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Justice R. S. Pathak Left’s right turn |
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Blow to Buddha
Fighting against emergency
Watching film with Indira Gandhi!
Cryogenic engine a landmark for ISRO Swiss celebrate the legend of William Tell Chatterati
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Justice R. S. Pathak JUSTICE RAGHUNANDAN SWARUP PATHAK, who passed away on Sunday, was a jurist of exceptional international standing with a high reputation for integrity, independence and impartiality. Throughout his long and distinguished career as a judge—beginning as an Additional Judge of the Allahabad High Court in 1962 and rising to the peak as the Chief Justice of India in 1986—Justice Pathak left an indelible mark as a shining example of judicial rectitude worthy of emulation by his peers as well as those who were to follow him in the judiciary. At 37, he became a high court judge, the youngest ever. In March 1972, he was appointed the Chief Justice of the Himachal Pradesh High Court. His legal acumen, study of constitutional law and interpretation of the Constitution earned him not only much respect and admiration but also the appointment as the Chief Justice of India, eight years after his elevation as a Judge of the Supreme Court in 1978. It is a measure of the international recognition he enjoyed that less than three years after he assumed office as the Chief Justice of India, he was elected, in June 1989, to the International Court of Justice at The Hague. His contribution as a judge of the world court, the principal judicial organ of the United Nations, earned him kudos in many foreign capitals. As a judge of the Supreme Court and the Chief Justice of India, Justice Pathak delivered many judgments on a variety of subjects in a number of important cases, including the famous judge’s transfers’ case where he maintained that judges could not be transferred without their consent and that the approval of the Chief Justice was essential. The other much-debated judgments were the cases relating to the release of Sant Harchand Singh Longowal and the Bhopal gas disaster. Justice Pathak headed the one-man judicial commission to enquire into the Iraqi oil scam, which led to the exit of former Foreign Minister K. Natwar Singh from the UPA Government. His abiding concerns – human rights, social justice, equality of opportunity and probity in public life – were reflected in his judgments that provided relief and, at the same time, raised questions about the role of the state in dispensing justice. Justice Pathak was Co-President of the International Olympic Committee’s powerful Court of Arbitration for Sports. He joined as a Trustee of The Tribune in 1994 and became President of the Board of Trustees in 2002. Under his leadership The Tribune made major strides with a number of new editions being launched and the profile of the newspaper being changed for the better. As President of The Tribune Trust, Justice Pathak always wanted The Tribune to follow the highest professional standards and remain a fiercely independent newspaper. The passing away of Justice Pathak leaves a void in The Tribune Trust and the fraternity of jurists.
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Left’s right turn THE latest stance of the UPA government’s Left allies on the India-US civil nuclear deal is encouraging. At last, they have agreed to allow the government to approach the International Atomic Energy Agency for an India-specific safeguards agreement, but it will be signed only after it gets clearance from the UPA-Left Coordination Committee. The committee, which deliberated the issue on Friday, will go deeper into the agreement before putting its stamp of approval on it. The Left supporters of the government have apprehensions about the provisions of the Hyde Act, enacted by the US Congress, and the 123 Agreement, signed by India and the US. The new development appears to be a step towards
operationalisation of the deal. There are many who feel concerned about the fate of the nuclear deal because of the baseless objections raised by the Left parties and the BJP. It would be pertinent to mention here an appeal issued by some top nuclear scientists, former chiefs of the armed forces, high-ranking diplomats and retired senior bureaucrats to our MPs to support the nuclear deal in the strategic interest of the country. They have tried to highlight the point that India could not expect a better deal than what it has got. They are convinced that the opportunity that has come India’s way must not be allowed to go waste. If India fails to get the nuclear apartheid practised against it scrapped now, it cannot hope for such an opportunity at least in the near future. Moreover, if the country’s top nuclear scientists, both serving and retired, are convinced that the deal poses no threat to India’s nuclear weapon programme or its foreign policy options, there is no reason why it should not be lapped up. The Left parties should keep their anti-Americanism aside if they are really concerned about the country’s interests. Almost everybody who has an understanding of India’s growing energy requirement agrees that India needs the latest nuclear technology and equipment to generate as much power as possible. After all, nuclear energy is the cheapest and cleanest fuel.
