O P I N I O N S

EDITORIALS

Advani’s doublespeak
Who can believe him on masjid issue now?
VISHWA Hindu Parishad chief Ashok Singhal is angry with BJP President Lal Krishna Advani. What has upset him is Mr Advani’s statement in Pakistan that December 6, 1992, was the “saddest day” in his life because it was on that day that Babri Masjid was pulled down by frenzied karsevaks.

Promotion blues
Rumblings in defence are disquieting
Far too many promotions in the defence forces are being challenged in civilian courts these days. The Ministry of Defence has been trying to discourage this trend by pointing out that even after long litigation, only a handful of complainants get relief.

• Thought for the day

ARTICLE

Gohar’s disclosures
‘Purchase of war plan’ didn’t help Pakistan
by K. Subrahmanyam
What would be the reaction of an average young Pakistani to the disclosures of Gohar Ayub Khan? In 1965, the Pakistan Army leadership had obtained the Indian Army’s operational plans, and had superior American equipment against the Indian Army’s obsolescent ones. They had the strategic initiative since they initiated Operation Gibraltar and Operation Grand Slam.

MIDDLE

Of a hen
by Gurmel Singh Sra
My father’s family was a large one, including six of his sons and four daughters born from his three wives. Every item, article, eatable and even pets were evenly distributed among the male offspring of my father.

OPED

A handicapped Prime Minister
by G.S. Bhargava
Lenin dubbed George Bernard Shaw “a good man fallen among Fabians.” That was Leninist ego that socialists outside the Marxist fold are ideological outcastes. One could parody the architect of the October Revolution in Russia and say similarly that Dr Manmohan Singh is a handicapped Prime Minister.

Return to Sartre
by Nirupama Dutt
One of the most towering intellectuals of the 20th century was Jean Paul Sartre (1905-1980). One of the most controversial figures, this French thinker declined the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1964 and dedicated his life to the doctrine that the human being in a world sans God was free and thus responsible for his deeds. June 6, 2005, marks the centenary of the birth of Sartre.

Chatterati
Priya to be in politics?
by Devi Cherian
The prayer meeting for Sunil Dutt had thousands in attendance as testimony to the enormous goodwill the actor politician had generated in his life. Must say that the family, in keeping with his secularism, had representatives from four religions such as Hinduism, Islam, Christianity and Buddhism.

• L.K. Advani’s U-turn

• Reviving dance drama

From the pages of

 

REFLECTIONS

EDITORIALS

Advani’s doublespeak
Who can believe him on masjid issue now?

VISHWA Hindu Parishad (VHP) chief Ashok Singhal is angry with BJP President Lal Krishna Advani. What has upset him is Mr Advani’s statement in Pakistan that December 6, 1992, was the “saddest day” in his life because it was on that day that Babri Masjid was pulled down by frenzied karsevaks. The VHP leader considers the statement an insult to the Hindus of the country. While we first cannot endorse the VHP’s dangerous line, Mr Advani’s statement is indeed an insult to the intelligence of the people. It was he who saw in the emotive, but dormant, Babri Masjid issue the secret for the revival of the BJP, which had been reduced to a two-MP party in the 1984 election. Again, it was under his leadership that the BJP organised a systematic campaign for the demolition of the masjid and, in its place erection of a “magnificent” Ram temple. Mr Advani, who led the Rath Yatra for his cause, went to the extent of calling the masjid a mere “disputed structure”.

When the BJP leader mounted a Toyota chariot for his much-trumpeted Rath Yatra, causing death and tension in the areas it traversed through, it did not at all bother Mr Advani. And for good measure, he was very much at Ayodhya when the assembled karsevaks demolished the 16th century masjid with implements like pickaxes, chains and pulleys and constructed in its place a makeshift temple. All through he did not even lift a finger against the demolition mob, which had come prepared to accomplish its task egged on by leaders like him and Ms Uma Bharati, who chanted, “Ek dhakka de do, Babri Masjid thor do” in his presence. There was no sign of remorse on his visage when the very people he had brought together at Ayodhya did the foulest of the deeds.

