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Munda’s exit Football plus |
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When teachers are rapists
Extremists vs moderates
Years full of life
Defeating terrorism Divisive issues wreck nation-building Delhi Durbar Ludhiana to Durban No early debut Journos ditched
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Munda’s exit THURSDAY’S resignation of Jharkhand Chief Minister Arjun Munda without seeking a vote of confidence on the floor of the State Assembly was not entirely unexpected. Clearly, his 18-month-old government was reduced to a minority on September 5 following the resignation of four ministers. Why did he wait for so long to quit when he did not have the numbers? In the 82-member House (including the Speaker and a nominated member), the NDA’s strength was reduced to 38 as against the UPA’s 43. Instead of waiting for a miracle on Thursday, he should have resigned on September 5 itself. This would have saved the state — and the nation — from nine days of suspense following claims and counter-claims by both the NDA and the UPA on the majority support enjoyed by them. Adding to the crisis was Speaker Inder Singh Namdhari’s issuance of disqualification notices to three ministers who quit the government. The Supreme Court refused to restrain him from taking any action, but adjourned the hearing to Thursday, implying that his decision was subject to judicial scrutiny. Mr Namdhari reserved his judgement keeping the issue of disqualification alive, but allowed the Independents to vote in the floor test. This actually forced Mr Arjun Munda to announce his resignation, making the vote of confidence infructuous. In a surprise move, Mr Namdhari, a former BJP member and later associated with the Janata Dal (United), has now resigned as Speaker, with the change of the government. Mr Madhu Koda, the Independent, who led the rebellion against Mr Munda, has emerged as the consensus candidate for the post of Chief Minister. He enjoys the support of Railway Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav. Significantly, Union Coal Minister and JMM chief Shibu Soren has also endorsed Mr Koda’s candidature. But will an Independent be able to provide a stable government particularly when Mr Soren has been keen on the chief ministerial post himself? In any case, the Arjun Munda government’s fall is a blow to the BJP-led NDA. Its state governments have now been reduced to six from seven. This will give a fillip to the UPA ahead of the Assembly elections in Punjab, Uttar Pradesh,
Uttaranchal and Manipur.
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Football plus PRIME Minister Manmohan Singh’s visit to Brazil highlighted not only the commonality of views between India and Brazil on various issues of global concern but also the necessity of expanding relations with this largest democracy of the American continent. Besides Brazil agreeing to lend football coaches to India — an area in which Brazil is a world power — Dr Manmohan Singh and Brazilian President Lula de Silva on Tuesday exchanged their views on a wide variety of subjects with terrorism coming up prominently during their discussions as “one of the greatest threats” to peace and stability. The two sides decided to expand their cooperation in at least nine areas like oil exploration, mining and agricultural research and signed agreements to this effect. Football apart, there is a lot to learn from Brazil, which has become self-sufficient in energy after introducing economic reforms. It has proved that ethanol can be a viable alternative to the conventional sources of energy. India’s agriculture sector can gain considerably from the world-class research at the Brazilian agricultural universities. Brazil, having the world’s largest iron ore reserves, can help in infusing a new life into India’s steel industry. The two countries are fully aware of each other’s interests, as they have been together in fighting for the causes of the developing countries at various world fora, including the World Trade Organisation. Better relations with Brazil will also make it easier for India to increase its trade with other South American nations. These countries, with a combined population of 220 million, offer a huge market to Indian products and services. Brazil can serve as a corridor for India’s trade and commerce. There is enough enthusiasm on both sides to take their relationship to a much higher plane, beyond economy and trade. The Brazilian President has been talking of developing a strategic relationship with India. Let us hope that Dr Manmohan Singh’s visit will prove useful in achieving this laudable objective.
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When teachers are rapists AS it is, rape is the most heinous of all crimes, considering that it violates not just the victim’s body, but also her psyche and future. When it is committed by a teacher, it becomes all the worse. A teacher is supposed to be a parent away from home to his students. It is unthinkable that such a guardian can violate the trust reposed in him by society and the biological parents of the child. This sacred bond has once again been shattered, allegedly by the director of a private Hisar school, which happens to be a fairly reported institution of learning. The residents of the area enraged by the incident should not have indulged in violence the way they did, but their anger was not entirely misplaced either. Such incidents have started taking place with sickening regularity, particularly in Haryana. This year itself, rape cases have come to light in Hisar, Sirsa, Ambala and Jind schools. There are more cases of rape than are reported because they are supposed to bring “bad name” to the girls and their families. But trying to hide them only happens to encourage the molesters. That is why in some previous incidents, some teachers continued to exploit the girls for months altogether. It is time for society to change its attitude. Such violation should be a matter of shame for the molesters, not the victims. Only the sternest action and the severest punishment can act as a deterrent. That, regrettably, does not happen too often. The state governments remain on their toes only as long as the public outcry is at its peak. After that, things go back to “normal”. Exemplary punishment in the Hisar case is as much necessary as it is imperative to make sure that the teachers of Sirsa, Ambala and Jind districts found to have sexually exploited their students are served their just desserts. Such men have no place in society, let alone
schools.
