 |
|
Eyeless in Mumbai Cheaper
credit for farmers |
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Governor
needs advice Rama Jois exceeded his brief Bihar Governor M. Rama Jois has only himself to blame for the controversy swirling around him today. His trenchant criticism of his own government for the alleged breakdown of law and order in the state during his Republic Day address was tailor-made to raise the questions of propriety and Mr Laloo Prasad Yadav has quickly pounced on the opportunity.
Politics on
poll-eve
My cup of tea
Kashmir families
divided by LoC From
Pakistan
|
Eyeless in Mumbai There may be many skeletons that remain to be revealed in the Telgi stamp paper scandal. It is uncertain if they will come out, and whether the guilty would get their just dessert. What is also uncertain is whether the men who have been asked to cleanse the tainted police force would be allowed to do their job. The removal of Mr Parvinder Singh Pasricha as Mumbai's Police Commissioner just eight weeks after his appointment underscores the political pressures that the force is being subjected to. The sidelining of Mr Pasricha should eliminate any doubt about the Telgi scam being rooted in the
criminal-politician-bureaucratic nexus existing in Mumbai. That the Maharashtra government, which has been on the defensive on the Telgi scam, should transfer Mr Pasricha is bound to raise serious questions about its motives. In the short time since he assumed charge, Mr Pasricha has shaken up a police force so mired in corruption that a former commissioner and his deputy, along with a dozen other officers, were arrested for shielding the scamster, Abdul Karim Telgi, under the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act — a law they should have been implementing instead of being charged under its provisions. Mr Pasricha, who enjoyed the Chief Minister's confidence, had two avowed priorities: to improve the shattered image of the Mumbai police force and weed out corrupt and dubious elements, especially in the crime branch. While he could, he did a commendable job as borne out by the transfers of over 2000 officers and constables. Apparently, this proved to be his undoing. Politicians, bureaucrats and police officers, alarmed at such a clean-up, have obviously exerted pressure on the government. And a supine government has meekly submitted. It owes an explanation to the people as to why it has resorted to a “use and discard” tactic to tackle an officer who was simply doing his duty. |
|
Cheaper credit for farmers The
interim Budget has attempted to provide cheaper credit to farmers. A beginning was made in July 2003, when the NDA government reduced the interest rates for crop loans to 9 per cent. Finance Minister Jaswant Singh has announced that all eligible farmers will get the Kisan Credit Card by March 31, 2004. The card can be got modified on demand for use on ATM machines. The concepts of Kisan Credit Card and Self Help Group, popularised by NABARD, have proved very useful to farmers in meeting their credit needs. Also a scheme to revitalise the cooperative banks with an outlay of Rs 15,000 crore, to be shared by the Centre and the states, has been announced. The announcements are well-meaning, even if prompted by electoral considerations. But there are practical difficulties. First, only well-off and educated farmers usually approach banks for loans. Second, for crop loans the banks insist on mortgaging the entire land holding of the borrower as security. Third, paper work is cumbersome. Finally, corruption and unhelpful officials discourage poor and illiterate farmers from going to banks. As a result, a vast majority of the farmers still depends on private lenders for their credit needs and pay a heavy price for that. The Finance Minister is aware of these problems and has asked the banks not to “insist on additional collateral through a mortgage of the entire land holding”. Seen from the banks’ angle, the government’s politically motivated insistence on lower interest rates and targeted lending can lead to an increase in their non-performing assets (NPAs). It requires to be debated whether the government banks are to be run professionally under the RBI or used as a tool for meeting the political agenda of the parties in power. The Finance Minister has appointed a committee headed by Dr
V.S. Vyas to tackle the problem of NPAs with regard to crop loans. The committee has been asked to suggest a remedial measure within 90 days. The best option, it seems, is to let the banks decide on how to meet their social obligations. |
|
Governor needs advice Bihar Governor M. Rama Jois has only himself to blame for the controversy swirling around him today. His trenchant criticism of his own government for the alleged breakdown of law and order in the state during his Republic Day address was tailor-made to raise the questions of propriety and Mr Laloo Prasad Yadav has quickly pounced on the opportunity. He has met President A.P.J Abdul Kalam to demand recall of the Governor while his party and associates have been raising the issue in Parliament. So far, the voices defending the Governor's speech lack conviction because what he said was entirely avoidable. His claim that the state government did not provide him the speech he was to read out just does not wash. Even if this were true, it did not mean that he should have gone hammer and tongs about the "fear and terror" regime of his own government. The non-elective office of Governor has certain unwritten rules of decorum and conduct attached to it which its occupant is expected to observe. One of them is to remain above partisan considerations. In the past, many Governors have fallen way short of this ideal but Mr Rama Jois has gone beyond even these unhealthy precedents. This lapse is all the more glaring, considering that he has been a senior member of the judiciary. What is not expected even from a former politician is all the more undesirable if it is uttered by a former judge. Ironically, there is truth in the Governor's assertion. The administration is indeed going to seed in Bihar. But by saying so in so many words, Mr Jois has ensured that no correctives will be applied. Knowing the way things function in Bihar, it is obvious that the entire focus will be on the desirability of raising this issue rather than on setting things right. May be, relations between the Governor and the Rabri Devi government have become too bitter to be mended without help from the Central Government which sent Mr Jois to Patna. |
|
|
Thought for the day What millions died — that Caesar might be great !
