 |
|
Pakistan’s
MFN fears Protests
and excesses |
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Vanishing
tigers
Indians
in Afghanistan
Spring
in Kashmir
Myth of
the dragon When the
personal is also the political Fears
about genetically modified crops misplaced
|
Pakistan’s MFN fears
At a time when there is a global trend not to allow political differences to come in the way of developing economic relations between two countries, Pakistan continues to stick to its negative policy of obstructing the benefits that would flow from increased trade with India. This is despite the SAARC countries having gone in for the South Asian Free Trade Agreement (SAFTA) and India having already granted the Most Favoured Nation status to Pakistan. In view of the changing scenario in the subcontinent as a result of the India-Pakistan composite dialogue process, Pakistan should have reciprocated the Indian gesture and accorded the MFN status to India too. But so far this has not happened because Pakistan has linked it to the Kashmir dispute. This is contrary to the evolving climate on both sides of the border. Pakistan has refused to listen to the pragmatic advise of the World Bank, too, which has come out with a report suggesting measures to increase the volume of trade in the South Asian region, where India and Pakistan together account for 90 per cent of the GDP. The Bank has also suggested that if granting the MFN status to India is not considered politically correct in Pakistan, the latter should scrap its present anti-consumer and anti-business policy of import from India. Pakistan’s importers have to go according to what is called the Positive List. They cannot import anything not mentioned in that list. This becomes a roadblock for trade between the two countries. It is surprising why Pakistan is unwilling to move towards full-scale trade with India when economists argue that this will open a window of opportunities for Islamabad. Of course, the trade balance would be in India’s favour because of the size and certain other advantages it has. However, in the long run the upscaling of trade between the two countries in accordance with the provisions of SAFTA will accelerate economic growth in Pakistan. Much like people-to-people contacts, promoting trade on a market-to-market basis, irrespective of the Kashmir problem, will help the cause of peace in the region. It may provide more impulses for the composite dialogue process to gain momentum. |
|
Protests and excesses
Even as the anti-reservation movement is spreading with students of IIMs and IITs joining the striking doctors, the conduct of the police in Mumbai, New Delhi and elsewhere, too, towards the peaceful protestors has come in for sharp and justifiable criticism. Undoubtedly, the conduct and the behaviour of the police towards the doctors are shocking and need to be condemned in the strongest possible terms. The visuals of the Mumbai Police beating doctors mercilessly (or the Delhi Police using water cannons, apparently, aimed at harming them physically and teaching them a lesson rather than dispersing them) raise serious issues about the limits of police action in a democracy. The protestors, though sizeable in number, have not been violent and hence there was no need for the kind of excessive force used by the police. In the current agitation, police excesses seem to have crossed the limit. The police did not spare even women doctors and physically challenged medical students who were targets of attack with the top brass not only watching but also condoning the spectacle. The British required a police force that was designed to suppress Indian colonial subjects. The departure of the colonial rulers, however, has not altered the attitude and conduct of the police as required in a democracy. The police seem to be not only oblivious to ensuring the rights of citizens, including the safety of life and property, but are also guilty of unprovoked attacks on peaceful protestors. This legacy of police behaviour is an administrative deficit of our democracy that should be addressed with urgency. The police should be trained in modern methods of crowd control and management. Unfortunately, despite specific guidelines from the Centre, the states have failed to implement them. What is the use of the various reports and recommendations if they are not implemented on the ground? The police need to be educated and put through appropriate orientation for dealing with protests, including when and how to use devices like water cannons. The use of force should always be proportionate. More important, there is a clear distinction between crowd control and crowd dispersal. While the former is positive, the latter is restrictive especially when it amounts to brazen assaults. |
|
Vanishing
tigers
