 |
|
ON RECORD
Rape: Time to treat the disease rather than its symptom |
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
PROFILE KASHMIR DIARY REFLECTIONS
DIVERSITIES
— DELHI LETTER
|
ON RECORD
CAREER diplomat David Danieli is in the copybook mould. The Israeli Ambassador to India weighs and mulls every word that he utters. And invariably he chooses to speak very little. From that point of view, he may not exactly be a journalist’s delight. Mr Danieli, who was born in the same year as Israel was born — 1948— has held important positions in the Israeli government. A postgraduate in international relations from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Mr Danieli served as a Senior Assistant in the Israeli Foreign Ministry’s Arms Control Department (1982); Director of Department, Centre for Political Reserach (1993); Negotiator, Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) and Director, Department for Arms Control and Regional Security (all in 1995); a member of the Group of Government Experts on the UN Register of Conventional Arms (1997); and the Deputy Head of the Foreign Ministry’s Centre for Political Research (2002-03). Between 1998 and 2001 he also served as Israel’s Ambassador to Singapore. Excerpts: Q: The so-called roadmap for peace in West Asia with Israeli-Palestinian rapprochement seems to be lying in tatters with both sides hardening their respective stands. What is the future of these peace talks? A: Peaceful co-existence between Israel and the Palestinians will eventually prevail. The prime question right now is how fast all Palestinian factions will realise that the path of terrorism leads them nowhere. This has also much to do with the ability of the Palestinian leadership to transform into a democratic one and fully accountable to its Palestinian people, which is long overdue. Q: The West Asian peace roadmap has the blessings of the US. What is the role of the US in the whole process now, particularly after the attack on American soliders in Palestinian territory? A: The United States has played all along a very crucial role as an honest broker in advancing dialogue of peace between Israel and Palestinians. It is our firm belief that the US remains fully committed to pursuing the cause of peace and democracy in the Middle East region relentlessly. Q: Do you envisage a role for India in the peace talks at this point of time when India has extremely good relations with both Israel and the Arab world, particularly with the Palestinian leader, Mr Yasser Arafat? A: As India maintains good relations with Israel and the Arab world, India’s views and positions on Middle East issues are carefully observed by all sides and certainly by the government of Israel. Q: The Indo-Israel relations have been growing steadily in all spheres, particularly defence and security. What is the latest on this front? A: It would be wrong to view Indo-Israel relations solely through the prism of defence and security. Relations between our two governments and nations are based on much wider spheres of cooperation and affinity and the two countries’ solid democratic foundation and values. Q: Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf recently said that Islamabad should establish diplomatic relations with Tel Aviv. Why has that not happened and what is your prognosis? A: Israel has no conflict with Pakistan, but the latter does not recognise the former. These are the current political realities. Israel will welcome cordial relations with any other Muslim state on the basis of equality and with no pre-conditions. Q: Israel has been advocating military action against Syria for harbouring Hamas terrorists on Syrian soil. Do you think this war diplomacy can work with the Arab world? Can such a step promote peace in the region? A: The government of Israel has a prime responsibility to defend its citizens against heinous terrorist attacks and has amply made it clear that in its pursuit of terrorist organisations, there will be no immunity and no sanctuary to their perpetrators and harbourers. Israel holds the view that a negotiated resolution of conflicts is the only way to promote peace in the region. To succeed, the same position has to be endorsed by all other parties in the region including Syria. Q: Washington is now getting after another key Muslim country — Iran — on the issue of Tehran’s alleged nuclear weapons programme. The US has been pressuring Russia also asking it to stop its nuclear cooperation with Tehran. Iran has consistently denied the allegation of nuclear weapons programme. Who is going to believe the USA after the Iraq fiasco? Would you justify any diplomatic, political or military action against Iran? A: It is the international community through the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which is looking carefully into Iran’s unreported components of its nuclear programme. Iran’s denials have so far not allayed the concerns of the Agency and others. Q: Do you think the US has got stuck in Iraq as in Vietnam decades ago? Are you a votary of the US continuing its involvement in Iraq? A: The coalition war in Iraq has brought down the evil regime of Saddam Hussain and unshackled the Iraqi people from three decades of tyranny. The reconstruction of Iraq and its return into the family of nations cannot be completed overnight, but it is bound to succeed and to turn the tide in the Middle East in favour of a more democratic and open region for the benefit of its own peoples. Q: Osama bin Laden is still keeping the world on tenterhooks. How, according to you, Osama has been able to evade the global dragnet? Where can he be...in Pakistan? A: I share with your readers the same press information about Osama bin Laden that he is hiding somewhere along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border. Q: Would you say Washington’s recent wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have alienated the Muslim world which might lead to a clash of civilisations? A: The war against terror is not a war against Muslims and it would be wrong and tragic to portray this war as a clash of civilisations. Terrorists are terrorists are terrorists for whatever “cause” they kill innocent people and whatever be their nationality. Certain Middle East societies should engage in soul-searching and look deep into their rules of conduct in an effort to reveal why their backyard is such a fertile breeding ground for
