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Pak designs Getting back on track |
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Earning Akali blues Speed check for Sukhbir, Majithia Punjab Chief Minister and SAD patron Parkash Singh Badal has said his little chastisement of Revenue Minister and relative Bikram Singh Majithia was only in jest. The cat is, however, out of the bag. The head of the family as well as party seniors are not entirely happy with the rough and ready ways of the young, who he believes are too taken by the electoral success. Badal, who has seen much politics to get carried away, is obviously worried for his kin, lest they undo what he has put together for them. His hands, however, are bound by his love for the family — which virtually runs the entire show — hence the retraction of the public reprimand.
Seeking change in the
system
The thanksgiving
More than a spectacle
of spirituality
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Getting back on track
The
only objection to the proposed rail fare hike from January 22 is that it comes so close to the budget, scheduled for next month. Tax and fare increases should ideally be included in a budget and discussed in the legislature. But it seems the government is in a hurry to take unpleasant decisions before election din kicks up. Since it is furiously trying to raise resources to control the fiscal deficit, avert a rating downgrade and keep up investor sentiment, the rail fare increase is in order. It sends the signal that reforms are on track and the government is capable of taking tough decisions. The real test of the government’s commitment to reforms and fiscal consolidation will, however, depend on whether it raises the prices of electricity and petroleum products as has been suggested by the Prime Minister. As for the rail fares, the last increase was in 2002. So, no one should be grudging a modest increase. If the BJP, the Left, the Trinamool Congress and the Shiromani Akali Dal have voiced objections, they are playing politics. Why do their governments raise bus fares each time diesel becomes costlier? In 2009, the then Railway Minister, Lalu Prasad, actually lowered the already low fares. Before Pawan Kumar Bansal, successive railway ministers – on their own or at the bidding of their political masters – had avoided fare increases, disregarding the financial needs of the Railways for keeping up with India’s growth. Dinesh Trivedi lost his job for raising fares which his successor, Mukul Roy, rolled back. Actually, the power of fixing fares should be taken away from politicians and handed over to an independent regulator who should take decisions on merit. The Railways needs cash to finish its ongoing projects, upgrade technology, provide better safety and ensure cleaner trains and railway stations. It has accumulated losses of Rs 25,000 crore as input costs and staff salaries have gone up without a matching rise in income. The Railways needs to be in professional and competent hands, and be kept above coalition bargaining.
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Earning Akali blues
Punjab
Chief Minister and SAD patron Parkash Singh Badal has said his little chastisement of Revenue Minister and relative Bikram Singh Majithia was only in jest. The cat is, however, out of the bag. The head of the family as well as party seniors are not entirely happy with the rough and ready ways of the young, who he believes are too taken by the electoral success. Badal, who has seen much politics to get carried away, is obviously worried for his kin, lest they undo what he has put together for them. His hands, however, are bound by his love for the family — which virtually runs the entire show — hence the retraction of the public reprimand. What may have upset Badal is not hard to see. He bases his politics in approval from the masses. And the embarrassment younger members of the SAD have brought to the party in recent months goes directly against this approach. The media as well as the Opposition have blamed Majithia — who draws much of his power from Deputy Chief Minister and brother-in-law Sukhbir Badal’s support — for instilling the violent streak in youth cadres. That’s reason enough for Majithia to be seen as a liability. At the same time, the need for the next generation to take charge cannot be ignored. The baton has to pass, and transitions are always painful. The issue at hand right now is whether it is time for the change. Badal has made it obvious he does not think so. Majithia has been cut to size, and in reminding Sukhbir of the senior Akalis’ contribution, Badal seems to have told him he’ll have to earn his Akali blues before making the big move. Whether or not Sukhbir agrees, there is no gainsaying the hold Badal has over the Akali voter base, with whom development does not count all that much. And any move to spread beyond the traditional base would be a gamble for a party steeped in a history of Sikh politics.