The government’s terse announcement that it would need one more year to complete a census of the tiger population in India only confirms our worst fears – that the tiger is in serious trouble, and its population has dipped so drastically that the authorities are scared of the truth behind the numbers. The writing was on the wall when an April-end meeting of the National Board for Wildlife, to be chaired by the Prime Minister himself, was quietly postponed. The tiger count exercise has been going on for some time now, and preliminary data coming in reportedly reveal that the number of tigers may have actually halved, falling to around 1500 from the 3600 of the last census in 2002. At that time, there were 22 tigers in Sariska. Buxa and Indravati had even more. Today, there are none. Across the board, in the Sundarbans, Corbett, Simlipal, Valmiki, Manas, Ranthambore, the story is the same. Simlipal had 99, now it is less than 15. Corbett 137, now less than 50. That the tiger is as much a victim of politicking as poaching is equally clear. Witness, for example, the divisions within the Tiger Task Force 2005. Dissenting member Valmik Thapar strongly protested sections of the report, which arguably tended to overstate its “people-friendly” case. In fact, the unfortunate and unnecessary “people vs tigers” approach may yet prove to be the tiger’s undoing. The Tribal Land Rights Bill, which seeks to redistribute forest land to tribals, will compound matters. Wildlife workers are also at fault – their “we know best, and tourists are a problem” attitude has alienated a potentially large support base. Any amount of bureaucratic tinkering with the Wildlife Protection and Forest Conservation Acts, and the mere setting up of the proposed Wildlife Crime Bureau, will not help matters. The vacancies in the service must be filled, with a young, well-trained profile, and they must be better equipped and empowered to protect the tigers that are left and conserve its habitat. The first step, of course, is to face up to the numbers. |
|
All rising to great place is by a winding
stair. — Francis Bacon |
Indians in Afghanistan
Lauding its “determination and courage” in fighting terrorism and stopping nuclear proliferation, former US Secretary of State Colon Powell joyously declared that Pakistan was a “major non-NATO ally” on March 16, 2004. Just two years later the US State Department’s Coordinator for counter-terrorism Henry Crumpton asserted in Kabul that most of the Al-Qaeda and Taliban leaders are in Pakistan, and while the US did not know where Osama bin Laden was hiding, he was probably in on the Pakistan side of the border. Mr Crumpton said that Pakistan is “not doing enough” to root out Al-Qaeda and Taliban leaders who have found safe haven on its soil. He added that an alliance of Al-Qaeda and Taliban leaders was stepping up violence in the Southern and Eastern Provinces of Afghanistan bordering Pakistan. General Musharraf’s spokesman predictably described Mr Crumpton’s allegations as “absurd”. Concern about Pakistan’s support to Taliban leaders, who are known to be comfortably ensconced in “safe houses” in Baluchistan and the North-West Frontier Province, has been repeatedly voiced by President Karzai and other Afghan leaders. On May 6 the Taliban leader Mullah Barakzai was killed in Quetta. There have also been other instances of Taliban leaders being gunned down by unknown assailants in Pakistan. President Bush minced no words on this issue when he was in Islamabad recently. American concerns on the increased activities of the Taliban in 2005 were triggered by the fact that the US lost around 100 soldiers in combat operations in Afghanistan last year. Those targeted by the Taliban also include Afghan leaders like Sibgatullah Mujaddidi who are trying to persuade sections of the Taliban to join the national mainstream. The Taliban have not only attacked American, NATO and Afghan government forces, but have also recently resorted to frequent suicide bombings. On January 17, 2006, Taliban Commander Mullah Dadullah proclaimed “Hundreds of Afghans Taliban Mujahideen are ready for suicide attacks. They await orders from the Taliban leadership”. Barely two days earlier, a Canadian diplomat was killed and 15 soldiers wounded in a suicide bomb attack. On January 5, 2006, a suicide bomb attack was launched near a meeting being addressed by the American Ambassador in Afghanistan. A month later it was revealed that the suicide attacks had been orchestrated by Taliban leaders based in Pakistan. Two Afghans and three Pakistanis who were interrogated revealed how young suicide bombers were being recruited and trained in Karachi and then infiltrated into Afghanistan from safe houses in Chaman and Quetta. In a memorial service for the victims of a suicide bombing in Kandahar, the Governor of Kandahar revealed that “most of the suicide bombers are not Afghans” and added that many captured were Urdu speaking. The cruel beheading of Indian engineer K. Suryanarayana on April 29 and the earlier killing of Indian road construction worker M.R. Kutty is the inevitable outcome of a situation wherein Pakistan is now in a position to blatantly support the Taliban in an effort to destabilise the US-backed Hamid Karzai government in Afghanistan. This policy has evolved in a carefully calculated and calibrated manner. Recognising that the Americans were primarily interested in getting after Osama bin Laden and his Al-Qaeda supporters, Pakistan kept the Americans happy by periodically arresting second rung Al-Qaeda leaders like Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. The Americans, in turn, obliged General Musharraf with huge economic and military assistance and rehabilitated the military regime in the international community. General Musharraf knows that the