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Record margins Triumph in Goa Pataudi’s misadventure |
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A setback for EU
Tuning in the new
Zafar has followers in Myanmar Hunting the blue bull Delhi Durbar
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Record margins THE Congress victory in Haryana was a foregone conclusion, considering that there was no opposition worth the name. Still, the margin of triumph takes one’s breath away. Not only were all the three candidates ahead of their nearest rivals by more than one lakh votes, they also grabbed a never-before share of the total votes polled. Mrs Kiran Choudhary got 99 per cent of the total votes polled in Tosham, bettering the 1986 record of her father-in-law Bansi Lal (98 per cent). Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda (Kiloi) and Mrs Savitri Jindal (Hisar) were only slightly less dominating at 96 per cent each. The byelections took place soon after the main elections and reflect that the state’s mandate for the Congress in the Assembly election was not a fluke. Nor can the sympathy wave over the death of Mr Surinder Singh and Mr O.P. Jindal in a helicopter crash alone account for the unprecedented support for their widows. Apparently, the residual public anger over the policies and conduct of the Chautala raj is still very strong. Even if the INLD had contested all three seats, things might not have been much different. But the heady victory should not go to the Congress’ head. It will do well to remember that former Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala’s son Abhey Chautala had won the Rori seat with a similar thumping majority not too long ago. It should make sure that it does not fritter away public support in a similar manner. The Congress had presented itself in poor light in Goa when it pulled down the BJP government in an unbefitting manner. But it has redeemed itself somewhat by posting a decent victory in the state. Given the small size of the House, the four-seat advantage that it has managed to get may be large enough, but rug-pulling is a constant endeavour in the coastal state. The stability of the Congress government will be keenly watched. Elsewhere, things have been dismal for the party. It has lost in Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Karnataka. Instead of gloating over its performance in Haryana and Goa, the Congress will do well to analyse the causes of its poor performance in these major states. It is clear that the Congress has to regain some of its lost bases in these states. |
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Triumph in Goa THE Congress is bound to feel happy about Sunday’s by-election results. After a three-month gap, the party is all set to assume office again. Of the five seats for which by-elections were held, the Congress captured three seats, its ally, the Nationalist Congress Party, and the BJP one each. In the 39-member House, the Congress-led alliance’s strength has gone up to 21 while the BJP and its allies have 17. The BJP’s tally may come down further as the Panjim Bench of the Mumbai High Court set aside the election of two of its members on grounds that both held “office of profit” during the May 2002 Assembly elections. The two members could lose their seats if they lose their appeal against the ruling. Ironically, political stability has always eluded Goa because of defections. The partisan role of the Governor, Speaker, Deputy Speaker, and Pro-tem Speaker during the last crisis is another dimension of the problem. When five BJP members joined the Congress in February, the BJP sought to disqualify an Independent MLA. The then Speaker Vishwas Satarkar had the member removed from the House during the vote. Equally partisan was Governor S.C. Jamir who dismissed the Parrikar government and installed Mr Pratapsinh Rane as the Chief Minister. The fact that Pro-tem Speaker Francisco Sardinha had to exercise his casting vote during the confidence vote proved that Mr Rane did not have the majority support. As Goa was getting too hot for the Centre to handle, after Jharkhand, the Centre imposed President’s rule on March 4 and kept the State Assembly under suspended animation. The by-election results are a shot in the arm for the Congress. But will this guarantee political stability? Goa’s bane is that in addition to the follies and failures of bigger parties like the BJP and the Congress, smaller parties like the United Goan Democratic Party, the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party and Independents command sizeable influence and call the shots. Ultimately, the state will stand to gain only if all the parties, big and small, forget their personal agendas and worked for the larger public good. |
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Pataudi’s misadventure FORMER cricket captain Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi, to the regret of many of his admirers, has landed himself on the wrong side of the law as the Haryana police has booked him for an offence punishable with imprisonment. On Friday night the Jhajjar police stopped a Maruti Gypsi in which Mr Pataudi and his friends were travelling and seized three carcasses — two of rabbits and one of a black buck, a
