EDITORIAL
Friends
Yet another independence day has come and gone into the pages of history. India has seen, since 15th Aug. 1947, sixty four Independence Day celebrations, but the euphoria of the freedom at midnight that reverberated through the length and breadth of India, ceased to be felt over the years. For most Indians, it was just another day, this time without a paid holiday. It was Sunday, atleast a day was saved to add to the national GDP, after many of those illegal bundhs by political outfits.
Looking back over the years, how this political freedom failed to bring about freedom of another, more important kind-freedom from hunger, poverty, malnutrition, injustice, ill health, corruption and umpteen other socio-economic ills that persisted for all these 63 years, is a story of Indian State’s monumental failure. It was both the political class and the bureaucracy that let down the country. While it is true that there have been many areas where every Indian can feel justifiably proud at the achievement the country has made, there is a huge crowd out there, away from the national highways, who has not even remotely been touched by the economic development the country has witnessed. They drink unsafe water, they sleep hungry or half empty, they suffer ill health with no doctors or medicine, they shit in open, they clothe in tatters or half naked, they live in hovels not houses, they spend their nights in darkness. For them this Independence Day, can it mean anything?
The exuberance that British Prime Minister David Cameron exuded while being in India contrasted with his uncharitable and blunt remark that “World cannot tolerate Pakistan exporting terror, be it India, Afghanistan or anywhere else in the world”. That was very sharp, may be even undiplomatic, for a newly elected first time Prime Minister. Of course Pakistan was deeply upset naturally. But coming in the wake of revelation by WikiLeaks which openly implicated ISI as the bad boy, saying that it continued to aid the Taliban in Afghanistan despite the ‘war on terror’. Thus clearly implying that Pakistan always played the double game of running with the hare and hunting with the hound.
This has always been the truth, but it is only in recent times that west is joining the Indian chorus. Hope the newer realisation by the west makes Pakistan accountable for its actions of commission and omission.
The Kalmadi ‘Kalamity’ has the potential of taking the Common Wealth Games down hill. The very fact that Kalmadi was lording it over the sports scene in the country for so long is in itself an anathema. How a person who is remotely connected with the sports of any kind be the chairman of Sports Committees and Associations with huge financial outlays? That he was involved in inflated billing and other financial irregularities is not the news. But in the wake of these irregularities, the whole CWG can be jeopardised, is a real cliff hanger. The outburst of Mani Shankar Aiyar where he ‘hoped that CWG shall fail’ becomes very relevant in this context. Of course as Aiyar rightly observed that such huge shows only lead to huge waste of money is very real. But then Indian government in the past has done such irrelevent and wasteful shows. And as usual we do not seem to learn. Our national conscience seem to take in the shame of poverty, hunger, rampant child malnutrition in its stride, but it wants to bask in the imagined glory of these mega shows.
Thats India even after 63 years of being free, and the country is nowhere near the superpower status dream.
A latest Washington conducted study has revealed that ‘Pakistan see India greater threat than Taliban and Al Qaeda’. It is no revelation to India. In fact the entire Pakistan Foreign and Security policies have always been India centric, and is known for a long time.
Pew Research Centre, a Washington think tank, informs that 53% Pakistanies felt India as the biggest threat, compared to 23% for Taliban and just 3% for Al Qaeda. Of course there were so many revelation which may not be of relevance to the world out there. But what needs to be globally appreciated is the fact that Pakistan always had a high profile misinformation campaign against India through its school curriculum and history books. Thus generations of Pakistanies were fed with lies, whole lies, nothing but lies. Basis of this blatant miscarriage of truth is primarily due to the fact of India being 80% Hindu. And madmen like Hafeez Said flourished in their histrionic best and have stated that “he will not rest until India is merged with Pakistan” and we have people like Abdul Nassir Maudany of PDP (Peoples Democratic Party) spreading poison by allegedly talking about Islamising India. Yes, Pakistan would have not much to do, if India was not 80% Hindu. In fact their entire existence - from partition to this day – has been to tell its people that India is its enemy. The Partition itself was because those who left to create Pakistan could not live with Hindu majority, who they thought would rule India once British goes. But unlike Pakistan, India did not become a theocratic state and persisted with its principles of secular democracy, and shown to the world how committed it was to its ethos, by having three Muslim gentlemen of eminence as Presidents of the country, besides many other nationally significant positions like Chief Justices, Chief Election Commissioners, Chief Information Commissioners etc. It is a record no other country in the world can match. But somehow western nations and global opinion makers never credited India with these visible signposts in the evolution of India as a pacifist and very responsible state. Ofcourse unfortunately in India, our media – both print and electronic – have the legacy of being an unreasonable critic of the state for its own selfish agenda of USP and ratings. In fact, it may not be wrong to say that many media men and women have been very biased and portrayed India poorly to both to the national and international audiences. But as the adage goes, in the end ‘Satyameva jayathe’, Truth alone triumphs. Hope it does.
There was this report from the Capital “Comptroller & Auditor General hauls up Army”. Believe it not, our army personnel, who are keeping the vigil at all times on our borders in extremely trying weather conditions, are fed with rice, wheat flour and edible oil whose storage life had expired! To think that these jawans who many time make the supreme sacrifice so that we all live safely, do not even get quality food, tantamount to betrayal. According to CAG report such periods have been even upto 28 months from the date of expiry. This is absolutely dastardly and persons responsible for this serious lapse should be sacked forth-with or probably even imprisoned for serious dereliction of duty and made to eat the same date expired food-grain and oil.