terrorism. |
|
Rape: Time to treat the disease rather than its symptom THE National Commission for Women’s refusal to review its stand on death penalty for rapists despite the low conviction rate in cases of rape has raised many eyebrows. The NCW has maintained its opposition to the idea of death penalty as a deterrent against such grave and heinous crimes. This reminds this writer of his student days in the late 90s in Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, where a similar debate had erupted following an eve-teasing case when a group of outsiders who had indulged in verbal misbehaviour with a female student of the campus were brutally beaten up and their car was put on fire. Not just the friends of the victim girl but also almost everybody who happened to be there and thought themselves “male enough” joined in the orgy of violence in solidarity of “women’s cause”. But that was not all. What followed the next day was most unexpected. The victim girl along with some of her friends brought out a pamphlet condemning the violence that followed after the eve-teasing and denounced her male colleagues for indulging in this act of barbarism, as the girl wrote. This stirred a major debate. There was a distinct sense of betrayal, dejection and disbelief in the air of boys hostels’ corridors for quite some time. What is, however, of critical importance here is the common point between the NCW's stand and the JNU episode. In both cases, violence is defined and understood as a reflection of the “culture of masculinity” and rape, war, riots, colonialism etc as various ramifications of that culture. Masculinity, in this context, therefore, becomes a gender-neutral concept; symbolic of death, destruction, usurpation and ruthless and intimidating display of physical power which believes in “eye for an eye” theory of justice. If rape is an act of violence, handing over death penalty is also an act of deliberate negation of life; dismissal of any possibility of human awakening. In fact, corporal punishment and penal system which embodies physical torture, beheading, whipping and public hanging are reflective of a primitive stage of civilisation which are characterised by “repressive laws”, as French sociologist Emile Durkheim would explain in his book “The Division of Labour”. Repressive laws worked in simple societies with homogeneous composition and “face to face” form of life to bring about order, but modern societies which are complex and heterogeneous, its moral order is in constant need of repair and restoration and “restitutive laws” suit it better. In other words, reformatory laws represent higher stage of human civilisation. Even in the contemporary world, we have examples such as Talibanis who practised most grotesque form of public hanging and instances of beheading and whipping are regularly reported from the Gulf countries, Pakistan etc. Instances such as caste panchayats handing over death penalty to the couple who dared to defy caste norms of matrimonial alliances in certain pockets of India represent the same primitive tendencies. Had these measures worked in these societies, there would have been no recurrence of crime. Instead, crime continues unabated. Those who are voting for death penalty need to understand this simple fact that no body is a born criminal. Circumstances, upbringing and lesser order of awareness and development of human conscience lead one to deviant paths. If at all, rise in crime and deviant tendencies are indicative of the fact that society and its institutions like family, neighbourhood, peer groups, educational and political agencies etc. have failed in their duties. Eliminating deviant individuals to treat social pathologies is not a sound proposition. That is, physical elimination of a Dara or a Osama is no guarantee of permanent communal harmony and end of religious bigotry and fundamentalism. Fanaticism is the product of savage mind and it has to be fought through institutional reforms, emancipatory, open minded and contextualised interpretation of religious texts and through cross-cultural and inter-faith dialogues. What is therefore needed is constant reaffirmation in possibility of human reform and reawakening. Dr Kiran Bedi’s Tihar jail reforms is a bright example of one such act of reaffirmation. Similarly, rise in cases of rape is symptomatic of a society reeling under acute form of gender asymmetry and patriarchy. Put the culprit behind the bar and let him undergo rigorous life imprisonment but we must realise that it is not enough. A sincere and serious effort to weed out this menace should ideally begin, for example, with a fight against female foeticide. Let us first of all ensure the unborn female baby a right to life. For, a society which respects life irrespective of gender battle for its dignified existence is half won any way. The bottomline prescription, therefore, is to treat the disease rather than its symptoms. To sum up, death penalty is essentially celebration of masculinity. An opinion for or against it is also a verdict on a society’s civilisational growth and human evolution. Let us, therefore, not be impulsive in forming an opinion. The writer teaches sociology in Government College, Sector 46, Chandigarh |
