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Sari largesse Importance of Mulayam |
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Sidhu takes fresh guard
Can Musharraf stay the course?
Bonds that cannot be defined
Inside Panna National Park PEOPLE
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Sari largesse FRANKLY, the model code of conduct is not the most avidly followed set of commandments. The Election Commission has to continuously play a cops-and-robbers game with the politicians. But when such violations take place in the Prime Minister’s constituency, these are particularly unfortunate. Had 21 women and a child not died in a stampede in Lucknow last Monday, the brazen sari distribution by Mr Lalji Tandon might have gone unnoticed. But now that the dirt has hit the fan, the BJP’s attempts to disown the largesse distribution are clumsy and unconvincing. The Election Commission has rightly issued a show-cause notice to the party and ordered the registration of an FIR against Mr Tandon. The argument that the saris were being distributed by an NGO and that even Mr Tandon did not have anything to do with the function is specious. Even Mr Atal Bihari Vajpayee has said that this kind of sari distribution was done on Mr Tandon’s birthday year after year. Mr Tandon should have owned up what he had been doing. It is another matter that he being a senior leader should have been sensible enough not to do so just before the elections when the model code of conduct was in operation. Opposition parties have even produced copies of the advertisements to prove that the crowds were mobilised by the BJP. Instead of going into the legalese, it should at least express regret over the sari distribution. The Election Commission does not normally take precipitate action in such matters. Recently, when the Congress had used government planes for ferrying party leaders during the Assembly elections, the expression of regrets had got it off the hook, although the EC had earlier threatened derecognition of the party. It is true, Mr Vajpayee was not the candidate on the day the stampede took place. Nor had Mr Tandon been appointed his election agent. He may not admit it, but Mr Tandon has only ill-served his cause. Mr Vajpayee should ensure that the code of conduct is not breached by any of his party colleagues in any of the constituencies, least of all his own. Only then can the BJP claim to be a party with a difference. |
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Importance of Mulayam UTTAR PRADESH Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav seems to have mastered the art of the possible. He has his cake and eats it too. He could not have come to power without the tacit support of the BJP and the open backing of the Congress. It is unusual for both the parties to unite for a common cause. Mr Yadav's success lies in the fact that neither of the two can ditch him despite all their protestations to the contrary. At the time the BJP-appointed Governor invited him to form the government the BJP knew that an early election would only expose the chinks in the party. After all, every by-election result had gone against the saffron party. For the Congress, it was a Hobson's choice as it would have otherwise earned the wrath of the secularists, within and without the party. But once the Congress fell to the temptations of power and joined Mr Yadav's government, it could not retract. Party chief Sonia Gandhi could not have ignored the fear of her partymen remaining stay put in the government even if she withdrew support to him. It was with this confidence that the Samajwadi Party leader cocked a snook at the Congress when it pleaded for an electoral understanding. The SP fiercely opposes the Congress in constituency after constituency and yet it cannot do a thing against Mr Yadav or his government. If the Congress pulls out of the coalition, it will be accused of destabilising a secular government, which will prove costly in the elections. As for the BJP, it has every reason to be grateful to Mr Yadav, who not only prevented consolidation of anti-BJP votes but also sabotaged the efforts to field common candidates against BJP stalwarts like Mr A.B. Vajpayee and Mr Murli Manohar Joshi. His government has also been quite helpful towards the party in the wake of Mr Lalji Tandon's birthday bash going haywire, killing 21 women. The BJP realised that he could be depended upon when he helped some of its top leaders who are accused of conspiring to demolish the Babri Masjid. He is truly a better ally than the BJP's own allies in the NDA. |
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Sidhu takes fresh guard EVEN when India was not shining there was seldom a dim area in Navjot Sidhu’s mind. Clive Lloyd must have been baffled by the audacity of a young Sikh cricketer who mauled his feared pace attack while helping himself to a century in a game between the West Indies and Punjab in 1984. As a television commentator he has mauled the accepted rules of broadcasting with equal ferocity. He has now decided to bat for the Bharatiya Janata Party. When he bats anyone and anything that come in his way get hit. As a cricketer he was injury prone. The best the rivals can do is pray that he retires hurt from the contest, because of some mysterious political injury, in the course of campaigning. He may just give up when he realises that voters and wickets are both like wives — you never know which way they will turn. The opposition should also make him realise that Indian politics is like an Indian three-wheeler — sucks a lot of diesel, without going beyond 30. What he had been saying as a television commentator, in his own version of the brutalised English language, to entertain, if not inform, viewers across the globe ought to sound better in his native
