O P I N I O N S

EDITORIALS

John Paul II
Pope’s death leaves a void
Christiandom has lost an abiding symbol and the world a colossus in the death of Pope John Paul II. It was sheer anguish for his admirers and billion-plus Roman Catholics to see life ebbing away from his frail body but the serenity that he displayed in the face of impending death was the stuff legends are made of.

VAT survives a challenge
Centre, states must not look back
The three-day strike by traders from March 30 against value added tax may have got them headlines, few are convinced by the objections raised by them. There may be some confusion in implementing the bold new tax system, but this should not discourage the 20 states that have adopted VAT.

Poaching on pilots
Set up more training facilities
The non-poaching agreement signed by Air Deccan and Kingfisher Airlines points to the growing shortage of trained manpower in the fast-expanding aviation sector. The worst affected are the two government airlines and a worried Civil Aviation Minister, Mr Praful Patel, has called a meeting of representatives of the various airlines to discourage the practice of poaching and evolve some self-discipline.

• Thought for the day

ARTICLE

Witness to hope
Pope who defied norms
by A. J. Philip
IT was well past midnight when the train steamed into the central station in Rome. On the way to an old age home where my host offered to put us up free for a few days, he took a detour to show us the Vatican. Darkness enveloped the building complex.

MIDDLE

Gurus, heroes and netas
by V. K. Kapoor
INDIANS have an unthinking fascination for icons, imagery and symbols. Grinding misery, pervasive spirituality, poisoned with superstition and fatalism, breed an ideal climate for spiritual cowboys, fake heroes and sham netas. They narcotise people and lend sanctity to senseless.

OPED

No right to marry for HIV-infected
by Sukhdarshan Singh Khehra
The right to marry and start a family is one of the basic human rights available to every adult person. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 1948, clearly states in Article 16 that men and women of full age, without any limitation due to race, nationality or religion, have the right to marry and found a family.

Grumpy old men a myth, say researchers
by Maxine Frith
The social stereotype of “Grumpy Old Men’’ is a myth, with women more prone. While men mellow as they get older, women stay as angry as ever, falling out with their friends, getting irritated by strangers in the street and left frustrated by the vagaries of modern technology.

Chatterati
Politicians play Holi
by Devi Cherian
Rang bhang, masti was the theme of the Holi party at M.P. Rajiv Shukla’s residence. Chat, gol gappas and all kinds of sweets were in abundance. Farooq Abdullah arrived with his son-in-law, M.P. Sachin Pilot and daughter Sara. Karan Thapar, Balbir Punj, Digvijay Singh were all drenched to their skim.

• Ghulam Nabi’s anniversary

• Shahrukh in Capital

REFLECTIONS

EDITORIALS

John Paul II
Pope’s death leaves a void

Christiandom has lost an abiding symbol and the world a colossus in the death of Pope John Paul II. It was sheer anguish for his admirers and billion-plus Roman Catholics to see life ebbing away from his frail body but the serenity that he displayed in the face of impending death was the stuff legends are made of. Some are not too happy with the way he remained in saddle despite being unable to carry out the onerous duties, but that can also be cited as an example of extreme grit and determination. When Karol Joseph Wojtyla from Poland became Pope in 1978, the first non-Italian in 455 years, he inherited a church that was a shambles. The task of revival that he undertook is one of his most significant achievements. The Catholic church today presides over a billion strong following, spanning regions like Latin America, with the largest number of Catholics, Africa, the fastest growing, and of course Asia, with devout followers in small countries like Vietnam and Thailand, and also in India. His style was characterised by a reaching out to the masses, and one his most enduring images would be his smiling face kissing little babies in the crowd. He spoke eight languages, and made 170 visits to 115 countries in his 26-year reign, one of the longest in recent Papal history. That made him the most widely travelled Pope in history.

He was a bastion of conservatism, and his positions on the ordination of women, contraception, homosexuality, papal celibacy and euthanasia did alienate many who wanted the Catholic church to adapt itself to the needs of a fast-changing world and its values. But he strongly believed in what he stood for, and famously criticised America and its consumerist society as the “culture of death”. Western wealth must be shared with the Third World, he had said. Again, they were messages that were not well received. His visit to Poland in 1979 brought about resurgence of the church in his home country and ultimately its walking out on the Soviet Bloc.

The liberal-conservative divide is among the many schisms that threaten the Catholic Church today, posing a sizable challenge to a successor. And whoever that might be, and from whichever region (many of the Cardinal electors want to go back to the tradition of electing an Italian) he is very unlikely to be as imposing and popular a figure.

