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Bye, bye Marx Airport lessons |
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Winning by tricks
The ailing Congress
Destination Lahore
Bill Gates eyes next ‘digital decade’ Vista sales hit 100 million Falling snow revives art of storytelling in Kashmir Delhi Durbar
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Bye, bye Marx JYOTI BASU is the quintessential Marxist leader. Now an elder statesman in the CPM, he held a record tenure as Chief Minister of West Bengal. It is to him that cadres turn when they are in doubt on questions of dialectical materialism, particularly after the death of the Marxist theoretician and first Communist to come to power through the ballot box, EMS Namboodiripad. Wisdom seems to have dawned on him a bit late when Mr Basu now says in a definitive tone that it is not possible to pursue socialist goals in a capitalist system. This is bound to confuse, if not disappoint, cadres and CPM’s friends and allies, natural or otherwise. Within hours of his making the statement, reverberations were felt at the conference of the RSP, a constituent of the Left Front, at Kollam in Kerala where party leaders wondered what had happened to the venerable Marxist from West Bengal. While it took half a century for Mr Basu to admit the futility of pursuing socialism, A.K. Gopalan, who led the Communists in the Lok Sabha, had as early as the sixties candidly stated that the Marxists were at odds with the parliamentary system. While they vowed in EMS’ words “to wreck the system from within” to bring about democratic centralism, a euphemism for party dictatorship, the party acquired all the trappings of a capitalist organisation. While it is easy to berate Mr Basu for his comments, it must be admitted that he has only made a realistic assessment of the situation in making a switch from Marxism to pragmatism. That socialism does not appeal even to the electorate is borne out by the failure of the communist parties to grow outside their traditional strongholds of Kerala, West Bengal and Tripura. Even in states like Bihar, Andhra, Tamil Nadu and Punjab, where the parties had pockets of influence, they are now just a marginal force. Even among the students and workers, they have lost their appeal. How else could it be when West Bengal, where the Marxists have been in power for so long, they do not have anything other than land reforms to show off? It is the only state where rickshaws are still pulled manually in the state Capital. If at the fag end of his political career, Mr Basu realises that redemption for West Bengal lies in more investments for creating jobs, he can only be complimented for his realism. Of all the people, Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya would be the happiest at Mr Basu taking a “revisionist” position. This could strengthen the Chief Minister’s position in the state where his wooing of private investment has invited trouble from within the CPM.
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Airport lessons THE move to upgrade Chandigarh airport to the international level augurs well for the region’s development and stands out as the latest example of inter-state cooperation which can benefit the entire region. The Chief Ministers of Punjab and Haryana as also the Union Aviation Minister deserve to be complimented for not standing on ceremonies and letting small irritants spoil a major project. A faster travel and movement of cargo from Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh to world destinations will save public time and money and promote exports apart from reducing pressure on the crowded Delhi international airport. But it is more important that the northern states can learn from the Chandigarh airport accord. A similar show of northern camaraderie can help in tackling other inter-state problems, particularly those relating to the sharing of water and power and regional economic development. At a time when the world is getting flat, international borders are becoming irrelevant and economic interests dominate policy-making, it is unwise not to think ahead and adopt an us-and-they attitude and let state borders within the country come in the way of development. The northern region accounts for 40 per cent of the country’s population but contributes only 30 per cent of the national industrial output. The North needs to catch up with the western and southern states in attracting private investment to boost industrial development. Although there is a northern zone council which meets once in a while to sort out common regional issues, a need is often felt for a more proactive mechanism for promoting regional cooperation and working for the growth of a common economic zone. At least the three states of Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh and the Union Territory of Chandigarh can avoid mutual competition, sometimes acrimony, in opting for joint projects, sharing the costs as also the benefits. The spirit of cooperation can only help and guide the progress of the northern states.