tongue. Therein lies the problem. Every Punjabi is a potential Sidhu, if not a shade better than the author of Sidhuism in his own language. However, not all of Sidhu Speak is pure English. But what he says and how he says it clicks. He goes straight to the heart of the matter, or the match. Now that he will be playing on an altogether different kind of turf, he may have to evolve a new version of Sidhuism. Man must be invented each day. — Jean-Paul Sartre |
Can Musharraf stay the course? THE last year has seen a gradual shift in the Pakistani media’s treatment of issues and news on India. There is a new accent on the merits of our democratic functioning; management of economic growth and development; handling of land and water reforms; India’s emergence as a major power centre in Asia along with China; American offer of removing the hyphen (between India and Pakistan) from their discourse on their South Asian policies and relationships; NRIs in the US, the UK, Canada, Australia, the Caribbean and the Persian Gulf areas appearing in the business lists as among the richest locals, also some of them being honoured as scholars, academics and scientists. Why are these things not happening also to the Pakistanis? They argue: We speak English as well as the Indians do; play cricket and hockey at the same level, sometimes even better; our armed forces are seen as powerful and impressive, and Pakistan has emerged as the sole member of the Ummah which is a nuclear weapon state. Why are our students, businessmen and tourists when they travel abroad, are seen with suspicion, and sometimes denied visas and humiliated, Pakistanis point out. In general, they are not taken as seriously or shown the same respect that is given to our Indian counterparts? This analysis and self-assessment has resulted in their feeling that they are seen as jihadis (due to their involvement with the old mujahideen and more recent Taliban in Afghanistan; and their involvement with terrorism in Chechnya, North Africa and Kashmir), and nobody sees them as technology-savvy, science and research-minded modern, upcoming society or nation. Hudood legislation, the pursuit of Sharia laws, old legislation on items like Gustakh-i-Rasool have had a global impact. President Jiang Zemin of China is cited as having told the Pakistan Senate, some years ago, to leave certain disputes (Kashmir?) on the backburner for the present; Pakistanis have been openly critical of their military rulers for auctioning the nation’s sovereignty rather cheaply. What has their persistence with the Kashmir dispute and promotion of Jihad gained them or lost them? Has the strengthening of their war machine helped the poor, illiterate and hungry in Pakistan? These and many other questions are being asked without eliciting any replies. For once public opinion in the country these days seems to favour normal friendly, neighbourly relations with India, so as to ensure a peaceful region for themselves. In recent weeks they have been gracious as hosts to their Indian guests. The Pakistani masses have shown their sporting spirit by accepting defeat and mistakes by their cricket team, with good cheer and humour. Their hospitality to Indian visitors has been spectacular and unparallelled by anything Indians could claim in this context for themselves. Over the last few years our Prime Minister quite independently of the above narrative, has persisted with effort after effort to kick-start a peace process in the subcontinent. And this he has been doing despite frequent hiccups. His Lahore bus yatra of 1999 was unhappily followed by the half-war in Kargil; the Ramazan ceasefire in 2002; the Agra Summit of July 2001; the attack on our Parliament House which resulted in India deploying the bulk of its armed forces along the LoC and international borders. Once again in Srinagar, on April 18, 2003, the Prime Minister made a speech offering our hand of peace; the SAARC Summit of January 2004 provided both leaders the opportunity to pick the bilateral thread of peace. The Indo-Pak Joint Statement of January 6 defined how the two sides would need to proceed in future. In recent months official India has steadfastly refused to articulate either criticism or blame to Pakistan. All this despite the A.Q. Khan incident, even after he confessed that he had created an entire international cartel of criminally inclined proliferators to ensure further proliferation of nuclear WMDs. No action was taken against him, and General Musharraf pardoned him, calling him “My Hero”. President Bush too ignored this instance of nuclear proliferation promoted through criminal activity; the sudden recent toughening of General Musharraf’s stand on the peace process during his appearance at the India Today Conclave, followed by certain statements along the same lines in his TV and Press interviews in Pakistan; and the bomb-shell dropped, without any prior notice, by US Secretary of State Colin Powell on March 18 rewarding Pakistan with the status of America’s major non-NATO ally — not a whisper of criticism has emerged from official India on any of these developments! We are refusing to either bark or bite. During this election season the Prime Minister is using his pursuit of peace with both Pakistan and China as his major plank for seeking votes for his party. While the country is preoccupied with the chores, debates and rallies normal to any general election, people are refusing to comment on the BJP’s peace offensive, which the party