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Sunday,
January 5, 2003, Chandigarh, India  
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North
Korea’s secret nuclear cities A POINT OF VIEW Clearing
judicial backlog |
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Sanskrit
& its future
Supermarket
trend catches on
Rael —
the ‘prophet’ of cloning
Cell
tariffs & the Minister
Who’s
Who stay away from bashes
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North Korea’s secret nuclear cities The mountains of North Korea are largely deserted places, limestone and basalt massifs that are covered in snow in winter and humid in summer. There are a handful of barely-used official guesthouses that cater for the tiny handful of tourists allowed into the country who make it as far as ranges like the Fragrant Mountains from the capital of Pyongyang. But it is what is happening beneath these mountains that caught the attention of the world this Christmas: the allegation that they hide vast factories and plants excavated secretly by night by armies of workers, thousands strong, and dedicated to North Korea’s nuclear ambitions. It is an enterprise that was described in detail for the first time in August 2001 in the South Korean magazine, Shin Dong-A. According to the magazine, it had managed to lay its hands on a Chinese intelligence report, which had in turn been acquired by South Korea’s own CIA, then leaked to journalists. That report told the chilling story of one Choon Sun Lee, a senior official in North Korea’s giant military infrastructure who had defected to China in 1999. According to the magazine, Choon had claimed that North Korea was operating a secret uranium-processing site underneath Mount Chun-Ma, which it had opened in 1989. The account seemed the stuff of Bond movies. In his uncheckable testimony, Choon— apparently repatriated by the Chinese to North Korea and almost certain execution— described a massive tunnel extending more than a mile into the heart of the mountain. That tunnel opened into vast underground facilities housed in chambers carved out of the rock. Included in those facilities, say analysts, is a process line for turning uranium ore into yellowcake, the first step in the process towards enriching it into weapons-grade material. From there, said Choon, the ore was taken by truck and helicopter to an underground facility in a hidden valley. And it is not just Mount Chun-Ma that allegedly has been hollowed out. Other intelligence agencies, both in Asia and the USA, have pointed for years to the existence of other vast excavations to build facilities for North Korea’s nuclear empire—22 of them at the latest estimate. Among them was the “confession” by a senior North Korean official published in January 2002, which suggested that Kwanmo-bong, the second-highest mountain in the North, had also been “hollowed out at night, sandbag by sandbag, for a secret nuclear plant.” A blunt admission came from North Korea itself last October: it conceded it had constructed a secret programme to build nuclear weapons, hidden away from the nuclear weapons inspectors it had agreed to admit under military pressure from the USA in 1994. Under pressure from the USA, which had discovered that North Korea was trying secretly to procure tonnes of high-grade aluminium tubing suitable for a gas centrifuge enrichment process, American diplomats confronted the North Koreans. It is that admission by the North Koreans that has accelerated a standoff on the Korean peninsula into the newest crisis facing the Bush administration. The North Korean crisis is one the Bush administration could do without. That, perhaps, is North Korea’s calculation: to defy Washington at the moment it is most preoccupied with both the war on terrorism and Iraq. Whether it is calculated shrewdness or insanity is the question at the heart of the nuclear standoff. In a sign of the strains on the Bush administration, it has opted to take a more multilateral path, perhaps against its more bullish instincts. Senior Bush advisers have told the New York Times that the administration would back an effort by the International Atomic Energy Agency to have the United Nations Security Council declare that North Korea is violating the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and other agreements to keep nuclear weapons out of the Korean peninsula. In doing so, they concede, they are trying to cast the issue as North Korea’s international defiance, rather than a confrontation between Pyongyang and Washington, by implication slowing down the escalation towards a more dangerous confrontation. It is a pace that may suit North Korea and the man at the very centre of this crisis, a man regarded by some as tactically inept, naive, deluded and a borderline psychotic, and by others as an increasingly cunning and intelligent player in his relations with his neighbours and the West. That man is Kim Jong-il—the son of the late dictator Kim il-Sung—who officially took over control of all the nation’s affairs four years after his father’s death eight years ago. Bouffant-haired, tiny and rarely seen, the “peerless leader” has extended the cult of personality assiduously developed by his father. On the intellectual front, he has been credited with having extended Kim il-Sung’s personal philosophy of Juche, or self-reliance, which has been the guiding light for North Korea’s development—or lack of it. For all the spin, the truth is more nastily prosaic: a regime that is authoritarian in the extreme, whose people are kept from yearly lethal famine in their millions only by foreign aid, and whose senior officials enrich themselves through the massive processing and fabrication of illegal drugs for the South Asian market. Freedom of speech is viciously suppressed while the family of Kim and his late father have achieved godlike status. The “Dear Leader” presides over a country that has been described as “a Stalinist theme park,” a place bereft of Coke adverts, or even mobile telephones. Last week the “Dear Leader” was out of town visiting a unit of the army, of which he is Supreme Commander, and giving it some “guidance.” But what