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Fatal pilgrimage President speaks |
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Killing of MLAs Lawlessness is spreading The ruthless killing of Allahabad MLA Raju Pal of the Bahujan Samaj Party in Uttar Pradesh and of Anantapur MLA Paritala Ravindra of the Telugu Desam in Andhra Pradesh typify the rising cult of political and faction-ridden violence today.
Intelligence
agencies in the dock
Beginning of a
rediscovery
‘Hotel
journalism’ dictates Iraq coverage Delhi
Durbar
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Fatal pilgrimage Huge congregations are inevitable in a country like India where religious fervour is exceptionally high and politicians thrive on huge rallies. Such mammoth gatherings merit crowd management of the highest order. But what is desirable is exactly the opposite of what is actually made available most often. Despite a shocking record of deaths at religious places during the past 50 years, there was inadequate police presence at the Mandradevi shrine in Wai in Satara district of Maharashtra on Tuesday and the stampede that ensued led to hundreds of deaths. It was a calamity waiting to happen. The hopelessness of the situation – narrow path, shortage of policemen, unsafe environments of the temple, no medical facilities —- which is now being highlighted should have been perceived by the administration before the fair started and adequate safety measures taken. But that was not to be, and a pilgrimage turned into a funeral for many. Apparently, no lessons were learnt from a similar incident in the nearby Nasik during the Kumbha mela in 2003 where 32 persons had died. What made the situation worse at Wai was the mistake of the relatives of the victims to target stalls on the way which caused a fire and led to the bursting of cooking gas cylinders. That shows how casual the public also can be in such matters. One of the worst stampedes had occurred during the 1954 Kumbha mela in Allahabad where more than 800 devotees perished. But the city has been incident free since then. Crowd-control measures there, which start right from the neighbouring districts, are a sight to behold indeed. Similarly, tragedy visited Hardwar repeatedly, in 1984 (200 deaths), 1986 (50) and 1989 (350), but after that fairly effective measures have been in place there as well. No doubt, these steps are criticised as “draconian” by some and even dubbed as “interference in religious matters”. But at least these restrictions make sure that the carping critics live to make the accusations. The administration cannot abdicate its responsibility in such matters. |
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President speaks The
President’s address on the eve of Republic Day this year was predominantly devoted to one subject: employment generation. That is also a key element of the UPA government’s Common Minimum Programme. It is time now to go beyond the talk level and work to show the results. The President has shown the road map. While the UPA government has tabled in Parliament the National Rural Employment Guarantee Bill 2004, which is directed at creating employment for the downtrodden, the President has called for the development of employment-generating sectors like agriculture, education, healthcare, water and energy. According to the Planning Commission estimate, 36 million people are unemployed at present. Besides, Dr A.P.J. Abdul Kalam suggests “value added employment” for 10 per cent of those engaged in agriculture in the rural areas. This, according to him, will enhance productivity and ensure 10 per cent GDP growth for the next decade. Given the past experience and the wide chasm between words and deeds of our national leaders, regardless of the office they hold, one should not blame common Indians for not taking their promises seriously. In his Republic Day eve address last year, the President had referred to agricultural resilience, industrial resurgence and energetic services sector, and hoped for 8 per cent GDP growth. The actual rate was only 6.5 per cent. India was described as “shining”, but the electorate thought otherwise and voted out the BJP-led NDA coalition. So it is better to be more realistic and down to earth than idealistic and unreasonably ambitious. This apart, the President should use his influence to propel the government to put into practice all the noble ideas he advocates from time to time. Better still, the government itself should heed to the advice of the Head of the State, who is known for his scholarship and concerns for the disadvantaged sections of society. His words should be backed by governmental action. The high office of President demands this. |
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Killing of MLAs The
ruthless killing of Allahabad MLA Raju Pal of the Bahujan Samaj Party in Uttar Pradesh and of Anantapur MLA Paritala Ravindra of the Telugu Desam in Andhra Pradesh typify the rising cult of political and faction-ridden violence today. Both incidents are said to be a result of the inter-party rivalry between the Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party on the one hand and the Congress and Telugu Desam on the other. The acts of mindless violence that followed the murders underscore the explosive situation in both states. The violence in Allahabad has claimed one life. A dozen vehicles were also set ablaze. In Andhra Pradesh, over 500 buses were torched during a state-wide bandh called by the Telugu Desam. In the violence of this kind, hoodlums and gangsters take the upper hand. They specifically target state-owned vehicles and buses, which are identified as the symbols of official apathy and callousness. The state governments concerned cannot be absolved of blame for the rapid deterioration of law and order. If legislators themselves cannot get proper safety and protection, what