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World accepts deal Cheating on bills |
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Too late, too little Hasten trial of Mumbai riot cases THE conviction of former Shiv Sena MP Madhukar Sarpotdar and two others to one-year imprisonment and a fine of Rs 5,000 each for having incited violence during the 1992-93 Mumbai riots is little punishment. Worse, the special court has suspended the sentence till August 16 and given them bail with an opportunity to go on appeal to the Bombay High Court.
Horrifying Afghan situation
Jai Hind in Bangkok
Identity politics In the Gardens
of Versailles,
a revolution
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World accepts deal THE G-8 Summit at Toyako in Japan was particularly important for India as it provided Prime Minister Manmohan Singh an opportunity to convince the world’s richest nations about India’s needs for alternative sources of energy to meet its burgeoning power requirements. Many of them are members of the Nuclear Suppliers’ Group with which India will have to deal once it completes negotiations on a nuclear safeguards agreement with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). This is all part of the UPA government’s decision to operationalise the 123 Agreement it signed with the Bush administration three years ago. In the end, the G-8 nations adopted a “more robust approach to civil nuclear cooperation with India to help meet its growing energy needs”. In simpler terms, India’s position on the nuclear issue has found ready acceptance among the seven countries with the largest economies. This marks a turnaround from the time India’s nuclear ambitions raised eyebrows among the developed nations. Realisation would have dawned on them that India has an exemplary record insofar as non-proliferation is concerned. While the world has accepted India’s case for high-end nuclear technology to meet its growing need for cheap and cleaner fuel, the government has to traverse some distance to convince the members of Parliament that the nuclear deal with the US is in the country’s long-term interest. That India has circulated a draft nuclear safeguards accord with the members of the IAEA in Vienna does not mean that the government has junked its promise to sew up the agreement only after it proves majority in the Lok Sabha. By the time the IAEA board meets, possibly, later this month, to discuss the draft, the government would have faced a trust vote in the House. It is certain that the fate of the Manmohan Singh government would be decided on how it is able to convince the MPs about the utility of the Indo-US civil nuclear deal. In other words, the touchstone of political realignments already taking place in the country is the nuclear deal.
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Cheating on bills THE utter disregard many of our members of Parliament have for public money is evident in their unwillingness to pay up, electricity, telephone and other bills running into lakhs of rupees. MPs already have enormous perks and other advantages and to think that they have run up bills over and above these, which they will not pay, only serves to further lower their esteem in the eyes of the public. The Delhi High Court has now done the right thing in asking government agencies to submit details of the dues from former and present lawmakers.The judges have also sought details about the mode of recovery adopted, and have promised “proper action” in the event of any lacuna. It is outrageous to think that while the common man has to cut corners in order to meet his monthly dues, from the house rent to various utility bills, and will never think of walking away leaving a tab unpaid, the MPs do this without compunction. The PIL on which the High Court took action even mentions hospitality charges at government-owned hotels, which the MPs evidently decided they would not pay. Will the ordinary citizen, who may have voted these MPs into power, ever be able to get away with this? Neither should the MPs.The court should ensure that all dues are paid within a time frame, including penal levies and interest. The image of the politician is at an all-time low. Many MPs’ and MLAs’ behaviour in Parliament and Assemblies, the persistent miasma of corruption associated with the government apparatus, the revelations of criminal activities and scams, blatant disregard and wastage of public resources, and a general lack of accountability, have all ensured that the people do not look up to politicians and officials for leadership and wise decisions regarding the welfare of the nation.This is an unfortunate state of affairs in a democracy, and the politicians only have themselves to blame.They must do everything they can to restore the people’s faith in them — let them stop cheating on bills for a start. |
