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Cricket spring It's President vs
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India spending
Forget the LTTE
issue
Daughters of Eve
Historical monuments
still unprotected Delhi
Durbar
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Cricket spring CRICKET enthusiasts in the subcontinent have reason to be happy over the signs that the Indian cricket team's six-week tour of Pakistan beginning next month is on. Though a final decision will be taken only after the Board of Control for Cricket in India team now in Pakistan visits all the six stadiums in six towns, it has indicated its satisfaction with the security arrangements made so far. On his part, Captain Saurab Ganguly has denied reports that he was skeptical about the visit in view of the threat terrorists pose to him and his teammates. Of course, the threat is not something to be scoffed at, a point underscored by the concern expressed by the Home Ministry and the fact that the government is still in two minds on clearing the tour. The recent terrorist attacks on the Pakistan President, General Pervez Musharraf, show the clout and reach of the malcontents in the Pakistani society. Nothing would please the terrorists more than the cancellation of the tour, which they could interpret as their victory. This itself is enough of a reason to persist with the schedule. The challenge is more to the Pakistan Government, which has to prove that it is capable of making foolproof arrangements for the success of the tour. It is for Islamabad to decide whether the matches should be held at Peshawar and Karachi, the two venues about which India has expressed some reservations. It is true that the recent SAARC summit at Islamabad was held in a flawless manner. But then, the summit was held in a small, sanitized area where security arrangements were the toughest ever attempted. It is not possible to make similar arrangements as the team will be playing in different towns with thousands of people watching their performance. The tour poses one of the biggest security challenges for the Pakistan government as the whole world will be watching how it copes with the problem. A successful culmination of the tour will be a signal achievement for peace lovers on both sides of the border. The bonhomie that exists between the two countries following the series of measures India took, including Prime Minister A.B. Vajpayee's visit to Islamabad, will get a further boost if Ganguly and team are able to play without any fear of violence. It is worth picking up the challenge. |
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It's President vs PM The war of attrition between Sri Lankan President Chandrika Kumaratunga and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe is getting worse day by day. The peace process that began with the signing of a ceasefire agreement with the LTTE seems to have been given a back seat. Mrs Kumaratunga struck hard against her principal political adversary, Mr Wickremesinghe, when she dissolved Parliament on February 7, four years ahead of its six-year term, and announced fresh elections, to be held on April 2. She exercised her constitutional powers in a similar way again on Wednesday by sacking 39 junior ministers, obviously with a view to preventing them from misusing the official machinery in the run-up to the poll. But a few hours before issuing the proclamation for House dissolution she had appointed two ministers to help her in running the Communications Ministry, which she took over, besides the Ministries of Defence and Interior, last November. Apparently, the President is being smarter than the Prime Minister. Mrs Kumaratunga and Mr Wickremesinghe had been pulling along somehow till she realized last year that her Prime Minister was expanding his support base by striking a peace deal with the LTTE. She charged him with yielding too much, ignoring national interest. May be, she was right, but she did not stop at that. She took over the three key ministries, precipitating a crisis in a country yearning for peace. But she has been stating that she will do all she can to keep the ceasefire intact. Her proposed formation of a truce implementation committee should be seen as a step in that direction. It is a welcome idea to defend her position on the ceasefire issue. But she may find it difficult to justify the third parliamentary elections in four years in a country facing an acute shortage of funds. Mr Wickremesinghe too will have a lot of explaining to do before the electorate with regard to the deal he struck with the Tigers, leading to the present crisis which could have been avoided if only the President and the Prime Minister had friendlier relations. |
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India spending Two things have happened after February 6. One, India has been put in election mode. Two, the ad campaigns have picked up breath-taking speed. Everyone who is anyone in the corridors of power at the Centre is running like mad with all manner of publicity material to the nearest media outlet. This is one race that will end only after the Chief Election Commissioner blows the whistle to announce the beginning of the great contest. The lavish spending of public funds has made India shine. A special meeting of the Central ministries was held recently for chalking out an action plan for keeping India Shining before the CEC throws the model code of conduct at them. They have decided to adopt what can be called the Massey Sahib formula. Raghuvir Yadav, who played Massey Sahib in the film, should be invited to fine-tune what he kept calling the "from here, there" technique for coping with the shortage of funds. Under the "here, there" scheme the departments would raise Rs 48 crore for publicity. The grin on the faces of the ad managers and private
