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Turf war in Bengal
Combating terrorism
Architects of destiny
Punjabi on the wane On why one shouldn’t give up golf Delhi Durbar
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The fate of a whistle-blower FIRST Satyendra Dubey and now Lalit Mehta! Those wanting to eradicate corruption and exploitation from society have to pay with their lives, it seems. Instead of getting bouquets, they get lathis and bullets. All this happens because the police — and even the public – seems to be unconcerned about what is rotten with the state of affairs. Lalit Mehta had been working tirelessly for 15 years in Jharkhand to make sure that the little benefits that the government sends to the public do reach the right people. This fell foul with the people who are experts in siphoning money off on the way and he was reportedly done to death. Significantly, the murder took place just when he and other Right to Food campaigners were asking for strict action on all complaints and irregularities emerging from the social audit of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) works in certain blocks of Palamau district of Jharkhand. The suspicion that only the affected can commit crime may not be unwarranted. As is known to everyone, the NREGA has been started to help the poorest of the poor. But as it happens in all such cases, the pittance that can make the difference between life and death for such people too is salted way by the sharks. Mehta and others had been doing an audit of this scheme and had fallen foul of the racketeers. It is, however, encouraging that instead of scaring away the social workers, the killing has steeled their resolve to end the racket and also to get the criminals punished. If only the government can listen to the voice of the movement, the face of the country can change. The pity is that Lalit Mehtas are killed twice, first by the mafia and then by the government apathy. That is not all. While some other campaigners are strong enough to take up the cause being espoused by their fallen colleagues, there are persons who do get intimidated into silence. What a pity that instead of the criminals, it is those who do good to others get killed.
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Federal agency needed THE scourge of terrorism is not confined to one state or region in India. It has engulfed the entire country with its roots lying in India’s neighbourhood. The problem has international ramifications. No state police can, therefore, handle it effectively. The earlier India has a federal crime investigation agency like the FBI in the US, the better it will be for peace and stability in the country. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh must be having all these and many other factors in view when he stressed the need for such an agency on Saturday. The idea is, of course, not new. It came up for discussion at Inter-State Council meetings many times in the past, but states opposed it because of political and other reasons. The time has come for having a fresh look at the federal agency idea as terrorism is showing no signs of coming to an end. The BJP’s opposition to the proposed federal agency is not convincing. The gravity of the situation demands that politicking is kept aside. Politicising the anti-terrorism drive will take the country nowhere. It is not fair on the part of BJP leader Arun Jaitley to say that “Manmohan Singh’s bona fides in the war against terror are suspect.” This is bound to give a new twist to the debate on terrorism after the Jaipur blasts. This cannot be in the larger interest of the nation. Terrorist masterminds will be the happiest people to find political parties like the Congress and the BJP fighting among themselves instead of coming together to strengthen the campaign to stamp out terrorism. The BJP wants enactment of a law on the lines of the repealed Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA) to fight the menace. It believes that once a POTA-like law is there on the statute book, there will be no need for a federal investigation agency. It, however, ignores the fact that incidents of terrorism continued to occur even when POTA was there. Moreover, POTA was more abused than used to combat terrorism, and that is why it got discredited. The party’s intentions appear to be doubtful. It is time to rise above party considerations in view of the threat posed by terrorism.
