EDITORIALS

Retrial, a must
Let truth and justice prevail

THE mass acquittal of the accused in the Best Bakery case had compelled people to conclude that one just could not fight the State if it was bent upon circumventing justice. This was not merely a humiliating acceptance of a cruel truth; the acquittal shook the faith in criminal judicial delivery system. Such disillusionment can have dangerous implications in a democratic system. Mercifully, a ray of hope has emerged not only for the victims but also for those who felt ashamed at this gross miscarriage of justice. The National Human Rights Commission has stood up for the helpless in choosing to urge the Supreme Court to order retrial of the case. It will be a fitting reply to those exulting at the course of events deliberately charted by them by gagging prime witnesses into silence. It will also be a much-needed reminder that the conscience of the nation is not a hostage of a few misguided bigots in Gujarat. A trial outside the State may also spring quite a few surprises provided the courts ensure total protection for the eyewitnesses.

An objection has been raised in some quarters that the opening of the case will set an unhealthy precedent leading to unending litigation in the days to come. What is forgotten is that the Best Bakery case is too blatant a travesty of justice to be clubbed with other ordinary crimes. The burning alive of 14 persons was the most macabre display of communal hatred which culminated in the eyewitnesses not only being forced to go back on their statements but even being armtwisted into describing the accused as the saviours. Zaheera Sheikh was the abiding symbol of the sinister conspiracy to wipe out all proofs of guilt.

Even now, a fair trial is only a fond hope. The trail has been cleverly obliterated and, legally speaking, it is not going to be easy to reconstruct it - provided the Supreme Court agrees to reopen the case, that is. If Zaheera is willing to reiterate what she had earlier said and then denied, allegedly due to threats to her life and that of her family members, there is also her sister-in-law Yasmin Bano who is ready to plead for the 21 accused. Her line is that Zaheera and some others had implicated certain prominent politicians only to extract money. One fervently hopes that the truth will not become a casualty once again amidst all these allegations — sponsored or otherwise —and counter-allegations.

Amartya’s prescription
“Liberal democracy, not mere democracy”

DEMOCRACY as a tool of development has been a pet theme of Nobel laureate Amartya Sen. That it is also an article of faith for him is borne out by his inaugural address at a seminar on ‘Development as Freedom’ in the Capital on Thursday. It is heartening that he reverted to the theme at a time when it has become fashionable in political, business and academic circles to praise the Chinese model of development. Implicit in their argument is the assumption that democracy as practised in India is an impediment to progress. Dr Sen has punctured this theory by pointing out how authoritarianism and lack of transparency helped the Chinese government to keep a lid on the SARS epidemic for as long as five months causing a grave risk to the population. His argument is that while India can learn from the progress China has achieved in expanding healthcare and education, there is no need to emulate the Chinese authoritarianism. In fact, there is a large body of data to support the claim that democracy, under certain conditions, is the surest way to progress. Among the conditions are adherence to the rule of law, liberty, a free Press and the right to choose.

Countries which fulfill these conditions have always stolen a march over their autocratic or authoritarian cousins. History of the last half century also buttresses the power of liberal trade to raise living standards, not only in the rich world but among the poor too. Small wonder that the world has been moving closer and closer to the democratic ideal. Since 1980, according to the 2002 United Nations Human Development Report, 81 countries have taken significant steps towards democracy with 33 military regimes replaced by civilian governments. Today, as a result, 62 per cent of the world’s population can be considered to be living under democratic set-up, though many of them may not measure up to the exacting standards of liberal democracy as in the West. Some of them can indeed be called “illiberal democracies” but this does not detract from the point that global inequality has been falling substantially though the gap between, say, Chad and China has been widening. The cure is not authoritarianism but liberal democracy.

