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Burning casteism Talks with Hurriyat |
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Inside Iraq
Can Musharraf deliver?
The salt and pepper set
Pak devolution of power Anti-rape device spurs controversy Delhi Durbar
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Burning casteism THE nasty demon of casteism has defied all attempts to exorcise it. Every now and then it raises its ugly head, leaving dazed victims in its wake. The latest visitation was at Gohana in Haryana on Wednesday where an irate mob of high-caste Jats torched houses of more than a dozen Dalit families. If it is any consolation, there was no loss of life but that was only because the Dalits had already run away from their ramshackle houses fearing reprisal after a Jat youth was done to death, allegedly by some Dalits. Tension had been in the air for quite some time. And yet the police failed to protect the hearths and homes of the Dalits. Ironically, the “upper-caste” people are also cut up with the police for its alleged indifference in investigating the murder and arresting the culprits. The situation has been made worse by politicisation of the affair. The Rohtak byelection is near and political parties seem out to look for issues, which they can play up. The traditional rivalry between the two communities has come in handy for them. Among those booked for indulging in acts of arson are the son and the brother of a sitting Lok Sabha MP. How unfortunate it is that the persons who should be cooling down frayed tempers tend to stoke the fire! What was a simple murder case has now become a flashpoint between two rival factions, who happen to belong to different communities. It is the duty of the government to defuse the situation before it turns even nastier. The violence and agitations that are being organised in Haryana and the neighbouring states will only worsen matters. The enquiry ordered by the Haryana Chief Minister will be meaningful only if it brings the wrongdoers to book quickly. The relations between the two communities should not be allowed to be spoiled by a handful of criminal hotheads. |
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Talks with Hurriyat Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s invitation to Hurriyat Conference leader Mirwaiz Omar Farooq for talks on the Kashmir issue on September 5 is reassuring. Talks between the Centre and the Kashmiri leadership had reached a dead-end and this has been causing concern. The Centre’s interlocutor, who has been holding consultations at various levels, has done the spadework for the talks due on September 5. There is now growing realisation on both sides of the Line of Control that for resolving the vexed issue, there is no alternative to talks. The government has proved time and again that it can withstand pressures of the kind the terrorists exert on the state apparatus. Its readiness to face a long drawn-out proxy war has also opened the eyes of all those who thought that India could be browbeaten to part with a slice of its land and population. This has set the framework for talks. For all its claims of representing the Kashmiri public opinion, the Hurriyat is as yet an untested entity. Its entire claim to fame is that it can successfully organise shutdowns in Srinagar at short notice. But how far representative the umbrella organisation is of people living in the three main regions of Jammu and Kashmir is not known. In the tussle for supremacy in the Hurriyat, Mr Farooq seems to have defeated Syed Ali Shah Geelani. However, there can be no denying that in the process the Hurriyat has been weakened. All this underlines the point that the Centre cannot afford to place all its eggs in the Hurriyat basket. It should hold talks with other representative organisations also so that any solutions reached have wider acceptance and enforceability. No region or sections of people should feel that they have been left out of the dialogue. After their recent visit to Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, the Hurriyat leaders would have realised that the common people there are also weary of tension and want peace. On its part, Pakistan can play a significant role in impressing upon the Hurriyat that while holding talks, it should insist only on conditions that are acceptable to a majority of the people. In other words, the talks should be held in an atmosphere of give and take. |
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Inside Iraq WEDNESDAY’S stampede in Iraq, leading to the death of nearly 1000 people, is the most telling proof that chaos continues to rule that country. Killings in bomb blasts or raids on terrorist hideouts have become the order of the day. Members of the interim government, busy with strengthening their sectarian position, have no time to think of establishing peace. That is, perhaps, why they allowed a massive crowd to pass through the Tigris bridge to participate in a Shia religious function. It was an open invitation to the anti-Shia forces — Sunni extremists — to create trouble, and they did it by spreading rumour that some suicide bombers were there in their midst. The minority Sunnis, the traditional rulers, are unable to adjust to the new reality. Now it is a Shia-dominated Iraq with the Kurds having emerged as the second most powerful group. The Sunnis have refused to give their nod