E D I T O R I A L   P A G E

EDITORIALS

Naked aggression
TUESDAY was a particularly nasty day for policemen in Punjab and Jammu and Kashmir. In Srinagar a woman constable was paraded naked by her male colleagues. In a village in Ropar an equally despicable side of the men in uniform was highlighted. According to a report, an octogenarian couple was beaten up by the Nangal police. 

Uncle Sam growls at Syria
AFTER Iraq, it seems to be the turn of Syria. It may not be a military action right now. The US is yet to be free from the job in Iraq it assigned to itself. So, in the meantime, diplomatic and economic weapons are considered enough to tell Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to “cooperate” (which means honour the US diktats) or be prepared to face the consequences. 

Don’t ground AI, IA
IT does not require much expertise to understand why the Cabinet Committee on Disinvestment struck off Indian Airlines and Air-India from the disinvestment list on Tuesday. The elections to the Lok Sabha and state assemblies are drawing near and the BJP, hardly known for its reformist zeal, has thought it prudent to put on hold all controversial decisions.

OPINION

Beyond Saddam regime’s end
Traumatised people, painful problems
Inder Malhotra
FOR all practical purposes the military part of the US-led coalition’s campaign in Iraq is over, though the awesome task of making peace, restoring a semblance of order and providing Iraq’s traumatised people with water, food, healthcare and succour they desperately need remains unattended. At the time of writing even the Anglo-American attempts to control the rampant looting and chaos seem woefully inadequate.

MIDDLE

Houdini of Baghdad
L. H. Naqvi
I have few heroes. Natwarlal was one. But the greatest confidence-trickster has been out of circulation ever since his last escape from police custody at the ripe old age of 80.

THE TRIBUNE DEBATE

Are khap panchayats necessary?

A social requirement Shamim Sharma THE khap panchayat is an ancient, democratic institution of Haryana. The khaps owe their origin to the need for duly elected platforms. They meet the collective social, political and economic needs of society from time to time. History shows that these khaps have never been found wanting whenever aberrations in society have threatened the ancient social values.

No longer relevant Raman Mohan ONE of the most alarming developments in rural Haryana over the past few years has been the rise of khap panchayats. These illegal, extra-constitutional medieval institutions have not only been trampling over the constitutional rights, but also human rights by issuing fatvas, which invariably create social problems rather than solve them.

Baisakhi in Britain
London
Baisakhi this year was very special in Southall; it had to be, given the new gurdwara that had opened just a week before — in time for the festival, of course.

EDITORIALS

Naked aggression

TUESDAY was a particularly nasty day for policemen in Punjab and Jammu and Kashmir. In Srinagar a woman constable was paraded naked by her male colleagues. In a village in Ropar an equally despicable side of the men in uniform was highlighted. According to a report, an octogenarian couple was beaten up by the Nangal police. Policemen rarely earn the praise and respect of the people whose life and property they are trained to protect. But the two incidents exposed the most vicious side of the law enforcers. The policemen who forced their woman colleague to walk through the streets of Srinagar, like Draupadi, are a threat to the values of civil society. Not surprisingly, passers-by turned their face the other way when the ugly scene was being enacted by policemen, who thought they were doing the morally correct thing by making the woman constable shed her clothes. Why? Because they had “caught” her “sleeping” with her “paramours”. They need to refresh their moral education lessons to help them understand the enormity of the crime against womanhood they committed. The country does not need moral policing. Normal policing that protects citizens and maintains law and order is all that the people need for them to change their views about the men in civil uniform. The station house officer of the police station in Srinagar, where the ugly incident occurred, has been placed under suspension. Those involved in the incident should be dismissed from service and booked under the law for crimes against women.

The members of the police team from Nangal, that raided the house of an octogenarian couple at 3 a.m. on Tuesday and roughed them up, too deserve to be given exemplary punishment for their shameful conduct. Why were Raja Ram (82) and his wife Parkasho Devi (80) humiliated? Because the police came looking for their wayward son Vijay Kumar. The couple said they had disowned their son and knew nothing about where he was or what he was doing. This straight talk evidently infuriated the cops. The allegation is that they not only beat up the couple but also vandalised their modest dwelling unit. The incident has understandably infuriated the villagers of Baas and they have threatened to take “direct action” if the guilty constables are not punished for violating the guidelines of the Supreme Court. However, it is about time the issue of reforms in the functioning of the police force in the country receives the attention it deserves. The profile of the men and women who are recruited as constables, usually after paying bribes or using contacts, needs a complete overhaul. The friendly British Bobby and not the colonial-era cop is what is needed for giving the police force the overdue facelift. A majority of the present stock of policemen would have been roadside ruffians or running errands for the underworld had they not managed to get the uniform they do not seem to deserve.

