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Governor’s
conduct Trying
times for farmers |
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Election
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Assets — real or
otherwise
Down the memory
lawn
Arms haul shadow on
Indo-Bangla ties People
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Governor’s conduct GOVERNORS are expected to rise above political affiliations once they are in office, though most of them have a political background. That is why Haryana Governor Babu Parmanand’s speech at a meeting of Dalits at Rewari on April 14 has raised eyebrows. In his address, he asked the audience to strengthen the hands of Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. He is also reported to have told them that “testing those tested once is foolhardy”. His statement has been interpreted as seeking votes for the Prime Minister’s party while cautioning the voters against voting for the ruling party in Haryana. The Congress has protested to the Election Commission while the President has sought a report on the Governor’s address from the Home Ministry. It can be said in the Governor’s defence that he did not canvass openly for either the BJP or against the INLD. But the very fact that he created a controversy shows that he was not very careful when he addressed the gathering. In this regard, the President, Dr A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, has set a new trend. Ever since elections were announced, he has been studiously avoiding all public functions where he would have been forced to speak on the achievements of the country, which could have been interpreted as speaking for the government. In the past, no other President had ever thought about the implications of their participation in such government functions. This may be an extreme case of neutrality but it shows how committed the President is in keeping constitutional functionaries away from electioneering. On its part, the Election Commission has been coming down heavily on the officials trying to influence the elections. It has shown boldness in taking action against the guilty as is borne out by the FIR filed against those responsible for distributing saris in Mr Vajpayee’s constituency. The time when district officials could help the ruling party seems to be over with the EC’s observers keeping an eye on all day-to-day events in the constituencies. This is bound to have a salutary effect on the fairness and freeness of the elections. It is, therefore, unfortunate that the Governor allowed himself to be carried away by his political loyalties. |
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Trying times for farmers It is now a recognised fact that returns from agriculture are either stagnant or declining — stagnant if the monsoon is normal and decline if the rain is less than adequate, while a drought can spell a disaster. That is because while the cost of farm inputs keeps rising, the Agriculture Costs and Prices Commission, at the bidding of the Central Government, has frozen the minimum support prices (MSPs) of the two major crops of wheat and paddy. This has been done in the past couple of years in view of the glut of foodgrains and also to discourage farmers from taking to paddy in a big way in the northern states where the underground water resources are fast depleting. Although the problem of plenty no longer exists, the government is unlikely to raise the MSP for paddy or wheat to keep their prices at par with those in international markets. Post-WTO, agriculture in India is faced with a new challenge: cheaper imports from the developed countries, where the level of subsidies is mind-boggling. Although a lot requires to be done to empower the Indian farmer to compete in the global market, there are softer options available for diversification which can help farmers in coping with the crisis situation. There is need to give a renewed thrust to occupations like dairy, fisheries, bee-keeping, floriculture and horticulture. Farmers can supplement their income by taking up any such cash-generating venture. Government agencies, agricultural universities and financial institutions can join hands to provide guidance, training and finance for such works. Due to an increasingly mechanised farming, farmers today are left with sufficient spare time to do a side-business. Even if government help is not forthcoming due to bottlenecks, farmers can take initiatives on their own to boost their earnings. Known for his enterprise and resilience, the Indian farmer will definitely emerge victorious from the present tough times. |
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Election services It had to happen, sooner rather than later. And it can happen only in "God's own country", mortal aspirations being what they are. In a situation of ideology-free politics where parties and politicians strike alliances and break partnerships in pursuit of power and personal ambitions, the activists too no longer see any purpose in remaining steadfast to principles. So we have unemployed young men in Kerala, who were active in various parties, coming together for selling "political services" - available to any and all parties at a price. For as little as Rs 100, the youngsters can be hired for putting up 100 posters within a radius of one km; for Rs 1000, they would hand out voter slips near polling booths or make announcements over the microphone. The team also takes orders for arranging demonstrations and mobilising people for meetings. Its like a fair price shop with fixed rates except that the commodity dispensed is poll services. Come to think of it, the idea is so simple. It is amazing that it didn't occur to anyone else before this to set up a business along these lines. After all young activists must have wearied of changing loyalties every time their leaders switched sides. In their crossing over from party to party and finding themselves often on the same ground, they must have seen that in the matter of electoral profit, the Marxist of the species is no different from the feudal; nor the secularist very distinct from the communalist. So rather than remain beasts of burden bonded to any one outfit or chieftain, they have decided to put their skills to good use. It is better than the cynicism of opting out of politics, given the fact that most of these youngsters are unemployed. In fact, they had to invent such an enterprise out of sheer necessity. In the next elections they might lend candidates to political parties along with services. Elections then could become turnkey jobs, and may be cost-effective. |
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An independent is a guy who wants to take the politics out of politics.
