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Wednesday,
November 20, 2002, Chandigarh, India  
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Gujarat conundrum Rape Gate of Delhi Musharraf in a tight corner |
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Idea of Asian free trade area
If rules could rule
How long can the people tolerate this?
Sticks, brooms & anti-liquor squad
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Gujarat conundrum PREDICTIONS that the BJP-led government will get a relentless grilling during the winter session of Parliament over the Gujarat happenings may not be very accurate if the first day of the proceedings was any indication. A lot of hue and cry was raised, of course, but it was not forceful enough to jolt the government. It is not as if the government had a foolproof case against the numerous allegations. It is just that the Opposition did not have a joint strategy to turn on the heat fully. As a result, the adjournment motion was tamely defeated by voice vote. The whole affair was so tepid that there were not even enough MPs to complete the quorum. It showed how seriously they took the Gujarat happenings! The Opposition joined hands only on the issue of the criticism of the Chief Election Commissioner, Mr J.M. Lyngdoh, by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad. Worried that it might get a pro-Muslim tag, the Congress decided to focus on “substantive” issues like drought and disinvestment rather than rake up “emotive” issues like Gujarat. Such “calculated” moves ensured that the plight of the residents of the hapless state was seen only through a political prism. Perhaps in future too, it will be highlighted only when it is guaranteed to garner a sufficient number of votes. What was also noticeable was the intemperate language used by many members. Accusations and counter-accusations flew thick and fast, with the result that the whole issue got bogged down into a slanging match. One silver lining was that the debate forced Deputy Prime Minister Lal Krishna Advani to take the line earlier adopted by Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee that Godhra should not be converted into a poll issue and the Assembly elections should be fought on issues such as good governance and development. How much of it was a sincere articulation and how much was political posturing is anybody’s guess. In any case, he all but issued a good behaviour certificate to Mr Narendra Modi when he said that the Chief Minister had already declared that he stood for an educated, irrigated and electrified Gujarat. How one wishes he had also referred not only to what the Chief Minister said but also did! The sum total of it all is that the saffron brigade seems to have decided to keep the temperature just short of the red mark which can attract the attention of constitutional authorities like the CEC. Top leaders like the Prime Minister and the Deputy Prime Minister will make all the right statements and also keep the vituperative hardliners in leash. However, it is going to be a long strap nevertheless. |
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Rape Gate of Delhi A girl was gangraped literally on the stretch dividing New Delhi’s busy Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg in broad daylight on Friday. The incident has understandably sent shock waves across the metro. The rape-victim, a medical student, was crossing the road from the Ferozeshah Kotla side to get back to her hostel inside Maulana Azad Medical College on the other side of the road. A group of hoodlums dragged her inside the Khooni Darwaza complex and raped her. The college students have boycotted the examinations to express their anger over the inordinate delay in arresting the rapists. Before Friday Khooni Darwaza was a historical monument where the medical college students themselves used to spend time during breaks. The Khooni Darwaza is actually the Kabuli Gate of Humayun's Purana Qila. But the practice of executing royal prisoners and freedom fighters at this gate earned it its present name. On Friday it earned itself another name — Rape Gate. According to data compiled by the Delhi Commission for Women, the national capital among all the four metros reports the highest number of rape cases every year. The low rate of prosecution is a major factor in making Delhi a safe haven for rapists. The audacity of the rapists in picking up their victim in the middle of an extremely busy thoroughfare is astounding. It was in a manner of speaking a pre-meditated act. Had it not been the medical student, it would have been someone else. The moot point is that the incidence of rape of women ad children in the national capital has shown the insensitive face of the police that dragged its feet in investigating the crime. It was only after the medical college students raised a stink over the issue and boycotted the examinations that the authorities convinced the police to get cracking. Some arrests have been made, but the road to the stage of conviction is long and uncertain. And that is a major reason why sex crimes are on the rise in the country. An incident of rape gets far wider publicity in Delhi and Mumbai than similar incidents in the remote villages. There is a lot of confusion over the lack of teeth in the present set of laws dealing with the crime of rape. Giving more teeth to the existing laws by themselves will not help tackle what is essentially a manifestation of social sickness born out of rapid lifestyle changes in most Indian homes. The problem has to be understood at the sociological level. But so long as the present system of justice does not show the needed sense of urgency in deciding cases of rape every dark corner or even a busy thoroughfare has the potential to become the Rape Gate of Delhi. The low rate of conviction is an invitation to potential rapists to commit the crime without the fear of being punished. The Supreme Court recently directed the lower courts to show greater sensitivity in dealing with cases of rape. The apex court rightly called rape a crime against humanity. However, mere expressions of concern and directives to the lower courts will not ensure speedy trial and conviction. Social activists should show far greater commitment than they have to the cause of getting justice to the victims of rape. |
