However, when Mrs Sonia Gandhi expressed concern over the bad law and order situation in UP she was not merely stating the obvious. The purpose was to make Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav uncomfortable, as also to provide the cue to the party workers to follow during the campaign in the two Lok Sabha and 12 Vidhan Sabha constituencies for the October 13 byelections. Attacking the present government, or even past ones, for the poor law and order situation suits the Congress. The Bharatiya Janata Party, the Bahujan Samaj Party, the Samajwadi Party and the defunct outfit floated by Mr Kalyan Singh are directly or indirectly responsible for the present mess. The Congress has not been in power in UP since 1990 and even today it has merely extended outside support to Mr Mulayam Singh for keeping the BJP out.

It is, however, sad that despite its success in the south (Tamil Nadu and Karnataka in particular), the scheme is not being implemented effectively in the north. The picture in Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh is not quite encouraging because of its partial implementation. Why should students in most states be deprived of the scheme when the Centre has promised steady flow of funds? In fact, the levy of 2 per cent education cess in the Union Budget for 2004-05 is in tune with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's commitment to ensure the success of the scheme.

It was finally cleared by the Chandigarh Administration and the land was handed over to the railway authorities. Now, bridges are being built in the area. There has been a certain amount of disruption of traffic and it is expected that there will be more dislocation before the bridges are finalised and the tracks laid. All this has to be taken in stride, since the promised gains are considerable. The train would reduce the load from the congested Chandigarh-Ludhiana highway; and make possible many more rail links. It might seem premature to talk about the electrification of the tracks even before these have been laid, but planning for such projects has to be long range. If diesel engines have to pull trains along this stretch, the delays would be a major dampener.

Nepal is a multiethnic, multilingual, democratic, independent, indivisible, sovereign Hindu State and a constitutional monarchical Kingdom. The rise of the Maoists and the phenomenal growth of Muslims is a post-democracy development. Muslims now comprise at least 10 per cent of the 25 million population concentrated in the Terai supported mainly by funds from Saudi Arabia. Almost one million Nepalese work in countries other than India, two-thirds in Arab and Islamic states. They spend up to Rs 1 lakh through employment agencies to get a job as waiters, peons, guards and so on. Soldiering is no longer the first love. Making a fast buck is. Their earnings constitute the largest inflow of foreign exchange surpassing tourism which has been badly hit by the Maoist war. Ironically, irate mobs, stung by the news of the execution of 12 countrymen went on an organised rampage in Kathmandu, destroying 72 out of 90 employment agencies that send young Nepalis in lure of gold and hard currency. Wherever you met ordinary Nepalis in Kathmandu they say the same thing: Hamro desh khatam chha. This does not need translation. Two to three persons being killed and bomb blasts are daily occurrences in Kathmandu or outside.

Sadly, the political landscape is scarred equally badly. The country is being run by SB Deuba, third time Prime Minister fired and reappointed by King Gyanendra who is constitutionally the sole and supreme power under the emergency provision of Article 127 of the 1990 constitution that the Maoists have sworn to eradicate. The King has played his cards cleverly dividing political formations and ruling. Considerably discredited after the Palace massacre-by-conspiracy theories, he has regained his shine thanks to the fiercely loyal Royal Nepal Army (RNA) and inept politicians. According to one poll held recently, King Gyanendra, Maoist supremo Prachanda and former Prime Minister GP Koirala in that order are the choice of the people. But the King has one serious handicap: Crown Prince Paras. He may be unwittingly helping the Maoists in their do-or-die mission of eliminating monarchy.

The political formations are severely divided. The biggest and oldest political party, the Nepali Congress is split between the larger Koirala and Deuba groups. Mr GP Koirala is heading a four-party alliance employing street power to force the King to revive Parliament whose life expired in April this year. He says the current government is unconstitutional. But so will be a House revived under Article 127 after a full bench of the Supreme Court has upheld the dissolution of the House in May, 2002. But Nepali Congress leaders argue that as the King can do no wrong, he can revive Parliament !

