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Who is to pay the bill? Banning blogs |
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Army is quicker Why are other Tehelka men roaming free? THE contrast is chilling. While the Army has proceeded against the officers involved in the Tehelka scandal with commendable determination, the civilian proceedings are casual at best. The resolute Army action has culminated in the confirmation by the Army Chief of cashiering and two years’ rigorous imprisonment for a Brigadier. Earlier, one Major-General and one Colonel had been handed out equally stiff sentences on similar charges of professional impropriety.
Peace in the region
If Ahmad Shah were here
Dateline London Stealing from women and children Where hard-line Shiites, Sunnis meet
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Who is to pay the bill? THE 3.3 million central government employees and pensioners have a reason to feel elated at the appointment of the Sixth Pay Commission, which will submit its report in 18 months. Pay revisions are necessary to help the employees cope with the rising cost of living. If the pay and perks are raised by 30 per cent, the Centre will have to cough up Rs 20,000 crore more, however. The existing wage and pension bill at Rs 62,645 crore, as projected for this fiscal, is quite hefty. It comes to 15.53 per cent of the tax revenue. The Fifth Pay Commission report had required the Centre to bear an additional burden of Rs 17,000 crore. That had unsettled the central finances. How the 75 per cent hike in the wage bills had crippled state finances is also widely known. Many states, including Punjab, were forced to spend their entire revenue on salaries, pensions and debt repayments. The Centre had to offer a debt swap scheme to rescue states from a near financial breakdown. This time such a scheme may not be available. When resources shrink due to an increased wage bill, development suffers and more taxes are levied. The Centre and states may find it difficult to meet their objectives of controlling the fiscal and revenue deficits apart from cutting government expenses as required under the Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management Act. While effecting pay hikes, the Centre had failed to implement the last pay panel’s recommendations to cut the workforce by 30 per cent, abolish 3.5 lakh vacant posts and slash the number of pay scales from 51 to 34. The states too ignored suggestions to trim a top-heavy administration. To justify a wage hike, the government must stop wasteful expenditure, drastically shed flab and implement administrative reforms to become efficient. To improve productivity and efficiency, penalties and rewards should be introduced based on performance. Besides, instead of imposing more taxes on people, the government should cut its own expenses to pay for higher salaries the Sixth Pay Commission may recommend.
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Banning blogs THE Government of India’s ban on 17 websites and web logs (blogs) in the aftermath of the Mumbai blasts exposes the outdated mindset of the authorities. The fact that this has been done without citing any legal provision or offering an explanation smacks of either panic or streats of authoritarianism. The diktat has come from the Department of Telecommunication and the Internet service providers have complied without so much as a whimper. The Union Minister for Communication and Information Technology, Mr Dayanidhi Maran, has not come forth with any convincing reply to the question as to what compelled the clampdown. He merely stated the already known fact that the blocking of certain blogs and websites was done at the request of the Intelligence Bureau. Three jeers to democracy, he might as well have said. This censorship and the manner in which it was imposed underscores that there is not even a pretense of accountability. It is a different matter that the ban has not succeeded. Those who are techno-savvy have found ways to get around the blocking and still access the banned sites. The service providers, who have capitulated so meekly, could not even find their voice to tell the authorities that it was not always possible to block individual sites selectively and, as a result, hundreds of other sites too have become inaccessible. Blogs have revolutionised communication and its advantages are most evident in times of crisis, such as the Mumbai bomb blasts, when these websites were most active. True, the technology of democracy can also be exploited for its subversion by the dissemination of hate mail and propaganda that creates disaffection. Bloggers can evade responsibility and accountability for what they propagate and it is not easy to proceed against the offenders. That is no reason to clampdown on the media, for by that logic even the Internet and all telephony will have to be banned. The sooner the UPA Government lifts the ban, the better it would for its own credentials. And why clamp the ban when it can’t be enforced?