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Winning by tricks IT is in the fitness of things that the BCCI has decided to suspend the Australian tour of Team India and instructed it to stay on in Sydney till the formalities on the Brad Hogg and Harbhajan Singh enquiries get over. Such firm protest had become unavoidable following the Indian team finding itself on the receiving end because of the unsporting fatwas of the umpires and the match referee. It is hard to decide which is a more serious blow: the ban on Harbhajan Singh over the racial abuse charge or the atrociously partisan decisions against the visiting team. Certainly, this was not cricket. Taking the Harbhajan decision first at random, it really defied reason that he was penalised for racially abusing Andrew Symonds during the Sydney Test merely on the accusation of the opposing team, despite the fact that on-field umpires Steve Bucknor and Mark Benson have gone on record as saying that they had not heard anything offensive being said. Nor was the supposed comment picked up by any of the mikes. Should not match referee Mike Procter have given the benefit of the doubt to Harbhajan Singh and accepted his categorical denial of the allegation of one player’s statement? Mr Procter ought to have realised that after his verdict, any team wanting to play a mind game against its opponents can make an unsubstantiated allegation and get a player banned from what is left of a tour. Most followers of the game agree that many decisions of the umpires were not of international standards. The significant point is that all of them went against the Indians. Even Anil Kumble, who is known for keeping his cool, was forced to say that “only one team was playing in the spirit of the game”. Had only Australians been up to their usual tricks, it would have been understandable, but even the umpires chipped in to snatch the matches away from India. The umpiring standards reached a new low when the opinion of the on-field Australian captain was taken as the last word by English umpire Mark Benson in ruling a player out on the last day. It is hard to believe that he did not know that he was supposed to consult the square leg umpire or the third umpire, and not Ricky Ponting - the beneficiary of the umpire’s decision — before giving Saurav Ganguli out caught by Michael Clarke. TV replays showed that Clarke took the ball on the bounce and again touched it to the ground while on the roll. There were at least six other umpiring follies which all went against India. Deliberate or not, these did no credit to the gentlemen’s game. To grin and bear them would have only encouraged a tendency to win a match by tricks. It does not do credit to the mighty Australians.
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A knowledgeable fool is a greater fool than an ignorant fool. — Moliere
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The ailing Congress
Considering
that the slide in the Congress fortunes is evident from the recent election results, the party has to consider what has gone wrong for it since 2004 when it surprised everyone, including itself, by its success. It took considerable pride then and in the following years in being able to achieve what the party was supposedly incapable of doing because of its inherently authoritarian temperament - cobble together a coalition and then run it successfully. But whether because of its inexperience in working with so many allies, or because it has been over-anxious to please them in order to erase the authoritarian stigma, the Congress is now seen more as a party which is being led by its partners rather than leading them. It is not impossible that this is precisely one of the reasons why it is losing ground. Voters prefer decisiveness, whether in a leader or an organisation. The Congress is unable to give that impression as it is seemingly being pushed around by its putative friends. The communists have been most proactive in this regard, using the threat of pulling the rug from under the government’s feet to scupper nearly all its favourite projects. It isn’t the nuclear deal alone which has had to be virtually shelved because the Left doesn’t want “peaceful” China to be encircled by Americans with India’s acquiescence, but also a large proportion of the economic reforms programme. The ordinary people may not understand the intricacies of the nuclear deal, but they do understand that while the government, and now even the Congress, want to clinch it, they are unable to move ahead on account of being bound hand and foot by the Left. This supine position of the ruling party doesn’t evoke admiration, only pity. So, the party cannot blame the voters for beginning to turn away. The Prime Minister may bemoan the handicap of a “fractured mandate” and the difficulty of dealing with coalition partners who are blind to what is obvious - that the fossil fuels are a depleting resource and India badly needs another form of energy if its economy is to continue to grow at the present rate. But, again, such wringing of hands doesn’t bring any applause. Only once did he stand up for what he believed in, as when he told a Kolkata