O P I N I O N S

EDITORIALS

Vacancies of officers
Promote more to IAS, but on merit
Nearly one-third of the posts in the Indian Administrative Service cadre are vacant nationwide. Given the complexities of a country with a high population and limited resources, the implications of not administering it in due detail cannot be overemphasised.

Ambedkar cartoon row
Playing politics over an emotive issue
It seems our politicians are always on the lookout for emotive issues to raise in Parliament. This is the impression one gets from what happened in Parliament on Friday when Union Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal had to declare that the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) Class XI textbook — “Indian Constitution at Work” — with the objectionable cartoon of Dr Bhimrao Ambedkar “will not be distributed” till the situation is reviewed.

Matter of dishonour
Indiscipline tarnishes Army’s image
The Indian Army is one of the most well-regarded institutions in the country, and it is indeed unfortunate that the jawans and officers of a unit clashed with each other in Leh recently. Full details of the incident are not yet available. However, what is clear is that there was a fight in which the commanding officer and some other members of the 226 Artillery Field Regiment were injured.

• Thought for the Day

ARTICLE

Washington shows its hand in Kabul
It's now over to New Delhi
by Harsh V. Pant
Washington and Kabul have reached an agreement underscoring America's commitment to Afghanistan for a decade after its formal troop withdrawal in 2014. Though specific details are yet to be finalised, it provides some much-needed clarity about America's intended footprint in Afghanistan over the next decade. There has been growing concern in sections of the policy community in Washington, in Kabul and in New Delhi about the seemingly abrupt end to American security commitment in Afghanistan.

MIDDLE

A wise investment
by Harish Dhillon
All my life I've envied people who have made wise investments. There are people I know who bought real estate — plots of land, houses or flats, and commercial property at what would, in today's scenario, be considered dirt cheap prices, only to have it spiralling a thousand thousand fold. There are others who invested in shares and made, what they gleefully term, an absolute killing. Still others invested in gold and have come into their own now.

oped the arts

Owned by the disowned
Not a hostage to optimism, manto looked at reality as it exists, which lends him contemporary flair
Vandana Shukla
While experts and scholars suffered 'Tagore fatigue' attending a busy calendar through the 150th year celebrations of Rabindranath Tagore's literary genius, the same can't be said of Saadat Hasan Manto's centenary year. An odd silence prevails. Reasons are obvious. Manto never pleased the civil society, nor the state, for their power constructs. Instead, he offered a de-powering experience of the two through his narratives.

EDITORIALS

Vacancies of officers
Promote more to IAS, but on merit

Nearly one-third of the posts in the Indian Administrative Service cadre are vacant nationwide. Given the complexities of a country with a high population and limited resources, the implications of not administering it in due detail cannot be overemphasised. Remote and hill states such as Himachal, Uttarakhand, and Jammu and Kashmir have a more serious shortage — may be because more officers opt out for Central deputation, besides less attention from the Centre — even as they need greater attention for want of private sector interest.

One of the reasons given by the government for the shortage is states’ inability to promote the required number of officers from state cadres to the IAS. If that were done, the shortage would come down to 15 per cent. One-third of the IAS vacancies are filled through such promotions. A major reason for delay in these promotions is litigation by state officers not recommended for the upgrade. This may seemingly be a minor issue, but it exposes a major rot in the way political heads of governments are using the various administrative cadres. Why do fellow officers have the sense that some of their colleagues have been promoted unfairly? Because often they are. And that is because all cadres, IAS and IPS included, are divided along political lines to varying degrees in vaious states. That was sickeningly on display during the uncertain period between the polling and result declaration for the Punjab elections. Officers were seen lining up to affirm their “loyalties” to various political entities. The result is that promotions and postings are not based on experience or seniority, but political alignment. Litigation under such circumstances is not surprising. A more serious fallout is the administrative decisions that would be taken on considerations other than merit.

To address the issue of shortage, states in the short term could expedite promotions at their end, while at the same time using all officers available more effectively, without “sidelining” anyone. In the long term, Central as well as state governments may consider pulling out of interests where the private sector can do better, such as tourism or road transport. Another option is to give certain posts, especially technical, to people taken from lateral services.

