 |
Saturday,
December 28, 2002, Chandigarh, India  
|
Politics of hate A flawed treaty Drought relief |
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Financial
scam and JPC report
Keep your shirt on!
Development to be Dhumal’s poll plank
But once a year
Rich fare, thousand delegates expected at Indian History Congress
|
Politics of hate THE annual Jor Mela at Fatehgarh Sahib is an important religious occasion for the Punjabis in general and the Sikhs in particular to remember the supreme sacrifice made by the two younger sons of Guru Gobind Singh. They were bricked alive at a very tender age when they refused to embrace Islam. The sanctity of the occasion demands that the Jor Mela should be observed in a dignified way in accordance with the best traditions of Sikhism. Yet, over the years politics has come to cast its ugly shadow on what should have been a purely religious event. Various political parties organise their conferences during the three-day mela every year where hard-hitting speeches are delivered. Political opponents vie with one another in spewing venom and playing the politics of hate, which is totally incongruous with the solemn occasion. This year too the tone and tenor of speeches was no different. The political conferences witnessed leader after leader using intemperate words, levelling familiar allegations and counter-allegations. The various leaders also raised some common issues like the tottering economy, the growing unemployment, the inadequate health care system and the neglect of education in the state. They united only on one issue and that was the acquittal of Sajjan Kumar in the 1984 riots case. Mr Parkash Singh Badal made the familiar noises about the witch-hunt of former Akali ministers and accused the Congress government of playing the politics of vendetta. Capt Amarinder Singh too returned the compliments. He once again reminded his audience that Mr Badal would be arrested after the investigating agencies gathered enough evidence against him. The subject of development was not altogether missing. The Chief Minister made the uplifting revelation that the state government hoped to earn a revenue of Rs 800 crore by the end of the current financial year. Two other important announcements were made, which fortunately did not get lost in the high-pitch political one-upmanship. One, the old age pension will be revived in the state from the coming January 1. This was withdrawn as part of the belt-tightening measures announced by the Amarinder Singh government earlier this year. Two, English will be introduced in Class 1 in the government schools from the coming session. There has been an unnecessarily passionate debate on this issue in academic and political circles. The importance given to English in this globalised world cannot undermine the value of the mother-tongue. The small but significant Lok Bhalai Party rightly gave a call for a movement to uproot the “politics of plunder and loot” from the Punjabi soil. At the end of the day, the Punjab politicians, forgetting their personal differences, should give a serious thought to the need for speeding up the pace of development in the state which had slowed down in the last decade. |
|
A flawed treaty THE treaty that was signed on Thursday in Delhi between India and the USA under which neither country will surrender the other country’s nationals to any international tribunal can be faulted on several counts. The treaty seeks to defeat the very objective that saw the setting up of a permanent International Criminal Court for dealing with cases of human rights violations, war crimes and acts of genocide. The Indian side has either been pressurised into signing on the dotted line or has not read the small print to fully appreciate the ramifications of the treaty. The USA has all along opposed the creation of the ICC for reasons that violate the basic requirement of fashioning a fair and just world order. In August it rejected the European Union Criminal Court’s guidelines for dealing with American citizens wanted by the ICC. The guidelines allowed limited immunity to member nations for entering into bilateral deals for protecting US soldiers and diplomats from prosecution by the new global criminal court. The USA being what it is demanded protection for all US nationals from prosecution for crimes committed on foreign soil. Yet, it did not respect the provisions of international law when it sent troops to Panama to drag out former head of state Col Manuel Noriega, for facing trial in American courts for his alleged role in laundering drug money. American intelligence suspected the role of drug money in backing communist regimes. The same country now demands that American citizens should be tried on American soil for crimes that were committed on foreign soil! Is this the recipe for evolving a global coalition for dealing with terrorism, war crimes and acts of genocide? Interestingly, legal experts were of the view that the EU had no right to exempt American nationals from prosecution at the ICC. From available evidence it appears that India has sacrificed its own interests by signing what appears to be a highly flawed treaty. The