The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

PERSPECTIVE

Light of freedom
Fixing a new tryst with India’s destiny
by Jagmohan

Kuldip Dhiman

What happened in Parliament on July 22 and in Bangalore, Ahmedabad and Surat a few days afterwards and what is now happening at Jammu shows the direction in which Indian democracy has been moving during the past 61 years of the country’s Independence.

Things are truly falling apart, and no one seems to know how to collect the dismembered threads of the national fabric and reweave them into a strong and soothing texture.

In fact, the journey of Independence itself commenced on a false note. “At the stroke of mid-night when the world sleeps, India will wake to life and freedom”.

These historic words, spoken by Jawaharlal Nehru on the mid-night of August 14-15, 1947, have their own fascination. They sparkle with passion and poetry and enthrall a number of Indians even today.

But are these words true? Was the world sleeping or watching India? And did it wake up fully? In fact, most of the Indians slept in the darkness of their homes in distant towns and villages.

Some remained awake, not because they wanted to hold the lighted candle of freedom in their hands, but because they were trembling in fear with knives of blood-thirsty mobs around them.

The main architect of the freedom — the Father of the Nation, as he came to be called — looked lonely and forlorn. His “heart was burning” and he felt as if he had been “thrown into a fire-pit”.

The light of freedom about which Jawaharlal Nehru spoke so eloquently was too weak to pierce through the darkness created by the heaps of garbage which India had collected in its courtyard during the long period of social and cultural degeneration.

Standing over a pedestal, glittering with artificial lights, declarations could be made: “We would create a mighty India — mighty in thought, mighty in deeds, mighty in culture and mighty in service to humanity”.

But no one seemed to know, or even cared to know, how that “might” would be created or how those mountains of garbage would be swept away.

Poetic fancy and wishful thinking could create no more than a few luminous wings, which could flutter in the void, without flying. The atmosphere required for the wings to attain pressure to fly to “destiny” did not exist.

“It is a fateful moment for us in India”, said Nehru in the same speech. Undoubtedly, it was so. But it demanded more than idealism; it demanded “resolute practicality” to inject meaning and content in that idealism.

The beautiful and well-meaning angels like Jawaharlal Nehru could provide the inspiration; but this inspiration had to be accompanied by a strong and sustained action.

For declarations to get translated into ground realties, a powerful motivating force and a leadership with extraordinary courage and commitment was needed not only in the arena of politics but also in the intellectual, social, cultural and spiritual spheres.

Regrettably, neither the requisite motivating force nor the requisite leadership was
forthcoming.

India, at a momentous period of its history, failed to acquire a great inspiration and produce a great helmsman, who could churn the stagnant pools of the Indian society and remove its dirty mud and slush through constructive and fearless work.

It was a comparatively easy task to provide, by way of a liberal and democratic constitution, a pattern of polity whose aims and objectives were to create both purity and productivity in public life.

But it was difficult to inject the ethos of purity and productivity in the system. There was no one to undertake this task.

The clay of the people who had to run the system and the social and cultural environment in which it had to function essentially remained the same as before. And it did not take long for a fairly sound Constitution to look like a grammar of democratic anarchy in practice.

From the very first day of our Independence, the people in general and the national leadership in particular have developed a propensity to keep aside the hard crusts of problems and remain content with breaking softer grounds.

Even now, while chronic problems mount and infections in the system strike deeper roots, we continue to nurse illusions and derive satisfaction from short-term gains and outward glitter.

These days one often hears about India’s impressive foreign exchange reserves, its outstanding performance in the area of information technology, the rising volume of trade and a high rate of savings and investments.

But comparatively, little is said or done about the ever-widening income gap between the rich and the poor, worsening problems of unemployment and under-employment, continuance of acute poverty and malnutrition, a rapid increase in the number of squatters and slum dwellers in cities and sharp deterioration in the rural and urban environment.

Let me provide you with an insight into the agonising reality that 61 years long “tryst with destiny” has put in the lap of the nation. India today has the largest number of poor, the largest number of illiterate and the largest number of malnourished people in the world.

On account of the low purchasing power, over 250 million men, women and children go to bed hungry every day. One out of three Indian women is underweight.

About 40 per cent of total low-birth weight babies, under the age of five years, in the world are Indians. Fiftyseven million children of this age are undernourished; its percentage (48%) in this regard is even worse than that of Ethopia (47%). Six out of seven Indian women are illiterate.

In the cities, slums and squatters’ settlements have been proliferating, growing 250 per cent faster than the overall population. Mumbai with about 12 million living in such settlements has become the global capital of slum dwellings.