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Army is quicker THE contrast is chilling. While the Army has proceeded against the officers involved in the Tehelka scandal with commendable determination, the civilian proceedings are casual at best. The resolute Army action has culminated in the confirmation by the Army Chief of cashiering and two years’ rigorous imprisonment for a Brigadier. Earlier, one Major-General and one Colonel had been handed out equally stiff sentences on similar charges of professional impropriety. While the Major-General was cashiered and given one-year RI, the Colonel was awarded four-year RI. On the other hand, the chargesheet against the then BJP president Bangaru Lakshman, who was caught on the camera accepting wads of currency notes was finally filed just two days ago by the CBI – full five years after the shameful incident. In fact, it is his acceptance of money which had become the leitmotif of the Tehelka shame. It is such persons in high places who should have got quicker punishment considering that they controlled the levers of power and their misdeeds were all the more reprehensible. But they managed to use their clout to wind down the investigation against them. Not only that, the leader class hounded the Tehelka journalists no end to bring them to their knees for the audacity to expose the black deeds. That should have been another reason to haul them over coals but that was not to be. It is ironical that when one of the netas is sought to be disciplined, the whole political class closes ranks and comes to his rescue. When the Congress-led coalition came to power, it was thought that the immunity that the politicians and bureaucrats were enjoying under the BJP dispensation would be taken away at last. But that was not to be. Corruption, exposed or otherwise, is widely prevalent at the Centre and in the states. Too many people have skeletons in their cabinet and nobody is for action against the other too forcefully, lest he too is caught in the cleft-stick on a future date. That is why the politicians and their collaborators in the babudom make merry despite being caught with their hand in the cookie jar. The situation is going from bad to worse. The country must wake up before these bad coins push the good currency totally out of circulation.
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Only when the clamour of the outside world is silenced will you be able to hear the deeper vibration. — Sarah Ban Breathnach
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Peace in the region
LAST month I was in Dublin and Belfast, Northern Ireland in the UK to study how a successful peace process there compares with peace processes in India’s neighbourhood. Though there is no one template, common to any peace process is the realisation by all sides that there cannot be a military solution and the importance of mature leadership for making compromises. Patience, a sense of humour and patience are indispensable virtues. In the sequencing of a perfect peace process, are a ceasefire, negotiations, political agreement and implementation. Borders between North and South in Ireland have become irrelevant. No papers are required for travel between Dublin and Belfast. In the heart of Belfast, Europa where the key makers of the Good Friday Agreement (GFA) stayed, is the most bombed hotel anywhere in the world. The GFA of 1998 was the outcome of years of hardnosed negotiations between the governments of the UK and Ireland and political parties representing the warring factions in Northern Ireland. It followed the best practices of conflict resolution: powersharing in Northern Ireland, North-South linkages and an Anglo-Irish resolve. The roles of civil society, business community, Irish Americans, US and EU in shaping the GFA were crucial. The impetus to the political process came in 1993 from a British declaration that they had “no selfish strategic or economic interest in Northern Ireland”. Both UK and Ireland set aside political claims. While holding their strategic differences, the Nationalists (who want a united Ireland) and Unionists (who want it to remain in the UK) chose to let the political process and the consent of the people take over. Last year, the Irish Republican Army (IRA) made a historic declaration: “Ours is not a ceasefire but the end of armed conflict”. The predominant view is that the peace process is at such an advanced stage that the IRA will not risk its political future to return to violence. There can be no political change in Northern Ireland — Union with Ireland versus status quo — without the consent of the people. What the contending parties have accepted without prejudice to their political goals is an interim and not a final solution that they are willing to pursue along a democratic electoral path. The key lesson of the GFA is that the international community has to remain involved in its implementation process and that even if the political process breaks down the peace process remains intact. What other lessons can be culled from the Northern Ireland experience relevant to our neighbourhood ? Paramount is the need for ending violence and making the peace process irreversible. The spoilers have to be neutralised, ideally taken on board. A full and final solution emerges only incrementally. External facilitation and cooperation between countries directly