Uncle Sam growls at Syria

AFTER Iraq, it seems to be the turn of Syria. It may not be a military action right now. The US is yet to be free from the job in Iraq it assigned to itself. So, in the meantime, diplomatic and economic weapons are considered enough to tell Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to “cooperate” (which means honour the US diktats) or be prepared to face the consequences. Some of the recent statements made by US President George W. Bush, his Secretaries of State and Defence and other senior officials make one believe that there are no escape routes for Mr Bashar’s Baathist regime except for honouring the wishes of the US leaders. Syria has been declared a “rougue nation”. It has been accused of harbouring the “remnants” of the discredited Saddam regime. The White House, the Pentagon and the US State Department are telling the world that Syria has had a programme for the development of weapons of mass destruction, besides providing bases to terrorist groups like the Hezbollahs. If the Saddam regime can be punished for the same crime, so goes the argument, why can’t the one headed by President Bashar? It is a different matter that Iraq’s crime is yet to be conclusively established. Who can dare raise such questions before Uncle Sam in a US-driven world? In the case of Iraq, the US did all it could to secure the mandate of the UN Security Council, though unsuccessfully. But so far it has expressed no such desire with regard to Syria. The experience in Iraq has, perhaps, made it realise that approaching the Security Council for accomplishing a task in accordance with the American scheme of things is an exercise in futility. So, why waste time as well as energy!

Forget for a moment the threatening statements of the US leaders. What is the real crime of Syria? Yes, it has been refusing to dance to the tunes of the US and UK leaders ever since the Iraq crisis began. As a sovereign nation, it took an independent stand on the invasion of a friendly neighbour, describing it as an avoidable action in the interest of peace. Like many other world leaders, President Bashar expressed his opposition to the idea of regime change in Iraq through foreign intervention at every available forum. He gave the impression of being different from the rest in the Arab world. That show of independence in the expression of views is seen as a crime by the super power. This is a strange situation. This will amount to setting a dangerous precedent. US coalition partner Britain has been denying that “there are no plans for Syria to be next on the list”. One hopes the British leadership proves to be true. It should convince the Americans that taking to the military option by blatantly ignoring the world opinion is fraught with disastrous consequences. Let Iraq be the last case.

But what the Union Cabinet has done amounts to burying the whole process of IA/AI disinvestment. It will again take months, and even years, to put the two airlines on the block as the debate on the merits of disinvestment could start afresh. In March this year the Group of Ministers had approved a proposal to raise the foreign equity in the domestic aviation sector from 40 to 49 per cent. But the Union Cabinet’s decision has resulted in negating this proposal also. One main reason for the delisting is that the boards of the two national carriers have decided to buy new aircraft worth about Rs 20,000 crore. Hectic lobbying has been going on for the purchase orders. While Airbus, backed by the European Union, has secured the Indian Airlines order, the US government is lobbying on behalf of Boeing for Air-India’s contract. But the billion dollar question that needs to be asked is: is it the right time to purchase aircraft? And is it necessary to pump so much money into a risky business like aviation that may be sold off later? Already, Indian Airlines is losing its market share to Jet Airways. Will it be able to pay off the huge debt it is taking for acquiring new aircraft?

OPINION

Beyond Saddam regime’s end
Traumatised people, painful problems
Inder Malhotra

FOR all practical purposes the military part of the US-led coalition’s campaign in Iraq is over, though the awesome task of making peace, restoring a semblance of order and providing Iraq’s traumatised people with water, food, healthcare and succour they desperately need remains unattended. At the time of writing even the Anglo-American attempts to control the rampant looting and chaos seem woefully inadequate.

One of America’s principal objectives was “regime change” in Iraq. This has been achieved only partially. President Saddam Hussein may be dead or alive and on the run. His loyalists in his home ground in Tikrit or elsewhere might even harass the occupying forces. But the Saddam regime is dead. The trouble is that nobody seems to know what would or can take its place. Washington’s plans to first rule Iraq for about six months under a military regime to be headed by General Jay Garner and then install an interim government under the anti-Saddam Iraqi leader, Mr Ahmed Chalabi, have evoked strong opposition. Vigorous criticism of this blueprint is not confined to Iraq, the neighbouring Arab and non-Arab nations and such countries as France, Germany and Russia. It extends to the US and is rife even within the Bush administration.

