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India at Sixty
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Glasgow and after: Need
to tread with caution On Record Globalisation and the poor
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India at Sixty by Kuldip Nayar
EVEN after 60 years of independence, the partition, more so the journey from my hometown, Sialkot, Pakistan, to the Wagha border, India, is etched in my memory to the last details. I heard on August 12 Qaid-e-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah, founder of Pakistan, assuring us: “You may belong to any religion or caste or creed that has nothing to do with the business of the state. We are starting with this fundamental principle that we are all citizens and equal citizens of one state.” Still, I had to leave Sialkot because I was a non-Muslim, as was the case with Muslims living in East Punjab and elsewhere. Ten lakh people were killed and two crore uprooted in the wake of forced migration. Indian and Pakistan governments had refused to accept the exchange of population when they had agreed to divide the subcontinent on the basis of religion. The Punjabis on both sides suffered the most. The minimum that the two governments can do is to say “sorry” to each other. They should pass a resolution in their respective Parliaments to express regret over what happened. Now that the relations between the two nations are on the mend, a formal regret may bury that part of the past. I left Sialkot on September 13, 1947, almost one month after Pakistan’s birth. My parents, two brothers and I decided to visit India and stay there until the disturbances subsided. Even when I packed a small handbag, I was sure that I would be back soon. My mother gave me only Rs 120. I could borrow more from my aunt living in Delhi where I was heading. The parting was short and quick. A Hindu military officer, on transfer, who had agreed to take me to India in his jeep, was in a hurry. I still had not reconciled to the prospect of leaving my family behind. We promised not to say goodbye but our eyes were wet. We promised to meet in Delhi at the aunt’s place on October 12, one month later. My last advice to them was not to travel together. The migrants were being attacked on the way. As I got into the jeep, I looked towards my mother who was trying to hold back her tears. My father was distraught. My brothers were laughing but how unreal was their laughter. Sialkot is 15 km away from the main road. It was all quiet when we drove through. Only after reaching the main road, going to Lahore and the Indian border onward, did I realise that there was no going back. Thousands and thousands of people thronged the road, a small stream of people coming from India, the Muslims, and the big one going towards India, the Hindus, and the Sikhs. I could not imagine how my aged parents would make it. Our jeep was in the midst of sea of humanity, inundating every inch of space — the roads, the fields and the elevated rail-track. People rushed towards us. Some determined men and women stood on the road. They wanted us to hear them. It was an avalanche of migration. Lakhs of people were on the move on both sides. None expected it. None wanted it. But none could help it. The two countries blamed each other as their governments tried to grapple with the problems of migration and rehabilitation. An old Sikh, with a flowing beard flecked with grey, nudged me and tried to hand me over his grandson. “He is all we have in the family,” he begged. “Take him to India. At least he should live.” A middle-aged woman tried to put her child in the jeep. “I will trace you and collect my son,” she said. How could I take their children with me? Every human being has limits to how much he or she can soak in grief and joy, good and bad. I reached the level where I could take no more. My feelings had been dulled. It was as if I was left with no emotions to It was still a long way to the border. The major did not want to lose the daylight. The jeep sputtered into motion. I looked back. I could see outstretched hands wanting help. The spectacle jolted me out of wishful
thinking that things would normalise. As the jeep drove along the Grand Trunk Road, I saw dead bodies on both sides the smouldering remains of burnt vehicles and the pieces of luggage strewn all over. More hideous was the sight of children impaled on swords or spears and women and men cut into pieces. They bore testimony to the hell that the people on both sides had gone through. And all in the name of religion which was supposed to represent values. The subcontinent’s composite culture and pluralistic society going back to hundreds of years lay in tatters. It was late in the afternoon when the jeep reached Lahore’s outskirts. We were told that a caravan of Muslims had been attacked at Amritsar and that the Muslims in Lahore were waiting on the roadside to take revenge. We got down, and waited in fear and silence. There was some stray shooting in the distance. The stench of decomposed flesh from nearby