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ON
RECORD Restoring the credibility of Sikh institutions |
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PROFILE REFLECTIONS KASHMIR
DIARY DIVERSITIES
— DELHI LETTER
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ON RECORD
FROM 1941 when Mr Ram Jethmalani became a practising lawyer to 63 years later, the 80-year-old has indeed come a long way. The grand old man of the Indian Bar and politics is still as erudite, sharp, alert, witty and to the point as ever before. More important, he remains fiercely independent and does not mince words while airing his views. In this exclusive interview to The Tribune, Mr
Jethmalani spoke with characteristic candour and style. Excerpts: Q: The BJP-led NDA government at the Centre is all set to go ahead with early Lok Sabha polls? What is your prognosis? Would it benefit the NDA in general or the BJP in particular? A: The British constitutional practice is that the government of the day has the prerogative to hold elections at the time which it considers politically advantageous to it and various Prime Ministers have selected suitable timings for their elections. But in India where the Constitution prescribed the normal tenure, though it is subject to dissolution earlier, it follows that the dissolution must be an extraordinary occurrence. I don’t believe that the Indian
Constitution can easily adopt the British practice. At any rate I think it is constitutionally improper, though not illegal, to hold elections earlier merely on the ground that it boosts the electoral prospects of the ruling party. Q: Would the ensuing elections throw a clear mandate to one party? A: The manner in which unprincipled alliances are being formed without the slightest relevance to the principles of public probity and national good, I do not think that any party is going to get a clear mandate. These unprincipled coalitions will provide a highly unstable government and eventually lead to premature dissolution. Q: The BJP claims a feel-good factor in the country and is trying to contest elections on this plank. How far do you agree? A: The BJP is certainly feeling good but I am not sure that the nation is feeling so good. Certainly, the poor man in this country is not better off at all. The volume of corruption has not decreased. The situation of the rule of law has certainly not improved. I think that the so-called feel-good circumstance is also unconnected with any great things that this government has accomplished. I do not suggest that it has not done anything good but its balance-sheet does not seem to be a credit balance-sheet. Q: With the Centre now directly talking to the Hurriyat Conference and other separatists, what is the role and relevance of the Kashmir Committee headed by you? Have you closed shop as far as the issue of Jammu and Kashmir is concerned? A: We never ran a shop. We were facilitating and pleading. The sense that we talked about more than an year ago has now dawned on the Government of India. But better late than never. The Kashmir Committee remains highly relevant to assess the sincerity of both sides and certainly the wisdom of the dialogue that is taking place between India and Pakistan. While we are very happy with the dialogue and I am quite optimistic about its outcome I have a suspicion that it may turn out to be an election stunt of the political parties. Q: With your experience in negotiating the Kashmir issue with Hurriyat leaders what, according to you, would be the likely outcome of the proposed negotiations between the Centre and the separatists? A:
I am very sorry that I am unable to answer this question with any certainty but if the dialogue starts from the agreed positions arrived at between the Kashmir Committee and the Hurriyat then there is great potential for good. But I doubt whether the requisite statesmanship is available. Q: Once you said that you were willing to even travel to Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir to talk to the separatists leaders there if such a move were to help resolving the issue? Where do you stand now? A: I and the Kashmir Committee will be willing to do its utmost to facilitate a settlement without taking any credits for it and to our cooperation sky is the limit. Q: Are you optimistic about the Indo-Pak relations? Would Pakistan cry a halt to terrorism? Will the tiger change its stripes? A: The manner in which you have posed the question will impede a settlement. The language of diplomacy and international negotiations has to be extremely soft, pleasing, non-abrasive and persuasive. I already find some responsible quarters not observing this simple rule of negotiation. Q: You have the pulse of Mumbai. Why do you think the NCP has broken off with the BJP and the Shiv Sena? Do you feel the NCP’s alliance with the Congress would cut any ice with the electorate? A: What prospects has the NCP got with the BJP? If the NCP wants to produce a future Prime Minister, the BJP is the last party which will facilitate it. Q: You are considered close to Shiv Sena supremo Balasaheb Thackeray. Is there a move or a possibility of your contesting Lok Sabha elections with the Shiv Sena’s support? A: I have no desire to contest a Lok Sabha election. I have more than two years to go in the Rajya Sabha. I don’t believe that if at the end of this term I still desire another term I would have any difficulty in securing it. My friendships are based on personal considerations and not political calculations. Q: You have had a chequered past and a love-hate relationship with the NDA. Where do you stand today? A: I hate evil in politics and I support what is good in it. I have no love and hate relationship with any political parties. Frankly, at present, if I have to cast my vote tomorrow I would still vote for Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, though I must say that I have to ask him many questions and receive satisfactory answers. |
