 |
|
Tohra the titan General
impatience |
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Magic at Multan
Towards nuclear
CBMs
From Sass with
love!
Delhi Durbar
|
Tohra the titan Mr Gurcharan Singh Tohra had started off as SGPC chief way back in 1973 by initiating kar seva at the Golden Temple sarovar. That is how he closed his innings 31 years later. The massive heart attack he suffered after doing kar seva at the same sacred pool on March 25 proved fatal. To head the mini-parliament of the Sikh Panth for such a long period – with only small breaks in between — is a signal achievement in itself. He made it all the more glorious with several sterling accomplishments like restoring the glory of Akal Takht. The length of his innings as the SGPC head is matched by his longevity as a parliamentarian. Only recently, he was elected to the Rajya Sabha for a record sixth time. What a pity he had to go even before his term could begin. What is all the more creditable is that he strode the Punjab landscape like a titan while setting up an example of personal honesty and integrity. Mr Tohra neither accumulated any wealth nor made any personal property. The ancestral house and land in Tohra village were all that he had to show for more than half a century in public life. The cash-rich SGPC could not have asked for a more upright custodian. But when it came to politics, he was all too
human. Being a non-conformist, he is credited with wrecking as many
institutions as he built up. He almost always remained at loggerheads
with the powers that be, earning the sobriquet of “wily fox”. He fell
foul of Mr Surjit Singh Barnala, Mr Parkash Singh Badal and many
others, leading to major upheavals in Punjab politics. But at the same
time he was acknowledged as the “roshan dimaag” (illuminated mind) of
the Sikh community. Dabbling in religion and politics simultaneously
was perhaps his undoing, although he left his mark in both fields. He
was loved by some; despised by others. But all admitted that he was a
master strategist. Perhaps his secret ambition was to become the Chief
Minister of Punjab, but you cannot get everything in life. What he did
achieve is stupendous enough. |
|
General impatience AT a time when people of India and Pakistan unleash goodwill on each other as never before, it is sacrilegious even to suggest turning the clock back on their bilateral relations. Pakistan President General Pervez Musharraf finds himself in the unenviable position of suggesting just that. Two major Pakistani papers have quoted him as having said that Pakistan would shelve the dialogue process if Kashmir was not included in the agenda for foreign minister-level talks by July or August. Though the Pakistani foreign office has denied the statement attributed to him, one is inclined to notice a sense of desperation in his position. The first indication of the change in him was the televised speech he made at the India Today conclave in mid-March. General Musharraf told the distinguished gathering, “We must persevere, but if there is no movement towards a solution (Kashmir), everything will fly back to square one”. It is a measure of India’s earnestness in improving relations between the two countries that it did not see it as a virtual threat. Read together with his latest statement, it suggests that Pakistan is not satisfied with the progress achieved so far. This is unfortunate, to say the least. Much has happened since Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee extended his hand of friendship to Pakistan and took a series of confidence-building measures. To be fair to General Musharraf, he was not found wanting in reciprocating the gestures so much so that guns no longer boom on the border and visitors from both sides realise how misguided they were about the people on the other side. The ongoing Team India’s visit to Pakistan shows how
unifying cricket can be. Of course, such transient relationships are not
a substitute for the resolution of the Kashmir tangle. But then the two
countries have put in place a mechanism whereby the problem can be
tackled in the spirit of the Simla agreement and the Lahore Declaration.