External Affairs Ministry evidently ignored an EU document stating that any country which agrees with the Bush Administration’s request would be acting against the object and purpose of the ICC. Human Rights Watch took a similar stand and urged the global community to resist plans to dilute the powers of the new body. It must be recognised that India does not enjoy the same status in the eye of the global community that America does on the strength of its economic and military muscle. India’s strength up till now lay in its principled opposition to American attempts to create an unequal world order in which it enjoys the position of sitting on judgment on the acts of other sovereign nations without any nation, big or small, having the right to question its own conduct. The treaty may have been useful to India had it included a provision that would have bound the USA to use its good offices for ensuring the handing over of Indian criminals hiding in other countries for standing trial on home soil for crimes committed in India. The treaty in its present form will be of little help in bringing to India Dawood Ibrahim, his brother Anees, Abu Salem, Chhota Rajan and others involved in crimes against humanity on Indian soil. They have found safe havens abroad and there is little that India can do to bring them to justice. |
|
Drought relief LIFE will become a little easier for drought-hit farmers of Haryana, whose kharif crop had suffered extensive damage, following the approval of a Rs 236-crore relief package by the Haryana Cabinet on Thursday. This decision more than doubles the size of the package announced by the Union Government some time back. The package comprises remittance of abiana, waiving of interest on loans from the kharif crop of 2002, relief by the Power Utilities, funds for generating employment in the rural areas and compensation to those farmers whose loss to the crops in the drought-affected areas was more than 50 per cent, especially the growers of bajra, maize, other coarse grains, oilseeds and pulses. However, farmers are unlikely to be too happy about the quantum, considering that the state had demanded as much Rs 1,895 crore from the Centre and the buzz in the farming community was that the state would get at least 50 per cent of it. Such hopes have been dashed. Even in the case of sugarcane, which is a perennial crop affecting the cash flow of the farmers for almost 18 months, the relief is only Rs 4,000 per hectare, that too for damage of more than 50 per cent. Vegetable growers have been sought to be compensated to the extent of Rs 2,500 per hectare for a similar loss in view of the new agricultural strategy of crop diversification. Haryana had at one stage said that the entire state was drought-hit. But now it has been announced that relief would be provided to those farmers who had been worst hit with more than 50 per cent damage. This may lead to considerable heart-burn. Similarly, the farmers who have been allowed to pay their power bills up to April, 2003, would be benefited only to the extent that they would not have to pay any surcharge. Most small and medium farmers in the state lead a hand-to-mouth existence and their condition has been further worsened by the drought. keeping in view their plight, timely distribution of relief amount is very important. Sadly, the state’s record on that count is none too reassuring. Since the Chief Minister, Mr Om Prakash Chautala, has an agricultural background himself, he must ensure that the distribution process is hastened. At the same time, the government must make certain that there is no bungling in the disbursement of relief money. |
Financial scam and JPC report IT has been rightly said: “Those who forget history are condemned to repeat its mistakes”. It is no secret that accountability is a concept that has bypassed the Indian shores, and nowhere is it so glaring as in the financial sector. With the recently tabled JPC report being little more than old wine in a new bottle, the moot question is — are we serious about our capital market ? Its immense potential and attractiveness to international investors has repeatedly been undermined by scams and petty market manipulations and the wheel has now turned a full circle since the infamous banking related stock-scam of the early 1990s. What happened to the prime accused of that scam ? Well, they did not really come to much harm, and while the likes of Hiten Dalal and Bhupen Dalal roam relatively scot-free, the high profile-face of that scam, Harshad Mehta is no more on the scene. Of course, he is no more on the scene simply because ill-health caught up with him well before the legal system did. Then, where are Messrs. Pawan Sachdeva of MS Shoes infamy and C.R.Bhansali of CRB infamy ? Well, they too, are from all accounts in fine fettle and not exactly languishing in a prison cell. To cut a long story short — there is simply no accountability in the Indian financial sector. Simply put scamsters and market manipulators have run amok, abnormally boosted the markets for a couple of years in the last 10 years or so, only to let it rot for the rest of the years in an unpleasant aftermath. So, was