Avinash- The Pariah...Then there was you

I Love You

2009-04-14T12:13:00.003+05:30

I learned about love from you,
Watching your caring ways.
I learned about joy from you
In fun-filled yesterdays.

From you I learned forgiving
Of faults both big and small.
I learned what I know about living
From you, as you gave life your all.

The example you set is still with me
I'd never want any other.
I'm thankful for all that you taught me,
And I'm blessed to call you "Mother

Even though i can't see you
I know I am blessed by you
I do miss you
I love you my mom

She won't cry but...

2009-03-10T12:33:00.003+05:30

Her head hung low,
her heart beat fast.
But when he walked out of the room,
She raised her head high.
Maybe she'll get over him,
Maybe she wont cry.

It's been a long time now,
People say she should move on,
But she just can't get over him.

They talk about the time,
When they shared all that love

But nobody understands,
Why she's still in love.

She falls to the ground,
And try's to get back up,
But the fear keeps pushing her down.
Will she ever escape the memory of his love?

Her wings are torn and tattered,
Her aura slipping low.
But they say one day she will rise again,
As only the Fallen Angel can.

Dedicated to my best pal & her audacity, fortitude & valor. God bless her & my wishes come from the core of my heart.

Still the remedy

2009-03-02T23:32:00.001+05:30

You have stolen my being, my identity.
By making me imbibe the wine of love
you have intoxicated me.

With one glance, my free wandering spirit
has been captured by you.

I gave my life to you, my very substance;
you took my tears without glancing back.

You carried the soul from my body
and yet you are still part of that soul;
you inflicted pain, but are still the remedy.

You destroyed the kingdom of my heart
with the sword of coquetry,
but are still its sovereign ruler.

Can't u come back Mom?

2009-02-25T23:28:00.008+05:30

Mom, I miss you so very much
On every night & Day;
& not just then, but every moment,
Since you went away.

You were the center of my life
before your soul passed on;
it’s just so hard for me to believe,
that you are really gone.

My wonderful memories, Mom, of you
are the things that will comfort & save me
I look up at you, sweet Mom,
as you look at me from above .

Now, since I lost my way ,
& it's darkness all the way ;
As I feel abandoned & orphaned ,
Can’t you come back?
& show me the way ,

As I woke up scared ,
Come & hold me close to you;
So many things to be shared ,
All I need is you .

Can’t you come back?

Free from the bonds of the two worlds

2009-02-23T09:24:00.001+05:30

May your charming face ever shine like the full moon;
May you hold eternal sways over the domains of beauty.
By your amorous glance you have killed a poor man like me;
How magnanimous of you? May God give you a long life

Pray do not be cruel lest you should feel ashamed of yourself
before your lovers on the Day of Judgment.
I shall be set free from the bonds of the two worlds
if you become my companion for a while.

By your wanton playfulness you must have destroyed
Thousands of hearts of lovers like that of mine

I walk alone in darkness

2009-02-21T19:55:00.000+05:30

Purity once had a name,
and splendour a face.
Life had meaning,
and I felt content.

I had freedom to laugh
and lived in bliss,
sharing love
with my soulmate;
I felt at home by her side.

But all too soon this ended.
Although her grace and beauty
were all I ever wanted
and I willed our love to last,
Fate maybe had another plan,
or perhaps, another had her love?

My happiness and joy were gone.
All memories of love died away;
now I walk alone with no light
to guide my way in the darkness.

I still yearn for you

2009-02-21T11:37:00.000+05:30

Meeting you
was pure destiny,
You and I
were meant to be.

May be not now
but someday soon,
We'll meet not under the sun
but beneath the moon.
cry, complain & romance till dawn

We'll watch the stars'
till they fade away,
but we won't fade
together we'll always stay.

This is the day
I'm waiting for,
from that day
I'll love you more and more.

I can't wait to watch
the sun set with you,
every sunset from that day
'till the rest of our lives are through.
I still yearn for you.....

Doon Valley

2009-02-20T20:11:00.005+05:30

Doon Valley: My favorite place on globe, here I squandered many years of my existence. This is view of ‘Queen of Hills’ Mussoorie, (Hindi: मसूरी Masūrī) is a city and a municipal board, about 34 km from Dehradun district in the Indian state of Uttarakhand

This hill station, situated in the foothills of the Himalaya ranges Being at an average altitude of 2,000 meters (6,600 ft), Mussoorie, with its green hills and varied flora and fauna, is a fascinating hill resort. Commanding snow ranges to the north-east, and glittering views of the Doon Valley and Shiwalik ranges in the south, the town was once said to present a 'fairyland' atmosphere to tourists.

Red-whiskered Bulbul

2009-02-17T09:36:00.004+05:30

The pic taken at Jim Corbett National Park, Dehradun, Uttaranchal, India: The Red-whiskered Bulbul (Pycnonotus jocosus) is a passerine bird found in Asia. It is a member of the bulbul family. It is a resident frugivore found mainly in tropical Asia from Pakistan and India through to southeast Asia and China. It has been introduced and has established itself in the wild in many other parts of the world.

The Red-whiskered Bulbul was one of the many species originally described by Linnaeus in 1758 in his Systema Naturae. He placed it along with the shrikes under Lanius.
Local names include Turaha pigli-pitta in Telugu, Sipahi bulbul in Bengali,
Phari-bulbul/Kanera bulbu in Hindi Several geographic races are named

Description
The Red-whiskered Bulbul is about 20 cm (7 in) in length. It has brown upper-parts and whitish underparts with buff flanks and a dark spur running onto the breast at shoulder level. It has a tall pointed black crest, red face patch and thin black moustachial line. The tail is long and brown with white terminal feather tips, but the vent area is red.

This passerine feed on fruits (including those of Thevetia peruvianathat are toxic to mammals), nectar and insects. The loud and evocative call is a sharp kink-a-joo, and the song is a scolding chatter. It is more often heard than seen, but will often perch conspicuously especially in the mornings when they call from the tops of trees. The life span is about 11 years.

Hybrids have been noted in captivity with Pycnonotus cafer, Pycnonotus leucotis, Pycnonotus xanthopygos, Pycnonotus melanicterus and Pycnonotus leucogenys. and albinism is known. several avian malaria parasites have been described from the species

Subspecies

jocosus, the nominate subspecies, is found in Hong Kong
fuscicaudatus in peninsular India has nearly complete breast band and no white tip to tail
abuensis of northwestern India is pale and has a broken breast band and no white tip to tail
pyrrhotis of the terai is pale above with white tail tips and widely separated breast band
emeria of Eastern peninsula and Ganges Delta is warm brown above with a slim bill and a long crest (also introduced into Florida
whistleri is found in the Andaman Islands
monticola is found in northeastern India
pattani is found in Thailand
peguensis not always recognized was described from southern Burma

Distribution and habitat
This is a bird of lightly wooded areas, more open country with bushes and shrubs, and farmland. Irruptions have been noted from early times with Thomas C. Jerdon noting that they "periodically visiting Madras and other wooded towns in large flocks."
It has established itself in Australia, Los Angeles, Hawaii, and Florida in the United States, and in the Mauritius, Assumption Island and Mascarene Islands.
The Red-whiskered Bulbul was introduced by the Zoological and Acclimatization Society in 1880 to Sydney, and were well established across the suburbs by 1920, and have slowly spread to around 100 km away. It is also found in suburban Melbourne and Adelaide, although it is unclear how it got there.

I shall keep my heart silent

2009-02-16T04:35:00.002+05:30

Don’t overlook my misery by fluttering your eyes,
and weaving tales; My patience has over-brimmed.
O sweetheart, why don’t you clasp me to your heart
like in the long curls of the night we separated,
after the short lived day of our union?

How will I pass the dark dungeon night
without your face before me,.
Suddenly, using a thousand wiles,
those enchanting eyes robbed me
of my tranquil mind;

Who would explain this to my darling?
Tossed and bewildered, like a flickering candle,
I roam about in the fire of love;
sleepless eyes, restless body.
She neither comes, nor sends any message.

In honour of the day, should I meet my beloved
again, the one who has lured me so long,
I shall keep my heart silent
and so get a chance to practise her trickery.

My Valentine

2009-02-14T02:02:00.004+05:30

Why should humans have all the fun?:Two Parrots celebrating Valentine's Day in Delhi, India For more pics click HERE

Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
If this be error and upon me proved,
I never writ, nor no man ever loved.

William Shakespeare

Sonnet 116

Let me Die...Why can't I?

2009-02-10T10:23:00.003+05:30

We often wonder on Life After Death, how about life before death? Can we call a human alive by keeping a it alive with a feeding tube because said person cannot eat on their own after 17 years is true ignorance. Shall each person should have the right to die as they wish and not be kept alive by tube feedings. All she did is breathe. Takes more than that to be truly alive!!!

Doctors were removing all life support last night from an Italian woman in a coma (she died later ) whose “right to die” has triggered a constitutional crisis and provoked an intervention from the Pope. The case has sparked an open power struggle between Mr Berlusconi and President Napolitano. In a last-minute move on Friday Mr Berlusconi sided with the Vatican and drew up an emergency decree to prevent Ms Englaro’s death. President Napolitano refused to sign it on the ground that the Prime Minister could not arbitrarily overturn a legal ruling and that such a sensitive issue had to be fully debated by parliament.

Ethical Issues in Terminal Health Care
Medical science has brought remarkable changes to our lives. Because of advances in medical technology, more people live longer, and more productively, than any generation in history. Unfortunately, these advances have created problems as well. The longer people live, the more likely they are to encounter chronic disease that requires long-term health care. Medical advances have also brought economic consequences -- these new technologies have a price tag! Most important, these advances have created ethical dilemmas that no generation of doctors has ever had to face. New life-sustaining techniques and practices are forcing hospitals to ask questions that never needed to be asked before. Foremost of these is the question, How far do we go to save a life?

Other questions challenge the very notion of what it means to be a doctor. A doctor's commitment has traditionally been to sustain life, to comfort and to heal. Today, though, physicians are able to sustain lives which have no hope of ever again being meaningful, which brings us to the question: when suffering is immeasurable, and a patient's condition terminal, should doctors be permitted to end a patient's life?

Syndromes like persistent vegetative state and the immense suffering caused by prolonged cancers have many people, including some doctors, wondering if it wouldn't be more humane for physicians to do more than merely withdraw treatment, but to actually assist in hastening death.

Health Care at a Crossroads

When you prolong the life of a cancer patient, the natural history of the disease advances and you see complications you did not see before, doctors uses a term for these complications: Diseases of medical progress.I think this age might be called The Age of the Tyranny of Technology. Because technologies exist, there seems to be -- in the medical profession at least -- an assumption that the technologies must be used. We are coming now to see the terrible dilemmas that the overuse of technologies have brought to us but we are using what I feel are the wrong ways to address this. I believe there need to be more questions asked about when or whether to use the new machines and techniques in the first place. I believe that medical science and public policy should understand that when a technology is being used, it can be discontinued under the principle of the Benefit/Burden concept. When the burden to the total well-being of the patient outweighs the benefit, the treatment becomes senseless. Also morally, extraordinary means of treatment need not be used in the first place.

Ethics Committees
According to an article in Healthcare Executive magazine, more than half the nation's hospitals have created ethics committees for the purpose of understanding and addressing the various ethical dilemmas health care professionals are facing today. On the local scene, all three Duluth hospitals and an increasing number of nursing homes have ethics committees. This article is about the role these committees play in decisions made in our local hospitals, clinics and nursing homes.The committees serve three basic functions. The first is education, Education of its staff as well as its patients and the community about the ethical dimensions of health care. The second is policies, making sure the policies in that institution are ethical.The third is to review cases and care that is provided in the institution and to work as a consultant in those times when the cases are difficult.The people who serve on ethics committees come from many walks of life, though in many instances a majority are doctors.

How do ethics committees influence hospital medical decisions
I would guess that half the members are doctors, so that you have eight or ten members on each committee at each hospital that are physicians, and then there are nurses, lay people, clergy, lawyers, behavioral scientists and ethicists. The committees provide a forum for the exchange of ideas. They follow the literature from all of the disciplines -- the legal literature, the religious literature, the scientific literature, the political literature -- and meet on a regular basis to discuss the difficult issues. So they are sort of a think tank that keeps abreast of all these issues. The knowledge and understanding that has been gained through study and discussions within the committee is then spread by various means through the medical community -- to physicians and nurses. Some of it simply by talking to people, some of it by bringing an issue to the entire medical staff, inviting the medical staff to come and listen to a presentation on an ethical issue that is confronting the hospital or the doctors and the nurses on a regular basis. They also issue position papers, and share what they have discussed in medical staff newsletters and committee reports or minutes.In addition to these activities, committee members are also available as formal or informal consultants to doctors dealing with difficult issues.

Local Perpsectives on the Right-to-Die Debate (ITALY)
For many people, the issue of doctor assisted suicide is very disturbing. The whole concept of doctor assisted suicide is a sad commentary on where we are societally. My personal viewpoint is that the whole concept is a total distortion of the basic commitment of the physician to support and help life. I cannot see how a physician can legitamize bringing about death.Nevertheless, this is not a universal consensus. More than one person has suggested -- a Michigan physician whose "suicide machine" has been used by three patients -- has brought attention to an important problem, even though he is "the wrong spokesman for the right issue." David Mayo, Ph.D. and professor of philosophy at UMD and member of The Hemlock Society, put it this way. "I'm sympathetic to what Kervorkian is doing, but I'm unsympathetic to his modus operandi. I think he's a bit of a loose cannon, to be perfectly honest. A loose cannon who loves publicity." Dr. Mayo stated that he prefers Derek Humphry as the spokesman for this issue. Derek

Humphry and other proponents of doctor assisted suicide usually build their case around two main arguments. Those two arguments, according to Dr. Mayo, are the mercy argument -- the notion of sparing someone unnecessary suffering -- and the self-determination argument, the right to determine one's own fate or level of care while dying."Against that," Dr. Mayo adds, "the primary argument is the 'very slippery slope' argument. What will this lead to?"

WHERE DO WE DRAW THE LINE?

What is evident, then, is the problem of where to draw the lines. There is a wide range of opinions as to what is acceptable and unacceptable here. Many of the doctors interviewed by The Senior Reporter seemed to place that line between passive and active euthanasia. Do Not Resuscitate Orders might be considered a form of passive euthanasia. Several doctors refered to the concept of "futile treatment", wherein a doctor is not obligated to use extraordinary intervention when its ultimate effect is obviously going to be futile.

Carolyn Schmidt, who opposes both doctor assisted suicide and active euthanasia, strongly supports the non-use or withdrawal of extraordinary means of treatment such as respirators. "I don't feel morally we are required to use these," she said. "But there is a big difference between withdrawing or not using a technology and developing a technology of killing."Identifying and clarifying these terms and developing rational standards for making difficult decisions has been a major role of the hospitals' medical ethics committees.

IF NOT HIPPOCRATES, WHAT THEN?

At bottom in all these matters is the question,
How do we go about determining what is right and wrong in a given situation?
What are the components of an ethical decision?
How can physicians, patients and their families -- or courts -- decide?
Ethics has to do with decisions that involve making a distinction between right and wrong.

In its simplest form, an ethical determination is an assessment of a moral act based on

(1) what we do,
(2) how we do it,
(3) when we do it, and
(4) our motivation for doing it, or why we do it.

But behind these criteria are also underlying assumptions about the meaning and value of life.

Is human life inherently sacred?
Or is value determined by one's current contributions to society as a whole?
This latter utilitarian view comes dangerously close to resembling the social engineering of physicians and geneticists under Hitler's Germany of the thirties.

Making The Final Choice: Should Physician-Assisted Suicide Be Legalized?
Medical advances have created ethical dilemmas which no previous generation of doctors has ever faced. New life-sustaining techniques and practices are forcing physicians to ask questions that never needed to be asked before. Foremost of these is:

How far do we go to save a life? Other questions challenge ethical traditions which have been in place for centuries.

When suffering is immeasurable and a patient's condition terminal, should doctors be permitted to end a patient's life?
Should doctors take an active role in hastening a patient's death?
Today, more than ever, the push is on to "change the rules.,

By all accounts a time of decision is upon us. When a fully conscious person requests death, should a physician -- contrary to the Hippocratic oath -- assist the person in dying? It is the purpose of this brief article to present a concise overview of the primary arguments for and against the legalization of physician-assisted suicide. Without a careful consideration of the concerns on both sides, we can find ourselves saddled with ill-conceived policies that do not serve our best interests and will not be easily dislodged.There are four primary arguments for legalizing physician-assisted suicide.

They are:

!.The Mercy Argument, which states that the immense pain and indignity ofprolonged suffering cannot be ignored. We are being inhumane to force peopleto continue suffering in this way.

2. The Patient's Right to Self-determination. Patient empowerment has been atrend for more than twenty-five years. "It's my life, my pain. Why can't Iget the treatment I want?"

3. The Economics Argument, which notes that the cost of keeping people aliveis exceedingly high. Who's footing the bill for the ten thousand peoplebeing sustained in a persistent vegetative state? Aren't we wasting preciousresources when an already used up life is prolonged unnecessarily?

4. The Reality Argument runs like this: "Let's face it, people are already doing it."

There are a variety of arguments against legalizing physician- assisted suicide. Here are the most widely cited concerns:

l. Medical doctors are not trained psychiatrists. Many, if not most, people have wished they could die rather than face some difficult circumstance in their lives. Doctors who are given authority to grant this wish may not always recognize that the real problem is a treatable depression, rather than the need to fulfill a patient's death wish.

I know many individuals with significant disabilities: quadriplegia, post-polio survivors, persons with MS, etc. A number of them have tried committing suicide in the past and are now thankful that a mechanism wasn't in place that would have assured their death, because they got over whatever was bothering them at the time and are happy with life again.

2. How will physician-assisted suicide be regulated? This is Carlos Gomez's forced argument, developed after investigating the Netherlands' experience, and presented in his book Regulating Death. "How will we assure ourselves that the weak, the demented, the vulnerable, the stigmatized -- those incapable of consent or dissent -- will not become the unwilling objects of such a practice? No injustice," Gomez contends, "would be greater than being put to death, innocent of crime and unable to articulate one's interests. It is the possibility -- or in my estimation, the likelihood -- of such injustice occurring that most hardens my resistance for giving public sanction to euthanasia."

3. The "Slippery Slope" Argument. A Hemlock Society spokesperson acknowledges this to be the strongest argument against legalization. In ethical dialogue, it is conceded that there are situations when an acceptable action should not be taken because it will lead to a course of consequent actions that are not acceptable. Our attitudes toward the elderly, people with disabilities and the devaluation of individuals for the "higher good of society" should be reflected upon. How long will it bebefore our "right to die" becomes our "duty to die"?

4. The "Occasional Miracle" Argument. Sometimes remarkable recoveries occur. Sometimes diagnoses are far afield of the reality. Countless stories could be told. I know a few first hand. How about you?

5. Utilitarian versus sacred view of life. This is probably a subset of the Slippery Slope argument, focusing on our cultural shift in attitude toward what it means to be human. Huxley's Brave New World vividly demonstrates an aspect of this argument. We need to be reminded of the role social engineers, doctors and geneticists played in 1930's Germany. Are weimportant only as long as we are making a contribution to society? Or is value something inherent in our being human? History has shown that when we devalue human beings, we open the door to abuse. The U.S. Supreme Court, inits Dred Scott decision, declared that blacks were not persons. This devaluation helped permit slavery and inhumane treatment of blacks to continue.

6. What effect will this have on doctor/patient trust? People who traditionally rely on their doctors to provide guidance in their health care decisions may become confused, even alarmed, when one of the treatment options presented is the death machine at the end of the hall. According to Leon R. Kass, distinguished M.D. from the University of Chicago, the tabooagainst doctors killing patients, even on request, "is the very embodiment of reason and wisdom. Without it, medicine will have lost its claim to be an ethical and trustworthy profession." Kass asserts that "patient's trust in the whole-hearted devotion to the patient's best interests will be hard to sustain once doctors are licensed to kill."

7. What about doctors who don't believe in killing? Will they be required by law to prescribe a treatment [death] they don't believe in?ConclusionsClearly, the ethical dilemmas surrounding terminal health care will be with us for years to come. There are more than seventy million baby boomers in this country, most of whom are currently grappling with the issue of aging parents. And in the decades to come we ourselves won't be getting any younger.Ironically, our current situation is due in large part to the successes of medical science, not its failures.

More people live longer today than ever in history because we have eliminated many of the diseases that once terrorized us as a society.But some of the problem is due in part to our love affair with technology. When machines, tubes and computers take over, compassion and common sense sometimes seem to suffer.

Fortunately, there seems to be an increased awareness of the intrusiveness of technology. Living wills, ethics committees and hospice care are all responses to this awareness.How we choose to die in America is a complicated subject that needs clear thinking and a fair discussion of the ethical and technical dilemmas surrounding it. But let's keep in mind that even if we agreed that death technologies are wrong, this would not be an endorsement of the notion that people must be kept alive for as long as possible at any cost.

Foreign Bound: Unfortunately Born in India

2009-02-07T15:09:00.003+05:30

My neighbor Mehta's son is in Dubai. He is a Chemical Engineer by training but having failed to secure a job of his line he started exporting readymade garments to Dubai and one day, we learnt, he has exported himself also to Dubai. Mehta claims his son is a Chief Engineer in Dubai while ever so knowledgeable neighbors inform he is only a mechanic. Nonetheless, he is in Dubai. Dubai to an aspirant Indian means filthy rich Sheikhs. Toffee to trousers, Mehta now uses everything Made in Dubai. He can talk for hours convincing us how bad Indian toffees and trousers are and how they affect user's health. To strengthen his argument he quotes an Indian medico settled now in Abu Dhabi. Welcome to the special class of society who think they are UBI's (Unfortunately Born in India) and have all praise for foreign land than its own motherland.

Once upon a time, when Gandhiji had to first time go to England, he had to observe very strict vows and even then he was declared an outcaste. Today Gandhiji is no more and value system of his time also is no more. However, different version of vows, in keeping with the times, is existing even today - I will amass wealth by hook or crook. I will marry a wealthy Firang and marry another docile Indian girl through ad to be my dame nay maid. Today if you don't have a brother or son in a foreign country you are looked down upon in society as if you are some sort of a sinner.

In my office there was this gentleman Burhanpurkar who was in the habit of introducing himself and in the same breathe asking the person whether he had been to any foreign country. If the reply would be affirmative he would heave a sigh and compare wretched India and Indians to great France and French, Japan and Japanese as the case may be. In case the other person has been less fortunate and not been to any foreign country Burhanpurkar would give a list of countries he had visited. Later I learnt he had been to a Railway project in Baghdad for three months.

We had a Professor, Deen Dayal Chaturvedi in our college. When he went abroad, he left his Dhoti and Choti at the airport itself. Ten months later Prof. Chaturvedi in a smartly cut safari suit got down the ramp. His newly acquired names DD and Chats. For few weeks after his arrival, we kept wondering why he covered his nose with a hanky most of the time. Later we heard him share with his close colleagues that pollution level in India has crossed the unsafe mark. A friend of mine within one week of his landing in a foreign country wrote to me to immediately send him six copies of the Gita and Ramayana.

He disclosed that wherever he went people wanted to discuss with an Indian about various episodes of Ramayana and tenets of Gita but he had not the faintest idea of either.Times have changed, earlier people went as far as Rangoon looking for greener pastures and sang about it. We had songs in our Hindi films:

"Mera Piya gaye RangoonWahan se kiya hai telephoon"(My beloved has gone to Rangoon from there he makes calls to me on telephone)

Today beloveds go to States and communicate through fax. Before India attained freedom , Indians were largely going to countries such as Fiji, Mauritius and Africa but such foreign jaunts were devoid of an essential element called 'glamour'. After independence shipload of people emigrated to England, Australia and Canada. Direct from Ludhiana to London, Ahmedabad to Ottawa and Kerala to Canberra.During seventies USA's seventh fleet sailed towards Indian ocean sending waves of 'states boom' to all over India especially to Yuppies and IITs. Every second Indian was busy filling up visa forms. US embassy became a holy place of pilgrimage. USA was the very paradise on the earth.A family friend of ours had gone to USA. He brought a helmet complete with in-built headphone transistor.

It looked so very similar to the one worn by Neil Armstrong. We were as impressed by the helmet as were by the piece of moon's crust exhibited at USIS Delhi. It was sent by Uncle Sam to poor Indians who had by then seen the moon only in sky or in the romantic Urdu Poetry. There was this popular joke during seventies - India will soon become USA - now - that Americans will move over to the moon and Indian property dealer and Colonizers will simply grab and occupy USA which will be lying vacant and unclaimed. We are champion in encroachment be it train berth, foot paths of Delhi, sea shores of Bombay, railway platforms and archaeological ruins.When the number of settlers acquired alarming proportion it became an eye opener for USA and U.K. resulting in more stringent restrictions.

They realized that otherwise Indians by their sheer strength will outnumber them and take over England. Our Paul is already there. Americans also got worried. These brown Indians together with red Indians will soon make New Delhi of New York. They implemented green cards with red vigor.The decade of eighties was dedicated to Dubai. Nurse, Doctor, Mechanic, Actors, all were off to Dubai. Free citizens of India were shuttling between Sahar and Singapore with the ease of going to Safal vegetable outlet in the neighborhood. Later we learnt they were mere carriers like the one we have on our bicycles on which things are carried to and fro. It was a sight to see them return. Hired taxi would take them straight from airport to the village, they belonged to. Oversized two-in-one music system, VCR, fancy garments, lot of gold and ready money. Whole lot of village folks would assemble to see the booty and sigh with envy. This money was largely utilized in building bungalows and buying bridegrooms.

All of a sudden, there was a steep rise in the rates of masons and bridegrooms.Often people are heard saying that Indians are indirectly instrumental in re-unification of Germany. When West German Government saw so many Indians settling in their country they thought it wiser to open up and embrace their own poor brethrens living other side of the wall. They hastily demolished the wall.Nineties have witnessed unprecedented influx of foreigners into India prominent being Michael Jackson, Coca Cola and AK-47 but then that is another story.

Of pub culture, moral policing and Hinduism

2009-02-02T10:23:00.008+05:30

Not long back Mumbai and entire nation was shocked by barbaric attack on its commercial capital. Public memory in India is very short lived like chimpanzees. And in stead of rapting on world’s and nation’s worst foe- terrorism, the so called well wishers of Hindu religion and in name of protecting its culture, Ram sena are bashing and banging the youth. Biggest shame is that it’s done in by the party who bears the name of Hindu deity.

What is the great idea in attacking defenseless women who are adults for sipping wine? If this does not suit Indian culture does beating and molesting women suit Indian culture?
Calling them prostitutes and abusing just because they were in the pub partying - are we in a Taliban country or is Mangalore 200 years back in civilization?

Who have given these road side rogues the right for moral policing. Do they know anything about morality.BJP should distance themselves from these outfits and condemn those paragons of virtue , book these guys under criminal sections and be severe in punishing. This is an unpardonable atrocity on freedom guaranteed by the constitution.
Who have given them rights to take law in their hands? Who made them armament of a religious conviction? Who let these dogs out?
Lord Rama was that you?

Know what constitution says:
In several incidents of moral policing by groups in Dakshina Kannada district, the couples have been dragged to the police station by its members who accuse them of indulging in morally unacceptable behavior. In five such cases that have been registered by city stations (Mangalore East, Mangalore South and Bantwal Town police stations) in the last two months, cases have been filed against the couples under Section 92 (O) of the Karnataka Police Act, 1963.

The section describes the offence thus:
When a person, “willfully and indecently exposes his person, uses indecent language or behavior indecently or riotously or in disorderly manner in a street or place of public resort (place) or in any public offence.”