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Blow to Buddha FRIDAY’S Calcutta High Court ruling terming the police firing on March 14 at Nandigram as “wholly unconstitutional” has put West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee in a tight spot. In this unprovoked and avoidable firing, 14 people were killed and 162 injured. Chief Justice S.S. Nijjar and Justice Pinaki Chandra Ghosh rejected the government’s justification of firing and ruled that the intention of the state police “seemed to be to crush the demonstration, rather than to control or disperse an unlawful assembly”. Similarly, the official claim that the crowd was “armed” has also not been borne out by the ruling. There was nothing to prove that the crowd was posing a threat to the police to warrant firing, the judges ruled. The judgement is a severe blow to the image of the Left Front government, particularly of Mr Bhattacharjee, who is yet to adequately respond to the widespread condemnation of his earlier statement defending his party cadres’ attack on the Bhoomi Ucched Protirodh Committee activists at Nandigram on November 6. Academics, writers and filmmakers have all condemned the bloody recapture of Nandigram by the Marxist cadres. Far from expressing regret over his infamous statement that the BUPC men have been “paid back in the same coin”, Mr Bhattacharjee said that he could not deny his political identity as a CPM man. Clearly, his irresponsible statements are sending wrong signals to the police force which has been acting as a partisan at the behest of the ruling party. Moreover, the police are so discriminatory that they did not provide protection to Sabina Begum, the first victim of gang-rape on November 6, which has now been officially confirmed. Her two daughters, too, were raped and abducted by Marxist cadres. The reluctance of the police to extend whole-hearted cooperation to the CRPF in Nandigram is distressing. Shockingly, the police are yet to enter the village and provide a healing touch to the people who had a harrowing experience following the carnage. When the state government pitches itself on the wrong side of the law, the lives and liberties of the common people will be at stake. It is time the government upheld the rule of law at
Nandigram.
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Life is a gamble at terrible odds — if it was a bet, you wouldn’t take it. — Tom Stoppard
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Fighting against emergency
EFFECTIVE dissent was smothered followed by a general erosion of democratic values. High-handed and arbitrary actions were carried out with impunity. The nation was initially in a state of shock and then of stupor, unable to realise the directions and full implications of the actions of the government and its functionaries.” No, this is not about the emergency in Pakistan. This para is from the Shah Commission report on the emergency in India some 30 years ago. The difference between the two is that a military dictator, President Gen Pervez Musharraf, imposed the emergency and suspended the fundamental rights in Pakistan while an elected Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi, did so in India. Both could not brook independence of the judiciary: General Musharraf acted before the judgement on his re-election as President when he was a serving soldier and Mrs Gandhi after the judgement that unseated her for a poll crime. Yet, the biggest difference is that people in Pakistan have come out in the streets and demonstrated, thousands of them. Touchingly, the citizens of Islamabad gathered to celebrate Diwali in solidarity with Justice Rana Bhagwandas. In India, fear gripped people and they stayed indoors. Mrs Gandhi said that not even a dog had barked. True, very few defied her rule in bazaars. Still she detained one lakh people without trial. The Press has been gagged in Pakistan. So was the case in India. But journalists have protested in Pakistan and offered themselves for arrest. Journalists in India, as Mr L.K. Advani said after the emergency, were asked to bend, but they began to crawl. Nearly all of them fell in line. The judiciary in Pakistan has shown the guts. The majority of the judges in the Supreme Court and High Courts have not taken the new oath which General Musharraf dictated. Deposed Chief Justice Mohammad Iftikhar Chaudhary has urged lawyers after his house arrest to lead the movement against the military government. Judges in India caved in like journalists. The Supreme Court upheld the imposition of the emergency. Only one judge, H.R. Khanna, gave a dissenting verdict and was superseded when his turn to be the Chief Justice came. Lawyers behaved as miserably as the judiciary. None even attempted to move a resolution at the bar council or any other place to condemn the emergency. Most of them in the country became advocates of the emergency. In comparison, lawyers are leading the protest marches even in small towns of Pakistan. More than 2000 have been detained. Mr Aitzaz Ahsan, president of the Bar Council, who has challenged General Musharraf’s election, has been sent to solitary confinement. Nonetheless, in India there was confidence that whenever elections were held, the perpetrators of the emergency would be punished. It happened that way. Even Mrs Gandhi was defeated at the polls. Pakistan will have elections before January 9 as General Musharraf has assured. But there is no prospect of the polls being free and fair. The last time he rigged the elections in such a way that he brought in religious parties to lessen the space for the liberals. This time he would see to it that his loyal party, the Pakistan Muslim League (Quaid), gets a near-majority in the National Assembly. Justifiably, all the parties have demanded that he must step down for a free and fair election to be held. Ms Benazir Bhutto, who had reportedly struck a deal with General Musharraf, has also said that he must