— Thomas Campbell |
Politics on poll-eve IT is surely arguable that the public opinion poll predicting a comfortable majority for the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) is a tad too early. Firm forecasts are best avoided at this stage. What a few thousand individuals chosen at random might say in January does not necessarily reflect what the people might do in the privacy of the polling booth in April-May. Even so, it is fair to add that even the naked eye can discern the edge that the BJP-led NDA enjoys over the secular alliance that the Congress president, Mrs Sonia Gandhi, is trying to put together, valiantly but belatedly. It must hasten to clarify, however, that it is neither the NDA, with its shifting and rather nebulous composition, nor the BJP, with its mixed and often mixed-up performance, that has endeared itself to the electorate. It is the Prime Minister, Mr Atal Bihari Vajpayee, and he alone who has made both the ruling combination and its core, the saffron party, acceptable to the country. “Advantage Atal” is the principal reality of the political scene today. The reasons for Mr Vajpayee’s pre-eminence and pervasive popularity are too obvious to need recounting in detail. He has shown himself to be a statesman, not a mere politician. He has kept a 24-party coalition going for over five years which is remarkable in this country’s fractious politics since the collapse of the last one-party government, technically in 1996 but actually seven years earlier in 1989 with Rajiv Gandhi’s defeat. Even more important is Mr Vajpayee’s success in keeping the BJP on a course of moderation that has made him a winner even though, in the process, he has often compromised and dissembled, making different speeches to different audiences and trying to be all things to all people. His skilful steering of foreign policy, climaxed by the joint statement he issued along with Pakistan’s president, Gen Pervez Musharraf, that has strengthened the peace process, has added lustre to his record. Contrary to the general impression, Pakistan has had little to do with elections in the country over the last five decades, except during the disgraceful Gujarat assembly elections in December 2002, in the wake of the unspeakable bloodbath in that state. All the subsequent assembly polls have shown that making peace with Pakistan enjoys much greater support than does Pakistan-bashing. No one should belittle Mrs Sonia Gandhi’s efforts to mount a challenge to the coalition led by Mr Vajpayee. She has striven hard to win friends and allies for her single-point agenda of ousting the BJP from power. At considerable cost to herself, she has conceded that there is no pre-determined leader of the secular front which, if victorious in the battle of the ballot, would choose the future Prime Minister after the polls. Shedding her regal aloofness at 10 Janpath, she has gone to the homes of her potential allies, including some who, in earlier times, might not have been granted an audience had they requested it. But her exertions look like producing only limited results, except in Tamil Nadu where her party’s partnership with the DMK, the MDMK and the two Left parties does amount to a formidable combination. In the key state of UP the Congress, bereft of any state leaders of consequence, languishes in the fourth position. It trails behind the Samajwadi Party (SP) of Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav, now the state’s Chief Minister for the third time; the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) led by the mercurial Ms Mayawati; and the BJP. At one time Mr Yadav seemed to be the natural ally of the Congress for he was even louder in denouncing the “communal BJP” for “destroying secularism”. Now, however, his priorities are different. He is determined to fight on his own, with such local allies as he can muster, and decide on which side to join in New Delhi only after the elections are over. In doing so, he has underscored the fundamental fact of Indian political life — that pre-poll alliances are of little significance and the post-poll alliances, with an eye on sharing power and spoils of office, alone matter. As if to reaffirm this, Mr Chandrababu Naidu of the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and Ms Jayalalithaa of the AIADMK in Tamil Nadu have announced that they would support the NDA “from outside” but decide on joining the NDA government only afterwards. These are voices of experience. Over the last five years, Mr Naidu, with 30 Lok Sabha members of his party at his beck and call, had discovered that it was more “rewarding” to support the Vajpayee government from outside than to have two or more Cabinet berths in New Delhi. To revert to Mrs Sonia Gandhi’s problems, the only possible ally in UP she has is Ms Mayawati and, as both the BJP and the SP have discovered to their dismay, any alliance with her cannot but be a double-edged sword. Moreover, the Congress president has been delivered a big blow also by her supposed allies, the Left parties, that continue to talk of two anti-BJP fronts, not one. The Congress’ alliance with the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) is not just ironic because the NCP was formed solely on the issue of Mrs Gandhi’s “foreign origin” and has now split into two on this question. It also creates fresh