The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

THE TRIBUNE SPECIALS

50 YEARS OF INDEPENDENCE

TERCENTENARY CELEBRATIONS

OPINION

Foreign policy objectives
Defining India’s interests in today’s global climate
S. Nihal Singh
Every era has its fashionable terminology and for India, the new mantra in foreign policy is to have a strategic dialogue with as many countries as possible. Indeed, the Indian foreign policy establishment has never looked back from the marathon Strobe Talbott-Jaswant Singh series of discussions during the Clinton era after India unofficially joined the nuclear weapons club in 1998.

MIDDLE

From New Delhi to Amritsar
V.N. Datta
For attending the 63rd session of the Indian History Congress to be held in Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar, I had to catch a train at New Delhi railway station. It was really difficult to reach the station in time due to interminable traffic jams encountered on the way.

ANALYSIS

Politicians must learn to behave for saving the system
K.F. Rustamji
The next two years will be election years — for Parliament and state assemblies. That seems like a warning to the nation. Will we repeat the hate and loot campaign of Gujarat in Himachal, Delhi and all the other states, rejoice over the victory, and then say that we should ponder over where we are going.

TRENDS & POINTERS

What determines quality of life in old age
Will you have a “golden” time between the age of 55 and 75 or will it be marred by illness, loneliness and other problems? A team of researchers at Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine in London has found that the present, rather than the past, influences are important in determining the quality of life in early old age.

SPIRITUAL NUGGETS

EDITORIALS

Will Pandits’ plight ever end?

When we look at post-Independence India, we find that no community has suffered as much as the Kashmiri Pandits in terms of mass displacement. Their problem, however, began with terrorism visiting the valley in 1989. The Pandits were the primary targets of the Pakistan-trained killers exploiting the name of an otherwise pacifist religion. In the terror-stricken atmosphere the Pandit families of the valley moved out one by one or in groups in search of a safer home elsewhere in the country. But the home is where one’s ancestors have lived and left their imprint on the sands of time. That is why the Kashmiri Pandits who have preferred to live a life of “pardesi” in their own country for about 14 years do not feel at home wherever they are. There are specific reasons for this kind of feeling. Their cultural and religious life is so closely associated with the land of their forefathers that it is just not possible to get homely feeling away from the valley ----- the paradise on earth, as described by Mughal ruler Shahjehan. Afterall, how can one recreate the legend associated with the Saraswati, leading to the emergence of the Pandit community. It is believed that a spiritually charged community lived happily along the river over 5000 years ago. When the river disappeared or dried up, one of its tributaries took the shape of what is today known as the Sutlej. The extremely religious community living on the banks of the Saraswati also dispersed, with some of them deciding to make the Kashmir valley their home. Most of them were Sanskrit-speaking Brahmins. They later began to be referred to as Kashmiri Pandits. With their stay in the valley, a wholely distinct culture took roots. Whosoever came to rule over this beautiful part of India had invariably these Pandits in most key positions. The primary reason was the tradition of education which made the Kashmiri Pandits different from the rest.

They are, no doubt, the victims of the ugly reality in post-1989 Kashmir with Pakistan promoting terrorism as an instrument of state policy. But somewhere down the line the Pandits too failed to visualise what could happen if nothing was done to spread their tradition of learning among the rest of the population with whom they had been living as brothers and sisters. Today Jammu and Kashmir is among the educationally most backward states of India, with Kashmir remaining at the bottom. How can one explain the meaning of Kashmiriat to an illiterate population? How can one make the Kashmiris, mired in poverty, realise that Kashmiriat holds the key to prosperity in the valley? We know that Kashmiriat can prove to be the most effective weapon to defeat terrorism, the common enemy of all those living in that unfortunate state as also the rest of India. But it is a difficult task to sell the idea in a largely illiterate and unemployed population. The Kashmiri Pandits yearn to be back in the valley. Some of them supported the idea of setting up an enclave exclusively for them. However, it does not seem to be a feasible proposition. There is a better idea to end their ordeal: involve these educated but victimised people in a movement to popularise Kashmiriat through the spread of education among the valley’s residents. This can pave the way for the Pandits’ return to Kashmir in an honourable way. It is a pity that the West, particularly the USA, with all its loud claims on human rights, has failed to express serious concern at this great tragedy of our times. It is too glaring an omission on the part of the West to be forgiven by history.