newspaper that if the Left wanted to withdraw support over the nuclear deal, “so be it”. But then he backed off with a philosophical sigh of resignation, showing why Indians do not win Olympic medals. Curiously, the government appears to be defensive even about its only success story - the booming of the economy at an unprecedented rate in Indian history. As soon as a relatively junior minister, Mr Mani Shankar Aiyar, said that while he was a Leftist earlier, the economic reforms had turned him into a Marxist. The Prime Minister post-haste criticised the high salaries of senior executives in the corporate sector. There has been little effort on the government’s part to counter the constant refrain of critics of the so-called neo-liberal economic policies that the rich are growing richer and the poor poorer. Even if this is true, the answer lies in a more equitable distribution and not in slowing down the development process to the earlier pathetic crawl, known as the Hindu rate of growth. Significantly, the only answer to the critics of neo-liberalism was given by West Bengal’s Marxist Chief Minister, Mr Buddhadev Bhattacharjee, who said that he had read what economists like Mr Prabhat Patnaik, Deputy Chairman of the Kerala Planning Board, and others of the JNU brigade had said but he didn’t agree with them. Since Dr Manmohan Singh once called Mr Bhattacharjee a “model’ chief minister, perhaps he should emulate him in putting the Leftists in their place. Considering that the Prime Minister has greater economic expertise than Mr Bhattacharjee, he is in a better position to counter the comrades. But his politeness is evidently a hindrance. As is known, nice men finish second. It is quite possible that if the government had chosen to be firm on certain matters like disinvestment, then the Left would have backed off. It did so on the nuclear deal when it allowed the government to approach the IAEA. And it is also possible that if the government had displayed its purposefulness, then it would have been able to impress the electorate. After all, fortune favours the brave, not squeamishness. The danger now is that the Left may persuade the government to scuttle not only the nuclear deal (to the delight of China and Pakistan), but also the entire process of economic reforms and indulge instead in extravagant and wasteful populist measures to aid the aam admi. Considering that there are any number of socialists in the Congress who believe in these sops despite Rajiv Gandhi’s warning that only a fraction of the allotments reach the targeted groups, the chances of the government pouring more money into such projects are high. One of them is the rural employment programme about which a report in Outlook magazine says that 30 to 60 per cent of the funds are being misused in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh with the workers continuing to face payment delays or not being given the minimum wage. Even the CPM’s Sitaram Yechury has said that the scheme “suffers (from) serious inadequacies”. All of this was foreseen by economists and the Prime Minister must have known in his heart of hearts that the crores meant for the poor would go down the drain. But even then, he listened to Rahul Gandhi’s request to expand the scheme to cover the entire country. Little wonder that this showpiece legislation hasn’t been of much benefit to the Congress in electoral terms. The reason is that instead of such allocations, which are mostly misappropriated by the local politicians and petty officials, what the underprivileged prefer are the kind of investments with high employment potential which have paid handsome electoral dividends to the ruling party in Gujarat. It isn’t only in the matter of kowtowing to the Left that the Congress has been timid. The party has shown itself to be prone to pressure on a wide range of issues, whether it is in stopping ministers from attending a function in honour of the Dalai Lama lest it should displease China. Or complaining mildly to M.Karunanidhi (who had earlier prevented the disinvestment of the Neyveli Lignite Corporation) about his praise for a slain LTTE leader. Or changing the entire protocol for security checks at the airport after another junior minister, Mr Anand Sharma, created a scene. The Congress can claim, of course, that since it runs a minority government, it doesn’t have the freedom of action which is enjoyed by a party in majority. Aware of this constraint on its functioning, Ms Sonia Gandhi told the recent one-day AICC session in New Delhi that the allies should not expect the Congress to surrender its own political space. Despite this realisation of what is hurting the party, the Congress has been too diffident to assert itself or present its case with vigour. It should know that politics, like real life, is a game of bluff. If one tends to yield ground, he will lay himself open to more bullying. There is a Lakshman Rekha beyond which one must not allow oneself to be pushed. Compromise and accommodation do not mean surrender. However, in its eagerness to stick to power, the Congress has forgotten this golden rule. As a result, it is paying an electoral
price.
