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Not a shining campaign No relief for Bhattal |
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The prodigal returns
Pursuing militants in Waziristan
Moustache factor
400-plus: triumph of human spirit HEALTH
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Not a shining campaign THE stampede in Lucknow in which 21 women were killed is one of the worst such incidents in an election campaign in the country. It is a wholly man-made disaster and totally avoidable. The grotesqueness of the tragedy is such that it is difficult to believe that it has happened. It occurred in the constituency of all the people, Prime Minister of India A.B. Vajpayee. The person whose birthday was being celebrated is former BJP state chief and Mr Vajpayee’s campaign manager, Mr Lalji Tandon. Thousands of women responded to the invitation to the birthday bash where free sarees were to be distributed. All this was done in wanton disregard for the electoral code of conduct and the rules that govern such functions in public places during the campaign period. Mr Tandon has tried to wash his hands of the tragedy by claiming that it was an NGO that organised the sari distribution. He does not say what impelled the NGO, which is run by a shady character, to organise such a massive gathering to celebrate his birthday. It is absurd for him to argue in his defence that every year a sari-distribution function is organised to commemorate his birthday. But he does not say that this time it was done at a much bigger scale. Obviously, he thought the best way to influence the voters was through the distribution of sarees and through an NGO. But by his inability to keep the situation under control, he has brought the Prime Minister’s election campaign under a cloud even before it has taken off. So far, the fulcrum of the NDA campaign has been the feel good factor and “India shining”. The NDA leaders have been shouting from their housetops that India’s image has undergone a sea change and it is no longer the land of fakirs and snake-charmers. But what will the world think of India when television screens around the globe flash pictures of women who scrambling for a free sari and ending up as a corpse to be carted away to a mortuary? By his irresponsible and unseemly conduct, Mr Tandon has caused irreparable damage to the image of the country, ruined several families and did a disservice to Mr Vajpayee. The minimum that the Prime Minister should do is to sack him from whatever posts he holds while ensuring that nothing happens that further brings his campaign under a more serious controversy. Mr Vajpayee certainly needs to save himself from his friends like Lalji Tandon. They can do him greater damage than his foes. |
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No relief for Bhattal A short-sighted attempt to somehow dilute the corruption case against Punjab Deputy Chief Minister Rajinder Kaur Bhattal has been scuttled in no uncertain terms by the Supreme Court. And in the process, it has also made it clear, though obliquely, that it is fully aware of the political considerations behind the move. The case arising out of the alleged misappropriation of Rs 20 lakh by Mrs Bhattal from the Chief Minister’s Relief Fund during her brief tenure as Chief Minister in 1996 had become a sticking point between her and Chief Minister Amarinder Singh whom she considered to be instrumental in targeting her. Last year, the prosecution claimed that it had recovered the receipts of the money allegedly misappropriated by her. Mrs Bhattal insists that the receipts prove her innocence as they account for the money that was spent. Ever since then, a concerted effort has been made by the government, of which Mrs Bhattal is today a Deputy Chief Minister — although because of a mutually convenient compromise between the Chief Minister and her — to seek a fresh probe before the framing of charges. The Punjab and Haryana Court refused to stay the framing of charges in January and now even the Supreme Court has seen through the move. The observation of the Bench that “Finding of additional evidence depends on what is the political complexion of the State at that particular time” is the crux of the matter. The Deputy Chief Minister is trying to use the State to fight her personal battle. It may be politically expedient for the Amarinder Singh government to help her, but the judiciary has rightly taken an independent position irrespective of the official position that Mrs Bhattal holds. Propriety will demand that she resigns from the post so that prosecution can do its job with a sense of independence. |
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The prodigal returns EIGHT years ago the Congress had expelled former Union minister Sukh Ram after his alleged involvement in a scam. On Monday, he was taken back in the party. What has led to his “homecoming”? The corruption case against him still stands. He was duly convicted and is now fighting his case in a higher court. It shows how desperate the party has become for victory in the coming elections. After his ignominious expulsion, Mr Sukh Ram did not go into political oblivion as any other leader would have. Himachalis in general and voters in his stronghold, Mandi, in particular did not take unkindly to the alleged acts of corruption committed in far-away Delhi. Instead, they welcomed him back as a hero, who had initiated the telecom revolution in Himachal. As Communications Minister at the Centre, Mr Sukh Ram had liberally granted licences for setting up PCOs in every nook and corner of Himachal Pradesh, providing employment to youth and helping apple-growers reach out to distant markets. To cash in on the public goodwill in his home state, he floated the Himachal Vikas Party, which won enough seats in the 1998 assembly elections to help the BJP form a government. This marriage of convenience broke up after state BJP leaders engineered a split in the Himachal Vikas Party. Although in the last assembly elections, the shrewd opportunist was negotiating an alliance with the BJP also, he clearly sees his immediate future more secure with the Congress. Forgetting the past, he has embraced his arch-rival, Mr Virbhadra Singh. In a political give-and-take, he has sought accommodation for his son in exchange for extending support to the Chief Minister’s wife, who is contesting for the Lok Sabha from Mandi. Quite likely tomorrow he may go back to the BJP if the NDA returns to power in Delhi and he gets a more attractive enough offer. A Sukh Ram cannot change his spots.