there any meaning at all in constituting a JPC to probe a scam ? After all, don’t we all remember how easily the so-called “architect” of the Indian liberalisation programme, Dr Manmohan Singh had dismissed the earlier scam of the 1990s as merely a “systems failure”. If only life were always as simple ! Nevertheless, given that it has taken 20 long months for the JPC to table its report, it is only fair that we, the eternally optimistic and fatalistic people, expected some pearls of wisdom and a better insight into the murky goings on. Well, there are “pearls” in the report though not exactly of the kind that enhances wisdom. Let us proceed to sample a few. The report gives us the “earth-shattering” revelation that Ketan Parekh was the key player in the scam and received large sums of money from banks as well as corporate bodies around the time that the Sensex crashed in March,2001. It concludes that there was thus a nexus between Ketan Parekh, banks and the corporate houses. Now, it might come as a revelation to the JPC but even a novice in the market those days was whispering that Ketan Parekh had links with many banks and cooperatives which he used to launder money and manipulate prices in the stock market. It may be noted here that the said stock-broker, infamously referred to as the “Y2K bull” defaulted on payment to Madhavpura Co-op bank to the not so insignificant sum of Rs 137 crore. The JPC report goes on to accuse the RBI, SEBI and the Ministry of Finance of waking up late and adopting a lenient attitude throughout. It also states that the various regulatory authorities were not able to foresee the situation leading to a scam and prevent it. Government circles, particularly the Finance Ministry, the custodian of financial health of economy, they opine, did not pay adequate attention. It accused SEBI of not having proper regulations and enforcements, which could have controlled the situation when the stock market became volatile. Again, the moot question here is — do these allegations pertain only to the period of the scam or is it that the same is perpetually true ? Sadly, it seems the latter conjecture is true. Furthermore, are any heads going to roll in the RBI, SEBI and the Ministry of Finance. Finally, it again boils down to the issue of the absence of accountability. There is a separate report on the UTI crisis which “reveals” that the fund was thoroughly mismanaged. Of course, that fact too has not exactly been a “state secret”, but surprisingly, the report suggests the initiation of legal action against the then chairman P.S. Subramanyam, and has also criticised former Finance Secretary Ajit Kumar for negligence. Given that most of the guilty have escaped the dragnet, one cannot but help get the feeling that Subramanyam has been made a scapegoat. Remember, there is a school of popular thought that the root of UTIs troubles lies at the door of India’s largest private sector group with whom UTI’s ex-Chairman Dave, closed a rather debatable “deal” in the mid-1990s. That step alone, well and truly set the cat among the pigeons as far as making (in ?) discretionary investment decisions are concerned. Perhaps, Subramanyam was only following in the footsteps of some of his “illustrious” predecessors when he made the seemingly debatable decision to invest in the shares of a company named Cyberspace Infosys. Mind you, there are many more such “revelations”, but given their nature, it makes sense to move on to some of the “illuminating” recommendations made by the JPC Committee. For starters, the JPC has ordained that there should be a ban on granting of loans and advances to directors and their relatives. So, the next time there is an accident on a national highway, there might be a suggestion that the highway itself be pulled down ! Instead, why not identify those companies guilty of this malpractice and haul them over the coal. Oh, but that will reek of accountability ! The committee notes that in the absence of reports by SEBI on various scrips, the committee could not call upon all corporates for oral evidence, but it has recommended that the probe be completed and that the government should take action to see if promoter’s involvement was present or not. Here too, the names of companies whose reports have not been submitted are not disclosed, and not surprisingly, the buck has been passed on to the government, knowing full well that with this recommendation the misdeeds have been well and truly buried. In the same vein, the JPC has noted that OCBs were an integral part of market manipulations and has recommended a fresh look on the role of their operations and study of all transactions pertaining to inflows and outflows. During the Y2K boom the markets were rife with rumours that OCBs were the tool used by the prominent market manipulators to launder money and artificially boost stock prices in the Indian stock market. But instead of probing further and naming the OCBs and manipulators involved, the JPC report ambiguously suggests a follow-up. Having sampled some of these JPC pearls, the very obvious question then is — was it necessary to spend tax-payers money over an inordinately long tenure