The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

EDITORIALS

Now fake stamp papers!
Scale of the racket is phenomenal

ALARM bells had started ringing feverishly last year itself when counterfeit stamps and stamp papers worth Rs 2.36 crore were seized by the Chandigarh police from a vehicle. Now that the full magnitude of the nationwide racket has come to light, one cannot help shaking one’s head in disbelief. According to police officers and experts investigating the case, 90 per cent of stamp papers purchased by the people at the time of buying movable or immovable property is fake. What gives credence to this estimate is the fact that the total seizure of fake stamps and stamp papers is already a mind-boggling Rs 3,500 crore. Many counterfeit currency notes too have been found to be in circulation in the past few years but never on such a large scale. The racketeers seem to have elbowed out the sale of genuine papers. So good are the forgeries that, leave alone the common people, even the police finds it difficult to tell the difference. Apparently, this cannot be done without the connivance of officials at the government’s Nasik press.
There could be a more sinister angle to it also. Many of the counterfeit currency notes were allegedly pushed in by ISI operatives. There were even reasons to believe that the notes were printed in Pakistan. It will be necessary to find out whether the notorious agency has its hand in the stamp scandal as well. Depriving the government of so much money may be its idea of making India bleed through a thousand cuts.

While the government starts a nationwide drive to nip the scourge, it should also spare a thought for the hapless people who have been done in by the master forgers. They should not be made to suffer for what is basically the government’s failure. The forgers had been operating for nearly a decade before they were caught. Asking millions of people to replace deeds signed on counterfeit papers will just not be practical. Where the papers have not been used as yet, the government should make arrangements to get them examined, free of cost, of course, and should supply genuine papers wherever counterfeiting is detected — again without burdening the victims. One natural corollary will be to install at least one machine in every city to check the authenticity of stamp papers. Several gangs employing hundreds of persons are believed to be operating all over the country. They should not be allowed to roam free like sandalwood smuggler Veerappan.

Flip-flop on fees
Keep education within the reach of common man

THE withdrawal of the college fee hike by the Punjab Government on Tuesday will come as a victory for the agitating students, who, hopefully, would return to the classrooms now. The combined pressure from the students, the Shiromani Akali Dal, Congress MLAs and the media forced Capt Amarinder Singh to order a climbdown and rollback the unreasonably sharp increase in the college fees. Through surveys The Tribune had highlighted how college education had become more expensive in Punjab than in the neighbouring states and how seats in so many colleges had remained unfilled because of the fee hike. College and university education has been increasingly going beyond the reach of many, particularly girls and rural students.

However, the crisis of funding higher education is far from over. The Punjab Government’s decision will put pressure on the state universities, too, to scale down their recently increased fees. The state government, which has to borrow to pay salaries and pensions to its employees, is certainly hard pressed to meet the increased cost of education and has reduced aid to the universities and private colleges. The plight of private aided colleges is particularly severe. They find it hard to pay salaries to the teachers. While continuing fee concessions to the needy students, a modest fee hike may not displease many provided the quality of education and facilities in colleges are improved simultaneously.

The Punjab Government needs to find out how other states are able to provide education at lower rates. There is the obvious need to cut down wasteful expenditure at all levels. Many colleges have teachers far in excess of requirement. Their services remain underutilised. The courses need to be finetuned and some may have to be dropped in view of the changed scenario. Higher education must be restricted to those capable of pursuing it. The fee structure has to be in tune with the paying capacity of a majority of the students. The state government may cut costs in other areas, but education and health are the basic needs and must remain affordable to the common man.

Saddam loses sons
Bush and Blair gain sleep

THE occupation of Iraq has made President George W Bush and Prime Minister Tony Blair lose face and a huge chunk of the western media its credibility. It is, therefore, natural for the unembedded media to be cautious in responding to reports about Saddam Hussein's sons, Uday and Quasay, having been killed by US troops in a house in Mosul in northern Iraq. The source of the report is the statement of US army spokesman Ricardo Sanchez that "four persons were killed during that operation", but "positive identification of the bodies has been made from multiple sources". The "multiple sources" must have known the numbers two and three on America's most wanted list very well to be able to identify them from the charred remains that were shown to them.

If Saddam Hussein has indeed lost his sons, it would provide the muchneeded breather to the American President and the British Prime Minister, whose domestic ratings have dropped sharply because of the lies they told about the WMDs in Iraq. Dr David Kelly was driven to commit suicide by the Blair government for having leaked evidence about "sexed up" information that was used for justifying the attack on Iraq. In Washington, a top White House national security adviser, Stephen Hadley, was made to take responsibility for the exaggerated WMD-related reference in President Bush's State of the Union speech.