If December 6 was the “saddest day” for Mr Advani, he should have resigned from the leadership of the party to mark his protest. More than a decade after the demolition, he is not yet ready to dissociate himself from the kind of people who hailed him as their leader there. In fact, whenever it suits him, he makes a lot of noise about Ayodhya being a core issue of the BJP. At other times, he claims that the demolition was a sad day for him. In Pakistan, he would have found that shedding tears over Ayodhya would have helped him to shore up his image in that country. But back at home, there will be few to fall for his tears. They can easily distinguish between what Mr Advani assiduously pursued and his sanctimonious noises made for effect.

Promotion blues
Rumblings in defence are disquieting

Far too many promotions in the defence forces are being challenged in civilian courts these days. The Ministry of Defence has been trying to discourage this trend by pointing out that even after long litigation, only a handful of complainants get relief. But the very admission of so many cases is indicative of the large-scale disaffection in the disciplined force. What is all the more unsavoury is the fact that promotions at a very high level are also being challenged. In the latest such instance, the promotion of two Major-Generals of the Army Medical Corps as Lieut-Generals barely a few hours before their retirement has been challenged in the Bombay High Court by a Rear-Admiral (The Armed Forces Medical Services has a common pool of officers). Such bickering presents the forces in an unflattering light. But blaming the officers alone for rushing to court unmindful of the Army tradition won’t do. There may be something wrong with the promotion procedure as well.

While the evaluation by seniors is very important, merit should not be ignored just because the superior officer does not happen to like a particular officer scheduled for promotion. That is bound to evoke a feeling of neglect and prejudice. As has been pointed out in many such cases which made it to court, proper procedures are at times given a go-by. Even if a superseded officer does not go to court, he is bound to carry the hurt for all times to come. What is needed is greater transparency in such matters and also a clear-cut promotion policy under which various parameters are given due weightage.

There is no denying the fact those occupying senior, responsible and sensitive posts should have the full confidence of their superiors. But this mandatory requirement has to be counter-balanced by respect for merit and seniority. There have to be firm grounds for rejecting a person which can stand the scrutiny of neutral observers. Even the Army will admit that mistakes have been made in the past. It will be in its own interest to put in place a more just and humane promotion mechanism.

At the edge of physics
CERN tie-up is a boost to Indian science

We are in the middle of a year being celebrated in the scientific world as the World Year of Physics, commemorating the `miracle year’ of 1905 when Albert Einstein produced his path-breaking works on relativity, quantum theory and the sub-atomic world. The timing adds that extra element of magic to the `statement of intent’ signed this week by the legendary European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN) and the Indian Atomic Energy Commission, in the presence of president A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, setting the stage for greater collaboration between Indian scientific agencies and the CERN community in the field of particle physics.

CERN is known to many as the place where Tim Berners-Lee, in 1989, put together computing and networking technologies to create the World Wide Web. But it is the world’s largest particle physics centre, and is currently building the most advanced particle accelerator in the world, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) due to be switched on in 2007. President Kalam visited parts of the 27-kilometre-long tunnel, 110 metres underground, where the LHC is being built. To study sub-atomic particles, they must be `brought to life’ and observed during high energy collisions created in an accelerator. CERN is basically a European consortium of 20 countries, with a handful of countries with “observer” status, which includes India.

Particle physicists study elementary sub-atomic particles and the forces that bind them or take them apart, and work with astrophysicists in studying stellar objects and the universe. It is thus literally a science of everything, big and small, matter and anti-matter, space and non-space, of inexplicable forces and non-linear time, asking the most fundamental questions about ourselves and the world around us. Who are we? What are we made of? What will become of us? Even at a mundane level, physics is not yet done with making contributions to energy production, electronics, and environmental and health problems. For Indian scientists as well as the lay public, here is an occasion to renew their tryst with eternal mysteries.