can a common man expect from the government? Bihar is yet another example where criminals kidnap even school students for ransom, ostensibly to raise funds for election campaign. All this is a result of the growing criminalisation of politics and widespread lawlessness. The country is paying heavily for the mess the political parties have created. It is time firm measures were taken against the entry of criminals into the representative institutions. A court ruling or directive (like the Supreme Court fiat on the convicted criminals or the Patna High Court order on the absconding criminals) is not an end in itself. It is only a means to an end or a guideline to tackle the larger problem. Clearly, the political parties should themselves take the initiative to keep the criminals at bay. Those with criminal antecedents should not be given tickets to contest the elections. This is easier said than done because political parties depend on the criminals due to their money and muscle power. The need of the hour, therefore, is to break the nexus between the politicians and the criminals. |
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There is no such thing as inner peace. There is only nervousness or death. — Fran Lebowitz |
Intelligence agencies in the dock SUCH things keep happening in other democracies where insiders of the intelligence establishment have been writing, for decades, books exposing the misdeeds, excesses and “dirty tricks” of the secret intelligence agencies with virtual impunity. This is particularly true of the United States. In the 1980’s the British government had striven hard to prevent the publication, in Australia, of a similar expose of the dark and disgraceful secrets of the MI-5, Britain’s internal security agency, but to no avail. Now a former Joint Director of this country’s Intelligence Bureau, Maloy Krishna Dhar, has chosen to take the lid off the wrongdoings of the IB in a book to be released in about a week’s time. However, if the sample of what the book, “Open Secrets”, reveals — as scooped by an enterprising journalist — is close to the truth, there can be no escape from intense stink and acute embarrassment all round. Evidently aware of this, Dhar has dared the authorities to prosecute him under the Official Secrets Act. For, in fact, he goes so far as to confess his own participation in some of the “illegal”, “immoral” and “detestable” activities even sleazier than the infamous Nixon-backed break-in at Watergate. There is a lot more in the same vein or worse that underscores that from Indira Gandhi’s time onwards: every government in New Delhi has misused the IB for its own ends and that successive honchos of the hugely powerful agency have routinely carried out the crass wishes of their political masters. None of the foregoing is a surprise because Dhar had already given sufficient notice of his desire to “spill the beans”. In a newspaper article published only a few months ago he had made some very damaging disclosures about the top brass of the Research and Analysis Wing, the agency for external intelligence, better known by its delightfully appropriate acronym, RAW. He had alleged that infiltration of Pakistan’s Northern Light Infantry into Kargil in 1999 that later led to war was not detected because the aircraft of the Aviation Research Centre (ARC) meant for the surveillance of the of the Line of Control (LoC) and the border were used to ferry “Burma teak” from Mizoram to places where RAW’s “overlords” were building their houses. Dhar lamented that instead of being punished, the then RAW chief was made Governor of a state in the North-East. The man in charge of the reconnaissance aircraft was also promoted to the rank of Secretary. At the time of writing no minister, senior bureaucrat or intelligence chief is willing to comment on Dhar’s forthcoming book. Some retired intelligence officers with or under whom Dhar had worked do say, however, that a lot of Dhar’s disclosures were “substantially true” but others were “pure fiction”. They add that some of what he is retailing now, “with an air of great mystery”, has been widely known already. The last remark is certainly pertinent to the “bugging” of certain “treated telephones” inside Rashtrapati Bhavan during the period when relations between President Giani Zail Singh and Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi had become “irreparably hostile”. Even at the time of this distasteful caper, it was New Delhi’s worst kept secret. In fact, Gianiji made it a point to regale his visitors with what was going on and then invite them into the Mughal Gardens for a serious conversation. Be that as it may, the country must not allow the publication of Dhar’s book to be treated as a matter of mere violation of the Official Secrets Act by a maverick functionary of the IB or — which is more likely — to be ignored as so much water on the duck’s back. Not just his revelations but also the tales that others might be inclined to tell must be investigated thoroughly and transparently by a body of eminent Indians sufficiently knowledgeable about the shadowy world of espionage and enjoying the people’s confidence. For the bitter truth is that, while rendering the Indian State some service in the area of national security, intelligence agencies have also allowed themselves to be misused and abused by the politicians in power for disgraceful, even abominable, purposes. Sadly, the shroud of total secrecy is always used to cover up all the misdeeds, transgressions and vile activities of the spooks. Even in mature democracies there have been occasions when the holders of the highest office have been investigated by the intelligence organizations. For instance, Harold Wilson, during his tenure at 10 Downing Street, had complained publicly that he was under the MI-5’s surveillance. Britain took this extraordinary situation with