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Attack on churches Tussle over Taslima |
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Ludhiana
recalled
Challenges from China
Who let
down whom?
Seek truth and
reconciliation Lonely lives, special
needs Legal Notes
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Attack on churches WHILE the people the world over were celebrating Christmas on December 25, the Christians in Orissa’s Kandhamal district were at the receiving end with alleged activists of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad destroying church after church. In the mindless violence unleashed on the community, one person was killed and several were injured. The attack was ostensibly to retaliate against the alleged manhandling of a VHP leader. That the VHP chose to convert some Christians to Hinduism on that day bears out that the whole purpose was to foment trouble. Orissa is one state where the so-called Freedom of Religion law is in force which makes it obligatory for the organisers of such conversion ceremonies to follow certain procedures. That the VHP has been paying scant regard for such a law on the specious plea that what it organises is not conversion but “home-coming”. Despite all the potential for mischief, the district authorities failed to take any preemptive action. What’s more, they could not even protect the house of a minister from the communally surcharged lot. It is not the first time that Orissa has witnessed religious tension. The burning of Australian missionary Graham Staines and his two minor sons was preceded by several incidents of attack on the minorities in the name of protest against cow slaughter and religious conversion. It is the kid-glove treatment those behind such violent campaigns received that emboldened them to burn the missionary who was tending to the leprosy patients in one of the most backward areas of Orissa. There are feudal and pseudo-political forces that do not want the poor to get educated and know their legal and democratic rights for fear it would upset the caste-based social system. The Orissa government is duty-bound to take stringent action against all those who desecrated the churches. It should also go after those who “attacked” the VHP leader and bring them to book. No excuse is good enough to terrorise a whole community. In fact, any leniency shown will be construed as a failure of the state to protect not just the life and property of the people but also their right to preach and practise their religious beliefs. What the Orissa government does in Kandhamal district will show how committed it is to uphold the rule of law and the religious rights of the people.
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Tussle over Taslima THE unfortunate drama over a residing place for writer-on-the-run Taslima Nasreen continues, with veteran Marxist leader Jyoti Basu declaring that she was “welcome” to return to Kolkata with the proviso that the Centre should ensure her security. This is a cop-out in several ways and further tarnishes West Bengal’s writer and literature friendly image. Of course, the Left-wing state government leaders and the party cadre in the state haven’t exactly covered themselves in glory in recent times.They appear to stand for anything but the liberalism that should have been part and parcel of any entity professing egalitarianism and socialism. For one thing, it is the state government’s responsibility to provide security to any resident, citizen or otherwise. Passing the buck only compounds the initial sin of allowing a bunch of rabble-rousers and fundamentalists to target her in a vicious and politically-motivated manner. This is all the more outrageous considering that her allegedly blasphemous and anti-Islamic comments were made several years ago, and she has been anything but provocative during her stay here. She was the target of a similar attack when she visited Hyderabad earlier and instead of simply hauling up her attackers, the Andhra Pradesh police registered a case against her as well. As for Nandigram, what was initially an issue about land acquisition and rehabilitation, was subsequently given a communal colour. Clearly, both state and society have yet to understand the meaning of secularism. Even the Centre cannot absolve itself for, if reports are to be believed, officialdom is only waiting for her visa to expire before she is sent back to Sweden. The fact that the lady herself appears to be reconciled to such an eventuality only adds to the shame in Mr Basu’s remarks. She should never have been forced out of Kolkata in the first place, to be tossed around from city to city, state to state. A rising, liberal India needs to keep in check illiberal forces of whatever hue, and if Taslima finally does leave India, the state will have failed in a very fundamental way.
