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Nuclear feat Mayawati makes a
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Schools of neglect First improve existing ones School education overhaul is on the agenda of a Punjab committee headed by Deputy Chief Minister Rajinder Kaur Bhattal. The need to appoint a committee arose after Finance Minister Surinder Singla’s idea of private-public partnership evoked protests from teachers, who got the impression that government schools would be privatised. Subsequent clarifications that only management control of government schools would pass in trusted and experienced private hands failed to stem the tide against privatisation.
HUMAN RIGHTS DIARY
Soldiers, world
over
Apotheosis of
Jinnah? Chirac, Blair clash
over EU rebate Chatterati
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Mayawati makes a move Eventually
extremes meet. Politics being no exception to this iron law, Bahujan Samaj Party president Mayawati seeking to join hands with Brahmins is not surprising. The compulsions of vote bank politics driven by the caste calculus that obtains in Uttar Pradesh require the BSP to not only widen its base but also make it more inclusive; with only the Dalit vote, even assuming its en bloc mobilisation, Ms Mayawati cannot expect to win and sustain political office for any reasonable period. Her experiments with party-to-party partnerships — with the Congress, BJP and Samajwadi Party — have come unstuck; and must have taught her the lesson that the BSP cannot grow beyond a point as a one-caste party forever dependent on the support of others to form a government. The recent byelections, in which the BSP lost all four seats to the Samajwadi Party (SP), was another reminder the Dalit vote alone cannot take her much further. A Dalit-Brahmin-Muslim combination is not an untried one; Indira Gandhi had forged a similar coalition on which the Congress had capitalised particularly through the 1970s and 1980s. With the emergence of the BJP as a challenge to the Congress party at the national level, the upper caste vote, including that of the Brahmins shifted from the latter to the former. However, of late the Brahmins are perceived to be moving away from the BJP; and given their aversion for sharing political space with the powerful intermediate castes, the BSP may well prove to be a port of convenience. While it would be premature to speculate on the impact of the BSP’s “Brahmin jodo” campaign, the SP, too, is wooing them. Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav declaring Parashuram Jayanti as a public holiday is merely one indication of the SP’s attempts in this direction triggered by the series of Brahmin maha rallies the BSP organised across UP. Ms Mayawati’s move makes political sense, but what has to be awaited is the acceptance of this development by the BSP rank and file. |
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Schools of neglect School
education overhaul is on the agenda of a Punjab committee headed by Deputy Chief Minister Rajinder Kaur Bhattal. The need to appoint a committee arose after Finance Minister Surinder Singla’s idea of private-public partnership evoked protests from teachers, who got the impression that government schools would be privatised. Subsequent clarifications that only management control of government schools would pass in trusted and experienced private hands failed to stem the tide against privatisation. The committee has Mr Singla as its member, whose views on the issue are in sharp contrast to that of Mrs Bhattal, who is against privatisation. On Friday Mrs Bhattal announced that one primary school would be set up in each village and pre-school nursery classes would also be introduced on the private school pattern, though the medium of instruction is still undecided. This would make sense if government schools enjoyed the kind of public confidence private schools have for quality education. The reality is even the poorest of the poor try to send their children to so-called public schools. Despite better infrastructure, better qualified teachers and higher per student expenditure, government schools show poor results. A World Bank study reveals on any given day 36 per cent of government primary teachers are absent. Of those present only half (49.8 per cent) teach. There is neither any accountability nor an institutional check on errant teachers. In absenteeism Punjab ranks third in the country after Bihar and Jharkhand. A state that is perpetually in a financial tight spot does not have education on priority spending, has some 10,000 vacancies of teacher unfilled for lack of funds and a large number of schools without a single teacher should rather focus on consolidating the existing school infrastructure rather than further stretching the school network to unmanageable limits. A balance needs to be worked out. The state effort can focus on left-out sections and areas, while the involvement of established private institutions can be encouraged elsewhere. Fortunately, parents have realised the importance of education and it is on the list of priority spending. |