equanimity because the whole affair had been conducted with propriety. It was the MI-5 that had first become suspicious about some of the British Prime Minister’s activities. The agency had then taken the evidence to the Queen and the Home Secretary, James Callaghan (who later became Wilson’s successor), and only with their approval put a watch on its own boss. Whether such a similar propriety was observed before putting a wiretap on the republic’s President has yet to be established. Over the 57 years since Independence there has been only one inquiry into the working of the IB and the CBI worth the name. It was only after the gross misuse of these agencies during the Emergency that the Morarji Desai government had ordered this investigation. And although the inquiry committee was largely in-house (it was headed by L. P. Singh, a former Union Home Secretary and Governor and included former directors of the IB and the CBI), it produced a useful set of recommendations. The committee’s report was never published and after Indira Gandhi’s return to power in 1980, the dustbin became its inevitable destination. It is time to resurrect the L.P. Singh Committee’s core recommendation that the system of the intelligence agencies (RAW included) drawing their unlimited powers from a government charter must be ended forthwith. Instead, there must be a law of Parliament that should set out not only what the agencies are permitted to do but also what is strictly prohibited to them. To ensure compliance with the requirements of the law there should be an “Oversight Board” consisting of eminent individuals with essential credentials. While the heads of the agencies should have a fixed and assured tenure, they must not be given any office after retirement. The law should also prescribe exemplary punishment for the violation of norms whether by politicians or those presiding over the IB, RAW and the
CBI. |
Beginning of a rediscovery I
have returned to India after living in the USA for 15 years. Chandigarh has been my new home for the past six months — a city that I never knew before. India, after so many years, seems like an enormous vase of smoking potpourri. In the rising smoke, I find a passionate mixture of familiar flavours and forgotten sounds, a renewed sense of belonging and a feel of rediscovering myself as a new Indian. My return has also fanned my desire to find all the little gems that made up the India that has lived in my heart all these years. There is no roadmap for such an expedition. But, I have an open mind and I am willing to travel. American bookstores are overflowing with self-help books these days. Rows and rows of giant shelves are full of the so-called ‘chicken soup for the soul’ kind of books that promise mental healing and greater fulfillment, emotionally richer life and a happier existence. Chapter after chapter begin with catchy titles like — “Be the first one to forgive”, “Fill your life with love”, “Laugh as often as you can,” and dole out soulful sermons with examples chosen from everyday life. Since my return, my almost American, hungry heart has prompted me to collect many such parables of my own. I haven’t yet attributed apt titles to them, but maybe, this is a good time to begin. I was in this fancy grocery store the other day. While I was browsing the narrow aisles, along came young boy with pockmarked face. Accompanying him was a hulky and tall man, who looked like a policeman in plain clothes. They were consulting with the store clerks regarding a long list — apparently “madams’ list, that included items like facial bleach, hair removing lotions and other feminine products. After dispensing judicious advice regarding brands and quality the clerk asked the tall man in Hindi, “Is this that tarararararara Madam’s list?” — twirling his finger close to his lips. I guess he meant, she either talks a lot or gives a lot of orders. A “Laugh in the store” chapter, I suppose? How about “Smile amidst the chaos?” I was on Madhya Marg, waiting at a traffic light when my eyes fell on these people — the people who cause me a great deal of annoyance because they simple would not cross the road at the designated spots and would jump over the barbed divider and almost plop down right on the road. An elderly lady was trying to follow this routine when her shawl got caught in the bougainvillea hedge. Another even more elderly gentleman, who was behind her stopped and tried to extricate her shawl. His attempts having failed, now a boy of 13 or 14 joined in the rescue shawl operation. Meanwhile, the lights turned green and I had to move on. On my rear-view mirror, I could see the little group of people huddled over the bougainvillea hedge carrying on camaraderie, unified by hazards of traffic rule disobedience. This can be a “Enjoy the freedom of the homeless” chapter. There are these street dogs in our neighbourhood that love to chase cars. We usually encounter them in the morning hours when I drive my daughter to school. Just like the dogs, we also do get ready for the chase as we draw closer. The dogs assume their positions and survey the car and the distance and then break into a spring-howling and running after and even in front of the cars. The first few days, I was trying to dodge them, and then I began to enjoy this game just as much as they do. I began employing my own little strategies — I would come close slowly and suddenly speed up, or I would drive on one side of the road and then suddenly change the side. When we beat them we chuckle our way to the school — a new experience for my daughter who has never seen dogs with so much freedom. I can write many chapters now. I saw a little boy riding pillion on a moped, one hand firmly clasped around his young mother’s waist — the other stretched out straight — actually motioning for a signal, clasped in his fist, a bright red lollipop. My journey has just
begun.