As Dr Sen has pointed out, democracy is not merely a system of periodic elections but also of public discourse. In other words, this means democracy becomes meaningful only if the people are assured of a measure of equity and probity. The fact that the granaries are full does not make any sense to the person who cannot afford to buy foodgrains even at the subsidised price they are made available to him. This anomaly can be removed by using the food mountain to attract children to schools through the mid-day meal programme. In any case, there is no need to imitate China when there is a strong case for strengthening democracy by building up institutions of civil society.

Sound of Sonata
The people will face the music

WHEN C. B. Gupta became Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh in 1961 the austerity measures he introduced saw at least one junior minister come to office on a cycle rickshaw. For state functions he would borrow his brother's car. He was born at the wrong place, at the wrong time. Had he been born in Haryana and become a minister today, he may have been among the band of Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala's chosen ones, comprising ministers and bureaucrats. As a "chosen one", out of a list of 18, he would have received the keys to a Sonata Gold, a top of the line luxury car, personally from the benevolent hands of Mr Chautala at a state-level function on August 15. The car, priced at Rs 9.5 lakh is clearly beyond the means of 99 per cent of voters of Haryana. Today's representatives of the people need these comforts to show a glimpse of the better tomorrow they promise during elections. Mr Chautala's ministers have the people's mandate for the comfort of Sonata Gold while they should have the luxury of living on their premises.

This Independence Day, like the 56 earlier ones, will not bring to the people freedom from hunger, want and ignorance. But how can Haryana afford to lag behind if Punjab decides to give spanking new Qualis cars for personal use to its MLAs, irrespective of their political affiliations? It may have been the hangover of the royal past that made Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh generous to be a fault. In relative terms Haryana's is just a small gesture for correcting a "regional wrong". Since Haryana and Himachal were born out of Punjab they usually follow the "Punjab pattern" in deciding the pay and perks of those who run the sarkar. Last month Himachal Pradesh lawmakers, as usual cutting across party lines, gave themselves a hefty pay hike. Now Punjab has upped the ante by offering computers to its MLAs. So what? It is only a matter of time before Himachal and Haryana will wake up to the "gross injustice" being done to their lawmakers and follow the "Punjab pattern". The political leaders of the region have one endearing quality. They make profligacy sound like an act of political correctness and prosperity — prosperity for themselves, socialism for the people.

Thought for the day

Speech is the small change of silence

—George Meredith

OPINION

Peace in Sri Lanka precarious
Stalemate may revive ethnic war
by S.D. Muni

SRI Lanka’s peace process for resolving the Tamil ethnic conflict through negotiations that started with much hype and expectations in February, 2002, stands derailed. The situation may even drift into an armed conflict. It stands derailed since April this year when the LTTE did not participate in the Washington conference of aid donors because the host, the US, asked them to surrender arms and denounce terrorism before coming to Washington. The LTTE refused to do that. In protest, the LTTE also refused the main donor’s conference held in Tokyo two months later in June where more than $ 4.5 billion has been promised for the conflict-torn Island’s “reconstruction and development”, collectively by 51 countries and 22 international organisations. The LTTE has also rejected the “Tokyo Declaration” and disapproved of the international community’s much proclaimed generous efforts.

If the prevailing stalemate is allowed to continue, there are fears in Sri Lanka that the ethnic war may start again. The signs in this direction are many and diverse. The LTTE, in fact, never stopped its military regrouping and reinforcement during the period of the peace process. It has continued to pile up arms, recruit young soldiers and collect taxes in the areas controlled by them. In recent months, it has started killing non-LTTE Tamil leaders and local workers in the northeast of Sri Lanka and military intelligence also reports that LTTE activists are digging in into Colombo as well.

The assassination, in June, of an EPRLF leader (Eelam People’s Revolutionary Liberation Front) of Trincomalee, next in seniority only to the former Northeast province Chief Minister Vardharajah Perumal, has sent shock waves all over the island. His funeral was attended by all the political parties of Sri Lanka, including the Sinhala extremist JVP. The latest indication of the LTTE’s hardening attitude can be seen in the huge banners put up in the northeast towns blaming the Sri Lankan navy for the killing of 12 LTTE cadres.

The Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM), established to resolve ceasefire violations under the peace process has been openly protesting against the increasingly defiant and arrogant attitude of the LTTE. At the Tokyo conference, the US Deputy Secretary of State Armitage appealed to the LTTE to prove its commitment to “a negotiated settlement” by “coming back to the (negotiating) table”. The LTTE has rejected this appeal and lashed out at the US role in Sri Lanka.

The LTTE explains its attitude by accusing the Sri Lankan government of going back on its promises and assurances on issues like the withdrawal of “high security zone” (Sri Lankan army camps in civilian areas), in northeast and grant of interim administration. They also see the Tokyo Declaration as a trap to divert their attention from the core political issue of Tamil “self-determination” and introduction of donor group into rehabilitation and reconstruction of northeast as an attempt to bolster the Sri Lankan government. There are reports about the LTTE area commanders feeling frustrated that peace process did not yield any concrete developmental or political gains to them.

To any keen observer of the Sri Lankan affairs, the stalemate and the threat of renewed conflict do not come as surprise. It has been a politically driven peace process with divergent objectives of each of involved parties. Prime Minister Wikramsinghe’s United National Front (UNF) government wanted to isolate its archrival President Kumaratunga’s People’s Alliance and win the next Presidential elections with the help of the LTTE’s political support. Earlier President Premadasa, also of the UNP like Wikramsinghe, had done the same in 1990-91. He had forced the IPKF out of Sri Lanka and went to the extent of arming the LTTE to advance his narrow political agenda.

The LTTE entered into the peace process partly to ease post-9/11 international constraints on its operations and partly to exploit Sinhala political rivalries between the two mainstream parties. Accordingly, the LTTE wants to secure through negotiations, a virtual control of the northeast; a goal that it could not achieve through war. This is clearly evident in its insistence on the demolition of “high security zone” and grant of interim administration in the name of “internal self-determination”, while refusing to disarm itself or commit itself to plural and democratic political participation. The LTTE knows that the UNF government is gradually becoming politically weak in the face of President Kumaratunga’s challenge and the prospects of a PA-JVP alliance in the near future. The LTTE’s refusal to come back to the peace process and a spurt in its military activities may be aimed at increasing pressure on Wikramsinghe’s government to deliver fast.

The international community led by the US may be genuinely interested in bringing a terrorist group into mainstream political process, lest it joins forces with other terrorist groups. But the possibility of the international community plowing for long-term strategic foothold in this Indian Ocean Island and for developing economic stakes in this free and amenable country may also not be ruled out.

The gaps left in the ceasefire agreement of February, 2002, that are now being exposed in the face of LTTE’s assertion, were the result of politically motivated adjustments initially made by the Sri Lankan government and the international community. The LTTE, perhaps, is the only party in the peace process that clearly knew its bottomline and has stuck on that without making any basic compromise. It is successfully forcing the government and the international community to concede as much as possible. It may continue to act aggressive but not start the war as long as the government continues to succumb. A time may come when the government loses its credibility with the Sinhala electorates and gets dismissed by the Executive President. That would be the time for the LTTE to strike.

If there is anyone outside Sri Lanka that has stakes in a respectable and lasting resolution of the ethnic conflict, it is India. So far India has remained outside the peace process, being cautious and careful after its IPKF experience. But there is increasing realisation in Delhi that in the process, it has lost considerable strategic space in its sensitive neighbourhood. Today when Sri Lankan people’s disenchantment with the international community is growing, India is being looked upon as the only and eventual saviour. Unwittingly, India’s absence from the peace process has also enabled the LTTE to regain its political clout and reinforce its military strength. It is not in India’s long-term legitimate interests if the LTTE comes to control Sri Lanka’s northeast, either through political manoeuvre or renewed conflict, without disarming and democratising itself. Responding to the prevailing trend in Sri Lanka’s precariously hanging peace is a challenge that India cannot feel relaxed about.

