O P I N I O N S

EDITORIALS

Camps of hatred
Destroy them before they destroy peace
THERE are disturbing reports from Jammu and Kashmir and across the border. Infiltration attempts by terrorists have increased considerably for the past few days even before the melting of snow, which clogs the passes used by militants.

Setback for reforms
Decision on Bill shows Centre in a poor light
THE Union Government has buckled under pressure from the DMK to keep the Code of Criminal Procedure (Amendment) Bill, 2005, in abeyance.

• Thought for the day

ARTICLE

BJP’s predicament
To cut the umblical chord or not
by S. Nihal Singh
THERE comes a time in the life of a nation when political configurations are not merely changing but their very rationale is being questioned. Take the crisis in the Bharatiya Janata Party as it struggles to find a way out of its present predicament.

MIDDLE

Stark contrast
by Saroop Krishen
RK Kashik’s “Mother India” in real life’ (July 2) brought back to me memories of my earlier years of service. He mentions, among others, Fairhall and Manley of the police, who were my contemporaries and H.D. Bhanot, who was then a very senior ICS officer, and whose daughter married Fairhall.

OPED

Dateline Jakarta
Energy tips from Indonesia
by Nirmal Sandhu
INDIA'S post-reform growth surge is attracting ASEAN (Association of South East-Asian Nations), which for long had ignored this country. ASEAN was formed on August 8,1967, in Bangkok by Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand and Singapore.

Picasso’s lost women reunited in exhibition
by John Lichfield
FOUR portraits of women, dressed in the traditional costume of the town of Arles in the south of France, gaze at one another across a small room. “They are talking to each other,” says Anne Clergue. “They really talk to one another.” Small wonder. They have a lot to talk about.

Delhi Durbar
Cabinet reshuffle
FOR the past three months, there has been speculation about Prime Minister Manmohan Singh undertaking a Cabinet-reshuffle-cum-expansion.


From the pages of

• Honorary magistrates

REFLECTIONS

EDITORIALS

Camps of hatred
Destroy them before they destroy peace

THERE are disturbing reports from Jammu and Kashmir and across the border. Infiltration attempts by terrorists have increased considerably for the past few days even before the melting of snow, which clogs the passes used by militants. Last week alone, there were three major such incidents in which a number of infiltrators were gunned down. This could, however, be expected in view of the fact that the terrorist training camps in Pakistan and PoK had not been dismantled, at least till the London blasts. Not only that; many new such camps were bustling with activity, as highlighted by the respected Pakistani magazine Herald.

India had been aware of the terrorist training infrastructure, including the jihadi communication networks remaining intact, despite General Pervez Musharraf’s assurances not to allow any such activity in Pakistan and the territories under its control. Yet, New Delhi has been promoting the peace process in the belief that the General would prove true to his word. The existence of terrorist training camps is a serious matter and India has photographic evidence in support of its claim. The Pakistan Government, which was in a denial mode earlier, has at last acknowledged the reality, though indirectly, by launching a crackdown on what it calls the banned jihadi outfits. But it remains to be seen how far it goes against the Kashmir-centric terrorist outfits.

Pakistan must take on the terrorists of every variety earnestly in the interest of peace and stability in South Asia and the rest of the world. Their activities can hamper the peace process, as pointed out by India in the wake of the reports exposing the existence of terrorist training camps. People on both sides of the Indo-Pak divide will curse the regime in Islamabad if terrorists are able to harm the peace process, being carried on so painstakingly. Nothing should be done that goes to help the destructive cause of the terrorists and their masterminds as they are nobody’s friends. Pakistan should know it more than any other country, particularly after the London blasts.

Setback for reforms
Decision on Bill shows Centre in a poor light

THE Union Government has buckled under pressure from the DMK to keep the Code of Criminal Procedure (Amendment) Bill, 2005, in abeyance. It could have avoided this embarrassment had it done its homework and consulted all the political parties before getting it passed in the Budget session of Parliament. The lawyers’ associations all over the country have been protesting against the Bill. Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa has gone a step further in announcing that since the subject was in the Concurrent List, her government would bring forward an ordinance to remove the “objectionable” provisions in the Bill.