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You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream. — C. S. Lewis
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Seeking change in the system HOW heavenly to be alive when the youth is asserting itself. Even the sons and daughters from well-off families joined the protests. I recall the Quit India movement in 1942 when on the call of Mahatma Gandhi people came to the streets to demand the British to quit. There was a spirit of sacrifice and dedication in their demonstration. This time one felt his or her personal loss in the death of the 23-year-old after being gang-raped. Young faces, lighted by the candles they carried, adumbrated the idea of India which knew of no caste and no religious identity. It was a united nation mourning the death of its proud daughter. It appears from protest marches and condolence meetings that the gang-rape has awakened the nation to brutalities against women as well as non-functioning rulers. That the stir was peaceful despite lathi-charge and water canons shows the maturity of participants. The rulers had no clue of why such defiance had taken place and what they should be doing. Initially, they did not want to come in the open to address the gatherings because there was no connect between them and the students. None in the ruling leadership had fathomed the anger. Then the government panicked and leaders like Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit wanted to interact with the students squatting at Jantar Mantar, India’s Hyde Park, but she was refused entry to the place. Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde, belatedly, asked the political parties to make proposals, indicating that the Manmohan Singh government was at a loss. Hurriedly, it appointed a probe committee and a judicial commission to suggest new harsher laws. Former Chief Justice of India J.C. Verma was appointed to head the commission. I wish this process had been gone through after a joint session of Parliament as demanded by the opposition. Then suggestions made by MPs could have been incorporated in the proposed laws. The nitty-gritty of improving the legal apparatus is all right up to a point. But what the government fails to realise is that its thinking is out of date. It is still stuck in the status quo while the youth wants
parivartan (change). The system is too effete to restore confidence in the majesty of law and to ensure protection to all, particularly women. The government's own record is poor. It has done very little to combat corruption which dominated the debate until a few months ago. To inspire confidence, the least that New Delhi could have done is to have made the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) independent. The agency continues to function at the whim of the ruling party. One thing which has come as a surprise to me from the current protests is that the youth wants to remain apolitical. No notice was taken of the presence of The Aam Aadmi Party, born out of Gandhian Anna Hazare’s movement to have Lokpal (ombudsman) at the Centre to combat corruption. The youth seems to prefer people's movement to a political party. I find that there is some awakening in the political parties too. They appear to have started introspecting their own conduct. From the statements they have made, it is evident that they want to rise above party considerations on violence against women. This evokes hope that the government and the Opposition will reach a consensus on the steps to stop even molestation and eve-teasing. The problem is the male. Without changing his mindset, there can be no gender equality. He still treats women as a thing of pleasure. His chauvinism has not lessened over the years as the remarks by some people’s representatives, MPs and MLAs, made after the gang-rape. Society is seething with anger and wants immediate justice for which neither the police nor the court
is prepared. The younger generation of politicians may cleanse the environment. And it is heartening to see that the baton in Pakistan has been passed on to Bilawal Bhutto, who now heads the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), founded by Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. Bilawal’s speech on the fifth death anniversary of Benazir Bhutto, his mother, shows maturity at the age of 24. I believe he wrote the speech himself and denounced terrorism as well as dictatorship which have not allowed Pakistan to come of age. Whether his sister would have been better is of the same type of debate which raged in India when Rahul Gandhi was nominated in preference to his sister, Priyanka. I wish Rahul Gandhi would tear a page from Bilawal's book. The latter is clear and categorical in spelling out his ideology based on the values of liberalism and democracy. His particular mention of minorities’ rights is a departure from the past dominated by bigotry and extremism. It is not to suggest that Rahul is not liberal or democrat. But his five-minute speeches do not give a peep into his thinking or his ideas for the future. This is important because he is the Congress party’s candidate for prime ministership in the 2014 parliamentary election. Both Rahul and Bilawal should join hands to fight against the brutalities perpetrated on women in India and Pakistan. The public in both countries feels helpless against the goonda elements. A girl was raped and brutalised in India, but the nation could not save the girl’s life. Malala Yousufzai in Pakistan had to escape the country because of the Taliban’s determination to kill her. Education for women was her demand which goes against the Taliban ideology. I believe Malala wanted to come to India for medical treatment but the government was scared to let her in. She had to fly to London. The fight for women’s equal rights is a long and arduous journey, and requires patience, courage and sacrifice. Society wants the youth to lead it because it has found political parties failing. It wants a movement to give equality to women. People have felt appalled over the gang-rape of the girl at Delhi and the stoning of Malala in Pakistan. Do Rahul and Bilawal have the commitment to the principle that men and women are equal? As for support, they can depend on the youth which has come of
age.