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Too late, too little THE conviction of former Shiv Sena MP Madhukar Sarpotdar and two others to one-year imprisonment and a fine of Rs 5,000 each for having incited violence during the 1992-93 Mumbai riots is little punishment. Worse, the special court has suspended the sentence till August 16 and given them bail with an opportunity to go on appeal to the Bombay High Court. The case has been pending for the last 16 years, the prosecution showing little interest in speeding up the trial. Incidentally, the police had filed nine cases against Shiv Sena supremo Bal Thackeray of which six had resulted in acquittals. The ends of justice will be met only when all those involved in the riots, however high and powerful they may be, are brought to trial and given the maximum punishment. In August 1998, the Justice B.N. Srikrishna Commission report had pointed out the Shiv Sena’s role in the communal riots as also the BJP’s contribution in the build-up to the violence. Specifically, it charged Bal Thackeray with commanding the Shiv Sainiks to retaliate by organised attacks against the Muslims. His inflammatory writings in Saamna helped foment violence, it said. Yet, no action has been taken against him. While the then BJP-Shiv Sena government rejected the report and consigned it to Mantralaya’s cupboards, the Vilasrao Deshmukh government has been soft on leaders like Bal Thackeray. Significantly, in August 2007, the Supreme Court took successive governments to task for not taking action against the rioters. However, an affidavit filed by the government claimed that “digging up old cases could lead to communal tension.” Sarpotdar’s conviction suggests that the law is finally catching up with those involved in the Mumbai riots. However, the main question remains: whether important Shiv Sena leaders like Bal Thackeray will be brought to book and if so, when. Otherwise, Wednesday’s conviction will be viewed as an instance of too late and too little. |
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All the security around the American president is just to make sure the man who shoots him gets caught. — Norman Mailer
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Horrifying Afghan situation
ALMOST all the world has joined this country in condemning Sunday’s dastardly vehicle-borne suicide attack on the Indian Embassy in Kabul, leading to death and destruction on a horrendous scale. Even in the heart-rending context, it must be said that the outrage cannot be called entirely unexpected. This is so because of the fragility of the Karzai government in Afghanistan, combined with the resurgence of the Taliban; the equally fragile set-up in Pakistan that has belied hopes pinned on the February election; and the flip-flop by the American and NATO forces in Afghanistan. They are unable either to persuade Islamabad to take on the Taliban and Al-Qaeda cadres entrenched in Pakistani tribal areas or to make good their threat unilaterally to destroy the terrorists’ sanctuaries in Pakistan in what are called the Federally-Administered Tribal Areas (FATA). Nor is this all. The Pakistani ruling establishment is furious at India’s growing prestige and influence in Afghanistan because of its outstanding contribution to the rebuilding of the war-ravaged country. This should explain Kabul’s charge of Pakistani ISI’s complicity in the diabolical episode. Ahmed Rashid, one of the best informed journalists on Afghanistan, has recorded in his book, Dissent Into Chaos, that Pakistan has been so upset over India’s “success” that it has started believing that “India (is) ‘taking over’ Afghanistan”, a country Pakistan regards its backyard and provider of “strategic depth” against India. Is it any surprise therefore that the infuriated Pakistani intelligence agencies are anxious to undercut friendly Indo-Afghan relations? It is entirely in the fitness of things that both Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee have taken the earliest opportunity to reaffirm this country’s firm commitment to the people and government of Afghanistan, regardless of consequences. Meanwhile, the United States is completely at sea about what is happening in Pakistan and what the future course of events there would be. In fact, Dawn has quoted President George W. Bush as telling an American journalist that the main worry of the next president would be “neither Iraq, nor Afghanistan, but Pakistan”. Under the circumstances the grim regional situation staring India in the face is clear enough. Another significant point Ahmed Rashid makes is that all concerned are overlooking that the Taliban “are neither Afghanistan’s citizens nor Pakistan’s” but lumpen groups freely moving from one country to the other and operating in both. Thanks to the sanctuaries and support they get, they can be brazen enough to try to assassinate President Karzai and later mount a successful and sensational jailbreak. In the wake of the gruesome tragedy, questions have been raised whether there was any security lapse causing the deaths of the Indian military attaché, the political counselor, two security guards and a large number of