go. The amendments to the Army Act which General Musharraf has made are alarming. They give wide powers to the military courts. Civilians can also be tried for a number of offences, including their expression of views. Antiquated laws that had lost their teeth through judicial reviews have now been resurrected to give the military courts powers to punish people under them. Trials will not be open to public hearings; lawyers will only be allowed to represent the accused in the capacity of a friend. Investigation will be carried out by the military personnel and ordinary rules of evidence will not apply. The new amendments fully support the contention that General Musharraf has not declared an emergency but imposed martial law and that it has pointedly targeted a vocal civil society. General Zia-ul-Haq’s draconian laws have also been activated and offences under them will be tried under the Army Act. In 1984, Zia made amendments to the Penal Code making expressions of “disaffection” against the government and those “prejudicial” to Pakistan punishable. Those accused of expressions or acts that are “prejudicial” or offensive towards the government will now be tried by the military courts. The Attorney-General of Pakistan has justified these amendments on the grounds that these were essential for combating terrorism and that similar laws exist in the UK and the US. First, two wrongs will never make a right. Secondly, the UK and the US have an independent judiciary that has also struck down provisions of the Patriot Act. The military courts in the UK or the US do not try their own citizens. Nor have the journalists, lawyers and human rights activists in those countries been charged for terrorism or treason. But in Pakistan the police have filed reports accusing several lawyers and human rights activists of terrorism. Similarly, no judge of the superior courts is under house arrest in those countries. General Musharraf’s main strength is the US, which has given him $10 billion in the last five years to fight against the militants. He is reportedly keeping his top commanders happy by making them afford a luxurious life. Washington is not bothered about how he rules or what he does with the money so long as he is fighting against the militants. Yet a substantial section of the intelligentsia and the media suspects him for encouraging militants so that he is looked upon as the only dependable person to fight against militancy. The more the militants are active — they have now captured most of the Swat valley, the northern part of Waziristan in Pakistan — the more dependent becomes the West on him. In any case, Washington has seldom bothered about democracy abroad. Any person, however dictatorial, is acceptable to it if he can deliver the goods. It is a long haul for democracy to cover in Pakistan. Since its creation 60 years ago, it has been under one military ruler or the other for more than four decades. But then the people in India too felt during the emergency that it was an endless tunnel. The alienation of the people went on building and they ousted Congress rule lock, stock and barrel when the elections were held. The apathy in Pakistan towards the military is strong. Once General Musharraf takes off his uniform, which he would because of the undertaking he has given to the Supreme Court, nobody can predict what would happen. The process may begin when the notification of his election as President is cleared by the Supreme
Court.
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Watching film with Indira Gandhi!
During
Indira Gandhi’s lifetime, the media loved, admired and hated her with equal intensity at different times. It praised her to the skies and also dumped her to the dust. It employed only the superlatives to describe her actions. Remembering Indira Gandhi on her 90th birth anniversary, what springs to one’s mind is her extraordinary courage. The courage that helped her take on the then US President Richard Nixon at the height of the Cold War during the early 1970s, the courage that helped her challenge the Old Guard in the Congress party and emerge as the undisputed leader in 1969, the courage that helped her win a decisive victory with Pakistan in the 1971 war that saw the birth of Bangladesh, finally the courage that made her face the bullets from her own security guards to fall a martyr in the cause of India’s unity in October 1984. If she had courage, Indira also strangely possessed caprice, a quality that is associated with a sense of insecurity. No doubt, it is a quality that afflicts anyone at the top and Indira Gandhi was no exception. It was caprice that made her distrust some people and trust some others. It was caprice that drove her to declare the emergency in 1975. As an active politician and as the Prime Minister of the country, the joy of private life often eluded her. Ironically, her brief period of peace and private life came when she was out of power from March 1977 to January 1980. Those were the days when she enjoyed cordial relations with her younger daughter-in-law Maneka. This writer remembers well a March afternoon in 1979 when he found Indira Gandhi in the company of Sanjay and Maneka at Archna Cinema in New Delhi, enjoying a Peter Seller’s comedy — The Return of Pink Panther. Seated several rows behind me, Indira Gandhi obviously enjoyed the film as any other commoner did. At the intermission and at the end of the show, she exchanged pleasantries with total strangers. There was not even a hint of security. After the show, as the family waited outside the cinema, a humble Ambas-sador pulled up before them and carried them home with no fuss whatsoever. As a professional journalist since early 1970s, I shared with my peers the privilege of interacting with Indira Gandhi, covering her in and outside Parliament. But to this day, I am not tired of boasting to them: “I watched a film with Indira Gandhi”, though it was occasioned by fortuitous
circumstances!