problems. Confined almost exclusively to Maharashtra and Mr Sharad Pawar, this alliance inhibits the Congress from mobilising its support base in the Vidharba region where the demand for a separate state has been gathering momentum. Mrs Gandhi’s inability to go beyond a promise to appoint a new states’ reorganisation commission could erode her party’s strength without doing any harm to Mr Pawar, whose political interests extend only to Western Maharashtra. Maharashtra Congress leaders are under pressure to hold assembly elections along with those to the Lok Sabha rather than a few months later when they would have to be held anyhow, especially now that the Congress-ruled Karnataka and the BJD-BJP-governed Orissa have opted for simultaneous polls. The reluctance of the Maharashtra Chief Minister, Mr Sushil Kumar Shinde, and his colleagues to accept the idea is generally interpreted as the Congress’ nervousness. On top of this has come Mrs Gandhi’s confused and confusing response to the party’s clamour for drafting her children — daughter Priyanka and son Rahul — into active politics and electioneering. Mr Pramod Mahajan’s tasteless and needless remarks apart, the fact remains that the whole episode has done the Congress no
credit. |
My cup of tea Consequent to the partition of the country, our family moved to Shimla with a brief stopover at a smaller wayside hill station Dagshai that has various versions about the derivation of its name. One is that the Shahi (Royal or King’s) Dak used to be exchanged between the summer capital Simla and Lahore/Delhi, hence Dak-Shahi or Dagshai. The other version is, that hardened criminals used to be imprisoned in the cellular jail and a mark with an indelible ink (Dage Sheahi) used to be put on the forehead so that it remained as a slur (Mathe Par Kalank) for life and it also was an identification lest the prisoner broke open the jail. Hence the name Dagshahi. The jail which is a marvel of a structure is now housing MES Stores. The ASI may like to have a look at this heritage building. The earlier memories of my home was that while the children were forbidden to have any tea as it was considered to be an intoxicant and not good for health, the elders who came from the land of milk and honey (Lahore) taking a cue from the locals gradually developed taste for tea. After every meal a hot cup of tea would be served as a grand finale — a most satisfying beverage for digestive system. All guests — each having a different taste were offered cups full of tea. That’s how one became familiar with Lipton’s Green Label, Lapchu, Orange Peaco, Brooke Bond etc. As I grew up and started venturing out; especially on the first of every month — being a Pay Day — when we two brothers with our mother would have a rendezvous with our father at the Big Ben on The Mall, would stroll down the Lower Bazar and have milk with jalebis at either the shop of Nathu or Mehru Halwai. In one of such togetherness, we met a family friend who insisted that we have a special cup of tea which one and only one shop brewed. My father hesitatingly agreed. While at the shop, I noticed two things. One, that the shop keeper himself prepared the mixture by first grinding cinnamon, cloves, adrak and tea leaves and bringing them to a boil. Two, there hung a board with a bold inscription, “Every Time is Tea Time”. As we moved to Chandigarh, tea remained a beverage, but with mixed doses of squashes and other cold drinks. When I entered high school, drinking tea during exam preparatory days kept me awake at night and provided alertness when I had to wake up early in the morning. That’s when I learnt how to brew tea, my cup of tea. Except in summers, a cup in the forenoon before lunch, afterwards in the evening and at night became a sort of habit. This became more pronounced when I got commissioned in to the infantry unit having troops from Punjab and J&K, for whom a cup of tea was the be all and end all — whether it was hospitality to a friend or foe (Being deployed on the ceasefire line we faced the enemy eyeball to Eyeball) or else during tough marches across some of treacherous terrain and rivers. At times, of course I used to be surprised at being offered tea during scorching heat, until much later in life while exercising in the deserts I came across a dhaba where it was written that GARMION MEIN GARAM CHAI THANDAK PAHUNCHATI HAI (hot tea provides cooling during hot weather). Putting the Shimla hoarding and this in place, tea seems to be the beverage that would continue to rule the roost whereas the colas will come and go. Over a period one has developed a particular taste which when not found creates a real heart burning. Besides taste there was, indeed, much to learn about tea when one was in the Nilgiris, Darjeeling and Assam. The plantations — a miracle of nature, leaf picking, process of crushing, twisting and curling (CTC), blending and above all tasting — pricing and finally auctioning. A planter who once brought a packet of tea stated that this was the most expensive tea. When asked how, he shot back that it was he who had tasted it and fixed its rate. As things stand today, it is no more my helper, maidservant or wife who serve me tea but it is me myself who makes tea both in the morning and in the evening and serves to others. Perhaps this is the price one has to pay for my cup of
tea.
