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Lalu locked up
Power over the purse |
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Religion of terror
Govt-army relationship
Chicken soup for maid’s soul
London Latitude From Shyam Bhatia TRIBUTES have been pouring in for India’s outgoing High Commissioner to the UK, Dr Jaimini Bhagwati, a diplomat who is as popular as he is deemed to be gracious. London has always attracted top-ranking officials — Mrs Vijaylakshmi Pandit and Krishna Menon among them — but it is not an easy assignment for a variety of reasons.
The unfriendly neighbour
Another side to yogi Grooming hits Indian expats Jaguar set to rival auto giants
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Lalu locked up
BY convicting Lalu Prasad in the fodder scam, the Ranchi CBI court has proved that no matter how powerful, politicians are not above the law. There is need to instil the fear of law in politicians who think they can manipulate the system and get away with anything.
Had vocal public opinion not supported the Supreme Court judgment on convicted legislators, Lalu's political career would not have ended like this. The 65-year-old maverick politician cannot contest any election for six years after serving the jail term, which will be announced on October 3. Even if delayed, justice has been delivered. His humble background and earthy humour might have endeared him to some, but Lalu deserves no sympathy. There is no place for criminals in politics and this can be ensured if the informed citizenry and media speak up, loud and clear. Incidentally, the Bill to negate the landmark court verdict is still before a parliamentary committee. The UPA had decided to bail out Lalu Prasad with an ordinance. But an indignant Rahul Gandhi trashed the ordinance as well as the government. The Congress must have calculated afresh the cost of harbouring a political liability like Lalu. The party has been making positive overtures towards Chief Minister Nitish Kumar since his split with the BJP on the Narendra Modi issue. Bihar is now expected to witness some political churning. Lalu's RJD will struggle to stay afloat as the JD(U) and the BJP will try to slice up his vote bank. Sending a top national politician to jail is no mean achievement for the CBI and the court, and that too in Bihar, where lawlessness had prevailed under Lalu raj before Nitish Kumar restored it to the civilised world. Lalu has been the voice of the deprived. Instead of making genuine efforts to improve their lot, he and 44 others looted the treasury and pushed Bihar deeper in poverty. It is a pity that a criminal is allowed to occupy high offices in this country for so long before the law catches up with him.
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Power over the purse
THE Republicans and the Democrats jousted over the healthcare plan that is so closely identified with US President Barack Obama that is it known as Obamacare. It was not enough, so they played the game of chicken, and neither side blinked. The impact of their clash is that the US federal government had to initiate a partial shutdown.
The battle over the power over the purse is not new. The failure of the two Houses of Congress to agree on a new budget had led to such a situation 17 years ago. Now, again, as the world watches, about eight lakh federal employees deemed non-essential have been laid off by the largest employer in the United States of America. The stand-off had almost become an annual feature as the Republicans, who control the House of Representatives, and the Democrats, who are in majority in the Senate, indulge in brinkmanship. However, given the delicate state of the US economic recovery, better sense was expected this time, something that did not happen. That the shutdown will have a negative impact on the US economy is obvious, even as the extent of the impact will depend on various factors like how long it will last and how the rest of the world reacts to it. The initial reaction of the international markets has been muted, but that may not last. However, too much delay in the Senate raising the debt ceiling, which alone would allow the shutdown to be rolled back, would cause problems. A tipping point could well be mid-October, when, if the current situation is not resolved, the US government could default on its debts. However, the general expectation, as the world watches the political theatre, with its extreme posturing, currently being staged in the US Congress, is that the two sides will work out a last-minute accommodation before October 17. Brinkmanship between the Republicans and the Democrats has brought about this impasse. Sometimes it takes a crisis to make politicians look beyond their narrow tunnel visions and see the large picture. Surely, the US shutdown is one such moment.
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Religion of terror
UNION Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde has told all states to ensure innocent Muslims are not harassed in terror cases. He definitely did not mean non-Muslims may be harassed. He probably also did not intend to imply that various investigation agencies were deliberately targeting innocent Muslims, and detaining them without reason.
