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Telangana trouble
Save Aadhaar |
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The tandoor case
Egypt's transition problems
Of terrific jams & fruit trees
Ghadar movement in Punjab
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Telangana trouble
Lack
of power is bedevilling the lives of the residents of the Seemandhra region who are facing inconvenience and worse. The indefinite strike by the power sector employees has plunged the region into darkness, effecting ordinary lives, and even essential services. Indeed, some 70,000-odd employees seem to be holding the state to ransom as they protest against the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh. There have been widespread protests and even some violence in the region. While there are some half-hearted attempts to sort out issues, the state seems to be paralysed. Politicians are posturing to the extreme, without much consideration for the people that they claim to represent. The demand for Telangana is a longstanding one, but now its creation is inevitable. The Centre should have worked out a consensus on contentious issues like the status of Hyderabad and the way river waters and power resources would be allocated. However, by its lack of transparency, it has left itself open to the charge of arbitrariness. The failure of the Centre to anticipate the trouble ahead and prepare adequately for it is inexplicable. Now it is stuck in a situation of looking on helplessly as the Chief Minister of the state is in virtual revolt. The Congress played its political card, without bothering too much about sorting out the administrative issues that such a situation would create. Now all other parties, too, are playing politics, and it is the common people who suffer. The creation of Telangana is now a reality, one that the Seemandhra region is finding difficult to swallow. The state government, with help from the Centre, needs to ensure that the law and order situation in the state is restored as soon as possible, even as political leaders of all hues need to play down their theatrics and deal with the issue that are crippling life in the state.
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Save Aadhaar
It
is unfortunate that needless legal and political battles have erupted over the issuance of Aadhaar. The Supreme Court is right in saying that no one should suffer for not getting the Aadhaar card and the government should ensure that by keeping the deadlines of issuing the card flexible. At the same time the court should not send a wrong message that the card is not mandatory for obtaining government benefits, thus affecting the elaborate government exercise to issue the unique identity numbers to citizens countrywide. On Tuesday it refused to alter its interim orders. The process of issuing the Aadhaar card began in 18 districts on June 1 this year and was extended to 97 districts by the first week of October. The plan is to cover 269 districts by January next. In August the Petroleum Ministry made the possession of Aadhaar mandatory for obtaining the cooking gas subsidy. Agreed, there will be problems and it may not be possible for every citizen to obtain the card in such a short time. Care will have to be taken that non-Indians do not obtain the card and enjoy the benefits. But the overall long-term benefits of the scheme are unquestionable. The second battle is political. The standing committee to which the Bill was referred after its introduction in the Rajya Sabha in 2010 said that the Unique Identification Authority of India (UDAI), which runs the Aadhaar scheme, was functioning without a parliamentary mandate. There are other objections regarding privacy, duplication and cost. The Bill that the Cabinet cleared on Tuesday is expected to address these concerns and will be introduced in the winter session of Parliament. Political opposition is largely because the UPA is projecting the Aadhaar-based direct benefits transfer scheme as a game-changer ahead of the assembly and Lok Sabha elections. One hopes the judicial overreach and short-sighted politics do not kill or delay a scheme that aims to save subsidies from landing in wrong hands.
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The tandoor case
Indian
courts continue to struggle when it comes to awarding the death sentence. Rightly so. It shows the law of the land strives to be humane. This is despite the fact that India voted against a UN General Assembly resolution calling for a moratorium on the death penalty in 2007. But in commuting to life term the capital punishment awarded by both the trial court and the high court in the Naina Sahni tandoor case, the Supreme Court has shocked even champions of humane laws. The shock has come not as much for the commuting of the term as for the logic used by the court for taking such decision. The murder of a young woman on what has been termed as 'suspicion' of infidelity by her husband and then disposing of her body by burning it in a tandoor to remove evidence, such brutality of crime is not found to be ‘against society’ by the apex court. In 1983 the Supreme Court had decided that the death penalty should be imposed only in “the rarest of rare” cases, which was to be worked out by the motive for the commission of murder, anti-social or socially abhorrent nature of crime and magnitude and personality of the victim of murder. By simple logic this case falls under this category for the abhorrent nature of the crime. But the much-touted objectivity in dealing with such cases has left many raising questions about how objectively objectivity is used. By its own admission, the court had defined honour killings, murder and rape, gang rape as the rarest of the rare crimes, inviting the harshest punishment. In the Nitish Kalra murder case, who was murdered by Vikas Yadav, a powerful politician’s son, the trial court had termed the murder as honour killing, but Yadav was awarded life sentence. Ditto goes for the Priyadarshini Mattoo brutal rape and murder case, in 2009 the apex court had commuted the death penalty of convict Santosh Singh. The horror of the tandoor case has haunted people for decades. To say that brutality alone does not justify capital punishment is to say that brutality is pardonable.
