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Justice on sale Southern discomfort |
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Blair bailed out
Musharraf-MMA gameplan
Ordeal by yoga
Amrita Pritam: a pioneer in literature
Delhi Durbar
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Justice on sale SHOCKING is too mild a word to do justice to the scandalous conduct of a metropolitan magistrate in Ahmedabad who issued arrest warrants against persons as eminent as the President of India and the Chief Justice of India for a sum of Rs 40,000. It is obvious that the magistrate did not even look at the warrants before signing them. Certainly, he would have counted the currency notes before putting the seal of authority on the warrants. The “businessman” who obtained these warrants to fix his “business rivals” could have obtained non-bailable arrest warrants against them if he had shelled out a higher amount. Nothing has exposed corruption in the lower levels of the judiciary more than this sting operation carried out by a television journalist. Instead of shooting the messenger as has become the practice since Tehelka, which exposed corruption in defence deals, the Supreme Court has taken a serious view of the matter and ordered a CBI enquiry into it. On his part, the journalist had taken the precaution of taking the apex court into confidence before going to town with the story. The investigation by the CBI should be comprehensive enough to make it impossible for anyone to sell instruments of justice like arrest warrants. That the incident has been reported from Gujarat, where recently the Supreme Court had to intervene to set right gross violations of the criminal justice system is all the more worrying. It has been argued in the context of Tehelka that tempting a person to accept bribe is unacceptable. Even this fig leaf of an argument cannot be extended to defend the magistrate, who was so greedy that he did not even bat his eyelid before signing on the dotted line. However despicable his conduct may be, it is not fair to tar the entire lower judiciary with the same brush. The incident only shows that there are black sheep among the magistrates, who need to be weeded out if the common man’s faith in the judicial system is not to be impaired. |
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Southern discomfort EVEN as the Congress party is building alliances to reinforce its credentials for leading a coalition, the crisis within has come to a head in Kerala with Mr K. Karunakaran set to break away. The Kerala strongman, whose association with the party spans seven decades, has announced his decision to float a new party -- Indira National Congress. Beyond that Mr Karunakaran has chosen to hold his horses, for the moment: he has not actually launched the new party though he held a convention of his supporters; his two loyalists in Chief Minister A. K. Antony’s Cabinet have not jumped ship; and his son, Mr K. Muralidharan, the state Congress chief, has reiterated his faith in Mrs Sonia Gandhi’s leadership. These add up to suggest that he might be yet willing to buy peace with the parent party, albeit on his own terms, while testing the waters for his new venture. Regardless of whether Mr Karunakaran takes the plunge or not, it is clear that the Congress has to reckon with a new power centre in Kerala. The limited question for the Congress now is whether his potential to damage the party’s cohesion and prospects is greater if he remains within the fold. There is no easy answer to this in a state for long dominated by two fronts of the Left and the Congress. Mr Karunakaran at the head of a new outfit could make the going hard for the Congress by making common cause with the CPM and yet fielding his own nominees in some constituencies. Although the crisis in Kerala looms large, the AIADMK-BJP alliance in neighbouring Tamil Nadu is a development that provides cold comfort to the Congress. Unlike in Kerala, in Tamil Nadu a battle between two fronts, one led by the DMK and the other by the AIADMK, would work to the disadvantage of the Congress. At stake in both states now is the Congress party’s bargaining power vis-à-vis its allies in the matter of seats, constituencies and candidates. |
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Blair bailed out THE Lord Hutton enquiry report could not have come at a better time for the Tony Blair government. The British Prime Minister had been facing flak over the Iraq war issue, particularly after the suicide committed by weapons expert David Kelley. Only a day before the much-awaited report enquiring into the circumstances leading to the death of Dr Kelley was made public, the Blair government had suffered a serious setback in the House of Commons. As many as 72 Labour MPs voted against an official Bill. Mr Blair’s image may get a facelift now as Lord Hutton could not find proof to substantiate the charge that the government was responsible for the apparent suicide. The BBC, which broadcast on May 29 last year the most damaging report on the September 2002 “sexed up” dossier on Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction, giving many sleepless nights to Mr Blair and his colleagues, is at the receiving end today. The enquiry has found serious defects in its editorial procedures, which was the cause for journalist Andrew Gilligan’s story with “unfounded” charges against the Blair government getting cleared for broadcast. In this darkest hour in the BBC’s history, its chairman has resigned and many more may do so. The basic question relating to Iraq’s WMDs still remains unanswered. Lord Hutton collected considerable material on the subject, but refused to make any judgement on the ground that this did not come under the terms of his enquiry. He is right, but he cannot prevent the fierce debate that has already begun on this aspect. Mr Blair may continue to claim that he did not mislead the British public and Parliament by saying that Iraq was capable of getting ready for war with its WMDs within 45 minutes because this is what Joint Intelligence Committee head John Scarlett had said in the dossier. But the claim exactly related to “battlefield weapons” and not to long-range weapons.
