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ON RECORD How US fabricates grounds for going to war in Iraq |
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COMMENTS UNKEMPT DIVERSITIES — DELHI
LETTER
PROFILE
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ON RECORD
COMMUNIST Party of India General Secretary A.B. Bardhan is amused by the BJP’s claim of returning to power by winning a two-thirds majority in the ensuing Lok Sabha elections as, according to him, ground realities point to the contrary. In an exclusive interview to The Tribune, he dismissed the "feel-good" factor as a big propaganda hoax. Excerpts: Q: Will the BJP’s claim of "feel-good" factor help it tremendously? A: Most people do not feel good. Does the farmer, who has been hit very hard, feel good? Recently, they heaved a sigh of relief because of good rains. Mr Atal Bihari Vajpayee cannot claim credit for good monsoon. Do workers, who have been thrown out of jobs, feel good? Can crores of unemployed youth afford to feel good? So it is a big propaganda hoax at government expense. Q: The BJP talks of winning 300 Lok Sabha seats. Any comments? A: It is BJP President M. Venkaiah Naidu’s day-dream. The BJP cannot even retain even its present strength of 180 seats. Q: Not even retain...? A: My assertion is based on state-wise analysis. They are going to be reduced in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. They would lose a couple of seats or more in Delhi. They would now have no seats in Haryana. As regards Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, the BJP got the maximum in the last Lok Sabha elections. There is no scope for increasing the tally further. How can they increase the NDA tally in Andhra Pradesh where the BJP, with its ally Telugu Desam Party, had won almost 36 out of the 42 seats in the last general elections? In the North East, they can hope to increase their seats by five or six as the Union Home Ministry had offered concessions to certain insurgent groups on the condition that they should help the BJP to win the Lok Sabha seats. There are 25 seats in the region. Q: Don’t you find contradictions in the secular alliance being formed in some states and the same parties fighting elsewhere? A: In West Bengal and Kerala, we would not provide political space to the BJP even if we have to fight against each other. Q: What about Tamil Nadu where a secular alliance led by the DMK has been formed? The BJP claims that it will sweep the elections along with the AIADMK. A: Sweep? Even when the AIADMK was together with the PMK, the MDMK and the BJP in the 1998 elections, the DMK had won 11 seats and the Congress two. Among those who were with Jayalalithaa and had helped her win were the PMK and the MDMK, who are on the other side now, ask me who is left now to help Ms Jayalalithaa and the BJP to win seats? Mr Karunanidhi made adjustments with everybody. Of the 40 seats in Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry, he has kept only 15 seats for himself and the remaining 25 have been distributed among others. He had won 11 last time. The DMK-led front is bound to be successful. If any front is cracking up it is the NDA. The NDAmansion was built on 24 pillars, eight of which have already collapsed during the last two months — the NC, the RLD, the Lok Janshakti Party, the PMK, the MDMK, the DMK, the BSP and the INLD. Each one of them had a number of MPs who are capable of getting re-elected again. So, the NDA’s strength has already been reduced. The other secular alliance is coming together now. Even if the secular forces form an alliance in 7-8 states, it will make a difference. In Maharashtra, the Congress and the NCP had fought against each other last time but now they are together. Q: Where would the CPI be in Maharashtra? A: The CPI, the CPM, the Janata Dal (S), the Republicans are having a separate front. I am being told that the Samajwadi Party is also coming to the front. This front already has two MPs; it may increase its number by 3 to 5, increasing the tally of the secular alliance as this front would not extend support to the NDA. Q: What about the foreign origin issue? A: As the BJP is raking up the issue, they have no other agenda and are not confident of other issues. If they are so sure of their performance, why do they have to resort to such cheap tricks? When a foreign woman marries a resident of this country, she also becomes an Indian. At least in India, lakhs of young people have gone abroad to study or work in the US or for training in some other country and brought back foreign wives who became Indians during their course of their stay. Ordinarily, they don't become Prime Ministers, but what about Indians abroad who have become Prime Ministers in countries like Fiji, Mauritius, Surinam or Guyana where Chhedi Jagan became the