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You did
it, Mr Advani Farmers
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Counterfeit
damage
Understanding
Jinnah
High-level
fishing!
Bangladeshis
in North-East Death stalks Indian
roads Chatterati n Malvika’s ‘Delhi’
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Farmers need help
The
Centre should compensate paddy growers in Punjab as they have not allowed the crop to fail despite a poor monsoon and insufficient power and canal water supply. They have not let down the Centre in its efforts to collect grains for the pool and hold the already high food prices. Whether that sense of gratitude takes the shape of a one-time bonus or some other form of relief is for the Centre to decide. But it is the maize and cotton growers who really should be encouraged for staying away from paddy, which is playing havoc with the state’s declining water resources. Though farmers do need help for boldly facing a difficult situation, they should understand the price the state pays for growing paddy. According to the Akali-BJP delegation, which met the Prime Minister and the Agriculture Minister last week to seek a “drought relief package” of Rs 7,410 crore, the paddy growers should get Rs 4,400 crore relief. This excludes the cost of groundwater. The state electricity board needs Rs 1,420 crore for diverting power from the industry and the domestic consumer. Going by the Central definition of drought, no Punjab district is entitled to relief. Ninety-seven percent of Punjab’s cropped area is under assured irrigation. What the state and the Centre should ponder is whether growing paddy is desirable in Punjab and Haryana, where the water table has sunk worryingly low. The paddy MSP disregards hidden costs, including the cost of installing a submersible pump, which comes to Rs 80,000 a set. The long-term consequences of the depleting water resources and neglect of proper water management and rainwater harvest are not understood. By giving free power to farmers, the government encourages the wastage of power and water and loses revenue too. Punjab has to learn to manage its finances better and strengthen its own natural calamities fund instead of looking up to the Centre for bailouts.
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Counterfeit damage
The
RBI has tried to allay growing public fears over fake currency by stating that only four notes out of 10 lakh are fake. While the number may not be too large to trigger a nation-wide panic, it is still a cause for consternation. That the RBI itself is perturbed by the menace of fake currency is evident from the fact that only a few days ago it had issued an appeal to banks warning them of counterfeit currency notes of Rs 1000 denomination in circulation. India has been trying to fight the sinister design of those who are trying to weaken the nation through “economic terrorism”. Time and again it has been exposed how fake currency is used to not only destabilise the nation but also to fund terror. The CBI’s revelation that the “secret template” used to print currency notes has been compromised proves that the rot runs deep. The Anti-Terrorist Squad recently seized a cache of fake notes in Mumbai. Several other rackets have been busted. The Gujarat ATS has even claimed a breakthrough. But the smuggling of fake currency into the Indian economy continues unabated. The RBI has taken several steps like double scrutiny of notes put in the ATMs and setting up of Forged Note Vigilance Cells. According to the RBI’s annual report, the detection of counterfeit banknotes has shown a rising trend. However, much more needs to be done. Note sorting machines proposed to be set up in a phased manner at the 70,000 bank branches must be installed with greater urgency. While the move not to file an FIR against ordinary persons found in possession of a maximum of five fake currency notes is appreciable, those involved in rackets must not be shown any leniency. With Pakistan-based terror groups believed to be behind the pumping of fake currency into India, the government should take up the matter with it.