The report of the death of Uday and Quasay was promptly picked up by the two beleaguered leaders to resume their offensive against the "symbols of evil". Only the capture or killing of Saddam could be of greater significance. There is substance in the view that the average Iraqi is unwilling to show his emotions because of the fear of Saddam being alive and the possibility of his return. The occupation forces will have to do better than offer the testimony of "multiple sources" as proof of the systematic destruction of the remains of the despised regime. The killing of Saddam's sons may have boosted the morale of the occupation troops, under constant attack from snipers. But the mysterious operation that saw the "bodies" being brought to Baghdad for being flown to an unknown destination is hardly going to make the Iraqis shed their fear of internal retribution if they cooperate with the invaders.

Thought for the day

Studies serve for delight, for ornament, and for ability.

— Francis Bacon

OPINION

Degeneration of public discourse
Shocking BJP-Congress slanging match
by Inder Malhotra

ONE of India’s several misfortunes is that this essentially consensus country, if only because of its bewildering diversities and equally enormous complexities, has been afflicted for over three decades since the first Congress split in 1969 by polarisation, often highly inflamed, and almost always along personal lines.

This has inevitably fractured the broad national consensus that, despite undoubted differences between the dominant Congress and remarkably insouciant but small Opposition parties, had survived through most of the Nehru era until the 1962 border war with China. So it had even during Lal Bahadur Shastri's skilful conduct of the 1965 war with Pakistan. Things changed drastically after Indira Gandhi's successful struggle against the combined strength of the "Syndicate" and its earlier bete noir Morarji Desai, during which, except for the Left parties, the Opposition had rooted for the vanquished side.

To be sure, there have been interludes even after 1969 when the polarised bickering, sometimes bordering on abuse, has subsided. For instance, for nearly 18 months after the glorious victory in the 1971 war for the liberation of Bangladesh Indira Gandhi was lionised by almost everyone, with some Opposition leaders, hailing her as the invincible goddess Durga. But that was too good to last.

By 1973 the bitterness across the polarised divide had escalated to a point where raucous and wilful disruption of parliamentary proceedings — now converted into a fine art, as demonstrated on the opening day of the current session — became an almost daily routine. So did the steady deterioration in the tone and tenor of the public discourse. Street demonstrations took over and eventually culminated in the Nav Nirman movement in Gujarat and later the J.P. crusade, beginning from Bihar. The two sides traded charges in a language that would have made even a sailor blush. So much so that on the eve of the hammer-blow of the Emergency, the Indira and Sanjay crowd was denouncing even Justice Jagmohanlal Sinha, leave alone Opposition leaders, as a "CIA agent". What the Janata government's supporters said about Indira Gandhi during 1977-80 was no better.

And yet the almost rapturous welcome that both Parliament and the people gave Rajiv Gandhi for full two years was as staggering as his victory in the December 1984 Lok Sabha election. Bofors made short work of this. Both parliamentary debate (when possible) and discussions outside, including in the media, reverted to bad old ways. It was around this time that Parliament heard for the first time the chilling chant, "gali gali mein shor hai, Rajiv Gandhi chor hai". Since those in a position to stop this nosedive in parliamentary manners did not do so, 18 months ago the Opposition Benches used exactly the same slogan against the Prime Minister, Mr. Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

It is against this bleak backdrop that the country should start worrying seriously about the further vitiation of an already polluted public discourse. Of this, the utterly shocking slanging match between the BJP and the Congress over Congress president Sonia Gandhi's foreign origin and Mr. Vajpayee's age and health is a telling example. The BJP has decided at Raipur and proudly proclaimed that Ms. Gandhi's birth in Italy would be a major issue during the assembly elections in five states during autumn and the parliamentary poll next year that could be advanced to February.

The Congress retaliated in kind by attacking Atalji's advanced age (Mr. Jaipal Reddy was wrong, however, to describe the Prime Minister as an octogenarian), his indifferent health and his alleged inability to concentrate on the affairs of State for long. A horrified general secretary of the BJP, Mr. Pramod Mahajan, attributed the Congress party's "highly objectionable" and "uncivilised" outburst as a reflection of the party's "perverse culture".

He added that the Congress having "imported an inexperienced leader of foreign origin" had apparently discarded the "cultural of India" that "respects its leaders" because of their "age, wisdom, experience and contribution to the nation". Mr Reddy's prompt rejoinder was that the culture Mr Mahajan was boasting of also enjoined the "elders" to take sanyas (renounce worldly pursuits) at a certain stage.