to the controversial draft constitution, which will be adopted if the coming referendum goes in its favour. The Sunnis and a section of the Shias, led by firebrand Muqtada al-Sadr, derisively call it an “American constitution”, not fit for governing Iraq. Its stress is on federalism, which may lead to the Shia and Kurdish control of Iraq’s oil wells, located mostly in their areas. The Sunnis fear that Iraq cannot remain united if the present draft constitution is adopted. Besides this, they will be left with an area devoid of oil wealth. They also do not want a constitution, which seeks to establish a government on the lines of that in neighbouring Iran. That will mean their permanent subjugation. The US, too, does not favour a government, which draws inspiration from Iran. But it does not want to allow any concession to the Sunnis most of whom, it believes, are Saddam loyalists. The chaotic atmosphere suits the extremists working on their destructive agenda. |
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A little learning is a dangerous thing; Drink deep, or taste not the pierian. — Alexander Pope
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Can Musharraf deliver? REPORTS of terrorists training camps in Pakistan being reopened, rising cases of infiltration from across the LoC in Jammu and Kashmir and the fact that so far no concrete action has been taken to uproot the jihadi infrastructure, have once again raised doubts about General Pervez Musharraf’s commitment to the peace process with India. But despite all the negative developments in recent weeks, General Musharraf remains the one man on whom the future of Pakistan and, indeed, the peace process between India and Pakistan depends critically. One is aware that many people will roll their eyeballs in utter frustration at this proposition, because this is exactly what has been said about every individual who has ever ruled Pakistan. There are, however, very valid reasons for cutting some slack for General Musharraf, but without compromising either India’s vital national and security interests or lowering the pressure on the General to deliver on his agenda of “enlightened moderation”. Howsoever imperfectly, he is trying to reverse everything that Gen. Zia-ul Haque did to Pakistan in the name of Islam. General Musharraf’s public pronouncements against the fundamentalist and radical groups are quite revolutionary, at least in the Pakistani context. No one else in Pakistan has tried to take on the radical Islam, even if this is only verbally, the way General Musharraf has. He has spoken in favour of reform of madarsas, blasted the closed mindset and petty thinking of the Maulvis and openly called upon the people to defeat the Islamists in elections, favoured celebrating traditional festivals like Basant, reformed the political system by introducing joint electorates for religious minorities and reserving seats for women, and tried to introduce reform in the school curriculum and give it a more secular look. His general liberal approach has allowed the Pakistani society to breathe much easier and more freely than it has done in the last 25 years. Most of all, he has tried to get off the Kashmir hobby-horse of the Pakistani military and religious establishment. In General Musharraf’s case, his evolution from a time he was an unabashed jihadi General, to a time when he thought he could run with the jihadi hare and hunt with the American hound, to now when he is emerging as an outspoken critic of Islamic radicalism and a man “with a new heart” on India, has been quite remarkable. It can, however, be argued, and quite correctly, that despite his efforts to put Pakistan on a moderate path, nothing has really changed — the madarsas keep spouting poison, the state schools curriculum has not changed in any significant manner, the minorities continue to be third-class citizens, the Islamists continue to do their own thing without much let or hindrance from the state. And yet, the fact remains that General Musharraf has gone much further than all the so-called liberal and moderate political forces in trying to put Pakistan along a moderate path. General Musharraf’s critics continue to place a great deal of faith in democracy to pull Pakistan out of the rut of radicalism. But the ground reality militates against such misplaced faith in the so-called liberal and moderate political forces. When, if ever, have these political forces spoken out as openly as General Musharraf has done against Islamic fundamentalism? If anything, they have been duplicitous on the issue of both radical Islam and peace with India and have always hidden behind the coat-tails of the Army to hide their duplicity. Many will argue that the overwhelming and overbearing influence of the Army in Pakistan’s politics never allowed civilian politicians to really speak up against the fundamentalists. And now that the Army itself has, at least ostensibly, undergone a paradigm shift on the issue of radical Islam and even India, the civilian politicians will be able to come into their own. But the corollary to this logic is that the civilians still follow the lead of the Army. If this is the case then why not deal with the Army itself? What is more, many Pakistani analysts have commented that a civilian politician would have resisted international pressure to change course much more than General Musharraf has done. If indeed