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No policy on Lokayuktas
Save girl child |
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Phone tapping
China’s footprints in PoK
Remembering Yuri Gagarin
The beats of cultural convergence
Bhangra all the way Corrections and clarifications
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No policy on Lokayuktas
Close on the heels of the Centre’s decision to heed social activist Anna Hazare’s demand for a bipartisan consensus on drafting a comprehensive Lokpal Bill at the Centre for checking corruption, the spotlight is now on the Lokayuktas in various states. The Gujarat Government’s honest admission of failure in appointing a Lokayukta since 2004 sums up the dismal state of affairs in various states. Either there is no Lokayukta in the states or if it exists, it lacks teeth to check corruption firmly and decisively. On Sunday, Gujarat Health Minister Jaynarayan Vyas accused the state Congress of creating hurdles in setting up a Lokayukta. The Congress has, in turn, blamed the BJP for the impasse. Whatever the arguments and counter-arguments between the state government and the Opposition on the issue, the responisbility squarely lies on the government for its failure to set up the institution of Lokayukta. Unfortunately, the scenario in all other states is equally bleak. In Orissa, for example, the Lokpal has no investigation wing and the State Vigilance Department does not report to him. Moreover, he cannot act against anyone on his own. And if his recommendation for action against any corrupt person is not carried out, all he can do is to bring the matter to the Governor’s notice. How can corruption be checked if he is not given suo motu powers? In Punjab, the situation is by and large the same. The Vigilance Bureau does not report to the Lokpal and it works independently under the Chief Secretary. Worse, he doesn’t have adequate staff and resources to process the complaints. And even if he forwards the complaints to the Governor for onward transmission to the government, the latter keeps mum and doesn’t take any action. In Haryana, too, it is a toothless body and it is left to the whims and fancies of the state government to implement the recommendations of the Lokayukta. In Karnataka, Lokayukta Santosh Hegde, who has now been made a Member of the Drafting Committee for the Lokpal Bill at the Centre, has been playing a proactive role in checking corruption in the state. Sadly, however, the Yeddyurappa government is not helping him in his endeavours. The institution of Lokayukta in all states can be effectively strengthened if the Centre accepts the recommendation of the Association of Lokayuktas for a Central law to ensure uniformity in the functioning of the office.
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Save girl child
THE preference of Indian parents for a male heir is a centuries-old malady. Leave alone equal economic and social rights, women and girls have not even got a violence-free existence to boast of. That is why a law against sex-determination tests was brought into operation in the country from January 1, 1996. It was later amended in 2003 to make it more comprehensive and renamed the Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (Prohibition of Sex Selection) Act. In all these years of operation, it should have helped in increasing the number of girls born as compared to boys. But the provisional figures of Census 2011 show that quite the contrary has happened. The child sex ratio has dropped to a new low, with only 914 girls per 1,000 boys – as compared to 927 in 2001. Jammu and Kashmir has shown the maximum decline. What makes the decrease all the more shocking is the fact that it is not confined to North India, but has been noticed even in the supposedly more progressive states like Maharashtra. Despite tall claims, the sex-determination tests continue with impunity. Those working to uphold women’s rights have presented a grim picture about the government’s earnestness to nip this evil in the bud. The Central Supervisory Board set up to oversee the implementation of the PNDT Act did not hold a single meeting in three years. Advisory committees set up in states also meet rarely. The Centre has now reconstituted the board and one hopes it will be more active. The need for doing so cannot be overstressed. The global benchmark for child sex ratio is 950 girls for 1000 boys. That means that because of the ghastly practice of pre-natal sex selection and the resultant female foeticide and infanticide, some 1,600 girls go missing every day. That is nothing less than mass murder. While it is alright to exhort society to rail against this practice, ultimately it is the responsibility of the state to stop the killings forthwith. |
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Phone tapping
Sometime ago conversations of various individuals were splashed in the media and became the focus of much attention as part of the Radia tapes which surfaced as a fallout of the 2G scam. The telephonic conversations had been recorded because of taps authorised by the government. The media leaks of this information, however, were not authorised and brought to the fore the need to adopt information security measures for telephone intercepts. Indeed, there has been growing disquiet about telephone tapping in general, and the lack of uniform processes and procedures by which such tapping is authorised. It is, indeed, surprising that till now the standard operating procedures (SOPs) had not been drafted, and thus there was a degree of ad hocism in the process. The government has done well to constitute an inter-ministerial group (IMG) to go into the provisions of tapping as well as taking steps to ensure that such information is not leaked to the public. The 15-member group has in it the chiefs of Intelligence Bureau, CBI, Narcotics Control Bureau, NIA, DRI and ED, and representatives of