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‘Hotel journalism’ dictates Iraq coverage
“Hotel journalism” are the only words for it. More and more, Western reporters in Baghdad are reporting from their hotels rather than the streets of Iraq’s towns and cities. Some are accompanied everywhere by hired and heavily armed Western mercenaries. A few live in local offices from which their editors refuse them permission to leave. Most use Iraqi “stringers” — part-time correspondents who risk their lives to conduct interviews for American or British journalists — and none can contemplate a journey outside the capital without days of preparation unless they “embed” themselves with American or British forces. Rarely, if ever, has a war been covered by reporters in so distant and restricted a way. New York Times correspondents live in Baghdad behind a massive stockade with four watchtowers, protected by locally-hired, rifle-toting security men, complete with ‘NYT’ T-shirts. Journalists with America’s NBC television chain are holed up in a hotel with an iron grill over their door, forbidden by their security advisers to visit the swimming pool or the restaurant, “let alone the rest of Baghdad”, lest they are attacked. Several Western journalists simply do not leave their rooms while on station in Baghdad. So grave are the threats to Western journalists that some television stations are talking of withdrawing their reporters and crews altogether. Amid an insurgency where Westerners — and many Arabs as well as other foreigners — are kidnapped and killed, reporting this war is becoming close to impossible. The murder, on videotape, of an Italian correspondent, the cold-blooded killing of one of Poland’s top reporters and his Bulgarian cameraman, and the equally bloody assault on a Japanese reporter on the notorious Highway 8 south of Baghdad last year have persuaded many journalists that a large dose of discretion is the better part of valour. The Independent, along with several other British and American papers, still covers stories in Baghdad in person, moving with hesitation — not to mention trepidation — through the streets of a city which is slowly being taken over by insurgents. Only six months ago, it was still possible to leave Baghdad in the morning, drive to Mosul or Najaf or other major cities to cover a story, and return by evening. By August, it was taking me two weeks to negotiate my dubious safety for a mere 80-mile journey outside Baghdad. I found the military checkpoints on the motorways deserted, the roads lined with smashed American trucks and burned-out police vehicles. Today, it is almost impossible. Drivers and translators working for newspapers and television companies are threatened with death. Several have asked to be relieved of their duties on 30 January lest they be recognised on the streets during Iraq’s elections. In the brutal 1990s war in Algeria, at least 42 local reporters were murdered and a French cameraman was shot to death in the Algiers casbah. But the Algerian security forces could still give a minimum of protection to reporters. In Iraq, they cannot even protect themselves. The police and the Iraqi National Guard — much trumpeted by the Americans as the men who will take over after an American withdrawal — are heavily infiltrated by insurgents. Checkpoints may be manned by policemen but it is now unclear just who the cops are working for. US troops operating in and around Baghdad are now avoided by Western journalists, unless they are “embedded”, as much as they are by Iraqis because of the indiscipline with which they open fire on civilians on the least suspicion. So questions are being asked. What is a reporter’s life worth? Is the story worth the risk? And, much more seriously from an ethical point of view, why don’t more journalists report on the restrictions under which they operate? During the 2003 Anglo-American invasion, editors often insisted on prefacing journalists’ dispatches from Saddam’s Iraq by talking abut the restrictions under which they were operating. But today — when our movements are much more circumscribed — no such “health warning” accompanies their reports. In many cases, viewers and readers are left with the impression that the journalist is free to travel around Iraq to check out the stories which he or she confidently files each day. Not so. “The United States military couldn’t be happier with this situation,” a long-time American correspondent in Baghdad says. “They know that if they bomb a house of innocent people, they can claim it was a ‘terrorist’ base and get away with it. They don’t want us roaming around Iraq and so the ‘terrorist’ threat is great news for them. They can claim they’ve shot 600 or 1,000 insurgents and we have no way of checking because we can’t go to the cemetery or visit the hospitals because we don’t want to get kidnapped and have our throats cut.” Thus, many reporters are now reduced to telephoning the American military or the Iraqi “interim” government for information from their hotel rooms, receiving “facts” from men and women who are even more isolated from Iraq in the Baghdad “Green Zone” around Saddam Hussein’s former republican palace than are the journalists. Or they take reports from their correspondents who are “embedded” with American troops and who will, necessarily, only get the American side of the story. Yes, it is still possible to report from the street in Baghdad. But fewer and fewer of us are doing this, and there may come a time when we have to balance the worth of our reports against the risk to our lives. We haven’t reached that point yet. So far, we still see a little more of Iraq than the people who claim to be running this country.