Thought for the day

It is always easier to fight for one’s principles than to live up to them.
— Alfred Adler

ARTICLE

Gohar’s disclosures
‘Purchase of war plan’ didn’t help Pakistan
by K. Subrahmanyam

What would be the reaction of an average young Pakistani to the disclosures of Gohar Ayub Khan? In 1965, the Pakistan Army leadership had obtained the Indian Army’s operational plans, and had superior American equipment against the Indian Army’s obsolescent ones. They had the strategic initiative since they initiated Operation Gibraltar and Operation Grand Slam. Yet at the end of it all, they lost the war. They lost more territory to the Indian Army than they gained from India. Their armoured division suffered a humiliating defeat at Asal Uttar near Khem Karan at the hands of an ill-equipped Indian armoured brigade with one World War II vintage Sherman Tank regiment, one light AMX tank regiment and one Centurion regiment.

What kind of an Army leadership was it which, in spite of all the advantages it had, snatched defeat from the jaws of victory? While Pakistani Generals were not competent to fight wars, they were very good at propaganda and deceiving their people. They portrayed such a defeat in a war they had planned for years, as Gohar Ayub Khan discloses, as a great victory. The Pakistan Army leadership, which was not competent in its own profession, could not be expected to do better in governance which was in any case not its job. The result was that it brought Pakistan down virtually to the status of a failed state.

Gohar Ayub should go back and check the chronology he presents. He says, “Initially, the Pakistan Army defended its positions when Indians launched attacks. After stabilising these fronts, the Pakistan Army launched its attack at Chamb Jaurian that was left unguarded by Indians as indicated in their secret war plan. No Indian soldier was found to defend the border and the Pakistan Army started its advance secretly.”

In another interview to The News of June 2, Gohar Ayub claims that the Chamb Jaurian front was opened to force India to ease pressure on the besieged commandos in the Kashmir valley.

To put the record straight, the Pakistani commandos sent under Operation Gibraltar were discovered in Srinagar’s suburbs and elsewhere on August 5, 1965. The Indian Army’s operations not only liquidated a large number of those commandos but also moved into Pak-occupied territory and captured the Haji Pir Pass and other important infiltration routes. Then on September 1, Pakistan launched its Operation Grand Slam in the Chamb Jaurian sector.

Contrary to Gohar’s claims, the Pakistani armour advance was halted by the IAF getting into action, though India lost four Vampire aircraft in the process.

It is against the Pakistani offensive in Jammu in the Akhnur sector that the Indian Army launched its counter-attack on Lahore on September 6. Pakistan unleashed its armoured division in an attempt to capture the Beas bridge but was halted and decimated by the Indian armoured brigade. What Gohar Ayub says about General Chaudhuri wanting to withdraw to the Beas bridge is correct, but the General was overruled by Prime Minister Shastri and Defence Minister Chavan who fully supported Lt-Gen Harbaksh Singh, Army Commander, and Lt-Gen G.S. Dhillon, Corps Commander, who were determined to fight for every inch of Punjabi soil and not to retreat before the American supplied superior armour.

Gohar Ayub also discloses that Pakistan was running short of ammunition even to conduct the 17 days of war. This fact was known to us. The late S. Guhan, who was then First Secretary in the Indian Embassy in Washington, was able to obtain information that the Americans had supplied Pakistan only limited quantities of ammunition. But here again General Chaudhuri’s extreme caution made him advise the Prime Minister to accept the ceasefire when India had hardly spent 8-10 per cent of its ammunition. If India had held out a week or more Pakistan would have been compelled to surrender.