others, primarily Afghans. This can be determined only after a thorough inquiry that must be completed speedily. However, it is rather odd that on a main road of Kabul on which are situated, fairly close to each other, the Afghan Ministry of Interior and the Indian Embassy, the “road security” should have failed to prevent a car filled with deadly explosives from reaching the Indian mission. B. Raman, a former deputy chief of the external intelligence agency, RAW, and one of the foremost security and terrorism analysts, has made the useful suggestion that an immediate review of the vulnerability of all Indian missions in Afghanistan — these include consulates in Jalalabad, Kandahar, Mazar-i-Sharif and Herat — be undertaken. He also says that there is little doubt that the attack on the Indian Embassy was a “targeted one”. Reverting to the consulates in Afghanistan, Pakistan has consistently taken objection to those in Kandahar and Jalalabad, alleging that these are being used by RAW to foment trouble in Pakistan’s minority provinces of Balochistan, where a virtual revolt has been on for years, and Sindh. The complaint is baseless, of course, but Islamabad goes on repeating it. American endorsement of the Pakistani view ended mercifully when Colin Powell ceased to be the US Secretary of State. This brings me to the pertinent point that to understand the present horrifying state of affairs in Afghanistan — to reverse it would be an extremely uphill task — it is necessary to go to its roots in 2001, immediately after 9/11. The Americans committed the “original sin” at the very start of their commendable campaign to oust the Taliban and Al-Qaeda from their bases in Afghanistan, with the help of the Northern Alliance. They were in a position to arrest or kill Osama bin Laden and leaders of the Taliban, headed by Mullah Omar. But they let them escape through the mountains of Tora Bora, together with a large number of Pakistani collaborators of the two outfits, including quite a few military officers. Why? Because the American commanders were afraid; the difficult terrain meant that their troops might suffer very heavy casualties. For the last seven years, Osama and his cohorts have been living in the Pakistani tribal areas and using videos to send mocking messages to their adversaries from time to time. Mullah Omar and other leaders of the Taliban live in Balochistan and have sometimes been seen even in Quetta. In neither case are either the Americans or the Pakistanis prepared to take corrective action. The second cardinal mistake the Americans made was downgrade the Afghanistan problem as soon as Kabul had fallen and the “defeated” Taliban and Al-Qaeda had fled to the safety of Pakistani tribal lands, to recoup, regroup, rearm and fight again. This they are doing to this day, indeed with renewed vigour. A further irony is that the elected government of Pakistan is as anxious to avoid military action in Waziristan and other tribal areas and to solve the problem instead through “peace agreements” with tribal leaders as General Parvez Musharraf was in his heyday in 2005. The US Lieutenant-General Karl Eikenberry had told the Bush administration as well as his country quite sometime ago that the war in Afghanistan could not be won until the sanctuaries that the Taliban and Al-Qaeda enjoyed in Pakistan were denied to them. On present reckoning, this seems a remote possibility, if not impossible. America’s preoccupation with the war in Iraq does not allow it to devote enough time or even thought to Afghanistan. Remarkably, Ahmed Rashid’s book’s subtitle — “How the war against Islamic extremism is being lost in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Central Asia” — says it
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Jai Hind in Bangkok
My father was a Captain when he joined the Burma Front, crossing into Burma at Tamu with 7th Indian Infantry Division. Those were heady days as Gandhiji’s clarion call, Quit India, had electrified the nation, while Netaji’s audacious escape and epic voyage in a German U-boat had stirred every Indian heart. The gallant fight by Netaji’s Azad Hind Fauj to overthrow the British yoke won the secret admiration of all Indians. Father remained with 7th Indian Division as it fought through Burma and liberated Rangoon. Then the news of Japanese capitulation caused great jubilation and relief. Soon the 7th was airlifted to Bangkok as liberating occupiers. The Thai capital, though war-torn, was still paradise compared to the war and jungle. Father went to visit a Thai-Sikh doctor, who lived near his unit. However, he declined to answer the proffered Sat Sri Akal and only after perceptible hesitation did he let him into the house. Later, over tea he explained the profound impact of Netaji’s appeal to oust the British by uniting as Indians and shedding their Hindu, Sikh or Mussalman identities. Father was amazed that even in the gurdwara the greeting was Jai Hind and not Sat Sri Akal. Jai Hind was considered the litmus-test of one’s