— By arrangement with The Independent, London |
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Threats for ticket Handling ticket aspirants ahead of the poll has been no child’s play and this was apparent to all parties, including the cadre-based BJP. With ticket aspirants using all methods, including handing out threats of self-immolation, leaders of various political parties have had a tough time before the lists were announced. The problem has been more acute in Bihar and Jharkhand where some names are yet to be announced. The leaders remain out of bounds at least, 24 hours ahead of the announcement of the candidates’ list. Many leaders change their mobile phone numbers frequently to dodge ticket
aspirants. One senior leader of the BJP said he even received threatening calls from some musclemen in Bihar after the party’s election committee refused their candidature.
Young MP from Canada Mr Navdeep Singh Bains, the youngest MP of the Liberal Party in Canada, was an easy blend of tradition and modernity at his social interactions in the Capital. A member of the delegation that accompanied Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin, Navdeep (27), stayed back for a private visit to his ancestral places in Punjab and Rajasthan. Guests present at the lunch hosted in honour of Navdeep by former MP Jagmeet Singh Brar were impressed by the fluency of his Punjabi. An MBA, Navdeep has made a mark in the national politics of Canada at a young age. A symbol of the new face of immigration experience, he says that people of Indian origin working in Canada had a strong sentimental attachment with their native country. “I am here to learn the best practices in India,” he said. The Liberal Party, with which Navdeep has been associated for nearly a decade, leads the ruling coalition in Canada.
Poll shadow on Budget The coming assembly polls in Bihar, Jharkhand and Haryana have cast a shadow on the Union Budget so far as media coverage is concerned. The results of the elections will be announced on February 27, a day before the conventional date of Budget presentation. Ahead of the Union Budget, Railway Minister Laloo Prasad Yadav will take the centrestage both as a politician presenting his second rail budget. However, elections and the subsequent results are expected to dominate the media. Finance Ministry officials, however, are not complaining as less space will be left for speculative stories in the run-up to the Budget.
Disabled to vote? The sorry state of affairs of law and order in Bihar may have attracted comments from courts, but the latest one coming from the Supreme Court was interesting, though made in a lighter vein. A Bench of Justice N Santosh Hegde and Justice S.B. Sinha, while hearing a petition of the disabled seeking proper facilities to ensure that they could exercise their franchise without any difficulty during the next assembly elections, wondered: “When abled persons cannot vote in the state easily, will the disabled have the courage to venture out to cast their votes?” Contributed by S Satyanarayanan, Prashant Sood, Gaurav Chaudhury and
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Kam, Krodh have to be subdued and, taken away from the yoke of Ego. They have to be harnessed in service of God. — Guru Nanak A well directed mind is the greatest friend that a man can have. Neither mother nor father nor any other relative can be of service to a man like the power of a well-directed mind that thinks clean thoughts and does not try to harm anyone. — The Buddha An individual is assigned to any one of the four classes according to his natural inclinations and abilities. His class is determined by his inherent ability. — The Bhagvad Gita Lust is to be changed into love and devotion for God, retaining only a fraction of it to be sued in bringing forth offspring by the biological process of man and his wife treating each other on sexual plane. — Guru Nanak  |
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