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Avoidable ruckus Information: more, or less |
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Freedom of pressure
No end to terrorist threat
Performance appraisal
New SGPC President How Europe is choking itself Afghanistan warm to Indians
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Avoidable ruckus THE scenes Parliament witnessed on Thursday were wholly avoidable. What provoked the Opposition was an interview Indian Ambassador to Croatia Anil Matherani had given to India Today in which he confirmed that Mr Natwar Singh along with his son, Mr Jagat Singh, and his close associate, Mr Andaleeb Sehgal, visited Baghdad in January 2001. More important, he claimed that they might have clinched a deal for oil vouchers during this visit. The allegation gives a lie to Mr Natwar Singh’s claims of innocence. Of course, the revelations were explosive in nature. Even so, was the ruckus really necessary? After all, the new development is nothing more than a personal opinion or recollection with no fresh evidence to back it up. To expect the government to summarily arrest Mr Natwar Singh on the basis of the interview, as the Opposition seems to have demanded, is to ask for the moon. As days pass by, there will be newer twists and turns in the scam but that does not mean that there should immediately be a chaos in Parliament. The Prime Minister has reiterated on Thursday that the government will not allow anyone found “guilty” to go unpunished. He has also assured the House that the Enforcement Directorate, which is investigating certain aspects of the scam, will take cognisance of the revelations made by the Ambassador. His intervention would have a salutary effect on the issue, but the Opposition was not in a listening mood. It is only reasonable to expect that the R.S. Pathak Authority inquiring into the scam would also take note of Mr Matherani’s statement. As the government has made it clear to the Opposition, the Authority has all the powers it deems are necessary to get to the bottom of the scam and bring out the truth. India’s special UN envoy, Mr Virender Dayal, has already announced that he has obtained all the records relevant to the case from the Volcker committee. These will in due course be made available to the Justice Pathak Authority, which will devise its own ways to arrive at the truth. Under the circumstances, the Opposition should show patience, rather than shout slogans in the House. Also, the government should ponder over the advisability of retaining Mr Natwar Singh as a minister without portfolio, which is what agitates the Opposition the most. |
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Information: more, or less Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s intervention on Thursday to ensure “issue-specific” disclosure of official file notings under the Right to Information Act is welcome. It is seen as a half-way step towards ensuring transparency in the administration. The Department of Personnel and Training will make changes in the new law to provide disclosure of “substantial” file notings on plans, schemes, programmes, and projects of the government related to development and social issues, but withhold the identity of the official(s) who made the notings. This decision should satisfy NGOs and civil rights activists. Though they have been demanding disclosure of official notings for quite some time, the Prime Minister held the view that this would adversely affect the decision-making process. He said that officials would not give their honest opinion and that they would be tempted to play to the gallery instead of sticking strictly to the matter at hand while writing their notes on the files. President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam too held this view while giving his assent to the Act. Both the President and the Prime Minister have favoured what is practical and not what is being asked for on the issue. It would not be proper for one to demand disclosure of the officer’s identity, even in the name of the people’s right to know. As file notings are crucial inputs in the government’s decision-making process, these help track responses and identify who did what, when and why. For upright and honest officers, any disclosure of their sincere and forthright comments noted in the files could invite trouble for them and consequently stultify the system. There is no second opinion about the exemption under Section 8 of the Act which provides for protection for disclosures which could harm national security, international relations, law enforcement or personal privacy. The Prime Minister’s “issue-specific” disclosure is equally just. Fears on the lack of official accountability seem to be misplaced because the Act provides for strict penalties to those wilfully denying information to the people. No law is perfect, nor is the RTI. Nevertheless, some advance towards greater transparency should be welcome than none. More progress can be made later after gaining some experience with the implementation of the