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Turf war in Bengal THE violence during the third and final phase of the panchayat elections in West Bengal on Sunday, which claimed as many as 16 lives, was bloodiest in the history of the state. Murshidabad was the worst hit with 14 casualties. The elections were marred by bomb attacks and clashes between the ruling CPM, the Congress and the Trinamool Congress. The earlier phases of elections too were not free from violence. While eight persons were killed in the second phase, there were incidents of rigging and booth capturing too. The cycle of poll-related violence proves that the state government failed to make foolproof security arrangements. The manner in which CPM cadres indulged in violence is highly deplorable. The CPM concentrated its cadres in areas which are traditional strongholds of the Congress. Central paramilitary forces such as the CRPF and the BSF were largely kept idle. The nature and extent of violence within Murshidabad district is simply unbelievable. Clearly, the CPM cannot be absolved of the blame for the large-scale violence. Its interference in the conduct of the panchayat elections came to light after its MP Lakshman Seth had ordered CRPF DIG Alok Raj not to move in the Nandigram area. How could an MP order a DIG like this when he was assigned the task of overseeing the law and order situation in the area? Worse, the MP filed a false FIR against the DIG with charges of molestation. Luckily, the latter refused to be cowed down by the former and he has now been exonerated of the molestation charge. As the bitter fight for the ensuing Assembly elections is likely to intensify further in the coming weeks, there is a need to step up vigilance, tighten security and depoliticise the local administration. The police and the district authorities cannot and should not be allowed to be subservient to the political causes of the ruling CPM. If the officials in charge of election duty behave as the ruling party’s agents and henchmen, the elections will be reduced to a farce and there will be no rule of law. In fact, the MP-DIG spat is a warning signal both for the state government and the Election Commission.
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Beneath the rule of men entirely great/ The pen is mightier than the sword. — Edward George Bulwer-Lytton
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Corrections and clarifications DESPITE our earnest endeavour to keep The Tribune error-free, some errors do creep in at times. We are always eager to correct them. We request our readers to write or e-mail to us whenever they find any error. We will carry corrections and clarifications, wherever necessary, every Tuesday. Readers in such cases can write to Mr Amar Chandel, Deputy Editor, The Tribune, Chandigarh, with the words “Corrections” on the envelope. His e-mail ID is:
amarchandel@tribunemail.com H.K. Dua
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Combating terrorism JUDGING by the Bharatiya Janata Party’s sad, if predictable, reaction to the Jaipur blasts, it is time to ask ourselves whether everything is fair in love and elections. Instead of blaming the Centre and setting itself as the tough guy, it would have been more responsible to see how to improve security and co-ordinate the work of police forces at local, regional and state levels and how these could be tied up with a central network. The only interesting comment the Rajasthan Chief Minister, Mrs Vasundhara Raje, made was of her resolve that “a Gujarat” does not happen in her state, a telling allusion to the carnage the other state had seen under the BJP icon, Mr Narendra Modi. Yet the latter was quick to support her on her demand for a meeting of chief ministers to consider anti-terrorism moves. Indeed, it seems that the BJP is building on the Jaipur tragedy to present itself as the tough no-nonsense party while painting the United Progressive Alliance led by the Congress as soft on terrorism. It is useful to work the Hindutva concept into a new context by emphasising “the other”, the Muslim who is out to destroy the country’s peace and security. There has been one consistent strain in the BJP’s ascent to power. Mr L.K. Advani painted the country red by undertaking his rabble-rousing rath yatra, which ultimately culminated in the destruction of the Babri Masjid and won the party its first election victory at the Centre. It is now in search of another key to return it to power. Even as it was sharpening its knife on the price rise, Jaipur has provided it a new reference point. The BJP seeks to present a macho image. Bring on the most draconian of security laws, it says. Arm citizens to fight the Maoists. It faults the UPA for dropping POTA, the Prevention of Terrorism Act, Mr L.K. Advani, the Opposition leader, lending his voice to the call. If this story of the BJP’s image building can be laced with myths of the past to lend it a historical flavour, it can only