The reason for this is not far to seek. Mr Chalabi is a highly controversial figure. For most of his life he has lived outside his country. King Hussain of Jordan had to dismiss him as chairman of an Amman-based bank because of allegations involving funds amounting to $70 million. Mr Chalabi’s long association with the CIA is well known. Ironically, in recent years, the CIA has washed its hands off him but since then he has become a darling of the Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA). This means that he enjoys the powerful support of the Defence Secretary, Mr Donald Rumsfeld, the most hawkish of American hawks. The people of Iraq and the neighbouring Muslim countries are bound to perceive an interim government led by Mr Chalabi as a handmaiden of the occupying “colonial powers”. What kind of problems this could create should not be hard to envisage. But ever since he made up his mind to target Mr Saddam Hussein’s Iraq, President George Bush has made no bones about his doctrine that whatever the US wants, wherever and whenever, it would get, thanks to its formidable, indeed unbeatable, military might.

It is in this context that many across the world are worrying about what might happen to Syria. Mr Rumsfeld and Mr Bush personally have been warning Syria unambiguously that it would face grave consequences if it harbours “fugitives” from Iraq or stores Mr Hussein’s “weapons of mass destruction”. That none of these WMDs have been found anywhere in Iraq so far has its own story to tell. However, this should not be interpreted to mean that the American crack divisions would march into Syria any time soon. The British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, has said so specifically. The US and the UK are convinced that having watched Iraq’s fate, Damascus would not dare to defy them.

Even so, threats to Syria make sense in another context, too. It is no secret that after taking care of Iraq, the US intends to “reshape” the entire Middle-East (West Asia). On the day Baghdad fell, an influential Israeli newspaper wrote, “the entire Middle-East is now on America’s operating table” and it wouldn’t be long before the region starts feeling the “sharp edge of the American scalpel”.

It should not be forgotten that President Bush started talking of settling the long lasting and seemingly intractable Israel-Palestine problem only under pressure from his most loyal ally, Prime Minister Tony Blair of Britain. The US President, who cannot be unaware of the failure of his predecessor Bill Clinton’s last-ditch efforts to clinch an agreement between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, has been talking of a “road map” for the purpose. But even before this map has been unveiled, Israel, so dear to American hardliners currently ruling the roost, has suggested 100 amendments to it.

In any case, before the US can try to grasp the daunting nettle of Palestine it would have to do something about getting the UN involved in the gigantic programme for relief to and reconstruction of Iraq. America’s offer of a “vital role” to the world body but under the overall control of the coalition forces has been spurned by many. France, Russia and Germany held a two-day summit meeting in St. Petersburg to demand that the UN, not the US, should be in command. On the other hand, all the three European countries two of which are veto-wielding permanent members of the UN Security Council, have also welcomed the end of the Saddam regime and shown no great anxiety not to prolong the trans-Atlantic breach.

How this obvious contradiction would be resolved remains to be seen. But all things considered, those who think that India can perhaps gain some leverage by playing off America and Europe against each other would do well to give up this illusion.

Oil has always been at the centre of the Iraq war whatever other factors such as removal of Mr Saddam Hussein, stripping Iraq of weapons of mass destruction and stabilisation of the Middle-East might have been at stake. On this score it has to be noted that, much to the surprise of most people, the war did not push up oil prices. Moreover, it is now almost certain that the US oil giants, having close links with the Bush administration at the highest level, would henceforth control Iraq’s oil reserves, the second largest after Saudi Arabia’s. This kind of a monopoly is not a happy prospect by any means. But the other side of the coin is that, as the world’s largest importer of oil, the US is unlikely to follow policies that would lead to an increase in oil prices. This would clearly serve the interests of energy-starved countries like India and China.

This does not mean that we should applaud whatever the US chooses to do in Iraq or comply with what it might want us to do there. For instance, an idea being fostered sedulously is that India should contribute troops to help the coalition powers maintain law and order in anarchy-torn Iraq. It should be rejected out of hand. Indian troops take part in peacekeeping missions only under the UN’s command, not under that of a third country, however friendly or powerful.