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There’s a man all over for you, blaming on his boots the faults of his feet. — Samuel Beckett
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Understanding Jinnah
Mr Jaswant Singh’s expulsion from the BJP for writing a book on India’s Partition and Jinnah’s role raises a number of issues. First is the manner in which it was done. He was conveyed the decision by party President Rajnath Singh on the telephone when he arrived at Shimla for the Chintan Baithak of the party which he was asked not to attend. Could this not be done before he left Delhi? Or he could be dropped from attending the meeting like Mr Yashwant Sinha and Mr Arun Shourie. Why were normal courtesies like issuing a show-cause notice not extended to him even if it might not have made any difference to the eventual decision? The manner in which the decision was made and conveyed shows signs of nervousness that has overtaken the BJP leadership. The ban on Mr Jaswant Singh’s book by the Modi government, which has been challenged in the Supreme Court, is also unjustified. The right to dissent is the essence of democracy. Leaving aside procedural matters, the continuation of the author in the BJP had become untenable. For it defies the national mood, more so of an ultra-nationalist party like the BJP. Why is he disowned by the entire nation? Was Jinnah solely responsible for Partition of India? How far the situation was favourable for his success? Mr Jaswant Singh’s book is not known to have shed any new light on these basic questions. Apparently, it seemed to be a miracle how a person almost single-handed succeeded in creating the largest Muslim country in the world. According to historian Percival Speer, “alone he did it.” In fact, he did it in spite of a number of handicaps. He belonged to the Agha Shahi sect of Shia Muslims, who have never played a significant role in the Indian subcontinent. He was one of the loneliest persons in private and public life. His marriage with a Parsi damsel, Rittubai, turned out to be an unhappy one which was soon terminated. Till 1930 he remained on the margins of Indian politics and left India in disgust to practice law in England. He returned in 1934 when Liaquat Ali Khan and his newly wedded wife, on a honeymoon to London, met him and invited him back to India. He had contempt for the personality and practices of Gandhiji, for his austere life and extra-constitutional methods like satyagrah. He opposed the Quit India movement launched by Gandhi and his campaign against War efforts, which must have endeared Jinnah to the British government. He was fond of good things in life and liked choicest whisky and cigars. He was, indeed, the best-dressed man in the public life of the country. He did not know much about the precepts and practices of Islam and was, for all practical purposes, a non-practising Muslim. He could not speak Urdu, and delivered his speeches in English. Nor did he have any interest in books, literature, music or art. His opportunity came in 1939 when the elected Congress governments in seven states resigned in protest against the declaration of war by the British government against the Axis Powers on behalf of India without consulting its leaders. The Muslim League led by him organised Deliverance Day in protest against the injustices done by the Congress government to Muslims. Within a year he sought “deliverance of Muslims”, and when India became independent, he succeeded in carving out a separate Muslim country called Pakistan. He achieved it within seven years. Having opposed extra-constitutional methods so far, he gave a call for direct action on August 16, 1946, when pent-up feelings of Muslims got an outlet leading to clashes with Hindus at many places. A chain of action and reaction of communal riots spread in many parts of North India. For the first time, this brought the demand for Pakistan into the limelight. Muslim sentiments, Jinnah himself had remarked, were like soda water which rose and subsided in no time. He struck when it had risen. How far the grievances and apprehensions of Muslims, the role of Hindu nationalists and the part played by the British government are responsible for the creation of Pakistan may be debatable. But it hardly solved any Muslim problem. The Pakistan movement was weakest in the areas that now comprise Pakistan. In this context, Dr Iqbal’s letter to Jinnah is very relevant. In his letter Dr Iqbal wrote, “Confine the movement for Pakistan to north-western parts of India on the basis of common culture apart from being Muslim majority and leave Muslims where they are in minority to settle their terms with Hindus.” He invited Jinnah to shift to Lahore and concentrate his activities in the region, and offered to help him. The most significant fact for the Pakistan movement is that it was launched in the name of a religious community and not a religion as such. Jinnah never used verses from the Quran or Islamic idiom. In fact, all kinds of ulema, including those associated with the Jamiat-ul-Ulema-e-Hind and Islamic scholars like Maulana Azad, were allies of the national movement led by Gandhi. Even the Jamaat-e-Islami of Maulana Maudoodi was opposed to Pakistan. Jinnah represented the modern, educated, mostly the salaried class, traditionally loyal to the British crown. Interestingly, Jinnah’s Hindu counterpart, Vir Savarkar, too, was not a religious person. He was a self-professed atheist. He had said in 1937, “There are two nations in the main, the Hindu and Muslim in India.” Their followers were responsible for unprecedented massacres and large-scale migration from the two newly created dominions, and not the followers of Mahatma Gandhi, Maulana Azad, Abdul Ghaffar Khan and Sheikh Abdullah. The moral of the story of Partition is that identities exclusively based on religion led to clashes between them. The religious personalities mentioned above equally claimed their Indian or regional loyalties. In fact, no single identity can satisfy all human urges; it rather suppresses them and makes its followers fanatic and intolerant. It becomes a threat not only to others but also hurts their own interest. Multiplicity of identities ensures full growth of their personality and links them with other communities also. This has a lesson for the current war against what is called Islamic terrorism. Taliban activists, for instances, are not merely Islamic fanatics. The Pashtun community, which is the ethnic base for them, had most ardent followers of Gandhi. It is partly due to the suppression of their Pashtun urges, by denying their urge for autonomy which was promised to them, that they sought an outlet in Islamic terrorism. The same is true about Baloch
urges. The writer is Director, Institute of Jammu and Kashmir Affairs, Jammu.