VAT survives a challenge
Centre, states must not look back

The three-day strike by traders from March 30 against value added tax (VAT) may have got them headlines, few are convinced by the objections raised by them. There may be some confusion in implementing the bold new tax system, but this should not discourage the 20 states that have adopted VAT. They must be congratulated for withstanding pressure from traders. The Centre too deserves praise for staying firm on the April 1 deadline. The empowered committee, headed by West Bengal Finance Minister Asim Dasgupta, tried its best to convince the BJP-ruled states to drop their opposition to VAT, but all in vain. By playing petty politics, the BJP has exposed itself to the charge that for it political considerations take precedence over what is clearly the national interest.

The introduction of VAT will increase the country’s tax base without actually raising the tax rates. A large section of the traders dodges taxes by entering into off-the-record transactions, thus encouraging the proliferation of black money. With the VAT regime in place, they will have to maintain records and issue receipts to seek refunds for taxes already paid. Everyone involved in the production, distribution and retail chain will have to pay taxes on the value added at his or her. A reasonable profit margin is allowed at every level. No honest tax payer can oppose such a fool-proof tax regime, which is in use in several developed and developing countries.

By having two tax slabs of 4 per cent and 12.5 per cent, VAT is open to influence from lobbies for inclusion or exclusion of certain products in a particular slab. This may lead to disputes. The states also have the discretion to encourage or discourage the sale of particular products. The Centre should have recommended a uniform VAT system or minimised discretion at the state level to develop a single market in the country, ensuring the smooth movement of goods and paving the way for the introduction of a nation-wide goods and services tax (GST). Whatever the shortcomings, these can be removed over time and with some experience. The best thing to have happened is VAT has finally become a reality.

Poaching on pilots
Set up more training facilities

The non-poaching agreement signed by Air Deccan and Kingfisher Airlines points to the growing shortage of trained manpower in the fast-expanding aviation sector. The worst affected are the two government airlines and a worried Civil Aviation Minister, Mr Praful Patel, has called a meeting of representatives of the various airlines to discourage the practice of poaching and evolve some self-discipline. The sudden departure of key trained officials often leads to the rescheduling of flights, causing inconvenience to the travelling public and burdening the existing staff. Alliance Air, a subsidiary of Indian Airlines, had to suffer recently on this account as some of its pilots chose to seek greener pastures without giving the company adequate time to hire their replacements.

It is neither possible nor desirable to prevent personnel from changing employers in search of better opportunities. The financial deterrence often agreed to in job contracts has proved ineffective. The minister has ruled out the possibility of imposing any restrictions on the staff or the airlines. The industry is expected to come out with some self-regulatory practices to discipline themselves as also the employees. The competition has become so fierce in this sector that every airline tries to hire the best available staff and salaries are shooting up to unbelievable levels.

The root cause of the problem is the shortage of trained pilots and engineers. The situation will only worsen in the coming days as more airlines enter the hitherto limited Indian market. More airports are being set up and the existing ones upgraded to world standards. Many more international flights are set to start from the country. With India emerging as a key area of economic interest at the global level, Indians with growing incomes getting more mobile and air fares declining, airline traffic is bound to expand manifold in the years to come. It is in the interest of the airlines, therefore, to pool resources and set up their own training facilities to meet the rising demand for staff. The government, at best, can only coordinate their efforts in this direction.

Thought for the day

My country is the world, and my religion is to do good. — Thomas Paine

ARTICLE

Witness to hope
Pope who defied norms
by A. J. Philip

IT was well past midnight when the train steamed into the central station in Rome. On the way to an old age home where my host offered to put us up free for a few days, he took a detour to show us the Vatican. Darkness enveloped the building complex.

My host, a historian who teaches at a university in Rome, pointed his index finger at a small room on an upper floor and said, “That is the Pope’s study. He could be reading or writing or even praying”. That was the only room where a bulb burnt at that unearthly hour.

It was difficult to believe that the leader of the world’s largest single religious organisation would remain awake till so late and would go to his private chapel by 6.15 a.m., at times prostrate on the floor, at times actually groaning in the travail of intercession, as my host described the situation.

But then Pope John Paul II had always defied all the norms and the descriptions of the high office he held for 27 long years. He was the first “foreigner” on the throne of St. Peter since a Dutchman was elected 456 years earlier. He refused to behave the way his predecessors did: he skied, he vacationed with lay people, he wrote on the ethics of married life and he preached to Muslim teenagers in a packed stadium in Casablanca.

