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Back to basics Asian cooperation Space tourism |
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Weapons of aggression
Crime and punishment
On a journey to nowhere From Pakistan
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Back to basics THE Bharatiya Janata Party's flip-flop on Hindutva is well known. Whenever it is cornered, it reverts to Hindutva. This time too, the party has conformed to this pattern. At its National Executive meeting now underway in Mumbai, there is shrillness about the BJP going back to Hindutva. Pray why? Because it believes that Hindutva alone can bring it back into the reckoning. Obviously, the party has not learnt any lesson from the defeat. Besides, it overestimates the appeal of Hindutva to the voters. Only a small section of the population has been swayed by Hindutva as can be inferred from the electoral performance of first the Hindu Mahasabha, then the Bharatiya Jana Sangh and finally the BJP. It is erroneously believed that it was Mr L.K. Advani's first rath yatra which metamorphosed the party's fortune after it touched its nadir in the 1984 election. While the Ayodhya campaign helped the BJP cross the threshold, it was actually Mr V.P. Singh's revolt against Rajiv Gandhi over the Bofors issue that played a bigger role in the defeat of the Congress in 1989. The party's espousal of the Ayodhya cause had only a limited appeal to the voters. The party was deprived of even that appeal when Babri Masjid was demolished in 1992. In the elections that immediately followed in four North Indian states, where the BJP's governments were dismissed, the voters showed no sympathy to the party. Much later, if Mr A.B.Vajpayee was able to complete a full term, it was primarily because the party was ready to put Hindutva on the backburner. Even in Gujarat, touted as the laboratory of Hindutva, its appeal has been ephemeral as has been underscored by the BJP's failure to retain its hold on the voters. It was not Hindutva but bad governance by the Congress that helped the BJP win Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan. The riots in Gujarat and the kind of politics that Mr Narendra Modi represents proved costly to the BJP in the Lok Sabha elections as admitted by Mr Vajpayee. He was sensible enough to realise that by alienating the minorities and the liberals among the majority community, the BJP had dug its own grave. Alas, such good sense seems to be in short supply in the BJP! |
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Asian cooperation THE third ministerial meeting of the Asia Cooperation Dialogue in Qingdao, China, marks an impressive advance towards creating a basis for economic integration of a continent that accounts for more than two-thirds of humanity. Asia's time has come and given the continent's wealth of knowledge, power and resources — industrial, scientific, technological, human, economic and ecological — its rise to dominance in a globalised world is inevitable. The point is to bring this to fruition in a way that the disparities and developmental black holes in the continent are eliminated for a future free of poverty, tensions and barriers. For instance, South Asia is home to the world's largest population of the poor and in the emancipation of this mass lies the key to more even progress and development. This can be better achieved by more effective cooperation among Asian nations trading their strengths than through continued dependence on the surpluses in the industrialised West. The Declaration on Asia Cooperation is realistic insofar as it concedes that Asia's economic integration is at an "initial stage". In fact, this is an understatement, because economic integration has not reached even this stage. The mindsets required for such an integration are yet to emerge between and within many of the 22-member countries. But what such a declaration suggests is intent and purpose and, to that extent, is a welcome improvement on the situation prevalent thus far. It also signifies that while there would be wider and deeper interactions among countries in a variety of areas ranging from agriculture and IT to tourism and mass media, the core route to more even development is economic integration. Despite scepticism, the multiplicity of Asian regional groupings and forums can only intensify cooperation and beneficial exchanges at many levels. However, what needs to be ensured as a rule is that bilateral issues would not be allowed any play in these platforms, for they tend to detract from both the larger vision and mission. Onward, Asia. |
