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Power of fusion Quota fixation Stripped of dignity |
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Editor’s Column
Freelance friendships
Division of J&K will harm
all communities UP Assembly hits a new low Inside Pakistan
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Power of fusion WHILE tough negotiations towards bringing the Indo-US nuclear deal to fruition continue, India is on its way to consummating one of the items of the July 18, 2005 agreement between the two countries. The cabinet has cleared the country’s participation in the International Experimental Thermonuclear Reactor (ITER) project. India’s contribution to the ITER kitty will be around Rs 2500 crore. The July 18 agreement mentioned ITER and the goal of bringing India into the international consortium that includes the US, Russia, China, Japan, and many European countries. Last year, ITER formally admitted India. Building the 500-MW reactor in Cadarache, France, is a huge project, expected to cost billions of dollars over 10 to 15 years. Many believe that the end result may not justify the costs, and fusion energy may remain a pipedream. This is the reason why the developed countries prefer to work in partnership on this project, rather than commit huge resources on their own. But the benefits of success are many. Successful fusion can become an endless source of energy and that too without the generation of deadly radioactive waste and pollution. Current reactors are fission reactors, where the atomic nucleus is split to produce energy. But fusing two nuclei can produce a reaction similar to what is taking place in the sun, producing enormous quantity of energy. Scientists know how to accomplish fusion in the hydrogen bomb. Getting the reaction going in a controlled and safe manner in a reactor is the challenge before the ITER team. The Institute of Plasma Physics in Ahmedabad has expectedly been named the implementing agency, and there should be considerable excitement amongst the scientists there, who have been working in these areas for many years now. Participation in ITER, right from this early stage, should provide access to cutting-edge technology. The institute and all those involved should be keen to maximise both the learning experience, and the contribution India eventually makes.
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Quota fixation THE Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy government in Andhra Pradesh has fulfilled its pre-election promise by announcing a 4 per cent reservation to socially, economically and educationally backward groups of Muslims in the state. It came in the wake of the Andhra Pradesh High Court quashing as unconstitutional the two earlier ordinances in this regard. At present, the state has four categories of backward classes — A, B, C and D — with a combined quota of 25 per cent. The backward Muslims have been included in a new category E with a 4 per cent quota. The Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes have 14 and 7 per cent quota respectively. Consequently, the total reservations in the state will now touch 50 per cent, in line with the Supreme Court ceiling. The Reddy government has been drawing flak from the Opposition and Muslim groups all along for its failure to provide quota to the Muslims. Its troubles intensified following the Supreme Court’s refusal to stay the High Court’s order. The High Court ruled that providing quotas on the basis of religion is unconstitutional and quashed the earlier ordinance that sought to provide 5 per cent quota. It also said that even the identification of the economically backward classes should be done properly by a commission. The latest move is based on the Justice Subramanyam commission’s recommendation. As suggested by it, the creamy layer has been kept out of the quota ambit. It is a moot point whether the latest quota move will pass the test of judicial scrutiny. There was no compelling reason for the government to rush through the decision since a larger Bench of the Supreme Court will examine the entire gamut of reservation, including whether quotas based solely on caste are impermissible under Article 15. On July 17, the apex court will take up for preliminary hearing a batch of petitions challenging the Central Educational Institutions (Reservation in Admission) Act, 2006 providing for 27 per cent OBC quota and the 93rd Constitution (Amendment) Act under which the legislation was enacted. The Andhra Pradesh government should have waited for the apex court ruling on quotas. |
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Stripped of dignity FOR years, Pooja Chauhan, a 22-year-old girl of Rajkot in Gujarat, underwent alleged mental and physical abuse at the hands of her husband and in-laws for bringing insufficient dowry and bearing a girl child. The police remained a mute spectator. On Wednesday, she stripped to her undergarments and walked through the streets of the conservative town on the way to the police commissioner’s office. The unique protest had the desired result and the police promptly booked her husband and other family members. Even the National Commission for Women stepped in, asking the Gujarat government to take appropriate action and provide her security. But the gnawing question remains: why should any woman need to go to such extremes to get her entreaties heard? Why is the grievance redressal mechanism so tardy that it ignores all normal forms of protest? There are millions of women like Pooja all over the country, who suffer the anguish of marital discord with no hope of help. Although the police went after the suspects, it also did not look at the tormented woman very kindly. The Rajkot police commissioner even announced that “we are planning to take action against her for indecent behaviour in a public place”. That would have added insult to injury. Mercifully, better sense prevailed and the police has not pressed charges — so far. That also brings one to the question of what is indecent and what is not. The police has an insensitive record in such matters. It may not tackle routine incidents of crime but can haul couples over coals for even holding hands in a park. Then there is also the morality brigade. The regrettable part is that despite such intolerance, there is no dearth of crimes against women in India, be it in the shape of harassment at public places or torture at home. The keepers of public morality will do well to come to the rescue of the victims, rather than enforcing their own writ on what is moral and what is not. |
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Don’t walk in front of me, I may not follow. Don’t walk behind me, I may not lead. Just walk beside me and be my friend.
