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Desperate attacks Needless controversy |
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Nuclear CBMs Taking the peace process ahead THE proposed talks between India and Pakistan on nuclear confidence-building measures on May 25 and 26 can give a fresh impetus to the peace process between the two South Asian neighbours.
The electoral verdict in Sri Lanka
Romance of the Chenab
Encounter with two Husains: MF and Owais No politics, just poetry: Lata
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Desperate attacks DERAILING the electoral process has all along been the top item on the agenda of militants in Kashmir. But the grenade attack on a public meeting of the ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP) at Uri on Thursday had several other aims as well. One goal was to put a spanner in the wheel of the peace parleys that are to take place between India and Pakistan. Another was to disrupt the attempt to reopen the Uri-Muzaffarabad road. The PDP meeting was actually organised in connection with the reopening of the road. Peace in the Valley can throw the militants out of business and they are determined to eliminate that possibility with all the force at their command. But what they have failed to gauge is the public mood. While the hooded gunmen have managed to scare away voters on many an occasion in the past, there is a change in the air. Revulsion at the continuing bloodshed has sickened the common Kashmiri who has also seen through the foreign mischief. That is why political activity has revived in the State despite the militants’ threats and poll boycott calls by disgruntled elements in the All-Party Hurriyat Conference. While the latest attack may scare away some people from public meetings organised by various leaders, it may not make any material difference on the overall political situation. Small street-corner meetings are the norm in Kashmir during the elections and these may continue. The main undesirable consequence will be that the security measures may now get further tightened. It is for the government to ensure that this firmness does not lead to more inconvenience to the common people. The Chief Minister, Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, must have fully realised by now that howsoever well-meaning his intentions may be, there is an incorrigible section which just will not listen to the voice of reason. This fringe has to be dealt with as ruthlessly as it deserves. The Uri attack has left at least nine dead and nearly a hundred injured, including two ministers. The killers should not go unpunished. Only befitting reaction will curb the mindless action. |
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Needless controversy BY going on leave, the Haryana Director-General of Police, Dr M.S. Malik, has averted a possible confrontation between the Haryana Chief Minister, Mr Om Prakash Chautala, and the Chief Election Commissioner, Mr T.S. Krishnamurthi. The unsavoury situation would not have arisen had the Chief Minister accepted and implemented the Election Commission’s order on the transfer of the state DGP on the ground that his wife was contesting the Lok Sabha election from Sonepat. Instead, Mr Chautala not only threatened to defy a constitutional body like the Election Commission, but also levelled personal allegations against the CEC which were in bad taste. Praising the DGP’s decision, the Haryana Chief Minister has said that Dr Malik has upheld the dignity of the high office he holds. But by launching a vilification campaign against the CEC, Mr Chautala has himself lowered the dignity of the office of Chief Minister. He has not been able to substantiate his allegation that, while taking a series of decisions which affected the functioning of the state government, Mr Krishnamurthi has been acting at the behest of the Deputy Prime Minister. Settling a dispute through the media, that too by using offensive language, makes little sense Mr Chautala has argued that by barring the state government from awarding contracts for lifting wheat from the mandis, the commission has harmed the interests of farmers. The state government could have given out the contracts before the poll notification was issued. After all, the elections were not announced all of a sudden. In no case should the farmers be made to suffer. In his defence, the Chief Minister has raised the issue whether a Chief Minister too should resign if his kins are in the poll fray. The Code of Conduct obviously does not take care of such eventualities. However, all this does not justify his bravado. |