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I am a camera with its shutter open, quite passive, recording, not thinking. — Christopher Isherwood
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Extremists vs moderates THE US President had been talking about the war on terrorism for the last five years. That did not make sense. Terrorism was a strategy and not an entity against which war was to be waged. It was like saying that World War II was against Blitzkrieg and not against Nazism. Finally after five years, in his speech on September 11, 2006, the US President has identified the enemy as people driven by a perverted vision of Islam - a totalitarian ideology that hates freedom, rejects tolerance and despises all dissent. The US has learnt that their goal is to build a radical Islamic empire where women are prisoners in their homes, men are beaten for missing prayer meetings and terrorists have a safe haven to plan and launch attacks on the US and other civilised nations. He asserted, “The war against this enemy is more than a military conflict. It is the decisive ideological struggle of the 21st century and the calling of our generation.” A few days earlier on September 5, speaking to the Military Officers Association of America, President Bush specifically identified Sunni extremism and Shia extremism as enemies. He added, “If we retreat from Iraq, if we don’t uphold our duty to support those who are desirous to live in liberty, 50 years from now history will look back on our time with unforgiving clarity and demand to know why we did not act.” He asserted, “I am not going to allow this to happen — and no future American President can allow it either.” President Bush’s speeches have been criticised in the US by Democratic Party leaders and others. Most of them have pointed out that it was wrong to have started the war in Iraq before ensuring that Al-Qaeda and Taliban were completely eliminated from Afghanistan. The result of that wrong strategy is the US has to fight wars in two theatres, both Iraq and Afghanistan. President Bush’s popular rating has fallen and there are expectations that because of the unpopularity of the war, in the midterm elections in November the Republican Party of the President may lose its majority both in the Senate and the House of Representatives. Accepting that the invasion of Iraq was a major strategic blunder, the fact remains that the war against the extremists was not started by the US. It began because of the attack on 9/11 by the extremists. President Bush claims that captured Al-Qaeda documents reveal that Osama bin Laden and his associates are not willing to negotiate with the infidels. In these circumstances, the US President envisages a prolonged war against the extremists. Can his successor withdraw from the war as happened to the Soviet Union in Afghanistan and the US in Vietnam? President Bush is clear that no future US President would withdraw from Iraq either. There is logic in this view. The Vietnamese were not threatening US security nor were the Afghans Soviet security though the jehadi Mujahideen were carrying out raids into the Soviet Central Asian republics. The retreat of the US and its allies and the victory of the extremists are likely to destabilise entire West Asia and its oil supply to the world and at the same time will not guarantee that the US and Western European countries will be spared of terrorist attacks. Whatever may be the mistakes committed by the US and historical wrongs perpetrated, the issue today is: will the world be better off if the extremists gain a victory? The world did not suffer because the Vietcong won the war in Vietnam. The world today, including the US, is paying a high price because the jehadis were able to compel the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan. India has had experience in dealing with the Taliban. Osama bin Laden’s victory would mean Talibanisation of the Islamic nations of the West Asia. Is that in our interest? Strangely enough, General Musharraf in his speech in Brussels has warned about the increasing danger of Talibanisation. There is increasing talk of the Pakistani Taliban, apart from the Afghan Taliban. In these circumstances no future US President, even a Democratic President, will be in a position to withdraw from Iraq and Afghanistan, whatever the Democratic Party may say now for reasons of domestic politics. The identification of the enemy by the US President as Islamic extremism has very significant implications. Till now it was called a war on terror without specifying an entity against whom the war was being waged. Now the entity has been identified and the war has acquired an ideological dimension. It is a struggle between Islamic extremism and moderate Islam backed by the rest of the world, as the US President sees it. He says, “The struggle has been called a clash of civilisations. In truth, it is a struggle for civilisation.” Even if one totally disagrees with the US policies and President George Bush, it is difficult to disagree with the proposition that war against Al-Qaeda and the Taliban is a struggle for civilisation. In 1939 when the Allied Powers declared war on Hitler some people pointed out to the imperial records of Britain and France and inequity of the treaty of Versailles, and called the war an imperialist war. It became a people’s war only when Hitler attacked the Soviet Union. India is already experiencing terrorist attacks from the Lashkar-e-Toiba, a leading constituent of the International Islamic Front of Osama bin Laden and it is now believed that the mantle of Al-Qaeda has fallen on it. Therefore, it is quite clear that any victory of Bin Laden or the Taliban or other extremists is not going to be in the Indian interests. The identification of Islamic extremists as the enemy entails that moderate mainstream Islam should assert itself, denounce the extremism and be supported by the rest of the international community. If there is a view that terrorism is espoused only by a limited number of individuals and has not yet become an ideology then the resurgence of the Taliban and the very widespread terrorist outrages all over the globe will need to be explained. Mr George Bush has now converted this war into an ideological war and a struggle for civilisation. Therefore, in India the long-range implications of these developments and their impact on our national interest and security have to be analysed. In spite of all their ideological animosities, the capitalist West and the communist Soviet Union came together to fight Nazism as a common threat. On the same logic, India, a victim of terrorism of Islamic extremist groups, cannot isolate itself from the others who are fighting the same war however much we may otherwise disagree with
them.