— Albert Camus |
Editor’s Column
It
is official now: The dialogue between India and Pakistan to bring about durable peace on the subcontinent has slowed down. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh admitted as much when he met the women journalists’ corps at 7 Race Course Road on Thursday. “It is not because of us, but because of the situation in Pakistan,” he said, and not without some concern. The Prime Minister may have been asked the question in the context of what has been happening in Islamabad’s Lal Masjid during the last four days, but apparently Dr Manmohan Singh had a longer time-frame in mind. In effect, the India-Pakistan dialogue got into slow motion much before the Lal Masjid standoff between President Musharraf’s men in khaki and the extremists who made the mosque a sanctuary for their mischief. The situation in Pakistan has privately been cited as a factor in the slow-paced dialogue by many influential people in South Block for over a year by now – and more so after the lawyers’ agitation which, during the last four months, spread to most cities in Pakistan, surprising not only President Musharraf, but also South Block mandarins. Dr Manmohan Singh has said in the past that he can do business with President Musharraf and there is no evidence that he has changed his view. And he told the journalists that Pakistan was faced with a difficult situation and “we don’t want to complicate matters; I don’t want to judge things hastily”. Apparently, he believes that President Musharraf will be able to come out of his present difficulties. Dr Manmohan Singh is not given to making off-the-cuff comments that might cause offence to friends, and even foes. But there are in South Block people who believe that President Musharraf is keen on making peace with India but they ask whether he is feeling secure and comfortable with the emerging political situation in his country. Some of them tend to think that President Musharraf, even if he is sincere and willing to make a bid for peace with India, may not be feeling strong enough to travel far on the peace track. Actually, neither President Musharraf, nor Dr Manmohan Singh, is in a position to move fast and settle for peace in the subcontinent. The political situation in the two countries does not allow them to take major initiatives. President Musharraf may be wishing for peace hoping that he could make history in giving Pakistan a chance to experiment with friendship with its eastern neighbour. But he has run into a bad patch which does not permit him to depart from settled policies and attitudes that have informed Pakistan’s relations with India over the years. The lawyers’ agitation, which began with the President’s thoughtless sacking of the Supreme Court Chief Justice, brought out the latent disillusionment of the educated middle class with his regime and rekindled its desire for the restoration of a democratic setup in Pakistan. The lawyers and their supporters in the civil society have not demanded calling off the peace dialogue with India, but the challenge the agitation is posing to the President’s authority is going to keep him engaged in tackling the mounting dissent at home. That Corps Commanders had to come out with a statement in support of the President shows how weak he must have felt last month when the lawyers’ agitation was at its peak. The President’s plans to contest for another term and the controversy about whether he should remain the Chief of Army Staff or just be a President in civies will leave him little scope for pursuing peace with India. In any case, in an election year it is always difficult for rulers to sell peace, which often requires policy adjustments, changing frozen attitudes and some give and take. On the other hand, India also cannot walk fast on the peace track for its own reasons. Dr Manmohan Singh has completed three years in office and in another two years, if not earlier, the country will be going in for parliamentary elections. He too cannot take major initiatives, involving give and take, lest Kashmir should become an election issue, costing the Congress power at the Centre. At his meeting with the journalists, the Prime Minister has only reiterated what he has said often during the last three years that he had “no mandate or agenda, for redrawing the boundaries”. And that for both President Musharraf and him the common challenge was to make borders irrelevant. “We took time, but we have come to an understanding”, he said. Cautious as he generally is, he would not elaborate. This is mainly because the two representatives of President Musharraf and Prime Minister – Messrs Tariq Aziz and Satinder Lamba – have yet to tackle many a problem in the negotiations they have been conducting during the last couple of years away from the public glare. Also, explaining details could not only create difficulties in further negotiations, but also generate political resistance at home for both leaders. As such, both are finding virtue in silence on Kashmir. Neither has cared to define what irrelevance of borders means. The concept has deliberately been kept vague and as it is it can have many ramifications. By agreeing to making borders irrelevant in Kashmir, the two leaders are, without spelling out, trying to avoid an