Schedule 1 animal — from the vehicle and, after conducting a post-mortem examination the next day, registered a case against them under the Wildlife Protection Act. Given the seriousness of the crime and the involvement of a known personality, the media was quick to splash details of the incident all over, much to the embarrassment of Mr Pataudi, his family and well-wishers, even though the guilt is yet to be proved. Over the years, Mr Pataudi has cultivated for himself the image of a suave, well-mannered gentleman known for his dignified conduct and miles away from any controversy or scandal. Old-timers may recall his prowess in cricket, the present generation knows him as the husband of film actress and Censor Board chief Sharmila Tagore, father of actor Saif Ali Khan and a celebrity model with an aristocratic look, refined tastes and a caring, sensitive human being. Ironically, in one advertisement he is shown lovingly holding and stoking a lamb. Such a person should better have been doing something to promote wildlife preservation instead. The incident is bound to recall what Bollywood star Salman Khan did in 1980. He is still facing trial in four cases being charged with killing protected black bucks and chinkaras in the forests around Jodhpur. The loss of reputation suffered by Salman Khan should have deterred any other such misadventure by a public figure, but the message does not seem to have gone down well. Man’s killing instinct and greed, regrettably, have shrunk the space for animals, which too have a right to live. |
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The policy of European integration is in reality a question of war and peace in the 21st century.
— Helmut Kohl
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A setback for EU THERE is a bend in the road to the European enterprise but we are not looking at a precipice. The rejection by French and Dutch voters of the proposed European constitution is a setback, but there is no profit in exaggerating its consequences. At issue here is the speed and contours of the enterprise, not its raison d’etre. The European Union is already a legend of the post-World War II world, of how two mortal enemies, France and Germany, built their remarkable reconciliation tethered to the original Coal and Steel Community. Indeed, the voluntary surrender of sovereignty to build the grouping into a prosperous trading and economic enterprise gave an impetus to a political projection of a common security and foreign policy under the Maastricht Treaty and perhaps the greatest venture of its kind anywhere, the giving up of national currencies in favour of the euro. The European Union grew, in its present avatar, from 10 into 15. Two more nations were granted the right to queue up for admission in 2007; others in the Balkans and in Ukraine are waiting to be granted that privilege. Above all, Turkey was finally given the green light to begin its long negotiations for entry in early October. The Union seemed confident, spreading its version of democracy and law to the lesser members of the European enterprise. It was hardly surprising therefore that the Union wanted to look ahead to the brave new world, giving itself its first constitution. It was some two years in the making under the paternalistic presidency of former French President Valery Giscard d’Estaing. It was for the 25 member-states to decide how to ratify it — through parliamentary approval or referendums. President Jacques Chirac expansively sought a referendum, confident in his belief that it would be handily approved. In the Netherlands’ case, it was the parliament that insisted on a referendum being held. The world in the meantime changed and was changing. The “new Europeans” of US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld’s definition had brought with them their anti-Russian baggage. They were more interested in American protection than European benediction. Britain, which had sought salvation in the post-war world by becoming America’s “poodle”, took charge of the new members to lead them into the American corner in the bitter divisions leading up to the American invasion of Iraq. The European enterprise brought unprecedented prosperity to the peoples of Western Europe. Their model of the welfare state was humane, unlike the raw, cruel American model of capitalism, and a continent plagued by the tragedies of two wars in the 20th century was enjoying its golden years. The Cold War then came to an end and with it America’s military relevance to Europe. The Berlin Wall fell and the Soviet Union disappeared and the two Germanies became one. For the first time since the defeat of Germany American protection from the scourge of communism was no longer necessary. Judging by the success of the European enterprise, the two main continental powers, France and Germany, wanted Europe to punch its weight in the world, symbolised by the Maastricht Treaty. The constitution was a logical step because it sought to symbolise Europe’s new clout and cohesion and refined existing rules to take into account a union of 25. But the nineties had been a troubling time for “old Europe”. Growth was stubbornly low and unemployment high. Germany sought to make structural reforms at the cost of the popularity of German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder. French efforts at reform were even more half-hearted. Inevitably, reforms