But for the Pakistan President to expect a quick solution to the problem
that has defied resolution for over five decades is to let impatience
have the better of him. He must realise it is easy to destroy than to
create. |
|
Magic at Multan Superlatives are unnecessary. Plain facts are telling enough. The victory at Multan is the first in 52 years; the first Test match that India has won on Pakistani soil after more than 20 Tests. This is a record that subsumes all the other records, be it Super Sehwag’s triple century or the way Anil Kumble made the Pakistan wickets tumble. Coincidentally, this is India’s second victory by an innings, the other being the first Test in 1952, when many of those on the playing fields in this path-breaking series weren’t even born. All talk of the pitch and ball behaviour is so much technicality that it does not count for much when the scores are added up. What prevailed eventually was the consummate artistry of the willow-wielders in a battle of skill, talent and temperament that was truly between titans and in riveting form. So, what does this prove? That Saurav Ganguly and his boys are one of the finest Indian teams and that even with an injured captain off the pitch, the team has been moulded for peak performance. That these are not what would be called “home tigers” but a lion-hearted eleven who can strike with devastating force in every pitch abroad, be it Australia or the West Indies, England or Pakistan. The figures are as impressive as the facts – Sehwags 300 as much as Kumble’s 6 for 72 in Pakistan’s second innings, to mention just two among the many that were notched up. The Indian team’s form and morale are at a dizzy high. The victory
over Pakistan in the one-dayers followed by a record-breaking win in the
first Test gives the Indians a tremendous advantage in the matches to
follow. But on the morning after the euphoria over the monumental
victory, it should be borne in mind that a cornered Pakistan might well
be spurred to greater heights to avenge the humiliation of the last
three defeats. |
|
|
Honour is like a match, you can only use it once. — Marcel Pagnol |
Towards nuclear CBMs While Mr George Bush and Mr Tony Blair are trying to sanitise Iraq and make America and Europe safer places, to live, Indians and Pakistanis too have settled down to making their region tension-and-hostility-free. The four-month-long Pakistan-initiated ceasefire across the 4010-km international border (IB) and the LoC, unprecedented by any standard, is the most promising confidence-building measure (CBM) since the 1971 war. Converting it into a permanent ceasefire would turn the LoC into a Line of Peace as the late Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto had promised to do at Shimla after Pakistan’s capitulation on the battlefield. Who knows, over time, this line could become an international border. For the present, a select group of Indian and Pakistani experts have been meeting in the UK to draw lessons from the East-West confrontation of the Cold War days, especially about nuclear risk avoidance and confidence building. Their reports are likely to become an additional input for official-level talks in May. It is instructive to recall that till the late 1950s the US was the only acknowledged nuclear power though the USSR had carried out its first nuclear test in 1949, followed, with the help of the US, by Britain in the late 1950s. The two major crises of that era were the Berlin Blockade of 1948 — which subsequently led to the construction of the Berlin Wall - and the 1962 Cuban missile crisis. Both these are case studies in crisis escalation, escalation control and political and nuclear signalling. Every crisis or confrontation led to agreements to avoid misperception and misunderstanding. Besides the Cuban missile crisis, other notable confrontations were the Soviet invasion of Hungary (1956), Czechoslovakia (1968) and Afghanistan (1979) and the Polish conundrum (1980-81). In all these crises, three facts stood out: centrality of human intelligence, absence of red lines and high risk of political and military escalation. Two other ground realities were established. A great deal of homework had to be done before agreements and CBMs were ratified, and none were accepted unless they were verifiable. A joint vocabulary was coined so that there was no quibbling over the definition (freedom fighters versus militants, etc). Further, every agreement had an inbuilt annual review and verification mechanism. It is surprising that the first set of hotlines between the East and the West came up as late as 1965 after the Cuban missile crisis, and these were upgraded in 1974 with additional fax facilities. Equally intriguing is the account that these hotlines were meant only for nuclear risk reduction. The Soviets developed separate hotlines with France