 |
Friday,
October
10, 2003,
Chandigarh, India  
|
A despicable act Growing slums |
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Arnie
is Governor Is it a mockery of the system? CALIFORNIA voters made electoral history on Tuesday by showing the door to Gray Davis, a Democrat, 11 months after he was given a second term as Governor. Equally melodramatic was the victory of the Hollywood action hero Arnold Schwarzenegger who threw the hat in the ring in August as a Republican candidate.
Need for a
sustained dialogue
His Master’s
Voice
How Ganeshpur
Bhatla got a mortuary
Nobel:
a nice gift after retirement
|
A despicable act RAPE is a heinous crime that sends shockwaves whenever it is reported. But the alleged rape of a student of Delhi’s Jesus and Mary College on Monday has many deplorable aspects to it. The first and most shocking is that those accused of committing the crime are not ordinary criminals, but are bodyguards of the President of India and they were on duty at the time of the crime. It was but natural for Dr A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, who is also the chief commander of the armed forces, to express outrage at the incident and demand strict punishment for the guilty. The Delhi Police displayed commendable efficiency in moving fast and arresting one of the accused persons immediately after the crime. The Army authorities also cooperated by handing over the remaining wanted persons. The selection of guards for posting at Rashtrapati Bhavan is supposed to be made very carefully by Army Headquarters since it is a vintage posting and many vie for it. It was not a stray case involving some deranged mind. At least four jawans were involved and they acted in unison with no one coming to the rescue of the victim. If persons of such a criminal mindset can get such an elite posting, something is definitely wrong somewhere. While only an inquiry will establish whether there was any lapse in internal security management and how the accused guards could move around so freely while on duty, the incident calls for a thorough screening of all the guards at Rashtrapati Bhavan, may be the change of the entire batch. Another disturbing aspect of the incident is that the girl was picked up from a public place called the Buddha Jayanti Park. The abduction took place in the forenoon when a function near the Buddha statue was in progress and the Dalai Lama and former President R. Venkataraman were present. That shows how unsafe the national capital still is for women not only at night but also during the day despite so many rape cases being reported and public outcry raised. Once again there will be protests and media talk shows over the issue, but shortly thereafter the incident will be forgotten and the victim will be left to face the consequences. The guilty must be punished fast to restore public confidence. Secondly, the public should be spared the sight of the Presidential bodyguards participating in the next Republic Day parade. |
|
Growing
slums SLUMS are as much a part of urban centres as are multi-storied buildings. Yet, there is little recognition of the role slums play in urban life. Often, the accusing finger is pointed at the slums whenever discussions on crime, filth and squalor take place. In such a situation, slums are considered the breeding ground of everything that is detestable. Civic administrations everywhere follow negative policies such as forced eviction, benign neglect and involuntary resettlement in the belief that this will curtail the growth of slums. Despite all such attempts, slums have become an integral part of cities and towns. What’s more, the number of people living in slums has been growing by leaps and bounds. According to a UN report, “The Challenge of Slums: Global Report on Human Settlements 2003” published on the World Habitat Day on Monday, nearly one billion people, which is one-sixth of the world’s population, lived in the squalor of slums. The report has warned that if radical policies were not introduced to take care of the burgeoning problem, the slum population would double in about 30 years. And by the year 2050, there would be 3.5 billion slumdwellers, out of a total urban population of about six billion. Needless to say, a major chunk of the slum population will be in India, which has been experiencing rapid urbanisation. Though it is fashionable to claim that India lives in its villages, the reality is that villages are getting pauperised. They are no longer in a position to support a majority of the population with the result that more and more people have been migrating to the urban centers. This, in turn, puts a severe strain on the civic facilities there pushing the new arrivals to the slums. These slums are indispensable to the cities as manual labour that keeps the cities clean and running comes from them. Notwithstanding such symbiotic relationship, no thought is ever given to the development of slums. As a result, slumdwellers are condemned to lead a miserable life without access to modern amenities. Where their number is large, politicians step in only to make vague promises with a view to developing them as their votebanks. Otherwise, no thought is ever given to address their problems by nurturing the abilities of the people who live in them and respecting their rights. The report has stressed the need for policies that tackle the issue of livelihood of slumdwellers and urban poverty in general. This is possible only if there is a political will. But for that, as the report says, “we have to recognise that the poor are an asset, hardworking and decent people.” |