moment Osama is killed he loses his strategic value to the Americans. The 6-foot 5-inch tall Osama, who requires constant dialysis, therefore, conveniently becomes invisible! When the American desire to wind down its presence in Afghanistan became evident in early 2005, the Taliban was revived and became hyperactive all along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border. The Americans are evidently determined to significantly reduce their military presence in Afghanistan in a phased manner. At the same time, the NATO-led ISAF forces in Afghanistan are expected to provide around 32000 troops. The Pakistanis know that unlike the Americans, European countries like Netherlands have no stomach for active combat that would involve casualties and body bags. This was evident from the performance of the Dutch in Srebrenica. Further, the 30000-strong Afghan army has been raised and trained in a manner that does not inspire much confidence in its ability to fight the Taliban that, like in the past, will be backed by Pakistani regular forces. Thanks to American shortsightedness, the forces of the erstwhile Northern Alliance, that alone had the discipline and motivation to take on the Taliban, have been disarmed. India has, therefore, to be prepared for a worsening security situation in Afghanistan where its nationals will be threatened when working in the provinces bordering Pakistan. There will necessarily have to be close coordination between our diplomatic missions and the NATO-led ISAF on issues involving the security of our nationals. But under no circumstances should we agree to the deployment of Indian security forces in Afghanistan. This has to be an American, NATO and UN responsibility. The existing forces in Afghanistan could be supplemented by a UN force drawn predominantly from Islamic countries like Turkey, Egypt , Bangladesh and Malaysia. ITBP personnel in Afghanistan should have a strictly limited role of defending our missions and those working in specified Indian aided projects. At the same time, we should make it clear that we are determined to continue our economic assistance to the friendly people of Afghanistan. Osama bin Laden recently spoke of a “Crusader-Zionist-Hindu conspiracy against Muslims”. The Amir of the Lashkar-e-Toiyaba (now calling itself the Jamat-ud-Dawa), Hafiz Mohammed Sayad, proclaimed in Lahore on April 24: “Hindu hands are soaked with the blood of lakhs of Muslims. There should be no friendship with Hindus and jihad should be waged against them. Hindus have no right over India and the entire land belongs to Allah. It is the duty of all Muslims to liberate this land from the infidels and to make efforts to propagate Islam. There is need for efforts like those made by Mohammed bin Qasim, Mohammed Ghauri and Mahmud Ghazni to liberate the Muslims of Kashmir and India”. Given the close links between the Taliban and the Jamat-ud-Dawa, the Bush Administration has declared the Jamat-ud-Dawa an international terrorist organisation. Pakistan has indicated that it will ban the Jamat only if demanded by the UN Security Council. Has New Delhi urged the Security Council to act under Security Council Resolution 1373 against the Jamat-ud-Dawa as a terrorist organisation that publicly proclaims its determination to wage jihad against
India?
|
Spring in Kashmir
LAST night I dreamt of being in paradise again — lying on a bed of white daisies under an imposing chinar tree. Seventeen long years have passed since I experienced the soft sifting sunshine on my face. Yet the soothing touch is fresh in my memory like myriad other childhood memories. Every spring, year after year, my soul has ached for the replay of those memories. Nowhere else in India, are the four seasons as well defined as in Kashmir. At the end of winter, nature seems to take a fresh breath and wake up from her deep slumber from beneath the white quilt of snow. With the advent of spring, the whole valley shakes off its winter garments and dresses up in the radiant colours of spring. The faded brown grass turns a verdant hue, a surprising variety of flower blossoms and leaves emerge, snowfed steams rush with a gurgling sound and the lakes reflect clear blue skies and pristine snow capped mountains. Pussy willow, forsythia and colchicum are the earliest harbingers of spring in the fabled vale. Golden puffs along thin stems of willows stand gleaming by the side of Dal lake. Poplars and mighty chinars break into delicate green leaf. The slopes of Hari Parbat and Badami Bagh turn a lovely pink with the fragile blossoms of almond. The fields turn a sheet of gold with “sarson” (mustard) in bloom. Even the once desolate graveyards cloak themselves with an abundance of yellow crocus flowers, followed by blooming purple, blue and white irises, called “mazaar posh” or the flowers of the graveyards by the locals. In my childhood years, hundreds of picnickers flocked to Badamvari at the foot of Hari Parbat in Srinagar — the hillock which boasted of being the citadel of age old Kashmiri secularism for its is blessed by the most revered of Muslim, Hindu and Sikh shrines, namely Mukhdum Sahib’s Ziarat, Sharika Devi Temple and the Chhati Padshahi Gurudwara. A gentle perfume-laden waft would shower pretty pink petals of the almond blossom on the people sitting underneath and one would be reminded of the lines by Herrick: “Fair pledges of a fruitful tree Why do ye fall so fast?” Like the Japanese outings held to appreciate the cherry blossom, fairs were held here on the occasion of Navroz and Baisakhi. It became difficult to decide which of the fruit tree blossoms were the most stunning — pure white cherry, plum and pear; the rose-tinted peach or the large-petaled quince. Our epics Ramayan and Mahabarata speak of a fourteen years “Vanvaas” for Sri Ram and another long absence from home for the Pandavas. Is there some hope for us too to return to our valley and enjoy the springs of our childhood? I would like to hope that the longing will come to a happy end for as they say, “If winter comes, can spring be far
