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Editorials | Article | Middle | Oped | Reflections

EDITORIALS

Re-right the wrongs
Act within the Constitution, Mr Karunanidhi
T
HE Tamil Nadu Government’s demand to have the Constitution rewritten afresh is illogical and unreasonable. The demand, made through Governor Surjeet Singh Barnala’s address to the State Assembly, should be seen in the context in which it has been made. It is common knowledge that the state government, particularly Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi, has been upset ever since the nine-member Supreme Court Constitution Bench made all laws put in the Ninth Schedule, after April 1973, open to judicial scrutiny.

Farewell to arms
Mirwaiz makes a sane move
A
LL-PARTY Hurriyat Conference chairman Mirwaiz Umer Farooq’s Islamabad statement that “the dialogue process to resolve the Kashmir issue should be given a chance” is bound to get widespread support from both sides of Kashmir as also from the rest of the world. He is realistic in his assertion that the path of violence can only lead to “creating more graveyards” for Kashmiris, which they cannot afford.







EARLIER STORIES

Blast in space
January 22, 2007
Bill on judges
January 21, 2007
SEZs on hold
January 20, 2007
Uncertainty in UP
January 19, 2007
Advantage India
January 18, 2007
Skulls, more skulls
January 17, 2007
Neighbourly relations
January 16, 2007
Stink of the scandal
January 15, 2007
Afghan opposes Pak plan to fence Durand Line
January 14, 2007
Bush’s original sin
January 13, 2007
It’s not the Nth schedule
January 12, 2007
Blow against the corrupt
January 11, 2007


Madam President!
Don’t be surprised if Hillary pulls off a coup

A
MERICA has never had a woman President. Not only that, it has not even had a presidential spouse pursuing the office. Naturally, the entry of Hillary Clinton, New York Democratic Senator and former President Bill Clinton’s wife, into the race has enlivened the proceedings like never before.
ARTICLE

Power struggle in Thailand
Between serving and retired Generals
by Maj-Gen Ashok Mehta (retd)
A
FTER the September coup, Bangkok was rocked on New Year’s Eve by its first multiple bombings for which no one has claimed responsibility. Just three persons were killed and 43 wounded in the bombings, when around the same time drunk driving-induced road accidents accounted for 275 fatalities.

MIDDLE

The changing trend
by D.K. Mukerjee
G
one are the days when the Congress in Punjab was associated with white turbans, an equivalent of the Gandhi cap in other parts of the country. The white turbans, which were popular amongst Congressmen since Independence, seem to have been replaced by bright colours.

OPED

Crackdown on poppy
Finally, Afghanistan’s opium fields are to be targeted
by Raymond Whitaker
I
N the next week to 10 days, 300 members of the Afghan Eradication Force (AEF), protected by an equal number of police, will begin destroying fields of ripening opium poppies in the centre of the lawless Helmand province, where Britain has some 4,000 troops, the Independent has learned.

Roots for the global Indian
by T.P. Sreenivasan
W
HEN this year’s Pravasi Bharatiya Sammaan recipient Justice Moti Tikaram of Fiji and President of the Global Organisation of People of Indian Origin (GOPIO) Inder Singh of Los Angeles sat down for a drink in Delhi the other day, it was the first time that the sun set over both of them at the same time.

Delhi Durbar
Chattisgarh’s war

It is not always that state governments take kindly to the appointment of a Governor who is considered an agent of the Centre. However, there is an element of excitement in Chattisgarh with the appointment of former Director of the Intelligence Bureau ESL Narasimhan as the new Constitutional head of the state.

  • Shuttle diplomacy

  • A colour a day

  • Fairy tale wedding


 REFLECTIONS

 

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Re-right the wrongs
Act within the Constitution, Mr Karunanidhi

THE Tamil Nadu Government’s demand to have the Constitution rewritten afresh is illogical and unreasonable. The demand, made through Governor Surjeet Singh Barnala’s address to the State Assembly, should be seen in the context in which it has been made. It is common knowledge that the state government, particularly Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi, has been upset ever since the nine-member Supreme Court Constitution Bench made all laws put in the Ninth Schedule, after April 1973, open to judicial scrutiny. The issue in question is the fate of the Tamil Nadu Backward Classes, Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Reservation of Seats in Educational Institutions and of appointment of posts in the services under the State) Act, 1993. Under this Act, the state provides 69 per cent reservation for the SCs and the STs. This is a violation of the 50 per cent ceiling fixed for quotas by the nine-member Supreme Court Constitution Bench in the Mandal case in November 1993.

