O P I N I O N S

EDITORIALS

Whither BJP
Party finds itself in a tailspin
When Sunday dawns tomorrow, people will be wishing “Happy New Year” to one another. However, the BJP men extending the customary greetings to each other will be doing so with less of conviction and more of trepidation. Mr L.K. Advani who cannot celebrate the new year is leaving the party in a state about which neither he nor anybody else can be overly optimistic.

PM delivers on relief
Guilty must be punished
It has taken 21 years, but finally there is a measure of relief for the victims of the 1984 riots. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is to be commended for delivering what he promised when the report on the riots, submitted by Justice G.T. Nanavati, was tabled in Parliament on
August 8.

• Thought for the day

ARTICLE

No progress on Kashmir
There has to be consensus in India first
by Rajindar Sachar
FOR far too long, the progress on talks between the Government of India and Kashmiri leaders is in limbo. Though Indo-Pak talks are taking place on Sir Creek and Siachen glacier, they do not seem to have made any progress. But what is more discomforting is the almost total lack of contact with Hurriyat and other Kashmiri leaders like Yasin Malik and Shabir Shah on the ongoing talks.

MIDDLE

Chauffeur-driven car
by Iqbal Singh Ahuja
My friend and I, always dreamt of a nice luxury car — chauffeur driven — and a well dressed tall man with a “tuledar turban” opening and closing the door for us. My friend would always say: “Look at that man. He is going alone in his car and here we are walking on the road. At least he should have the courtesy to stop and take us along.”

OPED

2005
through
RAJINDER PURI’S
eyes

REFLECTIONS

EDITORIALS

Whither BJP
Party finds itself in a tailspin

When Sunday dawns tomorrow, people will be wishing “Happy New Year” to one another. However, the BJP men extending the customary greetings to each other will be doing so with less of conviction and more of trepidation. Mr L.K. Advani who cannot celebrate the new year is leaving the party in a state about which neither he nor anybody else can be overly optimistic. The organisation is none too old and yet it has already contracted numerous geriatric maladies. The cheerfulness sought to be put on display during the Mumbai jamboree was confined to the face only and could not paper over the various serious complications in the rest of the body. Surprisingly, no effort was made to address any of these. The new team will have a Herculean task at hand.

Factionalism, cronyism, sleaze and even corruption are only minor complaints. What is destroying it the most is the lack of direction, tied as it is to the apron strings of the RSS. During a little less than two years that it has spent out of power, it was expected to capitalise on the numerous weaknesses of the Congress but has ended up harming itself more. The way its MPs — in numbers — were caught taking bribes and the way Mr Advani tried to come to their rescue is symptomatic of the ideological confusion and clouded thinking. That is why the ruling party of yesterday is back to the status of being a bit player.

This downward slide is not a sudden development. The seeds of destruction were sown right the day when, egged on by the Sangh Parivar, it decided to traverse an exclusivist Hindu Rashtra path. A rational, right-of-centre spot was its for the asking, but it decided to sup with communal forces instead. Even the Gujarat riots did not make it do any reality check. Ironically, wisdom has not dawned even after losing power at the Centre. The situation is no better in states. Mr Advani is bowing out. So is Mr Atal Bihari Vajpayee. If correctives are not applied at once, “the party with a difference” is in danger of losing altitude even more quickly. Mr Vajpayee did a smart job by naming Mr Pramod Mahajan as the virtual heir-apparent and in the process, he pushed Mr Advani’s cronies out of the reckoning. It will be for Mr Mahajan to prove whether he can put the scattered pieces together. Much will depend on whether he can liberate the BJP from the RSS. It is a tall order.

PM delivers on relief
Guilty must be punished

It has taken 21 years, but finally there is a measure of relief for the victims of the 1984 riots. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is to be commended for delivering what he promised when the report on the riots, submitted by Justice G.T. Nanavati, was tabled in Parliament on August 8. While some organisations representing the victims have been critical of the quantum of payments announced by the Prime Minister, what is more important is speedy disbursement of the Rs 715-crore package, while it can still provide some relief to the victims of the carnage. It should be kept in mind that those who were infants at the time are adults now. The time gap has been too great and every effort must be made to ensure that the victims and their families get speedy relief now. The payment of Rs 3.5 lakh in case of death and compensation for damaged residential and uninsured commercial properties etc, have value only if they do not get stuck in the bureaucratic red tape.

However, compensation is just one side of the coin. The more significant issue that has not been adequately addressed so far is that the guilty must be identified and punished. So many committees have examined the 1984 riots— the Marwah Commission, the Misra Commission of Enquiry, the Kapur Mittal Committee, the Jain the Banerjee Committee, the Potti Rosha Committee, the Jain Aggarwal Committee, the Ahuja Committee, the Gurdial Singh Dhillon Committee, the Narula Committee, and finally, the Nanavati Commission—but the government has, till now, not taken proper action against the perpetrators of the violence. The Nanavati Commission has again identified certain individuals as being involved in the killings of thousands of persons. It is the duty of the government to ensure that they are punished, and soon. It must be remembered that no matter what the salve, wounds reopen when the victims see the guilty getting away scot free.