President? We take pride in it. The foreign origin is a non-issue. Q: What about UP where the BJP wants a four-cornered contest? A: The plight of the BJP can be understood. Because, if the SP, the BSP, the Left and the Congress came together, the BJP would be finished in UP. Even so the SP is going to increase its tally. Similarly, the BSP and the Congress are also going to increase their seats. The BJP’s panic is reflected in the fact that the man who had strongly criticised Vajpayee and Advani as also charged Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi as conspirators in the Babri Masjid demolition case has been wooed back. This is a sign of panic. The BJP leaders are clutching to even straw. Q: Is the BSP under pressure from the BJP and the NDA not to align with the Congress? A: I think there is some pressure on Mayawati, but she is firm on fighting the BJP which has hurt her the most. Q: Is the Taj Corridor case being used to pressurise Mayawati? A: The BJP is capable of doing that. Q: Why is the Congress being accused of perpetuating dynastic rule by bringing in Rahul and Priyanka into politics? A: Well, the accusation of dynastic rule in not new to the Congress. But it is not the only family. If sons and daughters of others work their way up on merit, how can one object to it? But then, for the BJP to raise it is strange. It is in alliance with the TDP and the BJD. In the BJP, the rise of Vasundhara Raje as Rajasthan Chief Minister is only because she is the daughter of Vijayaraje Scindia. Q: Will the entry of Rahul and Priyanka help the Congress? A: Ask the Congress leaders. Q: Will the BJP strike a post-poll alliance with the NCP, the SP or the BSP, thus enabling a weakened NDA led by Vajpayee to retain power? A:
These are speculations in which journalists indulge. |
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How US fabricates grounds for going to war in Iraq DISHONEST deceptions and misrepresentations are fundamental to American foreign policy. Bald-faced lying, stonewalling, obfuscating or fabricating intelligence has finally landed Bush and Blair in an embarrassing conundrum. The probe ordered by Bush into the intelligence report on the existence of weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) is a step towards the appeasement of the electorate before the US elections. The manufacturing of pretexts for going to war has been integral to the strategies of various governments throughout history. Secretary of State Colin Powell put his case before the Security Council to demonstrate evidence through satellite reconnaissance blow-ups of the existence of WMDs much in the same way that intelligence agencies had tried to convince the Congress in the Cuban crisis about the existence of Russian nuclear missiles in Cuba. Interestingly, General Powell tactfully placed Director of Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) George Trent, on the chair behind him in the televised proceedings to lend authenticity to the reports on military pile-up in Iraq which was of extreme danger to Americans and the rest of the world. An interesting case in this campaign of misinformation is the role played by Saddam’s son-in-law Hussein Kamel who had been for years in-charge of Iran’s nuclear and biological programmes. Owing to differences with Saddam, he had escaped to Jordan with tonnes of evidence to use against Saddam to bring about his ouster. But when he saw that his plan was not viable, he returned to Iraq to make up with Saddam, who instead had him executed. All the evidence engineered by the West was said to have been gathered from Hussein Kamel. What had not been revealed was the fact that he, to quote him, had repeatedly emphasised that “all weapons — biological, chemical, missile and nuclear — were destroyed.” The CIA and M16 together decided to keep this a secret and not divulge it. The Cambridge expert on Middle East Affairs, Glen Rangwala, had obtained Kamel’s statements from UN sources and were a compelling evidence of the real truth. But Powell adamantly put forward his case through the satellite photographs: “Look at the image on the left. On the left is a close-up of one of the four chemical bunkers…The truck you also see is a signature item. It’s a decontamination vehicle in case something goes wrong.” He further pointed out that the UN team arrived on the scene after the signature trucks had disappeared because of a “tip off to the forthcoming inspections.” This testimony was completely countered by Hans Blix, the UN weapons inspector who asserted: “In no case have we seen convincing evidence that the Iraqi side knew in advance that the inspectors were coming.” President Bush and Vice President Cheney went on to support the case against Iraq, often arguing that Iraq had in the recent past produced four tonnes of the deadly