In police parlance, cases booked under this section are referred to as “petty offences” where the offender is let off after being made to pay a nominal fine. Under this section for merely being in love is a violation of the basic spirit of democracy. “In fact, the groups that are attempting to enforce these moral codes should be booked,”
A Chennai high court senior advocate says that section 92 (O) is “highly ambiguous” and “open to interpretation”. “
It places too much arbitrary power in the hands of the police. The meaning of the word ‘indecent’ can have umpteen interpretations. Anybody can be arrested under this section. "

Questions to be answered :-
Why state government is trying to protect hooligans?
Why the men and women who were thrown on road have not yet registerd the complained to police?
Why is police trying to weaken the case. ?
If we do not make this an example case and punish the people - it will send a message to these goondas that they can do anything and get away with it. ?
Will any of the above politicians will act when their own daughter is there?
Of course they will cry and go out. Just think these ladies who were kicked and thrashed as your own daughters and please act.
Why Dakshina Kannada district police have served a notice on the electronic media for their failure to inform the police about the attack. (It happens only in India - like a Bollywood movie they (police) always reach after the incident. And more so instead of owning and accepting their failure - they are blaming media)

Root cause of problem:
law is not strict enough?
Organizations like these because they see more benefit that what they will pay. The benefit from such moral policing is wide national publicity. And what they have to pay a possible arrest and a very short jail term. It’s important, therefore, to increase the punishment under law. In this case they should be charged under offenses which give them at lease few years of sentence - it will act as a deterrent for other such organizations in future. And in fact not only actual miscreants - their bosses should also be booked - who do not have guts of doing such acts themselves (and mislead youths and send them for such acts). Rigorous prosecution, conviction and punishment will only desist people from such anti-social behavior in future.

WORD OF CAUTION:
I never shore up any one taking law in their hand in the name of protecting a religion but at the same time we should also reflect that it will take time before we move from a socially conservative thinking to a complete modern one and more than this the femine gender should know that they are still vulnerable to crime most, so they should utilize the rights of the citizen given by constitution in a way that they don’t land in trouble. As long as they understand this and their errands, it should be fine.

Gaza: Where is Humanity?

2009-01-29T15:18:00.005+05:30

Pic: BBC online
Up until the second week of the war more than 750 Palestinians were killed and thousands injured. This is the highest Palestinian toll in four decades of occupation, and the figure is expected to be much bigger when a ceasefire is finally called. The few hospitals in Gaza, already under strain on account of the blockade, have not been able to cope with the tragedy. Israeli helicopter gunships have gone to the extent of targeting ambulances carrying the injured. Ehab Mahbub, a Palestinian doctor, was killed when his ambulance was hit by an Israeli missile. The appeals for blood are getting more and more desperate.

Karen Abu Zayed, the Commissioner for the U.N. Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), said the need for aid “has never been so acute”. The media, both Israeli and international, have been kept out of Gaza despite an Israeli Supreme Court directive to the government to allow the media to cover the unfolding human catastrophe. The United States and other Western countries, which otherwise are great votaries of free media, have not been complaining too much about this.
“Disastrous” situation
Before the invasion, a spokesman for the UNRWA described the humanitarian situation in Gaza as “disastrous” and said the agency was unable to get medical supplies into Gaza for more than a year because of Israel’s blockade of the border crossings.

In 2008, the Israeli Supreme Court, behaving as an appendage of the state, ruled that the government was authorised to limit the supply of electricity, petrol and diesel to Gaza since these “diminished quantities sufficiently meet humanitarian needs”. The Supreme Court also sanctioned collective punishment for the hapless people almost a year ago. Collective punishment is prohibited under international law. “If the residents of the Gaza Strip deserve to be punished because of the Qassam rockets, then maybe all Israelis need to be punished because of the occupation,” prominent Israeli commentator Gideon Levy wrote in a recent article. The Jewish state, with the tacit support of sections of the Palestinian Authority and neighbouring Arab states, tried first to starve Gazans into submission. They had hoped that the population would rise in revolt and throw out the Hamas-led government. When that blueprint did not materialise, Israel prepared for a military assault to get rid of Hamas and other militant groups in Gaza. These are the only groups that are keeping the flag of resistance still flying in the occupied territories. A senior Israeli army officer told The New York Times that the purpose of the invasion was to “make Hamas either lose their will or lose their weapons”.

The U.N. has also not covered itself in glory as Israel keeps on violating all established international norms with impunity. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon has not explicitly condemned the targeting of civilian neighbourhoods. The Security Council has failed even to come out with a statement mildly censoring Israel. Instead, the U.N. has played into Israel’s hands by calling for “restraint” on both sides. In doing so, it has put Israel, which has the most powerful army in the region, and the Hamas militia, which operates under the jackboot of the occupation, on the same footing.

As Hannan Ashrawi, Palestinian political activist and member of the Palestinian Liberation Organisation, (PLO) said, the international community should have realised a long time ago that it is the Israeli occupation and the continuous brutalisation of Palestinians that is the root cause of the conflict. In the past seven years, more than 5,000 Palestinians have been killed by the Israeli army. The Israeli toll during the same period was 14 civilians, killed mainly by rocket fire. On the first day of the Israeli “death from above” campaign, more than 300 Palestinian civilians were killed. The Israeli army announced that it had dropped 100 tonnes of bombs in the first nine hours of the operation.

MASSIVE VIOLATION
Professor Richard Falk, the U.N. rapporteur to the occupied territories, said in the first week of January that the Israeli attack on Gaza represented a severe and massive violation of international humanitarian law as defined by the Geneva Conventions regarding the obligations of an occupying power and the requirements of the laws of war.

The eminent American expert on international law also noted that Israel had ignored recent Hamas initiatives to re-establish the military truce after it expired on December 26. According to Falk, the Israeli military invasion and the catastrophic human toll it has caused “challenge those countries that have been and remain complicit, either directly or indirectly, in Israel’s violation of international law”.

This complicity, said Falk, extended to those countries knowingly providing military equipment for these illegal attacks. The U.S. is no doubt the main provider of arms for the Zionist state, but some other countries, such as India, are also filling its coffers, helping it to spread terror in the region. Israel is all set to supplant Russia as the biggest supplier of arms to India. In November, just as Israel was getting ready to invade Gaza, a high-level Indian delegation was in Tel Aviv to firm up multi-billion-dollar defence contracts. It is well known that Mossad and the Israeli state-controlled armaments industry have a big stake in all these defence deals.

The Communist Party of India (Marxist) and other Left parties have appealed to the Indian government to at least snap defence links with Israel in the wake of the Gaza invasion. President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela has shown the way to world leaders by expelling Israel’s Ambassador to his country. In a televised address, he compared Israel’s invasion of Gaza to the “holocaust” against Jews during the Second World War. He said the President of Israel and the President of the U.S. should be taken together to the International Criminal Court. “How sad that Israel continues to act as the assassin’s arm of the Yankee Empire,” Chavez said.

After flattening Gaza with bombs and missiles fired from their planes and helicopter gunships, Israel sent its elite troops, backed by heavy armour, into the territory. It dropped 1,000-kg bombs to flatten entire neighbourhoods and to prepare the ground for the advance of its troops.

Ceasefire efforts
After the attack on the U.N. school building, the efforts to bring about a ceasefire have intensified. A joint French-Egyptian initiative, which calls on Israel to withdraw and Hamas to stop firing rockets, has been supported by the U.S. in the U.N. Security Council. United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has, however, not called for a halt to the Israeli military operations even after the wilful targeting of the U.N. school. Both Israeli and Hamas leaderships have said they are studying the French-Egyptian proposals seriously.

The Israeli government announced on January 7 that the military would stop shooting for three hours every day to allow essential humanitarian supplies into Gaza. But the Israeli army also stated that it would respond immediately to any provocations. As of the second week of January, the Israeli establishment has indicated that it wants to continue the military offensive despite demands from the international community for an immediate ceasefire. Meanwhile, the defiant Hamas rocket-fire continues, underlining the fact that the Israeli war machine has not been able to achieve its stated goal of disarming Hamas fighters so far.

Herbal Chicken

2009-01-28T19:12:00.002+05:30

Once upon a time, not long ago, we were made to learn by heart at least one essay in school. Often it used to be - India, an agriculture based nation (Krishi Pradhan Desh). Among other things, the essay used to contain exaggerated description of great mountain range, social tolerance, cultural integration and the holy rivers of India. Our glorious past was pressed in service any where and everywhere. We were like that unworthy nephew of a worthy uncle who flauntingly name dropped his uncle on every occasion.

Initially, obliquely in a hushed tone with jest and later with much solemnity it was proclaimed that India, actually, is a chair (read power) based nation (Kursi Pradhan Desh). The game of musical chair, vying for better and higher chair became so aggressive, people won't let the chair, once occupied, come what may, slip away from their posteriors. They applied variety of glue, Fevicol, Ereldite and what have you so that chair and they could become as inseparable as Siamese twins. They were so much smitten by their love for chair, they simply refused to die without one.

Necessity is mother of invention, hence, we invented hundreds of corporate bodies, development authorities corporations, societies and committees whose term was never enough to complete the assigned task. Chairperson always outgrows the commission to head yet another commission. A new class of politicians and administrators emerged who moved freely heading committee after committee with professional ease.

During seventies, there was a massive import (smuggling) of Disco-mania into India. Disco culture penetrated deep in us through whatever opening it could find. Masses also enjoyed disco-music, disco restaurants. Small towns and even country side had their share of Swadeshi disco through items such as disco bindi, disco bangles, disco shoes, disco slippers disco goggles, disco cigarettes and disco coach (Bombay to Goa). Sizzling seventies gave us two more turning points, film Bobby and bell-bottom but that is another story.

Exciting eighties brought revolution in two main areas transportation and packaging. Vehicles which had a waiting period of around ten years and mere booking them added sufficient snob value to your status, were now available off the shelf but there were no takers. Sheer variety of two wheelers more than succeeded in confusing the prospective buyers. Thanks to Japanese, they smiled, we cried, while paying the overdue installments.

In recent times no concept has gone deeper in our day to day life than that of packaging. From Sambhar (of Dosa fame) to milk, whisky, salted water (Gol-Gappa kind) ghee, oil you name it and it is available in poly packs. Our value system too got packaged in keeping with the times. Our, hitherto, solemn events such as marriage celebrations and obituary references came out with vulgar openness. Newspapers carry fancy ads for brides and grooms. The day is not far off when we will have M.Rs…. Marriage Representatives who will campaign door to door in their bid to bring together slim, fair, convent educated brides and tall, dark handsome green card holder computer engineers.

Naughty nineties saw en mass shift of beauty parlors from Connaught Place to backyard/barsati of Babu colonies. Indians have a rich tradition of decorating themselves (especially ladies). Thus, these parlors offered manicure, pedicure, oils, creams, face packs, lipo-suction, facelifts and cosmetic surgery of infinite variety. Howsoever good skin you possessed so far, beauty parlors found fault with it and promised to transform you in as beautiful as the current reigning cine actor/actress. No sooner this field got into cut throat competition, many a times, literally, thanks to cupid. Finding no other way out people went back to ancient Indian culture. Whenever you are confused and you find no answers … go back to ancient Indian culture. One is sure to find seemingly simplistic solution/solace from your present ills, which any way are largely of your own making. Thus, cut throat competition led to people's search for herbs.

A new slogan was coined - Be Indian Buy Indian. In our bid to buy Indian we went a little too far and ended up shopping politicians, bureaucrats, bridegrooms and discovered to our pleasant amazement that this poor lot was ever so eager to be bought. Our search to find something unique took us to so far little known hazy world of herbs. We were quick to realize that anything herbal would stand out among the 136 types of shampoos and 256 types of toilet soaps currently in the market. Hence, we have herbal with H capital in our household. Herbal tooth paste, herbal Kajal, herbal powder, herbal cream, herbal soap, herbal oil etc. Today you can sell soil of your kitchen garden in the name of herbal provided you know the art of packaging and marketing.

The latest is that hens have decided to lay Veggie eggs so that vegetarians also could savor without having to bother about guilt and religious sentiments. Hens also would be absolved of the charge of favoritism of catering to non-veg only). Subsequently, latest proposal is to launch a herbal chicken. You may wonder chicken and herbal, strange combination. Let me clarify a chicken which has rich Indian herbs as feed will have to be called a herbal chicken - no cheating this. If you can have desi chicken, broiler chicken why not herbal chicken. Next time you go shopping, insist for a herbal chicken and don't be surprised if you are actually offered one too.

Outsourcing here also

2009-01-27T17:04:00.003+05:30

On the morning of New Year’s Eve, while I was loafing on Main Street, I meet an old friend of mine.

“Hi!” I say.
“Hi,” he says, “where to?”
“Aimless loitering,” I say, “And you?”
My Friend Ankit: “I’m going to work.”
Me: “Work? This early? I thought your shift starts in the evening, or late at night. You work at a call center don’t you?”
Ankit: “Not now. I quit. I’m on my own now.”
Me: “On your own? What do you do?”
Ankit:“LPO.”
Me: “LPO? What’s that?”
Ankit: “Life Process Outsourcing.”
Me: “Life Process Outsourcing? Never heard of it!”
Ankit:“You’ve heard of Business Process Outsourcing, haven’t you?”
Me: “BPO? Outsourcing non-core business activities and functions.”
Ankit: “Precisely. LPO is similar to BPO. There it’s Business Processes which are outsourced, here it’s Life Processes.”
Me: “Life Processes? Outsourced?”
Ankit: “Why don’t you come along with me? I’ll show you.”

Soon we are in his office. It looks like a mini call center.

A young attractive girl welcomes us. “Meet Rita, my Manager,” my friend says, and introduces us.
Rita looks distraught, and says to my friend, “ I’m not feeling well. Must be viral fever.”
“No problem. My friend here will stand in.”
“What? I don’t have a clue about all this LPO thing!” I protest.
“There’s nothing like learning on thejob! Rita will show you.”
“It’s simple,” Rita says, in a hurry. “Seethe console. You just press the appropriate switch and route the call to the appropriate person or agency.” And with these words she disappears.
It’s the shortest training I have ever had in my life.

And so I plunge into the world of Life Process Outsourcing; or LPO as they call it.

It’s all very simple. Working people don’t seem to have time these days, but they have lots of money; especially those double income couples, IT nerds, MBA hot shots, finance wizards; just about everybody in the modern rat race.

‘Non-core Life Activities’, for which they neither have the inclination or the time – outsource them; so you can maximize your work-time to rake in the money and make a fast climb up the ladder of success.

“My niece daughter in her school. They want someone to pick her up and take her home. I’m busy in a shoot and just can’t leave,” a creative ad agency type says.
“Why don’t you tell your husband?” I say.
“Are you crazy or something. I’m a single mother.”
“Sorry ma’am. I didn’t know. My condolences.”
“Condolences? Who’s this? Is this LPO?”

“Yes ma’am,” I say, press the button marked ‘children’ and transfer the call, hoping I have made the right choice. Maybe I should have pressed ‘doctor’. Nothing happens for the next few moments. I breathe a sigh of relief.

A yuppie wants his grandmother to be taken to a movie. I press the ‘movies’ button. ‘Movies’ transfers the call back, “Hey, this is for movie tickets; try ‘escort services’. He wants the old hag escorted to the movies.”

‘Escort Services’ are in high demand. These guys and girls, slogging in their offices minting money, want escort services for their kith and kin for various non-core family processes like shopping, movies, eating out, sight seeing, marriages, funerals, all types of functions; even going to art galleries, book fairs, exhibitions, zoos, museums or even a walk in the nearby garden.

A father wants someone to read bedtime stories to his small son while he works late. A busy couple wants proxy stand-in ‘parents’ at the school PTA meeting. An investment banker rings up from Singapore; he wants his mother to be taken to pray in a temple at a certain time on a specific day. Someone wants his kids to be taken for a swim, brunch, a play and browsing books and music.

An IT project manager wants someone to motivate and pep-talk her husband, who’s been recently sacked, and is cribbing away at home demoralized. He desperately needs someone to talk to, unburden himself, but the wife is busy – she neither has the time nor the inclination to take a few days off to boost the morale of her depressed husband when there are deadlines to be met at work and so much is at stake.

The things they want outsourced range from the mundane to the bizarre; life processes that one earlier enjoyed and took pride in doing or did as one’s sacred duty are considered ‘non-core life activities’ now-a-days by these highfalutin people.

At the end of the day I feel illuminated on this novel concept of Life Process Outsourcing, and I am about to leave, when suddenly a call comes in.

“LPO?” a man asks softly.
“Yes, this is LPO. May I help you?” I say.
“I’m speaking from Frankfurt Airport. I really don’t know if I can ask this?” he says nervously.
“Please go ahead and feel free to ask anything you desire, Sir. We do everything.”
“Everything?”

“Yes, Sir. Anything and everything!” I say.

“I don’t know how to say this. This is the first time I’m asking. You see, I am working 24/7 on an important project for the last few months. I’m globetrotting abroad and can’t make it there. Can you please arrange for someone suitable to take my wife out to the New Year’s Eve Dance?”

I am taken aback but quickly recover, Yes, Sir.”
Please send someone really good, an excellent dancer, and make sure she enjoys and has a good time. She loves dancing and I just haven’t had the time.”
“Of course, Sir.I said to him
And I told you – I’ve been away abroad for quite some time now and I’ve got to stay out here till I complete the project.” he says
“I know. Work takes top priority.” I say
“My wife friend. She’s been lonely. She desperately needs some love. Do you have someone with a loving and caring nature who can give her some love? I just don’t have the time. You understand what I’m saying, don’t you?” he says

I let the words sink in. This is one call I am not going to transfer. “Please give me the details, Sir,” I say softly into the mike.

As I walk towards my destination with a spring in my step, I feel truly enlightened. Till this moment, I never knew that love was a non-core life process worthy of outsourcing.

Long Live Life Process Outsourcing!

My dates with Dentist

2009-01-25T19:17:00.003+05:30

I had just stepped into a dentist office and I read this inspiring quote ‘To extract is human but to restore is divine’.

That sums up the dreary dictum of dentists. Have we ever come back from a dentist hearing good news about our teeth? No! It’s always bad news. Dentistry means drilling, filling and billing.
Everyone dreads a dentist’s chair. It is the second worst fear after public speaking. My dates with dentists date back to my childhood. I was just eight and was sitting on that dentist’s chair and he said sweetly, ‘Hi son, open your mouth, Let me see if you have fine teeth.’
And I opened – ‘AAAHHHHH!’
He started examining my teeth and suddenly I bit his fingers.
He was screaming in pain. My father rushed in and asked, ‘Why did you do it my son?’
I just pointed to the name board–‘Dr Ghazanfar, Painless Dentist’.

I had just a cavity in my molar tooth. He made a mountain out that molar inventing four more. He then asked my father what kind of filling he should use. Hearing it,

I snapped back- ‘Chocolate or Ice cream filling please!’ On my next date, he informed my father that a tooth needed extraction.

My father asked, ‘What is the fee doctor?’

He said ‘Fifty rupees.’

My penny-pinching father made a bargain note- ‘Doctor, Fifty rupees for just five minutes of job!’

The dentist retorted dauntlessly, ‘I can extract slowly, if you want’.

When I was 20, I had my first root canal treatment. The dentist kept on digging and digging and finally the canal became as wide as the Suez Canal. He then said I needed a bridge to fill the gap. I felt like telling I cannot pay the toll.

Fed up, I enquired him- ‘Doctor, don’t you get tired of spending the whole day with your hands in my mouth?’

He said, ‘No, my son, I just think that I am putting my hands in your wallet’.

I then realized that all dentists lead a hand-to- mouth existence. A dentist is like a magician who, having put metal in your mouth pulls coins from your pocket.

Recently I took my girl friend to a dentist.
While she was getting ready to leave, I told her the story of a couple who went to meet a dentist. When the couple reached the dentist's office,
the man who was in a big hurry told the dentist: ‘Doctor, no fancy stuff! No painkillers please! Just pull the tooth and get it over with!’

The dentist looked at him admiringly and said, ‘ I wish all my patients had your courage. Good! Now, show me your tooth’.

The man suddenly turned to his wife, ‘Honey, show your tooth’.

Well, I reassured my wary girlfriend that it would be a painless one.

My girlfriend sat on the chair and the dentist started examining her teeth. Suddenly my friend uttered a huge cry.

Surprised, the doctor remarked ‘Madam, I have not started drilling yet’. ‘
Doctor, you are standing on my feet’, my friend screamed back.
‘Oops!’ he apologized and continued his examination. Suddenly he made a diagnostic shriek ‘Caries! Caries!’
Confused, my friend responded shyly ‘No, I am not carrying doctor’. ‘I meant dental caries!’ clarified the dentist.
I felt concerned about the examination and asked him ‘Do you extract tooth painlessly?’

He looked at me and said, ‘Not always, the other day I nearly dislocated my wrist pulling a tooth’.
At last, he pulled out her tooth without getting on her nerves further.
When I saw the bill I was shocked, as he had charged 400 Rupees. I confronted him- ‘Doctor, this is four times your normal fee for a tooth extraction’.
The dentist explained, ‘Yes, I know. But her scream scared away four patients from my waiting room’.

No wonder dentists are driven to extortion… I mean extraction. When a dentist makes an extraction, you hope he pulls the tooth, the whole tooth and nothing but the tooth. If it is wrong, it is ‘acci-dental’. If it is right, it is ‘inci-dental’.
Incidentally my father had all his teeth extracted when he was seventy. A week later I asked him, ‘Papa, how do you feel after extracting all your teeth?’
He said ‘Terrible my son, terrible! I will never do it again’.
Last month, I had my final sitting with my dentist.
He was examining my molar teeth and said, ‘My God, It is a big cavity! It is a big cavity!’. Annoyed, I told him ‘You don’t have to repeat it’.
He said, ‘I didn’t repeat it. It was an echo coming from there!’
Unaware of my many dates with dentists, my friend Waheed poked into my mouth last week and said ‘Hey PGR, you have very fine teeth!.
I said, ‘They are all mine, I have the bills from Al Mana hospital.’
I have now decided to distance myself from dentists to avoid getting bored to tears and filled with fillers.

If I have yellow teeth, I just wear a brown tie to give me an ‘occi-dental’ touch or just practice ‘tras-dental’ medication.

पता नहीं अब कब रोऊँगा अगली बार

2009-01-25T19:11:00.003+05:30

स्वाद चखा कल आँसू का जब बरसों बाद।
आया समन्दर का खारापन मुझको याद।।
दिल का दर्द पिघलकर बाहर आया था;
बहने दिया मैंने भी खुलकर बरसों बाद।

बहुत ज़रूरी है जीवन में रोना भी;
सीखा यारों मैंने जाकर ये बरसों बाद।
अश्कों ने धो डाला दिल के घावों को;
आज मिली कुछ राहत मुझको बरसों बाद।

वैसे तो रोना फितरत है हसीनों की;
सीख लो उनसे ये गर रहना है आबाद।
पता नहीं अब कब रोऊँगा अगली बार;
शायद बहेगा मन का नमक फिर बरसों बाद।

जो पल बीते साथ तुम्हारे

2009-01-23T14:39:00.004+05:30

रिश्ते टूटे बंधन टूटे सजने वाले दर्पण टूटे
सब कुछ तोड़ के बेशक जाना लेकिन पहले यह तो बताना
जो पल बीते साथ तुम्हारे उनसे पीछा कैसे छूटे

हॅस्ते हुए रहते थे हम, रोते हुए जीने लगे
खुशिया हुई मन से विदा, गम में तेरे मरने लगे

लोग करेंगे क्या क्या बातें, याद हैं सावन की बरसातें
जो पल भीगे साथ तुम्हारे, उनसे पीछा कैसे छूटे

कहती हैं शाम यह क्या हुआ नगमा कोई गाते नही
गुलशन ने भी पूछा मुझसे अब तुम दोनो आते नही

मुश्किल हैं कितना यह समझाना, टूटे दिल का दर्द छुपाना
जो पल महके साथ तुम्हारे उनकी खुश्बू कैसे छूटे

रिश्ते टूटे बंधन टूटे सजने वाले दर्पण टूटे

Divorce: Concluding Part (Doomsday conspiracy)

2009-01-23T07:19:00.019+05:30

Thanks again to all readers for some good positive response and suggestions. This is fourth and last part of this series, i have tried my best so hope you find it good. Happy Reading.
SCENE I :THE MOMENT ARRIVES
The city of Nagpur was retiring for the night, as sun set and gave way to darkness, street lamps glow and people throng back to their home after another working day comes to an end. Traffic was like any other customary day, packed with daily commuters as bus, cars, two-wheelers try to move ahead in normal moving traffic.
It was not usual evening in the life of Neha as she drove back home after long day work at office. She was full of excitement after day of work. She couldn’t stop smiling as she sang sitting in her black Honda City, life will never be same again for her. The moment for which she waited for years was finally here, she wanted to be with some one close to her. No one was closer to her than Rajeev, she wanted to join him at house as soon as possible, she wanted to fly, and she wanted to hug her hubby today. She was happy and lost in her thought, thinking that things will change from here on. She can see their martial life back on track. She was feeling the baby in side her womb, the feeling of mother hood, the best feeling a woman can have, a moment that every women waits, its re birth for them. It’s something very special which no writer or poet can describe neither any man can understand.

Motherhood is priced of God, at price no man may dare to lessen or misunderstand. We know that birth takes a woman from one place in her life to another. The birth of a child certainly does change her viewpoint of herself and I believe her viewpoint of the world. The fact that all woman are trained to be mothers from infancy on means that they are all trained to devote our lives to men, whether they are their sons or not; that we are all trained to force other women to exemplify the lack of qualities which characterizes the cultural construct of femininity.

She reaches home but finds room locked, so opens the door sits on sofa, thinks something, open her bag and see the medical report which doctor gave her today, she is excited to know that she is six weeks pregnant, she wanted to convey the message to Rajeev, thinks of calling him but then aborts the idea. She wanted to hug him and feel the excitement in his eyes, she waited.

Its 9pm, and the door bell rings. She rushes to gate and opens it in split of second, its Rajeev. She hugs him, she holds him tight, and Rajeev hardly had any clue on why she is doing so. He is amused. “What happened so excited and happy today” Rajeev asks her putting his hand on her back as she still holds her tight.
“Guess what it can be?” she now puts his head on his chest still clutching her tight with her hand.
“Promotion?” he says
“No” she moves and puts her hand on her neck and makes very affectionate eye contact
“Then?” Rajeev asks again.
“You would be soon be a father” she whispers in his ears and tickles it with her nose.
Rajeev is very happy, he is excited to know this, he puts up in his arms, looks at her and kisses on her forehead” aah!! I am so happy, when u came to know?”
To day while returning from office I had scheduled visit to doctor and she gave me this news” she says till swinging in his arms
“And you didn’t called me, that’s not fair” he says smiling at her
“If I would have called you then how I would have seen your eyes filled with happiness, and how I would be in your arms” she says looking towards him.

Love was back in their life, conjectures how much a couple get nearer once they become parents, and they start adoring and caring more. It was same here. If not physical love then pure love filled Neha’s heart as she conversed to Rajeev, showing him the medical reports. Both were joyful. Rajeev decides to cook for her today as he enters the kitchen having very less hint about the things inside it. He still searches for it as Neha helps her out; both talk and make some food for themselves. They finish up cooking and after long time Rajeev feeds her with his hand and Neha is in tears again, this time out of delight,
seeing this Rajeev hugs her and says “ I know we waited for this moment for three years now, I am glad deity blessed us”
Neha says” yes, thanks to almighty”

Both finish food and sit and talk as cheerfulness and love re enters the house once again. Finally they had reason to be happy and something to look forward. Neha was no less in terms of beauty than Puja, she looked good and today even better as happiness inside the heart was glowing on her face, making her look even more gorgeous. She is putting a black salwaar kameez which nicely compliments her fair skin and long curly hair.

She lies on his lap as they after long time feel the urge to make love. She pulls him closer to her and holds him tight and kisses her with love as Rajeev gets lost in it. Soon they get lost in each other as peace, happiness and charm returned back to this house.

SCENE II DESPERATE MEASURES
Its moderate size cabin, as few files a desk top PC, a lap top, few files and a table calendar lies by the side of a pen holder. A picture of Mahatma Gandhi hangs on the wall behind the chair over looking Rajeev. He has been working in this office for last 6 years now as a Superintending Engineer and was more or less content with its work load and payment which company offered to him.
He is lost in his work as his mobile rings. Its Puja’s call and he receives it “I want to meet you now” puja says almost shouting on him
“I have some work, anything urgent” he enquires
“Yes, see me in 30 minutes at my home” she orders and replaces the phone.