enhance it. The tragedy is that the BJP is eager to score points, rather than help resolve the problem. There is no room for give and take in the election season. But the slip keeps showing from time to time. Mrs Raje’s implied rebuke of her fellow party chief minister demonstrated that Muslims of the state needed reassurance that they would not be subjected to the kind of carnage their fellow believers suffered in Gujarat. And Kandahar keeps propping up. The one-time Foreign Minister, Mr Jaswant Singh, contests Mr Advani’s version of Kandahar events. It must surely remain one of the most shameful events in independent India’s history that a BJP Cabinet minister should escort released militants to safety abroad. The BJP, of course, wants to blot out the string of terrorist incidents that happened during its six years in office. There is no let-up in the party’s attempt to present itself as the only force capable of fighting terrorism and protecting the country’s interest. The mixed messages that emerge are due to the BJP’s inability to refine the Hindutva message by taking in Jaipur. It is not as far-fetched as it might seem because in the party’s lexicon, it is a fight against “the other”, a code word for minorities, with the BJP being the knight errant rescuing the sacred motherland from the claws of death and destruction. Folklore and mythology play an important part in the lives of many in the rural and even urban areas. The BJP is not aiming at the sophisticated voter, although it also caters to special interest groups, but rather to the larger public influenced by simple historical idioms and flights of fancy. If the BJP were interested in combating terrorism, it would energise its own police forces at the local, regional and state levels and seek better coordination with Central agencies. At the root of coordination problems lies states’ zealousness to safeguard their autonomy and refusal to authorise one Central agency to be in overall command of anti-terrorism measures. With the best will in the world, it is a time-consuming process. There is the Indian culture of sloppiness to contend with. Policemen rush in to examine a scene of crime with bare hands and local police forces are inadequately trained for their exacting tasks. There is, besides, no system of accountability. The public would feel greater confidence in the police if at least some of the string of recent terrorist acts that have pockmarked India had been investigated with success. For the most part, the police seem to be fighting an unseen enemy. But the BJP is well set on refining its election platform. Thus far, it largely consists of faulting the government on price rise — an international trend that seems hard to stem — and using the government’s alleged ineffectiveness in combating terrorism. The BJP goes further in alleging that the government is decidedly “soft” towards terrorists. How the Congress can counter this propaganda, which will be amplified over the months, remains to be seen, but the Union Home Minister is not quite a picture of assertiveness and virility. Surely the main constituents of the UPA should come to the aid of the government in showing BJP pretensions for what they are. Voters are, of course, not quite as simple-minded as politicians believe but they are inevitably influenced by high decibel propaganda. If building a temple at Ayodhya was to recapture the glory of the past, how is one to explain chaperoning terrorists to safety, courtesy India’s national airline? Are we then set for a cacophony of propaganda driving out the real issues for the people? Apart from the tragedy of those killed and injured and the suffering of their near and dear ones, Jaipur is a bad omen in introducing a new raucousness in the national political discourse. The BJP should know as well as anybody else that if strong-arm measures alone could curb terrorism, the rich and mighty nations would be fully protected. Effective police measures must go hand in hand with wise policies. But the BJP is not in the mood for
listening.
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Architects of destiny AS the news of the Maoists wining elections in Nepal broke, my phone started ringing up. The media had somehow dug out the fact that one of their top leaders, Baburam Bhattarai, was from Chandigarh, and had studied to be an architect in my institution! Suddenly I, too, became a celebrity. My short-lived claim to fame? The ex-student. The newspapers and TV channels wanted crisp bytes of what I remembered of the “future prime minister” of Nepal. And all that I could recall was nothing more juicy than the fact that he was a shy but bright lad; and was just one of the 1000-odd architects that I must have taught in my long innings at the Chandigarh College of Architecture. But it did set me thinking, that how unpredictable have been the destinies of some of them. Is there something in architectural education or is it in ‘our lines’ that sets us apart