India is still reckoned as one of the most corrupt nations in the world. Terrorism, subversion and Naxal violence have brutalised the atmosphere and bloodied a substantial part of the Indian landscape. While the problems of internal security are mounting, the efficacy of governance has been going down.

What is more disconcerting than the depressing economic, social and political scene is the growing loss of whatever little is left of India’s ancient wisdom, its basic nobility, sense of balance and harmony and understanding of essential oneness of all elements of universe.

Of all the maladies from which India at the moment is suffering, it is the malady of inner decay that is the most serious.

It is the culture of casualness, callousness, corruption and conceit that now dominates the Indian public life instead of the much-needed culture of care, compassion, catholicity and commitment.

The inconvenient reality to which the nation has chosen to close its eyes is that, after the initial period of Independence, the post-1947 India has been badly let down by its people and by the leadership in almost all walks of life.

The Indian mind and soul have remained dry and are getting drier by the day. The super-structure erected upon such a mind and soul is bound to develop cracks. No wonder it has. These cracks, to a discerning eye, look ominously wide and dangerous.

The “tryst with destiny”, so poetically and so sincerely visualised on the night of August 14-15, 1947, has turned out to be a fantasy. India must revisualise its destiny and fix a new tryst with it.

The writer is a former Governor of J&K and former Union minister

Wit of the week

It was my game but I was getting hit on the counter-punch. Once I drew level, I tried to score but there was not much time. I was confident that I would win after the tie, but it was tough to say. God was with me.

— Boxer Akhil Kumar

Akhil is a terrific boxer. Vodopyanov (Russian world champion) changed strategy, even fighting like a south-paw sometimes. But Akhil gauged him well. It is a great victory for him, especially after he had trailed 2-6 against the world champion. He is capable of doing anything.

— Coach Gurbax Sandhu

We played our hearts out. It is heartbreak. But we got stuck with Roger Federer playing unbelievable tennis.

— Leander Paes

We came in as prepared as we could possibly be. We have always delivered, playing for the country. We haven’t delivered an Olympic medal yet.

— Mahesh Bhupathi

It is really hard to say how I am feeling and the truth is I am numb. I am very proud of this moment not only for myself but also for the country.

— Abhinav Bindra

Fantastic news (Abhinav Bindra’s win)…What a glorious gift for every Indian. Just finished our show in Chicago to a rousing reaction but nothing can top this news.

— Bollywood icon Amitabh Bachchan

We’ve been going through some tough times, with the bombings in Ahmedabad and the Kashmir issue, but Abhinav Bindra has brought a smile to all of our faces.

— Actor Rahul Bose

The pay out is not a new development. It has been factored in when Budget was prepared and the Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council and the Reserve Bank of India gave their estimates.

— Finance Minister P. Chidambaram

The problem, whatever the cause, whatever the reason, there is no place for violence in our society. There is no issue that does not lend itself to dialogue and reconciliation.

— President Pratibha Patil

We cannot think only for ourselves. We cannot think only about survival from day to day, from year to year and from one election to another.

— Prime Minister Manmohan Singh

OPED

Child soldiers
Children are often used in armed conflicts; why?
by Aftab Alam

The United Nation Security Council at its meeting held on July 17, 2008, expressed once again its strong and equal condemnation of the recruitment and use of children in armed conflicts, and of their killing, maiming, abduction, rape and other sexual violence against them.

The President of the council, Pham Gia Khiem, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs of Vietnam, reaffirmed the need for states to comply with their obligations under the Convention on the Rights of the Child and its Optional Protocols, and for non-state actors to refrain from recruiting or using children in hostilities.

In his opening statement, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon described the protection of children in an armed conflict as a litmus test for the UN and its member states, saying: “It is a moral call and deserves to be placed above politics.”

The active participation of children in hostilities is a disturbing factor—serious enough to justify the increasing attention the subject is receiving within the international community.

Children as young as eight are being forcibly recruited, coerced and induced to become combatants. Children drawn into violence are too young to resist and cope with consequences they cannot imagine.

Children participating in hostilities are a deadly threat not only to themselves, but also to the persons whom their impassioned and immature nature may lead them to shoot at. When the draft of the first protocol to the 1949 Geneva conventions was being introduced, the ICRC’s representative succinctly summarised the problem: “Too frequently children were used as fighting or auxiliary troops by a party to the conflict. Only too happy to make themselves useful and feeling that by doing so they were behaving like adults, children asked for nothing better.