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High-level fishing! OK, calm down, please”, I said, “don’t get too excited”. They were a bunch of anti-corruption boys who had dropped in, pleading, “sir, please give us some valuable tips on fishing”. The Prime Minister has just delivered an inspiring speech on corruption, asking them not to let the “big fish” escape their nets. In the next few minutes, they were briefed about the differences between fishing in ponds, rivers and the sea. I also focused on new varieties of fishing rods, nets, trawlers etc. “But I never fished in the sea, sir”, cried a new recruit, “I know of village wells only”. The boss of the bunch, who constantly toyed with a fancy whistle, assured: “Don’t worry, my boy, we will send you to the sea soon. It is our custom to send raw hands like you to expose corruption of big leaders and top bureaucrats — everybody concerned feels comfortable, you see. In their company you also become seasoned in the real sense. Promotions follow quickly”. I continued to explain how to pull a big fish to shore if and when it’s caught in the net. “The problem, sir, is that the nets emit a greasy substance the minute they touch water” interrupted a veteran, “the big fish also spew out vast quantities of grease continuously. So, even when we catch them with great difficulty, they slip out from our custody smoothly because of the heavy grease. What to do sir?” “Design and manufacture safe fishing nets yourselves. Go abroad on study tours and…” their spontaneous applause drowned my words. The door opened. Bhai Saab, a friend and a leader of sorts, sauntered in. “I came to know that these intelligence people were calling on you”, he smiled, “just wanted to say hello to them”. “But, this is supposed to be a secret meet”, protested a greenhorn. The seniors guffawed. The boy would learn by and by, they said. Whistle-blowers were of different kinds, they said, present every where. “Oh, yes indeed”, nodded the boss, flaunting the whistle. “I wave this often in public, and also blow it frequently — just to inspire and attract whistle-blowers. I also ensure life insurance cover for such informers. Martyrdom should be rewarded properly”. Bhai Saab was delighted. He came there mainly to fix up contracts concerning future martyrs. “We will also set up martyrs’ statues in consultation with Mayawati behanji”, he declared. “Sir”, asked a middle-aged officer, “should we continue catching small fish?” “Of course, my dear”, I assured him. “The peon caught red-handed for taking Rs 50, the patwari with Rs 500, the clerk with Rs 1,000 — after all, these are the cases that boost public confidence and keep media people in good humour. Stories on never-solved huge scams serve our noble public — just the way the never-ending television soaps do. Keep it up, boys, do your duty…” The team marched out happily, and the boss blew his whistle once
again.