nibbled at the concept of the generous welfare state by reducing benefits. And they inevitably became entangled in the globalisation debate. Old Europeans smelled the hated Anglo-Saxon model of heartless capitalism. The first challenge for the European leadership is to separate the constitution from the many national grievances and frustrations of their peoples. In the short term, the constitution is as good as dead although some of the innovations it proposed in enhancing the European footprint can be salvaged. But it is time to define the limits of and timeframe for the European Union. Turkey, due to start formal negotiations in early October, presents a problem because of its overwhelmingly Muslim population of 80 million. In the current anti-immigration mood in Europe with the majority of some 15 million people being Muslim, popular opinion is against Turkish admission. The prospects of Turkey being an EU member in a decade, as Turks had hoped, seem to have receded. Which brings the EU to the crucial question of defining the extent of Europe. Some Europeans have been arguing that only a sliver of Turkey falls in Europe, which is otherwise an Asian state. The Balkans and Ukraine belong to Europe. Russia is commonly ruled out, despite being substantially European. In addition, it faces the American effort to isolate and contain it, aided and abetted by the “new Europeans”. In geopolitical terms, there is also the prospect of Europe stretching out into West Asia by taking in Turkey. The Roman Catholic Church had wanted the new constitution to specify the Christian nature of the European enterprise. This was not accepted, but in the popular mind the EU remains a Christian grouping, a belief heightened by the fall-out from the Nine Eleven terrorist acts and the sharpening of the Muslim-Christian divide in the European setting. The Muslim question will come to haunt Europe again as and when the issue of Albania comes up and if Kosovo is granted independent status. The American “war on terror” is a limitation on Europe’s attempt to seek accommodation with the Muslim world. Essentially, the French and Dutch rejection of the constitution has thrown open Europe’s future to a new debate. But it would be well to remember that no one in continental Europe seeks the demolition of the EU or the euro or the Schengen agreement on common immigration policies. The debate is over how far and fast to go. The modern world’s most successful experiment in pooling sovereignty is not a candidate for the dust heap of
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Tuning in the new My daughter Abha is all glued to the FM radio — her eyes closed and ears plugged to it. As if in a trance. Tanish too seems to be in a bliss sitting besides her. I race in and there I am with camera, the rare moment is captured forever. Unknowingly, the precious moment drives me nostalgic. I journey to the day my father gave us a surprise, bringing home a box with knobs and electric wires fixed to it. Placing it on the table he switched it on. Lo! it gave out human voice. He moved another knob and the room resounded with lilting music “It is radio, children,” he announced. What a magic! It caught distant voices. A thrill, an inexplicable sensation ran down our spine. A box that spoke.....a real marvel on the earth. Soon the news spread in the locality. We lived in Jhang Maghiana (now in Pakistan). Came one and all... Children, young and old, to see the magic box. An interesting event surfaces before eyes. One morning when grand pa was listening to hymns, and old woman happened to enter the room barefooted (her chappals lay outside). Much to our amusement she lay prostrate in front of the radio presuming it to be something divine. Listening to radio became a craze with myself and my brother. Often I fiddled with its volume and stations at a whim only to invite scoldings from parents. Sometimes I swore not to touch something that earned us slaps too, but nevertheless. Seeing no one around we would switch it on slyly with trepidating hearts and eyes fixed on the door. I sat lost in the days gone by with images of grand pa and pa emerging before me. We couldn’t make out what made them listen to the news so religiously and discuss about 15th August (of course 1947). For us radio meant only Radio Ceylon. Whenever we were able to get it, we exclaimed: “Lag gaya, lag gaya.” And danced to the tune of the song in sheer ecstasy! Loved to squat on the durri and relish food while songs drenched us all over. Partition meant uprooting, bloodshed and loss of precious possessions. We yearned for radio left back in our home in Jhang Maghiana. Realising our anxiety father bought us a lovely Murphy radio with an infant’s cherubic face superscribed on it. Now Binaca Geet Mala and “Hava Mahal” floored us. Twists and turns of the cricket commentators’ voice and noticeable quiver in Mellville de Mellow’s voice during Nehru’s last journey — are still vivid in my memory. Such, indeed, were the pre-television times when voice of the announcer or that of dramatis personae lent flights of imagination to the listeners. My reverie ended with a loud giggling of Abha and Tanish. “Wow! The hit song... My favourite song.” Could not resist joining their giggling session. Gave them a warm hug and relived the innocence and fragrance of my own
childhood.