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Ludhiana recalled WHEN the Shingaar cinema blast took place in Ludhiana on October 14, the names of various organisations like HUJI and Babbar Khalsa International were freely bandied about for having carried out the ghastly explosion which killed six persons and injured 30. Ironically, a similar uncertainty has now been generated about the arrest of Gurpreet, one of the prime suspects. While some reports say that he has been arrested from near the Indo-Nepal border in Pilibhit (Uttar Pradesh); others insist equally vehemently that although the arrest did take place, but it was in Mumbai. The Punjab Director-General of Police, Mr NPS Aulakh, on his part, denies any knowledge. Such confusion will ensure that if the arrest is finally announced, the circumstances in which it took place would be disbelieved by most. One truth about which there can be no argument is that the blast mystery has yet to be solved and the police are as good as groping in the dark. That is not an isolated case either, considering that the fate of inquiries in almost all such cases, be they Ajmer or Hyderabad, is similar. There is a flurry of activity after every fresh act of violence but things go back to “normal” after some time, with the whole cycle being repeated over and over again. The preliminary responsibility of the police is to prevent such incidents. If at all they do take place, it is their duty to make sure that the culprits are brought to justice in the shortest possible time. But the police have been failing on both counts. The reason is simple. They cannot post constables at every corner. They have to depend on intelligence sources, which have dried up because of the public-unfriendly attitude of the cops. The force is seen as inefficient at best and thoroughly corrupt at worst. With the inputs from the public, who should have been its eyes and ears, becoming scarce, the police mainly depend on their own rough and ready methods. That may be of some use while reining in the neighbourhood bully, but when it comes to tackling organised crime and hardcore terror networks, the men in khaki tend to be out of depth.
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A man that studieth revenge keeps his own wounds green. — Francis Bacon
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Challenges from China Prime Minister
Manmohan Singh commences his diplomatic calendar for 2008 with a mid-January visit to China. The Chinese are perfect hosts. Meetings and banquets in the Great Hall of the People, sumptuous meals of Beijing duck and visits to the Great Wall and the Forbidden City leave Indian leaders breathless, enthralled and prone to making tall claims of "breakthroughs" and "successes" they have achieved. Our "leaders" should not forget that the Communist mandarins who rule the Middle Kingdom today are a hard boiled lot, not given to sentimentalism, especially when dealing with neighbours whose rising international profile is not a welcome development. A review of past high-level visits by Indian leaders to China is in order. Disregarding professional advice that China was preparing to attack Vietnam, the then Foreign Minister, Mr Atal Bihari Vajpayee, visited China in March 1979. China not only attacked Vietnam during his visit, but top Chinese leader Deng Xiao Ping rubbed salt on Mr Vajpayee's wounds by asserting that China had only taught a "lesson" to Vietnam in 1979, as it had done to India in 1962. The main "breakthrough" during the visit of Mr Rajiv Gandhi to China in December 1988 was the establishment of a "Joint Working Group" on the border issue. But, within a year of this visit, China, which was already supplying nuclear weapons designs and knowhow to Pakistan, upped the ante and commenced the supply of nuclear-capable M11 missiles (now based in Sargodha) to Islamabad. Similarly, Mr. Narasimha Rao's visit in September 1993 was followed almost immediately by Chinese supply of ring magnets for Pakistan's nuclear weapons programme and the nuclear-capable DF 9 missile -- christened Shaheen 1 by the Pakistanis. China repeated the "message" it gave to Mr Vajpayee in 1979 by testing a thermonuclear weapon when President Venkataraman paid a State visit in May 1992. Mr Vajpayee' visit in 2003 has been followed by China providing Pakistan with Cruise missiles and plutonium facilities for a new generation of nuclear warheads and conventional weapons ranging from fighter aircraft to frigates. Visits of Chinese leaders to the subcontinent have produced similar results. Following the visit of then Prime Minister Zhu Rongji to India and Pakistan in 2002, China agreed to build the Gwadar Port in