“To take advantage of such feeling was particularly odious, for although children taking such action ran precisely the same risks as adult combatants unlike adults they did not always understand very clearly what awaited them for participating directly or indirectly in hostilities”.

According a report by the Coalition to Stop the use of Child Soldiers and endorsed by the UN, at any one time more than 3,00,000 children under 18 years, both boys and girls, are fighting as soldiers with government armed forces and armed opposition groups in more than 30 countries worldwide.

The participation of children in armed conflicts has become a common feature of new emerging armed conflicts in which there are regular armed forces on one side and guerrillas on the other. The changes in the nature of wars and military strategy have made children more vulnerable.

The recruitment of child soldiers is motivated by several reasons. Children from impoverished and marginalised backgrounds or separated from their families are most likely to become combatants.

According to a study by Graca Machel, child soldiers are recruited in many different ways — some are conscripted, others are press-ganged or kidnapped, and still others are forced to join armed groups to defend their families.

In many instances children are arbitrarily seized from streets, or even from schools and orphanages. Some children become soldiers simply to survive.

In war-ravaged lands where schools have been closed, fields destroyed and relatives arrested or killed, the report says, the gun is a meal ticket and a more attractive alternative to sitting home alone and afraid.

Children’s involvement in an armed conflict can extend from indirect help to actually taking up arms. While children might start out in indirect support functions, it does not take long before they are placed in the heat of the battle, where their inexperience and lack of training leave them particularly vulnerable.

Their participation in armed conflicts brings into focus two issues: first, whether children ought to be recruited into the armed forces; and second, whether they ought to be permitted to participate in armed conflicts.

The International Humanitarian Law responded to this issue in 1977 when two additional protocols to the 1949 Geneva Conventions were adopted. For both international and internal armed conflicts, the protocols establish 15 years as the minimum age of recruitment. This standard was reiterated in the Convention on the Rights of the child.

The most notable development in this regard was the adoption of the Optional Protocol (OP) on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict on May 25, 2000. The OP not only proscribes recruitment of children in armed forces but also requires that child soldiers recruited or used in hostilities contrary to the provisions of OP be demobilised, or otherwise released from service and that they be assisted in physical and psychological recovery and social reintegration.

The international law pertaining to children and armed conflicts has now moved from mere standard setting to being recognised as a crime.

The Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC) sets out “conscription or enlisting children under the age of 15 years into the national armed forces or using them to participate actively in hostilities” as a war crime.

Notwithstanding the law, children are still taking part in hostilities and continue to be innocent victims of armed conflicts. A wide range of concrete measures on the part of the international community become pertinently important in order to check the enrolment of children into armed conflicts.

To end their suffering it is essential that the provisions already in force be observed and upheld by the international community.

Further by making these rules as widely known as possible, genuine respect for the rights of children can be secured. Non-governmental organisations, religious groups and civil society in general can play important roles in establishing ethical frameworks that characterise children’s participation in armed conflicts as unacceptable.

The demobilisation of child soldiers should be encouraged. The media can prove useful in exposing the use of child soldiers and highlighting the impact of armed conflicts on children.

The writer teaches human rights at Aligarh Muslim University

On Record
‘A small issue blown up’
by Aditi Tandon

Ghulam Nabi Azad

On being appointed Chief Minister of the Congress-led coalition in Jammu and Kashmir three years ago, Ghulam Nabi Azad had said he would strengthen the ongoing peace process.

Three years later his government’s decision to transfer a piece of forest land to the Amarnath Shrine Board and its subsequent cancellation following Muslim protests across the valley has created a crisis that now threatens the very fabric of peace which Azad had sought to strengthen.

It has cost Azad his government and the state over 40 lives. He recounts what has happened and how, and voices a possibility of peace.

Excerpts from an interview:

How difficult is this time for you?

This is the most difficult time for me and everyone in the state. It is most unfortunate that a small issue has been made big. No one is ready to go into the merits of the case. If they did, it would be a win-win situation for all.

The issue is not small anymore; had you not anticipated its potential?

No one had anticipated this. The issue came to the Cabinet in routine and was passed as such. Forty per cent cases before the Cabinet these days relate to land transfers. This was one of the four cases before us that day.

The land under dispute, as per the first order, had to be given because in 2005 the then Forest Minister had given it to the shrine board. This order was cancelled as the required clearances had not been sought.

The cancellation was later challenged in the court which asked the government to give the land on a temporary basis for the construction of shelters during the Amarnath yatra. This order is still in vogue.

It was in this backdrop that the Forest Department, held by the PDP, sought all the required clearances before bringing the issue for Cabinet approval.

