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No pullout, please Towards the moon |
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What is Sehwag’s fault? BCCI should not be nitpicking BEING one of the richest sports organisations in the world, the Board of Control for Cricket in India has lot many onerous responsibilities to discharge. Putting a gag on the mouths of players is certainly not one of them.
Taliban at it again
Musically mine
Dying to kill Mechanisation for a second green revolution The globalisation of the arms business
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No pullout, please DEFENCE Minister Pranab Mukherjee rightly stated in Jammu on Tuesday that General Musharraf’s idea of demilitarisation in Jammu and Kashmir — initially, in Srinagar, Kupwara and Baramula — was not acceptable to India under the circumstances. No responsible government can leave its citizens to the mercy of trained and motivated killers with their umbilical chord in Pakistan, and when terrorism remains a major threat to peace and stability in the state and the rest of India. Whatever their strategy, terrorist outfits like the Lashkar-e-Toiyaba and the Jaish-e-Mohammed continue to make their presence felt by killing ordinary citizens, political functionaries and security personnel. The bomb blasts in Varanasi’s Sankatmochan Temple and Delhi’s Jama Masjid indicate that the terrorists’ areas of operation are not confined to Jammu and Kashmir. They receive training where they had been getting earlier — Pakistan and the areas under its control. After all, there are as many as 59 terrorist training camps on the other side of the border even today when General Musharraf claims to have launched a campaign against militancy. The General seems to have forgotten his promise that he will never allow Pakistan’s territory to be used for any terrorist activity. When General Musharraf floated his impracticable idea of demilitarisation of Jammu and Kashmir he asserted that Pakistan could help eliminate terrorism provided India agreed to what he had suggested. This also meant that the problem could be brought to an end if Pakistan so desired. This was a statement of indirect admission of Pakistan’s guilt. Anyway, if Pakistan honestly joins with India in the fight against terrorism there will be no need for New Delhi to deploy as many troops in the state as it has done. The troops are there because the citizens in Jammu and Kashmir, like the rest of the people of the country, need to be given security.
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Towards the moon THE stakes have just gone up for India’s first ever mission to the moon, as Chandrayan-1 will now carry two American “payloads” – a Miniature Synthetic Aperture Radar (mini SAR) and a mineralogy mapper. While the SAR will survey the cold lunar regions looking for ice deposits, the mapper will further knowledge of the contents of lunar soil. This will be in addition to a range of our own cameras, imagers and ranging instruments that the Chandrayan spacecraft will be carrying. Slated for launch in early 2008, ISRO had designed Chandrayan-1 to be able to carry a couple of lightweight foreign payloads. The craft will be inserted into lunar orbit, just about 100 km above the moon’s surface, but will not actually land there. Much before the high-profile Indo-US nuclear deal, ISRO and NASA have been working towards increased cooperation between them, and have signed several MoUs. Prospects brightened after the Indo-US high technology cooperation agreements were initiated a couple of years ago, and NASA officials were even talking about a move away from the denial regime that existed vis-à-vis technologies that ISRO was interested in procuring. That has now culminated with the NASA chief even expressing regret over the earlier situation. The US is still wary about India’s space programme, given its worries about missile proliferation, and key ISRO facilities continue to be on the notorious list of sanctioned “entities.” There are a broad swathe of areas where cooperation can be of mutual benefit, and both ISRO and NASA should explore every possible way of taking it forward. A space cooperation conclave held in Bangalore a couple of years ago witnessed cautious bonhomie between the scientific fraternities of the two organisatons. A couple of instruments on Chandrayan-I are only a beginning, but there are cutting edge technologies in lasers, reusable launch vehicles, air-breathing engines, new fuels and advanced sensors that are crying out for more cooperation. There will be attendant time and cost benefits, not to mention the diplomatic and political gains. Space imposes no limits, after all.
