hindus had demolished the mosque and indulged in an orgy of violence and rioting, the entire community could not be generalised as terrorists. The truth is that more than 80 per cent Hindus are secular. Had these level-headed Hindus gone the VHP way, not even one Muslim would have survived in India. When lip-serving and self-serving Muslim politicians start indulging in pseudo-secularism, it boomerangs and a chain reaction is triggered. Hindus are made to believe the myths that the rabbit-like breeding Muslims will one day outnumber them and that the popularity of the ghazals of Ghalib, qawwalis of the Sabri Brothers and poetry of Mir, Zauq, Iqbal and Faiz are dangerous signs of the coming social and political domination of Muslims. Muslims are told on the other hand that the rituals like applying tilak in a state ceremony will defile their religion in the same manner as do the use of coconut and diya during important ceremonies. Once while Maulana Abul Kalam Azad was smeared by tika at a national ceremony, Dawn of Karachi printed the photograph with the caption saying that likewise one day Azad would be proselytised into Hinduism! But neither Ghalib nor his ghazals are compulsorily Islamic nor tilak or diya are necessarily Hindu. These are all parts of an Indian ethos, a result of the conglomeration of multifarious faiths and cultures. For centuries Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs and Christians in India have shared common customs like those on the occasion of a birth, a death or a marriage. The responsibility to stop communalists and pseudo-secularists, who are present in equal measures in the majority and minority communities, lies with all of us. Muslims should take care of their rabble-rousing elements, shake up their leadership and substitute it with devoted, pragmatic and sincere leaders willing to solve the real problems of the community without mobilising them on emotional and religious lines. In the same manner balanced Hindus too must not give more rope to the likes of the VHP or the RSS lest they should hang the community as these organisations have no right to speak on behalf of the entire Hindu community. Sane and secular Hindus should realise that their overwhelming advantage in the power structure — an 80 per cent majority in the electoral base — has ensured that their cultural interests are never to be threatened by any combination of forces or the so called jehad. They should realise that some of their leaders who spread communal hatred, will take them backwards by aggravating ethnic, clan, caste and regional rivalries. They should realise that the centuries old tolerant milieu of India is the creation of the Hindu sages in ancient times, which predates the arrival of Muslims and the birth of Sikhism in India. It is the prized legacy of us all that is in essence Indian. The writer is a grandnephew of Maulana Abul Kalam Azad. |
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Water wars or water peace?: Preparing for the Earth Summit THE aftermath of September 11 has overshadowed preparations now underway for the Earth Summit in Johannesburg in November this year. Few events will have greater impact on humanity’s course in a new century, or on the resources upon which it depends. The preparatory International Freshwater Conference concluded in Bonn brought together 3,000 representatives of 130 countries, led by their ministers. They were told that water will soon be sold like oil through pipelines and tankers, and that 21st century wars will be over disputed water sources. The mood at Bonn was set by economist Sir Richard Jolly. He warned of responding to terrorism with force “after it has attacked, rather than take positive action in advance to diminish its causes,” and offered evidence of action urgently awaited. Over 1.3 billion persons lack safe water and some 2.4 billion are denied sanitation. This silent emergency kills 3,000 people each day, comparable to deaths at Ground Zero on September 11. Most of those who die are children. Johannesburg will review efforts since the Rio Summit of 1992 gave the world Agenda 21, a first comprehensive blueprint for sustainable development. Ten years later, while sustainable development has emerged as an acceptable concept, the planet is in worse shape. The discipline inherent in Agenda goals has proved elusive, leading cynics to describe Rio as the flop show of the nineties. The Freshwater Conference was sponsored by Germany to help avoid a similar fate for Johannesburg. More than a year of research and stakeholder dialogue brought professionals and activists around world together on key issues of equitable access, and on balancing basic human needs for water with those of food production, industry and the ecosystem. Forecast indicate that by 2015, population growth and migration will place an additional 1.6 billion persons in need of water and 2 billion in need of sanitation, while humanity’s water demands will exceed supply by a staggering 30 per cent. Solutions demand