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In the dock Unerring Marxman |
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Removal of VCs
Misconceptions
galore
Only the best for
him
Keeping arts alive
in Pakistan
First Kurdish
President of Iraq Jiang biography is
a hit in China
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Unerring Marxman FOR four consecutive terms as General Secretary of the CPM, he never pulled his punches. So, at 89, when he decides to hang up his gloves and withdraw from battle, it is time to reflect on the phenomenon called Harkishan Singh Surjeet. Along with ‘Amar Jyoti’ Basu, Mr Surjeet too has been accorded the status of a “living legend” at the 18th Congress of the CPM. Few, even among those who have differed violently with the two stalwarts, would disagree that they are legends. Indeed, Mr Surjeet and his politics are the stuff of legend. He may well be called the country’s supreme political artiste; a man for all seasons, but at his best in the worst of political weather. Dedicated Marxist and marksman par excellence, he perhaps epitomised the praxis of the point being to change the world that philosophers have only interpreted. There is hardly an ideologue who could prevail against his imperatives of realpolitik. Variously called “Bhishma Pitamaha” and “power vacuum cleaner”, Mr Surjeet never failed to grasp the nettle when confronted with both power and power failures in politics. He was at his best in times of crisis. He flourished in conditions of instability and uncertainty, be it during the early days of P V Narasimha Rao or the roller-coaster that was the United Front, first under Mr H D Deve Gowda and then Mr I K Gujral. He excelled as a negotiator; any impasse was an opportunity and every wall he ran up against a chance to scale new heights. His lines of contact were vast and cut across the political, economic and social spectrums. Looking back at his long, vibrant and colourful innings in politics down the decades, there remain many unanswered questions about his role behind the scenes during many a political crisis. The ‘historical blunder’ is just one such riddle. Love him or hate him, you cannot ignore Harkishan Singh Surjeet. Politics will never be the same without him. |
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Removal of VCs A NEW Chief Minister’s “quit-or-else...” order to vice-chancellors in the state would have caused an outrage in academic circles in normal times. The universities have been statutorily granted autonomy and insulated from politics. The prestigious post of vice-chancellor has been given a fixed tenure and the incumbent is expected to have high ethical and academic standards so as to provide intellectual leadership to an institution of higher education. He or she does not have to be at the mercy of some politician to stay in office. However, such has been the decline in academics as also politics that aspirants for the post of vice-chancellor and some of the VCs too court politicians in power and the latter, in turn, ensure that all key posts are occupied by their cronies. This trend is quite pronounced in Haryana. As Chief Minister, Mr Om Prakash Chautala took many questionable decisions and made top appointments by sacrificing merit and rewarding loyalty. The academic world helplessly watched in horror the deliberate bureaucratisation of universities in Haryana during his years of power. The bureaucracy is expected to play a non-partisan role in running the administration. But IAS officers often align themselves with politicians to secure influential postings. Two such officers were given the posts of vice-chancellor. Mr Chuatala’s attempt to appoint a former Chairman of the Haryana Public Service Commission as VC was thwarted as the then Governor put his foot down. Seen against this backdrop, the sacking of vice-chancellors by the new government in Haryana will not appear objectionable. Rather, the academics may actually welcome Mr Bhupinder Singh Hooda’s action. Much will, however, depend on what kind of replacements Mr Hooda himself brings in. If he too plays politics and ignores merit, the whole exercise, now viewed as a “cleansing process”, will end up as a political retaliation of sorts. Hopefully, he would rise above politics and follow the set norms in making fresh appointments. This will help the universities in the state retrieve their lost prestige. |
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How am I to know what I can achieve if I quit?