behind?” |
Myth of the dragon
When Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao recently visited Australia, media commentary mostly dwelt on China’s economic boom, and the consequent demand for Australian resource materials to fuel its economy. It was portrayed as a win-win situation for both countries, with Australia’s future economic prosperity tied up with China’s economic growth. This sort of hype about China’s economic growth is now a standard theme, not only in Australia but in many parts of the world. It is based on two assumptions. The first is that China’s rapid economic growth will continue into the foreseeable future. The second is that this will continue to happen under the monopoly power of the Communist Party. Both assumptions are seriously flawed. Regarding the first, there are serious sectoral imbalances in the economy from misallocation of financial resources and consequent surplus production, reminiscent of the Soviet Union. As Premier Wen himself has admitted, “Many longstanding and deep seated problems have yet to be fundamentally solved.” There is runaway investment with concentration in sectors which are already saturated. The economy is skewed in so many ways that if it were happening in a politically accountable system, the government of the day would have difficulty surviving. For instance, non-performing bank loans are estimated at 25 to 50 per cent. This would, more or less, constitute a state of bankruptcy, threatening a run on the banks. But because people do not have access to information. The Party, with its monopoly of power, is so far managing to get away with the proverbial murder. It is not just the financial sector which is broken. The land grab in the countryside by the local authorities and their henchmen is behind widespread unrest. Premier Wen has warned against it developing into something bigger and disastrous. It further restricts the available economic opportunities in the rural areas. According to official statistics, there were 87,000 protests, riots and other “mass incidents” in 2005, an increase of 6.6 per cent on 2004. The urban-rural divide is a serious social and economic problem. The government has announced diversion of funds to alleviate the situation and to create “a new socialist countryside”. But there are doubts about the central government’s capacity to implement its rural nirvana, considering the multiplicity of local authorities and the rapacious nature of an entrenched system without much accountability. Besides, the neglect of the rural economy has gone too far to be reversed so easily. As a result, the migration of rural labour to urban centres is not only likely to continue but increase, with all the attendant problems of congestion, slum dwelling, sickness, exploitation, alienation, crime and environmental degradation. As for the environment, 16 of the world’s 20 dirtiest cities are in China. The explosive mix of rural poverty and urban squalor is the antithesis of social stability, so necessary for continued economic growth. And add to this the lack of affordable health care and education facilities, you have all the ingredients of a social explosion, especially when people do not have legitimate avenues of expressing their frustrations. The virtual absence of intermediary agencies to mediate between competing and contending interests is bound to overload the system, with monopoly power vested in the Communist Party. It doesn’t require a genius to figure out that a country of China’s size and diversity cannot be governed for long without checks and balances on the monopoly exercise of political power. The 1989 democracy protests, brutally crushed by the army, were a foretaste of sorts. But because there has been no repetition of an agitation on the Tiananmen Square scale so far, a fashionable view is taking hold that: (1) China is somehow unique and hence immune to the democratic dynamics of political governance and, (2) that it has transcended politics. Economic growth and people’s obsession with it is said to have created this new politics, with the Party uniquely imbued to carry on the process into distant future. As one scholar has said, “No longer are people enthralled by the political, or even intimidated by it.” In other words, they are just mesmerized by economic growth with the vanguard role forever of the Communist Party. This is simply not true. The official statistics of 87,000 protests, riots and other “mass incidents” last year show that the anger against the authorities and the system are rising. And