 |
Thursday,
October
2, 2003,
Chandigarh, India  
|
Bickering in BJP No ‘rasta roko’, please Unholy links |
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
After the UN spat, what?
Apni Mandi: jingle, jaunt, jamboree
The Greater Noida way to Chandigarh
Farmers fight feudalism
|
Bickering in BJP THE High Court stay on the framing of charges against Human Resource Development Minister Murli Manohar Joshi came in handy to Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee to defuse the crisis in the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party. The stay provided him a good excuse to reject Dr Joshi's resignation, which has been pending with him ever since the Rae Bareli court hearing the Babri Masjid demolition case decided to chargesheet him. What happens after November 4 when the present stay ends is too hypothetical to merit discussion at this juncture. Nonetheless, this shows that the Prime Minister has got only a reprieve. The episode has brought to light the bitterness in the relationship between Deputy Prime Minister L.K. Advani and Dr Joshi, though they, together with Mr Vajpayee, constitute the triumvirate in the BJP. For one reason or another, Dr Joshi finds something more than meets the eye in the court's decision to exonerate Mr Advani and chargesheet him in the Ayodhya case. To trace the dissension in the BJP solely to last month's court verdict is to miss the wood for the trees. That Mr Advani and Dr Joshi have not been on the best of terms with each other is well known in political circles. The HRD Minister is yet to forget that he was not allowed to complete his full term as president of the party. Rightly or wrongly, he believes that it was Mr Advani who was responsible for ejecting him from the party leadership. Small wonder that when a day before the Rae Bareli court pronounced its verdict Dr Joshi said that he would resign if he was chargesheeted, it was widely presumed that his aim was to make Mr Advani's continuance in office untenable. But the verdict came as a bolt from the blue upsetting all his calculations. And when no senior leaders from the party, save those sulking on the sidelines, called on him and he was not even invited to the strategy sessions held in the wake of the Rae Bareli verdict, he found something suspicious in all this. What has exacerbated tensions this time is the fact that elections are round the corner. The possibility of Mr Venkaiah Naidu continuing as president of the BJP till the elections are over is considered remote. It is, therefore, natural for the two senior leaders with prime ministerial ambitions to wish to have their own nominee as party chief. This will help them during the distribution of tickets for the coming Assembly and Lok Sabha elections. Under these circumstances, an early resolution of the problem can simply be ruled out. Much will depend on how the Prime Minister tackles his two senior colleagues and calls for a truce that lasts at least till the elections are over. Otherwise, the party will have to pay a heavy price for the bickering. |
|
No ‘rasta roko’, please THE death of one person and injuries to four others near Bathinda during the rail and road traffic blockade in Punjab on Tuesday has added to the prevailing anti-government sentiment in the farming community. There is no better healing touch available than to hold an immediate inquiry to determine whether it was an accident or an act of negligence, and award the appropriate punishment to those found guilty apart from paying sufficient compensation to the aggrieved. While farmers do have some genuine problems which need to be addressed on priority, the mode of protest chosen by the six organisations of farmers is totally unjustified. Holding the travelling community to ransom through traffic jams, even if limited to three hours, cannot be tolerated. Such protesters tend to lose whatever sympathy the public has for their cause. There is no justification for the Punjab Government still not paying the promised Rs 30 a quintal paddy bonus announced in 2001. If the Amarinder Singh government can carry on with administrative profligacy, appoint chairpersons of boards and corporations on political considerations and buy expensive vehicles for the MLAs, how can it deny paddy bonus to the farmers on the grounds of financial constraints? If the 4.4 per cent sales tax on pesticides and insecticides has to be withdrawn under pressure, why impose it in the first place? Besides, the farmers get the message that if the government can be armtwisted to concede this demand, it can also be forced to resume the supply of free