The writer is Professor of South Asian Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University

MIDDLE

Honeymoon Hotel
by Rajnish Wattas

LAST weekend we took the road less travelled. After a long span we were once again on our favourite Kandaghat-Chail trail. The meandering hill road, looping around majestic Shivaliks, tunnelling through scented blue pines; was a journey down memory lane.

Our first trip had been nearly 25 years ago. Riding a Bajaj-Chetak scooter had been a young honeymoon couple, flying high on dreams and mountain mists. Everything looked dew-fresh, bright and beautiful. We checked in at the expensive, magnificent heritage resort: Palace Hotel. Even if riding a humble two-wheeler, I eagerly wanted to impress the young, “stars-in-eyes” bride with the Maharaja touch and live like the royals. The erstwhile palace was now our abode and pleasure ground! Its king-sized room number 15 was as big as a ballroom dancing hall, with a romantic Romeo-Juliet balcony and a regal fireplace. As it was winters, there was nothing more bracing than a long walk along the deodar-lined, solitary mountain trails, followed by a “spirited” drink, sitting by the blazing fireplace. Of course, there was the extra charge of Rs 10 for the added warmth!

From the bay window one could see the fairyland-like twinkling lights of Simla and other hill settlements, completing the dreamscape we were living out. And then the sounds of music added to the ambience. A grand piano lying in the lobby was all ours to fiddle; though we could never strike the right chords!

At times, I would pick up an old, quaint book from the small bookshelf in the hotel’s Silver Bangle bar. Mostly it would be something by Jim Corbett or Rudyard Kipling — much to my wife’s chagrin, who was high on “Mills and Boons”. Daytimes were filled with languid lazing around and lavish meals on the sun-drenched, sprawling lawns of the hotel, with commanding views of the snowcapped Chur-Chandni mountain range. And everyday, the old mali would present — with the timeless grace of old royal retainers — a single rose bud to the blushing “maharani” sitting by my side.

Our second trip after the first “cloud nine” visit, was when our daughter was born; and luckily we could get room number 15 again. This time, of course, it was more of nappy-changing and warming milk bottles than sipping the heady hill wine.

To continue the family tradition, we visited Chail again when our son arrived — and it had to be the Palace Hotel and room number 15! Now of course we had a car, though laden like a cargo ship with baggage and children’s paraphernalia; including the homework notebook of our scholarly daughter. But the old flame was still sparkling, even if the romantic serenading had now been replaced by recital of nursery rhymes.

And then came this recent trip, the young lady now a computer engineer and the young man (yesteryear’s brat) taking the wheel of our new, shiny car: and I left mostly to backseat driving and fretting over his “Formula One” style of racing the vehicle.

But this time we were in for a big disappointment. The place looked rundown. Video games were placed next to the withering grand piano and the book shelf kicked out of the exquisite Silver Bangle bar. The once-upon-a-time Arcadian lawn was now swarming with menacing monkeys; forcing the visitors to sit caged in the cars with glasses rolled up — while they looked like the real residents and having a party!

No wonder, we returned back promptly, with our children describing all our tall tales of hotel honeymoon as mostly “monkey business”. But we still hope that when their time comes; they will keep up the family tradition, and that too in room number …!

Maya’s rise — from illusion to reality
The lady has guts and the Dalit card to play
by L. H. Naqvi

MS Mayawati is in the habit of shooting her mouth off. She loves to fish in troubled waters. She takes the fight to the enemy camp at the drop of a hat. She is known to have a weakness for putting her foot in the mouth. She does not believe in chewing the cud.

Pick any idiom and you will be amazed how easily it fits Ms Mayawati Kumari as if it was tailor-made for her!

But this time she is in real deep trouble. The idioms may describe her condition, but can do little to pull her out of the hole she has put herself in over the Taj corridor controversy. Will she swim out of trouble, as she has often done, or sink? Make no mistake that she will do a lot of splashing around, and even pull in one or two standing near the pool of the troubled water waiting to see bubbles tell the tale of the rise and fall of a political enigma rolled in a deep mystery.

