The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

Flipflop on Karmapa
Questions about currency, land remain

THE flipflop in Himachal Pradesh on the Karmapa issue is intriguing. On Friday, Chief Secretary Rajwant Sandhu gave him a clean chit and categorically stated that Karmapa Ogyen Trinley Dorje is “the religious head of a sect and he is not involved in any kind of illegal activity like money laundering and benami land deals. As such, there is no question of the state making a recommendation to the Centre to deport him. He is a religious leader and free to undertake his religious activities, in which the state government will not interfere in any way”. She also added in good measure that the state had not received any communication from the Centre to go slow in the matter and the government was acting on the basis of the investigations being carried out by its own agencies.

But the very next day, Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal said in Dharamsala that the matter relating to the foreign currency, including a large amount of Chinese yuans, was being investigated by the central and state investigating agencies. He hastened to add that he had neither pronounced the Karmapa guilty nor given him a clean chit. Not only that, he also said that “the benami deals of the Tibetans are also being probed”. His response was in line with his earlier statement that the recovery of the Chinese currency was a serious matter and he would take up the issue with the Centre to probe the Chinese links. But the Chief Secretary said quite the opposite. One does not know whether to believe the Chief Minister or the Chief Secretary.

Everyone is curious to know whether Chinese followers visit the monastery in such large numbers that they can donate millions of yuans. If the money was “donated” by only a few people in large volumes, then it is all the more necessary to find out their names. There is also the question of several benami land deals. Even if the Karmapa was not in the know about these, his close aides certainly were and if they broke the law, they are liable to punishment.

Farmers’ suicides
Akali govt loses interest in survey

WHEN Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal announced recently that he would devote the last year of his government to completing unfinished projects, one thought he was serious, especially when the Shiromani Akali Dal proposed to seek votes in the coming elections on the issue of development. But the news report that the task of counting suicides by debt-ridden farmers in the state, entrusted to three universities at the behest of the Chief Minister himself, has been hit by a fund crunch speaks volumes about the widening gap between the ruling coalition’s promises and performance.

There is no doubt that the issue is important. Farmers constitute the Akali Dal’s vote bank. The party boasts of championing the cause of farmers and provides them free power at a huge cost to the exchequer. Since the survey has not even begun in earnest, there is no question of the SAD-BJP government providing compensation to the bereaved families before its term ends. In fact, there is no tradition in the state on compiling data on important issues. The number of unemployed youth is anybody’s guess. No one knows how many jobs are created or lost during the tenure of the present government.

The problem is not lack of money, but lack of sense about how to use the state’s limited resources for public welfare or development. The government has enough money to splurge on ministerial luxuries, including trips abroad. Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal claims a sharp increase in tax collections. Disregarding the basic rules of planned expenditure, the Chief Minister distributes cash at his “sangat darshan” (meet-the-people) programmes. In the absence of any credible data about distressed farmers, the state got no relief from the Centre’s offer to waive farmers’ debt totaling Rs 60,000 crore made in the Union Budget for 2008-09. The Akali leaders keep alleging discriminatory fund allocation by the Centre but fail to get or use Central funds available to all states on the basis of clearly laid down preconditions.

Thought for the Day

Education is what remains after one has forgotten what one has learned in school.

— Albert Einstein

ARTICLE

New era in Arab world
India must be seen on history’s right side
by Harsh V. Pant

Finally, the uprising in Egypt has led to mighty Hosni Mubarak becoming history. The end came rather suddenly for Mr Mubarak who even 24 hours before his resignation was claiming that he won’t be leaving office anytime soon. But after 18 days of public protests, the military made it known that they can’t be seen as supporting the tyrannical regime. And so Mr Mubarak was off to Sharm el-Sheikh after turning over power to the military and Egypt entered a new phase, a phase that remains undecipherable at the moment.

The Arab world is undergoing momentous changes and the US is coming to grips with a weakening of its hold over the region. The scale of the crisis in Egypt took Washington by surprise and intelligence once again was found wanting. As demonstrations continued at the Tahrir Square in Cairo for weeks, the main Egyptian opposition groups initially seemed to be easing on their insistence that the Egyptian President step down immediately.