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Bangladeshis in North-East The
Government of India’s initiative to develop a Unique Identification Number for every Indian under the leadership of Nandan Nilekani is a master stroke. Yet, I am not sure it would be able to conclusively deal with the issue of citizenship, which is extremely sensitive and complex in the North-East, especially in Assam. Despite a border fence, migrants still come for economic purposes, to work and earn a living. While it is clear that some of the movement is temporary — of people going back and forth for work, especially as unskilled labour — but another part of it is permanent, with people leaving their homes with the intention of setting up a new residence. Some move to Assam and then travel to other parts o the North-East and go to different parts of India. An elaborate process of travel touts and organisers helps this movement. There are an estimated 15 to 20 lakhs illegal migrants in Assam and no law or government is strong enough or determined enough to “throw them out” as agitators would have them do. It is not as easy as it sounds: the concentration of migrants, the mixing with local communities (also Muslim and originally Bengali speakers who have adopted Assamese as their new language) and the dangers of communal clashes/ trouble leading to major law and order situations are the very reasons why no government in Delhi or Assam over the past 20 years, despite spewing hot rhetoric, has been able to do anything substantial about it. No government wants to create a law and order problem for itself — and there are not less than estimated 20 million Bangladeshis in India: to put this figure in proportion, it represents 12 per cent of Bangladesh’s population or one-third of Assam. Mr Nikelani’s commission must consult the old registers and lists related to citizens, settlers and voters. This is a huge, thankless and elaborate task, which assumes greater significance because still we do not know how many refugees India hosts or how many are migrants or illegal migrants. After all, who will be entitled to the UIN? How would you diffentiate between a foreign national who claims Indian citizenship and a bona fide Indian? There should be a National Immigration Commission, but there should be ID cards for all residents in the region based on the National Register of Citizens of 1951 and then Work Permits for all who have come after 1971. There is an agreement at the bilateral level between India and Bangladesh of 1972 on the position on citizenship as well as the agreement between New Delhi and the All Assam Students Union in 1985 that laid down conditions for allowing the pre-1971 migrants to vote and also said that those who came after 1971 would be identified and deported. This has not happened because of the illegal migratnts determination by tribunal law of 1983, which was designed to protect settlers and applied only to Assam, was in place until the Supreme Court threw it out as ultra vires of the Constitution three years back. The Centre resorted to subterfuge by amending the Foreigners Tribunal Order to make the relevant part applicable only to the Assam Government but that too was struck down by the apex court. In the process a lot of time has been wasted. Yet, despite the emotions that the issue of migration arouses, it is important to look at innovative ways in which the border management and migration regulatory regimes need to be made practical. Thus, the proposed work permits would not be an acceptance of permanent settlement nor would it confer the right to vote; it would confirm the temporary status of migrants and ensure they would not be eligible to the rights of a citizens — to acquire immovable property, move elsewhere in the country, marry locally and exercise franchise. The significance of the work permits cannot be stressed enough — the Government of India plans to spend a staggering Rs 55,000 crore on developing road infrastructure in the North-East in the next few years. That will require labour — which does not exist. The Arjun Sengupta Commission on Unemployment in the Unorganised Sector said that 23 lakh workers would be required by 2015. The North-East has bare three lakh. Where is the balance going to come from? No points for guessing: from other labour-producing parts of India, and probably Bangladesh. Border management is crucial in a region which has 96 per cent of its borders with other countries and 4 per cent with the rest of India. In that process, the classification of the outflow from Bangladesh as a labour flow may help. We need to be clear about some of these issues as rhetoric misleads and fudges the real point. While Constitutional guarantees must be provided to the locals with a majority of seats in the state assembly reserved for them in perpetuity, Mr Nilekani has his work cut out for him as far as the North-East is concerned. It is our hope that some of the points given above will help in the process of developing a robust and realistic plan that silences doomsday
pundits.