the latest development buzzwords: integrated water resource management (IWRM). Water for drinking represents the smallest percentage of total demand, yet it dominates as a survival issue. A way forward emerged in 2000 at the World Water Forum in The Hague. It ratified Vision 21, an approach and action plan prepared through grassroot mobilisation on every continent by the Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council (WSSCC, Geneva). With major inputs from Asia and India, Vision 21 is the peoples’ component of a global water strategy that is informing preparations for the Summit. It represents a commitment to people-centred approaches, and to the acceptance of safe water and sanitation as basic human rights. Initially, this plea for decentralised, democratic alternative proved controversial, dismissed by some as impractical and premature. By the Bonn gathering, Vision 21 principles had moved into acceptance, at least as rhetoric. The emphasis instead was on speeding essential changes in planning and action. The most intractable challenges were to find the money for action, and the will for sharing the political power that water represents. Water, sanitation and agriculture infrastructure require $ 180 billion annually. Current expenditure levels go up to $ 80 billion. An estimated $ 16 billion has been invested over the past decade towards drinking water and sanitation needs. The WSSCC estimates $ 8 billion needed each year for these requirements. The challenge is to mobilise this amount and to use it more effectively through better institutions and practices. Delegates were reminded that this is less than the annual US expenditure on pet food ($ 17 billion) and on ice-cream in Europe ($ 11 billion), and a mere fraction of Europe’s consumption of alcohol ($ 105 billion) — realities that underscore the scandal of global deprivation and the danger of its inevitable rage. With the impact on aid of recession and September 11, final solutions at Bonn were predicted on pricing and privatisation. Both can be unpopular. Politicians remain terrified of charging a fair price for water, while profit derived out of a basic need is immoral to many. The result is that the rich and powerful often enjoy free or subsidised supplies while “the poorer you are, the more you pay for water”. The need is for systems of cross-financing and subsidy that can serve the poor, rather than the rich, and for regulating private initiatives towards efficient service and the encouragement of local income-generating opportunities. South Africa has halved its unserved population through a strategy that balances cost recovery with private and domestic capital and donor assistance. Manila claims to have served 30,000 slum dwellers within a year through a public-private partnership. Yet reservations remain. “What is appropriate for gas, electricity and telecommunication cannot be applied to drinking water, a basic human need,” opined German Minister Jurgen Tritten, even as he and other donors urged private-public partnerships that can ease the constraints of available aid. Financial needs reflect the technologies used to deliver water and sanitation. Bonn missed the presence of the late Anil Agarwal, the indefatigable champion of local water wisdom. His priority for rainwater harvesting was strongly advocated by field activists. They ascribed its neglect to pressures of money and the politics of power-sharing. “People moved away from rainwater harvesting because engineers came in and brought development. Technology took away people’s rights and choices,” said Gourisanker Ghosh former chief of India’s National Drinking Water Mission and now WSSCC’s Director. Sudan’s Fadul El-haj agreed: “Governments are not close to people and do not know their technologies” while Bunker Roy (SWRC, Rajasthan) was blunt: “The Ministers here have not even talked about rainwater harvesting, let alone know anything about it”. Nafisa Barot of Gujarat observed that “Governments are scared to death of giving power to people” while a German activist noted, “You don’t need a civil servant to operate a water pump”. Corruption, public as well as private, emerged as a major barrier in replacing top-down plans and massive engineering with more participatory, less expensive alternative. In the words of a South African delegate, “A senior executive in jail for one month would do more than five years of conferences.” This focus on corruption could be an important contribution from Bonn to deliberations at the Earth Summit. Codes of conduct were advocated to provide an ethical base for work in the sector. The key is to manage water at the lowest appropriate level. This could encourage transparency, and offer access to information as well to “effective and affordable justice”. It would also encourage priority attention to the gender imbalances which place the major burden of deprivation on women. One example is sanitation, which global experience indicates as achieving feasibility only when women are put in