no one knows, however, is what sort of “guidance” he has been giving to the nuclear scientists and technicians who have moved in to restart the Yongbyon reactor in a complex sealed by UN inspectors under an agreement—now repudiated by Pyongyang—in 1994. What is clear is that they have been ordered to start moving thousands of fresh fuel rods towards the reactor to prepare for it to be restarted, and that Kim has told UN inspectors to leave. The billion-dollar question is what is really driving Kim Jong-il towards a clash with the USA, which he could scarcely hope to survive. Most analysts agree North Korea sees its nuclear and missile programmes as “a useful and effective bargaining chip to be used against the USA and Japan.” Indeed, Pyongyang itself has made this abundantly clear: insisting that the “nuclear issue” could be easily solved if only the USA would agree to sign a treaty of non-aggression—and by implication withdraw its troops from South Korea. As well as the issue of Washington’s perceived distraction, analysts believe that Kim may have been swayed by events closer to home, including the recent anti-US demonstrations in South Korea and the election last week of President-to-be Roh Moo Hyun on a platform of reconciliation with the North. Playing the nuclear card, many in Seoul believe, is an attempt to drive a wedge between Roh and the USA. The most popular interpretation, however, is that Kim Jung-il is attempting what some observers have called “diplomacy by extortion”—building atomic weapons precisely to secure the kind of economic aid and special trade agreements with its neighbours and the West that it won in 1994 in exchange for curtailing its then declared nuclear weapons programme. And it is precisely the accuracy of this interpretation that is dividing the spooks in Washington and Seoul. For a decade, doves on the North Korean issue have long been arguing for a policy of engagement and support for South Korea’s policy of “sunshine” diplomacy with the North, arguing that the foremost goal of North Korea’s leaders is national survival, not the forceful domination of South Korea. Pyongyang, these optimists believe, is trying to end its isolation and engage the outside world. As evidence, they point to North Korea’s increasing trade with non-socialist nations, its opening of the country to foreigners, and the signing of agreements with South Korea and the USA. The hawks on North Korea—bolstered by recent defections that revealed North Korea’s plans to target US bases first in event of a new Korean war—remain convinced that North Korea’s goal is the domination of the entire Korean peninsula. One thing is certain—the attention suits the “Dear Leader.” As he once commented: “I am the object of criticism around the world. But I think that, since I am being discussed, then I am on the right
track.” By arrangement with The Guardian |
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A POINT OF VIEW Of late the question as to whether the Sehajdhari Sikhs should or should not have the right to vote in the SGPC elections has been agitating the Sikh community. The question has assumed particular importance in view of the resolutions passed by the SGPC proposing amendments to the Sikh Gurdwara Act, 1925, for limiting the right to vote only to the Keshdhari Sikhs as in the case of the Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Act, 1971. This is a fundamental question, which has earlier also attracted strong views on both sides and needs to be decided after the widest possible discussion within the community and keeping in mind the interest of the community and the religion. And while doing so, it is important to keep in mind the admonition repeated frequently in Punjab newspapers Khalsa Samachar and Khalsa Advocate in the beginning of this century when similar issues were being debated that the greatest danger to Sikhs are Sikhs themselves and the tendency to forget the creed and message of the Gurus in the rush to control, to fight and to dominate. The Sikh Gurdwara Act, 1925, was enacted as a result of sustained efforts and at the cost of tremendous sacrifices made by the community. About 40,000 Sikhs went to jail and 400 lost their lives during the struggle, it was drafted with the consent and support of Akali leaders and was enacted without opposition. The definition of Sikh as given in the Act in 1925 was as under: “Sikh means a person who professes the Sikh religion” and in case any question arose as to whether any person is or is not a Sikh, he would be deemed to be a Sikh if he made the following declaration: “I solemnly affirm that I am a Sikh, that I believe in Guru Granth Sahib, that I believe in the Ten Gurus and that I have no other religion.” A Sikh more than 21 years of age was qualified to be an elector. However, in 1944, a proviso was added to the Section 49 dealing with the qualification of electors to the following effect: “Provided that no person shall be registered as an elector who (a) trims or shaves his beard or keshas except in the case of Sehajdhari Sikhs; (b) smokes; (c) takes alcoholic drinks.” By an amendment in 1959 a new Section 2 (10A), which defines Sehajdhari Sikh, was inserted: “Sehajdhari Sikh is a person: (i) who performs ceremonies according to Sikh rites; (ii) who does not use tobacco or kutha (halal meat) in any form; (iii) who is not a patit; and (iv) who can recite Mul Mantar.” Now the question is: who is a Sikh? The term Sikh occurs about 100 times in Guru Granth Sahib. To be a Sikh rests on a commitment to follow Gurumat as opposed to Manmat. Guru Amar Das says, “He alone is a Sikh, a friend and a kin, who commits himself to Guru’s will.” Guru Gobind Singh says: “Only those who keep alight the unquenchable torch of truth, and never swerve from thoughts of one God. Do not thus believe even by mistake. In fasting, monastic life of worshipping forbears, Such may be recognised as true members of the Khalsa...”