Born into a Dalit family, she would have been a roadside rabble-rouser had Mr Kanshi Ram not spotted her telling a bemused audience of Dalit workers how to deal with “tilak, tarazoo aur talwar” and much else in her own way.

She thought she had the whip hand when she asked for Mr Jagmohan’s head, to deflect attention from her own role in the controversial Taj project. But the message that made her eat crow was delivered by a senior functionary of the Bharatiya Janata Party. The crisp no-nonsense language of the missive shook her out of her make-believe world of invincibility. It said that she should rein in the Bahujan Samaj Party MPs from creating a din over Jagmohan’s alleged failure to stop the Taj project before the first shovel was raised. If she failed to follow instructions the BJP would pull out of the coalition with the BSP in UP.

The unexpected rude reception she received in Delhi has shaken her up a bit. But she is the Chief Minister of UP, by any reckoning the most difficult state to rule after Bihar, because of the political spunk she has for turning adversity into opportunity. Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav’s Samajwadi Party had emerged as the largest group, but she beat him to rustling up the numbers for becoming Chief Minister. She may appear to have beaten a hasty retreat. But those who know are sure that the decision to postpone the budget session of UP from August 7 to August 28 is a tactical move. She has given herself the time to explore various “options”, with the help of moneybags if necessary, for giving a “befitting” reply to the BJP for the insult that a “Dalit ki beti” was made to endure in Delhi!

That is quintessential Mayawati, who studied law, dreamed of becoming a district magistrate (she did not know that it was not a permanent post that she could stick on forever) and ended up as a school teacher in Bulandhshar. That is when Mr Kanshi Ram saw her heaping scorn on the upper castes in the colourful language that she picked up along the way.

Before Ms Mayawati hit the political scene like a misguided and unguided missile rolled into one, the popular impression was that the BSP would be wiped out as a political alternative of Dalit empowerment after Mr Kanshi Ram. His frail health and delicate heart condition did make even his supporters believe that the BSP would have a limited political shelf life.

Not any more. The emergence of Ms Mayawati as a ruthless and reckless leader of the Dalits is the best thing that could have happened both to Mr Kanshi and the BSP. She has literally taken over the load of running the party from his fragile shoulders. At 40 she has age on her side. The story of Dalit empowerment is not likely to have an abrupt ending.

Her politics is not just about survival. To be fair to her, she was never interested in political small change. Remaining afloat has been the least of her concerns. She has her eyes firmly on the big frame in which she sees herself as the Dalit-empowered leader of India.

There are politicians who admire her for her guts. There are others who hate her for the same reason. But neither her friends can afford to take her for granted nor her opponents under-estimate her uncanny ability to put the fear of political survival in their hearts.

Ask Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav. He was so rattled by her decision to dump him when he was Chief Minister of UP that he let loose a group of Samajwadis upon her. Whether it was actually a murderous attack or not is not clear. But Ms Mayawati saw no harm in claiming that she came close to being eliminated by Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav’s men when she was holding a meeting of party workers at the State Guest House in Lucknow. Her allegation was duly contested.

She has become an icon for millions of Dalits. Through deft moves that have made every political party openly embrace the legacy of Ambedkar, she has placed herself in a position where every election has seen her Dalit support base expand exponentially. She knows that so long as the Dalits are with her, and given the impossibility of the Congress and the BJP ever joining hands to stop her in her tracks, she has just about enough aces for her to remain an important factor in the increasingly caste-based politics of the post-Mandal era in UP, if not the rest of the country.

DELHI DURBAR

Cong-BJP truce

THERE seems to be a truce in the verbal duel between the BJP and the Congress over the Atal-Sonia face-off in the next Lok Sabha elections. The last word on the duel, which started with the issue of Congress President Sonia Gandhi’s foreign origin and lack of experience being raised by BJP leaders, was said by the Congress contending that Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee had reached the age of “sanyas.” However, the Congress did not push the point too far realising perhaps that by calling for a younger leadership in the BJP it might be boosting the case of Deputy Prime Minister L.K. Advani.