Opposition to the Bill is primarily focussed on three provisions — the one on anticipatory bail; test identification parade by executive magistrates; and making simple injuries with a deadly weapon a non-bailable offence. The Centre would do well to make an honest review of these provisions without in any way diluting the spirit of the Bill. The provision making the applicant’s presence in the court mandatory for seeking anticipatory bail is good because it would check VIPs like former Union Minister Shibu Soren, Haryana IG of Police R.K. Sharma and former Patna District Magistrate Gautam Goswami from hoodwinking the police. It may be recalled that all the three went underground for weeks prior to their surrender before the court. As the provision would act as an effective deterrent, why should it be diluted at all?

However, fears over test identification parade of the accused by executive magistrates, instead of judicial magistrates, seem justified because, if not reviewed, it is likely to be misused by the police to settle political scores. Needless to say, executive magistrates are comparatively susceptible to pressures. The Bill has some salutary features like compulsory medical examination of rape victims within 24 hours and judicial inquiry of all cases of custodial death and rape. Undertrial prisoners who have served the maximum period of imprisonment can also be released on personal bond without surety. The Bill has been hanging fire for over 11 years under successive governments. The Centre’s decision is, therefore, a setback to criminal justice reforms.

De-stress students
The examination system needs overhaul

STUDENTS can look forward to some alleviation of stress during their school-leaving examination, thanks to certain measures taken by the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE). The Board has done well to allow students an extra 15 minutes before the commencement of the examination to study the question paper. The question papers would be set in such a way that all the questions could be answered in two and a half hours, while the students would get three hours to respond to them. These are positive measures. It can only be hoped that an average student’s capabilities will be evaluated and provided for.

The focus on introducing internal assessment in mathematics, general science and social sciences, based on project work and assignments, is also a step forward, as it will force the students to work round the year, rather than just during the examination time. This will definitely contribute to a more holistic development of students. All this does not detract from the urgent need to overhaul the examination system.

The National Policy on Education was approved by Parliament nearly two decades ago. It envisaged child-centred education, but even today the school-going child’s life is bedevilled by a slavish adherence to rote methods and a fear of not doing well in examinations. It is almost universally acknowledged that this kind of focus on the examinations alone is unhealthy. However, nothing has been done to revise the system, and there have been too many instances of papers being leaked. That the students should concentrate on basic concepts, rather than cramming is obvious, but this can only be nurtured in an atmosphere where the student, the teacher and the examiner work together with greater integrity and involvement. De-stressing the examination system needs some innovative and out-of-the-box thinking, not the plodding band-aid response to some crisis.

Thought for the day

Science finds, industry applies, man conforms.

— Anonymous

ARTICLE

BJP’s predicament
To cut the umblical chord or not
by S. Nihal Singh

THERE comes a time in the life of a nation when political configurations are not merely changing but their very rationale is being questioned. Take the crisis in the Bharatiya Janata Party as it struggles to find a way out of its present predicament. Politicians never give up on the rhetoric of a Third Front coming to power and the aspiration to a two-party system, now less often reiterated than in earlier times, is threatening to go up in smoke.

For what is happening to the BJP is more than a party crisis. For the last six years, if not longer, the BJP had emerged as a real competitor of the Congress. Although its reach was deficient in parts of the country, it did assume the mantle of a national party and the six-year prime ministership of Mr Atal Bihari Vajpayee under the aegis of the National Democratic Alliance lent it the legitimacy it had lacked.

The symbiotic relationship between the BJP and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh had haunted the Jan Sangh, as the BJP once was, in the post-Emergency Janata Party government presided over by the veteran Morarji Desai. The RSS issue then was the proverbial hair that broke the camel’s back because the experiment was floundering for other reasons, but it was a telling illustration of the BJP’s Achilles heel, a party in perennial tutelage to its mentor, the RSS.

The new crisis, this time engineered by the BJP president, Mr L.K. Advani, to give himself a makeover in the unlikely event of the prime ministership coming his way is of greater import. In the first instance, the BJP was sharing power and refused to disavow its mentor. Now the BJP chief threw a gauntlet to the RSS in the form of denying the concept of Akhand Bharat (greater India) and suggesting that the demolition of the Babri Masjid, which was a logical culmination of his blood-stained cross-country rathyatra, was the saddest day of his life. Mr Advani’s remarks on Jinnah’s secularism - subsequently contradicted in a BJP resolution - proved to be a good stick to beat him with.

