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Sunday,
June 8, 2003, Chandigarh, India  
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Cong to strive for Opposition unity
A friend of friends
The importance of being Geelani
Venkaiah Naidu as ‘Bhram Purush’
Sit, suffer and sulk
The beginning
of their free run in life
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DEBATE ON DEATH PENALTY All men tremble at punishment All men fear death Likening others to oneself One should neither slay nor cause to slay. — Buddhist Dhammapada I cannot in all conscience agree to anyone being sent to the gallows. God alone can take life because He alone gives it. — Mahatma Gandhi
DEATH penalty is the symbol of terror, cruelty and irreverence for life. It stands for everything that mankind must reject. According to Justice P.N. Bhagwati: “Death penalty is barbaric and inhuman in its effect, mental and physical upon the condemned man and is positively cruel. Its psychological effect on the prisoner in the Death Row is disastrous.” Hugo Bedau in his book, “The Death Penalty in America” has documented large number of cases in which the accused were wrongly convicted of criminal homicide. Eight out of these persons — though innocent — were executed. There are cases where it has been possible to show from the facts and evidence subsequently discovered that the convictions were erroneous and innocent persons were put to death. “Evan’s case” in England in which an innocent man was hanged in 1949 played a large role in the abolition of capital punishment in that country. Howsoever careful the judicial process may be, it is impossible to eliminate the chance of judicial error. Investigations are crude and archaic. Convictions are based on oral evidence. Witnesses are generally tutored. Often they perjure themselves. Where is the guarantee, therefore, that the evidence relied upon is truthful? In this scenario, one can still hope that a person undergoing the sentence of imprisonment may get some relief if subsequent to his conviction and sentence it is found that he was innocent but the capital sentence cases stand on a different footing. Mahatma Gandhi emphasised the difference when he said: “I would draw distinction between killing and detention and even corporal punishment. I think there is a difference not merely in quantity but also in quality. I can recall the punishment of detention. I can make reparation to the man upon whom I inflict corporal punishment. But once a man is killed, the punishment is beyond recall or reparation”. The justification for the retention of death penalty in general is the deterrent effect of the capital punishment. There is no evidence to support this justification. The enormous increase in homicide crime rate reflects upon the futility of death penalty. There is so far no scientific demonstration to substantiate the claim that it has a deterrent effect superior to life imprisonment. According to Andrei Sakharov, “I regard the death penalty as a savage and immoral institution that undermines the moral and legal foundation of a society. I reject the notion that the death penalty has any essential deterrent effect on potential offenders. I am convinced that the contrary is true — that savagery begets only savagery”. In the international sphere, it is increasingly recognised that the death penalty has no place in a democratic and civilised society. The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights has commented: “While the death penalty is yet to be banned under international law, the trend towards this goal is obvious. The adoption in 1989 of the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights aiming at the abolition of the death penalty was a clear recognition by the international community of the need to eliminate the use of capital punishment, totally and globally. The desirability of the total abolition of the capital punishment has also been reaffirmed on repeated occasions by various United Nations bodies and organs”. The emergent international consensus against the death penalty has been reflected in recent international instruments. The statute for the International Criminal Court (1998), the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda and the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (1993) have all deliberately excluded the death penalty as an option. These international standards have corresponded with significant developments in national practice. A large number of states (140 as on January 2001) have abolished the death penalty. The list of abolitionist states is expected to grow even further. The European Union Members have also decided to abolish death penalty under their national laws. The United Nations Commission on Human Rights has recently called on all states, which retain the death penalty “to establish a moratorium on executions, with a view to completely abolishing the death penalty”. Thus, as the international community's consensus against the death penalty grows, India is becoming increasingly isolated in its commitment to the death penalty. India has complied with the international consensus by ratifying international human rights instruments such as the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, but has not followed with abolishing the death penalty as so many other nations have done. The writer, a former Judge of the Supreme Court, is Chairman, Delimitation Commission, Government of India |