involved or affected by conflict is essential for the progress of the peace process. With differences though, the most tempting comparison with the GFA in process and content is J&K. Both are partition-related conflicts and have to do with consent of the people. There are three linkages — India and Pakistan; PoK with Pakistan and J&K with India; and in the future, J&K with PoK and Northern Areas, making borders irrelevant. As there is no comprehensive ceasefire and end to armed conflict by Pakistan and its paramilitary proxies, violence goes on. There is nothing comparable to a GFA which postpones the final settlement to the future without prejudice to beliefs hopes and differences. Pakistan holds the peace process hostage to a final settlement on Kashmir. On the other hand, an interim political package linked to a full and final solution to J&K could lead to a decommissioning of armed groups and their reintegration with Indian and Pakistan armies. The India-Pakistan normalisation process has very little peace and is even less of a process with terrorists calling the shots. Without external facilitation the peace process will merely meander. The Nepal story is unique. The peace process which led into the political process is in two phases. The first phase of converting a tripolar conflict into bipolar is all but over. The King has been marginalised. The New Delhi Agreement (NDA) between the Seven Party Alliance (SPA) and the Maoists in November 2005 facilitated by India established the framework for an interim political settlement — holding of elections to a Constituent Assembly. It was hammered out to end autocratic monarchy and restore multiparty democracy even before the end of the King’s direct rule was in sight. A roadmap towards a ceasefire, modalities for holding elections, management of arms and armies and role of third party was in place before the SPA and Maoists launched their peaceful protests which erupted into a spontaneous popular uprising. The speed with which the road map is being implemented has surprised everyone. Unlike the GFA there was no George Mitchell or Bill Clinton to push the NDA. The Maoists have already secured major political victories — removal of terrorist tag and red corner notice and release of most of the prisoners. The IRA has not been taken off the terrorist list by both UK and Ireland though the US has. Three of the Maoist key demands have already been met — placing the army under civilian control, dismantling monarchy and elections to a Constituent Assembly. Further, the PLA who are “qualified and capable” will be merged with the new Nepal Army. Far from being a failed state, Nepal’s success in peacemaking will be remembered as an accident of history. By releasing the political prisoners the Nepalese government has lost the only leverage it has with the Maoists. But it is only the beginning of the peace process. The government has committed a second mistake — demoralising the security forces. India must hang on to Maoist prisoners as leverage on Nepal’s behalf. In Sri Lanka, a perfectly sound peace process was wrecked by the cussedness of competitive domestic politics. For the first time, the elusive LTTE supremo Prabhakaran signed any agreement — a ceasefire. It held for four years but the political process had broken down owing to lack of a Sinhala consensus. Powerful international forces — the US, EU, Japan and Norway, who are donors and co-chairs of the peace process — have failed to resuscitate the negotiations, leaving the ceasefire in tatters. Martin McGuinnis of the Sinn Fein who has publicly hailed the GFA as one of the most successful peace processes in the world was in Sri Lanka condemning the EU ban of the LTTE. It is only now that India has perked up and is more visibly involved. Without India the peace process will go nowhere. Bangladesh is sorely in need of an internal peace process to prevent it from being Talibanised. India helped establish a secular Bangladesh but erred in pulling out of the country too soon instead of helping rebuild the state. Political and diplomatic advantage arising from the military victory in 1971 were squandered both in Pakistan and Bangladesh. The GFA in comparison to the peace processes in our region is certainly a clincher.
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If Ahmad Shah were here
History books tell us that Ahmad Shah Abdali of Afghanistan attacked India repeatedly in the eighteenth century and pillaged the country barren. These never-ending invasions gave birth to a desperate coinage in Punjab: “Khaada Peeda Lahe Da, Baaki Ahmad Shahe Da” (What you eat and drink is yours; all the rest belongs to Ahmad Shah). During his fourth incursion in 1757, his men butchered hundreds in Delhi in a nightmarish orgy of murder, loot and rape. I have been wondering what would have been the reaction if the mass-murder had been perpetrated in modern times. Here is the most likely scenario: Manmohan Singh: “We once again condemn such inhuman acts and will continue to do so till better sense dawns on Shri Abdali. The heinous crime shows that his followers have become demoralised and frustrated. If the situation and Soniaji demand, I will go to various countries to apprise world leaders of the matter”. Shivraj Patil: “Our fight against terror will continue. I have already visited the injured in hospitals and distributed ex-gratia.” V.P.
