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Left joins Right SC pulls up states |
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Rains bring cheer
Debasing national interest
Superstars of a different kind
A lexical journey Rich nations hit hardest by slowdown Delhi Durbar
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Left joins Right The
political crisis triggered by the Left’s withdrawal of support to the UPA to scuttle the Indo-US nuclear deal is instructive about how ideology, principles and policies go for a toss when a cynical agenda comes to the fore. When the Left, led by the CPM, extended support to the UPA government headed by Dr Manmohan Singh, the argument was that communalism, meaning the BJP, was the biggest threat facing the country; and, to keep the party at bay, the Left felt the urge to support the Congress-led coalition. For over four years, the CPM never let anyone forget that it considered itself a bulwark against communalism. When there was talk of a Third Front, the Left took the position that it wanted to build up a genuinely democratic and secularist alternative to both the BJP and the Congress. The same argument was trotted out when it kept away from the UNPA, the so-called Third Front. However, the Left’s visceral opposition to the nuclear deal has made it abandon all its reasoned positions. The CPM was convinced that the Congress-led UPA would have to choose between the deal and the government. In the event, when withdrawal of support did not mean the immediate and certain fall of the government, the Left was driven to desperation. It feels compelled to topple the UPA, if only to prove its own relevance. As a result it has gone beyond mere anti-Congressism and taken to reckless opportunism, where it is willing to join hands with ideological foes, including “communalists” and “casteists”, with the sole aim of dislodging Dr Singh’s government. Some CPM leaders no longer consider the BJP as “untouchable”. CPM leader Prakash Karat himself had no qualms about injecting a communal element in the debate over the nuclear deal with an eye on the Muslim community. This dilution of the party’s plank to a point where the Left, particularly the CPM, is willing to join hands with communalists of all hues is bound to boomerang. While the party leaders might overcome their differences after the crisis, the cadres and supporters of the Left are getting confused. The distance between the Left and the people’s cause can only grow as a result of this. Such a shift, from the politics of mass action to manipulative opportunism, will cost the party heavily and not only in terms of electoral returns. Only the BJP and Ms Mayawati and Co. will have the reason to smile at the gift of an opportunity being offered to them by the comrades.
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SC pulls up states The
Supreme Court has pulled up the Centre and the states for their failure to enforce its ruling on mandatory filing of first information reports (FIRs) by the police. The Bench consisting of Justice B.N. Agrawal and Justice G.S. Sanghvi has sought status reports from the Union Home Ministry and the DGPs of all states on FIRs. The police is generally reluctant to register FIRs mainly because of two reasons. One, it wants to show a low crime rate; and two, it does not want to add more cases to its workload. However, by refusing to register an FIR, the police is not only violating the law but also denying the citizen his or her right to register crime and seek police help. Unfortunately, the police in the country is not citizen-friendly. It is notorious for inaction and non-cooperation. It either refuses to file an FIR or dilutes it to suit its own convenience. Though it is bound to register an FIR promptly, it tends to dodge it as far as it can. In July 2007, the apex court made prompt registration of FIRs compulsory. However, the Centre and the states have not enforced this ruling. The police can be forced to fall in line only if the government takes strict action against police officials for flouting the directive and by educating the people about their rights. The government, NGOs and advocates should undertake the responsibility of educating the people about the law in public interest. A police officer cannot refuse to register an FIR by raising doubts about the genuineness or otherwise of the information or complaint. This aspect arises only after the complaint is registered and investigated. If a police officer refuses to help, the citizen has various channels for the redressal of his or her grievance. He or she can approach the Superintendent of Police concerned, a magistrate or even a High Court judge for redress. An FIR can be filed even on behalf of the victim. The law also makes room for an FIR to be updated later. The Supreme Court is clear: The Centre and the states must ensure strict compliance of the law by the police and fix accountability on those violating it. Hopefully, the court’s wish will be taken as an order by the Centre and the states.