! Can it be said that only the Amritdhari or the Khalsa Sikhs are Sikhs, or do the Keshdharis and the Sehajdharis also qualify to be Sikhs? One view is that only those who believe in Guru Granth Sahib and have been initiated into the Khalsa by partaking of Amrit and maintain the Rehat are Sikhs. “The sense of belonging to the Sikh community requires both the belief in the teaching of the Adi Granth and the observance of the Khalsa tradition initiated by Guru Gobind Singh and there is no such thing as a clean shaven Sikh, he is simply a Hindu believing in Sikhism” (Khushwant Singh, A History of the Sikhs). This seems an extreme view and it excludes both the Keshdharis and Sehajdharis from the Sikh Panth and is not generally accepted. The Keshdhari Sikhs are those who have not partaken of Amrit but believe in Guru Granth Sahib and obey the principal instruction of the Rahit, particularly keeping unshorn hair. They constitute a large percentage of the Sikhs and are accepted as members of the Panth. The main dispute that remains is regarding the Sehajdhari Sikhs. Historians have noted that after the founding of the Khalsa, Guru Gobind Singh never forced his new discipline on all Sikhs. Among his most devoted followers were Bhai Nand Lal, Bhai Ghanaiya, Bhai Kirpa Ram, Bhai Lakhan Rai, Bhai Manua Bairagi, Bhai Hans Raj Bajpayee, etc. whose names are mentioned with respect in Sikh annals. They maintained their identity and position in the Panth as Sehajdhari Sikhs. “Thus a distinction was permitted to remain between a Sikh (disciple) and a baptised Singh, and this is how till lately a large body of Sikhs, called Sehajdharis, though outwardly not conforming to the symbols of the Khalsa, yet accepted the spiritual and social code of the Gurus and remained an inalienable and worthwhile part of the Panth” (A History of the Sikh People, World Sikh University Press, New Delhi, 1979). Bhai Kahan Singh Nabha says “in contrast to baptised Sikhs, Sehajdhari is used for those Sikhs who do not adopt the Rahit of Kes, Sword and the Kach, but accept all other precepts and rituals of the Sikh religion. Besides Singhs, all the followers of Guru Nanak are included in the Sehajdhari group who are co-believers of the Sikh religion.” Bhai Kahan Singh warns that those Singhs who hate the Sehajdharis are not aware of the Sikh religion. He describes a Sikh thus: “A follower of Guru Nanak Devji who has embraced the Sikh religion of Satguru Nanak Devji, who believes in Guru Granth Sahib as his holy book and believes in the ten Gurus as one”. In the Sikh Rahit Maryada which was drawn up by the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee in 1945 after widest consultation in India and abroad, a Sikh is defined to be a person whose faith is in one God, the ten Gurus and their teachings and the Adi Granth. In addition he or she must believe in the necessity and importance of Amrit and must not adhere to any other religion. It is thus clear that Sehajdharis are not excluded. Bhai Ardaman Singh in his article “One Guru — One movement” writes, “Sikhs as a whole are also known as and called the Panth. The Panth includes all sorts of Sikhs whether perfect or imperfect, whether still novice or fully responsible, whether Sehajdhari or of any other samprada. Anyone who believes in the Guru and Gurbani and has faith in no one else, cannot be denied to be a Sikh, and therefore, is a member of the Panth.” Thus, to now restrict the right to vote only to the Keshdhari Sikhs will be going against the long tradition of accepting the Sehajdharis Sikhs as essential members of the Panth and granting them the right to vote in elections to the SGPC since its inception in 1925. Anyway, the matter needs wider debate and discussion at the Panthic level, the yardstick being the teachings of the ten Gurus enshrined in the Guru Granth Sahib. To conclude, I again quote Kahan Singh, the venerated Sikh scholar whose warning seems particularly apposite today, “Those who create animosity and division by mixing up matters of religion, politics (niti) and society (samaj) are bound to suffer here (lok) and in the hereafter (parlok). They do not deserve the title of ‘human beings’ much less the title of ‘God’s Progeny.’ Those who belong to different religions and yet regard themselves as part of one ‘nation’ earn respect and
honour.” The writer is a former Advocate-General, Punjab. |
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Clearing
judicial backlog People at large have been waiting for years and decades for quick justice, which has so far eluded them. The problem is so serious that the pendency goes as far back as 1950 as per the 85th report on “Law’s Delays” prepared by the Rajya Sabha secretariat and published in these columns on Nov 10 along with the article of Mr N.S. Saini titled “Our overburdened, ill-equipped & clogged up courts.” Such delays amount to denial of justice, despite the hard work put forth by the lower judiciary as Mr Saini has argued so painstakingly. One could not agree better with him that it is time “to rejuvenate the system for prompt dispensation of justice.” I hope Mr Saini’s response to my article published on Sept 28, 2002 initiates a healthy debate on the subject, which certainly will help understand the problem better and appreciate the same in a wider and a clearer perspective so that some solution could be found, and that too at affordable costs. Also there can absolutely be no dispute with Mr Saini that the courts need be strengthened and the wherewithal required for efficient functioning needs be provided. It may be in the form of secretarial aids, electronic gadgetry, furniture or any other physical resource that can add to their efficiency, should be made readily available; but that has nothing to do with my hypothesis. Mr Saini has failed to appreciate the main thrust of my article or perhaps has sidelined the main issues that there is no correlation between the number of judges and the population. My primary disagreement was with such recommendation of the Law Commission. If the criterion as laid down by them were to be followed, India by now should be having as many as 1,12,350 judges in place of 13,000 all over the country for an annual filings of 13 million (including those of minor nature) as against only 29,000 (including part-time) judges for 38 million substantive filings in the USA. In comparison with the USA, if