fields hung in the air. We could hear people shouting slogans, Allah ho Akbar, Ya Ali and Pakistan Zindabad. But it was far away. We set off again. There was nervousness as we approached the border. And then we heard Bharat Mata Ki Jai. It was great to be alive. There was still daylight. As I looked out, relieved and happy, I saw people walking in the opposite direction. They were Muslims. I saw the same pain etched on their faces. They trudged along with their belongings bundled on their heads and their frightened children trailing behind. They too had left behind their home and hearth, friends and hopes. They too had been broken on the wrack of history. A caravan of people was going to Pakistan. We stopped to make way for it. We looked at one another with understanding, not fear. A strange link came to appear between us. It was spontaneous kinship, of hurt, loss and helplessness. Both were refugees. |
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Profile
What
makes judge Pramod Dattatrey Kode different from other judges? To find the answer one has to look to some little known facets of his personality. Besides total dedication to his work and enjoying impeccable integrity, never was he accused of high-handedness or partiality. Never — be it the prosecution or the defence — raised a finger about his fairness. The accused too respect him; he would always lent an ear to the convict’s woes, listened to him sympathetically. Sanjay Dutt is the latest example. After delivering the 1993 Mumbai blasts verdict, he called a very upset superstar to his court and tried to console him — “Have faith in you Sanjay…I have taken only six years from you. You will only get better with times”. That is, possibly, the reason that Judge Kode’s sentences were received with equanimity. His softer side was demonstrated when he allowed some of the accused to go for Haj pilgrimage and got table fans for those in jail. Judge Kode’s sound knowledge of the law outshines as within a split second, he pinpoints the loopholes in the defence. Lawyers sometimes fumble before him. So strong is Judge Kode’s commitment to duty that he never missed a day of work and even worked on occasional holidays and weekends. Even when his parents passed away, he did not take leave. The day he sentenced the three Mahim bombers to death, it was his father’s death anniversary but he presided over the court. He never allows personal tragedies to cloud his professional work. While nursing a fractured shoulder, he sentenced 12 key conspirators in Mumbai blast case to death and 20 others to life imprisonment from among 100 convicted. But it was the six-year jail term for Sanjay Dutt, the most high profile figure in the case, that reinforced the public faith in the oft-repeated legal dictum, “all are equal before law”. His verdict is seen as a harsh deterrent against terrorist acts. Presiding over the 1993 blasts trial, TADA court Judge Kode is one of the longest serving judges in a single court, having dealt with one of the most sensitive criminal cases in India’s history. He read 13,000 pages of oral evidence, 7,000 pages of documentary evidence, and 6,700 pages of statements of the accused, There were a whooping 686 witnesses in this case. The designated TADA court was constituted in January 1994 with J.N. Patel as the presiding judge. When Patel was elevated to the High court in 1996, Kode took over from him. Since he began hearing this case, Judge Kode received eight threats to his life. That made him the most protected judge on the Z-security list with an insurance cover of Rs 25 lakh. He took no leave from March 1996 till June 2007 even when he broke his arm after slipping in the bathroom. During his stint as the special TADA Judge, Kode made a conscious effort to stay away from the media glare. Known to be very secretive, he never discussed the cases with anyone. He never allowed a clue to what was transpiring in his mind. He preferred the privacy of his home and he himself typed on his personal computer his landmark verdicts. When Judge Kode began his career and was in Mumbai’s sessions court, he had come to be known as the “acquittal-minded judge”. In sharp contrast, in the Mumbai blasts case, he pronounced the death sentence on every bomber who placed a bomb, irrespective of whether it went off or not. Few know about the personal side of the 55-year-old judge except that he was a law graduate from Mumbai and became the special TADA judge in March 1996. He was born in a humble family and lived in a small house in a far-flung suburb of Mumbai. His father was very keen that his son should become a judge and turned to his friend, Ramakant Ovalekar, then a top lawyer of Thane district. Pramod Kode thus began his tryst with the legal profession in Ramakant’s chamber, going through heaps of books on law and learning the ropes of the trade from his mentor. Judge Kode is believed to be a deeply religious man. He believes in astrology and is a devotee of Shirdi Sai Baba. On occasional weekends when it was possible to slip away from work, he would rush to Shirdi, about 200 km from Mumbai with his Z-category security. On Tuesdays, he would visit Mumbai’s Siddhivinayak Ganesha temple and Mahalaxmi temple. |