Rajeev had no other option as he moves to parking lot takes his black TATA Safari and moves to her house. As he enters the house Puja is waiting for her. Rajeev enquires on what was the reason for such call. She says: “what you thought, you will play with me and as that bitch becomes mother you can leave me, if u has forgotten I divorced Abhisekh because of you, don’t you remember, you dare not think of leaving me”
Rajeev sits beside her and says: “what made you think so that I will leave you, have I ever said this to you?”
Puja: “don’t even dare to do so, I love you and can’t live without you” as she cuddles him
“I know” Rajeev says mildly as bewilderment now occupies his mind.
“So what’s our next move, it’s impossible that now she divorces you, what to do now?” puja asks restlessly
“I will try to get rid of her, let me see what we can do?” says Rajeev as he moves away from her looking out from window and watches kids playing in the adjoining park, he pulls out cigarette from his pocket and starts smoking, showing enough signs of being tensed, he now had no clue what to do next, he thinks that now that Neha is going to be a mother and he a father, how he can leave her at this crucial juncture?
Puja moves towards him and stand along side him and says “even I have kids and had husband but I divorced him, didn’t I?”
Rajeev taking another puff and says “hmm”

They talk for some time and its noon by then; both sit and plan something, as Rajeev meekly agrees to whatever she says. They had some plan in mind which Rajeev was ready to execute before Neha pregnancy report came but now it was tuff for him, it was very tuff leaving Neha now. As he realizes that he did a blunder, but now it’s too late, he is stuck between hard surface and rock.

Puja on other hand tries to convince him that time has come to execute their plan. She had cunning of fox. By virtue of which she got rid of her ex-husband and took huge compensation amount, as Abhisekh left her she now has Rajeev with her. She can easily do same to Rajeev as she what she did to Abhisekh. Rajeev can do the same to Puja as he did to her better half Neha. Its all mind game from here who so ever decides what is good for it, will come out of this trap. It’s not easy, it’s going to be tuff for both of them, they sit as stress and tension is evident on their face.

The room which was once occupied by love, romance, giggles and laughter presented a deadly look as smokes of cigarette and silence returns accompanied by lots of stress and strain. Finally they agree on some thing and now its just matter of time before they execute their plan. A plan that will decide how both move from here on, A plan which will decide whose love is powerful, A plan which would prove out to be mother of all conspiracies, DOOMSDAY CONSPIRACY…..

In fact, one thing that I have noticed . . . is that all of these conspiracy theories depend on the perpetrators being endlessly clever. I think you'll find the facts also work if you assume everyone is endlessly stupid.

SCENE III LOTS HAPPENING IN HERE
It’s a home where bliss has returned after long time, the home which looked bleak once was bursting with joy; Neha was cheerful, a lot. She altered the look of the house, adorned it differently, altered the curtains, furniture and the interiors of the house, a large picture of a kid hangs on the wall as she looks towards, probably hoping that her baby looks like poster kid, she get lost in her thought again, Rajeev has been caring more for her since they heard the good news. Life seemed to be getting back on track as she was happy that Rajeev loves and cares for him now, Puja was last thing on her mind.

The art of living does not consist in preserving and clinging to a particular mode of happiness, but in allowing happiness to change its form without being disappointed by the change; happiness, like a child, must be allowed to grow up. All of us have had the experience of a sudden joy that came when nothing in the world had forewarned us of its coming - a joy so thrilling that if it was born of misery we remembered even the misery with tenderness. She waits for him to arrive as she has taken leave from office to change the look of the house.

Its 7pm and Rajeev is back home, yes he is back on time. He is surprised to see the interiors of the house being changed with in day. He looks here and there and says “Is it our house? You changed so many things, it’s looking much better, and the picture of the baby is so nice!”

Neha is full of joy to hear lovely words from her better half” you liked it” she enquires

“Yes, it’s looking beautiful like you” he hugs her
Neha: “oh am glad that you liked it”
“Where is kitchen, its there only or you shifted it to some where else?” Rajeev says as he smiles
“No, just changed bed room and drawing room” she says
“Oh bed room also? Let me see” Rajeev says as he moves towards bed room He is again surprised to se the beautiful changes in their house: “oh you beauty!! thats good work my sweet heart! I am glad!”
Neha” sure?”
Rajeev “damnn sure!!”

Happiness can bring positive changes in our life; this was evident from Neha’s face and their house now. When you have once seen the glow of happiness on the face of a beloved person, you know that a man can have no vocation but to awaken that light on the faces surrounding him; and you are torn by the thought of the unhappiness and night you cast, by the mere fact of living, in the hearts you encounter. We humans are social beings. We come into the world as the result of others' actions.

We survive here in dependence on others. Whether we like it or not, there is hardly a moment of our lives when we do not benefit from others' activities. For this reason it is hardly surprising that most of our happiness arises in the context of our relationships with others.
Happiness cannot come from without. It must come from within. It is not what we see and touch or that which others do for us which makes us happy; it is that which we think and feel and do, first for the other fellow and then for ourselves. The truth is that our finest moments are most likely to occur when we are feeling deeply uncomfortable, unhappy, or unfulfilled. For it is only in such moments, propelled by our discomfort, that we are likely to step out of our ruts and start searching for different ways or truer answers.

They both sit and converse in their changed look of the room, the curtain is now of light pink with lots of small blue flowers on it, the light lamp has changed, the new one looks more elegant and attracting with blue light illuminating from it, the picture on the wall has also been changed and now a picture of a mother holding her baby hangs and looms large on the room,.

Neha never looked so striking and cheerful and she had every rationale to be joyful. She is putting on a lower with Black T shirt as Rajeev lies on her lap doting her charming beauty, both found the vanished and much needed love, Neha’s hair falls on his face as she sits and Rajeev lies on her legs, Neha wants to have some chocolate so Rajeev gets up and gets some from kitchen as they take some liquid chocolate with strawberry, he feeds stawberry dipped in liquid chocolate, he puts some on her nose and chicks and kisses her after that, soon Neha forgets that she was hungry & wanted to have chocolate and gets lost in him holding him tight in her arms and sits on his leg as Rajeev back faces the wall, she holds her closer to him, probably tying to get the feeling which she missed so much all these days.

He kisses her and soon she is in his arms as both have some great moments together. Soon love and romance engulfs the room as they continue making love, Rajeev is kissing her on the back as she gets tickled and giggles, turns her face towards him brings him further close to herself and allows him to do what ever he wants. She holds him tight and moves her soft fingers on his back. The love and care has this meaning also, Neha reminds herself.

After few moments Rajeev is on her belly, keeping his eyes closed as Neha looks towards him and asks “U slept off?”
Rajeev opens his eyes and bites her belly delicately and says “no am trying to snoop and know what my little genius is doing inside” and kisses her belly and moves his lips and hands over it.
Neha putting her hand on Rajeev’s hand and pulls him towards her and holds him closer to her neck and says “let him rest, you come here my little brat”
He rubs his nose to that of hers and bites her neck as they laugh and enjoy some precious moments of their life.

Life seems to be back to normal but for how long?
A couple should be a lovers first as lovers are careless. They are not bothered with the demands of the world. All the cares dissolve down into the substance of the lover. The entire universe gets secreted into the being of that person. Nothing seems important other than the lover. The hustle-bustle of the larger life ceases. All other significant relations - parents, siblings, friends, colleagues - are silenced; their existence reduced down to the melodious hum of the surrounding traffic that whirrs dreamily around the circumference of the garden. Everyone and everything is forgotten.

SCENE IV DOOMSDAY CONSPIRACY
It’s a well festooned bed room in suburbs of Nagpur as a tedious and fatal stillness occupies the house. Puja was feeling abandoned, as curtain flew touching her hair which was once played by Abhisekh & later by Rajeev. Physical adore and attractions doesn’t last for ever, true love accompanied by physical one surely does. It’s all about which one is your precedence, if someone prioritize the physical it got to be lost some time or other.

Loneliness is the most terrible poverty. Puja lies on bed and thinks “I need him back any how”. She had so many different personalities in her and she still feels lonely. The lonely become either thoughtful or empty. She has become empty. A hollow human, she sees herself in the mirror and can see a stranger in front of her, she finds hard to locate herself.

She sits and peeps out of window looking into the darkness of the city, city is sleeping as she wanders like a lonely soul in the house. Its 11pm, she tries watching TV switches it on but again gets lost in her thoughts, thinks of calling Rajeev but soon aborts the idea. She sits with hand on her head, makes coffee for herself as TV continues playing some song with no viewer. She takes coffee and goes to bed, tries sleeping but in vain.

By then its 12 am, she suddenly hears some sound in the kitchen and moves towards it, she comes back after analyzing kitchen and comes back, she couldn’t see the broken window pane and lies again. She sees a shadow moving towards her. Before she could understand & react it covers her face with a cloth soon she is unconscious, the shadow sits in front of her as she lies cataleptic on her bed, 'the stranger' in the house now acts fast, takes a big knife of her black over-coat, sits and thinks for a while and gazes at Puja, looks at heaven and chops her throat, her face was brutally attacked by knife several times, she was in pool of blood, the face which once attracted many, bored a dreaded look.

The shadow leaves the place as puja’s body lies un-attainted and blood covers the bed and drops of it covers the carpet, soon the color of blood changes from red to dark brown. Her hair is drenched in blood. It’s a murder committed by some one who loathed (hated) her most in this world.
NEXT MORNING: WHO WAS IT?
The house maid discovers that after constant banging Puja is not reacting she calls neighbors who in turn calls the police, police breaks the door and sees Puja’s dead body lies in pool of black blood and her face has gone dark blue and almost beyond recognition. Police takes body in their custody and collect the evidence and find that it’s well planned brutal murder.

There appears to be at least 2 rings, a watch and possibly a necklace. All are obviously feminine jewellery. The neighbor standing at the edge of the bed was staring in horrified silence, too stunned to speak. The scene that lay before them was grotesque, a primeval nightmare dredged up from some deep, dark depths of primitive man's collective unconscious. Each witness had a different reaction. One fainted. A second one vomited. A woman was shaking uncontrollably. Another one thought: I'm going to have a heart attack! The elderly catholic clutched his beads and crossed himself.

Later police calls Neha, Rajeev, Abhisekh, Neha’s parents, house maid and few neighbors to police station as interrogation goes on and there was lots of questions all have to face. After detailing what family, friends and the police know about the case The police have some clue but they haven’t concluded any thing as yet.

Rajeev and Neha are back in their house. They were terrorized by this atrocious slaughter; Neha can’t forget Puja’s dreaded face. She is restless so is Rajeev, they seem to be falling in some real problem. It’s been days now since police keep on calling them and many others to police station for cross-examination. Life has taken torrid turn. Its again back to stress and strain.

SCENE V MYSTERY UNFOLDS
The three obvious person they though could have committed the crime where :-
Rajeev: Because he now was back in love with his wife Neha and could have done that or get it done by some one as he wanted to get back into his family life.
Abhisekh: Because he was divorced away by Puja and he knew about the extra martial affair and has to pay huge amount as compensation money.
Neha: Because she was most jealous of her and as Puja ruined her life and moreover Neha tried once killing Puja and police knew about this incident during investigation. So neha remained prime suspect but police didn’t rules out other two or even any fourth. But they have to prove in court of law, which was not going to be easy as court of law goes by evidence
.
Police officer discus all these after days of inspection and cross questioning Neha sitting in interrogation room with some lady constable and a woman IPS officer, Shilpi Srivastav questions her, sitting by the side is SSP crime branch, IPS Khan and few other officers.

SP Shilpi to Neha: “Do you have a gun or a revolver, a German mauser?”
Neha is now three month pregnant and very stressed out for obvious reason “yes, buts in My Husband Rajeev Sehgal’s name”

SP Shipi:” and he has license?”

Neha:”yes”

SP Shipi: “ Where is it?”, neha shows her the license as she knew police now have discovered that she once pointed the gun towards Puja and this question will arise so she carried the license paper with her.

SP Shipi: “Did u ever use it to threaten any one, or did u even carried with you any time in your life?”

Neha: “yes”, listening this lady IPS officer shouts on her, “and don’t you know that’s a crime carrying a gun which is not licensed in your name”
She continues “you pointed out Rajeev Sehgal’s Mauser to him, isn’t it? Why you wanted to kill her, because she had an extra-martial affair with Rajeev Sehgal? Why you killed her and how?”

Listening this she bursts into tears and says as voice her chocked in her throat “ I did pointed out once but I haven’t killed her, I haven’t, trust me” she pleads in front of her.

Lots of questioning and cross examination continue for several hours. Police interrogation can be a nightmare they don’t spare any one, even though Neha was pregnant they continuously called her for questioning. Neha leaves for home with Rajeev after questioning completes.

Next day it was Rajeev turn
The statement of Rajeev indicates that the he believes that locking the door requires more than just shutting the door, i.e. turning a key or putting on a latch chain. In fact the door is self-locking, it locks on closing. The evidence doesn't suggest that the door wasn't closed, but that it wasn't locked. Yet other officer says the killer came through an unlocked door while one insists that someone let the killer in.
“Which scenario should we accept?” Says officer Khan, a senior one with lots of experiences in all these cases “If you provide enough different versions of course one will be correct.” Investigating officer Khan to Rajeev Rajeev later reiterates that the version Maid is telling them is correct and that the knife wasn’t recovered so police were yet to recover that.
Rajeev leaves the interrogation room as officer Khan and Godbole discuss the case

Now it’s Abhisekh in the interrogation room
“While saying that it wasn't a huge knife, the knife he indicates is most definitely a big knife. This ambiguous segment covers no matter how big the knife was. His actions indicate a big knife but words indicate one that isn't big. He is covering all possible options. The knife was either big or not big. How can he lose? If he (Rajeev) has murdered Puja.” Says another officer as they smoke out few puffs.

“The important thing that Abhisekh admits here is "I don't know..." If I said "I don't know whether Hitler owned a cat", it can't be claimed that I know something about Hitler and cats. I am professing ignorance” says khan as he calls abhisekh tomorrow again for further questioning.

As officers discuss that Rajeev and Neha are not disclosing about their relationships with puja. But when Rajeev does it with the phone house-maid turns it in to a positive statement. Also several examination the phone was seen lying on the floor, the receiver off the hook and covered in blood. There is no police evidence that the phone was used or cut off. In fact her ex-partner abhisekh said that his mother rang Puja and got no reply and assumed Puja had gone to bed (the phone call records suggested that puja did had missed call that night at 12:30 am, that is after she was killed).
Thus the landline phone was not off the hook as the production team showed in their completely bogus reenactment. Also the phone was evidently in the lounge and Puja was killed in the bed room. If she had attempted to use it after the killer left she would not have crawled badly injured back into the kitchen to die. She was dragged to kitchen or it was an attempt to mislead the police. How some one can gain consciousness after such a brutal murder, it’s impossible. There was no physical evidence that Puja left the bed room once the attack began. The stains of the blood covered phone are pure invention by the production team, designed to support Abhisekh’s statement. In a court of law this would be described as falsifying evidence in order to sway the jury. Officer Khan is omitting any violent struggle in bed room, as post mortem report suggested that she was made unconscious by using chloroform.

Yet forgets that the house has been extensively remodeled. There was a passage where he is standing and a wall has been removed to make the passage and lounge one room. Also the wall between the passage, lounge and kitchen has been removed. The wall displays were most probably not even there then. The struggle could not have happened as he described it. Also there was no evidence that the attack occurred anywhere but in the bed room. The senior officer was informed that they were investigating an unsolved murder. Investigating officers were able to reach some conclusion after one month of murder. They thoroughly examined the case and finally it seemed to be sorting out in the court of law.

The police have found that Abhsekh paid huge amount as compensation money and was aware of the extra-martial affair of Puja, also that the affair was physical in nature. Their kids were abandoned in boarding school as Abhisekh life turned into misery and Puja continued having some great time together. In fact before the pregnancy report of Neha, Rajeev and Puja have planned to get Rajeev divorce his wife puja on this very reason but once she was expecting the kid, they shifted to plan B which was killing Neha by a hired killer, but Rajeev was not in favor of this as he re discovered the lost love and charm in their life.

So puja was restless, she wanted to kill Neha anyhow even if that meant Rajeev is not part of it, she was about to execute this before that night when she herself was brutally murdered.

This is how it was all sorted out.
The investigating team found that she was attacked several times with knife even after she died, her face was cut several times with knife and this made evident that it was done by someone who hated her like hell. Police came to know that once neha tried to kill her with her licensed gun so the first finger pointed to wards neha and she had reason as Puja ruined her life, so police thoroughly examined it but couldn’t find any trace of Neha’s involvement in the case.
Next in line was Rajeev, as after Neha got pregnant, he started moving away from Puja and he re-discovered the love in Neha again so again investigating officer concluded that it can be Rajeev, he might not have done it himself but could have hired a professional killer. Neha could have done the same.

The day she was murdered, abhisekh entered the room, yes abhisekh, her ex-husband, he knew all the settings of the room and was probably only after Rajeev who knew all but everything about the house. He enter by kitchen, cutting the window pane slowly to avoid any noise, sound of TV helped his cause. But moment he enters a steel glass falls down and Puja comes to kitchen, he climbs to the upper shelf just above the wall which had door to avoid any contact with Puja He was almost caught but puja couldn’t see the broken window pane as it was not in front of door but adjoining the wall which had door.

He covers his face in case he is not able to execute it and needed to escape, he comes to bed room and sees puja lying and covers Puja’s face with chloroform soaked cloth, she is soon unconscious and this made his plan’s execution much easier. He then brutally murders her with knife which was later discovered by police on the way to his place as he threw it after cleaning it.
He washed his hand and wiped out finger prints but he committed one mistake he forget to recollect the cloth which he soaked in chloroform, as it lied under Puja’s back and police recovered it after the brutal murder. It was difficult to get finger print of the cloth as it was soaked in blood but although it took time the forensic team was able to disclose the finger prints and it matched with Abhisekh’s.

After days of court sittings abhisekh’s admits his crime as police had enough evidence for the same. So police proved abhisekhs involvement in the court of law and court sends him to life imprisonment.
6 MONTHS LATER
Neha gave birth to baby girl, as sweet and charming like her. Rajeev and Neha named her Pari, now they live with more love and care and slowly things settled down as life returned to normalcy
About the writer:
Who? me aah! Just another one in crowd, falling, getting up and moving on.

You don't deserve my tears

2009-01-22T08:13:00.000+05:30

For eight months I have waited
And held all my tears
But last night I let them flow
I never again wanted to cry for you
Because of what you did
You don't deserve my tears

Because of what you did
I Gave up
I find no hope in humanity
Because of what you did
I see no love in a heart
I look for the corruption
Because of what you did
I no longer care
I try not to feel
I try not to cry
You don't deserve my tears

Because of what you did
I lost the only thing that made me happy
You were what got me through each day
But because of what you did
I don't know what to do

All that is left is tears
Tears that have been waiting to fall
Waiting for me to break
Waiting for me to admit
That I miss your love
But you don't deserve me

Because of what you did
I am now lost
Alone without you or anybody else
You don't deserve my tears
But I still cry for you

Dating in Ruins

2009-01-22T06:55:00.003+05:30

This picture of two pigeons having some gr8 time was taken during my last visit to Qutub Minar, New Delhi, India

Divorce Part III (Southward movement)

2009-01-21T21:01:00.044+05:30

Thanks every one for your good response and constructive suggestions, this is third and penultimate part, sorry could not conclude in this part as it was getting longer. Hope you will comprehend. Happy reading folks.

SCENE I: LOVE & HATE
The life was never same again for Rajeev and Neha once Puja divorced from her husband Abhisekh. Its another Sunday morning in the life of Neha and Rajeev, its 6:30am in morning sun has just started showing its face to the people, there is absolute tranquil in the room as Neha sleeps with quilt on her, long curly hair of hers is all over the pillow and she looks stunning even while sleeping, three years into marriage she still looks college young at 26 years of age. Her face is half covered with coverlet as she rests on the bed. A glass of water lies on a table on the side of bed with a small night lamp and few magazines over it. Suddenly a bang sound wakes her up, she opens her eye, looks in amusement here and there, then realizes she is in her room only and the sound was off news paper hitting the window, she changes her side only to find Rajeev missing from the bed. Its not usual as he wakes up late on Sunday, she gets off bed all of a sudden looking for her dear husband Neha: “Raj! Raj! Where are you?” She finally smells cigarette and takes a deep breath as she locates him in adjoining room, sitting in an arm chair with cigarette in his hand and ash just attached to cigarette, which showed he just lit it and got lost in his thought and forget to take a puff.

She slowly moves closer to him and utters: “Raj”
He waked up only to realize that he forget what he was doing.
He says: “yes”
Neha:” what happened so early up in morning you left from bed and smoking also?”
Rajeev putting cigarette in the ash tray: “nothing just waked up early so thought not to disturb you”
Neha:” but why you waked up so early , are you ok” put her hand on his head, slightly moving her soft fingers in over his hair, probably trying to show her love, Neha knew that Rajeev has been moving away from him, and she needed to take care of him.
Rajeev: ” I am fine, holding Neha’s hand and probably realizing that it’s her only who stood by him for so many years and supported him for all the bad times.
Neha: “you want to have tea? Shall I get it for you” and sits on his lap”
Rajeev: “ok,” as she kisses on her forehead Neha must not have felt any kiss of his so loving, as a dazzling smile comes on her face.
Rajeev: “now make tea fast” Neha leaves to kitchen and starts her day with a smile after a loving gesture from her hubby. She gets betrothed in the kitchen as Rajeev sits and reads the newspaper, mobile rings a new message was received on his phone. He picks it up and starts reading the long SMS, as neha comes out with tea and sits at the side of Rajeev, bearing in mind this Rajeev switches off phone
Neha: “who's SMS so early up on Sunday?”
Rajeev: “No one” Neha: “I heard the sound of your cell SMS”
Rajeev: “Nothing significant” as he picks up the tea cup.
Neha: “I hope its not that bloody bitch Puja”
Rajeev: “What sort of lingo you are speaking? Cant u trust me?”
Neha: “Ok show me your mobile, let me see what you are onto these days?”
Rajeev, fumes with antagonism and bangs the phone on the flooring, its conked out into pieces & he screams: “see it now!!”
Neha:“I knew you lied, its her only, isn’t it?”
Rajeev bangs both tea cups on the floor and shouts, louder this time: “yes its what you have to do with it?”
Neha: “I have everything to do; I am your wife, why you couldn’t tell its Puja's SMS only. Whats the point hiding?”, as she picks up broken pieces of mobile & cups.
Rajeev: “why you don’t trust me? Why you are trying to spy on me? Don’t make my life a nightmare, please”
Neha: “yes hell, because I cant be a mother, I cant give you child she sits on the bed as tears fell down from her big eyes and they go red.

Tears, yes tears friends, women best bludgeon, noxious than a worst chemical bomb of world, it can make one feel bad and good. And Rajeev is no different he soon realizes that he has got to be calm as she knew that person who is committing blunder either shouts or remains completely hushed, Rajeev was doing former. He tries to soothe her and moves towards her & put his hand on her shoulder
“See I am with you, we are married and kid is not my main concern, we will visit Doctor again and I know it will be sorted out”
Neha getting rid of his hand from her shoulder and says in anger : “ do what you wish to do, but remember that I am not going to give up and I know that Puja and you have some thing cooking between both of you otherwise there is no reason to lie”
Rajeev loses his temper yet again and says: “fine think whatever you can”
He moves out with their pet, a small bulldog, and says: “I am going for morning walk, shut the door”
Neha lies on bed, lost in her thought and thinks what went erroneous in their relationship, is that because that she cant be a mother? Or is Puja more striking than her? Why Rajeev is moving away from him? Why he behaves so brusquely? Lots of feelings come in her mind and tears just keep flowing from her eyes, she keeps on lying on bed. The day which started with a loving kiss has now turned into pungent quarrel, she was so joyful few moments back and now she sat alone in tears, wondering what went wrong?

SCENE II: SUSPICION IN THE AIR
Neha was just back from her office and finds that Rajeev hasn’t reached home up till now, she enters the house changes her cloth gets fresh and makes tea for herself, thinks of calling Rajeev up then aborts the thought, goes to kitchen and starts preparing the dinner by the time she finishes it was 10:30pm and now she gets apprehensive and decides to call Rajeev up, phone rings numerous times and he doesn’t picks it up, she calls his office and comes to know that he left office on his accustomed time at 6pm she sits and thinks, is it traffic? But then reconsiders her thought its 45 minutes from here how come so late? She tries his phone again, but in vain. She switches on TV and get lost in her thought instead of watching the TV. There is tedious silence in the room, as tea lies on the table half consumed, a huge picture of lady waiting hangs on the wall adjoining the TV, she sits alone and gazes at picture, all of a sudden she is perturbed by the sound of calling bell, she goes out and opens the door, its Rajeev, she breathes easy after seeing him. He changes up and get ready for dinner.

Neha asks him: “so late today?”
Rajeev avoiding eye contact says: “yes lots of work at office, a new project has just started” Neha: “ok, when u left from office?”
Rajeev: “an hour back” Neha knows that he is lying but avoids further interrogation as they were having meal, she says: “hmmm”

For next few minutes, till they complete meal and get ready to retire for the bed, neha doesn’t utter a single word and just goes on with her work and goes to bed as Rajeev watches TV and later joins her on the bed.
Rajeev: “slept off?”
Neha: “ naah”
Rajeev: “Then so quiet today?”
Neha: “ nothing, you know better”
Rajeev: “ what I know”
Neha” that why I am quiet?”
Rajeev: “ What ? I am not getting you?”
Neha: “ Leave it Rajeev”
Rajeev: “ no, tell me” Neha:” Don’t act smart, u were not in office till 8pm u left at 6pm, didn’t you?”
Rajeev knew he was caught again and tries to elucidate: “ I have an out door meeting with a client, so I went out of office”
Neha: “ leave it, I don’t want to discus all these”

Both lie down on bed with their back facing each other, Neha now is sure that she is losing Rajeev by every passing day, and she needs to do something before its too late, she has to do some thing, what she has no clue, but she was sure of one thing that she needed to act fast. While Rajeev: on the other side knew that Neha has enough clue by now and its high time that she executes the plan he made with Puja. Deadly silence continues in the room as not even a soul moved that night, suspicion, mistrust, hate and some conspiracy wandered round the room as life partners slept like strangers in the room.

SCENE III ROMANCE IN THE AIR
It’s a beautiful sunset in the Collangute beach of Goa, the red light of sun is reflected over the sea. People are having some great enjoyment in one of the most striking beach in India, some are enjoying para-sailing, some are enjoying boat ride while other sit and take pleasure in seeing their kids playing on the beach. Sun, sand & sea excites love & romance even in dullest of people. Its one place where you let your love buds go free. Puja and Rajeev have just completed a banana ride and sit one of the sea side restaurants as sound of open air disco plays some good party numbers behind them. Puja is drenched in saline water and enjoys a glass of scotch with Rajeev, her wet hair falls on her face she looks gorgeous and her blue eyes adds to the beauty nicely complimented by the bold diamond earrings which Rajeev got for him on her last birthday. Rajeev meanwhile is putting on boxers and muscle T, sits right in front of her as they had long eye contact, romance fills up the place and their heart, with few peg of scotch sinking in they feel the urge to have walk on the beach, Rajeev wants to have a walk and Puja agrees. Both go for walk holding hand as sun is about to bid bye to the beautiful romantic day.