we require more than four times the number of judges for trying one-third of the number of cases, it requires a serious insight and introspection into our organisation, systems, procedures, etc. Something is basically wrong either with the functioning of our judicial system or the recommendations of the commission. But the recommendations can neither be implemented as these are impractical and nor can these be ignored, as all thinking on the subject has been pre-conditioned by these recommendations. Since 1998, in particular, it has become the recurring strain, a sort of fashion with almost every member of the legal fraternity to harp on the number of judges per million of population. Compare the number of judges in India per million of population with the USA and draw a simple conclusion that since this number is only 10 per cent in India as compared to the same in USA, there cannot be any improvement till their number is raised to at least to five times the existing strength. This linking came into focus when the Law Commission of India in July 1987 vide Para 8 to 17 of its 120th report made the following observations and correlated the number of judges with population, favouring raising the number of judges in India immediately from 10.5 to 50 per million people as in the USA the number was 107. Though there is a passing reference to the number of institution of cases, the commission did not go into the details of the same and based its conclusions on population only. The following excerpts from the report make it amply clear that the conclusions were arrived at without much serious thought about any other factor. “This question can, of course, be approached from several perspectives. First we may try to correlate the general increase in population rate with the question of number of judges in all cadres. India has today only 10.5 judges per million population; Australia 41.6 judges per million population; Canada 75.2 judges per million population; England 50.9 judges per million population and the USA’s 107 judges per million of population. Certainly, there is strong justification for the recommendation that we increase immediately the present ratio from 10.5 judges per million of Indian population to at least 50 judges per million of Indian population. We recommend accordingly. “This would of course raise the question of the ultimate optimum number of judges. The commission recommends that by the year 2000, India should command at least the ratio that the US commanded in 1981, i.e., 107 judges per million of Indian population. The commission wishes to say that this is one clear criterion of manpower planning. If legislative representation can be worked out, as pointed out earlier, on the basis of population and if other services of the state—bureaucracy, police, etc.—can also be similarly planned, there is no reason at all for the non-extension of this principle to the judicial services. The inter se distribution of the enhanced number among various cadres State-wise would ordinarily proceed on the basis of population in each State and the institution of cases.” In the above report, there is only a passing reference to the institution of cases and is relevant only in context of distribution of judges in various cadres. This view of linking population and the number of judges has subsequently been echoed by various legal luminaries, including the distinguished judges, the members of the Bar and even the Law Minister. The Law Minister may mention about the financial crunch, which may prevent the government from providing the requisite number of judges, but the principle of correlating population with number of judges has not been questioned. Though the members of the commission initially spoke of “several perspectives,” it appears they did not examine or take into account any other factor. As illustrated above, they have gone to the extent of arguing that if democratic representation could be based on population, if other services could be planned in proportion to population, then why not judiciary. The argument of the commission turns fallacious, for if in a situation, where filings fall to zero, no courts whatsoever will be required. The same will apply to almost all other services of the State as well. Some basic structure for certain services may be necessary, but no service as a pattern can be planned based only on population figures, though it is a different matter that problems for and requirements for the services do increase with the rise in population. However, the scale of services is never determined directly by the increase in population nor does their growth directly correspond or get linked to the population growth, whether it is police, PWD and education or even health or any other service. This author is of firm opinion that there is absolutely no reason to forcibly link population and the number of judges, which has only to be linked with the fillings in the courts. Comparisons can be made with any country. If the number of judges in Australia is 4 times, Canada 7.5, England 5 and the USA 10, as per Paragraph 8 of the report, and then the comparable crime rate is also equally high. It stands at 22 times in Australia (1995), 45 in Canada (1995), 51 in England (1996) and 28 in the USA (1995). It is highly misleading and is a misnomer to say that in India the number of judges is the lowest anywhere in the world. It may actually turn out to be amongst the higher ones, as the proportionate number of criminal cases being filed in India is very small as compared to other countries and the number of civil suites is also low. Equipping a court well will hardly cost anything as compared to the creation of a new court. Existing vacancies may of course be filled up expeditiously and the court should be fully strengthened by all the physical resources. However, all this by itself will not upgrade their efficiency at par with the courts abroad or match with the performance at Jabalpur. Mr Saini in his sentimental defence of the system has confused various issues. When he talks of normal courts as against CBI courts and about hours of work of various courts, he fails to comprehend the