and the UK, the other two NATO nuclear powers. The key facility was the Nuclear Risk Reduction Centre (NRRC) to avert nuclear accidents, inadvertent nuclear signalling and notification on missile testing. The NRRC was first established in 1987 in Washington and Moscow. In the US, it was the State Department and not the Pentagon that monitored it while the Soviet Union had more logically put it under the Ministry of Defence. A Joint Data Exchange Centre was also established which interfaced between the National Military Command Centre and the NRRC. The agreement on the notification of testing ballistic missiles was signed only in 1983 while the post-launch reporting agreement was clinchedin 2000. The cardinal principle for these agreements was to account for the numbers of delivery systems, not the numbers of bombs, missiles or other munitions. In the 40 years or so of the East-West standoff, there were crises but never any conflict. Lessons of the Cold War confrontation and crises were declassified, starting with 1992 with details about the NRRC. Compare the West’s experience with nuclear and conventional crises with that between India and Pakistan. Unlike the two super powers, both countries had “minders” since their Independence and right upto the India-Pakistan confrontation — Operation Parakram— in 2002. They were being guided (or misguided) by them into escalation or defusion of tensions and crises, starting with Kashmir. It was the British who advised Nehru to refer Kashmir to the UN and accept a ceasefire in its own larger strategic interest. The second war in Kashmir started in the Rann of Kutch and ended at Tashkent. Both the British and the Russians mediated and facilitated a ceasefire in 1965. Prime Minister Kosygin tried vigorously to get President Ayub Khan to accept the LoC with adjustments as the international border. In 1971, the India-Pakistan standoff was matched by coercive and counter-coercive diplomacy by the US and the USSR. Six Soviet vetoes in the UN enabled India to win the war. India came close to clinching the LoC-as-international border deal. The crisis arising from Brass-tacks in 1986, the imaginary standoff (1990), Kargil (1999) and Operation Parakram (2002) were all defused by US intervention. Few would remember how the Kennedy administration virtually forced the two countries into six rounds of dialogue over Jammu and Kashmir between December 1962 and May 1963 for finding a way for the LoC to be made into the border. Clearly, India and Pakistan have never been independent players. They never enjoyed the autonomy they assumed even after they became nuclear-capable. Like it or not, third parties have always been around, advancing their own agenda. After 9/11, the US is physically involved in the region with the NATO’s reach extending to the Waziristan region in Pakistan. Lessons from the Cold War are useful, but India and Pakistan had their own sets of agreements and CBMs. The Indus Water Treaty (1960) has proved the most durable one. The Tashkent Declaration (1966), the Simla Agreement (1972), the Comprehensive Agreement on the Prevention of Airspace Violations and Advance Notice of Military Exercises (1991), the joint statement of Foreign Secretaries (1997), the Lahore Declaration and the MoU of 1999 and the latest Islamabad joint statement and joint press statement (2004) show that the two countries were engaged bilaterally and hammered out agreements, some of which were not honoured by Pakistan. There is a new beginning now for “expert-level talks on nuclear CBMs in the latter half of May 2004”. Whereas India and Pakistan are acting within six years of becoming nuclear-weapon states, it took nearly 30 years for the West to set up an NRRC. Equally urgent is an immediate
review of the existing military CBMs and their implementation,
including establishing a mutual verification mechanism. The most
effective CBM has been the weekly DGMO hotline. Much more can be done
to make it more transparent. More hotlines can be had between sector
commanders and flag meetings can be held periodically. The two sides
must maintain the ceasefire and progressively develop other CBMs,
especially a border monitoring mechanism. CBMs are good as they
provide operational reassurance and mutual understanding of
capabilities even if intentions remain clouded. The joint task of the
DGMOs is to make the ceasefire stick so that the composite dialogue
does not falter. |
From Sass with love!
At
the mention about there being more to Punjabi food than makki di
roti, sarson da saag at the launch of a latest book on Punjabi
cuisine, I couldn’t help recalling my first encounter with this
gastronomic delight. In a bus one day 33 years ago travelling from
Phillaur to Ludhiana for my weekend sabbatical church attendance, in
the seat beside me was this young Punjab Police DSP, a sardar my age.