CBDT and Signal Intelligence (Defence Ministry). These are the agencies that are involved in tapping telephones. Every individual has a right to privacy, which can only be impinged by the State for specific reasons, like involvement in or association with criminal or subversive activity. Intercepted conversations must be treated seriously, and the Cabinet Secretariat is correct in asking investigating agencies to destroy parts of the transcripts that are not relevant to their investigation. Various technical processes and other procedures also need to be tightened so that the demands of the individual’s right to privacy on the one hand and the investigating agency’s need to probe suspicious activities, on the other, are balanced. In many advanced democracies, judicial review ensures that citizens’ rights are not trampled upon by administrative or political exigencies. The all-pervasive nature of telephones makes it even more imperative that the IMG should deliberate, not only the SOPs, it should also look into the possibility of judicial oversight into telephone tapping orders. |
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Education is an ornament in prosperity and a refuge in adversity. — Aristotle
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China’s footprints in PoK
THE reported statement of Lt-Gen K.T. Parnaik that Chinese troops are stationed near the Line of Control (LoC) between India and Pakistan one week ahead of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s visit to China commencing on the 13th of this month to participate in the BRICS Summit in the Chinese city of Sanya, where South Africa is to be formally admitted to the BRIC forum, is a clear message to Beijing that India simply cannot take a benign view of the China’s footprints in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK). While the Sino-Pak nexus has always been a matter of concern for India, what has exacerbated the matter further is the degree of seamlessness between China and Pakistan that PoK is fast acquiring. This has prompted celebrated journalist Selig S. Harrison to comment in an article in the New York Times on 26th of August last year, “Islamabad is handing over the de facto control of the strategic Gilgit-Baltistan region in the northwest corner of the disputed Kashmir to China.” The article further mentioned that there has been an “influx of an estimated 7,000 to 11,000 soldiers of the People’ Liberation Army”. One need not have to depend on the veracity of the article to discern the growing footprints of China in PoK over the years. It is against this backdrop that the statement of Lt- Gen K. T. Parnaik assumes importance. As far as physical occupation of Jammu and Kashmir is concerned, it may be mentioned that while India is in possession of 45 per cent and Pakistan controls 35 per cent of the region, China occupies about 20 per cent of the territory (including Aksai Chin and the Sakshgam valley ceded by Pakistan to China in 1963). The Karakoram Highway, which connects China’s Xinjiang region with Gilgit-Baltistan, was constructed by Chinese and Pakistani engineers over a period of time and was completed in 1986. China is currently involved in several infrastructures in the disputed region. China and Pakistan signed a deal in 2006 to upgrade the Karakoram highway. Once the projects are completed, the transport capacity of the strategically significant region will increase significantly. The Karakoram highway will facilitate China’s free access to the oil-rich Gulf region through the Pakistani port of Gwadar in Balochistan. It is significant to note that during the visit of Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari to China in August 2010, Beijing declared Kashgar , in north-west Chin’s Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region, as a Special Economic Zone like the Shenzhe which borders Hong Kong. The announcement makes Kashgar the sixth Special Economic Zone of China. The strategic significance of Kashgar for China is that it is the hotbed of Uighur separatists indulging in sporadic violence to press for their demands for an independent East Turkmenistan nation. China has been seeking both intelligence and military support from Pakistan to keep the Uighur separatists in check, and cut off their links with pro-Taliban forces. China and Pakistan have worked out anti-terrorism programmes under which Pakistani security forces push back Uighur fighters trying to cross the border to seek sanctuary in terrorist camps in Pakistan. China and Pakistan have held anti-terrorism exercise in 2004 and 2006. The third round of such joint military exercise between these countries was conducted in July 2010 to crack down on Islamic militant groups like the East Turkistan Islamic Movement (ETIM). The ETIM, regarded as a pro-Al-Qaeda group, is active in Xinjiang, the Chinese Muslim-majority province bordering Pakistan, and the Chinese officials have complained that their cadres are being trained in terrorist camps in the Pakistan-Afghanistan border area. The Sino-Pak collaboration in the hydropower project in the Pok region is also a matter of concern for India. During the visit of Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari to China in August 2009, the two sides signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on the construction of a hydropower station at Bunji in the Northern Areas. New Delhi is of the view that Islamabad cannot undertake any project in the territory under its illegal occupation. Besides this MoU on the hydropower project, there were MoUs for cooperation in education, fisheries, agriculture, dams and investment. However, the most important of them was the construction of the hydropower project on a build, operate and transfer (BOT) basis, which means that all the investment will be made by Chinese entrepreneurs. The dam is estimated to cost between $ 6-7 billion and will have a capacity to generate 7000 