these could easily develop into a mass movement at an appropriate time. The communist revolution itself had such humble beginnings. Then there is the case of the Falun Gong movement (with its many adherents incarcerated and persecuted) plaguing the government. Professor John Fitzgerald, a sinologist at the Australian National University, reportedly told an Australian parliamentary committee last year felt that many in leadership positions in China felt the government’s banning of Falun Gong was a terrible mistake. According to him, “But once [the mistake was] made by senior leadership, there is no going back.” However: “Thy find themselves on the horns of a dilemma, having created, in a sense, a monster which is their own state surveillance apparatus, which the state itself is going to find difficult to control.” He pointed out, “People are now watching one another’s backs in relation to freedom of religion, in particular, in ways we have not seen since the Cultural Revolution.” Needless to say, religious persecution and social misery are a lethal political combination. Regarding transcendence of politics by economics: it is important to realize that China’s economic growth has largely left behind nearly 800 million rural folk. And for them politics of change will be an important instrument to resolve “many longstanding and deep-seated problems” to improve their situation. In other words, the gap between China’s hype and reality is very wide and unbridgeable under a political system that is answerable only to a self-perpetuating oligarchy. |
|
When the personal is also the political
It is with extreme caution that one takes on the current debate, if that is what it can be called, over motherhood, children and work. For years now I’ve ignored the various books and polls purporting to show that housewives are happier, or that children in day care are more aggressive, or that children emerge better educated from preschool. What finally draws me into the argument is not the substance, which never changes, but the equally difficult question of why the subject engenders so much public passion. After all, anyone who lives a real life in the real world knows that most women make choices about working and not working on a non-ideological basis. Many with children work because they have to — but some stay home because they have to. Many work and wish they didn’t — but some don’t work and wish they did. A lot juggle, or work part-time, or do one thing and then another. In my experience, rarely do any of these decisions have much to do with politics. But that’s private life, in the real world. In public life — in books, in magazines, on television, online — it seems no one can talk about any of this stuff without turning it into fodder for ideological wars. The writer Caitlin Flanagan, once better known as the author of funny essays on weddings and sexless marriages, couldn’t resist using her 15 minutes in the national spotlight last week to write an essay in Time magazine accusing the Democratic Party of abandoning “traditional” housewives such as herself. Never mind that Flanagan, a professional writer with (by her own admission) multiple household staffers, isn’t a traditional housewife: In this debate, the temptation to make oneself fit into a caricature and make one’s “critics” fit into a caricature must be overwhelming, since those who enter it almost always do. In one corner, the “feminists,” with their hatred of men and their baby-free careers; in the other, the “traditional wives” with their ironing boards and washing loads. But do such women exist, except in television commercials for detergent or on the pages of Ms. magazine? Feminism can be blamed in one sense for this cartoonish conversation: In recent years “the personal is political,” a phrase whose origins are lost deep in the history of the women’s movement, has among other things come to mean that just about anyone is allowed to transform her personal experience into a political programme. The truth is that there is no real way to measure the “value” of working against the “value” of staying home. What are we talking about, after all? Monetary value? Emotional value? Social value? And doesn’t the calculus, whatever it is, differ according to the ages of the children, the personalities of the parents, the wealth of the family? Given that an infant is not a teen-ager, that the options of a poor single mother differ from those of a wealthy married mother, that the healthy have different choices from the sick — and so on and on and on — I don’t see how any one person’s experience, however well described, can ever be a valid guide for millions of other women. But perhaps it is precisely because these things cannot be measured that they engender so much passion. Figuring it all out for yourself is difficult. Nobody knows whether her or his own choices are “right.” Everybody wants a solution, a right answer to favor and a wrong answer to oppose — even if it’s a
caricature. By arrangement with LA Times-Washington Post |
|
Fears about genetically modified crops misplaced