exchange of territory, and the redrawing of boundaries and also skirting problems concerning conflicting claims of sovereignty over Kashmir. In other words, a give-and-take solution is sought to be avoided to make it easy for the two leaders to sell a possible bilateral settlement to their audiences at home. However, even vague concepts can cause problems in selling them to critics who are one too many in both countries. President Musharraf will have to convince the fundamentalists who are already accusing him of towing the US line like a faithful; and a deal with India over Kashmir might be anathema to the extremists. Political parties like the Pakistan People’s Party and Nawaz Sharif’s Muslim League, even if they profess peace with India, will begin sniping at the General – may be for seeking revenge for much he has done to them over the years. Dr Manmohan Singh will have his own problems in selling to the BJP, which is fond of using such phrases as “a sellout” whenever the government made any overture to Pakistan during the last three years. Under the circumstances, Dr Manmohan Singh might think that it is better to tread with caution in dealing with Pakistan than hand over the BJP an election issue. He knows that even Mr Atal Bihari Vajpayee had faced problems with his party when he talked peace with Pakistan. All this means that a peace settlement between India and Pakistan may not come about until after President Musharraf regains a predominant position in Pakistan after re-election as President, and after parliamentary polls in India in 2009. And elections can throw up surprises and uncertain governments. It is indeed a pity the subcontinent has to wait at least for another two years for peace the people on both sides of the divide keenly
want.
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Freelance friendships
Two
big “accidents” occurred in my life when I was 28. I broke into print, and in matrimony. Both have, in different ways, changed the course of my life. The former, in a small and symbolic way, started filling my very thin purse. The latter my empty head! This is bound to happen to any man when he gets a better half! Payments to freelancers in sixties were princely. One magazine, a fortnightly, asked me to do a series of five articles on a remuneration of 35 rupees a piece. If you think I turned down the offer, you are mistaken. Strugglers cannot be choosers! My association with that very magazine is 42 years old. It pays me close to a thousand rupees per article. Nothing succeeds like excess! But this does not matter though it counts. What is important is that I have, during the course of my freelancing, made some genuine friends. The late Mr Vishwa Nath, editor of Caravan (now Alive) and Woman’s Era, was one. Another was the founder of film journalism the late Mr Baburao Patel. His magazine “Filmindia” had always fascinated me right from my college days in Shimla. I regularly visited a municipal committee reading room near Lala Lajpat Rai’s statue on the Mall to avidly read his magazine. Little did I know at that time that one day I would grow up to become a contributor to it. However, this happened when “Filmindia” had been renamed Mother India. I asked one of my students in Master of Mass Coummunication class to work on Mr Patel’s contribution to film journalism. This brought me in contact with his wife Dr Sushila Rani, a noted classical singer. She sent me 12 bound volumes of “Filmindia” and Mother India as a goodwill gesture. I gave some to friends deeply interested in Hindi cinema. In 1964, I sent one article to the editor of a monthly magazine devoted to competitions. It was published. I was paid Rs 40. My relationship, personal as well professional, continues with Competition Master, and its editor Mr O.P. Khanna. No other magazine pays me as handsomely and punctually as does this one. I have freelanced for nearly 42 years, seen many ups and downs mostly ups. But the real achievement is that I have fulfilled myself as a human
being. |
Division of J&K will harm
all communities
People’s Conference leader Sajjad Lone’s proposal for division of J&K state is neither the first nor the only proposal on the subject. However, his latest exposition of it, while addressing a rally on the martyrdom day of his father, Abdul Ghani Lone, on May 22, specially described the resultant state, after its division, as a Muslim state. It would include the Kashmir valley and Muslim majority parts of Jammu and Ladakh regions. Sajjad Lone also complained, in a press conference later, that though the Muslims were the worst sufferers, development work was concentrated in Jammu. The majority population was denied its share in recruitment to government jobs, he said. Still, he may not have been entirely motivated by sentiments of Muslim communalism. For, in the same press conference, he declared Kashmir Pandits to be an integral part of Kashmiri identity. Like other Kashmiri nationalists, he is seeking some sort of azadi for Kashmir. Being convinced that Hindus and Buddhists of Jammu and Ladakh respectively would not reconcile to any arrangement which keeps them outside India and within Azad Kashmir, he gives them an option to opt out of the state. As far as non-Kashmiri speaking Muslims are concerned, they have hardly