from others? Or perhaps it’s the wanderlust to shape other maps of destiny. No wonder, many of the alumni of the institute have constructed lives beyond the lines of architecture. One of them, after graduation went off to US to do post-graduation; but preferred the aromas of the kitchen, trained as a chef, and now successfully runs a chain of Chinese food restaurants there. Certainly a different recipe than the drawing-board cooked! You never know what’s cooking in the mind of an architect. Another one, a dainty little thing, is now in the prestigious Wharton Business School designing a landmark path, to be perhaps the next Indira Nooyi. Young architects love to experiment more with their lives than others. Look at Arundhati Roy’s creativity, structuring a Booker or Aishwarya Rai dazzling world cinemas after studying architecture. Remo Fernandes continues to strum his way into the world’s heart – and more lately singing for saving Goa’s soul. Bhattarai won’t be the first architect of a nation. Metaphorically no other profession is put on a pedestal as lofty as architects. Nehru was called the ‘architect of modern India’ – not a doctor or an engineer of the new nation. And so was Mao se Tung, the ‘architect’ of China— not its midwife or its manager. In India, one of its finest post-independence parliamentarians was Nehru’s contemporary Piloo Modi, an architect who worked on the Chandigarh project in Le Corbusier’s team, and was nicknamed ‘the horizontal man’ by him, because of Modi’s gargantuangirth! And just look what havoc an ‘architect of destruction’ can engineer. Adolf Hitler who passionately wanted to be an architect; but was denied admission by the prestigious Bahaus school, turned his frustrated creativity to constructing an edifice of evil. May architects continue to build wonderful new worlds. Baburam Bhattarai — go design a new Nepal. You have done us architects
proud.
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Punjabi on the wane MANY have taken my foreboding about the future of the Punjabi language seriously. They are spreading out in the state to awaken people to the danger of losing Punjabi and with it Punjabiyat. But some have considered the warning an alarmist’s point of view and have gone back to their make-believe world. A two-day conference at Patiala on the development of Punjabi language last week brought the two schools of thought to the fore. That some 25 Punjabi writers and poets came from Pakistan made the discussion more lively and meaningful. On the first day of the conference, inaugurated by Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, the dominant voice was that of those speakers who believed that Punjabi faced a real danger of losing ground to Hindi and English. It was admitted that despite the writing on the wall, adequate attention was not paid to Punjabi. The Pakistanis said with sorrow that no child in their country was learning Punjabi even in the Shahmukhi (Urdu) script. The second day was a complete reversal. Speaker after speaker said that Punjabi faced no danger and any talk of extinction was unreal. Writers lauded the mediocre literature produced in Punjabi and felt that the language was keeping pace with other languages in development. My fear that the language might die by the end of 50 years was pooh-poohed. But I am not whistling in the dark. Once Punjab was a land spreading from the Khyber Pass to Delhi, a Punjabi editor, Barjinder Singh, pointed out in his keynote address. Partitions at different times have hit it hard, more so when first Himachal Pradesh was created, and then Haryana. It looks as if very few Hindus “own” Punjabi. On the other hand, the Sikhs “over own” it, linking the language to their religion. The future is bleak because the Sikhs’ own children do not study it. What is its use in jobs in the country or abroad, is their question. Religions are rapidly appropriating languages and restricting their reach. Chauvinism of the one is affecting the catholicity of the other. Both are becoming two sides of the same coin. This is a dangerous trend because religion represents discipline and dogma while language has a desirable waywardness and informality. If the two are mixed, language would lose its vitality because it draws its vocabulary from different sources, religious and secular. The subcontinent is particularly prey to such exercises in fanaticism. India is experiencing how Hindi and Hindu are being equated with Hindustan. People feel stifled because the place for their language – the mother tongue – is shrinking. This runs counter to the assurances given in the Constitution that the mother tongue would be protected. The juggernaut of Hindi is either pulverising the entity of regional languages or homogenising them in a way that they fit into the confines dictated by the Hindiwalas. Bengali and Malayalam are probably the only two mother tongues which have stood their ground. People feel proud to speak them. This does not come in the way of