It is true that all food grains and items like sugar, tea, dal, edible oil, raisins are subjected to test by Central Forensic Labs for extension of Estimated Storage Life (ESL), and upto three months ESL, these items were allowed to be supplied. But the report informed that the violations were anywhere between 6 months to 28 months. This is absolutely cavalier on the part of officials engaged in food supplies to Command Area kitchens. It reminds the incident involving delaying tactics by the MOD officials in supplying ICE BOOTS to Siachen army personnel during the tenure of George Fernandese as the MOD. Mr Fernandese had instructed that the official sitting on the procurement order for these boots be transferred to Siachen to experience the hostile weather first hand. Yes, our babudom need to be greatly sensitised to appreciate issues with the seriousness it deserved.
There was this report in Mumbai print media, “CBI look-out notices against Hiranandanis”. Those in the know of things would recollect that Hiranandani brothers-one of them a Chartered Acctt.-were the high profile real estate developers around Mumbai’s Powai Lake area. Lot of Mumbai’s corporate offices and high-end glitterati moved there, for reasons of convenience, the quality construction and the large open spaces within the Hiranandani complex. It was a vast area and in early nineties there were not many in the real estate development activity. They did very well, with their every day changing rates for flats. Hence this report for their look-out notice came as a bit of shock. Apparently they were doing very well and hence the impression, that they wouldn’t be the people who would commit fraud to enrich themselves. But this report directly accused them of fraud in the employees provident fund deposits. According to Anti-Corruption Wing of CBI, the report informs, Hiranandani group had not deposited provident fund deduction of their employees for the year 2003-04 to the tune of ` 9.36 crores. On the face of it, if the issue has gone to CBI, it becomes difficult not to believe. While, it must be hoped that law should take its course, it is a sad day to think how the educated and well off men in business can commit such crimes of cheating their own employees, is beyond comprehension. India.inc must take steps to address such aberrations of petty minded financial misdemeanours.
It is becoming increasingly a common knowledge that Pakistan is emerging as the epicenter of terror. “European Jehadis Flock to Pak for Terror Training” was a Peshawar datelined report by IANS. Apparently a section of Pakistanis accept this harsh truth. But the tragedy is that there is no control in Pakistan on these Jehadis. In fact it is also becoming more and more clear, the double game of Pakistani military and civil leadership that the money Pakistan is getting from the U.S to fight terror is being diverted to encourage terrorism especially against India. This aspect needs to be comprehensively exposed in the interest of the larger world, not just of India. After all Jehadi terrorism is a borderless monster and chicken can come home to roost. It can hurt everybody.
History is aware that the creation of Pakistan led to unprecedented violence and the culture of violence continued unabated for its 63 years. Unlike India, Pakistanis had problem of co-existence even among their own co-religionists. There were problems between Sunny and Shia, problems between Ahmedis and others, there were problems between Mohajirs and others. There were problems between Baloochs and others. So they have serious problems of co-existence with all sections of faithfuls. The latest report “MQM killing triggers riots in Pak: 48 killed”, is a reflection of the ground condition in Pakistan. Thus, if they have difficulty to live among other co-religionists, of different denominations, how will they live in peace with believers of other religions?
India is indeed a happening place, which includes some bizarre here and some stupid there. Or else how do we react to an election of an 82 year old lady as the President of Hockey India, and the Union Sports ministry de-recognising Hockey India itself. The election of Vidya Stokes, whatever her credentials, is certainly an insult to an idea of India. An 82 year old lady simply should not be and cannot be the president of an organisation managing India’s national game. She has impeccable credentials to her credit, but her age, her age is absolutely on the wrong side. India has and will always have much younger and able men and women to lead Hockey India. If the sports ministry has stipulated 70 years as the age limit, there should be no debate. And all those eligible voters who voted for her so overwhelmingly should be disbanded. The ostrich like grip of Kalmadi and his cronies who have made this happen should be pulled off without mercy. Actually Kalmadi is a ‘kalamity’ for Indian sports. The sooner he is given marching orders, the better.
Buddhadeb Bhattacharya has always been a better Chief Minister than Jyothi Basu. A fact most knew in Communist Party but were afraid to say. Participating in the programme to mark the birth day of Muzaffer Ahmed, a founder of the party, the Bengal CM admitted, rather frankly that Left Front government in West Bengal committed mistakes for three decades, in panchayat, in education, in land acquisition etc. Sadly this realisation came rather late. Mamata Banerji, rightly or wrongly, came from behind to reach out and succeeded at the hustings. May be sitting in the opposition, hopefully may help the party to introspect and come up winner someday in the future.
Karnataka governor is becoming increasingly controversial. The latest dressing down he gave to the Mysore V.C in public is rather in bad taste. The V.C. has come to pay his respects, at a public function, but the way governor Bhardwaj castigated and humiliated a respectable and a senior university functionary was most uncivilised and autocratic. Naturally, there was widespread condemnation in the media. Of course Union Law Minister Moili keeps supporting all his actions, that is party politics. Governor, who is a constitutional head of the state should keep the dignity of his office.
In India, in the name of caste, we have divided the society and ruled. But now, our practice of social ostracism has touched even the dead. Municipal Corporation of Delhi, it was found out, has created semi VIP-VIP and VVIP pyre platforms at Nigambodh Ghat. Responding to an RTI query Information Commissioner Shailesh Gandhi, while asking the details of segregation at the cremation ground lamented “The Commissioner was not aware of the categorisation and discrimination between ordinary citizens, VIP and special category of semi VIPs in crematorium and wonder where the promise of equity to all citizens has disappeared?” We are changing, we are told. But 63 years as free India, its feudal mind set has not changed.
