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Wednesday,
April 23, 2003, Chandigarh, India  
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Justice at last A loss for India Reform the criminal |
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Slaughter of the innocent is not jehad
Hubbies and hobbies
‘No mourning on my
death, please’
Jobs for girls
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Justice at last THE Additional District and Sessions Judge of Kaithal may find himself a place in one of the umpteen books of record for sentencing 27 persons to life imprisonment in a complex case of murder. In March 1999, Des Raj and Nirmala of Simla village of Kaithal in Haryana were murdered for having eloped and married against the wishes of the members of the two families. They were both Dalits, but from the same gotra. The village panchayat ruled that Des Raj should live outside the village for five years for having violated the community’s strict code of honour. However, he returned to Simla the day after he was ordered to leave. Several twists and turns in the complex tale resulted in both Des Raj and Nirmala being murdered. The 27 persons who were sentenced to life imprisonment are from the families of the victims. The issue that needs to be debated is the prevalence of honour killing in most parts of India. A large number of gruesome acts of boys and girls being either hanged or hacked to death are reported from the countryside. Few people can claim to have risen above the narrow confines of “jaat-paat” at the social level. An invisible form of untouchability is encouraged among even the seemingly enlightened sections of people. A senior political leader had to face a tough time explaining the death, under mysterious circumstances, of the separated wife of his son. The politician's son had married the woman against the wishes of the family, and was later made to give her up to protect “family honour”. The daughter was the only one who had a conscience. After the death of the estranged sister-in-law, she decided to end her life to jolt the family out of their medieval social values. If these are the values of what is called high society in India, it is small wonder that the socially and economically backward sections too have not been made to change their outdated value system. Last month Mr Mukesh Saini and his wife Suman had to face the wrath of the woman’s family in Chandigarh for having married against the wishes of the elders. Mr Saini was lucky to have escaped with a swollen face when he was beaten up for “dragging into mud the honour of the family”. Last month two young lovers from the Dalit community were allegedly done to death by an uncle and other relatives of the woman in a village on the Nakodar-Kapurthala road. They wanted to get married. The punishment awarded to the 27 persons involved in the killing of Des Raj and Nirmala is meant to be a lesson for others. But will it work? The process of social reform will have to begin among the communities placed at the top of the social ladder. Indian society is in the grip of what can be called imitative culture. If the so-called superior castes are unwilling to shed their prejudices by accepting “roti-beti ka rishta” outside their own communities, those at the lower rung will cling even harder to the outdated values and customs for fear of losing their identity. |
| A loss for India THE decision of the US Ambassador in Delhi, Mr Robert
Blackwill, to quit his job and return to teaching at Harvard is as unusual as the fact that senior Indian functionaries were in the know of the development before the Embassy staff learnt about it. That speaks volumes about the rapport that Mr Blackwill had developed with the Indian leadership. His style of functioning might have been brusquer than what expected from a diplomat, but he was a genuine friend of India who always espoused its cause forcefully. He was supportive of the Indian line on contentious subjects such as Kashmir, cross-border terrorism and transfer of dual-use technology. In fact, even while announcing his decision to quit, he called for his country’s support to India in the fight against terrorism. He did not name Pakistan in so many words, but the message was clear. It is this outspokenness that got him in trouble with the US State Department which has a fairly strong pro-Pakistan lobby. His views were out of sync with the thinking in Washington and the constant friction was apparently the main reason for his resignation. What made matters worse for him was the allegation that he was unduly harsh towards his staff and had an “autocratic management style”. His resignation is a big loss for India and it is doubtful if his successor will be as India-friendly and forthright as he was. Perhaps that is why even Kashmiri separatists are ecstatic about Mr Blackwill’s decision to quit. Mr Blackwill belonged to the inner circle of President George W. Bush and had direct access to him. Even if the next man sent to Delhi is equally helpful, he may not be so close to the President as to have his ear. Therein lies a challenge for India. The bureaucratic lobby in Washington is so well entrenched that even the President cannot defy it beyond a certain degree. Once Mr Blackwill is out of the way, the pro-Pakistan lobby is going to become more active. The role played by Gen Pervez Musharraf first during the Afghanistan campaign and then during the Iraq war has endeared him to the State Department. As far as the US is concerned, he can do no wrong. This immunity may be misused by Pakistani hawks to step up their activities in Jammu and Kashmir. Even otherwise, US pressure may be made to bear on Delhi to settle the matter with Islamabad. Obviously, the Pakistani arguments — right or wrong — will get a more sympathetic hearing. India needs to refashion its response in the light of the new challenges. |
| Reform the criminal THE much-awaited Malimath Committee report released on Monday is expected to make a radical overhaul of the country’s criminal justice system. It is for the first time in 150 years that a six-member committee of experts, headed by former Supreme Court Judge Justice V.S.