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Space tourism TO be sure, man has made many forays into space — even journeyed to the moon. But all these were government-funded, mega-budget operations. On June 21, a new era dawned when the world's first commercial craft zoomed into space from Mojave airport, which is set to become the world's leading spaceport. Sixtytwo-year-old pilot Mike Melvill's flight to a height of 100 km in Space Ship One qualifies him to be called an astronaut now. This may be an uncertain, fumbling step into space but it marks the beginning of space tourism. The day is not far when thousands of people may be able to enjoy at least a few minutes of weightless bliss in the final frontier. The dream project with a price tag of $20 million may still be far beyond the reach of the common man but what matters is that it costs only a fraction of government projects. In any case, every innovation is available only to the richest in the beginning. The economy of scale takes charge then, pushing the prices to rock-bottom. There is indeed tremendous interest among the people about space travel. The feeling is quite similar to what mankind had when the Wright brothers' contraption took to the air a century earlier. The world has never been the same again. Perhaps the space flight of June 21, 2004, will be a similar landmark. It will be wrong to think that a space jaunt will be only a pleasure trip. Countless other benefits can flow out of it, just as it happened with airborne journeys. Commercial flights on a shoestring budget can also prod official agencies like NASA to cut costs greatly. Right now the entire space programme is hemmed in by the price factor. If man is to dream of flying to other planets, the price worries are among the first ones to be addressed. |
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Man is a tool-making animal. — Benjamin Franklin |
Weapons of aggression Pakistani and Indian officials have met in New Delhi to discuss the reduction of risks of unintended or accidental launch of nuclear weapons. Both countries have reiterated their six-year-old commitment not to carry out any more nuclear tests unless either side perceives a threat to its "supreme national interest". Their second achievement was to make the hotline between the Indian and Pakistani DGMOs better, securer and more reliable. Another secure and reliable hotline is to be set up in the offices of the two Foreign Secretaries. For the rest, the two sides talked in a cordial atmosphere. Both sides were seeking a positive result-oriented outcome. It is one of those occasions when one can use the analogy of half full glass of beer. From one viewpoint, the glass is half empty. Improvement of the existing hotline and the provision of another among civilians is no big deal. The moratorium on new nuclear tests had been in existence. So, where is the scope for people to jump with joy? But this assessment seems to be mean-spirited. Let us not forget that this was the first meeting at which both sides probably presented their more substantive ideas. It has long been known that the Pakistan Foreign Office has drawn up an elaborate set of CBMs, calling it a nuclear restraint regime (NRR). There have been ample indications that Indians too have burnt their midnight oil. These documents, probably bulky, must have been exchanged. After digesting this bulky set of proposals by the "other" side, both will proceed to separate divergences from convergences. On this score, this scribe is quite optimistic. It is believed that convergences will far outweigh the few divergences. One says so due to the insight one has had on this subject. One's estimate is that behind each side's proposals there was a common draft. Each side must have worked on them, changed them here and there, mostly in language and may be changed the sequence. The original draft had emerged about two decades ago. It is based on several decades of negotiations between the Americans and the Soviets from the mid-1960s to the 1970s, and even in the 1980s. They, as the CBMs, will be hard to improve upon, and one knows both sides have by now adopted them as their own. This is not to say that neither side will try to improve or extend the coverage of the CBMs or evolve some new ones. Which is where controversy may reside. But, on the whole, if the two sides stick to politically neutral CBMs, agreement may be hard to avoid. If new ideas, with political dimensions, are added, the chances of agreement will correspondingly diminish. Insofar as Pakistan is concerned, one fine morning a former Foreign Minister wrote a long and substantive article in The Dawn on the nuclear restraint regime and went on to suggest as many as six treaties to be signed between India and Pakistan. Most Pakistani commentators regarded it as a preview of what Pakistan might ultimately want, after simple CBMs were agreed to. Having noted the reason for one's rather superficial optimism regarding the acceptability of CBMs, it is necessary to raise other questions that bomb-lovers on either side do not. The agreements-to-be are a gentlemanly affair: each has to assume the good sense -perhaps enlightened self-interest - on the part of the other and hope that both sides will continue to observe their commitment and will not try to cheat. Now one has no difficulty in accepting good intentions on the part of most individuals, if not all. But atomic weapons are neither a gentlemanly concept nor any expression of good intentions. They are conceived in secrecy, in ill-will against the "enemy" and are used deceptively. The point is that the nuclear security establishment is being required to operate simultaneously at two levels: being fine honest gentlemen in working CBMs and to be ready to act treacherously when "supreme national interest" so demands. For some people it can create horrible difficulties. The point has been repeatedly made by many that some CBMs have been in place between New Delhi and Islamabad. Did they prevent the war scares in 1986-87, 1990 and 1995 or prevented test explosions by both sides in 1998? While so much peace talks were going on in February 1999, MoUs and all, and yet there was the quasi-war