patriotism.The doctor also informed him about the exquisite, reasonably priced cloth material available in the Phourhat market. Visiting the market, father was again inspired by the way Netaji was worshipped as a deity; his garlanded photograph with a diya was everywhere. After he had bought some excellent suit pieces for ladies in the family, his colleague — a Muslim doctor — wanted to buy some too. He shot off to make his purchases and approached the middle-aged shop-keeper respectfully, “Sat Sri Akal Sardar Sahib”. He was answered with a cool “Jai Hind, Captain Sahib”. Again, he responded “Sat Sri Akal Ji” and in fluent Punjabi informed him that he was born in Lahore. “Main Punjabi haan”, he added. The Sikh responded with a meaningful “Jai Hind, what can I do for you?” “I was looking for a couple of suit-pieces.” “Sorry, Captain Sahib, this is a wholesale market.” The doctor got annoyed, “But my friend, Captain Kartar Singh, just bought a few suit lengths from here.” “Sorry, sir, we only sell wholesale.” Thereupon the officer turned away in anger, “There are many other shops in this market!” Pointedly, the shopkeeper wished him “Jai Hind!”, but getting no response, he sent his boy running to the other shops, to explain about the unpatriotic officer who refused to say “Jai Hind”. Needless to add, he failed to buy any suit-lengths, such was Netaji’s captivation of all Indian hearts! Don’t we wish that he could influence us Indians
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Identity politics I HAVE lost count of the number of violent incidents in the country. India is increasingly becoming a disorderly state where political parties have no respect for the rule of law and where every community behaves as if its point of view must prevail at any cost. Things have come to such a pass that the Supreme Court has expressed its concern over the government’s “doing nothing” while protestors hold the nation to ransom. What has mainly held the country together is the spirit of accommodation; this is drying up and may damage our diversity, which is our strength. We cannot afford to stretch a point beyond a limit. A confrontationist posture is harmful to the country. There are so many fissiparous tendencies that they come into play at the slightest provocation. It is true that the government tends to ignore peaceful agitations. Yet it has been seen all over the world that violence eventually kills democratic behaviour and gives way to authoritarianism. More stringent laws or additional security forces are the stock remedies. They only increase police atrocities and custodial deaths. Agitations become more brutal. The last three months’ violence began with the Gujjars’ agitation in Rajasthan. Woefully, it was led by a retired colonel who knew no discipline, no limits. Some 45 persons were killed in the state of lawlessness which his men created and sustained for a fortnight. The issue was that the Gujjars be considered a scheduled tribe and given reservations. This is a matter which should have been considered by the Scheduled Tribes Commission straightway. Instead, the Gujjars took to the streets and disrupted the lives of several states in the north, uprooting railway lines, burning buses and destroying property. Ultimately, the Gujjars got a five per cent of reservation which may well add up above the total of 50 per cent, the maximum limit which the Supreme Court has fixed. As soon as the Gujjars were out of the way, some Sikh groups stopped railway traffic in parts of the north and burnt government property to ventilate their anger against Sacha Sauda Dehra chief Ram Rahim Singh, who was on a visit to Mysore, Bangalore and Mumbai. That the cases pending against him for heinous crimes (his security guards killed one Sikh at Mumbai this time) have been inordinately delayed is reprehensible. But the Sikhs reacting as a community – the Punjab government also jumped into the fray – is equally disconcerting. The Sikhs are giving unnecessary importance to the Sacha Sauda Dehra which the Haryana government can tackle. In any case, the anger against Ram Rahim Singh should not be visited upon the orderly life of others. Then there was the attack by the Maoists who believe that they can liberate India through arms they steal from the police. The Maoists killed some 40 security men at a reservoir on the borders of Orissa and Andhra Pradesh. I have sympathy for the Maoists’ cause of helping the poor, but I have never understood how by killing people they serve it. They remind me of the Sikh militants who practically controlled Punjab for a decade and eventually came a cropper. The latest is the Amarnath Yatra episode and the BJP’s Bharat Bandh. The transfer of land to the Yatra Board was wrong. The old system had stood the pilgrims in good stead and it should have been revived where the old Malik families of Muslims facilitated the pilgrimage. But it was irresponsible on the part of the Srinagar-based political parties, particularly the People’s Democratic Party, headed by former