Then what exactly did he mean? Perhaps he meant to say — or at least should have — that no innocent person should be harassed in the course of terror investigations. If he meant anything other than that, he is not the right person to be in the job — responsible for peace and law and order in the country, which is directly related to communal harmony. Given his penchant for speaking out of turn, it would not be surprising if Shinde made the inappropriate communication without any political motive. The Congress' known approach of treating Muslims as a vote bank, however, is a strong reason to suspect mischief. Most terror attacks in the past couple of years have taken place in non-BJP states. There seems to be little reason to believe arrests in terror investigations have been made because people were Muslim. It is probably just that most associates of a terrorist are likely to be from his community, and therefore that community ends up feeling 'harassed' as people are detained and questioned. This will be true for any community. The answer lies in following rigorous procedures in investigation, and not ending up harassing anyone innocent, as each instance of harassment could end up producing another terrorist and an excuse for more violence. Terror is a crime against humanity, and thrives on enforcement agencies' harsh ways as that gives credence to its 'cause'. It should be the government's endeavour to present perpetrators of terror not as belonging to a particular community but as criminals. At the same time, the Opposition too should refrain from commenting on an ongoing investigation - demanding a thorough inquiry, if needed, only after the probe is completed. The Batla House case should be a lesson for all. |
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Do not take life too seriously. You will never get out of it alive. —Elbert Hubbard
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Govt-army relationship I
HAVE been getting calls from the Pakistan media to inquire whether the army stalled the government from certain decisions or forced it to take some without its willingness. Their concern is understandable because the army is the boss in Pakistan and even Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, who said the elected government would be superior, has to clear the agenda of close India-Pakistan relations with his army chief, Gen Parvez Kayani. I have assured the Pakistan media that the situation in India is like the one prevailing in advanced countries in the West where voters are the arbiters. However, I can recall one example of the Armed Forces (Special) Powers Act under which the army can kill anyone on suspicion without being arraigned. The government was inclined to modify the Act after a commission's recommendations. But the army had its way and the Act stays without any amendment. Except for this, I have found the Indian army obedient to the elected government. It may be a cliché but the army is apolitical and takes pride in eschewing politics. There may be discussions in messes or canteens of the armed forces on the present conditions obtaining the country. But they are healthy and nothing beyond the
ventilation of disgust. This is not even a case of Bonapartism. I know of a few aberrations on the part of certain army chiefs who have gone beyond the ambit of authority. But there is no instance of defiance. When Gen K.S. Thimmaiah, a popular army chief, submitted his resignation to the dismay of the public, it was against the functioning of the then Defence Minister Krishna Menon. Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru intervened and made Thimmaiah to take back his resignation. Menon stayed on at the Defence Ministry and Thimmaiah retired after completing his term. General K. Sundarji went beyond his authority during the military exercises (brass tacks). He went into the disputed territory under China and into Pakistan. Islamabad was so disturbed that it sent its Foreign Secretary Abdul Sattar to New Delhi. Sundarji was pulled up. However, he continued to be the army chief until his retirement. Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw was popular among the people, particularly after the victory in the Bangladesh war. Even the then Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi, was suspicious. He made it clear when he met her that he was proud to head such an armed force which did not interfere in political affairs. "You do your job and allow me to do mine," he was supposed to have told Indira Gandhi. The latest example, somewhat disturbing, is that of Gen V.K. Singh, who retired recently as the army chief. He shared dais with the controversial Gujarat Chief Minister, Narendra Modi. I wish V.K. Singh had waited a bit longer before jumping into politics. There is no harm in Generals joining politics. The greatest democracy of America has examples of top military chiefs like Douglas MacArthur and Dwight D. Eishenhowr running for presidential election and winning the coveted position. But both of them did not rush to the election platform from the theatre of war. They contested only after decent intervals. The main allegation against V.K. Singh is that he set up a unit, Technical Support Division, to snoop on the government at Srinagar and used secret funds to topple it. In an interview to a television network, he has gone further to say that the army has been financing since Independence ministers in the Jammu and Kashmir government to maintain "peace and stability" in the state. The allegation of snooping against the elected government at