— Jason Bishop |
Misconceptions galore SHOPKEEPERS in different parts of the country have expressed their displeasure with the Government of India’s decision to implement a value added tax (VAT) system by downing shutters. Whereas VAT is already in force in 19 out of the 28 states and seven Union territories in India, two states (Uttaranchal and Meghalaya) have stated that VAT would be introduced soon. Of the seven remaining states, two — Uttar Pradesh and Tamil Nadu — are unsure when they would move to the new tax system. Five states ruled by the BJP, namely Rajasthan, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand, have decided not to introduce VAT on the ground that unless the new tax system is simultaneously implemented across the length and breadth of the country, the playing field would not be level and hence, traders in one state would not be able to effectively compete against their counterparts in other provinces. The BJP’s position is hypocritical, to say the least. Two Finance Ministers belonging to the party, Yashwant Sinha and Jaswant Singh, had shouted from the rooftops about the virtues of VAT when they were sitting in North Block. While the BJP is not openly saying VAT is a bad tax system, what the party is in effect doing is to pander to the narrow self-interests of a section of the trading community. It is, of course, hardly a secret that many traders happen to be supporters of the BJP. The party’s position on VAT has demonstrated yet again how pragmatic, long-term economic policy prescriptions are given the go-by in the hope of obtaining narrow, short-run political gains. It is ironical to recall what Jaswant Singh had eloquently said not very long ago. He had described VAT as “a historic reform of our domestic trade tax system” and added that the new tax system would be implemented “in the highest tradition of cooperative federalism”. The implementation of VAT had been postponed no less than five times over the last decade or so. This is on account of the misconceptions that had existed — some of which continue to persist — about the new tax system. What VAT essentially seeks to achieve is to replace a complicated set of local taxes, including sales tax, octroi, turnover tax, mandi tax and so on, that have so far brought relatively small amounts of revenues to state governments while encouraging a lot of corruption. Most economists would contend that VAT is a far superior system of taxation when compared to a cascading type tax (CTT) system that is cumbersome and encourages collusion among government officials and traders to deprive state governments of their legitimate dues. Unlike more than 120 countries where over 70 per cent of the world’s population resides and where VAT is administered by a central authority, VAT in India is not meant to be a federal tax but a state-level tax. Among the large countries in the world, the US is the only nation that does not have a VAT system in place. A VAT regime is theoretically meant for a unified market in which taxes levied can be set off against taxes already paid, irrespective of the state-wise location of manufacturing or trading entities. However, these inter-state adjustments will not prove easy to implement in a country like India. Nevertheless, traders seem to be opposed to VAT for all the wrong reasons. They argue that VAT would increase bureaucratic control over their activities, involve more form-filling and force them to pay higher taxes that would invariably be passed on to consumers, thereby spurring inflation. On the contrary, it may be contended that VAT would induce traders to maintain records which they are most reluctant to keep. This would introduce transparency that, in turn, would reduce tax evasion. The short point simply is that traders and government officials could be opposed to VAT because it would check a lucrative source of illegal earnings for both sections. Whereas the CTT system results in multiple layers of taxation on raw materials, intermediate inputs and finished products, it is claimed that VAT — by eliminating the “tax on tax” element — can actually bring prices down in the medium term, thus creating a taxation system that is less discretionary, more transparent and consumer-friendly. The problem is to ensure that the transition is smooth. This is easier said than done. The state which was the first to implement VAT, namely Haryana, found its tax revenues going up. But Haryana is economically more advanced than a state like Uttar Pradesh which “imports” large volumes of goods from other states and fears a fall in sales tax and octroi collections. In an ideal situation, VAT is supposed to be a tax to end all taxes. Many countries that have