this is the case, then it makes more sense to have someone like General Musharraf at the helm rather than a politician who would try to hedge his bets and not go the whole distance in eradicating radical Islam. Of course, General Musharraf’s task of ridding Pakistan of General Zia’s poisonous legacy is not easy. The virus of radicalism has spread too far into Pakistan’s body politic. As things stand, General Musharraf is today deeply unpopular in Pakistan not only because of the paradigm shift he is trying to bring about in the country but also because of his close relationship with the US and his peace overtures to India. While his ever growing unpopularity is a statement on how difficult his task is in reforming Pakistan, it is also an indication of how limited his space for manoeuvre is. General Musharraf’s problems are compounded by the fact that he has not been able to effectively sell his agenda for either political reform or the peace process. While the political opposition will not lose any chance to pull him down by accusing him of a sell-out, even the commitment of his own camp followers is suspect. His political partners — the ruling PML — are conservative with leanings towards fundamentalists, and even as General Musharraf raves and rants against radical Islamists, his own ministers, like Mr Ejazul Haq (son of Gen Zia-ul Haque) pay eulogies to suicide bombers and express the desire to follow their path. He is unable to rope in parties with liberal pretensions like the PPP because of political compulsions. His core constituency — the Army — too is not very comfortable with the direction and pace he is setting, especially since there is very little on offer as far as the “core issue” of Kashmir is concerned. Another major problem General Musharraf suffers from is that, like any military officer, he believes that once he has issued orders they are deemed to have been implemented. But this is hardly the case, with the bureaucracy and intelligence agencies playing their own games, especially when it comes to cracking down on the jihadi groups which they have nurtured for so long. This factor, coupled with exigencies of politics, that has often forced him to backtrack on some steps he has announced with great fanfare, has dented his credibility. The big question, therefore, is: can General Musharraf deliver? As things stand, he is fast running out of both time and options. His efforts to isolate the jihadis politically and socially have not worked. Nor have attempts to keep a check on the Islamists by banning radical groups and asking jihadis to furnish certificates of good behaviour. The only real option left is to eliminate these groups and their poisonous ideology by carrying out a Stalinist purge against them. But this will have massive political and social repercussions and could well “capsize the boat of the Pakistani state”.
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The salt and pepper set
It was the end of the academic year at the University College in Swansea in Wales. My husband and I had completed a course at the university. It was time to go home and so time to buy gifts. One afternoon I set out for the Quadrant shopping centre accompanied by my nine-year-old son. A promising start was the household section of a departmental store. Here Wedgewood and Royal Doulton stood in the exquisite company of Bohemian chrystal and silverware. Every piece glowed in ethereal splendour from immaculate glass shelves. My eyes fell on a neat silver plated salt and pepper set which appeared affordable. I lifted the tray to see the price. Before I knew what had happened, everything on the tray cascaded on to the shelf. There was the crash of splintered glass and the sound of the salt and pepper cellars rolling to destruction. I froze into a statue still holding the little tray, horrified at what I had done. The shattered glass shelf in smithereens on the floor was evidence enough of my guilt. Living as we did on a meagre student stipend, my heart pounded at the thought of the damages I would have to cough up. More than the money I could not bear to see the reproach and embarrassment on my young son’s face - too young to snap at me for what I’d done - old enough to know when trouble was around the corner. I heard the patter of a saleswoman’s feet as she came running to assess the damage. Young, blond and wide-eyed, she stared at the broken glass scattered all over, stupefied by my litany of “sorrys” and my entreaties to let me pay for the damage. Without making eye contact she scampered to the back of the shop and emerged again with a matronly supervisor in tow, twice her age, twice her size, spectacles dangling on her battleship chest, grey hair parted severely in the centre of a stern forehead. Again I gushed and stammered away, “I’m sorry, I’m so so sorry, I’m really very sorry, Please let me pay for it. How much will it be? 50 pounds?” I quickly calculated how much money I had with me. My stomach turned when I saw the pathetic face of my nine-year-old son, scared to death at what might happen to his mother - besides the embarrassment of having such a clumsy parent. Within a minute came the sound of clicking leather shoes striding down the granite floor. A young man in a dark suit, the label “Manager” writ large on his Anglo-Saxon visage, surveyed the damage and then me. He took in my jeans, parka and a shabby, knitted woollen cap. He looked at my son — his scrawny, brown, nine-year-old neck supporting a home-cropped beatle haircut. And suddenly he burst out laughing. I felt humiliated beyond words. I was certain he was being racist. With whatever dignity I could muster I confronted him in my most clipped convent diction, “why are you laughing?” “Because” he said in an endearing Welsh accent, “this happens all the time, but no one has ever said sorry!” With that he enquired gently whether I still wanted to buy the salt and pepper set, had a new one wrapped up, personally handed me the bill, shook my hand, rumpled my son’s hair and disappeared as I stood too dumbfounded even to utter my