Now that the Pope has passed into history, biographers and historians will be searching for words and phrases that best sum up his Papacy, undoubtedly one of the longest and, perhaps, the most outstanding in the two millennia since the institution came into being. Church historians describe only two Popes as Great. Even if there are more, few will have problems calling John Paul II, born Karol Jozef Wojtyla, who often described himself as “this Pole, this Slave”, the last Great Pope.

This is because few other Popes had brought to the Vatican the richness of his personal experience as John Paul did. As George Weigel, his authoritative biographer, whom I met briefly at his office at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, Washington, says, “The sheer drama of his life would defy the imagination of the most fanciful screenwriter.”

Come to think of it, John Paul was a student, poet, actor, playwright, quarry labourer, parish priest, youth leader, university professor, bishop and church prelate, all before becoming Pope. If, for some he was a dogmatic conservative, for others he was a revolutionary who looked beyond the four walls of the Vatican. But for many, the most defining moment of his occupancy of Holy See was his visit to Warsaw’s massive Victory Square – his native land — where he addressed over a million-strong gathering within months of becoming the Bishop of Rome.

The Pope did not say a word against communism, much less incite his listeners to take up arms and revolt against the rulers. But his message convinced the Polish people that communism was not authentically Polish and it was not even invincible. As he spoke, he was interrupted by the spontaneous, rhythmic chant of his people – “We want God! We want God!”

The reverberations of that visit were felt a year later when an unemployed electrician, Lech Walesa, climbed over the fence into the Baltic port of Gdansk and took over the leadership of the striking port workers. The strike exposed the fragility of communism and its waning influence on the Polish masses.

Nobody could have foreseen at that time that Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev would eventually call on the Pope and tell him, “Moral values that religion generated and embodied for centuries can help in the renewal of our country too.” This symbolised, more than the collapse of the Berlin Wall, the ultimate defeat of communism. John Paul’s worldview had a certain depth and consistency which no other contemporary leader could match. This was the source of his moral authority which, incidentally, was his only real power.

Little surprise, millions flocked to hear him wherever he went. No other leader was ever seen and heard in as large a number as he was. As a reporter covering his visit to Ranchi in 1986, I noticed that many of those who assembled to hear him were not Catholic, not even Christian. He had that innate ability to transcend the borders, both physical and mental. Who else could have imagined that a Pope would visit Islamic-controlled Sudan and Bosnia and speak on the essentials of Christianity?

The Pope challenged the governments within the Islamic world, not by invoking the religious wars of the past or by joining President George Bush’s coalition against Saddam’s Iraq but by allowing a grand mosque to come up close to the Vatican. It was the same eclecticism and ecumenism that allowed him to enter the synagogue in Rome for the first time since Apostle Peter did so 2,000 years ago and call the American evangelist Billy Graham “a dear brother”.

Whether receiving the Dalai Lama in 1986 or sharing the dais with the Shankaracharya at Vigyan Bhavan in New Delhi in 1999, John Paul was guided by the principles that governed the convening of the Second Vatican Council in which he, too, played a modest role. But he also resisted liberation theology and the movement to relax the church’s rules on sexual practice, which, of course, were the offshoots of Vatican II.

But all this did not prevent John Paul from declaring his core conviction that his own Christian faith was truth itself, a truth that would be universally recognised once there was a genuinely free market for religious ideas around the world. In the process, he subjected himself to criticism like the one authored by Mr Arun Shourie.

Few outside the Catholic Church could appreciate his viewpoints on such issues as euthanasia, abortion, divorce, remarriage, ordination of women and homosexuality. Even among the Catholics, he was in a minority on most of these issues but he had the courage of conviction to stand by his belief, no matter how others viewed it. In other words, he exemplified certainty, as opposed to relativity.

Take the case of abortion, which the Catholic Church under his leadership opposed tooth and tail. Arguments that the church did not consider foetus as a human being for a major part of the two millennia of its existence do not take into account the fact that population programmes that include abortion as a specific option lead to a devaluing of the entire concept of life itself.

The argument in favour of abortion could lead to support for euthanasia and concepts like elimination of the physically and mentally challenged because they are supposedly a drain on society. John Paul opposed concepts like the supremacy of race (Hitler) or class (Marx) and the messianic lure of utopian politics (Lenin).