PROFILE “Ka” details her intimate relationship with several famed writers of Bangladesh and also refers to the tense ties between Prime Minister Begum Khaleda Zia and the Leader of the Opposition Sheikh Hasina. The “tell all” autobiography has been dubbed as “vulgar” in Bangladesh’s political and literary circles and Taslima is accused of character assassination. It may be banned before long as two of her earlier works — “Amar Meye Bela” (My Girlhood) and “Uttal Hawa” (The untamed Wind) were proscribed having been denounced as “obscene”. Taslima rose to prominence following publication of her first novel “Lajja”, the theme of which was intolerance, injustice and inequality. The book was immediately banned and a “fatwa” was issued calling for her execution. She had to flee her country as Islamic radicals threatened to kill her. She now lives in exile in the United States. Before moving to the US, she was given shelter by Sweden, Germany and France. She still faces the charge of blaspheming Islam in Bangladesh. In between she had visited Kolkata several times. Taslima has been brutally frank in her works and says: “Nothing comes from my imagination. What happened, I wrote. I just wanted to be honest with my life”. She narrates how she came to question Islam and writes about the indignities inflicted on the household servants. She depicts herself as a lonely and frustrated little Muslim girl, compelled to live a severely restricted life. Whatever may be Taslima’s traumatic experience, some incidents have left an indelible impression on her psyche. Once a gynaecologist in Dacca’s Government Hospital, the type of women patients who came to her made her to fight Islamic fundamentalism. When Taslima flew to Dhaka from New York five years back with her 60-year-old mother, suffering from colon cancer, she thought the hostility against her must have been a closed chapter and the unsavoury past forgotten. It was her mother’s desire that she should die in Bangladesh and, as a devoted daughter, Taslima thought she must fulfil her last wish. Despite being repeatedly dissuaded by the Bangladesh Government not to attempt to come back, she was helpless. On one side, the imminent demise of her mother was haunting her and, on the other, the attitude of the government. She was desperate because she loved her mother very much. The specialists in New York had told her that her mother, Eid-ul-Ara Begum, had only a few more months left to live. When she landed in Dacca she had least expected that she would be greeted by banners and placards saying “Hang Taslima Nasreen to death”. Worse still was the revival of an arrest warrant against her. She could sneak out of Bangladesh with the help of friends and well-wishers; the government too wanted her to leave. Since then Taslima has been living in exile. She says: “I have no country of my own. It is like bus stop here. All the countries are like bus stops. I am waiting to go back to my homeland but I may not get a bus that will take me there”. Though living in self-imposed exile, this “daughter of freedom”, as Mulk Raj Anand had described her, is determined to continue her crusade against injustice, religious bigotry and violation of human rights and may emerge one day as a great reformer in Bangladesh. Like all reformists, Taslima is also being persecuted by his own
country. |
|
No innovative ideas for Kashmir’s economic growth by David Devadas I am told that, while driving past a vast forestry yard at the edge of Srinagar on the way to his village at the northern tip of the valley some months ago, People’s Conference President Sajad Lone remarked that the government was wasting valuable real estate that could be hugely remunerative were it privatised. Young Sajad has evidently not lost the flair that led him into business in Delhi and Dubai before he developed an interest in politics two or three years ago, and then succeeded his assassinated father as party chief in May 2002. Very few Kashmiri politicians appear to have innovative ideas for its economic development and no one is asking for such ideas from Sajad, whose party is a member of the Hurriyat Conference faction led by Abbas Ansari. If he were to get a chance to govern Kashmir, someone close to him told me, he would turn the entire valley into a tax-free shopping magnet to rival Dubai, Singapore and Hong Kong. That might be a very popular idea if, and of course that is a very big if, peace were to return to Kashmir. Its people are industrious when profit is to be had and some Kashmiri analysts say their propensity to try and charm anyone who comes by stems from Kashmir’s history as a trade centre. Very few people are aware that, even half a century ago, the Jamia mosque at the heart of Srinagar was surrounded by kiosks and tethered pack animals. Goods ranging from spices to handicrafts and carpets were traded along the moutainous routes leading to Yarkand and other places in Central Asia. Indeed, Kashmir’s fabled shawls as well as its carpet-weaving, carving and culinary skills are to be traced to links with Persia and Central Asia that date back several centuries. A tax-free shopping centre could certainly help to solve the employment problem that otherwise appears intractable. Kashmiri society has retained India’s caste prejudices even after almost the entire population converted to Islam and so Kashmiris are often chary of accepting many kinds of labour. Since young people do not like to work on the land either, most people clamour for white-collar government jobs. Almost the only acceptable alternative is a career as