True colours of Pakistan

Staff members manning the Indian High Commission in Islamabad and their families lead a harrowing life. Intelligence officials shadow them constantly. Their phones and mail are intercepted. And it is not uncommon for some of them to be beaten up by “unidentified” men who are never traced. How can they be when they belong to the intelligence agencies? This kind of uncivilised treatment has come to be grudgingly accepted as some kind of a professional hazard. Perhaps it is this resignation that has encouraged Pakistani agencies to display a far more boorish behaviour towards the Indian Charge d’Affaires, Mr Sudhir Vyas, this weekend. His car with the Indian Flag flying on the wing was boxed in not once but thrice when he was going to attend some diplomatic functions. The incident is unprecedented in that this is the first time the seniormost official of the mission has been harassed and that too in such a blatant manner. This is indeed a grave violation of the basic norms of diplomatic behaviour codified in international and bilateral conventions. Since the year 2002 was virtually free of any such incident despite the tension generated by the December 13 attack on the Indian Parliament, Indian authorities are at a loss to understand the motive behind this outrageous behavior. One conjecture is that it had something to do with India test-firing a surface-to-air missile that very day. But whatever the trigger might have been, the harassment is totally unacceptable.

It has been proved yet again that Pakistan has a forked tongue. On the one hand, it shows its readiness to mend fences with its neighbour. On the other hand, it continues its clandestine hostility. Within the country it treats Indian diplomats as if they are hostages. Outside, its agents continue to kill innocent Indians. It is enjoying itself in a fool’s paradise, secure in the knowledge that its proxy war is proceeding as planned. What it conveniently ignores is that it is losing its credibility in the eyes of the world through such cowardly deeds. India has shown tremendous restraint but this patience cannot be limitless. By perpetrating every such inhuman act, it is drawing nemesis that much closer to itself. Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee’s tough words in Port Blair against the harassment of the diplomat may not get translated into action immediately but these should not be misconstrued as an empty ultimatum either.

The Bachchan saga

Dr Harivansh Rai Bachchan has returned to his maker. But he has left behind a legacy that cannot be measured in words, particularly through words that state the obvious. He was indeed a great poet. To say that he was a Hindi poet would be an insult to the great man and his even greater offering to the muse. Language is an expression of the limitations of poets and writers to reach out to mankind. Shakespeare in English belongs to the English speaking world. But Shakespeare’s literary contribution without the shackles of language belong to every one who has a heart that loves and a mind that receives. Should Harivansh Rai be applauded as a poet who wrote in Hindi, or as literary figure whose depth of thought gave him the ability to communicate with every element of the universe of which we of the human race are just a small speck? But a fair assessment of his contribution to the world of literature should not ignore the tragedy of being Harivansh Rai Bachchan. The first tragedy that he had to suffer was the insensitivity of his fellow Hindi writers and critics who reduced him to the writer of just one composition that became popular as “Madhushala” [the tavern]. And that is a pity. In a manner of speaking, his own literary well-wishers drowned Harivansh Rai Bachchan in the goblet he offered to mankind. As an act of repentance they should take him out of the tavern so that mankind can bask in the glory of his poetic vision that was as vast and profound as that of his contemporary and colleague at Allahabad University, Raghupati Sahai Firaq Gorakhpuri.

It was, perhaps, divine planning that saw both of them become scholars of English literature and teach at the same institution — Allahabad University. However, while Firaq Gorakhpuri taught English and wrote poetry in the Urdu language, Bachchan taught English and wrote in Hindi. What was said about Tulsi and Surdas was true about these literary giants. It was difficult to say who was the sun and who the moon. They were, perhaps, their own universe. The second tragedy of being Harivansh Rai Bachchan was exemplified by the huge turnout at his funeral in Mumbai on Sunday. Just as Kaifi Azmi, in spite of his credentials as an outstanding Urdu poet, came to be known as Shabana Azmi’s father, Harivansh Rai could do nothing to stop people from seeing him as Amitabh Bachchan’s father. But Amitabh has proved to be a son any father should be proud of. His vaulting popularity as a Bollywood superstar could have cut him off from his family. But his pedigree has shown throughout his life as a devoted son, as a caring husband, a doting father and an upright businessman. Poets, apparently, have a way of communicating their minds through living poets from wherever they go after completing their journey on earth. Harivansh Rai spoke through Javed Akhtar who in his brief tribute to a fellow poet said that “we have all read the story of devotion to his parents of Shravan Kumar. I have seen the story with my own eyes here in this family”. The dead do not weep, but Harivansh Rai must have shed a tear of joy seeing his family holding hands after his Shravan Kumar lit the pyre.