Ambedkar cartoon row
Playing politics over emotive issue

It seems our politicians are always on the lookout for emotive issues to raise in Parliament. This is the impression one gets from what happened in Parliament on Friday when Union Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal had to declare that the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) Class XI textbook — “Indian Constitution at Work” — with the objectionable cartoon of Dr Bhimrao Ambedkar “will not be distributed” till the situation is reviewed. “For the next year we will remove all these cartoons”, the minister assured the MPs who joined the Vithuthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi leader Thol Thirumavalavan in the Lok Sabha in demanding withdrawal of the book.

It is apt to remove from a textbook any content considered “totally wrong” and “objectionable” by any section of society. But why did these politicians keep quiet for over six years as the book with the offending cartoon was published in 2006? Mr Sibal’s explanation is that the matter was brought to his notice only last month and on April 26 he asked the NCERT authorities to withdraw the cartoon from the book. Now he says he has set up a committee and anything objectionable about political or other leaders would be removed from NCERT publications.

But what is the message we are conveying to the world. The cartoon — showing Ambedkar riding a snail with a whip in his hand and Nehru with a whip following him — was drawn by legendary cartoonist Shankar in 1949 and there is no record of the main brain behind the Constitution having expressed his displeasure over it. Obviously, our leaders of those days were more tolerant than the people’s representatives today. They were more democratic in their outlook than those surviving by highlighting inconsequential issues. “The caricature was a symbol of the progressive outlook in education”, as stated by NCERT chief adviser Suhas Palshikar who, along with another chief adviser Yogendra Yadav, resigned on Friday. Ideally, such matters should be left to experts to give their final opinion. Playing vote bank politics particularly when emotive issues are involved is not fair.

Matter of dishonour
Indiscipline tarnishes Army’s image

The Indian Army is one of the most well-regarded institutions in the country, and it is indeed unfortunate that the jawans and officers of a unit clashed with each other in Leh recently. Full details of the incident are not yet available. However, what is clear is that there was a fight in which the commanding officer and some other members of the 226 Artillery Field Regiment were injured.

No doubt this is a rare incident of mass indiscipline and the Army has been quick to respond to it by bringing the situation under control. A Court of Inquiry has been set up and it will focus on the breakdown of command and control structure and investigate the incident. While it is for the Court of Inquiry to find out exactly what happened, given even the sketchy information that is available, it all started with an altercation between an officer and a jawan. The jawan was thrashed by the officer and the situation deteriorated to an extent where it became a mass fight. Such indiscipline cannot be tolerated in the Army, where everyone is not only expected to work as a team but has to depend on others in the unit to back him up when in the event of a critical situation such as war.

Even a casual perusal of media reports will show that of late, there have been a number of incidents where Army personnel have clashed with civilians, even policemen. There is a tendency to dismiss such cases as aberrations and treat them as isolated incidents, which in a sense they are. However, they all point towards a general erosion of professionalism and discipline in the Army. Incidents like the clash in Leh tarnish the image of an institution that still commands respect among all Indians. It is for the organisation to ensure that its personnel behave in a manner that brings glory to their force and to the nation.

Thought for the Day

Write to be understood, speak to be heard, read to grow. —Lawrence Clark Powell

ARTICLE

Washington shows its hand in Kabul
It's now over to New Delhi
by Harsh V. Pant

Washington and Kabul have reached an agreement underscoring America's commitment to Afghanistan for a decade after its formal troop withdrawal in 2014. Though specific details are yet to be finalised, it provides some much-needed clarity about America's intended footprint in Afghanistan over the next decade. There has been growing concern in sections of the policy community in Washington, in Kabul and in New Delhi about the seemingly abrupt end to American security commitment in Afghanistan.

With the strategic partnership agreement signed by US President Barack Obama, during his surprise visit to Kabul to mark Osama bin Laden's death a year back, with the Afghan President, Afghan security forces are expected to take the lead in combat operations by the end of next year and all American troops will be leaving by the end of 2014. However, this will not include trainers who will assist Afghan forces and a small contingent of troops with a specific mission to combat Al-Qaeda through counter-terrorism operations. Washington hopes to now participate more confidently in the NATO conference in Chicago later this month and set the terms of the debate.