Prime Minister Deuba has the difficult task of running a coalition government which has the second largest political party in Nepal — Communist Party of Nepal United Marxist Leninist — led by Madhav Nepal and the top-heavy and trifurcated royalist Rashtriya Prajatantra Party (RPP). Deuba has not only to manage this coalition but also to ensure the King does not dismiss him again, not to mention the irritants posed by Mr Koirala. To cap all this, Prachanda has rejected outright Deuba’s offer of talks. Emboldened by the success of the blockade of Kathmandu, the gutsy Prachanda will return to the negotiating table from a position of strength armed with some assurance over the key demand of a constituent assembly.

The view gaining ground in Kathmandu is that elections are not possible without first addressing the issues raised by the Maoist revolution. Others feel that an election has to be held to get Nepal out of the box.

India and Nepal can talk about their differing security perceptions, harnessing water resources, the Bhutanese refugee problem, economic cooperation, more military assistance for RNA and the resolution of the Extradition and Mutual Legal Assistance treaties.

India and Nepal have an extradition treaty signed in 1953. However, this does not have any provisions for extraditing nationals of third countries to India or Nepal. Nor does it have any provisions for extraditing persons for “financial or terrorist” crimes. That this has implications for India’s security is obvious. During the hijack of IC 814 from Kathmandu, the complicity of the Pakistanis in the act of terrorism was not in doubt. Yet, even if Nepalese authorities had apprehended those responsible for the action, India could not have insisted on their extradition because there was no legal framework for doing so. On the other hand, Nepalese allege that India has repeatedly violated the treaty by taking advantage of an open border and sending police forces into Nepal to pursue criminals, something that has undermined Nepal’s sovereignty. Perceptions of each others’ security interests therefore differ radically. The problem in revising the treaty is that it will entail an amendment in the Constitution which requires a two-thirds majority in Parliament. But there is no Parliament !

My grandfather, a teacher in a government school, got a letter from the Government of India, asking him to decide whether he would prefer to shift to the other side of the divide. Obviously, he got disturbed and brought this to the notice of a few village elders. Before he could decide what to do, he came to know that a few other people in his eastern UP village had also received similar letters. The reason was that they were all government employees.

The matter was then brought before a meeting of the village elders. It was the dead of night. There was fear writ large on every face. The village Mukhiya (my grandfather) initiated the discussion. It went like this: “Why should we go to a place we have never seen? It is like a foreign country for us. Who knows us there? The people in Pakistan may have a different lifestyle. Their language may be different. For us it is better to die and get buried near our forefathers than leave our home for a place where we will have to live as strangers.”

Every participant in the meeting, including those who had received the dreaded letter, agreed with the viewpoint expressed so forcefully. They decided to remain the citizens of India which they were already. They, therefore, narrowly escaped from getting uprooted and acquiring the hated tag of muhajirs in Pakistan.

The matter, however, did not end there. Next morning a number of zamindars (upper caste Hindus) from the surrounding villages came to our village inhabited by Muslim zamindars. People in the nearby areas had got wind of what had happened the previous night.

Their visit initially frightened everybody, but it was soon over. They knew the elders in our village and had come only to congratulate them for having taken a decision not to leave the place of their forefathers. They offered their help for any eventuality, an expression of brotherly feelings.

Brainstorming sessions in Mumbai by the Shiv Sena and the BJP leaders have thrown up a number of ideas to milk the Veer Savarkar controversy to the fullest. Booklets extolling the virtues of the controversial freedom fighter are being put out in the market for a nominal Rs 15 each. In addition, the two parties have also planned street corner meetings to abuse Union Petroleum Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar and by extension, the Congress party.

Last month, the Shiv Sena put up effigies of Aiyar for its activists to beat with slippers. Encouraged by the response from its rank and file, the regional Hindu party hopes to raise the pitch in Mumbai, Thane and the neighbouring Konkan region and make up for the loss in the Lok Sabha polls. The Shiv Sena-BJP had lost five of the six seats in Mumbai in the last Lok Sabha polls which account for 34 seats in the 288-seat Maharashtra legislature.

Though his appreciation at the larger national level is patchy in nature, Savarkar enjoys tremendous goodwill among the upper-caste people of Maharashtra. His writings still remain popular in the state and his poems set to music and sung by Lata Mangeshkar continue to be played on All-India Radio.