|
Arnie is
Governor CALIFORNIA voters made electoral history on Tuesday by showing the door to Gray Davis, a Democrat, 11 months after he was given a second term as Governor. Equally melodramatic was the victory of the Hollywood action hero Arnold Schwarzenegger who threw the hat in the ring in August as a Republican candidate. But he was not the only one who wanted to be the Governor of the most populous state of America. There was Larry Flynt, publisher of the notorious Hustler, and former child actor Gary Coleman. A porn queen with sagging income promised what only she could to the voters if elected. But the Californians were in a more serious mood considering the economic mess that Davis had created on being reelected last November. They were asked two simple questions. Should Davis be recalled? Yes, they said. Who should replace him? Arnie managed more votes than the rest of the colourful band of contestants. The election of film stars is often seen as trivialisation of the political process. It has happened in India and California too had its moments of doubt when Schwarzenegger decided to contest. An opinion poll shortly after his victory showed that only 39 per cent voters thought that "it is a ridiculous mockery of the system". A whopping 61 per cent screamed "give him a chance". It was not an easy victory considering the allegations of sexual misconduct that were hurled at him by women he had run into as Hollywood's symbol of machismo. But Arnie came out of the pre-election attempt to tarnish his name a more clean man. His candid admission that he had made mistakes put the election within his grasp. In the process of getting elected the man who is better known by fans as the "Terminator", the movie that turned him into an icon, made history of another kind. On Tuesday Gray Davis joined the company of Lynn Frazier who was in his third term as Governor of North Dakota in 1921 when he was recalled. It is strange but true that Ragnvald A. Nestos who replaced Frazier was a Norwegian immigrant who did not speak English when he came to the US as a teenager. Arnie came to America from Austria in 1968. And he knows just enough English to scream for help in case he gets trapped in an inferno. A “Terminator” need not feel inhibited by the barriers of language
or geography. |
|
|
Thought for the day A man’s character is his fate. — Heraclitus |
Need for a sustained dialogue THE recent Indo-Pakistan exchanges over Kashmir were both unnecessary and undignified and it was childish of Indian spokesmen to fall into the Pakistani trap of mutual vituperation. In any event, Pakistan’s tantrums must be met by reasoned argument based on facts instead of treating the “Kashmir Question” as a closed issue barring, cross-border terrorism. Instead of constantly whining about the Americans putting insufficient pressure on Pakistan to end cross-border terrorism, it is for India to grapple with the situation — effectively. It is certainly necessary to improve relations with the United States; but it will not do to forget that America remains part of the problem, not the solution. It has aided and abetted Pakistan in myth-making over Kashmir for over 50 years as a matter of self-interest, interspersed with benign neglect. Realpolitik dictates that a “frontline state” is worth more than principle. Kashmir is indeed the core issue between India and Pakistan. At the core of the core, however, is Pakistan’s locus as an aggressor. J&K represents a singular UN failure in making a finding of aggression and then temporising with that basic truth. Frontline politics dogged Kashmir in 1947-49 and 1965, over Siachen and in all the years of the proxy war and cross-border terrorism. Kargil alone marked a fugitive deviation towards principle before the fog set in again. One does not need Indian testimony to prove the point. The vapid language of the UN, speaking through its Representative in J&K, Sir Owen Dixon, its operative Resolution of August 13, 1948, and the Chief of the UN Military Observer Group, General Nimmo, in 1965 is clear enough. The post facto writings of key Pakistani actors in the events of 1947, 1965 and later are even more eloquent and graphic. To pivot Indian policy on entreating the United States to put pressure on Pakistan is foolish and degrading. Mired in Afghanistan and Iraq, the Americans are in no position to oblige. They need Pakistan as a frontline partner even as they may gnash their teeth in frustration and fury at being led yet another dance. Yet India needs to talk. We have no quarrel with the people of Pakistan who, ideologues apart, yearn to get the military off their backs and seek a return to nation-building after many wasted years. General Musharraf has made a policy U-turn for his own survival, despite deft doublespeak as he walks a tightrope. He needs an exit and it is in India’s interest