Politics is not the art of the possible. It consists in choosing between the disastrous and the unpalatable. — J.K. Galbraith |
Musharraf-MMA gameplan General Pervez Musharraf, still in active army service, has made a brilliant deal with the MMA (Muttaheda Majlis-e- Amal). The deal had been in the making for over a year but was clinched only a few weeks ago. It enabled the COAS-President, in short order, to get his Legal Framework Order passed by Parliament with the required two-thirds majority. He got an unusual confidence vote from the majority of the electoral college and was finally able to make the inaugural address to Parliament, though too late. What did the MMA get in return by making the LFO a part of the Constitution? Purists ineffectually question the legality of the entire procedure. The government will carry on claiming to be democratic. The government would not have been able to do so if the MMA had not actually voted for the LFO: there could not be a two-thirds majority without the MMA backing. But the MMA still sits in the opposition. Superficially, it was noblesse oblige on its part, for ensuring continuity and the country’s stability. Was that all? It can be argued that the MMA was only repaying General Musharraf for the favour he had done: despite the prevailing climate and the Americans’ strong views on Islamic extremism, he tolerated, indeed cooperated with, the MMA’s provincial government in the NWFP. The MMA also dominates Baluchistan’s provincial government. The President has not only tolerated these governments but also kept them satisfied. That is a concrete benefit to the MMA. That alone can be taken as advance price for the recent vote. General Musharraf had received his share from the deal. The deal, however, would bear scrutiny. It is interesting that the MMA continues to sit on the opposition benches in the National Assembly. The ruling party was only too eager to take it onboard. But it has chosen not to share power at the Centre. It may be recalled that many people believe the 2002 (October) polls were remarkable for a larger number of seats going to the MMA constituents. This happened for the first time in Pakistan’s history. The MMA now is looking for bigger things: it hopes to build on its 2002 gains. It has set its sights on the next general election from which it wants to emerge an even bigger force. Its staying in opposition means that it wants to enjoy the benefits of incumbency in the Frontier and Baluchistan, and gain sympathy and support as an opposition party at the national level. It hopes to eat its cake and have more of it too. Is that how things will turn out? Such political calculations can always go awry. But the MMA knows what it is doing, it always had close links with the Army and the latter’s goodwill can be decisive in winning even more seats next time. Certain things are likely to remain the same. The most significant among them is the power of the Army as an instrument of ultimate power. That means General Musharraf will not only continue to command the Army till the end of December this year but also after that — the Commander-in-Chief in a political system he has created as General Zia-ul-Haq had done in the 1980s. Few would like to oppose him. General Musharraf looks set to enjoy his full term till 2007-08. Many believe that he may wish and manoeuvre into getting another five-year term for himself. The MMA can exploit it as a wonderful opportunity. Indeed which is why it has chosen to stay in the opposition. It is easier to become more popular in the opposition and exploit the anti-incumbency factor. The MMA is already starting a mass contact campaign with a 17-point manifesto to consolidate its following in view of the backlash after the government’s anti-terrorist moves without losing General Musharraf’s goodwill. The MMA’s astute leaders know which side of their bread is buttered. They are not wholeheartedly in the opposition as they gave strategic support to General Musharraf for earning his strategic support in future. The MMA did a signal service to General Musharraf on the LFO apparently without any quid pro quo. Are the MMA’s calculations unrealistic? Pakistan watchers in the West know that what appears to be smooth sailing on the surface is not the whole story. Beneath the veneer of a strong regime, with a fairly manageable opposition, the situation at grassroots is worrisome. The nominal government, for all its superficial strength and parliamentary support, has no roots among the people. It is the result of a managed election and so believe knowledgeable people: a large number of seats were secured by parties whose total share of the national vote had not expanded. The maximum number of votes was garnered by Ms Benazir Bhutto’s PPP and Mr Nawaz Sharif’s PML. But their seats were not proportionate to their votes. There can be good technical reasons for it. But in this case, most commentators think that a decisive role was played by unseen forces. At any rate, Pakistan politics has always been afflicted with doubts and suspicions about electoral results; few doubt that the intelligence services stay away from the electoral processes during the counting and collating stages. Anyway, this government does not enjoy