It is worth recalling that the then Jayalalithaa government had pressurised the P.V. Narasimha Rao government at the Centre to include Tamil Nadu’s 1993 Act in the Ninth Schedule so that it could enjoy immunity from judicial review. The Constitution Bench, headed by the then Chief Justice Y.K. Sabharwal, ruled recently that it was the judiciary’s duty to scrutinise the constitutional validity of all laws enacted by the legislature and put in the Ninth Schedule so that they did not contravene the doctrine of the basic structure of the Constitution enunciated by a larger bench of the court.

The Indian Constitution is dynamic, vibrant and flexible. Above all, it is a living organism. There is nothing wrong if a citizen, not to speak of a state government, demands the re-writing of the Constitution to give a better deal to the socially and educationally backward classes. However, the context, the background and the manner in which Mr Karunanidhi has made the demand makes his credentials suspect. Undoubtedly, politicians of his ilk are much more concerned about their vote banks, rather than social justice. Instead of enacting laws that can stand judicial scrutiny, they find it easier to ask for a brand new Constitution. They should learn to cut their coat according to their cloth.

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Farewell to arms
Mirwaiz makes a sane move

ALL-PARTY Hurriyat Conference chairman Mirwaiz Umer Farooq’s Islamabad statement that “the dialogue process to resolve the Kashmir issue should be given a chance” is bound to get widespread support from both sides of Kashmir as also from the rest of the world. He is realistic in his assertion that the path of violence can only lead to “creating more graveyards” for Kashmiris, which they cannot afford. They have already suffered a lot and the time has come to “support the dialogue process for durable peace in the region”. Why should the Kashmiris lose their “loved ones” when they can realise their aspirations in a peaceful manner?

The Kashmiri masses are sick of jihadi militancy, which has given them only death and destruction. The so-called United Jihad Council, led by maverick Syed Salahuddin, which has opposed the Mirwaiz call for shunning violence, is composed of desperate elements. They have been losing their support base for some time as the people on both sides of the political divide have come to realise that the militant leaders are only interested in minting money by running their jihad industry. The militants are feeling uneasy with the peace wind threatening to make their destructive designs ineffective. They want to terrorise into silence all those who have decided to realise their dreams through non-violent means. That is why they attacked the Srinagar house of the Mirwaiz with grenades before their mentors in the Syed Ali Shah Geelani-led Hurriyat faction gave a call for a strike in Srinagar. But these enemies of peace cannot succeed in achieving their unholy objectives.

At least now the Pakistan government should put people like Salahuddin behind bars for promoting a culture of violence. They should also be countered at the popular level by launching a campaign highlighting the significance of realising people’s aspirations through negotiations. This is a major challenge, which must be taken up by moderate Hurriyat leaders and sane elements in Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir. In any case, the appreciable stand of the Mirwaiz and his camp followers may provide a fillip to the ongoing India-Pakistan peace process.

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Madam President!
Don’t be surprised if Hillary pulls off a coup

AMERICA has never had a woman President. Not only that, it has not even had a presidential spouse pursuing the office. Naturally, the entry of Hillary Clinton, New York Democratic Senator and former President Bill Clinton’s wife, into the race has enlivened the proceedings like never before. The 2008 presidential elections are a long distance away. What she has to win first is the Democratic nomination, the chase for which has just started. In the party itself, Hillary faces a stiff challenge. On the one hand, she has to contend with Illinois Senator Barack Obama, a black, and, on the other, she has to get the better of New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson, a Hispanic. Then, there is the 2004 vice-presidential nominee John Edwards. The list is bound to grow longer in the days to come. That is why it is said that winning the nomination will be more difficult than winning the election proper.