A series of events in recent months — an American soldier killing Afghan civilians in March 2012, the Quran burnings and the emergence in January 2012 of an Internet video showing three Marines urinating on the corpses of Taliban fighters — have inflamed Afghans to an unprecedented degree, forcing Washington on a backfoot. The Afghan President had also hardened his stance in the past few weeks as he refused to consider the agreement until American-led night raids were halted and the United States handed over its main military prison to Afghan officials. Only when these issues were resolved to Kabul's satisfaction, the strategic partnership agreement could be finalised.

Afghanistan's national security adviser Rangin Dadfar Spanta has described the pact as "providing a strong foundation for the security of Afghanistan, the region and the world, and is a document for the development of the region." He is, of course, right insofar as this pact removes the uncertainty and ambiguity surrounding America's post-2014 posture in Afghanistan, especially for New Delhi where there has been a growing concern about the serious implications for Indian security of American withdrawal. But the pact still lacks clarity as it is not readily evident how the vague reassurances that the US is providing will get translated into operational policy.

The US has made it clear that it seeks "an enduring partnership with Afghanistan that strengthens Afghan sovereignty, stability and prosperity and that contributes to our shared goal of defeating Al-Qaeda and its extremist affiliates." It is towards that end that the latest pact underscores the ongoing American role in bolstering Afghan democracy and civil society and pledges American financial support to Afghanistan. Washington wants to send a signal that it will not abandon Afghanistan and will retain a presence in the evolving strategic realities in the region. It will now force the allies of the US to step up their commitments to Afghanistan. Most of them are eager to get out of Afghanistan as was evident just a few days back when Australia announced its intention to withdraw its troops over the next year.

This is also a signal to the Taliban that waiting out American forces is not as credible an option as it may have seemed some time back. Most significantly, Pakistan will come under renewed pressure to articulate a long-term policy of renouncing its ties with extremist groups. The hedging strategy that Rawalpindi has been relying on is no longer a potent one.

Shifting messages from Washington has been a source of great concern to New Delhi. The US President has repeatedly suggested that the United States and its NATO allies are committed to shifting to a support role in Afghanistan in 2013 and that the next phase in the transition will be an important step in turning security control over to the Afghans by the end of 2014. But then in February this year US Secretary of Defence Leon Panetta said the process would be complete by mid-or-late 2013, bringing forward the moment that Afghan troops will take the lead combat role. This merely underlined that from the very beginning of 2013, there will have to be a steady withdrawal of Western troops. This accentuated the problems that New Delhi has been facing in responding effectively to the changing ground realities in Afghanistan.

Now that some clarity has been restored to the American posture, it is time for India to put its own house in order. New Delhi has not had a very consistent policy towards Afghanistan over the last decade. Part of it has been a function of the rapidly evolving ground realities in Afghanistan to which India has had to respond. But a large part of it has been India's own inability to articulate its vital interests in Afghanistan to its allies as well as its adversaries. There is an overarching lack of coherence in Indian response as New Delhi seems to be perpetually on the defensive, first making Washington the sole pivot of its outreach to Kabul and then petulantly complaining about American unreliability.

One the one hand, India has been signalling to the US that it views long-term American presence in Afghanistan as integral to regional security. On the other, it has been reaching out to the Iranians to make a common cause who want to see a full and complete US withdrawal from the region. Even as India has signed a strategic partnership agreement with Afghanistan promising to enhance its role in the Afghan security sector, it has at the same time been reducing its economic footprint in Afghanistan. As a result, New Delhi has not only complicated its own future options but has also lost allies who are having difficulty in viewing India as a credible partner in the emerging strategic realities in Afghanistan.

As Washington and Kabul turn a new page in the Afghanistan saga, New Delhi should now take this opportunity to make it a more credible actor in its neighbourhood. The recent attempt to beef up intelligence sharing between India and Afghanistan is the first step in the operationalisation of the Indo-Afghan strategic partnership, but more such concrete steps are needed to ensure that India maintains a substantial presence in Afghanistan.n

The writer teaches at King's College, London.

MIDDLE

A wise investment
by Harish Dhillon

All my life I've envied people who have made wise investments. There are people I know who bought real estate — plots of land, houses or flats, and commercial property at what would, in today's scenario, be considered dirt cheap prices, only to have it spiralling a thousand thousand fold. There are others who invested in shares and made, what they gleefully term, an absolute killing. Still others invested in gold and have come into their own now.