a contractor, for that can be very lucrative. However, Kashmiris would probably find it acceptable to set up shops and provide other up-market services to shoppers, since the volume of trade and therefore the scale of profits in a tax-free area could be huge. As important, Kashmir would be a far more attractive tourist destination than other shopping magnets for travellers in search of a holiday package. It has often been called paradise on earth and has fabulous lakes, forests, glaciers, meadows and skiing resorts. Although tourism is often named as Kashmir’s leading industry, the fact is that the potential for tourism in the valley has barely been tapped. If indeed the idea for a tax-free zone were to germinate, it has the potential to become the perfect meeting point for Kashmiri aspirations for independence, or at least a large measure of autonomy, and India’s reluctance to give in on a religious or ethnic argument. It would also answer the questions that loom over how an independent or autonomous Kashmir would be financed. Real autonomy can only ultimately be economic and India has underwritten Kashmir’s budget more than that of perhaps any of its other states. The cumulative figure until 1990 was one lakh crore or one trillion rupees. I have in my travels across the valley since 1990 come across several Kashmiris who insisted that they wanted independence but India must continue to finance their economy. The problem of course with such a scheme would be the very stringent quality and price control measures that such a shopping destination would require in order to make it a success. The examples of Dubai and Singapore demonstrate how important a factor the consumer’s confidence in the quality and fair price of goods on offer anywhere in these cities is. Kashmir's record on this front is far from encouraging. Indeed, stories of cheating by charming retailers, hoteliers and others in Kashmir have been legion even since the days of the British Raj. A Kashmiri who had worked in West Asia and elsewhere before setting up shop in Srinagar told me despairingly of how he had learnt to beware of such possibilities as the supply of dozen-egg boxes with large eggs in the upper levels but small ones at the bottom. Nor are Kashmiris amenable to the sort of discipline that the citizens of successful shopping destinations are known for. There are bound to be uproarious complaints of repression if a government were to rigorously enforce standards. The challenge of resolving the Kashmir issue is as tough as Rubik’s cube. Each time one dimension of the riddle falls into place, another turns up askew. Given the loopholes in the ideas that some of the secessionist leaders might possibly have, the talks with Mr L.K. Advani to which the Ansari-led Hurriyat Conference was invited do not appear likely to break much fresh ground. |
|
|
REFLECTIONS
“PLEASE hold.” “Please stop.” “Please show us your identity.” “Please confirm this.” “Please not this way.” “Sorry ma’am but you can’t go.” “You wait.” “Please raise your hands and turn around please.” “Submit for a search.” (Without the please) “Sorry the roads are blocked”. I ask who is this entire dislocation for? Before I get the answers there walk in entourages with somebody’s big (sic) in the centre. Then also come in zooming caravans in shinning (not whining) formations, black in colour. I wondered whom were we doing this for? I spotted some familiar faces, thanks to the TV coverages. Nothing complimentary I must disclose. I recalled they were reportedly in the “centre of power” by deceit, violence, thuggery, strife and falsehood. And for them, all kinds of movements were suspended with traffic thrown out of gear? The old and feeble waited. People lost business. Millions of us reached home hours delayed. Do they (those in the “centre”) deserve this special care and treatment? Do they know the extent of sacrifices people make for them in their daily lives? I pondered. I am troubled after I see one country after another in different parts of the globe where, today, the elders are more educated than the youngsters; where every seventh adolescent is in a routine abduction and forced conscription, who was taught to load and fire guns in a just days and sent to the civil war’s frontlines: where there is a rape of natural resources, also called “blood” diamonds for maintaining the militia to stay in power; where the police and armed personnel extort to find their salaries; civilians, mothers, men, children, the elderly, who have been forced out of their homes, villages, jobs, towns, and countries and thrown into the wilderness of exile, as a result of unresolved conflicts, wars, and other forms of tension in society, such as ethnic religious, racial, or political intolerance, abuse of human rights and the like; senseless wars that carry a high human cost; obliged at times to walk over landmines and exposed to wild animals and swollen rivers, with some of them dying on the way; destroyed or nil infrastructure; one region has no connection with the other; breakdown of economies to the extent of total bankruptcy, with not a dollar left in the exchequer? I therefore wanted to ask the “men in the centre” (we have an occasional woman in there too) if they knew that “We the People” were giving “them” the right of way not for adding to our sufferings. I wanted to walk up them, to ask them, who they really were. And what we thought of them and expected of them? And how they (not all thankfully) were letting us down? And what harm they were causing to our future generations? And what makes them forget that they are not forever? And what they are leaving behind will be a part of their kith and kin as well! But then the roads were all blocked. By people like us.