A lady teacher Sirin Middya in West Bengal’s first minority university Aliah University was reportedly not allowed to teach after she refused to wear the burqa inside the varsity premises. The students union of the college while demanding all female teachers to wear burqa had also reportedly shouted slogans in the campus “those who are against the purdah systems should go to hell”. This was despite the notice to the contrary by the university itself. Reportedly, of the eight teachers, seven succumbed. The lone fighter is not allowed to teach. The Left Front government has reportedly refused to intervene, and many in the media did not bother to highlight the travails of the lady teacher. This is the usual double standard of the so-called secularists. How much can we stoop for some votes?
‘LPG crematorium goes abegging’ was a news in the print media from Mumbai. As an environmentally less polluting method an LPG crematorium was set up in Mumbai. But traditionalists among Hindus just didn’t go there with the bodies of their dead relatives, to be consigned to flames, thinking the traditional pyre is the better way. In a month’s time, since its opening, there was only one dead body brought to the crematorium, which otherwise could have been atleast 3 to 4 every day. Mr. Jairam Ramesh the central environment minister, a Hindu himself, has been in the lime light in recent day for varities of reasons, should appeal to his fellow religionists to see the point and help save the environment by saving timber and to reduce pollution. Besides LPG would burn the body faster than both timber and the electrically operated platforms.
Having taken note of the brutal attack, on Newman College professor T.J. Joseph for the alleged provocative question on Islam, by some youths belonging to Popular Front of India, (PFI) main stream Muslim political parties have met to discuss the issues of violence among youth. The meeting decided to join hands against extremism that has brought a bad name to the entire community in the state. It is indeed a very positive development and shall only add lustre to the pluralistic image of India. The meeting convened by Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) at Kottakal in Mallapuram, decided to counter the extremist line being advocated by outfits like PFI and Jamate-Islami. Mr P.K. Kunalikutty, the General Secretary of IUML, himself a bit haughty and assertive, made some right noises. He is reported to have stated after the meeting that, “Through their dark deeds, these organisations have put the Muslim community in a situation for all and sundry to ride roughshod over Muslims”. This development should hopefully bode well for the community in particular and India in general.
With the kind of internal problems Pakistan is going thru with all kinds of terror groups, the flood that inundated most of the North West Frontier Province has come rather at a very difficult time in its existences as a free nation. Thousands have died, lakhs have lost houses. The loss in terms of life and properties have so far defied the calculation. Its humungous. It needs all kinds of help. But help did not come initially in appreciable measure, but picked up in later days. With UN leading with its helping hand, other countries too have come forward. But the aid of U.S. $ 5 million announced by Indian government was not welcome. In fact there were any number of fundamentalist groups that didn’t want that Pakistan should accept aid from India. For a moment, thoughts went back to Bihar when Nitish Kumar government returned the ` 5 crore that Gujarath government gave. In both cases, the logic was only stupid obduracy, trying to see non-existent hidden meaning. Why people do not grow?
Something is seriously wrong with a section of Bajrang Dal, it appears. Local English newspapers in Mangalore published a story of one Sridhar, who was wrongly picked up by BD activists, a year ago, and subjected to physical atrocity of a serious kind. Saraswathi, a Dalit activist reportedly tried to file a case after over a year, but some how police thwarted her attempts, including the help desk at Dakshina Kannada SP’s office. When the story appeared in the print media, suddenly things started moving with SP A.S. Rao taking the lead, and reportedly 5 BD activists have been booked. Hope law takes its own course without any political interference.
“Treat demand for Telengana as a cognizable offence”. Can you imagine, we have ministers in the country who think that asking for a separate state within the Indian Union could lead to disintegration of the country. That is exactly what some ministers of Andhra Pradesh contended while presenting their case to SriKrishna Panel, according to media reports. As a poetic justice, was the election result of Telengana, where only Telengana Rashtra Samithi won all the seats in the recent election, hands down. There are better ways than mouthing stupidities in matters like creation of smaller states. In fact all politicians should know that Indian socio-economic development shall be much faster and better only when there are smaller states. Hope our national leadership realises this and acts on demands of smaller separate states with a sense of purpose.
Reserve Bank of India, may be an autonomous body under central government law. But it works exactly like government office, work to rule. Or else how any responsible person would allow 92 crores rupees to be kept in a van under police custody, which otherwise was to have been deposited with RBI, since the cash reached the bank after 5.00 pm, due to traffic snarls on the way. And mind you, this happened despite the continued contact between the officials accompanying the van and RBI officials. While RBI may show its own set of rules, the fact of the matter is that we are too rigid in our approach to issues, a dimension that has hurt our development for all its years as a free nation.
The recent meeting between Iran and India on Afghanistan is a positive development. India and Iran have always been friends. But Ahmednijad regime has not been as warm. If only geography of Pakistan was not coming in the middle, India’s relationship with all those Muslim countries of Asia-minor and its neighbourhood would have been of a very high order and all would have benefited by it. If the irritating Pak factor was not there, this regional block would have been a force to reckon within the international fora. Like Iran, there are many countries of the region who are happy dealing with India, for they all realise the potential of India not only for its capability but also for its respect for others to mutually co-exist. Hope-fully this association between Iran and India would lead to peace and prosperity of the region.