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Rains bring cheer The
monsoon this year has not been “near-normal” as the Meteorological Department had forecast; it has been excellent, setting even a record of sorts. The South-West region got the heaviest rainfall in June in 10 years and the momentum has not slackened in July. This augurs well for the inflation-hit people. A less-than-normal monsoon or a drought would have aggravated the pain caused by the relentless rise in the prices of commodities of daily use. Though governments may claim the credit for high growth, the hard fact is the country’s economy still heavily depends on the mood of the monsoon. Small wonder, therefore, that the prospects of a good kharif crop have spread cheer all round, especially among farmers. They did not have to spend as much on power and diesel this year as they used to. The Punjab government’s efforts to delay paddy sowing have also helped them. Though the cash-strapped Punjab State Electricity Board has been spared the trouble of purchasing power, the poor supply and unscheduled cuts in the hot and humid weather have angered citizens. The early and heavy rain, however, has caused discomfort to farmers in the cotton belt and vegetable growers in Himachal Pradesh. On the whole, the monsoon has been welcomed all over. This rainy season is bound to shore up the ever-sinking water-table. The process could accelerate if the government takes steps to harvest rainwater. Panchayats can be roped in to encourage the revival of ponds by evicting land mafias. Though there have been no reports of floods in the region, the administration at the district level has to gear up to meet any eventuality. Canals need to be cleaned up and repaired to avoid damage to crops from water overflows. The green cover in Punjab and Haryana has been shrinking fast. To make up for the loss of forest wealth, a campaign to plant saplings is still possible.
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Politics is supposed to be the oldest profession. I have come to realise that it bears a very close resemblance to the first. — Ronald Reagan
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Debasing national interest
We’re
not wheelers and dealers. We believe in the politics of national interest”. This gem, attributed to Samajwadi Party leader Amar Singh, set the tone for the countrywide use of the term “national interest”. It also set in motion the mechanics of a “political separation plan” distinct from the one distinguishing civil and nuclear facilities contained in the 123 Agreement with the US. Not long ago Mr Amar Singh had said that the NDA government fell on account of “feel good” and now the UPA ministry will fall due to “deal good”. This about-turn typifies the debasement of national interest by the political class. Media debates since the reshuffling of coalition partners in the run-up to the 123 Agreement have chorused for and against national interest as never before, the principal proponents being the political class which least understands its meaning. This class’s dharma and mantra is vote-bank politics to secure their personal, party and parochial interests. In politics, as they say, there are no permanent friends or enemies, only permanent interests regardless of how strange the bedfellows. Recent bed-swapping by politicians has further sullied the notion of national interest, which is being conveniently distorted to serve individual and group interests. Webster’s International Dictionary defines national interest as “the interest of a nation as a whole…separate from the interests of subordinate groups…” It is certainly not about settling political scores. Nor being able to get off the hook on corruption charges. The politicians’ redefinition of national interest is contrary to the core objective of the state: “the safety, security and honour of the country come first, always and every time…” So, how have some of our political leaders suddenly discovered national interest? The concept of national interest was frequently applied by Gen Pervez Musharraf ever since he seized power in 1999. By mixing politics with soldiering, he justified his every action in national interest (read personal and party interest). There are many others who can vie for similar honours. On the nuclear deal, Rahul Gandhi has asserted: “but in politics you have to take a stand in national interest.” National interest and national security are the two sides of the same coin. Electoral politics has changed the currency of national interest. The absurd drama of the nuclear deal and the 123 Agreement is driven by vote-bank politics in the run-up to the general elections rather than any modicum of national interest, which involves specific aspects of economic and strategic security. In trying to eat the cake and having it too, the government has further lowered the credibility of coalition politics and its concept of national interest. Unless national security is insulated from petty politics, national interest, which is the country’s comprehensive national strength for the wellbeing of its people, will never measure up to its real potential and calibre. Red lines need to be drawn through constitutional provisions or an all-party consensus to depoliticise defence and national security. Lip-service to national interest is not only dangerous but also dishonourable. It is slowly turning India into a passive state bleeding from self-inflicted wounds, surrounded by failed or failing states. The challenge of political stability is so daunting that even the country’s National Security Adviser is preoccupied with fixing electoral arithmetic rather than fixing interests inimical to India’s national security. We are displaying with profound finesse the historical trait of fighting each other instead of standing together to fight the rivals, nation’s adversaries and enemies. The threat from the enemy within has never been more pronounced than now. The debate whether we possess strategic culture or are hopelessly unstrategic will never end, but few recall a wasted asset: the cultural continuity of 5000 years. Everyone else except we ourselves recognise India as a regional power with the potential to become a world power. We are shy and diffident to acknowledge it. At a recent Hindustan Times summit, Mrs Sonia Gandhi dodged the question of India’s power potential, it’s hard and soft power. The reason is that so much of the government’s