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The thanksgiving I
am
not an atheist but then neither am I a very religious man. But recently when I got to my feet again after a prolonged (very prolonged!) illness, my heart filled with gratitude and I wanted very much to thank God for his benediction. I didn’t know how to go about this, till Veer Amol, a childhood friend, advised me to take the ingredients for prasad to the local gurdwara, and request the priest to say a special prayer of thanksgiving. I arrived at the local gurdwara the next Sunday. It was a bright sunny morning and I sat in the sun, letting its warmth seep through my body while I waited for the priest to arrive. It was a quiet gurdwara with none of the hustle and bustle of the gurdwaras in big cities on Sunday mornings and I was glad for it because the quiet, the peace and the serenity were in consonance with my frame of mind. The priest arrived, the ingredients were handed over to a sewadar and we went into the gurdwara. While we prayed, a few other worshippers joined us. When the prayer was over, he recited the vaak. I asked him to explain it to me . With great patience, as if he had all the time in the world, he explained the meaning of those sacred words. He did not refer to the text and what he gave me was not a literal translation but the sense and spirit of what the Book had said. “The worst illness in our world is leprosy because the patient is shunned by everyone. But even worse than leprosy is the illness of forgetting God. When we experience suffering we turn to him and ask: ‘Oh God, what have I done to deserve this?’
We ask for forgiveness for our sins and promise to choose the path of virtue in the future. But when we achieve success or happiness we rarely turn to God. We must remember that sorrow and happiness are both garments that God has given us and that we must wear them both with the same equanimity. And this we can only do by remembering God at all times.” The Book could have been speaking directly to me. I was filled with a strong feeling of well being – a feeling I had been denied for many months. I looked around and the world seemed clear and bright as if it had been freshly laundered and put out to dry in the morning sun. Life was beautiful. As I walked down the gurdwara steps, I vowed to return every Sunday to this serene, calm environment and listen to more of those pious words. I stopped in my tracks, the promise seemed familiar. The first seeds of doubt crept into my mind and cast a shadow over my mood of perfect piety. I walked slowly down the remaining steps. I would keep my promise this time, I told myself firmly. I walked with a quickened pace towards my
house.
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More than a spectacle of spirituality
Beyond
its photogenic appeal of exotica, what does Kumbh Mela mean to developing societies? Does it offer a model of peaceful co-existence, a search for quiet amidst crowds-- perhaps this is what our ancestors envisaged when they conceptualised the largest congregation of humanity at one place. Known to be the biggest religious congregation in India where millions of people gather to witness confluence of colourful holy men, naked sadhus, wondrous feats of asceticism and piety on a scale unparalleled anywhere else in the world, it is now inspiring sociologists to understand the Kumbh beyond its religious connotations. Various studies undertaken by Indian and foreign universities have now established, that the number of people coming to these melas have not dwindled over the centuries, despite growing influence of modernity and consumerism.
The melas have experienced nightmarish incidents too; of cholera and stampedes from time to time, yet, they fail to influence the collective search for peace among people. They return with the same fervour and faith, year after year. While most crowded places give a feeling of claustrophobia, at the Kumbh pilgrims experience a sense of serenity and calm. Beyond the single unifying factor of religion, what brings so many people from different classes and shades of social hierarchy at one place, Prayag, is a mystery. This year seventy to hundred million people are expected to visit Allahabad, braving icy cold winds and chilled waters between January 14 to February 25, for just a dip in the confluence of three rivers; Ganga, Yamuna and the mythical Saraswati on auspicious days. Close to Rs 1700 crore will be spent on organising the mela. How does the land of IT revolution keep its loyalty to an event like Kumbh, more and more intrigued researchers from developed countries are getting involved in demystifying this phenomenon, at sociological and psychological planes. The myth of elixir and a pitcher The first written evidence of the Kumbha Mela, known for the largest congregation of humanity for a single purpose, can be found in the accounts of Chinese traveller, Huan Tsang or Xuanzang (602 - 664 A.D.) who visited India in 629 -645 CE, during the reign of king Harshavardhana. Similar observances date back many centuries, where the river festivals first started getting organised. According to medieval Hindu theology, its origin is found in one of the most popular medieval puranas, the Bhagavata Purana. According to the Bhagavata Purana, the demigods had lost their strength by the curse of Durvasa Muni, and to regain their lost powers, they approached Lord Brahma and Lord Shiva, who directed the demigods to Lord Vishnu, the creator, who instructed them to churn the ocean of milk Ksheera Sagara for amrita (the nectar of immortality). This required them to make a temporary agreement with their arch enemies- the demons or Asuras, to work together with a promise of sharing the wealth equally thereafter. When the Kumbha (urn) containing the amrita appeared after the churning of the sea, a fight ensued between the demons and the gods. For twelve days and twelve nights (equivalent to twelve human years) the gods and demons fought in the sky for the pot of amrita(kumbha). It is believed that during the battle, Lord Vishnu, incarnated as Mohini, a beautiful woman and fled with the Kumbha of elixir spilling drops of amrita at four places: Allahabad, Haridwar, Ujjain and Nashik, the places where now Kumbh mela is celebrated at regular intervals of time.