to provide him one. There is no military solution. Hence the need for a sustained dialogue beyond the make-believe in which Pakistan has wrapped Kashmir. The agenda should include cross-border terrorism along with Kashmir. The core issues must be addressed, not in order to indulge in recrimination but to re-establish the ground realities. What for instance is the status of and the situation in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir and the Northern Areas? As in Pakistan, accredited leaders of the region guilty of democratic dissent have been forced into exile. The POK constitution subjects fundamental rights to “the ideology of accession to Pakistan”. The forthright condemnation some years ago by the “Azad” Kashmir Supreme Court of the lack of elementary constitutional, political and human rights in the Northern Areas says it all. Little has changed under a blanket of simmering unrest. The denial of basic rights in POK and the NA and the gifting of Shaksgam Valley to China in 1963 make nonsense of Pakistan’s championing of “self-determination” in the rest of J&K, which again saw free and fair elections in 2002 in the face of dire jehadi/cross-border violence. Yet the reality is that notwithstanding its pretentious claims to J&K, POK and NA cannot be wrested from Pakistan. Equally, its strategy of bleeding India with a “thousand cuts” is proving unsustainable. India should, therefore, challenge Pakistan to come to the table to settle the “core” and all other issues: a nuclear restraint regime, conventional CBMs, trade and investment, people-to-people contact, cultural exchange, a follow-on Indus-II Treaty to harness the full potential of the Indus system to mutual benefit. It should act on its pre-Agra CBM offer unilaterally to open up the Uri-Srinagar, Kargil-Skardu and Jammu-Sialkot routes for easy movement, tourism and commerce. It can atone for past derelictions and deficits by moving decisively towards forging agreements on greater autonomy for and regional autonomy within J&K, ending alienation through a “truth and reconciliation” process and assurance of better governance. (Pakistan could be encouraged to do likewise in POK and NA were its status there legitimised). Thereafter, the two halves of J&K could incrementally fashion appropriate arrangements for bonding together across a soft border for mutual benefit within a larger environment of Indo-Pakistan amity that would provide stimulus to the realisation of a South Asian Community. Far from worsening the security situation, a pro-active political strategy will force Pakistan on the defensive. Should it try and derail the initiative, it will stand further exposed and isolated internationally as well as in POK and NA. Should it agree, the peace process would gather momentum. An honourable accord with India could be the surest pathway to General Musharraf’s survival and the restoration of democracy in Pakistan. Such a policy would need to be based on a broad cross-party consensus so that it is not hostage to electoral politics. The Baby Noor episode demonstrated yet again that people in India and Pakistan wish to live together. Pakistan’s overriding interest in the Iran gas pipeline remains despite the chatter over the “core” issue. WTO-Cancun in turn showed that India and Pakistan can work together for the common good. Kashmir is not the “unfinished business of Partition” (being majority Muslim, as is Afghanistan or Iran), nor is it Pakistan’s “jugular vein” or “lifeline”. Instead, it should lay the ghost of Kashmir as a negative anti-Indian marker to hold together. An essentially liberal Pakistan liberated from Talibanism will discover its soul in a positive identity and national purpose. It is the absence of such a lodestar that has kept it teetering on the margins of becoming a twice-failed
state. The writer is a former Editor of The Hindustan Times and The Indian Express. |
His Master’s Voice I
had been ignoring that “little voice” in my heart for years. Yet, it would tug at my heartstrings like a constant background music. Although I had now acquired a state-of-the-art music system, I yearned for that old magic of the first music system that I had seen as a child. The “wooden beauty with the golden horn” that produced magical sounds, was what I wanted. But they were now an antiquity, perhaps, only to be seen in the museums. But life is full of serendipity. Driving back to office after lunch and my constitutional forty winks recently — around the crossing of the lonely Lake Road, my somnolent eyes quite literally popped out. About four or five pieces of old and antiquated gramophones — complete with the wooden spring motor boxes, cranking levers and the famous bras horns — were lined up along the roadside! I screeched the car to a dead stop and reversed to pinch myself, to make sure that I was not daydreaming. They were indeed for real, and what’s more on sale! With a palpitating heart as discovering the hidden treasure, I asked the South Indian salesman along with his boy assistant, the price, both with trepidation and a wee-bit suspicion. From the backwaters of Kerala, Velayudin and his young assistant Rajan had come to the foothills of the Himalayas to bring some old world charm into living