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Troubled Northeast No bailout |
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Chastened Jayalalithaa Hard talk and soft battles Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa is evidently mulling over her political options and out to win friends and influence other parties with an eye on the state assembly elections scheduled for 2006.
Fresh look at freedom struggle
Grandpa becomes a maharaja
Undaunted by disability
Chatterati
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Troubled Northeast THE situation in the Northeast is getting worse with every passing day. Nagaland, where insurgent groups had been observing a ceasefire for the past seven years, is again in the grip of violence with two major bomb blasts on Saturday, including the one at Dimapur railway station, resulting in the loss of a large number of lives. Two districts of Assam — Dhubri and Bongaigaon — were also targeted by militants the same day, killing at least 15 persons. There was no respite on Sunday as the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) and the National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB) struck at seven places, causing a fresh wave of terror. This definitely is a cause for alarm, necessitating a proactive approach to handle the crisis. The incident of violence in Nagaland is suspected to be the handiwork of Ulfa, an Assam-based group, with a view to disrupting the ongoing peace talks between the Centre and the NSCN (Isac-Muivah). ULFA seems to have spread its area of operation to boost the morale of its cadres, who had been lying low following the December 2003 anti-insurgency operation by Bhutan. The ULFA leaders who had escaped to Bangladesh are believed to have regrouped their cadres with help from the Khaleda Zia government though Dhaka denies it. The spate of ULFA attacks on the security forces and civilians for some time – this includes the massacre of schoolchildren on Independence Day – provides proof that this militant outfit is getting considerable support from outside the country. The Centre must redouble its diplomatic efforts to contain the insurgent groups active in the Northeast by engaging the governments in India’s immediate neighbourhood. Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil, who failed to react quickly when the government was faced with an embarrassing situation following the death of a tribal woman at the hands of Assam Rifles personnel in Manipur, visited Guwahati on Sunday. According to him, the Centre would formulate a long-term strategy to fight terrorism in the Northeast. Why so late? This shows how callously the situation in the strategically significant region has been handled so far. |
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No bailout WHEN the Opposition shouts for the ouster of tainted ministers like Mr Laloo Prasad the Prime Minister and others can easily play deaf. But when the Supreme Court too issues a show-cause notice to the Railway Minister why his bail in the Rs 900-crore fodder scam cases should not be cancelled since he was allegedly interfering in the trial ever since he became a Central Minister, it may be a little more embarrassing for his colleagues to continue to support him. The allegations against him and his Chief Minister wife Rabri Devi have not been proved as yet, but some of the recent decisions of the CBI and the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) are controversial indeed, to say the least. In July, the CBI changed its two public prosecutors in the fodder scam when the arguments were at a crucial stage. A new advocate without any experience of handling sensitive corruption cases was empanelled as a senior special counsel in indecent haste. Even in the tax evasion case against Bihar’s first couple, one of the two members of the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT) was sent on a deputation for two weeks in June, replacing him with another member. The tribunal promptly heard Ms Rabri Devi’s appeal against the order imposing penalty on the alleged tax violation, passed an order in favour of the Chief Minister and even passed severe strictures against the Income Tax Department. The petition seeking cancellation of their bail has documentary evidence to back its case that Mr Yadav and Ms Rabri Devi have been interfering with the trial of cases. The couple will find it quite difficult to deflect the allegation that there is a concerted effort to soft-pedal the cases. Another ghost has come to haunt them at the same time. The Supreme Court has stayed a Patna High Court order granting bail to Rajesh Ranjan alias Pappu Yadav, who is contesting the Lok Sabha byelection from the Madhepura constituency on the Rashtriya Janata Dal ticket. The criminal record of Pappu Yadav is no secret, least of all to Mr Laloo Yadav, who had decided to give him the ticket oblivious of the entreaties to stop criminalisation of politics. The judicial reverses may make the all-powerful Yadav do some introspection. |