in Kargil. All the MoUs and earlier CBMs remained in place and yet there was the 10-month-long military confrontation. From Indian viewpoint, those who sustained jihad in Indian-controlled Kashmir are now offering an NRR. Has all the residue of past bitterness been completely washed away? CBMs by themselves mean little. Yes, if they are anchored in a credible conflict-resolution and peace-promotion framework, they can be trusted. But leave them hanging in a political vacuum, based only on the good intentions of bomb-lovers, they will lack credibility. Since it is only the start of the comprehensive India-Pakistan dialogue, it may be a useful reminder to the high and the mighty on either side that they have to anchor their proposals, whether substantive or CBMs, in politics upfront: It should be seen that the CBMs are only a preliminary part of the peace-making process, and by no means an end in themselves. Which leads to the final point. So long as atomic weapons exist, there can be no real trust on either side. These weapons are weapons of aggression; there is no known defence against them-all talks of Star Wars and missile defence in the US notwithstanding. So long as India has nukes at the ready, the establishment in Islamabad will not sleep easy. Similarly, Pakistani nukes, so long as they exist, cannot make Indians trust Pakistani intentions. These are hard realities. It is, however, a time of mini-euphoria. The first meeting has taken place. It ended on a positive note. Probably, more meetings of this particular official group are sure to take place. The outlook on CBMs is positive. But it is necessary to ask questions about where the CBMs fit in with the political aims of India and Pakistan. Popular expectations and desires have to be kept in view as an enabling factor when those eight substantive subjects come to be discussed. |
Crime and punishment WE were having tea with the acting Principal, O’Lin, at the famous Lawrence College, Choragali, Murree (now in Pakistan). It was 1946. A boy of 10 or 12 was ushered in. He handed a slip to O’Lin. It said “3 canes” and was signed by the master. The boy was told to return at another given time. It seemed only the Principal could cane at a time when both Principal and master were cool. Heat of the moment hitting is very dangerous in any situation, specially if you have a temper. Yet, it has been done regularly. The then Governor S. S Ray told my Vivek Nursery boys once that when he went to school, he used to provide against caning with well-padded shorts! I’m glad hitting is banned, at last. Equally harmful is scorn, followed by titters among peers. It may harm the self-esteem of a child leaving permanent unseen scars. Perhaps that hurt goes deeper. I remember the class tittering at a child with a slight stammer who read with confidence and expression for a change. I just asked them what was funny, and that the child had read very well indeed and they would do well to follow his example. Children really are very nice — they understood the point and I found their inclination to titter whenever he spoke was gone. Instead, we all had the joy of seeing the boy hardly stammer again. Hitting and caning is a shortcut to punishment, as you have not to think of a more subtle and suitable way and yet show who is master. Boys do not mind being hit as much as one thinks, but soon get immune to the hitting. I have noticed it particularly where parents think it necessary not to spare the rod. It hurts my total being when a child is hit. I remember getting screaming hysterical when a big stick was used on a kid by the father. The latter stood and stared at me open mouthed out of shock! I was not the only one to “go into shock.” Churchill before he was seven went to a Prep school at Eton. He writes: “Flogging with the birch in accordance with the Eton fashion was a great feature in the school curriculum. Two or three times a month the whole school was marshalled in the library, and one or more delinquents were hauled off to an adjoining apartment and there flogged, until they bled freely, while the rest sat quietly listening to their screams. How I hated this school!” May be this training made Churchill a great soldier! Punishments can be administered in consultation with the class — a peer judgement. I find it works wonders. We all discuss the fault, the harm it is doing to the child or the class. We then have proposals for punishment. Children and the teacher made proposals. If it’s too drastic, the teacher will guide them away (children can be cruel too). Finally the peer approved punishment is meted out. No child will feel or call it unjust. Everyone is cool and decisive and the “criminal” cannot protest or feel any injustice has been done. I had a child who needed extra work and yet would not touch the home work. The parents said they were helpless. This was giving a wrong message all round. Finally, we had a class discussion where many proposals were mooted. The one that got “voted” in was to put the child two classes down for two hours to sit and do the home work. This was ordered but the child refused to move! So I asked the children what I could do. They said, “We’ll do it.” Three boys got up and surrounded the child and all of them walked quietly to class III where the home work was done. I still feel this was the best I could have done. As a bonus I had no more trouble with home work that year!