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Zafar has followers in Myanmar
“People worship and pray at his mausoleum for his blessings. He is worshipped as a Pir (a holy man) who dispenses miracles to the pure of spirit,” said Aye Lwin, alias Mohammad Yunus, a member of the Bahadur Shah Zafar Mausoleum Committee that manages the heritage monument located in the heart of this capital city. “He is reverred by not only Muslims but by people of other faiths, including Buddhists. He has emerged as a symbol of inter-faith harmony,” Lynn, an officer with the Myanmar International Television, told visiting Indian journalists. Waheeda, a Muslim girl whose parents migrated from Pakistan to Myanmar more than 100 years ago, said: “For us, he is more than a symbol. He is close to our hearts.” This is a miraculous transformation for an emperor who spent his last days in an alien land passionately composing soulful sad poems pining for the loss of his country and his beloved family. Bahadur Shah Zafar had emerged as the rallying point for thousands of India’s First War of Independence in 1857. The British exiled him to Myanmar in 1858 after the uprising had been crushed. He was kept in a garage attached to the bungalow of Captain Nelson Davies, a junior British officer and died a sad, broken man four years later in 1862. His family in India was relentlessly persecuted by the British to crush their capacity for another rebellion. The emperor, known for his spiritual inclination at an early age, became a “Murshid” (spiritual guide) in the Chistiya Sufi order at the age of 40. The poet-king’s “real grave” was found in 1991 when a memorial hall was being built at the mausoleum site. During the digging operation, his grave, diligently concealed by the British, was finally discovered nearly 130 years after his death. Alongside Zafar’s grave are the graves of his wife Zeenat Mahal and granddaughter Raunaq Zamani. The British took care to suppress the emperor’s grave for fear that it might emerge as a potent symbol of anti-colonial assertion by Indians, explained Aye Lwin.
— IANS |
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Hunting the blue bull THE Punjab State Wildlife Board, reconstituted following amendments to the Wildlife (Protection) Act 1972, held its first meeting on April, 27, 2005. The board authorised the shooting of the blue bull in seven districts of the state in the Malwa belt where this animal’s presence is deemed to be at conflict with the economic interests of agriculturists. At the outset it has to be admitted in all fairness, that it is not Punjab alone which is obsessed with excesses by the blue bull to agriculture. Haryana, Rajasthan and UP are equally intent on the strategy of elimination rather than rehabilitation of the errant blue bull. The naked truth behind this flawed approach is politics of appeasement at the cost of liberal, rational and visionary governance. There was a ray of hope and much rejoicing when in December 2004, Punjab had announced its intent to scientifically study the extent of crop damage by wild animals and to evolve countervailing strategies. Mr YV Jhala, Head of Department, Animal Ecology and Conservation Biology at the Wildlife Institute of India, Dehra Dun, was invited to assist in evolving a blue print for wildlife management practices. One pragmatic outcome of Mr Jhala’s interaction with the Wildlife Department was the first and arguably the best available estimate of the blue bull and wild boar population. The figure of 10,312 blue bulls in the state is an excellent start-point to draw management plans. Regrettably, there was not even a hint whether the State Wildlife Board had indeed a comprehensive plan in place other than licensing the shooting of the blue bull. Be that as it may, we have two lessons to learn from Pakistan. In its brief history of 50 years, Pakistan has lost two species of mammals. Both species became extinct because of hunting and hunting alone. Pakistan had not institutionalised any checks to be warned of the looming threat of extinction through hunting and or habitat loss. Among the first to vanish was the beautiful black buck. The black bucks had arrived to reclaim their only true home on planet earth. The cargo came from Texas, where they had been introduced by the US Department of Fish and Wildlife in the 