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SAARC on the move Slow
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Calling
it a day
Vicious attack on
free Press
Nawab’s
teeth
He killed and
killed for a big cheque
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SAARC on the move IT is heartening that the political leaderships in the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) countries have realised the significance of allowing media representatives the facility of easy movement across the region. The liberalised visa regime for journalists, as decided unanimously by the SAARC information ministers in New Delhi on Tuesday, may go a long way towards promoting cooperation among the member-nations. Despite the geographical nearness, people in the SAARC countries know very little about one another. A hassle-free grant of visa to journalists will not only lead to an increased flow of information but also the creation of an atmosphere of amity and goodwill. That will mean a better understanding of the peoples’ problems and aspirations. Such an environment is bound to help find solutions to bilateral issues too. Ultimately, all this will promote economic growth in the region. But that is possible only when the media proves to be a “powerful force for information rather than propaganda, for education rather than prejudice, for awareness rather than misinformation”, as Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee said while delivering his inaugural speech. This will get a further boost if there is an easy visa regime for tourism too. People have considerable religious and cultural interests in one another’s countries. For example, a large number of Sikhs from India would like to visit Nankana Sahib and other shrines in Pakistan associated with their religion. At present, only a limited number of pilgrims are allowed and that too after so many verifications. As the basic objective of any institution created for cooperation is the promotion of economic advancement, SAARC leaders should give a serious thought to Mr Vajpayee’s offer for preferential trading arrangements within the SAARC framework. There is no dearth of resources in the region. What is needed is the will to move forward. The Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the European Union are the ideal examples of how political differences can be kept aside for economic gains. Let there be an honest beginning. |
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Slow pace of justice THE Supreme Court’s guidelines on reducing the number of unnecessary witnesses in criminal cases so as to ensure speedy dispensation of justice are timely. The onus for inordinate delay lies on the prosecution. Often, the prosecution does not prepare well and burden itself with too many witnesses who, in most cases, are not only unnecessary but also a waste of time, money and energy of the clients, the advocates and the judges. The court has now made it clear that the prosecution cannot present repetitive evidence on the same point of facts and, instead, select “two or some among so many witnesses” corroborating the same theory. While the court’s guidelines on witnesses are appreciable, this alone will not cut delays and expedite the pace of justice. Continued adjournments are a bane of the system. Neither the prosecution nor the advocates have any sympathy for the litigants. In most cases, though there is absolutely no need for adjournment, the lawyers seek it on flimsy grounds just to make money. While the courts have also failed to fix a time-limit for oral arguments, the judges take a long time to give their ruling. Some judges reserve the ruling and, thus, contribute to delaying justice further. The government has amended the Civil Procedure Code. It has also decided to examine the Malimath Committee Report on the Criminal Procedure Code. But most of the recommendations are yet to be implemented in letter and spirit. For instance, provisions in the amended Civil Procedure Code such as the one-year time-limit for the disposal of all civil cases, provision for only three adjournments in a case, time-limit for both completion of oral arguments and for a judge’s ruling will carry weight only if they are implemented. There is need to check delays and speed up the pace of justice so that people’s faith in the judiciary can be restored. |
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Calling it a day NOW that Javagal Srinath has formally retired from international cricket, his countless fans may want him to answer one last question. What really made him abandon the idea of extending his career until the tour of Australia? The thought of retirement had crossed his mind on several occasions. But he kept postponing it in the hope that a stricter fitness regime may help him cope with injuries that had been plaguing him for quite sometime. He was, without doubt, a genuine pace bowler. His approach to dealing with personal issues and professional career offer an interesting study in contrast. The decision to retire was done in the slowest of slow motions! On the field, he was not lightening, but fast enough to rattle the best batters. To be fair, his retirement from international cricket had been on the cards for a while now, but it nevertheless took everyone by surprise. His entry into international cricket was a bit wobbly. Not because he lacked class and took time to change gears. He was made to wait in the dressing room for far too long because no one could tell a superstar called Kapil Dev that age had caught up with him and that he should say goodbye to the game. He extended his career merely to beat Richard Hadlee's record as the highest wicket-taker in Test cricket. Now Courtney Walsh with 500 plus scalps under his belt has put that record almost beyond reach. But once Srinath got the nod to lead the attack, he showed his critics what they had missed out on by making him cool his heels in the dressing room. Sheer tenacity made him perform above his limitations. On his day he could generate genuine pace even on dead Indian wickets. Of course, the best moments of his career were when he and Venkatesh Prasad started hunting as a pair. Had Prasad not received a raw deal from the selectors, Srinath's career may not have had an abrupt ending. |
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Thought for the day We owe respect to the living; to the dead we owe only truth.