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Freedom of pressure WHEN Britain’s Daily Mirror broke the story of US President George Bush threatening to bomb the headquarters of Al Jazeera television in the course of a talk with U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair, it set off alarm bells in many areas. Of greater concern to the Press – than whether Mr Bush actually wanted to do so or not – is the western media’s complicity in the suppression of the news. Soon after the news hit the headlines, the British government issued a dire warning: that any newspaper which publishes documents to show the US plan to bomb the Qatar-based Al Jazeera would be proceeded against under the Official Secrets Act. As if on cue, the Press opted for self-censorship as the better part of valour. The Press in the US, which enjoys much more freedom than in any other democracy, including the UK, has been obliging even without the threat of any gag order as was issued by Her Majesty’s Government. Such genuflection, if not compliance, on a matter of tremendous importance to the world is against public interest and wilful repudiation of the responsibilities of a free Press. Truth telling is the media’s primary responsibility. Yet the Press in the UK has not challenged the gag order though the Official Secrets Act – applicable to government employees - cannot bind a journalist from discharging his lawful duties. Even assuming that the British Press has chosen to connive with the Blair government, it is surprising that the professedly most free and fearless media in the US should not have taken up the challenge to report the matter. The American Constitution has provisions liberal enough to ensure that the Bush administration cannot gag the Press. Successive case laws, including the US Supreme Court ruling in the Pentagon Papers case, explicitly forbid censorship and official restraints except in specified circumstances. Yet, the US Press, which is free under the laws of the land to bare the whole truth about the threatened attack on Al Jazeera, appears to be unmoved despite the gagging of its counterpart across the Atlantic. |
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I like trees because they seem more resigned to the way they have to live than other things do.
— Willa Cather |
No end to terrorist threat SINCE the Delhi bombings, Srinagar serial attacks and the Jehanabad jailbreak, newspapers have been immersed in articles on terrorism and why it is time to take this scourge more seriously. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has never missed a chance to remind India’s neighbours, who harbour insurgents, terrorists and criminal groups, that cross-border terrorism is not going to spare the countries that sponsor such activities. A cursory look will show that India’s record itself is long on words and short on action. In J&K the Indian Army fights a Kargil every 14 months. The North-East blows up frequently, aided and abetted by Bangladesh. From Bihar to Andhra Pradesh, the core of the nation is under a Naxal/Maoist shadow. The Maoists in Nepal and India dream of carving a red corridor. Yet, India keeps sermonising on dangers of terrorism while silently suffering terrorist onslaughts. The Red Fort has been struck, Parliament targeted, Ayodhya attacked and Pahargunj blasted. So what’s next ? Pakistan’s Gen Pervez Musharraf doesn’t care. Bangladesh’s Khaleda Zia behaves as if India doesn’t exist. And the King of Nepal is on his own trip. If the new President of Sri Lanka follows his declared course, no one in the region will bother about India. A top Indian leader lamented: “Hamaari baat nahin sunte” (No one listens to India) as these countries continue to take Delhi for granted - Delhi, supposedly a regional and global power. BBC’s Mark Tully, who has spent his life in India, recently noted: “India teaches you that, often, compromise is more sensible than aiming for victory. Nobody else sees compromise as an achievement.” Unfortunately, compromise is not the answer to terrorism. Not only is India a soft state, it is also seen to be one. For Indian leaders, experts in paying lip service, talk of zero tolerance, aar paar and “terrorism must be crushed and its perpetrators punished.” is just that - talk The executive complains that the judiciary sometimes transgresses its turf. Probably with good reason. The last Chief Justice of India rightly observed that “we