The Obama Administration was also working on a plan with Egyptian officials that would allow President Mubarak to resign and turn over power to a transitional government headed by Vice-President Omar Suleiman with the support of the Egyptian military. The Vice-President had already held talks with a broad array of opposition groups, including the Muslim Brotherhood, in an attempt to open up the country’s electoral system to bring about free and fair elections in September. However, much to the chagrin of the protesters, there was no indication that either the Vice-President or the Egyptian military was willing to abandon Mr Mubarak, who himself remained determined to stay until the elections.

The Obama Administration has signalled that if another strongman replaces Mr Mubarak without any movement toward democratic elections, the US Congress might freeze military aid to Cairo. The guarantor of state stability in Egypt is the nation’s armed forces, which are expected to ensure that Mr Mubarak’s fall does not lead to a collapse of the existing order. With tensions spreading throughout the Middle-East, Washington has reaffirmed its support for other Arab allies facing popular unrest, welcoming the Yemeni President’s reform measures and the new Cabinet announced by the King of Jordan.

The US policy in the Middle-East has tended to maintain a balance between strong relations with autocratic Arab states and democratic allies such as Israel. However, the policy ended up supporting political stability in Arab autocracies and fighting terrorists while turning a blind eye to oppression and corruption. Lack of political reforms in the Arab world led to popular support for extremist groups such as Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt. It is amply clear that in a post-Mubarak Egypt, the most popular political force will be the Muslim Brotherhood. It is the oldest and largest Islamist movement in the world. The US has acknowledged its own limits in influencing the shape of the government that might emerge after Mr Mubarak’s exit.

The US standing in the Middle-East is under threat. With a perception gaining ground in recent years that the US is more interested in looking inwards, major powers in the region have also been looking elsewhere. With China’s rising economic profile and the US not acting proactively against Iran’s nuclear drive, Saudi Arabia has moved rapidly to develop closer ties with emerging powers such as China, Russia and India to counterbalance relations with the West.

The US influence in the Middle-East has been diminishing gradually and there is a looming uncertainty about America’s future in the region. The Obama Administration’s initial, tepid response to the crisis, with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton calling Mr Mubarak’s regime “stable” and Vice-President Joe Biden declaring that he didn’t regard Mr Mubarak as a dictator, did little to endear Washington to a region that has been clamouring for political reforms for decades. Though Washington’s tone changed soon after it realised that things were moving out of its control in Cairo, the Arab street is yet to be convinced that the US is on its side. Elsewhere too Washington is becoming increasingly irrelevant. In Iraq, the new government could only be installed in December after Iran intervened to break months of deadlock, underlining its rising influence in the region. In Lebanon, the Iranian-sponsored Hezbollah wrested control last month from the pro-Western government propelled to power by the 2005 Cedar Revolution, in which millions of Lebanese forced the departure of Syrian troops with the backing of the US.

India, too, will have to change its attitude towards the events unfolding in Egypt. After days of silence, the only response that the Indian government could muster was of “closely following” the developments in Egypt and hoping “for an early and peaceful resolution of the situation without further violence and loss of lives”. In many ways, this reticence is understandable. The region has been witnessing a highly unpredictable situation and the government was taking its time to think through the implications. Moreover, for New Delhi to comment on events unfolding in Egypt would have been hypocritical, given how seriously India takes the principle of non-interference in the internal affairs of other states.

But it is equally the case that India has a substantive interest in the Arab world where its stakes are expanding. The tumult in the Arab street will have enormous implications for India’s rapidly growing interests in the region. A new order is unfolding in the region and New Delhi will soon have to spell out how it wants to respond to the new ground realities. As a new era unfolds in the Arab world, India should be on the right side of history.

The writer teaches at King’s College, London

MIDDLE

Google love-letter
by Roopinder Singh

LOVE is in the air these days, much more expressively than in my younger days, but I must admit to have written a love letter or two. The objects of this rather public confession were intensely private missives, ones that seemed at that time to express the deepest feelings that I had for the person they were addressed to. You know, it took time, and a lot of guts: “Pyar ka pehla khat likhne mein, Waqt to lagta hai, Naye parindon ko udne mein, Waqt to lagta hai.”