We hit it off right away, enough for him to tell me of his recent
marriage and how he was on his way now to his sasural in Ludhiana’s
chowra bazaar. Sensing my curiosity and total ignorance at his
expressed joy at the prospect of eating makki di roti/ sarson da saag
from his sass, the euphoric and excited worthy would not take a ‘no’
from me, to his invitation to accompany him to his sasural. Not
without reason, I saw, on arrival at the sasural that royalty couldn’t
have been received better. And the speed with which we were ushered
into the dining room after a refreshing giant-sized glass of lassi,
gave me the distinct feeling that the main vocation of Punjabi
mothers-in-law was indeed to fuss over their sons-in-law! Stainless
steel plates were placed before us, and protests notwithstanding, on
mine was placed a large blob of sparkling white butter - “…freshly
churned out of today’s milk, from the buffalo in the backyard”. A
mass of dark green gooey stuff was then plonked on my plate… the saag
of mustard leaf ladled out of a degchi by the venerable sass with her
own kar kamal; much to the delight and a series of wah wah…s emanating
from the excited javain beside me! I was by now having second thoughts
about continuing, seriously conjuring up excuses to escape. My
entreatingly worried side glance having merely evoked yet another wah
wah.. as if goading me to join in too, I resigned myself to my fate.
Then another strange item-brittle hard and yellow dry cakey stuff,
the makki di roti of maize flour. Not knowing how to proceed, I had
waited for my companion to start, and followed suit as he broke the
roti and dipped it into the green gooey stuff even as he placed part
of the buttery blob amidst it to scoop it up better along with the
saag! By now the table was adorned further with a katori of hot ghee,
and more katoris with achaars of many hues and tangs. It took me
years to get over the gooey encounter, and learn to appreciate the
‘acquired’ taste of this Punjabi delicacy, enough to swear by it and
wah wah it now to the uninitiated! |
Obituary
Silently and without ado, Sardar
Gurcharan Singh Tohra, the uncrowned King of rural Punjab and the
Sikhs, has passed away into the night. There will be today, possibly no
trumpets, loud cheers or gaudy spectacle to accompany him as he makes
his last journey in his native place. But then, in keeping with his
entire lifestyle, philosophy and spartan nature, his final farewell
had to be but only in this manner. There is little doubt in my mind
that in the vast multitudes that make their way behind his bier
through the sun-drenched wheatfields of his beloved Punjab where he
grew up and kept his tryst with destiny, there will be many a moist
eye and a heavy heart, in seeing a real Titan of a man go by. The
Messiah of the small peasant and the struggling farmer of Punjab has
just ridden into history. And for you all his followers, the sons of
the soil and the toiling masses of the country, it is time to rise and
offer the grand old man of village India a well-deserved
salute. Rising from a humble beginning and graduating from Lahore,
Tohra, a grassroot man who never left his roots, worked his way up to
the longest reign any President of the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak
Committee has ever had. Some called him the Pope who went on ruling
eternally, and others within the Akali party and out of it, very often
did not take kindly to his forthright approach in dealing with matters
pertaining to the politico-religious affairs of the Sikhs in every
conceivable plane. Though his forte was the religious domain, his
hawk-eyed and politically trained eye encompassed the very vitals of
the Sikh community, in their journey towards their place in the sun in
post-independent India. Tohra saw the inside of many a jail in his
ride to the top. Right from 1945 onwards when he was interned during
the Riyasti Praja Mandal Movement in Nabha state to the time of
Operation Bluestar in 1984, Tohra was never ever far away from the
vigorous infighting and jockeying for power within the Akali Dal and
all their interface with the other regional and national parties in
the region. A confidant of the senior Akali leadership, and regarded
as the wise and experienced old man of the Sikhs, Tohra’s paramount
position was only challenged twice. Once when Sant Jarnail Singh
Bhinderwale was all powerful, and the next time when the totally
avoidable split in the Akali Dal took place leading to his parting of
ways with Parkash Singh Badal. This writer is privy to and witness to
some of the unending efforts made at the time of the split by
like-minded people like former Lt-Governor Lt-Col Partap Singh Gill,