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It makes the whole world blind DEATH is final, unrevokable and a full stop to life. Nothing within the power of man can undo this process of putting an end to life. Death penalty is a power given to a judge, a man like all of us, to grant or deny permission to a human being to be alive. This power is something which disturbs a sensitive mind because to justify death sentence is to accept that there comes a stage in a human being where we can conclude that this man is now beyond repair, beyond learning, beyond transformation or reformation, beyond the hope of doing anything which will be of any use to any member of society. Yet, I have never come across a man condemned to death who is so forsaken that his mother, children and friends do not come to meet him and feel nothing for him. How can we erase from our consciousness the story of Balmiki and Aungulimar, who remind us of one of the supreme lessons of human nature that it is possible to change a murderous man to a saint? This possibility is real and is always available. The argument, often posed by judges is: what about the victims? By taking away the life of a convict, we also rob the victim of ever coming to terms with the irreparable loss of a loving being. By insisting on life for a life, like an eye for an eye, we deny within ourselves that inexhaustible source of compassion, which has the power of transformation for both the victim and the killer. A child whose mother has been killed or deprived of his father can only be healed by more compassionate members of society. He is unlikely to be consoled that his loss of father is evenly balanced by a great judge by depriving another child of his father. Do we not see the stupidity of this passion? An eye for an eye will make the whole world blind. Death sentence is a passion for revenge, which is primitive, a memory that reminds us of a violent past, when beyond survival we had no other heritage and no other value. When world was simple and divided between enemy or friend, member of tribe or outsider, black or white. If death sentence is justified on the premise that some human beings are so wicked, beyond redemption and are capable of so much evil that their very existence is a danger to other members of society, still to find out the truth and to determine who are such evil incarnations is a challenge to the best of legal systems. Even advanced systems with better resources are liable to catch the wrong man whose innocence is established years later, after life is over. How to get over the danger that innocent people will be executed because of errors in the criminal justice system? Justice William J. Brennan Jr, as far back as 1941, said: “Perhaps the bleakest fact of all is that the death penalty is imposed not only in a freakish and discriminatory manner, but also in some cases upon defendants who are actually innocent”. In our country it is worse. Just consider the report of the Death Penalty Information Centre of the US, where research is better organised. In our country, the comparable research is yet to commence. According
to the report, a total of 69 people have been released from death row since 1973 after evidence of their innocence emerged. Twenty-one condemned inmates have been released since 1993, including seven from the State of Illinois alone. Many of these cases were discovered not because of the normal appeals process, but rather as a result of new scientific techniques, investigations by journalists, and the dedicated work of expert attorneys, not available to the typical death row inmate. This report tells the stories of people like Rolando Cruz, released after 10 years on Illinois death row, though another man had confessed to the crime shortly after his conviction. The risk that innocent people will be caught in the web of the death penalty is rising. The increased rate of discovery of innocent people on death row is a clear sign that even with the best of intentions, the criminal justice system makes critical errors — errors which cannot be remedied once an execution occurs. Courts are allowing executions to go forward even in the presence of serious doubts over the defendant’s guilt. The current emphasis on faster executions, less resources for the defense, and an expansion in the number of death cases means that the execution of innocent people is inevitable. Consider Devinder Singh Bhullar’s case. He is convicted for conspiracy when there is no other conspirator. The only evidence against him is a confession in policy custody which he retracted at the first opportunity when he was presented before the judge. The confessional statement is thumb marked when he is an engineer. None of the 133 witnesses in trial recognised him. The presiding judge finds him innocent. He was never the suspect. He was arrested under the Passport Act and later a case is built on his confession. And he is sentenced to death! The writer, a former Judge of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, is Chairman, Punjab Human Rights Organisation, Chandigarh |