don’t have the political will to fight terrorism”. Neither consistency nor resolve addresses the central challenge of terrorism. Earlier this year, Dr Manmohan Singh told President George Bush that Pakistan had to stop the flow of terrorism. The next day he complained at the UN about terrorism but immediately afterwards signed a joint statement with General Musharraf, “not to allow terrorism to impede the peace process”. In Delhi, there are at least three positions on terrorism. First, that one has to live with it and that the cost is bearable. Second, that every conflict has a life-cycle and terrorism fatigue has set in. It is a matter of time before terrorists will lay down their arms. Army Chief Gen J.J. Singh, on his last visit to J&K, also said that people were tired and terrorism was dying. Lastly, that our shadow-boxing with terrorism will not do. We have to raise the cost for individual terrorists, their organisations and country-sponsors. A former Israeli Prime Minister and Army Chief, Gen Ehud Barak, told a Delhi audience recently that “terrorism is not something that will end in four to five years but will take a generation”. He should know. The Lashkar-e-Taiyyaba (LeT), the most formidable terrorist group in J&K, has established sleeper cells and nodules in major cities in India with the help of local Muslims as well as accomplices from Bangladesh. The recent spurt in attacks as also their audacity is meant to demonstrate the morale and cohesiveness of terrorist infrastructure. The message is clear: we may have lost 2000 fighters in the earthquake but we are alive, fit and kicking. Pakistan has never been apologetic about using terrorism as an instrument of state policy. On March 10, 2004, former ISI chief Gen Javed Ashraf Qazi told the Pakistan National Assembly, “both JeM and LeT draw succour from Pakistan. We must not be afraid of admitting that JeM was involved in the deaths of thousands of Kashmiris, bombing of Indian Parliament, in Daniel Pearl’s murder and attempts on Gen Pervez Musharraf’s life.” Earlier this month, Lee Hamilton, Vice-Chairman, 9/11 Public Disclosure Project, which is the after-action report of the 9/11 Commission, reported that Pakistan had not done enough to curb terrorism. He said that “terrorists from PoK go to Kashmir, the Taliban has a free run in Pakistan to operate in Afghanistan”. He recommended a slew of measures, including sealing of borders by Pakistan, to prevent cross-border terrorism. If the external dimension of terrorism is worrying, the threat posed by the Maoists and Naxals to the strategic Indo-Gangetic Plains is no less terrifying. Examples: Operation Jailbreak in Jehanabad and earlier Operation Dhamaka in Madhubani, both in Bihar. Communal riots in Mau, UP, have shown the strength of the political patronage enjoyed by mafia dons, especially in UP and Bihar. The state police and the law and order machinery are completely compromised. Eight districts of eastern UP and four contiguous districts of Bihar are totally under the control of the mafia. The District Magistrate and Superintendent of Police are powerless in the face of the Mukhtar Ansaris, Shahabuddins and Raja Bhaiyyas. Three Bihar ministers were on the run evading arrest. Left-wing extremism, perpetrated by Naxals or Maoists, has spread to 165 districts in 14 states of India. If you plot the Red Trail on the map and superimpose different insurgencies the internal stability picture appears dangerous. To this you add the presence of LeT and ISI-nurtured cells of sympathy and support from small sections of Muslims in India. It is then entirely feasible that Jehadis could carry out more attacks like the Delhi blasts of October 29. Until 2003, one could probably say that none of the terrorists apprehended abroad was an Indian national, that most came from Pakistan. That profile is changing now. After Kargil, the Group of Ministers (GoM) ordered a revamp of national security structures. Valuable reams lie unimplemented. Probably, another Kargil is required to shake the government into action. Last month, in a fit of strategic ecstasy, the UPA government established a task force to chart strategic trends in a globalising world. This is obviously essential for India to emerge as a global power. But everyone knows that Delhi’s aspirations to sit at the high table can fructify only when it has secured the country from within. Very little is being done on this count. After 9/11, the US and most European countries promulgated a Homeland Security Act, sharpening intelligence, toughening laws, securing borders and new strategies to combat terror. Thanks to geography and political will, the US has prevented the recurrence of a terrorist strike on its soil. China has found an anti-terrorist network with