TV channel honchos suggests that India is shining brighter for corporate India. Indian politics is strange business. What makes one political party "feel good" makes the rivals "feel bad". The killjoys may have a point when they say that what is being advertised as "feel good" should appropriately be called the "feed good" factor. The Karnataka Chief Minister is clever. Instead of grumbling, he has decided to join the India Shining show. He will spend Rs 10 crore on blowing Karnataka's bugle, because India can only shine through the achievements of its constituent states. Flawless logic that. |
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Happiness is no laughing matter. — Richard Whately |
Forget the LTTE issue There is nothing really notable about the reported reactions to the alliance between the Congress and the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) in Tamil Nadu. The development has elicited predictable comments on its irony or, from its opponents, on its apparently unprincipled character. What has gone unnoticed is the non-reaction from the public in the state as well as in the rest of the nation. What the alliance signifies is that the LTTE has virtually ceased to be an internal political issue in this country. And, regardless of the merits of the alliance, it is good riddance to an issue that has done no good to Tamil Nadu and Indian politics. That it has become a non-issue is clear from the non-reaction. The Prime Minister did come up with a comment on the “unprincipled” alliance. He, however, could only point to the contradiction between the past stand of the Congress about the DMK’s involvement with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, accused of Rajiv Gandhi’s assassination, and the present alliance. This was only technically “unprincipled”. Mr Atal Bihari Vajpayee would have portrayed it as truly unprincipled, if he could have called it a Congress pact with a party of dangerous external connections. He could not do so after running a government with DMK participation for years, as Mr M. Karunanidhi reminded him. There the matter ended at the national level, for now. The point may be made again during the poll campaign, but is unlikely to make an impact. Even more striking is the all-round silence on this aspect of the alliance in Tamil Nadu. Some might have expected Ms J. Jayalalithaa and her All-India Anna DMK and its apologists to condemn the alliance by crying Tiger. The Chief Minister may revert to the issue in the immediate run-up to the election, but it won’t then seem anything as outraged as an instant reaction would have sounded. Even Mr Cho Ramaswamy, ever the enthusiastic supporter of the AIADMK leader’s extreme harshness against what both consider “extremism”, has yet to assail the alliance from this particular viewpoint. On the face of it, the LTTE issue has been revived by the 19-month-long incarceration of Mr. V. Gopalasamy (alias Vaiko) of the Marumalarchi DMK. In reality, his punishment for speaking in the LTTE’s support has raised a debate, not about Eelam, but only about the Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA). The MDMK, part of the DMK-headed poll front now, is not going to be a party-spoiler and do special pleading for the LTTE in this election campaign. In his series of public statements after his release on bail, Mr Vaiko has not mentioned the LTTE even once. All this is to be welcomed because the imported issue has done much internal harm. Talking of Tamil Nadu first, it is not as if the Eelam-LTTE issue
has brought out the worst only in Ms Jayalalithaa. The Eelam politics of the eighties threatened to engulf entire Tamil Nadu in an ideological extremism with practically no place for any other political issue. It was M. G. Ramachandran, founder of the AIADMK, who gave the LTTE much more than a foothold in the state in early 1984. (The Tigers’ prior acquisition of a foothold itself was the result of a Central folly.) The story of MGR giving the Tigers Rs 2 crore and their drive to the bank under police escort sounds like a film script, but was true. Ms Jayalalithaa, then the party’s Propaganda Secretary, followed up with fervent tributes to the Tigers. The MGR-LTTE relations cooled with the Centre showing increasing impatience with the Tigers. This was the cue for the DMK to launch a pro-Eelam campaign that fitted into a familiar Dravidian political package. The two main ingredients of the package were: an emotive anti-Centre-ism and Tamil chauvinism of a particularly perverse kind. Mr Karunanidhi, who had hitherto shown a preference for the Tamil Eelam Liberation Organisation (TELO), began to wax eloquent about the Tigers as warriors for a pan-Tamil cause. I covered the eruption of the Eelam politics for a New Delhi daily in August 1984, and reported on a DMK-led front planning a massive agitation with a sharp anti-Centre thrust on the Sri Lankan Tamil issue and preparing for it with rank-chauvinist rhetoric in rather unexpected company. The agitation was to be joined by Mr S. D. Somasundaram, a minister in the MGR