valuable time and energy are spent on appeasing its allies that it loses sight of bigger strategic allies who can help shape the destiny of the nation more constructively than the professed friends of the Left, Right and Centre. Sri Lanka’s President Mahinda Rajapakse has periodically stated that his country looks at India for political and economic leadership for regional cooperation. At one time, he stated that the challenge for Indian diplomacy was to demonstrate that India is not a threat but an opportunity in the region and that it should play an active role in preventing conflicts and stabilising the entire region. What he said was in everybody’s national interest. Some nations have changed history and geography. We’ve been unable to cope with both. Our troubled neighbourhood has inflicted huge instability sourced from the epicentre of terrorism in the West, the underworld of arms and drugs from the East, people’s war in the North and ethnic conflict in the South. No other country in the world is geographically so disadvantaged when it can actually profit from the periphery. It is in India’s national interest to shape the environment and destiny of smaller countries, but before that we have to manage the contradictions of internal stability. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has said more than once that Naxalites pose the single biggest threat to internal security. His government has been unable to devise and implement any demonstrable counter-Naxalite strategy. Instead, as more districts fall under the red flag, we are told that law and order is a state subject. With the slow Talibanisation of Bangladesh and Pakistan, the day is not far off when the suicide bomber from Islamabad’s Lal Masjid will mark its footprint around Lal Qila, Delhi. With the Naxal war cry of “Gher lebo Lal Qila”, the pincers could meet. That our political class and the bureaucracy are not serious about national security is in little doubt. Otherwise, the state of internal security would not have come to such a pass. We face with sickening regularity terrorist strikes, one major attack every quarter. Worse, we are clueless about the perpetrators. We are unable to forecast or forestall them. Let us be clear: India is not going to fight a conventional war in the foreseeable future, thanks to nuclear deterrence. The security forces are going to become embroiled in dirtier, messier and brutal counter-insurgency operations and counter-terrorism. In J&K, urban insurgency is likely to grow with the sophistry of terrorist attacks in the run-up to the state elections. The threats posed to India’s unity and territorial integrity are far greater from within than without. Given the nature of coalition politics in India, regional and sub-regional interests will tend to dominate larger national interests. The common minimum programme of any coalition government must spell out national security concerns and national interest above everything else. Otherwise, a repeat of internal squabbling over the 123 Agreement will play out again, undermining India’s credibility. The belated discovery by the Indian political class of national interest is unfortunately a blip on the
radar.
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Superstars of a different kind
Today’s
cricket fans cannot know the enormous distance that once existed between the players and their fans. Many of the game’s followers never saw their heroes in action, still the bond between the two was strong. They followed the game and its protagonists through the radio and newspapers, which in turn, boasted of their own superstars. Today, with the television bringing every action to their drawing rooms, the fans do not really need to read the reports in print. But before the advent of the satellite channel, cricket buffs of a bygone era followed the game closely through ball-by-ball radio commentary and reports in the newspapers the following day. Those were the days of superstars of radio commentators and writers of the game. The first known writer-superstar was Neville Cardus, whose cricket dispatches were pure literature. Describing the deadly speed of a fast bowler and the elegance of a slow spinner, Cardus compared the two to the velocity of an aeroplane and the sheer grace of an eagle in flight. During the 1950s to the 1970’s there were superstar writers like Jack Fingleton of Australia and Norman Yardley and Jim Swanton of England, all of whom had a large number of reader fans. There were superstar radio commentators like Alan David McGilvray of Australia and Brian Johnston of England. There was England’s John Arlott whose commentary flowed like a lyrical poem. In India, the late AFS Talyarkhan was both a superstar cricket commentator and writer. He is reputed to have given a running commentary solo on the radio for full five days of a Test match during the 1940’s. In 1973, writing about the exploits of touring England’s fast bowler John Lever, he wrote, “What India needs today is a Hindustan Lever.” His keen sense of pun gets a sharper edge by the fact that his column was being sponsored by the then Hindustan Lever for its Erasmic blade! There was the late S K Gurunathan who commanded his own fan following. In the 1960’s and the 1970’s England had at least two superstar cricket writers — John Woodcock of The Times of London and Ian Wooldridge of the Daily Mail. The late Wooldridge’s “Cricket Lovely Cricket” about the 1963 Frank Worrel’s West Indies tour of England is a classic on the game. The cricket Press Box also produced its own wit and humour that helped to bring lighter moments to the boredom of watching aimless tall scoring tame draws. On one such occasion in India, noticing some vultures hovering over the ground, an Indian correspondent wrote on a piece of paper, “John (addressed to Woodcock), do you know why the vultures are flying above? Because the pitch is dead,” and passed it on to the Englishman who uttered, “Good one that!” In 1974, former India opener Chetan Chauhan’s father startled the nation by filing a case against the cricket board in the Delhi High Court for not selecting his son for a Test match against the touring Sri Lankan team. The case was, of course, dismissed. Incidentally, Chauhan was selected for the next Test at Bombay. Sadly, the opener was bowled first ball by Sri Lankan pace bowler Tony Opatha. “Now, Chauhan’s father will file a case against Opatha,” cried a wit from the press
box!