This is only the beginning. More and worse is bound to follow, especially because the BJP believes that to convert the electoral fight into a "Vajpayee versus Sonia" duel would be to its advantage. The stakes being high, it should not be difficult to imagine the very low depths to which the rhetoric of the two sides might descend. What happened in 1998 when Ms Gandhi was canvassing for her party but was not a candidate for a parliamentary seat should be guide enough.

Leave alone what small-time BJP functionaries said at that time though this included jibes such as that Ms Monica Lewinsky (notorious for her Oval Office romance with the then US President, Mr Bill Clinton) could also join the Indian political process. Even Mr. L.K. Advani, then only Home Minister but the acknowledged number two in the Cabinet, declared magisterially that "India could not be handed over to any non-Indian". Mr George Fernandes, then as now both Defence Minister and convener of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), went much further. He blandly hinted at "some conspiracy to plant an anti-national individual at Race Course Road".

In fairness, it must be added that while spiritedly countering the BJP's barbs about Ms Gandhi's foreign birth, some Congressmen also descended to the level of their intemperate opponents. One of them demanded to know, for instance, how Mr Vajpayee, a "lifelong bachelor without any offspring" could have a son-in-law. (The Urdu words "aulad" and "damaad" that he used sounded more effective than they do in English translation.)

Significantly, this time around, too, the BJP's official spokesman, Mr Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi was quick to suggest that Ms Gandhi's ascension to the office of Prime Minister could be a "security risk". Later in the day the suave Mr Arun Jaitley vainly tried to whitewash the offensive statement.

In this connection it is noteworthy that the added vehemence of the BJP's attacks on Ms Gandhi has something to do with the Congress "sankalp" (resolve) at Shimla to project her unambiguously as the party's sole candidate for prime ministership. She is also to be the leader of any secular coalition that like-minded parties might want to join with a view to keeping the BJP and its allies at bay.

Some BJP strategists are saying privately that the Congress party's "aggressive assertion" of Ms Gandhi's right to lead any coalition government of secular forces that might be formed in future has already worked to their benefit. For, they argue, it has irked even those potential allies of the Congress such as Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav, who had earlier withdrawn their objections to her foreign origin. So much so that Mr Sharad Pawar, who along with Mr P.A. Sangma and Mr Tariq Anwar had invited expulsion from the Congress by raising this issue before the 1998 poll, had promised to "reconsider" his position. But that was before the Shimla conclave. After it he lost little time to backtrack.

Let the Congress and its allies, present and potential, settle the issue of leadership as best they can. India's Constitution makes no difference at all between a citizen born in this country and the one that acquires citizenship through naturalisation. However, all political parties, without exception, have one objective and one objective only — to win an election by hook or by crook. It should be no surprise, therefore, if the BJP perceives some mileage in making the issue of Ms Gandhi's foreign origin a major election plank. For its part the Congress and its leader would do well to realise that this is an issue that does trouble a large section of the highly influential middle-class intelligentsia.

Even so, every issue can surely be discussed threadbare and even sharply enough in a civilised manner and within the confines of elementary decency. It should not be brought to a level reminiscent of London's Billingsgate. The trouble, however, is how to enforce any kind of discipline on politicians who rush lemming-like into the well of the House at the drop of a hat and bring the democratic process to a halt as well as into disrepute.

MIDDLE

Noor — the Little Angel
by Narinder Jit Kaur

O, Dear Noor,

The twinkling morning star!

You appear on the horizon

As harbinger of hope

An ambassador of amity

Blessed the hands

That purged the little heart

Of the bad blood,

Unleashing a new life

In the innocent veins.

But where to find the hands

That could heal a million 'sick hearts'

Captive of bigoted conceit

Burnt black in the

Inferno of intolerance.

Let each hand

Rise in prayer

To let His ‘Noor’

Descend on us.

Let each heart

Learn the lessons of love

And be

The mender of its own malady.

O, Light of the Lord!

Be a torch

To the blind souls,

Staggering and stumbling

In the inner dark.

Hitting for ever

The walls of ‘line’ & ‘border’.

Lead them unto

The doorway to dawn,

To a new world of

Love and passion

Brotherhood and compassion.

O, Little angel!

May you go home

With thousands of ‘cured hearts’

Wishing you farewell Here.

And many more thousands

Waiting to Welcome you There.