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Your body hears everything your mind
says. — Naomi Judd |
HUMAN RIGHTS DIARY
Human
rights activists met in Lahore the other day to take stock of people-to-people contact initiatives. I was impressed by their firm commitment to the process as speaker after speaker said how immense had been the gain from meetings of different groups at different places. But my disappointment was that most of participants were the same old faces, withering with age. The young were very few, although this was not the case when it came to protests against human rights violations. I find the youth quite involved in raising their voice both in India and Pakistan. Still I wonder whether people-to-people contact has run into the roadblocks that the governments in the two countries have yet to remove. True, the number of visas has gone up. Both sides claim that they are issuing 300 visas each per day. But it looks as if the mindset to discourage contacts has not gone. The meeting at Lahore had to be postponed because the Pakistan Home Ministry did not first clear visas of some 25 persons. There is no change in the old, outmoded system to issue a visa. Practically every application is cleared by the intelligence agencies of respective countries. A visa is generally issued for one city. The maximum number is three. Police reporting is as rigorous as it was decades ago. A visitor has to have a relation across the border or he should be an invitee to some meet. Once in the other country, he has to report at police station within 24 hours of his arrival and must stay in touch with the authorities for any movement until he leaves the country. The cantonment is out of bounds. Comically, the new international airport at Lahore is located in the cantonment itself. It is also obligatory for a visitor to return from the same route through which he entered. He has to adopt the same mode of transport to travel back, plane, train or bus. When it comes to dealing with the visa holders, there is no difference in the treatment meted out to them in the military controlled Pakistan or the democratic India. The person wanting a visa generally spends two to three nights outside the chancery at New Delhi or Islamabad, depending upon his nationality. First, he gets a token which informs him that he will get a visa six months later. Then he has to report again at the chancery to get a visa. The experience of travelling by train is harrowing. I went through it when I went by what is called the Samjhota Express from Attari to the Pakistan side. It is not so much the delay — a few kilometers from one side to the other takes hours — it is the harassment at the hand of the police and customs which is unbearable. Even if one has greased every palm there is an array of officers who are disgruntled because they have not been “looked after”. Every passenger is poorer by a few hundreds of rupees before he reaches the destination. All troubles are only for citizens from the subcontinent. Others get a visa for the entire country and face little harassment. However, even the limited people-to-people contact has made a difference. So positive has been the fallout that the visitors have returned to their country to narrate endlessly the generosity they found on the other side. It is no secret that the Pakistanis cheered the Indian cricket team and the Indians the Pakistani team. The entire atmosphere has got ignited with enthusiasm and amity. There are instances where shopkeepers, hotelwalas and drivers of taxi or scooter did not charge people visiting from across the border. I had imagined that the spontaneous demonstration of goodwill on both sides would force the government to relax the visa restrictions. Soft border is a distant dream but at least the time spent in getting a visa should have lessened. Police reporting should have gone. Nothing like that has happened and there is no such likelihood. We, at people-to-people contact meet, felt that it was no use talking big when our priority should be to see that anybody should be able to get a visa quickly, without facing the rigidity of the bureaucracy, including the police. If everything is linked with the solution of Kashmir, we can talk till the cows come home. An agitation should be started on both sides against the governments to force them relax visa facilities. The agitation has to have only one-point programme: easing of visa restrictions. Imagine the change in the atmosphere if thousands of people were to visit India from Pakistan and vice-versa. Already the process of peace is irreversible. Contact among thousands will have a