Cabinet, revolting against MGR and Ms Jayalalithaa. Mr P. Nedumaran, now the chief of the Tamil Nationalist Party and the tallest pro-Eelam politician, was then the leader of the Tamil Nadu Kamaraj Congress. He told me: “MGR has failed to convey the mood of the Tamil people to the Centre. He is creating an illusion that the Tamils support the Centre on the issue.” Mr Somasundaram asserted that “the Centre is not doing enough and the state government cannot be relied upon to do much”. The DMK was less restrained, some of its fronts went berserk bemoaning the alleged “betrayal” of the Tamils. The DMK was to be found in even more unexpected company than an AIADMK faction. In my report then, I found it “a strange spectacle” that the DMK, “revelling so far in the image of a rebel against the Hindu society”, took on “the role of a defender of Hinduism against the Buddhist onslaught”. Mr Karunanidhi shared a public platform with saffron-clad Arunagiri Adigal, who whipped out a gun and declared a war on the Sinhalese. DMK legislator Nanjil Manoharan told a public meeting: “I wish to inform Mrs Indira Gandhi that DMK men will march as part of the invading army”, if the Centre accepted the demand for direct Indian military intervention in Sri Lanka on the side of Tamils or, in the context, the Tigers. An even stranger sight was of “the Dravida Kazhagam (DK) claiming to be the true inheritor of iconoclast E. V. Ramawamy Naicker’s mantle but making common cause with the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) in the State”. The propaganda literature of the latter two featured such startling titles as “India’s right to annex Sri Lanka” and “Hinduism alone is the Tamil religion”. The national-level Dravidian-Hindutva alliance of decades later, which continues to intrigue some, was foreshadowed in those distant days. The impact of the Eelam package within Tamil Nadu was evident when a series of 55 bomb blasts in a two-month period up to the end of January 1987 marked the import of explosives into the Dravidian-dominated politics.. In 1987, too, came India’s military intervention in Sri Lanka. The LTTE issue then became a handy weapon for those willing to wield it regardless of its relevance. The issue was carried to the point of destabilising the Centre, when the M. C. Jain Commission report of 1997 on Rajiv Gandhi’s assassination was used by the Congress to pull down the I. K. Gujral government. The next most notable misuse of the issue occurred in 2002 when the AIADMK government threw Mr Gopalasamy, Mr Nedumaran and others in jail. Significantly, the Jayalalithaa strike served, not to revive the LTTE question, but only to raise the POTA issue in a remarkably effective manner. The LTTE issue was never raised as a foreign policy issue. It was a foreign issue, sought to be converted into an internal one in the state and at the national level. It is good that the absurd attempt, which could only have unhealthy consequences for the polity, is being abandoned at
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Daughters of Eve We were chatting over a cup of coffee, when our attention was drawn towards a couple engaged in close conversation. By no stretch of imagination, did they look made-for-each-other. The man was strikingly handsome and fair. The woman (read wife) extra-ordinary! A friend remarked, “Swan and crow.” Another, “After all, what did he see in her?” I enjoined, “The same thing Edward VIII of England saw in thrice-divorced Wallis Simpson and abdicated the throne.” Charm is the word. Charm is the key which unlocks the heart of a stony man. This is the quality which enables an ordinary woman to wrap an extraordinary man round her middle finger. It is the power to fascinate. It is often confused with good looks. Women who think that good looks and charm are the same need to be reminded of dolls whose faces are lovelier than living women, yet no man has ever fallen in love with them! It is an elusive, indefinable quality like warmth in fire, fragrance in a flower and radiance in a jewel. It enhances beauty. It can make the old appear young, the ugly look beautiful. It is the surest weapon of women who make men fall in love with them. Charm comes naturally to a woman and grows directly out of her personality. Charm imitated is charm adulterated. Once, after a heavy monsoon shower, I was trapped near a slushy road. A lady driving a car went out of her way to avoid splashing mud on me. Often you have heard one woman saying to another, “She is a colourful personality. What is her secret?” A vivid mind interested in people and a lively imagination. Such a mind is not the prerogative of a few. You can make your mind bright and sharp like the stainless steel in kitchen by removing the scars of useless regrets, envy, grudges and emotional upsets. You can make the mirror of your mind radiant by rubbing away the haze of unclear ideas. You possess talents. You have to bring them to surface to brighten your mind to let the founts of inspiration play. They open the romantic avenues of a winsome personality. You have admired and applauded the charming lady who entertains others by singing. Why not let others applaud? Most women are not replicas of Venus. Every woman is not the silvery twinkle-twinkle like the late Madhubala. Nor is everyone doe-eyed like Aishwarya Rai. Very few have the wiggle of a Madhuri Dixit. But every woman, under the skin, is daughter of Eve. That’s charm enough. Only some know how to exude it.