Amen

From a hardliner to a softliner
Anti-Americanism explains Maulana Rehman’s new stance
by Syed Nooruzzaman

HE is every inch a politician. This turbaned man with a flowing beard narrowly missed the chance to become the Prime Minister of Pakistan. His allies in the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) refused to accept Gen Pervez Musharraf’s conditions which spoiled his case. In any case, Maulana Fazlur Rehman is the third most important person in his country after President Musharraf and Prime Minister Zafarullah Khan Jamali. He is the Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly with his MMA being the second largest group after Mr Jamali’s Pakistan Muslim League (Q). But his claim to fame lies in his ability to draw huge crowds as the head of the Jamiat-ul-Ulema-e-Islam (JUI).

He is, perhaps, the most interviewed foreign dignitary in India in recent years. The reason is not that he has a controversial background. He loves meeting media representatives, and keeps his cool even when uncomfortable questions are asked.

The 62-year-old politician in the garb of a religious personage has the characteristics of a fox, though he comes from Dera Ghazi Khan, North-West Frontier Province, known for its lion-hearted Pashtuns. You call him the father of the Taliban and he will laugh it off. His appreciation for the former extremist rulers of Afghanistan has a history to it. The student movement called the Taliban (the plural of the Urdu word “talib”, meaning student) was born mainly in Maulana Rehman’s madarsas, at the instance of Pakistan’s former Interior Minister Naserullah Khan Babar. During the days of the Taliban and even after that he did not miss an opportunity to ridicule India. He bracketed it with Israel. He even favoured armed support for the militants in Kashmir.

But that is history. He seems to be a different man today and wants to listen to “thandi baatein” (soothing talks). The changed global political climate after 9/11 has metamorphosed the Maulana’s thinking.

He is the first prominent politician from the other side of the border who wants India and Pakistan to hold dialogue under the Simla Agreement and solve their disputes bilaterally. This is contrary to the well-known position of Pakistan, which has been insisting on the involvement of a third party (read the US). The argument was that since bilateral talks had failed to produce the desired results, a third party mediation was inevitable. India rejected this logic on the ground that the two sovereign and self-respecting nations should know how to sort out their mutual problems. What the Maulana says justifies this approach, but his reasons are different. He has not outrightly opposed the US or any other power being allowed to mediate because that would amount to accepting that Pakistan’s official line was wrong so far. So, the view he has expressed during his numerous interviews with journalists is that a third party involvement “may not necessarily work in our respective interests”.

That is true, but his statement should be interpreted in the light of a new thinking emerging in Pakistan in the aftermath of 9/11. Pakistan must do everything possible to have friendly relations with India in the larger interest of Islamabad in view of the prevailing global reality. This school of thought believes that India and Pakistan have no reason to treat each other as enemies. For them, Pakistan is more important than Kashmir. Hence the need to forget Kashmir. The Maulana did not elaborate his stance so clearly, but he appears to be endorsing this approach.

One should not be surprised if General Pervez Musharraf too agrees with the Maulana. For some time both have been drawing close to each other. The JUI leader is reportedly ready to jump over to the General’s bandwagon, but the MMA’s second major constituent, the Jamaat-e-Islami, has threatened to part company with him. That will mean a split in the MMA, jeopardising the future of its governments in the NWFP and Baluchistan. It will be interesting to watch how Maulana Rehman plays his cards at home.

The Maulana’s jehadi admirers are bewildered at his remarks supporting the dialogue process for the settlement of Indo-Pak disputes. They are not used to listening to such sensible things from a person who was the mentor of the Harkatul Mujahideen, set up in 1989. The militant outfit later merged into the Harkatul Jihad-e-Islami to give birth to the Harkatul Ansar in 1993. But this also shows that he knows how to handle the jehadis. When he was in India in 1995 (his first visit to New Delhi was in 1984) five foreign tourists were kidnapped by Al-Faran terrorists. Al-Faran had links with the Harkatul Mujahideen and, therefore, the Maulana offered his services to the Government of India for the tourists’ release. It is a different matter that the government ignored his offer.

The warm reception he received during his recent visit is obviously because he has grown into a major power centre. But one should not get carried away by his friendly statements. The wisdom lies in waiting for what colour he acquires in Islamabad.

He surprises Indians

THIS was a Pakistani Indians were determined to hate. But not everyone was so sure when Fazlur Rehman, the alleged “Islamic fundamentalist”, left for home Tuesday after an extended visit to the country.

Rehman, the turbaned, bearded cleric with piercing eyes, described variously as a “hawk” on Kashmir and the “father” of the Taliban, was a surprising revelation to many Indians during his rare weeklong visit to India.

The visit, scheduled for five days, was extended by two days.

