O P I N I O N S

EDITORIALS

Trouble in the Parivar
BJP cannot free itself from RSS
THE spat in the Sangh Parivar is the worst thing that could have happened to it. Those who tended to dismiss RSS chief K.S. Sudarshan’s demand that Mr A.B. Vajpayee and Mr L.K. Advani leave the leadership positions for younger partymen as an inconsequential comment have been confounded by the raging war of words in the Parivar.

Trading for growth
India, China set new goals
Trade is what ultimately will cement Indo-Chinese ties. During their interaction earlier this week, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao were more comfortable talking business than perhaps anything else. For both economic growth is the prime concern.

Saving the Yamuna
No more excuses, Mrs Dixit
The best thing about the Supreme Court slamming the Delhi and Union governments for its failure to clean up the Yamuna is it leaves them no easy exit routes. It has been the wont of government agencies and indeed their political masters to whine about breach of laws, problems in managing large-scale settlements, and those perennial catch-alls, “population pressure”, “lack of funds,” and what not, when confronted with major urban problems.

• Thought for the day

ARTICLE

A vision for J and K — 2015
Local and national consensus will help
by B.G. Verghese
JAMMU AND KASHMIR is served by the Northern Regional Grid, which in turn has been linked to the other regional grids. The steady augmentation of the national power grid and the increasing capacity created for large inter-grid transfers has established a national power market through the Power Trading Corporation.

MIDDLE

Two-in-one
by Shriniwas Joshi
IT was freezing cold in February when I started from Shimla to Chandigarh. On way I read a display board, “Stop here for Child Bear”. I had seen a mini-zoo at a hotel near Markanda just ahead of Ambala and so I got curious to know about cub of a bear in a restaurant between Shimla and Kalka.

OPED

News Analysis
A big challenge for Prakash Karat
by R. Suryamurthy
The Communist Party of India (Marxist) has gone in for a generational change in its party leadership at its 18th party congress in New Delhi recently. For the next three years, it has set itself a challenging task of expanding its base in the Hindi heartland. It has also decided to strive for the formation of a third alternative to the Congress and the BJP.

Delhi Durbar
Wen Jiabao & scribes
Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao took senior scribes by surprise when he went round the room shaking hands with each of them and getting introduced. He had a fairly good idea of the vibrant media in this country including the audio visual one.

• Bihar’s MLAs wait for pay, perks

• Cabinet reshuffle likely in May

• Congress party elections

• Humphrey Fellows

Orange Prize long list
by Louise Jury
A tattooed former biker and a mother of 12 who wrote her first novel after she was widowed were among the 20 authors who made it on to the long list for the (pounds sterling) 30,000 Orange Prize for women’s fiction announced on Wednesday.

REFLECTIONS

EDITORIALS

Trouble in the Parivar
BJP cannot free itself from RSS

THE spat in the Sangh Parivar is the worst thing that could have happened to it. Those who tended to dismiss RSS chief K.S. Sudarshan’s demand that Mr A.B. Vajpayee and Mr L.K. Advani leave the leadership positions for younger partymen as an inconsequential comment have been confounded by the raging war of words in the Parivar. The clarification by a functionary of the RSS that not much importance needed to be attached to Mr Sudarshan’s statement fell flat on its face when more details of his freewheeling interview to NDTV came. It now transpires that the RSS leader was unsparing in his criticism of the BJP leadership. What’s worse, he even cast aspersions on Mr Vajpayee’s integrity. And when Vishwa Hindu Parishad leader Giriraj Kishore stoutly defended Mr Sudarshan, it was transparent that there were serious problems between the BJP and the parent body.

Former National Security Adviser and Mr Vajpayee’s aide Brajesh Mishra, whom Mr Sudarshan accused of double-dealing, has given a fitting reply to the RSS boss even calling him a “frog in the well”. While every person concerned at the goings-on waits with bated breath for Mr Vajpayee’s own reaction, the fact is that the spat has exposed the BJP’s charade of being an independent organisation, enjoying freedom of action. When the party was in power at the Centre, it was often claimed that the RSS and its frontal organisations never interfered in the working of the government. After Mr Sudarshan’s statement, few would lend any credence to such assertions. In fact, the quarrel is clear proof that the BJP is yet to evolve as an autonomous organisation which can take independent decisions.