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Historical monuments still unprotected
You
go anywhere in the country — be it the exquisite palaces and forts in
Rajasthan, the fragile rocks in Manali, the run-down forts and havelis
in Delhi, Madhya
Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh or Maharashtra, or the Hampi site in Karnataka
— all bear testimony to human or/and corporate vandalism. This is our national heritage, but how concerned are we to protect and preserve the pristine glory of our past? On visiting most of the historical sites in the country, the assertion of self, or of one’s love, in the form of graffiti, painting of advertisements or the paan peek thrown casually all along the corners or walls of monuments are as visible as the monument itself. But this destruction of national heritage certainly does not stir the national, or for that matter, self-consciousness. Personal possessions get well looked after, but everything else that cannot be possessed gets destroyed. One would fence one’s garden, not allow even one’s own children to spoil flower-beds, or uproot saplings, but a public garden is for having fun. Or a simple scratch on your shining car while manipulating through traffic is enough to give you sleepless nights, but the “Ashok-loves- Pinki” kind of graffiti painted all over historic monuments rarely makes you bat an eye-lid. In Rajasthan the breath-taking mosaics on the walls of palaces and forts in Jaipur, Udaipur and Jodhpur, or the mirror inlay work, which has a dazzling effect on lighting a single match stick, are getting spoiled. These monuments, which attract hundreds of thousands of foreign tourists each year, and leave them spell bound with their magnificence, are a scene of years of neglect by the Archaeology Department. Most of these “protected” monuments, which did not fall to the enemy, or the vagaries of nature, are now becoming victims of vandals. Though the boards put up by the Archaeology Department at these monuments clearly say that a fine of Rs 5,000 and a punishment would be awarded to those found defacing the structures, the actual cases of imposing punishment or fine are hard to find. The shortage of staff with the Archaeology Department to keep a check on tourists is one of the main reasons for this human vandalism going unchecked. The “rape of the rocks” at Manali by corporates, which had damaged the ecologically sensitive rocks on the Manali-Rohtang highway by painting their advertisements, had moved the apex court to ensure that the ecological damage was undone. A similar effort on the part of the judiciary is needed to ensure that these pieces of our heritage are restored to their original glory. The near destruction of archaeologically significant sites, dating back to the Mahabharata period in hamlets in the lower Shivaliks is another example. Though important discoveries of archaeological interest have been made in the Morni Hills-Pinjore-Nalagarh-Kalka belt, but no one seems interested in preserving the heritage, which also includes over 300
boulis (ponds believed to have been dug by Bhima for Draupadi) located in and around Panchkula. Five important archaeological sites, dating back to the ancient and medieval periods, have been discovered in this region. While two sites — at Ratthpur and the Bhima Devi temple in Pinjore — were discovered in 1974, another ancient site was discovered in Mandana in 1986. Inhabitants of Morni also found certain ancient stone pillars in Tikkar Taal in 1992, which are believed to belong to the Gupta period. Two years ago the remains of an ancient temple built in the panchayatan style were discovered by villagers on the outskirts of Rampur Jangi village, near Pinjore. The temple was excavated three feet below the ground when villagers were digging to lay the foundation stone for a new temple. The excavations found dismantled pieces of what appears to be the main gate as well as pillars of the temple, which is similar to the 9th century Bhima Devi temple excavated in Pinjore. The excavated parts of this temple included stone pillars, carvings and statues of apsaras and five copper pots. Archaeologists are of the view that both these temples could have been built between the 8th and 12th centuries. It was during that time that the art of iconography had come of age. The stones, found in the region, most likely formed the outer walls of temples. These have beautiful carvings, which have traces of Gandharba art. In fact, the images of gods, goddesses, apsaras, etc, excavated are quite similar to those found in the Khajuraho temple in Madhya Pradesh and the Konark temple in Orissa. Now these columns of stone form the outer walls of houses in and around Pinjore and Morni. |