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No leniency should be shown to terrorists and rapists EVEN as the demand for the abolition of capital punishment is becoming loud and forceful day by day in India and abroad, it would be worthwhile to examine the issue in a dispassionate manner. Historically, capital punishment is associated with lex talionis (an eye for an eye) retribution that involves punishment in kind. From the lex talionis perspective, one of the most earliest written statements of capital punishment is from the 18th century BCE Babylonian Law of Hammorrabi: “If a builder builds a house for someone, and does not construct it properly, and the house which he built falls in and kills its owner, then that builder shall be put to death. If it kills the son of the owner, then the son of the builder shall be put to death.” Those opposing capital punishment say that the lex talionis retribution is anachronistic and repugnant to human values and a citizen's right to life. However, these arguments are weak and flawed. There is no reason why capital punishment should not be retained in the country as the Supreme Court has time and again reiterated that death sentence should be given only in rarest of the rare cases. If some countries have abolished it, why should India follow suit? In fact, the reasons that prompted the need for capital punishment two centuries ago seem as relevant today as earlier. Political scientists and philosophers like John Stuart Mill and John Locke are strong protagonists of capital punishment. For instance, Mill's speech before the British Parliament on April 21, 1868 in opposition to a Bill banning capital punishment is regarded as a treatise on the subject. One of the foremost representatives of utilitarian thought and the most influential of the 19th century liberals, Mill held the view that if a person does not show regard for human life and commits an act depriving one of his right to life, he forfeits it for himself. Mill, of course, called for utmost judicial circumspection while awarding the death sentence. He felt that the impossibility of correcting an error once committed by a judge renders the courts of justice to be more scrupulous in requiring the fullest evidence of guilt. He made it clear that the judges will have to be more careful in forming their opinion and scrutiny of the evidence. Locke's famous defence of capital punishment has both a retributive and utilitarian component. He argued, for instance, that a person forfeits his rights when committing even minor crimes. Once rights are forfeited, Locke justifies punishment for two reasons. First, from the retributive side, criminals deserve punishment. And secondly, from the utilitarian side, punishment is needed to protect society by deterring crime through example. Locke says that society may punish the criminal “any way it deems necessary so as to set an example for other would-be criminals”. This, he avers, includes “taking away his life”. Though modern society abhors death sentence, capital punishment is needed in the case of terrorists and anti-social elements like rapists. The annals of Indian history show that certain eras were called the Golden Age because people enjoyed a secure and peaceful life, as punishment was very severe even for small crimes. During the British rule too, laws were quite severe. However, in the post-Independent India, in the name of human rights, criminals indulging in inhuman destruction of life and property are shown much leniency. Clearly, the laws of the land and the judges interpreting the laws should not be sympathetic to those who conspire to betray the country. But then, two problems continue to remain, especially in the Indian context. One is the possibility of justice being miscarried either in the face of immense social pressures for conviction or even because of judicial discretion, implying that whether a person is to be hanged or not depends considerably on the views of a particular judge. In the case of Parliament attack, the Special POTA Court, has adopted a tough posture. Even though none of the three sentenced to death was directly responsible for the outrage, the court asserted that those who hatch a criminal conspiracy to wage war against the nation are equally guilty as the “actual perpetrators of the crime”. Surely, criminals deserve to be punished in proportion to the extent and severity of their crimes. No, capital punishment should not be abolished. It does serve as a strong deterrent. Deputy Prime Minister L.K. Advani's suggestion for capital punishment for rapists, in the wake of increasing number of rape cases in the country, should be viewed in this context. The writer is Assistant Editor, The Tribune |