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— Shyam Benegal after he bagged the Dada Saheb Phalke Award Musharraf is someone who can never be trusted. He said he would retire as the Army General before December 31, 2004. He has not fulfilled that commitment. — Former Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif Men must play an important role in raising the age of consent and marriage for women. If the right age or consent is missing, then all the participants of the marriage are taking liberty with law and morality. — WB Governor Gopalkrishna Gandhi Critics call it commercial or parallel cinema. But for a performer, it is both ways. When a parallel movie becomes a hit, we begin calling it commercial. — Kulbhushan Kharbanda |
Glasgow and after: Need
to tread with caution Dr Haneef, who was charged in Australia with alleged complicity with his cousins in Glasgow for the attempted terrorist attack in Scotland which failed, has been acquitted of the charge and has returned home. He felt proud of being cleared of the stigma of being a terrorist. It might reduce the sense of hurt that India felt on the first ever alleged incident of involvement of Indian Muslims in the world wide movement of what is being called Islamic terrorism. For it was repeatedly claimed by India that this phenomenon did not exist here. During his tour of the US in early 2000, the then Deputy Prime Minister L.K. Advani had claimed that though India had the world’s second largest Muslim population, it had the distinction of not contributing a single terrorist to the international Islamic terrorism. More than two years later, this claim was repeated by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. India was indeed a unique country with sizeable Muslim population which could claim this distinction. But the origin of the accused in the recent incident has been traced to Bangalore. Whatever the final outcome of the current investigations in the UK and whatever relief Haneef’s acquittal might have been brought, the shadow of doubt over Haneef is removed and his visa is restored, we should keep our fingers crossed till the final judgement in the remaining comes. The death of the main culprit Kafeel, who was rushing his car loaded with explosives towards the Glasgow airport which exploded en route, may further weaken a bit the case against his cousin, In no case the incident should be dismissed as an exception. For it is always wiser to be cautious. But unless it is diagnosed correctly and proper lessons are learnt from it, there is every danger of panic reaction which might deflect the course of our policies which deal with community relations and the basis of our secular democratic polity. If at all change is required, it is the need for extra effort to strengthen this polity. More important, the two young men involved in it are highly educated, one being a doctor and the other an engineer. They hail from Bangalore. And none of them was educated in a madarassa where religious education is compulsory. It belies the prevalent theory that and the Muslims’ real problem is their economic and educational backwardness who are mainly concentrated in the BIMARU states. The current phase of Islamic militancy in the world is not a product of or lack of prosperity or education. It started with oil rich states in the West Asia and involves highly educated youth who alone are aware of the reasons for the Muslims’ resentment against the West. In a way, it is a manifestation of the process of modernisation. The clash of civilizations theory precipitated the polarisation between the Muslim world and the predominantly Christian west. The way America led war against terrorism started, tended to unite various heterogeneous Muslim communities to what they considered to be a common threat. Forces released by modernisation including modern means of communications like email, direct dialing Internet, blogging and jet travelling made Muslims aware of thinking of their co-religionists all over the world. But why technically skilled Muslims are in the forefront of the violent reactions to the West’s policies? First, they alone are capable of handling modern weapons of terrorism. But a more basic reason relates to the mental attitude which has been noticed. It is their lack of knowledge of social sciences that cuts them off from local community. In the Indian context, higher education tends to divide the students into what C.P. Snow had called two worlds who are unable to communicate with each other. They, have little knowledge about the social realities, composite heritage of different regions and the constitutional and institutional arrangements to ensure harmonious inter-communal relations. There have indeed been occasional glaring lapses. But fora of protest and remedial mechanism are also available to the aggrieved parties. However, lack of knowledge about local realities