essential point that the Jabalpur court was disposing of only 1.5 cases per year and the same very court with same very infrastructure disposed of 46 cases annually when it looked into its procedures and set them right, an increase of 3,000 per cent. I have nowhere compared the CBI court with the state court. It is an incorrect appreciation by him. There is absolutely no doubt that like any other department of the government, the judiciary has also to improve its efficiency. There may be some marginal requirement of additional personnel, which should be linked to the number of cases and not population, but basically the system of trial needs to be improved, apart from providing the physical resources. Every judge is the leader of his court and it is he who has to devise and revise the system. If the same court with the same infrastructure could achieve the 3,000 per cent rate of disposal in Jabalpur and the Hon’ble Supreme Court could cut down the pendency from 1,22,000 to just 22,000 in one year when Mr Justice Venktachaliah took certain steps, there is no reason why that cannot be done in lower courts or in high courts. For this we have to come out of the mindset of linking the number of judges with population. The author is an IPS officer. |
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Sanskrit
& its future An old saying, seer of the house is not worshipped in his own house, applies well to the Sanskrit language. Sanskrit, the oldest language of the world and cultural legacy and national heritage of Indians, is loosing its sheen in India, but ironically it is being promoted in European countries, particularly in Germany. The language of devas and rishis, which has produced great mathematicians, astronomers and scientists in the olden times, is in a state of neglect, thanks to the indifference of the education and culture departments towards it. Critics say it has become victim of politics and because of that the promotion of this language has taken a back seat on the agenda of all governments, irrespective of political parties. The literal meaning of this language is perfected language or codified language. Panini, a great linguist of India, systematised and codified the Vedic language (classical Sanskrit) which having been codified began to be termed as Sanskrit. It is the mother of all Indo-European languages and a “big sister” of Greek and Latin, written in Devnagri script. It is the language of Vedas, Upanishads, Bhagavadgita, Mahabharata, Ramayana, and Puranas, which is one of the richest literatures in the history of mankind. It is scientific and systematic, with perfect grammar, which has attracted scholars worldwide. Recently, well-known linguists and computer scientists have expressed the opinion that Sanskrit is the best language for use with computers. This language has been used to create mantras which were made up of a combination of sound vibrations which when recited had a specific effect on the mind and the psyche. In the times of rishis, the main aim was to attain the truth, and what better medium than Sanskrit, the perfect tool. Due to its specificity and purity seemed the best language with which to understand God’s Creation and as such is called the great spiritual language of the world (Joseph Campwell). It was the official language of India till 1100 AD and produced literature of diverse genres, including religion, philosophy, fiction, science, mathematics, linguistics, astronomy, medicine and politics. German scholar Max Muller, the greatest advocate for Sanskrit in the West, concluded that without knowledge of Sanskrit liberal education was not complete. The people of Germany are very keen to know about Sanskrit and other things related with the Aryan race. In view of these facts, German scholars in the field of ethnology and social anthropology visit India to do research on the Aryans and the Sanskrit language. They believe Sanskrit is the language of the common ancestors of India and Germany, hence they consider India the intellectual and spiritual ancestor of this race, historically and through Sanskrit. The symbol of swastika is revered by both Indians as well Germans. Germans’ interest in things related to the Aryans can be known from a well-researched book written by famous mountaineer Major H.P.S. Ahluwalia, Hermit Kingdom, in which startling disclosures are made. It tells of how a group of German girls once went all the way to Ladakh in search of the Aryan seed. These young women from the western world, incredibly enough, were not only willing but eager to have sexual intercourse with Ladakhi tribal males, believed to be the purest surviving Aryans. In Germany this language is taught in 16 universities. Sanskrit is also taught in countries like Australia, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Great Britain, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Russia, Sweden, Switzerland, Japan and North America. Educationists from India believe that since the language is a treasure house of a lot of scientific theories, and that it should be made compulsory up to the 12th standard for medical students. Some, however, are of the view that Sanskrit is not dead in India as at least a dozen periodicals are published in the language, All India Radio broadcasts in Sanskrit and it is studied in schools and colleges. The famous Gayatri Mantra is on the lips of billions of Indians every morning. Efforts should be made to promote and preserve this cultural legacy and national heritage. |