Srinagar is a serious one. The ruling National Conference is justified in demanding a probe by a sitting Supreme Court judge. The Centre is in the dock as far as V.K. Singh's admission that the military has financed all ministers in Srinagar is concerned. Let the Omar Abdullah government explain whether the charge is correct. Farooq Abdullah, former Chief Minister, is so disturbed that he has demanded a CBI probe immediately. The constitution by V.K. Singh of a special cell for special purposes has also to be looked into. The Defence Ministry has issued a statement saying the matter is being pursued for "further action." V.K. Singh was said to have been upset by the leakage of the report against him by top army officials. The report is not yet in the public domain. But the charges are too serious to be left at that. The revelations make a mockery of the army's functioning in a democratic polity. Covert operations are conducted all over the world. They should never see the light of the day and the officials engaged in them should keep quiet till their death and not even mention them in their memoires. The military also needs to revise its rules of retirement so that the former chiefs of the three services-army, air force and navy-are not able to join a political party for a decade after their retirement. Being in command they are bound to have earned enough fame to influence the voters. All this darkens the image of the army. However, V.K. Singh is not the entire army. He is a maverick. He has criticised even the Supreme Court for having rejected his claim to continue one year more in service because of his birth certificate was "incorrect." When he had made no effort to have the "mistake" rectified during his entire career, he had no right to do so after occupying the position of the Chief of the Army Staff. V.K. Singh is all politics. Even his body language says so. What he has said speaks volumes of affairs between the government and the army. The self-righteousness of V.K. Singh is not understandable. Why did he not stand up and stop the financing work in Kashmir? Instead, he accelerated the process. He says that Omar Abdullah has "an agenda." What is it and what did V.K. Singh do to stop it? To topple an elected government is no solution. His own credibility is in doubt. His association with Anna Hazare at present should be taken with a pinch of
salt.
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Chicken soup for maid’s soul
ONE bleak December morning I found her on my doorstep offering unsolicited services as a cook. She was draped in a black nylon saree with a scarlet pattern. To add pizzazz to the ensemble she wore a black sweater with a generous smattering of sequins and crimson nail-paint on her cracked work-worn hands.
I looked askance at her weather-beaten face reminiscent of the witches in 'Macbeth'. At my cold reception, she shuffled out of the gate with a woebegone look which I promptly consigned to the edges of my memory. But we were
destined to meet again. As luck would have it, my regular maid abandoned me. In a moment of surreal madness I decided to turn 'chef'. After all I could cook with greater panache than an illiterate maid. And I did, for all of three days. After that I started calling up friends and foes pleading for a maid. As my desperation spiralled, I began to stop any maid-look-alike on the road and enquire about her cooking skills. That earned me plenty of quelling looks but who cared. And then, like a magician, my brain conjured up the image of 'Meena'. Yes that was her name. I shuddered at the recollection but with unseemly haste sent out a missive for Meena. That was how Meena came to work for me. Her cooking skills were rudimentary but her eating skills were not. She would beadily monitor our portions. She would insist I cook so she could learn by example. This of course seemed to be taking an inordinately long time. 'I am a vegetarian', she indignantly retorted when I asked her to stack eggs. But when we ordered in chicken soup one day she demanded her portion. I decided not to indulge her. The next day I woke up to a household in chaos. There was no bed tea. A putrid smell hung in the air as the garbage had not been disposed. The morning newspapers had mysteriously disappeared. The fruit in the fridge had shrunk to an alarming low. The cause: Meena was in a state of extreme fatigue sans chicken soup. My muted scolding and vociferous pleas fell on deaf ears. She would not budge from the bed where she had taken up permanent residence. At the end of my tether, I ordered in chicken soup for her. She slurped the soup ecstatically. And then, she made a miraculous recovery. She was up and about in the blink of an eye and in minutes had cleared the kitchen debris. Before I could say 'Jack Robinson', she had prepared a delicious meal and a dessert of kheer. I was astounded. A bowl of chicken soup had worked wonders on her cooking skills and given her a blissful countenance. Unwittingly, I seemed to have hit upon the 'Meena-mantra'. So whenever guests drop by, I order in chicken soup for Meena first. Hey, this is no bribe. It is simply 'chicken soup' for the maid's soul.n |
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London Latitude From Shyam Bhatia
TRIBUTES have been pouring in for India’s outgoing High Commissioner to the UK, Dr Jaimini Bhagwati, a diplomat who is as popular as he is deemed to be gracious. London has always attracted top-ranking officials — Mrs Vijaylakshmi Pandit and Krishna Menon among them — but it is not an easy assignment for a variety of reasons.