Singh and Arjun Singh: “Our hearts bleed for the SCs, STs and OBCs who lost their lives in the carnage”. V. K. Duggal: “The barbaric act will not affect the peace process. We will unanimously press ahead with confidence-building measures”. Leftists: “There is a conspiracy by satanic capitalists to discredit a great leader from a neighbouring country with which India has had excellent relations for centuries”. Mulayam Singh Yadav: “The allegation is a part of a devious campaign against the minority community. There is no proof that Abdali Saheb’s men carried out the massacre”. Gen Pervez Musharraf: “As is its wont, India is falsely accusing the head of a peaceful foreign delegation of fomenting trouble. The killings are the handiwork of Indian security agencies to defame a prominent Muslim leader. I will forcefully raise the issue in the OIC”. Khurshid Mahmood Kasuri: “India will have to face such situations till the Kashmir problem is solved”. Congress spokesman: “The unfortunate killings are a natural reaction to the anti-Muslim riots in Gujarat”. Delhi Police Commissioner: “The situation is tense but under control. We have released computer-generated identity sketches of the suspects. Three horses and two dogs have been arrested on their basis”. A self-styled Gandhian: “India must not hit back. The best way to defuse the situation would be to hand over at least half of the country to Ahmadji.” Another Page-3 peacenik: “There should be a candle-light vigil at Khyber Pass to show to the world that we have no ill-will towards Afghanistanis despite what their ruler did here”. A gritty Indian General and his commandos raid the invaders’ camp and arrest some Abdali men. He is made to release them and issue a public apology for “exceeding his brief and taking this needlessly provocative step which could have caused communal hatred and disharmony”. Family members of those killed come on the street to demand action. Leaders of several constituents of the ruling coalition point out that since most of those killed happened to belong to opposition parties, the massacre issue should be soft-pedalled. When the government refuses to ban the sit-in by the victims’ families, the Netas threaten to withdraw support. The government reverses its stand immediately, declares the agitation illegal and arrests the protesters under anti-terrorism
provisions.
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Dateline London THE
United Kingdom has been sizzling in heat. From the sub-continental point of view temperatures of 37 C to 38 C are no big deal. This country, however, is not equipped to bear this heat. Most houses do not have fans and few restaurants and hotels are air-conditioned. Buses and the subway “tube” system are not air-conditioned. July 20 was the hottest day in Britain in the last 95 years. Schools were closed earlier than usual to allow students to avoid the hottest hours of the day. Judges took off their traditional wigs and normally dress code conscious Brits did the dressing-down act. In buses and tubes, commuters suffered temperatures of 45 C to 50 C Given the hot weather, it is already illegal to use water pipes in gardens, lawns and flower beds. Some regions are being subjected to water and electricity cuts. In some places people are even preparing for getting their water through buckets from water tankers. In the House of Commons (the lower House of Parliament), it was business as usual – Parliamentarians on both the government and opposition benches let off hot air. The Prime Minister’s last question hour before summer recess, on the hottest day, was lively. The opposition reminded Prime Minister Tony Blair of the policy U-turns that his government had taken in recent months. The Prime Minster returned the complements by accusing the opposition, especially the Tories, of not espousing any policies, and that the half cooked policies they had propounded were retracted soon after they were aired The media, especially the Rupert Murdock Press, continued to bay for the heads of Prime Minister Tony Blair and his Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott. It is high time the prime minister announced his date of departure, his distracters demanded. Blair is accused of direct involvement in the “cash for honours” scandal, which involved collecting loans and contributions to the Party from businesspersons in return for promises to bestow upon them membership of the House of Lords, or other lesser honours. Four of his nominations to the House of Lords, including two persons of Indian origin, were rejected by the Lords Appointment Commission. They had given loans to the party, and had not disclosed, or were persuaded not to disclose these loans, to the Electoral Commission. Two persons close to the prime Minister, one of them Lord Levy, prime minister’s chief fund raiser, have been arrested by the police which is investigating possible breach of the Honours (Prevention of Abuse) Act 1925. The complaint was filed with the police by the Scottish National Party. Most observers believe that the police and the Crown Prosecution Service would find it difficult to prove any breach of the 1925 Act, as it would not be easy to establish a direct trade between an” inducement or reward” and a “grant of a dignity or title of honour”. The Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000, also concedes that loans to Parties do not have to be declared provided they are commercial. The term commercial has not been defined by the legislation. However, one cannot deny that the turning down of nominations of four businessmen, arrest of his two main fund raisers, the questioning of at least 48 persons so far, and a possible interrogation of the prime minister himself, is pretty humiliating for the ruling party. It was the Labour government which enacted the 2000 Act and constituted the Lords Appointment commission. The stated objective was to root out political corruption, which plagued the previous Tory governments. The Labour Party is now being judged against the yardstick which it had set up. This case is bound to adversely affect political parties’ ability to raise funds for fighting elections, and it would further reduce political parties’ credibility. Incidentally, of the 48 so for questioned by the police, most are supporters or contributors to the Tory Party funds. Nobody is questioning the Tories, as most people expect them to be corrupt. Cynics attribute Labour’s conduct to the Prime Minister’s desire to wean the party away from trade union funds. Prescott’s head is being demanded for the twin follies he committed. First, the media had got hold of pictures of him in compromising positions with his private secretary in his ministerial office. The second was his socialising with an American multimillionaire, who has been entrusted with multi-billion dollar projects that include a grand
casino. Prescott did not register the hospitality of the American businessman in the members’ register of interest, till after the media had exposed him. As of now, indications are that Mr. Prescott will not be disturbed. He has given plenty of cause for public displeasure at his behavior. But most observers believe that his private life has not affected his public duties. After the loss of two Home secretaries, the Prime Minster is hardly in a mood to handover the head of his deputy to the media and the opposition. Mr. Prescott has many uses for his boss. He is a link between the New Labour and the Old, the trade unions and the government, and above all helps keep peace between the prime minister and his Chancellor and anointed successor, Mr. Gordon Brown.