Supermarket trend catches on The new year is a good time to look at new trends and there is one in Srinagar that has become striking over the past year. A number of shops here are edging towards becoming supermarkets. They are not yet large stores with several floors and huge varieties of different goods available under the same sprawling roof but they allow customers to fill shopping baskets as they browse through the shelves, and then pay near the entrance. As if to introduce the concept, one of them calls itself “Pick n’move,” another “Pick-n-choose supermarket”. Young Kashmiris at least seem to like the idea, for one can see them in twos and threes at these shops, quite often just looking around to see what they might find. Roaming the packed shelves of one such shop with his girl-friend, 25-year old Faisal Ahmed found himself fascinated by moulded candles, including floaters, and picked up a couple — some for her and more for his own room. If the intention of such shopkeepers is to encourage consumerism, they are clearly succeeding. It is a bit of a gamble for them though. As Nasir Khan, who owns one such shop on Residency Road, says, it will take a long time to break even. He is nevertheless expanding the outlet. Construction is under way for a mezzanine floor, after he had already doubled his retail area by taking over the adjacent shop just a few months ago. There are entire racks filled with cosmetics, others with packaged, ready-to-eat food or fruit juices. Yet others have jams and marmalades and part of a large revolving shelf is occupied by bottles of various kinds of pickles. Nasir even has a shelf of upmarket cigarettes, including smuggled packets of Dunhill, behind his cash counter. Nasir’s shop is in the upmarket Civil Lines area but the trend is visible even in the hurly-burly of what Kashmiris call “downtown,” the bylanes of inner city Srinagar. Nasir says he got the idea because he spent some years in cosmopolitan Chandigarh and Mumbai. Plus, at the age of 27, his mind is tuned to the future. Ironically then, these trends are an unexpected byproduct of the past decade of militancy. Several young Kashmiri Muslims were sent out of the valley to study and some of them have now returned with new ideas. Some travelled far afield. Majid Khan, 48, says he spent some time in Swaziland, South Africa. Back, he decided to experiment with this sort of modern store just a stone’s throw from the Hazratbal shrine. He is dismissive of his effort, though. “This is peanuts. They have shops a hundred times bigger there,” he says. Nor is it easy to make a success of the concept in a place not used to it, he says. It’s not that customers don’t like the idea. The problem is with suppliers. Whereas a normal shop needs to deal with a limited number of suppliers, this sort of store has to source a few items each from a large number of suppliers. Majid, who has obviously had some bad experiences with suppliers, uses the language of a sailor to qualify the “rogues” he has to contend with. For example, he says, a supplier delivered 30 boxes of a dozen eggs each the previous day but the eggs in the bottom layer of each box turned out to be much smaller than the ones in the upper layer. Nevertheless, the trend is blossoming. Nor is it limited to outlets for food, home decorations and cosmetics. A family that has run a small, cluttered stationery shop in Lal Chowk, in the heart of the city, for several decades opened a large shop, sprawled across three floors in upmarket Jawahar Nagar a couple of months ago. Half of the ground floor is given over to toys and the entire top floor to computer accessories. The rest of the shop has all kinds of stationery and educational aids, many of them imported. Shop assistants are at hand to help the customer but purchases are paid for near the entrance. Srinagar’s first popular cybercafe operated out of a dozen cubicles in a 300 sq. ft. room for years. Work is just being completed for it to shift to a vast hall that will have scores of terminals and a coffee and snack bar at one side. Large sheets of glass will give customers a panaromic view of Maulana Azad Road —and no doubt provide a glimpse from the road that might lure students from Sri Partap College and the Government College for Women, both of which are on that road. Its owners have no doubt been inspired by the Cafe Bluez cybercafe that opened a few months earlier off Partap Park, just a short walk away. Its owners managed to build two levels out of the high-ceilinged shop that was built in an age (40-odd years ago) when the premium was on gracious spaces rather than on maximizing utility. This one too combined snacks with net browsing. Tying up with the next shop, it offers browsers coffee, ice creams and sandwiches. Ever since it opened with that mezannine floor, several shops down the line have been closed for renovations, redoing the architecture to accommodate an extra floor. After all, there is no stopping a new idea — and, while Kashmir’s economy may be in a shambles, there is no dearth of money to spend. |
Rael — the ‘prophet’ of
cloning It looks like a fairy tale; on December 13, 1973, while walking on the crater of an ancient volcano in central France, a journalist saw a metallic looking engine, like a flattened bell, about 7 metres in diameter, descending from the sky. The journalist, Claud Vorilhon, was flabbergasted, having not seen anything like this before in his life. Reassured of peaceful intention of the visitor, a diminutive figure, on board the space ship, the journalist tried to establish contact with the alien and the language used by him was his native tongue; the French. The first conversion ran thus: Vorilhon: Where do you come from ? Alien: From very far, from another planet. I have come to meet you and I have chosen you for a difficult mission. Come to my machine, we will be more comfortable to talk. For the next few days, “Telegraph”, London reported, Vorilhon was told the true story of human race. Humans were created 25,000 years ago in a laboratory by advanced beings from another planet who had mastered genetics and cell biology. The alien renamed Vorilhon as “Rael” and sent him back into the world to spread the word. He was, reportedly told, to build an embassy in Jerusalem for the return of “Elohim” (Hebrew word usually translated as a name of “God”) and fellow prophets —Jesus, Moses, Buddha and Mohammed — whose cloned selves were living on another planet waiting to return to Earth. Vorilhon, who had come to be known as “Rael” by then had donned white baggy suits and restyled his hair looking like topknot (in Indian known as “chotti”). He became a laughing stock in France . Vorilhon migrated to Canada, settled just outside Montreal, founded the Raelian sect and called himself the Prophet. Uninhibited sex is known to be an important