It is the Congress which stands to gain by the war in the Parivar. The party knows only too well that it is not easy for the BJP to recover from the spat as it involves a whole lot of questions about its independent identity. For starters, during the period the BJP led the NDA government, the bitterest criticism of the government often came from outfits like the Swadeshi Jagran Manch and the VHP. The attempt now, as it was then, is to keep a leash on the BJP. The BJP can either kowtow to the RSS bosses or ignore the “frogs in the well” and carry on rebuilding itself as a party that neither appeases nor discriminates. Knowing the predilections of Mr L. K. Advani and his colleagues, seeking freedom from the stranglehold of the RSS seems out of the question.

Trading for growth
India, China set new goals

Trade is what ultimately will cement Indo-Chinese ties. During their interaction earlier this week, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao were more comfortable talking business than perhaps anything else. For both economic growth is the prime concern. Both set a bilateral trade target of $20 billion by 2008, which is not very ambitious if seen from the 2004 level of $13.6 billion, given the size and potential of the world's two most populated countries. Going by the Chinese statistics, India had a bit of trade surplus.

Still, of the two, India is a nervous trade partner. It has not yet granted market economy status to China, despite the latter joining the WTO and hopes to use this in future bargaining. China has agreed to be treated as a non-market economy until 2016. This makes easier for India to impose curbs like anti-dumping duty on imports from China. The next step in trade is the signing of a preferential trade agreement before the final free trade agreement (FTA). Indian companies are still wary of cheaper Chinese imports flooding the Indian market despite the initial disappointing entry of Chinese toys, batteries and bicycles.

China's exports are more diversified than India's. These include manufactured goods as also low and medium technology products ranging from medical equipement to iron and steel products. Manufacturing on a large scale with cost-cutting benefits is China's forte. India's export basket to China includes iron ore, petroleum products and non-ferrous metals. The two fastest growing economies of the world can cooperate further to mutual advantage. A beginning has already been made at ASEAN. Both can also join hands at the WTO to achieve their developmental goals. There is talk of a new bus diplomacy to revive the ancient silk route. The open skies policy on air cargo and the introduction of more flights will promote trade, air traffic and tourism between the two countries.

Saving the Yamuna
No more excuses, Mrs Dixit

The best thing about the Supreme Court slamming the Delhi and Union governments for its failure to clean up the Yamuna is it leaves them no easy exit routes. It has been the wont of government agencies and indeed their political masters to whine about breach of laws, problems in managing large-scale settlements, and those perennial catch-alls, “population pressure”, “lack of funds,” and what not, when confronted with major urban problems. All these excuses have been thrown out of the window, and it is now for the Centre and the Delhi government, along with the Delhi Jal Board and other agencies, to clean up their act. Some cooperation from the vote-seekers of all hues, who are quick to take to the streets whenever any question of shifting polluting industries or illegal settlements come up, will help as well.

No one denies that there are legitimate issues here, as well as several structural problems which make it difficult for all the sewage that is generated from the Capital to be treated before the Najafgarh and Shahdara drains dump them into the Yamuna. The 62,000 slums on the banks have no civic amenities and there are not enough sewer trunk lines to bring all the sewage generated by the Capital into treatment plans. But then, as the CAG report submitted in the Delhi Assembly has pointed out, the plants, including those set up to treat industrial effluents, don’t really work. They might as well not exist.

The net result, therefore, after several years of the Yamuna Action Plan and the spending of Rs 872 crore, has been ``zero.” As the Supreme Court has rightly observed, lack of will and determination has rendered the problem “formidable in magnitude and complexity.” That is what has got to change. Great waterways have been associated with great civilizations and great cities. A little bit of that magic needs to be infused into the Yamuna clean-up drive. Both the country’s capital, and the revered Yamuna deserve it.

Thought for the day

If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent Him. — Voltaire

ARTICLE

A vision for J and K — 2015
Local and national consensus will help
by B.G. Verghese

JAMMU AND KASHMIR is served by the Northern Regional Grid, which in turn has been linked to the other regional grids. The steady augmentation of the national power grid and the increasing capacity created for large inter-grid transfers has established a national power market through the Power Trading Corporation. Tariffs are now being set on the basis of availability pricing under the watchful eye of the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission. This means efficiency pricing and market competition on the basis of which J&K can buy and sell power. These developments will have a bearing on how the state must now plan and manage its power sector.

Despite being able to indent on distant pithead or other thermal power supplies. J&K could find it useful to develop its own base load supply to balance its predominantly hydroelectric power. A nuclear power plant suggests itself in the absence of any other fuel source near at hand.