History will record whether John Paul II succeeded in these attempts as he fought cloning while generally supporting genetic research. But in all that he did and said, he verily measured up to the inaugural sermon he gave on October 22, 1978: “Be not afraid!... Be not afraid!”

MIDDLE

Gurus, heroes and netas
by V. K. Kapoor

INDIANS have an unthinking fascination for icons, imagery and symbols. Grinding misery, pervasive spirituality, poisoned with superstition and fatalism, breed an ideal climate for spiritual cowboys, fake heroes and sham netas. They narcotise people and lend sanctity to senseless.

I intimately know some characters from all the categories. I found them part Rasputins, part Machiavellis and part leering adolescents. These professions are appearance centred, where nothing succeeds like success.

Gurus have mythological resonance and contemporary relevance. They are the resident agents of God on earth. God brings cosmic reassurance as well as fear. It is the sense of a distant cloaked observer that is really eerie. My school dropout friend turned successful guru told me that spirituality is the need of the day. People suffer from “happiness disease”. They want instant nirvana and instant relief. Spirituality fills the vacuum between accumulated yesterdays and fearful tomorrows.

With the dark piercing eyes of a hunter and a telegenic appearance, Guruji looked like a Hollywood star. His personal secretary looked like Taj Mahal in moon light and her gestures were hotter than a frying pan.

We use film stars to fill a vacuum in our lives. Filmstars have always been expected to live our imagined lives for us. Hero told me that life in his profession was a chronicle of sin, shadows and sadness. There is a very thin line between a hero and a zero.

Being virtuous in Show Biz was like wearing a chastity belt in a brothel a middle aged woman came to see Hero. She wanted a role for her daughter. There was something deliciously corrupt in her knowing smile and the calibrated fall of her “sari”. The girl looked unsullied and innocent. Sometimes there is a role in search of a hero, here it was fodder in search of a cannon.

There is a certain time-honoured insincerity about politics. Words have no fixed meaning treachery comes easy and betraying of friends is routine. My old informer did well in politics. He was a complete master of humbug. I found him delightfully wicked and slimy. One day he asked me to supply him with some Urdu couplets on ‘Husn-o-Shabab’ (beauty and youth). He wanted to impress a “mahila” wing worker with his literary talent. The lady used her “Husn-o-shabab” to cultivate a more influential leader, who promised her an Assembly seat.

My friend was sad. I gave him some choicest couplets about betrayal, rejection and dejection. Harry Truman remarked, “My easy choice in life was either to be a piano player in a whorehouse or a politician. And to tell the truth, there is hardly any difference.”

OPED

No right to marry for HIV-infected
by Sukhdarshan Singh Khehra

The right to marry and start a family is one of the basic human rights available to every adult person. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 1948, clearly states in Article 16 that men and women of full age, without any limitation due to race, nationality or religion, have the right to marry and found a family.

The declaration further states that the family is the natural and fundamental group unit of society and is entitled to protection by society and the State. The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, 1966 also recognises in Article 23 the right of men and women of marriageable age to marry and found a family.

Similarly, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, 1966, lays down that the State parties to the covenant recognise that the widest possible protection and assistance should be accorded to the family, which is the natural and fundamental group unit of society, particularly for its establishment (Article 10). India has ratified these covenants, and therefore, is under obligation to protect these rights.

Acquired Immuno Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) is a disabling or life-threatening illness caused by the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). The virus has a long incubation period, i.e., the time interval between the exposure to the virus (HIV infection) and the manifestation of the disease syndrome (AIDS). An HIV-infected person appears healthy outwardly though he carries the virus in his blood and can infect others.

The incubation period is estimated to be around eight to ten years. Blood and sexual fluids are major vehicles carrying the virus. The most common mode of getting infection is sexual intercourse with an infected person. AIDS is almost fatal as no sure cure has been found so far.

If an HIV positive person marries a healthy person, the infection will surely be transmitted to the latter resulting in his death ultimately. Can the law allow such a person to cause death of another by marrying him in the exercise of his right to marry and found a family?

Though human rights are available to all human beings without any distinction, yet the State has the right to impose limitations on human rights to meet the just requirements of morality, public order and general welfare in a democratic society.

Such limitations have been envisaged by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights itself. The individual right has to be balanced against public interest. If there is a conflict between the right of an individual and public interest, the former must yield to the latter.

Section 53(1)(vii) of the Goa, Daman and Diu Public Health 1985, empowers the State Government to isolate persons found to be positive for AIDS for such period and on such condition as many as may be construed necessary and in such institutions and wards thereof as may be prescribed.