Rajeev holding puja’s hand: “ Its such a nice place, I simply like visiting this beautiful beach”
Puja: “yes, even I do like this beautiful places, its so exciting here, see the sun setting down, it looks stunningly beautiful”
Rajeev: “takes out the camera and takes the picture of setting sun”
Puja: “how about going back to hotel, I am feeling uneasy as saline water has dried down; I need to take fresh water bath”

Both leave for hotel after few minute of walk down the beach as sun has given way to darkness. They reach hotel after few minutes of walk down the happening streets of Goa.
In the hotel both finished bath and sit by the side of window which overlooks the swimming pool and some well decorated Christmas tree and Santa Claus stands tall overlooking the happening city. Inside the hotel is one huge picture of half covered lady trying to get her sari in place as it falls down over her sleeveless top. A huge plasma TV hangs on the pink wall of the room with some romantic numbers playing on it. The floors is covered with beautiful Scottish carpet, a white metallic statue is in one of the corner of the room, bed is covered with light blue sheet with some pink flowers over it, a huge chandelier hangs on the ceiling of the large five star luxurious room.

Rajeev: “ so how you feeling now”
Puja: “Much better, saline water can induce etching and at times damages skin also”
Rajeev: “Ok, I didn’t felt anything of that sort.”
Puja holding Rajeev’s hand and sitting on the arm rest of his chair: “so when we will be living with authorization together, you need to get rid of the bitch, I hope she is not spying on you. What if she comes to know about this trip? You have told that you are in Bangalore for some office work. Isn’t it?”
Rajeev: “ yes, but I don’t think she is going to divorce me, we have to work out something else” Puja: “Have u ever said her that you want divorce?” Rajeev: “no, I don’t have any reason for saying so”
Puja: “she can’t be mother isn’t it?. That should be enough reason for the legal separation” Rajeev: “ it’s not that easy, convincing her is some task”
Puja: “ we need to act fast, I can’t live like this, without you for any more”

Both continue talking as some plans are being made, some plans which don’t echo even by the wall of the room, some conspiracy is being done, dooms day conspiracy for the loyal wife and her more loyal love. Some thing that works in their mind they abort it and then think over again and again and finally reach to a point from where they have to act from here onwards, silence returns once they finish talking both seemed to be happy after prolonged talks as smile return back on the face of Puja. She is putting a light pink gown, which compliments her stunning beauty, at 30 she doesn’t looks like mother of two kids, she is one beautiful lady with cunning of fox. She lies on the long sofa Rajeev sits on the side of it watching TV as some talks go on. Call bell rings, Rajeev gets up and sees the hotel staff looking for dinner order, he says after some time we will order. He comes back and ask puja to make a drink, a scotch, both sit and drink as smell of scotch engulfs the room, puja gets up after just one peg and decides that she is not going to take any more so does Rajeev but after few extra pegs. She combs her long ,loved hair and adores herself in front of Rajeev, he hugs her and puts her back to the wall, kissing her all over the neck and face, she holds her tight and bites his ear and plays with him, tickling him at times, Rajeev starches her hand and puts his hand over it, to the wall as they continue love making. Love soon ignites the room, as they lie on floor and get lost yet again. The love making lasts for several minutes as they finally shift to bed, after few moments puja is covered entirely with utter romance as Rajeev plays with ice cube and her nicely curved physique. After sometime, they both lie down, Rajeev is lying with back to the roof as puja lie over his back with her long hair all over Rajeev’s back, and Rajeev is in sleep as he consumed few extra pegs than Puja. Puja had one so she is very much awoke. She tickles him with her nose, but he doesn’t replies. She tries again and this time Rajeev gets up and bites her as both burst into laughter.

Puja lying on his lap slowly moving her fingers over his belly: “ You jungle, drunkard, took so much that you slept off, never take too many drinks before all these”
Rajeev holds her further and say: “ok, you stunning beauty, you seem to be still urging for more”
Puja: “ aah!!, is it you feel so?”
Rajeev: "yup"
Puja: “ naah, I am hungry let’s have some food”

Rajeev agrees and orders some sea food and they wait for dinner, still talking and loving each other. After some time food is delivered and they eat together, feeding each other like newly wed couple. Enjoying each other company. They finish the dine and go for some more love making as rooms shifts into darkness, with blue light glowing like full moon in that romantic night.

SCENE IV DEATH LURKS HERE, WAITING, WAITING…..
After a month Neha has an adequate amount of hint that her hubby is in extra martial affair with puja and she decides to take some action as she lingers for Rajeev to return home as she sits in the room waiting and waiting. She sees the time its 11pm yet again and she decides to leave home, where? She knows it. She takes her car keys and rushes to parking lot of the apartment and takes her Honda city and zooms fast outside the gate driving like a crazy lady as she drive on the roads lots of thought crosses her mind, she reaches a house bangs the door with her fist, a lady opens the door after numerous minutes of knocking. Wearing a lower and small figure hugging T-shirt. It’s Puja the owner of the flat.
Neha tries to enquire about Rajeev and asks her where is he? She tries to keep her at door but she rushes in. But could not find Rajeev there, as he escaped from back door, once he heard the Neha’s voice.
She shout on puja almost bully her and says :”You know where he is?, let me know” Puja: “ How would I know about him, you are his wife you are supposed to know better”
Neha, still standing “ don’t act smart, I know you are aware about his where bouts, you bloody bitch, you ruined your own life and now you are after mine, I am warning you, for the first and last time otherwise you will regret”
Puja: “ You better mind your language, and don’t shout at my place”
Neha gets louder this time: “ place my foot!, I will cut you in pieces and feed to scavengers, don’t try to be smart, you can’t take him from me, you better don’t even try to”
Puja: “ Why I will take him from you, he is not a kid he is matured enough to decide what is right for him, what have you given to him?, not even a kid”
Neha gets hyper after listening this and pulls out her licensed GERMAN MAUSER REICHSREVOLVER 1879 CAVALRY and put the points in between her eyes: “ you don’t have any idea what I can do, you better stay away from him, otherwise you will regret doing all these, I won’t even think once before I shoot you down”
Seeing the gun point in the middle of her forehead Puja gets scared:” ahh, that is what you can do, try to get him by love, if you can”
Neha” yes I will but before that I will shoot you down”
Puja moves her hand and get rid of gun from her fore head: “ you should leave, I don’t want to talk to you”
Neha, putting her revolver back and says: "I wont be giving you second chance, so still you have time , get your acts right”

Neha leaves puja’s places and reaches her home to find Rajeev there and screams on him: “ so you are here, where you have been?”
Rajeev says in a low voice” office work, where were you?”
Neha: “ I know your office work and your intentions” Rajeev trying to act smart: “ what’s wrong with you?, why you are fuming with anger”
Neha” Raj please leave me alone, you please leave me, I don’t want to talk to you any more, please go away from here” she shouts as her voice gets chocked in her throat, and she bursts into tears, and sits on the chair, covering her face with her hand, and tries to hide his tears from Rajeev, he slowly moves closer to her probably not realizing that she is carrying his Mauser in her purse, he put his hand on her head, trying to console her.
Neha screams this time “Raj!!! Cant u leave me, please I am in no mood to talk to you now”, she says as tears flow down from her eyes and nose, eye, both go red out of shear anger
Rajeev: “ what happened why you so angry? Whets wrong with you?”
Neha, still crying “everything is wrong about me, as I can’t give you a child, so you go one hunting woman”
Rajeev: “what you mean to say?” Neha leaves the place and goes to bed room and locks the room and shuts the light off.

Child was never a cause behind this extra martial affair as both were young and Neha was undergoing treatment for same and Dr said she will soon be able to get pregnant. But the exact reason was some thing best known to Rajeev and puja, almost certainly interest in others more than own spouse was reason behind it. Neha has always been compassionate and loving to Rajeev and balanced the professional & personal life. So Rajeev gets to act and comprehend that Neha loves her before it gets too late.

TO BE CONTINUED...
wait before mystery unfolds

Divorce Part II (Unwanted Romance)

2009-01-20T12:17:00.013+05:30

First of all thanks to you all for some encouraging and good retort to the first part of this fiction. Those who haven’t read it should read it first; this was my first real attempt on fiction as I prefer writing on real life experiences. In the first part(click here to read first part), we read about a couple Rajeev and Neha in Nagpur fighting over Rajeev’s co-worker divorce and she suspects him at times that her husband might be having some affair with the Pooja (Rajeev’s colleague.) They reach the family court and it was final hearing of divorce case between Puja and Abhisekh, mutually they agree and so does the court. Abhisekh pays money and kids are sent to boarding in Dehradoon.

Scene 1
At the court premises after the case is settled.
Puja: “Oh! Rajeev I am so relaxed today, I got rid of this daily drama now”
"Don’t worry all going to be fine now” Says Rajeev looking both at his wife and puja.
Neha intrudes and disagrees: “its going to be tuff now Puja”
Puja: “You don’t know what I was going through; it’s such a relaxing feeling”
Neha says out of shear curiosity: “so you are planning to resettle?”
Puja putting up strange smile on her face says: “not decided lets see what happens”
Puja leaves to her home and Neha and Rajeev drive back to their home. At night in Nagpur, Rajeev wasn’t able to sleep so went out and smoked and came back to his room where Neha (his wife) is lying down, pretending as she is sleeping.

Neha breaks the deadly silence and says: “You not feeling sleepy?”
Rajeev:”no just a bit headache” Neha: “come let me do head massage”
Rajeev: “no I will be fine” Neha: “come”
Rajeev shouts: ” I said no, can’t you get that”
Neha shivers and says: “what’s there to shout at the middle of night?, why you look tensed? What’s wrong? “
Rajeev: “nothing wrong” Neha: "Ok” Rajeev: "why don’t you sleep off?”
Neha: “no I was thinking about Puja and Abhisekh, poor kids, their life is ruined now, wondering what went wrong in their life? Why both are separated? Why they decided to divorce?”
Rajeev: “why are you so worried?”
Neha: "why you look so tense?”
Rajeev: ” its headache”
Neha: "I hope you are not the reason of this divorce, I wont give you divorce even if Brahma, Vishnu & Mahesh comes and pleads in front of me, I wont leave you, I love you, and you?” Rajeev: “Yes I do too, now sleep off” Both sleep off as mystery surrounds the silent night.

15 DAYS LATER
Scene II
Another usual morning for Neha & Rajeev on the breakfast table.
Neha: “let’s go for outing to Khandala it’s been long time, Monday is off so we can go and take 3 days off”
Rajeev: "No some other time some work”
Neha: "what work? You never say yes now days lost in your own world”
Rajeev: “Please try to understand, we will go some other time”
Neha: “I am hearing this for last one year”
Rajeev hugging his wife: “sure next month”
Neha: “hmmm”

Scene III
It’s a posh duplex flat at suburbs of Nagpur, winter has just settled in, and it’s been good charming day for last week or two. The room’s window opens to beautiful park and lush green surrounding. A large double bed lies at the centre of the room, with decorative lamps on both sides, a centre table lies with a well decorated flower vase on it, and the fragrance of rose is all over the room. The lady in the room has just finished her bath and drying her hair sitting in front of dressing table, seeing her face in the mirror and probably trying to find herself. She feels lonely and decides to play light music

Have I told you lately that I love you
Have I told you theres no one else above you
Fill my heart with gladness
Take away all my sadness
Ease my troubles thats what you do

She gets lost in music and lies on the bed, all of a sudden the phone rings.

She picks up the phone “Are you coming?”
Voice on other side: “yes, in few minutes got stuck in traffic”
“Ok I am waiting” she says keeping the phone.
Gets up and changes her cloth and puts her favorite clothes, combs her hair and listens to music again. She starts feeling sleepy after gazing out of window for few minutes. Calling bell rings, she opens the door and happy to see him as she has been waiting for it for some time now.

“I have been waiting for you for some time now "she says offering him glass of water.
“Sorry I got stuck in traffic” he replies.
“So you took off day” she says switching off the music.
“Yes “he replies looking towards her eyes.
“You had breakfast” she enquires
“Yes I have to and how about you?” he replies and enquires
“I thought will have with you” she says with soft voice putting her hair behind her ears.
“Oh, ok we will have together after some time” he replies
“Ok, I am not that hungry right now” she says
"Why you stopped the music? It was good” he says
And the music starts again as both continue talking

And have I told you lately that I love you
Have I told you theres no one else above you
You fill my heart with gladness
Take away my sadness

They sit together on a sack sofa as fragrance of her perfume moves him nearer to her. He says kissing her neck from back and holding her flat belly: “you look stunning”
She holds him in her arms, eyes closed and surrenders herself to him, romance rapidly excites in the room as both get lost in each other. She puts his hand on his hair playing with it as he kisses her and he picks her in his arm and they both lie down on bed caressing each other and forgetting the world and leaving all their qualms behind . Sooner both are in their own world of love.

After few minutes she says: “what u told to Neha?”
Rajeev: “that I am in office”
Puja: “If she calls there?”
Rajeev says as she rests half on his chest and he continues playing with her hair as her long hair falls on his naked chest: “don’t worry I have instructed to my colleague, he will handle it out”
Puja: “any way she will come to know sooner or later”
Rajeev: “hmm”
Puja: “how long we will continue like this?”
Rajeev:” I have planned something,”
Puja: “what’s that?” Rajeev explains his plan few minutes and she agrees after long discussion as both get up and take break fast.

Human being is just biological animals, it’s just human. We all have the jungle inside of us. We all have wants and needs and desires, strange as they may seem. If you stop to think about it, we're all pretty creative, cooking up all these fantasies. It’s like a kind of poetry. Romantic love is an illusion. Most of us discover this truth at the end of a love affair or else when the sweet emotions of love lead us into marriage and then turn down their flames. One divorce and four lives were in haywire. Puja and Rajeev are in extra-martial affair for some time now and Puja’s divorce was planned by Rajeev and Puja, Abhisekh had clue about it so they agreed to separate. Now its up to these two on how they get settled after unsettling Abhisekh (Puja’s ex-husband) and Neha (Rajeev’s wife) has been suspicious so they needed to act fast before things reaches Neha’s mind's.

TO BE CONCLUDED IN NEXT PART......

हम को इस घर में जानता है कोई

2009-01-20T11:57:00.005+05:30

दिन कुछ ऐसे गुजारता है कोई
जैसे एहसान उतारता है कोई

आईना देख के तसल्ली हुई
हम को इस घर में जानता है कोई

पक गया है शजर पे फल शायद
फिर से पत्थर उछालता है कोई

फिर नजर में लहू के छींटे हैं
तुम को शायद मुघालता है कोई

देर से गूँजतें हैं सन्नाटे
जैसे हम को पुकारता है कोई

Divorce PART I (Somebody started the fire)

2009-01-19T22:29:00.008+05:30

It’s like any other usual morning until the phone rings at 9 o’clock in the morning in a dwelling in Nagpur.
The husband picks up, pauses a jiffy as if hearing something, and says, “Don’t worry, I’ll be there on time,” and replaces the phone.

He then shouts to his wife, who is in the kitchen: “I’m going out for some toil. I’ll be back approximately one thirty or two for dine.”
“Where are you disappearing? You’ve taken leave today. Let’s go shopping; and then for lunch and a movie.” wife brings the list
“Please. Not today. I’ve taken leave just for this vital thing.” husband says trying to avoid.
“Vital thing? Where are you going?” the wife persists.

The husband knows now that he has no alternative but to tell her. He knows his wife’s nature so well – she’s not going to relax till she find out. She’ll plague him to death until he tells her.“I’m going to the Family Court,” he says.
“Family Court? Why?” Her eyes become larger than earth.
“A divorce case.” Husband replies
“Divorce? You’re trying to divorce me behind my back?” Wife says clutching her hair
“Please be silent. It’s not us. Pooja has asked me to come for the hearing.” Hubby replies
“Pooja?”
“You’ve met her." Wife smelling something fishy.
"She’s my collaborator at work.”
“Oh. That Pooja! I knew you for eternity you had a soft corner for her.” Wife says putting on sarcastic smile on her face
“It’s her concluding divorce hearing today and she’s called me.” husband defends his act

“Divorce? Called you? How are you involved? I hope she divorces not because of you? I knew you’d do something stupid. You are so susceptible you know – got trapped by her and now you are in dilemma being summoned by courts. Respectable persons never see the entrails of a court in their entire lives.” Wife says tryin to stop him in getting involved to all these.

“Please keep quiet! You just go on and on! Pooja’s called me just to give her emotional support.”
“Emotional support! I’m coming with you. Can’t you see what she’s up to?” .Wife says trying to scare his honey with her big eyes.
“Please. Pooja’s just a colleague going through a rough patch. As a friend, I have to help her out, show her a bit of compassion and kindness.” .Poor husband replies
“Compassion? It may soon turn into passion!” the wife says sarcastically,
“Drying a divorcee’s tears is one of the most dangerous pastimes for a man, especially a married man.” . Wife says, smelling some more fishy stuff
“Pastime? I’m not going there for amusement, but to help out a collaborator.”
“Anattractive colleague in distress, isn’t it? And our Knight in shining armor is rushing to her aid!”
“Okay. Why don’t you come along and see for yourself,” the husband says.

The moment he utters those words he instantly regrets it but it is too late, his wife has already picked up her purse and is heading towards the door.

“Why are they divorcing?” the wife asks, as they are driving in their car from their house towards the Family Court.
“Its divorce by mutual consent.” Husband defends his colleague.
“Mutual consent! What nonsense! There must be some other reason.” Wife says further inetrrograting like CBI officer
“No. They have just agreed to detach.”“If they can agree to separate why can’t they agree to stay together?”. Wife says at last some thing logical.
“I don’t know. Why don’t you ask her that!”
the husband says irritated.‘Of course I will. And I’ll give a piece of my mind to her husband too. Tell him to stop harassing his wife.”

“Please. For heaven’s sake don’t say anything there. They are parting amicably, as friends.”

“There is no such thing as amicable divorce. If a marital relationship is amicable, why divorce in the first place? If they can divorce and remain friends, why can’t they remain married and be friends?”

"Will you please keep quiet! I’m driving.” . Husband say as he gets irritated
“What’s her husband’s name?”
“Abhishek.”
“See! Pooja and Abhishek! Even their names are compatible,” the wife says.
“There must be some adultery involved. This Abhishek must be having an affair. Or it must be Pooja. I’m sure she is having an affair.”
“Don’t be stupid. She’s not like that.” Husband Says
“How do you know?” Wife enquires again
“I know her for so many years now. She’s quite close to me. " Husband says."She’s told me everything.”
“Close to you? My God! I hope it’s not you?”
“Will you please shut up! I told you its mutual incompatibility.”

“Incompatibility, my foot! Let me tell you there is no one more incompatible than both of us. But are we divorcing?”. Lady says
“Why don’t we? At least I’ll have some peace and respite from your constant nagging.” Hubby says
“Ah! So you can marry her is it? You’ve got a hope in heaven! I’ll cling on to you till my dying day. And follow you even after that.” Wife says fuming with anger

They drive in silence for a while and then the wife asks,
“Has she got any kids?”
“Yes. Two. A boy and a girl. In school.”
“Poor children. What will happen to them?”
“They’ll go off to a boarding school for a while till Pooja settles down.”
“It’s funny. They’ve got children and are divorcing. We haven’t any but we are carrying on together!”
‘Yes,” the husband says, “I really wonder! We constantly fight but stay together; and they have such a cordial relationship but want to separate.”
“Marital relationships are not supposed to be cordial and cold,” the wife says snuggling up to her husband.
“I’ve realized one thing,” says the husband.
“What?”
“The opposite of love is not hate; it is indifference.”

TO BE CONTINUED....

Comedy of Error

2009-01-17T18:23:00.000+05:30

I was feeling more chilly than usual as I was, only few days back transfered from 'No Winter' Mumbai to chilly National capital New Delhi. It was unpleasantly cold winter noon & being Sunday I was feeling lethargic and finding it hard to come out of quilt, then I got a call from my younger cousin Meghna
Meghna: “How are you? What’s up on Sunday?”
Me: “I am good, how are you doing? “
Meghna: ” I am fine too, I was getting bored nothing much to do to day as it’s a holiday”
Me: ” go out and enjoy with friends”
Meghna: “Most have gone home; can we go for a movie today evening?”
Me: “ok, that sounds a good idea”
Meghna: “ok then see you in evening”
Me: “ok”

I went to see her in the evening and we decided to go for a movie in the vicinity of multiplex, we reached there 30 minutes aforementioned to movie and then took tickets and were just chatting on some topic. Movie was about to initiate and we decided to move in.

We entered the multiplex and saw on one of many doors of multiplex showing the title of movie which we were supposed to see. We entered the hall and there was no one on the gate so we located our seat number and sat there. Movie has already started.

Me:” did we enter late?”
Meghna: "seems like that”

It was barely 5-6 minutes when INTERMISSION was displayed on huge screen.

We were surprised to see that and looked towards each other in taken aback way.

Me: “how come intermission in 5 minutes?” I was almost certainly asking myself than my sister.
Meghna: “no idea”
All of a sudden, within few seconds, a thought came in my mind. I said to Meghna
“have we entered right hall?, lets go out and check on gate and match the hall number with that on out ticket”
Meghna: “ok”

We moved out and saw the number on gate and find that it didn’t matched and instantly we came to know it was our mistake and we entered wrong hall where same movie has reached intermission time. We busted into laughter on our own boo-boo and moved to our proper hall number, still laughing. There movie was about to start and we were still laughing and saw some girls incoming and laughing and discussion that they faced analogous problem.

We couldn’t stop out laugh and just watched half the movie laughing on our error. By the half time I came to deduction and said to meghna
“ since movie wasn’t a hit so it wasn’t packed and no one was occupying the same seat when we entered wrong hall, if that was the case we need not see there even for 5 minutes, and since there was no guard on gate we entered and located our sat if someone was there he could have guided us. But at the end it was our comedy of error as we didn’t matched the hall number with that on our ticket. We laughed and told the story to our friend.

The movie was Eklavya. A super flop but our error made it a laughter riot.

Miss NUCLEUS

2009-01-14T22:04:00.000+05:30

An ion who once held my bond
accelerated far beyond.
As my potential stayed at ground,
she cyclotronned around and round.

After an eternity,
this proton has returned to me.
Why so long? Lorentz contraction?
Or just diffraction and distraction?

Regardless, I'm excited to embrace
her positively charged-up space.
But it seems that she attracts a crowd:
her head's in an electron cloud.

Miss NUCLEUS is hard to see
when swimming in her electron sea.
As leptons leap around the belle,
I can't break through the outer Shel.

Yes, I am bondless, gassy, noble.
Interactions make me mobile.
My charge repulsion, to be frank,
is so large I'd rather walk the Planck.

I know her spacetime line is steep,
with state transitions she must keep.
But just a quantum of her time
to pair up with her friend in rhyme?

Incident that changed my life

2009-01-11T00:32:00.000+05:30

Going down to reminiscence lane again. There is undoubtedly one confrontation in my life that changed my carrier & life for good.
Results of class 8th were just announced and yet again I faired deficiently in math’s scoring merely 44/100. Dad was perceptibly very angry with it. As principle called him up and said that I’ve been doing well in rest of the subjects but math remains area of great concern. So dad was infuriated that day and came home all guns blazing on me and mummy. Saying that I won’t be able to do anything in life and career if I don’t improve my math. Scolded me and mummy saying her that it’s her love that has spoiled me. I didn’t have meal that day and went of to bed.
It was 11:30pm at night when mummy entered my room.
Mummy: “Is u sleeping”
I was awoke & reciprocated:” no”
Mummy: “Why you don’t do your math properly? Why you are so scared of it?”
Me: “I don’t know but I try and moreover it doesn’t excites me, I don’t like the subject ”
Mummy: “It’s not a matter of choice here, you have to do it”
Me: “yes”
Mummy : “Because of you there is so much of conflict in house and whole atmosphere is ruined, and your dad scolds you for your good only, why don’t you understand”
Mummy spoke as tears came out of her eyes and her voice choked in her throat.. One thing I couldn’t se (like most people in this world) couldn’t see was tears in mother’s eyes.

Me: (hugging her): “don’t cry, I will do it, I will give my best & pledge you that you will never have to cry for this reason”
Mummy:” it’s not about crying it’s about you, your future”
Me: “yes”
Mummy:” Take your food”
I knew mummy won’t take her meal if I haven’t, so we both took food and she went off.

That day I took pledge I can’t run away from it, I can’t see mummy crying, I got to do some thing. The tears in her eyes just kept revolving in mind all night. Tears in mother’s eye changed all. Now I was not petrified of deadly looking square roots and all that unknown x,y,z. Just didn’t realized when I slept off.

Woke up and started from scratch, started the scheduling. And resoluted on the subject. It took me few months before I realized that this subject isn’t that tuff as I thought. Slowly I gained confidence and then came I time when I started doing mathematics as time pass. Started loving it, and every time I got stuck I just remembered mom’s tears and promise made to her. Things started coming back to normal and by the time final exams started I was mentally strong and did well to score 84/100. After that it just improves to the extent that I got in IIT and never looked back after that. Thanks to papa and mummy for all the encouragement and prop up. I know whatever I am or would be it’s because of my mother. Love you mummy and papa.

Why? (FLASHBACK I)

2009-01-08T00:47:00.000+05:30

His fair face was all black with white foam coming out of his mouth, clad in his black t shirt, which his mother gifted him on his last birthday. He was hanging form his ceiling fan, book still open on his desk, light was still on; his sleeper was still under his table waiting to put its owner's feet on it, not knowing Manish will never put his feet on it. We will never be able to hear his loud laugh which made everyone smile. Campus will never see again the strongly built and electronic project master anymore. Manish ended his life two days back leaving us in deep sorrow.
It was a day after results were announced, some were happy, other just satisfied, other were just low. Manish Mishra of E& T scored 6.5 CGPA was lowest in his branch, not wasn’t lowest enough to end his life. I t was rainy after noon, when we get back after new education year, and we were tired. Manish door remained closed all day, we thought he isn’t well. And was taking rest. Some of his branch mate tried to woke him up in the morning, but when Manish didn’t opened the door, they left for the class but later in afternoon , when door was still closed his branch mates started knocking the door continuously . As I was in adjoining room of Manish, I also woked up
“What happened” why you are all banging the door “I said.
”Manish isn't opening his door “- Manoj said.
”He must be sleeping” I said.
"He didn’t attend his classes" Nagesh said.
"For how long he would sleep"Raj added.
“Is it so? He didn’t attend his class " I said.
”No he didn't "- Manoj said, his voice chocked in his throat.
We desperately tried to open his door and then we realized we should inform warden. “Shall we call Jain sir (warden) Deepak said?” "yes” - Raj said and rushed to the ground floor.
Jain sir came and saw the locked room and knocked onto it. Then he left, when he came back Dean of student affair and director along with local police were along with them. Police broke the door and our worst fear came true, Manish was found hanging. Deepak and Manoj screamed and cried we all did. Police recovered suicide note from his pocket which said he ended his life because of poor results and no one was responsible for it and also said sorry to his parents and younger sister. There parents were informed by police on behalf of college. Police took the body for post mortem.
Life and god has strange way of realizing that lots of things don’t lie in our hands. The whole campus was completely shocked and in complete grief after the news spread. After the police department, we were standing here and there, some were in the balcony, some were in my room, and there were 100 of students standing in the same floor. There was a pin drop silence in the hostel, Manoj cried a lot that day, it wasn’t sinking that Manish is no more. Even now also I can’t hold my pen as my hands are shivering.
When Manish mother came, she wasn't crying, she had blank expression on her face, his father cried and looked lost and shocked, Manish sister Jyoti couldn't hold her tears. His mother fainter and was rushed to hospital. They performed the last rites in Haridwar. We lost a friend, it will take some time for all of us to realise Mainish is no more.
AFTERMATH: For some reason, the hostel was in complete silence for a complete day or so. , we couldn’t concentrate on our studies, for that matter anything. There wasn't any buzz in the mess, coffee house or in playground. We tried our best to divert our mind form what happened two weeks back, but failed miserably. Manoj would just keep quiet and preferred to remain lonely all the time ., Rohit wouldn’t talk to anyone, Raj would just sit in the balcony most part of the night , so could smoker all night, Vivek wouldn’t have his meals ,and attend classes regularly ,despite several warning from DOSA, All his jokes were missing . Hostel warden wouldn’t say anything to us, and would come to hostel every night to ask us about our well being,
Everything changed after Manish left us, for all of us he is still alive in our heart, thought and mind, I just sat and
Thought is 6.5.CGPA is that bad percentage that Manish ended his life. Why he did like this? He could have talked with us, parents. what made him do this , there was millions of questions which penetrated everyone’s mind, leaving us more confused and clueless, we never came to knew what happened that night , he was mentally very strong and his parents were supportive and never demanded high percentage form Manish. His sister is a sweet one and cared for Manish a lot. his father was like his friend and I knew his family since class VIII, I grew up playing cricket and volleyball, discussing moths and physics, flying kites in summer vacations. It was very difficult for me to digest that incident , How can life be so cruel to someone like Manish, why I god did like this , more I think , more I think moor eye get sad and depressed.
Life is strange, stranger are the ways of it ....... strangest is god’s ways to realise it.