Development of a transmission grid must go hand in hand with hydro development, with micro-hydel and small wind and water-turbine generation in remote areas on a stand-alone basis. The availability of energy with ropeways will open market opportunities, with investments in cold storages, refrigerated transport and food processing to capture value-addition locally and augment income and employment generation. Such a process of decentralised development and trekking, angling and adventure tourism would also take care of regional and sub-regional disparities and give a stimulus to a variety of arts and crafts with a new functional orientation aided by design inputs.

The new transport and energy backbone being put in place will start coming on stream from 2008 onwards. It is, therefore, appropriate that the Prime Minister has named a high-powered committee to prepare a long-term development plan for J&K under Dr Rangarajan. The state needs a power utilisation plan as much as a power development programme and land should be acquired or land prices frozen/regulated along the new transport corridors and around hydro sites so that capital appreciation in land values does not invite speculative transactions that provide huge unearned incomes to rentiers.

With a strong power base and transport connectivity, J&K will be able to develop tourism in the remoter Zanskar, Ladakh and Karakoram ranges as well. By 2015, the state should be able to host anything up to 100,000 winter tourists between December and February.

All of this holds out an expanded vision of a new Naya Kashmir and Kashmiriyat for every region of J&K.

Meanwhile, the composite dialogue with Pakistan must continue hand in hand with the process of internal dialogue, reconciliation and development. There is no need to contest the fact that J&K is disputed. It is the nature and not the fact of the dispute that needs to be negotiated. Issues need to be de-mythified and Pakistan confronted with the core issue.

There is no reason to stall Baglihar and other projects, which are permissible under the Indus Treaty. Likewise on Siachen, an agreement on redeployment of forces is possible, once Pakistan corrects its maps which commit cartographic aggression by projecting the extended LoC from NJ 9842, the last grid reference in the parent Karachi Agreement of July 1949, northeast to the Karakoram Pass instead of “thence north to the glaciers”, as stipulated. This was the original sin of attempted seizure by Pakistan of territory by stealth that forced India to occupy Siachen in 1984. It has ever since held positions astride the Saltoro Ridge marking the northwestern wall of the Glacier.

Once the Karachi Agreement defining the LoC and its northward extension beyond NJ 9842 is accepted, demilitarisation and redeployments could follow and the entire region from the west of the Karakoram Pass up to K2 declared a High Karakoram Glacier International Peace Park under joint Indo-Pakistan management. Hopefully, China might also be persuaded to enlarge the Park by agreeing to include the Shaksgam region, illicitly ceded by Pakistan to it from J&K in 1963. This would be one way of applying closure to this side-dispute with China over and beyond that over Aksaichin.

The opening of the Srinagar-Muzaffarabad bus route could mark the beginning of more frequent services and trade along this alignment. This could be followed by activating more cross-border routes — between Jammu and Sialkot, Kargil and Skardu, Poonch and Rawalkot, Rajouri and Mirpur and so on. Each such move would further transform the boundary and establish a new era of trans-border relationships to mutual benefit.

Transactions across and management of such a soft boundary would require cooperation and coordination between the two sides with regard to immigration checks, crime prevention, phyto-sanitary controls, trade and monetary protocols, environmental management and so forth. Indus II would fit into such a scheme of things. Growth triangles could be envisaged and cross border investments, educational, cultural and sporting exchanges, tourism and pilgrimage would follow. Arranging and organising this range of activities could spawn cross-border institutions, leading to the evolution of cross border mechanisms reporting to informal joint councils with oversight over these interlocking relationships.

Such bodies need not be purely technical but could draw in political elements.

Given such a framework, it is possible to conceive of an informal co-federal relationship between the two parts of J&K, each enjoying a larger measure of autonomy within their own jurisdictions, but cocooned undisturbed within the two separate sovereignties of India and Pakistan. Given an agreement on these lines, one might dare think of joint defence of all of a largely demilitarised J&K by India and Pakistan, with the two armies nominally facing outwards.

Is this likely to be the picture in 2015? Perhaps not — or at least not in its entirety. Yet why not? Once things get moving, momentum might be hard to contain. This would yield an LoC plus-plus-plus solution that gives Pakistan far more than it could ever dream of — including legitimisation of its conquest of “Azad” Kashmir and the Northern Areas, access to the Indian part of J&K and a sense of security and entry to the huge and growing Indian market. It would enable Pakistan finally to come to terms with itself as a modern, liberal, Islamic state instead of being the sullen “other”, unsure of its identity except by painting an enemy in lurid colours and harking back to “the unfinished business of Partition”.