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A lexical journey E JOSEPH is to Haryanavi what Hermann Gundert is to Malayalam and William Carey to Bengali. They all wrote the first dictionaries in these languages. The question would naturally crop up: Is Haryanavi a language? If you read Joseph’s Haryanavi-English, English-Haryanavi Dictionary* which begins with the author’s ‘grammatical notes’, you will realise that Haryanavi has all the characteristics of a language. Wherever he found difficulty in translating certain words which independently did not make sense but as part of a proverb made great sense, he gave a translation of the proverb itself. Angi (breast covering or bodies worn by married women) figures in the saying angi gail peti, man gail beti (A girl favours her mother as her bodice fits her bust). Altogether, he compiled 200 proverbs many of which have gone out of vogue. The reader will, therefore, find the book a great treat. The dictionary is, as the subtitle mentions, A Lexical Presentation of Language, Lore and Life of Haryana. Joseph’s labour had nearly gone waste as the manuscript had been gathering dust in the district records room of Rohtak when Prof K.C. Yadav, a friend of many years, stumbled upon it, edited and got it published last year under the aegis of the Haryana Institute of Public Administration, Gurgaon. It was released at the World Hindi Conference in New York last November. In Joseph’s time it was published as an article in the journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. Though a century has passed since the ICS official compiled the dictionary, it remains the only one of its kind in Haryanavi literature. Such is the author’s command of the language that it is difficult to believe that he spent only two years in Rohtak, which at that time comprised Jhajjar, Sonepat and parts of Rewari. His was not an easy task as Haryanavi differed from village to village. As Joseph says in his introduction: “The language spoken by the Rohtak Jats is called by themselves Jatu. One and the same language, with dialectical differences, almost imperceptible from village to village, is spoken throughout the Bangar or highlands lying between the Khadir of the Jamuna on the east and the Hisar-Sirsa tract on the west. The language is variously known in different parts as Bangaru, Jatu or Haryanavi. In Hariana it is called, appropriately enough, Deswali or Desari…” Prof Yadav who edited the book has identified six variants of Hindi used in Haryana. They are Bangru, also called Jatu or Haryanavi. “It is a form of Western Hindi, influenced in its vocabulary by Khari Hindi, Urdu and at places even Punjabi. The other dialects are Ambalavi, spoken in the districts of Ambala and Panchkula; Braja, spoken in a limited area of Palwal tehsil in Faridabad district; Ahirwati, spoken in the districts of Rewari, Mahendragarh, a part of Gurgaon and a small part of Bhiwani; Mewati, spoken in the district of Mewat and some parts of Faridabad and Gurgaon; and Bagri, a form of Rajasthani, spoken in some parts of Hisar and Sirsa adjoining Rajasthan and some parts of Loharu and Dadri tehsils of Bhiwani district. One reason why the officers of the period, English, Hindu or Muslim, found Haryanavi difficult to understand was, in Joseph’s words, “because of the neglect of Sanskrit and Hindi that is nowadays so prevalent. We are nurtured on the Persianised Urdu of the Munshi, and the language of the Higher Standard Hindustani is the polished language of Delhi city. Nothing is more useless for an understanding of the thought and wants of the villagers”. For present-day Haryanvis, some of the words in the dictionary would sound Greek. Many of the listings had something to do with the modes of cultivation used those days. For instance, atkadshi (eleventh day of either half of the lunar month) signifies the arrival of famine as this proverb says, “Sawan badi atkadshi gan garje adhi rat. Piya tun ja so Mave, ham jan san Gujrai” (If the clouds thunder at midnight on the 11th day of the dark half of Sawan, my husband you go Malwa, I’m off to Gujra). Some of the proverbs may appear Biblical like this one: “Auron ke updesh par, sabhi guru bharpur. Apne apne much par, sabhi ke dul” (In exhorting others, all men are full-blown saints. But every man has dust upon his own face.) This reminds the reader of the verse, “All men can see the mote in their brothers’ eyes, but not the beam in their own” The proverbs are all down to earth like this one, “Beahi daga dede, par bah daga na de” (Your wife may fail you, but your ploughing won’t, i.e., well-ploughed land is sure to give you return). A language is never static. Shakespeare wrote all his works using a total of 29,066 words. Now, English, the most cheerfully democratic language, has 616,500 entries in the Oxford English Dictionary. Yet, there are not more than half a dozen words to describe different types of rain in English – drizzle, downpour, shower, mizzle, heavy rain, light rain. In