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Musharraf in a tight corner PAKISTAN President Pervez Musharraf’s worries are showing no signs of coming to an end. In fact, his difficulties are increasing with every move he makes. He did everything possible to help his favourite political formation, the PML (Q), nicknamed the King’s Party, win a majority of the National Assembly seats in the October 10 elections. He even indulged in pre-election rigging, as was alleged by many opposition leaders. Yet the PML (Q) score remained far behind the magic figure of 168 for forming a government of the General’s choice. He has engineered a split in Ms Benazir Bhutto’s PPP as 10 of its MNAs (Members of the National Assembly) have declared their support for the pro-military PML (Q) for electing the leader of the House---- the Prime Minister. The party he has patronised has been hopeful of getting support from the MMA, an alliance of six religious groups, but success continues to elude it. MMA leaders are not prepared to budge an inch from their stand on the Legal Framework Order (LFO) and the General’s position as President. They insist that they will agree to have any power-sharing arrangement with the King’s Party only if there is an understanding that the LFO and all the other Ordinances issued during the Musharraf regime are brought to the House for their ratification. The MMA has also questioned the legality of General Musharraf taking the oath of office as President on the basis of the April 30 referendum. The religious leaders say that the referendum was a violation of the 1973 Constitution of Pakistan. The President has to be elected by the members of the National Assembly and the Provincial Assemblies. Besides this, if General Musharraf wants to remain President, he will have to relinquish the post of Chief of Army Staff as required under the Constitution. All the other major opposition parties hold similar views. Even if he succeeds in installing a government with his favourite, Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali of the PML (Q), as Prime Minister, General Musharraf’s problem of constitutionally justifying his position as President will remain unresolved. Pakistani media has highlighted the views of many legal experts on the subject. Almost all of them agree that the General’s swearing in as President for a five-year tenure will have no constitutional status so long as the procedure laid down in the 1973 Constitution is not followed. This route is not safe for the ruling General. Thus, it will be interesting to watch how he plays his cards to safequard his position after Thursday’s election for the Prime Ministership. |
Idea of Asian free trade area DURING the India-ASEAN dialogue in Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia, India proposed to work for a free trade area with South-East Asian countries within a decade from now. Similarly, India has also proposed a free trade area with Thailand in the immediate future. This is a welcome step as it will fuel growth in the region as a whole. But there is a second dimension to it. India will profit only if its industry and business is as competitive and as efficient as that of the South-East nations. Otherwise, India will not be able to sell its goods and services in these markets while these countries will access to huge Indian market. The competition will not come overnight. Indian industry and business will have to work hard to make itself competitive in the world business. India is still nowhere close to Singapore and Hong Kong in competitiveness even after one decade of economic reforms. In economics, competitiveness generally means ability to produce quality goods and services at the least cost so that these can be sold at prices cheaper than what are being offered by other countries. The competitiveness of Singapore and Hong Kong, for instance, is attributed to the following factors: (a) open financial markets, (b) corruption-free civil service, (c) superb infrastructure and (d) a highly educated labour force. In the case of the USA, apart from all these four factors, its leadership in technology and management together with the world’s lowest fiscal deficit of 1.4 per cent of its GDP has ensured competitiveness of its economy. The other countries that follow these three countries in competitiveness in the order given are: Canada, New Zealand, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, Taiwan, Malaysia and Norway. It may be argued that the Western nations are already highly developed while countries like Singapore, Hong Kong and Taiwan are small and manageable which ensures their competitiveness. But what about Malaysia, which is a relatively larger country, came on to the growth path much later than India and today counts among the top 10 competitive economies in the world. One must pause and think dispassionately as to why India, with the second largest population in the world and third largest pool of trained technical manpower, is not able to emerge as a competitive economy? All the time our policy makers are grumbling about exports not picking up, but nobody seems to pay any attention to creating conditions