any option and therefore do not matter, he must have thought. In a newspaper article, he maintains, “assume for a moment, that the ‘opt-out’ option is actually communal. Who cares as long as it benefits the Kashmiri nation?” But will it really benefit Kashmiri nation? Can the resultant state be called a Kashmiri Nation? When ethnically non-Kashmiri people of Doda, Bhaderwah, Bani, Gool, Arnas, Poonch, Rajouri and Kargil are merged with the Kashmir valley, it will crush them and threaten their unique 5000 years old civilisational heritage. Some lessons from pre-and post 1947 politics of the state will bring out the complications that were added to it by exclusive concern of Kashmiri leaders with the demands and urges of the Kashmiris of the valley. Sheikh Abdullah, the tallest leader of Kashmir, hardly had any following among either the Muslims or Hindus of Jammu. The same is the case with the separatist outfits today who do not have any Muslim representation in them from Jammu. The limitations of exclusively religion-based identities have become evident not only in the state but also in Pakistan. The way Gujjar and Pahari identities are, for instance, asserting themselves in the state underlines the point. It would not be proper for any Kashmiri speaking leader to take them for granted in the name of Muslim unity. As far as Kargil – the Muslim majority district of Ladakh which Sajad Lone wants to include in the divided state – is concerned, a strong reaction against division was expressed by youth of the district who in a joint statement expressed their fears about the threat to their identity and inter alia asked “what will be the fate of Buddhisst in Kargil, Muslims in Leh and Pandits in Kashmir?” The larger question of the impact of division of the state on religious lines on the secular fabric of India and communal relations within the state, too, cannot be lost sight of. There are no exclusive Hindu and Muslim parts of Jammu. The sense of insecurity that the proposed division of the region would cause to minorities in its two parts can easily be visualised. Moreover it would split ethnic and cultural identities which to many are more important than religions identities. During the last assembly election, for instance, 95 per cent of the Muslim population of Darhal constituency voted for a Hindu candidate as he championed the cause of the Pahari community living there. The demand of for division of the state into five regions, including that of Jammu and Ladakh, is particularly ominous after General Pervez Musharraf has, in his latest four-point formula, recognised only three regions on the Indian side – Kashmir, Jammu and Ladakh. It would amount to fighting against India as well as Pakistan. The alternative is not status quo. For regional tensions are growing rather fast. Earlier, Jammu and Ladakh had a perennial grievance against what they called Kashmiri domination. For the last two years, since a Jammu leader became the Chief Minister for the first time in sixty years, similar grievances are being raised by Kashmiri leaders. The PDP president Mehbooba Mufti publicly demanded that the chief minister should invariably belong to the Kashmir valley. If Kashmiri Muslims cannot tolerate a Jammu Muslim as chief minister, how does Sajad expect that the Muslims of Jammu will feel at home in a Muslim state dominated by Kashmiris? He, however got an ally in his game plan in the BJP which has revived the demand of a separate Jammu state. As BJP’s support is confined to Hindus of the region, its demand exactly supplements Sajad’s proposal. It has by now been widely recognised that any attempt to homogenise a nation and make it uniform stifles its growth and invariably leads to authoritarianism, as Hitler had demonstrated. Diversity is therefore becoming the most celebrated value inmodern times to ensure freedom and democracy. It is the greatest asset with which J&K state is bestowed with, provided the urges of its diverse communities are reconciled . It is the centralised and unitary set up of a state which is the root cause of most of its troubles. In fact, federal and decentralised systems became the universal trend after the second world war in all democracies. It may be worth while to recall such proposals mooted in J&K state from the early fifties which were killed by ignorant and narrow minded religious or regional bigots. When the Delhi Agreement on autonomy was being discussed, I, for instance, pleaded for extension of the idea to state-region relations. Nehru and Abdullah both agreed with my demand, and announced at a joint press conference on 24 July 1952 that the constitution of the state would provide for regional autonomies. The Praja Parishad, an affiliate of the Bhartiya Jana Sangh, agreed to withdrawn its agitation for what it called full accession of the state on this assurance, which it directly got from Nehru, almost a year later. But meanwhile much damage to the cause of Jammu and India had been done. Many factors local and international intervened to sabotage this agreement. In 1968, Sheikh Abdullah convened the J&K State People’s Conference to discuss the future of the state, which was attended by the entire spectrum of the valley’s political leadership including Mirwaiz Maulvi Farooq, G M Karra’s