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Stealing from women and children NOKHA in Bikaner District is a nondescript little town with a cavalcade of camels, women in bright, swirling Rajasthani ghagras, petty farmers and traders. But a small movement on right to information is transforming the lives of people and making Nokha a ‘happening place’ in the sand dunes.
It all began with the setting up of an information centre (soochna kendra), bang in the centre of government offices, to act as a link between the babudom and the farmers and villagers of Nokha. Looking for information on various government schemes and projects, the villagers quickly got conscious of their rights. The meagre stock of grains and sugar in the public distribution system, locked anganwadis, and lack of poor facilities in government schools, were all investigated into – and everywhere a scandal was unearthed. Jagrook Nagrik Manch and Jagrook Yuva Manch, each with an active membership of 450 and 1000 respectively, have been the eyes and ears of the community. They have been spearheading the right to information movement in Nokha Block, says Chetan Ram of Urmul Jyoti, an NGO that seeks to ensure transparency in development work in western Rajasthan. So powerful is the movement that in the year 2000 the village sarpanches formed a union and complained about the movement to the former chief minister Ashok Gehlot. The CM looked into the charges and gave a clean chit to the Jagrook Nagrik Manch. Under the right to information campaign, the JNM has scrutinised the working of 20 government departments. When people in the block have a problem, whether it is not getting rations or the right wage for work done, they come to the soochna kendra and pour our their endless tale of woes. The young activists organise meetings with the officers concerned and they in turn assure action against those taking bribes and harassing the common man. “Follow up” is a vital component of the JNM’s activity. There is no resting on oars till the job is accomplished. So far JNM and JYM have ensured redistribution of Rs 15 lakhs taken as bribes by government functionaries. Upto Rs 2.5 lakhs were collected as bribes by the Jodhpur Vidyut Vitaran Nigam Ltd for giving electricity connection to villagers or for moving an electric pole closer to their house or field. In Jhadeli village 80 farmers had to pay Rs 64,000 as a bribe for getting a big electricity transformer. After the JNM swung into action all this money was returned. In Himmatsar village, the sarpanch or members of his family had a stranglehold over the public distribution system for close to 50 years. When members of the JNM wanted a photo copy of the distribution register, the sarpanch offered to give back to the villagers all the money y he had made by denying them rations and selling the food grains to private traders. He had to give 221 villagers Rs3.8 lakhs, the amount he had made in 25 months. In addition he had to pay a penalty of Rs 41,000. For three days, in the presence of the SDM, the money was distributed personally by the PDS owner to every house. In Dawa village, a similar investigation of the PDS led to Rs 1.5 lakh being refunded by the dealer. The JNM survey of anganwadis in the block threw up some startling anomalies. Of the 208 anganwadis allotted for Nokha, 40 were surveyed. Twenty eight were locked at the time they should have been catering to pregnant women and children; two were just 100 metres apart. Just three of the 40 anganwadis were open and functioning. They had just 10 to 13 children as against the 100 they should be catering to. Several anganwadis existed only on paper. A survey of the register at Ankhisar village anganwadi showed that the same three women were shown as pregnant for three consecutive years. The food and tonics allotted to the pregnant women had obviously been siphoned off in cash or kind. Chetan Ram and the young activists of the Jagrook Nagrik Manch and the Jagrook Yuva Manch are now looking at the functioning of schools. School enrolment figures in Rajasthan are faked, says Chetan Ram. Sometimes as much as 60 per cent are false enrolments. But the battle for rights has only just begun. It has a long way to go, says Chetan Ram.