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What is Sehwag’s fault? BEING one of the richest sports organisations in the world, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has lot many onerous responsibilities to discharge. Putting a gag on the mouths of players is certainly not one of them. Its decision to reprimand vice-captain Virender Sehwag for speaking out his mind in an interview amounts to that. After all, what has the dashing batsman said that should annoy the administrators so much? He has only expressed the opinion that while it is the prerogative of the board and the selectors to decide on the future of Sourav Ganguly, the team sometimes misses the former skipper. That is no meddling with the affairs of the BCCI. Why only Ganguly, some people may even be of the opinion that the team needs the likes of Kapil Dev or Bishen Singh Bedi. That is no insult to the selection process. It would be interesting to know what the board’s reaction had been if he had justified the exclusion of Saurav Ganguly. Another sore point with the board is Sehwag’s opinion on the burnout of the players. In place of taking objection to it, the board should treat it as a valuable input. The viewpoint of a member of the playing eleven, that too a player of the stature of Sehwag, should be given due respect. It is these men in the thick of things who know where the shoe pinches. Playing for the country is a great honour indeed but if matches are held back to back, that too in the season when sporting activities normally come to a halt because of adverse weather conditions, there is bound to be excessive strain on the players. The unnecessary controversy has broken out mainly because of the tendency in India to treat the players as extras and the administrators as the be-alls. Even an innocent remark is frowned upon. That may silence all criticism but does not set a very good example of man management. The tiff may tell on the cohesiveness and morale of Team India.
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There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so. — William Shakespeare
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Taliban at it again MORE
outrageous than the killing in cold blood of an engineer by the Taliban in Afghanistan is the reaction of officials. The Foreign Secretary, Mr Shyam Saran, faulted the Taliban for beheading the victim before the expiry of the terrorist outfit’s deadline for the crime! The top-most official of the Government of India’s external affairs establishment sounded more upset by the Taliban’s shoddy negotiating manners than by the heinous act itself! Which recalls to mind that in 1959 when the Chinese occupied the Aksai Chin plateau to assert their claim to the area our Foreign Office mandarins charged them with entering Indian territory without valid travel documents! If the Taliban had believed in a war of words rather than its programme of executing defenceless technicians they would have asked Mr Shyam Saran what there was to negotiate when they wanted all Indians to leave Afghanistan lock, stock and barrel. In the circumstances, no government worth its salt would have dwelt on the Taliban’s disinterest in negotiations. It is, to say the least, pathetic especially when Mr Shyam Saran talks of “every effort “ being made “to apprehend the perpetrators of this criminal act and bringing them to justice swiftly.” An ounce of action in that direction would have been more reassuring for the kith and kin of those sent to work in Afghanistan than the lava of verbal bravado. In late December 1999 also when an Indian Airlines AirBus with 155 passengers and crew was taken to Kandahar by the hijackers, the government was similarly dumb. Officials said they were waiting for the hijackers to spell their terms, as if they were run-of-the-mill ransom seekers! Meanwhile, two bright TV anchors of what was then STAR News Channel showed deadly enterprise in contacting the Kandahar air traffic control that began to operate as a radio station and the terrorists’ mouthpiece. For about four days from December 25 to December 31, when the hijacking was terminated with the capitulation of the government, there was three-way communication, among the STAR news channel operatives, the Taliban in the Kandahar air traffic control and Pakistani ISI operating behind the scenes. It began with the Taliban cursing the Government of India for its indifference to the fate of the hostages and patting the TV station on the back for its enterprise. Naturally, the relatives of the hostages glued to the television screen could not agree more. After that the government had no other choice but to fall in line with whatever the hijackers demanded through the TV station. Through what seemed negotiations conducted through the TV channel, the Taliban agreed to scale down its demand for the release of 22 terrorists in Indian jails to three — Masood Azhar, who later launched the Jaish-e-Mohammad; a Pakistani, Ahmad Omar Sayid, a British passport holder working with Kashmiri terrorists; and Mushtaq Ahmed Zargah, a Kashmiri. All three were involved in attacks on the Kashmir Assembly building in Srinagar and Parliament House in New Delhi, which must have been galling for the Vajpayee government. Remember the military steps taken against Pakistan in the shape of border confrontation in its aftermath. Forced to concede the Taliban’s demand, Mr Atal Bihari Vajpayee formally spoke to the then President, Dr K.R. Narayanan, and then kept the former Prime Minister, Mr Inder Kumar Gujral, informed. The Congress president was unavailable for an exchange of opinions, so that she could later claim that the Taliban had rubbed the government’s nose in the mud. True, it has become a practice, if not tradition, for Governments of India to swap terrorists for the release of hostages. In December 1989, 10 years before the Kandahar hijacking, Mr V.P. Singh had to exchange eight Kashmiri terrorists, many of them trained in Pakistan, for Rubiya Sayeed, the kidnapped daughter of Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, who was Home Minister in the Central government. The successor Chandra Shekhar government, in its four-month tenure, set free a terrorist for the release of Saifuddin Soz’s daughter, Nahida Imtiaz, besides nine other criminals for the release of an Indian Oil executive, Doraiswamy. Among the swapped terrorists were those involved in the murder of the Kashmir University Vice-Chancellor. In September-October 1993, following the siege of the Hazratbal shrine and the capture of as many as 170 civilians, the P.V. Narasimha Rao government had to let go scot-free 40 Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Force (JKLF) desperadoes. The circumstances of the 1999 Kandahar hijacking were no doubt extenuating: first, it was the government’s first brush with Taliban-like terrorists; secondly, with the relatives of about 120 hostages — 27 were released at Dubai and one killed — baying for the government’s blood through the TV channel there was not much the government could do. Ironically, the government was even more helpless in dealing with the TV channel, which was fighting for its turf against impending competition. When a security expert of the stature of Mr K. Subrahmanyam offered to discuss the strategic aspect of the hijacking, the TV channel opted for a commercial break! Reverting to the killing of the communications engineer, Kasula Suryanarayana in Afghanistan, the government offer of monetary compensation, though welcome for a family deprived of its bread winner, should not be projected as the value of the lost life. Harping too much on it jars on sensitive minds. Even more upsetting is all and sundry seeking photo opportunities through gratuitous statements about the cowardice of the Taliban. First and foremost, the tendency to politicise tragedies like the1999 Kandahar hijacking or the siege of the Hazratbal shrine about 10 years earlier should stop. That might be the first step towards formulating a policy for handling terrorists, instead of toadying to them. But when a score of Hindus were massacred in Doda in Jammu province Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil’s refrain was that the outrage should not be allowed to derail negotiations between the government and Hurriyat Conference leaders. How does it sound to the survivors of the carnage? Or to the dependents of the over 10 Hindu shepherds put to the knife a few days earlier in the Udhampur area? Or to the Taliban the target of so much verbal wrath? The talks with the Hurriyat leaders, however desirable, are not to be at the cost of the security and life of the Hindu minority in the Doda area. Nor should what happened at Udhampur be condoned for that reason. Most importantly, if Pakistan is believed to have connived at, if not facilitated, the latest Taliban outrage in Afghanistan, it is time to say it in so many words. Finally, the Hamid Karzai government for the support of which India is expending money and innocent manpower cannot get away with mere verbal criticism of the Taliban’s doings. What concrete steps is Kabul prepared to take to ensure the security of Indians sent to work in that country? When the Afghanistan President visited India for a week recently neither his hosts nor even the Indian media raises with him the case of Abdul Rahman, sentenced to death for converting to Christianity. Such an obnoxious provision in the new Afghanistan constitution has a Taliban ring about
it.
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Musically mine AT a party at Marriot in Mumbai, we ran into a noted music composer of yesteryear whose appearance seemed very familiar. I told him that the notes he added to a popular number of “Pakeeza” — Mausam hai ashiqana — made everyone feel the stamp that the maestro bore of his typical classical, smooth and distinct style in the third stanza, since the earlier two had been composed by Ghulam Mohammad, who died without completing the song and the movie. “It was Naushad Sahib and not me, gentleman” he corrected me and introduced himself as “Nacheez ko Khayyam kahtey hain”. My wife frowned at me on the faux pas while Khayyam Sahib discussed with us certain famous numbers composed by Naushad. Though not knowing anything about classical music, yet possessing musical ears, I mentioned to Khayyam Sahib the bandish of the second stanza of Dulari’s soulful number beginning -
Tadap rahe hain hum yahan tumharey intizar main…(Suhani raat dhal chuki). Who can forget the devotional nuances suffused in pure melody and introduced in
Mohan ki muralia bajere in Mela; Man tarpat hari-darshan ko aaj in Baiju Bawra;
Mohe panghat pay nand lal chher gayo re in Mughal-e-Azam; and Insaf ka mandir hai ye bhagwan ka ghar hai
in Amar. Naushad had a special love for introducing aalaps in his compositions and if the singer was Mohammad Rafi then the desired effect had always been doubly achieved. Remember “Ho ji ho, tu Ganga ki mauj main Jamuna ki dhara in Baiju Bawra,” and “Chalo dildar chalo chand kay paar chalo
in Pakeezah; as also, Mujhay duniya walo sharabi na samjho in Leader. His sudden twists and counter melody as in Mughal-e-Azam’s only number in male voice —
Taj hukumat jiska mazhab phir uska imaan kahan — did make a lovelorn person feel the pinch of knotty entrails deep within. The lovemaking scene was enriched with Bade Ghulam Ali Khan’s rendering of Prem jogan in Mughal-e-Azam when Dilip Kumar and Madhubala lay on a marble platform amidst falling petals. Excitement, awe, anxiety, curiosity, restlessness, thrill, anticipation exhilaration — every sentiment seemed to have been aroused in Meena Kumari on listening to the passing train’s shrieks which made music at the hands of Naushad’s dexterously created background management of harmony in Pakeezah. And how can one forget the hoof taps lending sounds of pounding beats in
Bachpan kay din bhula na dena in Deedar? Well, if I say I knew Naushad ever since even my father hadn’t been born, what would you say? Yes, music makes you one with its maker with no space or time existing — ever,
anywhere.