for the emergence of a competitive economy. Our policy makers have to understand the fundamental truth that one cannot for long push exports exclusively through incentives, subsidies etc. The exports will increase on a long-term basis if we are all the time consciously and constantly pruning the costs and improving the quality of our products and services. Even after a decade of liberalisation this basic fundamental economic proposition has been imbibed by only a minuscule band of industrialists and businessmen; a very large number of them are still behaving as if they are working in a protected economy where cost considerations are unimportant and where profits are assured because of their monopolistic position. Moreover, there is no synergy between technological research and industry. Professionalism has yet to seep into our management style; infrastructure is utterly backward; corruption is rampant; financial and capital markets are still functioning the way they functioned in the fifties and the sixties. Take the opening up of financial markets. The country has been dragging its feet over financial reforms for the past 12 years. Nobody is asking to suddenly open the financial markets to all and sundry; the demand is to open up the financial markets to domestic and foreign capital in a phased manner so as to avoid any volatility in it and to keep the spurious elements away. The funds which are being mobilised by nationalised banks and insurance companies are not being used in the best manner
possible. The economists would like to say that there is no “optimum utilisation” of the public funds; a large part of them are being used by the government for non-developmental activities; the kinds of products (for instance, the types of life and general insurance policies, fixed deposit schemes) offered to the public are limited in range and the quality of service very poor. In a sense, both the public as well as the industry and business are suffering from undeveloped and over-protected malregulated financial markets. The fact that civil services have become corrupt is well known to everyone. In spite of the periodic rhetoric about stamping out corruption, nothing much has been done. In fact, corruption has increased over the years in those offices which have direct dealings with the public or the business. A number of laws which have been enacted in the sphere of economy or public utilities encourage corruption from both sides; many a times it makes economic sense to both the individual bribe-giver and the individual bribe-taker to dupe the government. For instance, stealing of electricity by slum-dwellers as well as factories makes economic sense to both parties to give and take bribe as both stand to gain. Unless bribe-giving and bribe-taking are made uneconomical, harsh measures to check it will have very little impact. It may be a good idea to set up a cell in the PMO to check corruption, but it will not make any headway unless the reasons for taking and giving bribe are done away with. As for the infrastructure, it is a well-known fact that our telecommunication system, transport system, etc, are still very shoddy. This has been amply brought out in the report on infrastructure in India by the Rakesh Mohan Committee. In recent years the public sector investment in infrastructure has gone down because of financial constraints, but at the same time we are still in two minds about the infrastructure development by the private sector. We are short of electricity; we do not have adequate money to set up electricity generating plants and yet we do not have a clear-cut policy about investment in the power generation sector by private or foreign capital. Our telephone lines are old and outdated, prohibiting the use of a country-wide computer network as well as the international network. Our seaports and airports are unable to handle the quantum of cargo and passengers that have increased in the past five years as a result of economic reforms. Even then we are not able to make up our mind whether we can mobilise funds and have the latest technology to upgrade or start new seaports and airports or to allow domestic and foreign capital to enter this sector in a big way. For the past almost nine years the country has not been able to decide which new aeroplanes Air-India should buy, and as a result India is not able to start new services as per its agreement with other countries or to increase the frequency of services on established routes because of the shortfalls in the number of aeroplanes. At the same time, we have still not been able to take any firm decision on disinvestment in Air-India. This is a good example of the dog-in-manger policy in the sphere of the economy. The policy-makers must understand that all these delays in decision-making not only cost the country millions of rupees in terms of lost business opportunities but also affect our competitiveness. Finally, we have the world’s third largest pool of technical manpower, yet we do not have the technological level of advanced countries. Almost in every technical field we are much behind other countries. It is not that Indian scientists are not good, but we have not created an environment in the country to make them deliver the goods. Advanced Western countries, including the USA, are using Indian scientists to develop new technologies and give themselves a technological edge, but we in the past 50 years have not done anything to retain them in India and give the country as technological edge in the world. In sum, India has the potential to emerge as one of the most competitive economies in the world. But to achieve that we will have to first put our house in order and give up our old hackneyed ideas about the functioning of the economy.