Whether and how this challenge to the RSS’s authority is patched up is less important than Mr Advani’s open rebellion against the party’s mentor. In its chequered history, the RSS has changed hues and has often claimed to be a social and cultural organisation. As far as the BJP is concerned, it was universally accepted as the power behind the throne and the party even felt the need for inducting men from the RSS ranks such as Mr Narendra Modi in the party and the administration.

As the BJP became more and more corrupted by the exercise of power in the states and ultimately at the Centre, the party came increasingly to rely on the RSS for support. Come election time — and India never seems to be out of the election mode — RSS volunteers and workers often make the vital difference between victory and defeat. Discipline, an attribute the party once flaunted, is woeful in its ranks and the motto of unselfish service has receded into the distance. Take the most recent instance of the BJP Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh inducting his daughter-in-law into the state Cabinet.

Mr Advani’s own career in the BJP seems to be at an end and even his position as the Leader of the Opposition is at best tenuous. In reality, Mr Advani can stay on in either post on humiliating terms, which would reflect badly on the party and the Opposition. Poor Mr George Fernandes, with his penchant for putting his foot in his mouth, was scorched for suggesting that the RSS should not interfere in the BJP’s affairs. The Janata Dal (U) leader has his own problems because he does not know where the BJP crisis will take him or the National Democratic Alliance.

The logical result of the BJP crisis would be a split in the party in the hoary tradition of so many parties, starting with the Communists, then the Congress and a host of others who often added new adjuncts after the original party’s name. Ideologically, the BJP’s predicament is the closest to the then Communists’ challenge although in the latter case, it was determined by an external factor — the split in the Communist movement. If a splinter group in the BJP were to form a new party, it would proclaim its independence of the RSS while emphasising its Hindu identity in a more modern fashion. In other words, it would aspire to be a centre-right party.

This is not to suggest that Mr Advani is straining to proclaim a new BJP and even if he were to do so, whether he would find a sufficient number of supporters. But the BJP’s traditional urban support base of shopkeepers and traders is fraying and in the new age of globalisation and Indian business optimism, it is open to question whether the old swadeshi recipes are relevant. It is, of course, quite possible that the crisis in the BJP is utilised by another leader or group to form a new party seeking the role of a more sober and rational version of the BJP.

Is the ideal of a two-party system at the national level then dead? We are looking at the two lead parties governing with regional and other small parties. The Left parties showed great resilience in the last general election and have been assertive in demanding their pound of flesh for the support they are offering to the Congress-led coalition. But the Left is not even a blip on the radar in the vital Hindi-speaking states and even the enthusiastic proponents of the third front in the Left parties know that the rag-tag collection of regional parties that could form such a front is not credible as a pillar of support.

The crisis in the BJP comes at an awkward time for the party, which is waiting for a generational change. The tussle for power among the second rung of leaders is intense, even without the new burden of Mr Advani’s challenge to the RSS. If the RSS were to pick a leader, the party’s credibility would suffer further. Although the RSS has coupled its criticism of Mr Advani with a broadside at the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, the latter was held to account for intemperate language, not an ideological misdemeanour. But any new leader of the BJP will have to perform the task of mollifying the RSS while retaining the loyalty of the extremist fringe of the Sangh Parivar to employ as shock troops for political purpose.

Many in the RSS are, of course, wondering whether it is not time for the outspoken RSS chief, Mr K. Sudarshan, to retire. Perhaps the answer to the BJP’s predicament lies in Mr Vajpayee assuming the party presidency for the short term.

MIDDLE

Stark contrast
by Saroop Krishen

RK Kashik’s “Mother India” in real life’ (July 2) brought back to me memories of my earlier years of service. He mentions, among others, Fairhall and Manley of the police, who were my contemporaries and H.D. Bhanot, who was then a very senior ICS officer, and whose daughter married Fairhall.

Actually, as it happens, Manley too got married to the daughter of another ICS officer, Ramchandra, more senior than even Bhanot. Bhanot, incidentally, was an outstanding member of the ICS with an excellent record of service, besides having a great reputation for exceedingly pleasant manners to match.