Baluchistan. One day after this visit, General Musharraf told a Pakistani journalist in the presence of his naval chief that he would not hesitate to provide base facilities to China's navy at Gwadar in the event of tensions with India. Much was made of the Wen Jiabao-Manmohan Singh Summit in New Delhi in 2005. The agreement signed by the two Prime Ministers proclaimed, "In reaching a border settlement, the two sides shall safeguard populations in border areas." The obvious reason for this provision was to clarify that the status of populated areas like Tawang in Arunachal Pradesh would remain unchanged. Repudiating the 2005 agreement, China's Foreign Minister now asserts: "The mere presence of populated areas (in Arunachal Pradesh) would not affect China's claims on the border." There has, of late, been growing stridency in Chinese claims to the entire state of Arunachal Pradesh. China has not hesitated to provide Pakistan nuclear weapons capability. Moreover, between 1968 and 1992 it consistently denounced the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT) as an instrument of hegemony. But Chinese hostility to India's nuclear programme has been voiced repeatedly while opposing the US proposals to end international nuclear sanctions against India. This was reflected by China 's Foreign Ministry spokesman on March 2, 2006, just before the visit of President Bush to India. The spokesman said: "India should abandon nuclear weapons and strengthen atomic safeguards. India should sign the NPT and also dismantle its nuclear weapons… China hopes that the concerned countries developing cooperation in peaceful nuclear uses will see that such cooperation should conform to the rules of international nonproliferation mechanisms." China has approached nearly all members of the Nuclear Suppliers Group to resist moves to end international sanctions against India. This hostility has been reinforced with Chinese opposition to India's "Look East Policy" designed to expand cooperation with South-East and East Asian countries. A commentary in the August 2007 issue of the Renmin Ribao journal notes: "The US-India nuclear agreement has strong symbolic significance (for India) achieving its dream of a powerful nation…In recent years India introduced and implemented a "Look East" policy and joined most regional organisations in the East Asia region". The expansion of Indian influence in Asia and the Indian Ocean region is not to China's liking. Chinese determination to erode India’s ties with our eastern neighbours has been supplemented by continuing efforts to undermine our relations with Nepal and Bhutan. At a time when the entire international community led by India was seeking to end King Gyanendra's tyranny in Nepal, China joined Pakistan to provide weapons to the beleaguered monarch, primarily to undermine Indian efforts for political reconciliation and peaceful transition to democratic rule. China has since intruded into Dolam in Bhutan and pulled down Indian Army posts in the Himalayan Kingdom, obviously aiming to destroy Indian credibility in the eyes of Bhutan's leadership and people. Chinese forces have advanced southwards, bringing them closer to the strategic "Siliguri Corridor", the narrow strip in North Bengal connecting the Northeast to the rest of India. Article 2 of the India-Bhutan Treaty of 2007 states: "Neither government shall allow the use of its territories for activities harmful to the national security interest of the other". The Chinese intrusion in Bhutan has to be dealt within this treaty framework if Indian credibility in Bhutan is to be sustained. Does the Manmohan Singh government have the same resolve in dealing with this issue as Rajiv Gandhi showed in dealing with the Chinese intrusion into Sumdorong Chu and in countering China's attempts to undermine India in Nepal? India’s relations with China have elements of cooperation and competition. Apart from the potential to expand economic ties, China is an important partner in dealing with issues like climate change and global trade negotiations. But it would be a serious mistake to underestimate the security and diplomatic challenges that Chinese policies of "containment" of India pose. A more pro-active policy in the Asia-Pacific, involving missile transfers and expanded maritime and military cooperation with Vietnam, raising the level of economic contacts with Taiwan to that practised by ASEAN partners like Singapore and Thailand, and a more purposeful approach to cooperation with Japan are needed, apart from activating the existing framework of expanding ties with democracies in the Asia-Pacific region if India is to effectively respond to the strategic challenges China
poses.