on this 30-member committee to arrive at revelations that all of us already knew and recommendations which are either impractical or border on the ambiguous ? The answer is obvious, but , what should have been done instead? In a nutshell, Ketan Parekh could simply not have operated alone and manipulated the markets to the extent he did. Hence, the JPC should have identified the persons in the RBI, SEBI and the banking system which it has expressed vague apprehensions about, who were involved in the scam, through both, action and inaction. Then, the corporates, and there are dime a dozen of them, who were known to be closely associated with Ketan Parekh needed to have been scrutinised closely to identify their level of participation in the price-fixing that went on during that period. Once this step was undertaken the next and most important step would be to initiate time-bound legal proceedings against those found guilty. Once their guilt is proven, they should be stripped of all their assets and thrown into jail with a minimum time-frame of two and a half decades with hard labour as a preferred perquisite. For those who think one is being harsh here, give this a thought. In China, serious economic offences lead to a hole in the head, with even the bullet’s cost having to be borne by the family of the economic offender. Once accountability and deterrent legal action is visible, the Indian capital markets can rise like never before and live up to its potential of being among the more promising markets worldwide. Genuine promoters will be able to tap the capital markets regularly and retail investors, who are the backbone of any thriving market, will return in large numbers giving the markets much needed stability and depth. But, till that happens, resign yourself to the likes of Ketan Parekh becoming a role model for the next generation of market manipulators, just as Harshad Mehta must have been for him. The writer is a financial consultant based in Mumbai. |
Keep your shirt on! THE youth of Middle Kingdom in China have taken fancy to Salman Khan style — no shirt. The new “brazen and uncivilised cult” has irritated the older generation there. Had the “cult” picked up in India, it might have been looked as poppycockish and no more because. “Ancient Indian Costumes” by Roshan Alkazi shows that from 200 B.C. to 180 A.D., no Prince or King used to wear the top. These were Kushan Kings who started wearing tunic — kurta like undergarment visible at the neck and covered by “Chogha”, a calf-length richly embroidered top. The hunters, soldiers and attendants, however, used to wear shirt-like “Kanchuka”. Indian women, no matter what their status was, continued to be bare-breasted till mid-eighth century. They used to cover their bosom by Uttariya, a type of “Dupatta” thrown casually over the shoulders. Then came into fashion “Angrakha”. But 180 to 2002 is a long journey and though Gandhiji fought the War of Independence with shirtless “minus four”, yet shirt is a recommended item of today’s Indian apparel. Shirt has generally ditched the “have nots”. Evita Peron of Argentina took the benefit of it and organised the peasants and workers under her banner with slogan “We the shirtless”. And if “F TV” has any credence (Sushmaji, don’t read it) then shirtless fashion is “thumbs up” among “haves” too, both men and women, of the World. With shirt, The proletariats want to cover and the bourgeois want to uncover. That is the present day clothing scene. An instance is my embarrassed witnessing to the dialogues that exchanged between my male acquaintance from creamy layer of society and his mondaine wife who modelled her latest low-cut shirt blouse and asked her husband to give opinion on it. He replied: “Rather confusing!” His wife said, “What do you mean?” My friend coolly asked: “Are you inside trying to get out, or outside trying to get in?” Her flashing smile with not a pinch of flush on her cheeks had said more than words. This is about woman’s shirt — an outfit or fit-out. But the colours of men’s outfits, especially shirts, have influenced the world’s political scenario. Khan Abdul Ghafar Khan’s “Lal Kurti Dal” — red shirt group — during the 40s was a force to reckon with in the Frontier Province of the then India. Garibaldi and his followers also wore Red Shirts during the liberation of Italy in 1884. Italian fascists under Mussolini wore Black Shirts. A force of Irish Volunteers under General O’Duffy who helped General Franco in the Spanish Civil War was Blue Shirts. Hitler Nazi Party in Germany was Brown Shirts. Greenshirts were those who supported the Social Credit Movement established in England by Major Douglas in the 1920s. These men gave the shirts off their back to see that the things come out in true colours. Today, sailing under false colours is so common that “close sits my shirt, but closer my skin” is the familiar tune of the big trumpets. And our tolerant religion plus 54 years of soft democracy has made the commoners so adaptable that they continue keeping their shirts on. At least we have one Saurav Ganguly who levelled up —Flintoff to Flintoff — on the latter’s own dunghill — bare-chested and shirtless.