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Years full of life OLD age and sickness aren’t unknown to each other. Death is a sad but inevitable fallout of senility. In the natural course, aged parents, grandparents and great-grandparents do ultimately pass away. I simply shrugged off this reality as a harsh truth of life till my maternal grandmother passed away. The parting was hard to bear because she had been a part of me, all my life. When a friend consolingly mumbled about her being in her eighties, I felt hurt. For suddenly, to me it wasn’t the passing away of an old person, it was the going away of a living person. For me, my grandmother wasn’t just an ailing 82-year-old, she was her. She was Biji whom I’d looked up to for more than three decades. Just because she had become frail, I wanted to tell my friend, it didn’t mean that she had lost the will to live. Just because she was weak in body, it didn’t mean she had lost the twinkle in her eye or the humour to laugh at our jokes or the spirit to admonish us for our laziness in her trademark style. Just because she had turned all grey, it didn’t stop her from knowing what muted colours suited her or what trendy wear became us. How could she be just put into a slot called “old”? That wasn’t all her identity. She was unique, like each one of us is in our own ways, and that made her special. She was what she was because she had tasted life in all its colours. Childhood pranks; those bashful looks that come with youth; the trials and triumphs of raising a big family and later the joy of becoming a grandmother and great-grandmother over and over again, she had experienced it all. And, the strength with which she bore the death of my grandfather made me respect and love her more. She had likes and dislikes, dreams and aspirations just like you and me. Her love for life or for her family did not wither with age. In fact, it only deepened with time. How can I forget the times I would just sit beside her and talk of humdrum stuff. Her mere presence was so soothing and fulfilling. Despite her limited resources, she always had something to give to everybody. One thing which she gave in abundance and, probably the reason why her grandchildren, from 13 to 40, flocked to her was unconditional love. What more, each grandchild secretly believed she loved them the most. And I noticed she would also have the same love for a beggar passing by. All my grumbling about encouraging beggary would fall on deaf ears, as she would drop everything to open her batua at the sight of a beggar. I have many reasons to miss her, love her, thank her and to feel indebted to her. And one of them is to make me realise that grandparents are first “persons full of life” and later “old people”. That their souls are as fresh and ageless as yours and mine or that of a baby’s.