rooms of Chandigarh’s music aficionados. As it was rainy season out there, the antique sellers of reconditioned old gramophones had ventured up North to make some money. With some scepticism, I asked the “music makers” to actually play the system. The “Chottu” immediately cranked up the lever, placed an old 78 RPM disc on it... and lo and behold, sounds of music, the golden voice of Mohammed Rafi from the Hindi film “Raat Aur Din” of 1966 wafted through the air. Now quite wonderstruck, and almost in panic to make a deal, before some other antique lovers discovered the hidden “gems” — I wanted to make the “killing” and run away. But much to my dismay, perhaps sensing my over-eagerness, Velayudin quoted an exorbitant price. I began to haggle — more in sign language than words, as they could hardly speak in Hindi and I was totally ignorant of Malayalam. I even made a fake gesture of walking away, secretly, hoping that he would slash the price and call me back. But nothing doing, And instead, I saw quite sinkingly a swanky limousine stopping by. I immediately retreated my steps, decided to eat the humble pie and clinch the deal. However, as a face-saver I was given two old discs and 10 needles free! I immediately collected my treasure and rushed home — to place my grand collector’s item, proudly in the living room and surprise the family and friends with the “steal”. I admiringly looked at the exquisitely polished wooden motor box, with the hallmark HMV logo of the bewildered dog listening to his master’s voice from the “golden” horn, and thanked Emile Berliner for inventing the magic box in 1887 and Francis Barraud for the painting “His Master’s Voice”. Ever since, at the slightest pretext I throw a party in celebration of my prized acquisition, and then wait for the guests to ask the usual question — but does it really work? And there I go cranking up the hand lever and the tall tale behind the purchase. Never mind if no one is listening to screechy sounds of the old disc; my heart is singing
anyway. |
How Ganeshpur Bhatla got a mortuary
THE year was 1998. One Gurmej Kaur was very sick and under treatment at a private hospital in Hoshiarpur. Her son, Parminder Bains, had taken the first available flight from England to reach his “Bebe’s” bedside. Like a typical son, he was deeply attached to his mother. He wanted to move the mountains and was desperate to see her back on feet, as smiling and cheerful as she always was on his previous visits. But doctors told him that she was in a coma and nothing was certain. She might or might not recover. It could take days, months or even years. That is when the entire family, relations, friends and elders of the village persuaded him to leave in the given situation. He had stood motionless at the feet of his Bebe. “To leave or not to leave” was Parminder’s predicament. Finally, he was forced to be back on road from Hoshiarpur to Delhi to take the return flight. The eight-hour journey on the road was filled with memories of his childhood and youth when his Bebe had showered him with love and care. Tears were refusing to dry and weeks that he had spent attending to her at her bedside in the hospital appeared like only minutes. If only he could be with his mother for ever. “But I shall be back soon”, he promised to himself. Parminder Bains had hardly reached his home in England when he received that dreadful call that his mother had passed away. He took the first available flight back to India. He requested his family to keep the body in a mortuary till he arrived at his village, Ganeshpur Bhatla, near Mahilpur. Used to a different way of life in England, Parminder was shocked to learn that there was no mortuary anywhere in Hoshiarpur. However, the family had assured him that they would use ice to preserve the body till his arrival. At Panipat he got trapped in a traffic jam because a religious procession just would not give him the way. All his pleadings that he had to reach for his mother’s funeral had fallen on deaf ears. The eight-hour journey was completed in 14 hours. Finally, when he reached home, he had to face the trauma of seeing the decaying body of his mother. Parminder was aghast. There and then he resolved that he would ensure that this did not happen to any other dead person. Post-cremation, Parminder announced to his family and elders of the village that he would like to build a mortuary in memory of his mother at his village. Nobody had ever heard in his village what mortuary was and how it functioned. When Parminder briefed about the mortuary’s role, the village panchayat immediately agreed to give him four kanals of land. A trust was formed with Parminder’s “Mamaji” (maternal uncle) as its President. Gurmit Singh Gill, son of a former Punjab Chief Minister, the late Lachhman Singh Gill, came forward to implement the project in the absence of Parminder Bains. In a record time, the machinery, costing Rs 9 lakh, was bought from Mumbai. Construction of the mortuary witnessed an unprecedented community effort. Today the mortuary can keep six bodies at a time. The petrol pump near Ganeshpur Bhatla supplies free diesel required for the mortuary. Kashmir Singh, an ex-Sarpanch of Ganesh Bhatla, says, “It is not only the entire