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Restoring the credibility of Sikh institutions IN a community which advocates that each of its individual members is equal to a lakh and a quarter mere mortals, there can only be leaders. However, the downside is that everyone wants to be upfront and at the helm. This spirit of oneupmanship and healthy competition is all very well, but the underlying problem is that no one wants to get off a chair he has once usurped. The concept of democracy and infusion of new blood into institutions therefore takes a huge beating. A morass and absolute stagnation is the obvious consequence. One glaring example is evident in the ongoing imbroglio of the Chief Khalsa Dewan, one of the most respectable organisations of the Sikhs, apolitical to date, and supposedly the intelligentsia of the community. A democratic welfare society looking into the well being of the Sikh community’s affairs such as education, orphanages and old age homes has had no election for the last seven years. Not only have the present incumbents bent all rules, but have terminated the right of membership of nearly 60 per cent of the Dewan, in many cases after collecting their dues for 2004 and also after certifying them as legitimate electorate. The issue went to the court and the local administration intervened, by appointing an administrator to oversee the election process in a fair manner. Then came the master stroke. The National Minorities Commission reprimanded the administration and coerced them to hand over charge to a five-member committee appointed by the Akal Takht. The new administrator, member of the 5-member committee, went to the Press stating that the Constitution of the Dewan stood dissolved and that a decision regarding the running of Dewan (read arbitration) shall be made shortly. This perhaps is the most worrisome dimension of them all. First, what is the locus standi of the National Minorities Commission, in a state such as Punjab where Sikhs are not a minority? To browbeat the local administration into handing over charge, of a democratic organisation registered as an independent institution under the Societies Act since 1860 AD, to anyone defies logic. Secondly, why the law of the land should not be allowed to prevail, especially when the issue is already sub judice, and the Governing Body of the Dewan be allowed to decide the future course once the legal aspects are looked into by the court of law. Lastly, but most important of all, is the precedence that is being set here. Are all societies and institutions from now on all subservient to the dictates of the National Minorities Commission or the Shiromani Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee (SGPC) and thus can be usurped at any given excuse? Imagine tomorrow a similar institution such as Khalsa College or the Bahi Vir Singh Sahit Sadan falling prey to this new hegemony. What saddens one most is that these developments stink of vested interests and the formation of caucuses who shall stoop to anything in order to retain power, even if it entails wrecking the basic credibility of the institutions in question. For a community which is facing many perils, it is time for introspection. Time for a full stop to petty politics and squabbles and also time to think beyond small individuals towards a larger dimension. The Sikhs are an outgoing industrious community and must watch out for this quick sand which is bound to wreck its institutions. In this new age of freedom and democracy, there is no place for individuals with vested interests sticking on to their chairs without a vision of tomorrow. The challenges today are many, and a new leadership must emerge for the community at every level which can fight the morass of stagnation, corruption and degradation. The basic tenets of Sikhism are many and what is required is humility. Anyone who considers himself above the welfare of the community is indeed answerable to the good lord himself, since people with Alter Egos cannot be true Sikhs of the
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PROFILE
There was a time when Sangma was very close to the Nehru-Gandhi family, often called a blue-eyed boy of both Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi and held important portfolios in their governments. Though now 56, he was a minister for 13 of 23 years of his parliamentary life. Sangma held such varied portfolios as Industry, Commerce, Home, Coal, Labour and Information and Broadcasting. Rajiv Gandhi sent him to Meghalaya to head the state government in 1988. After the 1991 general elections , he joined the Narasimha Rao Cabinet as Coal and Labour Minister. Few know that as the Information and Broadcasting Minister, Sangma initially prepared the draft of the Broadcasting Bill, envisaging liberalisation of the use of airwaves and investment in the electronic media. When the Congress was not in a position to form the government after the 1996 election, he was pitch-forked to the chair of the Speaker. Sangma was only 50, youngest-ever leader to hold the august office of the Speaker and that too with distinction. He turned into a bitter critic of the BJP having been promised the second term as the Speaker but ditched by the ruling party leaders at the last minute. The diminutive leader from the North-East was watched with admiration in his varied moods by millions of people on the TV sets as he conducted the proceedings. His impromptu comments made him a popular