thanks. |
Pak devolution of power Democracy has been anathema to Pakistani rulers during a large part of the country’s existence. Even those leaders who came to power through democratic elections spent the major part of their tenures trying to hide a skeleton or two in the closet. But since some ghosts refused to stay in the dark, decentralisation of power and establishment of a strong and viable system of local government never found favour with them. Paradoxically, it is the military rulers who have sought to introduce a semblance of democracy at the local level, albeit to the advance their own political agenda. Gen Ayub Khan, Gen Zia-ul-Haq and Gen Pervez Musharraf have all sought political legitimacy for their rule by creating a political constituency through local government institutions. However, unlike the earlier experiments in local democracy, President Musharraf’s Local Government Plan 2000 is a radically new system of governance which aims to empower people at the grassroots level. It is designed to place the traditionally underprivileged in power by revolutionising the levels of representation of women, peasants/workers and minorities at the lowest tier of local government. In the words of Makhdoom Shah Mehmood Qureshi, senior Pakistan People’s Party leader, General Musharraf has “presented himself as a dictator who is serious about brining back democracy at the local level.” The two-phase local elections (August 18, 25) may not be without blemishes. But the just concluded panchayat elections in Uttar Pradesh may be only marginally better. On balance, General Musharraf’s experiment is not farcical like Ayub Khan’s “basic democracy”. Under the latter, only union councils (like Indian panchayats) had chairmen, who were indirectly elected. As far as tehsil councils and district councils were concerned, the controlling authority was vested with government officials. The Musharraf model has sought to change the entire governance paradigm. Local government institutions are now the third tier of government and perhaps the only tier which has legitimacy. It is, of course, far from bringing “justice to the people’s doorstep” as envisaged under the much-vaunted Local Government Plan 2000. And yet, the establishment of the district government and the defanging of the bureaucracy may change the grammar of Pakistani politics. The elected nazim has been placed at the apex of the district administration, replacing the traditional authority of the all-powerful Deputy Commissioner. He has not only been stripped of judicial and magisterial powers, but has also been made subordinate to the district nazim. General Musharraf’s tightrope walk is becoming increasingly perilous. When he came to power in 1999 through a bloodless coup, he assured the Pakistani public that military rule was necessary to stem the rot and to restore democracy in the country. Later, the Supreme Court upheld his military putsch but gave him a three-year deadline to restore democracy. General Musharraf met that deadline, at least nominally, and held elections in October, 2002. However, where he left his mark was in putting in place elected local bodies, which revolutionised grassroots democracy in Pakistan. It provided for the five Ds — devolution of political power, decentralisation of administrative authority, distribution of resources to districts, de-concentration of management and functions, and diffusion of the power-authority nexus. A total of 2,26,294 candidates contested elections for 79,617 seats in the union councils in 110 districts across Pakistan on August 18 and 25, in what were only the second such elections since General Musharraf assumed power. Over 56,000 women were in the running for 24,160 seats. Intimidation of voters, rigging, misuse of official machinery and use of muscle power are the ills plaguing electoral politics in South Asia. India often gets accolades for its mammoth democratic elections and yet, Dalits and weaker sections of people are still not allowed to vote in several pockets of feudal influence. But the scenario in Pakistan is worse in some ways. Its complicated politics involves the highest of stakes. The mullah-military alliance keeps political parties on their toes. The Election Commission of Pakistan is also a toothless wonder. The Pakistani Press has reported several incidents of tribal elders in NWFP banning women from voting, but Province Chief Minister Akram Durrani has denied these reports. What is rather shocking is a disturbing phenomenon of “pre-poll rigging”, whereby a large number of candidates have been elected unopposed. As Hasan-Askari Rizvi wonders, “Isn’t it incredible that in Sindh and Baluchistan, all the members of some union councils were elected unopposed?” Local