tends to isolate the science and technology students from the broad Indian mainstream. The sense of alienation they develop in the social life of the West and the contacts they develop with international Islamist or Jehadi movement make them prone to their propaganda. That most leaders of the extreme Hindu right have also been science degree holders lends further weight to the contention that there is something wrong with our system of higher education. Karnataka, technically the most advanced state in the South, has also the Janata Dal (S)-BJP coalition government. The diaspora in advanced countries, too is a negative influence on Indian secularism. Though science and technology are important for the country’s economic growth, their curricula needs to include a capsule course in elementary social sciences. Social science courses too could include an elementary knowledge about physical sciences. This discussion, in no way, exhausts the analysis of reasons for the alleged Indian involvement in the failed terrorist action in Glasgow. Nor it deals with all possible remedial measures. Much needs to be done to improve our intelligence system, for instance. It is not well informed about social realities of which delinquents are a part or a product. Nor can we afford to relax on the national agenda of building stronger basis of secular democracy. More competent studies are called for to understand the minorities’ problems and minds. Particularly of Muslims as also of Indian Islam which has been influenced by Indian civilisation, instead of current reliance on Western scholarship on the subject. Religion as an exclusive basis of an identity was essentially a Western concept whereas before its impact in India, local identities were mostly based around common saints, heroes and traditions. In no case an almost exclusive concentration on religious centers, including madrassas, for search of potential terrorists would suffice. After all Islamic religious institutions like Dara-ul-uloom, Deoband and almost all Ulama, under the leadership of Maulaua Azad, played on active role in the freedom movement of India whereas least religions leaders like Mohd Ali Jinnah spearheaded the separatist Muslim movement that culminated in the partition of the country. The Glasgow episode may be treated just as a straw which indicates the direction in which the wind might blow. In no case an exclusive attention on backwardness and the lack of education of Muslims would
do. The writer is Director, Institute of Jammu and Kashmir Affairs, Jammu
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On Record
Union Minister
for Science and Technology and Earth Sciences Kapil Sibal has given a new profile to his ministry. A noted lawyer, Sibal, 59, has appeared in many landmark cases in constitutional, criminal and commercial law. He addressed Parliament in 1994 in the historic impeachment proceedings against Justice V. Ramaswamy, then a sitting Supreme Court judge. He was the Congress spokesman before the 1999 and 2004 general elections. Sibal has now been put in charge of the media campaign in the run-up to the Assembly elections in Gujarat. Excerpts: Q: How will the UPA government tackle the strong opposition to the Indo-US nuclear deal by its Left allies and the Opposition parties? A: The Prime Minister has lived up to his assurances to Parliament. The demand for ratification of the entire process by Parliament is not justified. The government has been totally transparent with all issues being debated in Parliament. The Left’s position on the issue is ideological. They do not per se want strategic relationship with the US. We appreciate that but we are not a Left party and have our own position. We hope the Left too will appreciate it. Strategic partnership with the US after the end of the Cold War is beneficial in the long term and should be nurtured for mutual benefit. The Left’s opposition seems to be contextual. These differences of perception are a matter of debate, and will, hopefully, be resolved. Q: What are your achievements in science and technology? A: I look at this in the context of technologies which have impacted or are likely to have an impact on the lives of the people. I have built an environment in the ministry to work at three levels — to achieve excellence in R&D; involving public-private partnership (PPP) in science and technology; and taking technology to the doorsteps of the common man. Indeed, the common man has benefited from technology in many ways. In Kavarati (Lakshadweep), we have demonstrated technology to convert sea water into drinking water. Nearly 11,000 people now get clean drinking water. As a result, water-borne diseases among children has come down. We have provided technology to deal with unauthorised constructions, theft of electricity, leakage of water, city planning and traffic control. The PPP has produced drugs at an affordable cost and manufactured a computer for Rs 10,000. A bio-friendly leather technology has been developed. As promised in December 2004, the tsunami warning system will