Before you launched your missive, you crafted it. Sometimes your emotions simply poured out on paper, many, many sheets of ruled notebooks, spotless sheets of shining white paper and sometimes scented stationery. The message, the medium, and the whole experience sought to convey much more than mere words could.

I have never spoken or written about these love letters, and now would be as bad a time as any to discuss them or their contents. Yet, I am doing so, and the reason for this somewhat uncharacteristic indiscretion is an advertorial that I have just seen. Something called the “Google Docs: A love letter”, which over two lakh viewers have already watched on YouTube.

Call it a generation gap or whatever, I am simply appalled, amazed is a politer term, at the very idea of someone sharing his or her most intimate thoughts with others. At least in my days, when we wrote a love letter it was (ideally) meant to be strictly personal between the two of us. When you bared your soul, you would be accorded the courtesy of privacy, at least that was the presumption. Sometimes you hit a very wrong number and became an object of ridicule, but for most of us, privacy was an essential part of such an exchange.

Of course, for some this opportunity was simply not available, since they were not educated. In came the ‘Dakiya daak laya, daakiya daak laya’ option. The somewhat educated and definitely literate postman was used by the masses to convey their message of love to those in distant lands, often he also acted as the scribe.

Before I deride Google Docs on the corroborative issue, it must be admitted that this is hardly a new idea. In college, I remember one time when a college mate tried out the collaborative route.

The amorous young man asked some Dada friends to help him out with snagging a date. The only thing, which these worthies had in common, was their absolute ignorance of the fairer sex. It is not that they could not talk to girls. It was a matter of record that they could say a ‘Hello!’ Beyond that, they became tongue-tied.

Yet, they were more than up to the task of telling others what to do. This poor chap followed their advice. His flowery presentation left her unmoved and she shared the experience with others. The affair that had hitherto been confined to his head now made him the laughing stock of the university.

Now, to be fair to Google, they have taken a diametrically opposite route. Michael writes out a long, elaborate, and flowery letter, quoting Shakespeare, throwing in a bit of French, and even including an elaborate list of possible date activities.

He asks his friends to help and they collaborate to produce the perfect letter for Jessica, whom Michael has met at the beginners’ French class. They do so by pruning the unnecessary flourishes and emotions in Michael’s letter to make it a simple request to meet after class. In the process, someone has included Jessica, too, by saying: “I know that I shouldn’t be showing you this, but this is so cute...”

Jessica accepts the request for coffee after the class, but with the proviso that next time he should ask her in person. Now, isn’t that simple! If only my friend in college had known not to seek advice but follow the dictates of his heart by directly addressing the girl, he might well have succeeded.

OPED — NEIGHBOUR

No discussion on the musical exposition of Faiz's poems can be complete without mentioning the priceless album ‘Nayyara sings Faiz’.

Darling of singers
Asif Noorani

Faiz Ahmed Faiz, the revolutionary poet

WAY back in 1969 when Begum Akhtar was visiting Karachi, the Gramophone Company of Pakistan (later EMI) arranged a musical evening with her on their sprawling lawns.

Only hardcore lovers of ghazal and semi-classical music were glued to their seats in the post-dinner session. Faiz was sitting in the first row and Begum Akhtar, noticing his presence, enthused "Faiz Saheb hamare Hindustan mein, khas taur par shumali Hindustan mein aapka kalaam barre shauq se suna jaata hai" (In India, particularly in northern India, your poetry is listened to with great enthusiasm). The next moment she burst into “Sham-i-firaaq ab na poochh”.

It was, and still is, an honour for any singer to render Faiz, just as it is to sing Ghalib. From Ustad Barkat Ali Khan to Mehdi Hasan and from Farida Khanum to Hadiqa Kayani, not to speak of the thrush-throated Firdausi Begum, almost every singer of repute has interpreted Faiz musically in his or her own manner.

Some film-makers included songs based on his poems, the most famous of all was Noor Jahan's "Mujh se pehli si muhabbat", which she used to sing in small concerts but later rerecorded it for the movie "Qaidi".

Then there was the "hijacking" of "Gulon mein rang bhare", which the Gramophone Company recorded in the voice of Mehdi Hasan, who had been rendering it in concerts.