— Voltaire |
Vicious attack on free Press AS was only to be expected, the Supreme Court has put its foot down and halted, for the time being at least, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, Jayalalithaa’s outrageous assault on the freedom of the Press. It has stayed the arrest and imprisonment of the editor and other senior journalists of The Hindu ordered by the State Assembly Speaker, Mr K. Kalimuthu, for alleged breach of privilege of the legislature. A final disposal of this murky matter will, of course, take time. For, the merits of the case would have to be debated in the court and the law, to revert to the tired, old cliche, will takes its course. Meanwhile, no one could have failed to notice the striking unanimity and intensity of the countrywide condemnation of the assembly’s reprehensible decision. The Prime Minister, Mr Atal Bihari Vajpayee, was the first to express his unhappiness. His deputy, Mr L. K. Advani, echoed his sentiment but rather gingerly though later he welcomed the apex court’s stay order as “good for democracy”. The Information and Broadcasting Minister, Mr Ravi Shankar Prasad, appealed to the Speaker of the Tamil Nadu Assembly to rescind its”
regrettable” decision but to no avail. More remarkably, all political parties other than Ms Jayalalithaa’s own AIADMK, vigorously denounced the attack on the media and demanded its immediate reversal. Various newspapers in different parts of the country have reprinted the relevant editorial not only to show solidarity with The Hindu, a responsible and respected newspaper, but also to let the readers know that no part of it could even remotely be called offensive. Legal experts have quoted chapter and verse to argue that the Tamil Nadu Assembly’s action is in clear violation of the Supreme Court’s judgements in similar cases in the past. But none of this has prevented Mr Kalimuthu from claiming laughably that the editorial had “shaken the very foundations” of the assembly’s functioning. Nor is anyone taken in by his claim that Ms Jayalalithaa had “nothing to do” with the absurd decision to send The Hindu journalists to jail. It is strictly for the birds. Shocking and deplorable though the developments in Tamil Nadu are, they are neither the first of their kind nor are they going to be the last. Ms Jayalalithaa might have excelled and outdone others of her ilk but she is not the only politician in power determined to flout all norms of democracy and grossly misuse the state machinery to suppress her political foes and stifle critical newspapers. Others have tried to do so, too, and if they haven’t succeeded, it is because of one of two reasons. First, they have lacked the kind of firm grip on a clear majority of the legislators in their states that Ms Jayalalithaa evidently does in Tamil Nadu. For example, as Chief Minister of UP, Ms Mayawati was no less authoritarian or arrogant than Ms Jayalalithaa is in Tamil Nadu. But the former depended for her majority in the assembly on the support of the BJP that, having meekly acquiesced in her excesses for quite a while, was driven to crying that enough was enough. Ms Jayalalithaa is under no such constraint. That is where the second and decisive corrective and restraining agency, the judiciary, comes in, as it has already done in the present case, as in so many others in the past. That having been said, one must hasten to add that a billion Indians would be gravely mistaken if they lull themselves into complacency. They must be warned that the survival of democracy in this country cannot be taken for granted on the mere assumption that the higher judiciary would somehow or other save it from the depredations of wayward politicians and their willing collaborators in the bureaucracy and the police. Mercifully, the armed forces remain admirably apolitical. There is a point beyond which no system can take the strain of rampant misuse of power, corruption and capriciousness without something having to give. Indeed, come to think of it, Indira Gandhi did succeed in suspending Indian democracy and imposing the 19-month nightmare of the Emergency. With all due respect, let me add that some at least of the higher judiciary’s activism in defence of the citizens’ rights and against the executive’s brazen wrongdoing is in atonement for its inaction during the Emergency. Not only had the apex court upheld the Emergency proclamation but also several judges had discovered great merits in Indira Gandhi’s worst act during her long reign. One had gone to the ridiculous extent of proclaiming from the Bench that detainees under Emergency laws (that had suspended all fundamental rights, including the right of habeas corpus) were being “looked after with maternal care”. Against this