pro-Pak Political Conference, Jamat-e-Islami and National Conference. But I was the lone representative from Jammu and had agreed to attend it provided the future of the region was also discussed. The Sheikh agreed with the suggestion and I was asked to draft an internal constitution of the state. The draft provided for a five tier set up with political, legislative and administrative powers to the elected regional councils on the subjects delegated to the regions and further devolution of powers to the districts, blocks and panchayats. It was unanimously accepted by all the 300 participants of the Convention. Sheikh Abdullah reiterated his commitment for regional autonomy at a conference of representatives of Jammu and Ladakh that he convened in 1974 before returning to power. The idea was also included in the National Conference manifesto ‘Naya Kashmir’ when it was raised in 1975, of which I was the author. The idea was further refined in the report that I submitted to the state government as working chairman of the Regional Autonomy Committee in 1999. It provided a framework for political, cultural and financial safeguards at every level of the elected administration. In sum, the importance of regional identities and recognition of all ethnic entities needs to be realised for maintaining the secular and harmonious character of the state. Let thinking people of all the three regions and all ethnic identities give a serious thought to a parallel attempt at building a powerful, democratic and secular state.
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UP Assembly
hits a new low It
is often said that people deserve the government they get. The honoured members of the Uttar Pradesh Vidhan Sabha this week visibly enjoyed the manner in which a serious public health issue on the misuse of oxytocin injections in the state was reduced to a ribald tête-à-tête between two eminent politicians. During Question Hour, BJP MLA Suresh Kumar Srivastava, representing Lucknow central, seriously challenged the assertion of minister for Animal husbandry Awadhpal Singh, that veterinary oxytocin injection was completely banned in the state. Srivastava dramatically produced a vial from his shirt pocket to prove that it was freely available. He had bought the vial that morning from a local chemist without a medical prescription. Srivastava wanted to know what measures the government was taking to stop such rampant sale of the prohibited injection. In reply the embarrassed minister said that in 2005, the state government had run a campaign and seized 20 lakh vials. He wanted the MLA to give him the name of the shop from where the vial had been bought so that he could cancel its license and arrest the owner. When Srivastava persisted and drew the attention of the minister to the gravity of the issue rather than dealing with it by punishing one single seller the minister agreed to start another campaign. It was just then that the senior most MLA Pramod Tiwari chipped in, reducing the debate to a bawdy level that left many women members cringing in their seats. Amidst peals of laughter UPCC legislative party leader Pramod Tiwari said that he was not aware that Srivastav was such a regular user of the injection. Clearly taking a clue from Tiwari, SP MLA and former revenue minister Ambika Chaudhury jokingly cautioned the Congress member against overuse of the injection. He reminded Tiwari of what an articulate young first-time SP MLA Saiyada Shadab Fatima had said in the Vidhan Sabha two days ago. Demanding a discussion on adulteration of food items, Fatima had pointed out that farmers were even misusing oxytocin to increase the size of vegetables and fruits that could cause irreversible hormonal changes. “We do not want a situation where we are forced to rename our senior most member, who has spent 25 years in the Vidhan Sabha, from Pramod Tiwari to Pramodini Tiwari”, Chaudhury jokingly remarked. Quickly settling scores Tewari retorted, “Fortunately in your case there would be no such need as you have already been named Ambika, a devi”. Later, women members shared their discomfiture at the manner in which the questioned was trivialised. Speaking on condition of anonymity, women MLAs, cutting across party lines, admitted that they felt very uneasy about the way issues of public importance were often reduced to mockery. “We do not want to intervene as we don’t want to become a butt of such off-colour jokes”, admitted a first time BJP MLA. Oxytocin is a hormone produced by the hypothalamus and stored in the pituitary gland. It is used to help start or strengthen labor and to reduce bleeding after delivery. In India, however, the injection is better known for its misuse. It has been shown to exert a milk ejecting effect. This makes it very popular amongst milkmen who administer it to the cattle one to two hours before milking. Farmers inject it in vegetables and fruits to increase the size of the produce. However the most dangerous is its misuse by unqualified doctors on hapless rural women. This has been clearly underlined in a 2002 study: ‘Injections administered by unqualified medical practitioners in rural north India: a probable aetiological factor for uterine rupture associated with pregnancy’ done by Dr Anil Cherian and others. |