Gene transfer technology has enabled mobilisation of genes from any organism or even the creation of synthetic DNA sequences into the genome of any other organism. This capability can be and has been exploited to tailor plant genomes to suit various human needs. Some of the successful examples of gene transfer of economic value are concerned with i) insect resistance, ii) virus resistance, iii) seed protein quality, iv) fatty acid composition, v) disease resistance, vi) biochemical production, vii) suppression of or over production by endogenous genes and viii) vaccines production. A transgenic crop or popularly known as genetically modified (GM) crop is one that contains and expresses a transgene. Production of GM crops offers two unique advantages viz. (i) any gene (from any organism or synthesised chemically) can be used for transfer, (ii) the change in genotype can be precisely controlled, since only the transgene is added into the crop genome. In contrast, plant breeding activity can use only those genes that are present in the reference crop species so that the latter can be hybridised between themselves. GM technology is more specific, to the point and precise. Instead of the zeal to banish GM crops with reluctance to acknowledge the relatively less dangers of changes in the overall environment, one should think about the present dangers of modifying the environment with toxic emissions, heavy metals, pesticides and chlorofluorocarbons. Due to this polluted environment, there is frequent occurrence of mutant viruses and drug resistant diseases that cannot be dealt with instantly. When it comes to human food crops we try to avoid its touch even so much so that they perish in a world of virulent pests. Much is being debated about the country’s food security, but when along comes GM technology, its proper value is totally ignored. The dangers and risks that are anticipated due to the use of GM crops are chimerical. Had it not been so, China would have not adopted a positive attitude towards GM crops and gone for them in a big way. Japan also has approved 44 biotech varieties as food through its ongoing assessment process. Most of the risks involved can, however, be assessed in advance using scientific methods both qualitatively and quantitatively. By and large, with few exceptions, there is no evidence of GM crops posing more risks than conventional products in triggering allergens. Further, if at all this fear prevails, the new GM crops can be tested for allergens prior to their commercial release. Although the probability of transfer of genes responsible for antibiotic resistance is extremely rare, steps must be taken to reduce this risk by phasing out the use of such genes in the GM crops. Likewise the risks of cross-contamination can be anticipated easily and then evaluated by experiments prior to any commercial release of any GM crop. The experiments have also proved that the insecticidal proteins of GM crops are degraded in the soil. Driving away all imaginary apprehensions, the country should, therefore, make all out efforts in taking a lead in switching over to the environmentally sound agricultural biotechnology programme for the development of all kinds of GM crops. This will mark the onset of the second green revolution.
The writer is Dean, College of Basic Sciences & Humanities, CCS Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar. |
|
From the pages of Pakistan — A Non-Communal State
In his address to the Pakistan Constituent Assembly after his unanimous election to the presidential chair of that body, Mr Jinnah for the first time gave members some idea of the State that he and the Muslim League want to set up in Pakistan. It will not, we are told, be a democratic State in any sense of the term. Nor will religion as such have anything to do with it. It will be a democratic State in which citizens will be treated as without any distinction of caste or creed. This, coupled with Mr Jinnah’s assurance to the minorities, will go a long way in dispelling the doubts and misgivings that have been assailing the minds of Hindus and Sikhs since the decision about a division of the country. Of course much will depend upon the manner in which governmental machinery is worked by those responsible for working it and whether the assurances held out by Mr Jinnah to the minorities are carried out. (This was the last editorial published in The Tribune before the newspaper ceased publication in Lahore. On August 15, the staff was compelled by the rioting in the city to seek safety in Indian territory) |
The highly evolved unsuccessful one does not go to heaven, but is born in a spiritually advanced family. There, one regains the knowledge acquired in previous life, and strives again to achieve perfection. The most devoted of all is the one who lovingly remembers God with faith. — The Bhagvad Gita The soul that is hidden beneath this earthly crust is one and the same for all men and women belonging to all climes. — Mahatma Gandhi Where we go and sit, we should utter what is good. —
Guru Nanak Of what use are culture and wisdom to one who does not acknowledge the True Master? — Guru Nanak Our Karma is the bow and spirit the arrow. The Supreme consciousness is their target. —The Upanishads |
| HOME PAGE | |
Punjab | Haryana | Jammu & Kashmir |
Himachal Pradesh | Regional Briefs |
Nation | Opinions | | Business | Sports | World | Mailbag | Chandigarh | Ludhiana | Delhi | | Calendar | Weather | Archive | Subscribe | Suggestion | E-mail | |