I didn't make any such wise investment. For the major part of my professional life my income remained in the three and four figure bracket, which, with a wife and three children, made for a comfortable living but did not leave any savings for such investments. When I did, finally, have money to spare, the prices of real estate had boomed beyond my reach. I had the middle class distrust of the stock market and gold was still something you bought only for weddings. I was content to invest my savings in the PPF and the EPF and fixed deposits.

But when, after my retirement, I saw my friends and relatives cashing in on their investment and living it up, I couldn't help but feel an occasional twinge of envy.

The only consistent and constant investment that I made, over the years, was the time I spent with the children under my care. It had been a good investment because most of them had turned out to be decent human beings.

But I have come to realise that this had been an extremely wise investment in another way too. I had bought a credit card and, not understanding the mechanics of it, had soon tied myself up into knots over it, which I found impossible to untie. I was given a number in Delhi. The moment I introduced myself the voice at the other end lapsed into exclamation marks:

“Oh UD! How are you, sir? Do you remember, you read out my essay to the class and made me feel wonderful.” I told her about my problem and five minutes later she called to say that it had all been sorted out.

I was on a flight to Bangalore. Suddenly I felt a hand on my shoulder. It was the captain.

“Do you remember me, sir? I can never forget the way you carried my haversack when I hurt myself on that trek.” I was upgraded to business class and treated in a way the Ambani brothers would have envied.

I was hospitalised recently. The CAE of the hospital was a former pupil, and once the staff knew this I was cocooned in a nest of great care and compassion. When I was finally discharged, I turned to thank him.

“Through all our years in school there was so much that you did for us. I can never repay you.”

I realised that my investment had been an extremely wise one. I had no reason to envy the investments that others had made.

oped the arts

Owned by the disowned
Not a hostage to optimism, manto looked at reality as it exists, which lends him contemporary flair
Vandana Shukla

“Manto’s life is an excellent example of what happens when a man of outstanding genius falls among men of little talent” ( Safdar Mir- Modern Urdu Prose- 1963)

While experts and scholars suffered 'Tagore fatigue' attending a busy calendar through the 150th year celebrations of Rabindranath Tagore's literary genius, the same can't be said of Saadat Hasan Manto's centenary year. An odd silence prevails. Reasons are obvious. Manto never pleased the civil society, nor the state, for their power constructs. Instead, he offered a de-powering experience of the two through his narratives.

He was the writer of the marginalised — not only of the poor, whose misery offered exotica to the comfort- fatigued rich — his characters were loathed by the so-called respectable. And, his world of short stories — inhabited by the most vulnerable — prostitutes, rioters, slum-dwellers, alcoholics, lunatics and pimps, was perpetually tearing open the comforts of hypocrisy.

Then, he had the penchant for rubbing the establishment on the wrong side by refusing to veil his stark realism or, blunt the edges of his acid-sharp narrative. This landed him in controversies, which resulted in five litigations, threats of imprisonment and fines imposed. In the times of writers getting million dollar book signing deals, globe trotting schedules for book-promotion and living- out- of suitcase existence, it is hard to imagine how Manto wrote, just for the sake of writing, which offered more excuses to the establishment for banning his works rather than getting him fat cheques ( he was tried for 'Boo' and 'Khol Do', thrice for 'Thanda Gosht' and 'Syah Hashiye' was severely criticised by the Progressives). Despite this, he continued to unmask the world by never allowing his pen to be obscured by the convenience of compromise.

Claimed in translation

There are no events announced in full page ads in the leading dailies by the Ministry of Culture, India, to celebrate his genius. The same government apathy is echoed on the other side of the border. Manto lived his best years in India, in Mumbai, and he wrote some of his best stories, post- partition, in Lahore. He invented a new idiom of writing in Urdu, but is read more in Hindi, Punjabi, Marathi, English and other translations. Perhaps these ironies stalk state's intent, if at all its there, to recognise his genius. But, after hundred years of his birth, Manto is read more than ever before. He is owned by the people, who continue to re- discover in his works a unique sensitivity, humanism and brilliant realism that is both deeply involved and detached and is expressed in dry wit.

For his centenary year, events are organised by dedicated groups of readers, private foundations and literary circles, his works are made available in fresh editions and collections, two more writers (including Ayesha Jalal, his grand niece) are attempting his biography, in an effort to finally establish the person behind the best short story writer the sub-continent produced in the last century.