Oil spill that hit Mumbai coast-line, after two ships collided, has only exposed the vulnerability of our lack of disaster management skills. Environment minister said, its unique, never seen or experienced before. But then Mr Minister, we have oil rigs on offshore platforms, anything can happen there, as it happened in Gulf coast for the BP’s Deep Water Horizon Oil platform. Yes there was a human error and two ships collided. It contained 2600 tons of oil and spill of this size can be a disaster for marine ecology off Mumbai. It took 3 days to plug the leak. But 3 days are little too long for the oil to keep spilling. There could have been co-ordianted emergency response from Coast Guard, JNPT & BPT in trying to retrive those containers with the help of giant mobile cranes. Idea is to act as quickly as possible to reduce the damage to the least, without wasting time on blame game. Although the situation now appears to be under control, may be the response could have been bettered.
Involvement of Mamata Banerji with Maoists is getting murkier. Yes, anything for power is the name of the game. In her one point programme to get to the Writers Building, she apparently is ready to do business with Maoists, who want to throw the Indian state by violent means, and to kill violently innocents in the process. Politics do make strange bed fellows, or else why is the Prime Minister quite, on the strange behaviour of a senior cabinet colleague. Coalition compulsions! Isn’t it a sad day that just to be in power you can ignore aberrations like Mamata Banerji. Besides, how sure Mamata can be, whether Maoists would not blackmail her once she uses them to her advantage. Hasn’t Bindranwale’s men killed Indira Gandhi, whom she propped up to break Akali Dal?
Creme de la creme or the cream of the cream grade has to be given to this case involving 5 judges of Andhra Pradesh courts. Five judges were appearing for LLM - 1st year - examination of Warangal University, some days ago. They were caught red handed indulging in ‘copying’, with law text books and torn pages of these text books in their person. That they were immediately stopped from writing the examination and were subsequently suspended by the Chief Justice of Andhra Pradesh is not the news. The question is, how can such unscrupulous judges be judges at all in the first place? Isn’t integrity the primary consideration on the appointment of judges? How in the first place these ‘honourable gentlemen’ made it to the judiciary?
“‘Robin Hood’ engineer behind bars” was a news in print media from Chennai. One Prakash, an ex-engineer with TVS motors, was arrested on a complaint with regard to an ostensible cyber crime. While it was true that he was misrepresenting the truth while taking some considerations for promise not intended to be kept, the proceeds, apparently, were meant for altruistic acts. The police do not seem to contradict the good samaritan claim of Praksah, besides, he was reportedly targeting only dubious characters running NGOs or Ashrams. There are three aspects in the case. 1st is the existence of dubious NGOs and Ashrams, who should have been exposed by the system and the police, which has not happened. Prakash is doing their job. 2nd, whatever he receives from these NGO’s or Ashrams, he is not using for himself, instead gives it to noble purposes, to help the needy. Again, what the system should have done, he is doing it. 3rd he is using illegal means to do his reach-out programmes. While police is doing what is apparently correct, they should have let him go on bail immediately and get details of all those NGO’s whom he had targeted, so that he can be a whistle blower against those shady outfits. In their own language he can turn approver, and the drama can have a happy ending like all Indian films.
While it is true that WikiLeaks’ explosive disclosures have helped some and has put in quandary some others, the fact is it has exposed, lot many unlettered and unsung nuts and bolts of international espionage, to highly uncertain future. Every official agency works on some dedicated informers, some work for money and some feel honoured to help official agencies to uncover truth. But in the context of Taliban infested Afghanistan and the area it borders with Pakistan’s NWFP, this WikiLeaks have done some great disservice to the informer fraternity by disclosing names and locations of anti Taliban informers. That has put them in serious jeopardy. There is an imminent threat that Taliban shall try to find the location and people, sometime it can even lead to erroneous identity. The worrying aspect is the prospect of summery beheading of these vulnerable people as threatened by Taliban. The agencies using services of such informers must necessarily ensure their physical safety and well being. In the mean while WikiLeaks must be told not to disclose such details in the overall interest of truth and fairness in public life.
There were days of judicial activism, when courts were taking up issues suo moto. But at times courts stop activism on its tracks, rightly or wrongly. Samarpana, an NGO, went to court questioning the High Speed Rail Link (HSRL) to connect Bangalore city & Bangalore International Airport (BIL). It argued, besides being redundant, since there are 3 projects to improve the reacheability or accessibility of BIL, it is also costing an avoidable huge cost of ` 10,000/- crores to the exchequer. Even environmental angle of possible water body disturbance was highlighted. But Karnataka high court was not amused and dismissed the NGO petition saying ‘no ground to interfere’. It’s a pity, that somebody, with a noble intention of being an active witness to the development has been told – get lost, we can’t join you.
“46 killed in Iraq” was a disturbing news as the news of troop reduction was carried out by the U.S. army. In a co-ordinated attack on government forces, groups inimical to the government, targeted security areas, where police were located in bigger numbers. In a single day, it happened on several places. But what worried the authorities was the scale and reach of these attacks from one end of the country to the other, to show their might. Yes, given the Sunny-Shia conflict, and the Kurdish problem, Iraq can become embroiled in a civil war. It will be a sad day, if it happens. Iraq is a fairly rich country and its people can live in peace with prosperity. But the latest killing has put a big question mark on the future of Iraq.
We have tried to look back over the 63 years of India's journey in Focus. Hope readers shall find it meaningful and shall revert with thier inputs. Rest of the issues are as usual.