charge. Bonn is the latest consultation in a series, which, since 1977, have been pledged to deliver safe water and sanitation to every human being on the planet. Each subsequent conference has served up statistics of effort, and of a goal still tantalisingly distant. Bonn made it clear that the issue could no longer be fudged as one of finance or of technology. Both are available. It is political will that remains inadequate to the task. Leadership was once symbolised by India, representing the largest effort in the sector. Host to the UN’s Safe Water 2000 conference in New Delhi in 1990, no country can match the range of India’s experience, even as its achievements struggle to match its experience. In Bonn, leadership had clearly moved to Africa. The final Ministerial Declaration, with its support to an IWRM approach, bore the stamp of African unity at the highest political level. In contrast, SAARC was a presence visible only through the vigorous networking of its NGOs. And even they were in for a shock. New Delhi stunned the final drafting session by objecting to important references in support of equity and participation needs, despite such approaches being long enshrined in Indian development policy. While some dismissed India’s interventions as bureaucratic quibbling, senior Third World delegates were heard describing its performance as that of a “wrecking crew” that would have to be countered in November. Such a divide would be a disaster, serving only to reinforce the global status quo. South Asia’s survival may well depend on India’s ability to put its act together quickly and wisely in preparation for the Earth Summit. Indian leadership, not its babudom, will be needed there. Centre for Environment Education. |
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Asutosh Mookerjee: a
role model for VCs SIR Asutosh Mookerjee was the Vice-Chancellor of Calcutta University from 1906 to 1911, a record unbroken till date in India. He was knighted by the British Government in 1911 because of his excellent work as an educationist. He founded the Mathematical Society of India and became the first President of Indian Science Congress in 1914. He continued as honorary VC of Calcutta University while presiding over the Calcutta High Court as a judge and later as its Chief Justice. He introduced western science through the medium of English but at the same time promoted Indian languages, philosophy and arts as major university subjects of study. He converted the Calcutta University from an examining and affiliating organisation to a centre of post-graduate teaching and research by raising funds from Indian philanthropists. He never looked to the British rulers for financial help and appointed most talented persons on the faculty of the university. Prof C.V. Raman was appointed as Palit Professor of Physics in violation of the University Calendar which prescribed Ph.D degree from a foreign country as minimum qualification for professorship in Calcutta University. He changed the clause of the calendar in this regard and his choice was vindicated when Raman got Nobel Prize in 1930. To control universities in India, the British Government passed a new University Act in 1904 during Lord Curzon’s rule. Asutosh Mookerjee opposed the British move tooth and nail and ultimately he succeeded in his mission. He was a firm believer that we should learn science in English. At the same time, he pleaded the case of Indian vernaculars and introduced the study of Bengali, Hindi and Urdu upto MA level in Calcutta University despite opposition from various quarters. He favoured the German model of education and combined teaching and research at the post-graduate level. He never went down on his knees before the British to seek grants for opening new departments but raised Rs 45 lakh through donations during his tenure to set up chairs in science subjects. He picked up Dr S. Radhakrishnan (who became the President of India later) as Professor of Philosophy and M.N. Saha, S.N. Bose, S.K. Mitra and P.C. Ray as science lecturers. They rose to positions of eminence. Sir Asutosh Mookerjee is a role model for our Indian Vice-Chancellors. Unfortunately, most of them are spineless and cannot dare the government which appoints them. They want to play a subservient role at the cost of academic freedom and autonomy of the university. They act as bonded slaves to ministers, education secretaries and others to prolong their stay in the university through manipulated extensions. Education and promotion of research is their last priority. Hence, merit is ignored in faculty appointments. Our present VCs promote their own kith and kin or lackeys of their benefactors. The syndicate and senate members act as rubber stamps to win favours from the VCs. The university statutes are violated not to favour Ramans of India but their own tribe. Those who dare to act face the exit, as happened in the case of Prof Amrik Singh at Punjabi University, Patiala. The British Government gave five terms to Asutosh despite his intransigence and indomitable courage to defy them. Could it be possible for his tribe now to follow his footsteps and keep the flame of education burning in the new millennium? The writer teaches Physics at Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar. |