Director Khaleel Qaisar had recorded and filmed the same ghazal in the voice of Naseem Begum for his movie Farangi but when he heard the Gramophone Company's recording, he insisted on "buying" it for his movie. His persistence bore fruit.

In Shaheed, an earlier movie, he had got Masood Rana to render a Faiz nazm, "Nisaar mein teri galiyon ke aye watan" but the song could not click. Maybe Mehdi Hasan or Ahmed Rushdi could have done a better job. In India, Muzaffar Ali got Khayyam to record the famous "Faiz nazm Kab haath mein tera haath naheen" for his off-beat movie "Anjuman".

The movie could not be released commercially and one reason was that the score of Ali's film did not appeal to the masses. The second odd thing was that the filmmaker and the composer did not get professional singers to record the songs for the movie, only one of which was a Faiz poem.

Incidentally, the nazm has been sung by Tina Sani for the album which was released last week to mark the birth anniversary of the great poet. The cover version is an improvement over the original.

Iqbal Bano's repertoire consists of at least two highly applauded Faiz poems "Dasht-i-tanhai" (so beautifully tuned by Mehdi Zaheer) and the revolutionary "Ham dekhen ge".

Farida Khanum had earned her reputation rendering the ghazals of Dagh, and later Faiz, whose "Chand nikle, Sab qatl ho ke, Na ganwaon navak-i-neemkash" and "Yoon saja chand" are priceless numbers.

When Talat Mahmood came on a private visit to Karachi in the early 1960s he recorded two Faiz numbers for the Gramophone Company, one of which "Donon jahan teri muhabbat mein haar ke ranks among the singer's best non-film numbers.

No discussion on the musical exposition of Faiz's poems can be complete without mentioning the priceless album “Nayyara sings Faiz”, which had brilliant compositions by Arshad Mahmud and Shahid Toosy. It was rehearsed and recorded in a matter of days.

EMI produced the long play record to present to Faiz on his 65th birthday. The sequel which was to be released the following year—1977—was delayed. Now, 34 years later, it is being released, with some numbers having been rerecorded by Arshad Mahmud.

— By arrangement with Dawn

Behind bars with Faiz
Sibte Hasan

Faiz Saheb was those days in Moscow (when Ayub Khan imposed martial law on the night between October 7 and 8, 1958) attending, along with Hafeez Jalandhuri, the inaugural ceremonies related to the Afro-Asian writers' conference. Faiz wasn't surprised to hear about the development back home because the rumours of the army takeover had been rife for many months. He wasn't unaware of the fact that those who were opposed to the National Assembly elections had been colluding with the army.

Faiz Saheb was certain that his fate would not be different from that of the like-minded people in his country. But his national verve was too strong to keep him away from his homeland. He first flew to London and then to Lahore, where he was arrested the very next day of his homecoming.

It was a bright November evening. Chaudhry A.R. Aslam and I were in the hospital ward of the Lahore Jail, busy talking to each other, when one of the assistant superintendents dropped in to say, "A guest of yours is expected tonight. You should make arrangements for his dinner also." We asked the name of the guest but he simply smiled and said "You will soon have the answer to your question."

We were happy whenever a newly arrested friend of ours joined us in the jail. But this time we were perplexed for we had not read about the arrest of anyone in the morning's paper. We then thought that like us someone may have also filed an appeal for habeas corpus and may be housed with us before being taken to the court. Our main worry was that the room in the jail, which had once served as a mortuary and where we were put up, had just enough space for two cots.

Our eyes were fixed on the gate. Much to our surprise, when it opened we saw Faiz Saheb, with a cigarette pursed between his lips, walking in at his own pace. He was accompanied by half a dozen staff members of the jail. We hugged our friend warmly and the three of us laughed merrily.

In response to our query, Faiz told us that he had reached Lahore only a day earlier. "My friends, only the day before yesterday I pleaded your case with Manzoor Qadir (the then Law Minister) for four to five hours and I thought I had convinced him to release you people. When I wasn't arrested in Karachi (on landing there from London) I thought that this time I would be spared. But anyway it's good to be with you. We should have a good time."

Faiz Saheb had brought with him two large steel trunks. We said, "It seems that you have planned to live here permanently" to which he responded, "There are books in the trunk. For many years I have been unable to do serious reading. Now I think I will have all the time in the world to catch up."