Hindi since it enjoys the status of India’s official language. Nonetheless, people want progress of their mother tongue in which they feel at home. There is no conflict between the two because their fields are separate and their purposes different. Still, the arrogance of Hindi-speaking people is irritating. The demand for linguistic states did not represent mere cultural revivalism. It sought to secure for different linguistic groups, political and economic, justice. In multilingual states political leadership and administrative authority remained the monopoly of the dominant language groups, and linguistic minorities were denied an effective voice in governance. Even where there were substantial minorities, the representatives of the linguistic minority group found it impossible to do anything effective to safeguard the interest of minorities. That explains the formation of linguistic states. Educational activity has got stimulated because of the regional languages getting their due. If the educated few are not to be isolated from the masses, the education of the people must necessarily be through the medium of the mother tongue. The situation in Pakistan is worse than in India. Urdu, its official language, has crowded out regional languages - Sindhi, Pushthu and the like. In fact, those who do not speak Urdu are dubbed anti-Pakistan. In India, regional languages have at least the status of a national language, but Pakistan does not recognise any language other than Urdu. Sixty per cent of Pakistanis speak Punjabi. It is their mother tongue. But it is confined to the speaking stage. No Pakistani child learns Punjabi in school or anywhere else. There are simply no facilities to learn it. India is witness to the sorry spectacle of regional languages losing their vigour and recognition. Punjabi children still speak the language although with some difficulty, but the grandchildren do not. Even in villages, English is spoken at the houses of rich zamindars. In fact, all over the country, children are speaking English or Hindi and learning the two since they offer them the best opportunities in employment. English is preferred to Hindi in non-Hindi speaking states. But still people, by and large, converse in their mother tongue. They also have a pride in doing so. Unfortunately, things are different in Punjab. People are on the defensive in owning up to it as if they would be considered countryside bumpkins. Outside Punjab, only schools run by Sikhs offer Punjabi, and that too mainly in Delhi. I have seen a study listing Punjabi among the languages which might die by 2060. There are only 14 crore Punjabis in the world. Eight to nine crore live in Pakistan. In India, the Punjabi-speaking population is around two crore. But a large number of them have switched over to either the regional languages or to Hindi. Therefore, Punjab remains the only state where Punjabi is used, although less by Hindus. So what happens 50 years hence? We may have our folklore popular all over the world, even our dress and food. But the Punjabi language may not be there at all.
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On why one shouldn’t give up golf SO US President George Bush has given up the noble game of golf, reversing the Nero principle; he can’t be knocking the little white ball all over the fairways of the United States while parts of the world are burning. What is it with American Presidents and golf? JFK played, despite the bad back and played to win. The Camelot courtiers knew not to beat the boss. Bill Clinton was fond of a round and allegedly no stranger to an occasional miscalculation of his score. Even revolutionaries were not averse to the game’s tortuous charm. There is a wonderful photograph of Che Guevara in full army fatigues bent over a short putt with Fidel Castro watching him in Cuba in 1959. Golf. The word comes laden with preconceptions: an excuse for middle-aged men to dress like Florida pimps; blazers and ties; exclusive golf courses with their self-aggrandising committees; and, of course, one of the most unusual, not to say risible, contortions of the human body in search of sporting fulfillment. I know all the arguments against. I’ve heard them often enough. If ever a sport needed a good spin-doctor, it’s golf. But for all the flummery I am still in its thrall. Not because I’m any good. As Samuel Beckett, no mean golfer himself, said in other circumstances, au contraire. If truth be told, I’m actually in serious sporting decline. If I had a shred of sense, I’d take my cue from the President and pack it in too, leave the clubs to rust in a shed and take up something less detrimental to my mental health; bus-watching; collecting shoe-laces, anything that might give me what the self-help books call inner-peace. But no. I persist. I cling to delusions of adequacy, pathetically, irrevocably, with a tenaciousness quite unparalleled in any other area of my life. It goes back to childhood. Doesn’t everything? Prehen, or