I recall that when I joined my first posting in November, 1940, the local Deputy Commissioner deputed a rather lowly member of the establishment to meet me at the railway station and escort me to the rest house in a tonga. My first contact some two years later with Bhanot, who was then commissioner, Multan division, was on quite different lines. I was posted at Lyallpur in the same division, and he sent me orders to hold a departmental inquiry which, I found, would include my stay at Multan for two or three days.

The formal orders were accompanied with a letter from him, saying he would be glad if while in Multan I would stay with him. I, of course, accepted his kind invitation most gratefully but what took my breath away was what happened next. The only train to Multan got me there at the unearthly hour of 4 a.m., but there on the railway platform was Bhanot, the Commissioner, in person, waiting to receive me, ( a man with just two years’ service) and drives me home! And when my work at Multan was completed he was good enough to come again to the station to see me off. I had really to pinch myself to make certain that it was not all a dream of mine.

Another experience I remember with particular pleasure is when I was Deputy Commissioner at Campbellpur (now in Pakistan) in 1946-47. I received a letter from the Military Secretary of the Punjab Governor (Sir Evan Jankins) saying that the Governor had decided to invite a few young officers to stay at Barnes Court (now Raj Bhavan) at Simla for a few days during the summer and if my wife and I would like to avail of the invitation. (It was also explained that the Governor thought it would be “inconvenient” for such officers to arrange for accommodation in the hill stations on their own and hence the proposal). It was indeed a very thoughtful gesture and we were very happy to accept the hospitably that was offered.

OPED

Dateline Jakarta
Energy tips from Indonesia
by Nirmal Sandhu

INDIA'S post-reform growth surge is attracting ASEAN (Association of South East-Asian Nations), which for long had ignored this country. ASEAN was formed on August 8,1967, in Bangkok by Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand and Singapore. It expanded 1984 onwards to include Brunei, Vietnam, Laos, Myanmar and Cambodia. Today these countries with a collective population of 500 million view India with respect and see a huge potential for trade.

The name “Indonesia” is composed of two Greek words: “Indos” meaning India and “Nesos” meaning islands. Its five main islands are Sumatra, Java, Kalimantan, Sulawesi and Papua. December to March is the rainy season and June to September is dry. High humidity (70 to 90 per cent) makes the weather a little uncomfortable.

Under an ASEAN-sponsored media exchange programme, 10 Indian journalists visited Indonesia and Singapore from July 10 to 16. What follows is a first-hand account of some interesting features of the two countries.

****

(To be concluded)

Picasso’s lost women reunited in exhibition
by John Lichfield

FOUR portraits of women, dressed in the traditional costume of the town of Arles in the south of France, gaze at one another across a small room. “They are talking to each other,” says Anne Clergue. “They really talk to one another.” Small wonder. They have a lot to talk about.

The “women” have the same famous “father” (Pablo Picasso) and “mother” (the American photographer, Lee Miller). They have not been together for almost 70 years.

The four Arlésiennes — women of Arles — are portraits painted by Picasso in 1937. They were among a score of Arlésiennes he painted, during three periods of his long life, as a homage to Vincent van Gogh and a tribute to Arles, a beautiful Roman town at the apex of the Rhône delta.

Van Gogh’s original Arlésienne, painted when he lived in the town in 1888 (just before his celebrated assault on his own ear) is among his most-loved works. Picasso idolised Van Gogh. He also adored Arles, which claims to have the most beautiful women in France (and consequently, the French say, the most beautiful women in the world).

Picasso’s Arlésiennes, scattered in private collections, have never been brought together before. After two years of global detective work by the town’s small Van Gogh Foundation — taking Anne Clergue, its director, to Australia, India, the United States and across Europe — seven of the Picasso Arlésiennes have been assembled in their “home” town this summer.

The small, but stunning, exhibition condenses into four rooms the little-known connections between two generations of artists who, between them, sketched the loose outlines of modern art. The show even has — on display for the first time — a tiny photograph of a tall, distracted-looking painter walking near Arles in 1888. The figure is believed to be Van Gogh. No other photograph of him exists. The print, owned by a French family for many years, was recently auctioned. The new (anonymous) owner agreed to allow the original photograph to be shown in the Picasso exhibition at Arles (but not otherwise reproduced).