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Dying to kill APRIL was a bloody month in many countries. On April 22, a suicide bomber was killed but failed in his mission to blow up an Indian Air Force convoy in Kashmir. On April 25, a female suicide bomber disguised as a pregnant woman, blew herself up in front of the Sri Lankan army chief’s convoy, killing 10 and injuring 26 others including the army chief. Three suicide bombers killed 71 and wounded over 150 in an Iraqi Shia mosque. It is puzzling why the LTTE, Kashmiri militants, Hamas, and Al Queda continue to use suicide bombers despite international condemnation of such attacks after 9/11. Do suicide attacks pay off? Far from being irrational acts, suicide bombings are part of a carefully chosen arsenal for separatist groups, argues American political scientist Robert Pape. Groups use suicide attacks to do one of several things: force the occupying power to withdraw, spoil ongoing peace talks, and outdo other groups in a bid to capture popular support (as in the case of Palestinian groups). Pape points out that suicide terrorism has increased since 1980 because groups have learned that it pays — the LTTE and Hamas saw serious gains in terms of their political causes. All these groups use suicide attacks to achieve specific goals. Religion is merely one of the tools used by these groups to motivate the bombers. But does it still continue to pay after 9/11? Well, effectiveness depends on how and against whom suicide bombings are used. If these human bombs attack civilians, the move does backfire as in the case of Palestinian Hamas — the international community refused to recognize Hamas and even withdrew aid. In Iraq, Zarquawi’s bloody attacks on mosques have not won him anything. But if the occupying power’s military or politicians are the victims, then reaction tends to be muted. In Sri Lanka, the international peace monitors immediately castigated the government for breaking the truce when the military launched retaliatory strikes in rebel areas, killing several civilians and displacing thousands. It thus seems to have paid off for the LTTE, which in fact did not take responsibility for the attack. A High Security Zone Residents’ Liberation Force, a group widely believed to be a front for the LTTE, claimed responsibility for the attack on the army chief, saying that the LTTE “was merely wasting time by maintaining a ceasefire”. Which brings us to the million dollar question: Why do people become suicide bombers? Are they mad or are there economic and political causes underlying their actions? After all, unlike regular guerilla or terrorist missions where there is a chance that they will live, a suicide bomber knows that he or she will die, and kill others in the process. Initially, the irrationality view dominated where suicide bombers were seen as the psychologically disturbed, excluded, poor and illiterate sections of society. However, research on the 9/11 bombers and others show an alarming picture of middle class, educated, well-off youth volunteering to commit suicide. Let us examine the LTTE suicide bombers, who in fact are more intelligent than the regular cadre. It is a long hard path to becoming a suicide bomber. First, the Tamil youth have to apply to join the LTTE as fighters in the main army. Even if they apply to become suicide bombers, it takes at least a year or two before they are considered by the dreaded intelligence wing of the LTTE, Tiger Organisation Security Intelligence Service (TOSIS) headed by Pottaman. They first have to undergo training for the LTTE battle cadre, and only the most intelligent and proficient segment would be even considered for the Black Tiger suicide cadre. Officials say that the chosen group tend to be under 20, intelligent and have suffered. Women tend to be unmarried and older (in their late 20s) from poor families who want to escape the drudgery and harassment. Then, if he or she is picked, they are supposed to withdraw from their families and are kept in isolation cells for 1-2 years. Their families are not informed of their new role as suicide bombers but are told a false story, thus making it harder to trace the antecedents of the bombers. They undergo two or three months of training, during which the cadres have to wear black balaclava masks so that they cannot recognize one another. This ensures secrecy of identities of other recruits and trainers. According to intelligence officials, to keep the motivation level up, they are ‘brainwashed’ about the ‘atrocities’ committed by the Sinhalese. Some estimates suggest that today, there are between 200-300 Black Tigers. Why do they volunteer? Interviews with failed bombers indicate that their motivations stemmed from commitment to the cause, poverty, abuse (for women), vengeance, social recognition for their families, and religious fervour. In other words, we really cannot see a pattern in motivation, which makes it more