— Adlai Stevenson |
Assets — real or otherwise The
disclosure of assets by some election candidates reminds me of the jingle, attributed to Ajoy Mukherjee, Chief Minister of West Bengal’s United Front regime in the late sixties, “Oporey bhara, nichey bhara; Modhikhaney Bastuhara. Tenants above, tenants below, homeless in between.” The reference was to his deputy, Mr Jyoti Basu. A younger and idealistic Mr Atal Bihari Vajpayee, naturally in opposition then, lamented that Indian politicians start their legislative careers with a lie — the false spending returns they submit. Now, the falsehood begins even before the election. Posturing exists elsewhere too. I remember a British election meeting where Aneurin Bevan was bawling, “Comrades, the last time I was down a mine …” when my neighbour muttered, “That was a long long time ago!” But pretence and hypocrisy are of epidemic proportions in this country. The really poor have no place in politics except to turn up in millions on voting day. But candidates must pretend to be poor. This is partly because the manner of wealth accumulation often does not bear scrutiny. But a deeper reason equates virtue with impecuniousness, recalling Sarojini Naidu’s jibe that it cost a great deal to keep Mahatma Gandhi in poverty. Financial untruth is not the only instance of dishonesty. It may not even be the worst. The promise to throw open for worship all “old religious places”, the media’s sudden raking up of the Bofors affair, under the guise of investigative journalism (a phony ploy if ever there was one), or the distribution of saris (earlier, they lured voters with copper vessels, electric fans, cycle-rickshaws and free school meals) are all corrupt practices, whatever the law might say. But to conceal riches and ostentatiously flaunt poverty are rooted deep in India’s psyche. The fiction that votes are won by merit alone drives money underground. The chain effect spreads through every human activity. In this respect India is not unlike the old Soviet Union which, as Lady Thatcher famously said, was a country only for the rich. Those without influence have to buy their way here, paying for the simplest services that are supposed to be provided free and readily. Jawaharlal Nehru’s claim that he spent only fifty rupees a month captured the carelessness of wealth, birth and privilege. J.R.D. Tata, too, would trot out how small his income was. Such callousness ranks with the ingenuousness of the Somerset Maugham character who never understood why the poor did not ring for dinner when they felt hungry. Mr Srikantadatta Narasimharaja Wodeyar is probably officially the richest candidate with acknowledged assets of Rs 1,522.33 crore. It’s a fortune by any reckoning but, in this case, is it all? His jewellery and real estate must be priceless. I wangled an invitation once to the Dasehra durbar over which his father, the last Maharaja of Mysore, presided. Because I wore an ordinary lounge suit and not the court dress of white and gold turban, black sherwani and white and gold sash, I was shunted up to a screened gallery in the gods in Mysore’s vast and ornate palace. Even from there I could see his portly Highness ablaze with jewels — surely worth more than the Rs 75,000 Wodeyar mentions? — as he bowed deeply to the golden guddee before mounting it. Another royal, Mrs Shubhanginiraje Gaekwad, the BJP candidate from Kheda in Gujarat, claims assets of only Rs 60 lakh and jewellery worth no more than Rs 14 lakh. Now, that is a joke if ever there was one. I don’t know who her parents are, but her husband is hereditary Maharaja of Baroda, one of the five biggest princes of British India, entitled to a 21-gun salute. Baroda’s legendary wealth included fabulous palaces, some of the world’s best known diamonds, the fashionable food shop, Fortnum and Mason, in London, as well as other property in England. Some of it may have been sold, placed in trust or converted into devattar property, but Mrs Gaekwad must cut a sorry figure indeed among India’s gliterati, royal and non-royal, if her personal baubles are worth no more than Rs 14 lakh. Among commoners who see no reason to hide their affluence under a bushel of poverty, the ebullient Mr Ram Jethmalani admits to Rs 3.34 crores in assets including a Bombay flat worth Rs 1.25 crore, and 55,000 pounds, presumably in a London bank. Mr Jethmalani is a Sindhi refugee from Pakistan who has earned every penny he owns. What I admire even more is that he sees no reason to be ashamed of success. When a pretty young woman tried to floor him in my house by asking why he accepted briefs from smugglers and criminals, it was she who was floored by the