OPINION

Foreign policy objectives
Defining India’s interests in today’s global climate
S. Nihal Singh

Every era has its fashionable terminology and for India, the new mantra in foreign policy is to have a strategic dialogue with as many countries as possible. Indeed, the Indian foreign policy establishment has never looked back from the marathon Strobe Talbott-Jaswant Singh series of discussions during the Clinton era after India unofficially joined the nuclear weapons club in 1998.

India then was so taken up with the concept of the strategic dialogue — whatever it might mean — that many discussions with foreign interlocutors became strategic. It was as if India was proclaiming its manhood by declaring that it had sufficient weight in the international arena to go in for the strategic dialogue, particularly with members of the charmed circle of the P Five, the permanent members of the UN Security Council.

Lest strategic dialogue fog India’s relations with the outside world, it is best to define Indian interests without being carried away by President George W. Bush flattering an Indian Foreign Minister by “dropping in” while he was conversing with the National Security Adviser. Henry Kissinger has documented how such “drop ins” are graded diplomatically in the American scheme of things.

Strategic dialogue or otherwise, it is time for India to define its foreign policy objectives more sharply. Not unsurprisingly, New Delhi has come to the conclusion that the country’s interests lie in cultivating the only superpower. But the rather breathless attempt at achieving this objective was counter-productive, dependent as it was on the degree of American interest in building a closer relationship with India. The Indian propensity to invest the relationship with more than it can bear can only lead to disappointment.

Next in importance for India are relations with neighbours — Pakistan and others. It is a triumph of Pakistani diplomacy and subversive activities that it occupies such a disproportionate place in India’s foreign policy. True, the Indo-Pakistani relationship impinges on relations with other countries, but an Indian political establishment that has little interest in foreign affairs latches on to Pakistan for domestic political purposes, the most telling example being Mr Narendra Modi’s election campaign in Gujarat. Not only did he have a swipe at “Mian Musharraf” but he also brought in Kashmir to score propaganda points against the Congress.

If a Bharatiya Janata Party Chief Minister can make a punching bag of Indian foreign policy for narrow partisan ends when a BJP-led government is in office at the Centre, what hope can there be of bringing sanity to politicians’ debate of India’s national interests in the wider world? The central BJP leadership is either content to let party spokesmen score cheap points against adversaries at the nation’s expense or it does not have the authority to discipline its regional satraps.

With Mr Yashwant Sinha’s assumption of the External Affairs portfolio, there was an inevitable tilt to cultivating neighbours outside the tangled relationship with Pakistan. The results thus far have hardly been encouraging. In Bangladesh, the Indian relationship is too inviting a tool for the Khaleda Zia government to forego to score political points. With Nepal entrapped in a Maoist uprising, Indian attempts at cementing the relationship are limited by the traditional leftist aversion to all things Indian in the scale of their relations with China. Other international players have jumped into the Nepalese fray as India watches. With Sri Lanka, India is for the present on an even keel seeking to balance its aversion to the Tamil Tiger leadership with support for a peaceful settlement.

The next in India’s priority list is Russia. It took some time for the Russian establishment to revive close relations with India. Immediately after the break-up of the Soviet Union, Boris Yeltsin and his team were so enamoured of the USA that they turned their back on India. It was only after Russia’s disillusionment with the United States that a new foreign minister, Mr Yevgeni Primakov, was appointed and Moscow began to pay attention to old friends who could still be useful in the New World Order. The defence relationship is key to the New Delhi-Moscow equation, but the symbolism of the triangular Russia-China-India triangle should not be underestimated.

In the Indian view, the Chinese seem in no hurry to resolve the border question. And while Beijing has been making some gestures to New Delhi, the Chinese propensity to make life difficult for India through cultivating close relations with India’s neighbours, particularly Pakistan, imposes a limit on Sino-Indian bonhomie and goodwill.

Relations with members of the European Union are important, but the European perception is that India is so busy cementing the relationship with the pre-eminent power that it has less time for the sensitivities of the EU. A case in point was the recent signing of the arrangement with the USA on agreeing not to extradite each other’s nationals to the International Criminal Court. New Delhi has had its own reservations to the protocols of the court but its avidity in letting the USA score points at the expense of the European wish for an international tribunal sat ill with the EU.