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Destination Lahore THE recent tragic event in Pakistan that shocked the world and cut short the life of the one person who might have helped in restoring democracy in that country brings back to me memories of a happier time when Lahore was the Mecca of Delhi’s young blades in the 1930s. The girls over there were prettier (or so we thought) than those we knew in Delhi and their parents seemed to have a more liberal outlook than the old fogies at home. A matinee show at the cinema, or tea at Stiffles on the Mall unchaperoned. Or a “pairing off” picnic where, as in the words of the old song, one held “pale hands beside the Shalimar, ” albeit not the same Mughal garden that the poet had in mind when he wrote his song. Sartorially, Lahore was streets ahead of Delhi. Few of us could afford to patronise Phelps or Ranken in C.P. There were “desi darzis” but not to our taste. So we saved up for a suit to be made up in Lahore where one had the choice between three Indian tailors, B. Lilaram, Kirpa Ram and Devichand, all of them being “gents” outfitters with cutters trained at one of the European establishments. And as those of my vintage may remember, travelling to and from Lahore was a damn sight more comfortable and less dangerous than motoring from North Delhi today to one of the far-flung South Delhi colonies. All one did was to reserve a lower berth, without any hassle, in a second class compartment of the Frontier Mail leaving Delhi Main at 10.30 p.m. and steaming into Lahore at 6.30 a.m. the following morning. The return fare came to less than Rs 50, which is less than what a pizza costs today. Accommodation “for free”, was no problem. I had dozens of aunts and uncles living in Lahore in whose homes I was free to come and go as I liked. And there were plenty of cousins, some pretty, some plain. Likewise their “sahelis” to whom they readily gave an “intro”. It was all laid on, including the entertainment expenses for which one touched one elderly relative once and another the next time. One fell in and out of love. One danced (no rocking and rolling) on the living room floor treated with powdered chalk. One drank “cokes” and ginger beer. Out of sight of the elders, one tapped the end of an imported cigarette on a silver cigarette case to impress the girls. But if someone mentioned “grass” one looked at the green lawns outside. It was much later that the word came to acquire a different connotation. It was all good, clean fun such as would be considered rather tame in this day and age. It is a sad thought that where it took place is today a seething cauldron of hatred, murder and
mayhem.
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Bill Gates eyes next ‘digital decade’
Microsoft
Corp Chairman Bill Gates took centre stage at the world’s largest technology show for the last time on Sunday and predicted that his industry was on the cusp of the next “digital decade.” Gates, who plans to switch in July to a more limited role at the company he co-founded in 1975 with childhood friend Paul Allen, said computing will become a pervasive part of everyday life through devices like televisions, mobile telephones. “Everything will connect up. You’ll just take it for granted. No longer will users have to bridge between devices and remember what’s where,” Gates told the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. “The trend here is clear, all media and entertainment will be digital driven. The first digital decade has been tremendously successful.” Gates had little to show off in the way of new gadgets. “Part of this has to do with Microsoft being tired of announcing new stuff that doesn’t ever materialize or shows up in a form very different than what was shown,” Jupiter Research analyst Michael Gartenberg wrote in a Web posting. “I still think that’s a good approach but a little more zing would not have hurt,” Gartenberg said. Gates said this will be his last keynote address to CES— at least in his current role—and he showed a spoof video in which famous people like director Steven Spielberg and U.S. Senator Hillary Clinton rebuffed his pleas for new work. In the future, Robbie Bach, president of Microsoft’s Entertainment and Devices division that makes products like the Xbox 360 gaming console and Zune portable media player, will take a central role in delivering the address. In a presentation sprinkled with self-deprecating jokes and a finale featuring rock guitarist Slash, Gates predicted that people would interact more naturally with technology through methods like speech and touch over the next decade. It is a prediction Gates has made for years, touting devices like the tablet computer, which have had slow adoption. However, devices