The desires of the heart are as crooked as corkserews. — W.H. Auden |
Pursuing militants in Waziristan THE Pakistan Army was on its way to surrounding, this time, North Waziristan’s ordinarily inaccessible town of Shawal earlier this week — an upland valley deep inside the wooded mountains close to the Durand Line. It is again in pursuit of Osama bin Laden and his lieutenants. Believing intelligence reports about the area is risky because most informers work on both sides of the street; information about the pursuers may easily be passed on to them. Osama or his deputies will not wait for the Pakistan Army to block their way out while the US-led forces shut the trap on the Afghan side. It is just over a fortnight after the last military expedition to South Waziristan for the capture or killing of what President Pervez Musharraf called a “high value objective”, said to be Ayman al Zawahiri, the second in command to Osama. There was fierce fighting in and around the town of Wana. There were 100 casualties out of which 60 were regular military and paramilitary personnel. While some of the militants, said to be Chinese Uighurs, fought till they were killed, no one could be nabbed. There was, instead, egg on the faces of the Generals for the botched operation. Actually, Pakistan’s military rulers are hoist with their own petard. For the origins of the militants, one will have to go some way back in history. A Muslim League-led-and-created Pakistan faced, at its inception, the problem of what the country was to be. One major scholar, Maulana Abul Ala Maududi, almost single-handed created an Islamic ideology that quickly coloured the main Islamic orthodoxy everywhere, represented by the Deoband school, and led to a polarisation that still haunts Pakistan. Original Muslim Leaguers were basically anti-mullah, West-oriented modernists, yet quite conservative, who accepted most of Sir Syed Ahmed Khan’s ideas. Most of them went on to serve one military dictator after another. A new radical Islam came into being as a political alternative in Pakistan. It now comprises many streams, though the Jamaat-i-Islami and the Jamiat-i-Ulma-i-Pakistan (JUI), the Pakistani successors of the Jamiat-i-Ulma-i-Hind, are the chief constituents. They later came to be used by Pakistan’s military rulers, who always acted as America’s proxies. High watermark came in 1979 when the Soviets entered Afghanistan. For 10 years the US and Pakistan military intelligence recruited, paid and indoctrinated volunteers with this Islamic ideology that ultimately produced the Taliban. A combination of Pushtoon tribal leaders, Afghan and Pakistani mullahs, lots of money and modern small arms, the ISI, the CIA and MI5 managed to produce an Islamic jihad in the service of the supposedly God-fearing super power. It meant an expenditure of more than $ 20 billion over eight or nine years — half of it or less than that contributed by the West and the rest by Arab Sheikhs. Pakistan is now, as a consequence, awash with Kalashnikovs and drugs. Above all, it has any number of Taliban-loving sentimental Islamists. If former ISI chief Hamid Gul is to be believed, it is these mujahideen plus the Taliban who defeated the Soviets. Americans merely helped them with money and arms. The main factor was their Islamic fervour. However, the results are with us: the alliance between mullahs and the military has remained strong until now, when the US has become insistent that Pakistan should drive away or kill Islamic militants — mostly Taliban activists and some foreign remnants of the 1980s’ jihad. Here they can buy protection and have tremendous support, especially in the Frontier’s tribal areas. Once they were a source of strength to military dictators; now they are seen as a dragon that will either frighten the Americans out of their wits or swallow them. Already the Taliban-loving religious parties’ alliance, the MMA, controls one-third of Pakistan’s Parliament and is two western provinces. The horizon is clouded because the US regards the mullah-military alliance as something detrimental to American interests, and the Pakistan military has to agree to this. General Musharraf finds himself between a rock and a hard place. His rule requires steady cooperation of mullahs: otherwise the support to the Taliban and the Islamists — the believers in the Pushtoon version of the Islamic ideology — has evolved into a threat. He knows Muslim Leaguers are fair weather friends; they may happily serve another dictator. Currently General Musharraf cannot dispense with the MMA’s largely tacit support while the US finds it wrong, needing rectification. The MMA cannot help General Musharraf uproot all mujahideen as some of them have been useful to the military for keeping up the Kashmir jihad. But without Pakistan killing the dragon, the Americans will not leave this country alone. Mr Zalme Khalilzad, the US Ambassador to Afghanistan, has actually threatened that if Pakistan cannot do the job, American troops may have to do it themselves. Despite the retraction, the statement left no one in doubt about what he meant. It was not a faux pas. The stakes are high. The Taliban, having