government elections are viewed by analysts as a trial run for the 2007 general election and President Musharraf’s re-election. The outcome of these polls seems to go well with the script. The wily General may have beaten the Islamic Alliance at its own game. While the Pakistan Muslim League (Q) — also known as the king’s party — and its allies have done well in Punjab and Sindh, the MMA has been stopped in its tracks in its own stronghold. The setback to Islamists in NWFP fits in the scheme of things: no party should become so popular as to challenge the Army’s supremacy. Benazir’s PPP and Nawaz Sharif’s PML(N) have incurred heavy losses. All said, local elections in Pakistan may be flawed but the experiment has further bolstered General Musharraf’s credentials. More significantly, the political empowerment of women and other disadvantaged groups, says Farzana Bari of Quaid-I-Azam University, Islamabad, “is an important step towards better quality in governance.” Aisha Hussain of the Pattan Development Organisation echoed similar sentiments, saying that the 33 per cent quota has given women “greater visibility” in public life and the confidence to fight for their rights. It has opened up “enormous political space for women who were otherwise shut out of the system.” The
writer led a delegation of Indian local government leaders to
Pakistan.
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Anti-rape device spurs controversy
A medieval device built on hatred of men? Or a cheap, easy-to-use invention that could free millions of South African women from fear of rape, in a country with the worst sexual assault record on earth? Dubbed the “rape trap’’, trademarked
“Rapex’’, the condom-like device bristling with internal hooks designed to snare rapists has re-ignited controversy over the nation’s alarming rape rate, even before it was launched officially in South Africa’s Western Cape on Wednesday. Some say the inventor, Sonette Ehlers, deserves a medal, others, that she needs help. The device, which must be concealed inside a woman’s body, hooks onto a rapist during penetration, and must be surgically removed. Ehlers, a former medical technician, said the rape trap would be so painful for a rapist that it would disable him immediately, enabling his victim to escape; but she insisted it would cause no long-term physical damage to the assailant, and could not accidentally injure the woman. Some women’s activists call the device regressive, putting the onus on individual women to address a societal, male problem. Even Charlene Smith, an outspoken journalist and anti-rape campaigner, said the device “goes back to the concept of chastity belts’’ and predicted it would incite injured rapists to kill their victims. “You will get a higher rate of women being killed,’’ Smith said. “We don’t need these nut-case devices by people hoping to make a lot of money out of other women’s fear.’’ But Ehlers contends that South Africa’s rape problem is so severe that women cannot just wait for male attitudes to improve with education. She said her company had received many inquiries from around the world in recent months, even though production is not expected to begin until next year. ``I don’t hate men. I love men. I have not got revenge in mind. All I am doing is giving women their power back,’’ Ehlers said in an interview. “I don’t even hate rapists. But I hate the deed with a passion.’’ Ehlers foresees women inserting the device as a vital part of a daily security routine that has come to include switching on the electric fence around the family home and activating the house alarm each night. South Africa has the highest per capita rate of reported rapes in the world — 119 per 100,000 people, according to the United Nations. That compares with 30 per 100,000 in the United States. Analysts and women’s advocacy groups argue South Africa’s total, including unreported rapes could be five to nine times higher. Ehlers sees her invention as particularly attractive to low income black women, whom she says are more vulnerable to rape than middle-income South Africans, because they often walk long distances through unsafe areas to and from work. The single-use disposable device would sell for one
rand, (about 15 cents) and Ehlers plans to market it in packets of 10 at major supermarkets. She said a majority of the 2,000 South African women her company had surveyed said they were willing to use the device. Ehlers said she was inspired to design the device after meeting a traumatized young rape victim in a hospital in 1969, who told her, “If only I had teeth down there.’’ Ehlers said she kept the memory, struggling to overcome engineering problems to develop the device, which is soft “like a jelly baby.’’ — LA Times-Washington Post |
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Delhi Durbar Now that S.K. Lambah has been appointed special envoy in the Prime Minister’s Office, the former High Commissioner to Pakistan has
activated back-channel diplomacy with Islamabad. Clearly, Lambah has emerged as Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s pointsperson for talks with Pakistan. When the Prime Minister desired sending a direct and blunt message to Pakistan, Lambah is believed to have held parleys with his counterpart Tariq Aziz and impressed upon him to do more on fighting terrorism in Pakistan and facilitate the next phase of the Indo-Pak composite dialogue.