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Nuclear CBMs THE proposed talks between India and Pakistan on nuclear confidence-building measures on May 25 and 26 can give a fresh impetus to the peace process between the two South Asian neighbours. This is in accordance with the roadmap for peace prepared by the Foreign Secretaries of the two countries during their February 8 meeting, when they discussed the question of resumption of composite dialogue on Kashmir and other contentious issues. The significance of the next month's dialogue lies in the fact that the nuclear CBMs will be studied threadbare by experts from the two sides, and that their report will form the basis for the subsequent Foreign Secretary-level discussions on the subject. It is, however, not for the first time that India and Pakistan will be interacting on nuclear CBMs. A memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed by them covering nuclear and missile regimes during Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's Lahore bus yatra in February 1999. In accordance with the MoU, they have been issuing a notification in advance whenever they undertook a ballistic missile test. The Lahore MoU was to lead to the signing of an agreement covering a moratorium on fresh nuclear tests and measures to ensure safe navigation. But the matter could not be taken up because of the Kargil conflict and other developments. Any agreement of this nature is bound to have considerable impact on the overall security situation in the region. It will be interesting to watch Pakistani attitude now when the US has declared its intention to make it a major non-NATO ally. One is compelled to think on these lines in view of the past experience — the negative change in its attitude after the Washington-Islamabad Mutual Defence Agreement and Pakistan's inclusion in the now defunct SEATO. However, going by the urge for developing a cordial relationship on both sides of the divide, there is no need to get pessimistic. The key to success lies in being optimistic. Thought for the day Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you will still land among the stars. — Les Brown
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The electoral verdict in Sri Lanka THE outcome of elections held in Sri Lanka should make President Kumaratunga happy, if not jubilant. This was the third election in last four years. President Kumaratunga called for this election in the midst of allegations that she was not for peace and did not want to let her political rival leader, then Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, and his UNP remain in power. Whatever the allegations, Kumaratunga has successfully driven home the point that the Sri Lankan electorate did not approve of the way the peace process with the Tamil extremists, the LTTE, was being carried out by Wickremesinghe’s government. The outcome of elections also liberates the President from a very uneasy, and at times humiliating “co-habitation” with the opposition under the Sri Lankan Constitution. The makers of this constitution did not envisage such “cohabitation”, and it had adversely affected not only the peace process but also governance in Sri Lanka. The most significant outcome of the elections has been the consolidation of extremist political opinion along ideological and ethnic lines at the cost of moderate mainstream and the two major political parties. On the Sinhalese side, a new Jatika Hela Urumaya (JHU), the National heritage party of Buddhist monks has made a significant presence by winning nearly six per cent of the votes and nine parliamentary seats in a house of 225. They are the fourth largest party. In addition to that, the Janatha Vimukti Peramuna (JVP), the ideologically left but pro-Singhalese militant (in the past) organisation that contested as an ally of the President’s People’s Alliance has gained the most. They have captured 40 seats and constitute a very powerful group within the ruling alliance. On the Tamil side, the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) with the LTTE’s backing has emerged as the third largest party in the new parliament with 22 seats. The LTTE has been prompt in claiming that this victory of the TNA is as assertion of the Tamil national cause. This claim may be seen in the background of the fact that elections in the LTTE dominated Tamil areas, particularly the North, were heavily rigged. Also noteworthy is the fact that five of these 22 elected Tamil MPs belong to the Col. Karuna wing that has defected from the LTTE leader Prabhakaran, blaming the Tamil North to be unfair and discriminatory to the Tamil East. As against this consolidation of the ethnic extremities, the mainstream parties like the UNP and the SLFP seem to have lost some of their electoral ground. Within the ruling alliance, the SLFP has only 65 seats as against 77, and the UNP has only 82 against more than 100, held by them respectively in the last parliament. In fact the UNP’s performance is even poorer if the seats contested by the moderate Tamil party of the Estate workers, the Ceylon Workers Congress (CWC), under the UNP ticket, are discounted. The CWC has won eight seats and is willing to join the victorious alliance, the United Peoples’ Freedom Alliance (UPFA) of President Kumaratunga. The UPFA has garnered more than 47 per cent of the popular vote which the highest gained by any party in parliamentary elections since independence in Sri Lanka. That the President has not been able to win a clear majority for her party despite this impressive electoral performance is due to Sri Lanka’s complex proportional representation system introduced in 1978. The rise of the extremist Sinhalese parties, to a considerable extent, can be explained on two counts. First is, as noted earlier, the way the peace process was carried out by the Wickremesinghe government. President Kumaratunga could convince the Sinhalese voters that undue ground had been conceded to the LTTE, which had continued to reinforce its military capabilities during the two-yearlong ceasefire. The LTTE not only continued to procure arms and recruit new “child soldiers”, but also hardened its negotiating position by advancing a maximalist position on the interim administrative