|
Development to be Dhumal’s poll plank Mr Dhumal started reeling out the list of his government’s achievements at the very first instance saying the state has constructed roads and has stepped up power generation to 20,376 MW, beating the performance of the erstwhile Congress regimes. A teacher by profession, Mr Dhumal showed his talent when he was appointed the President of the HP unit of the BJP in the mid-nineties during which he successfully marginalised his mentor Shanta Kumar with the blessing of the then All-India BJP General Secretary Narendra Modi. Mr Dhumal, who is undertaking a month-long Vishwas Yatra (faith march) these days, is sure that the peace loving people of the state will repose confidence in his leadership by voting for his party on the basis of performance, governance, good work in maintaining peace against threats of terrorism from across the border as well as from the neighbouring state of Jammu and Kashmir. Excerpts of an interview: Question: What will be your poll plank? Answer: In Himachal Pradesh the biggest issue will be the development done by this government in the last five years. We have constructed 3500 km of new roads and the total “pakka” roads are 9,500 km out of which about 4500 km have been metalled during the last five years. We can generate 20,376 MW of hydel power. During the Congress rule up to March, 1998, the total generation was just 3,828 MW. We have accelerated the work for generation of 8,000 MW out of which 2,226 MW will be generated next year. So, Himachal Pradesh will soon become the “power state” of North India. When we are able to exploit the total potential of hydel power we will be having an income of Rs 2,000 crore per year. Now the question before the public is if this could be done in five years by the BJP Government, why the Congress could not do it in the 50 years of its rule. Q: If you look at the past polls, no party has won by purely focusing on developmental issues. Will the BJP play the Hindutva card side by side? A: Development is always the basic issue before the common man. But development always has a link with security especially when Himachal Pradesh is situated on the border of Jammu and Kashmir and Tibet and incidents of misrule by PDP-Congress government in Jammu and Kashmir naturally reflects on the minds of Himachalis. This is particularly so because we are sacrificing the largest number of soldiers in fighting terrorism. Even in the Kargil conflict, out of the four Paramveer Chakras two were won by Himachali jawans. Therefore, Himachalis are interested in the safety and security of the country and they are also worried about the internal security in Jammu and Kashmir. They want a strong government in Himachal Pradesh which can deal firmly with terrorism so the state continues to be most peaceful as at present. Q: What about the factional feud between you and Union Minister Shanta Kumar, who wields lot of respect and support in Himachal. There is a general perception that for BJP the biggest problem is factional feud. Your comments please. A: In any democratic set-up there is always scope for differences of opinion on certain issues and there must have been certain issues on which we could have differed. However, every worker of BJP knows he has to work hard to make the party win. Therefore, whatever happened in the past is past and everybody will have to join hands to win this (Assembly) election. Q: What do you think will be the role of Mr Shanta Kumar in the coming elections? A: Mr Shanta Kumar is our national leader. He had been the Chief Minister of Himachal twice. He has been the party President in the state and is the second Union Cabinet Minister from Himachal. Naturally he has to play a big role, and being the seniormost leader he must help us to ensure a big win for the BJP in the coming polls. Q: Will the BJP go it alone in the Assembly elections. What kind of arrangement you are planning to have with the Himachal Vikas Party led by Sukhram? A: Not only this time but always we have fought elections alone in the state except in 1990 when we had electoral adjustment with the Janata Dal. As far as the HVP is concerned, the alliance this time was post-election and not pre-election. Q: You have now launched “Vishwas Yatra”. Are you trying to copy Narendra Modi’s “Gaurav Yatra” in Gujarat? A: This yatra is in no way a copy of Modi’s “Gaurav Yatra”. If you see the history, we had Vikas Yatra after the three-and-a-half years of our rule. We went to the people with Vikas Yatra to tell them about our achievements and to assess what they expected us to do. Now, the Vishwas Yatra is to win the faith of the people and to tell them that “Vishwas” and “Vikas” in a democracy is inter-connected. Unless you have faith, unless you have the confidence of the people, you cannot rule them and only with these two aspects can you make development happen in the state. And in Gujarat it was “Gaurav