comparison, Joseph lists 13 Haryanavi words for rain like Bundha-Bandhi (a few drops), chaderbheej (light rain) and musladhar (drenching, straight rain). English has grown because it has always been willing to adopt, including an alphabet. Yet, in certain respects, English is still deficient. For instance, the word ‘you’ has only one synonym ‘thou’, whereas I myself can rattle off half-a-dozen Malayalam words with subtle variations in meaning. It is in this context that the father of Indian nationalism, Michael Madhusudan Dutt’s (1824-1873) poem quoted in the book makes immense sense: Studded with invaluable gems Is my own language Yet discarding them I roamed from land to land Like a merchant ship From port to port Then in dream one night The goddess appeared to tell me Your own language is full of wealth Why then have you turned yourself into a beggar? Why are you bereft of all the joy? Because of the growing and overpowering influence of Hindi and English on the people of Haryana, more and more Haryanavi words, proverbs and sayings are bound to be consigned to the dustbins of linguistic history. But this does not mean that Haryanavi is not a complete language as this book gently reminds the reader. *Published by Haryana Institute of Public Administration, 76, HIPA Complex, Sector 18, Gurgaon - 122 00, Pages 255, Rs 395
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Rich nations hit hardest by slowdown WASHINGTON – The global slowdown stemming in part from the deepening U.S. financial crisis is hitting the world’s richest nations the hardest even as emerging nations, some with once-fragile economies, are proving relatively resilient. Consider, for instance, Britain. A severe housing slump and credit crunch sparked a 63 percent drop in new British home mortgages in May compared with May 2007. Mirroring losses in the United States, the average home price in Britain fell to $344,704 in June, down 6.3 percent compared with June 2007, according to the Nationwide Building Society. The stock market in London slipped into bear market territory, joining New York’s. Contrast that with oil-fat Russia – a red-hot emerging market. As in many commodity-driven economies in the developing world, soaring energy revenue has largely insulated Russia, the world’s second-largest oil exporter, from the turbulence in global markets. Its gross domestic product is expected to grow 8 percent this year, and consumer spending continues to boom, with a 13 percent increase so far this year, according to Troika Dialog, a Moscow investment house. “We are overloaded with money, crazy amounts of money from the energy market,” said Mikhail Bergen, a professor at Moscow’s Higher School of Economics. It marks a global economic role reversal of sorts. When financial crises hit the Asian markets in the 1990s and Argentina in 2001, the aftershocks spread to other emerging economies, plunging several into recession while wealthy countries went relatively unscathed. Rather than taking its toll largely on residents of developing countries, this economic downturn may cause the greatest damage to those living in the wealthiest countries on earth. The U.S. economy and financial system are more closely linked to those in other wealthy nations, particularly in Europe, where rising inflation and the weak dollar are adding to growing trouble. The United States and Europe have “similar economies and share the potential problems of industrialized nations in terms of property price fluctuations and financials,” said Simon Johnson, chief economist at the International Monetary Fund. “And they find themselves sharing variable degrees of vulnerability.” As global wealth has shifted during the past decade, emerging markets have become not only increasingly stable but they have also been claiming a larger portion of the world’s riches than ever before. If Californians are rushing to withdraw money from banks there, the situation in Kenya is just the opposite: People are flocking to banks to open accounts. The Nairobi exchange, which lists mostly Kenyan companies and a handful of multinational firms, posted 10 percent gains in the three months ended in June as local and foreign investors flocked to the initial public offering of the cellphone giant Safaricom. “I don’t think there has been any impact,” said Peter Wachira, a manager with AIG Global Investment in Nairobi, referring to the market turmoil. “Where markets in developed countries have been going down, ours has been going up.” That does not mean the emerging world is buffered completely, particularly if both the United States and Europe slip into recession or if the financial crisis in the United States claims more and bigger financial institutions. And without question, sectors of emerging economies are already being stung. There is growing fear especially in the fastest-growing Indian technology markets, which include outsourcing, back-office operations and call centers. Those sectors are 70 percent dependent on the United