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Cryogenic engine a landmark for ISRO
OVER 10 kilometres per second. That is the kind of speed that a cryogenic engine is capable of generating, sitting in a launch vehicle powering itself into space, carrying a satellite weighing a couple
of thousand kilograms. The indigenous cryogenic engine tested at the Indian Space Research Organisation’s (ISRO) Liquid Propulsion Systems Centre at Mahendragiri in Tamil Nadu, was run for its full test duration of 720 seconds or 12 minutes on November 15. In August this year, the engine ran for 480 seconds. In January, a full duration test was abandoned after some anomalies were noticed. For the ISRO scientists from several centres working on the engine, it would have been a triumph to savour, as special as the many successful launches and satellites the organisation has been responsible for over the years. In actual flight, sitting in the GSLV-D3, scheduled for a first launch sometime in 2008, it will not need those full 12 minutes to eject its payload of a heavy satellite into orbit. The GSLV-F04, the last GSLV launch to take place, took off from the Sriharikota launch centre in Andhra Pradesh in September this year. It had a distance of 5000 kilometres to travel into space, to complete its task of injecting INSAT 4CR, weighing 2140 kg, into what is known as geo-synchronous transfer orbit or GTO. In GTO, a satellite, at around 36,000 kilometres above the earth, will be stationary with reference to the earth. In other words, it moves with the Earth, staying, in this case, right above the Indian sub-continent, the region which INSAT serves. While the first and second stages, including the first stage ‘strap-on boosters’, do the job of lifting the GSLV away from the grip of the earth’s gravity, it is the third stage, the cryo-stage, that must finally take the satellite to where it must be placed. India’s other launch vehicle, the PSLV, has a relatively “easier” task. It does not have a cryogenic engine, and the remote sensing satellites it launches are placed into what are known as low earth orbits, synchronous to the Sun, at a height of around 800 kilometres. GSLV-FO4, was the fifth flight of the GSLV, or the geo-synchronous launch vehicle to give the rocket its full name, and the fourth successful one. A flight last year had to be destroyed, when, following a failure in one of the strap-on boosters in the first stage, the rocket veered irretrievably off course. Its first two flights, designated D1 (2001) and D2 (2003) for “developmental flights” and the first operational flight which launched EDUSAT, all had cryogenic engines provided by Glavkosmos of Russia. Today, when India is in the process of finalising a deal with the United States for the transfer of civilian nuclear technology, it is easy to forget that not so long ago, India had faced the brunt of many technology denial regimes. The deal that Russia signed with India for cryogenic engines not only included the sale of ready systems, but a transfer-of-technology (ToT) agreement. The US, using the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR) to which Russia is a signatory, brought pressure to bear on Russia to cancel the deal. In the end, India and Russia managed to save only the sale of the engines and not the ToT agreement. While Russia has managed to sell us 1000 MW reactors for Kudankulam, in spite of similar pressure, it is small wonder that they, as much as the US, would like us to finalise the 123 agreement with the USA. This will also enable Russia, as a member of the Nuclear Suppliers Group, (NSG) to further nuclear cooperation with India unhindered. It is also no surprise that ISRO scientists found the Russians working with them on integrating their cryogenic stages into the first flights of the GSLV quite cagey. “It was just a black box to us,” ISRO scientists exclaimed. “They told us nothing, showed us little.” But India had learnt its lesson. It began work on what became known as the indigenous Cryogenic Upper Stage Project (CUSP), and it is the culmination of years of work that led to the full duration test. The challenges of a cryo-stage can be grasped when it is understood that the fuel used – liquid oxygen and hydrogen – is so cold that it creates thermal and structural issues besides a host of other problems. ‘Cryo’ means cold. Oxygen liquefies at minus 183 degree celcius while hydrogen liquefies at a staggering minus 253 degree celcius. What is more, the liquid oxygen and hydrogen have to be fed by separate pumps to the main turbo-pump, which rotates at 39,000 revolutions per minute, to maintain a high flow rate of 16.5 kg per second of the fluids into the combustion chamber. The pay-offs are tremendous as the cryo-engine is also very efficient. Kilogram for kilogram, the mix provides for much more thrust than other “earth-storable” solid and liquid propellants. A launch vehicle’s primary task after all is to place in orbit satellites of various kinds. As a keen entrant into the commercial launch vehicle market, ISRO is looking at maximising its cost-effectiveness. With every second gain in efficiency (it is measured as specific impulse of