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Where hard-line Shiites, Sunnis meet SAYEDA ZAINAB, Syria – One of the hottest-selling items in Mustafa Hahel’s shop here off Baghdad Street is a poster showing the leaders of Iran, Syria and Hezbollah side by side, smiling pleasantly and surrounded by roses and daffodils. Portraits of the founder of Hamas are on sale just down the road. “This is one country, Syria and Lebanon, and as for Iran, how can the average person be anything but grateful to Iran for supporting the resistance?’’ said Hahel, whose business lies outside one of the most famous shrines in Shiite Islam, the mosque of Sayeda Zainab. If there is a crossroads for the Middle East’s axis of fundamentalist Shiites, hard-line Sunnis and Arab nationalists, it must be in this dusty, gridlocked suburb of Damascus. Angrily dispossessed people have landed in succession from the Palestinian territories, Iraq, Iran and southern Lebanon, whose residents have been arriving dazed and tearful by the car- and busload for days. There is broad opposition to the U.S. and Israel across the Middle East. But the resistance heroes, radical clerics and rogue heads of state dear to the residents of Sayeda Zainab include the late Hamas founder Sheik Ahmed Yassin, Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Syrian leader Bashar Assad. They are the figureheads of an increasingly powerful alliance aimed at countering U.S. and Israeli policy. “We are different in every single scope in this community,’’ said Wasef Mahmoud, a 31-year-old Palestinian whose family left northern Israel after the creation of the Jewish state in 1948. “But we have one thing in common: Israel is against us, and we are against Israel.’’ They are against the United States, too. At a religious school housing Lebanon refugees, an American’s brief query Wednesday was met with angry shouts and a plea from the proprietor to leave as quickly as possible to avoid trouble. “Death to America!’’ three men shouted, rushing at the door before being pulled back. “We hate you!’’ Many Lebanese, who pressed Syria to withdraw from their country last year, would disagree with Hahel’s characterization of Lebanon and Syria as one country. But it was Israel’s invasion of Lebanon in 1982 that first sent Shiite Lebanese fleeing toward the ornate mosaic and silver-spangled shrine here dedicated to the prophet Muhammad’s granddaughter. Many of them subsequently returned home. Palestinians had already set up a small refugee town here, as had Syrians who fled the Golan Heights when Israel captured it in 1967. Iranians kicked out of Iraq by Saddam Hussein during the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war flooded in when Iran wouldn’t take them back. A huge wave of Iraqi refugees arrived after the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003. And now the Lebanese are coming again. Syria’s ardently secular regime, governing a nation of mainly Sunni Muslims, forged a friendship with Shiite Iran years ago based on their mutual antagonism toward Saddam. Hezbollah and Hamas come from entirely separate schools of Islamic theology, but the two found common cause in their hatred of Israel. Now all four are united in a program whose ultimate goal is ejecting Israel from at least the West Bank, Gaza Strip, Golan Heights and Lebanon, undermining pro-Western Arab governments.
— By arrangement with LA Times-Washington Post
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From the pages of CHANDIGARH—A WAY OUT
THE expected has happened. The government of Punjab and Himachal Pradesh have accepted Mr Chavan’s proposal for arbitration by the Prime Minister. The Government of Haryana has rejected it. The only outcome of Mr Chavan’s meeting with the three Chief Ministers last month was their permission to him to write, when, in fact, he needed no such thing. He could have written to them with absolute certainly what the replies would be. The question now is what next? It seems to be common ground that even if arbitration is by the consent of the Governments concerned, the award could be denounced by the political parties who are not parties to arbitration. The difficulties of a settlement by commission or by arbitration are equally self-evident. At the same time the dispute cannot be allowed to go on indefinitely. The atmosphere in all the three states is being daily fouled by mutual recriminations and claims and counter-claims. The public interest is at stake. The politicians having failed to reach an agreement and there being no hope of their being able to do so in the near or distant future, it is time for the President to act.
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What greater worship can there can be than nature’s own festival of lights! Truth is the first to be sought for, and Beauty and Goodness will then be added unto you. Never commit evil... Vast-learning, perfect handicraft, a highly trained discipline and pleasant speech This is the Supreme Blessing.
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