His resignation should stir our rulers’ conscience In his words: “I feel great shame at the abdication of duty of my peers in the civil and police administration”. The law required them to act “independently, fearlessly, impartially and decisively” with courage and compassion but they failed to rise to the occasion. Resignation of an officer hardly makes a difference in the monolith known as bureaucracy but the issues thrown up by Harsh’s abdication should stir the conscience of “political masters” and all right thinking people. What should be the role police and civil authorities in case of communal riots ? The established law on this point is clear: a magistrate need not consult his administrative superior, let alone those regarded as “political masters” in discharge of his duty. Civil as well as police officers, says Harsh, are their own masters and qualified to act on their own judgement and conscience. According to him, authorities responsible for maintenance of law and order today openly await the orders of their political supervisors before they use force, so much so that it has become popular perception that indeed they cannot act without the permission from their administrative and political superiors, and ultimately the Chief Minister. He likens the failure of a police officer to perform his duty to a surgeon killing his patient on the operation table. Even if politicians fan communal fire, the officers are duty-bound to act impartially and protect the innocent lives. The callousness of authorities in Gujarat and connivance of their “political maters” in killings and pillage is a challenge indeed for those who despair about India. Harsh Mander, a social activist and a writer, besides a civil servant, is the one who has accepted this challenge. Will his colleagues in the IAS accept it too? The challenge is far more important for “political masters” for on their response depends the credentials of India as “a sovereign socialist secular democratic republic”. An officer of Madhya Pradesh cadre, having a standing of 20 years in IAS, Harsh’s cadre was changed to Chattisgarh state over a year back . No officer wanted to go to the newly constituted state and those who were selected in a draw went there grudgingly, unwilling and under protest; some went to court. Harsh did not protest but went on deputation to Gujarat little knowing that he would have to carry in his lap a six-year old boy in a camp in Ahmedabad, recounting the killings of his mother and six siblings. He wrote in an article in a reputed weekly: “I felt broken by his pain, but wondered, at the same time, how he would deal with his anger when he grows up”. This was, perhaps, too much for Harsh, known more as a writer and a sensitive person than his colleagues in services; most of them emotionless, wooden-headed bureaucrats. Commissioner, Public Relations, Madhya Pradesh Government, L.K. Joshi, another upright officer, with whom Harsh had opportunity of working says: “Harsh instinctively sides with deprived, exploited and underprivileged”. For example, when he was posted at the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration at Mussoorie as instructor, he was deeply moved by the plight of rickshaw pullers in the hill station. He carried out a campaign for replacing the age-old hand pulled rickshaws with cycle rickshaws. Harsh has long association with Action-Aid, a London based organisation, with the avowed objective of helping the poverty stricken people around the world. The organisation has established poverty-prevention programme in 30 countries in every part of the world . Action Aid’s vision is a world without poverty in which every person can exercise their right to a life of dignity. Harsh is the Director of Action Aid in India and did commendable job, under difficult situation, in Gujarat. Having resigned from the IAS, he cannot devote all the time at his disposal for the noble cause for which he has struggled in his 20-year long career in the IAS. Harsh had dealt with communal riots as Collector in several districts of Madhya Pradesh. He acted decisively to bring under control communal flare up in the Khargone district years back where he was the District Magistrate. He penned down his experience of the riots in the remote district with a writer’s flair. So moving was the account that last year the noted writer, Shashi Tharoor wrote his novel — “Riot”— based on the jottings made by Harsh. In the words of Tharoor: “My college friend Harsh Mander, an IAS officer, sent me an account he had written of a riot he dealt with as a district magistrate in Madhya Pradesh. I was moved by the piece. His story sparked me thinking of riot as a vehicle for a novel about communal hatred. Since I have never managed a riot myself, I asked Harsh’s permission to use the account in my narrative, a request to which he graciously consented”. |