candour of his riposte. How else would he earn enough, Mr Jethmalani asked, to take up public interest cases without a fee? I am also intrigued by Mr Chandrababu Naidu’s return as, indeed, by the entire information technology phenomenon. I suspect sometimes that hi-tech whiz kid Naidu is hailed as a deliverer simply because of his laptop. For me the computer is no more than another tool of efficient operations like typewriters or telephones in an earlier age. The only test of a Chief Minister’s achievement lies in higher literacy, improved health care and longevity, better crops, industrial productivity and a clean, caring and efficient administration. Maybe, Andhra Pradesh does soar above the rest of the country in all these respects. But has the evidence been collected to prove this? Or is a computer regarded as an end in itself? Nor can I understand how Mr Naidu owes nearly Rs 32 lakh more than his total assets. He is not a businessman who buys and sells with a flexible margin. If he has borrowed funds, what collateral does he offer? A second mystery concerns his wife’s worth of Rs 19.34 crore, so much more than the Rs 1.58 crore to which he admits. Did the late N.T. Rama Rao then bequeath a fortune to each of his offspring? Or has the Chief Minister’s wife earned her wealth through her own talents and efforts? Perish the thought that the money actually belongs to her husband, though held in her name. The modest Rs 26.70 lakh shown by the other young Chief Minister, Mr Naveen Patnaik, reminds me of a time when I was considering settling down in Puri. They showed me an abandoned half-built house in the second row from the beach and said that since the area was becoming congested, I might get it cheap from Biju Patnaik, the owner. I went to see him in the capital’s Utkal Bhavan and found an old and ailing man, very different from the robust Chief Minister I had known years earlier. “Not being property minded …” he began when I broached the subject, and claimed to have no memory of the house. I went back to Puri, made inquiries and learnt what I should have discovered earlier - that the authorities had acquired it in lieu of tax arrears. These stories could go on. It’s the discrepancies that matter. When Mrs Vasundhara Raje Scindia was canvassing in an earlier election, she went around bedecked in jewellery. Her argument was that the people came to see a princess and it would not be politic to disappoint them. A Harijan voter in Jagjivan Ram’s Bihar constituency remarked in 1979 that he was not born to rule, whereas Indira Gandhi was. Villagers do not lack honesty or understanding. It is middle class India that revels in admiring tales of patriots who spurned British privilege, of princes who were mistaken because of their simplicity for common men and of the great sacrifices of our politicians. None of this fiction is necessary. There is even a chance that money power might be less potent if it were not so diligently
concealed. |
Down the memory lawn My
evening stroll on the lawns of Government College in Lahore last month reminded me of similar strolls taken by Prof Sirajuddin of the English department of the college and Urmila, a student of third year, 60 years ago. Urmila Sondhi was the elder of the two daughters of Prof. G.D. Sondhi, the famous Principal of the college, before partition of India. In mid 1940s Government College, Lahore, was the finest institution of its kind in India, may be Asia. And Urmila was considered one of the prettiest girls in Lahore. The younger sister, Sohnu, was also a student of the college. Plausible rumours eddied through the college that the finest teacher, Prof. Sirajuddin, had fallen in love with Urmila, the image of grace. It was during one such evening stroll on the lawns of Government College that Siraj fell and got a bit injured and when Urmila helped him to get up he recited: “Hum zakhmi huaye khair hui, ishq me jaan chali jati hai” (I was fortunate I got injured, otherwise one dies in love). When they married in 1946 Siraj told the students of Government College that Urmila astonished him with the silken eloquence of her manners and the liveliness of her conversation. A few years before his death, after he had been stricken with a serious disability which made even walking very painful, he received summons from the Pakistan Foreign Office in Islamabad that the Indian Foreign Secretary was coming to Pakistan and as he had expressed his wish to see his old teacher of the Government College days, Professor Sirajuddin should present himself in the capital on the appointed date. The gentle professor, with his incomparable humility, told the functionary who was