Tohra and a few others endeavouring to close the divide and heal the
rift. But despite their best efforts, the breach was never sealed. The
political scenario in Punjab today would have been quite different had
Tohra and Badal buried the hatchet in time. What kind of a person
would the present generation mark out Tohra to be? Few, even within
his detractors, would in their heart of hearts deny the sacrifices
that he along with the others had made during the Emergency (1975-77)
and the Dharam Yudh Morcha. Tohra relentlessly fought for the
betterment of the marginalised farming community, owning an acre or
two of land. He was the knight of the small peasant and a scourge of
the rich and the affluent within his own party, who with all the
resources and money at their disposal, very often succeeded in not
only having their say in the party but also within the SGPC and many
of its affiliated institutions. The Yodha of the small farmers has
today left and his void will not be easy to fill. Tohra will be
remembered for being an honest man as also for his honesty of purpose
in whatever he did. If he ever failed, it was not because he had taken
a devious route or an unprincipled stand. Tohra came into this world
with little to show in regard to money and property. He left with even
less. This is a habit many of our leaders in the country could try and
emulate. Tohra leaves behind a family that will in all probability
have to slog it out in the fields to make both ends meet. When will
the Sikhs again have the likes of Master Tara Singh, Udham Singh
Nagoke and Darshan Singh Pheruman? These gentlemen gave their all for
their people, the State and their country. In Punjab and Sikh
politics, it has always been a fight for power and position between
the pro-small peasant parties and the pro-rich farmer lobby, where
invariably the former lose out because of their smaller holdings and
lesser political and financial clout. Tohra, a small farmer himself
and his whole life an open book in austerity, frugal living and hardly
any bank balance to his credit, is a good example of what some of our
leaders should look like. Gurcharan Singh Tohra may have left us but
there are some tasks that all well-meaning Sikhs, whether they tie the
white or the blue turban, whether they stay in India or abroad,
whether they are Amritdharis or Sehajdharis, and whether they believe
in any isms or ideologies, have to accomplish in all seriousness.
Tohra would have wanted it that way. The Sikh identity has to be
protected and this in itself is of no threat to any other religion or
group. The reverred Akal Takht has to always remain at the highest
pedestal of the Sikh faith, learning and ethos. Here again, this
unassailable position of the Akal Takht does in no way affect any
other religion or community unless, of course, they are bent on
creating ripples between the other reverred Takhts and surely they do
not want that. The SGPC will have to find place for educated men and
women with a vision and a working knowledge of how the modern-day
world functions. Our missionaries and religious teachers must be
capable of going out across the high seas and all over India and in
debate and learning be able to hold out with honour and distinction in
their professed fields. And in a slight variation to what Tohra would
have possibly advocated, a prayer that we now look after our
Gurudwaras that already exist and devote our energies to the setting
up of more schools, colleges and medical facilities in our villages
and urban centres so that tomorrow’s generations will not be found
wanting in scholarship and opportunity with their other brethren in
the country. Tohra performed his last kar seva on this earth a few
days back. Some of what he had set out to do remains unachieved. Are
we ready to carry on his leftover legacy? This will be a befitting
tribute by the Sikhs and a prosperous Punjab to their selfless leader. |
|
Delhi Durbar
Just like the Congress here, the
Pakistan People’s Party is also supporting the Indo-Pak peace process.
During a visit to the Prime Minister’s Principal Secretary and
National Security Adviser Brajesh Mishra here this week, a PPP
delegation is understood to have extended its support to the peace
process. Like the Congress, the PPP has also taken a vocal stand in
appreciating the peace process. The delegation was led by Makhdoom
Amin Fahim, the PPP leader in the absence of its President Benazir
Bhutto. The delegation, which came here at the invitation of noted
Gandhian Nirmala Deshpande’s Association of People of Asia, also met a
number of prominent politicians including former Prime Minister I. K.