Mercurial Mamata is her own worst enemy
The stated objective was to stem the red tide, a mission in which she miserably failed. After West Bengal polls, she took another U-turn and rejoined NDA. But the BJP had become wiser by now and Mamata di was clearly told that she would have to cool her heels for some time before getting included in the Union Cabinet. An impatient Mamata created a ruckus during the Ayodhya crisis in March and later the Gujarat crisis. Now the South Block grapevine has it that an influential section in the Vajpayee government is so incensed with the mercurial Mamata that it says that it is not bothered about her support of nine MPs if she continues to behave like this. Will Mamata be given a place in the cabinet when the Prime Minister reshuffles his council of ministers immediately after Parliament session ending on May 15? Healthy President President K. R. Narayanan, who was suffering from nagging health problems the whole of last year, has become quite fit this year. Rashtrapati Bhavan sources are taking efforts to point out that Narayanan has been keeping busy schedules of late. The President’s new found health should bring cheer to the Indian Air Force which is having an investiture ceremony this week. The President would present the baton of Marshal of the Indian Air Force to Arjan Singh at the ceremony. The investiture ceremony was to be held a couple of months ago but then the President fell ill and the programme was cancelled. Grapevine has it that Narayanan is keen to offer his services for a second term as President. His new found agility is to silence the critics who have been harping about his ill health. Empty threat Opposition parties are leaving no stone unturned to attack the Vajpayee Government and the Sangh Parivar these days. Leaders are finding all kinds of reasons to embarrass the Government. In such a scenario, Republican Party of India (RPI) leader Ramdas Athawale had his own way of exposing the Sangh Parivar. As the Modi ouster campaign reached a crescendo on Thursday with an adamant opposition stalling Parliament proceedings for the fourth consecutive day, Athawale released an unsigned “threatening letter” received by him to the media. Speaking in his inimitable “serious” style, he claimed that the letter must be from one of the Sangh Parivar outfits as he had openly criticised the Modi Government for the brutal killings of minorities in the State. Interestingly, the typewritten letter carrying the purported threat in Hindi, copy of which was distributed to newspersons, was unsigned and dated February 28, 2002, the day communal violence broke out in Gujarat. Athawale said he had received the letter a month ago on March 9, 2002. Why anyone would threaten Athawale is a million dollar question and a matter of investigation. But, no prizes for guessing right why he took so much time to release the letter to the Press. He was apparently waiting for a right opportunity. Paying
a price The Congress president, in the hope of getting 50 assembly seats, agreed to Azad’s proposal. The Congress did not reach anywhere near the 50-mark. Still Azami had to be accommodated in the Rajya Sabha. When Madam Gandhi was informed about Azami’s past, she was surprised to know that Azami had once abused Indira Gandhi and was one of the most vocal critics of the Congress. She took note of the information and asked Azad to take charge of the Congress in his home state saying that now your time of reckoning has come. In the entire drama, another general secretary Mohsina Kidwai lost out as she had registered herself as a voter in Madhya Pradesh hoping that she would be picked up by Sonia. Sonia’s remarks The stir created by Congress president Sonia Gandhi’s remarks about mental health of Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, made at Guwahati during one of her rare press conferences, refuses to die down with the BJP members using it as a handle to deflect attention from the Opposition clamour over Gujarat. Though Sonia Gandhi later clarified that she did not mean what had been uttered by her on the spur of the moment and she was not happy about the remarks, several BJP MPs have been insisting on an apology from Sonia Gandhi for the remarks. In the past week of disruption in the proceedings of Parliament, each time the Congress MPs in Lok Sabha came on their feet demanding discussion on Gujarat under a provision that entailed voting, the BJP members came back to Sonia Gandhi’s remarks. Even some Congress chief ministers, who were present at Guwahati during her press conference, were taken aback by her words against the Prime Minister with one of them later remarking that he had not heard anything. The Congress president is not known for her access to the media and the controversial remarks at Guwahati may not make things easier. Contributed by Rajeev Sharma, Satish Misra, Girija Shankar Kaura, S.