Hillary enters the race with the right bank balance, name and reputation. She is certainly a formidable candidate. But how far the Clinton surname will help her is a matter of conjecture. It is both an asset and a liability. There is “Clinton fatigue” in the US and she may also have to pay for her celebrated husband’s colourful reputation. At the same time, she is an organiser par excellence in her own right and will have to step out of her husband’s shadow in a forthright manner.

Another task before her is to live down the image of being humourless and calculating. Her immediate to-do list also includes squaring up her policy pronouncements made during her Senator days. She had voted to authorise the Iraq war. Now she is reluctant to renounce that backing or to call for immediate departure of the troops. The liberal, activist base of the Democratic Party has been frustrated by her centrist approach. That is why Washington Post opines: “The question about Hillary Clinton may be not so much whether a woman can win the presidency, but whether this woman can”. 

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Thought for the day

A fool can always find a greater fool to admire him. — Nicolas Boileau

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Power struggle in Thailand
Between serving and retired Generals
by Maj-Gen Ashok Mehta (retd)

AFTER the September coup, Bangkok was rocked on New Year’s Eve by its first multiple bombings for which no one has claimed responsibility. Just three persons were killed and 43 wounded in the bombings, when around the same time drunk driving-induced road accidents accounted for 275 fatalities. The military junta cancelled Bangkok’s legendary year-end celebrations but discovered that it was under intense pressure to restore public and tourist confidence in its ability to govern and provide security.

The billion-baht question: who was behind the bombings? The finger of suspicion oscillated between the Southern Malay-Muslim insurgents, supporters of the previous Thaksin Shinawatra regime and the ruling military junta itself, so delectable was the rumour-mongering initially. After a week in Thailand coinciding with the bombings, one is convinced that the low-intensity explosions were designed not so much to cause human and physical damage as to create political tension, widen the urban and rural divide and discredit the military regime. The collateral casualties were the country’s international image and the economy.

Thailand has many unique features. Though the country was never colonised, it has suffered 16 coups and countercoups since it became a constitutional monarchy in 1932. The latest coup is the first after 1991, apparently with the blessings of the King, the longest reigning monarch in the world who is not happy with the materialistic values being engendered among the Thais by the Thaksin regime. Mr Thaksin enjoyed unprecedented support — 16 million votes in the last election in the rural areas of the north and north-east by delivering a range of populist programmes and promising even more.

The coup leader, Gen Sonthi Boonyaratglin, who is the first Muslim to become Army Chief, along with fellow Generals, on the other hand, felt that the democratic process was not working and required to be redesigned. So as head of the military junta he has put in place a Council for National Security (CNS) and an interim government headed by a former General which is guided by it. The new democratic order will be based on a system which will be ratified by a referendum. No time lines have been set.

Following the 1976 coup, the regime changers constructed a democracy model which ensured military oversight of political governance buttressed by the spirit of national unity forged around the institution of monarchy. In other words, some understanding with the Palace and the royalists was necessary for the military to call the shots. But like now, there were severe aberrations to this arrangement. Significantly, there was a discord between the old and the new guard.

What is new about the present dispensation is the Assets Examination Committee, aimed at uncovering tax evasion and property ownership in respect of the old regime: Thaksin and family. They allegedly owe $162 m in taxes to the State on account of shares in telecom giant Shin Corp. Also a legacy of the old regime is the new and spectacular Suvarnabhumi airport, mired in scandal and corruption. Though it is the largest single terminal with the highest air traffic control tower and the longest runway in the world, it has already begun revealing its functional inadequacies. There are reports that domestic flights may start operating from the old Don Muang airport, so great is the congestion.

The monarchy in Thailand has never been more ubiquitous. Yellow is the loyal — and royal — colour. The Thais in Bangkok are wearing yellow t-shirts, wristbands and other insignia, reflecting their loyalty to the King. Everyone is praying for his long life beyond the present 80, as they fear the Crown Prince might not, like his father, be accepted as the symbol of national unity. This is a liability identical to the discredited monarchy in Nepal.

It is uncanny that the political fortunes of Thailand and Nepal, which are both similar and different, are undergoing a seismic change. Both missed out being colonies; both had strong monarchies and expansionist ways; both had enduring bonds between the royalists and militarists, and so on. Now both are redefining democracy: Nepal severing the umbilical cord with the monarchy, and Thailand, if anything, further strengthening it. While Nepal is on the mend, Thailand is re-entering the turbulence zone. It took a 10-year-long Maoist insurgency, uniquely spread across Nepal, and 16,000 lives to virtually ending the 238-year-old monarchy and placing Nepal on to roadmap to a new Nepal.