the propellent – 450 second for cryo compared to around 300 for the others), the payload gain in the weight of the satellite is 10 kilograms. ISRO will now be looking to the challenges of operationalising this engine on the D3, the next GSLV “developmental flight.” While this will form the basis for the GSLV Mark II, a Mark III, with an enhanced cryogenic stage of 25 tonnes of propellants is also awaited. Clearly, a lot is riding on the success of the indigenous CUSP. While the PSLV has become a successful workhorse for ISRO, the payoffs from enabling such reliability from the GSLV are manifold. And let us not forget the lessons of the MTCR. Liquid oxygen and hydrogen do not make for an ideal choice for an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) capable of hitting targets anywhere in the world. The extremely cold fuel-mix poses problems in storage, mobility and speedy assembly. But at the end of the day, a launch vehicle is also a missile. It can carry a satellite thousands of kilometres into space. It can also deliver a warhead. Technology bought can never be a substitute for technology created. Even a long-standing partner like Russia can create problems – witness recent tussles and sundry arm-twisting on everything from service and spares support to cost escalation. India’s defence preparedness and strategic programmes are far too dependent on imports. The indigenous CUSP is an example of what is possible and is a landmark for ISRO, which should stand it in good stead as it takes on ambitious projects like air-breathing engines and trips to the moon and Mars.
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Swiss celebrate the legend of William Tell THE Swiss are celebrating the 700th anniversary of an alleged event that helped define them as a nation and has inspired republicans ever since. Seven hundred years ago a dramatic and terrifying thing happened to a man whom we may dismiss as a legend but who 60 per cent of Swiss believe really existed. It happened, we are told, in the town of Altdorf in the canton of Uri, present population 8,648. The St Gothard pass, linking the canton with Austria, had recently been opened, and the Hapsburgs in Vienna had dispatched a new and cruel Vogt or Bailiff by the name of Hermann Gessler to enforce the Austrian Reich among the snowy peaks. In the main square of Altdorf, to ensure that the townspeople knew the meaning of subjection, Gessler erected a pole with his hat on the top of it, requiring all who passed to bow to it. But on this particular day, 18 November 1307, a yeoman farmer strolled into town with his small son and wandered through the square and straight past the pole without making a gesture of any sort. It could have been simple rustic ignorance; maybe nobody had bothered to tell him about the new rule. Or perhaps, as subsequent tellers of the tale preferred it, he was politically motivated: he was damned if he would kowtow to the oppressor from the land of cream cakes and waltzes (though those came later). Gessler, known to all patriotic Swiss as a fiend, watched the countryman swaggering through the square, and he noticed the heavy, menacing implement dangling from the man’s hand n and suddenly the perfect punishment occurred to him. He had his guards seize man and child and told them that an apple was to be placed on the son’s head, and with the implement dangling from his hand n a crossbow – the father was to shoot it off. Either William Tell accept the challenge or both father and son would die. In its broad outlines the story of William Tell is as familiar as any other folk tale in Europe. We all know the pay-off: Tell split the apple and the terrified lad survived. What is surprising is to learn that sophisticated, educated people of the modern age believe that it actually happened. For generations, it was taught in Swiss schools as an historical event. Today, while acknowledged as having invented elements, it is still seen as a very important story. How come? The way they learn it up in the cantons, in 1291, 16 years before Tell’s feat, the first critical event in the gestation of Switzerland occurred: the moment when, having seized and destroyed mighty castles of the Hapsburg invaders, peasant envoys from three cantons in central Switzerland gathered on Rutli Meadow in Uri Canton and solemnly swore to unite against foreign oppression and form a democratic, egalitarian, independent state. These were fine sentiments. But it took the nerve and accuracy of Tell – or a number of rebellious figures, distilled by the alchemy of oral retelling into a single hero n to make it a reality. The “history” of William Tell goes on to relate how, after the splitting of the apple and several other vicissitudes, the bowman ends up assassinating Gessler n thereby inspiring his countrymen to rise up and throw off the Hapsburg yoke for ever. The history of “the world’s oldest democracy” begins there. Historians are sick of pooh-poohing the story of William Tell. It’s like heaping scholarly scorn on the Garden of Eden: it’s redundant, and risks making the heaper look ridiculous. “Of course you cannot prove that somebody has not existed,” said Roger