Yatra”, because “Gaurav” and “self-respect” of common Gujaratis had been challenged. In Himachal Pradesh nature has given bountiful to us but the previous Congress government failed to exploit those things and we could not become self-reliant, self-dependent — financially and economically — and we had to depend heavily on the Central government. Now we are telling the people through the Yatra that if we could achieve so much of development in just five years why the Congress could not do it in 50 years. So Vikas and Vishwas (development and confidence) is interconnected. We have done the development and now we want their (people’s) confidence. Q: Your new found confidence seems to be derived out of BJP’s landslide victory in Gujarat recently. A:
Our confidence stems from the fact that we have served the people of Himachal Pradesh very well. There have been no agitations in the past five years and there has been complete peace and harmony and the state has progressed a lot. Himachal Pradesh was at 60th position in the country with regard to per capita income but now the state is in the eighth position. However when the BJP wins in other states it does boost our confidence. We are confident of winning in Himachal Pradesh on the basis of development. Q: The BJP Central leadership is contemplating appointing Shanta Kumar as the Election Campaign Committee Chief. Will it be acceptable to you? A: The Campaign Committee is a small committee to carry on the campaign...We have accepted him as our leader years ago. He has been the leader of the state long ago and he is our national leader. Nobody will have objection in accepting him in any position. Q: The delimitation process in Himachal Pradesh generated a lot of controversy. Are you happy that it has been postponed by the Election Commission? A: Yes, of course, the controversy is over now. Those who had some misunderstanding must have known by now that the state government had nothing to do with the delimitation. Kiran Bedi’s column “Reflections” will be carried on the Perspective page on Sunday.
|
But once a year THERE is that old saying: “Christmas comes but once a year” and I was reminded of this while watching Christmas programmes or lack of them on different channels last week. And it also reminded me of what it used to be like when All India Radio was the only Indian electronic medium around. There used to be religious broadcasts by rotation once a week. Apart from the Hindu prayers, if I am not mistaken on Tuesdays, on Fridays a maulvi came around and there were also naats. The Sikhs had their prayers and shabad kirtans once a week and on Sundays there was some choral music for Christians during the Western lunch hour music session. And no one minded. We actually respected and enjoyed particularly the musical part of different religions. Up to very recently I saw Sikh prayers on DD; I am not sure whether they are now regular. DD a year or two ago had a very charming programme for Id which included personalities like dancer Shovana Narayan recalling their childhood memories of visiting friends from other religions during their festivals and sharing the delights of different types of special dishes cooked in individual homes. It was a warm, interesting programme which also served to acquaint viewers with the practices and cultural nuances of different religions. It must go to the credit of Doordarshan that it certainly keeps up the practice of observing different religious festivals with special programmes, while most other channels get away with only brief news items. This year most Hindi channels misquoted and mispronounced, for instance the popular carol Jingle Bells and seemed to have a very hazy idea about the popular myths about Santa Claus or how to pronounce his name. I must also mention Jain TV which has religious programmes every day and on Christmas day had Christ’s famous miracle of the Loaves and Fishes recounted and its moral elaborated. There was also a good panel discussion, anchored by Dr J K Jain himself, where three panellists from different religions spoke about the relevance of Christ’s message of peace in the present turbulent context and the basic commonalty of all good religions. Most foreign channels had special feature films about Christmas. Doordarshan once again brought to us the wonderfully talented choral groups from the North East and this time it was the Mizo Group which again sang brilliantly. Unfortunately, one of their programmes was at midnight when children would have been in bed and their elders at Midnight Mass, but it was a joy to listen to the Mizo singers. In other years we have had equally talented choral groups and soloists from Chennai. But one is disappointed that one cannot hear these wonderful Indian singers much more frequently on the national channels. I sincerely hope that AIR’s FM channels and other private FM channels highlight them too instead of being so dependent on