Cong to strive for Opposition unity Excerpts: Q: What are your priorities as the new UPCC chief? A: The first priority is to revitalise the party organisation. We have to launch a struggle to redress the problems of people. All sections of the population in the state are unhappy with the BSP-BJP government. Sugarcane growers have not been given their due. No food-for-work programme has been launched in the state and people are committing suicide due to scarcity of food. While people in the state are dying of heat and shortage of water, Chief Minister Mayawati is on a foreign trip along with her family. Several sugar mills are lying closed. There is no rule of law in the state. The police are not questioning the former minister in the Madhumita murder case even though there are circumstantial and documentary evidence about his involvement. The state government misused official machinery during the run-up to the Chiraigaon by-election which has been deferred. The Chief Minister should have resigned on moral grounds. There is need for issue-based politics as the state is at present witnessing personalised politics between the BSP and the SP. We have to get rid of the BSP-BJP government and bring back the Congress to power. We will also work towards winning maximum seats in the Lok Sabha elections next year. Q: You said that the Opposition has the support of 210 MLAs in the UP Assembly. How do the numbers add up? A: The UP government is not running on proven majority but due to the benevolence of the State Governor, helped by the Speaker and the blessings of the Prime Minister. People are not speaking out because of fear. POTA is seen not as the Prevention of Terrorism Act but as Prevention of Thakur Act in the state. Most of the rebel BJP MLAs are Thakurs. MLAs and several ministers are also unhappy with the Chief Minister. Media reports say that the Mayawati government has the support of 211 MLAs and the Opposition has 190 MLAs. There were 12 BJP MLAs who had rebelled against the Mayawati government. We also have the support of independents. The Chief Minister is trying to break the Rashtirya Lok Dal to save her government. There were several signatures allegedly forged in the letter of support of nine independent MLAs that was recently produced to claim their support to the Mayawati government. Q: What will the scenario be if you succeed in your aim of dislodging the Mayawati government? A: There will be an alternative in place. The Congress will be a cementing force between Samajwadi Party, Rashtriya Lok Dal and other secular parties. We will have a common minimum programme. The understanding between us is long-term and it is possible to reach an agreement on seat sharing for the Lok Sabha elections. Q: There is no consensus among the Opposition parties on the chief ministerial candidate. A: There are no differences on the issue. The day Mayawati government is ousted, opposition leaders will meet to decide the leader. Q: Are you also in the race for the post of Chief Minister? A: If I can contribute to the revival of the Congress that is enough. Q: A section of the party feels that a tie-up with Samajwadi Party will damage the Congress. A: It will not have any such impact. The TDP is supporting BJP at the Centre without problems. We know how to build the organisation. Q: Congress workers in Uttar Pradesh have been urging Priyanka Gandhi Vadra to join politics. A: I'll discharge the responsibility given to me. Congress president Sonia Gandhi has already given an answer to the question at Srinagar. Workers have their feelings and make demands. |
A friend of friends PAKISTAN has always posted the best of its diplomats as High Commissioners in Delhi but the suspense preceding the finalisation of Aziz Ahmed Khan’s name as Islamabad’s envoy has been unprecedented. It would have been fitting with Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s peace initiative, had Pakistan too declared its new envoy simultaneously with the shifting of Shanker Menon, Indian Ambassador in Beijing, to Islamabad. The confusion was apparently created by the premature disclosure that Pakistan’s envoy to China, Riaz Mohammad Khan, was being posted to New Delhi. The confusion was worse confounded because the revelation was made by no less a person than Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Jamali himself. The result: the key diplomatic appointment was delayed and now Aziz Ahmed is expected to reach Delhi by the end of June.