figure. Though he could complete only 18 months of his tenure, he had set a trend which might become reference point for his successors. He presided over a house which had over 60 per cent of new members and dealt skillfully with the pulls and pressures of a 13-party coalition. Sangma virtually kicked up a storm by suggesting that some of the ministries should be dismantled. He held the view that ministries like Agriculture, Rural Development and Sports and Youth Affairs should be handed over to the states as they were basically state-level subjects. Yet another decision of his — abolishing the discretionary quota of MPs in respect of cooking gas and telephone connections — drew protests from a section of members. Sangma’s induction in the Constitution Review Committee raised many eyebrows. His inclusion in the high profile panel also went against his party’s strong opposition to the government’s move to review the Constitution and embarrassed NCP President Sharad Pawar. Evidently, in a bid to prevent dissension in his party, Pawar had to ignore Sangma’s defiance. Almost coinciding with his induction, Sangma differed with the review panel Chairman, Justice Venkatachalaiah, on the issue of barring persons of foreign origin from holding high offices. Christmas and New Year's eve are celebrated at Sangma’s house with great gusto. He is in the best of spirits when holding a glass in his hands and wishing his friends ‘Merry Christmas’ and ‘A Happy New Year’. He is well known in the capital for his hospitality. Hailing from the Garo hills district of Meghalaya, he belongs to the small Christian minority community of Garo and serving drinks has been customary in his community on occasions like Christmas and betrothal ceremony. Both Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi invariably used to join the Christmas celebration at Sangma’s residence. |
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REFLECTIONS THE other day I overheard one of my colleagues in the office having said, “When I go home and if there is no food in the house I just go out and fetch some.” I asked with curiosity: “Why where does the food go?” “It’s all eaten? And its finished”. he said. “By whom?”, I asked. “By my children and all of them,” he answered. “What do you mean by all of them?”, I asked. “All of them means all...all relatives, who ever walks in, or whichever friends come, or even the neighbours”, he said. I said, “Is this not unfair?” He said “No...this is the way it is with us always”. “Vow”, I said, “I cannot believe that this kind of spirit of sharing still exists. How come I asked?” Then came in my another colleague, who in fact was talking to him when I had butted in. He asked me, “Kiran do you know how many brothers and sisters X (identity protected) has?” I looked at him and did not want to guess? While I hesitated, X himself said, “20 and more”. I said, “What? Poor Mother!”. This was my instant response. I unabashedly asked, “from one mother or more” ? He said, “two of them”. I said, “that is not bad, but I need to hear more from you. It fascinates me”. The following day I went up to X and asked if he would be willing to share his spirit of sharing and giving, for the rest of us. He said no problem, he would be happy to do so. I began by asking him to tell me his 20...and the food all finished when he goes home and instead of getting angry he goes to the market to fetch food. Why is it so? How did he acquire this tolerance? Who taught him this? Was it in the school or at home? Or his parents? He said, “No, on the contrary food in our culture, is for sharing. Whoever comes home has to eat. And food first belongs to the guests or the near and dear ones before it belongs to me. In fact if any one wants to, can even take food home. He can take it and we will never say no”. To illustrate he narrated me his childhood incident. He said, “one day while coming back home from my school I came with some of my friends to work together on mathematics home work. While we were studying I noticed one of my friends was not able to concentrate. I asked him what was the matter. He said he was hungry and that he never ever had enough food in the house. X said he went to his mother and told her so. My mother then gave him enough food to go home with. “But after our middle schooling was over, the higher school was far away from my friend's house. He asked if he could stay with me to complete his studies. I asked my mother. She said yes....but then he said he was not alone. He has another brother who too needed this help. To which my mother said she now needs to ask my father. And she did. My father permitted. And the next day he went to buy two mattresses. And both my friends stayed in my house and completed their higher school. Today one of them is a teacher and the other an engineer. He said higher education and good school are free in his country. Hence it was only the question of food. X is an African”. Even today X said this culture of giving and sharing still exists in his country and the society as a whole.. He told me he pays the school fee of his cousins and nephews. It does not strike him that why should he? He says, “if he has it, it is meant to be shared”. He further said that, “in his country for almost a decade salaries were erratic and this is how all of us survived. We all shared all we had”. All this set me thinking. We all read the human development indices. What are they? Who measures this amazing Human Development Index? I wondered. And where did this exist most? Perhaps in those countries which may be below the poverty line, as it is measured. And according to standards set by whom? Not the hungry I guess, but the fed! And perhaps, did I mean the overfed?