The show also has another coup, the preliminary charcoal sketch made by Van Gogh’s friend Paul Gaugin (before they quarrelled) of his own equally famous Arlésienne portrait of Marie Ginoux. The Gaugin sketch, on loan from the Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco, was made while Van Gogh was in the same room, painting the formidable Mme Ginoux from a different angle.

Ginoux is also the subject of Van Gogh’s first and most famous Arlésienne (in the Musée d’Orsay in Paris). Van Gogh painted four other “Arlésiennes”, which were copied not from his original, but from the Gauguin sketch in the Arles exhibition.

Picasso’s 20 or so Arlésiennes, although triumphantly converted into his own abstract-anarchic style or styles, also draw on Ginoux’s pose in 1888. Few other artistic models (she was actually a middle-aged bar owner) can have inspired so many celebrated portraits, by so many celebrated artists over such a long period.

— The Independent

Delhi Durbar
Cabinet reshuffle

FOR the past three months, there has been speculation about Prime Minister Manmohan Singh undertaking a Cabinet-reshuffle-cum-expansion.

Undoubtedly there are gaps in Dr Manmohan Singh’s Cabinet with certain ministers being burdened with additional charge.

Then a vacancy has arisen because of the death of Sunil Dutt, who was looking after the portfolio of Youth Affairs and Sports.

The ministerial aspirants will have to cool their heels till the Prime Minister makes up his mind and Congress President Sonia Gandhi nods.

Next Finance Secretary

The Finance Secretary’s post is lying vacant. Certain politicians claim that the Finance Secretary’s post has been devalued since Yashwant Sinha’s elevation as Finance Minister during the NDA’s rule at the Centre.

After a brief stint, Rakesh Mohan was reverted as the Deputy Governor of the RBI. He seemed quite pleased.

The names of several bureaucrats including that of Economic Affairs Secretary Ashok Jha are being talked about for the Finance Secretary’s post.

Birthday gift for Pawar

Pune’s Lohegaon airport is being upgraded to an international one. This is going to be a birthday gift for Union Agriculture Minister and NDP chief Sharad Pawar.

Pawar’s protege and Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel wants a bash to celebrate his mentor’s 64th. birthday on December 12.

Lohegaon airport hosts a military airbase commercial flights to Mumbai and Delhi also operate from there. However, civil aviation experts are thinking aloud if Pune has enough international traffic necessitating its upgradation.

Gas project on track

The election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as the new hardline President of Iran may be causing headaches for the Western powers even as New Delhi is bracing itself to engage the Iranian leader considering its traditional relations with that country. Iran provides India a window to Afghanistan and energy- rich Central Asia.

Some high-level visits are on the anvil and New Delhi has maintained that it will make its position clear about Iran to the US leadership.

Even though the US has expressed its serious concerns about the Iran-Pakistan-India gas pipeline, mandarins in the ministry of External Affairs and Iranian diplomats insist that the project will go ahead uninterrupted.

Spicing it up in the sky

One of the latest entrants in the low-budget airline Spicejet has come out with innovative names for its fleet — just three at the moment.

The airline has named its three aircraft as Ginger, Mirchi and Turmeric and propose to christen aircraft similarly.

The airline plans to offer its passengers small pouches of the special “spices” from different regions of the country.

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Contributed by Gaurav Choudhury, Prashant Sood, Rajeev Sharma and Girja Shankar Kaura

From the pages of

August 28, 1895

Honorary magistrates

The Honorary Magistrates of Lahore are the best in the Province, and if we can show that even their judicial work is seriously prejudiced to the interests of true justice the reader can easily judge for himself the condition of things in other districts and places where Honorary Magistrates are appointed.

In other provinces the majority of Honorary Magistrates are men belonging to the profession of law, and the rest are generally men of some education. In the Punjab high education is treated as a disqualification. In the public service such appointments as Extra Assistant Commissionerships and Munsifships are generally given to men who have taken no degree and have no particular educational qualifications. Consequently with this policy care is taken in selecting Honorary Magistrates to appoint only such men as are not troubled with the doubtful blessings of high education. Men almost illiterate have been appointed Honorary Magistrates, and we do not think anyone will dispute the fact that ignorance of law is one of the best recommendations for the appointment of an Honorary Magistrate.

REFLECTIONS

—The Mahabharata