water and electricity. There is also merit in the farmers’ grouse that while input costs are being raised, the minimum support prices for paddy and wheat are kept frozen. It is a surprise that farmers still have to protest for interest rates on a par with those charged from industrialists. It is true farmers in India do not get even a fraction of the subsidies available to their counterparts in the West and are, therefore, denied a level-playing field for competition. The way-out is not opposition to the very institution of WTO, but to join hands with other developing countries, as India did at Cancun recently, to demand fair and equitable terms for trade and opportunities for growth. At home, the farmers would do well to press the government for setting up reliable infrastructure, making available cheaper credit, quality seeds and other inputs, and operate through cooperatives or contracts with industry to lower their production costs and raise productivity. Clinging to outdated ideological notions and agricultural practices without preparing for the changed economic scenario will only worsen their plight as also the wasting of precious time and limited resources on agitations. |
|
Unholy links FILM financier and diamond king Bharat Shah is arguably the most high-profile personality to be convicted for links with the underworld. His conviction is only on the lesser charge of facilitating the crime by concealing information and he has been sentenced to one year in prison. Had he been convicted under the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA), under which he was booked, he could have been jailed for a much longer period, as has happened in the case of his co-accused, Nasim Rizvi, producer of "Chori Chori Chupke Chupke", and his assistant, Abdul Rahim Allahbaksh, handed six years' rigorous imprisonment. As Shah has already spent 14 months in jail, he will not be required to serve the imprisonment. Part of the blame goes to the shoddy investigation by the police which has been pulled up by the court for "inexcusable" errors. A tape containing the recording of the financier's conversation with dreaded don Chhota Shakeel was the only piece of evidence on the basis of which Shah could be accused of having links with organised crime. But it could not be used because of simple procedural lapses. The panchnama done to confirm the contents of the cassette had mentioned two voices on the cassette (those of Shah and Chhota Shakeel) but the tape contained the voice of Rizvi too. Even the duration of the tape had been wrongly noted. Whether this was the typical police carelessness or a deliberate slip-up may never be known. But what is clearly known is that underworld shadow is a grim reality in Bollywood. The mob dictates terms on pain of death. No star or worker is too big to defy the orders of Deep Throat. That is why 14 of the 72 witnesses examined in the case, including some top-notch film stars, turned hostile. Only Preity Zinta had the courage of conviction. But it is futile to point fingers at them. Since the police is not able to provide foolproof protection, not many are willing to risk their life. The only way to cleanse the system is to work in close cooperation with the threatened people to win their confidence. Since the police tends to be as harsh on the victims as it ought to be on the criminals, nobody dares to provide leads to it. There is also widespread speculation that the policemen themselves are not above board. Under such circumstances, is it any surprise that even some of the celebrities flaunt their closeness with ruthless
bhais? |
|
|
Thought for the day I go the way that Providence dictates with the assurance of a sleepwalker. — Adolf Hitler |
After the UN spat, what? CONTRARY to expectations, the war of words at the UN General Assembly between India and Pakistan at the highest level hasn’t been dismissed as a habitual aberration not worth taking seriously. The angry exchanges between the Prime Minister, Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee, and the Pakistani President and Army Chief, Gen Pervez Musharraf, continue to reverberate on both sides of the subcontinental divide. In India, informed opinion is more divided than it is in Pakistan that remains obsessed with the pipedream of wresting Kashmir from this country by hook or by crook though even to the west of Wagah there is growing but still modest a peace lobby. But no Pakistani has gone so far as a respected Indian commentator who has dubbed the dismal drama at Turtle Bay “Mid-Manhattan madness”. It was General Musharraf, speaking a day ahead of Mr