He generated enough curiosity for Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee to go out of the way to receive him at his official residence and listen to his views on India-Pakistan relations —and the need to normalise them.

“To tell you frankly, his statements came as a pleasant surprise,” a senior official said.

“He is not bad. In fact, I think he is better than our own Hindu fundamentalists spouting communal venom day in and day out,” was the assessment of a company executive, who said he had been reading Rehman’s comments on India-Pakistan relations since his arrival last week.

It is clear that Rehman has helped change, even if marginally, the archetypal fire-spitting fanatic image that Indians have of Pakistani Islamic leaders.

The thinking amongst many people seemed to be: if the leader of the so-called Islamic fundamentalist party could be so reasonable and speak the language of peace and reason, others could not be so bad.

Rehman, who headed a four-member JUI team, was a picture of restraint and reason during the visit, organised by the Jamiat-Ulema-i-Hind. There was no call for jehad for the liberation of Kashmir nor was there any criticism of India for the alleged plight of Muslims here.

But it was not as if the cleric bent backwards to please his Indian hosts.

“The dispute in Jammu and Kashmir is a reality. We look at the Kashmir perspective from our angle and, to prove our stance correct, we have the U.N. resolution with us besides the Simla Agreement terms. You must be having your own views justifying your stand.

“Somewhere in between we can sort it out amicably. We want that there should be no war and terrorism,” he said in an interview with IANS.

But perhaps his biggest success was that hardline Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) and Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) leaders met him separately after considerable soul-searching.

Apparently, they did not want to be accused of refusing to meet “such a reasonable man” who had come with a message of peace from across the border. — IANS

FROM PAKISTAN

Rough road for LFO talks

ISLAMABAD: The ruling and opposition parties are likely to find themselves on a rough road when they begin another round of talks, possibly at the weekend, to resolve their dispute over the controversial Legal Framework Order (LFO).

Despite some optimistic pronouncements by Prime Minister Zafarullah Khan Jamali, political sources said on Tuesday there was little chance for his initiative to break the deadlock over one of the country's most serious political controversies in recent years and produce an early breakthrough.

Rather, the sources said, President Pervez Musharraf's insistence to retain his sweeping powers, particularly to remain army chief as long as he considers it necessary, could prove to be a brick wall that would prolong the nine-month-old political confrontation. — The Dawn

New twist to controversy

ISLAMABAD: Syed Sharifuddin Pirzada, senior adviser to the Prime Minister on Tuesday said Akbar Pirbhai, nephew of the Quaid-i-Azam, had told President Ayub Khan that Miss Fatima Jinnah was assassinated , and had demanded a judicial inquiry into the matter, which was turned down.

Mr Pirzada, who was quoted by a section of the Press as saying on Monday that he himself had seen blood stains on the bedsheet and cuts on the neck of Miss Jinnah, said that he was grossly misquoted by the Press.

“What has been attributed to me is not correct as I was not there,” Mr Pirzada said. — The Dawn

Jamali seeks provinces’ help

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali, following the Punjab Chief Minister’s strong-worded letter, has sought recommendations from the provincial governments over the construction of mega projects to enhance depleting water reservoirs and generate more power, sources told The Nation here on Tuesday.

The Prime Minister, the sources maintained, also directed the water authorities, including the Indus River System Authority (IRSA), to forward their comments on building of big projects like those lying pending for several years due to controversies and lack of consensus among the federating units. — The Nation

Kills daughter for ‘honour’

LAHORE: A man killed his 18-year-old daughter on Tuesday on suspicion of her having illicit relations with a youth in Shahdra Town.

The Police said Ghulam Rasool suspected that her daughter Fauzia was morally corrupt and, therefore, he killed her with a sharp-edged weapon. Later, Rasool surrendered to the police along with the weapon. The police have registered a case. — Daily Times

‘N-facilities being monitored’

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan says that all its nuclear facilities and reprocessing plants are safe and secure and in proper custodial control.

Recently there have been accidents in several reprocessing plants and nuclear facilities in India with one being called the worst accident in radiation exposure in India's nuclear history. This was at India's Kalpakkam Reprocessing Plant in January this year.

Questions have been raised if Pakistan, with fewer resources, could cope with the existing safety procedures when its neighbour cannot rely on its existing safety procedure. — The News

Ministers ignore recruitments

LAHORE: Punjab Ministers have shown least interest in the on-going process of recruitment which is the most sought after thing these days by their constituents.

However, the ministers and MPAs are taking keen interest in the development schemes. Probably, it is a more lucrative area to spend their energies where most funds end up in private pockets. — The Nation