Mass grave in Gujarat
HC directs DNA test of skeletal remains

The Gujarat High Court has rightly directed the state government to collect samples of the skeletal remains, unearthed from a mass grave in Lunavada village of Panchmahal district, and send them to a laboratory in Hyderabad for DNA test. Significantly, the court has ordered that this should be done under the supervision of the CBI. This comes as a welcome relief to the kin of some victims who were killed in the March, 2002, riots in the state. The DNA test will help them know the identity of the skeletal remains and then perform the funeral. Clearly, the court order is a vindication of the continued partisan role and high-handed attitude of the state police ever since the Gujarat riots.

It would be difficult for one to endorse the state government’s stand that no one had claimed the bodies of the riot victims and that this forced the police to go in for mass burial. The petitioners, who are relatives of the deceased, have told the High Court that no postmortem of any of the deceased was done by the police. They found clothes belonging to the victims alongside the skeletal remains which showed that no proper investigation was done. Moreover, the original FIR recorded by the local police (on the Pandarwada massacre of March 1, 2002) showed death of only eight persons, whereas at least 26 people had been killed.

Nothing is more ridiculous than the government’s stand that the CBI’s presence, as demanded by the petitioners, would demoralise the rank and file of the state police. The National Human Rights Commission has rightly taken cognisance of the reports on the mass grave and directed the state government to reply within two weeks. The mass grave is not only a gross violation of human rights but also puts the Gujarat government and the state police to shame. The ends of justice will be met only if those found guilty for mass burying are brought to book, but it is a moot question whether the Narendra Modi government will ever do it.

Thought for the day

Throughout life people will make you mad, disrespect you and treat you bad. Let God deal with the things they do, because hate in your heart will consume you too. — Will Smith

ARTICLE

No progress on Kashmir
There has to be consensus in India first
by Rajindar Sachar

FOR far too long, the progress on talks between the Government of India and Kashmiri leaders is in limbo. Though Indo-Pak talks are taking place on Sir Creek and Siachen glacier, they do not seem to have made any progress. But what is more discomforting is the almost total lack of contact with Hurriyat and other Kashmiri leaders like Yasin Malik and Shabir Shah on the ongoing talks. I feel this is unfortunate because gradually the field is being left open and attempts are being made to fill it by US-sponsored lobby of spreading confusion by projecting sometimes a division into 5-7 regions theory and sometimes putting it as a self-governing region.

It is selfevident that before a solution can be worked out with Pakistan, a broad consensus must be reached between the Central Government and various parties. I have strong reasons to believe that if in India the government and Kashmiri people arrive at a mutually satisfying solution even President Musharraf would welcome it because then he could not be accused by his critics of letting down Kashmiri people and could well retort that if all Indian parties are agreeable to a certain solution he cannot be accused of back-tracking.

This, coupled with the fact that Afghanistan is shaky, Osama Bin Laden is at large and Taliban are making a re-entry, is straining the patience of the US with passive role of Musharraf for a viable settlement. But in order that a satisfactory end to the present Kashmir imbroglio is reached, a real change in the perception of all will have to take place.

First, Pakistan and Kashmiri leaders must accept that the part of J&K on Indian side is sacrosanct and non-negotiable. Further, considering the price that J&K has paid in terms of human misery during these two decades of militancy and alienation that has been built up, it would be illogical for Indian leadership to hope that talks can take place within the parameters of the normal State-Centre relationships.

Of course, it is true that most of the Kashmiri leaders refuse to spell out their parameters and broad contours of the agreement. This, for the obvious reasons because none of them is so strongly established amongst the Kashmiri masses as to hope to get through the agreement without a consensus.

But when pressed, they nostalgically refer to what the late Prime Minister Narsimha Rao had once said: “Sky is the limit”. Putting it in metaphor, acceptance of this cannot be any problem. The only question is since the settlement has to be on the ground level. It must have its base on the firm foundation and the basis must be such which even the Government of India should be able to sell to the country.

In this manner, the vague talks of greater autonomy and autonomy to the Jammu and Laddakh regions within the J&K are unnecessarily brought in at this stage. No doubt, the J&K Government will have to work out internal arrangement which will meet with reasonable aspirations of Jammu and Laddakh. But that necessarily has to follow and not precede any permanent solution between India, Pakistan and the people of J&K.

I also feel that the word “autonomy” may not be used because it somehow gives an impression of an overlordship by the Central Government which has condescended to give more powers to the units which it may withdraw subsequently — an apprehension expressed by important Kashmiri leadership.

Frankly, I have no objection even to the use of the word “self-government” (after all this phrase was 1919 Government of India Act) so long as it is not understood in the sense of a UN phraseology which means self-governing territories which are under the overall supervision the UN or placed in trusteeship under some particular nation. That is why when “self-government” is used for both parts of J&K, the suggestion obliquely seems to be as if both Pakistan and India should jointly manage and have control over J&K as one unit. Such a suggestion is worse than the disease and conceals the unspoken thought of the US Government that the disagreement between the two will automatically give USA functioning under UN cover to take decisive if not exclusive role in this region — an eventuality which no self-respecting Indian or Pakistani can tolerate or permit.