Vajpayee, who had fired first fusillade of abuse. His intemperate attack on India was preceded by a succession of equally vicious statements by him and his minions. No wonder, many believe that Atalji had no option other than reacting in kind and “demolishing”, in a single speech, Pakistan’s “week-long tirade”. On the other hand, many thoughtful Indians insist that the Prime Minister need not have stooped to the level of the Pakistani military ruler and should have treated the latter’s fulmination with the contempt it deserved. However, even after full allowance is made for the validity of this view, a painful question persists. Where do we go from here with regard to our relationship with the extremely difficult neighbour to the west of us? “Back to the peace initiative” seems to be the answer of the well-meaning critics. Atalji himself has renewed his commitment to the peace process and declared that it must be rescued from the “setback” it had received at New York. But what is one to do when peace does not suit the other side, especially the Pakistan Army that is consumed by its hatred of India and is the final arbiter of Pakistan’s destiny? Its record speaks for itself. There could have been nothing more promising than the Lahore initiative in February 1999, initially taken by the then Pakistani Prime Minister, Mr Nawaz Sharif, and immediately seized by Mr Vajpayee. It was General Musharraf, then only Chief of the Army Staff, supposedly under Mr Sharif’s civilian government, who made no secret of his disdain for the exercise when the visit to Lahore was on and trashed the Lahore Declaration through his misadventure in Kargil three months later. Another five months later, General Musharraf staged a coup, made short work of the Pakistani civilian government, and brought Pakistan under the military’s jackboot yet again. Even this did not prevent Atalji from renewing his peace efforts. He invited General Musharraf to Agra to resume the search for rapprochement. Sadly, the summit in the shadow of the Taj fell flat almost entirely because of the General’s “Kashmir -or- nothing” approach, vastly aggravated by his infamous breakfast with Indian editors that he unethically converted into a forum for blatant propaganda. Virulent acts of Pakistan-sponsored terror, culminating in the reprehensible attack on Parliament, followed. Quick on its heels took place the massacre of Indian soldiers’ families at Kaluchak near
Jammu. The situation continued to deteriorate. Even so, Atalji announced his “third and last” initiative for peace in the subcontinent on April 18 last when he extended a “hand of friendship” to Pakistan, significantly from Srinagar. He made it clear, however, that while there could be consultations between the two countries, “no meaningful talks” between them was possible “until cross-border terrorism had ended”. At the UN, the Prime Minister made a remarkable and vital change in his stance. He declared that there would be no talks with Pakistan “on any issue”, let alone Kashmir, until cross-border terrorism ended or “we have eradicated it”. Never before had he or anyone else spoken of this country “eradicating” Pakistan-sponsored-or-backed terrorism. The meaning of the change should be clear enough and it has been reinforced by the official announcement that while the Prime Minister would go to Islamabad in January for the SAARC summit, there would be no bilateral discussions. Evidently, New Delhi has at last concluded that it is futile to rely on America’s repeated assurances that it would persuade or pressurise General Musharraf to deliver on his promise to end “infiltration” of terrorists across the Line of Control in Kashmir “permanently and visibly”. At his luncheon meeting with Mr Vajpayee, President George W. Bush did say privately that he had taken up this issue with General Musharraf. Later, Mr Bush’s National Security Adviser, Ms Condoleezza Rice, revealed this to the American media and she, for the first time, used the expression “cross-border terrorism in Kashmir” instead of the standard US formulation “violence in Kashmir”. However, the main point to emerge from her briefing was that despite its unhappiness with Pakistan’s help to the remnants of the Taliban in Afghanistan, in full knowledge of the General, the Pakistani President remained America’s “best bet” in his country. Therefore, Washington would not “push Musharraf beyond a point”. If the US is not doing anything about cross-border terrorism in Afghanistan where it has direct and vital stakes, it cannot be expected to bother much about Pakistan-promoted terrorism in Kashmir. In this