adopted VAT do not levy excise duty, entry tax or luxury tax. This is unlikely to happen in India, certainly not in a hurry. A study published by UTI Securities in March 2003 observed that the impact of VAT will vary for different industries. Since the new tax will bring the entire distribution chain — including all categories of wholesalers, retailers and other intermediaries - into the tax net, sectors with relatively long distribution channels would witness a rise in overall costs, Such sectors include most fast moving consumer goods, pharmaceuticals, certain consumer durables and cement. The UTI Securities report points out that these are some sectors where distribution costs vary between 10 per cent and 20 per cent of gross sales prices. Depending on logistics and the length of the distribution chain, the rise in costs in the case of these products would range between 2 per cent and 10 per cent. In many industry segments, the increase in costs would be passed on to consumers resulting in higher retail prices. In the more competitive industries, the higher costs would have to be absorbed by the companies or their distributors thereby squeezing their profit margins. The transition from a CTT regime to a VAT regime is fraught with hazards. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) published a detailed study in 2001 entitled The Modern VAT that stated that in order to implement VAT smoothly the transition period would exceed 18-24 months. “Indeed, the effective implementation of a VAT may take several years,” it was stated in the 225-page book written by Liam Ebrill, Michael Keen, Jean-Paul Bodin and Victoria Summers. Individuals as economic agents tend to be myopic and there is good reason to believe that none of the benefits of VAT would accrue in the short term. The apprehension is that VAT could actually increase prices, lower tax collections, widen regional disparities and provide a fillip to generation of black money. In other words, do exactly the opposite of what has been promised. In most countries, the transition from CTT to VAT saw a spurt in inflation. To prevent this from happening in India is the real
challenge. |
Only the best for him THE tyres look new”, we said. “Yes and these are Dunlop, the best; if others last four months these last almost a year. Their tread is shallow but the rubber is very good. I always put Dunlop tyres,” the rickshaw puller said as we jumped on the wooden bench facing back on the rickshaw. That entire journey to the school was devoted to the goodness of Dunlop. Then naughty as children are, for many days, whenever he would try to say something the entire rickshaw group of us seven or eight would shout in the middle of the road “Bhaiya Dunlop.” And irritated he said, “once more and I will put you down from my rickshaw”. We all felt for him. Whenever there was a steep climb we would jump from the rickshaw and push it from the back to give him relief. “Don’t do that. I can handle my load,” he would shout. We entered his hut by the side of “ganda nala” in Patiala one day when he was sick. We perhaps took some fruit also. “The moment fever is down I will come, I have already lost so much and I must money order the set amount to my wife.” He then took some advance from my parents, I remember. Bathed, well-oiled hair, with a dhoti and a collarless shirt he would appear at the right time every morning. His children back home in Bihar were discussed almost everyday. “The elder one has grown up now, he is in 7th, the younger one is in 4th and he is naughty” and as we stopped near the Sheranwala gate to buy stationery, with a visibly stiff back, he followed us into the shop and looked very intently at everything we were purchasing. Which are the good pens? he asked. “Here is Camlin and Waterman and …” we said, The fountain pen is better to develop a good handwriting.” He was registering every word we were uttering. “What is the price?” The shopkeeper almost ignored him. “What is the price”, once again. With some contempt the shopkeeper’s son told the price and moved to a customer. He found it high and turned somewhat pale. Then he paused and did some mental mathematics. “I have to buy it in any case”, he was sure. “I will do some extra rounds at the station for the night train. You get almost 50% more in the night”, he told us. After a couple of weeks on our way back he stopped the rickshaw in front of the stationery shop and we all jumped and followed him. “Show me all the good pens,” he commanded. He picked up three and a geometry box and a footrule and asked me: “Are these of good make? I want my son to have the best instruments, he is good at studies after all.” “These are as good as Dunlop” I told
him.