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Chastened Jayalalithaa Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa is evidently mulling over her political options and out to win friends and influence other parties with an eye on the state assembly elections scheduled for 2006. The AIADMK’s drubbing in the Lok Sabha elections — in which the party drew a blank —has not only chastened Amma but also made her realise that she has to make amends for her administrative wrongs and seek new political alliances. This is the unmistakable subtext of the statements in her interview to the BBC. Despite provocative prodding by the interviewer, Ms Jayalalithaa resisted being drawn into making an adverse comment on Congress President Sonia Gandhi. Before and during the Lok Sabha election campaign, as an ally of the BJP, the AIADMK supremo was strident in her opposition to Mrs Gandhi becoming Prime Minister on the ground that she is of foreign origin. Although Ms Jayalalithaa has reiterated that she remains unchanged in her opposition to any person of foreign origin becoming Prime Minister, clearly the tone and tenor of her responses suggest a softening of her opposition to Mrs Gandhi. This is underscored by her reiteration that what was said in the past was an “electoral confrontation and not a personal confrontation”. With the BJP having dumped her as an ally in the aftermath of the Lok Sabha election debacle, Ms Jayalalithaa evidently does not want to make more enemies. She has, since the electoral rout, made up with the media which she had accused of “uncharitable, unfair and unjustified” and rolled back a number of unpopular measures her ministry had taken in the last two years, including against government employees. The cases against DMK chief M Karunanidhi were withdrawn and the anti-conversion law was also scrapped. While Ms Jayalalithaa may still be far from shaking hands with the Congress, clearly she is more favourably disposed to those who were her opponents in the Lok Sabha polls. |
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When politicians and civil servants hear the word “culture” they feel for their blue pencils. — Lord Esher |
Fresh look at freedom struggle IN 1947 India paid the price of Partition for freedom. Dismayed at the high cost of Independence, many Indians have debated, time and again the possibility of Independence without Partition. There are two main strands in the “unnecessary Partition” argument. First, that Nehru’s ideological rigidity and arrogance led him to dismiss the prospect of a coalition with the UP Muslim League in 1937. Having won a majority in the provincial elections of 1937, the Congress under Nehru refused to share ministerial power with the League. Embittered Leaguers were persuaded that they would not be able to collaborate with the highhanded Congress and, in March 1940, demanded a sovereign Pakistan. Even then, say Nehru’s critics, Partition was not inevitable. In March 1946 the Labour government’s Cabinet Mission Plan presented the League and the Congress with a chance to achieve a united India. Groups of Hindu and Muslim-majority provinces would work under a central government. The League accepted the grouping clauses of the Mission Plan, but Nehru made clear his opposition to grouping. Again, the League was convinced that the Congress would seek to dominate any government in a united India. Since one of Nehru’s critics was Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, a colleague in the Congress Working Committee, Nehru has been blamed continually for the political breakdown in the seemingly endless debates on the unwanted Partition. But the popular pastime of “Nehru bashing” may be easy when the man has been dead for some 40 years. In fact, the basic difference between the League and the Congress lay in their attitude to the British Raj and their vision of an independent India. That schism was highlighted and deepened during political negotiations in 1937 and 1946, but it did not alone make for Partition. The reasons for that were more complex and can be found in British strategy and tactics, the Congress failure to win Muslim mass support, and the “muddle through” tactics of the British and the Congress, in contrast to Jinnah’s ability to exploit their weaknesses until he got a sovereign Pakistan. In the 1937 provincial elections the League won 4.8 per cent of the total Muslim vote in India under an electoral system based on separate representation for Hindus and Muslims. It was not in a position to form a government in any Muslim majority province where regional parties swept the board. Clearly, even in its chosen Muslim constituency the League had little popular appeal. Talks for a coalition took place between the UP Congress led by G.B. Pant and Chaudhury Khaliquzzaman. Jinnah opposed the negotiations from the outset and carried most provincial Leaguers with him. Nehru only came to know about the parleys later and he rightly thought that a coalition should have a common programme or basis for agreement. But Khaliquzzaman made clear that the provincial League would not join forces with the Congress in its attempts to overthrow the Act of 1935 or do anything disliked by the British. The UP League passed a resolution reiterating this stance. For his part, Jinnah opposed the negotiations because their success would have left him high and dry at a time when he was claiming that the League was the only “true” representative of Muslims. So, the failure of the negotiations for a coalition could not have been the reason for his demand for a sovereign Pakistan in 1940. The Congress fared worse than the League in Muslim constituencies but sought to improve its standing by launching a Muslim Mass Contact Programme (MMCP) in 1937. Seeking to expand his own political constituency, Jinnah