Malimath, has suggested major reforms in the system. Tardy investigation, the absence of witnesses, the inordinate delay in the hearings, the cumbersome procedures, the lengthy
judgements, the paucity of criminal courts and the non-filling of a large number of vacancies of judges are the bane of the system. The committee has addressed these problems by examining the constitutional provisions relating to the Criminal Procedure Code (Cr PC), the Indian Penal Code and the Indian Evidence Act and suggesting remedial measures so that the people repose their faith in the efficacy of the system. It is for the first time that a committee has recommended the right of the victim in the trial for offences punishable with imprisonment for seven years and above, the right to protection and the right to compensation. The report also seeks to safeguard the interests of the witness. Additional rights for women in some cases of crime committed against them, empowering magistrates to try cases with sentence for three years or less, and permanent criminal benches headed by special judges in the High Courts and the Supreme Court are other notable features. While the Union Government needs to pursue these recommendations to their logical conclusion, it is doubtful whether some of the others can at all be implemented. The committee, for instance, has suggested a federal law to tackle organised crime and terrorism. This is, in fact, in tune with the Centre’s proposal to set up a Federal Law Enforcement Agency (FLEA). However, some states had strongly opposed this proposal at the chief ministers’ conference recently as they were apprehensive about any agency or institution which could encroach upon their legitimate control over law and order issues. The other is the suggested amendment to the Indian Evidence Act, making the confessional statement of a witness, recorded by an officer of the rank of SP or above — with audio/video tapes — admissible in court. When the Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA) was enacted, a similar provision was opposed by civil liberties and human rights groups. The recommendation for life imprisonment without remission or commutation of the sentence for rapists is reasonable. Protagonists of capital punishment for rape such as Deputy Prime Minister
L.K. Advani may be disappointed, but the committee has made a worthy and sensible proposal that would, if implemented, give an opportunity to the criminal to repent for the heinous crime and reform himself. |
Slaughter of the innocent is not jehad WHENEVER there is a discussion on violence in the name of religion, the role of militant outfits of Pakistan is invariably referred to. These organisations shamelessly justify such activities by misinterpreting the Islamic concept of jehad. The most disturbing statement in this context has been made by Lashkar-e-Toiba (now Jamaat-ud-Dawa) chief Hafiz Sayeed. In the course of an interview, he told Pakistan’s Friday Times the other day, “The solution (to the Kashmir problem) is not to bow before India and beg for dialogue. Our policy on Kashmir is studied and measured. They only understand the language of jehad. We have no choice but to respond by killings Hindus.” This is abominable, to say the least. How can Islam allow killing of people simply because they happen to belong to a different faith? The Quran, the soul of the religion, says, “To you be your religion, and to me my religion.” The outrageous logic of the LeT chief reflects mental sickness of a serious nature. Most “jehadi” leaders suffer from this malady. They misinterpret the concept of jehad not only to justify their destructive activities but also to cleverly project the Kashmir issue as an “Islamic cause”. By no stretch of the imagination can the problem be described as an “Islamic cause”. No Kashmiri Muslim has ever complained about difficulties in the observance of religious practices or harassment on such grounds. The truth is that the Muslims in Jammu and Kashmir have more freedom to perform their Islamic duties than their brothers and sisters have in the so-called Azad Kashmir. This is because India is a thriving secular democracy while Pakistan is not. Then why this cry for Kashmir-related jehad in Pakistan? There seems to be a silent understanding between the militant jehadi leadership and the political establishment there. Both are using each other for their own benefit. While the militant jehadis have been fighting Pakistan’s proxy war in Jammu and Kashmir, the former are getting all assistance from the government in Islamabad to develop jehad into a kind of industry. Those involved in this dangerous game have acquired not only a lot of clout in society but also huge funds. Despite a ban — meant only for the consumption of the world community — on raising funds in the name of jehad, LeT alone collected 1.2 million hides of sacrificed animals (worth Rs 710 million) during this year’s Eid-ul-Azha festival. That this was the highest collection by any jehadi, charitable or religious organisation shows the extent of clout the militant jehadis wield in Pakistan. Earlier, these hides would have gone to religious seminaries and mosques. The ranks of jehadi outfits have been swelling despite the US-led move against Al-Qaida, the Taliban and those associated with them. Their recruiting activity got