backdrop and in the context of the monstrosity that has been inflicted in not only Chennai but also extended to Bangalore, it must be recognised that three elements in the Indian situation constitute a dire danger to the world’s largest democracy from within. The first is the pernicious phenomenon under which winning an election and retaining a majority in the legislature by hook or by crook has become the be-all and end-all of democracy. All democratic values can be trampled under foot as long as the majority in the legislature remains intact. What happens after a leader loses power is a different matter. Prosecution of several former Chief Ministers and at least one former Prime Minister does not seem to have had any deterrent effect on any wielder of, or aspirant to power. Secondly, a codification of the privileges of Parliament and state legislatures can brook no further delay if their abuse, as in Tamil Nadu, is to be prevented once and for all. Once defined by law, as the Constitution requires, these privileges would be
justifiable. Now they are what the legislature pretends they are. Thirdly, and no less importantly, the relentless and remorseless politicisation of the police must be ended forthwith. Otherwise, the police officers and men would continue to behave in the beastly manner in which Tamil Nadu’s monsters in khaki behaved towards the former Chief Minister, Mr M. Karunanidhi, last year and towards The Hindu journalists at their office and in their homes now. The obvious way to do so is to make the police the servant of the law, not of the politicians in power, as happens in all decent democracies. Sadly, no political party here is prepared to agree to this. |
Nawab’s teeth FIFTYSEVEN years ago, November 10, 1946, to be exact, the annual conference of kings and chiefs of princely states of Punjab was being held at Lahore. Among the participants was Col. His Highness Nawab-Al-Haj Sir Sadiq Mohammad Khan Abbassi Bahadur, GCSI, GCIE, KCVO, LLD, ruler of Bahawalpur, the largest state of Punjab (areawise). In the evening, there was a grand State Dinner hosted by the Governor. The Nawab of Bahawalpur ate something and started having a severe toothache. He was in so much pain that he requested the Governor to get him treated at some dental hospital on an emergency basis. Lahore in those days had only one dental hospital. In fact, that was the first and only dental college and hospital in North India. The Demontmorency College of Dentistry, Lahore, had been opened by the Punjab Government in early thirties and was named after the then Governor of Punjab (1930-1935) F.W. Demontmorency. The dental college had only one doctor on duty. He was Dr Manchanda who had done about eight years of service at that time. He examined the Nawab and found that he was having dental caries and also carious exposure. Immediate extraction of his two teeth was required for which local anaesthesia needed to be given. Nawab Sahib was a religious man and refused to take local anesthesia because he had been warned by his court “nazoomi” (astrologer) that once such medicines go inside his body he would collapse and die. Dr Mahchanda, being a doctor, was not prepared to extract the two teeth without local anesthesia. Ultimately a compromise was reached and it was decided to test the capability, technique, experience and even medicines of Dr Manchanda on one of the “khidmatgaars” of the Nawab named “Kheera Khan”. Dr Manchanda was ethically facing one of the toughest tests of his career and was forced to do extractions on a person who had no teeth problem. With trembling hands he started extracting the tough and well settled teeth of 20-year-old Kheera Khan. His two teeth soon broke and Kheera started crying. Suddenly the Nawab of Bahawalpur stood up and gave Dr Manchanda a kick on his back and before he could understand as to what had happened a strong slap was also presented on his cheek. The Nawab said loudly in the presence of his own and doctor’s staff: “Tu Kheere De Dand Ne Kad Sakya Heere De Kithon kaden Ga” (You could not extract the teeth of a cucumber. How can you extract that of a diamond — meaning himself) and walked out. Little did Dr Manchanda know that Nawab Sahib’s mother used to call him Heera. |
He killed and killed for a big cheque
A NEWSPAPER is often compared to a battleship in action. Everything in the making of a newspaper is done in a hurry. Hence journalism is defined as literature in hurry. In the perpetual search for new stories, little effort is made to dig deeper into a story to unravel the whole truth. Few newspapers have either the resources or the inclination to investigate as complicated a story as a serial killing and come up with a complete account, however shocking it may be.