perceived the MMCP as hostile to the League and advised Nehru to confine himself “to his own people, the Hindus”. Nehru made it clear that the Congress was entitled to campaign among any community. So was the League – and Nehru invited Jinnah to campaign among Hindus. The Congress had no intention of becoming a communal party and, in 1938, distanced itself from the League and the Hindu Mahasabha by branding both as communal organisations. The point was the secular nature of the Congress and its claim to represent all communities. Having failed to win a majority of Muslim votes in the 1937 provincial elections, Jinnah knew that he could only survive politically by securing Muslim support for a separate state. That calculation lay behind his attempt, after March 1940, to mobilise Muslims on the platform of a sovereign Pakistan. The British came to his aid. Needing him as a counterpoise against the Congress after the outbreak of World War II in October 1939, the British recognised him as the sole leader of the Muslims although he had no popular base. However, a determined Jinnah made good the League’s claim in elections held in the winter of 1945-46 by campaigning among Muslims on the promise of a sovereign Pakistan. The tactic worked: the League won more than 80 per cent of the vote in the elections. The Congress fared badly, yet again, in the Muslim-majority provinces. Recognising Muslims as an all-India minority, it had “Minorities Departments” in the Muslim-minority provinces but not in the Muslim-majority provinces where the case for Pakistan was decided. This may have been a psychological barrier to its ability to make a bid for Muslim support in the provinces which were to form the backbone of Pakistan. So, it never presented in a sustained way its secular programme to the Muslims in the provinces where they were in a majority – and its case went by default. Even then the League did not win enough votes to form governments on its own in all the Muslim-majority provinces. For example, in Punjab, the Unionists, led by Khizar Hyat Khan Tiwana, formed a government excluding the League. It is in relation to this background that the British began negotiations for a transfer of power with the Congress and the League in March 1946. (To be concluded) The writer is the author of “The Origins of the Partition of India 1936-1947” (OUP) and “Democracy, Ethnic Diversity and Security in Postcommunist Europe” (Praeger, US). |
Grandpa becomes a maharaja YEARS ago when I drove up to Shimla as a bride, George was among the first few to greet me. He stooped down to touch my feet addressing me in his buttery n’ honeyed tone as ‘Memsahib Maalkin’. He hovered around me, grinning from ear to ear displaying his white teeth against his swarthy skin till my husband shooed him away with a wad of currency notes, the “shaadi ka bakshish”. Though George was a chalu cheez, he was certainly the best of our waiters. Of course, he had thoroughly mastered the art of extracting tips from hotel guests. Indeed his motto seemed to be “Die for dough.” Early morning he would unfailingly knock at hotel rooms, say a cheerful ‘Good morning’! draw back the curtains, exclaiming “What a sunny or a cloudy day!” depending upon the weather. He would then rattle off all the places of interest in and around Shimla. He would praise sky high the guests’ car, the appearance of their kids, even their shoes and so on, quietly judging their fiscal fitness. Gift of the gab, indeed. George would keep some toffees in his pocket (I strongly suspect they had been pinched from my candy jar) offering them to the guests’ “baba and baby log” - just to curry favour with their parents, rather their tips. I am still trying to figure out how one guest gave him his expensive shirt. “Kaash if only he had given me the matching trousers too,” George had lamented. It was irksome when he greeted our army friends with “Rum!Rum!”’ instead of the customary (Ram! Ram!’ Our family in full form had trooped along as George’s baraatis to the nearby St. Michael’s Cathedral when he wed his sweetheart Agnes. But unfortunately he left Shimla for family reasons, finding employment as a caretaker in a posh area of South Delhi. However, this was not the end of George’s knack of making a fast dough. Good old George never failed to visit us in Delhi every winter when we used to reside with my parents there. A very big photograph of my paternal grandfather in black and white and mounted in a heavy gilded ornamental frame, still hangs in my parent’s drawingroom. The grand sire sporting a white flowing beard and wearing a turban to match, has handsome features with stern authoritative looks, emanating from his eyes. Undeniably the portrait has the bearing of dignified personality of an aristocratic Sardar Sahib. One evening George turned up with a very strange request. “Please sell me your grandfather’s photograph. I will pay Rs 100 for it,” he said to me. I was taken aback. What! How dare he say such a thing! Had I heard him right? “OK, then, please sell it to me for Rs 200,” he implored again, raising the price. Of course, not. It was unthinkable. “But tell me, what you will do with my grandfather’s photograph?” I finally asked him. “I have met some goras. They want old Indian Maharaja’s photograph. I will sell it to the bewakoof goras for Rs 1,000 and give you Rs 200,” George had the audacity to tell me. I put, rather stamped, my foot down.