like Apple Inc iPhone and Nintendo Co Ltd’s Wii motion-sensing video game machine are proving that more “natural” user interfaces have a broad appeal with consumers. “All of those are just starting to show you that natural interaction pattern really breaks you out of the keyboard and mouse,” Gates said in an interview with Reuters. “The next big surprise for people will be how this natural interface becomes pervasive.” Last year at CES, Microsoft unveiled the Sync car audio and mobile phone system for cars offered by Ford Sync recognizes voice commands to play music and make phone calls. Gates also displayed the company’s Surface computer, a coffee table shaped PC that works like a large touch-screen PC and can respond to objects placed on top of it. The company also unveiled a set of partnerships with media companies including a deal with General Electric’s NBC Universal to power its Web site for the 2008 Summer Olympics. Using Microsoft’s Silverlight Web video technology, a rival to Adobe System Inc’s Flash video technology, the Web site “NBCOlympics.com on MSN” will offer more than 3,000 hours of live and on-demand sports coverage. Microsoft also said it struck a deal with Walt Disney Co to bring ABC and Disney Channel shows to Xbox Live Marketplace, the online video game and entertainment store tethered to its Xbox 360. It also said MGM Studios will be bringing its library of movies including titles like “Rocky,” “Terminator” and “Legally Blonde” to Xbox Live, a service that now had more than 10 million users, a milestone reached six months ahead of
plan. — Reuters
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Microsoft
Corp said on January 6 that Windows Vista sales topped 100 million before the 2007 holiday season when an extra flood of buyers purchased personal computers. The world's largest software maker announced passing the threshold during Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates' keynote speech at this week's Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. In an embargoed briefing with Microsoft prior to Gates' speech, the company said it has yet to tabulate holiday sales of Vista and declined to say exactly when it passed the 100-million mark. The year-end holiday shopping season is traditionally a period of robust computer sales. Microsoft has seen a steady stream of upgrades by consumers to its new Vista operating system over the last year. As of the end of September, Microsoft had sold 88 million Vista licenses after exceeding 60 million at the end of June. The company released Vista to consumers in January 2007. Microsoft expects to roll out its first major update of Vista, called Service Pack 1 (SP1), in the first quarter of 2008. Corporate customers often wait until the release of SP1 to upgrade to a new Windows operating system.
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Falling snow revives art of storytelling in Kashmir AS
a pristine white blanket of snow covers the countryside, Kashmir’s rich tradition of folklore comes to life in this village. Master Habibullah, 59, is a retired schoolteacher. He has a large family. His wife Halima, three sons, Fayaz, Shabir, Showkat, and their wives and children, all live under one roof. Habibullah is pestered by his grandchildren to tell them a story, as they get closer to the hearth lit by firewood to avoid the chill that accompanies snowfall in this village in Ganderbal district of north Kashmir. Even though this small village is just 26 km away from summer capital Srinagar, the snow-blocked roads, the uprooted electric transmission poles and the erratic mobile phone services here appear to have multiplied this village’s sense of distance a hundred fold. “I remember my childhood. Man, those were the days. My mother would cook the duck over a simmering fire with turnips for the entire night in an earthen vessel,” Habibullah remembers. “We would sit close to the hearth as father told us stories of fairies, princes and demons. I realised later as a teacher how crucial story telling is to the holistic development of a child,” he said. As his eyes glow with memories of the past, Habibullah tells his grandchildren a story about a poor carpenter’s son who made a wooden horse that could fly. “The poor, young carpenter flew on his wooden horse over the king’s palace and landed inside the royal garden to be bewitched by the beauty of the princess. The two fell in love, but the king was not reconciled to their marriage. “He set the carpenter upon the task of bringing him the elixir of life from a distant land inhabited by demons, fairies and monsters...” The recital is punctuated with short songs of love, with the sonorous voice of the grandfather adding magic to the narrative. Kashmir’s