Taj nostalgia

In the backdrop of the recent controversy on the Taj corridor, a Samajwadi Party member circulated some jokes in the corridors of Parliament. One such tongue-and-cheek piece read:

Shaadi karna tha par kismat nahi khuli

Taj Mahal banana tha par Mumtaz nahin mili

Ek din kismat khuli shaadi huyi

Ab Taj Mahal banana hai

Par yeh Mumtaz marti nahi.

A mousetrap

A mouse succeeded in intruding into the Rajya Sabha and was spotted in the well of the House this week. As the House was in the midst of a heated debate, a healthy mouse was spotted and Congress member Ambika Soni shreaked. Deputy Chairman Najma Heptulla remarked “we should have a duly elected cat to catch the mouse.”

Odd questions

Questions posed to ministers in Parliament can be difficult and odd sometimes. Minister of State for Railways Bandaru Dattatreya was asked the other day in the Rajya Sabha whether any proposal had been received to introduce a direct train between Mumbai and Allahabad called “Madhushala Express” in fond memory of the late Harivansh Rai Bachchan’s `Madhushala’.

Overlooking the request altogether, Dattatreya said that the frequency of the Gorakhpur-Lokamanya Tilak Godan Express via Allahabad has been increased from weekly to tri-weekly as per the latest timetable. One wonders if this is any consolation for Dr Bachchan’s followers. The opening lines of the poem have been recorded in the poet’s matchless voice. It has been translated in English and titled “The House of Wine”.

Leaking roof

Parliament is the barometer of reflecting the pulse of the people. Perhaps, that is the reason that it has left a leak in the roof of the Rajya Sabha unplugged to let the rain drops fall in the press gallery of the House.

The invisible hand

The consumer goods industry (television, refrigerators, washing machines etc) is facing a rather peculiar situation. Usually, the busy season for this industry begins with the festival season and reaches its yearly sales zenith between December and February, which coincides with the peak marriage season. However, this time round, with reports that there are no auspicious dates in the Hindu calendar to solemnise marriages till April 2004, a nervous waiting game beckons the industry.

With dates of marriages (mostly arranged) being postponed till post-April 2004, a strong anticipation is building up in the industry of a big inventory pile-up. A corporate executive associated with the industry likened the phenomenon to the age-old concept of the “invisible hand” — a term first coined by Adam Smith to describe market forces and the price-demand relationship. Target obsessed marketing bosses can now be well advised to factor in the concept for future sales projections by possibly recoining it as the “invisible astral hand’.

Contributed by Prashant Sood, R Suryamurthy, Tripti Nath and Gaurav Choudhury

REFLECTIONS

Truth is realised through purity of the heart.

— Asa, 472

They who bathe their bodies and sit at leisure, cannot be called pure. Pure are they who entertain the Lord in their hearts.

— Asa, 472

One’s body, mind and speech become pure by cherishing the Name of God.

— Ramkali, 944

There can be no purity without purifying one’s innerself.

— Ramkali, 903

All impurity contracted by touch is superstitious. Birth and death are by God’s will, according to which we come and go. All food and drink is pure; for God Himself has blessed us with them as sustenance. They who have realised this truth, through the Guru, do not believe in this sort of impurity.

— Asa, 472

Do not pick up a quarrel by calling anyone bad.

— Wadhans, 566

Listen O Yogi! the quintessence of the Divine Word: Yoga cannot be practised without contemplating the Name of God. They who are imbued with the Name, remain obsessed with God night and day and attain, thereby, peace and bliss. The Name is obtained through the True Guru, O Yogi, and one comes to know, thereby, the way of Yoga. Reflect therefore on this and beware that without the Name, no one is ever freed.

— Ramkali, 946

Guru Granth Sahib