village which is grateful to Parminder Bains for having built this mortuary. Dozens of villages around us are equally thankful to him because they are also able to make use of this mortuary. ‘You see, a huge number of people from Mahilpur have immigrated abroad. They all have their families back home here. Since death is inevitable part of our life, all these NRIs are as much emotionally affected by the departure of their dear and near ones, as Parminder was. Many NRIs had to face the trauma of not having been able to see the faces of their dear ones for the last time, solely because the bodies could not be preserved till their arrival. “Some of the NRIs have to come from far off places like Canada, the USA and Australia. The journey itself from these places takes one-and-a-half day of the flight and another day on the road from Delhi to Mahilpur. Hence, a mortuary was the most urgent need of all people in Mahilpur. Every NRI in the past has thought of contributing for a school or a college but nobody ever thought of a mortuary”. Parminder Bains has ensured that people are not charged any money for making use of the mortuary even when it costs Rs 650 a day. The annual maintenance cost of the mortuary comes to over Rs 1 lakh. Voluntary donations are accepted. Parminder has also ensured that the entire mortuary area is green and peaceful. There is a permanent gardener and an attendant, besides a mechanic to maintain the mortuary. Soon the Gurmej Kaur Trust realised that the village Ganesh Bhatla also needed a proper cremation ground. The village panchayat and the Trust finally built a covered cremation place within the mortuary compound. Taking a cue from Parminder Bains, as many as 32 NRIs of Mahilpur have also come forward to nourish their roots. They have jointly bought 33 kanals of land for a football stadium. And the stadium has been constructed in a record time. Mahilpur justifiably claims to be the nursery of football players.
|
|
Nobel: a nice gift after retirement BRITISH economist Clive Granger thought a telephone call in the middle of the night telling him he had won the Nobel Prize for Economics could be a hoax. The call, in fact, was from the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, which awarded Granger and U.S. economist Robert Engle the 2003 Nobel economics prize for devising methods of evaluating investment risk and analysing the relationships between simultaneous economic phenomena. “There are not many calls I would accept at 3 a.m. but that’s one of them,” Granger, 69, told Reuters from the south New Zealand city of Christchurch where he is spending several months doing research at the University of Canterbury. Granger, who retired as Professor of Economics at the University of California in July, said it was not until he spoke to a friend that he believed the award was true. Granger’s work was used in studying links between wealth and consumption, exchange rates and price levels, and short- and long-term interest rates. “I’ve just retired and this is a nice way to be told it was worthwhile.” US economist Robert Engle on Wednesday described his Nobel Prize for economics as a symbol of how his research on investment risk had been widely accepted in the financial community. “I’m absolutely delighted and it is definitely quite a surprise,” Engle, Professor of Economics at New York University’s Stern School of Business, said in a telephone interview from Annecy, France, where he is on sabbatical. Freedom in danger One of the two Americans who won this year’s Nobel prize for chemistry said on Wednesday he may use some of his prize money to help defend academic freedoms against restrictions imposed on scientists as part of the U.S. war on terrorism. “There are some social issues we’re considering, including scientists who are being persecuted around the world and in the US,” Dr. Peter Agre of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, told Reuters in a telephone interview. With four children, three of whom are already in college, Agre said he and his wife Mary were likely to spend much of his Nobel winnings on education costs. But he underscored the importance of supporting social issues involving science, specifically citing the criminal case of Texas plague expert Thomas Butler who has been charged with a wide range of charges by federal authorities after he reported he lost some plague samples. The case, born out of national security restrictions imposed on scientists after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, has already brought a number of prominent scientists to Butler’s defence, saying he did nothing different than other scientists. Butler has pleaded not guilty to the allegations. “He was arrested and taken away in chains ... This is something that’s bothered many of us. Here we are a free society,” Agre said.
— Reuters
|
Everything that exceeds the bounds of moderation, has an unstable foundation. — Seneca False modesty is the refinement of vanity. It is a lie. — Bruyere They only babble who practise not reflection. — I shall think; and thought is silence. — Sheridan Patience is the support of weakness; impatience is the ruin of strength. — Colton |
 |
| 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 | |