Aziz is not new to India having worked in New Delhi as Deputy High Commissioner during 1985-87. Those were the days of Rajiv Gandhi making a debut on the world scene as the youngest-ever Prime Minister of the world’s largest democracy and Gen. Zia-ul-Haq ruling Pakistan with his martial law decrees. This correspondent had opportunities of meeting Dy. High Commissioner Aziz in course of various diplomatic get-togethers and at informal dinners hosted at the residence by Pakistan’s the then Press Attache (Minister-Press) for selected and senior scribes. Aziz was invariably present in most of them. He was amiable, talking in fluent Hindustani, as spoken in the sub-continent, and establishing an instant rapport with Indian scribes. Doubtless, he had made many friends in New Delhi. Aziz Khan’s first term in India was short — only two years — as he was elevated by Gen. Zia as Director-General (South Asia) and entrusted with the responsibility of pushing Pakistan’s agenda in the region on issues involving India. Aziz’s most challenging posting was in Afghanistan during the traumatic days of the Taliban rule. As Ambassador in Kabul, he consolidated Pakistan’s control over the Taliban. He also established close rapport with the Taliban leadership and that included the one-eyed Mullah Omar whom the Taliban regarded as a demigod. With the fall of Kabul and ouster of the Taliban from Afghanistan, Aziz was back in Islamabad. Subsequently, he took over as the spokesman of the Musharraf Government. Within weeks of taking over as Foreign Office spokesman, he was chosen for the key assignment in India and joined the rank of such prominent diplomats as Abdul Sattar and Niaz Naik. Pakistan’s last envoy, Ashraf Jehangir Qazi and his predecessor, Riaz Khokhar, too earned many friends and admirers in New Delhi. In popularity and diplomatic skill, Qazi could be compared to Abdul Sattar and Niaz Naik, who rose to the top on return to Pakistan. June 2 was the last briefing of Aziz Khan as spokesman of the Foreign Office and it was a farewell to Islamabad-based scribes too. Aziz had, during the short span of time, endeared himself to journalists and foreign correspondents covering the foreign office. Known as an advocate of the Indo-Pak dialogue, he uttered every word with caution and his tone was quite conciliatory towards India. “We feel that the negotiation process should start as quickly as possible. We are ready for it whether these negotiations are held at the secretary level, at the political level or at the summit level”. He also assured that India would not find Pakistan wanting in responding positively to any suggestion for “a meaningful, sustained and result-oriented dialogue”. Aziz Khan comes to New Delhi at a time when there has been growing realisation in Pakistan that it is more important to strengthen the economy rather than pouring resources into dangerous and destabilising conflict with India. According to “Washington Post”, influential Pakistanis are asking the question: “Is Kashmir worth fighting for” ? They argue that Pakistan should focus on developing a strong economy including trade with India for that may ultimately enhance Islamabad’s negotiating leverage. The general atmosphere was never before so congenial as now for the new incumbent Aziz Ahmed Khan to head the Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi.
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The importance of being Geelani
A large portion of the Hurriyat Conference would like to negotiate for an independent or autonomous status for Kashmir, vis-à-vis both India and Pakistan. However, Mr Geelani at least has stood like a rock against any aspiration other than accession to Pakistan. Nor has he, over the years, allowed a dilution of the militancy strategy. In an emotional outburst on the evening when Hurriyat Executive member Abdul Ghani Lone was assassinated a year ago, his son Sajad had named Geelani, along with Pakistan and its intelligence agency, the ISI, as being behind the crime. Of course, he retracted from that position, at least publicly, by the next morning, but the close relatives of other Kashmiri leaders who have been killed over the past 13 years have also spoken, privately, in the same vein. All those leaders had, by the time they were killed, become open to negotiations with the Government of India, independent of Pakistan. It is Mr Geelani who has remained steadfast to the insistence that no talks can be held without the involvement of Pakistan. That is the reason why the United Jihad Council and the Jamaat in Pakistan had made public statements in the winter of 2000-01. Conversely, it was the reason why the Government of India did not allow the delegation to go after Hurriyat chairman Abdul Ghani Bhat named Mr Geelani as a member. His inclusion upset some of the other Hurriyat executive members. After Lone’s assassination, his sons had continued the negotiation route and an end to violence, that he had