nerve agent VX. They, together with Powell, complimented the British Intelligence for their information on the concealment of weapons by Saddam. But unfortunately for Powell and others, the British Government, on a tip off from the Cambridge scholar, issued a statement that the document that Powell had praised actually was a plagiarism from articles published many years before in Jane’s Intelligence Review. But there was nothing to stop Powell. He fell back on the letters written between Iraq and Niger concerning the supply of uranium to Iraq. But on later investigation by experts from the International Atomic Energy Agency it has been proved that all the letters were fabricated and bore the signatures of people who were never in office. And then, for face-saving, Bush and Powell could only cook up the clandestine relationship between Iraq and Al-Qaeda. This was first denied by CIA Director George Tent, who then suddenly reversed his report and argued that there was sufficient evidence of the connection. Powell’s integrity had been rudely compromised, and it became known that a handful of officers in the Defence Department at the behest of Paul Wolfowitz had manufactured the report on WMDs and then convinced the President and his team. Apparently, all intelligence reports of the CIA were not in keeping with the government’s projected aim of carrying out the invasion. Thus a group of outsiders were given the assignment to concoct the intelligence information. It is important to keep in mind that the President is usually not passed on false information, especially when he is going to use it in his address to the nation. Clearly, the high-ups wanted such a manufactured intelligence report as it suited their agenda. It is a clear-cut case of a national fraud, not only against the Congress, but against all the people of America. And finally, the argument that democracy is the only path to national success and dignity in the Middle East was as flimsy. This is political rhetoric and a way of convincing the Americans that the military presence in Iraq has a noble cause. In reality, the idea of democracy is based on the American version, an idea that compels the rest of the world to tow the American line. For these series of “true lies”, only an impeachment can redeem the American democratic system and make the public aware of the habitual official lying of the American leadership with endless war and permanent military domination that can bring in its wake nothing but economic bankruptcy. The Americans always have what they call preventive war (read aggression) in their pocket and use it anytime they feel like. The national security strategy is a declaration saying that the US must dominate the world by force if necessary and that it reserves the right to prevent any potential challenge to its domination by the use of military force if necessary. Those who sought domination or hegemony, says Chomsky, often did so “at their own severe risk. Look at the history of warfare. You’ll find that those who started wars often were defeated and sometimes devastatingly defeated.” And those who lie never succeed in their masquerade for long. The writer is Professor, Department of English, Panjab University, Chandigarh |
COMMENTS UNKEMPT RIGHT upto the elections there’ll be the long haul of heart-massaging messages over television, the glossy weeklies, radio and reams and reams of newsprint. Ever more comfortable and kinetic cars; bathrooms that entice you to spend whole days inside; clothes for sports, or beauty contests putting well dressed male opponents like James Bond on the alert; arrays of personal computers, satellite phones, DVDs and other electronic companions; and, for women, some 42 brands of shampoos without which life seems an empty dream. Taken with the wheedling analysis of the leading parties’ tame spokespersons things would seem to be looking up for the families of both rural and city families, for Scheduled Caste people and also for people from tribes. But then take our repetitive President who is bonded to the unfailing reminder that 250 million Indians hang from the poverty line and go to bed hungry every night. The underlining conviction seems to be that if the hanging line just rises one micromillimetre above the poverty line things would instantly brighten for that embattled 250 million. What is puzzling is that other observers looking at the same scene come to different conclusions. The National Sample Survey, for instance, looking at five groups of poor people like the Scheduled Castes and Tribes and OBCs other than those in the Hindu and non-Scheduled Tribe hierarchy, see that there is a distinct worsening of life. Put simply it would seem to those professional observers that, even among the poor, life is getting marginally better for those at the top of the