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Delhi
Durbar Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee has singled out Defence Minister and NDA convener George Fernandes for his untiring efforts in removing the rough edges and ensuring the smooth functioning of the disparate coglomeration. Vajpayee made these observations both at the recent meeting of the NDA, which had in its ranks members of Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa’s AIADMK and that of the BJP parliamentary party. Fernandes felt genuinely touched by Vajpayee’s observations. Fernandes has been the real trouble-shooter for Vajpayee and in enlarging the base of anti-Congressism. After the DMK made its exit from the NDA, it was only a question of time that the BJP-led NDA hitched its bandwagon with the AIADMK in Tamil Nadu. And in achieving this, the role of Fernandes cannot be undermined as he has been meeting Ms Jayalalithaa during his visits to Chennai. Vajpayee back to Lucknow Despite some trepidation in certain quarters, the Prime Minister has reaffirmed that he will contest from Lucknow, thereby brushing aside suggestions of choosing another constituency in the coming general election. A book release function earlier this week at the Prime Minister’s official residence sealed the issue. Senior leaders of the UP BJP unit and Vajpayee’s campaign managers got the thumbs-up signal in no uncertain terms. On his part, the Prime Minister has been visiting Lucknow at
least once in two months and has also held discussions with the Muslim community and clergy in the city of Nawabs. Even in the Prime Minister’s Office there are two officers keeping a hawk’s eye on the affairs and developments in Uttar Pradesh. Narasimha Rao
from Orissa? There is intense talk in political circles that former Prime Minister P V Narasimha Rao is actively considering contesting for the Lok Sabha from Berhampore in Orissa rather than the backward Ramtek in Maharashtra or his home state of Andhra Pradesh. Rao, of course, is keeping his cards close to his chest and unwilling to make any comments. It is apparent Rao will like to assess how the political environment develops in the run-up to the elections. In the meantime, NCP leader Purno A Sangma is in close touch with Rao as the former considers the latter his political guru. Sangma has his hands full after parting ways with the Maratha strongman Sharad Pawar and claiming to be the real inheritor of the Nationalist Congress party. Caught on the
wrong foot Janata Dal (United) General Secretary Shiv Kumar is compelled to follow the medical advice of 21 days’ rest after fracturing his right foot. Shiv Kumar was entrusted the charge of spokesperson of the Janata Dal (United) in January. With his leg in a cast, he is forced to stay away from public functions by party President and NDA convener George Fernandes. He tripped while stepping out of Mr Fernandes’ residence and is now managing the affairs of the party over the telephone. Perhaps this forced rest will give him the much-needed energy for the ensuing Lok Sabha elections. Hailing from UP, he is eyeing contesting the general election from the country’s most populous state. Contributed by T R Ramachandran, Satish Misra and Tripti Nath. |
Let there be births as a human being, as a god, as a mountain, or forest-animal, as a mosquito, cow or worm, as a bird or as any other. If the heart, here, is ever given to sporting in the flood of supreme bliss
consisting of the contemplation of Thy lotus-feet, what does it matter in which body one is born? — Shri Adi Shankaracharya My mind is the scales, consciousness the weights and Your service the reckoner. I weigh You with them, my Lord, within my heart; and thus keep my mind from its wanderings. — Guru Nanak We are to imbibe in ourselves courage and steadfastness. We are absolutely sure that no power on earth can harm us. When we are determined and dedicated to do good to all, nobody can do anything to us. — Nirankari Baba
Hardev Singh Mankind without kindness would be just another biological species. It is this inherent trait in man which renders his species divine. — Swami A. Parthasarathy Be more prompt to go to a friend in adversity than in prosperity. — Chilo |
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