taken towards the end of his life. They did not stop party colleagues from contesting the State Assembly elections. So, soon after he was released from jail (having been incarcerated in June 2002 for allegedly channeling funds for militancy), Mr Geelani set his sights on having Mr Lone's People's Conference removed from the Hurriyat. Within the Hurriyat, ironically, the ones who seem to be the least upset about his move are the Lone brothers. They secretly welcome a severance of ties from the organisation, which Mr Geelani has prevented from showing flexibility. It is some of the others there who blanch at the prospect of the People's Conference being ousted, fearing that it would strengthen Mr Geelani's hands further. It was left then to Mr Geelani's parent organisation to remove him from the Hurriyat executive. Mr Geelani told me in an interview a couple of years ago that he made Mohd Yusuf Shah the patron-in-chief of Hizb-ul-Mujahideen after examining its ideology. Yusuf Shah now calls himself the Supreme Commander of Hizb, using his nom de guerre, Syed Salahuddin. He has for several years chaired the Muzaffarabad-based United Jihad Council. This connection indicates the strength and the potency of the pressure on both the Jamaat and the rest of the Hurriyat to continue to back Mr Geelani. If, despite that, these recent moves have been made to marginalise him, it indicates that a large spectrum of what was once Pakistan's support base in the valley is now unhappy with such inflexible positions as Mr
Geelani's. |
Venkaiah Naidu as ‘Bhram Purush’
Kushabhau’s
tears
Former BJP President Kushabhau Thakre was asked by Venkaiah Naidu last year to talk to the rebel MLAs in Lucknow. He camped in the UP capital and called 12 party MLAs for talks. Some came and promised to return after consultations with their colleagues but none turned up. Thakre, brought up in the stiff-upper lip
traditions of the Rashtriya Swyamsevak Sangh, was surprised and hurt. Undeterred, he decided to have another go. This time an MLA told him a woeful but true story. He confided that when they came to him last time in the state guest house and as they left after talking to him, they were huddled into a waiting van and taken to Raghuraj Singh, better known as Raja Bhaiya. Raja Bhaiya’s men gave them what he is infamous for: third degree treatment. The MLA said he was lucky to have sneaked out while others were still captive. Thakre broke into tears lamenting on the decline in moral values. Thakre recently narrated this incident to Mayawati strengthening her resolve to deal with Raja Bhaiya.
Political
funding
Murli’s
googly
Vajpayee baffled everyone recently with his remarks that Advani will lead the next elections. But even more surprising and interesting was the one-upmanship shown by Union Human Resource Development Minister and senior BJP leader Murli Manohar Joshi. Kalam’s style
Desi videshi
Any guess who heads Peru? Alejandro Toledo, a person of the Indian origin. The President confided this interesting fact with the visiting External Affairs Minister Yashwant Sinha to the South American nation. Alejandro Toledo, however, is yet to visit the country of his origin. Contributed by Prashant Sood, S. Satyanarayanan, S.S. Negi, Satish Misra,
R.Suryamurthy and Rajeev Sharma
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Sit, suffer and sulk WRITING this column in the midst of the ongoing dust haze enveloping this side of the region. To say it’s suffocating could be an understatement. For us, the middle rung, there is no get away. So sit, suffer and sulk. Till recently, one had only heard and read about road-rage incidents. But now it has become a routine affair. I have been seeing one such incident almost every day. Yesterday noon, just before the Dhaula Kuan intersection, a man got down from his WagonR and began punching and kicking another in an Esteem, because the man was honking; so don’t contradict film Bhoot’s lead Urmila Matondkar’s comment that she is actually getting scared of the human being! Others too seem to be getting aware of the messed up scenario. Cultural
diversity Known academician and Principal of Gargi College (University of Delhi), Dr. Hema V. Raghavan says that she is introducing a special course called ‘Cultural encounters’ from the coming academic session. This has been specially formulated to help students realise that we survived these years and centuries because of our respect for cultural diversity. To survive now, we have to be taught to live in harmony with each other. Otherwise, we would be doomed. Dr Raghavan said the recent communal flare-ups and conditions resulting from them set her thinking that we ought to respect different religions and cultures which alone can take us towards a healthy survival. Otherwise, the future seems bleak. If I am not mistaken, this is the first time that such a course is being introduced. It could make a dent in the ongoing fascist and communal politics at work.