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Undaunted by disability
AT 3 pm on September 12, 2004, history was made when Navin Gulia, a young man with a 90 per cent paralysed body and 100 per cent medical disability, did the impossible, by driving non-stop from Delhi to the highest motorable pass in the world, Marsimik La, in the mighty Ladakh range. Unfortunately, most of the media missed covering it, largely on account of lack of information. Nine years ago, Navin Gulia, all of 31 years now, had severely injured his neck and spine while clearing an obstacle in a competition at the Indian Military Academy, where he was in the final term as a gentleman cadet. It was a severe blow to this young man of just about 22 years when the doctors opined that he would be paralysed for life and would be confined to a wheelchair. Undaunted, this young man refused to be beaten by this calamity and fought it tooth and nail. It took him two years of fighting his disability and taming it, and then he was out of hospital, but in a wheelchair. Navin not only worked hard at becoming physically independent, but also did his postgraduation in computers in the first class, taught computers for two years, and taught mathematics for three years (which he had honed while lying on his hospital bed). Early last year we co-opted him in the folds of the War Wounded Foundation, which rehabilitates disabled officers and jawans. The Foundation, of which I am the President, has taken upon itself the task of converting our disabled soldiers into “soldier entrepreneurs’, with the help of corporate India. We already have a number of achievers who have done the Foundation proud, and we hope to have many more in the coming months and years. Our aim is to dot the countryside of our nation with success stories of the war wounded providing them employment in small outlets and agencies, in the rural areas of our country. In the words of Navin, being part of the War Wounded Foundation gives him 100 per cent satisfaction. Adventure activities lure young Navin for he thinks physical disability is no handicap as long as you do not feel disabled in any way. He first created a modification kit for driving a car and after extensive tests obtained a driving licence from the Transport Commissioner of Mumbai. Thereafter, there was no stopping him. He notched up over two lakh kilometres driving experience in the Himalayas - in Uttranchal, Himachal and Ladakh. He drove up to the Khardung La (pass) in Ladakh, then the highest motorable pass in the world. He also practised flying powered hang-gliders. Then there was a new challenge, as the Army’s Border Roads Organisation (BRO) had made Marsimik La motorable, at the imposing height of 18, 632 feet above sea level — 332 feet higher than the base camp of Mount Everest. He has now tamed even this formidable pass. Navin’s adventure started at the India Gate in New Delhi, where, after paying homage to the martyrs of the armed forces, he commenced his “Mission to Marsimik La” at 3 am on September 10, 2004. The time selected was deliberate for he wanted the maximum day light hours at the beginning of his adventurous journey. Earlier, on September 9, I had flagged him off ceremonially, first from the imposing India Gate and thereafter from the Army Public School (APS) in Delhi cantonment. The APS was selected, as Navin was an old student of the school. The War Wounded Foundation organised the functions for bidding young Navin a memorable farewell. He received support from the corporate sector too. The car in which he travelled, a Tata Safari, was given by Tata Motors; Apollo Tyres provided new wheels; and Indian Oil Corporation provided fuel. Kapil Dev, an ambassador of the Foundation, took time out to meet Navin and encourage him in his adventurous quest. With a navigator, a mechanic, a cameraman from the media and one assistant, he took off with confidence and a strong resolve to achieve his difficult goal. His journey was much tougher than what he had thought it would be, and although he took longer to traverse the distance, he displayed no hesitation at any time, but pressed on relentlessly. From Manali onwards, he was under the protective umbrella of the Army, which provided him all logistics and administrative support. They even provided him an escort, which followed him right till his goal. The escort was also of considerable help in arranging assistance when needed and for keeping us at the Foundation informed of his progress. Exactly 60 hours from his start, he touched the base and was atop the formidable Marsimik La, at the rarefied height of 18,632 feet above sea level. The journey had taken him over 1,200 km of varied and difficult terrain, including the last 800 km through the treacherous but beautiful Himalayas, and across seven high altitude passes of Ladakh. Navin’s face had lit up with satisfaction on the achievement of his goal. He had got down from the car and sitting in the wheelchair he touched the stony terrain of Marsimik La — to savour his accomplishment perhaps. His tremendous achievement will act as a beacon and will undoubtedly spur on all physically challenged individuals to emulate his example, and not let their physical handicaps prevent them from leading a full life. The writer, himself a war disabled, is a former Vice Chief of Army Staff and President of the War Wounded Foundation. |