devastating effect. What is lacking is the participation of the common man. There is no dearth of VIPs moving from one country to other, whether ex-ambassadors or former top brass in the military. The visits of MPs — I took the first delegation to Pakistan — are phenomenally successful. Even lawyers, doctors and businessmen have contributed their bit to some understanding. India and Pakistan are distant from each other because of the wall of suspicion and mistrust. People- to-people contact will bring it down. I believe that mistrust is the core of the problem. Kashmir is a symptom, not the disease. The disease is lack of faith between the two countries. If mistrust remains no agreement, even if signed, has any meaning. Many more Kashmirs would come up. Strange, both governments laudably mention people-to-people contact in every statement. But when it comes to translating contacts into visa facilities, both countries are dragging their feet. Delhi may be slightly better, only slightly. However, Pakistan Foreign Minister Khurshid Kasauri should remember that he has been part of people-to-people contact movement. Pakistan does not reciprocate the gesture which India makes for travel between the two countries easy. The visa should not be dependent on the whim of Home Ministry or Foreign Office. Sometime the best of artists are not allowed. Shobha Mudgil, a leading classical singer, was barred from entry into Pakistan. New Delhi at one time refused a visa to even Asma Jahangir, the renowned human rights activist in the subcontinent. Refusal to her was despite the fact that hers was the maximum contribution to India- Pakistan détente. Recently, the Pakistan police roughed her up because she was leading a procession for peace. She would do better if some liberals were to join her. Is a joint march of Indian and Pakistanis possible? Visas will come in the
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Soldiers, world over THEY are in the profession of killing all right, but this, in their case, is considered honourable. The soldiers kill to order just anybody who is declared to be the enemy of their state. Once our Brigadier asked us during a seminar as to what our weapons were meant for. I cautiously replied that these were meant to neutralise the enemy or to break his will to fight. He shouted back, “ No. Our weapons are meant to bloody kill the enemy”. This left me thinking how we are then different from the infamous “supari killers”, specially when the states under whose orders we fight may themselves be roguish — take, for instance, the case of Nazi Germany, Saddam’s invasion of Kuwait or the recent American action in Iraq. My own experiences in the profession were to later set all doubts at complete rest. I retired as a soldier some 16 years back, but I often feel that I am still in it. Additionally, I had the privilege of putting on three different uniforms — the olive green of the Army, khaki of the CRPF and grey/black of the National Security Guard (better known as the Black Cat commandos). I have, however, ended up believing that colour really does not matter in case of the soldiers. They are above colour (not of uniform alone), caste, creed and even countries. That is why a Lt Gen Niazi, after the surrender of the Pakistan forces at Dhaka in 1971, anxiously asks his senior brother soldier as to how well he fought against him. The gracious victor, none other than our late Lt Gen J.S. Arora, is believed to have candidly said that in Niazi’s circumstances he himself would not have done any better. You rarely get such graceful answers outside the soldiers’ fraternity. Years after my retirement, I had another occasion to go to Srinagar as a make-shift director to shoot a film on the CRPF. The sight of my boys in their operational gear sent a flutter through my heart. It was a pleasure to be moving among them again. After finishing with our shooting late in the evening, we were invited by our Inspector General of Police, late
D.D. Gupta, another fine soldier. He was then in operational command of all the C.R.P.F units in the state. While we were enjoying our drink, the I.G.P. commanding the Special Operations Group of the local police also dropped in and it was decided to visit our outposts in the city by night. The armed forces’ convoys often get sprayed with militant bullets. Our I.G.P., therefore, put the S.O.G. commander in the middle of the back seat that is considered comparatively the safest position in the event of the car coming under a hail of bullets. He himself sat by his side and asked me to occupy his other flank. After all, the local police officer was the guest of the Force. As for me, a retired man, he thought that once a soldier, always a soldier. This was, indeed, heart-warming. On the way, the militants did fire on us indiscriminately from some distant hideout, but their bullets missed us by
metres.