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Who let down whom? The
nonagenarian stood up with the help of two youths when his name was announced. Once on his feet, however, the freedom fighter-cum-social worker told them not to assist him as he walked slowly towards the dais. He was attending the bhog and antim ardas of a 40-something man who had worked as a volunteer for his awareness campaigns. The deceased, an acquaintance of mine, had been an amiable and helpful guy whose one weakness had cost him his life — alcohol. It didn’t seem an easy task for the grand old man to pay tribute to someone who was virtually his grandson’s age. Having played his part in the freedom struggle, the former had devoted more than half of his life to fighting social evils — from dowry and female foeticide to drug abuse and alcoholism. How painfully ironical it was that one of his own men had drank himself to death. The eloquent speaker was groping for words today, hanging on to the mike as if it was a prompter that could help him out. After a long and uncomfortable silence, he finally spoke, pointing towards the garlanded photo: “He should have been standing here instead of me. It was my turn to die, not his.” “This man was a tireless worker,” he went on, “always ready to contribute in one way or the other.” He was right, but the story had a flip side as well. The volunteer had often neglected his family, preferring the company of his friends and colleagues. These meetings were usually marked by heavy drinking, which had drastically weakened his constitution in his final years. “A man should be able to hold his drink,” he had once told me when I’d had one too many. His untimely death had taught me that the proof of “manhood” was not the capacity to drink, but the capacity to survive. Right in front of me was a shining example of a life well lived. The near-centurion had perfectly balanced his missionary zeal with moderation where it was required. Self-discipline — that was arguably the secret of his longevity. It appeared that the veteran crusader didn’t want to say unkind things about a dead man, who had wasted the greatest gift of them all — life. However, what took everybody by surprise was his confession. “He rendered selfless service for my sake, but I didn’t do enough to save him. It was I who let him down,” he said in a voice choked with emotion. Not caring about his image, the living legend had presented himself, rather than the deceased, in a bad light. I felt privileged to have witnessed this heroic gesture, which revealed to me how great a man he really
was.
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Seek truth and reconciliation AFTER watching an excellent programme by Karan Thapar on the killing of Sikhs at New Delhi in 1984, I thought I would try to answer some of the questions he raised. This is not meant to take away anything from the programme or the book, When a Tree Shook Delhi. I am only adding to the information given. I do not want to repeat the gory details of the carnage. The facts of the Rajiv Gandhi government’s connivance and the Congress party’s involvement are well known. That they were not named by the two commissions appointed to look into the gamut of happenings is inexplicable. Maybe fear or favouritism worked to keep the lid on. Still the truth has to come out in the interest of India’s fair name. I personally think that there should be another commission, this time on the lines of the ‘Truth and Reconciliation Commission’ which was appointed in South Africa to find out what happened during the period of apartheid. The purpose was to know why the white treated the black in the way they did and who were the people who actually took part in the beating up of blacks, torturing and even killing them. The South African government declared beforehand that none who admitted before the commission his or her guilt and made a clean breast of heinous crimes committed would be punished in a law court. It was expected that the confession by the whites would serve as their catharsis and might bring about a reconciliation between the two communities. This has taken place there to a large extent. The Nanawati commission was appointed in a reply to my question in the Rajya Sabha. The house was discussing the Babri Masjid demolition. I stood up to draw attention to the state’s failure to punish the guilty of the 1984 carnage. K.R. Malkani, a BJP member, demanded a fresh judicial inquiry to go into the anti-Sikh riots. I too pressed for the appointment of a commission. But my idea was to have it on the line of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. My thinking was that after 20 years there would not be much of evidence left to bring the guilty to book and that it would be far better to know the truth. I thought the nation must know why the Hindus, who were so close to the Sikhs religion-wise, took to the streets and cut the Sikhs’ hair, looted and burnt their houses and shops and killed more than 3,000. I had heard a Hindu leader saying that the rioting was a cumulative effect of what happened in Punjab earlier. He was referring to the Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale’s days when some Hindus were taken out of buses and killed. Many Hindus in Punjab were driven out of the countryside. Was all that true? Also, the impression spread that Sikhs were terrorists needs to be probed. I do not want to reopen the old wounds. But the Truth Commission may give the offenders an opportunity to have their grievance or guilt off their chest. Why did those who ordinarily abhor murder lead mobs to target the Sikhs? The assassination of Mrs Gandhi may be the main reason. But my belief is that the haystack of hatred was there to which her killing provided the spark. No doubt, it was a planned murder of Sikhs. But the cruelty and venom shown in the killings meant a deep-rooted animus. Why? The commission to seek truth and reconciliation may provide the answer. The question raised on Karan Thapar’s programme was while the Gujarat killings had been exposed threadbare (rightly so), the Delhi carnage had remained relatively uncovered. This was despite the fact that Gujarat was a distant state which the Centre could easily blame