rich tradition of folklore includes both storytelling and folk dancing. Until the 1970s, the arrival of local folk dancers known as the “Baands” was eagerly awaited in every village here. “That was a masterpiece of street theatre. The ‘Baands’ in their colourful dresses would play street theatre across the Kashmir valley. “Today this great art has almost died. Cinema and television have replaced every form of traditional entertainment in Kashmir,” Habibullah rues. M.Y. Teng, a noted scholar, speaks passionately about the rich heritage of folklore and storytelling in Kashmir. “It was a local scholar named Som Dev Bhatt who translated ‘Brakat Katha’ into Sanskrit from the ancient ‘Pashanchi’ language and called it ‘Katha Sarit Sagar’ in the 11th century AD,” Teng told IANS. “Interestingly, today this translation is the only replica of the original masterpiece and subsequent translation into different languages have been made from Som Dev’s version,” he said. The scholar also spoke of the wonderful local collection of short stories by a local writer, Vishnu Mitra, in Sanskrit in the 4th century, popularly called the Panchtantra. “As we get drift away from our rich heritage and culture, we tend to ignore the fact that real treasure houses lie in our backyard,” Teng says. Today, Master Habibullah is trying to rediscover those lost treasures with his grandchildren. The heavy flakes of snow falling outside provide this revivalist an idyllic setting. — IANS
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Delhi Durbar WHEN Finance minister P. Chidambaram agreed to entertain media persons on New Year’s Day with lunch, many were delighted. While some tried to read the political motives and the possibility of early polls, others interpreted it as an image make over by the suave minister. However, they were disappointed when only snacks were served and Chidambaram himself as the host was missing. Much to the agony of the scribes, when the Finance minister entered the conference hall, he asked the media persons, “Have you had anything ... I wanted to have lunch with you.” A scribe remarked that “dessert has already been served”. That’s the note on which Chidambaram began 2008 with another scribe adding: “now you know what to expect in the General Budget.”
Given the past record of some of the constituents of the United National Progressive Alliance (UNPA), the Left has been prudent in making calibrated responses about being part of the Third Front. While the AIADMK and the INLD seem to be warming up towards the BJP following its recent success in the Assembly polls in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh, the Left has some differences over the economic policies followed by TDP leader Chandrababu Naidu during his term in office as Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister. The Left apparently wants the regional parties to think in terms of the third alternative based on some common programme and not merely in terms of a group formed with an eye on the general elections. Also, if the next Lok Sabha election throws up a hung Parliament, the Left wants to replicate the present arrangement.
The art of speaking Union Commerce minister Kamal Nath never lets go an occasion to be in the limelight. And he uses the situation in the thick of action to say nothing substantive. When Goa Chief Minister Digambar Kamat rushed to meet Nath, the union minister was willing to speak on record which suggested that he had contradicted the statement given by Commerce Secretary G Pillai on the controversial SEZ issue. The minister’s statement was pleasing to the ears of the Congress Chief Minister as Kamat’s averment had invigorated interest on the SEZ issue especially among the opposition BJP and the Left which were keen to whip up a fight between the Centre and the Congress ruled government in Goa. However, when the initial rush of blood settled it became clear that the union commerce minister was on the same side. That’s the art of speaking.
In election mode While the Congress seems to be still brooding over its recent electoral losses, the BJP has started the process of gearing up for future battles. With several crucial states slated to have Assembly polls later this year, the BJP has begun discussing ways to keep up the momentum of its victories in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh. The electoral battles ahead were discussed during the Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi’s first visit to the Capital to meet the party’s central leaders. The BJP’s immediate focus is Karnataka where the saffron brigade hopes to cash in on the sympathy factor. Contributed by S Satyanarayanan and Prashant Sood
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