depressing context this country’s Pakistan policy needs to be infused with some attributes that are at present conspicuous by their sheer absence. The first and foremost of these is coherence, combined with a relatively long view. There is no point taking sporadic peace initiatives and watch them founder. Every step has to be thought through within an overarching framework. Slapdash activity would not do. Another pernicious flaw also needs to be remedied without delay. Time and again the Prime Minister says one thing and his colleagues and even subordinates adopt a different tone. For instance, until the morning of Atalji’s famous speech at Srinagar, senior ministers in Delhi were talking of Iraq-style “pre-emotive strikes” on Pakistan. Moreover, while Pakistani diplomatic manners have been deplorable, there was absolutely no need for New Delhi to be churlish about Pakistan Foreign Minister Khurshid Kasuri’s desire to visit Delhi to hand over the invitation to the SAARC summit to Atalji personally. Even more regrettable was Foreign Secretary Kanwal Sibal’s boorish statement in New York about Pakistan’s “annual Kashmir itch” and his curious prescription of fasting as a cure of this irritating
ailment. |
Apni Mandi: jingle, jaunt, jamboree THE founding of Apni Mandi, by removing the middlemen from an interactive transaction between the farmers and the buyers, may not have yielded much benefit, but this highly indigenised version of market has come to stay as a much-sought-after event. Even those suffering from amnesia never forget to get there every week as a credal ritual. For Mandi offers much more than fresh vegetables and fruits. It is a veritable venue for an impromptu making of jingles such as may soon become the envy of MNCs’ highly-paid advertising agencies. It is a jaunt, an excursion of sheer delight. You go from theri to theri (ground-stall) to pick and choose you wares with escalating pleasure. It may not be a great Scouts rally. But it is a jamboree of an exclusive sort: a boisterous frolic, in spite of the cops who occasionally scout the milling crowds into discipline, though all in vain. Although I find all kinds of shopping a boring affair, Apni Mandi has grown on me as an undroppable addiction. Come to think of the architectonics of it all, there is little else that can match its delightful diversity in an undecipherable unity. The colourful umbrellas roof the vast space like the random ebullience of butterflies. The place acts as a great social-equaliser. The high and mighty and the low and meek are all there in their fancy dresses with bags dangling from shoulders. You can spot a woman who looks like a public building on the move, or a tall skinny teenager girl with the state-of-the-art hairdo. That she strikes one as a cobweb brush mounted on a bamboo is quite another matter. Adding to the verve of the colourful confusion are those who scurry about giving to the farmers batteries on hire for night lighting. The robust aesthetic of the Punjabi peasantry comes alive in ex tempore jingle-making. A youngman with a smattering of English calls the buyers’ attention thus: “Sachchei merei hokei/Everything is OK (True are my hawks and all that I sell is genuine).” Everything from this land/Like from Eng-Land. Everything is nice/At very low price!” A Bihari mango-seller takes a cue from the peasant’s catchy versification and improvises his own jingle, “Kar lo ais(h)/Deo kam cas(h) (Pay little, have more).” A boy from UP, in his pre-teens catches the virus of airy burlesque and cries aloud for sale, “Pahari aloo idhar hai/Dhian kidhar hai (The hill potato sells here, whither goest thou?)” A middle-aged lady bursts into an appreciative remark, “Oi kakei, bada hushiar ho gaya hain! (O boy, you have picked up the tricks of the trade so fast).” While I am entranced in this self-enacted human drama, there is a sudden hangama. An oldman lustily grabs from behind a woman’s arm and says, “Darling, I have brought back the khali thaila”. The fatty female turns around and gives him a thunderous slap on the face. The oldie quickly apologises, “Sorry, you look exactly like my wife. Only I forgot the colour of the dress she was wearing.” A gentleman from the crowd says consolingly, “Sir, don’t mind it. This thing, in modern marketing parlance, is hailed as customer feedback!” Thank God! No FIR (Female Insulting Report) was lodged. Here is a lesson for men in their 60s. You may not carry the shopping-list, but never forget to note down the colour of the dress of your spouse when you go to Apni Mandi — if you want to come back home without a fundi
(thrashing).