An exception to this rule is The Hamilton Spectator, a community newspaper published from Hamilton, an industrial town near Toronto in Canada. What occasioned the unusual response from this 157-year-old newspaper are the wicked deeds of a hardy native from Punjab, whose greed, bigamy, perjury and anger led to a series of killings in Punjab and Canada. It took more than a year for reporter John Wells and photographer Scott Gardner to put together the gripping story. That included a trip to Punjab last year. The series they developed represents the largest single investment of journalistic resources in The Hamilton Spectator's history. It is written in the style of a novel, but all of the detail, context, and dialogue presented, while employing the devices of fiction, are entirely based on reportage. That is the strength of Poison: A True Crime Story brought out by the newspaper in an unusual book format. The story began with the arrival in Hamilton of Sukhwinder Singh Dhillon and his mother Gobind Kaur Dhillon from Ludhiana in 1981. His elder brother Sukhbir Singh Dhillon, who had dug gold in Hamilton, sponsored their visit. Sukhwinder and his mother did not reach there as economic refugees, seeking food and shelter. They were not like the boat people from Vietnam washed ashore gasping for a breath of freedom. The Dhillons were relatively rich. They owned a 12-acre parcel of farmland and about 40 head of cattle. Canada, for Sukhwinder and his mother, offered not a glimmer of hope, but gold at the end of the rainbow, a promised land not of mere survival, but of riches. Soon, Dhillon earned the reputation of a clown. It started with the fact that he was obviously uneducated. He spoke even Punjabi in broken sentences. However, the tell-tale sign was his English. Dhillon spoke no English, at first. He picked it up later, not from the classroom like the others, but from the street, friends, television. When he spoke English, it was gibberish, the words strung together incorrectly and quickly repeated over and over. "He painted his life in India as a tableau of sensational adventure and feats of strength. Listeners could not tell if Dhillon was joking or delusional or was really the tough guy he described." Two years later, he returned to Ludhiana to meet a young woman his parents had arranged for him to marry. They had lived in the same part of the town, but their paths had never crossed. Her name was Parvesh Kaur Grewal. He brought her to Hamilton. Parvesh was beautiful, spoke good English and soon found a job. In due course, two daughters were born to them — Aman and Harpreet. To the outside world, they provided the image of a perfect family. But in the two-storyed house on Berkindale Drive, the couple often quarrelled. Parvesh had got used to being physically assaulted until one day she called the police. He was released on bail. "It cost just $300" he boasted. Sukhwinder stopped making an honest living in 1991 when he told his boss a lie that he fell off a moving trolley and hurt his back and head." He began getting accident insurance money. He supplemented his income by dealing in used cars. He developed expertise in cheating insurance companies. Life was comfortable for him but Sukhwinder wanted more and more money. And he had got tired of his wife. On February 3, 1995, Parvesh died in hospital after Dhillon had poisoned her but no one suspected foul play. Within a few week of Parvesh's death, Sukhinder arrived in Ludhiana looking for a bride. Marrying a Canadian citizen like Dhillon was the dream of many Punjabis. Sarabjit Kaur Brar from Panj Grain did not have much say when her parents found in Sukhwinder the passport to a better life for the whole clan. But she knew what kind of man the NRI was when on the first night, he impatiently asked her to disrobe: "Kaprey laah dey". He was not satisfied with her, either. The schemer had found another victim in Khushwinderpreet Kaur Toor from Tibba, whom he wedded within a few days of his marriage with Sarabjit. He returned to Hamilton with the dowry he collected from the two families. There Parvesh's insurance money - a cool $200000 — awaited him. Life could not have been better for him. Meanwhile, in India, his second wife was pregnant. But he was not happy. "Children would identify him to everyone as her husband, something he could not allow." He had specifically asked Sarabjit not to name them. Yet, she named them — Gurmeet and Gurwinder. This infuriated Sukhwinder. On his next visit to India, he got the opportunity. "Sarabjit joined the mother in the kitchen to make tea. Dhillon was alone with the babies." He poisoned them. They died on consecutive days. A month later his third wife Khushpreet died. Her final words were that he gave her a pill. Within a month, he married yet again, this time to Sukhwinder Kaur Grewal, his fourth wife. Around this time, in Hamilton, he gave a pill to