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Apotheosis of
Jinnah? Has Lal Krishna Advani set the cat among the pigeons? Or more aptly, considering that Pravin Togadia, Ashok Singhal and their likes have got his scalp, hawks in pigeons’ plumes? There are two aspects to the controversy about his homage to the founder of Pakistan at his mausoleum in Karachi: bias plus abysmal ignorance of correspondents/ commentators dwelling on the subject. Compounding it is the widespread lack of awareness, peppered by colossal prejudice, of happenings in the run up to Independence and the formation of Pakistan. One can counter bias if it is not motivated but in this case it has to be factored in while assessing news reports. For instance, soon after Independence, Dr Shyama Prasad Mookerjee had resigned as Vice-President of the Hindu Mahasabha dissociating himself from its Akhand Hindustan plank, which implied undoing partition. He then launched the Bharatiya Jana Sangh, forerunner of the BJP, by borrowing cadres from the RSS. Thus the BJP was never a supporter of Akhand Hindustan. Still, disowning Akhand Hindustan has been cited as a faux pas of Advani! Advani himself has quoted Sarojini Nadiu description of the founder of Pakistan as ‘’an ambassador of Hindu-Muslim unity’’. Was it a hyperbole? Not at all. She was not writing poetry but placing on record a fact of life in the pre-Gandhian phase of our freedom struggle. Along with Motilal Nehru and their other contemporaries, Mohammed Ali Jinnah was a champion of Indian Independence then. Jinnah Hall, standing to this day in Girgaum in central Bombay (Mumbai), was the headquarters of the Indian National Congress in Bombay in those days. Ayesha Jalal’s definitive biography of Jinnah — it was her doctoral thesis at Cambridge University — dedicated to her revered father and published in 1985, is a treasure house of information, not widely known even among scholars. Among the instances cited by Ayesha Jalal, “in February, 1935 Jinnah had talks with the then Congress president, Dr Rajendra Prasad, which Rajen Babu said’ showed great possibilities’ for the future. The issue then was resistance to the British Government’s proposal for a federation at the Centre. The talks failed but the relationship between the two parties and their leaders were not soured.” Ms Jalal goes on to say: “The election of 1937 destroyed the foundations upon which Jinnah had built his strategy ever since he returned to India in 1934. By its success at the polls. Congress had shown that it could do without the League. Congress formed ministries in six provinces,” while the Muslim League virtually drew a blank even in Muslim majority provinces. Jinnah’s ‘intransigence’ and unbending opposition to the Congress were thus products of competitive politics of the day. The British policy of ‘divide and rule’ was in full play. As Ms Jalal points out,” much of the League’s propaganda at this stage was directed against the Congress ministries and their alleged attacks on Muslim culture; the heightened activity of the Hindu Mahasabha, the hoisting of the Congress tricolour, the singing of Vandemataram, the Vidya Mandir scheme in the Central Provinces and the Wardha Scheme of education — all were interpreted as proof of ‘Congress atrocities’. So the Congress was clearly incapable of representing Muslim interests, yet it was trying to ‘annihilate every other party.’ Jinnah was not ready to parley with the Congress unless it accepted the League as the ‘authoritative and representative organisation of Indian Muslims.” That was the crux. (Incidentally, Jinnah’s charges against the Congress were not far different from what the traducers of the BJP hurl at it now. Let Ayesha describe what followed: “Sixteenth August was the day the League had nominated for ‘direct action’. Forty-eight hours before, Jinnah had urged Muslims to remain calm, saying that ‘direct action’ day should be a day of peaceful reflection, not a day ‘ resorting to direct action in any form and shape,’ But ‘the spirits of Calcutta’s underworld’ ignored ‘his ineffectual command. One year before partition, in a dreadful night witnessed a mass hysteria, sparked off in the main by determined little bands of troublemakers. In five days of rioting some 4,000 persons were killed and 15,000 were maimed or injured in Calcutta. Sir Richard Attenborough has powerfully projected the Calcutta carnage in his celebrated documentary on Gandhiji. The scene of the Mahatma’s decision to go on fast in a Calcutta bustee, with Nehru, Patel, Azad and H.S. Suhrawardy (the premier), hovering round Bapu’s bed assuring him that violence had stopped and that he should break the fast lives in one’s mind. According to Ayesha,’all that is certain (is) that Jinnah had no idea of what was coming. It is not just that the politics of violence. was anathema to him, alien to his political style and never to become part of it, but the more powerful argument is that Jinnah did not expect, and did not want, anything like this to happen.” Gandhiji and Jinnah were like cheese and chalk, dissimilar in many respects: one was a saint the other a relative sinner who was against bringing religion and god into politics, but they were alike in two respects, rejection of violence and determination to achieve their respective, mutually divergent, objectives. For Gandhiji non-violence was a creed, a kind of religion, although Nehru said it was only a policy for the Congress. For Jinnah it was anathema as a political weapon. But he did not hesitate to reap the harvest of leonine violence - Gandhiji’s pet phrase-in pitching for Pakistan. The Gandhian edict of compatibility between means and ends did not weigh with Jinnah. Nor does it matter with most political leaders in our country today. |