MW of electricity. During the visit, the Pakistani President also invited Chinese companies to bid for the construction of over a dozen small and medium-sized dams in all the four provinces of Pakistan. It is against this backdrop that China should show sensitivity towards Indian’s concern over an issue which is central to India’s security and territorial integrity. Mere denial is not enough. There should be credible evidence to support the denial. If Beijing is sincere in its approach to build bridges of friendship with India, then it must refrain from aiding and abetting Pakistan. This is more so when China’s international profile is rising and it is trying to project itself as a responsible global power. BothIndia and China can work together in Afghanistan, Myanmar and Nepal. Instead of making South Asia a region of conflict and competition, the two Asian giants should cooperate to take the countries of the area in a trajectory of growth and development and realise the true spirit of Asian renaissance. India has no problem in Beijing’s role in facilitating growth and development in Pakistan or any other country of South Asia. But this should not happen in PoK as that would be detrimental to India’s security interests. It is expected that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh during his meeting with his Chinese counterpart Wen Jiabao on the sidelines of BRICS conference in China will reiterate India’s concern and will receive some assurance from the Chinese premier with whom he has established a perfect
rapport.
The writer is a Senior Fellow at the Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses, New Delhi
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Remembering Yuri Gagarin
One of the most vivid memories of my growing up is of wrapping my fingers around the Soviet story books which were so integral a part of the lives of many children in India in the 1980s. The Soviet story books were made hugely available at school book exhibits at more than affordable prices. Many people emerged from within the pages of those books and caught my imagination — there were stories of children living in communes and working on collective farms after school, there were of course stories about Vladimir Lenin and of his childhood in a house in the woods. However, most of all, I loved to read about the celebrated peasant boy who grew up and travelled to the stars and beyond. Many a Soviet book told me the brave story of Yuri Gagarin and his first in the history of mankind flight into a place above the other side of beyond. While the notion of space and space exploration was still hazy in my mind back then, Yuri Gagarin sure emerged as an undoubted hero. An image of the forever young Gagarin, smiling in his Soviet Air Force uniform, remains captured in my mind. Later, when I went to the US for graduate school in the 1990s, I was both amazed and amused at the varying versions of space history that some of my American classmates liked to float around. None of their Orwellian attempts at retelling history could change the fact that the story did not begin in 1969. It started when Yuri Gagarin went into space back on April 12, 1961 in a spaceship called Vostok. April 12, 2011 marks the completion of a half century since he embarked on that magical flight that opened new vistas beyond any stretches of imagination. The triumphant story of Yuri Gagarin had been brought to me by little books and had filled my childhood with wonder. As much as I may wish to put my hands around those books again, I know that in a new world where a superpower, a nation, a thought and a geographical space on the world map has been dissolved, those books are lost forever. Interestingly, in the swimming pool locker the other day, a young Russian woman nursed a similar thought when she complained about how history stood lost and stolen, how the stories of her childhood were no longer relevant even in present-day Russia. She looked at me quizzically and expressed surprise that in an age of everything Americana, and in the midst of NASA and Neil Armstrong, I had remembered Yuri Gagarin and his ethereal flight 50 years ago. The truth is that like numerous others, I can never forget Yuri Gagarin. He is a part of my childhood, a picture of inspiration, a vision of unbridled youth, and a metaphor for unimaginable human possibility. His exquisite enigma stands trapped in time at that equally exquisite age of 34. And while Lenin and his busts have come crumbling down, neither a disintegrated USSR nor his untimely death can dim the appeal of Yuri Gagarin. His legacy dares us to dream!n
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The beats of cultural convergence During the festival of Navaratri dedicated to the Mother Goddess, Ahmedabad is transformed. As dusk turns to night, a sense of excitement and urgency fills the air. Dinners are hastily eaten, house work wrapped up, as people start trickling, then pouring out of their houses making their way towards the open space beside the cross roads, the courtyard of a temple or the nearest community hall. And as the night hours flow on, the people of Ahmedabad dance. The old and the young, the fit and fat, the wealthy and the poor, they dance the Dandiya Ras and the Garba, to the music of the villages. The banker in a freshly starched Ghaghra choli (long skirt and blouse) might partner a motor mechanic in the vast circle of dancers that spill out of the courtyards. In villages too, there are songs and dances associated with festivals, ceremonies, or the different seasons of the year, or patterns of work. For example in Saurashtra, women levelling roofs, with heavy sticks started singing and beating their sticks in time to lighten the load of work. From this was born Tippani. And as though to give solace at the death of a loved one, there developed the soulful songs called the Marasiyas, describing the lost one and the grief of their passing.