|
|
DIVERSITIES —
DELHI LETTER
AFTER almost 15 years, social activist Safdar Hashmi’s murder has come to the forefront as the verdict came through last week. One aspect which I feel is absolutely important and ought to be highlighted is that the brutal murder didn’t push Safdar’s family into deep depression. Instead it provoked them to set up a platform to uphold democratic values. That’s how “Sahmat” came into existence. It is one of the organisations which raises a hue and cry the minute a communal incident is spotted. In fact, a majestically aging banyan tree, sprawling in the midst of Vithal Bhai Patel House, has in these last few years become a symbol of concerned citizens getting together and voicing their concern — whether it is for biased slants finding their way into textbooks or veterans like Habib Tanveer becoming a victim of the murky political mess. Iftar parties The holy month of Ramzan is already well into the second week but the round of “iftars” is yet to pick up. However, next week three iftars’ stand lined up — one is to be hosted by Congress president Sonia Gandhi and the other two by the Ambassadors of Saudi Arabia and Pakistan. And because of hectic political activity in the capital, it is expected that many political people would soon host these feasts. Children’s Day On November 14, one of the city’s most glamorous artists, Illoosh Ahluwalia, would be holding yet another of her solo shows at the Academy of Fine Arts and Literature. But this one will be with a difference. The proceeds from the sale of her paintings would go towards the inmates of the orphanage “Ashran”, which is being run by the Hope Foundation. Artists and arts Whilst on artists, I must tell you this one, earlier this year, I mentioned in the confines of this column about a German artist Andreas Scholz who’d painted and focused on what you and I may term simple stuff — pears, potatoes, apples, carrots — but for Andreas they were of great importance. For, without food, can we survive? Anyway, last fortnight Andreas was here once again. To exhibit at the IIC Annexe. Armed with not just his paintings of food items but much more. On his last visit to India, he had visited some of our leprosy centres and bought about a thousand dish towels made by the lepers at the Jaipur-based rehabilitation centre. He’d carried these towels back home, showed them to fashion designer Suzanne Laible and she made hi-fashion garments from these non-descript towels and then the two — Andreas and Suzanne — arranged for a fashion show in Wangen (South Germany). And now Andreas has come armed with photographs of the transformed towels and the underlying message — these towels can sell and it would be able to generate more than adequately for the leprosy stricken. Andreas stands out as different — the way he speaks and reaches out touches you. I met him twice but that earnestness in his voice and eyes is there to stay. Whilst on artists and art let me write this one too. I have just received an invitation from Gallerie Alternatives for a show of drawings and prints and sculptures of our well known artists. At the back of the invitation the sponsor — HSBC Bank — has put together two visuals of striking similarity — green chillies atop a lemon. Together with these two liners — “In Mexico, the image is to ward off hunger, in India to ward off evil...Never underestimate the importance of local knowledge!” To this, let me add another liner. There is a growing need to reach out to the affected people of this country. Soon there'd be coming up a forum “Alliance for the defence of democracy”.
|
Men, have fear of your Lord, who created you from single soul, From that soul He created its mate, and through them He bestrewed the earth with countless men and women. — The Koran Truth is the highest of all virtues, but higher still is the truthful living. — Guru Nanak He is no God who merely satisfies the intellect if He ever does. God to be God must rule the heart and transform it. He must express Himself in every smallest act of His votary. — Mahatma Gandhi Among the attributes of God, although they are equal, mercy shines with even more brilliancy than justice. — Miguel De Cervantes |
| HOME PAGE | |
Punjab | Haryana | Jammu & Kashmir |
Himachal Pradesh | Regional Briefs |
Nation | Opinions | | Business | Sports | World | Mailbag | Chandigarh | Ludhiana | National Capital | | Calendar | Weather | Archive | Subscribe | Suggestion | E-mail | |
NOTED Bangladesh writer, Taslima Nasreen, who hit international headlines in early nineties for her book “Lajja” (shame), has sparked off yet another controversy with another book “Ka”. Just released in Dhaka, the 415-page autobiography of the Bangladesh writer is third in the series telling the story of her life. Reports from Dhaka say, it has been selling like hot cakes.