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Whoever is happy will make others happy too. — Anne Frank
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Egypt's transition problems Egypt has entered a dangerous phase in its painful transition after the July coup by the army as it rode on popular anger against the Muslim Brotherhood rule of Mohamed Morsi. The former President’s fault was that he placed his organisation's interests above that of the country. And the army is repeating the same mistake in its own way by seeking to ban and demonise the Brotherhood. Yet the army will find it hard to deny the great feeling of being betrayed by Muslim Brotherhood followers over their leader’s deposition because he was elected to his office democratically and had four more years of his term left. Yet his failure to rule inclusively left him open to waves of protest utilised by the army to stage the coup. The truth is that Egypt is divided down the middle between supporters of the Brotherhood and their opponents, a disparate group comprising liberals, the Coptic Christians and libertarians. But the Brotherhood is a resilient organisation, which has survived 85 years of persecution and tacit tolerance through effective charitable work to heal and feed large section of the poor. The army-run civilian dispensation has announced an elaborate plan of elections to a new legislature and the presidency. How credible the process will be remains to be seen. But instead of seeking to draw in the more moderate elements of the Brotherhood, the army seems to be more interested in its annihilation. However, the strength of the Brotherhood is reflected by its repeated anti-regime demonstrations across the country, despite the strong-arm methods used against its followers. Egypt is used to army rule. After all, Nasser, the hero of the Arab world, came to power through a coup to galvanise the Arab world for a time through his pan-Arab movement. And it was his successor Anwar Sadat who made the historic peace with Israel securing the Sinai peninsula even while giving Tel Aviv the virtual assurance that it was safe from an attack from an Arab nation. Egypt is recognised as the lodestar of the Arab world but it was in the dog house for years for its separate peace with Israel before returning to the Arab League. The pan-Arab movement has faded after Nasser's death and the three decades of rule by President Hosni Mubarak was an exercise in an army-backed dictatorship doing business with Israel to keep the United States happy and receive an annual military subvention of $ 1.3 billion continuing to this day. Primed by the Arab Spring, President Mubarak was toppled and the miracle of a democratically-elected Muslim Brotherhood man came to pass. Mr Morsi was careful not to tread on American — or the Egyptian army’s - toes and kept up the tacit bargain with Israel. But the Brotherhood could not handle what was a revolutionary situation and succumbed to the temptation of feathering the organisation’s nest. The problem for the army and civil society is: Where does it go from here? Although the army is the best organised and still popular organisation, a continued political stalemate will eventually renew calls for an end to its proxy rule. It was not so long ago, after Mubarak’s fall, that as the army was getting used to exercising power again, a popular revolt forced it after a year to set the stage for a democratic election. The failure of that experiment does not signify the people's desire to be ruled by the army again. Indeed, the Egyptian army will forget at its peril that it is a changed Middle East (West Asia is too vague a term), despite the fact that the Arab Spring has not gone according to peoples' hopes. What it showed, starting with Tunisia in early 2011, is that Arabs are not peoples immune to change and that people power can dethrone seemingly indestructible dictators. Thus far, the Egyptian army is behaving as if the old world still exists and remains susceptible to absolutist formulae. One indication of the army's thinking is its attitude to the former chief of the International Atomic Energy Agency, ElBaradei, who was an enthusiastic opponent of the Brotherhood. He accepted the post of Vice-President in the post-coup dispensation only to resign in disgust over the army's way of conducting business. He went abroad to his old haunt, Vienna, as a mark of protest against the Egyptian regime only to be declared something of a traitor at home. There is no sign thus far that the army, which in common with most military-dominated regimes runs an economic empire, has anything but short-term gains in mind. By seeking to take the country back in banishing the Brotherhood to the fringes of Egyptian political life, it is