arrangements for the North-east. There was also a general perception among the Sinhalese voters that this peace process was being heavily influenced by the West, the US, Norwegian facilitators and Japan, in particular. In doing so, the UNP leadership was ignoring Sri Lankan interests. This offended the sense of independence and nationalism of the Sinhalese voters which was exploited by the JVP and the JHU. The second factor that affected poorer Sinhala village voters that the advantages of two year peace have been reaped only by the rich and the well placed in the country. The UNP government had not done enough to improve the economic prospects of the poor in Sri Lanka, notwithstanding improved statistics of growth rate, of 5.5 per cent as claimed. Therefore, Wickremesinghe’s attempt to turn the elections into a referendum on peace did not succeed and economic and social issues dominated considerably in voter preferences. The Sri Lankan electoral verdict is being seen as a fractured one. However, this fractured verdict may not necessarily lead to governmental instability, contrary to the claims made by the outgoing Prime Minister Wickremesinghe. The victorious alliance of President Kumaratunga needs support of eight MPs for a simple majority, which can be provided by the CWC itself. Then there are nearly seven independents and non-LTTE MPs belonging to Eelam Peoples’ Democratic Party (EPDP) of Duglas Devananda and the Karuna faction of the Eastern LTTE. Five MPs belong to the Muslim Congress that may not be averse to joining the government. And the JHU with its nine MPs has already declared support to the Kumaratunga government , for “policies in favour of national development”. If Wickremesighe could run a government with a slender majority of one, there should be no problem in his successor, the newly appointed Prime Minister Mahinda Rajpakse, doing so with enough room to manoeuvre. The real challenge before the new government is in the area of maintaining peace and initiating a dialogue with the LTTE towards resolving the ethnic conflict. The LTTE is weakened on the negotiating table in view of the fact that the Sinhalese opinion has consolidated against giving too many concessions to the maximalist Tamil demands. More than this, the LTTE’s position has weakened because of split between the North and the East. Thus logically, the LTTE must be more reasonable and accommodative towards Colombo’s new peace moves. But if it feels cornered and insecure, it may seek to disturb the status-quo by sparking violence, either against Colombo, or preferably against the “renegade” Col Karuna. In either situation the peace process would get vitiated. The challenge before President Kumaratunga lies in avoiding such a precipitation of conflict and in this the “international community”, particularly India, can play a significant role. The writer is Professor, South Asian Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New
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Romance of the Chenab THE Chenab is the largest of the five rivers of Punjab and also the most rapid. It is picture pretty with low but open banks that are still well wooded. Perhaps its scenic beauty contributed to the three love-legends of the land that blossomed around it — Mirza-Sahiban, Heer-Ranjha and, of course, Sohni-Mahiwal. The last romance ended in the drowning of Sohni as she went to meet her Mahiwal, swimming across the river with a half-baked earthen pitcher. It was the Chenab and the Jhelum that were lost to East Punjab as the Radcliff line cut through Punjab. Yet, the Chenab became the most important metaphor of love, longing and pain in the works of writers and painters in our Punjab of two rivers and a half. Amrita Pritam in her famed Partition poem called out to Waris Shah to see the misery of the land and said that the Chenab was full of blood. In the fifties, Andretta-based Sobha Singh painted Sohni-Mahiwal in ecstasy in the waters of the Chenab. Earlier, an 18th century painter of the Pahari School, Nainsukh Sen, had painted a miniature of Sohni swimming across the Chenab. But it was Sobha Singh’s work that became so popular that its print found its way for many decades into the drawing rooms of middle class Punjabis. In recent years other Punjabi painters like Satish Gujaral, Manjit Bawa and Aparna Caur have re-painted the romance. During a recent visit to Wazirabad in West Punjab, one got a chance to see the beauty and bounty of this vast old river that keeps rolling on. The people call it Pir the Chenab and as they pass it they throw coins and flowers into its waters. Across the river from Wazirabad is the area of Gujarat, which according to legend was the home of Sohni. The inevitable question that comes to the lips as one walks through the rushes on the side of the mighty river is that at what place did Sohni cross the river to be at Mahiwal’s hut? This because the enchantment of the Chenab is such that past and present; myth and truth all blend into magic realism. Sodara, some four miles away from Wazirabad towards the east, is believed to be the place for the midnight rendezvous. But it is in the woods on its banks at Wazirabad that a wood engraver of the town named Shaadi Khan, a migrant from Gurdaspur, has etched out the image of Sohni on a tree. Well, Sohni is the symbol of the collective Punjabi imagination. So reach out and she will be there and here, never mind the Radcliff
line!