Yet another independence day has come and gone into the pages of history. India has seen, since 15th Aug. 1947, sixty four Independence Day celebrations, but the euphoria of the freedom at midnight that reverberated through the length and breadth of India, ceased to be felt over the years. For most Indians, it was just another day, this time without a paid holiday. It was Sunday, atleast a day was saved to add to the national GDP, after many of those illegal bundhs by political outfits.
Looking back over the years, how this political freedom failed to bring about freedom of another, more important kind-freedom from hunger, poverty, malnutrition, injustice, ill health, corruption and umpteen other socio-economic ills that persisted for all these 63 years, is a story of Indian State’s monumental failure. It was both the political class and the bureaucracy that let down the country. While it is true that there have been many areas where every Indian can feel justifiably proud at the achievement the country has made, there is a huge crowd out there, away from the national highways, who has not even remotely been touched by the economic development the country has witnessed. They drink unsafe water, they sleep hungry or half empty, they suffer ill health with no doctors or medicine, they shit in open, they clothe in tatters or half naked, they live in hovels not houses, they spend their nights in darkness. For them this Independence Day, can it mean anything?
The exuberance that British Prime Minister David Cameron exuded while being in India contrasted with his uncharitable and blunt remark that “World cannot tolerate Pakistan exporting terror, be it India, Afghanistan or anywhere else in the world”. That was very sharp, may be even undiplomatic, for a newly elected first time Prime Minister. Of course Pakistan was deeply upset naturally. But coming in the wake of revelation by WikiLeaks which openly implicated ISI as the bad boy, saying that it continued to aid the Taliban in Afghanistan despite the ‘war on terror’. Thus clearly implying that Pakistan always played the double game of running with the hare and hunting with the hound.
This has always been the truth, but it is only in recent times that west is joining the Indian chorus. Hope the newer realisation by the west makes Pakistan accountable for its actions of commission and omission.
The Kalmadi ‘Kalamity’ has the potential of taking the Common Wealth Games down hill. The very fact that Kalmadi was lording it over the sports scene in the country for so long is in itself an anathema. How a person who is remotely connected with the sports of any kind be the chairman of Sports Committees and Associations with huge financial outlays? That he was involved in inflated billing and other financial irregularities is not the news. But in the wake of these irregularities, the whole CWG can be jeopardised, is a real cliff hanger. The outburst of Mani Shankar Aiyar where he ‘hoped that CWG shall fail’ becomes very relevant in this context. Of course as Aiyar rightly observed that such huge shows only lead to huge waste of money is very real. But then Indian government in the past has done such irrelevent and wasteful shows. And as usual we do not seem to learn. Our national conscience seem to take in the shame of poverty, hunger, rampant child malnutrition in its stride, but it wants to bask in the imagined glory of these mega shows.
Thats India even after 63 years of being free, and the country is nowhere near the superpower status dream.
A latest Washington conducted study has revealed that ‘Pakistan see India greater threat than Taliban and Al Qaeda’. It is no revelation to India. In fact the entire Pakistan Foreign and Security policies have always been India centric, and is known for a long time.
Pew Research Centre, a Washington think tank, informs that 53% Pakistanies felt India as the biggest threat, compared to 23% for Taliban and just 3% for Al Qaeda. Of course there were so many revelation which may not be of relevance to the world out there. But what needs to be globally appreciated is the fact that Pakistan always had a high profile misinformation campaign against India through its school curriculum and history books. Thus generations of Pakistanies were fed with lies, whole lies, nothing but lies. Basis of this blatant miscarriage of truth is primarily due to the fact of India being 80% Hindu. And madmen like Hafeez Said flourished in their histrionic best and have stated that “he will not rest until India is merged with Pakistan” and we have people like Abdul Nassir Maudany of PDP (Peoples Democratic Party) spreading poison by allegedly talking about Islamising India. Yes, Pakistan would have not much to do, if India was not 80% Hindu. In fact their entire existence - from partition to this day – has been to tell its people that India is its enemy. The Partition itself was because those who left to create Pakistan could not live with Hindu majority, who they thought would rule India once British goes. But unlike Pakistan, India did not become a theocratic state and persisted with its principles of secular democracy, and shown to the world how committed it was to its ethos, by having three Muslim gentlemen of eminence as Presidents of the country, besides many other nationally significant positions like Chief Justices, Chief Election Commissioners, Chief Information Commissioners etc. It is a record no other country in the world can match. But somehow western nations and global opinion makers never credited India with these visible signposts in the evolution of India as a pacifist and very responsible state. Ofcourse unfortunately in India, our media – both print and electronic – have the legacy of being an unreasonable critic of the state for its own selfish agenda of USP and ratings. In fact, it may not be wrong to say that many media men and women have been very biased and portrayed India poorly to both to the national and international audiences. But as the adage goes, in the end ‘Satyameva jayathe’, Truth alone triumphs. Hope it does.
There was this report from the Capital “Comptroller & Auditor General hauls up Army”. Believe it not, our army personnel, who are keeping the vigil at all times on our borders in extremely trying weather conditions, are fed with rice, wheat flour and edible oil whose storage life had expired! To think that these jawans who many time make the supreme sacrifice so that we all live safely, do not even get quality food, tantamount to betrayal. According to CAG report such periods have been even upto 28 months from the date of expiry. This is absolutely dastardly and persons responsible for this serious lapse should be sacked forth-with or probably even imprisoned for serious dereliction of duty and made to eat the same date expired food-grain and oil.