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Keeping arts alive in Pakistan If Shamshad Begum was on this side of the border, Noor Jehan was on the other; if Suraiya was singing here, Khursheed had made her home in the new land. We had the famed ghazal singer Begum Akhtar with us but Malika Pukhraj was in Lahore. So both sides yearned for each other's music. With time new singers came on the horizon in Pakistan and they have a great fan following here. Among them are ghazal singers Farida Khannum and Iqbal Bano, Suraiya Multanikar, Mehdi Hasan, Ghulam Ali, Reshma, Pathane Khan and of course the great Ustad Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan of Mera piya ghar aaya fame. Even now anyone going to Lahore has requests from friends to fetch him some music. Ironically, however, people of the land that has nurtured such fine musicians and singers, have had to wage an endless struggle to keep the arts alive in Pakistan in the face of the mullahs and dictatorial regimes. The wrath of the mullahs has been turned on all forms of art, including visual art, but music and dance have had to suffer the most, as these have been considered "un-Islamic". With Pakistan seeing a new opening up in the past year or so, this dilemma raised its head again this spring. On the one hand, the long and persistent struggle of crusaders for music was rewarded with Gen Pervez Musharraf inaugurating the National Academy of Performing Arts (NAPA) in Karachi, and on the other the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA) government in the North West Frontier Province of the country passed a Bill prohibiting dance and music in public places. In fact, the "Military-Mullah Alliance" as Pakistanis often describe the MMA government, finds it convenient to have religion-based political parties, including the infamous Jamait-e-Islami. The Bill makes dance and music in public, including educational institutions, a penal offence punishable by up to five years in prison along with a fine up to Rs 5,000. The proposed law empowers a police officer not below the rank of Inspector to enter any public place or educational institution and arrest any person who, in his opinion, has committed, or is committing or is about to commit such are offence, including the person who abets the commission of such an offence. This makes an ideal subject for the very active street theatre folks of Pakistan indeed to lampoon. Actually, forward-looking Pakistanis have raised a lot of hue and cry in the media as well as outside. Writer Fakhar Zaman, who is also a member of Bhutto's People's Party, said during a recent visit to India: "We have condemned this law strongly and press conferences have been organised at different places by artistes and intellectuals. We are not living in medieval times. Such legislation is uncalled for." Pakistani newspapers have decried this legislation saying that much harm has been done to society by similar obscurantist ideas and bans had been imposed on visual and performing arts in the past. The crusade for arts in Pakistan is as old as the very inception of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan with mullahs every now and then turning their wrath on the arts. Ask Pakistani lovers of music and dance and they reveal that the best period was during the democratic government led by Bhutto and the worst during the dictatorial regime of Zia-ul-Haq. However, individual effort continued even then. This was also a time when all "Indian" music was banned from Radio Pakistan. Zahoor Chaudhry, a music lover of Lahore, says: "I went from one 'kabadi' to the other, gathering records and I have one of the largest collections of music from across the border." Now that Pakistan is trying hard to project a liberal, progressive and moderate image to the world, such legislation is self-defeating. In spite of the strange legislation, people have kept these arts alive. Well-known Pakistani columnist Beena Sarwar says, "If the classical arts are alive at all in Pakistan, these owe nothing to government policies."
Is music un-Islamic? Is music opposed to the principles of Islam? Mughal emperor Aurangzeb believed so and reversed the great strides made by his ancestor, Emperor Akbar. Mullahs from time to time have asserted that music is un-Islamic. Yet the subject is being debated internationally. Tarek Fataz, who has established Bazm Forum, a cultural group for the promotion of the arts, says "While many young, born-in-Canada Muslims continue to wage war on instrumental music and bar women from the performing arts, they display an arrogant ignorance of their own rich heritage, of the Muslim contribution to music." KK Aziz, Pakistani journalist and historian, writing about Muslims and music, recounts the great contribution to music and the recognition of its impact by Irani, Arabian and Turkish musicians who were devout Muslims. Among others, he gives the example of Andalusian scholar Ibn Abdi Rabbihi (d. 940), who wrote one of the most eloquent descriptions and defence of music in "Iqd al-farid", saying that the human soul perishes sans music just as plants die without light. |