hopes will make them more acceptable among the minority. We need to appreciate that currently Pakistan is pre-occupied with a bitter armed struggle against its traditionally autonomous tribals in two border provinces, the NWFP and Baluchistan. Both provinces are ruled currently by the coalition of six religious parties and groups called the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA). Pakistan’s major non-NATO ally, traditional arms supplier, and benefactor seems to have outsourced the task of finding Osama bin Laden and subduing and punishing Al-Qaeda and the Taliban to Pakistan, more specifically to General Musharraf himself. Military administrations are often capable of disregarding public opinion. The Pakistani military’s assistance to the US apparently has the broad support of the educated, urban, modern segment of Pakistani society. The Islamists, jihadis and the mullah-obsessed segment of their population, encouraged and motivated by the clergy, is angry and frustrated with their government’s initiatives, the bloodshed and hostility in their Tribal border-lands. These people also refuse to hide their detestation for the infidel foreigner who is choreographing these operations. In this situation General Musharraf is faced with several policy dilemmas. The principal cause of this being the fact that in an earlier era General Musharraf, and his senior military colleagues had exploited the ideology and passion of Islamists, and lent them the active services of the official agency, the ISI, to encourage and exploit certain muscular jihadi factions involved in promoting and exporting insurgency and terror into Jammu and Kashmir. Our policy-makers must determine for themselves whether, against this overall picture, General Musharraf can or will show stamina, grit and courage to stay the course of his recent commitment to peace with India. It would be futile to be oblivious of how much intended or unintended mischief is likely to result from Mr Colin Powell’s statement of March 18, made on Pakistani soil declaring that Pakistan was to be considered the US’s major non-NATO ally. Such a status makes the Pakistani military eligible to utilise the US government’s services for the maintenance, repair, overhaul, etc, of Pakistan’s defence equipment; for benefiting from joint research and development projects; for upgrading their conventional defence capabilities; receiving on a priority basis, the delivery of excess defence articles; acquiring, inter alia, depleted uranium ammunition; receiving and keeping US-owned weapons and ammunition stockpiles; getting US finances for leasing American defence articles; becoming eligible for expeditious grant of export licences of commercial satellites, technologies, and weapon systems. All this should indicate how pleased the Pakistani military feels in acquiring the ability to help itself to this Eldorado of the latest US weapons systems and arms, and all the toys they have always enjoyed playing with. Usually, all this leaves a devastating impact on the concept of peace in the subcontinent. Lord Curzon had once suggested that successful diplomacy must involve the following: knowing one’s own mind, and also letting the other side know it. The three sides in the present equation — Prime Minister Vajpayee, General Musharraf and Secretary of State Colin Powell — must ask themselves if they have understood the import of the requirement suggested by
Curzon. |
Bonds that cannot be defined WHY one develops an instant like or dislike for a person is inexplicable. Scientists might attribute it to some mysterious enzymes. The fact remains that emotions and bondings cannot be analysed in laboratories. They are those subtle currents which give life to water, colour to flowers, moisture to the clouds. They are the invisible fingers that touch creatures and bind them with silken soft threads. The wonderful thing about them is that there are no shores to limit them. The warmth of ties can embrace the animal as well human world. One such instance is of Blackie. About six years ago, new tenants moved into a house opposite ours. Along with them came two dogs, one their pet and the second, a black female dog who came with them but slept outside their house. Blackie was a friendly dog who always helloed by wagging her tail. All the children loved her. Within two months, Blackie had won the hearts of many people. Even my milkman would fill up her bowl before leaving. One night, the roar of thunder woke me up with a start. It was raining heavily. My first concern was for Blackie’s pups as their makeshift home afforded no protection from the rough element. By the time I reached outside, the landlord of the house had already shifted the ‘refugees’ to his garage. Though the people with whom Blackie had come had shifted elsewhere, she had stayed back, adopting our street as its home. She earmarked different houses for sleeping at night, depending on the weather. She opted for the cooler houses in the hot months and warm ones during chilly days. She delivered her babies in each house turn by turn. When she became too weak after having pups every six months, one of the neighbours got her operated. Blackie is a member of our extended family. No intruder, be it a human or a dog can sneak into the lane at night, for her glowing, alert eyes keep vigil. A slight creak and she yells her heart out and the pet dogs join the chorus. Even now as she sits basking in the sun and wags her tail lazily, I wonder how a complete stranger, that too from a different species, has bound the whole lane together. Nobody is her owner, yet she belongs to everyone. Truly, bonds defy
definition.