seeking to repeat the formula of President Mubarak. But that era is gone for good. Having once tasted power, the Brotherhood has taken on a new persona and the fervour of its supporters, despite the army's overkill, is hard to miss. How Egypt can return to a saner way of ordering its politics can only be a subject of speculation. But the experience of the recent past should be a reminder that if wiser counsels do not prevail, there will be another popular anti-army movement to force it to change course. Egyptians pride themselves of being leaders of the Arab world, and so they are in many ways. In fact, the Brotherhood spread to many Arab nations sprouting new roots. But Egypt seems to have fallen behind at least some of its brother countries. Tunisia, where the Arab Spring began, is a rather small and less complex country than Egypt. After a good start, it seemed that it was stumbling after the murders of two leftist leaders and dissensions within the spectrum of Islamic parties. But the main Ennahada moderate Islamist party was inclusive in forming its first cabinet from the start and tackled the series of crises by bowing to agree to give way to a technocratic government before new elections are held. Egypt cannot merely bank on its traditional leadership role in the Arab world to sail through the new crisis it is facing. A single-point agenda of destroying the Muslim Brotherhood is no panacea for the myriad transition problems it is
facing.
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Of terrific jams & fruit trees While staying in Shimla for a long time, it never ever made us think of spending our summer vacation in any other hill station. And why should we? After all it is the choicest tourist destination, where people come from all parts of the country at all times and in all seasons. But this time it was different and we too like our adventurous and boastful friends from plains decided to venture out to a new hill station and we instantly decided upon Kulu-Manali. The drive from Shimla was more or less comfortable, though bumpy roads and potholes at certain places shook our body as well as our car. But after a while the smooth and newly repaired roads quietened our grumbles and we concentrated more on admiring the lush green landscapes and lofty cliffs which looked freshly bathed with pre-monsoon showers. The breathtaking high mountains and the small hamlets scattered all over the far-flung hills and the river flowing along the road made us spell bound. The bounties of nature were visible on both sides of the road with trees and bushes loaded with colourful flowers emitting fragrance and fresh fruits hanging on the trees ready for plucking. The mild cold wind was blowing which mesmerised us so much that my husband could not help humming old Hindi hit of yesteryear: Yeh ratain, yeh mausam nadi ka kinara, yeh chanchal hawa. And I too was transported to the world of English romantic poets, especially Wordsworth and his masterpiece ‘Tintern Abbey’, which made me imagine as if Wordsworth visited Kulu-Manali before he wrote this poem. The whole world of nature poetry opened up before me and I also believed with Wordsworth that there is presence of God in each and every object of nature. I was awakened from this dream-like state when I heard the yelling and shouting of youngsters out of excitement from some remote corner and I also heard the chorus by a group of girls from some stranded bus. Such was the impact of nature on them. How does one leave behind one's worries and become a child of nature? But soon, an unpleasant experience dampened our spirits. The serpentine road lost in hills was blocked in both directions. Vehicles of all makes and hues were stranded for hours together and not moving an inch. It was a terrific jam running into few kilometres and one could see the plight of tourists, including infants, women and old people, thirsty and hungry for hours, waiting helplessly. Meanwhile, a few youngsters got down to find out the cause, which turned out to be a huge tipper truck struck up in the middle, causing this inconvenience. The question is: where are the authorities and what do they do knowing well that during the tourist season such are the common sights due to heavy traffic on the roads? Why can't they be more tourist friendly and make advance preparations to handle such crisis efficiently? While these thoughts were troubling us for almost an hour, the vehicles started moving slowly with their headlights on and in the dark, the lights looked like beads of gold in a string. Soon all was well in the valley of gods. People threw their grudges into the Beas river and drove back with loads of smiles like the trees loaded with plums, apricots, and apples on both sides of roads in
Kulu.