armed police covering the entire country. India is politically fractured even on security. Dismantling POTA was both a bad idea and a wrong signal to anti-national miscreants. India is renowned for drafting conventions on terrorism at the United Nations but is a weak practitioner at home. In 2003, Lieut-Gen Rustam Nanavati, who has spent a lifetime dealing with insurgency and terrorism, produced a paper on a national counter-terrorism strategy that dealt with both macro and micro issues. It could have become a framework to address seriously internal security and combat terrorism. It was quashed by the Ministry of Home Affairs because it was outside the Army’s purview. For the Nth time, a pair of terrorists last month were holed up in a building in Lal Chowk in Srinagar. It took 48 hours and avoidable bloodshed, collateral damage and panic to winkle them out. One still got away. It was a shameful display of counter-terrorist operations. All you needed was one hour, a helicopter and a precision-guided missile to surgically take out the fidayeen. But do Srinagar and Delhi have the political will to act decisively
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Performance appraisal
PAR for the course. Yet another periodic exercise in cosmetics, though anticipated. The aim, ostensibly, to bring transparency and purpose to that holy grail of babudom — the annual confidential report, in short, the ACR. The infantile disease has once again broken into rashes, as it does every five years or so. It exhibits a kind of Moores Law — every five years the ACR format changes to double its size and half its relevance! Now in its new avatar it is the performance appraisal report — PAR in place of the ACR. The British had just a blank page. No columns, no rows. And, though some of the reports made hilarious reading, they were fair, objective and, more than anything else, constructive. They always stood by their officers. The problem today is that no one stands by one, if any honest errors of judgement are made. The rule of the game, which has evolved, is play it safe. That would roughly mean go hand in hand with the politicians of the day. All evaluation, whatever the mechanism, becomes irrelevant in this soap opera, where making money fast is the ultimate golden rule, for who knows what happens tomorrow? Then there is supposed to be an eminent persons group to adjudicate on the fate of higher babu, who have been clinging to all colours of dresses — saffron, white or shades in between, to see that they reach the next higher rung, get plum postings, whatever that might mean, or are in the ‘Westward Ho’ mood. And pray who are these eminent persons. Ex-babus only or the leftover netajis. And how on earth will they ever have a better acquaintance of the babu’s work than his overseeing bosses? The self-appraisals, I hope, will continue. It was hilarious reading them. Everyone claimed that, but for his personal contribution the heavens would have collapsed, and Ram Rajya would take several more years to come. All claimed that the targets assigned had been exceeded. Amusing. One either hits a target, or misses it. Period. It is time I revert to the steel frame. A Commissioner wrote of his DC. “He is a most responsible officer — responsible for all the problems in the district, and it would do him good that he shed some of the responsibility”. Another officer was described as “fully immersed in files. He did not ensure repair to the bund and I saw him floating along with file and furniture in his office”. The Governor of a province wrote of Commissioner, “An excellent rider. Of a wooden horse — the Trojan variety.” The babu at the cutting edge has not missed it either. A form was devised for clerical hands, which required comments against “Originality of Thought” and “Clarity in Expression”! Einstein and Newton would qualify for the former and Russell for the latter. However, I must concede in all fairness, that in one respect I found a lot of lesser babudom quite original and clear. The originality showed in preferring perfectly documented claims for travel to the back of beyond while claiming the leave travel concession. In actuality they had travelled there in their mind’s eye. Using the mind for the body was truly original. The clarity manifested itself in writing out ex-post facto applications for leave! Am I being hypercritical? Gentle reader, that can only be commented upon, in the new dispensation, by the peer group, which I initially thought was the House Of Lords! I wait for your performance
appraisal. |
New SGPC President