on the telephone that he was ill and incapable of movement, and that had he been at all fit to travel it would have pleased him to come to Islamabad to see the distinguished official guest. The Foreign Office grunted in reply. The Indian diplomat arrived, and on his inquiry the Pakistan Foreign Office told him about their unsuccessful attempt to get his old teacher to Islamabad. Being a diplomat, the Indian Foreign Secretary came to Lahore. He called at Siraj’s house, offered his profuse apologies for the summons he (Siraj) had received from Islamabad and explained that he had nothing to do with it. Both Professor Siraj and Urmila embraced him, and then pointed to the seat on the sofa next to them and asked him to sit down. The old Ravian touched his teacher’s knees, refused to sit beside him, and put himself firmly on the floor near Professor Siraj’s feet, and refused to budge from there. To all the adjurations to come and sit on the sofa, he had only one reply: “Sir, asin apne guru dae nal nahin bahnde, odhe charnan wich bahnde han” (Sir, we don’t sit by the side of our apostle, we sit at his feet). He stayed where he was throughout his long visit and had his tea there. Alas, neither Prof. Sirajuddin nor his wife Prof. Urmila Sondhi are in this world now, leaving thousands of their students to remember them with tears in their
eyes. |
Arms haul shadow on Indo-Bangla ties
The
biggest-ever arms seizure in Bangladesh on April 1-2 has rung alarm bells in India and has given food for thought for the international community. The arms haul also signifies a new emerging address of international terrorism: Bangladesh. First, the incident. The seized consignment includes modern assault rifles (1790), grenade launchers (2000), rocket launchers (150), grenades (25020), rockets (840) and 1.1 million rounds of ammunition. The quality and quantity of the seized weaponry shows that it was meant for use against security forces. Which country or countries’ security forces is a matter of investigation. The arms were brought through the Arabian Sea route in two fishing trawlers which were unloaded at the government-owned Chittagong Urea Fertiliser Limited, located in front of Chittagong port in the Karunafuly river. The arms were being taken to Maulvi Bazar in Sylhet division where the camps of Indian insurgents are located. The consignment was seized by chance as one of the drivers of the 10 trucks used in the operation refused to pay to the policemen on duty. Inputs available with the Government of India claim that these arms were sent by Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) for various Indian insurgents, including the All Tripura Tiger Force (ATTF) and the National Liberation Front of Tripura (NLFT), Nepal Maoists and Kashmiri insurgents to create disturbances during the Indian general election and intensify the proxy war. Obviously, both Dhaka and Islamabad would rubbish this contention. But there is something about the modus operandi which nails down the government of Prime Minister Begum Khaleda Zia. Witnesses have claimed that the arms were unloaded in the presence of policemen and local leaders of the ruling Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP). The Government of India has sought to handle the matter with kid gloves. Soon after the arms haul, the Ministry of External Affairs had an extensive session with the Bnagladesh High Commissioner in Delhi, Mr Tufail K Haider. The Bangladeshi envoy was conveyed New Delhi’s serious concern. It is understood that the “talking points” of the Indian Foreign Office to the Bangladeshi envoy were as black and white as diplomacy can allow. The Bangla envoy was told the following things in categoric terms: * The Government of India had reasons to believe that the lion’s share of the seizure was meant for the United Liberation Front of Asom and other northeastern groups. * Such kind of weapons’ transfer posed a threat to peace and security of the entire region. * It was the work of a well-organised network which must have pushed arms consignments clandestinely into India in the past too and which could do so in future too. * The activities of Bangladeshi shipping magnate Salahuddin Qader Chowdhury, who enjoys a Cabinet rank in the Begum Zia administration, needed to be watched and his possible role and involvement in the arms haul needed to be investigated. Salauddin Qader Chowdhury is a Chittagong MP and Adviser (Parliamentary Affairs) to Prime Minister Khaleda Zia. He is known to have been indulging in anti-India operations for quite some time and his Q C Shipping Lines has been used in the past for bringing arms for Indian insurgents. Haji Sobhan has close links with Salauddin. Two of his ships were docked in Chittagong port on the day of the seizure. In 1996 also he was instrumental in bringing in a huge consignment of arms into Bangladesh which was fortuitously captured near Chittagong port. The April 1-2, 2004 operation was personally supervised by Sarwar Kamal Maruf, brother of BNP MP Sarwar Jamal Nizam, a close associate of Salauddin. Maruf is reported to