It is true that all food grains and items like sugar, tea, dal, edible oil, raisins are subjected to test by Central Forensic Labs for extension of Estimated Storage Life (ESL), and upto three months ESL, these items were allowed to be supplied. But the report informed that the violations were anywhere between 6 months to 28 months. This is absolutely cavalier on the part of officials engaged in food supplies to Command Area kitchens. It reminds the incident involving delaying tactics by the MOD officials in supplying ICE BOOTS to Siachen army personnel during the tenure of George Fernandese as the MOD. Mr Fernandese had instructed that the official sitting on the procurement order for these boots be transferred to Siachen to experience the hostile weather first hand. Yes, our babudom need to be greatly sensitised to appreciate issues with the seriousness it deserved.
There was this report in Mumbai print media, “CBI look-out notices against Hiranandanis”. Those in the know of things would recollect that Hiranandani brothers-one of them a Chartered Acctt.-were the high profile real estate developers around Mumbai’s Powai Lake area. Lot of Mumbai’s corporate offices and high-end glitterati moved there, for reasons of convenience, the quality construction and the large open spaces within the Hiranandani complex. It was a vast area and in early nineties there were not many in the real estate development activity. They did very well, with their every day changing rates for flats. Hence this report for their look-out notice came as a bit of shock. Apparently they were doing very well and hence the impression, that they wouldn’t be the people who would commit fraud to enrich themselves. But this report directly accused them of fraud in the employees provident fund deposits. According to Anti-Corruption Wing of CBI, the report informs, Hiranandani group had not deposited provident fund deduction of their employees for the year 2003-04 to the tune of ` 9.36 crores. On the face of it, if the issue has gone to CBI, it becomes difficult not to believe. While, it must be hoped that law should take its course, it is a sad day to think how the educated and well off men in business can commit such crimes of cheating their own employees, is beyond comprehension. India.inc must take steps to address such aberrations of petty minded financial misdemeanours.
It is becoming increasingly a common knowledge that Pakistan is emerging as the epicenter of terror. “European Jehadis Flock to Pak for Terror Training” was a Peshawar datelined report by IANS. Apparently a section of Pakistanis accept this harsh truth. But the tragedy is that there is no control in Pakistan on these Jehadis. In fact it is also becoming more and more clear, the double game of Pakistani military and civil leadership that the money Pakistan is getting from the U.S to fight terror is being diverted to encourage terrorism especially against India. This aspect needs to be comprehensively exposed in the interest of the larger world, not just of India. After all Jehadi terrorism is a borderless monster and chicken can come home to roost. It can hurt everybody.
History is aware that the creation of Pakistan led to unprecedented violence and the culture of violence continued unabated for its 63 years. Unlike India, Pakistanis had problem of co-existence even among their own co-religionists. There were problems between Sunny and Shia, problems between Ahmedis and others, there were problems between Mohajirs and others. There were problems between Baloochs and others. So they have serious problems of co-existence with all sections of faithfuls. The latest report “MQM killing triggers riots in Pak: 48 killed”, is a reflection of the ground condition in Pakistan. Thus, if they have difficulty to live among other co-religionists, of different denominations, how will they live in peace with believers of other religions?
India is indeed a happening place, which includes some bizarre here and some stupid there. Or else how do we react to an election of an 82 year old lady as the President of Hockey India, and the Union Sports ministry de-recognising Hockey India itself. The election of Vidya Stokes, whatever her credentials, is certainly an insult to an idea of India. An 82 year old lady simply should not be and cannot be the president of an organisation managing India’s national game. She has impeccable credentials to her credit, but her age, her age is absolutely on the wrong side. India has and will always have much younger and able men and women to lead Hockey India. If the sports ministry has stipulated 70 years as the age limit, there should be no debate. And all those eligible voters who voted for her so overwhelmingly should be disbanded. The ostrich like grip of Kalmadi and his cronies who have made this happen should be pulled off without mercy. Actually Kalmadi is a ‘kalamity’ for Indian sports. The sooner he is given marching orders, the better.
Buddhadeb Bhattacharya has always been a better Chief Minister than Jyothi Basu. A fact most knew in Communist Party but were afraid to say. Participating in the programme to mark the birth day of Muzaffer Ahmed, a founder of the party, the Bengal CM admitted, rather frankly that Left Front government in West Bengal committed mistakes for three decades, in panchayat, in education, in land acquisition etc. Sadly this realisation came rather late. Mamata Banerji, rightly or wrongly, came from behind to reach out and succeeded at the hustings. May be sitting in the opposition, hopefully may help the party to introspect and come up winner someday in the future.
Karnataka governor is becoming increasingly controversial. The latest dressing down he gave to the Mysore V.C in public is rather in bad taste. The V.C. has come to pay his respects, at a public function, but the way governor Bhardwaj castigated and humiliated a respectable and a senior university functionary was most uncivilised and autocratic. Naturally, there was widespread condemnation in the media. Of course Union Law Minister Moili keeps supporting all his actions, that is party politics. Governor, who is a constitutional head of the state should keep the dignity of his office.
In India, in the name of caste, we have divided the society and ruled. But now, our practice of social ostracism has touched even the dead. Municipal Corporation of Delhi, it was found out, has created semi VIP-VIP and VVIP pyre platforms at Nigambodh Ghat. Responding to an RTI query Information Commissioner Shailesh Gandhi, while asking the details of segregation at the cremation ground lamented “The Commissioner was not aware of the categorisation and discrimination between ordinary citizens, VIP and special category of semi VIPs in crematorium and wonder where the promise of equity to all citizens has disappeared?” We are changing, we are told. But 63 years as free India, its feudal mind set has not changed.
