Jalandhar, August 10
CPI (M)’s firebrand leader Brinda Karat today expressed her dissatisfaction over the marginal hike of Rs 10 per quintal in the Minimum Support Price (MSP) of paddy.

She claimed that the CPI (M) and other Left parties were pressurising the Centre to take representatives of farmers in confidence before fixing crop prices.

Ms Karat, accompanied by other senior CPI (M) leaders including, Professor Balwant Singh, Mr H. S. Mihnas, Mr Gurmeet Singh Dhadha, Mr Lehmbar Singh Taggar and Charan Singh, was here to address a public rally at Noormahal.

Ms Karat also lashed out at the Centre for not acting against soft drink companies three years back, when the first laboratory report establishing the presence of pesticides in soft drinks was brought to public notice.

She also criticised Union Finance Minister P. Chidambaram for “focusing of his attention on the Mumbai Stock Exchange instead of the common people of the country.”

“Farming has been rendered an unviable profession, largely because of the wrong policies and liberalisation initiated by the NDA government,” Ms Karat alleged. “Prices of farm inputs like fertilizers and diesel have scaled such a peak that farmers are left with no option other than bear losses for years altogether. That’s why we are pressing for a system where in representatives of farmers can be involved in the mechanism of crop price fixation. This way, farmers can get better prices for their produce,” she said.

Jalandhar, August 10
Can officials of the Jalandhar Municipal Corporation evict a person “forcibly” from the land belonging to the Irrigation Department? The answer to the question is in affirmative if case of Subhash Chander Pahlwan, owner of the Pahlwan Milk Bar at the local Guru Amar Dass Chowk, is to be believed.

The land in question, according to Mr Pahlwan, belongs to the Irrigation Department and a petition is pending in the court of the local SDM.

After inheriting the milk bar business from his father, Mr Pahlwan had been running the same for the last 30 years without any hindrance till July 10 this year when some officials of the Municipal Corporation “descended on his bar, threw him out and sealed his shop forcibly”.

“Some MC officials who came to my shop on July 10 asked me to come out of the shop on some pretext and they put me in illegal custody of the police before taking a forcible possession of my shop. They did not even allow me to collect the cash lying in the drawer.

The milk, ice cream and other perishable items lying there were destroyed,” he alleged. He claimed, “The land, in fact, belongs to the Irrigation Department, and a court case between us is pending in the court of the local SDM. As far as the role of the MC is concerned, I paid the house tax duly till 2005. So, if the MC is not the owner of the said land, how can its officials throw me out of the place?”

“I have suffered a loss of more than Rs 3 lakh. When I met the Commissioner, he told me that a notice should have been given to me by the MC officials, in case they wanted to take any such possession. I have filed an application under the provisions of the Right to Information Act in order to know as to how the MC was the owner of the site and that who had issued the warrants of possession and under what authority the possession had been taken. But neither have I received any communication from the MC, nor has the possession been restored to me. This is despite the fact that I have deposited the requisite fee,” he alleged.

No senior MC official was available for comment. Mr Pahlwan said it was well-established that long-standing possession could only be taken through the process of law. “But in this case, the process of law has been evaded,” he alleged. 

Jalandhar, August 10
Deconstructing music while preserving its purity. And finding unity in the different notes that ring of centuries of melody. Listening to Bhai Baldeep Singh, the thirteenth generation exponent of the Sikh kirtan maryada, is like tuning on to a musical kaleidoscope.

A percussionist par excellence (exponent of the 400-year-old system of Amritsari Baaj, one of the oldest surviving percussion traditions in India), vocalist who pens beautiful lyrics, scholar with erudition that far surpasses his young age, and instrument maker who strives for perfection to its last note — Bhai Baldeep Singh defies straitjacketing with almost synchronised ease.

“The music I present is not entertaining. It is transforming in nature,” comes a matter-of-fact statement from him. Striking an analytical stance, he says, “Laya (rhythm) de-conditions; it is destructive in nature. Raag (melody) smelts; cast in bani (mystical poetry), it gets moulded into the sacred word.”

When he talks of folk music instruments, it’s as if a picturesque pastoral scene floats through his mindscape. “I love folk instruments…their rustic features…the songs and stories they tell,” words cascade forth with boundless energy.

Credited with the revival of jori-pakhawaj, taus, and saranda (a string instrument that had its origin in the tribal areas stretching from Afghanistan to Assam, and that was redesigned by Guru Amar Das), his latest innovation is suranda, a special kind of string instrument.

“Instrument-making is not just a skill, it involves much more. It’s poetry…it’s melody…it’s catharsis,” he explains, adding, “It was my chance meeting with Gyani Harbhajan Singh that brought to taus its ancient form. Otherwise these days, taus is often given a dilruba (another string instrument) touch.”

It was his quest to find continuity between the past and the present that led him to give up a career in the Indian Air Force. “I made a transition. In the last 19 years ever since I opted for music, I have lived 190 years,” says this musician whose documentary “The sacred music of the Sikhs” has been much acclaimed.

His latest effort towards the documentation of musical traditions is the founding of the Anad Conservatory, an institution to preserve and promote the Sikh culture and aesthetics. Already, a place for the conservatory has been selected, though the final details are being worked out.

“It’s easy to preserve the tangible aspects of culture. Preserving the intangible parts is the most difficult job. We have to live those parts to preserve them,” he signs off.

Bhai Baldeep Singh visited the Apeejay College of Fine Arts here today for a lecture-cum-demonstration on the occasion of the 146th birth anniversary of noted musician Pandit Vishnu Narayan Bhatkhande. 

Jalandhar, August 10
A 55-year-old rickshaw-puller ended his life reportedly due to extreme penury.

The body of Khem Bahadur was found hanging from a roadside tree in New Jawahar Nagar this morning. The body was first located by some morning walkers.

Khem Bahadur, the son of Dadd Bahadur, was a native of Nepal.

He was living in a rented accommodation in Abadpura locality for some years.

He was working as a rickshaw-puller all these years.

But what possibly drove him to take the extreme step was his inability to collect enough money for his young daughter despite years of toil.

According to his wife Reema and son, Khem Bahadur left home at about 4 pm yesterday in an intoxicated state, never to return again. The police has registered a case and is investigating.