Union Home Minister Mufti Mohammed Sayyed, to make it an issue. We can blame New Delhi for many things but not of diluting the Kashmiri identity because it has never tried to change the complexion of the state population from day one. Some 30,000 people who came from Pakistan and sought shelter in Jammu are still stateless after 60 years. Article 370 giving a special status to the state has been its bulwark which the late Sheikh Abdullah had got included in the Constitution after the integration of Jammu and Kashmir with India. The real problem is that of Kashmir’s autonomy. Pressures are ventilated at the smallest provocation. The Assembly elections in October will give people and politicians an opportunity to elect such members who can articulate Kashmir’s point of view. The other type of exercises, it has been experienced, do not yield much result. They only communalise or regionalise the issue. The rift which Srinagar has created with Jammu over the transfer of land has burnt practically all bridges between the two. Kashmiris have to wait for something concrete to emerge till the government in Pakistan settles down and the new government takes over in Delhi after elections in the next few months. Relations between India and Pakistan have seldom been as good as it is now, but political uncertainty on both sides makes any decision difficult. The Valley has allowed fundamentalists to win the first round which will create problems when the time for settlement comes. This becomes still more obvious when the BJP stand is scrutinised. The party is always looking for an opportunity to play a communal card. Politicians in the Valley have given it the issue and that too near the parliamentary elections. No doubt the voter will generally react adversely to the lawlessness in which the party cadres have indulged, particularly in the BJP-run states, but the damage - six killed and the destruction of property worth crores – has been done. The unforgivable part is the force used by the Bajrang Dal, the BJP’s stormtroopers, against Muslims to shut their businesses. The police too put pressure behind the law breakers. Narendra Modi of Gujarat was at least honest enough to admit that if he were to have a bandh, he would face communal riots in the state. He did not give a call. A party which gives a call for the Bharat Bandh in an already volatile situation is irresponsible and callous. How can the BJP imagine that it will be entrusted with power at the centre? But I come back to the point I raised in the beginning. What happens to India’s identity if communal and regional identities are to have their way? |
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In the Gardens of Versailles, a revolution VERSAILLES, France – Alain Baraton is an untraditional gardener in perhaps the most traditional garden on the planet. He is the keeper of the Gardens of Versailles – with hundreds of acres of flower beds as meticulously manicured as a beauty queen’s nails, and trees so ancient they bore witness to the French Revolution. Today, Baraton is leading another revolution on the 2,100-acre estate. Rather than fretting over the climate change that is robbing the chestnut trees of their fall colours and killing the pine trees of Louis XIV’s reign, Baraton is seizing shifting weather patterns as a chance to transform gardening across France. Take the bug problem. Over the last few years, French winters have become too warm to kill off the greedy insects that love to dine on Versailles’ 18,500 carefully pruned chestnut trees. After several years of battling the bugs, Baraton stopped spraying them with insecticides. Instead, he left them in the bark to grow fat and juicy. “Now, in spring, more birds are coming back,” declared Baraton, a soft-spoken man with eyebrows as bushy as the caterpillars that inhabit his flower beds. “It’s helping the balance of the gardens.” Baraton is using his lofty perch as the most enviable gardener in France to preach the gospel of bio-gardening to a cultivation-crazed society. According to estimates by Promojardin, an association that promotes gardening as a hobby, 89 percent of all French people dabble with plants – whether in a full-fledged garden patch or in windowsill flower pots. On his radio program, his television show and in his ninth and newest gardening book, Baraton urges home gardeners to follow his lead from the lavish grounds of Versailles. “For many children, aphids are fabulous monsters,” writes Baraton, 50. “It would be a shame to destroy this extraordinary life by inconsiderate use of insecticide.” He is also changing the gardening style of centuries of French royalty. “What’s important is to keep the spirit and the visual aspects,” Baraton said. “ I look for plants that resemble older ones, or some that can be pruned like the ones from back then.” He’s altered the practice of planting row upon clipped row of the same species of trees. “Nowadays, we vary the species of trees – beech, hawthorn, poplar, chestnut – to prevent major losses in case