The constitutional validity of this provision was challenged in the case of Lucy R.D’ Souza versus State of Goa (AIR 1990 Bom 355) before the Bombay High Court on the ground that the provision was unreasonable and violative of fundamental rights under Articles 14, 19(1)(d) and 21 of the Constitution of India. The court upheld the validity of the provision in view of public health.

In India, there is no specific provision of law to debar an HIV positive person from marrying a healthy person, but if he attempts such marriage he can be prosecuted under some provisions of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

Section 269 of the IPC lays down punishment for a person who, unlawfully or negligently does any act which is, and which he knows or has reason to believe to be, likely to spread the infection of any disease dangerous to life.

Section 270 provides enhanced punishment if such act is done malignantly, that is, maliciously.

Thus, an HIV positive person, who is going to solemnise marriage with an HIV negative person, knowing or having reason to believe that he is likely to spread the disease dangerous to life, is within the meaning of attempt to commit offences under these sections. The offences being cognisable, the police can intervene to prevent the commission of the same.

By a liberal interpretation the act of marrying a healthy person by an HIV positive person, intending or knowing that he will cause death of such person, can be construed as an attempt to murder.

If he discloses the fact of his being HIV positive to the would-be spouse and obtains his consent, he will still be liable for an attempt to commit culpable homicide not amounting to murder punishable under Section 304 IPC.

In such a situation the spouse can also be charged as an abettor. According to the IPC, if a person above 18 suffers death or takes the risk of death with his own consent, the person causing death is guilty of culpable homicide not amounting to murder.

The other relevant question is whether an HIV positive man should be allowed to marry an HIV positive woman. Such matrimonial advertisements appear in newspapers occasionally. In Mumbai, a marriage bureau specially helps such persons to tie the matrimonial knot.

A marriage between HIV positive persons is not objectionable provided they decide not to have children because an HIV positive mother can transmit infection to the baby in womb.

Article 47 of the Constitution of India directs that the State shall regard improvement of public health as among its primary duties. Apart from treating with care and compassion the infected persons, protection of others from the deadly disease is the obligation of the State.

A legal framework may require the curtailment of some rights of HIV positive persons, the enjoyment of which may spread the disease to others. There is need to frame an explicit law to debar marriage of an HIV positive person to an HIV negative person.

HIV screening should be made mandatory before marriage. After marriage if one gets HIV infection, he should be debarred from having sexual relations with the spouse.

According to the prevailing rules, a foreign student has to get himself screened for HIV infection before he gets admission to a university in India but there is no such provision for persons entering matrimony.

The writer is Professor and Dean, Faculty of Law, Punjabi University, Patiala.

Grumpy old men a myth, say researchers
by Maxine Frith

The social stereotype of “Grumpy Old Men’’ is a myth, with women more prone. While men mellow as they get older, women stay as angry as ever, falling out with their friends, getting irritated by strangers in the street and left frustrated by the vagaries of modern technology.

The findings of the study were presented at the annual conference of the British Psychological Society in Manchester last week.

Researchers from Middlesex University questioned 101 women and 52 men aged between 18 and 60 about their responses and feelings of anger in three hypothetical situations.

The first, “interpersonal’’ scenario asked both groups to imagine that their best friend was refusing to listen to them when they urgently needed to talk.

The second “environmental’’ scenario involved a stranger being rude to them in the street, while the third “unattainable goal’’ incident centred around buying a video controller to watch a favourite film and on getting home finding that it did not work.

The men and women were then split into three age groups, aged 18 to 25, followed by 26 to 40-year-olds and 41 to 60-year-olds.

In the youngest age groups, average anger levels were the same with men more likely to be irritated by the environmental situation and women by the interpersonal scenario.

But by the second age group angry responses among the men had rapidly declined, while the women’s remained the same.

Among the 41 to 60-year-olds, men’s anger had fallen and then levelled off, while women’s remained the same at retirement as it had when they were 18.

Lead researcher Jane Barnett said: “The traditional belief has been that men feel more comfortable about expressing their anger while women suppress it because they have been taught that it is no feminine or ladylike and they should not be showing that kind of emotion.

‘’But this research shows that women do seem to feel comfortable about expressing anger, perhaps because even as they get older they see it as being assertive and as a positive rather than negative emotion.