In one version of the events, Gohar Ayub talks of obtaining Indian war plans in 1958. If that was so, they could not have been current in 1965. In 1963 the Indian Army was expanded following the debacle at Sela-Bomdila. Surely, the Indian war plans must have undergone changes with such major expansion. It is true that India was not aware of the Pakistani first armoured division having been deployed in secret to launch the strike on the Beas bridge. General Chaudhuri deployed his armoured division in the Sialkot sector and this was not part of the original war plan. Following the Pakistani intrusion into the Rann of Kutch, Prime Minister Shastri warned Pakistan that in the case of any such future aggression, India reserved the right to hit back at the time and place of its choice.

Indian plans of 1958 would have been made before the American equipment was received in Pakistan. It was logical that those plans would have been updated and revised in the light of Prime Minister Shastri’s declaration. The result of the war proves that the “purchased” plans did not appear to have done Pakistan any good.

Gohar Ayub accepts that the Pakistani intelligence that expected a Kashmiri uprising in support of Pakistani commando infiltration proved wrong. The Pakistani commandos were trapped in Kashmir and got slaughtered. Altaf Gauhar, who was the confidant of President Ayub Khan, had written in the wake of the Kargil debacle for Pakistan that Islamabad started all four wars — 1947-48, 1965, 1971 and 1999 — on the basis of the myth believed by Ayub Khan that the Pakistani soldier was superior to his Indian counterpart, and the Hindu would not be able to withstand a hard and timely blow. Gohar Ayub’s disclosures prove the mediocrity of the Pakistani military leadership which started a war with woefully inadequate ammunition stockpiles and with a “doctored” (in Gohar Ayub’s words) assessment of “Kashmir uprising”. While in India, General Chaudhuri could be overruled by a civilian leadership, his Sandhurst course-mate Ayub Khan could not and his mistakes remained uncorrected as he had usurped power. Therefore, Pakistan lost the war it had started. Ayub’s war also sowed the seeds of secession leading to the birth of Bangladesh.

MIDDLE

Of a hen
by Gurmel Singh Sra

My father’s family was a large one, including six of his sons and four daughters born from his three wives. Every item, article, eatable and even pets were evenly distributed among the male offspring of my father.

So, each of the six hens in our house was owned by one of us brothers. I can’t say that I was unfortunate that in the division of hens, I got a one-eyed one. You know, eggs do not come out of eyes! I loved my hen so much that I have been lamenting her tragic death even after 38 years. These days a son fails to remember one’s father’s anniversary after 10 years, exceptions notwithstanding.

Each morning when the milk was churned by my mother and butter was taken out, I would start to rechurn. I always managed to churn out almost a handful (as I was having just a small hand at the age of 9) of butter. Then I would call my pet and feed her the fruit of my labour by my own hands.

And by the time the one-eyed one used to lay daily egg, I would return home from school. She was used to lay her it in the family tandoor, the ashes having become cold by that time of the day. Those of you who have seen a village tandoor might be knowing that it always has a small hold at its bottom to stoke the fire with a wooden stick called “kudhan”. And those of you, who have seen a hen laying an egg might be knowing that it sits in sort of a hibernation before it actually lays its product. And just a few moments before the final act, it gets up.

I would wait and keep a watch on “her” through the hole meant for stoking fire. The moment it used to get up, I would put my right hand inside the tandoor through its hole right under the proper place. Oh! What a warmth it used to be there in a freshly laid egg! A whole of 38 years have elapsed and I am thirsting to feel that warmth - the commodity found missing even among the human beings.

And there was another charm. No, charm is not the proper word, it was a delight for all the six siblings to see the peck of six hens and a lonely cock rushing out of their enclosure. Of course, my delight was in seeing my one-eyed one!

That fateful day in 1967, all the hens and the cock came rushing and carrying out of the enclosure, except mine. Normally she used to be the one to come out before all her enclosure-mates. I waited for a few moments dreading that “she” could have got some disease. Five minutes. Ten minutes. But when she failed to come out even after 15 minutes, I peeped into the enclose to find it lifeless.