of a disease affecting one type of tree,” he said. And he downright frowns on some of the practices of various bygone Versailles royals. In times past, palace residents sent ships around the world to collect exotic plants and trees for the estate. One king even imported coffee bean plants for growing and grinding his own brew. Baraton recommends sticking to native flora. He lashes out at gardeners who would buy a century-old olive tree – such as those for sale in upscale Parisian flower shops – as pillaging natural resources. As a youngster, Baraton’s love of gardening earned him an unpleasant nickname from his siblings – the French word for cow dung. But in 30 years, he rose from a teen-ager collecting parking fees from Versailles visitors to the chief of the entire gardening operation with its 100-member staff. “It’s difficult to be 18 and say you’re a gardener,” Baraton said of his status change in the eyes of his brothers and sisters. “It’s easier when you live at Versailles.” Now, even business moguls with mansions of their own show a little jealousy when he mentions that he makes his home amid the iconic gardens. “It’s a nice feeling to have a billionaire envy you,” he said, leading a visitor down the back lanes of the massive estate, where he paused to say “bonjour” to a speckled hen at the roadside and a complaining white swan in a pond. What most worries the chief gardener? His recurring nightmare is that the planting of 50,000 flowers he oversees each year “won’t be beautiful.” “If it doesn’t work, you realise it only after the flowers start blooming.” He paused, smiling mischievously. “It’s never happened, but I always worry.” Between his broadcasts and directing his staff, Baraton said he does little of the actual spadework in the gardens these days. Even at home, he said, he leaves most of the yard chores to his wife. “After 30 years of spending my weekends doing the gardening,” he said, “I’d rather just a read a book in the garden.”
By arrangement with
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Delhi Durbar It was L.K. Advani’s press conference but Jaswant Singh stole the limelight, perhaps for the wrong reasons. Advani, the BJP's prime ministerial candidate, was visibly embarrassed when Singh disclosed that the NDA had planned to topple the Manmohan Singh government in July 2007 by propping up a UNPA candidate for the Prime Ministership, in exchange for the Third Front's support for Bhairon Singh Shekhawat for the Presidentship. After the press conference, many journalists approached Advani for his reaction but he did not wait for even a minute and left the venue in a rush. It was left to Ravi Shankar Prasad and Rajiv Pratap Rudi to field uncomfortable queries from the media on Jaswant's disclosure. The BJP spokespersons, who until two days back had dismissed Samajwadi Party leader Amar Singh’s claim that Jaswant Singh had approached them with such an offer, clearly felt let down by their top leaders and preferred not to say even a word, as that could have added to their own plight.
Perfect community Athough they have been transformed largely into bourgeois democratic outfits, the Left parties persist with some Communist traditions. For one, all comrades eat from the ‘commune kitchen’ maintained in their respective party headquarters. This is true of the RSP, where the party’s most visible face, Rajya Sabha MP Abani Roy, is supposed to frequently prepare delicious machhi jhal with rice. CPM headquarters A.K. Gopalan Bhawan also has a commune kitchen, and ever so often, if a reporter lands up alone at lunch time, he is also offered a free meal with a party member in the simple but neat and hygienically-maintained kitchen. All party members, including general secretary Prakash Karat, politburo members Sitaram Yechury, S.R. Pillai and senior leaders like Nilotpal Basu, eat here. They all have to pay for their meals though these are hugely subsidised by the party.
Bitter dessert In the line of fire after the fall of the Jammu and Kashmir government, former state governor Lt-Gen S.K. Sinha spilled the beans on the PDP, which he held responsible for the political mess in the Valley. Particularly interesting was his reference to the dinner diplomacy he resorted to in an effort to improve his relations with PDP patron and former chief minister Mufti Mohd Sayeed. “I invited Mufti, his wife, and daughter Mehbooba over for dinner to Raj Bhavan. I wanted to clear the misapprehensions created by the media,” Sinha said in his defence earlier this week immediately after the government fell in J&K. The gesture obviously did not pay off, with Sinha admitting: “I had hoped whisky would cement our relations. But that was not to be. It was an unusually frozen interaction. Mufti and I could not see eye to eye on any issue…” Little did Sinha realise then that a bitter dessert was yet to be served, long after the frozen dinner interaction was over.
Contributed by Ashok Tuteja, Faraz Ahmad and Aditi Tandon
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