‘’Men on the other hand may feel that as they get older they do not need to live up to masculine stereotypes and may just think ‘oh sod it’.’’ The huge success of the British television series Grumpy Old Men has recently been followed by a program entitled Grumpy Old Women featuring, among others, Germaine Greer and the Independent columnist Janet Street-Porter.

She said: “Women may feel anger in the same way as men but they tend to express it in different ways.

‘’They will use cooking metaphors such as saying that they were simmering with rage, or boiled over with anger, whereas if you ask men they use terms like a force of rage, or a flood of anger.’’ Previous studies have shown that people who are regularly driven to explosions of rage are more likely to suffer heart disease and other health problems than those who keep a calmer state of mind.

However, Miss Barnett said that after generations of being told to control their anger, modern women may be finally getting their own back on Grumpy Old Men.

— The Independent

Chatterati
Politicians play Holi
by Devi Cherian

Rang bhang, masti was the theme of the Holi party at M.P. Rajiv Shukla’s residence. Chat, gol gappas and all kinds of sweets were in abundance.

Farooq Abdullah arrived with his son-in-law, M.P. Sachin Pilot and daughter Sara. Karan Thapar, Balbir Punj, Digvijay Singh were all drenched to their skim.

With the DJ belting out remixes like “Rang barse Holi ke din”, Farooq led all to the dance floor. So what if there was no pool to throw people in, everybody splashed beer on one another.

Political biggies, journos, celebrities really let their hair down. As did host Rajiv Shukla with his wife Anuradha’s brother, former I&B Minister of the NDA government, Ravi Prasad.

At the residence of L.K. Advani, the protocol was given a miss. The neta log had a real colourful Holi. Of course, it went on as they all have enough time for it now.

With the sumptuous spread of food and spirits, our otherwise sober white-kurta pyjama netas were drenched in gulal.

Obviously, every one here believed “Bura na mano Holi hai” Vijay Goel, Chetan Seth, M.A. Naqvi all danced, sang and were red, blue, green from head to foot.

Ghulam Nabi’s anniversary

The two good looking kids — Saddam and Sofia — of Union Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad celebrated their parents’ silver wedding anniversary by hosting a dinner party. It was literally all that glitters is silver. This was not exactly a political do.

Old friends of the family like film star Sanjay Khan, Dilip and Saira Bano especially flew in from Mumbai. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh with wife arrived in a relaxed mood.

New Haryana C.M Hooda, Shelja, Suresh Pauchouri, Vinod Sharma, now a minister in Haryana, and tycoon Sunil Mittal all mingled well with the other invitees.

After all Gulam Nabi is a pillar of the Congress. His organisational skills are well known. After any state election he has been made charge of, the Congress has always formed a government. Now his co-ordination skills are indispensable for the UPA government at the Centre.

In fact, the UPA allies are not at all comfortable with the idea that Azad may have to go as J&K chief. He is remarkable as Parliament Affairs Minister in co-ordinating the allies, however, difficult. Also easily accessible and accommodating.

The party interest is always foremost on his mind. As Urban Affairs Minister, he may be the first to make reluctant ex-MPs vacate their sprawling bungalows to adjust the new ones. A tough task again. But that’s not all.

The evening was also to celebrate his wife being awarded the Padma Shree Shamim, a gifted singer, had sung the Congress party election campaign songs in 1982 when Indira Gandhi was PM. She then boldly went on to condemn terrorism in Kashmir through her singing when militants were non-stoppable.

Threatened many times, of course, she did not stop. Truly an evening of Kashmiri wazwan, qawaalis and Shamim’s melodious folk songs. She has been a popular TV singer in Kashmir from a young age and is called the Lata Mangeshkar of Kashmir.

Shahrukh in Capital

When Shahrukh Khan is here, how can the Capital be quiet? Rajiv Shukla hosted a dinner to felicitate him for his award too. Here the scene was completely stolen by Priyanka and Robert Vadra.

Shahrukh was so tired, obliging fans with autographs and pictures. A tough man. Farooq Abdullah in a wild shirt, Prafull Patel. Jagdish Tytler attracted Delhi-ites too.

You know how in awe of celebrities Delhi-ites usually are. Hey! The party thrower of the Congress, the incorrigible Subi Ram Reddy, also hosted a dinner for Shamim Azad and Shahrukh. He had the whole string of VIPs too. Ashok Gehlot, Anand Sharma and Girja Vyas along with the same faces I have already mentioned.

After all it’s the same crowd everywhere. I mean in Delhi, it’s just those same handful of people who circulate from one party to the other.

REFLECTIONS

— Jesus Christ