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On a journey to nowhere
Perched on the 10-floor of a luxury hotel was Hari Kunzru, whose second novel “Transmission” (Penguin) was launched on Wednesday evening at the British Council in New Delhi. And whilst he sat tight (as though he was still on the aircraft which carried him all the way from London for the book launch here), what struck one were his Kashmiri features. Tall built, pale complexion, a long nose and sharp eyes. He could actually pass on as one from Jawaharlal Nehru's clan. Kunzru’s father was a Kashmiri Pandit, Krishna Mohan Nath, whose family had left the Valley in the 19th century to settle down in Agra. He himself moved away to London, marrying an English nurse, Hilary Ann, and settling down with their two sons — Hari and Richard. And with that backgrounder it was important for me to ask Hari whether he ever travelled to the place of his roots — the Kashmir valley. “Yes, in 1987 we visited our family village, Kunzar, which lies near Srinagar and what struck me was that most young men physically looked like me.” And how does he feel each time he hears or reads about the tragic turn of events in the valley of his ancestors? Emotions come through his eyes and words. “It does affect me …legitimate aspirations of the people of the valley have been overtaken by big international players and that's a shame…” In fact, at different turns and moments during this interview he was emphatically vocal about the changing world order "of an atmosphere of polarisation …I was definitely against America's war on Iraq — and now there should be open and fair trials …" He spoke of the whole issue of refugees and the fact that he is actively involved with the Refugee Council shows the extent of his involvement with the new issues cropping up …. What made him into a full-time writer? He smiles at that and recounts in a fatigued sort of way the "hopes and despairs of the years of struggle” before he finally made it with the publication of his first novel “The Impressionist”. “From 1996 to 2001 I worked as a freelance writer and it was a tough-going — money -wise and even otherwise, it was just not okay but I had to prove to myself…” After he had proved the first time, through the first novel, he’s now gone ahead for the second time. To my queries to this second novel, he says: “I have been writing for the last two years. I usually write the entire day, almost one thousand words per day and it’s only towards the evenings that I crave for company and go out”. And to the query is he rather too emotional and sentimental, he quips: “Yes. I have gone through emotional downs and even through phases where I was depressed. But I must say that much against the theory that one has to be unhappy to be able to write intensely, I feel it isn’t important to be unhappy to be able to write .You just have to be hard on yourself …” So presumably being hard on himself, 34-year-old Kunzru has written this rather heady novel “Transmission”. And the story? “Leela Zahir, Bollywood actress and temperamental star, is catapulted from the fringes of fame into a million inboxes. Arjun Mehta, a computer geek, looks up from his screen to find that he does after all have a role to play in the world .Guy Swift , a marketing executive with his own agency, a beautiful girlfriend and a handle of modern life is losing his grip…” No, there's no mention that this tale could have patches of Kunzru's own life webbed and inter-webbed for he did, for a span, work as a correspondent for “Wired”. It’s a fast moving work of words, taking you all over yet nowhere in particular. Maybe there's an overdose of the Western setting compared with that what's going on here. It’s all too rushed, too mechanical Before you are actually reading those lines or whatever lies tucked in between them, there's an end, with a strange finality of sorts. Two releasing bodies and then a third. No longer considered confusing and not even intruding. I suppose these are mere sexual encounters as against love-making that you and I are supposedly saddled with, in every sense of the term. There’s no gentle kissing or hugging your lover but I quote from somewhere in between the charged bodies: “Sex funnelled up between them with sudden violence. He ground his face against hers, his stubble raking her lips and cheeks as they struggled towards the bed. She sank her nails into his neck, and he tugged her skirt up around her