recovered from the shock of being thrown out of Afghanistan and Pakistan having changed sides, are now leading some kind of resistance in Afghanistan. They are keeping Afghanistan destabilised. The US has taken due notice of this growing threat and expects Pakistan to ferret it out and either kill the Taliban activists or hand them over to it. Can General Musharraf do it? Pakistan’s unsuccessful South Waziristan venture reinforces the bureaucracy’s view of needless meddling in the tribal areas. They have scrupulously followed the policy the colonial administrators had devised: don’t interfere in their day-to-day matters; let them govern themselves in accordance with their customs and the Frontier Crimes Regulations. So long as they nominally accept the central authority, personified by political officers, allow their Pushtoon paramilitary force to do all the policing and keep the Army away, unless something serious happens to need a military expedition. The idea was to have the overall British authority theoretically recognised without shattering their illusion of independence in their daily life. Pakistan’s latest actions violated the Pushtoon idea of being independent, with a strict code of honour: Pushtoonwali. Handing over a man under their protection to others is an absolute taboo. The code has different rules of hospitality and chivalry. Two facts cannot be ignored however: first the Pashtoons regard the rest of the Pakistanis as another people who have done nothing for them by way of economic development — building roads, hospitals or schools. They live as their forefathers did over a hundred years ago. They pay no taxes, and normal laws do not apply to them. Secondly, times do change. They too have heard of the Islamic revolution and deeply sympathise with the Taliban (mostly Pushtoons) and Al-Qaida. What Pakistan seeks is a violation of their Pushtoonwali as well as going against their political preferences. In fact, General Musharraf runs the risk of an uprising in all the tribal areas if the military is used to do what it can. In the long run, of course, the old colonial policies will have to be given up, and these areas to be merged in the NWFP. But what of now? General Musharraf is no nation-builder. Can he solve long-term problems of these wild Pushtoons, let alone the rest of
Pakistan? |
Moustache factor MOUSTACHE is an important component of one’s personality. It may take time and a few trials to settle down on a particular style of moustache but once it is finally adopted, then there is no going back. The style or the pattern so adopted gets fixed on the visage and assumes a distinctive feature of one’s personality. A slight deviation made in the style while trimming spoils the mood and brings depression in its wake. A person gets so much attached to his fond style of moustache that a marked deviation, what to speak of shaving it altogether, becomes unbearable. One’s ego would not allow it to happen. The mighty Veerappan would rather prefer losing his freedom and life than parting with his characteristic moustache. Some communities, especially in North India like Rajputs and Thakurs, consider their moustache as a symbol of prestige. There are many styles of moustache — too small, abnormally long, bushy, twisted, a thin straight line, standing or slanting downwards at either end or curly et al and some styles also go after popular names like Charlie style, Veerappan style or the latest Judeo style. Each particular style lends a distinctive look to its wearer, such as the look of a gentleman, a goon, a wrestler, a dancer, an Army man, a police constable, or a dacoit et al. My moustache has taken much toll of my time in dealing with it for 57 long years. Its trimming swallows up more time than even shaving my visage and quite often my “gentlemanly” style gets spoiled while trimming even discreetly. And the irony is that notwithstanding profound lessons about self-control learnt through yogic ‘kriyas’ and scriptures, I can’t avoid wasting time from my daily routine of trimming, no matter the hot water kept for bath is getting cold or my wife is shouting at me from the bathroom to switch off the gas or worst of all, I am feeling an intense urge for going to the toilet. This moustache factor has brought about a colossal change in my career as I couldn’t give the interview for an assured lecturer’s job at Karnal because of my style of moustache and was thus consigned to breathe in the pollution of Delhi as a babu. And yet another such incident changed the course of my life itself. The year was 1953. I was to meet someone dear to me at Ambala station’s platform during the brief halt of an ongoing train. I had started making preparations before the meeting like purchasing a new pair of shoes, borrowing a shirt from a hostel friend and using Cuticura soap and Merculised wax (not available now) and others. But the destiny was smiling all this time. I happened to cut my moustache and couldn’t go to the station and lost her forever. Blessed are, indeed, those mortals who don’t sport moustache and are liberated from the frequent travails of teasing moments and agonising
situations.