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Chatterati NICE to see some husbands being harassed by their wives for a change! A district of Balrampur lying in a distant corner of Uttar Pradesh boasts of a unique club with harassed hubbies as members. Their Sunday meetings turn into outpourings by each individual against the treatment meted out to him by his wife. The macho image breaks down while recounting tales from home where they have to play the second fiddle to their spouses. After a heavy day at office, some have to attend to their children while their wives enjoy television soap operas. Some of the wives take away all the money and give their husbands a daily pocket money, which does not suffice for a good time at stag parties. One of them was also threatened with suicide by the wife if she were denied her freedom in and outside the house. A few husbands have even been threatened into taking on the role of chefs for night meals. Taking a cue from women’s associations, the husbands club is planning to interact with various officials and NGOs. But nice to see the shoe on the wrong foot. Mini Sonias
pop up “Main Sonia Gandhi banna chahti hoon” The time for Madhuri Dixit is over, the mantra of the moment is the Gandhi bahu who has the right mood and perfect attitude. Yes, along with her great sacrifice, she’s become every bhartiya nari’s ideal woman. It’s not at all surprising then, that wherever you look, mini Sonias seem to be popping up. Amazing, but beauty parlours and hair saloons along with image consultants are busy studying every move and style of Sonia for their clients. Right from that blunt hair cut to plain cotton saris with smart borders. This includes a subtle make-up. With Sonia-mania reaching never before heights, this seems like one trend that seems here to stay. For an ordinary Indian woman, psychiatrists say that ‘’her persona represents a sum total of strength and endurance, a mix of charisma and aloofness, a high degree of frustration tolerance, forbearance and sacrifice and yet being as motherly as the matron next door.” No jewellery-just a bare look; which I must say is so unlike our Behenji, who is so worried of being undressed, but now wants the minimal look. How we change with times; How short is our memory? How the chair is so important! And how strange that politicians are used to this kind of life. As soon as Manmohan Singh was sworn in Prime Minister, the photo division of the Information and Broadcasting Ministry was asked to provide 1,00,000 portraits of the new Prime Minister. They were to be sent to offices of the government, the armed forces and police organisations. The Prime Minister posed for the portrait one day after he was sworn in. Fresh orders were also placed for portraits of Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi as well as Sonia Gandhi. While this was in progress, portraits of Vajpayee were returned to the division to be stored neatly. Muscle men
help govt It’s the turn of our bhais now. The Kanpur Electricity Supply Company has roped in local bhai log to arrest unabated power theft. KESCO recognises these muscle men as mini KESCOnites and allows them to distribute power on the condition of streamlining the revenue collection. At least the muscle men are helping the government in some way! |
The living entity is of superior spiritual energy, but is in a marginal position. That is, sometimes one is controlled by spiritual nature and sometimes by material. If the living entity maintains the natural relationship of eternal part and parcel, servant of God, one remains under the control of the spiritual potency of God. — Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu This world has no separate existence; it exists only in our imagination just as we imagine the existence of a snake in the rope. — Lord Sri Rama O Creator, You alone are my host. The only boon I beg of You is: “Pray, bless me with Your Name.” — Guru Nanak Confidence in another man’s virtue is no slight evidence of one’s own. — Montaigne |
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