a fillip after the war in Iraq. The total number of militant jehadis should be over 200,000 today. A report in London’s Sunday Times, March 30, 2003, says: “Recruitment has apparently risen to record levels. It is common to see poor families distributing sweets to celebrate their sons’ selection for camps such as Muridke (run by LeT near Lahore) and to fight jehad.” Why is violent jehad getting so great acceptance in Pakistan when the Quran and the Hadith (collections of the sayings of Prophet Mohammad) allow it only in a situation when the very existence of Islam is threatened? There is a well-calculated disinformation campaign going on in Pakistan, and militant jehadis are making use of it to promote their agenda. The American action in Afghanistan in the wake of 9/11 provided added strength to the dangerous drive. According to The South Asian Tribune, edited by celebrated Pakistani journalist Shaheen Sehbai, “The ban on jehadi outfits in the aftermath of 9/11 totally changed the masses’ giving behaviour. Lashkar should be singled out as the only outfit which exploited the ban very cleverly to enhance its image. It resorted to a professional advocacy strategy and turned the public opinion in its favour.” LeT used the prayer leaders in the mosques to motivate people to contribute to the “holy cause”, the jehad of the kind propagated by militants. It also added a page to its website with highly imaginative and catchy slogans like these: “Hides are only for the mujahideen who have sacrificed their lives for Islam. Hides are only for the parents, widows and children of martyrs who waged jehad in Kashmir and Afghanistan.” The impact, according to the newspaper, was so great that many people even “donated” their children to jehadi outfits. LeT was, obviously, the main beneficiary. One would like to ask: what cause of Islam are the militants serving in Jammu and Kashmir? Killing innocent people is no service to the pacifist religion that Islam is. It is a disservice, and nothing else. The militants’ actions have deprived the Kashmiris of their sources of livelihood. An already poverty-stricken people have been pushed deep into a situation of deprivation. Jehad is a very wide term. The best form of jehad is the battle for self-control, fought at the mental level. It is the worst kind of jehad when force is used. Even then there is no religious sanction for killing innocent people. It is not Islam’s fault if militants misinterpret the concept to suit their agenda. The reality is that no individual or organisation claiming to represent Muslims can justifiably give a call for jehad involving the use of force. It is an extraordinary line of action meant only for protecting the faith when it is under attack. Independent Islamic experts are of the view that this kind of jehad must be declared through consensus by a proper authority on the advice of established religious scholars, who will have to explain that Muslims are undergoing oppression because of their adherence to Islam. Or that they are being prevented from observing religious practices. Here the emphasis is on the justness of the cause. This means that jehad involving violence must follow religious oppression. The jehadi shops can be closed down in Pakistan once the Pervez Musharraf regime takes up this task with utmost seriousness. This is in the interest of Pakistan itself. Such elements should not be allowed to hijack the socio-religious or political agenda. Pakistan has gained nothing by pampering them so far. Keeping a tight rein on their activities can end the infiltration of terrorists into this side of the Indo-Pak divide, paving the way for dialogue between the two neighbours. India is willing for talks, as declared by Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee in Srinagar. Pakistan has officially welcomed Mr Vajpayee’s gesture for which it had been waiting for a long time. But it must respond by clearing the roadblocks created on the way by those exploiting the people’s religious sentiments. This is how we can think of a new beginning, for lasting peace and an era of prosperity in the region. |
Hubbies and hobbies I
see one husband in shorts and a T-shirt with yawning holes in it, washing his ramshackle car every Sunday morning. He maintains it with more loving care than he does his wife. Once, he jokingly told me that he lavished more care on it because it still obeyed him with less sulks though both, according to him, had stopped “smiling” long back. Yet another is jammed under the bonnet of his car vainly struggling to get the engine running the way it did before he decided to do anything to it. The time and energy he “squanders” on it makes his bitter half comment: “I am a hobby divorcee.” These are pictures of men supposed to be happy to be away from the routine of work, enjoying every minute of their leisure. Do they enjoy this leisure? If husbands get apparent pleasure from such activities their wives rightly complain that they see little of their men as it is hobbies or no hobbies. One frankly says: “The reason is not difficult to decipher. Most of their time, at home, during the week, is spent pretending that they are preparing for work or recovering from its side-effects! Quite often, it is recovering from the hangover of a mid-week sly holiday! So, the wives yearn to spend some time