his friend Ranjit Khela to make up for his sexual inadequacy. Khela's wife saw him dying of convulsion. Little did she know that he had conned Ranjit Khela to name him as the beneficiary of his insurance policy. When the insurance official found that Sukhwinder, who was expecting a windfall from Khela's death, was the same person who had got a similar insurance amount earlier, he alerted the police. Investigations found that in all these murders he had poisoned them with Strychnine, a crystalline powder, colourless, odourless and extremely bitter. Classic Agatha Christie, Sherlock Holmes stuff. Painstaking efforts by the police, who sent two detectives to Punjab, saw him behind the bars, guilty of poisoning both his first wife and his friend. Lost in the tangle of witnesses and evidence was another bombshell — that Dhillon might have also poisoned his eldest brother, Darshan, in which case he killed six, four in Punjab and two in Canada. For the Hamilton police, it was one of the most complicated cases and for The Hamilton Spectator, the toughest to put together. After all, the story had too many plots, too many characters and too many locales to give it a cogent shape. Journalism has become richer by Poison: A True Crime Story.  |
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FROM
PAKISTAN ISLAMABAD: In a surprise move on Tuesday, the Jamali government doubled the salaries, perks and travel allowances of the Members of the National Assembly and the Senate, claiming the raise was long overdue. According to sources, Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali approved the raise in the monthly remuneration of the parliamentarians from Rs 17,500 to Rs 38,000, inclusive of allowances. The government’s decision drew both criticism and applause from the opposition and treasury
members. Treasury members Wasi Zafar and Sher Afgan (both members of the committee that recommended the salary jump) welcomed the decision. Hafiz Hussain Ahmed, MMA central leader, also greeted the decision.
— The Nation
New Leader of Opposition
ISLAMABAD: Alliance for the Restoration of Democracy (ARD) Chairman Makhdoom Amin Fahim is likely to be appointed Opposition Leader in the National Assembly within next couple of days, The Nation learnt on Tuesday. According to reliable sources, the formal announcement to this effect will be made before November 16 when one year of parliament will be completed. “The matter has already been discussed at a high-level meeting held at the National Assembly Secretariat a few days ago”, said the sources. They added that the National Assembly Speaker has received the signed list of over 80 MNAs of the ARD and supporting parties in favour of the appointment of Amin Fahim as Opposition Leader.
— The Nation
Change of system
ISLAMABAD: The combined Opposition has announced that it will soon launch a mass protest movement against the “perpetration of military rule”. Speaking at a joint Press conference on Tuesday after having staged a walkout from the National Assembly session, opposition leaders said their protest movement would strive to replace the military-controlled system with undiluted democracy which would run strictly in accordance with the 1973 Constitution. The ARD, the MMA and other smaller groups also decided to file a fresh requisition for National Assembly and Senate sessions in such a manner as to make it impossible for the government to circumvent the move. The leaders hinted that the requisition would be sent to the two secretariats by the end of Ramazan so that the two Houses were summoned soon after Eid.
— The Dawn
Stop honour killings
ISLAMABAD: The Treasury Benches in the National Assembly on Tuesday called for an end to karo-kari (honour killings), terming it as inhuman and anti-Islamic norms. Calling for legislation against the menace, MP Bhandara raised the issue in the House on the last day of the parliamentary year. However, when he was not allowed to move the motion, he staged a token walkout but was persuaded to return by some members from the Treasury Benches.
— The News International |
Let compassion be your mosque, faith your prayer-mat and righteousness your Quran. Let modesty be your circumcision and uprightness your fasting. Thus you will become a true Muslim. — Guru Nanak O Son of Spirit! Noble have I created thee, yet thou hast abased thyself. Rise then unto that for which thou wast created. — Baha’u’llah It is the mind that makes one wise or ignorant, bound or emancipated. — Sri Ramakrishna God may be love, God is Truth above all. If it is possible for the human tongue to give the fullest description of God, I have come to the conclusion that for myself, God is Truth. But I went a step further and said that Truth is God. — Mahatma Gandhi Lord grant that I may not so much seek to be loved as to love. — Saint Francis of Assisi |
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