The three-year-old insurgency in Thailand, which has resulted in nearly 2000 deaths, is confined to the Muslim majority southern provinces of Narathiwat, Pattani and Yala, all once part of an independent Malay state. The movement is radical — Islamist versus Buddhist — and has targeted the military and educational institutions. Beheading the victim is its hallmark. More than 60 teachers and 10 students have been killed while 110 schools torched.

The Army has been severely criticised for failing to contain the insurgency despite establishing the Internal Security Operational Command for the south under the fourth Army Commander, Lt-Gen Viroj Buacharoon. According to a recent editorial in a Bangkok daily, The Nation, the 3000-strong Thai Army is incompetent, bereft of professionalism, shows unwillingness to fight bordering on cowardice and is not serious about defending the country. Strong words! Nevertheless, the military budget for 2007 has shot up by 50 per cent.

In the Thaksin era, only highhanded military tactics were used. Now, with a Muslim Army Chief and head of the country who has apologised to the Muslim community, new guidelines to address root causes include the formation of a sufficiency economy plan for the south to build immunity against insurgency. Yet the southern separatists are unwilling to meet the new leaders or negotiate on autonomy. They want restoration of sovereignty as Independent Islamic Sultanate of Pattani, which was annexed by Thailand in 1902.

Earlier this month, the Pattani Liberation Organisation (PuLO) lashed out at Mr Thaksin for suggesting that southern insurgents were responsible for the Bangkok bombings. It denied any involvement in the bombings. Instead, it pointed a finger at the old regime. The insurgency has to be tackled on a broad front before it turns into a racial/ethnic conflict between the Muslims of Malay origin and Thai Buddhists.

Thailand, they say, is ruled by 100 people in three rival groups: the military, the police and the political elite. The power of the Palace is a constant. A power struggle between the old and new regimes is on. Old soldiers never die, they simply fade away. In Thailand, they refuse to fade away. The proxy war is being fought among the Generals, retired and serving. More, the New Year bombings diverted attention from the corruption cases against Mr Thaksin. The new regime has been very permissive with the Thaksin boys — assets not frozen, passports not revoked and no cases registered. Mr Thaksin’s diplomatic passport was revoked only recently.

The government’s approval ratings have dropped from 90 to 48. The military junta and the CNS do not appear to have any strategy to defeat their opponents or contain the insurgency. Gen Boonyaratglin is said to be in command. The General must get on with Thailand’s unfinished agenda of redefining democracy.

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The changing trend
by D.K. Mukerjee

Gone are the days when the Congress in Punjab was associated with white turbans, an equivalent of the Gandhi cap in other parts of the country. The white turbans, which were popular amongst Congressmen since Independence, seem to have been replaced by bright colours. This trend was visible at various rallies and vikas yatras recently concluded.

Two incidents are deeply etched in the canvas of my memory and refuse to fade out even after the lapse of many decades.

A new non-Congress government had been formed in Punjab by late Justice Gurnam Singh as the Chief Minister. There were many new faces in the Council of Ministers who were mostly dressed in pants, coats and matching turbans. Those were the days when the ministers would travel by Ambassador cars without any security guard. Personal staff were the only companions.

People of Punjab, especially of the rural areas, who were accustomed to see ministers in white turbans and Gandhi caps had difficulty in spotting the VIPs while they were on tour. It was left to their personal staff, who would rush forward and introduce the minister whereafter there were resounding shouts of “Zindabad” followed by “garlanding”. This was a sort of a short-lived Probationary Period.

Kedar Nath was my classmate in Mohindra College, Patiala during the years 1943 to 1947. He was always dressed in white khadi shirt, pyjama and a Gandhi cap. His movements would always be watched but he was unmindful of the impending fear of harsh treatment. His dress code never changed.

A group photograph of the college days in which both of us were standing side by side along with the Principal in the chair with our names printed below, had been retained by him. This was his prized possession.