A lady teacher Sirin Middya in West Bengal’s first minority university Aliah University was reportedly not allowed to teach after she refused to wear the burqa inside the varsity premises. The students union of the college while demanding all female teachers to wear burqa had also reportedly shouted slogans in the campus “those who are against the purdah systems should go to hell”. This was despite the notice to the contrary by the university itself. Reportedly, of the eight teachers, seven succumbed. The lone fighter is not allowed to teach. The Left Front government has reportedly refused to intervene, and many in the media did not bother to highlight the travails of the lady teacher. This is the usual double standard of the so-called secularists. How much can we stoop for some votes?
‘LPG crematorium goes abegging’ was a news in the print media from Mumbai. As an environmentally less polluting method an LPG crematorium was set up in Mumbai. But traditionalists among Hindus just didn’t go there with the bodies of their dead relatives, to be consigned to flames, thinking the traditional pyre is the better way. In a month’s time, since its opening, there was only one dead body brought to the crematorium, which otherwise could have been atleast 3 to 4 every day. Mr. Jairam Ramesh the central environment minister, a Hindu himself, has been in the lime light in recent day for varities of reasons, should appeal to his fellow religionists to see the point and help save the environment by saving timber and to reduce pollution. Besides LPG would burn the body faster than both timber and the electrically operated platforms.
Having taken note of the brutal attack, on Newman College professor T.J. Joseph for the alleged provocative question on Islam, by some youths belonging to Popular Front of India, (PFI) main stream Muslim political parties have met to discuss the issues of violence among youth. The meeting decided to join hands against extremism that has brought a bad name to the entire community in the state. It is indeed a very positive development and shall only add lustre to the pluralistic image of India. The meeting convened by Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) at Kottakal in Mallapuram, decided to counter the extremist line being advocated by outfits like PFI and Jamate-Islami. Mr P.K. Kunalikutty, the General Secretary of IUML, himself a bit haughty and assertive, made some right noises. He is reported to have stated after the meeting that, “Through their dark deeds, these organisations have put the Muslim community in a situation for all and sundry to ride roughshod over Muslims”. This development should hopefully bode well for the community in particular and India in general.
With the kind of internal problems Pakistan is going thru with all kinds of terror groups, the flood that inundated most of the North West Frontier Province has come rather at a very difficult time in its existences as a free nation. Thousands have died, lakhs have lost houses. The loss in terms of life and properties have so far defied the calculation. Its humungous. It needs all kinds of help. But help did not come initially in appreciable measure, but picked up in later days. With UN leading with its helping hand, other countries too have come forward. But the aid of U.S. $ 5 million announced by Indian government was not welcome. In fact there were any number of fundamentalist groups that didn’t want that Pakistan should accept aid from India. For a moment, thoughts went back to Bihar when Nitish Kumar government returned the ` 5 crore that Gujarath government gave. In both cases, the logic was only stupid obduracy, trying to see non-existent hidden meaning. Why people do not grow?
Something is seriously wrong with a section of Bajrang Dal, it appears. Local English newspapers in Mangalore published a story of one Sridhar, who was wrongly picked up by BD activists, a year ago, and subjected to physical atrocity of a serious kind. Saraswathi, a Dalit activist reportedly tried to file a case after over a year, but some how police thwarted her attempts, including the help desk at Dakshina Kannada SP’s office. When the story appeared in the print media, suddenly things started moving with SP A.S. Rao taking the lead, and reportedly 5 BD activists have been booked. Hope law takes its own course without any political interference.
“Treat demand for Telengana as a cognizable offence”. Can you imagine, we have ministers in the country who think that asking for a separate state within the Indian Union could lead to disintegration of the country. That is exactly what some ministers of Andhra Pradesh contended while presenting their case to SriKrishna Panel, according to media reports. As a poetic justice, was the election result of Telengana, where only Telengana Rashtra Samithi won all the seats in the recent election, hands down. There are better ways than mouthing stupidities in matters like creation of smaller states. In fact all politicians should know that Indian socio-economic development shall be much faster and better only when there are smaller states. Hope our national leadership realises this and acts on demands of smaller separate states with a sense of purpose.
Reserve Bank of India, may be an autonomous body under central government law. But it works exactly like government office, work to rule. Or else how any responsible person would allow 92 crores rupees to be kept in a van under police custody, which otherwise was to have been deposited with RBI, since the cash reached the bank after 5.00 pm, due to traffic snarls on the way. And mind you, this happened despite the continued contact between the officials accompanying the van and RBI officials. While RBI may show its own set of rules, the fact of the matter is that we are too rigid in our approach to issues, a dimension that has hurt our development for all its years as a free nation.
The recent meeting between Iran and India on Afghanistan is a positive development. India and Iran have always been friends. But Ahmednijad regime has not been as warm. If only geography of Pakistan was not coming in the middle, India’s relationship with all those Muslim countries of Asia-minor and its neighbourhood would have been of a very high order and all would have benefited by it. If the irritating Pak factor was not there, this regional block would have been a force to reckon within the international fora. Like Iran, there are many countries of the region who are happy dealing with India, for they all realise the potential of India not only for its capability but also for its respect for others to mutually co-exist. Hope-fully this association between Iran and India would lead to peace and prosperity of the region.