1960s. The poignancy of that moment brought a lump in the throats of viewers of the film. T J Robert, an authority on Pakistan’s wildlife, had published a book “The Mammals of Pakistan” in 2002. The bottomline of his three pages long text on the blue bull is: “There is practically no permanent resident population in Pakistan today”. Ironically, there were reports of a large population “of introduced freeranging animals (blue bull) in Texas” way back in 1991 and they are reportedly flourishing, to date. Once again, time for Pakistan to seek the buck back. Animal population estimates viewed in isolation of the area of their range can be misleading. To a lay reader the figure of 10,312 blue bulls in Punjab could well give the impression that were he to step out into the open there is a good chance of getting trampled under a blue bull’s foot. But when you pit this figure against the total area of the state, there is a degree of comfort that the density of blue bulls per square km is not at all alarming. In fact the chances are, that driving through the seven worst-affected districts of Punjab, one may not encounter even 20 animals in a whole day. This is perhaps what prompted Mr Jhala to declare: “The real issue is scientific management of animals.” In any agriculture-intensive economy such as Punjab, large-scale crop damage whether at the hands of wild animals or natural calamities must be redressed by state mechanism. But where the agent of depredation is an animal we have to isolate the cause first rather than the effect. So going by the first principles, ample browse and grazing have to be recreated on all available government forest lands and on village common lands. Whether the latter have been misappropriated, these must be reacquired for this specific purpose. The quality of habitats must be so upgraded that it detracts animals from straying in search of food to farm lands. Harnessing the latest in the field of bio-genetics technology, a 20-year habitat revival package must be activated. Concurrently, an insurance plan to specifically address damage to crops by the blue bull, financed by the state, must come into force also for 20 years. The insurance scheme must operate at the village panchayat level to ensure timely assessment and disbursal of relief. Man’s primordial instinct of hunting resurfaces every now and then. When a nation as a whole does not monitor and curb the tendency, it can lead to the extinction of any species, at any time, any where in the world. The most blood-chilling evidence of the occurrence of this phenomena comes from the USA. The brightly coloured passenger pigeon of North America was so abundant that James Audubon, the famous bird artist, recorded having seen a column of passenger pigeons passing overhead, so numerous that the “light of the noon day sun was obscured as by an eclipse”. Another record from 1866 states that “a flock estimated to be 300 miles long and one mile wide obscured the sun for 14 hours”. And from Michigan there was “talk of one single hunt in 1878 when an estimated one thousand million birds were destroyed at nesting sites” and all for food alone. The very last bird of this species died in the Cincinnati Zoo, USA, in 1914. In the last 150 years we in India have lost two species of birds and one mammal. The Himalayan mountain quail was last reported around 1878, the pink-headed duck in 1935 and the last cheetah was shot in 1949. In all the three cases, the extinction was a result of excessive hunting coupled with the loss of habitat. Time has moved full circle where the man-blue bull conflict is concerned. Will the state and people of Punjab accept this as the first major challenge of the 21st century, that is, to safeguard the interests of both its articulate agricultural community and its voice-less wild animal populations, on equal urgency? |
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Delhi Durbar IS low-profile Rahul Gandhi all set to become a Congress general secretary? There is excited talk in Congress circles that party president Sonia Gandhi’s son should be given greater responsibility and like his late father be included in the party as general secretary. In an interface with mediapersons recently, Sonia Gandhi had side-stepped the issue, but indicated that the youthful brigade would be given more responsibility.