for the state’s failure. But in the case of Delhi, it was the Centre which was directly responsible for the law and order. I think the major difference was that in 1984, there were no private television channels to carry the story to people’s homes. The only channel available at that time, the government-owned Doordarshan, was apparently under orders not to play up the happenings. On the other hand, the print media was busy covering the assassination of the Prime Minister, its political fallout and the arrival of dignitaries from abroad for the funeral. The media was too occupied. However, it could have returned to the 1984 killings but failed to assess the gravity of the atrocities committed against the Sikhs. Probably, there was pressure or even bias. The Editors Guild of India or some working journalists’ body should have done some introspection. They failed. It was a blot on their objectivity. I was in Pakistan when Mrs Indira Gandhi was assassinated. I heard the news at Abottabad on my way to Peshawar to meet Wali Khan, the NWFP leader. It was BBC which confirmed the news of the killing. All India Radio was only telling about her bullet injuries, not her death. I reached Delhi the next evening. The airport was deserted. Alighting from the same flight was a famous sports commentator, a Sikh. A customs officer approached me to tell about the massacre of Sikhs. I could not imagine or believe it. It did not strike me that the sports commentator would have to be reached home because the mob was reportedly still out in certain localities in Delhi. I could not face him. I felt so humiliated that I was speechless when he said he was married to a Hindu. After arranging for an armed escort, I took a taxi to my house at Sunder Nagar. Outside Palam, there was a pile of ashes which the taxi driver told me were the remains of two Sikhs who had been burnt alive. Throughout my journey, I did not come across a single policeman. Roads were empty. All the places the taxi passed through wore a deserted look. I could not get over the killing. It was late at night. There were early morning telephone calls from several friends. They had started evacuating the Sikhs from their homes. I joined the team. There was so much to be done – finding food, milk, medicines and so many other things and then rehabilitating them. But they had to be rescued first.
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Lonely lives, special needs
THIS Christmas, Aruna (not her real name) turned 25. “Why don’t you marry me off? All girls of my age in the neighbourhood are married. I also want to have children like them”, the innocent beauty pleaded with her father. The Ludhiana girl had finished dexterously setting right the menu of ring tones on her father’s mobile handset. She then started up her computer and was opening a file where she wanted to complete a pending digital painting. The ageing father, a local industrialist, patted her head and rushed out of the room, to the balcony. He broke down into heavy sobs that had become more frequent in the recent past, for his daughter was a mentally-retarded special child. Aruna, who is good at handling a number of electronic gadgets, cannot read even class II books. She cannot differentiate between the currency notes of Rs one, five, fifty or hundred. Talking to The Tribune, the helpless father said: “I am above 55. I have certain serious physical ailments. My wife is suffering from cancer, detected more than a decade ago. There is no support from my son’s family in her care. One daughter is a dental surgeon and is not around. The second daughter, who lives in the city, does her best. She, however, has her limits. I am
terribly scared about Aruna’s future.” The father said, “It is amazing that the government has no effective infrastructure to take care of children with special needs, like mine. There are certain private organisations which are doing a yeoman service. However, their overall care needs government intervention. My daughter studied in a special school of the missionaries in Himachal Pradesh, Unfortunately, they don’t keep children after they turn 18. What will happen when we are no more?” “Aruna’s mental retardation was detected very early and I have travelled across the country, meeting scores of medical and other experts. No one suggested a solution, I was comfortable with, except the one of sending her to a special school during the day and keeping her in family care afterwards. I am not sure how long I will be around to be ensure that at the least, she slept peacefully”,
he said. The aggrieved father continued: “My immediate concern is, undoubtedly, my daughter. However, I am also concerned about the welfare of thousands of other special children. I met parents of special children, all over the country. There is no proper government mechanism in place for their care. I appreciate the work of the Non Government Organisations (NGOs). However, I am not sure if all are really geared to live up to the expectations
of the parents”. Talking to the girl on the telephone, a first timer will not find anything abnormal with her. She is also a very good dancer. She paints decently and also handles stitching work aptly. She is “absolutely independent in handling her day to day affairs and personal hygiene”. The girl has been to two schools for care of the special children in the city and is among the top five meritorious lot. Prof (Dr) B.N.S.Walia, a former director of the PGIMER, Chandigarh and currently a consultant with Prayaas, a school for special children said: ‘I can give a creditable health comment on the patient only after meeting her. I am very sure that a financially sound family can at least appoint a trust to take care of the child”. Professor Walia said that “a law with regard to appointing a trustee for a mentally disabled child was passed by the Centre in the recent past. The Deputy Commissioner is the appointing authority after verifying the veracity of the claimants”. The family should also visit a psychologist. The father of the girl said “there are many laws but there is no data available on their success. A parent’s mind is always full of apprehensions. I am looking for a response from those in the know to guide me.”