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Inside Panna National Park THE silvery river sparkles in the morning sun as we enter the jungle road inside the Panna National Park. A cheetal (deer), startled by the noise, stares at us before darting away. A wild boar stops in his tracks, fumbles and disappears. Strains of a fading song wafts to us with the tinkle of laughter. We are approaching the villages inside the jungle. The huts are desolate and mute except for the cackling of hens. The village of Kaneri is one of three to be resettled outside the park. The families are shifting along with the cattle and kids. Thatched roofs are brought down to get the beams that had kept the huts standing all these years. They want to carry everything that would help them make a home away from home. “I want to get back my roots, but instead I am offered tombs that dot the villages. I leave when happenings push me to a wall which is no wall but another opening..,” 80-year-old Gunia is singing in his husky baritone. In the long eight decades of his life, Gunia has been on the move in search of home and hearth, but within the jungle only. He was born in a village where epidemic claimed his mother and other siblings. His father carried him on his back to another village, which soon got swept away in floods along with the crops and fields. The river Ken took away his father as well. And yet, Gunia knows jungle has no bars, only roots. He refuses to leave the harsh rugged terrain and the emerald green of the sprawling jungle now turned into Tiger Reserve in Panna. “Forest life is not meant for humans. Wild beasts attack them. Their fields are trampled and destroyed by the animals of the sanctuary. We have offered them a safer and better place and they are leaving on their own,” says area ranger Rudra Tej Sanago. But Gunia refuses to leave his village. His crops are growing in the fertile banks of the river Ken. “Kaneri is my ultimate destination. Forest has been always generous to us unlike the men from the cities. It has offered us fruits to eat, leaves to sleep,” whispers Gunia. As we move towards the promised land of crocodiles on the banks of Ken, dry leaves and fallen branches of trees crunch under the wheels. The crocodiles refuses to surface and oblige us but we meet Shanta Bai carrying a headload of wood pieces to the market that she collects secretly along with other women in the deep shadows of dim afternoon sun as it is forbidden. “If we are caught in the act, the forest officials treat us brutally,” says Shanta Bai showing her limp as she had a fracture when they caught her last month and beat her up mercilessly. At the outskirts of the National Park, there are Govind and Mahesh toiling at the road construction site. Both of them are from the buffer villages of the forest. “We use to cut stones in the quarries. But stone mines were mostly czlosed after the area was declared reserved for tigers,” says Mahesh. “Till 1995, at least 35,000 stone cutters were engaged in the mines but now most of us have lost our livelihood.” The few mines left are run by contractors to whom the stone cutters are indebted for life. “I was provided by the contractor with food and shelter and now I have to pay him back toiling in his mine,” says Gautam. He is left with no option but to join the group in the mines where he slogs for 12 hours a day within his wife and kids to make both ends meet. The villages in the area look deserted as the young men have left for greener pastures leaving the old and the young in the care of their womenfolk. “Every day we walk 18 to 20 km to the markets in Panna to sell the wood and other forest products,” says Janako. “There are groups of women employed in making fruit jams and agarbattis. But at the end of the day, you never get more than 10 to 15 rupees, and I have four kids and parents-in-law to feed. Would you blame me if I collect a few figs and leaves from the forest to keep alive my family?” The mid-day sun is blazing at us as we move towards Mandla, a panchayat with less papers and more computer files. Young men are trained here to feed the material in the computers that save time and space. “We are planning to create a paperless panchayat and also train our boys for better jobs in cities,” says the Chief Executive Officer of Panna block. However, in his enthusiasm, he forgets the girls who anyway are never taken into account as they are fated to be given in marriages with dowry and without their own consent. Mandla is a panchayat with 400 families. With 50 per cent of the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe population, the panchayat has 60 per cent landless families. Of them, 5 per cent are Raj Gond, upper caste among the tribals. The Scheduled Castes are mostly Mehtars who have their own deity called Hinglaz, a goddess worshipped in the far off desertlands too. After Mandla, we move towards Hinauta, a panchayat near the diamond mines of the National Mineral Development Corporation (NMDC) with four thousand population and 153 people living below poverty line. The panchayat claims to have 88 per cent literacy and among women 80 per cent. With two schools, fine health services, direct electricity facilities from the city, water, communications, free bus ride to the city, the village has been placed among the five best panchayats in the state. There are 500 telephone connections and 600 motorbikes apart from 10 cars here. The secret of the splendour visible in the running development projects lies, however, to a great extent