noticeable support at the grassroots level. Anyone can notice its successes in arresting Al-Qaeda suspects, often fighting with them, and the Taliban. The other side of this coin is that Pakistan’s name crops up wherever an Al-Qaeda suspect is arrested: he has either been trained in Pakistan or was in Pakistan for a while or had some links with Pakistan in the past. That means that the political soil in Pakistan is particularly favourable to both the Taliban and Al-Qaeda where they have a very large number of people who are ready to protect them. These people are also MMA voters. The MMA automatically increases its overall support base by the support and protection that the Taliban and Al-Qaeda receive because these actions make for more commitment to the MMA constituents. A look at the Internet will show how many people and groups are spreading the word that General Musharraf has sold out to both America and India. The surface politics is a wonderful arrangement for both General Musharraf and the MMA. Both have what they are now content with. But the situation remains anomalous: the US is a force in Pakistan politics albeit unseen. General Musharraf’s greatest strength, greater than his status as the Army Chief, is the unstinted support he enjoys from the US Administration which consideration keeps the Army firmly behind him. He is apparently America’s last hope. He has thus been able to get the support of the rest of the world. Foreigners fear that without the General, Islamic fundamentalists would sweep to power. The MMA’s caravan could not have hoped for a better climate of international opinion and conditions on the ground: the people are restive, there is a rising crime rate; unemployment is growing and inflationary pressures are again increasing. The MMA and General Musharraf both plan to underline how moderate the MMA is; Indian leader A.B. Vajpayee has already met Maulana Fazlur Rahman. General Musharraf, as noted, has got all he wanted. But how stable the regime is going to be remains uncertain, given the situation in Afghanistan, Iran and the rest of Asia. True, the Americans, with the help of General Musharraf, are putting up a great fight against Islamic extremism. But it remains a one-man regime. Is it enough to turn the tide of extremism exploiting popular passions and the vicissitudes of politics? |
Ordeal by yoga LOOK at you. Your eyeballs are sunken and there are great rolls of fat down your bullneck rather like the sand dunes in a desert. Your cheeks are hollow and don’t you dare to pass them off as cute dimples. “About your bulging tummy perched precariously on spindly legs, the less said the better.” “Pull yourself together, man. You’re a standing disgrace to fine Indian manhood. I want you to present yourself for enrolment in my yoga school tomorrow. Understand?” That trenchant and acerbic “critique” was from a friend who has made it big in the yoga business. He is not a guru in the classic mould — flowing saffron robes, luxuriant beard et al., and chanting Sanskrit mantras. More likely that not, he is dressed in stonewash Levi’s, Pepsi T-shirt and Reebok sneakers and he is a middle-level manager in a public sector outfit. A sterling chap in many respects, he has a dark side to his character — he is a yoga faddist. He has converted his disused garage into a flourishing 24/7 yoga school which, at last reports, had been raided by the income-tax people. So much so, my friend is freely talking of chucking his job and going fulltime into peddling his designer yoga wares. “So you’ve heeded my advice,” said my friend as I walked, rather waddled, on my flat feet like a drunken duck with arthritis, into his yoga school the next evening. “Look, your complexion’s so sallow. I wonder what courses thru’ your veins. Certainly not blood. 99 per cent proof Scotch whisky perhaps. Yoga ought to put you in fine shape and let’s start off with a few simple poses or asanas. “Now stand erect and raising your left leg, grasp it with your right hand and pull in your stomach. “That’s the bow pose which ought to help reduce your obese tum. Now having assumed the bow pose, what do you do?” “Shoot an arrow?” I enquired. “No stupid,” corrected my guru, “you hold your breath and please, let’s have no more of your inane jokes. We now come to the scorpion pose which is beneficial in curing bronchitis, sinusitis and gas in the stomach. Now tell me, can the scorpion pose help you in any other way?” “To sting yoga faddists?” I enquired hopefully, but my guru coldly ignored my riproaring wisecrack and left it (and me) lying flat on the garage floor. Yoga gurus are notorious for their dour mien. “We now come to the most important asana in the whole of yoga and that’s the pranayama which helps in plunging the ego or the ‘I’ factor with divine consciousness or paramatma. Now while doing pranayama, you hold your nose and I want you to tell me why.” I know I shouldn’t have answered the way I did and I apologise for it. “Come on, come on,” roared my yoga guru,“I’m waiting for an answer and I don’t have whole day to waste. Why do you hold your nose while performing pranayama?” I hazarded a wild conjecture: “Because of the funny smell in the drains?” I was summarily cashiered from the yoga school.