Kedar went on to become a business tycoon but his first love to work for the Congress organisation never ceased. One day he came rushing to me with the old college photograph. He had applied for a Congress ticket to fight election and had to appear before the High Command. The college photograph of the pre-Independence days, which showed him with a Gandhi cap, was his proof of being a staunch Congress worker. I was to be his witness to this reality.

Years had rolled by. There were marked differences between the two faces. I had carried my identity card and the principal’s certificate (preserved by me) to remove any doubts. I appeared before the then Congress high command who looked at the innocent college going student in his “teens” and then at the mature man in his “tees”. There was a smile. While Kedar was satisfied that he had a good case, I had the proud privilege of being face to face with one of the leading leaders of the country.

Now that elections have been announced, can “white dress” be far behind?

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Crackdown on poppy
Finally, Afghanistan’s opium fields are to be targeted
by Raymond Whitaker

IN the next week to 10 days, 300 members of the Afghan Eradication Force (AEF), protected by an equal number of police, will begin destroying fields of ripening opium poppies in the centre of the lawless Helmand province, where Britain has some 4,000 troops, the Independent has learned.

While British forces will not be directly involved in the operation, commanders concede that they will have to go to the aid of the eradication teams if they encounter armed resistance. “A backlash is definitely possible,” said one senior officer.

The poppy fields to be targeted are on the Helmand river near Lashkar Gah, the provincial capital and headquarters of the British task force. The area has deliberately been selected because it is in the relatively peaceful “development zone”, well away from the fighting which claimed the lives of two Royal Marines in the past week.

“These people are growing poppy out of greed rather than need,” a British counter-narcotics official in Lashkar Gah told the IoS. “They could earn a living by other means.” The Afghan government has rejected calls for defoliants to be sprayed on the crop, and the plants will be cut down by hand, or crushed by tractors dragging heavy metal bars behind them. The British official said there were some 22,000 hectares of opium poppies in the target area. The Afghan operation might destroy up to a third, if it didn’t encounter trouble, “but it depends on the security situation as much as anything”.

The attempted crackdown will be a crucial test of the Afghan government’s willingness and ability to gain control over an illegal drugs trade which not only helps to finance the Taliban insurgency, but contributes to endemic violence and corruption, reaching to the highest levels of President Hamid Karzai’s administration. Afghanistan produces over nine-10ths of the world’s illicit opium, according to the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), and more comes from Helmand than any of the country’s other 28 provinces. Half of the heroin on British streets originates there.

Despite the deployment of British forces in Helmand last year, opium production in the province soared by 160 per cent, faster than anywhere else in Afghanistan. A record crop was harvested in May under the noses of arriving British troops, and the area under cultivation increased further during the autumn planting season.

“It is wall-to-wall poppies everywhere you look, just a mile or two from Lashkar Gah,” said a source who travelled out of the provincial capital last week. “There was some early planting by people hoping to beat any crackdown, but the weather has also favoured growers, with rain at just the right time. The crop will be earlier this year than in 2006.”

As soon as they moved to southern Afghanistan, senior British officers dissociated themselves from suggestions in Whitehall that they would seek to stamp out the drugs trade. They were aware that a badly handled eradication operation in 2002 had sown deep bitterness: big growers paid bribes to save their crops, and it was small farmers with no other livelihood who suffered. Funds to compensate them were misspent or stolen.

Poppy cultivation has since been declared illegal, and no compensation will be paid this time. “The aim is to go after the big operators, who grow opium with impunity on government-owned land they have seized,” said the official. “It will be a powerful disincentive if they are seen to have lost their crops, although some smaller farmers will inevitably suffer.

But they are in an area where funds are available, mainly from USAid, for ‘cash for work’ projects, such as road building and canal clearing.” International pressure has been applied to the Kabul government to remove officials implicated in the drugs trade, such as Abdul Rahman Jan, the former police chief of Helmand. Last February the provincial governor was sacked and replaced by Mohammed Daud, an English-speaking engineer and ex-UN worker.

When he fell victim in December to internal political wrangling, it was feared that his deputy, Amir Muhammad Akhundzada, a member of a clan with close links to the drugs trade in northern Helmand, would take over, but he too was ousted.