India’s humanitarian aid — at present it is expected to be worth Rs 100 crore — should also be channeled through the UN, the International Committee of the Red Cross or some such agency, not through those whose war on Iraq the Indian Parliament has unanimously deplored.

A pertinent question arises. Shouldn’t we take care that the friendly and cooperative relations with America, central to Indian foreign policy for some years, are not eroded? Of course, we must. But this does not mean that we cannot disagree with the US without either side being disagreeable. On matters such as “regime change”, assassination of foreign Heads of State and so on we just cannot go along with the sole super power. After all, there are several issues of the greatest interest to this country on which Washington has greatly disappointed us. External Affairs Minister Yashwant Sinha has been complaining repeatedly about American refusal to accept a parallel between Iraq and Pakistan. Defence Minister George Fernandes has been endorsing and elaborating him on every single occasion though to no avail. And while it is patent that India needs America more than America needs India, this is no reason why this country should kowtow to the United States.

Against this backdrop one most regretfully record that neither the Vajpayee government nor the political class generally has served Indian interests because of the way they handled the whole question of the US-led coalition’s invasion of Iraq. South Block’s reluctance to cause unnecessary offence to the United States was entirely understandable. But did this require that the Indian Ambassador to the UN should be instructed not to use the expression “war” but describe the raging conflagration as “the outbreak of hostilities” in Iraq?

Sadly, whatever brownie points could be earned by such an approach have probably been lost because Parliament passed a unanimous resolution deploring the US-led coalition for its action just when the war was coming to an end. Let us hope that Indian diplomacy would be more adroit in the future than it has been so far.

MIDDLE

Houdini of Baghdad
L. H. Naqvi

I have few heroes. Natwarlal was one. But the greatest confidence-trickster has been out of circulation ever since his last escape from police custody at the ripe old age of 80.

Iraqi Information Minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf is my latest obsession. No one took me seriously when I wanted to form Natwarlal fan clubs across the country to spread the message of non-violence among criminals. Now I don’t have to try hard to win support for Sahaf. The voluble Iraqi leader is the subject of endless jokes and countless debates on web sites.

Before the invasion of Iraq the media complained that as information minister he never opened his mouth for fear of parting with the truth. For the first 21 days of Gulf War II they complained that he never stopped speaking about how the coalition troops were about to be roasted alive in their tanks if they did not surrender.

To give Sahaf his due let us all pray that he remains the source of attention and entertainment wherever he is. Remember the day the coalition troops claimed to have captured Baghdad airport? Sahaf was actually laughing when he told a 150-strong army of journalists that the airport “is very much with us”. He even arranged a bus ride for willing reporters to the airport. Ragheh Omar of the BBC had a tough time convincing his colleagues elsewhere on the front and in the studio in London that he did not see signs of enemy control of the airport.

As Saddam Hussein’s right-hand man, Sahaf did keep alive the illusion of a fight for 21 days, although history will record it as a one-sided pummeling of the enemy who remained ever invisible. Reporters had no choice but to trust the X-ray vision of Sahaf who like a good Muslim saw no evil and, therefore, reported no evil. “We are going to launch an unconventional attack.” Every time he said, “we are pounding them”, he raised visions of the enemy literally being ground into fine powder

I raised my hand in salute when he appeared on the street as usual the day Baghdad fell. He had a bath and a shave and the uniform was spotless. He seemed to have slept well. He was telling reporters not to see what they saw. One scribe actually asked him, “But, sir, aren’t you afraid?”. “No, no, no. I am not. And you also don’t be afraid”. How many of us can make others feel comfortable with the enemy having entered blasted the door to Baghdad? Then the most visible face of the Iraqi resistance vanished into thin air — from under the nose of the enemy, as it were. I bet Houdini could not have pulled this one off.

The Net is flooded with Sahaf jokes that would make Hollywood superstars turn green with envy. But my favourite is the one I have just made up about “the one-man Iraqi army”.

Sahaf was captured and made to take a lie detector test.The contraption left a message before exploding. It read — this machine detects the lies of those who usually tell the truth.

THE TRIBUNE DEBATE

Are khap panchayats necessary?
A social requirement
Shamim Sharma

THE khap panchayat is an ancient, democratic institution of Haryana. The khaps owe their origin to the need for duly elected platforms. They meet the collective social, political and economic needs of society from time to time. History shows that these khaps have never been found wanting whenever aberrations in society have threatened the ancient social values. The khaps were prominent also in their fight against British rule and injustice of any kind at any point of time, and they worked for the preservation of the social and moral structure of the Haryanvi society. The panchayati raj institutions now in vogue are just a better developed form of the khaps.