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400-plus: triumph of human spirit
WE all know the cliched answer to the question why people climbed Mount Everest. They did it because it was there. There are challenges in every field of life and sports is no exception. No one thought that the mile could be run in less than four minutes but this was proved wrong by the British athlete, Dr Roger Bannister. Records keep on falling, nothing is permanent in sports. Yet there was something remarkable about West Indian cricket captain, Brian Lara’s staggering 400 not out in the fourth and final Test against England at the Antigua Recreation ground. It was not just talent, but an achievement of the human mind and body. Lara at 34 was way beyond his first flush of youth. Antigua was hot and humid and the West Indian captain batted for 13 hours. That was a tribute to his stamina. The West Indies went into this Test match facing a white-wash, having lost all the three previous matches by huge margins and underwent the humiliation of being bowled out for the record low score of 47 in the first test at Jamaica. Cricket lovers all over the world were laughing at the West Indies team, once the world champions for nearly 20 years running and there was a demand that Lara was not leading by example. No one has ever questioned Lara’s talent. That was God-given. But his commitment had come under the microscope quite often, particularly when he was the captain of the unpredictable West Indian team. For the last so many years, their test record had been deplorable, even worse than that of Zimbabwe. The once-mighty Caribbeans had been white-washed by the South Africans, Australians and even the Pakistanis. But the comprehensive defeats at the hands of the English team were particularly humiliating. It was the English who had been Lords and maters of the West Indian islands for centuries when the locals were nothing more than slaves. Even after freedom came, the islanders were sensitive in their relations with their colonial masters and the greatest achievements they could boast of were a string of cricket victories starting from the 1950 Calypso tour of England. No English team since 1968 had won a series in the Caribbean and Lara had to undergo this humiliation. That is why the quadruple hundred was a remarkable achievement. The Windies could not win the series but their pride had been restored. Keeping England on the field for more than 14 hours, piling up a huge total of 750 plus and the captain’s record breaking knock helped to erase the pain and humiliation. A victory in the test, though unlikely, would the ideal icing on the cake. Analysing Lara’s 400, one is tempted to conclude that miracles do happen on the sports field. Replying to a question from former English captain and now commentator, David Gower, Lara said he never believed he would be able to provide a repeat performance of his 375 at the same venue some 10 years back against the same opposition. This record stood for nine years before it was broken by Australian Mathew Hayden with a score of 380 against Zimbabwe. It is now raining triple centuries! Within the space of six months, three triple tons had been scored, by Hayden, our own Virendra Shewag at Multan against Pakistan and now Lara. Both Hayden and Shewag had the advantage of belonging to teams with tremendous batting strength, with the Aussies being the unchallenged world champions for several years. But poor Lara had been the backbone of one of the weakest teams in the world, which had been mauled both in Tests and one-dayers. The pressure on him to perform was unbelievable. His batting partners fell like nine ninepins, his bowlers were highly ineffective and his fieldsmen could not hold the simplest of catches. Yet every time, Brian Lara went out to bat, he was expected to perform miracles. On several occasions, he did perform these but cricket being a team game, the results, in the absence of support from others, were not satisfactory. That was why Lara’s 400 was s a monumental achievement. He never sacrificed style or elegance, never allowed the bowlers dictate terms. Lara was like British Prime Minister Winston Churchill during the early days of Second World War when he had to take on the Nazis under Hitler all by himself. Of course, the British people supported Churchill better than Lara’s team mates stood by their captain. On a larger scale, Lara’s 400 symbolises what sport can do to uplift human spirit. On the day of his achievement, Lara shared the front pages of our dailies with some of our ‘netas’ who were responsible for the deaths of 22 women in Lucknow by creating a stampede while promising them gifts of sarees. Another ‘neta’ Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi was sharply attacked by the Highest Court of India for adopting a ‘Nero like’ attitude while his state burned during the communal riots of 2001. As corrupt politicians shouted from the rooftop about ‘feeling good’ comes the disturbing