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Death stalks Indian roads Not
a day passes when the media does not report tragic deaths in road accidents. On August 26 six pilgrims returning from Vaishnodevi were killed and four others seriously injured. Two days earlier five members of a family on their way to Haridwar to immerse ashes died in an accident near Mandi Gobindgarh. The deceased were travelling in a car when it slammed into a stationary truck-trolley at around 3 am on the Grand Trunk Road. The same day one woman was crushed under the wheels of a jeep driven by a police officer near Jind in Haryana. In Jammu and Kashmir six persons were killed in different road accidents in Udhampur and Doda districts, while three Malaysian tourists died in Leh district. Last year, in Chandigarh alone 146 people lost their lives while 440 were injured. Till May 16 this year, a total of 54 persons were killed in road accidents in the city while 105 persons were grievously hurt. How devastating for the bereaved families and friends! Punjab tops in the number of road accidents and casualties. As many as 1,765 persons were killed in road accidents till June this year. Loaded buses either roll down the roads, fall into canals or meet accidents on unmanned railway crossings. These are becoming a routine. How cheap is human life! The authorities have almost given up the effort, leaving it to fate. Punjab lost on March 29 a gentleman politician, Capt Kanwaljit Singh, in a road accident near Kharar. While Punjab politics will never be the same again without this public man, the government has done little to improve this killer road stretch. It continues to devour innocent travellers. Casualties in road accidents in Uttarakhand up to July 21 this year have touched 150. In a single day in Dehradun district 10 persons were killed. This is a grim reminder of the abysmal condition of vehicles and roads. All over the country the situation is depressing. More traffic, bad roads, poor driving sense, ill-maintained vehicles, lax traffic rules and drunk driving are some major reasons. Road rage often leading to deaths speaks ill about us as tolerant citizens. Indians can be rated as the most irresponsible people as far as road sense is concerned. The National Crime Records Bureau’s latest figures show that close to 1.15 lakh people were killed in 4.18 lakh road accidents in India in 2007, the latest year for which data has been released. This was the second highest number of road casualties in the world, second only to China. Estimates for 2008 suggest close to 1.3 lakh deaths. India now tops this unfortunate global list in road accidents, which account for about 10 per cent of the world’s total. And, we are yet to have the number of cars like America and other European countries. As usual, as one study revealed, a substantial number of road accident victims are paedestrians, cyclists and two-wheeler riders. Two out of three road fatalities in the urban areas are of paedestrians. It is indeed an intolerable situation. The senseless loss of innocent human life is easily avoidable. There is callousness in the way vehicles are driven on roads. Witness Chandigarh and see how youngsters speed up on motor cycles and in cars. Notably, these fatalities are a result of a deep flaw in the way our cities and roads are planned, built and operated, besides how we drive. Urban areas in India have grown haphazardly, with poor municipal or government oversight. There is an unmanageable pressure on civic services and urban infrastructure. Also, there is a systematic denial of services and resources to the poor. The rich continue to corner all for themselves. Can any paedestrian dare cross over at any point any of the busy roads like Madhya Marg or Dakshin Marg? He must hire an auto or car to go across the road. Urban transport policy in our country is skewed in favour of one class of roads users, the car-owners. A study about Delhi shows cars transport only one of five road users while they dominate three-fourths of the road space. There is a massive increase in private vehicles, adding to traffic clogging. The average vehicle speed in cities is 22 km per hour. To address this challenge, urban development agencies have rushed to widen roads and build flyovers, neglecting the public transport. The recent policy changes to have buses and metro rail transport are only in a few major cities. These are not adequate and do not ensure equal opportunity of mobility for all. Our city roads are increasingly losing footpaths to the widening of roads under pressure from car owners. Paedestrian crossings are being reduced. Car users often bully paedestrians by pushing them off the roads through aggressive driving and parking on footpaths, all against traffic rules. Visit Chandigarh to comprehend this. The stress on improving the mobility of only one class of road users by widening roads and building flyovers implies grabbing common urban resources for the use of one tiny class of citizens. Are we not aware that over a large number of the poor and middle-class people travel in the cities by walking or using the public transport? Loss of human life apart, the economic cost is colossal. According to a study done by Forbes magazine (July 2009) in 2000, the cost of road accidents was Rs 55,000 crore, or 3 per cent of the GDP. This often quoted number comes from Dinesh Mohan, a professor at IIT, Delhi. He extrapolated this number to 2000 by taking into account higher fatalities (85,000) and increased cost of living. If we extrapolate this to 2007, when the cost of living had risen by 39 per cent, the total cost exceeds Rs 1 lakh crore. The real toll — fatalities are under-reported by 5 per cent and injuries by half — could push the numbers even higher. Make roads accessible to all users, build safe footpaths and enforce the laws. Introduce road safety audits. And build rapid bus transit system; provide dedicated lanes for buses, cyclists, paedestrians and
cars.