The BJP has also joined in to accuse the Congress Party of honouring anti-national elements in place of a ‘patriot’ like Savarkar. The party has latched onto top Maharashtra politicians providing relief to the family of alleged Lashkar-e-Toiba terrorist Ishrat Jahan Shamim Raza who was shot dead by the Gujarat police in Ahmedabad last June.

“It’s a shame that the Congress party honoured an anti-national like Ishrat, but shows disrespect to Savarkar,” says Atul Bhatkalkar, BJP spokesman for Maharashtra. According to him, the BJP will take out “Veer Savarkar rath yatra” across Maharashtra complete with an actor dressed up as the late Hindu Mahasabha leader. BJP General Secretary Pramod Mahajan was more direct. “The Congress party was using these tactics to appease a certain community,” Mahajan said. He demanded that the Congress party reinstall the plaques honouring Savarkar at the Cellular jail in Andamans.

The BJP is also playing up the resignation of former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Uma Bharti following the non-bailable warrant issued by a court in Hubli, Karnataka. The party has already linked Bharti’s resignation with the refusal of ‘tainted’ Central Ministers like Laloo Prasad Yadav and Mohammad Taslimuddin to resign from Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s Cabinet.

With the Congress party planning major election rallies by party president Sonia Gandhi in Maharashtra to generate a sympathy wave following her decision not to become Prime Minister, the BJP has roped in Uma Bharti to campaign in Maharashtra. “It will be direct confrontation between a nationalist and a foreigner,” says a senior BJP leader of Bharti’s campaign plans in Maharashtra. The BJP is also fielding Varun Gandhi at election rallies to take on the Congress party’s Rahul Gandhi. On the other hand the Congress party has sent out an SOS to Priyanka Vadra to shore up its defences.

Sources in the BJP say, the old favourites like Uniform Civil Code and the Ram Janambhoomi issues would be on the backburner for the forthcoming Maharashtra elections. The BJP’s allies like the Janata Dal (United) and the Telugu Desam that are part of the National Democratic Alliance are uncomfortable with Hindutva. The BJP hopes to placate them by running a shrill right-wing campaign minus the hardliners, according to sources.

It is still not clear if Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi will campaign in Maharashtra. While a number of BJP leaders are keen on him addressing rallies in Maharashtra, a section of the party are still hopeful of garnering the support of minority voters disenchanted with the Congress-Nationalist Congress Party led Democratic Front government in the state.

The Shiv Sena has, however, decided to go all out for a shrill Hindutva campaign. Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray and his son Uddhav who hit upon the idea to beat Aiyar’s effigy with slippers have already begun to deliver hard-hitting speeches against the Congress for “appeasing” the miniority community.

The BJP general secretary Pramod Mahajan already hit the ground running after the Lok Sabha polls by taking charge of the party organisation in the state. In Mumbai where the large North Indian community turned against the Shiv Sena — BJP following the campaign against them by the Thackerays, Mahajan’s troubleshooters have held meetings to reach out to the North Indians. BJP leaders of North Indian origin have held mohalla-level meetings across Mumbai, Thane and in the outskirts to bring them back to the saffron fold.

With surveys conducted by both the Congress-NCP front and the Shiv Sena-BJP alliance indicating a close contest, the opposition parties are also focussing on local issues. The failure of co-operative banks across the state, farmers’ suicides in Vidarbha and Marathwada, and the poor power supply situation in the state will all feature in the election campaign, say Sena-BJP leaders.

The two parties have already worked on mobilising cotton and sugarcane farmers in the past three years. Their leaders say the campaign for remunerative prices will benefit the two parties in the Vidarbha and Marathwada regions where the Hindutva wave hasn’t worked.

Earlier last month, the British Government paid £ 10,000 each to 101 former Gorkha servicemen in recognition of their services to the British Indian Army while fighting in World War II. The British Government had announced the ex-gratia payment scheme for the Far Eastern Prisoners of War (FEPOW) last year after the media highlighted how their services had not been recognised.

It opened an FEPOW office in Kathmandu and invited applications from the Gorkhas for the ex-gratia payment. According to information here the FEPOW team had received a total of 1,400 applications from all over Nepal and had interviewed 900 of them since April last. While 101 of them have been paid now, a large number of applications are still pending as they remain to be researched and verified.