This month’s eradication move is being carried out by the Kabul government, with the provincial administration having no say. The local authorities are supposed to make their own efforts to stamp out narcotics, but Governor Daud, fearing the backlash from destruction of crops, concentrated instead on seeking to persuade farmers not to plant poppies. It is understood that his successor, Asadullah Wafa, will meet President Karzai in Kabul to discuss further measures to deal with the trade.

Even if the AEF succeeds in destroying a third of the poppies in their target area, or about 7,000 hectares, that would be barely one-10th of the total under cultivation in Helmand, which could still produce more opium this year than last. But the British official said eradication was only one strand of an anti-drugs strategy in which the main priority was to target the big traffickers.

An international think tank, the Senlis Council, is backing a radically different approach to the Afghan drugs problem. It says the world is suffering a shortage of legal opiates for medical use, and argues that buying up the entire Afghan poppy crop for legitimate purposes would not only be more cost-effective, but would cut out the traffickers and lead to a sharp reduction in violence. The group says this strategy worked in Turkey, which was one of the main sources of illicit opium and heroin in the 1960s before switching to legal production.

But the British official dismissed the plan, saying it would founder on Helmand’s “utter lawlessness”. He added: “In Turkey they were able to force farmers to sell their crop to legal buyers. Here they will sell to the highest bidder, and the traffickers will always go higher, because they can still make a profit. The economics don’t hold up.”

By arrangement with The Independent

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Roots for the global Indian
by T.P. Sreenivasan

WHEN this year’s Pravasi Bharatiya Sammaan recipient Justice Moti Tikaram of Fiji and President of the Global Organisation of People of Indian Origin (GOPIO) Inder Singh of Los Angeles sat down for a drink in Delhi the other day, it was the first time that the sun set over both of them at the same time.

If they were in their respective countries, Sir Moti would be looking at the rising sun when Singh would be sitting down to dinner. Indeed, as the Prime Minister told the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas guests, the sun had long ceased to set on the Indian diaspora. And with Sunita Williams circling the earth even as it met, the Delhi conclave had a true cosmic dimension.

Skeptics continue to question the need for overseas Indians to be brought together in India every year. Why spend money on these conferences when urgent welfare measures are required to lighten the burdens of the Indian work force in the Gulf? What do these meetings accomplish?

But such questions apply mutatis mutandis to most conferences. The UN General Assembly will not stand such scrutiny, but heads of state and heads of government, not to speak of foreign ministers, come to New York every year. Conference diplomacy has come to stay as an instrument of connectivity and networking.

A trip to New York during the General Assembly session is like visiting 192 nations. The world comes to New York not to vote for humdrum resolutions, but to get to know each other. Overseas Indians from nearly 50 countries flocked in Delhi for precisely to connect and network. They find the expenses worthwhile and so does the Government of India.

Food there was in plenty, not only for the palate, but also for the pate. The intellectual weight of the conference was no less spectacular than that of the best conclaves in Delhi. C.K.Prahlad, Sam Pitroda, P.Chidambaram, Gopalkrishna Gandhi, Visakha Desai and Shekhar Gupta will adorn any platform with aplomb.

Important cabinet ministers found the time to visit Vigyan Bhavan to put across their ideas and plans, which can take off only if there is more foreign direct investment. They stressed the importance of emotional and intellectual ties, but most of them asked the overseas Indians to put their money where their mouths were. No targets were set for investment from overseas Indians, but a figure of US$ 1.5 trillion was mentioned as the total requirement.

Fifteen distinguished Indians were honoured with the Pravasi Bharatiya Samman awards. They represented the entire diaspora from Fiji, South Africa, Jamaica, the Gulf, the UK and the USA. The jury decided to select people with long standing in the community rather than those who have emerged recently with spectacular success.

The pioneer of Indian journalism in the United States, Gopal Raju, the veteran promoter of Indian culture in New York, Jayaraman of the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan and the founder President of the Federation of Kerala Associations of North America (FOKANA), Anirudhan and social activist Nirmal Sinha were chosen from the US, though there was a view that this time the honour should go to those who helped the passage of the India nuclear co-operation bill in the US Congress.