difficult for the state to identify a suicide bomber. How then can the state combat suicide attacks? Different measures have been suggested including stern counter-attacks on the territory controlled by rebel organizations, building physical barriers, peace talks and even economic upliftment. Closer home, it has been next to impossible for Sri Lanka and India to stop suicide attacks. Unlike the LTTE, which has one head, a single goal and a plan, the Sri Lankan government is stymied by lack of a national policy on security. Politicians rather than trained officers often play a very important role in planning, resulting in poor coordination and an ineffective response. Similarly, in the case of India, the multiplicity of jehadi groups in Kashmir and lack of good intelligence on their activities, and lack of coordinated planning, makes India an easy target. In an age of terrorism, governments cannot afford to be reactive. So what is to be done? If the cause of suicide attacks is occupation (perceived or otherwise), then governments must address that root cause. Peace talks and negotiations, along with economic development in the affected areas are the only viable long term solutions. Those with long experience in dealing with terrorism endorse such an approach. Simultaneously, the state should maintain vigilance and design counter measures. These counter-strikes should take care not to kill civilians, otherwise more willing martyrs will emerge.
***** The writer is with Centre for Policy Research, New Delhi.
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Mechanisation for a second green revolution FARM mechanisation has played an important role in ushering in the green revolution in the state of Punjab in particular and in northern Indian states in general. Farm mechanisation has helped in timely tillage, sowing and planting, inter-culture and spraying, harvesting and threshing operations thereby increasing farm production and productivity. In the recent past growth rate of agriculture in Punjab has been very low. At times it has been negative. This has added to the miseries of the farmers. Tractorisation, a very capital intensive investment, coupled with low annual usage, resulted in mounting debt burden. But an in-depth analysis of this situation will reveal the real causes of this malady. These essentially include non-judicious use of costly agricultural inputs including water, chemical fertiliser and others. Time has come now, where precision agriculture, agro processing and value addition is bound to play an important role. This calls for superior and quality equipment and more modern technologies. At present irrigation is mostly being done by flooding, fertiliser is being applied by broadcasting and chemicals are being sprayed with non-standard application equipment. In fact, there is need and scope to introduce modern equipment and technologies like use of laser land levelers and drip and sprinkler irrigation system to conserve water resources. Similarly, pneumatic planter needs to be introduced for better placement of fertilizer and seed thereby not only avoiding wastage of costly inputs but also controlling environmental pollution. In fact under the WTO regime, it has become very important that agricultural produce must be not only free from residual effects of chemicals but should have proper grading and cleaning to facilitate easy marketing of agriculture produce. Management of farm machinery is another important area, which need to be given utmost emphasis. Due to shrinking land holding it has become imperative that collective/co-operative use of machinery be facilitated for correcting use of tractor and farm machinery on the farm for economic and efficient resource management. This mechanism of collective mechanisation will help in formation of co-operative societies, farmers clubs, custom hiring outlets, farm machinery rentals and contracting organisation for providing these services, cheaper at farmer level. Emphasis now should be given to shift area from rice-wheat to other crops like vegetables, horticulture, cotton etc. Accordingly, new machinery is required to mechanise field operations for the new crops. Some of the technologies which need immediate attention include; precision vegetable planters, cotton pickers, sugarcane harvesters, harvesting equipment for fruits and vegetables, equipment for precision farming and efficient spraying technologies for horticultural crops. However, it need to be cautioned that farm mechanisation strategies for introducing the second green revolution should conform to the natural resource base as well the requirements of the country. Mechanisation policy to be followed apart from being eco-friendly must also take into account the various omissions and constrains crept in while implementing first green revolution. Problem of soil, air and water pollution and declining water tables are mainly results of usage and inefficient machinery.