pile while those below are slipping further down. So those waving from the decks of luxury cruise liners sailing them, port-hopping, through idyllic resorts or from others working out in health clubs and gym like surroundings and gourmanding there are not O.K. right all the way through. Then there are groups landed with the rough end of the sticks. A recent study by a woman scholar shows the Indian Muslims (130 million of them) have a lot of poverty principally among the 65 million women, mostly illiterate. Muslim society need to address itself to specific grievances. For instance, the Muslim laws governing marriage, divorce and inheritance cry out to be codified. An intelligible compendium should be prepared which ordinary people can understand and can grasp. For Muslim women, the work participation rate in India is as low as 10 per cent to the all India average of 18 per cent (not a figure by itself to be applauded). When we talk about Indians as a whole the specific backwardness of groups like the Muslims and the STs has to be looked straight in the face. Elections could be made powerful instruments for people to have an interaction with reality, not fantasy, even if only for three months or so. Strong, no nonsense public servants like Seshan and Lyngdoh could protect, to some extent, the squandering of taxpayers’ money or the slush funds of wily corporations. The media could strengthen the arm of such public servants but are not really equipped or so minded. They can reveal that political leaders have used government aircraft for campaigning but they seldom reveal what happens afterwards — if, when, or ever, unpaid bills for aircraft, telephones, house rent or hotel stay are paid for. Seldom indeed do we stop to pay tribute to something like the Economic and Political Weekly which Sachin Chaudhuri founded and Krishan Raj edited for 32 years to wipe the smoke from people eyes about education, panchayats, political movements and violence, public health, biotechnology, Hindutva, the Chipko movement and so on. The analysis, revelations and investigative work — mostly the hard labour of a few people tunnelling and burrowing on their own with encouragement but seldom any financial help from needy organisations like the EPW. Their work is of enormous importance; EPW has reached a readership of highly educated people, but that is a weakness; there should be simple pamphlets to explain things to those without the mental equipment of EPW writers. Snug in well-furnitured homes, with well-stocked larders in our urban redoubts, we are brought face to face with reality only with happenings that touch us. The electrician who services our home has, in the last years, been called four times to his Haryana village to the bedside of a young daughter squashed by a jeep; a father-in-law who had no one to look after him in old age; to his mother who had been given up for dead by the missionary hospital staff but miraculously survived. He could not save his daughter even though he had to produce Rs 14,000 for her hospital fees. His mother’s was somewhat less, Rs 4,000, for which he had to mortgage the 6-bigha land he was treasuring. The hospital was 28 kilometres from his village and each journey there with a patient cost of Rs 600. MRI scans and ultrasonic tests are today being burdened on bemused families almost as frequently as suggesting isobgol. Our mohalla chowkidar, a Brahmin from UP and his two brothers had recently to spend Rs 50,000 for their father’s funeral and the observances that followed: food and clothing for all the invited, no non-vegetarian food for a year, no leather footwear, shaven hair, of course, and one more celebratory binge after a year. These occasional encounters reveal to us the unreality of our life when we see people pay out Rs 3,000 to Rs 5,000 for a moderate restaurant meal with a few friends and much more if it be with Indian-made Foreign Liquor. Millions of people can be rescued from the near blindness of cataract with an operation that could be done for less that Rs 500, but the white-coated surgeon hawking the implanted lens demands Rs 20,000 to 30,000. Gandhiji, Jawaharlal, Rajaji, Subhas, and Vivekananda (no, apology, be preferred to walk) seems to be everywhere in India on the lowly train but now it’s the executive aircraft which are indispensable — whether paid for or not. In Britain, Mrs Harold Wilson drove her Prime Minister husband all through his election campaigns in their family car, but then their elections were for a government aiming at liberal democracy with a health service, free public education and strong legal aid and our’s is for a government for the President’s 250 million swinging clipped to a taut poverty line. He and our politicians can cheer us on during the election game, but we will continue to
dangle. |