Bilateral ties with the British Government, regardless of which party is in power, tend to suffer from a see-saw effect which plays havoc with the nerves of the most seasoned Indian diplomats. Then, there is the large and fractious NRI population, including some Naxalites, revolutionary Sikhs and others, who make their own demands and sometimes ask for the High Commissioner’s personal intervention to solve their many problems. Dr Bhagwati has somehow managed to sail through the many problems confronting him with a quiet determination and a minimum of fuss. One British Foreign Office source jokingly remarked that it is his skills as a very good tennis player that have helped him build the nerves of steel required for the job. The big question now is what Bhagwati will do post-retirement. There will be no dearth of companies in the private sector eager to snap him up for the many valuable contacts he has made in Europe and the US, where he also served in the World Bank. But he and his family are also close to the Congress Party and there is speculation in London that he has been offered the opportunity to contest a safe Lok Sabha seat from Assam during the next General Election. Who succeeds him in London is also an open question. The front runner is thought to be Ranjan Mathai, the former Foreign Secretary and former ambassador to France, who also served for six months in London as Deputy High Commissioner. He will be a popular choice, not least because he too has many friends and admirers among British officials and the top ranks of the NRI community in the UK.
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Indian experts on South Asia have taken due note of a leading British politician’s observation that Pakistan is the most dangerous country on earth.
Liam Fox, former Chairman of the Conservative Party and an ex Secretary of Defence, reaches this conclusion in his newly published book, Rising Tides: Facing the Challenges of a New Era, where he describes Pakistan as “Probably the most dangerous country in the world.” When Indian experts expressed similar views in the past, they were dismissed by their western counterparts as being biased and out of tune with real life. For his part Mr Fox comments on Pakistan’s ‘inherent political instability’ and the “unpredictable and sometimes malevolent behaviour of its intelligence services, the ISI, its willingness to share nuclear technology with rogue states and others, and its potential to export terrorism.” He adds, “Home to its own violent jehadists, Pakistan has done much to foster the Taliban in neighbouring Afghanistan, and may be doing so now. The Pakistan authorities are widely suspected of knowing that Osama bin Laden was hiding in Pakistan before the CIA discovered and killed him. Chronically unstable, Pakistan has nuclear weapons, a major concern in the region. Its generals are even accused of selling nuclear secrets to North Korea.” What Fox does not pay much attention to is the role of the US-British alliance in pumping weapons and cash to train the jehadi warriors who even now roam freely about in both Pakistan and neighbouring Afghanistan. Washington and London’s justification was that weapons and cash were needed to equip the resistance forces that evolved after the former Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan in 1979. But neither the Americans, nor the British, kept any tabs on the deadly firepower they provided and which remained in the hands of the resistance and their successors long after Soviet forces withdrew in 1989. Those same weapons are currently being used to deadly effect against Nato forces and their allies currently operating in Afghanistan. However, any British concern about the dangers represented by Pakistan’s military and political elite has to be balanced by sensitivity to the number of people of Pakistani origin who live in the UK. British NRPs (non-resident Pakistanis) number between 750,000 and one million and many of them — like their NRI counterparts — have made handsome contributions to the cultural, political and economic life of the UK. Among them is the former cash-and-carry tycoon Mohammad Sarwar, Britain’s first Muslim MP, who served for more than 10 years as MP for Glasgow Central. Now aged 61, Sarwar earlier this year surrendered his British citizenship in order to take up a new job as Governor of Punjab in Pakistan. Back in the UK, Sarwar’s 30-year-old son, Anas, has succeeded him as an MP. Despite his impressive political record, Sarwar senior was turned down for a peerage because House of Lords appointments commission refused to back him on the advice of the UK tax authorities. Since taking over as Governor of Punjab, Sarwar has urged the West to trust the Pakistan army and the much-feared ISI intelligence service. In a recent comment, he said, “They (the West) should not doubt the good intentions of our army, our intelligence agencies and our people. We expect the West to trust us because this (the war against terrorism) is a battle which is destroying our country.”