Of course, so far as the borders between the two parts of J&K are concerned, they can be made as porous and as free as between the US and Canada or even like as at present in the European Union. People belonging to each side should have no problem not only in travelling but in even having trade with each other.

Though understandable, but without any basis, important leaders put in a caveat as to how an assurance can be given to doubting Thomases that the Central Government will not breach its promises. In order to give such reassurance, the Central Government should concede that apart from the subjects acceded in 1947, namely Defence, Foreign Affairs, Communication and currency to the Central Government the rest of subjects will vest in the J&K State Government.

In order to further reassure the people of J&K, the Central Government would agree unilaterally to withdraw all Central legislations which have been extended up to date to J&K. It will then be up to the J&K legislature to pass new laws or apply those laws with suitable modifications as they feel necessary.

Some well-meaning people react adversely to this suggestion on the ground that this would be creating special category unlike the other parts of the states. But why should it surprise anyone because J&K is a special case and is so recognised in our Constitution by Article 370. This suggestion of mine is only putting life to the original content of what Article 370 meant.

If that happens, it will give firm re-assurance that the Central Government will not be able, in future, to undo this arrangement because under Article 370, Parliament cannot legislate on a subject other than that mentioned in the Instrument of Accession except with the concurrence of the Government of J&K. So if State legislators do not want it, the Central Government cannot move further.

There is not even a danger of Article 370 being amended, because according to me that is a basic feature of the Constitution, and it is well settled that Parliament cannot amend any article it violates basic features. What more guarantee can people of India give? The ball is now in the court of the people of J&K. Of course the Government of India has to take the initiative.

MIDDLE

Chauffeur-driven car
by Iqbal Singh Ahuja

My friend and I, always dreamt of a nice luxury car — chauffeur driven — and a well dressed tall man with a “tuledar turban” opening and closing the door for us.

My friend would always say: “Look at that man. He is going alone in his car and here we are walking on the road. At least he should have the courtesy to stop and take us along.”

I used to laugh and tell him: “Woh tumhara chacha nahi lagta, jo apna kaam chhod kar tumhe ghumai”.

He would retort; “One day I will also be going in the car like him, sitting in the back seat, pretending to read the newspaper but I will stop when I see you and I will take you along in my car. But first, you help me in securing the loan,” he said.

“You mean, a bank loan with 100-year instalment plan and if possible interest free?” I said.

He paused for a while and then said: “I want your help in finding a ‘Kalpataru tree’.

“What is that?” I asked.

He smiled and said, “Kalpataru is a wish tree. You stand under the tree and wish for a thing, your wish will be fulfilled immediately.”

I laughed and told him; “God is the biggest Kalpataru tree. You tell me what you want and I will pray for you,” I asked him.

“My wish is to have a nice chauffeur-driven luxury car and whenever I go out, the chauffeur should close and open the door for me,” he said.

The next year we separated. He left the institute to start his private practice while I continued with my academic career.

One fine morning I received a call from the same old friend.

“Where are you?” I asked.

He said. “I am admitted in your hospital in the ortho ward.”

I rushed to the ward. My friend was lying flat on his bed with a plastered left leg.

“Oh God, what have you done?” I enquired.

He laughed and said: “Your God fulfilled my wish. I got a car and that too a chauffeur-driven one. While I was trying to sit in the car, the chauffeur closed the door with force before I could get my leg inside. I had a fractured leg and here I am.”

I got him discharged from the hospital and as we were sitting in the car, the chauffeur started closing the door. My friend shouted, “Taang bacha ke” (Watch out for my leg). We both laughed and started our journey back home.

OPED

2005
through
RAJINDER PURI’S
eyes

SEPTEMBER 16

MAY 25

OCTOBER 14

DECEMBER 2

OCTOBER 4

JULY 12

March 13

OCTOBER 16

REFLECTIONS

It is the contemplation of Guru’s word that surpasses everything Hence I do not talk about anything else, as all else is but irrelevant.

 — Guru Nanak

Shreya (beneficence) is sought for liberation.

 — The Upanishads

Thousands of people you may love, thousands of lives you may live and enjoy in abundance the pleasures of life, separation from which seems impossible while you live.

 — Guru Nanak

Wake up, dear friend! Why do you go on sleeping? So much was lost already while you slept... so much that could have been saved!

 — Kabir

You may desire Bhakti and pray for it. Practise the tamas of bhakti and force your demand upon the Divine Mother.

 — Ramakrishna

The work by itself is neither good nor bad. Our ways of thinking make it so. Any work done well becomes good if its intentions are also good.

 — Sanatana Dharma

The spinning wheel and the spinning wheel alone will solve, if anything will solve, the problem of the deepening poverty of India.

 — Mahatma Gandhi

Astrological calculations about one’s future create suspense or sorrow in one’s heart. But by seeking the Guru’s refuge, one always remains in peace and comfort.

 — Guru Nanak