Remember a time

2009-01-07T10:22:00.000+05:30

There was a time when I needed you desperately.
Because I was so alone, and you were the only one who could reach me.

There was a time when I felt I could face any challenge
Because you were there with me.

Now I see that you need someone you can get close to
Who won't fall apart if you need to go.

I remember a time, not so long ago, when I felt afraid
To be apart from you.

I worried that if you left,
I'd find nobody else.

Today I feel I can either be close to you,
Or let you go
And I'll be fine.

Unequal citizens

2009-01-02T18:15:00.000+05:30

IT was December 3, 2008, yet another World Disability Day. Around 5,000 disabled people gathered at India Gate in New Delhi and lit candles and raised their hands together for the spirit of unity. There was not a sigh on their lips, nor was there any optimistic grin on their faces. It seemed as if the flicker of the flames conveyed their emotions. The stepmotherly response to the demands of the disabled over the years and the lack of political will to get them better access to mainstream life had only strengthened their resolve. A night-long vigil had been planned by the Disabled Rights Group (DRG) but was changed to a solidarity vigil after the terror attacks in Mumbai. The message was clear: no charity, only rights. The vigil was part of an ongoing struggle across the country. The DRG is a conglomeration of all non-governmental organisations working for the rights of the disabled population in the country. It has three major demands. First, all Ministries should have a disability plan. Second, 3 per cent of each Ministry’s budget should be spent on its plans for the disabled. Third, the Disability Division, which is at present under the Ministry of Social Justice, should be upgraded, preferably as a separate ministry. Javed Abidi, convener of the DRG, told: “We have been pursuing our demands for more than a decade. Ironically, the government has agreed to most of our demands, but they still remain on paper. The Disability Act [The Persons with Disabilities (Equal Opportunities, Protection of Rights and Full Participation) Act, 1995] and recommendations in the Eleventh Plan that were passed more than a year ago are positive, but no steps have been taken to implement them.” Clause 6.187 of the Eleventh Plan states that within six months of the Plan’s approval, every Ministry should have a plan for the empowerment of disabled people. It also says that 3 per cent of the budget of every Ministry should be allocated for people with disabilities and that monitoring mechanisms should be set up at various levels to check the progress in this regard. Along with these provisions, Clause 6.188 states: “The ‘Disability Division’ of the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment shall be strengthened with the status of separate ‘Department’, so that they can effectively liaise with all the concerned Ministries/Departments and ensure that they fulfil their responsibilities towards disabled persons, including financial support enjoined on them.”

The Disability Act, too, has many progressive initiatives. For example, it makes provision for the appointment of a Disability Commissioner who would autonomously deal with issues related to disabled people.

India was the seventh country to ratify the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, on October 1, 2007, but activists think that the government has been extending only token support.

For instance, the U.N. convention talks of sign language as an official language that needs to be developed and recognised. The Indian Disability Act does not take this into account. Most websites in India are still not disabled-friendly even though the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) has come out with guidelines on the subject. While Indian software companies design disabled-friendly websites for other countries, they do not do so for India. Most buildings and public transport are still not accessible to the disabled people despite government regulations.“The problem is lack of awareness. Violation of the W3C guidelines has resulted in severe penalties in other countries. We do not want people to be punished, but at least we want Indian officials to be reactive to our cause, if not proactive. Think of it, there was no Disability Commissioner for three years after the Indian Disability Act was passed, and since the appointment was made, the officials have been noted more for their compliance with the government than for their concern for the needs of disabled people,” Abidi said. The disability movement in India has been gathering massive support for the last two decades, and its campaign has been, more than anything, about self-respect and the demand for disabled people to be treated as equal citizens, without charitable tokenisms. The fight is for greater access as the movement’s history indicates.

The rights of disabled people were first recognised by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, who announced 3 per cent reservation for them in 1977. But the announcement was humiliating as the reservation was announced only in C and D category jobs. This provision remained unchallenged for the next two decades.

When Rajiv Gandhi became Prime Minister, he recognised disability as a core issue. He appointed a committee under the chairmanship of Justice Baharul Islam. The committee gave its report in 1988. The Persons with Disabilities (Equal Opportunities, Protection of Rights and Full Participation) Act was finally passed by Parliament in December 1995 during the tenure of the Congress government led by P.V. Narasimha Rao. It was notified on February 7, 1996. This time reservation was extended to A and B category jobs and was also increased to 5 per cent.

After a massive public campaign, the Government of India finally included disability as a category in Census 2001. According to Census 2001, over 21 million people in India suffer from one or other kind of disability. This is equivalent to 2.1 per cent of the population. There is, however, the U.N. Manual for the Development of Statistical Information for Disability Programmes and Policies 1996 estimate, which pegs the population of disabled in India beyond 6 per cent and also predicts that its percentage could be a double-digit figure. The only attempt to study the disabled population in India made before this was in 1991, when a National Sample Survey was conducted. It pegged the population of disabled people at 1.9 per cent.

The campaign also resulted in valuable inductions in the Eleventh Plan as has been stated earlier.

The campaign took note of the low population of disabled people employed in both public and private sectors. A survey carried out in 1999 by the National Centre for Promotion of Employment of Disabled People found that despite the 5 per cent reservation, the percentage of the disabled in the workforce ranged from 0.01 per cent to 0.99 per cent. Multinational companies showed the abysmal figure of 0.05 per cent. The public sector fared little better, with disabled people constituting only 0.54 per cent of its workforce.Clause 41 of Chapter 6 (entitled “Employment”) of the Disability Act states that incentives should be given “to employers both in the public and private sectors to ensure that at least 5 per cent of their workforce is composed of persons with disabilities”. But the government has not yet proposed any such incentive plans. To top it all, nothing can be done if the legislation is violated as the Act has no penalty clause. The disability movement stands at a crucial juncture at present. Its activists believe that lobbying for greater access at various levels should continue but more importance should be given to fighting for policy interventions. The reason why this decision came so late, as Abidi puts it, was their naivety.

Discrimination against the disabled in government agencies and in the private sector was appalling when they started the movement. Initially, Abidi and his team lobbied the private sector to give them representation but complaints started coming in that there were hardly any skilled workers to fill the statutory quota. This led to the realisation that intervening at the policy level was necessary so that education was made accessible to those with disabilities. With this orientation, the movement also started looking into the rural hinterland, where disabled people are more severely hit than elsewhere because of the lack of even the minimum of facilities.

“Even today, if you look at the buildings of the colleges in any of the central universities, they are inaccessible to a paraplegic. What is the use of reservation if the universities are not physically accessible?” Abidi asked.He said that neither education nor employment was possible without access and none of the three was possible without proper implementation of the legislation.“What we want is a paradigmatic shift in the way problems of disabled people are seen. Equal citizenship is what every civilised society stands for, then why not us?” he added.

2008: The World Year of Extremes

2009-01-01T18:09:00.001+05:30

The year 2008 can be called a year of extremes: it saw huge trauma, beginning in the shadow of the assassination of former Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto just days earlier and ending with a global market crisis that has brought despair to millions across the world. Yet the worst is still to come.
The final months of the year were marred by attacks, with hundreds dead in India's bustling commercial metropolis Mumbai, chaos in Thailand, pirates in the Gulf of Aden and continuing violence in the world's top conflict regions, Iraq and Afghanistan.The Middle East is still far from a peaceful solution between Israelis and Palestinians, or indeed between Palestinians and Palestinians. Russia and Georgia erupted into a war just as the world was watching the glittery opening of the skillfully staged Olympics in China. In Italy, Silvio Berlusconi is again prime minister.

In Zimbabwe, expectations for better government were withering even faster than President Robert Mugabe's regime could print ever higher dollar bills to stem inflation.

The risks of global warming are worse than ever as concerns about the world climate were drowned out by concerns about the world economy.

The death toll in the five-year war in Congo has passed the five-million mark and continues to be largely neglected by the international community.

Yet in the midst of all the bad news of 2008, there was also reason for hope, and indeed some genuinely good news.

Worry over the world's tumbling markets brought leaders across the world racing to one table at previously unheard of speed to search for ways out of the crisis.

The European Union, usually a prime example of snail-speed diplomacy, managed to broker at least a ceasefire in Georgia and a return to - although still difficult - diplomacy between Russia and its Western neighbors.

After years of half-hearted pursuit, former Serbian leader Radovan Karadzic is finally being brought to trial over war crimes.

Serious progress has been made in research on illnesses such as HIV/AIDS, which have seen millions dead especially in Africa.

Even the fiercest critics agree that Iraq has seen some genuine security improvements and is now inching towards a reduction in US troops.

Coming up to Christmas, the year ended with the appearance of what many cast as a political messiah: Barack Obama was elected the first black president of the US.

The world - desperate for a change after eight years of George W. Bush calamities - celebrated the news not just in the US, but also in Africa, European capitals and in the Arab world.

The incoming US president is inheriting a global financial crisis, two wars and a whole series of international relations in tatters.

As heavy as Obama's new presidential burden is, problems like the global market crisis have brought the focus of the world's leading players back to the need for pragmatic talk, listening and the need for multilateral conflict resolution.

There may not be stardom for anybody, but there is certainly hope in that.

Real Boss

2008-12-19T16:55:00.000+05:30

It could have been a scene out of Stanley Kubrick’s Dr Strangelove except that the hoax call almost triggered a real war between India and Pakistan. On November 28, even as Indian security forces battled the remaining terrorists holed up in the Taj Mahal hotel in Mumbai, Pakistan President Asif Zardari received a call from India stating that External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee wanted to speak to him urgently. No one is clear whether the protocols for screening such calls were followed and ‘Mukherjee’ was put through. He reportedly threatened Pakistan with military retaliation if they did not rein in the terrorist groups responsible for the Mumbai attacks. A concerned Zardari is said to have called up the armed forces and put them on high alert. India was puzzled by the sudden build-up.The mystery was solved only when visiting US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice questioned Mukherjee as to why he had made such a threatening call. A mystified Mukherjee denied ever having made it and said the only person he spoke to was his Pakistani counterpart Shah Mahmood Qureshi, who was in India that time, and that too from a prepared text which had no warnings of an Indian retribution. Rice conveyed the information to Zardari and the situation was defused. A visibly irritated Mukherjee pointed out, “It is worrying that a neighbouring state might even consider action on the basis of such a hoax call.” Stephen P. Cohen, an American expert on relations between India and Pakistan, believes that in every major crisis between the two countries, including the four wars they had fought, there was a serious error of judgment. He regards the hoax call and Pakistan’s reaction to it as one such. The international ridicule and concern apart, the incident damaged Zardari and Pakistan’s credibility in the eyes of the Indian leadership. And blasted any hopes of the two working jointly towards dealing with the new threat that the brazen terror attacks on Mumbai posed.
Yet, the previous day there was an even more significant error of judgment that Zardari and his government headed by Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani had made, which in the eyes of many experts led to the unraveling of the plot behind the Mumbai attacks. In his brief call to Manmohan expressing his concern about the attacks, Gilani had offered to send the director-general of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence Agency to assist in the investigations. By the next morning, Gilani, under pressure from army chief General Ashfaq Pervez Kiyani, backtracked on his offer and said only a director-level officer would be sent. Zardari explained it away as a “miscommunique”. But it was signal to India and the world that it was Kiyani, not Zardari, who was really calling the shots in Pakistan.It was evident that under pressure from Kiyani and his brass, Zardari’s conciliatory and empathetic tone soon gave way to bellicosity as he spearheaded Pakistan’s shrill campaign of outright denial for any responsibility for the Mumbai attacks, even dismissing arrested terrorist Ajmal Amir Kasab, as a “stateless individual”. Zardari then categorically ruled out handing over terrorists on India’s most wanted list and suspected to have taken shelter in Pakistan such as Dawood Ibrahim, the Mumbai don and Maulana Masood Azhar, the Jaish-e-Mohammad chief. Under pressure from the US, Pakistan did wilt and arrest the Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) chief Zakiur Rahman Lakhvi apart from detaining Azhar. But Pakistani leaders reiterated that those arrested would be tried under their law and not be extradited to India. For New Delhi, it was a familiar ploy that would see them being freed after a few months for lack of evidence.
The big message for India: The army is back in control in Pakistan. The fledgling democratic government had become inconsequential in its response to the unfolding crisis. From now on it was Kiyani not Zardari who would have the final say on the future direction that Pakistan would take. A senior Indian official termed it dramatically as, “declaration of the Pakistan Army of its independence.” There is now nothing stopping Kiyani from directly taking charge of governance in Pakistan. But unlike Pervez Musharraf, his predecessor, he has shown no inclination of staging a bloodless coup or taking over as President. Not yet. For the moment he remains content of letting the world know who the real boss of Pakistan is.Long time Pakistan Army watcher Michael Krepon of the Washington DC-based Stimson Center believes “there never really has been a fundamental shift in power in Pakistan” despite the democratic elections in March, 2008. The army, which is the most organised institution in Pakistan, has always been in control of its affairs especially on national security. Krepon doesn’t believe that Kiyani has staged a coup through the backdoor. Instead he argues that Kiyani is only engaged in “balancing pressing external demands with internal security dilemmas.”For India though, the emergence of Kiyani as the real centre of power has serious implications. Given the meticulous way the Mumbai attacks were planned and then executed, it was clear to Indian investigators that this was a commando-type operation that possibly had the involvement of a state actor. With Kasab singing about his LeT and ISI handlers and physical evidence mounting in terms of satellite phone calls, equipment and boats used for the attack, Pakistan’s hand seemed to be smeared all over it. Even Rice told Zardari firmly that the US had evidence to show the links. India, like much of the world, is willing to believe that Zardari and his civilian establishment were probably not involved in sanctioning such a heinous act. But with ISI’s hand or at least that of its “alumnus” in the form of retired officers being seen, the analysis is that the army may be deeply involved in the plot.
The reason the army and therefore, Kiyani, has emerged as the prime suspect is that it stands to gain most from the outcome of the Mumbai attacks. The Pakistan Army has been under tremendous pressure after 9/11 with Musharraf making commitments to crack down on terror groups and go after the Al Qaeda. To keep the brass on board he claimed that the US had promised to put pressure on India to come out with an acceptable solution on Kashmir. He committed over 1,00,000 troops to defend its borders with Afghanistan. But then US demands kept mounting. First it was to deliver the Al Qaeda operatives. Then it was to go after the Taliban, followed by orders to ‘get their leaders’. As pressure mounted to “deliver quality instead of just quantity” the credibility of Musharraf and the Pakistan’s army took a beating. The army was seen as fighting America’s war against fellow Islamists and internal unrest grew.
Musharraf compounded it by clinging to power and trying to muzzle the judiciary into compliance— a move that galvanised civil society against him. Musharraf had to go. So the presidency was distanced from the army with Kiyani taking over as the army chief in November 2007.
Meanwhile, to the army’s growing concern, internal security had deteriorated with rebellions breaking out in Balochistan and North West Frontier Province. Extremist groups with the exception of the LeT were turning against the army and there were even attempts on Musharraf’s life. Worse, Pakistan had its own Taliban to deal with. Suicide attacks and bomb blasts had become the norm. For the first time in the army’s history, there were reports of desertions of some 900 of its personnel in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) region. Morale was at an all-time low.When he took over as chief, for a while Kiyani made the right noises that reassured the US and India. He wanted his generals to pull out of all political assignments and focus on the army’s primary duty of defending the nation. As a political observer said, “It was a shrewd move because the army by then had become highly unpopular and some of its officers were openly corrupt.” He then cleverly colluded with
Zardari to oust Musharraf from the presidency. Zardari, after taking over as President in September, began threatening the establishment by starting a whole new narrative on relations between India and Pakistan. He talked of not being burdened by the baggage of the past and stated that “India was not a threat to Pakistan,” even dreaming of a visa-free regime between the two countries. He expansively offered “a no first use” of nuclear weapons agreement to India that had the army brass gnashing its teeth.
Pakistan’s army doctrine in recent years rested on the premise that as long as India feared a nuclear first strike by Islamabad, it would not want to engage with its neighbour in a full-scale war. Both, the1999 Kargil War and the 2001 Parliament attack had affirmed to Pakistan that India was chary of waging a full-fledged war with it. Zardari did a quick U-turn on his no first use offer after Kiyani reportedly ticked him off.Kiyani, meanwhile, had begun asserting his independence. When the new government under Gilani came to power in March it passed an order bringing the ISI under the control of the Interior Ministry. Within days, the Government hastily rescinded the order, after Kiyani lit into them.
Then when American predator drones began making attacks inside Pakistani territory, Kiyani threatened to blow them out of the sky if they violated his country’s airspace again. He had begun asserting his clout to prove that he was not “America’s general.”. Yet the army remained unpopular and the new democratic dispensation a potential threat to its dominance. So experts believed that the army headed by Kiyani was looking for “a one-shot solution”: Target India. Nothing unites Pakistan like a confrontation with India which also brings the army to the forefrontThe Mumbai attacks must be seen in this light. If India acts on expected lines, it would produce the desired results for the Pakistani army. Already there is a rallying cry across Pakistan to stand as one and that includes the fundamentalists (see box on Pakistan’s options). Everyone now looks upon Kiyani and the army as the only hope to counter an aggressive India. The peace process is on hold and is in danger of breaking down altogether.
If India turns the heat on, Kiyani can legitimately pull his troops out from the unpopular war they are conducting on the Afghan front and reposition them on the Indian border. It would also force the US to intervene and give President-elect Barack Obama an excuse to appoint a special envoy like Bill Richardson to mediate on Kashmir between India and Pakistan. Such a move is certain to sour the strong relations that India and US have built up after the nuclear deal. All these developments would eminently suit both Kiyani and Pakistan.
Kiyani is no Musharraf, but then that is possibly one of his strengths. Shuja Nawaz, author of Crossed Swords: Pakistan: Its Army and the Wars Within, who has interacted with Kiyani says that unlike Musharraf, “who was quick in making decisions and possibly impetuous too, Kiyani is more deliberate and collegiate in his approach.” An avid golfer, Kiyani, 56, is a chain smoker and as another observer put it, “More Pakistani and less cosmopolitan than Musharraf.” Growing up in a working class family (his father was a junior commissioned officer in the army) Kiyani was considered “a thoroughly professional officer” not given to flamboyance. He was the late Benazir Bhutto’s deputy military attaché during her first tenure as prime minister in 1988. When Musharraf usurped power, Kiyani, because of his unquestioned loyalty, had his complete trust. Kiyani was even made ISI chief and, after the assassination attempt on Musharraf, impressed him by bringing the perpetrators to book. His ascension to the top post was seen as a chance for the Pakistan Army to regain its professionalism. Says Cohen, “He is seen as straightforward person—someone who wants to keep the army out of politics.”
Nawaz believes that there is “no dissonance” between Islamabad and Rawalpindi and that the civilian and military leadership is pulling together. He asserts, “They both don’t want a confrontation with India. Kiyani is trying to break the army out of the stereotypes and moulds that it is usually portrayed in.” Ashley Tellis, a senior fellow at Carnegie, believes that Kiyani’s assertion over the ISI was limited to telling the political leadership not to trample on what he considered the army’s “prerogative.” Nawaz discounts the notion that the Pakistan Army is keen to pull out of the Afghan front, stating that the war there is as important for the country’s unity and integrity. Cohen agrees: “Moving troops from the Afghan border to the Indian front is like turning the Queen Elizabeth around—it would take a long time doing.”
Yet many Indian experts believe there is much in the Mumbai attacks and its motivations that need explaining. They are convinced that Kiyani and Pakistan played a diabolical role in the attacks and their strategy will become more evident in the months ahead. India faces a major dilemma in its course of action.
It wants the Pakistani army to remain engaged on the Afghan front because it suits India to have the extremists tamed rather than fight in Kashmir. India also doesn’t want to play into jihadi hands and create a crisis that would push the Pakistan Army to the forefront. Also, unlike in 2001 India realises it is not dealing with, “one Pakistan as it was under Musharraf. It has now become a conglomerate of institutions and individuals that has made it almost dysfunctional—a failed state.” With so many divisive forces, Pakistan could easily implode.Nor is India likely to be satisfied with assurances or token arrests of heads of terror groups. “We are not in the word business anymore. We need targeted response from Pakistan—we want to see outcomes and we are willing to think it through,” said a senior official.
He pointed out that the Bangladesh war, which dismembered Pakistan, took over a year of preparation. That included India making an international case for the refugees pouring across its borders, signing a treaty with Soviet Union to neutralise the US, building the Mukti Bahini to fight as a liberation force and carefully marshalling its own armed forces to make decisive strikes in Pakistan. “These are defining moments and you don’t do them overnight. Patience and planning is the key,” he says.
India has to be clear of its end goal which usually translates to what kind of Pakistan does India want. Should Pakistan be to India what Canada is to the US? Does India want a stable Pakistan but not a strong one? Does it want to see the further dismemberment of Pakistan? Does it want to put terrorists operating out of Pakistan out of business? Does it want it to be like Jinnah’s Pakistan that L.K. Advani advocated? Or does it want to prove a limited political and psychological point? After determining its objective, what is key for India is not being predictable but looking for smart options.Getting international pressure put on Pakistan would help. Armed with growing evidence gathered from intelligence agencies investigating the Mumbai attacks, India has mounted a global diplomatic initiative to get Islamabad to hand over some of these fugitives. According to intelligence reports, Dawood was recently admitted at the Army Hospital in Rawalpindi for a kidney illness which has been shared with the US. India then made a strong intervention at the UN Security Council on December 9, on a debate on terrorism asking for the council to ban Jamaat-ud-Daawa, the new front organisation of the LeT, which it did.
Officials say the arrested LeT leaders should be handed over to India. Pakistan uses both the leaders and the terror group as one of its main lines of defence against India and is therefore wary of handing over assets it has built over the years.
If the UPA Government manages to force Pakistan to hand them over, it will be a major step in tackling terrorism. It would also be a deft political move with general elections looming.
India also continues to maintain that it “is keeping all options open”, including a military strike. But as Tellis points out, “A military strike is the first move but it’s not going to be the last one.” India must now be acutely aware there is an ambitious general in Pakistan waiting for us to make a false step.

Afghanistan: impact of civilians killed by U.S./U.K.

2008-12-17T14:43:00.000+05:30

Informants often give bad information either accidentally or because they are pursuing tribal or personal vendettas Relatives of those killed have joined the Taliban because they want to avenge their brothers, fathers or cousins
It was 7.30 on a hot July morning when the plane came swooping low over the remote ravine. Below, a bridal party was making its way to the groom’s village in an area called Kamala, in the eastern province of Nangarhar, to prepare for the celebrations later that day. The first bomb hit a large group of children who had run on ahead of the main procession. It killed most of them instantly. A few minutes later, the plane returned and dropped another bomb, right in the centre of the group. This time the victims were almost all women. Somehow the bride and two girls survived but as they scrambled down the hillside, desperately trying to get away from the plane, a third bomb caught them. Hajj Khan was one of four elderly men escorting the bride’s party that day.

“We were walking, I was holding my grandson’s hand, then there was a loud noise and everything went white. When I opened my eyes, everybody was screaming. I was lying metres from where I had been, I was still holding my grandson’s hand but the rest of him was gone. I looked around and saw pieces of bodies everywhere. I couldn’t make out which part was which.” Relatives from the groom’s village said it was impossible to identify the remains. They buried the 47 victims in 28 graves. Stories like this are relatively common in today’s Afghanistan. More than 600 civilians have died in NATO and U.S. air strikes this year. The number of innocents killed this way has almost doubled from last year, and tripled from the year before that. These attacks are weakening support for the Afghan government and turning more and more people against the foreign occupation of the country.

“If things were going OK maybe we could accept the occasional mistake. But with the economy the way it is, the worsening security situation, and the lack of development — when they kill civilians on top of everything else, it’s too much for people,” says Jahid Mohseni who runs Tolo TV, Afghanistan’s most popular television station, with his two brothers. The U.S. military initially denied any civilians had been killed in the Kamala bombing but later said they were investigating the incident. When asked this week for an explanation of events on that morning in July, the U.S. military in Afghanistan said they were unfamiliar with the specifics but would look into it.

The latest figures from the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission, taken a month ago, suggest about 750 civilians have been killed by foreign forces this year. Most were killed in air strikes. The remainder were shot by jumpy soldiers, who often open fire in crowded public places after an attack on one of their convoys.

Humanitarian aid agencies say privately that they believe the figure is significantly higher, as many victims classed as “insurgents” are actually non-combatants.

As the situation deteriorates across the country, the killing of civilians is seen as a final affront in a litany of mistakes by the foreign forces in Afghanistan. Patience among ordinary Afghans has worn thin and anger grows with each attack.

In July this year hundreds of Afghans took to the street in Nangarhar province after the air strike on the wedding party. The riots turned violent as protesters raged against the foreign occupiers and the government they support. The army eventually had to be called in to quell the rioting.

Civilian casualties are not new to Nangarhar province — last year a convoy of U.S. Marines hit by a bomb attack subsequently opened fire in a bazaar killing 16 people. The marines involved were sent home and their officers charged, but a subsequent ruling cleared them of responsibility for the deaths.

NATO and U.S. spokesmen say their forces go to great lengths to avoid civilian casualties. But all too often after an air strike, they deny civilians are among the dead or claim far fewer were killed.

A recent Human Rights Watch report said U.S. investigations, when launched, have been “unilateral, ponderous, and lacking in transparency, undercutting rather than improving relations with local populations and the Afghan government.”

The routine denials and hands-off attitude are contributing to a growing sense among Afghans that their lives are cheap in the eyes of the foreigners.

“We know they don’t intend to kill the civilians but we don’t believe they care enough not to,” said Ahmad Zia, a jeweller in Kabul’s busy bazaar. “If it continues we will see a lot more people joining the fight against the foreigners. It’s inevitable.”

The accidental targeting of wedding parties in Afghanistan has only deepened resentment. Last month 27 people were killed when a wedding party was bombed near Kandahar. It was the third wedding party to be hit this year alone. He says many of the incidents result when planes are brought in to protect forces coming under fire. “Their troops are in trouble so they call in the air strikes without considering that it is a civilian area.”

Sharif Hassanyar, a former interpreter with U.S. Special Forces who is now working as a journalist, described how decisions were taken to bomb areas based on flimsy intelligence.

“I remember when I was working with a group of Rangers and a spy in the area told them the Taliban were training in a garden of a house so they bombed the house, without checking the information. Afterwards they found out that there had not been any Taliban there, only civilians were killed by the bombs,” he said.

Informants for the foreign forces often give bad information either accidentally or because they are pursuing tribal or personal vendettas against individuals in neighbouring villages, he added.

“The Taliban grow very strong in the aftermath of each attack,” said Hassanyar.

Mullah Zubiallah Akhond, a Taliban commander in Oruzgan province, says the attacks are sending recruits his way daily. “The people who are fighting with the Taliban are the brothers, uncles and relatives of those killed by the Americans. They have joined the Taliban and are fighting the Americans because they want to avenge their brothers, fathers or cousins,” he says.

“There are now Taliban in every village, many of them have rejoined the movement after the savage attacks carried out by the Americans.”

Popular struggle

He believes the attacks have helped turn their fight against the foreigners into a nationwide popular struggle.

“When an American vehicle is blown up every day on the main road in Wardak, the order is not coming from the Taliban leadership. It is the people themselves who have turned against the foreigners. They have come together in their villages and do not allow the foreigners to pass through their areas.”