|
|
The Greater Noida way to Chandigarh
IN 1947 Punjab lost Lahore. Five years later it was given a new capital, as compensation, in the foothills of the majestic Shivaliks. Lahore was lost for reasons beyond the control of the people of Punjab. A second tragedy is about to visit them now. They are close to losing Chandigarh in its present form because they have given a free hand to the politicians and the bureaucrats to plot and plan its destruction. A group of concerned individuals have launched a “Save Sukhna” campaign. Is the artificial lake the only feature that is in danger of being choked to death? Look around. Reckless drivers are killing people. And the sheer volume of traffic is slowly killing the city itself. The unauthorised clusters that have sprung up in most sectors in violation of civic bylaws are making the city gasp for breath. It is still not too late to act. How about launching a “Save Chandigarh” movement? If Chandigarh is saved, Sukhna too will be saved, as will the shrinking green belt and the open spaces patronised by a small number of compulsive walkers and cyclists. What should be the focus of this campaign? Relentless public pressure for the creation of Greater Chandigarh. The proposed township can be developed on the pattern of Greater Noida that is located on the eastern periphery of Delhi. I would give more marks to Greater Noida than the experts give to City Beautiful. Comparisons are not always odious. They sometime help us see beyond our nose. Driving down the wide open, six-lane roads of Greater Noida can be an eye-opening experience for the residents of Chandigarh. If you cannot afford the cost of travelling out of the country to get a feel of the world visit this township that allows only 30 per cent as built-up area. In a few years when work on the ambitious Taj Expressway - connecting Delhi to Agra via Noida and Greater Noida — is completed the most important address outside Delhi will no longer be Gurgaon. Chandigarh is about to collapse under the weight of several architectural and administrative contradictions. One such is the restriction on urban expansion within a 16 kilometre vicinity of the periphery. The state agencies were the first to violate these restrictions by creating Mohali in Punjab and Panchkula in Haryana. Chandigarh would have choked much earlier but for the breathing space that the two townships (and the violation of the periphery laws) provided to it. The site chosen for the city was a farmland with 24 villages, two seasonal rivulets in the north-west and south-east extending up to the foot of the Shivalik Hills, 365 meters above sea level. The site was easily accessible and centrally located in the erstwhile state of Punjab. It was to be an administrative and cultural centre of the State and the region — which is distinct from an industrial city. It was planned in two phases. The first phase of 36 square kilometres containing 29 sectors was to accommodate 1, 50, 000 persons and the second phase of 17 square kilometres for 3, 50, 000 population in 17 sectors. Thereafter, the planners presumed that the people would stop raising families to avoid adding to the burden of the city’s limited resources! And that there would be no migration of population! That did not happen, and the city is bursting at the seams. Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh recently set up a committee under Chief Secretary J. S. Gill for evolving a policy framework for effective control over the periphery area. This will not work, for the simple reason that bureaucrats hate giving clearance to projects and policies over which they have no control. No one would earn a medal for predicting a report based on a highly myopic (read bureaucratic) understanding of the problem. Some months ago a committee of Punjab politicians suggested the complete abolition of the periphery laws. Politicians, too, can occasionally talk sense, with an understated ulterior motive of course! The periphery laws need to be dismantled not because it would help them make real estate killing, but because Chandigarh needs to be saved. The objective should not be to save Chandigarh alone, but also the territories that connect it to Ropar, Patiala and Ambala. That is the only way to create enough breathing space for it. Ideally the boundaries of Greater Chandigarh should touch these three towns. It would serve as a massive buffer between Chandigarh and other towns and townships within an average radius of 50 kilometres. In the absence of an authorised plan for the expansion of satellite towns, as counter-magnets, parts of Kharar, Dera Bassi, Zirakpur, Nayagaon, Khuda Ali Sher, Kansal etc have become massive illegal slums. Their haphazard growth has added to the existing woes of City Beautiful. It is still not too late to look beyond the nose and see the advantage of connecting Chandigarh to Ambala through a six-lane super highway, similar to the one that helps commuters cover a distance of over 35 kilometres between Greater Noida and Ashram in Delhi within 30 to 40 minutes. A metro rail network, a state-of-the-art international airport, knowledge-related institutions, appropriate forest cover plus facilities for the development of theatre, music and sports should make Greater Chandigarh steal the thunder from Greater Noida. Gurgaon’s growth was unplanned, as is happening in towns around Chandigarh. Greater Noida first created the essential infrastructure, like roads, and water, power and healthcare facilities, before throwing its door open to builders and entrepreneurs. In due course Greater Chandigarh should become a powerful counter-magnet. It would give Chandigarh the opportunity to nurse back to health its original character of a slow-paced city of babus and academia. City Beautiful can then even dare to become the opposite of its new neighbour by encouraging people to go back to the period when their forefathers rode bicycles to remain healthy. Chandigarh has everything going for it, including its compact size, for it to evolve as a city of fitness freaks. With Greater Chandigarh meeting the requirements of modern living it can afford the luxury of going back to the good old past of stress-free living. Are the lovers of City Beautiful listening? |
Farmers fight feudalism
OKARA: A two-year battle between poor farmers and Pakistan’s powerful Army over the ownership of 70,000 acres of fertile state-owned land marks the first time peasants have stood up to Pakistan’s notorious feudalism, human rights activists say. “This is a rare phenomenon in Pakistan’s history,” said Afrasian Khattak, chairman of the independent Human Rights Commission.”If they succeed, they could bring about a revolution which will end feudalism in our country.” The land belongs to the provincial Punjab government but is managed by the Army, an arrangement struck 90 years ago when Pakistan was part of British-ruled India.The then-colonial army leased the land from the Punjab authorities in 1913, and immediately sub-let it to farmers. That lease expired in 1943 and has never been renewed, according to Sajjad Akhtar, convener of the non-government People’s Rights Movement. The farmers’ fight for ownership began two years ago, when the Army dropped a traditional harvest-share system known as “betai” and tried to replace it with a contract system, requiring rental payments.