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Amrita Pritam: a pioneer in literature
AMRITA Pritam has been awarded Padma Vibhushan for her services to Punjabi literature. She is the epitome of Punjabi literature to people outside Punjab. She was born at Gujranwala (Pakistan) in 1919. Amrita’s native place was rightly famous for indigenous education before the annexation of the Punjab by the British. Gujranwala produced Waris Shah of Heer fame and Kalidas, the author of Puran Bhagat. Secondly, Gujranwala suffered the most in the 1919 nationalist upsurge though Amritsar witnessed the Jallianwala Bagh massacre. The British bombed Gujranwala to suppress the Rowlat Act agitation — a method they had earlier tried against the Iraqi rebels protesting the occupation of their country after the First World War. In a way, she had a unique background. Amrita Pritam came of age at the start of the Progressive Writers’ Movement. She was a pioneer woman in the field of literature. Like pioneer women in politics, she came on top. She expressed the poignancy of partition of India the way nobody else could. Her poem “Aj Akhaan Waris Shah Noon, kiton qabran wichon bol” (I want Waris Shah to speak from his grave) moved thousands of Punjabis in the depth of their souls. Her novel “Pinjar” (skeleton) portrays the agony of communal riots, abduction, rape and symbolic reunion of victims and victimisers in the prophetic hope of communal amity. The novel has been made into a film, with songs by Gulzar. Amrita Pritam is equally relevant in contemporary India. Her poem “Main twarikh han Hind di” (Me, the history of India) almost sums up her literary output. Some of her books are Senehe (messages), Kagaz Te Canvas, Jai Shri, Doctor Dev, Pinjar, Alhna (nest), Yaatri (traveller), Tehrvan Suraj (the 13th sun), Panj Warhe Lambi Sarak, Tisri Aurat and Rasidi Ticket. Amrita Pritam’s institutional influence on Punjabi literature has been only laudable. She was more than once convener of the Advisory Board (for Punjabi) of the Sahitya Akademi, responsible for giving the Sahitya Akademi prize. She was, in a way, responsible for awarding the prize to Sant Singh Sekhon, Kulwant Singh Virk, Harbhajan Singh and Dalip Kaur Tiwana. It was only later that the prizes became controversial. Amrita Pritam has been an inspiration to a number of Punjabi writers. Starting with the dolorous Shiv Kumar, modernist Sati Kumar (in Sweden), power-driven Amitoj painterly Dev and subversive Mohanjits did we reach the not-yet famous novices. Along with humorist Bhushan, she was particularly encouraging towards short story writers like Gurdev Singh Rupana, Bhullars ( Gurbachan Singh and Jasbir Singh) and Devinder. Two persons were literally transformed by Amrita Pritam. Prem Gorkhi was earlier Prem Nimana (humble); Kirpal Awara (vagrant) changed to Kirpal Kazak. Kazak in Urdu is robber; originally the word is Cossack. Amrita Pritam started monthly Nagmani in 1966. The journal regrettably closed down after thirty-seven years in 2003. Tens of Punjabi writers saw themselves published for the first time in Nagmani. In a way Amrita has helped a generation of Punjabi writers. Equally, she has generously contributed to the blurbs of literary publications by all and sundry. Amrita Pritam is lucky to have led an eventfully rich and rewarding life. She was friendly with Indira Gandhi. Delhi University honoured her with a D. Litt. She won the Jnanpith Award in 1981. Her novel “Pinjar” has been translated into English by Khushwant Singh. She is currently holding Fellowships from the Punjabi Sahit Sabha, Delhi and Punjabi University, Patiala. According to my friend K. S. Virk, Amrita Pritam is widely admired for her open table whereas most of the writers or artists appear or pretend to be starvelings. Normally, artists speak in monologues; Amrita Pritam is a delightful conversationalist, according to Gulzar Sandhu, a former Editor of Punjabi Tribune. Lastly, Amrita Pritam is an exemplary feminist. She has been living with her friend Imroz, a book illustrator, for the last so many years without parading her feminism. Neither she is afraid of her unorthodox behaviour in public. Amrita Pritam has dared to live. I can think of no better compliment. For about half a century, Punjabi literature was predominantly under the influence of the Progressive Movement, which ambitiously claimed to speak for the wretched of the earth, and help the cause of socialism. In the fifties of the last century, the communists veered to the possibility of peaceful transition to a new order. The progressivists turned fervently Nehruites. The following selections from Amrita’s verses speak of Delhi, love and labour, and death. The poem on death is on Nehru’s demise (which could be universalised to cover any great soul). The city is named Delhi. Daily it dreams of the future at night and sleeps under the dirty coverlet of the present. Half of which comes on its top, the other half is spread below Long it stays awake and worships about, then it has its pill of sleep. Our meeting is as if Someone is putting on the cupped hands A day’s wage. We eat what we earn Neither to count what has been saved from yesterday Nor the morsel for tomorrow. A flower in flesh On the branches of the earth Daily open up flowers in flesh How wonderful the flower which was blown up How sad it fell down from the branch The earth never smiled the way it did Earth never cried the way it does Strange was its fragrance The flower died but the fragrance lived Yesterday it wafted from the lips Today it rises from tears Tomorrow from memory The entire earth is pained What a fragrance The flower died but the fragrance lives |