It is not just the deaths from air strikes that are poisoning the hearts of Afghans. In the capital, Kabul, each day, terrified drivers swerve out of the way as foreign troops hurtle through the streets in their armoured convoys training their rifles on the drivers and pedestrians and shouting obscenities.The Afghans know to keep out of the way. Last year a U.S. military convoy ploughed into several vehicles, killing seven people including a family. The incident sparked a riot involving thousands of angry Kabul residents. It was suppressed only after the security forces started shooting protesters on the streets. At least 15 people were killed. “The anti-American feelings in Afghanistan are not just coming from conservative or religious elements,” said Shukria Barakzai, a female MP. “These feelings stem from the actions and military operations of the foreign troops. The anti-western sentiment is directly because of the military actions, the civilian casualties, and the lack of respect by foreign troops for Afghan culture.”

Will the proposed emergency protocol on media coverage work?

2008-12-17T14:42:00.000+05:30

Before the week is through, the News Broadcasters Association (NBA) — a collective of leading private news and current affairs channels — hopes to have in place an emergency protocol for coverage of situations like the Mumbai terror attack. Indeed, a welcome step but will it meet the same fate as the NBA’s self-regulation guidelines and advisory to channels, in the midst of the attack, to exercise restraint? The NBA administration hopes not; arguing that the self-regulation guidelines were just over a month old when the terrorists struck in Mumbai and this was the first test case. Fair enough, the guidelines were adopted only on Gandhi Jayanti day this year. But, can the NBA forget that the member channels decided in April itself to self-regulate and come out with a set of guidelines? Forget 26/11. That was unprecedented. India — for all its experience with terrorism — has never had to deal with a hostage situation of this magnitude and the television medium was as ill prepared as was the security establishment.

But, did the media — particularly those channels which came together in April to form the NBA — show any restraint or sensitivity while covering the Noida double murder case involving schoolgirl Aarushi Talwar a month later? Surely, had they been committed to self-regulation, they could have begun making some effort to tune in their functioning to the self-regulation regime they planned to put in place. As the murder coverage showed, that was too much to expect.

Then, why should anyone be convinced that the emergency protocol will work? And, what about channels outside the NBA fold? When heads of news networks have gone back on their word — much like the politicians they have been lashing out at over the past fortnight — before, can they be trusted to exercise restraint? Even the reminder from the NBA through its November 27 advisory was ignored.

Here’s what the advisory said: “Considering the extremely precarious situation editors/members are advised that it is vital that no coverage be made which would in any way affect the operations…or…endanger the safety of persons who are involved in the terror attacks.

“Accordingly, as a measure of self-restraint and self-regulation and to demonstrate our sense of responsibility all editors/members are requested to ensure not to cover this episode in any manner that may tend to interfere in the operations of the security agencies or impede the terrorists being brought to justice or endanger the lives of persons who are in the midst of the terror attacks.

“We emphasise that this advisory be taken with the utmost seriousness since these are matters which are far above the other interests of any broadcaster.”

An editor of a leading magazine recently said the media had been able to get away with a lot because they had public opinion in their favour. That began eroding with the Mumbai coverage, thereby providing enough ground to the executive to step in. Work has already begun in this direction.

Under pressure from the security agencies to keep the media at bay during operations and cashing in on the public ire, the Union Information and Broadcasting Ministry is planning to amend the Cable Television Networks Rules (CTNR) to prohibit live coverage of such crises; live telecast of phone-ins with perpetrators of a crime during the course of the action; audiovisuals of a narco-analysis/lie-detector test, judicial confession or any other method of investigation;….

Since earlier attempts to regulate the electronic media through the Broadcasting Services Regulation Bill had to be withdrawn in the face of stiff opposition from the entire fourth estate, the Ministry is considering the CTNR amendment route as it requires only an executive order.

Again, just like in the case of the proposed emergency protocol of NBA, will this tweaking CTNR work when laws in this country are observed more in the breach? The Cable Television Networks (Regulation) Act (CNTRA) and the Programme Code for all channels already empower the government to step in in the national interest. Why weren’t these invoked?

Or for that matter, was Section 144 of the Criminal Procedure Code (Cr.PC), which bars assembly of more than five persons in an area, used? In fact, according to the Mumbai Police, Section 37(3) of the Bombay Police Act — which, like Section 144 Cr.PC, prohibits by order any assembly of people — was in place and an exception was made only for journalists. So, at any point the journalists could have been herded out had the government so desired. Or, plain and simple, why isn’t the scene of crime –— the Mumbai terror attack or any murder spot — ever cordoned off? Why should journalists — print and electronic are equally guilty – be walking all over a crime scene disturbing and, in turn, destroying evidence, and in this case possibly impacting the operation? Again, India does have a law — Section 2(h) of the Cr.PC which provides for collection of evidence from the scene of crime. Destruction of evidence is an offence under Section 201 of the Indian Penal Code. Officials of the I&B Ministry insist that even if they tried to invoke the CNTRA, there was always the danger of its being revoked as per orders from the “top.” With public anger already directed against it, the government was wary of interfering with the media and attracting the charge of smothering freedom of expression and opening another front in a “war-like” situation.

This when the Supreme Court observed that freedom of the press is subject to reasonable restrictions enumerated in Article 19(2) of the Constitution. These restrictions include the sovereignty and integrity of India, and the security of the state. So, it was not as if the government was ill-equipped to rein in the media during the 60 hours of “riveting action” as one journalist put it. Just like the media chose to turn a Nelson’s eye to the self-regulation guidelines and the advisory sent by the NBA and the Ministry in the midst of the operation, the government — for reasons best known to it — decided not to invoke any of the powers it has to even regulate what was being aired. Then, do we need another law or more lip service to self-regulation?

New initiatives for labour

2008-12-17T14:40:00.000+05:30

The world’s wage earners are in for hard times. With the developed world’s liquidity crisis triggering a global economic downturn, the first Global Wage Report by the International Labour Organisation has made a timely call for the reassertion of labour market institutions, minimum wages, and collective bargaining, in particular. Premonitions of a decline in jobs and a cutback on wages, as a consequence of the spreading economic contagion, have come true. Read along with the ILO’s recent projections of a rise in unemployment and an increase in the number of working poor (those with jobs but earning less than $2 a day), the report’s forecast of a decline in real wages in 2009 is the clearest early warning signal yet of hard times for workers, particularly low wage-earners. The unkindest cut is that these predictions are to overtake the world’s workforce when market forces are fast eclipsing the economic role of the state. Safeguarding wage earners is critical. Shrinking wages directly affect the world’s middle- and low-income classes, which account for 89 per cent of the world’s population (2002 data). The accompanying dip in consumer expenditure will drag economic growth and delay recovery from recession.
The Indian wage earners’ woes are exacerbated by several factors. First, the fragmented unionisation and the changing composition of trade union membership post-1991 provide minimal scope for collective bargaining. Secondly, the effete status of minimum wages, even in occupations where these are mandated, offers no meaningful economic sustenance or protection. As an initial step, the coverage of minimum wages should be widened to protect most vulnerable groups — urban non-formal workers, for instance. Keeping the system simple is equally important. A meaningful and universal minimum wage policy should precede any further initiative on labour reforms. Another imperative is to step up income support measures. One sector where these are required immediately is also one that is going through a major labour market transformation: the rural agrarian workforce, which suffers from lower job prospects. Seen along with the big-picture of a shrinking organised and public sector workforce there is an urgent need for a comprehensive labour protection policy. These call for a further strengthening, not weakening, of labour market institutions. The challenges are huge, but given the hardships that wage earners are likely to experience, governments in India and elsewhere should strengthen their protective role through new initiatives.

A WARRIOR'S END

2008-12-17T14:37:00.000+05:30

CHAIRMAN YASSER ARAFAT'S six decade long personal struggle for the emancipation of his people has come to an end. In contrast to other iconic figures who led their people against the forces of colonialism, the Chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organisation was unable to secure freedom for his nation before he succumbed to an undiagnosed illness. However, Mr. Arafat's achievement was in some ways even more monumental given the conditions in which the Palestinians began their national liberation movement. They had barely begun to create a sense of oneness when they were struck in full force by Western imperialism and the Zionist enterprise. The powers that drew the political map of the land between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea refused to recognise even the existence of the people who had lived there for generations. For long these powers went along with the Zionist fiction that this territory was "a land without people" that should be given to "a people without a land." The Palestinians were given almost no succour and support when they were first driven out of 80 per cent of their homeland and very little effective help as they were subjected to colonial oppression in the strips of territory left in their possession. While the major powers in the so-called democratic world treated them with disdain, some of their Arab brethren were inclined to exploit rather than assist them. Mr. Arafat became the symbol of a scattered people because he, more than anyone else, preserved their national spirit and sustained their desire for liberty. In assessing the great warrior's achievements, there are those who say he missed a historic opportunity to secure his peoples' future when he refused to accept the deal Israel offered during the Camp David talks in 2000. This is a baseless assessment. The Palestinians, who were clinging on to the remnants of the patrimony left in their possession after the creation of Israel, were understandably reluctant to make further territorial and other compromises as they were asked to do at Camp David. The Zionist state was the real culprit behind the collapse of the Oslo processes because it refused to offer a settlement that Mr. Arafat could make his people accept. While Israel did make an improved offer at the follow-up negotiations held in Taba a few months later, it was by then too late for a settlement since the second intifada was under way. Mr. Arafat's critics are also in error when they blame him for the violence that has rocked the region for the past four years. It was the Israeli extremist, Ariel Sharon, who goaded the Palestinians into a violent uprising by arrogantly marching through the Holy Sites in Jerusalem. With Israel systematically destroying the administrative and security infrastructure the Palestinian Authority had established, Mr. Arafat was deprived of the means to stop the suicide bombers. The controversies arising out of the mismanagement of the Authority's finances are more troublesome. While no one has ever accused Mr. Arafat of misappropriating public funds for his personal use, he was unable to dispel the impression that this money was sometimes used arbitrarily to consolidate his political position.

In coming together to form a collective leadership, the different streams of the Palestinian national movement tendered the tribute that would have pleased their beloved Chairman most. This leadership is a manifestation of the spirit of national unity that Mr. Arafat created and sustained over decades. The smoothness with which the different factions overcame their differences shows that there was always an underlying willingness to work together. This owed in large measure to the governing style of a master tactician who took care to see that no faction was completely alienated. While Mr. Arafat never allowed anyone to challenge his pre-eminence in Palestinian politics and society, his people always found him approachable. The leader's life has come to an end but he has left a shining legacy for his followers to build upon

Srilanka: Indian concerns

2008-12-17T14:32:00.000+05:30

ON the morning of October 6, India’s National Security Adviser (NSA) M.K. Narayanan, in what is termed as “a departure from the norm” in diplomatic parlance, summoned the Sri Lankan Deputy High Commissioner to India to express “India’s grave concern and unhappiness” over the course of the ongoing military confrontation between the Sri Lanka security forces and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eeelam (LTTE). It is only natural that the action triggered questions as to what prompted the Indian government to engage its seniormost official tasked with national security to “summon” the number two in the mission of a neighbouring country, with whom India has a special and cordial relationship.A two-paragraph statement released by the Ministry of External Affairs on the meeting leaves little scope for doubt that it is the most forceful articulation by India on various aspects relating to the ongoing war and the ethnic conflict since open hostilities broke out between the Sri Lankan military and the LTTE in July 2006. The Sri Lankan Deputy High Commissioner was summoned by the NSA today to express India’s grave concern and unhappiness at the growing casualties of unarmed Tamil civilians as a result of military action. The escalation of hostilities in the North and the resultant fallout was leading to a great deal of concern in India. It was pointed out that there was need for the Sri Lankan government to act with greater restraint and address the growing feeling of insecurity among the minority community. To stem the deteriorating humanitarian situation, the need to revive the political process was highlighted. It was essential that vital supplies to the affected population were not disrupted in any manner. “Serious concern was also expressed at the continuing attacks on Indian fishermen, including the recent incident on September 27-28. This was not in keeping with the spirit of the understanding reached between India and Sri Lanka and recently reiterated in meetings held at the highest levels. The Sri Lankan Navy should cease such attacks and not lose sight of the humanitarian and livelihood dimensions of this issue.”

Lanka-watchers were not exactly surprised at the missive but were certainly left wondering about the concrete nature of India’s concerns and, most important, what exactly New Delhi had in mind when it talked about the need “to revive the political process”. The doubts lingered especially as the Mahinda Rajapaksa government has kept India in the loop on every single political and military initiative it has launched in the past two years. Such was the convergence in the thinking of Colombo and New Delhi that India was the only country to characterise the interim report of the All Party Representative Committee (APRC) in January as a “welcome first step”.

Further, there was no build-up in the two capitals that could explain the summoning of the diplomat. From the perspective of Sri Lanka, there was no major change in the ground situation in the conflict zone in the North where the LTTE continues to hold some territory against mounting odds. The displacement of 200,000-odd citizens trapped in the warn-torn territory is something that began on August 3 when the military crossed the border of Kilinochchi district. Incidentally, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was in Colombo on that day to attend the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation summit and made use of the opportunity for a detailed interaction with President Rajapaksa on the sidelines of the summit. The Indian side did not go public with any signs of alarm in the island nation.

Further, Manmohan Singh and Rajapaksa were in New York in the last week of September to participate in the United Nations General Assembly sessions. It is customary for the Prime Minister to meet important heads of state, particularly from neighbouring countries, on the sidelines of the General Assembly. Manmohan Singh and Rajapaksa were slated to meet, but presumably owing to scheduling problems the interaction did not take place. With the 123 nuclear deal with the United States hanging fire, the Indian establishment did not consider a meeting with Rajapaksa a top priority.

POLITICAL COMPULSIONS

So, what is the reason for the abrupt summoning of the Sri Lankan Deputy High Commissioner? To borrow a cliche from Sri Lanka Minister and Defence spokesperson Keheliya Rembukwella, in the perception of Colombo it could have been the result of “domestic political compulsions”. The Minister was responding to a question at the routine weekly briefing on a flurry of statements on the situation in the island nation emanating from the southern Indian State of Tamil Nadu. Going by press reports, political parties in the State are vying with one another to express concern over the plight of innocent Tamil citizens in the battle zones in Sri Lanka.The chorus on the humanitarian crisis rose suddenly when the Communist Party of India (CPI), the ruling Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) and the Congress joined voices with the Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (MDMK) and the Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK). The political atmosphere in the State got surcharged when the CPI announced that the AIADMK would join the token strike it planned to express solidarity with the innocent citizens trapped in the war zone.

For reasons that are not clear, the AIADMK stayed out and announced its own programme. Later, the party’s general secretary Jayalalithaa made it clear that her party was concerned about the common people and not the LTTE. Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi, who was the target of attack by rival political parties, was left with little choice on the subject. After a marathon session with his senior leaders on the morning of October 5, he issued a statement exhorting the people to send lakhs and lakhs of telegrams to the Prime Minister, asking him to “intervene immediately and stop the genocide of Tamils in Sri Lanka”.

Karunanidhi urged the Central government not to be deterred by the undesirable events of the past and instead take action to prevent racial killings. He told the Prime Minister to treat the statement as a matter of extreme urgency and act accordingly. The Prime Minister telephoned Karunanidhi on October 6 and discussed the issue. At a meeting in Chennai on the same day, Karunanidhi said, “We may have to consider the next step if the Central government fails to take immediate action. If it fails to find a solution to the problems of the Tamil people, we may be forced to consider whether this government is necessary.”

Clearly, it is pressure from various parties in Tamil Nadu that appears to have forced New Delhi to summon the Deputy High Commissioner. Political circles in Sri Lanka aver that India chose the NSA for the job as he represented the Prime Minister directly and thus wanted to convey a strong message.

However, contrary to expectations, the action of the Government of India did not trigger any panic in Sri Lanka. On October 7, Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama made use of the opportunity provided by the assassination of a former Army General and United National Party (UNP) leader, Janaka Perera, by a suspected woman suicide cadre of the LTTE in Anuradhapura to issue a detailed response to the Indian move.

His message to India was polite but unambiguous: Please do not mistake the wood (Tigers) for the trees (Tamilians). “While our security forces are engaged in their present humanitarian operation to free our people from the fascist and dictatorial control of the LTTE terrorists, who are now confined to their last strongholds in parts of the Kilinochchi and Mullaitivu districts, critics of Sri Lanka and sympathisers of the LTTE are attempting to portray a misleading and totally false notion that the government is opting for a military solution to address the problems of the minorities. It is unfortunate that some of our friends too have been influenced by this malicious propaganda,” he told Parliament in a suo motu statement.

He further argued that the onus was on the international community to support Sri Lanka by taking concrete and tangible measures to combat terrorism. “Those who criticise the government for terminating the Cease Fire Agreement with the LTTE should be reminded that it was precisely the ending of this farcical and non-existent truce, in January this year, that ended the LTTE monopoly of Tamil politics and paved the way for the breakaway faction of the LTTE in the Eastern Province to transform itself into a recognised political party, the Tamil Makkal Viduthalai Puligal (TMVP), which contested two elections and won a popular mandate to govern the region.”

Referring to Narayanan’s expression of concern on the situation in Sri Lanka, the Minister reiterated the government’s policy of maintaining a close dialogue with India, with whom “we have a time-tested relationship based on mutual goodwill and trust”. The last paragraph was the clincher. “It is very important that all those who are concerned about Sri Lanka, including the welfare of the Tamil community, should perceive the marginalisation of the LTTE in the correct light. LTTE does not represent the Tamil community in Sri Lanka. Therefore, military action against the LTTE should never be perceived as action against our brethren, the Tamil community. We are concerned about them and will work with them to ensure their welfare, security and aspirations since they are our fellow citizens,” it read.

On the same day, President Rajapaksa met Indian High Commissioner Alok Prasad to discuss the Indian concerns and assured him of all possible measures to allay New Delhi’s apprehensions. He followed it up with a meeting of the APRC on October 11 in a bid to send out the message that the “political process” to find a solution to the ethnic conflict acceptable to all was very much alive. At the meeting, he reiterated the call to the LTTE to lay down arms, surrender and enter the political mainstream.

A statement by the Presidential Secretariat said that Rajapaksa summoned the APRC to apprise its members of the current developments on the “operations to eradicate terrorism, establish peace and restore democracy throughout the country”. In its interim report, the APRC had recommended steps for full implementation of the 13th Amendment to the Constitution, made in the aftermath of the India-Sri Lanka Accord of 1987, holding of elections to the Eastern Provincial Council and an interim political set-up in the North before the holding of elections to the Northern Provincial Council.

With the main opposition, the UNP and the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), staying out of the APRC, the body is reduced to a group of parties aligned with the ruling combine. The TMVP, led by rebel LTTE leader Vinayagamoorthi Muralidaran, widely known as “Col” Karuna or Karuna Amman, is the new entrant to the APRC. “However difficult it may be, it is my belief that the efforts to find political solutions to political issues should be continued. It is my belief that there are no military solutions to political questions. The people have elected us to realise their aims and aspirations. It is our duty to ensure to the Tamil people of the North the same democratic rights as enjoyed by the people in all other parts of the country. Military operations have become necessary to eradicate terrorism from the country and enthrone democracy throughout the land,” Rajapaksa told the members of the APRC.

Karuna Amman, who was inducted into Parliament recently, took part in the deliberations. The statement issued by the Secretariat quoted him as saying that he had been with the LTTE for more than 22 years and knew by experience that when the LTTE came forward seeking peace it was always to strengthen itself further. On earlier occasions, incumbent governments, possibly by mistake, had encouraged the LTTE by giving it arms and money.

“He recalled his own participation in several rounds of talks with the government held under international sponsorship. They had come to an understanding to accept a federal system as a solution. However, Anton Balasingham, without consulting [LTTE supremo] Prabakaran, had issued a statement stating that they were willing to consider a federal system. When he discussed this with Prabakaran, he rejected the idea of federalism. He wanted the talks dragged for at least five years till the LTTE obtained enough arms to strengthen itself further,” the statement said.It is indeed a delicate moment for India. With general elections a few months away and a growing clamour in Tamil Nadu for a more active role by New Delhi to alleviate the sufferings of innocent Tamil citizens, India has to do a balancing act. Colombo understands the Indian predicament and does not want to add to its discomfiture by any rash talk even though it is not in a position to satisfy fully the conflicting constituencies in Tamil Nadu.

Swastik

2008-12-17T02:42:00.000+05:30

Swastik- Symbol of Hinduism at 'Shakti Peeth', Chattarpur, New Delhi, India.
“Hands off our sacred Swastika” must be the loudest roar of the followers of Vedic or Hindu Dharma and all its sects all over the world to save the divinity, purity, auspiciousness, serenity, prestige and position Swastika holds in human race, after the German members of European Parliament called for the total ban on the use of Swastika all over Europe in protest of Prince Harry’s provocation of international outrage by wearing Nazi outfits with a swastika arm band in a private fancy dress party. It is shocking and astonishing news for the lovers of Swastika, irrespective of their faiths, all over the world that the European parliament is in opinion of considering such a ban on this innocent symbol. What has Swastika done wrong? What is the crime of Swastika? Once the most popular, respected, beloved, revered and worshipped symbol of human being all over the world by all races and all faiths is facing socially, religiously and ethical discrimination in Christian dominated European Parliament. This senseless, idiotic and illogical motion of Swastika phobia must be opposed strongly and stopped immediately with the demand of lifting the ban and reinstating the use and status of Swastika in Germany. The people of the world must be educated and re-educated in the subject of Swastika to justify such worldwide agitation not only to save the Swastika but also to reinstate this holy and humble symbol with all its status, glory and respects.

Mixed signals

2008-12-17T02:39:00.000+05:30

THE immediate impact of the just-concluded Assembly elections in five States was felt in the Lok Sabha on December 10 when Parliament resumed after a gap of one and a half months. A number of United Progressive Alliance (UPA) members were seen virtually mobbing Sandeep Dikshit, Congress member from East Delhi constituency and the son of Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit. At the same time, Vijay Kumar Malhotra, the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) member from South Delhi who was the party’s choice for the chief ministership in the Assembly elections, had a forlorn look as he sat in the front row of the Opposition benches.The Congress had got the better of the BJP three-two. The Congress retained Delhi and recaptured Rajasthan and Mizoram, while the BJP managed to hold on to Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh. The result in Delhi brought unexpected cheer to the Congress and left the BJP shocked. Barely two days before the votes were counted, BJP general secretary Ravi Shankar Prasad told mediapersons confidently that the worst-possible result for the party from the Hindi heartland States – Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Delhi – would be 3-1. According to him, in the party’s consideration Mizoram was not a winnable State and the going was uphill in Rajasthan.

The unexpected loss in Delhi changed the entire complexion of the results for the BJP. The shock value of that defeat was amplified because the BJP leadership had time and again during the campaign described this round of elections as the semi-final leading to the final, that is, the Lok Sabha elections. The leadership had claimed that the BJP, in association with its partners in the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), was sure to win the semi-final and the final. In the UPA, beyond the euphoric reactions, there is the realisation in significant sections of the Congress and its allies that the upper hand gained in the “semi-final” may not add up to much in the “final”. A senior Central Minister of the Congress from the South summed it up thus: “We are smiling now and that is the reflection of having lived to fight another day.” The leader said the three wins were indeed heartening as they came after a string of 11 Assembly-election defeats over the past three years but cautioned that the leadership and the rank-and-file should see it as a platform to regain lost ground and not as a signal of a real political comeback by the party and the UPA. A closer look at the results does emphasise the point that the 3-2 result does not signify a real political victory for the Congress. The Delhi victory was largely the product of the personal charisma of Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit and the perception about the development work undertaken during her two stints in office.

In Rajasthan, the vote was essentially against the Vasundhara Raje-led BJP government and not a positive vote for the Congress. The return to power in Mizoram after a gap of 10 years also does not have a larger political import. The fact that the whole State of Mizoram constitutes a single Lok Sabha constituency underscores this.

According to the South Indian leader, it would be dangerous to read into these results anything more than what they actually are: the results of a few Assembly elections. “We need to keep in mind the BJP experience five years ago. It had won handsome victories in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan in 2003, but could not take these gains to other States in the Lok Sabha elections held a few months later, in 2004,” he said
He added that it would be wrong for the Congress to see these results as signalling the end of issues relating to internal security, price rise or inflation. “In actual terms, what it has provided the Congress and its partners in the UPA is some breathing space and room for manoeuvre before the campaign begins for the Lok Sabha polls,” he said.

This analysis, however, does hold a consolation for the Congress: its main rival, the NDA, did not gain politically. Throughout the run-up to the elections the BJP leadership was convinced that the national issues that the party raised – of internal security, price-rise and inflation – were the real issues in these elections. Leaders such as the BJP’s prime ministerial candidate Lal Krishna Advani, party president Rajnath Singh, Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi and strategist Arun Jaitley went at them hammer and tongs.

In fact, the BJP expected its rhetoric on internal security to have the maximum impact in Delhi. The huge turnout in Delhi on November 29, when the Mumbai terror attacks were brought to closure (Rajasthan went to the polls five days later) especially in the urban constituencies, was cited as proof of the success of the campaign. However, the results showed that the people came out in droves to endorse Sheila Dikshit and her record as Chief Minister.

Clearly, the BJP’s political agenda, which revolved around jingoist feelings over the threat of terrorism, internal security, Pakistan-whipping, and the not-so-camouflaged anti-minorityism, has been squarely rejected by the majority of the voters. In fact, BJP insiders admit that the party won Madhya Pradesh only because the low-profile Shivraj Singh Chauhan moved away from the “terror-focussed rhetoric” of star campaigners such as Modi and concentrated on core bijli-sadak-paani (electricity, roads, water) issues.

The results underscore the fact that the time has come for the BJP to get over its euphoric phase, which began when it retained Gujarat in early 2008. This euphoria was accentuated in May 2008 when the party made its foray into the south by capturing power in Karnataka. The jolts in Delhi and to some extent in Rajasthan should help bring the party to the ground.

COVER STORY

Mixed signals

VENKITESH RAMAKRISHNAN

The results of the Assembly round have infused some energy into the Congress and forced the BJP to take a realistic look at itself.

DIPTENDU DUTTA/AFP

Three wins after 11 defeats. Sonia Gandhi.

THE immediate impact of the just-concluded Assembly elections in five States was felt in the Lok Sabha on December 10 when Parliament resumed after a gap of one and a half months. A number of United Progressive Alliance (UPA) members were seen virtually mobbing Sandeep Dikshit, Congress member from East Delhi constituency and the son of Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit. At the same time, Vijay Kumar Malhotra, the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) member from South Delhi who was the party’s choice for the chief ministership in the Assembly elections, had a forlorn look as he sat in the front row of the Opposition benches.

The Congress had got the better of the BJP three-two. The Congress retained Delhi and recaptured Rajasthan and Mizoram, while the BJP managed to hold on to Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh. The result in Delhi brought unexpected cheer to the Congress and left the BJP shocked. Barely two days before the votes were counted, BJP general secretary Ravi Shankar Prasad told mediapersons confidently that the worst-possible result for the party from the Hindi heartland States – Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Delhi – would be 3-1. According to him, in the party’s consideration Mizoram was not a winnable State and the going was uphill in Rajasthan.

The unexpected loss in Delhi changed the entire complexion of the results for the BJP. The shock value of that defeat was amplified because the BJP leadership had time and again during the campaign described this round of elections as the semi-final leading to the final, that is, the Lok Sabha elections. The leadership had claimed that the BJP, in association with its partners in the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), was sure to win the semi-final and the final.

In the UPA, beyond the euphoric reactions, there is the realisation in significant sections of the Congress and its allies that the upper hand gained in the “semi-final” may not add up to much in the “final”.

A senior Central Minister of the Congress from the South summed it up thus: “We are smiling now and that is the reflection of having lived to fight another day.” The leader said the three wins were indeed heartening as they came after a string of 11 Assembly-election defeats over the past three years but cautioned that the leadership and the rank-and-file should see it as a platform to regain lost ground and not as a signal of a real political comeback by the party and the UPA.

A closer look at the results does emphasise the point that the 3-2 result does not signify a real political victory for the Congress. The Delhi victory was largely the product of the personal charisma of Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit and the perception about the development work undertaken during her two stints in office.