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KASHMIR DIARY
A
South Asian economic community might seem to be only obliquely related to resolving the Kashmir issue but the concept might turn out to be at the heart of a resolution. Open borders and a single currency are after all the key ingredients to making the lines on a map irrelevant. If the momentum of the recent SAARC summit at Islamabad can be maintained, history will surely recall it as a historic turning point, notwithstanding the cynicism with which President Musharraf’s description has been received. We are so used to separating issues into compartments that it is difficult to correlate the obvious steps towards integration on the economic front with a solution to the Kashmir imbroglio. For decades, we have looked for a solution in terms of drawing a line between India and Pakistan that both nations, as well as the Kashmiri people, could accept. But we will have moved far beyond that if the South Asian Free Trade Agreement (SAFTA) fructifies to yield the single currency and open borders that Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee proposed just before the summit. It is significant that Pakistan’s leader, a man steeped in the idiom and logic of the Army, should have described the agreement as historic. Perhaps General Musharraf was referring only to the agreement to begin a composite dialogue. If he was, however, he is missing the true historic significance of the Islamabad summit. Given the experience of the past 57 years, it is almost impossible that the two countries can agree on a solution to the Kashmir issue within the old paradigms. It is surely unlikely that the two foreign secretaries will be able to find adequate common ground when successive talks right from Jinnah-Mountbatten days have failed. Owen Bennett-Jones, BBC’s former correspondent in Pakistan, recorded after interviewing Niaz Naik, whom Sharif had appointed to talk secretly with Vajpayee’s nominee, R.K. Mishra, that they made virtually no progress. At meetings in Delhi’s Claridges hotel just before the Kargil conflict erupted, Mishra suggested that both sides accept the Line of Control and Naik proposed the Chenab river as an alternative dividing line. These are well known track two positions that the two sides respectively have actually been willing for over perhaps the last half a century, whatever their stated positions. It is good that the two National Security Advisers undertook the behind-the-scenes negotiations this time, for each is among the most powerful men in his government. Arguably, Brajesh Mishra is the most powerful man in India after the Prime Minister and the Deputy Prime Minister. However, I am certain they did not in the first week of this year discuss the sort of formulae that were discussed in March-April, 1999, only the structure and timing of the composite dialogue. India’s upcoming elections could mean that, even if talks are actually held in February, they are no more than a formality. And whenever the foreign secretaries do undertake substantive talks, they are likely to start with confidence building measures regarding their nuclear arsenals. That is the first item listed among the eight agreed in 1997, when the composite dialogue process was established. Kashmir is the second item. Given the extraordinary international pressures, and domestic ones in Pakistan, Kashmir too will almost certainly be taken up later this year. However, I would not be surprised if Mr Vajpayee comes up with another innovative perspective on what is possible in the light of his vision of an economically integrated South Asia. Kashmir is only the most prominent of the problems that could be resolved within the ambit of such a fresh vision for the subcontinent — one of economic synergies and cultural integration. The Tamil Eelam demand is another that could as easily be resolved within an overall framework. So perhaps could the aspirations of ethnic groups in the North-East. This is not to say that any of these would be easy. However, the acceptance of the logic of free trade could set the stage afresh for attempts at flexibility on all these fronts. Only the future will show how historic the Islamabad summit actually turns out to be but, ironically, the man who used the word “historic” is the most critically-placed among those who could make it happen.