BY nominating Mr Avtar Singh Makkar as President of the SGPC, Mr Parkash Singh Badal has proved himself to be true to his reputation as the leader of the Shiromani Akali Dal that always had his ear to the ground. Mr Makkar is a novice with a non-controversial record and can be trusted in carrying out the mandate of the leader in an election year without mixing an agenda of his own. His appointment to welcome to the Khattaris among the Sikhs whose claims to the Sikh leadership had been overlooked after the decline of Master Tara Singh. Stalwarts like Mr Manjit Singh Calcutta have questioned the wisdom of Mr Badal in going for someone new to the Sikh politics for the management of an important institution like the SGPC and many other eyebrows, particularly from among the Sikhs, have been raised over this appointment. The SGPC and the Shiromani Akali Dal are perceived as the two crowning achievements of the Gurdwara Reform Movement that was the second greatest upsurge among the Sikhs after the Guru period owing its origin to the Singh Sabha awakening of the later 19th century. The Gurdwara Reform Movement drew a lot of strength from the strategy of non-violent satyagraha of Mahatma Gandhi. The gurdwara agitation as a matter of fact provided the laboratory in India for Mahatma Gandhi to fashion and refine his strategy of non-violent protest that had come with him from South Africa. It was in this context that he called the Akali success in the ‘key’s affair’ as the first battle for India’s freedom having been won. The gurdwara reform agitation forced the British to pass the Sikh Gurdwaras Act in 1925. The prolonged agitation, conducted non-violently by the Akali leadership, had attracted worldwide attention and some scholars have called it as the third Anglo-Sikh war that had been won by the Sikhs. The Sikh Gurdwaras Act has provided the legal framework for defining a Sikh and it has constituted an apex institution for the management of the Sikh gurdwaras that has been named as the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee. The constitution of the SGPC had been approved by a consensus arrived at amongst almost all the shades of opinion prevailing in the Sikh community. The SGPC is a democratically elected body. The SGPC has often been described as the mini parliament of the Sikhs having an annual budget touching Rs 300 crores of rupees. The Shiromani Akali Dal came into being as a body that was to mobilise volunteers for the Gurdwara Reform Agitation. The SAD came to assume a political role after the passing of the Gurdwaras Act which has now reversed the roles of these two bodies. The SGPC has now become an adjunct of the SAD for all practical purposes. This is one aspect of the present situation that is disliked by many of the Sikhs as it clearly demonstrates the domination of the politician over the religion among the Sikhs. It can be said that Mr Badal can not be held responsible for this development. This development was contained in the very constitution of the SGPC. Guru Gobind Singh had given a call for volunteers who could sacrifice their all for the Guru and he called this order of volunteers ‘Khalsa’. The Khalsa of the Gurdwara Act based on a mere declaration from his own self cannot be expected to come up to the standard of the volunteers appearing before the Guru. The Sikh of the Gurdwara Act is an ordinary Indian citizen who would choose his representative in the same manner as he would elect his legislator for the state assembly or Parliament. It is clear that the SGPC cannot be expected to remedy the shortcomings among Sikhs that the devout among Sikhs seem to be worried about. It may be mentioned that the first upsurge among the Khalsa that came with the advent of Banda Bahadur and the Tat Khalsa had established the Khalsa as the leaders and rulers of Punjab as inheritors of the great Hindu past who could carry the Punjabi Muslims with them. The Sikhs in all areas that they came to dominate had banned the killing of cows. However, during the second upsurge inspired by the Singh Sabha the Sikhs alienated the Muslims before 1947 and in the phase of the Akali domination after 1947, the Sikhs chose to alienate themselves from the Hindus till Mr Badal started to reverse the ongoing alienation in his typical style of not confronting directly the Sikh ideologues responsible for the negative trends but by marginalising the activists and the ideologues which for the present seems to be suiting his politics too. The appointment of Mr Makkar in this context can be called a healthy development for Punjab that may prove beneficial for the SAD in times to come. |