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Chatterati It
is refreshing to see a Chief Minister excited about a tiny dance group from his state taking part in a reality show. He explains how one evening his staff at home got a CD and forced him to watch it with them. It is about some very talented people who formed The Prince Group. This group is from a small town, Behrampur, in Orissa and consists largely of the disadvantaged. The Prince Group managed to enthral the judges, the audience and millions of viewers with their beautiful and original dances on a TV show “India’s Got Talent”. These handful of labourers also have two participants in the group who are victims of polio. The Chief Minister was so impressed by this group from his state that he was requesting all to vote for these construction workers with humble backgrounds. The prize money of Rs 50 lakh is going to be used to bring out more talent from Orissa. They are going to set up a dance academy and for them Patnaik announced a cash prize of Rs 1 crore and four acres of land to build this dance academy. The 26-member troupe will now be sent to London and New York. The Chief Minister has also written to the Sports Minister for the group’s participation in the cultural programmes during the 2010 Common Wealth Games. Hard work and commitment have got them here but it’s very rare to see a rags-to-riches story and yet rarer to see that the prize money goes back to help others. For Navin Patnaik, it was like a proud father showing off his very talented children to the world. Imagine a Chief Minister walking around with a CD and explaining to his friends excitedly about the dance performance and then just saying in the end if you enjoyed them and you think they are the best, please vote for them. Now we know how Naveen did a hatrick by winning this election.
Malvika’s ‘Delhi’ Delhi sometimes looks like a capital of intellectuals because there is a book launch almost every week. But the launch of Malvika Singh’s “Delhi” was refreshingly different. It was attended by a mix of politicians, bureaucrats and media personalities. It was a houseful at the Imperial Hotel. The book was released by the Prime Minister’s wife, Gursharan Kaur, and Sheila Dikshit. Malvika was nervous but was reassured by the warmth towards her by close friends in the room. Gursharan Kaur was happy to be a smiling presence and mingled comfortably with a host of Delhi’s movers and shakers. You had Kapil Sibal; Delhi’s local MP greeting Praful Patel; and Isher Ahluwalia, who chatted merrily with Renuka Chowdhary and her supermodel daughter. Malvika Singh, the author, certainly knows Delhi, the imperial bits of it rather well. Her husband after all is the grandson of one of the builders. With photographs researched painstakingly by Pramod Kapoor, who for the first time, mixed his roles as the publisher and the researcher and produced a stunning visual documentary. Rudrangshu Mukherjee gave the historic and Bengali link to this rather capital book. The lady, who has made modern New Delhi what it is, Sheila Dikshit was the perfect choice for releasing the book. She lauded the book’s efforts to bring alive the history of a city that needs to look back even as it looks ahead. This theme was also picked up by Malvika Singh in her brief remarks. Pramod and Rudrangshu sensed the mood of the crowd and intervened only briefly to share their views on the making of this
town.
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Corrections and clarifications n
The page 3 headline (August 29) should read as “Dimpy alleges threats by Virk’s men” (and not “claims threats from”). n
A headline on the J and K page says “Omar Abdullah assures steps to revoke AFSPA” (August 28). The correct usage is “Omar Abdullah assures assembly (or House) steps…”. n
It is “Admission to…” and not “Admission into professional colleges” as published on page 3, August 28. n
Instead of “Students celebrate at Punjabi University…” the page 2 photo caption in Chandigarh Tribune (August 28) should read as “Students celebrate their victory at Punjabi University…”. n
The headline “Nudity is not sexuality” is not apt (Lifestyle, page 3, August 28). It should be “Nudity is not obscenity”. n
A photo caption on the sports page has got published as “Am match in progress at Sanawar” (August 29). “It should be “A match…”. Despite our earnest endeavour to keep The
Tribune error-free, some errors do creep in at times. We are always eager to correct them. This column appears thrice a week — every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. We request our readers to write or e-mail to us whenever they find any error. Readers in such cases can write to Mr Kamlendra Kanwar, Senior Associate Editor, The Tribune, Chandigarh, with the word “Corrections” on the envelope. His e-mail ID is kanwar@tribunemail.com.
H.K.
Dua
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