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Ghadar movement in Punjab None of the members of the Ghadar Party had any vested interests whereas the leaders of the Rebellion of 1857 had their individual vested interests. The Rani of Jhansi did not join the Rebellion in May 1857 but joined the revolt after the British government’s refusal to accede to her request for adopting a son. The leaders of the Ghadar Movement were committed to the cause and did not waver at any time. One anecdote had been recorded in a Gurmukhi booklet Shaheed Jiwanian (banned by the British government). An elderly gentleman of Sarabha village went to meet Kartar Singh Sarabha in jail. He told Kartar Singh Sarabha that he had come to take him back to the village. Kartar Singh Sarabha enquired about his relatives. The elderly villager told him that one of his relatives had died of cholera; another had died in an accident, while yet another had died long ago. At this, Kartar Singh Sarabha asserted: “Let me die for my country.” The elderly villager had tears in his eyes on hearing this answer. The sacrifice of Kartar Singh Sarabha was a great inspiration for Bhagat Singh. It is said that Kartar Singh Sarabha’s photo was found from the clothes of Bhagat Singh after his death. Sikh emigrants During the last decade of the 19th century and the first decade of the 20th century, many Sikh emigrants from Punjab went to Malay States and China. From there, they migrated to Canada and the USA as these countries offered them good prospects of employment. This process of migration continued for some time for Indians, especially Sikhs living in Shanghai, Hong Kong, Malay States, America and Canada. In Canada and USA, all Indians were looked down upon by the Europeans settlers as they felt Indians disturbed their economy by working on much lower wages. Due to this, there occurred numerous racial riots at different places. Restricting Indians’ entry The government of the country always sided with the Europeans and passed various Acts restricting the entry of the Indians. The Chinese and Japanese were accorded lenient treatment. These measures aggravated their condition. This colour prejudice was part of workers’ exploitation. All these factors convinced them that their miseries and humiliation were due to the fact that their home government was not their own. They decided to free their motherland by organising an armed rebellion. In March 1913, a conference was called at Washington and invitations were sent to Indians living in various parts of Canada and USA. This conference was sponsored by Sohan Singh Bhakna, Wasakha Singh, Jawala Singh, Kartar Singh Sarabha and Hardyal. They had toured the Pacific coast and were able to enlist the support of Khalsa Dewan, Stockton; Hindustan Association, British Columbia and Vancouver United India League. About 200 delegates attended this conference. A Hindi Association was founded with Sohan Singh Bhakna as its president, Baba Kesar Singh, vice-president, Hardyal, secretary and Pandit Kashi Ram, treasurer. The aim was the liberation of India from the foreigners by the force of armed rebellion. The headquarters of the party were to be at San Francisco, as it was a suitable place to keep in touch with the Indian revolutionaries in other countries. A printing press was made operational and a newspaper was started. The site of the press and its office was called Yuganter Ashram and the newspaper was named Ghadar. The first issue of Ghadar appeared on November 1, 1913. It was published in Urdu, Gurmukhi and Gujarati. When World War I was declared on August 4. 1914, Indians living in the USA thought it was the most opportune time to expel the British from India. After this, Yugantar Ashram and other Indian organisations decided to arrange for the return of Indians living in the USA for organising an armed rebellion for throwing off the foreign yoke. More vigilance The Shamsher Khalsa on October 15, 1914, published a notice to the effect that the Khalsa Diwan, Stockton, having received numerous requests from settlers to effect the sale from their land, has made arrangements with a company for the purpose. Settlers intending to sell their land should communicate with Khalsa Diwan. The object is, no doubt, rebellion in India. (Ghadar Conspiracy, p 52). The Government of India, on the other hand, became more vigilant and issued Ingress Into India Ordinance on September 5, 1914. This ordinance provided for control of the persons entering British India, whether by sea or hand. Later, this ordinance was made the basis for Defence of India Act, 1915. When the revolutionaries heard about the fate of Komagata Maru, they decided to reach India by different ships. Tosha Maru reached Calcutta with some leaders of the Ghadar Movement, including its founder president Sohan Singh Bhakna. But they were immediately arrested. Nidhan Singh, Jawala Singh, Jagat Ram and Kesar Singh came via