Sablonier, professor of medieval history at the University of Zurich. The uses made by the Swiss of this wonderful old story are in many ways more fantastic than the story itself. Medieval legends about a hero who is constrained to shoot a small object off his son’s head, and who succeeds, are legion in medieval Europe, cropping up among other places in England, attributed to William of Cloudsely, near Carlisle, and in Denmark, where the legendary hero Palnatoke was obliged to shoot an apple off the head of his son while the latter was skiing downhill. The Swiss version, like the others, was not set down in writing until near the end of the 15th century, but it had a special resonancein the cantons. By early in the next century Tell had already been cast as the hero of the independence struggle of the three founding cantons of the Old Swiss Confederacy. More than four centuries passed, however, before he became the founding archetype of the Swiss nation. And the reason Switzerland clings to him as a symbol when the English have long since dumped Robin Hood along with Jack the Giant Killer is that as a nation-state Switzerland is one of the most recent, and improbable, in Europe. According to the British historian Christopher Hughes, Swiss citizenship in the modern sense of the word only began after the occupation by France in 1798. In 1803 the first Italian-speaking areas joined the new Helvetic Republic, and important French-speaking areas were absorbed only in 1815. “Today’s multilingual Switzerland is a product of the early 19th century,” writes Benedict Andersen in Imagined Communities. But it’s no fun being last, especially when one is a nation with such anomalous characteristics n none of the linguistic uniformity of Austria, Germany, France or England, nor the religious unity of Italy; none of the authoritarian reassurance of a ruling dynasty. Hence the need to create a genesis for the nation deep back in the mists of time, personified by a hero like Tell. Hence the fact that Swiss historians who deny the historical reality of the apple story have been inundated, even in recent years, with hate mail, and even sent death threats.
By arrangement with The Independent
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Chatterati THIS
brief current session of Parliament should have been full of fire and smoke. The political parties are currently obsessed with the nuclear deal and the debate on the subject scheduled for the end of November is already making waves. Both the Left and the BJP are determined to use different methods to embarrass the Congress. The meeting that Prime Minister had with the leaders of the BJP does not seem to have given any real results. Though the BJP has reason to be happy that it has installed its first government in the South, in Karnataka, party managers are unwilling to lower the level of rhetoric. If the BJP decides to vote along with the Left, then the government knows that the public drubbing it will get will be difficult to live down. The Left in the meantime is embarrassed enough on its own. The Nandigram episode refuses to die down because it was clearly more than just an episode. Some political parties insist that this too was state-sponsored violence. While the Left wants to prevent any debate on this, it wants to discuss Gujarat. The expose on state-sponsored violence in Gujarat by Tehelka magazine is something the Left is determined to raise. The battle lines are clearly going to be drawn. In between all this the Prime Minister will slip away abroad. So will Parliament witness the usual shouting match with no winners? Fighting sycophancy Even as Rahul Gandhi in Lucknow said sycophancy should be curtailed, his mother proved it by not allowing Women and Child Development Minister Renuka Chowdhury’s plan to celebrate November 9, Sonia Gandhi’s birthday, as ‘national girl child day’. In a bid to highlight issues like female foeticide, higher malnourishment among women and discrimination, the Ministry had proposed to celebrate November 9 as ‘girl child day’. Well, our nation is among the countries with the highest female foeticide rate and has witnessed a fall in the population of girl children in the 0-6 age group in most northern Indian states. The day was to be celebrated to create public awareness about these issues. The attempt at sycophancy made it past 10 different ministries. But it failed to clear the 10, Janpath barrier. With the Home Ministry’s approval, the WCD Ministry was in full swing to conduct a series of events on November 9 to create awareness about girl child rights all over the country. The ministry however got cold feet over the proposal when it learnt that Sonia Gandhi was not keen. Since then, there is no talk of when ‘girl child day’ would be celebrated. In a party where the first family enjoys iconic status, genuflecting before 10, Janpath may be seen to be the norm. The Congress president was clearly unimpressed by this attempted flattery. Adverse publicity was bound to be generated with the Opposition gleefully targeting the Congress. It remains to be seen now how far this proposal will now progress.
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