Why Khurana is angry As party general secretary in charge of Gujarat, Madan Lal Khurana had helped Narendra Modi against Keshubhai Patel.
Later, when Khurana relinquished his gubernatorial assignment in Rajasthan, his eyes were set on a Rajya Sabha seat from Gujarat. There were other contenders for the Rajya Sabha seat and L.K. Advani had different ideas. That’s why Khurana is peeved both against Advani and Modi, if the BJP grapevine is to be believed.
Going soft on Modi The assembly session in Gandhinagar is slated for September 12 and likely to see a vote of no-confidence against Modi. Of the total 192 MLAs, the strength of the Narendra Congress in the Gujarat assembly is 55. The strength of the BJP dissident MLAs is also the same. Even as Shankarsinh Vaghela is actively supporting Keshubhai Patel, Ahmed Patel, political adviser to Sonia Gandhi, is trying to soften the heat on Modi through Congress leaders like Arjun Morwadia and Bharat Solanki.
Hooda’s son rise not yet The talk of another politician son rising in the Congress appears to have taken a back seat — at least for the present. This pertains to Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda’s son Deependra Hooda. Apparently, efforts were on to field him from the Rohtak Lok Sabha constituency, but that has fizzled out.
Gaur behind river project? Chief Minister Babulal Gaur was keen to take the credit for the Ken-Betwa river linkage project. Realising that Mulayam Singh Yadav was dragging his feat on the project, Gaur, whose family had migrated from the country’s biggest state and is also a Yadav by caste, took the initiative without standing on false prestige and conceded most demands of the UP Chief Minister to make the project a reality. Contributed
by Rajeev Sharma, S Satyanarayanan, Prashant Sood and Satish Misra. |
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Dec. 17, 1903 Partition of Bengal
The Government of India thinks it desirable to reduce the territorial jurisdiction of the Lieut-Governor with the object of lightening the excessive burden now imposed upon the local Government by the increase of population, the expansion of commercial and industrial enterprise, and the growing complexity of all branches of administration.... The spread of English education and the wider diffusion of the native Press tend to increase litigation, to demand more precise methods of administration, to give greater publicity to the conduct of officials, and in every way to place a heavier strain upon the head of the Government and all ranks of his subordinates. In the opinion of the Government of India the time has come when the relief of the Bengal Government must be regarded as an administrative necessity of the first order. The laxity in administration which is certainly noticeable in Bengal is traceable to the fact that the weakness shown by a succession of reactionary Lieutenant-Governors, who did not care to cultivate Indian public opinion, encouraged the officials to get out of hand. We do not think that it will be possible to secure an increased contact between the people and the administration merely by curtailing the territorial jurisdiction of the Lieut-Governor. |
Even as a mother protects with her life her child, her only child, so with a boundless heart should one cherish all living beings. — The Buddha No true and permanent success can be founded except in labours which promote the happiness of mankind. — Book of quotations on Success Rivers lose their indentity by submerging in the ocean. Men lose their differences by submerging in him. — The Upanishads To solve a simple arithmetic problem, you need to contemplate. Think, how much more contemplation is necessary to solve the great problem of life. — Book of quotations on Hinduism
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