**** The writer is Head, Department of Farm Power & Machinery, Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana
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The globalisation of the arms business FEW businesses have globalised as successfully as the arms trade, with a network of international dealers fuelling dozens of conflicts across the world. Most of the world’s weapons are produced in developed countries and sold to the Third World, soaking up meagre funds badly needed for building infrastructure. The few laws that exist to check this trade are easily circumvented through the elaborate and sophisticated exploitation of every loophole, says a new study. While Western governments consider risking lives of troops on peace-keeping operations in places such as Darfur and Liberia, businessmen based in the West are supplying arms to the conflicts through a highly lucrative “grey market”. The report, by the human rights groups Amnesty International and TransArms, calls for drastic changes in the law to regulate an “arms trade which is out of control and costing hundreds of thousands of lives every year”. The role of private contractors has become increasingly important in this rampant free market, particularly in the 35 countries whose exports make up 90 per cent of the arms trade. What laws do exist are primarily intended to protect the West, and the US in particular, from the threat of terrorism, rather than to prevent human rights abuses elsewhere, the report said. It added that the few cases where the activities of private weapons dealers are exposed by laws or inquiries merely scratched at the surface of the clandestine trade. The study highlights some instances where British firms have been involved in supplying weapons to the third world. A British company supplied ships to ferry hundreds of thousands of rounds of explosives and ammunition from Brazil to Saudi Arabia, which were seized en route by South African police. The charge was that the transport of the ammunition, produced by a Brazilian company, Companhia de Cartuchos, had not been cleared with the South African authorities which, unlike Brazil, has a law prohibiting such supplies to countries like Saudi Arabia, where it could be used for human rights violations. The British company was fined a paltry £ 2,000 by a South African court, when the maximum sentence for the offence was 15 years’ imprisonment. The court also ordered the disposal of the cargo. The report also claimed that weapons from the Balkans were “shipped, clandestinely and without public oversight” to Iraq by a chain of private brokers from Britain, as well as from the US, Israel, Switzerland, Bulgaria, Croatia, Moldova and Ukraine,” under the auspices of the US Department of Defence”. It is not known whether the shipment ever actually reached Iraq, said Amnesty, but if it did, it could well have been used in human rights violations and abuse. The US government and its allies are also said to have used a private Danish shipping company to conceal a build-up of arms for the Iraq invasion, while there was still the public pretension that George Bush, the US President, and Tony Blair, the British Prime Minister, wanted a diplomatic solution, the report says. Air freight operators are playing an increasingly prominent part in the lucrative weapons trade while taking part in other business including the transport of aid, Amnesty said. Protesters against the unregulated arms trade yesterday lobbied MPs in London. Kate Allen, the UK director of Amnesty International, said: “Arms brokers and transporters have helped deliver the weapons used to kill and rape civilians in Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo. We need an arms trade treaty to bring the whole industry under control.”
By arrangement with The Independent
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From the pages of Rashtriya Sewak Sangh A leading Muslim League journal has made a thoroughly unprovoked, unwarranted and unjustified attack on the Rashtriya Sewak Sangh. The malice and viciousness inspiring the attack are evident from the fact that the journal is nettled and angered at the withdrawal of the official declaration against the Rashtriya Sewak Sangh simultaneously with the withdrawal of the official declaration against the Muslim National Guards. For some time a systematic endeavour has been made by tenacious League traducers to give a bad name to the Sangh and get it hanged. They are now fretting and fuming at their failure to secure the execution of the innocent organisation which has unluckily become their bete noire.
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There is no disease more ravaging than hunger. The wise man knows this and so does not starve himself in the name of penance. — The Buddha God motivates everybody according to his will. His pen keeps recording our credit, according to our deeds. — Guru Nanak Undefined love between husband and wife takes one nearer God than any other love. — Mahatma Gandhi There is neither a Hindu, nor a Muslim. (All are human beings born of the One Supreme Being). — Guru Nanak
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