Atyanarayanan, Prashant Sood and T. V. Lakshminarayan. |
War of hatred won’t remain confined to minorities I continue to receive hate mail as I continue writing about the Gujarat carnage. Don’t blame me for continuing to do so — every single day there is a meet of concerned citizens, who are trying to tell everyone that this war of hatred will not remain confined to just minorities but will be spread out and unleashed against any sane voice which would try to reach out. I am just back from the Indian Social Institute (Lodhi Road) where a group of young citizens had got together and it was rather shocking to hear that even Mallika Sarabhai has been receiving threats after she had filed a complaint against the political mafia ruling in Gujarat. Many spoke in this meet and there were some like Arif Mohammad Khan who seemed so overcome by what he’d witnessed at Ahmedabad’s Shah Alam relief camp that all that he could say was —“At night it gets difficult to sleep because their faces continue to haunt, it gets difficult to even swallow a morsel because their faces haunt...you can’t visualise their agony...how women had been repeatedly raped and killed...” I have a report titled “How the Gujarat massacre affected minority women”. The details are simply horrifying, it is like describing animals raping women ...And in the midst of all this what seems rather ironical is the fact that there is not even a murmur of protest against those rapes, from the National Commission for Women and the National Commission for Minorities. The Chairman of the latter, Justice Mohammad Shamim, had on earlier occasions admitted that it was a toothless organisation. But then, my grouse is that why are toothless bodies allowed to exist with toothless people occupying high seats? Though the NCW Chairperson and other members went to Ahmedabad, sources say that they were State guests, with those gaudy red lights donning their cars and Chief Minister Modi himself ensuring that they were made comfortable. The anger of the minority groups can be judged by the fact that NCW Chairperson Poornima Advani found it difficult to move about in the Shah Alam camp as the word had spread that “Another Advani was around!” Government and other official bodies’ inaction is countered by many
concerned citizens. I have been keen to interview Harsh Mander — the 1980 batch IAS officer who resigned in disgust at the Gujarat carnage — but he has been camping in Ahmedabad, looking after relief operations ( in his capacity as Country Director of Action Aid ). Many others have been travelling to those Ahmedabad relief camps. On April 22, teenaged photographer, Sahir Raza, displays his photographs at the Press Club. On April 27, at the IIC, intellectuals and politicians like Laloo Yadav and Shankar Singh Vaghela will participate in a panel discussion. I have been noticing another trend. Earlier, whenever riots and disturbances occurred in our towns, diplomats posted here refused to comment, brushing it off as “an internal matter”. However, Gujarat carnage has managed to rip off that facade and at the two diplomatic parties which I’d attended this fortnight, there was open disgust at our internal mess. I am sure, Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Nirupama Rao will have a tough time in countering those Gujarat carnage facts. NOT TO GIVE UP Parents of the slain Nitish Katara (killed in February by politician
D. P. Yadav’s son) are in no mood to give up, till they are granted justice. They organised a march on April 20 at Jantar Mantar. After each visit to Jantar Mantar, one is left wondering whether those helpless citizens squatted all along the pavement would really be granted relief and justice. Never has there been so much focus on the refugee problem. Last week, a committee met under Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairperson Najma Heptullah to study the problem. The coming week, the UNHCR and the Centre for Peace Initiatives are jointly organising a day-long meet in this regard. |
Throwing journalistic ethics to wind Abu Abraham’s article “In the name of Ram” (April 7) was in bad taste. Throwing all journalistic ethics to the wind, Abu proceeds with the glee of a wanton urchin to tar everything revered by the Hindus pitch-black. After reading this outrageous piece, the so-called secularists and political opportunists must be chuckling in their sleeves. It is not only a fashion but a fetish among the lumpen elements to lampoon and castigate the Hindu religion; its pooja-paddhathi, its gods and goddesses, its saints and swamis and above all, its stress on spiritualism. By spewing venom against Hinduism, Abu has betrayed a diseased and prejudiced mind of a rank communalist. Better, he confined his despicable homilies to his own religion. The proselytizing religions of Judaic-origin have enough blood on their hands to “incarnadine” the “multitudinous seas”. We cannot solve the communal problem in India simply by “blame game”. Only simpletons think so. A moderate and progressive newspaper like The Tribune has hurt the religious and spiritual feelings of Hindus by publishing this piece. K. K. SAWAL,