Spokesmen of the government often seek to give the impression that India has arrived on the international stage. A country of India’s size and potential cannot be a nonentity in the international arena, but the standing of a country in the world lies in its intrinsic strength and the stability of its polity. Gujarat can be dismissed as an aberration but there are few signs that the BJP leadership is ready to acknowledge its culpability. And there is no inclination to rein in the supporters of the Sangh Parivar. These aspects of India’s political development cannot but impinge on the country’s image and standing abroad.

Nobody suggests that an element of realpolitik does not come into play in the pursuit of a country’s foreign policy. India’s criticism of American war plans against Iraq in an undertone is understandable because New Delhi can do little to change the imperialist urges of a neoconservative American presidency. And Iraq’s immediate neighbours are hardly protesting.

However, India’s credibility suffers when it seeks refuge in clichés such as non-alignment in a world in which there is nothing to be nonaligned about. Rather, the touchstone of a country’s foreign policy is to be aligned with the right countries and right principles. If India becomes important by conducting strategic dialogues, so be it. But it must conduct a hard-nosed foreign policy to serve its interests and overall goals.

MIDDLE

From New Delhi to Amritsar
V.N. Datta

For attending the 63rd session of the Indian History Congress to be held in Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar, I had to catch a train at New Delhi railway station. It was really difficult to reach the station in time due to interminable traffic jams encountered on the way. There was too much scurry and scramble of town life — all kinds of vehicles, trucks, busses, cars and three-wheelers came in the way, running in race with one another. Traffic signals were usually asleep, and one had to wait anxiously for the green signal to clear the way. Outside the main entrance to the New Delhi railway station, the situation was awful due to the narrowness of the road, the two-way traffic system, and the butting in of the tongas. It was a sigh of relief to get into the train.

In the pre-Partition days, conducted invariably by a European guard, the Frontier Mail coloured in light-yellow and white, starting from Peshawar, passing through Lahore, Amritsar and Delhi, and going to Bombay was considered the most prestigious of trains in the country. Its first-class compartments were usually reserved for the British, the Indian grandees and business magnates. After the partition in 1947, the Frontier Mail lost its shine, and the Flying Mail running between Amritsar and Delhi supplanted it. By no means could the Flying Mail be regarded an elite train because of general democratic trends set in the country. But now it is Shatabdi, which is admired, notable for its cleanliness, service and speed, covering the distance between New Delhi and Amritsar within five and a half hours.

The executive class compartment, a single one on the Shatabdi with its 46 seats, presents a very interesting intellectual fair for the social scientist. Broadly speaking, there were three types of persons travelling in the compartment: first, the NRIs dressed in garish clothes flaunting their ever-new luggage; second, a few officials on their duties, and finally, senior citizens availing of their railway concessions.

The train moves smoothly out of New Delhi railway station unlike the old trains driven by heavy black engines which used to start with a jerk, whistling, puffing, steaming and emitting smoke, and producing delectable sounds through their wheels which had something romantic about it. Inside the train the attendants rush about with trays of snacks and tea. Just across sits a solemn-looking middle aged, spectacled, bald-headed person reading a newspaper, and next to him, sits a lady setting her hair tidy; and a couple of people going up and down to the toilet and for a few whiffs of smoke outside. Here comes the eternal white-dressed ticket-checker — God knows, how many tickets he has checked and bruised. Polite, matter-of-fact, and answering a query, he moves on to the next passenger.

A peep through the glass-window opens out the view of a jumble of old and new houses built haphazardly, a stretch of open spaces, and the wretched slums of the poor. Once the city is out of sight, appear the Eucalyptus trees standing like sentinels, vast fields and broad horizon, the sublime revelations of Nature. The train is gathering speed, and I see the smoke rising from the chimneys, and also some dim lights in the streets that lie asleep. The music in the compartment grates on ears. We have just pushed ahead of the three battlefields of Panipat where India’s fate had been decided, much to her chagrin. We are just in Ambala Cantt junction which still retains its old Imperial look.

In our younger days crossing the river was a bit of fun and excitement, but not so with our advancing age. Most of us idle away our time in the train, gossiping, dozing or reading superficial stuff. It may be difficult to do serious reading in a fast-moving train. Jawaharlal Nehru did a lot of reading in the train, and Mahatma Gandhi attended to his correspondence in his third-class compartment. In broad daylight a vast panorama of nature unfolds itself which is a feast to the eye, and refreshment to the mind.

When the train arrives in Ludhiana more than half the compartment is empty. Now enter three persons in the compartment drunk, staggering but maintaining their outward composure, and seating themselves and asking for some Campas, a utilisable device or formula to dilute the alcoholic effect. Some foreigners got down at Beas, obviously to pay their homage to their Guru for which the town is growing famous.