INFA The writer is a well-known economic analyst. |
If rules could rule SIXTY years ago in the first week of August (1942) some important developments took place in pre-partition Punjab. On one hand there were good monsoon rains and pleasant weather conditions and on the other the people’s mobilisation programme of the Congress Party had been very successful before the start of the Quit India Movement. The movement was to start and did start on August 8, 1942 in Bombay. In the town of Gujranwala one of the biggest meetings of the Congress party was held on August 5, 1942. Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, Jaya Prakash Narayan and several state level Congress leaders, including Mr Gopi Chand Bhargava, Mr Bhim Sen Sachar and Mr Partap Singh Kairon addressed that meeting. The Congress leaders were wrapping up their visits to Punjab before leaving the same day for Bombay. That was one of the biggest ever public meetings held in Punjab. Almost a hundred thousand people attended the meeting. The speeches of Pandit Nehru, J.P. and other leaders repeatedly urged the people to break the chains of subjugation to Britishers and disobey and violate the British laws. Gujranwala district at that time had 28 police stations and the population of the district was more than 15 lakh. In the public meeting people had come from neighbouring villages and towns like Hafizabad, Wazirabad, Daska, Shahadra, Pindi Bhattian and some even from Sialkot and Lahore. At the same time when the public meeting was taking place the then Governor of Punjab, Sir Bertrand James Glancy, ICS (1906 batch) was presiding over a meeting of district officers of Gujranwala along with Brigade Commander, Sialkot, for expeditious recruitment of soldiers from the district in the British Indian Army. The Governor had been instructed earlier by the then Governor General and Viceroy of India, Lord Lilinthgow, and the Commander in Chief of India, Field Marshal Wavell, to ensure maximum recruitment of soldiers in the army from Punjab. The weather on August 5 was really pleasant and the erratic drizzling was making it cool and enjoyable. Suddenly Sir Glancy, Mr P. Brandon, I.C.S. (1937 batch), the D.C., and Mr C.H. Fairhall, the Superintendent of Police (Mr Fairhall had married a Punjabi Hindu girl and settled in Delhi after Independence) decided to have a stroll in the Civil Lines area unmindful of the fact that hardly a few hundred yards away over a lakh of Indians were shouting anti-British and anti-government slogans. Some of them were even burning the Union Jack. Seeing them taking an amiable stroll, the city SHO of Gujranwala, Inspector Karamatullah, accompanied by a few policemen went near them and after saluting, requested them not to move without security as the situation in the city was getting tense. Mr P. Brandon answered him and said: “Inspector Sahib, we have done no wrong to anybody why should we fear anybody?” Some what perplexed by the reply the SHO again ventured to add that rules did not permit them to move without security in such a situation. Now it was the turn of the Governor of Punjab to reply to the faithful city SHO. He said somewhat imperiously: “Remember, officer, it is the British Administration and British officers are ruling India: if rules could rule, every fool could rule.” The SHO and the policemen saluted them and went away. Seeing the over-emphasis on rules and regulations in government offices these days leading to delays and perennial red tapism, especially where humanitarian aspects are ignored completely with impunity, one sometimes shudders to think that, may be that great British administrator, Sir James Glancy, was right on that cloudy morning of August 5, 1942, at Gujranwala, sixty years ago.
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How long can the people tolerate this? EVERY sensible, right-thinking Punjabi is bound to praise Mr Hari Jaisingh for his front-page editorial “At stake is maryada” (The Tribune, November 10). But would it ever be possible to translate this praise into a catalyst of change for altering our circumstances? (Especially in a situation where the views of people such as Mr Hari Jaisingh reach out across to less than 1 per cent of our people, who for well over 55 years, have been befooled by political parties). Having drawn our attention towards the manipulative skills of our politicians in Punjab, The Tribune Editor has raised this extremely pertinent question: “How long can the people tolerate this?” I would like to first repeat the sentiments expressed by a film director in one of his interviews. On being asked by a journalist, “Most of the Bollywood films fit into the same formula — one hero and two heroines or vice versa. The romantic and fight scenes are also similar in all the movies. Yet how do these movies manage to be so successful at the box-office?”, the director quipped, “If the people can listen to the story of Ramayana for close to a millennium and a half and see the enactment of the same story on the stage for as many as 150 years or more, why can’t the same people see our formula-based films over and over again?” A man’s perceptions and personality are essentially the byproducts of his history. And history, in turn, is shaped by the needs of compulsions of time, circumstance and society. This is also a proven fact that Europe and America, too, have made progress only after going through an extended phase of internal struggle (though neither could boast of a very long