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DIVERSITIES —
DELHI LETTER
IT’S been hectic going. Not just for me but everybody here seems to be going about in circles midweek. I went towards the India International Centre and it was touching to see the frenzy and passion with which delegates were speaking about water. Activists from 65 countries and 110 organisations were meeting in New Delhi for the People’s World Water Forum. We know the watery tale in our country where politicians have used their clout to even change the course of the rivers, what to talk of the polluted water we drink. Statistics are equally shocking. There are 1.4 billion people who have no access to safe drinking water today and 2.4 billion without access to adequate sanitation. About 30,000 people die everyday from diseases caused by the lack of safe drinking water and sanitation. Yet water seems no where on the agenda of the politicians here and elsewhere. Amen!
Sachin Pilot weds Sarah Talking of politicians, Delhi is agog with rumours why Dr Farooq Abdullah’s clan stayed away from the marriage ceremony of daughter Sarah to Sachin Pilot, son of the late Congress leader Rajesh Pilot. Religious slots not matching could hardly be the adequate reason for the boycott. For Dr Farooq Abdullah himself married a Christian (his wife lives far away from him), one of his daughters married a Jew and son Omar Abdullah married a Sikh. Abdullahs and Pilots have been close for years, with several common friends like socialite Dilshad, the glamorous sister of Bollywood’s original Khan brothers — Feroze, Sanjay and Akbar. There had been much opposition to this marriage from both ends so much so that the otherwise broadminded Abdullah did not even remain in the town on the day his daughter signed the marriage papers. Don’t know how Rama Pilot agreed to host the wedding, she’s anyway come a long way from those days when she ran a jewellery outlet from the Santushti Shopping Complex (manned by Indian Air Force Officers’ wives) to this day when she is in the thick of politics and family drama.
A pleasant surprise A friend invited me to the Foreign Correspondents’ Club (of South Asia) last weekend. I was aware of its rather strategic positioning, next to Delhi Chief Minister Shiela Dikshit’s official bungalow. The first thing that hit was the obvious round of security checks that one would probably have to go through. A heavy police bandobast was there on full alert right on the road and in front of the gates. That very afternoon she was hosting lunch for her Cabinet colleagues, but not one intruding security man query or search on the body or bag. It was a pleasant surprise that Sheila is not paranoid about her security. Another surprise awaited as I saw her nameplate — her name written in Urdu, English and Hindi.
From films to books to... I was happy to meet Ashok Ahuja, the producer-director- writer of films like Aadharshila and Vasundhara. The two films had bagged national and international awards. Yet, Ahuja decided to move on to the Harvard University Centre for the Study of World Religions, then moving still further to the world of digital images and animal animation, and still ahead, writing books. He is just out with his first book “The Third Race (Seagull Books) and is in the midst of writing his second book. His first book is so painstakingly produced that it’s a sheer pleasure to read. Like all sensitive writers, Ahuja is wary of the troubled times and the changing world order we are living in where the human being is losing grip on himself and on all that’s around
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The soul is immortal and the body must perish. Fight then the fight that has come to thee as a matter of duty. Victory or defeat is no concern of thine. Acquit thyself of thy task. — Shri Krishna You may take up any one of the prophets or teachers as your guide and the object of your special adoration; you are even allowed to think that he whom you have chosen is the greatest of the prophets, greatest of all the Avataras, but you must keep to a firm background of eternally true principles. — Swami Vivekananda That time is auspicious when we enter the presence of the True Guru. — Guru Arjan Dev |
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ONCE projected as a prime ministerial aspirant, former Lok Sabha Speaker P.A. Sangma, may be at the crossroad of his eventful political career. But rare are the persons like him, who take a principled stand on an issue, and adhere to it. Debarring Sonia Gandhi from occupying any of the top posts has been on Sangma's political agenda since he sought to raise the issue at the Congress Working Committee five years back and invited expulsion. He is determined to pursue the issue and does not mince words in saying that the “Videshi” issue is his personal agenda and that he will raise it at any available forum. Sangma is now on the verge quitting the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), the party which he founded along with Sharad Pawar after having been thrown out of the Congress on the issue of Sonia Gandhi's foreign origin. Pawar seems to have given up the foreign origin issue now, but Sangma sticks steadfastly to it and is all set to join the NDA.