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Defeating terrorism Nostradamus’ prophecy that “two metal birds would crash into two tall statues and the world will end soon after” appeared to have come true on September 11, 2001. The world as we knew it certainly ended on that day. But five years later, the new world seems to have settled into a routine with many of the old problems, together with many new ones that the change engendered. On the fifth anniversary of 9/11, the poignancy was evident on the faces of the dear ones of the victims, but for others, the ceremonies were just a reminder of the grave dangers that lurked everywhere. Fear, rather than agony, was the prevalent mood at ground zero. In the aftermath of the horror of 9/11, it appeared as though terrorism, by any name or definition, would be universally condemned and combated. The definition of terrorism that had eluded the international community was not an issue anymore and there was virtual agreement that there were no “good terrorists” in the world. Following the unanimous adoption of a resolution by the UN Security Council, there was a virtual race to sign international conventions, which were named as contributing to the fight against terrorism. An Indian draft for a comprehensive convention against terrorism, which was gathering dust at the UN, came up for detailed consideration. But when the fifth anniversary of 9/11 was observed, the world is back to square one on the issue of definition of terrorism. Much as the world has changed after 9/11, much remains unchanged, even on the single issue that marked the change. The war on terror has not eliminated terrorism; it has only made the world a more dangerous place. The definition issue surfaced again in all its complexity when the Russians recently observed the anniversary of the Beslan tragedy, in which more than 150 children were murdered in cold blood. By any definition, Beslan was a terrorist act, which should be condemned universally. But questions were asked whether it was not part of a freedom struggle, which was being put down by the Russians with an iron hand. Some tears were shed even for the perpetrators of the attack. Another extreme view was that ordinary men turned into terrorists because of injustice in society. The war in Iraq is generally referred to as a fight against terror, when it is nothing but insurgency against the occupation forces. Strangest of all, Pakistan’s complicity in terrorism is being condoned as assistance to a liberation struggle under an outdated definition. Without a clear, universally accepted definition of terrorism, the fight against terrorism will aim at the wrong targets and, even more regrettably, let some terrorists off the hook. The nearest that the international community came to a definition was when a UN panel suggested that terrorism is “any act intended to cause death or serious bodily harm to civilians or non-combatants with the purpose of intimidating a population or compelling a government or an international organization to do or abstain from doing any act.” The best dictionary definition is that it is the “systematic use or threatened use of violence to intimidate a population or government and thereby effect political, religious or ideological change.” But neither of these is complete, nor do they give the kind of exceptions that many countries seem to seek. Many terrorists are silent about the changes they are seeking and they make no demands before making the supreme sacrifice. Many of them adopt other nomenclatures such as separatists, freedom fighters, liberators, revolutionaries, militants, rebels, jehadis, mujahiddin etc to claim respectability. This bewildering array of fighters creates a smokescreen for terrorists. If we cannot define terrorism, we should at least know who are not terrorists. Criminals should clearly be outside the purview of terrorism. If they are treated as terrorists, they will be denied the justice that they deserve on account of the circumstances that forced them to commit crimes. Today, with colonialism behind us and a road map for peaceful solution of other issues ahead of us, no act of terrorism should be condoned in the name of “root causes”. No cause, however genuine, should destroy the lives of innocent people. Nor should terrorists be treated leniently. Humanitarian, rather than human rights considerations should prevail. Pity about conditions in Guantanamo should not cloud our view of the crimes that terrorists have committed. We do not have to go as far as thirty years into the future as the historian, Niall Ferguson, has done, to see the dangers of the war on terrorism being extended to cover war for regime change, particularly if the regime in question had nothing to do with Al Qaeda or other terrorist outfits. Ferguson forecasts that there will be no Iraq for the US to withdraw from; only three territories at loggerheads with each other. Setting off a civil war and destabilizing a whole region is not the desirable result of the war on terror. Democracy cannot be imposed through the barrel of a gun. Fear is also on the faces of millions of people who come to the United States, as they fear terrorism as much as the consequences of suspicion by paranoid fellow passengers or security authorities, not to speak of the humiliation of intrusive searches and rude behaviour. The loss of a friendly image cannot but have grave consequences for the standing of America in the world. No serious effort has been made to educate the public to distinguish between terrorists and tourists. The immigrants, particularly the Sikhs, who appear to locals like a menacing Osama Bin Laden, suffer hate crimes on account of the prejudices of the public. Muslims have become victims of government policies, according to a recent Harvard study. A country of opportunities should not become a country of oppression of its own people, regardless of their origins. Anniversaries should serve to take stock of what the world has done to prevent the terrorist attacks not only on New York, Washington, London and Madrid, but also on Moscow, Srinagar and Mumbai. Terrorism knows no national boundaries and no nation should be
complacent.