|
Kashmir families divided by LoC
Ninetyfive-year-old Haji Akbar Joo has witnessed many upheavals in life. He has been witness to the tribal invasion on Kashmir in 1947. He has seen the Indian Army’s landing in Kashmir to fight the raiders. Joo has also witnessed the division of Kashmir and the demarcations of Line of Control (LoC). Like others, he too suffered the pangs of the division. His elder son, Khawja Mohammed Younis migrated to Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK) in 1964 and settled there. After nearly 40 years, this old man is bubbling with zeal. Sitting in a concrete house in Garkote, Uri, just 2 km from the LoC, Joo is hoping a reunion with his separated son, thanks to the peace process. “I wish I can live till that moment when I will travel by a Uri-Muzaffarabad bus and meet my son. I pray to Allah to keep me alive till that moment. And if all goes well and the leaders of India and Pakistan are to be believed, then my dream will become a reality soon”, said Joo as his eyes become moist. Joo is not the lone sufferer. His entire family is a victim of the division of Kashmir. Joo’s son Khawaja Mohammed Younis fled to PoK, leaving behind his wife and daughter who have since been living with Joo. Aisha Begum, Khawaja’s daughter, says “I was just five when my father left. My mother did not marry and devoted herself to bringing us up. It has been a tough experience but with the support of my grandfather we did not face many problems. Yet the separation has shaken our inner core. When my marriage ceremony was performed, my grandfather acted as my father. We missed our father terribly. My maternal uncles consoled us. Despite that it was hard to cope with the tragedy”. Weeping in isolation and recalling her good old days, Khawaja’s wife Zoona Begum has too been suffering in silence. For almost 40 years now she has been under this illusion that time will come when the family will meet again. During this course of time she has contracted many diseases. “When he (Khawaja) fled to PoK, I could not cope with the situation. I was suddenly put to test. But soon I thought that I have to live for my children. Though it was very tough and hard, I somehow managed. I can only say the children missed their father badly”, said Zoona. The pain and anguish of separation has left the family shattered. A few years ago when the marriage ceremony of Aisha’s son was being performed, his cousins recited ‘wanwun’ (Kashmiri folklore sung at marriages) and referred to his father and grandfather. Suddenly, there was a silence and within seconds all eyes became moist. The groom left the stage and wept in his compound. It took the elders an hour to bring the situation back to normal. There is intense suffering amongst innumerable families in Kashmir. For Abdul Qayoom of Hatlanga in Uri, his house has never become a home. His whole family, including his mother, brother and uncles crossed to PoK in the early nineties. Even though he has a settled life as a government employee and has children, the separation from his mother and brother has left him shattered. “Whenever I am alone I feel I should jump out, cross over to PoK and meet my mother and brother. This pain of separation is killing me and my family”, laments Qayoom. Thirteen long years have passed and Qayoom has had no contact with his mother and other members living in PoK. “Now we have learnt that the road between Uri and Muzaffarabad will be reopened. I have a wish to meet my mother once in my lifetime”, he said wistfully, but wondered whether the governments of India and Pakistan will relax the visa rules? “We have learnt that earlier when this road was open, there was a permit system which allowed special permission to people who wished to meet their relations across LoC. This system needs to be reestablished . Otherwise if there are tough visa rules, then the bus service and the reopening of the road will be purposeless”, he said. Mir Abdul Aziz (70) of Dardkote village of Uri cherishes a last wish of meeting his two sisters and nephews who migrated to PoK in 1947. Since then he has seen them only twice in 1983 and 1987 when he travelled through Wagah on a valid yisa “I could not resist the separation and decided to visit PoK. I sold three kanals of land for meeting my travelling expenses. And when I met my sisters, it was a dream come true”, he reminisces. Over these years, however he has grown weak financially and is unable to bear the expenditure of travelling to PoK anymore. His only hope now is Uri-Muzaffarabad road. “I pray five times daily and every time I pray to Allah that peace should return and this road should be reopened. Let the people at the helm of affairs realise our pain and agony and allow us to meet our separated members. What sin have we committed? We are victims of circumstances”, Mir says, looking