— The Nation
ARD splits
ISLAMABAD: A split-like situation has taken place in the Alliance for the Restoration of Democracy (ARD) after Ms Benazir Bhutto’s reported willingness to settle the contentious matters with the government as the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) has categorically refused to become part of the process. ARD parliamentary leader and PML-N acting president Makhdoom Javed Hashmi on Monday said his party would abstain from any sort of government-PPP talks while PPP president Makhdoom Amin Fahim said he would abide by the instructions of Ms Bhutto in this regard. The PML-N has also decided to separately organise seminars and memorial references for the late ARD chief Nawabzada Nasrullah Khan.
— The Nation
US bombing
KOHAT: US planes dropped bombs at a house near the border town of Angor Adda in South Waziristan Agency, 415 km south-west of Islamabad on Tuesday afternoon, eyewitnesses said. Hussain Jan, a local resident, told The Dawn on the telephone from Angor Adda that two planes dropped bombs at the house of Badshah Jan in the Jabba area, 2 kilometres north of Angor Adda, around 2 pm. He said that nobody was hurt in the air raid as men were out of home and two women had luckily left it moments before the attack to fetch water. Bombardment by the US planes had increased in the Paktika province bordering South Waziristan Agency during the last couple of days. “US planes dropped bombs in the disputed territory claimed by both Pakistan and Afghanistan on Monday noon in which nobody was hurt.”
— The Dawn
Musharraf’s visit
ISLAMABAD: A sum of Rs17.221 million was spent on President Gen Pervez Musharraf’s visit to the United States and three European countries, the National Assembly was informed on Monday. In a written reply to a question raised by MNA Shabir Ahmed Khan, Foreign Minister Mian Khurshid Mehmood Kasuri said the amount was spent on the President’s visit to the US, the United Kingdom, France and Germany. Of the total expenditure of Rs17.221 million, Rs 4.264 million was spent on the US visit and Rs 5.318 million on the UK visit. The expenditure on the visit to France was Rs 2.195 million and to Germany Rs 5.442 million, Mr Kasuri said. The National Assembly was informed that the entourage comprised 33 people.
— The Dawn
|
The goal ever recedes from us. The greater the progress, the greater the recognition of our unworthiness. Satisfaction lies in the effort, not in the attainment. Full effort is full victory. — Mahatma Gandhi It is not for him to pride himself who loveth his own country, but rather for him who loveth the whole world. The earth is but one country, and mankind its citizens. — Baha’u’llah Conversely, Advaita philosophy becomes pointless unless it teaches men to treat their fellowmen as equals. — Sree Narayana Guru Blessed is he who even when he wars keeps God in his heart. — Guru Gobind Singh O Son of Pritha! Yield not to cowardice, it becomes thee not. Casting off this base weakness of heart, rise up, O destroyer of foes (Arjuna)! — The Bhagavad Gita |
 |
| Punjab | Haryana | Jammu & Kashmir | Himachal Pradesh | Regional Briefs | Nation | Editorial | | Business | Sport | World | Mailbag | Chandigarh Tribune | Ludhiana Tribune 50 years of Independence | Tercentenary Celebrations | | 123 Years of Trust | Calendar | Weather | Archive | Subscribe | Suggestion | E-mail | |