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Delhi Durbar UTTAR Pradesh Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav is a worried man these days. His calculations of bagging 40-45 out of 81 Lok Sabha seats in the country’s most populous state are going haywire. The homecoming of former UP Chief Minister Kalyan Singh and the merger of the Rashtriya Kranti Dal with the BJP is a case in point. Clearly, Kalyan Singh believes returning to the BJP will be a better proposition for him and to that extent the SP will lose out on the support of the Lodh community. That will also get Ajit Singh thinking whether his Rashtriya Lok Dal should continue to have linkages with the SP or consider other alternatives in the run-up to the general election. Despite these setbacks, the SP is talking of going it alone in UP as having any kind of truck with the BJP is ruled out and the Congress appears close to having an alliance with Mayawati’s BSP. In such a scenario, the SP finds itself pushed to the wall and has expressed its willingness to provide issue-based support to a Congress-led secular front in a post-poll scenario. M.L. Khurana
does it again Committing gaffes and faux pas is not new to the BJP’s Madan Lal Khurana. Having lost badly in the chief ministerial stakes to Shiela Dikshit and the Congress in the recent assembly elections, Khurana was picked up for a gubernatorial assignment in Rajasthan. The politician in Khurana remains unrestrained as is evident from his desire to meet people weekly in Raj Bhavan in Jaipur to redress their grievances. It has not only raised eyebrows and caused avoidable embarrassment to the Central leadership, but also led to light banter that the politician in Khurana is yet to take a back seat despite his new responsibilities and duties as the constitutional head of a state. Being Khurana’s party colleague, Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje Scindia said she would also attend Khurana’s durbars. The Centre, however, subtly advised Khurana not to exceed his brief and step on the toes of the executive. Laloo Yadav
in a fix RJD supremo Laloo Prasad Yadav finds himself in a tight spot with everyone from Governor M Rama Jois and the Patna High Court decrying the law and order situation in the state. Growing fear and insecurity in Bihar has sent out calls for intervention. The irrepressible Laloo has sought to categorise the Governor’s observations as politically motivated to gain mileage in the ensuing general election. As the messiah of the oppressed classes in the backward state, Laloo is unsure of his ground and is actively considering contesting for the Lok Sabha from two seats — Madhepura and Chhapra. While Madhepura is represented by Union Food and Public Distribution Minister Sharad Yadav, youthful Civil Aviation Minister Rajeev Pratap Rudy triumphed in Chhapra in 1999. Nagra makes waves “Bend It Like Beckham” star Parminder Nagra is out to prove she was not a flash in the pan when it came to the celluloid world. Last week the Leicester-born British actress began a new TV series of American hospital hit ER. The first Asian character in the soap, ER might propel her as a big TV star. She plays the role of an Anglo-Indian medical student. Nagra, whose parents emigrated to Britain from India in the 1960s, caught the acting bug when she was 17. Her big break came in 2002 when she took the role of soccer crazy teenager Jess in “Bend It Like Beckham.” Nagra, who went to school in Leicester, left the theatre in 1995 and went to London for a career in acting. Contributed by T.R. Ramachandran, Satish Misra and Prashant Sood |
No charter of freedom will be worth looking at which does not ensure the same measure of freedom for the minorities as for the majority. — Mahatma Gandhi The philosophy of Upanishadic Absolute Brahman, presents itself in all as the Self (Atman) and leads to Peace and Bliss Eternal, and it must be coordinated with the other systems of philosophy based on the Vedas, which are dualistic and theistic in nature, but more easy for the people in general to understand and follow. — Shri Adi Shankaracharya A useful definition of liberty is obtained only by seeking the principle of liberty in the main business of human life, that is to say, in the process by which men educate their responses and learn to control their environment. — Walter Lippman |
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