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THE late Maharishi Mahesh Yogi is remembered by devotees of western pop music as the Indian spiritual leader, who introduced transcendental meditation to the Beatles and the rest of the world. But fresh evidence suggests there was another, less attractive side to him that upset John Lennon, in particular. The Maharishi’s original name was Mahesh Prasad Varma. He and the Beatles first met in London in August 1967 and their interaction was so successful that the Beatles travelled to Rishikesh the following year to “devote themselves fully to his instruction.” It was during the Beatles’ 1968 visit to India that Lennon felt the Maharishi was much too interested in making money and had shown inappropriate interest in some of the women who were part of the Beatles circle of friends and admirers. Lennon carved out his frustrations on a piece of wood with the words of a lyric that began, “Maharishi what have you done, you’ve made a fool of everyone”. Maharishi was subsequently replaced by the words “Sexy Sadie” because of concern that the Maharishi would sue the group for libel. Lennon himself commented much later that the song was “inspired by Maharishi. I just called him ‘Sexy Sadie.’ However, the piece of wood on which the original lyric was carved has now been put up for sale. Ted Owen of the Fame Bureau, which is responsible for selling the item, has been quoted as saying, “It is a piece of wood that nearly broke up the Beatles. John Lennon wanted to release the Maharishi version as a single, but George Harrison said ‘no way’ and Paul McCartney convinced them to keep the song but change the lyrics. The Maharishi himself lived until he was 90. During a 2002 appearance on CNN, he described transcendental meditation as “something that can be defined as a means to do what one wants to do in a better way, a right way, for maximum results.” He died peacefully at his residence in the Dutch city of Vlodrop on February 5, 2008.
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THE Sikh community in the city of Leicester is in a state of shock following court room disclosures of how a 17-year-old teenage girl was turned into a sexual plaything by a gang of six Asians, including NRIs. Rakib Iacub(20), Bharat Modhwadia(25), Aaabidali Ali (39), Wajid Usman(22), Hamza Imtiazali (28) and Chandresh Mistry (37) have been given jail sentences ranging from eight months to five years for their roles in facilitating child prostitution and paying for the sexual services of a child. Their teenage victim, code named Manjit, told Leicester Crown Court how men in Mercedes, BMWs and Audis made her feel like “some sort of doll” as they lured her into having sex with them in car parks and guest rooms across the city. Although she was brought up by loving and protective parents, Manjit wanted her own independence. She was still at college when she started applying for part time jobs to earn more money. When she offered to sleep with friends in exchange for money, two of them agreed. From then on, it was a slippery slope to more paid sex with fellow Asians, who picked her up from college and gave her vodka to drink before having sex with her and dropping her back at college. Her parents realised that something was amiss when they attended a talk by a local Sikh, Mohan Singh, who campaigns against child sex grooming. With help from Mohan Singh and her parents, Manjit finally decided to go to Leicester police and tell them what had happened to her. Her disclosures led to the arrests and convictions of the gang of six. Police are still looking into the backgrounds of other sexual predators who demanded intimate photographs of Majit and threatened to tell her parents unless she obeyed them.
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Jaguar set to rival auto giants
ONE of India’s most respected private sector groups now has its admirers in the UK as well following its success in consolidating and expanding one of the country’s most famous car brands. The Tata group, which bought Jaguar Land Rover from Ford in 2007, has made pre-tax profits of £1.6 billion and is poised to capture an even greater share of Europe’s up market family cars. The key to Tata’s strategy is a new range of sporty mid-sized Jaguars that will challenge such giant rivals as BMW, Mercedes Benx and Audi. One of them is a sporty upright estate car, the C-Xl7, which attracted gasps of admiration when it was unveiled earlier this month at the Frankfurt Motor Show. Priced at an estimated £35,000, this new model is seen as a serious threat to the BMW 3 series and the Mercedes Benz C class. A spokesperson for Jaguar Land Rover was quoted as saying, “It is about aggressively competing in new segments and creating new markets for Jaguar and Land Rover.” For delighted British politicians, Tata has also won plaudits for promising to create 9,000 new jobs at Solihull, home of Land Rover. This is in addition to 2,500 jobs created at another plant, Halewood, and a further 1,400 jobs at another factory, near Wolverhampton. Commenting on plans to expand the Solihull plant, British Prime Minister David Cameron said, “This is fantastic news for Solihull and a huge vote of confidence in the UK. Our motoring industry is world class and Jaguar Land Rover is a great example of that excellence”.
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