Along with its varied palette of music and dance, Gujarat gave birth to a fascinating style of folk theatre called the Bhavai. Thought to have been developed in the 15th century, and traditionally performed by men from the Targala or Bhojak clans, the Bhavai was an itinerant theatre form which provided social commentary with entertainment. The performance included skits, acrobatic feats and magic shows. Popular for many years, it fell unto bad times in the mid fifties, but was revived through the efforts of local theatre artists like Chimanlal Naik. In the 70s there was a school set up to train traditional artists in this form in Visnagar, and modern playwrights were being encouraged to write contemporary scripts in the same style. Alas, a lack of financial support and the State government’s apathy to the arts has lead to the collapse of this form, save in the recent adaptation of the Rangla-Rangli. Traditionally Gujarat was the state of the gypsy and the nomad, where traders met and exchanged goods and stories and went on their way. As early as the 5th century wanderers from Central Asia, Greece and Arabia came by and settled for a while in the land. Some were called Gujjars and gave their name to the state. Succeeding rulers- Hindu and Muslim, left their mark on the architecture, language, food and dress of her people. But unlike south India with its Chola and Vijaynagara dynasties, which patronized the classical arts, encouraging the growth of music, literature and dance in their kingdoms, Gujarat’s strongest voices were from the villages and from the adivasi, tribal settlements. There were exceptions, like the devadasis who danced in the temple of Somnath, or the classical musicians in the court of the Gaekwads. But the dominant culture of the state remained that of the rural areas. The classical dance scene in Gujarat was non-existent till the late forties. But a happy accident led to a south Indian Bharata Natyam dancer marrying into Ahmedabad. The bride was Mrinalini Sarabhai who, with the establishment of her academy, Darpana, in 1949 started a new chapter in the state’s cultural history. Originally performed by devadasis or temple dancers for hundreds of years in southern India, Bharata Natyam in its form as a classical dance was revived this century when non-devadasi took to learning and performing it. With the opening of Darpana in Ahmedabad, it became fashionable for young Gujarati girls to learn the classical Bharata Natyam, even though careers in dance were still found unacceptable. Another bride, Kumudini Lakhia, this time from the north, brought with her the classical style of Kathak. This form too began in the temples and was evolved by traditional story-tellers (Kathaks) based on the Radha-Krishna lore, but with the advent of Muslim rule in the 12th century, it was also picked up by the courts and courtesans who further evolved the technical base of complex foot work and introduced graceful movements. With the establishment of Kumudini Lakhia’s school, Kadamb, in the 70’s Ahmedabad took further to classical dance. Today, hundreds of schools of dance dot the state, and there are perhaps more children learning Bharata Natyam in Gujarat than in southern India. Over the last two decades however globalization has changed the cultural scene and the government’s extravaganzas, replete with laser light shows, have taken over the intimacy and community of earlier events. Party plots have replaced town squares and disco lights the oil-lamps. The beautiful hand embroidered Chaniya Choli has been edged out by Tinsel Town glitter. But somewhere the spirit of it all lives on.
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Bhangra all the way THE contribution of classical arts to the human society lies in assisting the expansion of different areas of knowledge. Hence, evolution of art maps the growth of a society. The renaissance was a proof to it. Between the 14th and 17th century, Europe witnessed a resurgence of excellence in humanities, science, educational and social development along with unprecedented progression in fine arts. Societies that inherit classical art forms have stretched the limits of human mind, in pursuit of perfection. Perhaps excellence in one area inspires societies to excel in others. In this context, it is interesting to know how societies that lack inheritance of classical arts make up for the disadvantage. Though, there cannot be definite answers to these intangible issues, if an unprecedented growth of popular culture is an indicator, Punjab has more than filled the vacuum.