Gujral and Rajya Sabha member Ram Jethmalani. A large number of
delegations from both countries have been visiting India and Pakistan
since the April 18 peace initiative of Prime Minister Atal Bihari
Vajpayee. The fact that Brajesh Mishra found time to meet the PPP
delegation showed the value the Vajpayee government attaches to the
peace process and people-to-people contacts between the two
countries. Conspicuous
by absence The stage was set for a debate on “How the political
parties will fulfill the aspirations of the youth” at ASSOCHAM House
here recently. The BJP and Congress spokespersons were invited for the
debate. The BJP had nominated Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi and the Congress
Abhishek Sanghvi. Rajya Sabha MP Chandan Mitra was to moderate. Former
CBI Director Joginder Singh was also scheduled to participate. The
audience was getting restless as the proceedings were delayed. At
last, the organisers announced that Mitra would speak. He spoke,
followed by Joginder Singh. Shinghvi presented his party’s position
and detailed various measures that the Congress would initiate if it
was voted to power. But there was no trace of Naqvi. Every 15 minutes,
organisers would announce that he would arrive in 10 minutes as he was
caught in an important meeting in the Prime Minister’s Office. At
last, it was left to a functionary of the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha
to defend the BJP’s position. Ill- prepared, the BJYM could hardly
counter the Congress position. Was Naqvi really busy in the PMO is the
question being asked in the party these days.
Trouble for
Mulayam? Trouble for Mulayam Singh Yadav government? Supported by
over a dozen independent MLAs, most with dubious backgrounds, it is in
a soup for the alleged criminal activities of two controversial
legislators — Raghuraj Pratap Singh alias Raja Bhaiya and Mukthar
Ansari. The Supreme Court has sought reports on withdrawal of POTA
case against Raja Bhaiya and Ansari’s attempt to procure a light
machine gun from an army deserter. In both cases, Mulayam is being
charged with protecting the duo, especially when the Congress is
threatening to withdraw support from his government. Though the apex
court had issued a notice to the government on a petition challenging
bail to Raja Bhaiya’s MLC cousin Akshya Pratap Singh by the High Court
in a POTA case, the Samajwadi Party has fielded him as a candidate
from Pratapgarh. Interestingly, the BJP has pitted Raja Bhaiya’s close
associate Rama Shankar Singh against Akshya.
People-friendly
police “Excuse me Madam”, “Please Sir”, “May I help you”, this is how
the Delhi police personnel have started addressing the public on the
streets ever since the Chandigarh- born K.K. Paul took over as the
Delhi Police Commissioner in February this year. Paul is aggressively
pursuing his two-point agenda: to change the image of Delhi Police and
make the city more safe for the fair sex. On Paul’s instructions,
complaint boxes have been placed near women’s colleges, schools and in
Resident Welfare Associations to bring a sense of security among the
women and senior citizens. A Ph. D in Chemistry, Paul had given his
e-mail address (kkpaul@nic.in) to ensure prompt redressal of citizens’
complaints. Paul monitors action taken reports in each complaint. He
is also trying to improve the traffic situation on congested Delhi
roads. He has set up study centres in police colonies. Contributed
by Rajeev Sharma, Satish Misra, S.S. Negi and J.T. Vishnu |
This Samadhi completes the
transformation and fulfils the purpose of evolution. Now the process by
which evolution unfolds through time is understood. This is
Enlightenment. — Patanjali We cannot know even the extent of His
creation. — Guru Nanak God is attributeful (Saguna) and
attributeless (Nirguna) both. — Swami Dayanand Saraswati The
spiritual man is one who has discovered his soul. — Sri
Aurobindo Experience is the name everyone gives to their mistakes.
—
Oscar Wilde We are co-creators with God, not puppets on a string
waiting for something to happen. — Leo Booth |
| 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 | |
Obituary