States. Several Indian technology companies have slowed their hiring because of the U.S. economy’s slowdown. In May, industrial output was up 3.3 percent, half the 6 percent increase in May 2007. Exports in China – the darling of the 21st century economy – are also being hammered by slackening demand caused by the global slowdown and rising labor and material costs. It has slashed profit margins for many mid-size manufacturers from 15 to 3 percent. Many factories in nearby Guangdong province have closed their doors, and thousands of workers have lost their jobs. “We’ll just see who can survive this,” Chen said. Experts predict as many as one-third of export manufacturers will close in the next three years. Chinese exports to the United States have been flat this year and will likely experience a rare, overall decline by year-end, said Arthur Kroeber, managing director at Dragonomics, a research firm in Beijing. Yet experts said that might be exactly what China needs. A global slowdown – if tempered – could help China stage a soft landing for its breakneck economic growth. Yet in Europe and Japan, the situation is decidedly more gloomy. In Europe, which analysts once hoped would be a pillar of economic strength in the event of a U.S. recession, analysts are now warning of possible recession. The weakening dollar has made German chemicals and cars exceedingly expensive overseas – particularly in the United States – stinging the manufacturing industry in the euro zone’s largest economy. By arrangement with
LA Times-Washington Post
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Delhi Durbar The decision of the Left parties to vote against the UPA Government, has naturally brought it a few steps closer to the main opposition party, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) which has been dubbed as a communal anathema by the “secular” parties. Although they have been at two ends of the political spectrum, the BJP and the Left parties are found to be using not just the same language but ever so often the same phrases to defend their growing proximity. On Tuesday, BJP leader M. Venkaiah Naidu argued, “Just because I find Prakash Karat and Bardhan traveling in a train I board, should I get down immediately? CPM’s Sitaram Yechury had apparently used an identical phrase in a TV byte. There were other similarities too in the argument put forward by the two parties to explain why they were voting together. CPM chief Prakash Karat recalled how the Congress voted with the BJP to pull down the V.P. Singh government, then Deve Gowda and finally the Gujral government. The very next day Ravi Shankar Prasad used the same events in the same sequence in his press briefing. Not just that, their reactions to Reliance head Mukesh Ambani’s meeting with the Prime Minister was also identical. Both charged the PMO of involving the corporate sector in political machinations. Jail votes Realising that the trust vote in Parliament would prove be the proverbial cliffhanger, the UPA government deliberately fixed the date for the special session of Parliament for July 21 and 22, although there was an earlier suggestion that it should be held this week itself. The ruling coalition’s crisis managers apparently argued that they needed sufficient time to complete all the necessary formalities to enable their jailed MPs to make it for the crucial vote. Five MPs, who are sureshot UPA voters, are presently lodged in different jails. These include Rashtriya Janata Dal’s Mohammad Shahabuddin and Pappu Yadav, Suraj Bhan Singh of Lok Janshakti Party and Ateeq Ahmed and Afzal Ansari of the Samajwadi Party. The BSP has only one MP in jail while BJP MP Babubhai Katara, accused in a human trafficking case, is out on bail. Children’s wishes The Congress and the SP are not the only ones who want the Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee to stay. In fact, the ones who most genuinely want his continuation in office are the children of group C and D employees of the Lok Sabha Secretariat, who never had the opportunity to attend good, higher educational institutions. Starved of funds, they would often settle for cheaper options in education, till the time the Speaker started a scheme to reimburse their tuition fees. News has it that that close to 300 children of poor LS Secretariat employees have benefited from the scheme and moved ahead in life. They are all keeping their fingers crossed. Contributed by Faraz Ahmad, Anita Katyal and Aditi Tandon
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Joseph was an extraordinary polyglot, proficient in many European and Indian languages. When he was posted as Deputy Commissioner of Rohtak district (1910-1912), he found great difficulty in understanding the language spoken by the people. He set about compiling Haryanavi words and giving their meaning in English. He also chose some commonly used English words and gave their meaning in Haryanavi. His attempt was to make the life of his successors at Rohtak easier.