The last reference to any recorded dance performance in the history of the 19th century Punjab stops at the nautch girls. Beyond that point of time in the tumultuous history of the land, different cultural streams intermingled to give birth to a curious mix, where Sufis danced in abandonment for the love of god. And the feudal supported a whole lot of ‘tawaifs’ and ‘kanjris’, whose job it was to entertain the rich and powerful with their skills in dance and music, as the narratives of the time tell us. Though, tawaifs were women of sophistication, the first ‘liberated women’ produced by the Indian social structure, who had land and property in their own name. They were desirable for their talents by the powerful, but, when it came to social acceptability, both tawaifs and kanjris were treated as outcasts. Understandably, their profession was not something the society would promote for others to emulate. The land had such a long chain of invaders that even the temples were not spared of their peaceful pursuit of ‘kathagayan’, which in other regions of the North like Rajputana and Central India evolved into Kathak, a narrative dance presentation of the myths and leelas of the gods. The perpetually on- the- run society did not have time to reflect upon the codes and norms to compile a shastra, essential for keeping an art form for posterity. What it did produce were entertainers, who lacked time and space to provide serious deliberations to take their skill to the height of an art. In the absence of refinement and codification, these skills were continued to be treated as a mode of light entertainment. If we peep into the social history of Punjab, it will explain why dance, as a classical art form could not grow here. The macho warrior, who danced with the swords, would not suffice as a performer of enticing movements. And the feudal pushed their women behind purdah. Dance, as a means of entertainment was patronized by the feudal, their decay spelt doom for the dancers. Even though Maharaja Ranjit Singh is said to have married a tawaif dancer, Moran Sarkar, to the chagrin of all, Moran’s dancing skills remained confined to entertaining the Maharaja. The Maharaja had about 150 dancers in his court, but none of them could take dance from its erotic overtones to the domain of classical art. In fact, by the turn of the nineteenth century a strong sense of disgust for dancers gripped the society. Pran Nevile, who penned about half a dozen books on The British Raj, and its influence on the societal changes in India, wrote extensively about the social ostracism meted out to nautch girls, the sole professional dancers from the region. Though, dance of the masses, the folk, was not involved in this study. Even though, music was regaining its lost pedestal by the efforts of the likes of Pt Vishnu Digambar Paluskar who opened the first Gandharwa Mahavidyalaya in Lahore, in 1901, the same could not be said of dance, which continued to be treated as a skill of the lowly. Post- independence when Indian states of the South found their Nataraja Ramakrishna and Rukmini Devi Arundale for revival of Kuchipudi and Bharat Natyam, Punjab began its claim to culture with choreographed Bhangra performances for republic day parades with a fervour that would outdo all other art forms of the region. This was its sole claim to culture, the bureaucratic way. Thanks to the over zealousness of a newly carved-out state, many precious jewels of its cultural heritage remained overshadowed by an all- pervasive folk appeal of Bhangra. Today, Bhangra is a celebratory dance popularised globally. In later years, classical art forms have come from other states to make Punjab their home. If Pracheen Kala Kendra opened over hundred branches in the state to make Kathak a household name, Bharat Natyam dancers like Navtej Johar and Suchitra Mitra have popularised the dance from the South in the land of classic Bhangra.
“ A group of western
educated Indian social reformers, influenced by western ideas and Victorian
moral values, joined the missionaries and they started an anti-nautch movement
at Madras, which spread to other parts of the country including Punjab. In
their anti-nautch campaign, they were now joined by the Social Purity
Associations, sponsored by the Purity movement in England for reform of the
public and private morals. The Punjab Purity Association of Lahore launched a
forceful drive against the nautch girls and published a booklet in 1884
containing the opinions of the educated Punjabis on the ‘nautch question.’
The booklet highlighted the denunciation of nautch by the eminent social
reformer Keshub Chandra Sen who described the nautch girl as a “hideous
woman with hell in her eyes. In her breast is a vast ocean of poison. Round
her comely waist dwell the furies of hell... her blandishments are India’s
ruin. Alas! her smile is India’s death.” (The
Nautch Girls of Colonial Punjab- Pran Nevile) |
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Corrections and clarifications *
Haryana page 4 * Life Style Page 1 * Chandigarh Tribune page 1 * Page 21 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 twice a week — every Tuesday 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. Raj Chengappa, Editor-in-Chief
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In Gujarat with the early worship of Shakti and Shiva, mingled the worship of Krishna. It is from this legend, of Krishna dancing with milkmaids at Dwarika that the Ras and Garba are said to have been born. In the Dandiya Ras men hold short lacquered sticks as they quickstep in a whirling circle to the beat of drums and cymbals. The Ras can also be danced by men and women together. In the Garba circular form represents the womb, the gharbha, and the light in the middle, the life form.