There was not enough space for three jailbirds in the tiny room, so the Superintendent of Jail made arrangements for us to move into the B Class ward. The erstwhile occupants were accommodated elsewhere on the premises.

Faiz Saheb was never in a hurry nor was he ever nervous. He was always cool and collected. He had the habit of walking slowly and speaking softly. He did all his work calmly but on time, of course. His daily routine didn't change even when he was in jail. In the morning he shaved and changed his clothes as if he was to leave for his office. After going through the newspaper he took a chair and basked in the winter sun with a book to keep him company. Around 11 we had tea and coffee. He retired after lunch, which was at 1.30 or 2pm. Then, after the evening tea, he would take a walk on the premises, sometimes alone and sometimes in the company of his fellow inmates. After dinner he settled down with books and read till late in the night.

Excerpted from “Sukhan dar Sukhan”, a posthumous book on Faiz Ahmed Faiz by his long-time friend. Translated from Urdu by Asif Noorani

— By arrangement with Dawn

Window on pakistan
Davis issue: Islamabad in difficult straits
Syed noorUzzaman

Pakistan’s relations with the US have come under considerable strain as a result of the Raymond Davis issue. The situation has got a new twist with the Lahore High Court remanding Davis in 14-day judicial custody after the police refused to accept the theory that Davis, “an employee of the US consulate in Lahore”, shot down two motorcycle-borne persons in self-defence. A third person lost his life after being run over by a speeding US Embassy vehicle on a mission to help Davis. Another death, the fourth one, related to the incident occurred when the wife of one of the victims reportedly committed suicide.

That the police has launched legal proceedings against Davis shows that the US claim that he enjoyed diplomatic immunity has been apparently ignored. The police has described the killings as “cold-blooded murders”.

Can Pakistan continue with this course, particularly when its survival depends, to a large extent, on US military and economic aid? Why has it decided to reject the US appeal despite much pressure from Washington DC to release Davis unconditionally? Denials by Islamabad notwithstanding, the US has suspended all official engagements with Pakistan. A Business Recorder report quoted an official of the Pakistan Foreign Ministry as saying that it has received a US State Department letter informing Pakistan that the US has suspended visits by all high-level delegations to Islamabad. There is another unconfirmed report that Pakistan Ambassador in Washington DC Hussain Haqqani has been threatened with expulsion if Davis is not set free soon.

Rightist pressure

Another kind of pressure on the Pakistan government has been from the religious right, which wants no concession to be given to the US national. Islamabad succumbing to US pressure is bound to inflame passions in Pakistan, which continues to have a strong anti-American sentiment. As Daily Times has commented, “After weeks of rallies by religious outfits in support of the blasphemy laws, which are now gradually losing wind in the face of a firm denial by the government that any move (to dilute these laws) is afoot, releasing Raymond Davis may add fresh fuel to their reactionary agenda.”

Hence the recourse to take help from the judicial system, which is not difficult to use to suit the government plans. Some people believe that the Pakistan Foreign Office may present the needed documents in the court so that Davis is declared a US diplomat stationed in Pakistan. Once the court accepts his diplomatic status, he will be allowed the advantage of diplomatic immunity, leading to his departure from Pakistan as a free US citizen. The opponents of this course may raise their voice against it, but the government will be able to wash its hands off the case, citing the court verdict.

However, is it so easy to handle the situation? Most newspapers have carried well-argued articles, saying that Islamabad should stand firm on its ground on the Davis issue. It should go strictly according to the law of the land. This will indirectly help the US, too. Those who are always in search of an opportunity to inflame anti-US passions will be denied of an issue that suits their negative thinking.

The people who have been arguing on these lines say that the “so-called ‘strategic dialogue’ or ‘strategic partnership’ between the two countries is not under threat”. Both the US and Pakistan need each other for protecting their interests in the Af-Pak region. As Asif Yezdi, a former member of the Pakistan Foreign Service, says in a newspaper article, “It is not for the love of Pakistani people that the US is providing military and economic assistance to us. The Americans are doing so to serve their own national interests.”

The options before the Pakistan government are too tricky to accept. It is like choosing between the devil and the deep sea.