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How Europe is choking itself Europe’s claim to the moral high ground over the environment has been comprehensively challenged in a devastating report on its failings in the battle against global warming and pollution. It says Europe is devouring the world’s natural resources at twice the global rate. Climate change on a scale unseen on the European continent for 5,000 years is now under way, according to the report, which warned yesterday that at current rates three quarters of Switzerland’s glaciers will have melted by 2050. Urban areas of Europe will double in size in just over a century, as life expectancy rises and more live alone. Increasing urban sprawl means that in 10 years, an open space in Europe three times the size of Luxembourg has been built on. Air travel is likely to double by 2030 and marine ecosystems, water resources and air quality are all threatened. Though the European Environment Agency assessment praises many environmental initiatives, it makes it clear that much more needs to be done if a crisis is to be avoided. Britain, while doing well in some areas, was criticised for the increase in the generation of municipal waste, just 14.5 per cent of which is recycled or composted as opposed to a target of 25 per cent. But the document, a five-year assessment across 32 countries, concentrates on the threat from climate change. It points out that the four hottest years on record were 1998, 2002, 2003 and 2004, and that 10 per cent of Alpine glaciers disappeared during summer 2003 alone. Jacqueline McGlade, the agency’s executive director, said: “Without effective action over several decades, global warming will see ice sheets melting in the north and the spread of deserts from the south. The continent’s population could become concentrated in the centre.” She said the spread of tar and cement across former greenbelt areas was recreating many of the mistakes that led to the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, where wetlands were built over. “Even if we constrain global warming to the EU target of a 2C increase, we will be living in atmospheric conditions that human beings have never experienced. Deeper cuts in emissions are needed.” The report’s authors believe that individual behaviour needs to change and urged reform of the taxation systems to ensure that polluters pay more. The document highlights Europe’s “ecological footprint”, the estimated land area required to produce the resources each person consumes and to absorb the waste they produce. At five global hectares per person, the figure for the 25 EU member states is half of that for the US but larger than Japan and more than double the average for countries such as Brazil, China or India. Tony Long, director of WWF’s European policy office, said this illustrated the extent to which Europeans used more than their fair share of global resources. He argued: “Europe needs to learn to consume less, pollute less and tread more lightly on the planet. Perpetuating the inequality of living at the expense of some of the poorest countries in the world makes European environmental standards nothing to be proud about. This makes the EU’s sustainable development strategy even more timely to get Europe back on track to sustainability.” The report points out that Europe’s average temperature rose by 0.95C during the last century, higher than the global average of 0.7C. That continuing trend is expected to deliver a rise of between 2 and 6C this century. Though the document says that in the short term the EU is “broadly on track to meet its Kyoto targets” to curb CO2, “its mid-term goal for 2020 — a 15 to 30 per cent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions from 1990 levels — will be more difficult to achieve”. That message was echoed by the European environment commissioner, Stavros Dimas, who last week described progress on Kyoto in the EU as good but “not enough”. The recommendation for more use of the tax system to discourage waste provoked a political row last night. The agency report called for a “a gradual shift of the tax base away from taxing ‘good resources’ such as investment and labour, towards taxing ‘bad resources’, such as pollution and inefficient use”. The European Commission vice-president, Margot Wallstrom, played down the prospects of an EU-wide initiative, arguing that one would be unlikely to win the backing of member states. John Hontelez, secretary general of the European Environmental Bureau (EEB), a federation of European environmental organisations, said: “The commissioner’s answer is unacceptable. The EEA report clearly shows that environmental tax reform is necessary to create realistic market price signals, triggering innovation with much-needed environmental benefits. Refusing to launch a major initiative to boost environmental fiscal reforms inside the EU is refusing leadership in environmental policies. This commission risks going into the record books as the worst one ever for the protection of public health, biodiversity and the planet.”