And now we are nearing Amritsar, the Guru ki Nagri, my hometown, which I enter almost as a stranger, companionless as most of those with whom I had studied, played and had close associations there are no more; and so many memories crowd around me, coming as a thud on the heart and giving a terrible wrench. “The old order changeth, yielding place to new.” The coolie comes in, and holds my luggage. And the film of thought which I was witnessing vanishes in the mist of time. And I am on my way to Guru Nanak Dev University.

ANALYSIS

Politicians must learn to behave for saving the system
K.F. Rustamji

The next two years will be election years — for Parliament and state assemblies. That seems like a warning to the nation. Will we repeat the hate and loot campaign of Gujarat in Himachal, Delhi and all the other states, rejoice over the victory, and then say that we should ponder over where we are going. Any competent law and order observer will tell you that we are going downhill at a rapid rate. The law and order situation in many states is fragile, and if an election produces disorder of the Gujarat variety, it will be difficult to control. Let us not forget that we are in a recession, that there are many in the land on the verge of starvation, that militants are planning murder and mayhem, and our police is not able to perform its duties firmly and independently. We may drift into a perpetually unstable situation. To find an optimist in the land today is difficult. We seem to feel instinctively that the gift of democracy that our ancestors gave us is being endangered by the politicians of today, the recession and world events.

The Election Commission certainly tried its best to run the election in Gujarat in an orderly way. Its efforts were not able to get the right results because the entire machinery of the state had become Modi-minded. The advice of the Human Rights Commission and the Minorities Commission was ignored. The Centre, which ought to have stepped in, only talked of the black spots on the nation which Gujarat had inflicted. The President seemed to have no role to play in averting disaster. The judiciary does not intervene unless we make a petition, and it may take years to get a decision. Disturbances of this type in Bihar, Orissa, etc, will torment us, and we are not prepared for the occasion.

The nation will have to take many steps to safeguard democracy, and it will have to begin with finding the right men for our legislatures. The man who is most suitable to be a politician by virtue of his integrity, his devotion to the people, his knowledge of a specialised nature — such as a scientist, an engineer, or a retired General — is not willing to enter politics. It is not only because he cannot afford an election (and he may be barred by religion, caste or language); he hates the thought of joining the pandemonium in the legislature, the loss of his personal privacy and his reputation. He thinks that in the end he will fail to accomplish anything; only spend long hours listening to uproar.

In Britain, Conservatives search out the brightest and help them with funds and experience. They look for a common background — a public school education, Oxford, and a stint in the armed forces, which helps to build up discipline in the political party. This is the most difficult discipline of all. The Labour Party fields those dedicated to public welfare. The Liberals are the most inventive. This is a party that splits as if by habit. The presidential form of government allows the widest choice — people who are experts of the right type, even men who are disdainful of politicians, like Mr Henry Kissinger. The men we need today in India, apart from scientists and agro-specialists, are those who can look after a decentralised system. Men like Anna Hazare, or the women who have made panchayati raj a success. They can only be found if organisational elections are regularly held, and adequate remuneration provided.

I wonder if our politicians are aware of the serious damage they have caused to politics and to democracy. Few politicians take the trouble to work in their constituencies. Most feel that there is nothing to be done there. If we do not found elections, and make accounting rigid, we will be ruled by black or corruption money all the way, within a short time. If we do not have state security commissions to guide policing, there will be no impartial policing in some states. In any case, the recommendations of the Malimath Commission must be speedily accepted and implemented.

Parliament has ceased to be a place where policies are discussed or mistakes pointed out in a democratic way. The thrust of debate, which is the way a democracy brings out the innermost thoughts of the nation, is no longer in vogue. Instead, Parliament has become a place where noise, interruption and insult are traded with an absence of decorum that sets an example to the whole of Indian society. The spotlight of national interest plays on the two Houses of Parliament all the time. The state legislatures, municipalities and local bodies copy it. All use uproar as if it is a normal feature. That accommodation and assimilation, the essence of Indian culture, are slowly being eroded by greed for power, and the thoughtless coercion of the weak and the defenceless, or intimidation of the tribals; who are unable to stand interruptions.

The coming election will give us a chance to correct all that has gone wrong in the last few months. Let us pray that the dignity and the traditions of our Parliament and politics will be restored, that talented men and women will be inducted as members, and that politicians will play fair with one another as well as the people, and strengthen the masses’ faith in democracy.