cultural/civilisational history). In winters, the rivers would be frozen and the vegetation (on which the animals popularly regarded as their staple diet survived) simply withered away. In such harsh conditions, the people had to cut through the ice of the rivers to get drinking water, and often live off either fish or a limited stock of winter animals. In such conditions, even the land doesn't yield any crops. (This is the reason why the Europeans continue to be the meat-eaters). The total landmass of Britain is in no way larger than that of Punjab or Haryana. But a couple of thousands emerging out of this small island had managed to establish their hegemonic control over billions of people in the Southern parts of the globe for close to three centuries. On the other hand, people living in the verdant Gangetic plains or on the shores of ceaselessly flowing rivers had turned so complacent that though they managed to create the Vedas, the Upanishads and the shastras much before anyone else in the world could, they continued to face defeat after defeat right from the times of Alexander to that of the Britishers. One of my friends feels that this particular 'weakness' of India should not be attributed to its people but to its constantly warring rulers who had reigned over hundreds of small principalities for a long time. But my question to him was why couldn't our people, who shared the same territorial space in the subcontinent (enclosed by the Himalayas, on one side, and the vast ocean, on the other), ever get united? Especially, when they were so self-sufficient in their material needs that they didn't even feel the need to venture out to another land? Why couldn't we put up a united front against our aggressors, even when a few thousand or a few hundred thousand European continents were busy subjugating us? My friend had no answer to this query. Somehow, I have always believed that caste-system is the biggest ‘weakness’ of our people. The race that established this maryada to allow only one of the four varnas (Kshatriyas) to bear arms, had already cut down its military strength to one fourth of the original. Besides, the nature's bounty also motivated Indian people to enter into samadhi or indulge in philosophical hair-splitting rather than engage in a struggle for the fulfillment of their material/ physical needs. The upshot of all this was that we turned out to be the weakest among the struggling people of the world. No wonder we have had the longest spell of slavery. If we were to go along with this view, then it was our 'culture' that made us more vulnerable than any other race in the world. It corroded so much into our geographical, religious and cultural life that a few thousand aggressors who entered into our land from the Khyber Pass managed to penetrate as far as our Southern tip, looting our temples, mowing down our crops and abducting our women. Our weaknesses propelled our aggressors into launching repeated acts of aggression. The most unfortunate part of the whole thing is that even after we attained freedom, our weaknesses continued to dog our steps. Is it not a fact that we have the largest number of illiterates in the world? Is it not a fact that despite having produced enough foodgrains for our domestic needs, we still haven't been able to do anything to stave off starvation deaths in the tribal areas of Orissa, Bihar and Rajasthan? (In terms of the world average, we also have the dubious distinction of having the largest number of physically challenged). All this might create an erroneous impression that it's the illiteracy and foolishness of the 800 million people out of a total of one billion that has undermined maryada in the politics of this country. But this is not the only reason for our state of degradation. The main cause is the incompetence, selfishness, moral vulnerability and the Machiavellian policies of our politicians that have made them less than human, even shameless in their naked pursuit of power. Lust for power has driven these politicians so far away from their religious, moral, political and social responsibility towards the people that now they apparently have developed a vested interest in keeping them below the reasonable limits of literacy and intelligence. Had it not been so, the country’s population wouldn’t have risen three-fold in less than half a century after the Independence? Was it not at all possible to stop its onward march? If it couldn't be arrested, why weren't the employment opportunities created for the growing numbers? Had the governance been in order, why would one third of the country's total population be fighting today to keep abject poverty and hunger at bay? Perhaps, the literate and the cynical populace (constituting nearly 50 per cent of the total population) don't even think it worthwhile to exercise their vote. Why couldn’t a legislation be introduced to ensure that only those who secured more than 25 per cent of the total votes poled have the right to be elected to the State Assembly or Parliament? When a political party stakes its claim to form the government merely on the strength of 15-20 per cent of the total votes, doesn't that make a mockery of the entire system of governance? If more than 90 amendments can be introduced in the constitution, why can't changes be made along these lines as well? These problems can’t be solved with homilies alone. Whatever happened in Gujarat is still fresh in our minds. Why is it if not a blatant act of political chicanery that