The khaps are surely more socially relevant than the panchayats are even today. The village panchayats have a very limited role to play outside their territorial jurisdiction. Not only that, the constitutional panchayats are there to resolve disputes and ensure economic development of their territory. These are neither equipped nor armed by the law to take care of larger social issues. So, while the panchayats are essentially the smallest but most important units of the administrative structure, the khaps are the very foundations of the social structure.

Again while panchayats have legal sanction behind their actions, the khaps have the all important social sanction. So, both are different entities and have widely diverse roles to play. There is hardly anything wrong if different gotras have brought their own khaps into existence. These are the need of the modern society. Far from dividing the society on the caste and gotra lines, these khaps are ensuring there is complete harmony among all sections of society. The khaps have aggressively ensured that social values are not eroded and that the actions of one section do not create problems for the other.

The truth also is that those who attend khaps are duly elected and that too for a particular congregation. New representatives have to be elected every time a meeting is summoned. Unlike our present political system, the khap leadership does not pass on to the next generation. History shows that the mantle of khap leadership has always been in the hands of the most respected elderly individuals who earned the honour over a lifetime of social service and exemplary lifestyle.

This is what gives the khaps their enormous social sanction and clout. The khaps have not lost their way. These have always been, and still continue to be, the harbingers of social uplift. Consider some of these decisions taken by a khap held on March 8 and 9, 1950: reduction in expenditure on entertaining barats, ban on the display of ornaments, shagun of rupee one only at the time of betrothal, ban on child marriages, no “kothli” on Teej and fixing a ceiling on the number of utensils and clothes in dowry.

Now which gram panchayat can take and implement decisions of such far-reaching social consequences? Time has shown that the rural society has been slowly but steadily accommodating these decisions not because of legal fears but out of respect for the community leaders’ decisions. It has to be noted that these decisions were meant for, and are being followed by, all castes and creeds.

It is true that some petty politicians and self-styled leaders have been exploiting the term khap for personal ends. However, that does not mean that an ancient social institution of standing has been rendered irrelevant. Such exploitation has been the bane of the society at all times but, the society has not been rendered irrelevant by such elements.

Likewise, the khaps will also weather this storm for institutions are always bigger than individuals. It is difficult to imagine a Haryana without the khaps, but it is every Haryanvi’s dream to weed out exploiters. This will ensure that the khaps continue to shoulder their social responsibilities.

No longer relevant
Raman Mohan

ONE of the most alarming developments in rural Haryana over the past few years has been the rise of khap panchayats. These illegal, extra-constitutional medieval institutions have not only been trampling over the constitutional rights, but also human rights by issuing fatvas, which invariably create social problems rather than solve them.

Over the past two years alone these panchayats have issued at least six decrees, asking couples to dissolve their legal marriages. The most glaring case was that of Jaundhi village in Jhajjar district where a couple married for two years and having a one-year-old baby was ordered to dissolve the marriage. The wife was asked to tie a rakhi to her husband. No thought was spared for the child. The couple was later excommunicated. In the latest case, earlier this month, the Bura khap issued a similar decree to a legally wedded couple on the grounds that the girl was married in a village where there were several households from her own gotra.

These self-styled khaps are the brainchild of the traditional rural leaders who have yet to reconcile to their irrelevance in a modern rural society which has a legal, democratic, constitutional and strong panchayati raj structure in place. Backed often by Haryana’s opportunist politicians, these khaps have been doing exactly the opposite of what the real khaps did in the yore. Even when these panchayats enjoyed great social sanction, there is not even a single recorded instance in Haryana’s history where these panchayats decreed legally married couples to dissolve their marriages.

What these panchayats did decree then was that expenditure on marriages should be reduced and that there should be no interference in marriages. The first decision was taken as early as 1197 AD in Hisar where a khap was organised under the leadership of Raja Bhimdeva. This is the first recorded meeting of a khap panchayat in Haryana. The second decision about non-interference in marriages was taken at the second meeting of the khap held at Shikarpur village in 1286 AD which was presided over by Chaudhry Mastpal.