news that nearly 15 per those contesting the forthcoming polls had criminal records. In this depressing scenario, the achievements of the likes of Lara shine brightly. While Modi ran riot in Guajrat two young Muslims (one of them almost a boy) Irfan Pathan and Zaheer Khan made India feel good in the world of sports. And to think that just two kms from the home of the Pathans in Vadodara, men and women were killed in the continuing communal clashes. But then sports transcends all communal passions and prejudices. The West Indian islands, of course, were not afflicted by communal poison, yet the poverty-stricken people of Antigua, in the wake of Lara’s achievement, forgot their misery and rejoiced. As one who was fortunate enough to have watched on television the twin achievements of Brian Lara, as well as the triples of Mathew Hayden and Shewag, I found them noble and enriching experiences. Human spirit and talent were elevated to Olympian heights and made us forget, at least temporarily, the misery of our day-to-day life. The little boy from Trinidad and Tobago, from a lower middle class family is now a national hero. At 34, Brian Lara may not continue for long in international cricket, but he will leave behind a legacy which each one of us can cherish for a long time. |
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HEALTH TRANSPLANTED kidneys from older donors often work just as well as organs from younger donors, a study said on Monday. In the study of 324 kidney transplant patients, 13 percent of organs from donors aged 55 or older failed, compared to a 15 percent failure rate for kidneys obtained from younger ones. Kidneys from younger donors generally functioned better than older kidneys, but all the successfully transplanted kidneys functioned acceptably, the study said. Transplant patients’ survival rates after one, two and three years were also comparable. “After proper evaluation, kidneys from older deceased or living donors are appropriate for selected candidates, including older patients awaiting transplantation and those with limited life expectancy based on their severity of illness,” Dr. Paul Morrissey of Brown Medical School, Providence, Rhode Island, wrote in the journal Archives of Surgery. More important than the age of the donor, especially for an older patient waiting for a new kidney, is to obtain a healthy organ, whether the donor is living or deceased, the report said. Frequent breast exams Women who carry a genetic mutation linked to a higher risk of breast cancer often are at advanced stages of the disease months before they go to the doctor for an annual screening, according to a new U.S. study. Carriers have a 60 percent to 85 percent lifetime risk of contracting the disease, which kills about 44,000 women in the United States each year. In their study of 13 women aged 32 to 59 with these genes, researchers at Columbia-Presbyterian found six had developed breast cancers detected in between their annual mammograms. The average time that had elapsed since their last annual screening was about five months, and four of the six had already developed relatively advanced cancers that had spread to their lymph nodes. “We feel that (every) 12 months definitely is not adequate screening for women with these genetic mutations,” said Dr. Ian Komenaka, a breast surgeon and lead author of the study, published on Monday in the online edition of the American Cancer Society journal Cancer. “It looks like it needs to be every six months if not every four months,” Komenaka said. Mammography, a special type of X-ray imaging used to create detailed images of a breast, is the primary method of screening for breast cancer in the United States. In 1997, the National Cancer Institute recommended women 40 years and older have this exam every one to two years.
Hospital stay getting shorter Patients recovering from severe heart attacks in the US are kept in hospitals less than a week, compared to stays of more than six weeks in the 1950s, researchers said on Monday. But the change has not been accompanied by higher death rates after discharge, researchers at the University of Massachusetts Medical School in Worcester said. “Much of the observed decline in hospital length of stay may be attributed to improvements in the management of acute myocardial infarction, including increased use of coronary reperfusion modalities (techniques to restore blood and oxygen flow to the heart muscle),” said the report published in the Archives of Internal Medicine. —
Reuters |
Seeing much, suffering much, and studying much, are the three pillars of learning. — Benjamin Disraeli Without God’s name, our deeds are of no avail. — Guru Nanak The Buddha will not die; the Buddha will continue to live in the holy body of law. — The Buddha Leisure is a beautiful garment, but it will not do for contant wear. — Anon It is always better to forsake false beliefs. — Swami Dayanand Saraswati |
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