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DIVERSITIES —
DELHI LETTER
THIS week belonged to publishers, books and writers, perhaps, in that order. I went twice to the ongoing World Book Fair (Feb 14-22) and at the dinner hosted by UBSPD, met foreign distributors and buyers. Surprisingly, a majority of them from South East Asia. At
another get-together in connection with this book fair , one could meet (once again, that is) Pakistan’s well known literary figure Ahmad Faraz. Though during the fair one couldn’t get to meet V.S. Naipaul, this weekend, Khushwant Singh is hosting a do in his honour. This week, the Federation of Indian Publishers gave the “Life-time Achievement Award” to publisher Narendra Kumar and the “Dedicated Service to Publishing Award” to Shakti Malik. Also, politician activist Jaya Jaitly had her book “A podium on the pavement” released by Defence Minister George Fernandes. Though it was a working day and late afternoon to boot, there were many who’d turned up, the prominent being her daughter Aditi, son-in-law Ajay Jadeja and her former husband Ashok Jaitly, who is the former Chief Secretary of Jammu and Kashmir. Surat Declaration Last fortnight there was discussion at the India International Centre on the “Surat Spiritual Declaration”. There’s this backgrounder to this. On October 15, President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam had gone all the way to Surat to celebrate his birthday amidst the spiritual leaders of the country. And now they were meeting in New Delhi to discuss that declaration. Going by the text and sentiments carried in the Declaration, one is left impressed especially by their endeavour to reach out to the citizens by simple practical ways — a monthly mutli-religious gatherings in each town to convey the basic truths contained in the various religions. Each month the day selected should be a holy day from one religion (be it Christianity, Islam, Hindu, Sikh, Parsi, Jain etc). This inter-community meet should be followed by a community kitchen and eating session and, perhaps, together with that on how to go about combating the intolerant forces on the unleash. UN, most wanted During and after the American occupation of Iraq, I was under the impression that most of us are absolutely disillusioned with the functioning of the United Nations, for it did little to prevent the mass aggression and all that brutality that followed. Till date it hasn’t questioned the US on the whole question of nuclear weapons which it used as a ploy to invade Iraq. And now after hearing a debate along the strain on whether the UN is relevant today or lost its credibility, I was amazed how the young speakers argued their way out. Organised at the India International Centre by Hindu College Debating Society, these young debaters from the leading colleges of Delhi University spoke so passionately for and against the motion — “UN has lost its relevance”. The trophy was won by Miranda College Girls with the best speaker also from the same college who spoke for the great relevance of the United Nations. The United Nations has to stay on whether it has become a toy in the hands of that one superpower. But to be fair to this winner, she spoke about the UN in a broader perspective. At the Indian and Pakistani writers’ meet at Ajit Cour’s home last weekend, she had said words along the strain that if ever a war takes place between the countries she would tell those combating that “Pehle mujhe jhappi do” (first hug me tight). Tell me in such a hug situation can war ever take place? For though Ajit is in her late sixties, her body is intact and attractive and her heart as youthful as a teenager’s and there’s that warmth about her. A late V-Day party What’s this, I exclaimed, as I just received a Valentine's Day invite from writer-socialite Bhaichand Patel for a party on Feb 27? Anyway, this footnote cleared confusion for it stated loud and clear — “a late St Valentine’s party to celebrate love and friendship”. |
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PROFILE
Besides working currently as a Public Relations Officer with the State Bank of Patiala, Sidhu also gets lucrative commentary assignments. So, he was provoked when asked if he has joined the BJP because he was unemployed? “I am not unemployed. It is the constructive, positive approach of the party that attracted me”, he retorted. Now in late thirties, Sidhu established a record as the best attacking batsman of spin bowling and travelled a very difficult path in Indian cricket. He was one of the few batsmen equally at home in Tests and One-day cricket and the manner in which he played the spinners was a lesson in attacking batsmanship. Known to be sometime temperamental, he deserted the team and returned home midway through the 1996 tour of England following “misunderstanding” with the