Oil spill that hit Mumbai coast-line, after two ships collided, has only exposed the vulnerability of our lack of disaster management skills. Environment minister said, its unique, never seen or experienced before. But then Mr Minister, we have oil rigs on offshore platforms, anything can happen there, as it happened in Gulf coast for the BP’s Deep Water Horizon Oil platform. Yes there was a human error and two ships collided. It contained 2600 tons of oil and spill of this size can be a disaster for marine ecology off Mumbai. It took 3 days to plug the leak. But 3 days are little too long for the oil to keep spilling. There could have been co-ordianted emergency response from Coast Guard, JNPT & BPT in trying to retrive those containers with the help of giant mobile cranes. Idea is to act as quickly as possible to reduce the damage to the least, without wasting time on blame game. Although the situation now appears to be under control, may be the response could have been bettered.
Involvement of Mamata Banerji with Maoists is getting murkier. Yes, anything for power is the name of the game. In her one point programme to get to the Writers Building, she apparently is ready to do business with Maoists, who want to throw the Indian state by violent means, and to kill violently innocents in the process. Politics do make strange bed fellows, or else why is the Prime Minister quite, on the strange behaviour of a senior cabinet colleague. Coalition compulsions! Isn’t it a sad day that just to be in power you can ignore aberrations like Mamata Banerji. Besides, how sure Mamata can be, whether Maoists would not blackmail her once she uses them to her advantage. Hasn’t Bindranwale’s men killed Indira Gandhi, whom she propped up to break Akali Dal?
Creme de la creme or the cream of the cream grade has to be given to this case involving 5 judges of Andhra Pradesh courts. Five judges were appearing for LLM - 1st year - examination of Warangal University, some days ago. They were caught red handed indulging in ‘copying’, with law text books and torn pages of these text books in their person. That they were immediately stopped from writing the examination and were subsequently suspended by the Chief Justice of Andhra Pradesh is not the news. The question is, how can such unscrupulous judges be judges at all in the first place? Isn’t integrity the primary consideration on the appointment of judges? How in the first place these ‘honourable gentlemen’ made it to the judiciary?
“‘Robin Hood’ engineer behind bars” was a news in print media from Chennai. One Prakash, an ex-engineer with TVS motors, was arrested on a complaint with regard to an ostensible cyber crime. While it was true that he was misrepresenting the truth while taking some considerations for promise not intended to be kept, the proceeds, apparently, were meant for altruistic acts. The police do not seem to contradict the good samaritan claim of Praksah, besides, he was reportedly targeting only dubious characters running NGOs or Ashrams. There are three aspects in the case. 1st is the existence of dubious NGOs and Ashrams, who should have been exposed by the system and the police, which has not happened. Prakash is doing their job. 2nd, whatever he receives from these NGO’s or Ashrams, he is not using for himself, instead gives it to noble purposes, to help the needy. Again, what the system should have done, he is doing it. 3rd he is using illegal means to do his reach-out programmes. While police is doing what is apparently correct, they should have let him go on bail immediately and get details of all those NGO’s whom he had targeted, so that he can be a whistle blower against those shady outfits. In their own language he can turn approver, and the drama can have a happy ending like all Indian films.
While it is true that WikiLeaks’ explosive disclosures have helped some and has put in quandary some others, the fact is it has exposed, lot many unlettered and unsung nuts and bolts of international espionage, to highly uncertain future. Every official agency works on some dedicated informers, some work for money and some feel honoured to help official agencies to uncover truth. But in the context of Taliban infested Afghanistan and the area it borders with Pakistan’s NWFP, this WikiLeaks have done some great disservice to the informer fraternity by disclosing names and locations of anti Taliban informers. That has put them in serious jeopardy. There is an imminent threat that Taliban shall try to find the location and people, sometime it can even lead to erroneous identity. The worrying aspect is the prospect of summery beheading of these vulnerable people as threatened by Taliban. The agencies using services of such informers must necessarily ensure their physical safety and well being. In the mean while WikiLeaks must be told not to disclose such details in the overall interest of truth and fairness in public life.
There were days of judicial activism, when courts were taking up issues suo moto. But at times courts stop activism on its tracks, rightly or wrongly. Samarpana, an NGO, went to court questioning the High Speed Rail Link (HSRL) to connect Bangalore city & Bangalore International Airport (BIL). It argued, besides being redundant, since there are 3 projects to improve the reacheability or accessibility of BIL, it is also costing an avoidable huge cost of ` 10,000/- crores to the exchequer. Even environmental angle of possible water body disturbance was highlighted. But Karnataka high court was not amused and dismissed the NGO petition saying ‘no ground to interfere’. It’s a pity, that somebody, with a noble intention of being an active witness to the development has been told – get lost, we can’t join you.
“46 killed in Iraq” was a disturbing news as the news of troop reduction was carried out by the U.S. army. In a co-ordinated attack on government forces, groups inimical to the government, targeted security areas, where police were located in bigger numbers. In a single day, it happened on several places. But what worried the authorities was the scale and reach of these attacks from one end of the country to the other, to show their might. Yes, given the Sunny-Shia conflict, and the Kurdish problem, Iraq can become embroiled in a civil war. It will be a sad day, if it happens. Iraq is a fairly rich country and its people can live in peace with prosperity. But the latest killing has put a big question mark on the future of Iraq.
We have tried to look back over the 63 years of India's journey in Focus. Hope readers shall find it meaningful and shall revert with thier inputs. Rest of the issues are as usual.
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