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Legal Notes Chief Justice of India K.G. Balakrishnan narrated an interesting tale about overuse of courts by companies in cheque bouncing cases, which was compounding the judiciary’s case overload problems. Section 138 of the Negotiable Instruments Act (NIA) deals with the offence of cheque bouncing. The number of such cases constitutes a major chunk of disputes before trial courts across the country. The CJI, during a question-answer session at a seminar recently, revealed that a company in Bangalore had registered 73,000 cases under Section 138 of the NIA in one court alone. Since the courts cannot say no to any complaint as long as it is filed under the relevant provisions of the law, the judicial officer had no option but to admit them. He rejected the allegation that the courts are delaying trials. He attributed it to procedural delays, a major fault that exists in the law. For this, he blamed the executive and the legislature, which are not taking corrective measures to tighten procedural laws, particularly in civil cases. He lauded the efforts of trial courts, which are ‘burning the midnight oil’ to dispose off the maximum number of cases possible. To bring home his point, Justice Balakrishnan gave the example of Delhi courts, which disposed off 320 murder cases in a year while the total number of murder cases registered during 2007 was 436. By any standard it was an impressive rate of disposal, says the CJI. SC improves disposal rate For several months of the year 2007, the Supreme Court had vacancies for judges ranging from four to six. All except one were filled only towards the end of the year. Yet it has shown a better performance as far as the disposal of the cases was concerned, in comparison to the previous year. As per the apex court’s judgement delivery roster in the printing section, supplying copies of the same to media and law journals, 1404 verdicts were delivered by the court till it closed for winter vacation on December 14. This was an improvement upon last year’s total judgement delivery by 275. Last year the apex court had delivered a total of 1129 judgements. This figure only shows the judgements delivered on a variety of important issues after detailed hearing of appeals against the high court verdicts and writ petitions filed directly before the apex court, including the PILs. This does not include the cases disposed of on short daily orders, either before the admission of petitions without issuing notices to the opposite parties, or after notice, on receiving their replies. If all these cases are taken into account, the disposal rate would be far higher. As per the latest data on pendency in the apex court, it stood at 44,819 cases on September 30 last. The exact number of the total disposals would only be known after the apex court releases its data for 2007, in its tri-monthly house journal due for release in January 2008. CJI praises IB role The role of the Intelligence Bureau (IB) in national security and in counter terrorism measures came in for special praise from the CJI, who delivered this year’s IB centenary endowment lecture on ‘preserving internal security and protecting human rights through efficacious criminal justice system’. The foundation of the IB was laid down by British rulers as the Central Special Branch through a promulgation issued by the Secretary of State, India, on December 22, 1887. Later, it was christened as the Criminal Intelligence Bureau. After Independence it got the new name Intelligence Bureau, and is entrusted mainly with tasks relating to internal intelligence. On the completion of 100 years in 1988, the IB celebrated its centenary year with a series of seminars, workshops and lectures on the national security scenario. The then Vice-President Shankar Dayal Sharma had delivered its centenary endowment lecture. Since then, IB organises endowment lectures mainly for the benefit of its officers and staff, every year on its foundation day on December 22, to be delivered by an eminent personality. According to IB Director P.C. Haldar, the purpose behind the lecture was to provide an opportunity for officials of the organisation to hear the views of intellectuals, leaders and thinkers and interact with them, on a variety of contemporary issues.
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