canned stuff from abroad. Incidentally, the midnight Mizo programme kept on describing the songs as carols when, in fact, many of them were spirituals. Lastly, I must register a protest to DD about year after year commissioning a team consisting of an Indian male and an American female doing the talking over Christmas, when we have excellent bishops and other men of religion who are Indian and do not have the sort of patronising missionary impression created by this unctuous duo. Must DD also import preachers over Christmas? It is possibly a freak reception because I have heard that TV Kashmir is not easily accessible in terms of reception in all parts of Kashmir, although the reception was clear in Delhi. I did not find the programmes very elevating considering TV Kashmir is supposed to wean away Kashmiris from TV Pakistan which scores with better reception when India could easily score with better programmes. What the Kashmiris need in the present context, apart from counter propaganda is good entertainment as many of them stay indoors in the evening. What I saw was appalling. The staple diet is endless Kashmiri songs when what is also needed are good ghazals and Sufi music and certainly carefully selected film songs. Then a dishevelled woman, apparently an architect, showed us her dream house, which was far too luxurious for ordinary viewers and totally unsuitable for the Kashmiri climate. Its furnishings were cane and bamboo when Kashmiri walnut furniture is famous all over the world. Then there was a very amateurish programme on crafts when Kashmiris have some of the best crafts in the world. This was capped by a classic bit of clay pottery which a woman in the studio mutilated by painting it in the most hideous colours and designs. This was not only an insult to Kashmiri crafts, but also in poor taste. If this is the best we can offer on TV Kashmir, it would be better to shut it down. Then we switched over to TV Srinagar (National) and got a learned but dull discussion on the Punjabi language by a panel which was far from telegenic. It was recorded in Jammu and was hardly the thing to keep viewers excited, except perhaps students. DD had better sit up and stop the disastrous course our media are taking in Kashmir. Even a captive audience deserves better. |
||
|
Rich fare, thousand delegates expected at Indian History Congress THE Indian History Congress, a premier academic and professional organisation of Indian historians, is meeting for its 63rd annual session at the Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar, from today till December 30. The general president of the session will be Professor Dwijendra Tripathi, a pioneer in research in modern business history, formerly of the Indian Institute of Management. He will take over from the current president, Mr Iravatham Mahadevan, a famous epigraphist, known for his studies of the Indus script. Nearly a thousand delegates are expected to attend and an unprecedented 500 research papers have been received for presentation. These will be read in five separate sections, namely, ancient India, medieval India, modern India, history of countries, and archaeology. The sections will be presided over respectively by Professors U.P. Arora (Bareilly), S.P. Verma (Aligarh), Mariam Dossal (Mumbai), Arjun Dev (Delhi) and V.H. Sonawane (Baroda). All meetings of the sections will be held on the GNDU campus. The open general session will be held and inaugurated today by Chief Minister Capt Amrinder Singh, and Professor Dwijendra Tripathi will read the presidential address. In the evening, the prestigious Professor S.C. Misra Memorial Lecturer will be delivered by Professor Barun De of Kolkata. The symposium on history and archaeology to be held on December 29, will be addressed, among others, by Professor M.K. Dhavalikar, Pune, and Iqtidar A. Khan, Aligarh. A special feature of the session will be a panel discussion on Punjab to be chaired by Professor J.S. Grewal. A panel on the idea of India will be organised by the Aligarh Historians Society; the participants will include Professor S. Ratnagar, K. Veluthat, Om Prakash, S. Moosvi, and A. Mukherjee. The Urban History of India Association is organising a conference on urban phenomena as part of the Indian History Congress session. Professor Indu Banga, Chandigarh, is the secretary of the association. The Indian History Congress is due to release a volume of the proceedings of its previous session held at Bhopal. In addition a special volume on Sikh history, edited by Professor Himadri Banerjee, and another on the history of finance and credit in India, edited by well-known economist Professor Amiya K. Bagchi will also be released. The Aligarh Historians Society expects to release a volume on the history of cultural relations between India and Iran, based on papers read by a panel at the last session of the Indian History Congress. By such publications the Indian History