In Rajasthan, the vote was essentially against the Vasundhara Raje-led BJP government and not a positive vote for the Congress. The return to power in Mizoram after a gap of 10 years also does not have a larger political import. The fact that the whole State of Mizoram constitutes a single Lok Sabha constituency underscores this.

According to the South Indian leader, it would be dangerous to read into these results anything more than what they actually are: the results of a few Assembly elections. “We need to keep in mind the BJP experience five years ago. It had won handsome victories in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan in 2003, but could not take these gains to other States in the Lok Sabha elections held a few months later, in 2004,” he said.

SUSHIL KUMAR VERMA

Agenda gone wrong. L.K. Advani.

He added that it would be wrong for the Congress to see these results as signalling the end of issues relating to internal security, price rise or inflation. “In actual terms, what it has provided the Congress and its partners in the UPA is some breathing space and room for manoeuvre before the campaign begins for the Lok Sabha polls,” he said.

This analysis, however, does hold a consolation for the Congress: its main rival, the NDA, did not gain politically. Throughout the run-up to the elections the BJP leadership was convinced that the national issues that the party raised – of internal security, price-rise and inflation – were the real issues in these elections. Leaders such as the BJP’s prime ministerial candidate Lal Krishna Advani, party president Rajnath Singh, Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi and strategist Arun Jaitley went at them hammer and tongs.

In fact, the BJP expected its rhetoric on internal security to have the maximum impact in Delhi. The huge turnout in Delhi on November 29, when the Mumbai terror attacks were brought to closure (Rajasthan went to the polls five days later) especially in the urban constituencies, was cited as proof of the success of the campaign. However, the results showed that the people came out in droves to endorse Sheila Dikshit and her record as Chief Minister.Clearly, the BJP’s political agenda, which revolved around jingoist feelings over the threat of terrorism, internal security, Pakistan-whipping, and the not-so-camouflaged anti-minorityism, has been squarely rejected by the majority of the voters. In fact, BJP insiders admit that the party won Madhya Pradesh only because the low-profile Shivraj Singh Chauhan moved away from the “terror-focussed rhetoric” of star campaigners such as Modi and concentrated on core bijli-sadak-paani (electricity, roads, water) issues.

The results underscore the fact that the time has come for the BJP to get over its euphoric phase, which began when it retained Gujarat in early 2008. This euphoria was accentuated in May 2008 when the party made its foray into the south by capturing power in Karnataka. The jolts in Delhi and to some extent in Rajasthan should help bring the party to the ground.It is evident that the rejection of its internal security rhetoric has had a confusing effect on the party’s leadership. This was highlighted in the contrasting views that Rajnath Singh and Arun Jaitley expressed on December 8. Rajnath Singh said Shivraj Singh Chauhan and Raman Singh had ridden back to power on the “development agenda” and conceded that local issues rather than the campaign based on the “terror threat” decided the elections. Rajnath Singh further added that the Lok Sabha elections, too, could well be decided “primarily on local issues”.

Arun Jaitley, however, maintained that internal security and the terror threat continued to be major campaign issues for the party. Some close supporters of the BJP president told Frontline that Rajnath Singh’s comments on “the preponderance of local issues have to be seen in the context of the fact that the Mayawati-led Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) was instrumental in defeating the Congress in at least two dozen seats in Madhya Pradesh, thereby helping the BJP to retain power in the Hindi heartland. The BSP may not have fulfilled the expectations of forcing hung Assemblies in Madhya Pradesh and Delhi, but there is little doubt that the party registered its presence significantly in four of the five States – barring Mizoram – and caused considerable damage to the Congress.

The party opened its account in Delhi by winning two seats and improved its tally in Rajasthan (up to six from two last time) and Madhya Pradesh (up to eight from two) and maintained its tally of two seats in Chhattisgarh. Apart from these wins, the BSP polled over 10 per cent of the vote in 51 seats in Madhya Pradesh, in 38 seats each in Delhi and Rajasthan and in at least 11 seats in Chhattisgarh. Such incremental progress is ominous for the two mainstream parties. The BSP grew in exactly the same way in Uttar Pradesh and in the process reduced the two mainstream parties to political insignificance.

The rise of the BSP and the gains made by the Left parties in two crucial southern States through the formation of alliances with the Jayalalithaa-led All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) and the Chandrababu Naidu led-Telugu Desam Party (TDP) could well act as a fillip to a prospective ‘third formation’. The AIADMK and the TDP have chosen the Left parties as their allies in Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh respectively despite the fact that they were former partners in the NDA. Their departure from the BJP fold is an indication that the BJP’s jingoist nationalism holds no appeal for a large number of regional parties.

Thus, in a broader sense, this round of Assembly elections has thrown up a new political context that can lead to a new balance of power. The political context is such that it has infused some energy into the Congress’ organisational system and forced the BJP to take a more realistic look at itself even as the BSP and the ‘third formation’ are poised to break new political ground. Obviously, it is a context pregnant with new and exciting possibilities

Wisdom of restraint

2008-12-17T02:36:00.000+05:30

THE Manmohan Singh government has done well to avoid a knee-jerk response to the Mumbai carnage and choose diplomatic means over military ones, in effect rejecting the hyperbolic proposition that the attacks were “India’s 9/11” or “an act of war”. This, coupled with the United States’ pressure on Pakistan to act against those involved in the attacks, has already resulted in the reported arrest of Laskhar-e-Taiba commander Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi and the house arrest of Jaish-e-Mohammed chief Maulana Masood Azhar.How far President Asif Ali Zardari’s government will go in acting against other LeT operatives remains unclear as does the Pakistan Army’s willingness to weaken the group’s military capability. But one can be cautiously optimistic.Eventually, the gains could be modest but will probably contrast favourably with India’s unproductive, expensive – costs estimated at Rs.7,000 to 10,000 crore – and high-risk response to the Parliament House attack of December 2001, which led to a 10-month-long eyeball-to-eyeball confrontation involving one million troops. This took the two countries to the brink of war at least twice, with the potential for escalation to the nuclear level.
No easy options
In the present case, India has no easy options. The task of pushing Pakistan to bring the perpetrators of the Mumbai attacks to justice must be conducted with the utmost caution – without irreparably damaging the bilateral dialogue process or allowing a military build-up on the border or weakening Zardari’s civilian government. Equally, India must maintain a certain distance from the U.S. and not get drawn into its plans for Afghanistan and Pakistan. Consider the basic characteristics of the Mumbai attacks. In all likelihood, they were planned and executed by militants, identified by Indian police and intelligence agencies as belonging to the LeT, who received high-level combat and maritime training from professionals of the kind usually associated with Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency and former Army officers.Unlike in most cases in the past, there is compelling evidence in the present instance. This partly comes from the interrogation of the detained terrorist Mohammed Ajmal Amir Iman alias Kasab, whose arrest was itself a unique achievement. More important is the circumstantial evidence, including the attackers’ Global Positioning System and satellite telephone records, e-mail tracks, ordnance factory markings on arms, fingerprints on boats and other materials, and Pakistani labels on their rations and personal effects left behind on MV Kuber, which they apparently hijacked en route from Karachi. Much of this is admissible in law.The fact that the attackers carried out their assigned tasks with clockwork precision, targeted at least nine sites in Mumbai, and battled 500 commandos for 60 hours speaks of an extraordinarily high level of combat training and fanatical dedication. Indian intelligence and police agencies must painstakingly collect clinching, incontrovertible evidence and establish the attackers’ identities and their Pakistani connections before making any more public statements. They must carefully preserve and analyse all forensic evidence.

A strong caseThere have been lapses here, such as allowing the reopening of Leopold Cafe and the Trident. Too many premature statements have been issued. Even so, the existence of a strong prima facie case simply cannot be denied.

Although a high Indian official, who would only be identified as an “authoritative” source, told journalists in a background briefing on December 4 that the government had evidence of the ISI’s involvement, no specific disclosures have been made to substantiate this allegation. Nor has New Delhi gone public on this. Going by the available literature on terrorism, including publications by Pakistani analysts such as Ahmed Rashid, Shuja Nawaz, Ayesha Siddiqa and Hussain Haqqani, not many groups in Pakistan barring the LeT and Jaish-e-Mohammed have access to such a high level of military expertise through the ISI or possibly Al Qaeda. Past LeT-ISI connections are well documented although some analysts believe that the LeT has “outgrown ISI’s support”. But that some rogue ISI elements were involved cannot be excluded.

Officials and intelligence experts from the U.S. quoted in The New York Times say there is no hard evidence to link the ISI to the Mumbai attacks. “But the ISI has shared intelligence with Lashkar and provided protection for it.” Some others maintain that the collaboration “goes beyond information sharing to include some funding and training…. And these are not rogue ISI elements. What’s going on is done in a fairly disciplined way.” If the ISI is indeed involved, it would speak of a degree of complicity on the part of Pakistan Army officers. This is a hair-raising possibility, indicating loss of Army control over the agency and suggesting that the extremist rot has spread deeper and wider than anyone imagined.However, even if the ISI or its rogue elements are not directly involved, Pakistan has a responsibility to act against the terrorists who were based on its territory and were in all likelihood its citizens, according to Ajmal’s confession.

Easing pressure on Taliban
A good hypothesis about the attackers’ motives is that they wanted to provoke India into a military retaliation. This would furnish Pakistan with an excuse for redeploying the 100,000 Army troops currently stationed near the Afghanistan border, easing pressure on Taliban-Al-Qaeda militants and allowing them to regroup before Barack Obama assumes the U.S. presidency and drafts thousands of more troops into the Afghanistan war.

Pakistani ministers, including Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi, and military officials have already spoken of the need for such redeployment in case tensions mount with India. Taliban commanders operating near the Pakistan-Afghanistan border have said they are willing to offer a ceasefire and fight India jointly with the Pakistan Army.

Such redeployment would probably tilt the strategic balance in Afghanistan, leading to a possible paralysis of and even withdrawal by the U.S.-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) – and chaos in what has become the world’s most dangerous and volatile region, on a par with West Asia.

This spells horrifying consequences for the neighbourhood. India will not be immune from them. A triumphant Taliban and re-energised forces of jehadi extremism will not stop on the India-Pakistan border. Their impact will aggravate the Hindutva menace.

That is why India cannot afford to create conditions that will allow tensions and a military build-up on the Pakistan border, which can set in motion such a disastrous chain of events. A major, and possibly early, casualty in the chain will be Pakistan’s fledgling democracy and civilian government, which already faces an uphill task.

Pakistan’s internal crisis
Pakistan is in serious economic trouble, with inflation running at 25 per cent, its rupee in the doldrums, and a severe balance-of-payments crisis necessitating huge handouts. Worse, there is a growing collapse of governance and rising ethnic strife, manifested by the Mohajir-Pashtun clashes in Karachi, a creeping Taliban takeover of the North-Western Frontier Province, and an insurgency in Balochistan.

Virtually all institutions of governance have lost their integrity. The entire system may begin to unravel if a new military crisis breaks out.It is plain that India has no realistic military option unless it wants to catalyse or accelerate the disintegration of Pakistan. All the irresponsible talk about surgical strikes against LeT camps misses the simple fact that these are makeshift entities, where no personnel or equipment is stationed. True, the LeT has a 75-acre complex at Muridke near Lahore.

But for the most part, it houses madrassas, hospitals and skill-generation centres. It would be ludicrous to attack these – even assuming an attack would not be intercepted or invite massive retaliation.This, of course, does not mean that India should put all its eggs in the U.S. basket or rely on it to mediate its relations with Pakistan. This has always proved a high-risk gamble: the U.S. is guided by its short-term and parochial interests and plays one side off against the other, with unpleasant consequences for both.

Even less should India identify with and endorse the ISAF strategy in Afghanistan. It is therefore disturbing to note that the “authoritative” source referred to earlier characterised the U.S.-led war at the Afghanistan border as “also our war”.

India should chart out an independent course. After the five Assembly elections, which proved that the Bharatiya Janata Party’s hysterical anti-terrorism, attack-Pakistan plank has few takers, the government has greater freedom to fashion its own diplomatic strategy vis-a-vis Pakistan.The best strategy would be to take the Mumbai case to the United Nations Security Council under Resolution 1373, which requires all states to “refrain from providing … support… to entities or persons involved in terrorist acts…”, give “early warning to other states” and “deny safe haven to those who finance, plan, support, or commit terrorist acts…” all on pain of punitive measures. This multilateral approach will avert overbearing U.S. influence in South Asian affairs. Contrary to irrational fears, a 1373 reference will not revive the Kashmir issue or put India at a disadvantage in any other way. But adopting this course means thinking independently of the U.S. and asserting India’s policy autonomy. It is unclear whether our leaders are prepared to do this.

Signs of depression

2008-12-17T02:34:00.000+05:30

THE financial crisis that swamped the United States and overflowed to the rest of the world was expected to affect adversely the real economy. But the speed and extent of the transmission of those effects was a matter of disagreement. It now appears that most observers had underestimated its impact.The recession in the U.S., reports indicate, has not just arrived but has been around for quite some time. Short-term indicators are disconcerting. Preliminary estimates of gross domestic product (GDP) growth during the third quarter of 2008 point to a decline of half a percentage point. But GDP growth during the previous two quarters was positive at 2.8 and 0.9 per cent respectively. The only other quarter since early 2002 when growth was negative was the fourth quarter of 2007. Thus, going by the popular definition of a recession – two consecutive quarters of decline in real GDP – the U.S. is still to slip into recessionary contraction. The independent agency, the Business Cycle Dating Committee of the National Bureau of Economic Research, is the more widely accepted arbiter of the cyclical position of the U.S. economy. This committee, which adopts a more comprehensive set of measures to decide whether or not the economy has entered a recessionary phase, recently announced that the recession in the U.S. economy had begun as early as December 2007. That already makes the recession 11 months long, which has been the average length of recessions during the post-War period.

Yet, unemployment figures suggest that at the moment the recession is only intensifying. On December 5, 2008, the Bureau of Labour Statistics in the U.S. reported that employers had reduced the number of jobs in their facilities by 533,000, taking the unemployment rate to 6.7 per cent. This reduction, which is the highest monthly fall in 34 years, comes after job losses of 320,000 in October and 403,000 in September.

What needs to be noted is that the official unemployment rate underestimates the extent of the problem because in a situation where there are more job-seekers and fewer jobs to find, many of those who were working earlier or were seeking work choose to opt out of the search for employment. This reduces the reported size of the labour force and, therefore, the rate of unemployment. The number of those who “left the labour force” despite being part of it was 420,000 in November. Adjusting for such factors is estimated to take the unemployment rate to above 12 per cent.

Total job losses through this year, which corresponds more or less with the recessionary period as identified by the National Bureau of Economic Research, are 1.9 million. This means that the 2.5 million jobs that President-elect Barack Obama is promising to deliver through his promised fiscal stimulus package would just about recover the jobs lost during the recessionary period preceding his swearing in and leave untouched the backlog of unemployed and those entering the labour force during this period.

The intensity of the recession is reflected in the precarious state of the U.S. auto industry, which has always been a lead indicator of the point on the business cycle the economy is on. Chief executives of the big three automakers, General Motors, Ford and Chrysler, have been repeatedly rushing to Washington to lobby for as much as $34 billion in support to save their firms from bankruptcy.

While Congress is unhappy with companies they think had not done enough to modernise and cut costs during the boom, Democrats at least do not want to add to the unemployment numbers before Obama takes office. In the event, expectations are that the industry would receive billions of dollars in short-term loans to help these firms stay afloat. As Representative Barney Frank put it, aid for automakers would possibly come in the form of a Bill that nobody likes.

But these are all temporary measures aimed at moderating the downturn that persists. Effective action to try and reverse it would have to wait until the new President takes office. But to buoy expectations and prop up confidence, Obama has begun to declare his intent. Immediately after the job loss figures for November were announced, he promised to “create millions of jobs by making the single largest new investment in our national infrastructure since the creation of the federal highway system in the 1950s”. But even if that package is implemented fast and works, this would be a recession that lasts longer than many of its predecessors, and can reach levels where it would have to be termed a Depression.

All that said, we must realise that this is not just an American problem. The recently released preliminary edition of the Organisation of Economic Cooperation and Development’s OECD Economic Outlook for end-2008 shows that GDP in the Euro area declined in both the second and third quarters and is likely to fall also in the fourth, and that economic activity in Japan, which fell in the second quarter of 2008, is set to fall in the last quarter as well.

In the event, GDP growth in the OECD area, which fell from 3.1 per cent in 2006 to 2.6 per cent in 2007, and 1.4 per cent in 2008, is projected to fall to -0.4 per cent in 2009, and the unemployment rate, which rose from 5.6 per cent to 5.9 per cent between 2007 and 2008 is expected to climb to 6.9 per cent in 2009 and 7.2 per cent in 2010.Other projections share this pessimism. Chapter 1 of the United Nations’ World Economic Situation and Prospects 2009, released in advance at the Doha Financing for Development conference, estimates that the rate of growth of world output, which fell from 4 per cent in 2006 to 3.8 per cent in 2007 and 2.5 per cent in 2008, is projected to fall to -0.5 per cent in 2009 as per its baseline scenario and as much as -1.5 per cent in its pessimistic scenario.There is much pessimism on how long this recession would last as well. According to the OECD, for most countries “a recovery to at least the trend growth rate is not expected before the second half of 2010, implying that the downturn is likely to be the most severe since the early 1980s, leading to a sharp rise in unemployment”. Moreover, even this assessment is based on the assumption that the crisis in the financial markets would be resolved soon and that there would be no negative feedback loops both between the real sector and the financial sector (which would exacerbate the financial crisis) and within the real sector (which would intensify the crisis in the real economy) before the positive effects of intervention by governments materialise. Such assumptions are indeed tenuous, increasing the lack of certainty about a recovery.

Thus, job losses in the U.S. are increasing the number of housing foreclosures. Around 7 per cent of mortgage loans were reported to be in arrears in the third quarter, and another 3 per cent at some stage of the foreclosure process. According to the Mortgage Bankers’ Association, about 2.2 million homes will have entered foreclosure proceedings by the end of this year. This would intensify the financial crisis as well as dampen consumer spending, and could worsen the downward spiral.

GROWTH SLIPPING

Such pessimism is also warranted by the evidence that arguments predicated on a decoupling of growth in emerging markets, especially China and India, from growth in the developed industrial countries were unfounded. Direct dependence on developed country markets and indirect dependence on the developed countries via the liquidity injected by capital inflows that sustained a consumption and housing investment boom were important for growth in these and other emerging markets.

A recession in the OECD area implies that external markets would shrink sharply and the financial crisis in the developed countries has resulted in an exodus of capital from many emerging markets with attendant liquidity and demand problems.

Not surprisingly, growth in the emerging markets is slipping at a rapid pace, and thus far only China has managed to announce a large package amounting to close to $500 billion to combat these effects. If growth in the other emerging markets falls even further, as it is expected to, and the Chinese stimulus package does not deliver adequate results, the negative feedback on a global scale would be greater and the global recession would be steeper.In sum, we are yet not in a position to ignore the similarities with the 1930s that have haunted the world ever since the financial crisis triggered by the sub-prime crisis began to unfold. Not surprisingly, demands for a coordinated fiscal stimulus have intensified. But as yet we have only scattered responses from individual countries that are very varied in terms of their scale and scope.

India- China :Strategic differences

2008-12-17T02:32:00.000+05:30

AS soon as the Simla conference began, Tibet claimed that it was an independent state, while China claimed that Tibet was one of its provinces. At the very second meeting of the conference on November 18, 1913, Sir Arthur Henry McMahon, who represented India in the talks, said, according to the minutes, that he did not see how the political status of Tibet could be discussed until the limits of the country were defined.

At the fourth meeting, on February 17, 1914, he tabled a statement on the limits of Tibetan territory. As a compromise, McMahon prepared a partition of Tibet: China to administer Inner Tibet, leaving Outer Tibet completely autonomous, albeit under Chinese suzerainty. The line between the zones was drawn in blue on a map appended to his statement. A red line showed Tibet “as a geographical and political unit”. This red line, insofar as it touched India and Burma, then a part of India, followed an alignment that had already been negotiated by Charles Bell with Lonchen Shatra but was subject to Lhasa’s approval. Lonchen Shatra represented Tibet in the Simla conference.On March 11, McMahon presented to the conference a draft convention, the text of which he had received from London. The draft mentioned clearly “the borders of Tibet and the boundary between Outer and Inner Tibet”. Both were traced on an attached map. By now Lonchen Shatra had received Lhasa’s approval to the border agreement he had reached with Bell. It was given formal shape in the form of an exchange of diplomatic notes between McMahon and the Lonchen on March 24-25, 1914, not at Simla but in Delhi where the conference was held from January to March, 1914.
The Lonchen’s reply of March 25 is reproduced in full: “As it was feared that there might be friction in future, unless the boundary between Tibet and India is clearly defined, I submitted the map, which you sent to me in February last, to the Tibetan government in Lhasa and I accordingly agreed to the boundary as marked in red in the two copies of the maps signed by you, subject to the conditions mentioned in your letter dated March 24, sent to me through Mr. Bell. I have signed and sealed the two copies of the maps. I have kept one copy here and return herewith the other. Sent on the 29th day of the 1st month of the Wood-Tiger year (March 25, 1914) by Lonchen Shatra, the Tibetan Plenipotentiary [Seal of Lonchen Shatra].”

The conditions were in respect of Tibetan ownership in private estates and the apportionment of two sacred places, Tso Karpo and Tsari Sarpa. Thus was the McMahon Line born. It was drawn on two map sheets in red ink at a scale of eight miles to an inch. They were attached to the two notes.Meanwhile, the tripartite conference was coming to a close. On April 27, 1914, at Simla, the representatives of all the three parties initialled the convention that McMahon had presented as well as the map appended. Ivan Chen, the Chinese plenipotentiary, wrote his name in full, though. Two days later, the Chinese government repudiated his action. Further negotiations followed but with no result.On July 3, 1914, having waited in vain for China’s adherence, India and Tibet signed a Declaration that China’s refusal to sign would debar it from the enjoyment of all privileges accruing from the April convention. They reiterated their own adherence to it. McMahon and the Lonchen initialled it again and affixed their seals ceremoniously. For good measure, both signed the map attached to it.Article 9 of the convention, which was initialled by Ivan Chen in April, spoke very distinctly of “the borders of Tibet and the boundary between Outer and Inner Tibet… in red and blue respectively on the map attached hereto”. The alignment of the red line, which delineated the Indo-Tibetan boundary, was identical to the alignment of the boundary as marked in red in the maps signed by McMahon and Lonchen Shatra in March 1914. Ivan Chen could not possibly have missed the significance of the red line on the map he had initialled.

As that authority, Dorothy Woodman, remarks: “It would seem extremely unlikely that Ivan Chen was unaware of the Indo-Tibetan talks and their outcome.” In any case, the language of Article 9 of the April 27, 1914, convention and the red line on the attached map served ample notice to China.

China’s objections

Every single Chinese document objecting to that convention confined the objections only to the border between Inner and Outer Tibet. Not once was the Indo-Tibetan border mentioned. This was true of Chinese objections before the convention was concluded on April 27, 1914, as well as those sent thereafter.

Here is a list of eight precise objections by China. None of them concerned the Indo-Tibetan border, the McMahon Line. All centred on the boundary between Inner and Outer Tibet, and on China’s relations with Tibet. “As far as available records show, Chen did not at any time complain of the bilateral agreement” between India and Tibet defining 850 miles of their border (Woodman, Himalayan Frontiers; 1969; page 181).

The list settles the issue.

1. On October 30, 1913, China presented its “counter-proposals”. Its seventh point read: “The frontier boundary between China Proper and Tibet is now roughly indicated in the accompanying map.” That line ran far to the north of Tawang (see map).

2. On April 3, 1914, China presented a five-point proposal (The McMahon Line and After, Parshotam Mehra; page 216; a masterly work). There was no reference to the border with India.

3. A telegram of April 20, 1914, from the Waichiapu (the Chinese Foreign Office) to Ivan Chen (intercepted by the British) mentioned seven points “on which we will never give in”. Again, the same omission of the external boundary. Its telegram of April 25 hinted that except for the internal boundary the rest was acceptable.

4. China’s Memorandum of April 25, 1914, handed to the British Ambassador also ignored Tibet’s (external) boundary with India.

5. The President of China sent a Secretary to meet the British Ambassador Sir John Jordan on May 1, 1914. He said after and a propos disavowal of Ivan Chen’s initialling that “the question of boundary was the only article not generally acceptable”.

The President objected to “the inclusion in Outer Tibet of Chiamdo and of complete portion of Kokonor territory”. A memo of May 11, 1914, proposed further negotiations.

6. A Memorandum of June 13, 1914, with a map annexed, centred again on the Inner-Outer Tibet boundary.

7. So did another of June 29, 1914. D.P. Choudhury points out that the line drawn in the map of June 13 “lay far away from the north-east frontier of India” (The North-East Frontier of India 1865-1914; page 157).

8. As late as on May 30, 1919, China continued to present its proposals. It said: “As regards the boundary, a brief outline of our proposal is as follows….” Four proposals were listed. All concerned the line dividing the partitioned Tibet.

So, far from accusing Britain of double-dealing, on June 30, 1914, well after the Simla Convention was signed, China begged Britain “to continue to act as mediator between China and Tibet”. On their part, both London and New Delhi were eager to retain China’s friendship and keep the door open for parleys. On March 8, 1920, Edwin Montagu, Secretary of State for India, rejected advice by the Foreign Office to publish the exchange of notes “so long as there remains any prospect of a final settlement of the Tibetan question by negotiations with the Chinese Government”. In 1928, when Aitchison’s Treaties was being revised, India Office decided that the documents be omitted.

Meanwhile, in Tawang, Tibetan administration continued as before in perfect bliss. The botanist W.F. Kingdom-Ward’s visit in 1935 sent the alarm bells ringing in South Block. “The main (Himalayan) range might be de jure frontier” but Tibet continued to administer the area, he reported. Nor was the Government of Assam better informed.

On February 6, 1936, it had to be informed that “the whole of the hill country up to the 1914 McMahon Line is within the frontier of India”. One Governor, Sir Robert Reid, who served from 1937 to 1942, used his spare time to write an authoritative History of the Frontier Areas Bordering on Assam 1883-1941.

This writer discovered in February 1970 that copies of the work were removed from the Governor’s Library. Governor B.K. Nehru confirmed this.

It was only in the 1930s that Chinese maps began showing the area south of the McMahon Line as Chinese territory. On August 17, 1936, New Delhi drew London’s attention to this. But Whitehall ruled that “unless” Nanking “should endeavour to assert their territorial claims on the Line” otherwise than on paper, “no protest was called for”. The silly expression “cartographic aggression” was coined two decades later.

Reid sent Captain G.S. Lightfoot to go up to Tawang in 1938. On his return, he recommended Tibet’s withdrawal from Tawang. Assam’s Acting Governor Henry Twynam had other ideas. In March 1939, he suggested a line along the Se La Pass. It would save money and earn Tibet’s goodwill. It would cost only “about one-fourth” of the McMahon Line.

It is unnecessary to consider here the attempts to make good the McMahon Line such as the missions by Captain G.S. Lightfoot (1938), J.P. Mills (1943) and J.P. Mainprice (1944). They are fully discussed in Woodman (pages 184-212) and Mehra (pages 413-437). The material that has come to light after the publication of these works puts the matter beyond doubt; namely, The Transfer of Power 1940-47 Volumes I to XII, published by the British government.

On December 18, 1945, the Viceroy, Lord Wavell, informed the Secretary of State, Lord Pethick-Lawrence, “to indicate our rights to the territory this side of the McMahon Line” (Volume VI, page 656; see also Volume VI, page 1,113; and Volume VII, page 34).

Wavell recorded on March 25, 1944, in his Journal, a conference with the Foreign Secretary, Sir Olaf Caroe, and Sir Basil Gould, Political Officer in Sikkim and for Bhutan and Tibet: “We discussed Gould’s visit to Tibet and possibility of stiffening up Tibetans to resist any Chinese encroachment, and also pushing up to McMahon Line on northern frontier of Assam” (The Viceroy’s Journal edited by Sir Penderel Moon; 1973; page 620; see also page 194 for a record of his visit in December 1945).