With a cry that shook the “kutcha” walls of our house, I took her body out. I kept crying for half an hour beside her dead body and then took her over my tiny shoulders along with a small digging spade called “kaisa” to give her an honourable burial that she deserved at the periphery of the village.

I dug a suitable pit and put the dead body aside it. Nonstop crying as I was, I could not muster strength to bury “her”. I think that was the longest crying session in my life: from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m.

At 10 p.m. my mother came searching for me and found me crying beside the dead hen and the dug up pit. She consoled me with the words: “My dear son, if you can’t bury her, I will do it.” And then she put the body inside the pit and filled it, embraced me and took me up in her lap. Both of us reached home crying all the way.

This is not a middle. This is an obituary, 38 years too late, of a dear departed one! And lastly, I have failed to find a single human being in all these years to merit the kind of love that I gave to that hen.

OPED

A handicapped Prime Minister
by G.S. Bhargava

Lenin dubbed George Bernard Shaw “a good man fallen among Fabians.” That was Leninist ego that socialists outside the Marxist fold are ideological outcastes. One could parody the architect of the October Revolution in Russia and say similarly that Dr Manmohan Singh is a handicapped Prime Minister.

This is because despite his qualities of head and heart and unparalleled record of personal integrity, he has been the victim of the very factors that contributed to his well-deserved elevation to the top political position in the country.

One does not have to go far to find out how Dr Manmohan Singh is handicapped. The composition of his council of ministers and the way it was constituted in front of television cameras with potential/successful aspirants for ministerships showing it off was proof enough that the party president had done it according to her whims or values of governance, as the case may be.

For instance, quite a few important ministerships, Home, External Affairs. Law, HRD, Power etc. are with members of the Rajya Sabha. Worse still, party leaders who had lost the 2005 Lok Sabha elections were straightaway elevated to the Upper House and given key portfolios.

That was on top of the Prime Minister himself being a member of the Rajya Sabha. This is just not done in a parliamentary democracy like ours. It also goes against the grain of the recommendations of the Santanam Committee and other administrative reform bodies.

As for my yardstick for measuring integrity, it is not because as during Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s tenure there are no permanent house guests at No.7 Race Course Road, the Prime Minister’s official residence.

Or, as some bright journalists have found out that on the eve of the Prime Minister’s first overseas visit, Mrs. Manmohan Singh had been making arrangements for foreign exchange for their use abroad.

Not even because, as revealed by sources in the Prime Minister’s Office, Dr Manmohan Singh and his family members had purchased admission tickets for the last India-Pakistan cricket match at Feroze Shah Kotla instead of using complimentary passes.

My litmus test is deeper but simpler. It is based on character and upbringing. For instance, in 1991 it was P. V. Narasimha Rao as Prime Minister who brought in Dr. Manmohan Singh in as the country’s Finance Minister.

Dr. Manmohan Singh had no doubt distinguished himself by then as a member of the Planning Commission and head of the South- South Commission. When in 1990 the short-lived Chandra Shekhar Government made a mess of the economy with our gold reserves pledged to the Bank of England and the balance of payments position in a precarious position, it did not care to consult Dr. Manmohan Singh who was its economic adviser.

Brought in as Finance Minister by Narasimha Rao, Dr. Manmohan Singh worked a veritable miracle. The economy was not only put on an even keel but also liberalised beyond comprehension in the earlier centralised planning days. The licence-permit raj was banished so to say. Growth potential was released from the shackles of bureaucratic and ideological straitjacket. Dr. Manmohan Singh has acknowledged gracefully and rightly Narasimha Rao’s concurrence with the changes wrought by him. In the process, a bond grew between the two.

Thus when the Supreme Court exonerated Narasimha Rao in 2001of corruption charges in the St. Kitt’s and Lakhani cases, Dr. Manmohan Singh was the lone Congress leader of stature to call on him to congratulate him.

The party president and others who have not batted an eyelid to defend Lalu Yadav, Shibu Soren and their likes shunned Narasimha Rao like the plague! That is character, which is as important as the fact that no other Prime Minister in recent times, if not since our Independence matches Dr Manmohan’s record for integrity!