A massive field for social research The Maha Kumbh, as the 2013 Kumbh is known, occurs after every twelve years at either of the four places of Kumbh ie. Allahabad, Haridwar, Ujjain or Nashik. Since its inception, early in the first millennium CE(Classic Era 200–900 AD), the Kumbh has been drawing tens of millions of pilgrims over the course of a few weeks. A vast city of strangers emerges from nothing every twelve years, and yet it functions harmoniously. People treat each other civilly and supportively. They respect the needs and beliefs of others. The mela provides a forum for both individual and collective expressions of faith as pilgrims, religious teachers, and followers of monastic orders who converge at the confluence from all parts of India. To understand this strange phenomenon, in one of the largest ever social- psychology collaboration between the UK and Indian Universities, scholars and researchers investigated the collective participation of pilgrims in the Magh Melas ( they occur every year preceding the Maha Kumbh, for 12 years) using the lens of social identity theories. The researchers studied the event, seeking to understand how people treat each other, how they experience the crowd and what impact the crowd has on their everyday lives. Eminent scholars like Dr. Nick Hopkins, University of Dundee, UK, in association with Prof. Stephen Reicher, University of St. Andrews, UK, Prof. Narayanan Srinivasan, University of Allahabad, Dr. Clifford Stevenson, Queen's University, Belfast, Prof. Mark Levine, University of Exeter, UK and Gozde Ozakinci, University of St. Andrews, UK, with their team wondered how is it that people thrive in an environment that is densely crowded, intensely noisy and often risky for health? Pilgrims described the event as 'blissful' and 'serene'. They tried to figure out how is it that people, often frail and elderly, living in the most basic conditions, cope with a harsh and often freezing environment, they not only just endure these conditions, their well-being is enhanced through the experience. “Sometimes we look at the Mela as an exotic event and focus on how different the pilgrims are from us. Our work shows how the pilgrim experience has lessons for all of us about how to create a good community and to ensure that people thrive in the community,” says Dr Hokins. Dr Shruti Tripathi, research director of the Mela Project interviewed around 1000 participants from 90 villages before after and during the Magh Mela in the first properly controlled study of its kind. Pilgrims (knows as kalpvasi) and the non-attendees neighbours from their villages were studied and it was found that those who come to the mela, the kalpvasis enjoy better harmony and peace.
Teaching lessons in humanity Kalpvasis who come for the Magh Mela, live a life of severe austerity for a month, yet they treat it as a privilege. They carry the thread of kalpvas, handed down through generations, and take pride in it. “They live in tents with minimal facilities, eat satwik food, bathe twice in ice cold waters, apart from religious merit, it brings them a sense of shared identity, a collective self realisation, this strengthens their identity. It has very positive impact on their mood, health and the feeling of community,” says Dr Tripathi. Professor Reicher offers a more pragmatic view, “By all the tenets of conventional wisdom, the mela shouldn't work. It is crowded, noisy and unsanitary. One might expect people to be stressed, quarrelsome and conflictual. Yet the event is harmonious and people are serene. Studying the mela has forced us to reconsider many basic beliefs about how people function in society.” Looking at the spatial aspects of the mela, a study conducted by the architects from Harvard University concluded that the Kumbh Mela is a prototype for a concept that can be called the pop-up mega-city. The spatial model of the mela can be extended to situations outside of religious pilgrimage: understanding the spatial, social, and logistical elements of the Kumbh through interdisciplinary research will allow societies to propose the deployment of these systems in a variety of places and situations, in particular camps for refugees of war and natural disasters.
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