quite lost. It is not Qayoom, Joo or Zoona alone who are suffering; every family in the Valley has a tragic tale to tell. Hundreds of families are suffering in silence. The hostilities of the two countries have left their lives shattered. They are the real victims of the Indo-Pak confrontation. They bear the brunt of tension between the two countries and they are the ones who crave for peace and yearn for brotherhood the most. In this bleak situation, the ceasefire by the Indian and Pakistani armies heralding the promise of peace, has rekindled hopes of a reunion with their separated ones. They see a silver lining and face the future with optimism . For them, the New Year brings hopes, desires, dreams and aspirations . A year which they keenly feel will prove to be a turning point in the history of Kashmir and will bring them a bouquet of happiness. |
|
FROM PAKISTAN ISLAMABAD: The Pakistani government has ordered to detain four Pakistani scientists for three months who were accused to have given nuclear weapons technology to other countries. The order is implementable since January 31 of the current year, said a report on Tuesday. The orders of detention of the four under investigation scientists was issued in consonance with the Security of Pakistan Act 1952, Sub-clause B of Section 3, according to the Interior Ministry. The scientists who have been issued the orders included Dr Farooq, Dr Nazir Ahmed, Brigadier (R) Sajawal and Major (R ) Islam-ul-Haq.
— The News International
Human rights for American
ISLAMABAD: Human rights can be a tough job in Pakistan these days if you happen to be an American. After the US campaign in Afghanistan and Iraq, the last thing that people in this part of the world want to listen to from an American is a lecture on human rights. Somehow, Mr Brad Adams, executive director for the Asia division at the New York-based Human Rights Watch, does not fit into this scenario. He is an American and yet, metaphorically speaking, a different kind of American. In an interview with Dawn during his short stay in Islamabad last week, he was critical of the state of human rights in Pakistan, the role of the military in hanging on to power, the hidden and not-so-hidden curbs on the Press, the silencing of politicians and the pressures confronted by the judiciary. But, in the same breath, Mr Adams was equally critical of the US for its mistreatment of prisoners in Guantanamo Bay, bombing civilians in Afghanistan, and letting President George Bush undermine the rule of law in the US.
— Dawn
Restricted from
collecting hides
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has put the police on high alert and barred the banned extremist outfits from collecting hides of sacrificial animals during the festival of Eid al-Azha to prevent them from raising funds. Collection of hides also comes under fund-raising activity, and that is why the government has restricted the banned outfits under the country's anti-terrorism law, an official requesting anonymity said. Other organisations and charities will have to seek government permission for the collection of hides. People usually donate hides to charities, mosques and seminaries after slaughtering goats, sheep, bulls and camels.
— The News International
Ex-PMs speak against tyranny
ISLAMABAD: Former Prime Ministers Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif in separate messages regretted that Eid was celebrated amid growing poverty,
unemployment, lawlessness and price hike. They urged the Pakistanis to fight against what they called "tyrannical forces and dictatorship" and for the restoration of the Constitution and supremacy of parliament. They said the only way to pull Pakistan out of its present difficulties lay in stepping up struggle for the restoration of the Constitution, rule of law and the supremacy of parliament.
— Dawn
|
Still your mind in me, still your intellect in me, and without doubt you will be united with me forever. If you cannot still your mind in me, learn to do so through the regular practice of meditation. — Shri Krishna (Bhagavad Gita) Come now, my Love, Even the Guru pleads for me. — Guru Nanak God cannot be seen so long as there is the slightest taint of desire. Therefore have your minor desires satisfied, and renounce the major ones through right reasoning and discrimination. — Shri Ramakrishna It is the level-headed man, the calm man, of good judgement and cool nerves, of great sympathy and love, who does good work and so does good to himself. — Swami Vivekananda As you smell the fragrance of a flower while handling it or the smell of sandalwood while rubbing it against a stone, so you obtain spiritual awakening by constantly thinking of God. If you become desireless you can realise Him right now. — Sarada Devi |
| 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 | |