Incidentally, some do-gooders have gratuitously certified that Sonia Gandhi had not sought any official files. As if she can make head or tail of them on her own without prompting. That is the crux. Who are the prompters?

So much for acts of omission as the hackneyed expression goes. As for an act of commission, the Government recently reserved for Muslims 50 per cent seats in post-graduate and professional courses at Aligarh Muslim University (AMU).

At present, half of the post-graduate seats are already reserved for AMU graduates, while the rest are for students from outside to be decided on the basis of merit and open to all.

The handiwork of the HRD Minister, Mr. Arjun Singh, this measure has been blindly endorsed by the Cabinet at the instance apparently of the party president.

No more than 2,000 persons are expected to benefit from this concession involving 36 coveted courses, including MBA, M.Tech, M.Ed. and MCA.

In other words, it does more harm than good to the community and the country. No wonder, Aligarh historian Irfan Habib, lost no time in denouncing it as “blatant communalism.”

Another observer likened it to Rajiv Gandhi’s reversal in 1989 of the Supreme Court judgement in the Shah Bano alimony case, geared to vote bank politics!

In sum, it is an accomplishment that even a handicapped Prime Minister can do without on the eve of his entering the second year of his innings.

Return to Sartre
by Nirupama Dutt

One of the most towering intellectuals of the 20th century was Jean Paul Sartre (1905-1980). One of the most controversial figures, this French thinker declined the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1964 and dedicated his life to the doctrine that the human being in a world sans God was free and thus responsible for his deeds. June 6, 2005, marks the centenary of the birth of Sartre.

The return to Sartre and his philosophy was marked some five years ago with the publication of a book by French intellectual Bernards Henri Levy and was translated into English as Sartre: The Philosopher of the Twentieth Century (Polity Press).

And now institutes of Sartrean Studies all over the world have been engaged in having a fresh look at the life, times and philosophy of this gigantic figure. The renewed interest in the philosophy of Sartre is not just restricted to France. The convention of the North American Sartre Society held at Purdue University in September, dwelt upon his political thought and ethical theory.

The UK Society for Sartrean Studies organised a conference in March to reassess his contribution and as the centenary year rolls, the Paris-based daily Libération asked a group of writers to comment on the philosopher’s legacy. Interesting indeed are the views of author Norman Mailer who while praising Sartre’s exceptional abilities, does not agree with his view of existentialism: “Sartre, despite his incontestable strengths of mind, talent and character, is still the man who derailed existentialism, sent it right off the track.” Mailer goes on to say that if existentialism is to flourish in the times to come it needs “a God who is no more confident of the end than we are.”

Although he never joined the Communist party, he acknowledged himself as a communist and much of his time was taken up by trying to reconcile communist principles with the existentialist theory. Ideology came in the way of his very close friendship with writer Albert Camus and the two parted ways.

One relationship that lasted to the very end was that with Simone de Beauvoir, his lifetime companion and author of the famed book The Second Sex.

Two incidents come to the mind to show the kind of icons Simone and Sartre were. In the eighties two painters from Pakistan carrying Sartre’s Being and Nothingness crossed the border from Ferozepore only to be detained by the Indian Army. They were Zoey Ahmed and Iqbal Rasheed who were kept in the Patiala and Ambala prisons and finally returned home via the fields they had come.

Recalling this, the late Rasheed’s wife Zoya Saajid says, “They had carried Sartre’s volumes to proclaim the freedom of human beings that cannot be curtailed by borders.”

The second anecdote is, of Pakistani poet Fehmida Riyaz, who lived in exile in India during Zia’s rule in Pakistan, confessing that Simone’s novel The Mandarins had cured her of an unhappy affair when she was at college in Karachi.