Smoking in films Censor Board chief Sharmila Tagore is highly uncomfortable in the manner in which the UPA government has gone about banning smoking in films. She believes that the decision has been taken in haste and regretted that the film industry and the Central Board of Film Certification had not been consulted. While favouring the intent behind the decision, Sharmila Tagore felt that the decision is very difficult to implement. Opinion is divided in the film industry with super star Shahrukh Khan supporting the Union Health Ministry’s ban on smoking.
Left parties’ rift surfaces The rift within the four Left parties came out in the open when the CPI, the AIFB and the RSP expressed their displeasure to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh extending an invitation only to the CPM for discussing the oil price hike. The call to the Marxists came a couple of hours before the scheduled Left coordination meeting. However, at the meeting all hell broke loose with smaller parties accusing the CPM of breaking the unwritten code. This however, forced Dr Manmohan Singh to call them for consultation the very next day. With elections in West Bengal and Kerala due next year, the talk in the Marxist camp is that their comrades from smaller Left parties should be shown their place.
CPI dilemma in Bihar CPI general secretary A B Bardhan recently engaged Lok Janshakti Party chief Ram Vilas Paswan in a verbal dual and accused him of splitting the secular vote. But he might have to eat his own words if he abides by the wishes of the state unit of the party. If he goes against their wishes, then the leaders of the Bihar unit have threatened to split the party and join hands with the CPI (ML) to fight the poll.
Saffron tangle The BJP delegation, which went to Israel recently, was stopped from entering the Knesset (parliament) as the Palestinians protesting against the Jewish occupation of their territory were also waving the saffron flag. Although the Israeli authorities apologised for the inconvenience, the Communists have got new ammunition to fire at the BJP. Even in the land of BJP inspiration, saffron is a no, no.
**** Contributed by Prashant Sood, R Suryamurthy and Rajeev Sharma. |
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From the pages of The state of Kashmir
The Allahabad paper (the “Pioneer”) took the world by surprise by announcing that His Highness the Maharaja of Kashmir had been guilty of treasonable practices and murderous designs. The momentary feeling of surprise has, however, subsided in most minds, and a sense of intense indignation has taken its place. The “Pioneer” stands self-convicted; it has exposed its own folly in venturing too far on the ipse dixit of its Jammu correspondent, who seems to be as hopelessly ignorant of the truth as the “Pioneer” itself. The “Pioneer” finds this out, but it is too callous a journalistic sinner to repent. Apart from the discrepancies in the “Pioneer’s” statements and the downright contradiction given to them by the “Civil and Military Gazette” and Dewan Lachman Das, (then PM of Kashmir) the story of the Allahabad paper looks improbable on the face of it. Firstly, we fully agree with our local contemporary that “it is prima facie improbable that if he (the Maharaja) had entered into a plot to destroy the Resident, he should have committed its tenor to ink and paper.” |
The Supreme is that from which these beings are born, that by which they live and that into which, when departing, they enter. — Taittiriya Upanishads When the peace of God descends on us, Divine knowledge floods our being with a light which illumines and transforms, making clear all that was before dark and obscure. — Dr Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan on The Bhagavadgita He is the God who is in fire, in water, who pervades the entire universe; He who is in plants, in trees, to Him we make our obeisance again and again. — The Vedas Forever worship Him who is the Truth By His grace you will gain joy everlasting. — Guru Nanak The Gita requires us, not to renounce works but to do them, offering them to the Supreme in which alone is immortality. — Dr Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan on The Bhagavadgita Belief comes to the mind from the mind itself. — Guru Nanak  |
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BAHADUR Shah Zafar, India’s last Mughal emperor, is revered now as a saint-poet in Myanmar, the country to which he was exiled by the British and left to die an anonymous death about a century and a half ago.