They moved the proposal and spent two and a half years getting clearances. The Cabinet note clearly said no permanent construction would be allowed and the land would vest with the government. There was nothing new in all this. This has happened for years.

In that case, why was the order revoked?

The cancellation order had nothing to do with the fall of the government; it was passed in the interest of peace. We had, in fact, expected support of the NC and the PDP on the land transfer issue - the NC as they were the ones who constituted the shrine board and provided for construction in the Act; the PDP because they initiated the proposal.

Neither of the two parties played their roles. Instead of becoming part of the solution, they became part of the problem.

The disinformation campaign was spread by elements looking for excuses to disturb the peace in the valley.

Moreover, the PDP announced withdrawal of support from the government while I was still in consultation with them. Having two major political parties ganged up, not telling people the truth, where was the option.

Do you think you could have handled the situation better?

I did my best. It is the unreasonable elements that don’t want to see through the second cabinet order, which is fully loaded in favour of the yatris. We revoked the first order but in effect took upon ourselves to provide safe logistical support and infrastructure to yatris.

The government further decided to create infrastructure right from Jammu along both routes to the shrine. This involved a stretch of 450 km. We had expected a backlash from other communities but not from the beneficiaries of our order.

How do you see the security situation in J&K?

We are concerned. Pakistan is taking full advantage of the situation. The Amarnath Yatra Sangharsh Samiti should realise this and come forward for unconditional talks. Also it is the most shameful that the BJP is seeing in this crisis an opportunity to muster political support.

If they are interested in politics, there are other sways of gaining support. They should not divide Hindus and Muslims, and the region. For our part, we are telling people the truth. But the Samiti and the Hurriyat will keep the pot boiling.

What is the solution then?

The yatra is almost over. For 10 months now, there is no issue. It will come up next June. For solutions, dialogue is the only way forward. The government and the Shrine Board are not standing on any prestige in the matter.

The Sangharsh Samiti should realise that sensitive issues can’t be resolved on petty egos. They should come forward unconditionally with proposals acceptable to all. We can have more people on the negotiating table if they want. That would be in addition to the committee appointed by the Governor.

Profile
Monica: Wounded innocence
by Harihar Swarup

Weightlifter Monica Devi’s exit from Beijing Olympic was indeed unfortunate. Who knows she might have won a medal for India ? There are, after all, more than 300 gold medals alone on offer , besides silver and bronze.

Very few knew Abhinav Bindra before he clinched a gold medal for his country at the Olympics and caught world headlines.

Monica’s talent too might have come to the fore had the dope controversy not cut short her promising career. She was, after all, picked up for the Olympics from among hundreds of aspirants. Incidentally, she was the lone lifter from India to have been selected for the Beijing games.

Monica was stopped from going to Beijing on August 6 at the eleventh hour after she tested positive for a banned substance. Three days later she was cleared of any wrong-doing by the Sports Authority of India but it was too late by then. The IOA’s request for allowing her to participate in the weightlifting event was turned down by the International Weightlifting Federation.

What was the test for which Monica was found positive ?

The National Dope Laboratory, in its report to the Indian Weightlifting Federation, simply listed it as “endogenous (originating from the body) steroid”.

By not naming the substance, the laboratory complicated the matter for the SAI and the Sports Ministry.

Strangely, the lab, instead of reporting an adverse analytical finding, put Monica through “a longitudinal study” (where urine samples are tested at least three times unannounced, spread over a three-month period).

Three more samples were thus collected. There was no mention in the report whether these tests were “positive” but they were believed to be “negative”.

According to Monica’s former coach, Deodutt Sharma, everybody with basic knowledge knew what were banned drugs. “Only a fool will take such a thing knowingly just ahead of Olympics”.

Having been associated with Monica for sufficiently long time, he did not believe that her trainee would take a drug. It may be a coincidence but Monica’s husband too was a qualified coach and had given lessons to her in weightlifting.

Now that Monica has been absolved of the dope charge, who will compensate her for the mental agony and humiliation she had to undergo?

“I am innocent, shoot me if proven wrong”, she had reportedly told the sports authorities. Manipur-born Monica made it to the Indian Olympic squad after great efforts, coming from a middle-class family.

In its 112-year-long journey of Olympics, India has not won any medal in individual events till Bindra came on the scene and won for India its first gold medal.

A number of reasons are stated to be behind India’s poor performance, but negligence the IOC is the prime one. For the Olympics team selection, almost every time the IOC comes under a scanner and causes much hue and cry in the country.