plank of Raelanism; the sect’s objective is to achieve everlasting life through cloning. Rael claims to have 55,000 followers around the world mostly in Canada, Japan and French - speaking Europe. Only 10 per cent are known to be active Raelians and , it is believed, Raelianism survives on what critics of the sect call “publicity stunts”. With breakthrough in science of cloning in the mid-nineties, Raelian cult gathered momentum and Vorilhon was the happiest man, claiming that his long-ridiculed predictions were coming true. He has now been urging his female supporters to offer their wombs and eggs for cloning experiments. Rael set up a company called “Clonaid”, the first cloning company in February, 1997. Incidentally, Scottish scientists had days before announced the birth of “Dolly”, a sheep, the first mammal to have been cloned. The company’s head scientist is a woman Bishop and an active member herself of Raelian cult. Brigitte Boisseller formerly taught chemistry at Hamilton College and worked as marketing director for a huge unidentified chemical factory in France. She has, however, no experience in the field of either animal cloning or human reproduction. In the interviews given from time to time, she had said her youngest daughter would be among the young women in the movement who would carry cloned babies to term. “Clonaid” company created a flutter in the world by claiming that it had produced the first clone of a human being, a healthy baby girl who was a clone of the 31-year-old American woman who gave birth to her. Ms Boisseller, who announced, to a bewildered world that the cloning experiment was successful but did not offer any proof of the achievement nor did she disclose where the baby girl was born. “Clonaid” operations shroud in mystery and scientists view the company suspiciously, doubting its competence to clone a human being. “Clonaid”, however, stands by its claim that says an independent expert will confirm the baby is clone through DNA testing. Rael says: “My mission is to prepare human beings for future technology”. Also, he says: “Life expectancy is now 90 years; at the beginning of the last century it was 44. Once we have applied this technology human beings will soon live at 700 years”. What 56-year old former journalist talks look like a world of fantasy, a dream world but who knows it may come true one day. He asserts that “nothing can stop science”. Vorilhon was an absolutely normal born child and spent a happy childhood with his mother, grandmother and his aunt . As he grew up he began writing poetry, took to automobile racing and became a sport journalist when his whole world changed. |
Cell tariffs & the Minister It resembled the pre-bout excitement of a WWE event. All the top crowd-pullers were there. As the biggest of them, Sunil Bharti Mittal ushered the surprise guest (no marks for guessing — Telecom Minister Pramod Mahajan), camerapersons jostled for space, which was at a premium in a glittering hotel in the Capital. The occasion: to announce a tariff plan to bludgeon the price undercutting war unleashed by Reliance. For the cellular operators though, many battles are yet to be won before the final frontier is conquered. Mahajan’s presence and making the Minister announce the new tariff plans was perhaps the first of these battles. Reliance had set the precedent the week before that in Mumbai. With the parity restored in the battle of Mahajan’s presence between the two sparring parties (the whole thing is being viewed as Reliance versus the rest), Mittal ensured that the new rates are announced by the Minister himself — a la Reliance. For Mahajan it could not have been a more opportune masterstroke as there had been more than audible murmurs about his preferred predilections towards a particular industry house. And the Minister himself later said: “As Telecom Minister, I am Minister of both fixed operations and cellular operations”. Ahem! Theatrical
Modi Narendra Modi has emerged the new face in the theatrical arena of Indian politics which had so far Farooq Abdullah and Laloo Prasad Yadav as its prima donnas. The Gujarat Chief Minister so handled the media and everything thrown at him by the opposition that he remained the centre of attention in the run up to the Gujarat polls. Modi coined his own idioms — “Italian
chashma,” “Mian Musharraf” — and the Opposition apparently could not match up. In the final countdown, he dubbed the appeal by a cleric to vote for the Congress as “fatwa” to achieve his objectives. Immediately after the Gujarat results, Modi turned a statesman and talked of working for those also who had not voted for the
BJP. He kept touching rival Keshubhai Patel’s feet before and after the polls in front of TV cameras. Modi repeated the feet-touching gesture for the Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister during the swearing-in ceremony. Was it a mere coincidence that Modi’s likely rivals in the BJP for the top post — former Industry Minister and former Speaker — lost the polls? Congress leader Amarsinh
Chaudhary, who was replaced as PCC chief, is now the chief of the Congress Legislature Party. Political circles in Ahmedabad say that Modi put up a weak candidate against Chaudhary as the Congress leader “suited” him more than any other leader. Gujarat, it seems, was more a Modi show than a BJP victory. What Modi does in Himachal Pradesh, a state he served earlier as a BJP functionary, remains to be seen.
New Year wishes When the world went ga ga over the New Year inventing new ways to wish their near and dear ones, Sangh Parivar members were not so pleased with the new phenomenon the ‘Hindustanis’ were indulging in. While some of the people continued with their New Year wishes beyond January 1, the Sangh Parivar members preferred not to wish people on the occasion, some others faced with the situation of people approaching them to wish, reciprocated in a typical manner. “Angrezon ka naya saal aap ko mubarak ho,” said an RSS leader sarcastically when a correspondent wished him a happy new year. His
punchline: “Jab Hinduuoun ka naya saal ayega hum aapko badhai dhenge (I will wish you when the New Year of Hindus comes)”.