together at weekends. But it doesn’t always work out like that. Hobby , the zealous mistress, intervenes. Take the case of a wife who strongly resents his husband’s love for rum and rummy and call it “Sar gai hobby.” She laments that their marriage had become a mockery and they had been reduced to strangers living under the same roof. She also bemoans that her husband never takes her out. He goes straight to the club after office and often stays there until the early hours of the morning. He plays jokers, jacks, Queens and Kings. To compound the dicey situation, he is Aces in losing.” She wants her children to see their father but has to be content and sit with them watching TV till, the stock of chips and cokes last. He is losing at the club, they to the idiot-box. Any husband who gives more attention to his hobby than he does to his wife and family has no right to expect the benefits that married life brings. So goes the anguished argument of another wife. One may brush aside this as an exceptional surly case. But the fact is that there are really many wives who are habitually kicked by hobby horses. They are deeply hurt that their husbands devote far too much time to their hobby and not enough to them. Marriage, for them, is a three-legged race, and the home only a house. Wives in the age-range of below forty feel that they are having a raw deal. Others understandably hold their cards close to their bosom. Hobby (read, hubby) “horses” can be broadly divided into two categories. Those who have a hobby which they have followed from the time before they were married and have continued to practice it since. They are addicted to their “love.” The second category comprises those who, for one reason or another, have taken to a hobby only after marriage, or because of it! If in the first few months of marriage, the bride can’t get her husband to “put away his childish doings” then perhaps there is something missing in the Ms. Alternatively, a man’s home life must be pretty colourless and drab, if after a few years of married life, he suddenly embarks upon a hobby that makes him hit the shuttlecock hard to vent his energy and ennui. If a man’s married life is rainbows, then he is not likely to have an insatiable desire to rub his car’s shoulders or be a Jack to table Queens! |
‘No mourning on my death, please’ A family get-together to be organised to meet at a dinner to mark the occasion. The ashes of my body should be immersed in the waters of the Sirhind Canal of Bathinda, my native place, where I played on the golden sands in my childhood”— Balwant Gargi, September 17, 1997. As Manu, son of the doyen of Punjabi literature Balwant Gargi, hands me a typed piece of paper containing the above four lines in the drawingroom of his sixth floor flat at the posh Versova locality of Mumbai, the 87-year-old writer lay sprawled on a mattress in the next room as if in a deep sleep. “Yes, he is in deep sleep. Please do not disturb him,” pleads Manu Gargi. His sincerity and unbound love for his bed-ridden father reminds me of another celebrity son of a celebrity father and my neighbour at Juhu, Amitabh Bachchan. Here I have no hesitation to say that as far as the traditional father-son relationship goes in this country, Manu is much more down to earth guy than his American upbringing would have us believe the other way. Now, one may wonder what Balwant Gargi was doing in Mumbai instead of Delhi where he spent almost half his lifetime rubbing shoulders with reputed writers, poets, and painters and thinking politicians like I K Gujral. Gargi suffered a massive stroke in 1999 while in Delhi and was brought to Mumbai by Manu who had already established himself in Mumbai’s filmdom by then. His old friends from Delhi and Punjab kept visiting him off and on but Gargi’s declining health restricted his vital movements with the disastrous Alzheimer’s disease taking its toll. He slowly suffered memory lapses and could hardly communicate with his near and dear ones. But all these years Gargi was able to sit, recline and sometimes even concentrate on some occasions like the one two years ago, when Bhapa Pritam Singh, Gulzar Singh Sandhu and others came from Delhi to honour him. Accepting the award, Gargi, who was moved by the gesture of his friends, fumbled through a speech, most of which could be understood. During the last two years his condition was quite steady but last month it suddenly took a turn towards the worst. He was taken to specialist doctors who advised against putting him on artificial life-saving gadgets. The doctors were of the view that going by Gargi’s frail body and health, the so-called life-saving devices would not provide any relief. “We may manage to prolong his life by a few days but the end is inevitable. As any treatment at this stage would only be painful for the patient, we have advised the family to let the gentleman die a less painful death”, said a doctor who visited the octegenarian writer on Easter Sunday (April 20, 2003). As I look at Gargi, lying on the ground, still as a slab, with his eyes shut and mouth half open, I journey back to the late sixties when impressed by the high talents of Balwant Gargi, the then Vice-Chancellor of Panjab University, Suraj Bhan created a special post of Professor and Director for the theatre genius and thus was established the Department