— The Independent
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Afghanistan warm to Indians
I was quite apprehensive about the security situation in the war-ravaged Afghan capital, Kabul, two years back when I landed there to join as a Prasar Bharati Special Correspondent. Many of my friends advised me to be careful and some even tried to dissuade me from going to Afghanistan. For the past two years I had been the only newsperson from the subcontinent stationed in Kabul. Others came only on short visits and for them too I was the first point of contact. Though Pakistan is the immediate neighbour and all Pakistani daily newspapers are available in Kabul in the afternoon and full of Afghanistan-related news, yet none of them has a staff reporter in Kabul and they all carry agency reports. This is because of the very hostile attitude of the general Afghan public against the Pakistanis. The Pakistan embassy and their consulates have been attacked and burnt several times since the Taliban rout. During the last two years I have never ever felt that I am a foreigner and Afghan journalists consider me as one of their own and go out of their way to make me feel at home. The only precaution I took was to be vigilant considering the capacity of the ISI to operate through the Taliban as they did in the case of the BROP driver’s killing. Despite having been warned by some well-meaning persons about being an easy target — because of my turban — for the elements hostile towards India, I found the turban to be my biggest asset. It helped me establish my identity instantly and the Afghan people who have tremendous goodwill towards India and Indians welcomed me with open arms. Most of the people recognise me and hail me as ‘Lala’ (elder brother) or Sardarji wherever I went, thanks to the TV camerapersons focusing their lenses on me during press conferences and also live coverage of important events. President Hamid Karzai, knowing my connection with Shimla where he studied for six years, always addresses me as “Sardarji my brother”. At security check points I am referred as “Khabar Nigar-e-Hindustan” and have an easy passage. I interviewed legendary Uzbek warlord, General Abdur Rashid Dostum, at his headquarters, Shiberghan, in northern Afghanistan. The next morning while going round the Blue Mosque in Mazar-e-Sharif, I noticed some young boys pointing towards me. They came to me and surprised me by asking if I was a “Hindustani Khabar Nigar”. They said they saw me interviewing Dostum on the local TV. The interview was recorded by the Ayina TV owned by Dostum. The most pleasant surprise came when the head of Mazar-e-Sharif allowed me to visit the grave of Hazrat Ali in the sanctum sanctorum of the mosque, which is otherwise out of bound for all non-Muslims. India had donated 50,000 dollars for its repair and restoration work. On another occasion we were in the Panjshir valley on the death anniversary of the late Ahmad Shah Masoud, who was killed by the Taliban just two days before 9/11. The then Indian Ambassador, Vivek Katju, was on the dais and I was in the press box while the Indian Defence Attache, Brig Nair, and another diplomat were standing under the shade of a tree. Suddenly, I realised, that some people were pointing towards the two officials and talking in hush-hush manner. Actually they were wondering whether the two were Pakistanis. I immediately rushed to their side and the moment they saw my turban, a cheer went up and they surrounded us, shook hands and offered us soft drinks. The writer, a former Special
Correspondent, Prasar Bharati, is a Kabul-based free-lancer.
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From the pages of Revolution in Russia IN the midst of the greatest conflict the world has witnessed revolutionary changes in Russia which have resulted in the abdication of the Czar and the transfer of the government and the transfer of the government to the Duma and the people. Owning to the war the public have had no opportunity of understanding the causes of this revolution.... Moscow, Kronstadt and Khorkhoff are said to have given their support to the new Government and doubtless the rest of the principle centres will follow a similar course of action since the Tzar Nicholas himself has in his proclamation asked for the co-operation of all classes of the people with the new Government. France, England and other powers have expressed their willingness to recognise the new Government and, on the whole, the people appear to welcome the changes.... |
Love in action is what gives us grace. — Mother Teresa When someone puts thorns on your path, you should put flowers on his; In the end, you will get flowers and he will get big thorns. — Kabir Thou have all the virtues, O Lord, and I have none. Without virtue there can be no devotion. — Guru Nanak As the dawn heralds the rising sun, so sincerity, unselfishness, purity, and righteousness precede the advent of the Lord. — Ramakrishna Strife has an ugly face, do not allow it to creep into your household and if it does, then vanquish it with love and goodwill. — Sanatana Dharma All are yoked to God’s will, and will be judged according to their deeds. — Guru Nanak Madhyam (in the middle) are they who understand the speaker’s intent but do not act without explicit instructions. —The Upanishads
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