Singles If couples are having a ball, can singles be far behind. The festival season is one marketing opportunity the hospitality industry would not let go. And the Taj Group has taken the competition towards an entirely esoteric level. Perhaps buoyed by the Prime Minister’s presence in the sublime beaches of Goa recently, the Taj Group has offered a special scheme for ‘singles and like-minded individuals’ to serenade at their beach resort in
Goa. One is left wondering whether the scheme is an afterthought after the visit of the Prime Minister, the most powerful single in the country (pun unintended).
Cleanliness drive The Press Information Bureau
(PIB) in Shastri Bhavan, the Central government’s sole agency to propagate the government’s policies as well as disseminate news of the government’s day-to-day functioning, has of late acquired swanky environs. The government has spent millions of rupees in doing up the rooms, the conference hall, the furniture and the corridors. But a circular issued by the PIB in the new year shows that the employees have not shed their typical Indian traits of throwing the litter and dirtying the corridors, toilets and walls. The January 2 circular requests all employees and visitors not to spray walls with ‘paan’ spit and litter the corridors with cigarette butts. A whack commented: the slogan is “Mera Bharat Mahan” (My India is great), but the reality is “Mera Bharat
Peekdaan” (My India a spitoon).
BJP’s dilemma The BJP high command is in a dilemma these days. The party wanted to send Union Coal Minister Uma Bharti to Madhya Pradesh as the state BJP chief for leading the election campaign in the state later this year. That would obviously mean Uma Bharti losing her ministerial berth. But there is more to it than meets the eye. If Bharti were to be appointed as the Madhya Pradesh BJP chief without a ministerial cover then Chief Minister Digvijay Singh would not hesitate even for a moment to book her under some relevant law for her usually provocative statements. She alone can run the campaign on Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi lines but she may also may turn a loose canon and that is where the high command is clueless about an eventual solution to their
dilemma. (Contributed by Gaurav Chaudhary, T V Lakshminarayan, Satish
Misra, S Satyanarayanan, Prashant Sood and Rajeev Sharma) |
Who’s Who stay away from bashes Around new year several readers got in touch, inquiring in subtle and not to subtle ways which bashes the who’s who would be attending here ...To tell them that parties are no longer in vogue, at least around this time of the year. They ’d partied enough all those days, leaving the much-used, decaying floor for the middleclass. And the well connected took off on those getaways — right from the politician to the bureaucrat and those connected to them, wives and all ...And though events lied crammed on the last few days of the year but the so-called leaders were not to be seen. Poor organisers and the crowds looked almost orphaned and last minute begged around for substitutes. Just anybody would do for them. And why this clean move from the city, which is of late even boasting of a metro ?As though its some sort of a human savior or demi -god or what ! Driving down on New Year’s eve from Chanakyapuri towards South Delhi suddenly one realised that the traffic lights were not working at several points, jamming enthusiasm in more than many ways. Weary, lined, painted faces peered out from car windows and it was almost pathetic to hear them scream ‘happy new year’ to the passers-by ...as if they did not know what happiness is all about and yet they were screaming lines stuffed into their heads probably in their kinder garden or now, more lately, by the policy of distraction followed by the various sections of the government .... Passing away of a real secular ... I am really planning to get back to the kinder garden, for words and sentences are being re-framed, new confusing meaning are being thrust on us ....in the backdrop of this let me write that last week saw the passing away of a real secular-Raja Jaswant Singh, former Advocate-General and Chief Justice of J&K, who was later elevated as Judge of the Supreme Court in 1976 .No , he believed in no empty words on secularism and yet in practice nobody could match his outlook. I write this in the context of his parents, two sisters and their husbands and one brother being butchered in Mirpur by Afghan invaders, in 1947. And yet that man had the nobility (can’t think of a better word than that) to never talk about that incident and not just that ....About six years back when I’d reviewed his book “Jammu & Kashmir: Political and Constitutional Development” (Har Anand) I ’d come in contact with him and though I had done a critical review yet he didn’t take it amiss and then one day told me that I’m like a sister to him. Living in New Delhi for the past two decades one has got so used to people making big proclamations and not really living upto them so I didn’t take his words too seriously ...till, of course, the Raksha bandhan day — he came over with a rakhi and a box of sweets for me .A man whose family got wiped clean by invaders who happened to be Muslims, was extending his love and affection to me , a Muslim .This is real secularism and these are the people who’ve kept us together ...Raja Jaswant Singh’s death leaves a void , for its another gentleman going and leaving us in a further haze .... NRIs come hither January 9, 2003, will see the coming here of a few hundred (the official figure is 1200) NRIs, for what is termed as the first ever
get-together of NRIs. Officially called, Pravasi Bharatiya Divas, this
get-together is in the news circuit here but not without criticism — after all, it appears to be a getaway for those who’s who in the NRI list — Visiting their country of origin on official invitation and that goes to include seeing (rather made to see ) just the best .Needless to add that realities would be pushed under the red carpet! |
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