have fled to Thailand. The Indian Foreign Office has also asked Dhaka to keep updating it with progress in the investigations. The Foreign Office is in touch with the Bangladeshi High Commission in New Delhi and Bangladesh Foreign Office in Dhaka. Though Dhaka has formed a high-level committee headed by the Home Secretary Umar Farooq to probe the April 1-2 arms seizure, not much progress has been made so far. Seven persons, including five labourers who were used in transporting the arms, have been arrested. The main suspect in this case is Hazi Abdul Sobhan, a local BNP leader of Patiya in Chittagong and owner of the two trawlers used for transporting the arms and he happens to be absconding. A twist in the tale came on April 10 when Awami League leader and Mayor of Chittagong City Corporation, Mohinuddin Ahmed Chowdhury, alleged that the arms consignment was sent by the United States and Pakistan to arm Indian rebels camped in the Chittagong hill tracts. He also alleged that Indian rebels were running at least 50 to 60 camps in the Chittagong hill tracts and claimed that Bangladesh Army and Bangladesh Rifles
personnel were offering training to these insurgents. The diplomatic corps in Delhi says one thing with certainty: that the April1-2 arms haul will cast a long shadow over India-Bangladesh relations. The matter would dominate the talks between Border Security Force Director General Ajay Raj Sharma and the chief of the BDR when Mr Sharma travels to Dhaka on May 28. |
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People For the first 81 years of his life he lived on the family farm in Punjab, jogging regularly “to get from one place to the next”, The Times, London, reported last week. After his wife’s death, however, when he moved to England to live with his son 11 years ago, Fauja Singh rediscovered his old passion. Initially he took part in short-distance races of five or ten kilometres. Four years ago, after a 53-year break from the sport, he lined up for his first Flora London Marathon at the age of 89. He took six hours and 54 minutes to reach the finish, and the following year ran the same time to set a world record for 90-year-olds. Last year, at the age of 92, he ran almost an hour quicker than he did on his debut at the 26.2-mile distance, finishing the Toronto marathon in 5 hours 40 min, the fastest time yet recorded by someone of his age.
Garam Dharam Dharmendra is being hounded by determined opponents who have been making a song and dance about his second marriage to Hema Malini which he did not mention in his affidavit. Details about his conversion to Islam and other such facts are being discussed feverishly, much to the embarrassment of
Punjab da puttar. He has not helped matters by making an ill-thought-out remark about wanting to become a dictator.
Loos(e) talk If Dharmendra has been done in by a second marriage, British footballer David Beckhman is in deeper trouble, because of his extramarital affair with his former PA Rebecca Loos. She claims that the star had a rollicking time with her in Spain while his wife, former Spice girl Victoria Beckham, was concentrating on her music career. “I feel that if there hadn’t been a gap in that bed I wouldn’t have been in it,” she has been saying on interviews which are believed to have earned her nearly one million pounds. Beckham denies the Loos claims as “ludicrous” and his lawyers are said to be considering legal action. |
Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst for righteousness: for they shall be filled. — Jesus Christ According to Karma Yoga, the action one has done cannot be destroyed, until it has borne its fruit; no power in nature can stop it from yielding its results. — Swami Vivekananda The hearing of God’s Name rids one of all sorrows and sins. — Guru Nanak The great enemies of God are those who who are entered into Islam, and do acts of infidelity, and who, without cause, shed the blood of men. — Prophet Muhammad It is not by our human nature that we know of Him. — The Vedas |
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F
It is said that if a person does not know his roots, all he has to do is to contest an election and his opponents are bound to find out all details for him.