become operational next month. Q: How can technology boost agricultural growth? A: There are huge programmes to help farmers increase their levels of income. Information and data must reach farmers. We are modernising the Indian Metrological Department at a cost of Rs 900 crore. The programme will start showing results by mid-2008. An agro-advisory portal will be integrated into the weather channel to help farmers on agro-climatic and other issues. Crop productivity will increase. We will map the farm sector to monitor real time agricultural produce in respect of major crops sown including rice, wheat, pulses, sugarcane and cotton. States will know about the pattern and ultimate extent of production of a particular crop. This can revolutionise agricultural monitoring system and decide on the import requirement and export potential well in advance of the total output. Initiatives have been taken in agricultural instrumentation, medicinal and aroma plants. Q: Why is the spending on R&D 0.8 per cent of GDP? A: The private sector contributes a lot to R&D in many countries. The government plans to take R&D spending to 2 per cent of GDP by the end of the Eleventh Plan. Q: How is the party preparing for the assembly elections in Himachal and Gujarat? A: We are working very hard in the two states. The people of Gujarat should be proud of what they have achieved. They deserve a better government. Q: Do you endorse the National Consumer Commi-ssion’s ruling to bring lawyers under the ambit of the Consumer Protection Act? A: Personally, I am not for it. Lawyers would be spending more time in consumer courts defending themselves than in regular courts. The existing fora should be strengthened. I think the Bar Council should be an appropriate mechanism. We need to think creatively on
this.
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Globalisation and the poor Should
poverty be seen in absolute numbers or in terms of percentage of people living below the poverty line? While pro-globalisation economists prefer to see poverty in terms of percentage of people living below the poverty line, those who are against it look at poverty in absolute numbers. The low-income countries as a group and low-income countries of Europe and Central Asia and East Asia and Pacific have been registering appreciable growth rate since 2000-01. According to one argument, low-income countries of these regions are benefiting from strong commodity prices and export earnings (Global Monitoring Report, 2007). In South Asia, India continues to grow at around 8 per cent for the last few years. The main drivers of poverty reduction globally continue to be countries in East Asia and Pacific and South Asia regions. The Sub-Saharan Africa, where 25 per cent poor of the world reside, is growing at the meagre rate of 4 per cent, an improvement over previous years. Growth in the low-income countries of Middle East, North Africa and Latin America and the Caribbean regions continue to be very low as compared to other regions. In the middle-income group, China remains the leader with an estimated growth rate of 10 per cent in 2006. The East Asia and Pacific has also been doing well. These regions have witnessed huge poverty reduction in the last two decades. World Bank estimates of global poverty, at the poverty line of less than US $1 per day, show that global poverty has come down in absolute numbers and relative terms. In relative terms, the picture seems to be better. In 1981, 40.4 per cent population of the world was living on less than $1, which has come down to 19 per cent in 2002, a decline of roughly 21 per cent. Apparently, these figures support pro-globalisation researchers. However, if we exclude China, global poverty has declined only by 10.1 per cent between 1981 and 2002. If one examines the region wise distribution of poverty, the picture is not convincing. The Human Development Index (HDI) is a major indicator of standard of living, which gives one-third weightage to growth of per capita income. While many countries have a high per capita income with lower HDI rank, some have lower per capita income with higher HDI rank. This suggests that high per capita income does not always lead to higher standard of living or reduction in poverty. One reason for the increasing poverty in some countries is the population explosion. Another reason is that these regions have not opened up their economies sufficiently to reap the fruits of globalisation. The global poverty line at $2 per day criterion makes the picture even more deplorable. Though there is inappropriate hype about globalisation’s poverty-reducing capacity, globalisation does have some growth-enhancing impact on the economies which varies from country to
country. The writer, an Indian Economic Service officer, is Asst. Director, Ministry of Agriculture, Government of India, New Delhi
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I am overwhelmed by the Award. I also feel slightly saddened because it is like saying this is the end of the line. But the show must go on.