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Encounter with two Husains: MF and Owais At that time the woman who’d invited me to interview him was Rashida Siddiqui, his friend and companion for years. No, not that I was a spoilsport but what I found disappointing was that Husain wouldn’t take to answering all queries, showed his irritation and obvious displeasure at being queried on this and that. I remember very distinctly that Rashida Siddiqui tried to salvage the situation by coming up with diplomatic answers. And this time when there seemed a repeat exercise, his son Owais (associate director of the film) did that job. Now to get into details of my latest meeting with MF Husain. Last week when I reached Kaamna’s office, he had just about finished making a large impressive banner for the coming Indo -Pak mushiara “Jashne Bahar” (co-hosted by the Sahitya Akademi and Kaamna Prasad) complete with his famous lines and sketches. And just about then began talking to me. I asked him about the very obvious: his reaction to the latest round of attacks on his art forms. His reaction was simply this: “Kuchh bhi chalta hai. Theek
hai.” No, he didn’t want to comment on the incident or related incidents where his works had been targeted and he brushed aside any notion of those incidents upsetting him. “No, such incidents just don’t bother me, I am not one bit perturbed or upset.” I move ahead. What with the who’s-who of the country opting for one political party or the other, whom could he think of (maybe hypothetically) joining or campaigning for. “No political party. I just believe in the individual of this country.” Okay, which individual will be vote for — Sonia Gandhi or Atal Bihari Vajpayee? He frowns and looks uncomfortable. “No politicians. I believe in scientists like Dr Bhargava.” Okay, doesn’t he feel that the artists of his calibre should counter the decay around. “Kaam ho raha hai. Aap kahan hain. Aapko pata nahin
hai. The media doesn’t know.” Could he expand on this so that the likes of me are also enlightened? “Artists are doing things in their own way. I have held two exhibitions on this alone and artists are countering all this in their own way, and it’s the media to be blamed.
Aapko kuch pata nahin...such ignorance!” “About what, sir?” And he mumbled: “Did Einstein keep talking about what he was doing all through his life?” I thought that shifting focus on his late foray into films and film stars would help in the flow of the interview and, with that in mind, I asked him about his new passion for film-making and young heroines and he nodded: “Film-making is my passion. I ‘m not a lazy man.
Din raat working.”
What about distractions? “Like what?” Like women, after all he’s said to be friendly with several. So how does he manage to do the balancing act? “Tell me one man who isn’t attracted to women. Let there be ten thousand women and I can make each one of them happy. Yes, each one of them very happy.” Pausing and, probably seeing a grim look on my face, for I hate men bragging about their so-called prowess as though taking women to be cattle, he continued: “Yes, I can make any woman happy.” How does he do it — manage ten thousand women, and that too when he is 88? “It’s just a matter of clicking, depends on your rapport, all a matter of rapport.” Again, giving that side look to me, with that obvious footnote that there could never ever be any rapport between him and me, he said rather aloud: “Par aap se rapport ban nahin pa rahi hai.” Thank God for that, I countered, and putting on a thick-skinned façade for the sake of you readers, otherwise this interview would never have been complete if I was at my sensitive best to his one-liners, I proceeded and asked him whether there’s another film in the making. “Yes”, he said, with this elaboration: “Yes, this time it’s a comedy, a subtle comedy which will be part of our culture. You see it’s a misconception, again brought about by the media that our people can’t appreciate comedy. I would say that 80 per cent of the people in rural India do know about our culture and about comedy, it’s the some of the elite who are actually ignorant.” But our rural folk have to think about their basic survival, so can they actually think in terms of comedy and films etc? Here Husain lost his cool (whatever cool was lingering). He exploded: “What sort of questions are you media people asking me these days? Some of you ask me about Madhuri and here you are asking these questions. Talk to me about this latest film I have made and not all this. Do you know that this is not a commercial venture for me. Just made it. For I really wanted to make a film on this subject. But here you are not asking about the film, but about other things.” And in the same strain he shook his head from here to there to a firm no when I asked him to draw his famous lines for me on the brochure of the film which I had been handed over. No and no way, as though almost saying “no rapport with you so.” Thank God for that, for I wouldn’t ever like to be lined up in the 10,000 women’s club of his. Anyway, as he slipped off, that is vanished from the chair without really giving details of his latest filmi venture and without even saying a formal goodbye, his son Owais was brought in to fill