waist, digging between her legs with a hand. Every action was forceful, angry. As he threw her down, she caught sight of his face and she could tell he wanted to hit her; and at that moment part of her wanted him to do it too, to confirm her insubstantiality, her potential for vanishing . She came almost immediately. Five minutes later Guy phoned…” Perhaps, these complexities are true of the changing order the world over. I cannot really describe the confusing signals my brain transmitted (one end to the other) as I went through the tale …far the tale involves far too many happenings of mechanical sort. At least for my quantity of intake. I definitely like it slow and steady with a mate without the comp (call it uncomplicated bandobasts). But here in this tale there are characters and together with them bandobasts of the modern kind. Net, the police, terrorists, film stars, journalists — you name it and you'd find your favourite character. Together with the virus of the day and the their infecting ways. What I found to be particularly Indian soaked line, laden with sentiments of the Indian kind is this particular one: “Of course blame had to be apportioned somewhere…” Look around you and your self and see how the real culprits sit smug whilst the innocents are targeted with viruses and more. |
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From Pakistan ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali has brushed aside any sign of change, saying he enjoys unequivocal trust and confidence of the President, the National Assembly, the ruling Pakistan Muslim League and its parliamentary allies. Prime Minister Jamali made these remarks during a The News/Jang panel interview at his Parliament Chamber. Answering a question on the role of the Army in politics, he said in his personal opinion the Army or the military was very much part of this country and there was no one opposing giving a role to the Army, as it was assigned tasks like census, emergency relief for flood-affected people, preparation of NID and its role in WAPDA. — The News
US the largest investor
FAISALABAD: The United States is the single largest source of overseas investment for Pakistan and this trend will increase with the new schedule of delegations going to visit this country, said Madam Deborah Z. Grout, Political/Economic Officer of the American Consulate, Lahore. Inaugurating the USA Catalogue Exhibition at the Faisalabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FCCI) here
on Tuesday, she said that US was also Pakistan’s largest trade partner with exports worth $2.531b and imports of $840m during 2003-04. She said that exports attracted a lot of domestic attention as it meant profit, foreign exchange and jobs, but imports also played a role in the growth of the economy by providing innovative and efficient technologies that could help improve domestic operations. She termed the US catalogue exhibition at Faisalabad as a right step at the right time and said that it would provide much needed information to local industrialists to upgrade and improve the quality of their products to compete in the international markets. —
The Nation
Water shortage hits crops
SUKKUR: Water shortage has caused 20 to 25 per cent damage to the kharif crops, including cotton and rice, in Sindh. According to an agriculture expert, rice fields have gone dry because of water shortage while the cotton crop has sustained extensive damages. Talking to The Dawn on Tuesday, the expert said the Indus, which used a have a flood-like situation in June, was facing a 35 per cent water shortage as recorded on June 22. Moreover, all the seven canals of the Sukkur Barrage were facing a water shortage from 22 per cent to 50 per cent, he said. —The Dawn
Violence against women
KARACHI: Speakers at a workshop on “Social Audit of Abuse Against Women” on Tuesday said violence against women in Pakistan could only be reduced by the provision of education, solving economic problems, improved social attitude and better
planning. It was a provincial plenary workshop to feedback policy recommendations arising from the findings of “The social audit of abuse against women”
(SAAAW), organised by CIET International in collaboration with the Women Development Department, Government of Sindh, here. The social audit report on abuse against women (SAAAW) was also presented at the workshop, which was prepared after a countrywide survey. The report was prepared in the light of interviews with women of every age living in different parts of Pakistan. —
The Nation |
Strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from an indomitable will. — Mahatma Gandhi He who submits to the will of God, is accepted and treasured by Him. — Guru Nanak Be not like the frog in the well which knows nothing bigger and grander than its well. So are all bigots who do not see anything better than their own creed. — Sri Ramakrishna I was born into the world as the king of truth for the salvation of truth. — The Buddha Bring in the light; the darkness will vanish of itself. Let the lion of Vedanta roar. The foxes will fly to their holes. — Swami Vivekananda |
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