Both the Prime Minister and Vayalar Ravi thanked the concerned Indians for their lobbying, but the awards went rightly to those with long records of service to the community. Since the value of the bill itself is in question in both India and the United States, it was premature to celebrate its success.

An innovation this year was the time given to Chief Ministers of various states to interact with overseas Indians from their respective regions.

The theme,” rooting for the roots” gave sufficient emotional content to the conference. At least some of the participants traveled around the villages of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh to look for their roots. The goodies offered at the conference this year were not as significant as the Person of Indian Origin (PIO) card and the dual citizenship, which were put in place by the previous Government.

But the single window clearance facility for investments by overseas Indians and a PIO University are welcome assurances that the overseas Indians have been seeking for a long time. India and her children abroad are continuously rediscovering each other since the days of Rajiv Gandhi.

“Vayalar Ravi Everywhere” was the headline in a Malayalam newspaper on the second day of the conference, echoing the “India Everywhere” slogan that CII had promoted in Davos. This was literally true as the Minister was seen everywhere throughout the conference. He spoke to virtually every participant and made sure that nothing went wrong anywhere. It was a measure of his clout in the cabinet that many of his senior colleagues participated in the conference.

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Delhi Durbar
Chattisgarh’s war

It is not always that state governments take kindly to the appointment of a Governor who is considered an agent of the Centre. However, there is an element of excitement in Chattisgarh with the appointment of former Director of the Intelligence Bureau ESL Narasimhan as the new Constitutional head of the state.

Their home minister Ravivichar Netam believes that Narasimhan can be of tremendous assistance in tackling the decade old menace of Maoism. He observed that Chattisgarh will definitely seek Narasimhan’s guidance and suggestions. Last year alone Maoist violence had claimed nearly 400 lives including 320-odd civilians in the state.

Shuttle diplomacy

Both the Number one and two in the UPA government, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee, travelled abroad on the same dates recently. Fortunately, there was no crisis during the brief January 13-15 window as it would have been presided over by Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil, who is way down the protocol ladder. While the PM had gone to the Philippines Mukherjee went to Pakistan.

This however necessitated hectic travelling for some officials. Navtej Sarna, Joint Secretary of the Ministry of External Affairs’ External Publicity Division and spokesperson, had to be present at both the places. After Mukherjee’s Pakistan visit on January 13-14, Sarna flew straight to Cebu in the Philippines to be with the PM. It took him 25 hours to reach Philippines and he made it hours before the PM was to fly back home on January 15 afternoon. Talk about shuttle diplomacy!

A colour a day

A nice dress sense is always appreciated but BJP leader Sushma Swaraj has a secret that is known only to a select lot. Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee is one of them despite being in the opposite camp. On seeing the colour of Sushma’s saree at a function recently, the Speaker said: “so it is Monday today.” The other MPs around, including those from Swaraj’s BJP, were baffled. Both Somnathda and Sushma were smiling.

Ultimately Somnathda revealed the secret, which he had come to know when both the leaders were part of a Parliamentary delegation abroad. Sushma matched the colour of her dress to the day of the week. It seems to have caught on, as Navjot Singh Sidhu’s friends are now identifying the day by the colour of his turban.

Fairy tale wedding

The Capital is agog about an India-Nepal happening next month. It is billed as a fairy tale wedding, between Nepali aristrocrat and former royal fiancee Devyani Rana to union HRD minister Arjun Singh’s grandson Aishwarya Singh. The bride’s mother, Usha Rana, is the sister of Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje. The wedding itself is to be held in Delhi in February to be followed by a reception in Kathmandu.

Contributed by R. Suryamurthy, Rajeev Sharma, S.S. Negi and S. Satyanarayanan

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O man! Let your love for God be like that of the fish for water. The more the water, the more it revels in it and feels peace of mind and body. But without water, it cannot live even for a moment. God alone knows the extent of its suffering, caused by its separation from water.
— Guru Nanak

The mantram AUM stands for the supreme state. Of Turiya, without parts, beyond birth And death, symbol of everlasting joy. Those who know AUM as the self become the Self: truly they become the Self.
— The Mandukya Upanishads

Whichever way one looks, one finds Ishwara, the Lord. None has won salvation without his grace. 
— The Vedas

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