To send or not While a debate is on whether to send our troops to Iraq or not, there came up the Day of UN Peacekeepers (May 29). The figures are rather amazing. There are 37,000 UN peacekeepers deployed in 14 missions on three continents and they come from 89 countries. In the last 50 years, over 1,800 peacekeepers have died...Don't ask where has peace vanished in spite of these peace keeping efforts.
Book on
refugees “Refugees and the State: Practices of Asylum and Care in India” , a UNHCR publication, has just come out. Published by Sage, it is edited by Ranabir Samaddar. It deals with India's role in dealing with the challenges of the refugees through different points of history: Partition (east and west), refugees from Tibet, the 1971 refugee influx, refugees from Myanmar, the Chittagong Hill Tracts and the Sri Lankan Tamils.
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The beginning of their free run in life New Delhi: “I want to break free...” went the cult song. And for tens of thousands of students in the capital stepping out of school into the brave new world, college implies just that — freedom from all the shackles and restrictions of school years. The yearning and the desperation for freedom in that 1980s song is reflected on young Pooja Ahirwal’s face which breaks into a beatific smile when she pictures herself in college. “No beating with a cane for getting late, no strict attendance problem and aha!, how can I forget, no uniform dressing code,” she said outside a Delhi University college. She calls it the freedom to be herself. Ahirwal is amongst the many who believe that this leap from school to college marks the beginning of their free run in life. For most students, this is best symbolised in the freedom to finally be able to wear what they want — and what fashion dictates. Said college aspirant Rahul Singh: “We used to talk about life in college because there was no choice in clothes till we were in school. You couldn't wear chains, rings, bandanas and other accessories to school. Nobody questions all this in college.” Added Akansha Goel, also on an admission hunt: “Life gets so monotonous in school when we have to wear the same uniform day in and day out.” So both, boys and girls, have been thronging shopping hubs in the capital in their quest to look trendy for colleges which open next month. And so what if the mercury breaks new records every day. Divya Sundaram described her purchases: “I bought two peddle-pushers, one tank top with strings near the arms, four wraparounds. I have also bought two khadi kurtas with authentic silver jewellery.” Kabeer Sharma, who went out shopping with his family, was a little more orthodox in his purchases. “I will be buying new Reebok shoes for college,” he said. Said student Roli Nair: “College means fundoo, fantastic, clothes, bunking classes and studies being less obligatory!” But it's more than just clothes and bunking classes. Sounding a note of caution, Headmistress of Delhi Public School Reema Dewan says: “The students should know that this new environment comes with its own set of duties and responsibilities which they should understand and abide by.” Looking beyond fashion and fun, students realise the gravity of the new situation and the implications for the future. Said Sundaram: “In college, there would be no one to tell us that we have to study. You study for yourself. Unlike school, there is no compulsion from teachers to perform well. We have to understand all these aspects along with our dose of fun.” IANS |
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Death penalty is irreversible. It cannot be recalled. Even if any mistake is subsequently discovered it will be of no consequence because the executed person cannot be brought back to life. That makes miscarriage of justice irrevocable. That is why, Lafayatte said: “I shall ask for the abolition of the penalty of death until I have the infallibility of human judgment demonstrated to me.”
THE appointment of Jagadam-bika Pal as Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee Chief has coincided with the Congress giving up its reluctance to forge an understanding with Samajwadi Party in Uttar Pradesh to oust the Mayawati government. An MLA for over 20 years from Basti, Mr Pal, 54, has held organisational posts in the Youth Congress and Seva Dal. Like many others in the party, he talks of the possibility of a long-term tie-up with the SP. Mr Pal holds the record for the brevity of his tenure as UP Chief Minister. Media-savvy, he seems working towards weaning away some "Rajput MLAs" from the BJP.