City of Derry Golf Club, to give it its full name, is on the east bank, the Protestant side of the River Foyle, looking across to Creggan on the Catholic side of the water. We would occasionally hear the pock-pock of rifle fire or the slow, dull rumble of a bomb as we negotiated the fairways and bunkers, the water hazards and greens, dreaming of golfing greatness. Despite all the political turbulence of the time, the golf course remained mostly clear of it, a place where politics was left at the gate or politely avoided. Besides, we were youngsters, more concerned about how quickly we could win the British Open than whether Ireland would ever be united. Of course, nowhere was ever completely immune from the violence. Sport and politics had their inevitable collisions and occasionally the club flag would fly at half-mast to mark the death of a member, caught in the chaos. There was even an attempt to blow up the place, probably by an irate three-putter with dubious connections, and on one dreadful night, an off-duty policeman was shot dead as he got into his car behind the 18th green, indication if such was needed that nowhere was off-limits to the gunmen. Later, to my delight, I discovered golf in literature. Scott Fitzgerald’s story, Winter Dreams, begins on a golf course, “when the days became crisp and gray, and the long Minnesota winter shut down like the white lid of a box.” Nick Carraway in The Great Gatsby falls a little in love with Jordan Baker, a tournament golfer. Fitzgerald is not alone among writers whose work features the ancient game. P G Wodehouse wrote extensively, if not persuasively, about golf while John Updike’s Rabbit graces a fairway or two. Richard Ford’s Wildlife features a young golf professional; Train, by Pete Dexter, opens with one of the funniest descriptions of a golf swing you’re likely to read. Timothy O’Grady’s On Golf is a memoir of obsession. The poets too have their golfing moments; from Siegfried Sassoon at Lamberhurst to Matthew Sweeney playing golf on ice. This all sounds like an apologia. I don’t mean it to be. Far from it. I’m happily resigned to being a member of what poet and novelist Andrew Greig calls, “that same singular, suffering, exultant fraternity”. The US President should stick with the game; in fact, he should play as much as he possibly can. It’s hard to invade countries when you’re agonising over a three-foot putt.
By arrangement with The Independent
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Delhi Durbar MINISTER of women and child development Renuka Choudhary believes in leading by example. So, the other day, when she ascended the dais in a local five-star hotel to talk health and nutrition in the wake of more and more children turning obese, she chose to cite herself as a case study. Recalling old times when she was the health minister, she said in a light vein: “Those days I was used to being addressed as a “healthy” health minister. Only I knew how healthy I was.” Citing obesity as her big concern, she did not mind admitting to a packed house what it felt to be obese. The stage for the talk having been set, the minister went on to do what she is best known for – making bold statements that tend to discomfort certain lobbies. For once, she was not talking fortified food; this time her target was the fast food industry which, according to her, cares little about health. So, if in the near future pizza houses are seen using pulses instead of the unhealthy “maida”, you know whom
to credit. Hunter hunted Mediapersons who put questions to science and technology minister Kapil Sibal at his press conferences, often end up getting a dressing down from the minister, especially if he feels the query is either not good enough or irrelevant. Agreeably, Sibal explains everything in detail, leaving very little to doubt, when he briefs the media on behalf of his ministry. Last week he called a press conference to unveil a new technology to make public places safe from terror attacks. Sibal was at his acerbic best when a journalist asked why the technology could not be developed in India instead of importing it from the US for Rs 20 crores."You want to wait for another five years to develop the technology, when it is readily available…you think Rs 20 crore is too big an amount to save people’s lives. I am sorry sir, but I fail to understand the intention of your question", Sibal retorted. Funny side There are any number of political magazines in the market but now a new one has hit the stands, which is clearly different. Instead of carrying reams of written text on political developments, the new magazine attempts to present these events through cartoons. Cartoonist Dhir, formerly with the National Herald, is the brain behind this unique magazine, titled “Never Mind”. It contains forty pages of illustrations of key events in the country. Contributed by Aditi Tandon, Vibha Sharma and Girja Shankar Kaura
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