Despite a wider acceptance for Manto's works, which were at one time stamped 'vulgar' and 'obscene', the society has become more intolerant and has turned into a 'mass book burner.' It is ironical that while Delhi University has prescribed Manto in its syllabus, it banned A K Ramanujan's essay 'Three Hundred Ramayanas.' Mumbai University removed Rohinton Mistry's novel 'Such a Long Journey' from its syllabi. The selection of syllabi, across India, leaves a lot to be questioned. And makes one wonder, if literary truth can be digested only posthumously — as, in the case of Manto.

Not a documentarian

It also makes one appreciate the fact that, in a scenario, when people burn effigies of writers at the drop of a hat, they continue to read and appreciate Manto. Especially the post-independence generation, which does not relate to the tragedy of the partition of India — since Manto's greatest works were impacted by the forced uprooting of people from both sides. This dramatic unfolding of history before him, of which he became a part, sculpted his stories in a unique form. The shock of partition continued to resound through his works, and became a tool of expression in his hands. He migrated to Pakistan, a year after the partition, when he realised, he could no longer live his life the way it was. Partition had disturbed the delicate fabric of composite culture in India.

Though, Manto is primarily known for his writings on partition, to treat him as a documentarian of the partition is to limit the scope of his writing. "Manto was perhaps the first cartographer of the urban slums of India," says Dr Alok Bhalla, editor of 'The Life and Works of Manto.' This partly explains his timeless appeal. Not that other writers had not written about city life, they had treated it as a place inhabited by the educated middle-class. Manto spoke boldly about the lives of those who were pushed into the dark recesses of Bombay or Delhi — not just to the margins. "He gave them a body and a face and a psyche which was both bewildered and capable of resistance. I don't think anybody since has explored those spaces where the soul can only be bruised and the self's wounds can be healed," adds Bhalla.

Shock and consolation

Even though censorship haunted his works, Manto created a legacy for the writers on how not to give in to self-censorship and to fight those who try to throttle style and content. His realism was honest, he liberated the prostitutes from "the pious sentimentalism of the Mumbai film industry." He made sex central to his writing and didn’t give in to the metaphoric rendition of it. He brought to the fore its glory and filth, and the massive exploitation it unleashes, with objectivity. ‘Kali Salwar' the story, needles the reader's memory, and the metaphor of a black salwar and the character get blurred. 'Thanda Gosht' leaves the reader with a chill going down the spine, rather than a sense of arousal, it was accused of.

Is Manto the protagonist of all his narratives? Who do we read and listen to? Is it Manto who speaks through the characters he is portraying? He does not delve much on description and detailing. He takes the reader to an event and with the precision of a surgeon, leaves one with his post-mortem, which is often quick and shocking. Dr Bhalla says his works are 'artefacts not autobiographies.' What creates this impression is perhaps the fact that as a writer "he can imagine and empathise with those who suffer in a moral and social system which continues to throw a haze of piety over its profound corruptions, its unexamined nastiness and its callous exploitations." And the reader continues to identify with the underlying layered hypocrisies of human life and its follies.

Ordinary people— helpless, foolish, fine and pure-all at once - inhabited his literary world. No wonder his stories shock, there is bitterness in his laughter, but, they also console. His humanism makes these tales survive and evolve as part of human consciousness. His readers ensure that his voice is never weakened, a voice sharp like the edge of a sword, that cuts across classes, sparing none.

The Punjab connection

Manto was born at Papraudi near Samrala, in Ludhiana district of Punjab in a Kashmiri Muslim family of barristers, on May 11, 1912. He received his early education at Muslim High School in Amritsar, but remained a misfit throughout his school years, failing twice in matriculation. His only love during those days, was reading English novels, for which he even stole a book, once from a book stall at Amritsar Railway Station.In 1931, he finally passed out of school and joined Hindu Sabha College in Amritsar, which was already volatile due the independence movement, soon it reflected in his first story, 'Tamasha', based on the Jalianwala Bagh massacre.

 

In Manto’s words In undivided India I was tried thrice, in Pakistan so far once. But then Pakistan is still young. I hope my writings are not given the lofty status as that of Iqbal, my soul will be restless. God may save me from the termite.