Colombo. They reached Punjab after visiting Gurdwara Nanded, Hyderabad. Nippon Maru brought Kartar Singh, who also reached Punjab via Colombo. Fiazang brought Jagat Singh, Foo Sang Piara Singh, Harnam Singh, Ran Singh, Nand Singh and Jawand Singh. The general situation in the Punjab was favourable for the leaders of the Ghadar Movement. After the outbreak of War, the legend of invincibility of Germany gained favour. The leaders of the Ghadar Movement were Kesar Singh, Jagat Ram, Rur Singh, Jawala Singh, Mulla Singh and Bhai Parmanand of DAV College, Lahore. Rash Behari from Banaras and Ganesh Das Pingley joined them later on. Jagat Ram was sent to Peshawar for purchase of arms. Bhai Parmanand was entrusted with the propaganda work. Dr Mathra was appointed to make bombs. In the beginning, the Ghadarites were most active in Amritsar, which was made the headquarters. The leaders of the Ghadar Movement met on Diwali at Amritsar and during the annual fair at Nankana Sahib. Later, a meeting was held at in Amritsar in which Kartar Singh Sarabha participated. The next meeting was held at the monthly fair of amavas at Tarn Taran and at Jhar Sahib, a gurdwara, where it was decided to act in unison with other revolutionaries working in different districts. Later, Rash Behari joined the movement and at his suggestion headquarters were changed from Amritsar to Lahore. Persuading troops to join One of the major aims of the programme was to persuade the troops to join the movement. Mula Singh was appointed for this purpose. Sowars of 23rd Cavalry were won over and they promised to march out and join the armed rebellion at the appointed hour. As a token of their assurance, they sent a sword to the leaders of the movement. One emigrant enlisted himself in 22nd Cavalry. Nidhan Singh and Kartar Singh contacted men at Ferozepur. Piara Singh went to Frontier cantonments. During the first two months of 1915, emissaries were sent to all cantonments in Northern India. The date for general rising was fixed as November 30, 1914. Later on, the date was postponed. February 21, 1915 was appointed as the final date. The Ghadar leaders were to attack Lahore cantonment and to secure ammunition and cooperation of the 23rd Cavalry. Kartar Singh, Balwant Singh and Randhir Singh were to secure cooperation of 26th Punjab and ammunition at Ferozepur cantonment. Besides this, telephone wires were to be cut and police stations were to be looted in order to secure arms. The Amritsar Police came to know the activities of Mula Singh and they appointed one person to work secretly among the revolutionaries. He was also a returned emigrant from Shanghai and was known to Nidhan Singh. He reported the entire plot to the police. Some revolutionaries were arrested at Amritsar. When leaders of the movement came to know that the police had come know of their programme, they changed the date to be February 19 instead of February 21. This was again communicated to the police and the government strengthened all the cantonments and took preventive measures. Mula Singh was arrested. The police attacked some of the revolutionaries at Anarkali, Bazar, Lahore but they boldly faced the police and killed a sub-inspector. Arjan Singh was, however, captured and Sajan Singh and Batas Singh, escaped. Facing betrayal On February 19, 23rd Cavalry was kept on duty throughout the night. Hence no body dared to move out. At Ferozepur, Kartar Singh was to attack the cantonment. A party of about 70 persons was ready and Kirpa Singh was sent to bring these sepoys who had promised to join. But they never came and the party waited for the whole night but dispersed after finding that the plot hand been forestalled. After the collapse of the plot, Rash Behari fled from Punjab and other leaders were arrested one by one. Pingley was arrested at Meerut. Sir Michael O. Dwyer, Lt Governor of the Punjab, reported, “It is not desirable at present time to allow trials of these revolutionaries or of other sedition mongers to be protracted by ingenuity of counsel and drawn out to inordinate lengths by committal land appeal procedures which the criminal law provides.” Their trial was to be summary before the judges and there could not be any appeal. The military men who were to join the rising were found guilty at a court martial and shot. Nine batches of conspirators were tried by a Special Tribunal under the Defence of India Act. Twentyfour were sentenced to death and confiscation of property, 26 were transported for life. Among them were Sohan Singh Bhakna, Bhai Parmanand, Pandit Jagat Ram, Baba Wasakha Singh, Baba Nidhan Singh, Harnam Singh, Gurmukh Singh, Prithvi Singh Azad. On November 19, seven men, including Kartar Singh Sarabha, Bakshish Singh and Pandit Kashi Ram were executed.
‘Seditious’ pamphlets The Yugantar Ashram published the following pamphlets:
The writer is a well-known historian
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