Strangely, the khaps in the yore comprised all castes whereas their modern day incarnations are nothing but small congregations of members of a particular gotra. A look at the history pages will bear this out. The khap in 1286 AD was attended by 60,000 Jats, 25,000 Ahirs, 40,000 Gujjars, 11,000 Raves, 38,000 Rajputs and 5000 Sainis. The latest meeting of the Bura khap in a village near Hisar earlier this month had less than 500 persons belonging only to the Bura gotra. Thus, these khaps today are neither representative nor socially relevant. In fact, these khaps are aimed at undermining the duly constituted village panchayats with a popular mandate.

The institution of khap was founded in 642 AD by King Harshavardhana when he had become a mighty ruler. He designed the khap’s saffron flag with the rising sun in its middle. The khap assemblies took care of national and social problems as a whole. Even during British rule the assemblies merely helped organise resistance to the British and eradicating social evils. Never did these assemblies take up problems of any individual, a particular caste or for that matter even a village. These assemblies were national in character. Even when khaps became smaller in size after the country came under the British, these still comprised large groups of villages, not particular gotras. The Meham Chaubisi included 24 villages. The Sirsa Challisa had 40 villages. In short, there is no mention in history of gotra-level khaps which have come into existence now.

The institution of khap was a dying entity till the early eighties when Meham Chaubisi came into prominence to avenge the political defeat of Mr Devi Lal. But even this institution lost its entity when a little later self-styled khap leaders raised parallel khaps at the behest of their political bosses. The Meham Chaubisi, perhaps the best known of khaps in Haryana, lost its relevance there and then. And so have all the khaps. The attempts to give teeth to this irrelevant institution are unlikely to succeed for the simple reason that these are no longer a social necessity.

TRENDS & POINTERS

Baisakhi in Britain

London
Baisakhi this year was very special in Southall; it had to be, given the new gurdwara that had opened just a week before — in time for the festival, of course.

It felt almost as if there had been two Baisakhis this year. A week ago, the procession on the opening of the new Sri Guru Singh Sabha Gurdwara drew an estimated 50,000 people. The procession for Baisakhi, which happily came on Sunday, drew about that many again. Many of the Southall gurdwaras joined in as before, including the Ramgarhia Gurdwara goers.

But this time all roads seemed to lead to only one gurdwara; the new one on the Havelock Road. Or you could say that no road really led there, so heavy was the traffic around and so long the procession through Southall led by the “panj piare”.

Thousands of Sikhs from other towns and cities across Britain joined in. And if anyone thought they could lose weight in the march that lasted hours, forget it. Not just because of the great ‘langar’ that followed but also the ‘langar’ by the hundreds who lined the roads. British Prime Minister Tony Blair has plenty on his hands and more than plenty on his mind, but he took time off to wish the Sikhs a great Baisakhi.

“I know that the British Sikhs have made a great contribution to the economic, cultural and political life of the U.K. and I firmly believe that your faith and culture have brought tremendous strength and benefits to our society,” he said.

He praised the Sikhs for their belief in equality, social justice, tolerance and respect for other religions and faiths.

“These are values shared by the wider British community and I am delighted to have this opportunity to send you my best wishes at this special time.” And not just Blair.

Mr Iain Duncan-Smith, the Leader of the opposition Conservative Party, sent a message to a Baisakhi meeting held at the House of Commons. “I praise the courage and the collective spirit of the Sikhs who have also done so much for Britain,” he said. It was for the first time Baisakhi was celebrated in the British Parliament, just as last year was the first time that Divali was celebrated in the House of Commons.

Patricia Hewitt, secretary for the Department of Trade and Industry, and Teresa May, chairperson of the Conservative Party, were among the guests at the House of Commons celebrations hosted by MP Keith Vaz. Meanwhile,Southall MP Piara Singh Khabra has been engaged in a battle of his own in his constituency. He firmly supported the war on Iraq, and voted with the government. He described those who joined anti-war rallies as “a bunch of loony lefties”.

And that drew a demonstration of its own against Piara Singh Khabra. About a million had joined the anti-war rally in London on February 15. The demonstration against Khabra drew about 25 people last week. IANS

SPIRITUAL NUGGETS

One should give up by mind, body and speech the following ten sins: Envy, stealing, illegitimate passions, depravity, harshness, untruthfulness, divulgence of secrets, evil design, atheism and perverseness.

The wise man should never for a moment disregard the wife, the child, the disease, the slave, the cattle, wealth, studies and attendance to the good.

The great hinderances to work are: sleep, sluggishness, fear, anger, laziness and procrastination.

— Shukraniti, chapter III, 13-15, 85-86, 65-66