captain Azharuddin. He retired from international cricket in 1999 and embarked upon a new career as a commentator. Sidhu gained more popularity as a cricket commentator, became somewhat of an icon and his witticism has come to be known as “Sidhuism”. He does not fight shy of admitting that he speaks English like a native, a native of Punjab village. His father was lawyer by profession who he has often been reported as saying “used to gobble rivals like sausages with his smart phases”. He used to watch the Dad cross-examining witnesses and learnt “the fine art of commentary” from him. “All I do is to translate those phrases and proverbs from Hindi to English”, he says. He is honest indeed in his confession. Look at some excerpts from his commentary: “The Sri Lankan batting line up is like a row of cycles…One falls and the entire line collapses”; “cricket statistics are like miniskirt, they reveal more than what they hide”; “pitches are like wives, you never know which way they will turn”; “the gap between bat and pad is so much that I would have driven a car through it”; and “Sri Lankan score is running like an Indian taxi meter”. When Saurav Ganguly took a catch that had gone very high in the air, his comment was: “That ball went so high that it could have got an air hostess down with it”. Within a short span of his career as commentator, Sidhu changed the traditional meaning of commentary and everybody started praising his style. Expressions like “If ifs and buts were pots and pans, there would be no tinkers” and “he eyed that ball like a young kid eyeing a tuti-fruti in an ice-cream shop” were so far unheard and unused in the game of cricket. His comments on fellow cricketers sent peals of laughter among listeners. When Australian team toured India with the celebrities like Shane Warne, Sidhu’s comments will be remembered for a long time to come: “Along with Sachin, I took Warne apart like a child tearing up the wrapping paper from his birthday gift. I made a mincemeat of the mighty Aussies and ate them with tomato sauce. I was on the rampage, just like an Indian elephant and I trampled them like the elephant tramples the paddy fields”. Commenting on Ganguly’s performance after he was out for a low score in the second test against Zimbabwe, he again sent the listeners into roars of laughter with the remark: “Looks like a brooding hen over a China egg”. Sidhu’s unique style made him famous not only in India but the world over and he is now the most adored commentator. His views and comments are as aggressive as have begun to say that he is a better commentator than the batsman. His hilarious style may entertain the voters as Sidhu goes campaigning for the BJP but the question is how many will vote for the party get? Let us watch this wonderful cricketer and commentator as he begins a new
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When the sinner turns to God with undistracted devotion, a new cause is introduced. His redemption is conditional on his repentance. — Dr Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan
on The Bhagavadgita The "duty for duty’s sake" moves our active being with a new meaning and a new light; this is a requisite for the spiritual formation of the will. But later, the higher stage in will-expression emerges as dedication of the being in complete surrender. — Shri Adi Shankaracharya There is one God. He is the supreme truth. He, the Creator, Is without fear and without hate. — Guru Nanak Ahimsa is the eradication of the desire to injure or to kill. — Mahatma Gandhi If thou shouldst say, “It is enough, I have reached perfection,” all is lost. For it is the function of perfection to make one know one’s imperfection. — Saint Augustine |
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CALL him “Sixer Sidhu”, “stroke-less wonder”, “Pasha of Patiala” or give him any another name, Navjot Singh Sidhu is certain to regale the voters at the BJP’s election meetings. As a cricketer and later as commentator, the focus has always been on him and he became the darling of cricket lovers with his inimitable style telling the listeners in self-coined rhetoric the event in the field. Someone described him as Jaspal Bhatti (of “Ulta Pulta” fame) of cricket. Imagine his likely style of campaigning in the event of the BJP deciding to field him as the party’s candidate from Patiala or any other constituency. Irrespective of victory or defeat, the electorate will be assured of lot of amusement. Sidhu’s wit sparkled when minutes after his induction in the BJP, a reporter asked why he choose to join the BJP? Pat came the reply: “All parties are same, but it is the line of thinking that makes a party good or bad. The swan and crane both live in a pond; while the swan looks for pearls, the crane hunts for fish”, implying that the BJP is like pearl.