The people of J&K — a highly plural political conglomerate of disparate parts — would enjoy a meaningful azadi, with the best of both worlds at low cost. Few appreciate that, accidental though it might be, the LoC does represent a broad cultural and ethnic divide - barring the vivisection of Baltistan — that has a powerful logic in determining the “self” and what is to be “determined”. Once an Indo-Pakistan accord is reached, adjustments can be made to rationalise what was in origin a ceasefire line into a peaceful boundary that takes account of administrative, environmental and security considerations.

However, to reach this not-so-distant goal, the first steps must be put right now. The direction must be set. There must be both Vision and Will. This has to be a non-partisan J&K and Indian endeavour based on the evolution of a local as much as a national consensus. Patience, firmness and perseverance will be required. n

This is the concluding part of the article by the writer. It is based on a paper he wrote for a conference on Charting a Future for J&K organised by the Institute for Peace and Conflict Studies at Jammu on April 4 and 5, 2005.

MIDDLE

Two-in-one
by Shriniwas Joshi

IT was freezing cold in February when I started from Shimla to Chandigarh. On way I read a display board, “Stop here for Child Bear”. I had seen a mini-zoo at a hotel near Markanda just ahead of Ambala and so I got curious to know about cub of a bear in a restaurant between Shimla and Kalka.

I knew curiosity killed a cat, but I was a different animal that a tired God had made at the end of week’s work So, I entered the restaurant and met another one of my species there. I asked him: “Can you show me the Child Bear?” He managed to pass words enveloped in fog through quivering lips: “Today everything is child. Even I am child. But I have two real child bears. Please come and feel for yourself, sir.”

What he had said was abracadabra to me but I obeyed him. He went into a corner and opened an icebox and took out two bottles of chilled beer. Raising three cheers for the English phonetic, I said: “Two child bears in one icebox. Keep this two-in-one for the next customer.” Without opening my purse when I darted towards my car, the “child man” gave me a frozen look planted on an icy face.

Reaching Chandigarh, I went to my sister’s residence at Sector 14 and found a stranger there. She said: “He is Sunil, our latest domestic help”. When he got engaged in the kitchen, she told me a story. She said his real name was Kamal, but because her Jethji (husband’s elder brother) was also Kamal, so she decided to give him a fresh name.

She felt shaky in baptising him and left the choice of the name to the recruit. He was pleased and spat the name “Sunil” as if it was on the tip of his tongue and gleefully added: “Madamji, Gull Devta has listened to me. Before coming here for the job, I was thinking of giving a fake name to the householders. And lo! you have asked for it”. My sister got suspicious. She immediately followed the policewallas instructions for recruiting a domestic help. Noted down his home address as well as the names and addresses of the two referees. Took his instant photograph making use of the camera that she had received from Muscat. Also took prints of his eight fingers and two thumbs. And then asked him: “Why do you want to be named as Sunil?” The climax ended when the muscles-less boy replied with a blush: “Because Sunil Shetty is my pet hero.”

I generally give baksheesh of 10 rupees to her domestic help, whenever I visit her. To this fresher, I gave 20 rupees because he was Two-in-One.

OPED

News Analysis
A big challenge for Prakash Karat
by R. Suryamurthy

The Communist Party of India (Marxist) has gone in for a generational change in its party leadership at its 18th party congress in New Delhi recently. For the next three years, it has set itself a challenging task of expanding its base in the Hindi heartland. It has also decided to strive for the formation of a third alternative to the Congress and the BJP.

The party elected 56-year-old UK educated Prakash Karat as the party’s fourth general secretary. Prakash’s wife, Brinda, is the first woman to be inducted in the 17-member Politburo, the party’s highest policymaking body in its 40-year history. Also, the number of women in the party central committee has been raised from eight to nine, besides two special invitees who are women. Brinda’s small step is a giant leap for women in the CPM.

Despite the top level changes, which have attracted the attention of everyone, the party has, in its Central Committee, which is the highest decision-making body between two party congresses, included those members who are against economic reforms. There is also little representation from the Hindi heartland, where the party wants to expand to become an all-India force.

Representatives from West Bengal, Kerala and Tamil Nadu, which have the largest number of members, dominate the 85-member central committee. The politburo has no one from central or northern India, besides outgoing general secretary Harkishen Singh Surjeet, who belongs to Punjab, and the first woman representative Brinda Karat, who is from Delhi.