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First Kurdish President of Iraq One warm day in early April 2003, as U.S. troops marched toward Baghdad, Iraq’s two main Kurdish leaders sat down to a lunch in a remote corner of the country. Jalal Talabani and Massoud Barzani were old enemies, but at this meeting they smiled and joked in front of a small group of journalists. Talabani asked photographers not to take pictures of him and Barzani seated at the table. ``We want to give the world an image of the Kurds as a suffering people,’’ Talabani said, with a wry smile. ``This feast will not do it.’’ Throughout his life, Talabani has been conscious of how the world perceives the beleaguered Kurds. As a guerrilla leader, he fought for decades against Saddam Hussein’s regime while it had the support of many Western governments. Thursday, he was sworn in as the first Kurdish president in Iraq’s history. Talabani, 71, is equally comfortable as a guerrilla and a statesman. Many Kurds affectionately call him Mam (or Uncle) Jalal, a sign of his populist appeal. But he is also a shrewd politician. “He has been around longer than almost anyone else in modern Kurdish and Iraqi politics,’’ said Fareed Asasard, director of the Kurdish Strategic Studies Center, a think tank based in northern Iraq. ``The presidency is a symbolic post, but Talabani will use it effectively to advance Kurdish demands.’’ Talabani began his political career at the age of 14 as a member of the Kurdistan Democratic Party, known as KDP. In 1959, he graduated with a law degree from Baghdad University. Two years later, he joined a Kurdish revolt against Iraq’s military ruler, Abdul Karim Qassim. Throughout the 1960s, Talabani joined various Kurdish splinter groups that fought the central government in Baghdad. In 1975, as Saddam crushed Kurdish rebels, Talabani formed the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, known as PUK. A year later, Talabani and his supporters retreated into the mountains of northern Iraq and launched another rebellion. The PUK suffered a severe setback in 1988, when Saddam’s troops used chemical weapons against the Kurds and Talabani was forced to seek refuge in neighboring Iran. Aside from fighting the Iraqi regime, Talabani’s PUK has spent decades battling its Kurdish rival, the Barzani-led KDP. Since 1991, the two parties have controlled an autonomous Kurdish region of 3.5 million people in northern Iraq. The two groups together command about 100,000 militiamen. In 1994, a civil war erupted in the Kurdish self-rule area, and it claimed thousands of lives over the next four years. In August 1996, as the PUK was routing the KDP, Barzani invited Saddam back into the Kurdish region. More than 30,000 Iraqi troops swept into the area to save the KDP from destruction. — LA Times-Washington Post |
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Jiang biography is
a hit in China American businessman Robert Lawrence Kuhn said he wrote a biography of former Chinese President Jiang Zemin to shed light on this Asian nation. Instead, “The Man Who Changed China: The Life and Legacy of Jiang Zemin’’ has mostly been mocked by U.S. critics, who call it an artful piece of propaganda. Here in China, however, the book is a hit. Biographies of living leaders are basically taboo. Any peek behind the country’s great wall of political secrecy has best-seller potential. One penned by a foreigner tends to have special cachet. The Chinese edition of Kuhn’s book, published by a division of Shanghai Century Publishing Group, reportedly has sold about 600,000 copies since hitting the stores in February. At just about every stop on his multicity book tour in China, Kuhn has been feted by provincial leaders who come out of the woodwork to shake his hand and sing his praises. State media in some areas have given him front-page treatment and printed long excerpts. Kuhn has even been trumpeted as the new Edgar Snow, a reference to the American journalist who interviewed Chairman Mao during the latter’s guerrilla days and wrote the classic book “Red Star Over China.’’ Kuhn said he was surprised by the Chinese reception of the book, which was released in the West by Crown Publishers. But his critics note that it is difficult to get published in China unless the writer is willing to submit to heavy political censorship. (Censors cut 10 percent of the material from Kuhn’s book for the Chinese edition.) “This is more an exercise in public relations than any real journalism or history,’’ said Orville Schell, dean of the University of California, Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism, who has written many books on China. “The fact that it got published at all and is doing well tells you what kind of a book it is.’’ Kuhn denies that the Chinese government’s views had any role in the book, and says that officials who helped him did so in a personal capacity. “The idea was wholly mine,’’ Kuhn said in a telephone interview recently from his home in New York during a break in his China tour. “No government agency, I can say categorically, authorized it. No one ever told me what to or what not to write.’’ Guo Weimin, director general of the State Council Information Office, concurred that the book was Kuhn’s personal project. “We only helped him make some contacts,’’ Guo said. “There are many books about Chinese leaders published in Hong Kong, for example, that are very exaggerated and far from the truth. We think this one is more reasonable.’’ Critics say the book’s title alone is indicative enough of its slant. “The Man Who Changed China’’ was part of the title used by Nobel Prize-winner Pearl S. Buck for her 1953 biography of Sun Yat-sen, who overthrew centuries of imperial rule to establish China’s first republic. The accolade also might be appropriate for Mao Tse-tung or Deng Xiaoping. One was the founding father of communist China. The other steered the country on a course of capitalist-style reforms. “It’s hard to argue Jiang was such a person,’’ said Victor Shih, a China expert at Northwestern University. “I don’t think anyone would think it’s an objective opinion.’’ Kuhn said he chose the title knowing it would raise some eyebrows. “Jiang was not just a passive recipient of a growing economy,’’ Kuhn said. “I think I made an important contribution by presenting an alternative view.’’ Jiang, who ruled China for 14 years, recently stepped down from his last official post. Kuhn said he did not try to interview Jiang because he knew he would be turned down. He talked to many of the former president’s close associates, including his sister, colleagues and political mentors. “They can call it whatever they want, but in order to get access to the people he interviewed, you would need high-level official help,’’ Shih said. “It’s like a bargain with the devil. To gain access, the book has to have a positive spin.’’ Though the former leader may not have had a role in the book deal, his proteges looking to secure their own political futures have a stake in shaping his image and legacy. Having the biography published first in the United Statesxpenses while researching and writing the book. Nor does he deny that he has future business interests in China. But chronicling the life of Jiang was no easy task for a man who doesn’t speak Chinese and is not a China scholar. Though Kuhn has written a number of business-related books, this was his first biography. Ye Yonglie, a well-known Chinese author, said he was recruited by the government four years ago to work with Kuhn on the book. “We called it `Project 001,’” said Ye, referring to the code name given to the book. “It was clear we were engaged in secretive work.’’ Ye said his major contact was a senior official in the State Council Information Office, which is in charge of overseas propaganda. They sent him a first-class plane ticket from Shanghai to Beijing, where he was introduced to Kuhn and the book idea. Ye thought he was tapped to help write the definitive book on Jiang. He provided Kuhn with a list of about 100 people to be interviewed, an outline of the book and 15 pages listing events in Jiang’s life. Ye said he was expected to do all the key interviews, as well as research and write the first draft. But instead of a joint byline, Ye was told he would be credited only as key researcher and interviewer. As author of about 300 books, many of them political biographies, Ye saw the deal as an insult. He dropped the matter after he was told the project had been canceled. To his surprise, the book was published without mention of his contribution. “It’s obvious I was deliberately left out,’’ Ye said. “They wanted a foreigner’s name. No matter how much of an unknown he is back home, he is a foreigner, and they think that makes the book more credible.’’ — LA Times-Washington Post |
He who has awakened, is freed from fear; he has become Buddha; he knows the vanity of all his cares, his ambitions, and also of his pains. — The Buddha The body, the mind and the speech become pure by cherishing the name of God. — Guru Nanak It does not matter whether you are a man or a woman; your caste, name and position are not taken into account. You might belong to any Ashrama of life. Devotion is the only thing that is essential to worship Me. — Sri Rama It is only because of ignorance that the Self appears to be finite. When ignorance is destroyed, the Self, which does not admit of any multiplicity whatsoever, truly reveals itself by itself, like the Sun when the cloud is removed. — Sri Adi Sankaracharya Monopoly is unlawful in Islam. — Prophet Muhammad  |
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