Congress has been trying to explore new avenues of research and fill gaps in our present knowledge. A regular well-edited annual volume of papers read at its session is helpful to a large number of historians who expeditiously get the results of their research known to their colleagues through the volumes of proceedings. The Indian History Congress has instituted prizes for the best papers read at the various sessions by inviting donations. The Professor J.S. Grewal Prize is given for the best paper on medieval India, and the Professor Partha Sarthi Gupta Memorial Prize for the best paper on modern India and history of other countries. Donations for prizes in other sections are expected to be announced at the present session. The Indian History Congress has by its various activities registered considerable growth in the last decade. Its total active membership exceeds 7,000. Behind this growth is its record as an independent, academically oriented organisation. It was established in 1935 as the Modern History Congress, but obtained its present name at its second session in 1938. Since then it has met every year, barring 1942 and 1962, when extraordinary circumstances forced it to postpone its sessions. It has never failed to publish its proceedings. From its very inception, the Indian History Congress has tried to follow the principles laid down by its first President, Professor Shafaat Ahmad Khan, in his address: To treat history critically and eschew all religious or regional prejudice. Before Independence it stood for nationalist outlook and communal unity under foreign rule and in the face of internecine strife. After Independence, its demands have included the protection of the country’s heritage, greater attention towards the correct teaching of history in educational institutions, and protection of freedom of speech. In 1975 and again in 1976, it was the only academic organisation to protest against the arrests of citizens, including historians, during Emergency. In the last 15 years, the Indian History Congress has often been in the news because of its steadfast opposition to the misuse of monuments for religious purposes and to the demand for the demolition of the Babri Masjid. In more recent years it has also criticised the withholding of the publication of books like the Towards Freedom volumes, because the politicians are apprehensive about the manner in which the documents portray the attitude of certain leaders or groups towards the British government. Similarly, it has consistently criticised the new NCERT syllabus, and the withdrawal of the textbooks by recognised scholars like Professor Romila Thapar, Satish Chandra, Bipan Chandra and Arjun Dev. While such independence of views has endeared the Indian History Congress to the professional historian, it has also caused much resentment in certain circles. The Ministry of Human Resource Development refused to renew its long-standing large annual grant this year as a sign of its displeasure. The Indian Council of Historical Research first explicitly stated that the annual grants would not be released unless the Indian History Congress modified its stand on the publication of Towards Freedom volumes. But thankfully it later changed its stand for at least this year. The Government of Punjab has, however, not been deterred by such opposition, and shown its support for independent historical research by giving generous support to the Indian History Congress. The Guru Nanak Dev University has also done its best to make the best possible arrangements, thanks to the vision of Professor S.P. Singh, Vice-Chancellor, GNDU, and hard work of Professor Harish Sharma, local secretary, and his colleagues. The efforts of the GNDU have given the delegates of the Indian History Congress an unparalleled opportunity to interact with their colleagues and to shape a profounder perception of our country’s rich heritage. The Harimandar Sahib in Amritsar will give the delegates an unforgettable glimpse of an important facet of that heritage. The writer is Vice-President, Indian History Congress.
|
 |
| Punjab | Haryana | Jammu & Kashmir | Himachal Pradesh | Regional Briefs | Nation | Editorial | | Business | Sport | World | Mailbag | In Spotlight | Chandigarh Tribune | Ludhiana Tribune 50 years of Independence | Tercentenary Celebrations | | 122 Years of Trust | Calendar | Weather | Archive | Subscribe | Suggestion | E-mail | |
PREM Kumar Dhumal, Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister since 1998, has been steering the Bharatiya Janata Party ship amidst stormy factional feuds. Having braved former state Chief Minister Shanta Kumar’s onslaught with his cool and earthy approach, Mr Dhumal is a picture of confidence of making the party win in the upcoming Assembly elections early next year. The Tribune caught up with Mr Dhumal during the two-day National Executive meeting of the BJP earlier this week in New Delhi.