in those gaps. Owais is also an artist and, being the youngest of the Husain brood, is also called “khurchan” (implying the last segment/potion of food which remains clinging on to the cooking vessel and which has to be scratched from the surface). He and his father seem to get along so well as to make this joint venture and nothing really is coming in their way, not even the glaring age difference — Owais is 35 and Husain 88! Not to overlook the fact that both gentlemen are artists, so obviously temperamental and rather individualistic. “No, there was just no problem for it was important for both of us to make this film. For him it was a passion and for me an obsession and though we had arguments, yet there were no stoppages for we have our own equation. The other balancing factor was my wife, Reima Faiza Husain, who is the producer of this film.” And unlike his father, it was refreshing to hear his young man talk of love and emotions and romance in the context of not thousands but just one single woman — his wife Reima. “Meenaxi: Tale of 3 Cities” does carry a different story line: to quote from the very elaborate brochure —“A woman in search of perfect love/ A writer trapped in an imperfect book/ Now what name could be given to such a bond/ A bond of dreams.” Shot in three cities — Hyderabad, Jaisalmer and Prague — it has a haunting music by A. R. Rahman and the cast revolves around Tabu with newcomer Kunal Kapoor as the male lead. |
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No
politics, just poetry: Lata “I look at him as a poet and he looks at me as a singer. Politics doesn’t come into our collaboration at all,” Lata observed in an interview after lending her musical voice to a collection of Vajpayee’s poems. Excerpts: Q: You’ve just released your album of Vajpayee’s poems. How does it feel? The credit must go to my nephew Adinath who stood behind the whole project with his recording company Music Curry like a pillar strength. I’m satisfied because Atalji seems happy with the results. I’ve always admired him as a human being and politician. Q: How did this project come about? Years ago I had expressed my desire to sing his poetry to him. See, singing poems isn’t the same thing as singing film lyrics. I only want to sing poetry that has a narrative strength and doesn’t meander into abstract images just for sake of being poetic. For example, when I sang the poems of Meerabai I felt I was reliving the emotions expressed in the lines. That’s the kind clarity of images that Atalji’s poems express. When I sang his “Aao man ki gaanthe khole” where he has spoken about his family and home, I asked him if the descriptions matched reality. When he said yes, I simply flowed with his vision. It was quite easy, actually. He has mentioned how as a child he’d listen to his mother reciting the Ramayan. There’s an anti-war anthem, which I’ve sung on Atalji’s request. Then there’s one of my favourites-“Kya khoya kya paaya jag mein”. Jagjit Singh had sung it earlier. But that was not an issue for me at all. I chose what both Atalji and I approved of. Q: Is the album supposed to convey a message? You mean beyond the message of poetry and melody (laughs)? My motive is very clear. I want good poetry to reach out through my singing. There’s no hidden agenda here. We’re fortunate to have great contemporary poets in Hindi like Harivanshrai Bachchan, Maithili Sharan Gupt, Sumitranandan Pant and Dinkar....I’d place Atalji in the same category. Every poet expresses his turmoil in his own way. Atalji’s poems have an ability to touch your heart, though some of it was hard to tune. Q: Some people read a political leaning in your poetic collaboration with the PM Then they know more than I do about myself. Beyond Atalji’s expertise as a poet I’ve no interest in his activities. I look at him as a poet and he looks at me as a singer. Politics doesn’t come into our collaboration at all. My love and respect for Atalji goes back to a time when he wasn’t what he is today. However, let me clarify that the quote saying, “I’d have liked to be his daughter” that appeared in the Marathi press is false. I love my own father. I’m proud to be Pandit Dinanath’s daughter. What I said was, going by the affection that I feel for his rhetorical powers, I feel I was Atalji’s daughter in my last life.
—IANS |
The best and noblest lives are those which are set towards high ideals. And the highest and noblest ideal that any man can have is Jesus of Nazareth. — Almeron Integral Yoga effects a sublime synthesis between the visions and experiences of Advaita, Visishtadvaita and Dvaita. — Sri Aurobindo The highest graces of music flow from the feelings of the heart. — Emmons Knowledge is but folly unless it is guided by grace. — Herbert The name of God is the only remedy for the diseased world. — Guru Nanak |
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WHEN Kaamna Prasad invited me to interview MF Husain in the backdrop of his latest film “Meenaxi: Tale of 3 Cities”, I was somewhat unsure for I had interviewed him once before — almost 20 years back (yes, around 1984 when I had just begun my career as a journalist). 
POLITICS does not figure in their relationship, says legendary playback singer Lata Mangeshkar about Atal Bihari Vajpayee.