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Inside Pakistan Ask
anyone about Lal Masjid, he or she will immediately mention Islamabad, where it is located amidst important offices like those of the Chief of Army Staff. The mosque has emerged as the most prominent symbol of extremism, prospering in Pakistan for years. After the arrest of the law-defying maulanas and the militant students of the two madarsas run by the mosque administration, the masjid-madarsa complex may cease to be the centre of moral policing seen in Pakistan’s capital for the past six months, but the culture of extremism it has been promoting may continue to be a major source of trouble for people for a long time to come. According to The News of July 5, “The father of the two brothers who run Lal Masjid, Maulana Abdullah, was close to General Zia and many a senior politician and military man. During the time of the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, Lal Masjid became a favoured conduit for sending ‘mujahideen’ to Afghanistan, and also Kashmir. “It is also widely believed that he was patron to several sectarian groups such as the banned Sipah-e-Sahaba, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi and Harkat-ul-Mujahideen. Even now, and as publicly stated by President Musharraf, several members of the banned Jaish-e-Mohammad, for whose leader’s (Maulana Masood Azhar’s) freedom Maulana Abdullah had publicly spoken many a time, were said to be hiding in the compound and helping the two brothers.” The situation has, however, changed after the operation by the security forces. So troubled were people because of the activities of the masjid-madarsa vigilante groups that they have welcomed the government’s action without asking any questions. The media, too, is appreciative of the Musharraf regime, but it wants to know why the action was delayed by six months. Why did the government not move against the two maulana-brothers, Abdul Aziz and Abdur Rashid Ghazi, when they started behaving as the law unto themselves?
Dangerous links It must be admitted by the authorities in Islamabad, as Daily Times has commented, that “the Lal Masjid phenomenon has not been sufficiently understood. No intelligence agency, if it had a clue, made it known that action (for Sharia implementation) by Maulana Abdul Aziz was taken six months ago when he started seeing ‘sacred dreams’ -- numbering 300 by the time the operation got under way -- to which, according to him, Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) personally ordered him to raise the standard of revolt, declare jihad and implement the Sharia on his own. Timely information on the daily proclaimed phenomenon, if it had been provided to the public, would have prepared the ground for a quick operation.” Daily Times added: “The delay in the operation inclined a lot of people to speculate that the government had actually used the clerics to divert attention from the judicial crisis … Almost the entire Opposition used the ‘convenient’ interpretation to rubbish the government.” In a hard-hitting editorial, Dawn said, “Were not the Lal Masjid militants encouraged in their criminality by the government’s kowtowing to the religious right? Did not the invitation to the Imam of Kaaba and the help sought from him for defusing the Lal Masjid crisis betray the government’s will to act? Should foreign help be sought for solving domestic problems, no matter how grave? “The government must also let the people know about the role of the secret agencies in this case and their incompetence, if not complicity in the affair. Why did the law-enforcement agencies fail to prevent the smuggling of arms and stocks of fuel into the mosque? Why were not non-lethal methods – like cutting off supplies and sequestering the mosque – adopted to tire out the brainwashed lot inside?” Besides other factors, the Pakistan government was, perhaps, scared of the consequences of use of force in the tribal areas like Waziristan from where most of the madarsa students came. The clerics’ used to claim that any action against them and their militant students would have an “appropriate response” because they had the support of the Waziristan Taliban.
Musharraf gains The successful handling of the challenge posed by the Lal Masjid extremism has helped President General Pervez Musharraf in many ways. The Opposition may now find it difficult to corner him by raising questions with regard to the on-going judicial crisis and his refusal to shed his military uniform. The government’s poor preparedness to come to the rescue of lakhs of people in Balochistan, the NWFP and Sindh hit by the floods may also go into the background. But the grievances of the flood-affected cannot be ignored in view of the coming elections. According to Daily Times, “The media has carried an extremely negative picture of the government during the two days following the cyclone (in Balochistan). It has not mattered to the victims speaking by telephone to the media that storm conditions did not allow helicopters to cover the stricken areas while ground links were broken when the roads were washed away by floods.” The hungry and homeless people cannot understand any explanation given by the authorities.
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