The new Politburo consists of Surjeet, Prakash Karat (Kerala), Jyoti Basu, Biman Bose, Buddhadeb Bhattacharya and Anil Biswas (all West Bengal), V.S. Achuthanandan, S. Ramachandra Pillai, Pinarayi Vijayan (all Kerala), Sitaram Yechury (Andhra Pradesh), R. Umanath (Tamil Nadu), M.K. Panthe (Maharashtra) and Manik Sarkar (Tripura).

With several leaders from trade union and anti-reform background in the Politbureau and the central committee, it can be expected that the party’s decision-making body would adopt a rigid stance on economic reforms at the Centre and the liberalisation policy of Left Front-led government in West Bengal.

The second part of the political organisation report On certain policy matters, which dealt with the party’s approach on several key economic questions like FDI, NGOs, generated heated debate and was not adopted by the party congress. The central committee of the party has been asked to debate the issue.

The report had put down the conditions under which foreign direct investment could be invited into the country. It said that as long as FDI augmented production capacities, upgraded technology and created jobs, it would be welcome.

The party claimed that its membership has grown by 9 per cent from the 2001 figures. The party membership has increased from 7,96,073 in 2001 to 8,67,763 in 2004. However, the bulk of the membership continues to be in West Bengal, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Tripura.

In the Hindi states, the party membership has not shown any significant growth and it would be a tall order for the party to make inroads in the cow belt where caste-based parties are well entrenched and have an identified support base.

The states of particular focus in the Hindi heartland are Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, as they have substantial seats in the Lok Sabha.

In these two states, the CPM has been pushed to the political periphery, as the weaker sections — the backward castes, minorities and Dalits — are now loyal to the caste-based Samajwadi Party, Rashtriya Janata Dal and the Bahujan Samaj Party.

Any move by the CPM to take up the cause of particular section of society in an attempt to transform the caste oppression into a class conflict would result in the Left party coming in direct conflict with the political interests of the RJD in Bihar and the SP and the BSP in Uttar Pradesh. This would be further complicated as the CPM has a long-standing electoral understanding with these parties in the cow belt.

If the party, in the short term, looks beyond the electoral prospects and focusses its attention on the concerns of the socially and economically oppressed sections, it would have to give priority to land reforms. However, this move by the CPM would come in conflict with the vested interest of the SP and the RJD, whose support base is the middle peasantry, and it would like to maintain the status quo. Moreover, the BSP is championing the cause of the Dalits.

The tricky question before the party, which has so long ignored caste identities, is how it would take up issues like caste oppression and discrimination. In a highly polarised society in the cow belt, any move by the party would come in conflict with the present political allies and there is a danger of the CPM being dubbed as taking up the interest of a particular caste alone.

What the future holds for the CPM depends on the way Prakash Karat and his team, steer the party to be in tune with the reality. Globalisation is here to stay. It cannot be wished away. The party would have to be innovative, adapt to the new reality and fine-tune its strategy like Tony Blair’s New Labour or Social Democratic Party in Europe to survive and grow.

Karat in the book A World to Win: Essays on the Communist Manifesto edited by him gives his vision of the direction the party would have to follow. “... it is necessary that the working class party take up the gender specific issues of proletarian women along with the exploitation they face. Without women workers being an integral part of the movement, the Manifesto’s aim of the immense majority led by the working class winning the ‘battle of democracy’ is inconceivable.”

All eyes would keenly watch every move of Karat to strengthen the party and attempts to grow outside the Red bastion. If he fails, like the party’s support to the Nicolai regime in Romania against the popular revolt did, the red flag would lose its shine in the country.

Delhi Durbar
Wen Jiabao & scribes

Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao took senior scribes by surprise when he went round the room shaking hands with each of them and getting introduced. He had a fairly good idea of the vibrant media in this country including the audio visual one. The visiting Premier’s interface was strictly on the basis of invitation and the security in the five-star hotel where Wen was staying took a good hard look at the invitation along with the envelope and the individual identification a la PIB cards.

When a scribe of a national Hindi daily posed a question, Wen prefaced it by saying that he was aware the newspaper had the largest circulation in the capital. That was, however, a bit out of date. Then when a scribe of a western wire service shot a question, he said with a huge smile, “You folks invariably ask thorny questions.”

At the very end when a woman correspondent persisted with wanting to know Beijing’s stand on India’s bid for a seat in the UN Security Council with voting rights, he decided to resume his seat and put the record straight that China welcomed it as it pertained to a populous and very important developing country.

The word was mum about India having veto rights in case it succeeds in becoming a member of the UNSC.