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Divisive issues wreck nation-building ON the morning of September 7, a Muslim boy is teased by his peers at an elite public school in Lucknow. He is asked if he would sing the Vande Mataram at the school assembly a little while later. “Why?” he wonders, as Vande Matram happened to be one of the songs they sang ever so often at the school assembly. “Because, we will beat you if you don’t sing it today”, blurted out one of them. Embarrassed at being singled out in such a manner, this otherwise introverted youngster reacted by slapping the boy who had threatened to beat him. A teacher observed the scene from afar. After the assembly she summoned him to know what had happened. When he confessed that he had slapped the boy as they were bullying him over the recital of Vande Mataram, the teacher shot back “And did you sing it today?” This curiosity on the part of the teacher to know how Indian he was, took the teenager completely by surprise. The boys of his class teasing him had definitely annoyed him, as he suddenly felt discriminated against on the basis of his religion. But the teachers’ reaction hurt him deeply. He felt let down. In the evening he spent many hours wanting to know from his mother if she had ever felt so humiliated because of her religion. He wanted to know what was the “politically correct” way of reacting to such a situation. If this was the frightening experience of a Muslim child in the most progressive and child-centered school in the state capital, what thousands of Muslim children may have gone through in schools across the country can well be imagined. Did the unsavory episode serve any productive purpose in the task of nation building? Sixty years have passed since we started our journey as a nation. Still, ever so often, situations are created when a sizeable section of Indians have to prove that they are more Indian than the others. Any student of Indian history knows that the national song has been bogged down in controversy from the very beginning, and the objection was not from religious leaders alone. In view of this, Gandhi had advised Muslims to appreciate its historic association but counseled against any imposition. “No doubt, every act...must be purely voluntary on the part of either partner,” he said at Alipore on August 23, 1947. For almost a hundred years now controversies around Vande Mataram have repeatedly given India an opportunity to considerately ponder if any ‘national symbol’ can be imposed on a vast section of its population. If the problem had been understood in depth, what would have emerged is a far better appreciation of the reasons why a large number of Muslims felt alienated and drifted away from the Congress during the freedom struggle. Those reasons continue to have many a lesson for us today, and will do so as long as any Indian feels alienated because of his religion. If we cannot undo the past, can we at least abstain from glorifying its divisive aspects?
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Delhi Durbar Gujarat
Chief Minister Narendra Modi has begun to look towards the neighbouring state of Maharashtra, where a vacuum has been existing ever since the tragic death of Pramod Mahajan. Modi wants to step in to consolidate his position in the BJP so that he could emerge as a natural choice for the top post of the party, as well as for a possible BJP government at the centre. There is a large Gujarati speaking population not only around Mumbai, but in the other cities of the state. The first step that Modi is planning to take is to get one of his favourites appointed as the state unit chief, so that BJP’s Gopinath Munde is sidelined. Modi has been in touch with RSS bosses to get his man elected to the post of the president of Maharashtra BJP, in the coming organisational elections scheduled for November.
Ludhiana to Durban The Indian textile industry, especially the manufacturers from Ludhiana, can now dream of forays to Durban in South Africa as the government there is ready to offer all help for joint ventures in the garment sector. It is another matter that there is no direct flight from Delhi to Durban at present and they will have to travel ex-Mumbai. The other day, when Deputy President of South Africa Phumzil Mlambo Ngcuka was interacting with Indian industry captains at FICCI, she went out of her way to focus on textile manufacturers to set up joint ventures in the garment sector, in order to ward off the Chinese threat. She observed her government was quite worried over the impact of cheap garment imports from China and offered all help to Indian textile companies interested in setting up manufacturing facilities in South Africa.
No early debut Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh’s son Raninder Singh may have been given organisational responsibilities in the state Congress, but he is unlikely to contest the forthcoming assembly polls. With both his mother and father in active electoral politics, there is little scope for the young man to make his election debut in the near future. Although passing on political lineage is an accepted norm in the Congress, the party would like to keep the public focus on the Shiromani Akali Dal, so that the question of heir apparent to Parkash Singh Badal does not get brushed under the carpet.
Journos ditched The Congress party went all out to celebrate the National Students Union of India’s (NSUI) performance at the Delhi University Students Union elections. After much drum-beating and celebrations at the Congress headquarters, party chief Sonia Gandhi congratulated the NSUI workers and joined the festivities. However, the courtesy was not extended to journalists covering the University beat. After being invited for tea with Sonia Gandhi at 10 Janpath on NSUI’s runaway win, media persons were left waiting for the invitations. The otherwise overzealous media coordinators of the NSUI did a disappearing act and even switched off their mobile phones. Contributed by Satish Misra, Prashant Sood, Manoj Kumar and Smriti Kak Ramachandran
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From the pages of Jana Sangh Janata TWO obvious alternatives were left to the former Jana Sangh constituent after the expulsion of its members from what was left of the Janata Party following the final crisis over the question of a “dual membership”. Some within the organisation would have preferred the restoration of its original identity and limited interests. Mr L.K. Advani and Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee probably gave the suggestion some consideration but chose to take the bolder path of creating a new party. The Bharatiya Janata Party is committed to democracy and secularism, but it also intends to implement Mr Jayaprakash Narayan’s philosophy of “total revolution”, whatever that means in the present circumstances. Since the author of the philosophy himself failed to create the “total revolution” he advocated, one can only wish his new set of followers better fortune. What matters essentially for the Opposition at this time is to provide a programme which goes beyond the slogans of a bygone phase in the nation’s political history. The country is sick of splits, political buffoonery and lack of principles. There is scope for an Opposition that works.
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