Even though Prime Minister Jamali might have made a faux pas, President Pervez Musharraf has taken the right decision by not posting Riaz, known to be a hardliner, as his envoy to New Delhi; more so, when the people of India and Pakistan want to bury the hatchet. In sharp contrast to Riaz Mohammad’s image of a hawk, Islamabad’s High Commissioner-designate to India, 59-year-old, Aziz Ahmed, is a moderate on issues involving Pakistan’s foreign policy and that includes Kashmir. He is also considered to be soft temperamentally.
THE importance of being Geelani cannot be underestimated in the Kashmir conundrum. Syed Ali Shah Geelani is not simply a former chairman of the All Parties' Hurriyat conference. He has for 13 years been the lynchpin of a militant movement for Kashmir's merger with Pakistan. The internal tensions regarding his role that have surfaced over the past few weeks — both within the Hurriyat and within his parent organisation, Jamaat-e-Islami — could therefore be crucial to the success or otherwise of the peace initiative between India and Pakistan, at least as far as resolving the Kashmir issue is concerned.
BJP President Venkaiah Naidu has been more in the news recently for his clarifications than his statements. Naidu, who has some reputation of coining slogans (BJP ka jhanda, NDA ka agenda) apparently kicked up a debate by suggesting that Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Deputy Prime Minister L.K. Advani would be the twin mascots of the BJP in the next Lok Sabha elections with Vajpayee as ‘Vikas Purush’ (Development man) and Advani as ‘Loh Purush’ (Iron man). Venkaiah had to clarify immediately that Vajpayee only would lead the party to polls. More emphatic clarifications came from Venkaiah after Vajpayee stumped the party with his remark that Advani would lead it to victory in the coming Lok Sabha elections. Venkaiah had to earlier issue rebuttal on his remark about construction of mosque at Ayodhya near the proposed Ram Temple. Not to miss the chance provided by Venkaiah’s foot-in-the-mouth statements, Congress spokesman Anand Sharma described him a ‘Bhram Purush’ (man of confusion).
To check the influence of big money on the Indian polity, the payment of which is made to the parties in dubious transactions, the NDA government is contemplating a law to legalise the political fundings. The Draft Bill prepared by the Union Law Ministry seeks to make political donations
transparent and it is likely to be introduced during the monsoon session of Parliament. The Bill has already been cleared by the Law Ministry for Cabinet approval. Law Minister Arun Jaitley is convinced that the legislation would be a great step by the NDA government towards electoral reforms. Most of the political parties have already responded positively. The Left parties are still left and they have not responded yet.
It is hardly a matter of debate as to what could be Joshi’s real intentions as he moved an informal resolution during a Cabinet meeting on Thursday to show his loyalty to Vajpayee or to hit newspaper headlines next day. Some BJP leaders feel that there was absolutely no need for raising the “internal” matter of the BJP in the Cabinet meeting, which always meets on a formal agenda. If at all some leaders felt the need for such a resolution, it would have been apt had Defence Minister George Fernandes, who is also the Convenor of the NDA, moved the motion. Interestingly, some old timers in the party point out that Joshi had been in the recent past trying to project himself as the “top leader” of the party and had even informally mooted the idea of projecting the BJP trinity of Vajpayee-Advani-Joshi. In this context, it may be recalled that Joshi created a ruckus of sorts at the oath taking ceremony of Narendra Modi in Ahmedabad, when he was not allocated a seat in the podium along with the Prime Minister and the Deputy Prime Minister.
Whatever he does, he does it with his own peculiar style. President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam harvested and distilled the Palmarosa (cymbopogon martinii) herbal plant which is commonly known as Rosha ghas or ginger grass at the Rashtrapati Bhavan Herbal Garden. This herb is used for medicinal purposes and in the purfumery, cosmetics and flavouring industries. While the Mughal Gardens, with its mesmerising flowers attract large number of visitors to the presidential palace each year, the Herbal Garden in future would surely be the must-see spot in the sprawling Mughal Gardens. One would not be surprised if the academician in Kalam comes forth with the idea of powerpoint presentation of the herbal plants and its medicinal values for the visitors’ information.