of Indian Theatre on the campus. I still remember Gargi taking rounds of the sprawling campus in his open top red coloured Standard car with his American wife next to him and two bubbly kids — Manu and Jannat — lolling in the back seat. As a youngster and pretty newcomer to the world of literature, I was simply awe struck with the sheer intense personality of the writer who gave us plays like Loha Kutt, Kesro, Dhoonni Di Aag, Kanak Di Balli, Actress and Naked Triangle, among others, later on. The first time I met him was, however, in the company of legendary poet Shiv Kumar Batalvi during the making of the light and song drama Gagan Mein Thaal and I still cherish the moment. My last visit to Gargi’s house in Chandigarh was in 1977 when I went to request him for Amrik Gill’s admission to his
department and Gargi obliged readily. Soon after, Gargi left Chandigarh to settle down in Delhi. While I came down to Mumbai, Amrik Gill went over to Delhi to do his stint at the National School of Drama and became Gargi’s constant companion for years. No wonder that a doting pupil was at the house of Gargi this morning lending a hand to the doting son of his Guru. In 1981, I produced Gargi’s play Kesro, which was staged at Mumbai’s prestigious Shanmukhananda Hall with late Sanjeev Bhattacharya and Rama Vij in lead roles. Just before the play was to start we had a surprise visitor on the backstage. It was Gargi himself, with Amrik Gill in tow. I was in a shock. I had not taken Gargi’s permission to stage his play and feared that he might stop the show. I think Gargi read my inner thoughts and said smilingly that he had just come to watch the play. The entire cast felt blessed by the writer’s presence. Now, looking at Gargi’s face I just felt that he was deeply engrossed in creating a new role, not for his cast, but one for himself. For a moment I thought that maybe he has already enacted his role and was just waiting for the curtain call. Manu and his sister Jannat, who has just arrived from the US, are prepared for the worst. And behind the curtains Manu is preparing for all eventualities. According to him, Gargi will be taken to Delhi for his last rites, the city where he belonged. Over to Delhi and Bathinda, as per Gargi’s last wish and will. The writer is Editor, Just Fashion, and an associate of Balwant Gargi |
Jobs for girls ON the face of it, feminism has meant that women have never had it so good. Girls achieve more than boys at school, women are rapidly crashing through glass ceilings in many industries, etcetera, etcetera. The only trouble is that a 25-year-old woman today is between three and 10 times more likely to be depressed than one in 1950. All over the developed world, women are twice as likely to be depressed as men. Just between 1987 and 1999, it went from 18 per cent to 33 per cent of all 15-year-old girls, with no rise among the boys. What went wrong was that American capitalism hijacked feminism and converted it into a method for making profits rather than for liberating women to think and act for themselves. The grim reality is that three-quarters of working women’s jobs are low income, low skill and low status. In two-thirds of cases, they work part-time (86 per cent of working men do so full time). Although no one ever says so out loud, the awful truth is that women working helped destroy the unions, adding a huge, part-time and relatively compliant source of labour to a world of increasingly gender-neutral jobs (call centres, retail). Since labour scarcity was their strongest bargaining tool, unions never had a chance. But, above all, the reality of women’s work does not match up to the billing in the magazines they read in their early twenties (any more than the sex matched up to the preposterous stuff they read in their teen mags). Even those who do Have It All suffer. Bright, attractive, public school and Oxbridge graduettes take ostensibly glamorous and well-paid jobs in the media or the city. But the reality of the slog to the top of business, newspapers or television is of savage office politics and working ludicrous hours to enrich other people. The sense that such women have of life being a grotesque swiz is, if anything, even keener than that felt by their less privileged sisters. Conned into working their arses off at school, they find themselves on a treadmill in their twenties. It’s not hard to see how women who’ve been through all this might be just a tad pissed off and, in a society where you are encouraged to blame incompatibility if a relationship is `not working’, they are booting their men out in the usually mistaken hope of finding someone better. The perversion of feminism’s goals into grossly inflated consumerist and career dreams has contributed to the divorce statistics considerably.
The Guardian |
When the one Lord revealed himself to me, I lost myself in him. Now there is neither nearness, nor union. There is no longer a journey to undertake, no longer a destination to reach. Love, attachment, my body and soul, and even the very limits of time and space, have all dropped from my consciousness. My separate self has merged in the whole: In that, O Bahu, lies the secret of the unity that is God. — Sultan Bahu, Bait 3 |
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“THERE should be no mourning and breast-beating at my death.