while seeking to evolve consensus on date of reconstruction of the Babri Masjid, you should also bargain with the Sangh Parivar on how to defer the date for the construction of the temple? In fine, all one can say is that morality, maryada and virtuosity have no connection with politics. Unless we unmask the machinations of these political parties or drag their leaders back to the village chaupals where they could be forced to ponder over how to address the problems of the people, things are not really going to change. But when would the people ultimately be able to seek liberation from the ill-conceived designs, the fraudulent practices and the habitual dishonesty of these politicians is a question rather difficult to answer. Perhaps, its answer lies hidden somewhere in the womb of time. The only thing you and I (the tribe of journalists and writers) can possible do is talk about morality, maryada and idealism (or, at best, offer homilies), beyond which it's not within our powers to do anything. Perhaps, beyond this lies our bounden, sacred duty to warn our people against the unholy and nefarious designs of our defunct and degenerate political leadership. |
Sticks, brooms & anti-liquor squad THEY are an army of 200 odd women and girls who go around wielding sticks and brooms with a flourish at the enemy — alcoholic men and liquor dens. A unique anti-liquor movement that began among the women of Bardhanpur village of Balasore district has spread to at least a dozen other villages in Orissa. Villages in these areas have formed an anti-liquor army. They have not only been assaulting drunkards and liquor manufacturers, but also destroying liquor and its raw materials, according to a district official. “We submitted a memorandum to the district authorities seeking action against liquor vendors. We demand total prohibition in the areas,” said Sabitri Mohanty, an anti-liquor activist. “But taking advantage of a weak law, liquor vendors continued to operate. This forced us to fight the battle ourselves,” she said. “The use of brooms and sticks to drive out liquor is yielding good results,” said another activist. Prohibition is an emotive issue in many Orissa districts. Millions of men in the region are addicted to liquor, squandering their meagre earnings and keeping their families steeped in poverty. The demand for total prohibition in the state first surfaced in 1992 following the death of about 300 people in Cuttack and Bhubaneswar from spurious liquor consumption. That eventually led to a ban in 1994. But the Congress party that came to power in the 1995 elections lifted the ban, saying it was causing huge revenue losses. After Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik took office in 2000, the government began retailing local brews itself. Orissa earns about Rs.500 million a year from the liquor trade while bootlegging reportedly generates another Rs.5 billion. IANS Eat coffee, it tastes like gutka If you thought you can only drink coffee, you could be mistaken. Now, you can eat it too! And what do you say if the taste is similar to gutka or pan masala? Marketing brains are working overtime to see how coffee, which has caffeine (alkaloid stimulant in coffee beans), can be promoted as substitute for gutka and pan masala. The Gujarat Cooperative Marketing Federation, makers of the famous “Amul” brand, in association with the state-run Coffee Board, have come out with a “prototype” product. According to the Board’s Chairperson Lakshmi Venkatachalam, “it tastes exactly like pan masala and it’s quite nice.”
PTI |
Let compassion be Thy mosque, Let faith be thy prayer mat, Let honest living be Thy Koran, Let modesty be the rule of observance, Let piety be the fasts thou keepest; In such wise strive to become a Muslim; Right conduct the Kaba; Truth the Prophet, Good deeds thy prayer; Submission to the Lord’s Will thy rosary; Nanak, if this thou do, The Lord will be thy Protector. —Guru Nanak Dev Ji, Sri Guru Granth Sahib, Rag Majh Ki Var, page 140. *** Violence, worldly love, greed and pride Are insatiable like a restless river. Unless the fear of God is thy food and drink, Unless the fear of God is thy whole sustenance, Degradation and death are thy lot, O man. He who puts his trust in mortal man Putteth his trust in mortality; God is our last stay and our final help, There is naught that He is not Lord of. Nanak, His ways are hard indeed to expound. — Guru Nanak Dev Ji, Sri Guru Granth Sahib, Rag Gauri
Guareri,
*** In forgetting Thee, There is much sorrow. Spare me that sorrows, O Lord, May I never forget Thee. —Guru
Nanak Dev Ji, Sri Guru Granth Sahib, Rag Asa, page 354. *** Where self exists, God is not. Where God exists, There is no self. — Guru Nanak Dev Ji, Sri Guru Granth Sahib, Rag Maru, Var page 1092. Without devotion one can never go to the abode of the Lord. — Sri Guru Granth Sahib, Dhanasari M1, page 683 |
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The writer, Gurdial Singh, noted Punjabi litterateur and Jnanpeeth award winner, says: When would the people ultimately be able to seek liberation from the ill-conceived designs, the fraudulent practices and the habitual dishonesty of these politicians is a question rather difficult to answer. Perhaps, its answer lies hidden somewhere in the womb of time. The only thing you and I (the tribe of journalists and writers) can possibly do is talk about morality, maryada and idealism (or, at best, offer homilies), beyond which it’s not within our powers to do anything.