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Chirac, Blair clash over EU rebate
The simmering dispute over Britain’s EU budget rebate burst into open confrontation Thursday, as France’s President, Jacques Chirac, and Tony Blair clashed directly over the fate of the UK’s annual €5bn (£3.4bn) cheque ahead of a crucial summit next week. The French President called on Britain to surrender its annual budget rebate as a gesture of “solidarity”, while ruling out any reduction in direct subsidies to French farmers. Within hours Mr Blair hit back, dismissing M. Chirac’s call, and arguing that the UK had been demonstrating solidarity for the past decade by paying much more into EU coffers than France. The exchange bodes ill for the summit in Brussels next Thursday, when leader are due to agree how to fund the EU from 2007 to 2013. It also coincided with a separate threat from Italy’s Prime Minister, Silvio Berlusconi, to block the funding agreement if support to his country’s poorer regions is cut. The EU leaders will be under pressure to compromise to show that the EU is back on track after the crushing referendum “no” votes in France and the Netherlands. The future of the UK rebate is likely to be a make or break issue, with Britain isolated in defence of its annual rebate but able to veto the financial package. Designed to compensate the UK for its low receipts from the Common Agricultural Policy, the rebate is a prime target for France, and for Germany, which is a big net contributor to the EU. Speaking in Luxembourg yesterday, M Chirac said: “The time has come for our English friends to understand that they have to make a gesture of solidarity for Europe.” He added: “We cannot accept a reduction of direct aid to French farmers.” Mr Blair responded: “Britain has been making a gesture because over the past 10 years, even with the British rebate, we have been making a contribution to Europe two and a half times that of France. Without the rebate, it would have been 15 times as much as France. So that is our gesture.” He added that the “unfairness” that required the rebate was due to the agricultural policy. “My view is that if we want the debate on future financing, one part of that has got to be what Europe needs to spend its money on to prepare Europe for the 21st century, which is not the same as Europe 30 or 40 years ago,” he said. Most aspects of EU farm spending were fixed in 2002 and reopening this deal would be difficult. One option remains further cuts to money devoted to rural development subsidies. Under the proposal put forward by the Luxembourg presidency of the EU, these would be reduced by 18 per cent to €72-73bn over the seven-year period. Alternatively, further spending on structural funds to countries such as Spain and Italy could be made, although these would prompt a revolt from their capitals. Although Mr Blair has used tough language over the rebate, his form of words has left open the possibility that it could be frozen. But M. Chirac’s frontal assault yesterday makes British compromise less likely. Since Margaret Thatcher won the rebate in 1984, the proportion of the EU budget directed to farm spending has shrunk dramatically. The United Kingdom has become richer and 10 new, mainly former communist, countries have joined the EU and contribute to it. — The Independent |
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Chatterati by Devi Cherian Such confusion. Delhi its do not know what to make of the Nawab of Pataudi. Why so much noise for something he has been doing since childhood? After all it’s been the favourite sport of royalty and actually how would the common man like mere cops understand this. After all the Nawab was in the news first a couple of years back for hunting in a sanctuary in J&K. Even his son, Saif Ali Khan, was booked for hunting an endangered black buck deer in Rajasthan a few years ago. Well, hunting is not only a favourite sport but a chance to show off royalty. Many Nawabs and erstwhile “rajwadas” have been found hunting despite the ban. Though one would love to believe that there is no truth in the rumour about people buying themselves out of trouble, it’s impossible not to realise that something is amiss. One wonders as a routine why the Nawab was not as a matter of fact detained after the FIR was lodged. Who cares if he is an “aam admi” or a celebrity. If Salman Khan can be brought to the dock, then why is the Nawab being treated with kid gloves. Well, if BMW’s that run people over can turn into trucks, thanks to witnesses turning hostile, then in true filmy style let’s watch what laws and methods our keystone cops adopt now.