An AFP report of Sartre’s funeral on April 19, 1980, quotes a 60-year-old Swiss woman who came all the way from her country to be a part of the ceremony: “ He had the courage to stand behind his philosophy.” This courage he certainly had and is well illustrated not just by his declining the Nobel Prize but also being one of the first to oppose Israel and assert that the Palestinians had a right to their homeland. He led the 1968 revolt of Maoist French students and in doing so caused an outrage in the establishment as well as the Communist Party.

Chatterati
Priya to be in politics?
by Devi Cherian

The prayer meeting for Sunil Dutt had thousands in attendance as testimony to the enormous goodwill the actor politician had generated in his life. Must say that the family, in keeping with his secularism, had representatives from four religions such as Hinduism, Islam, Christianity and Buddhism.

Led by Congress President Sonia Gandhi and her heir, Rahul Gandhi, every Congress politician turned up to pay respects to this five-time representative from North Mumbai.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Sheila Dixit, Ambika Soni, along with Sitaram Yechuri, Laloo Yadav, Shatrugnan Sinha and thousands of his supporters from Mumbai turned up.

After the meeting, Sunil Dutt’s daughter Pirya met Mrs. Gandhi separately. Maybe Priya will fight from her father’s constituency. She has always nursed the constituency.

The Dutt kids will have to live up to the impeccable reputation of their parents, Nargis and Sunil Dutt. Tough shoes to fill.

L.K. Advani’s U-turn

The latest buzz around the capital is the amazing U-turn of the Leader of Opposition, Mr L.K. Advani. To all, he clearly seems to be a patient of amnesia. As he arrived in Pakistan loaded with mangoes, Bollywood albums and some old Indian classic movies like Awara and Mother India, he seemed to be really going overboard.

He humorously, yet pointedly, apologised for the demolition of the Babri Masjid and then went around bestowing bear hugs on all.

Advani, as head of his party, is all out not only to woo the Muslim vote bank but also wants some kind of appreciation in being so magnanimous in his support of Indo-Pak relations.

Till now, he was only No.2, so he could get away with all kinds of noises. But now he can feel the pressure to compromise on his personal agenda.

Must say also how well behaved the Pakistani Press is as no one Embarrassed him by asking about Godhra or any other such questions.

Musharraf’s gift was albums of Advani’s childhood photographs and school register copies etc. Exactly what Mr Manmohan Singh had presented the General on his visit here. Advani could not achieve much as Home Minister. However, his innings as Leader of Opposition look more colourful and cheerful.

Reviving dance drama

It is a known fact that politicians can make anyone dance to their tune. But in this case, Union minister Oscar Fernandes and former Karnataka Chief Minister Veerapa Moily have donned the crease paint to play Krishan.

Yakshagana, a form of dance drama has caught a lease of life from these two politicians who donned the paints to popularise the coastal Karnataka art form from the 15th century.

Fernandes, who is a trained Kuchipuddy dancer, feels it is his duty to keep this art form from his home state alive. It only took one day rehearsal for Fernandes to perform Yakshagana.

Mr Moily, who was initially reluctant, agreed after a little persuasion. It is amazing that such senior politicians worked together to give a new lease of life to promote and popularise something from their home state which is dear to their heart.

From the pages of

October 31, 1888

IS CONGRESS SEDITIOUS?

The Lahore daily (the “Civil & Military Gazette”) and the Allahabad paper (the “Pioneer”) have gone perfectly mad over the Congress. They see nothing but rank sedition in that great national movement and, though claiming to be respectable journals, do not hesitate to misrepresent its aims and objects in the grossest possible manner. They cull objectionable passages here and there and, upon the strength of these, foist upon the leaders and supporters of the Congress thoughts which the latter perhaps never dreamt of in their wildest dreams.

They go further and, after heaping upon the most advanced and loyal section of the Indian community all sorts of opprobrious epithets, actually call upon the Government not only to regard the movement with positive disfavour, but to suppress it with a high hand.

REFLECTIONS

— Mahatma Gandhi