Chandigarh II Abu Abraham’s piece (April 7) is a nauseating example of suppressio veri suggestio falsi. It is not in the name of Ram but in the name of secularism that not only fantastic lies have been invented but peerless revolutionaries like Veer Savarkar have been targetted. Heavens will not fall if national aspirations get expressed in the construction of the Ram temple at Ayodhya. Ram is not just a religious leader but an ideal king and as such a national hero. Only a perverse mind can object to honouring him. CHAMAN LAL KORPAL,
Amritsar III I agree with the views of Abu Abraham. It is quite shocking that after the Babri Masjid demolition on December 6, 1992, Muslims have become the targets of attack by communal elements in Gujarat. Every religion stands for peace, love and affection. No religion preaches hatred or violence. Recent developments in Gujarat are a blot on the mankind. The state government has been apparently complacent in tackling communal violence. Is this secularism? And is this what the Preamble to our Constitution says? SANJAY KATWAH,
Shimla Not a correct step This has reference to Mr Harsh Mander’s article “It was like a military operation against an external armed enemy” (April 14). It was shocking to read the state of affairs in Gujarat as described by Mr Mander, but why did Mr Mander resign from the
Indian Administrative Service in the first place? Conduct on the dictum “Na dainyam na palaayanam” (Don’t be chicken-hearted; don’t resort to escapism) is what is expected from a responsible civil servant. What motivated Mr Mander resign his coveted service to the motherland and take resort to cheap popularity should be a matter of grave concern for IAS probationers undergoing training at Mussoorie’s Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration and the protectors of the steel-frame which the IAS is also expected to be like. Mr Mander could have tested his professionalism and gumption in the tough task of handling the situation he was paid for. He could have done much better while in the IAS than what he can do now as a deserter May I request the authorities concerned to impart some compulsory military training at the Mussoorie academy to ripen and harden the psyche of probationers so that they learn the lesson of “do or die” rather than resigning at the time of crisis? Dr BALRAM MISRA,
Noida |
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This is the story of an IAS officer who has resigned in the wake of a systematic slaughter of innocents in Gujarat. Officers of the type of Harsh Mander are rare who, pricked by conscience, can quit the coveted IAS. What stirred his conscience? Apparently, the role of higher police and civil services in the strife-torn state.
MAMATA Bannerji’s political hibernation seems to be getting longer and longer. The much-awaited ministerial portfolio is still not falling into her lap. At least not immediately. And she herself is to be blamed for this. The angry young woman from Kolkata was on cloud nine after an unexpectedly huge success of her newly-launched Trinamool Congress party in the 1999 Lok Sabha elections. So much so that when she joined the Vajpayee cabinet she could dictate her terms. The ministerial portfolio of Railways was given to her on her bidding. Then she took a calculated risk last year just before the West Bengal assembly elections, walked out of the National Democratic Alliance, made a U-turn and joined hands with NDA’s arch rival, the Congress.
Many an eyebrow were raised when Congress president Sonia Gandhi decided to appoint Ghulam Nabi Azad as the president of Jammu and Kashmir Pradesh Congress Committee. A little bird tells us that “Ghulam who always wanted to be a King” is paying a price for his acts of commission and omission in the recently held assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh. He was general secretary incharge of Uttar Pradesh and it was he who had brought Janata Dal Rajya Sabha MP Obaidullah Azami to the Congress fold. Prior to Azami’s entry into the Congress, Azad had briefed Sonia Gandhi about Azami saying that the Janata Dal MP would help Congress in at least 50 Assembly seats and in return he would have to be accommodated in the Rajya Sabha.