in the active cooperation from the NMDC administration. Hinauta panchayat falls in an area where water is available only at the depth of 70 feet. From the several waterfalls and lakes in the forest, to which Hinauta provides an entry, the thirsty villagers were strictly refused to fetch water until the NMDC came into the picture and made drinking water available to the parched population. As we leave Hinauta, the diamond mines run by the government are also left behind. However, mining for diamond is a common sight in Panna. The rich get the contract for the larger plots where they employ labour. When diamonds are ultimately found, according to the laws, they are to be deposited in the government custody. Later the jewel is auctioned and 10 per cent of the price goes to the government. The mining for diamond is almost an addiction for the residents here irrespective of their financial status. Even the landless and wage labour take the plots on lease and go on digging. “I have been taking plots of five by five feet for the last 22 years. I work for five to six months as a labourer and save from my earnings to get the plot for diamonds,” says Rajwa, who has been chasing his glittering dream in the depths of the rocky lands all his life. “I got two diamonds in the entire span of my digging. One was sold for Rs 1500 and other for Rs 2200,” boasts Rajwa. Getting diamonds is immaterial for them. What really matters is the dream itself as they go on digging. According to the story popular in Panna, Dara Shikoh, a son of Shahjahan, was offered shelter by Chhatrasal, the warrior king of Panna, when the Mughal prince was troubled by Aurangzeb. Dara was from the royal family and recognised the diamonds scattered around in the rubbles of Panna. He advised his friend and saviour Chhatrasal to mine and process them. Since then, Panna has never turned back. But it is not just the elusive sparkling jewels. Panna has much more than that to be a dream to he chased. — Grassroots Feature Network |
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PEOPLE The 12-bedroom house is an ideal address for a 3.5 billion steel king who owns the world’s second largest steel company, the LNM Group which employs 120,000 people in 45 countries. He will now be joining the “billionaires’ row”. Bishop Avenue, in Hampsted, North London, where he currently resides in a 44-million mansion, is known as Millionaires’ Row. According to The Sunday Mail, 54-year-old Mittal has shown nerves of steel to increase his wealth by almost two billion pounds in one year, overshadowing the rise of Richard Branson’s wealth from 1.2 billion last year to 2.07 billion. And to think that he was born in a village in western Rajasthan which did not even have electricity till the 1960s. When his family moved to Kolkata he did his schoolwork from 6.30 to 9.30 a.m. before working in his father’s steel business.
On a song About one lakh copies of the CDs and cassettes entitled “Mahashakti Bharat (Superpower India)”, “Shaktishali Bhajapa (Powerful BJP)”, “Kamal Khil Gaya (The Lotus Blooms)” and “Bhajapa Laher (BJP Wave)” sung by Sanu and Sudesh Bhonsle, Vinod Rathore, Rahul Seth, Munna Aziz, Anuradha Paudwal, Sadhana Sargam and Sanjeevani are being circulated all over the country. Sanu, whose real name is Kedar Bhattacharya, has sung in 19 languages. What about his political career? He says he has no immediate plans but would continue to support the BJP and work to strengthen it.
Tandon undone Lalji Tandon has been Mr Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s “Man Friday” since 1957, but things may not be the same after the black Monday when a stampede at his birthday celebrations marked by the distribution of saris left 21 women dead. He has not been dropped like a hot potato but he is certainly out in the cold. The incident adds greatly to his woes, which have been multiplying of late. His capability to collect crowds has been on the wane and BJP leaders are also cross with him for his autocratic ways to guard access to the Prime Minister. The man with his name in the Limca Book of Records for laying as many as 1001 foundation stones in a day was one of the founding fathers of the Jana Sangh in 1952 but has started being seen as more of a liability than an asset. |
Men light a candle, and put it on a candlestick; and it gives light to all in the house. — Jesus Christ There can be no salvation without dwelling upon the name of God. — Guru Nanak All reality is consciousness, but the measure of reality of anything is determined by the nature of consciousness that is revealed in it. — Sri Auobindo God governs the world, and we have only to do our duty wisely, and leave the issue to him. — John Jay The very impossibility which I find to prove that God is not, discovers to me his existence. — Bruyere |
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STEEL magnate Lakshmi Mittal has already been making waves in his country of birth, India, as well as the country of residence, England, by becoming the one of the five richest men in Britain. He has now made the entire world sit up and take notice of his phenomenal rise by purchasing a 70-million-pound mansion in London’s Kensington Palace Gardens, a world record for a house deal. 
Kumar Sanu has virtually sang his way into the BJP. His “Atalji ko dekha to aisa laga, jaise khilta kamal …” is being played out by the party all over the country and is proving to be as popular as the original song from the film, “1942 — A Love story”, “Ek Ladki ko dekha to aisa laga”.