Stars twinkle
in Capital Bollywood was in town once again in abundance. It was a real treat as glamour stars like Anil Kapoor, Salman Khan, Fardeen Khan, Bipasha Basu and Celina Jaitle walked the ramp for Prologue’s anniversary. Fardeen Khan was with his fiancee, Mumtaz’s daughter Natasha. Whow! With the famous engagement ring of Rs 35 lakhs. The bald Feroze Khan had all young models and behenjis swooning. We had another formal evening held amidst tight security with the Bollywood brigade reprented by singers and lyricist Javed Akhtar, Shaan, Shanker Mahadevan etc. The chief guest was Vice-President Shekhawat and Chidambaram was there in his trade mark Tamil dress. On stage they recited the anthem for the evening composed by Javed Akhtar. As Javed began the recitation, Delhi-its could not take their eyes off the stage. Javed was joined by Shaan, Kailash Aiyar and Mahalakshmi Aiyer. Now, who can claim that Delhi is deprived of Bollywood stars?
Seshan turns Dean Let’s see what else our Vice-President was busy with. A school was launched by Shekhawat at his residence for our one-time middle class hero., T.N. Seshan, now in his new avtar as an academician. It sure seems like a hangover from the days when he swore to clear up politics. Seshan will be now in Pune-based MIT school as its dean. Now the school is modelled on the JKF School of Harward University and aims to educate students on pillars of democracy with an emphasis on the electoral process. The fee is, hold your breath-folks Rs 3.5 lakh annually. No V.I.P turned up at all. One thing for sure we can learn from Seshan is how to be a difficult civil servant. Oops! Remember how he once fought an election and nearly lost his deposit. But never mind, he can’t do worse than our politicians. |
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From the pages of GOVT ON BRINK OF BANKRUPTCY
BRITISH Administration in India is exceedingly costly, and is becoming more and more so every year. The Government makes efforts to economise, at least it says it does so, but nothing tangible has yet been done in this respect. The salaries and expenses of the civil departments of the State in India, which stood at £ 9, 575, 357 in 1873, grew to £ 11, 038, 594 in 1882.... The country is becoming perceptibly poorer and the State expenditure is becoming perceptibly larger. It is futile to talk of economy so long as almost all the important offices in the Government are in the hands of foreigners, whose motto, generally speaking, is to make hay while the sun shines. The Government merely talks of economy, while it goes on heedlessly squandering money wrung from the poor Indian tax-payer. |
What the whole Hindu race has thought in ages, Shri Ramakrishna lived in one life. His life is the living commentary to the Vedas of all nations. — Swami Vivekananda The only profit to be earned in this world is the Name of God which can be earned only by dwelling on the Guru’s word. — Guru Nanak God is a circle whose centre is everywhere, and its circumference nowhere. — Empedocles God’s name is the purest wealth. Man gets it only if He, the giver, is so disposed. — Guru Nanak God governs the world, and we have only to do our duty wisely, and leave the issue to him. — John Jay The very impossibility which I find to prove that God is not, discovers to me his existence. — Bruyere The higher the position of anything in the scale of reality, the deeper and more unified is the consciousness that is revealed in it.
— Sri Aurobindo  |
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