Bihar’s MLAs wait for pay, perks

Bihar’s newly elected MLAs are feeling like fish out of water in the state which is under President’s rule. The problems connected with government formation continue to plague all sides including Union Railway Minister and RJD supremo Lalu Prasad Yadav. Their importance as legislators and representatives of the people is being undermined, that is the underlying theme doing the rounds.

As they have not been sworn in as yet, they have to make do without salary and accompanying perks. And now, the Bihar Bhawan in the capital is in a tizzy whether they should provide rooms at concessional rates or charge the five-fold higher guest rates.

These legislators have not been sworn in as yet. Therefore, in keeping with protocol and official norms, they cannot be given rooms at the concessional rate meant for legislators. The ball of how much rent should be charged from the legislators has been put in the court of the state Chief Secretary.

Cabinet reshuffle likely in May

The much talked about Cabinet reshuffle is expected to take place after the Budget session of Parliament ends in May. There are several people waiting in the wings including the JMM leader Shibu Soren who is twiddling his thumbs in the capital and anxiously waiting for that all important telephone call from the PMO.

The Congress obviously wants to bring in the Manmohan Singh government certain individuals for their administrative talent.

A case in point is that of former Karnataka Chief Minister and now Governor of Maharashtra S.M. Krishna. He has reportedly expressed a desire to give up the gubernatorial assignment.

Similarly, two-time former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Digvijay Singh is also believed to have been singled out for a ministerial berth. On the other hand, other Congress old war horses like Uttaranchal Chief Minister N.D. Tiwari and Leader of the Opposition in Orissa J.B. Patnaik are being considered for the Governor’s post.

Congress party elections

Elections in the Congress party organisation are akin to the larger democratic process in the country. The partymen employ the usual tricks witnessed in the parliamentary elections. Mandated by the Election Commission, these elections are held once in three years.

Chattisgarh is the scene of Congress party elections and there is a battle royal between two former chief ministers — Ajit Jogi and Motilal Vora, who is also the AICC treasurer.

The shrewd Jogi is a trifle worried as the PRO for the state is Kripashankar Singh, a former Maharashtra minister and Vora loyalist. A deep throat tells us that Jogi had a friendly interface with Singh and sought to highlight his proximity to Congress president Sonia Gandhi. Some in the Congress having the eyes and ears of Sonia Gandhi believe that Jogi’s gambit might come crashing down.

Humphrey Fellows

The Third South Asian Conference of Humphrey Fellows, which began on Wednesday, is currently underway in Agra. More than 50 professionals from India, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Indonesia and Thailand are attending the conference.

Organised by the Association of Indian Humphrey Fellows in conjunction with the US Department of State, the conference is engaging both current and potential leaders in the region on key challenges and strategies for effective leadership in public service, both in government and civil society.

Contributed by S. Satyanarayanan, Gaurav Choudhury, Prashant Sood and Tripti Nath

Orange Prize long list
by Louise Jury

A tattooed former biker and a mother of 12 who wrote her first novel after she was widowed were among the 20 authors who made it on to the long list for the (pounds sterling) 30,000 Orange Prize for women’s fiction announced on Wednesday.

Joolz Denby, who is 50 this year, used her experience of marrying into the Satan’s Slaves biker gang to write Billie Morgan, the story of a woman trying to forget her past. And Ursula, Under, is the debut novel of American writer Ingrid Hill, whose vast experience of motherhood has informed her saga of a two-year-old who falls down a well.

They illustrate the diversity of a list containing many names unfamiliar even to the judges, who include Jenni Murray, the presenter of Women’s Hour, Joanne Harris, the author, and Jo Brand, the comedian who recently turned her hand to writing.

A record number of British writers led by awards veteran Kate Atkinson have made it on to the long-list in the 10th year of the prize which was established to celebrate and promote fiction by women. The prize is open to any woman writing in English and British writers have been often outnumbered by rivals from North America and the Commonwealth.

A third of the contenders are first-time novelists and about the same number are aged around 50 or older in a triumph for the experience of age over the brilliance of youth. Ms Murray said: “I think we have a really terrific range of stuff there, both from the nationality of the writers and the subject matter, whether first-time novelists or very experienced writers like Anita Desai.”

The judges were in large degree of agreement from the start, she added. “We all seemed to agree on what kind of books should be Orange Prize books. All had to be books that were really enjoyable reads. I don’t mean by that low-brow or anything. The brow didn’t come into it, but we wanted books that really grabbed us.”

Kate Mosse, the author and prize founder, said she was struck this year that around eight of the authors on the long-list were at least 50 years old. — The Independent

REFLECTIONS

— Sri Ramakrishna