British policy was stated in a letter dated April 6, 1947, by L.A.C. Fry, Deputy Secretary, to A.J. Hopkinson, Political Officer in Sikkim. “The Government of India stand by the McMahon Line and will not tolerate incursion into India such as that which recently occurred in the Siang valley. They would however at all times be prepared to discuss in a friendly way with China and Tibet any rectification of the frontier that might be urged on reasonable grounds by any of the parties to the abortive Simla Conference of 1914” (The Transfer of Power 1940-47, Volume X, pages 156-7).

India’s policies on the McMahon Line were transparent. On March 4, 1948, Vallabhbhai Patel submitted to the President of the Constituent Assembly, as Chairman of its Advisory Committee on Minorities, Fundamental Rights, Tribal Areas, and so on, the Report of the North East Frontier Assam Tribal and Excluded Areas Sub-Committee which his Committee had adopted.

The Sub-Committee had undertaken extensive tours. It is a masterly document and bears quotation in extenso: “The facts are that in 1914 there was a tripartite convention with Tibet and China regarding the relations of the three governments and in particular regarding the frontier between India and Tibet. The convention which contained an agreement about the frontier line between India and Tibet was ratified by the Tibetan authorities at Lhasa, and the line known as the McMahon Line was indicated on a map of which a copy was given to the Lhasa government, which acknowledged it.

“The existence of this line was for a long time and known to the Assam government, and on the other hand it was found that there was no notification under Section 60 of the Government of India Act, 1919, specifying the northern frontier of Assam, with the result that the McMahon Line which is the frontier between Tibet and India is the legal boundary of Assam as well. In practice the position is peculiar.

“Though the Governor of Assam is vested with authority over the Frontier Tracts… it is taken to be exercised, not by virtue of the provisions applicable to Excluded Areas of the Government of India Act, 1935, but as the Agent of the Governor-General under Section 123 of the Act” (Constituent Assembly Debates; Volume VII, page 104).

On the partition of India, the Indo-Tibetan Notes of 1914 were listed among the treaties which devolved on India in an Order made under the Indian Independence Act, 1947. All these were public documents noted by Foreign Offices the world over.

Final push

Finally, on February 12, 1951, Major R. (Bob) Khating, a Tangkhul Naga and aide to the legendary Nari Rustomji, evicted the Tibetans from Tawang. China did not protest at all.

The Draft Constitution of India published on February 21, 1948, mentioned the area south of the McMahon Line in the Sixth Schedule, Part II. China did not protest. Nor did it protest when the Constitution of India came into force on January 26, 1950. Its Sixth Schedule had a table annexed. In part B para 1, the areas were precisely mentioned.Neither “regard for the historical facts”, nor pragmatism, nor commitment to a settlement can explain China’s persistent, obdurate, if not intransigent, stand on Tawang. It knows that India cannot cede that district, yet persists. One is at a loss to understand its calculations. Is it because it is not yet ready for a settlement? However, persist in the peace process both sides must.

A stage has been reached when it is futile to proceed with the Special Representatives’ charade. It has yielded nothing anyway. The dispute cries for attention from the top leaderships of India and China. They must come to grips with it and pursue the course with determination and in a spirit of conciliation.
Neither country is a threat to the other. Neither will play any outside power’s game. The peace dividend of a boundary agreement will be colossal and its effects far-reaching. Fundamentally, India must recognise China’s interests in the Aksai Chin and China must recognise India’s interests on the McMahon Line. That said, in both sectors some adjustments will be necessary. India cannot legally claim areas north of the McMahon Line which it unilaterally occupied. China must withdraw from the 2,500 square miles it occupied as a result of the 1962 war.

IRAQ: Deal to leave

2008-12-17T02:28:00.000+05:30

IN the first week of December, the Iraqi parliament voted for a new Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) with the United States. On December 4, the country’s three-member Presidency Council gave its formal approval to the controversial deal, which will come into effect on January 1, 2009. Sections of the Iraqi people oppose the agreement, but general opinion is that, at least on paper, it is a significant step forward to end the American occupation. The agreement calls for the withdrawal of U.S. forces from “all Iraqi cities, towns and villages” by the middle of 2009 and from the whole of Iraq by the end of 2011. Article 25 of the agreement calls for the creation of “mechanisms and arrangements to reduce the U.S. force levels within the specified time period”. There is no 50-year mandate for U.S. bases in Iraq as many had predicted. According to reports, the George W. Bush administration also gave an undertaking to Iraq that its territory will not be used to launch attacks against any neighbouring country. The SOFA was passed by a narrow majority in parliament after last-minute compromises. Shia and Kurd legislators had to agree to the demand of Sunni legislators for a nation-wide referendum on the pact in July 2009. If Iraqis vote against the agreement, then the U.S. government will be given a year’s notice for complete withdrawal of its forces from the country. The Iraqi parliament simultaneously passed another U.S.-Iraq bilateral pact called the Strategic Framework Agreement, aimed at ensuring the constitutional rights of the Sunni minority. On the day the SOFA was signed, thousands of Iraqis demonstrated in Baghdad. The radical Shia cleric, Moqtada al-Sadr, who has bitterly opposed the agreement, called for a three-day national mourning period, saying that the pact legitimised the American-led occupation. His Mahdi militia has threatened to reopen hostilities against the occupation forces.

The level of violence in the country has escalated since the Iraqi parliament approved the agreement. But many Western analysts and commentators think that the new agreement is a defeat for the “neoconservative” plan of turning Iraq into a vassal state and using it as a platform to project power in West Asia.

The Bush administration tried to get from the Iraqi government concessions that would have allowed U.S. forces to stay on beyond 2011. The U.S. also wanted immunity for its troops in Iraq and a longer lease on its military bases. Both these wishes have not been fulfilled. American “contractors”, in fact mercenaries, will now come under Iraqi jurisdiction. Article 12 of the SOFA states that “Iraq has the primary legal jurisdiction over the contractors with the U.S. and their employees”.

Contractors, especially those belonging to the Blackwater group, are responsible for the death of thousands of Iraqi civilians. At present there is an estimated 163,000-strong army of contractors in Iraq. The agreement also states that the “United States recognises the sovereign right of the government of Iraq to request the departure of the United States Forces from Iraq at any time”.

American troops are forbidden by the SOFA from carrying out operations without Iraqi approval and from detaining any Iraqi citizen without a court warrant. Earlier, American troops and contractors had a free run in the country.

Article 3 of the agreement prohibits the transferring of any non-U.S. citizen from Iraq. The Bush administration has been using Iraq as a base for its “extraordinary renditions” programme under which suspects were routinely picked up and extradited to American safe houses outside Iraq.

It was on the insistence of Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani that the tough new conditions were imposed on the Americans. It was his implicit backing for the revised SOFA text that got the required consensus in parliament. The Bush administration had pressured the Iraqi government by threatening to withdraw American forces expeditiously if the agreement was not approved by parliament.

Iraqi security forces are woefully unprepared to maintain the unity of the country in the wake of the devastation and confusion created by the American-led occupation. Iraqi Prime Minster Nouri al-Maliki added to the panic in Iraq’s ruling circles by saying that if the pact was not approved there would be “an immediate withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq”. American commentators say that the lame duck Bush administration did not exert too much pressure on the Iraqi government as the President-elect, Barack Obama, has strongly signalled that he proposes to withdraw American troops from Iraq in the next couple of years. But the U.S. will continue to have considerable leverage in Iraq. It controls more than $10 billion worth assets seized from the Iraqi government after the 2003 invasion and the proceeds from the export of oil held under a “Special Purpose Account” on behalf of the U.S. Department of Treasury. The funds were meant “to assist the people of Iraq in the reconstruction and development of their economy”. In reality, the money has been used mainly to benefit American corporations that have been given contracts in Iraq.

In the debate before the approval of the SOFA, Iraqi parliamentarians wanted guarantees from the United Nations that Iraqi assets would be protected against claims involving billions of dollars. Such legal claims by companies, individuals and countries under the guise of war reparations or breach of contract could make it difficult for Iraq to sell its oil and conduct financial dealings with international banking institutions.

Senior U.S. officials said that the SOFA contained assurances that the U.S. would work to extend the protection of Iraqi assets by the U.N. Security Council. The current Security Council resolution requires all Iraqi oil revenues to be first deposited at the New York Federal Reserve Bank before it is sent back to Iraq to meet budgetary requirements.

The Maliki government may have given assurances to Washington about the possible deployment of U.S. troops continuing beyond 2011. Iraq’s Defence Minister Abdul Qadir al-Obaidi spoke about the possibility of American troops being needed in Iraq after 2011. He said that a precipitate American withdrawal would turn Iraq into another Somalia, and the rampant acts of piracy in the Gulf of Aden could be replicated in the Persian Gulf too.

White House Press Secretary Dan Perino went to the extent of saying that the withdrawal dates mentioned in the SOFA text were only “aspirational dates”. Admiral Mike Mullen, Chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, said that it was “theoretically” possible for the deadline for the complete withdrawal of troops from Iraq to be extended.

An earlier draft of the SOFA, which permitted U.S. forces to stay beyond 2011, does not figure in the final agreement. Until recently, highly placed American officials were talking about the possibility of 40,000 to 50,000 U.S. troops staying beyond 2011 in Iraq for training and support. Senior U.S. military officials have told the American media that it would be logistically impossible to dismantle dozens of large U.S. bases in Iraq within three years and withdraw 150,000 American troops quickly.

Prepared for a long stay

The U.S. has built 14 mega military bases and a humongous embassy in Iraq, in preparation for a long stay. The agreement states that both countries “retain the right to legitimate self-defence within Iraq, as applicable by defined international law”.

The Bush administration had defended the invasion of Iraq as an act of “self-defence”. The U.S. could try to prolong its stay in Iraq and hold on to its expensive bases, citing “self-defence” as a pretext. The U.S. military establishment does not seem to be in sync with Obama’s plans for a speedy withdrawal.

The public mood in Iraq is overwhelmingly against a continued American military presence. A 2007 survey reported in the American media showed that Iraqis cutting across the religious and sectarian divide viewed the U.S. occupation as the primary cause of violence in their country. The majority of Iraqis felt that the departure of the “occupying” forces would hasten national reconciliation.Meanwhile, the U.S.-led military coalition in Iraq has been dwindling on a daily basis. In the past two months, troops from Bosnia-Herzegovina, South Korea, Poland, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Georgia, Latvia and Azerbaijan have left. Japan will end its air force mission flying supplies into Iraq by the year end. There are 146,000 American, 4,100 British and fewer than 1,000 other foreign troops left in Iraq now. The U.N. mandate governing foreign troops in Iraq expires at the end of 2008. The Iraqi government has announced that it does not want the mandate to be renewed.

Chaos in Congo

2008-12-13T00:23:00.000+05:30

THE Great Lakes region of Africa is once again on the brink of war. In the last week of October, the forces of the rebel warlord, Laurent Nkunda, breaking a short-lived truce, routed government troops in eastern Congo. General Nkunda’s forces were at the gates of the city of Goma at the end of the month.

Laurent Nkunda listens to the anthem of the National Congress for the Defence of the People at the stadium in the town of Rutshuru on November 22.

The resulting chaos, for which both the government troops and the rebels are responsible, left in its wake more than 250,000 refugees. Some humanitarian agencies put the figure at two million. Thousands of people have already died in the fighting. A report from the conflict zone said that the rebels were using corpses to put up roadblocks. Women and children have been the worst hit. Horrific instances of looting and rape have been documented. Hunger stalks the land. The presence of United Nations peacekeepers on the ground proved ineffectual. The international community is of the opinion that the U.N. is in need of a clearer mandate in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The U.N. has estimated that 100,000 refugees are beyond the reach of humanitarian agencies. On November 20, the U.N. Security Council belatedly took a decision to send 3,000 more troops in addition to the 17,000 peacekeepers on the ground. Indian and Pakistani troops are among the biggest contingents.No details have been given about the countries that are willing to dispatch troops to the volatile region, but the U.N. has indicated that the force assembled will be one with more offensive capability. The United States and European countries, already bogged down in Afghanistan and in other parts of the world, have so far been reluctant to send troops to the region. Former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo has been named as the U.N.’s special envoy to Congo. In the second week of November, he flew to eastern Congo to meet with Nkunda. He also held talks with Congolese President Joseph Kabila.Nkunda has spoken out against the increase of U.N. military presence in eastern Congo. He has warned that such a move would result in an escalation in the fighting. Nkunda is known to have close ties with Paul Kagame, President of neighbouring Rwanda. According to U.N. reports, Rwandan troops were fighting alongside Nkunda’s Tutsi militia. U.N. observers have also said that artillery fire from Rwandan forces into Congo helped the Tutsi militias advance.

Nkunda was Kagame’s comrade-in-arms to reinstate Tutsi domination in Rwanda. The majority Hutus there have not yet come to terms with the changed realities on the ground. Remnants of the defeated Rwandan army, dominated by Hutus, had fled across the border to Congo. Hutus and Tutsis have been living across the border for generations now. But the aftermath of the civil wars in Rwanda and Burundi have polarised the communities in Congo too. Both the ethnic groups formed their own militias in the chaos that followed the collapse of the old regime.The Hutu militia, strengthened by the influx of their compatriots from Rwanda, stick to the sectarian agenda responsible for the deaths of more than a million people in the Rwandan genocide of the early 1990s. Hutu militias, such as the Mai-Mai inside Congo, have sided with the central government of Kabila. The ethnic Congolese Tutsi militia led by Nkunda’s National Congress for the Defence of the People gets support from the Rwandan government. Nkunda has claimed that his latest military assault was a preventive measure to stop Hutu insurgents in Congo from destabilising the government in Rwanda. The Congolese and Rwandan Presidents met in Nairobi after the crisis in eastern Congo erupted. Kagame said that he would do his best to restore normalcy in the region. The U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, Jendayi Frazer, also visited Kigali, the Rwandan capital, to persuade Kagame to lend a helping hand to stabilise the situation in Congo. Rwanda is one of the closest political and military allies of the U.S. on the African continent.In the third week of November, Nkunda’s forces started withdrawing from the areas they captured. The media-friendly warlord is ambivalent about his goals. He says “negotiations are the only way to stop the conflict” but at the same time reiterates that the government of Kabila is corrupt and ineffectual and deserves to be overthrown.

In early November, he threatened to march all the way to the capital, Kinshasa, and topple the government. Though most commentators characterised the threat as fanciful, it was a Tutsi-led invasion force that toppled the government of Mobutu Sese Seko and installed Laurent Kabila, the father of the current President, in power in 1997.

Nkunda has so far refused to recognise Joseph Kabila as the legitimate President of the Republic despite his electoral victory two years ago. International observers certified that the elections of 2006 were generally free and fair. Kabila won in a run-off. Nkunda now wants to muzzle his way to power by using military force. Despite persistent demands, Kabila has refused to enter into direct talks with the rebel warlord. A face-to-face meeting will only give political credibility to Nkunda’s cause.

In 2004, Nkunda fought a bloody battle to capture the town of Bukavu in the east. An international warrant for war crimes was issued against him. But President Kabila, in a bid to heal old wounds, has tried to close the book on that civil war. He has said that the warrant has expired.

In the third week of November, Rose Kabuye, a close aide of Kagame, was arrested while on an official trip with the President to Germany. The German authorities were acting on a French arrest warrant. Kabuye has been accused of complicity in the shooting down of the plane carrying the Presidents of Rwanda and Burundi in April 1994. That incident triggered the holocaust in Rwanda. Its impact is still being felt in eastern Congo where the Tutsi and Hutu militias are carrying out a proxy war.

Nkunda, like Kabuye, is surely on a wanted list somewhere. There are reports that his militia is forcibly inducting child soldiers.

Kabila has other options despite the dismal performance of his army in eastern Congo. His political and military allies Angola, Zimbabwe and Namibia have indicated that their armies would step in again if the Tutsi militia does not lift its siege and revert to a ceasefire. There are reports that the Angolan and Zimbabwean troops are already deployed inside Congo. The influential Southern African Development Community (SADC), of which Congo is a member, has given its strong backing to the beleaguered government in Kinshasa.
In the last round of bloodletting, which began in 1998 and lasted for over six years, more than six million people were killed. That round of fighting, which has been described as the “First World War of Africa”, drew outside powers to the region. It was the intervention of forces from Angola, Zimbabwe and Namibia which prevented the DRC from disintegrating and its riches falling into the hands of warlords. Rwanda, Burundi and Uganda had sided with the rebels. Rwanda and Uganda later fell out during the mad scramble for the control of the mineral riches of the country.

Upgrading ties

2008-12-13T00:20:00.000+05:30

PRIME Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey arrived in New Delhi on November 20 on a five-day official visit. This is the first visit by a Turkish Prime Minister since that of Bulent Ecevit in March 2000. A lot of things have changed in both countries since then. Turkey has been governed by the centre-right AKP (Justice and Development Party), which had its roots in the Islamist Welfare Party of the 1990s. Under the dynamic leadership of Erdogan, the country has charted out a new course for itself in international politics. Although firmly rooted in the Western alliance, Turkey in recent years has been taking many independent foreign policy initiatives.“Global Trends 2025”, a report published by the United States National Intelligence Council (NIC), has predicted that Turkey will play an increasingly important role on the world stage. It noted that Turkey was once again playing “a key role geopolitically, at the crossroads not only between the Middle East [West Asia] and Europe in the West but also, in a sense, north-south to Russia, Iran and with the rest of the world”. The report, brought out every four years for the U.S. government, has highlighted Turkey’s impressive economic growth and the vitality of its emerging middle class. Ankara has become the back channel for talks between Israel and Syria. However, when the occasion demands, the Turkish government has been critical about Israeli atrocities on Palestinians despite both countries having a long-standing strategic alliance. Erdogan once told a senior Israeli Cabinet Minister, when Ariel Sharon was the Prime Minster, that there was “no difference between a terrorist who kills Israeli citizens and Israel, which also kills civilians”. The Turkish government is playing an important role in ensuring that Iraq remains united.

Not long ago Erdogan made a visit to Armenia, the first by a Turkish leader in recent history. The two countries have now restored diplomatic links, which were severed in 1993 after Turkey objected to Armenia’s annexation of Nagorno-Karabakh, an Armenian-dominated enclave inside Azerbaijan. The Turkish government is in favour of the issue being settled bilaterally and is even prepared to play a behind-the-scenes role to facilitate a deal.

The “genocide” and ethnic cleansing of Armenians in Turkey in the early part of the 20th century is still an emotive issue. Although Turkey’s foreign policy mainly focusses on the issue of accession to the European Union (E.U.), it has been careful to keep other options open. It is well known that some major E.U. countries are opposed to Turkey’s entry into the grouping. The fear, articulated at times by European politicians, is that the entry of Turkey would dilute the identity of the E.U. as a club of Christian nations.

DEEP HISTORICAL TIES

Erdogan, who arrived with a 100-strong business delegation, had fruitful talks with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. The talks centred mainly on economic cooperation and energy security. Turkey also offered India its expertise in combating terrorism. The country has been facing serious challenges on this front for the past 50 years from the Kurdish separatist group, the Kurdish Workers Party (PKK).

In an interactive dialogue with a small group of academics and journalists, Erdogan noted that both Turkey and India shared “deep historical ties”. He said Turkey, like India, was facing big challenges, especially in the fight against terrorism. Describing the scourge of terrorism as an international phenomenon, he suggested a mutual extradition treaty. The Turkish leader talked about plans to concretise “an alliance of civilisations” in which both the countries could play leading roles. The Turkish government has already enlisted the cooperation of international organisations for this ambitious venture. Turkey plans to host an international conference next year to formalise this “alliance”. Former Iranian President Mohammed Khatami tried to promote a similar “dialogue of civilisations”. But that project could not take off as it got mired in a political stand-off between Iran and the West.

The Turkish economy under AKP rule has been a success story so far. Erdogan expressed the hope that bilateral trade would reach $6 billon by 2010. He said that the balance of trade was now in favour of India. Turkey has expressed a keen interest in a free trade agreement with India.

On top of Erdogan’s official agenda in India was Turkey’s offer to extend the Ceyhan-Red Sea oil pipeline to India. The Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline is already functional and is transporting oil and gas from the Caspian region and Russia. Erdogan is of the view that if New Delhi agrees to the proposed Ceyhan-Red Sea-India pipeline, it will help India achieve energy security. The oil will be piped to the Israeli port of Eilat on the Red Sea and then shipped to India. India, Erdogan said, would be able to get oil at a low price of $18 a barrel if the deal materialised. Turkish officials said that the proposed pipeline was not a rival to the Iran-Pakistan-India pipeline but pointed out that the current security situation made the Iran pipeline unfeasible.

Given its heavy dependence on external energy sources, Turkey is trying to position itself as an energy transit hub in the region. This is one major factor why its government is putting great emphasis on improving ties with Russia and Iran.

DOMESTIC PRIORITIES

Outlining the domestic priorities of his government, Erdogan said it placed major emphasis on education, health care, justice and security. Housing has already been made affordable for those in urgent need. The government had promised to build 500,000 homes, of which 330,000 have been already constructed. The recipients of these homes will have to pay only 20 per cent of the costs in advance. The rest of the money will be recouped by the government in easy instalments. In the case of small houses, the government is selling them “at cost”. A small percentage of the flats constructed by the government is given for “free” to those without any source of income. But they are expected to pay for the subsidised structures once they find gainful employment.

The government also provides unemployment dole worth $300 a month along with food and clothing. As many as 130,000 new classrooms have been built across the country, with particular emphasis on less developed regions. Erdogan revealed that his country would soon be able to claim 100 per cent literacy. In the health care sector, the AKP government has done away with the system of separate hospitals for the rich and the poor. Erdogan said that there was no more discrimination on the basis of class or income. “Democracy and economy should advance side by side,” he said.

The government has pledged to improve 15,000 kilometres of roads along with air and rail network during its current term. The AKP was elected with a thumping majority last year. One of the reasons for the party’s success was the development projects undertaken by its government. The Turkish government has invested a lot in the comparatively underdeveloped eastern part of the country, populated predominantly by Kurds. The AKP did surprisingly well in what were considered pro-PKK strongholds in the last elections. In fact, Erdogan earned his reputation as an efficient administrator when he was the Mayor of Istanbul. He cleaned up the city and tackled crime and corruption. Today Istanbul is among the best administered cities in the world.

WORLD AFFAIRS

Upgrading ties

JOHN CHERIAN

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s visit to New Delhi gives a boost to economic cooperation between the two countries.

RAJEEV BHATT

Erdogan inspecting the guard of honour during a ceremonial reception at the forecourt of Rashtrapati Bhavan in New Delhi on November 21.

PRIME Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey arrived in New Delhi on November 20 on a five-day official visit. This is the first visit by a Turkish Prime Minister since that of Bulent Ecevit in March 2000. A lot of things have changed in both countries since then. Turkey has been governed by the centre-right AKP (Justice and Development Party), which had its roots in the Islamist Welfare Party of the 1990s. Under the dynamic leadership of Erdogan, the country has charted out a new course for itself in international politics. Although firmly rooted in the Western alliance, Turkey in recent years has been taking many independent foreign policy initiatives.

“Global Trends 2025”, a report published by the United States National Intelligence Council (NIC), has predicted that Turkey will play an increasingly important role on the world stage. It noted that Turkey was once again playing “a key role geopolitically, at the crossroads not only between the Middle East [West Asia] and Europe in the West but also, in a sense, north-south to Russia, Iran and with the rest of the world”. The report, brought out every four years for the U.S. government, has highlighted Turkey’s impressive economic growth and the vitality of its emerging middle class.

Ankara has become the back channel for talks between Israel and Syria. However, when the occasion demands, the Turkish government has been critical about Israeli atrocities on Palestinians despite both countries having a long-standing strategic alliance. Erdogan once told a senior Israeli Cabinet Minister, when Ariel Sharon was the Prime Minster, that there was “no difference between a terrorist who kills Israeli citizens and Israel, which also kills civilians”. The Turkish government is playing an important role in ensuring that Iraq remains united.

Not long ago Erdogan made a visit to Armenia, the first by a Turkish leader in recent history. The two countries have now restored diplomatic links, which were severed in 1993 after Turkey objected to Armenia’s annexation of Nagorno-Karabakh, an Armenian-dominated enclave inside Azerbaijan. The Turkish government is in favour of the issue being settled bilaterally and is even prepared to play a behind-the-scenes role to facilitate a deal.

The “genocide” and ethnic cleansing of Armenians in Turkey in the early part of the 20th century is still an emotive issue. Although Turkey’s foreign policy mainly focusses on the issue of accession to the European Union (E.U.), it has been careful to keep other options open. It is well known that some major E.U. countries are opposed to Turkey’s entry into the grouping. The fear, articulated at times by European politicians, is that the entry of Turkey would dilute the identity of the E.U. as a club of Christian nations.

DEEP HISTORICAL TIES

Erdogan, who arrived with a 100-strong business delegation, had fruitful talks with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. The talks centred mainly on economic cooperation and energy security. Turkey also offered India its expertise in combating terrorism. The country has been facing serious challenges on this front for the past 50 years from the Kurdish separatist group, the Kurdish Workers Party (PKK).

In an interactive dialogue with a small group of academics and journalists, Erdogan noted that both Turkey and India shared “deep historical ties”. He said Turkey, like India, was facing big challenges, especially in the fight against terrorism. Describing the scourge of terrorism as an international phenomenon, he suggested a mutual extradition treaty. The Turkish leader talked about plans to concretise “an alliance of civilisations” in which both the countries could play leading roles. The Turkish government has already enlisted the cooperation of international organisations for this ambitious venture. Turkey plans to host an international conference next year to formalise this “alliance”. Former Iranian President Mohammed Khatami tried to promote a similar “dialogue of civilisations”. But that project could not take off as it got mired in a political stand-off between Iran and the West.

The Turkish economy under AKP rule has been a success story so far. Erdogan expressed the hope that bilateral trade would reach $6 billon by 2010. He said that the balance of trade was now in favour of India. Turkey has expressed a keen interest in a free trade agreement with India.

On top of Erdogan’s official agenda in India was Turkey’s offer to extend the Ceyhan-Red Sea oil pipeline to India. The Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline is already functional and is transporting oil and gas from the Caspian region and Russia. Erdogan is of the view that if New Delhi agrees to the proposed Ceyhan-Red Sea-India pipeline, it will help India achieve energy security. The oil will be piped to the Israeli port of Eilat on the Red Sea and then shipped to India. India, Erdogan said, would be able to get oil at a low price of $18 a barrel if the deal materialised. Turkish officials said that the proposed pipeline was not a rival to the Iran-Pakistan-India pipeline but pointed out that the current security situation made the Iran pipeline unfeasible.

Given its heavy dependence on external energy sources, Turkey is trying to position itself as an energy transit hub in the region. This is one major factor why its government is putting great emphasis on improving ties with Russia and Iran.

DOMESTIC PRIORITIES

Outlining the domestic priorities of his government, Erdogan said it placed major emphasis on education, health care, justice and security. Housing has already been made affordable for those in urgent need. The government had promised to build 500,000 homes, of which 330,000 have been already constructed. The recipients of these homes will have to pay only 20 per cent of the costs in advance. The rest of the money will be recouped by the government in easy instalments. In the case of small houses, the government is selling them “at cost”. A small percentage of the flats constructed by the government is given for “free” to those without any source of income. But they are expected to pay for the subsidised structures once they find gainful employment.

The government also provides unemployment dole worth $300 a month along with food and clothing. As many as 130,000 new classrooms have been built across the country, with particular emphasis on less developed regions. Erdogan revealed that his country would soon be able to claim 100 per cent literacy. In the health care sector, the AKP government has done away with the system of separate hospitals for the rich and the poor. Erdogan said that there was no more discrimination on the basis of class or income. “Democracy and economy should advance side by side,” he said.

The government has pledged to improve 15,000 kilometres of roads along with air and rail network during its current term. The AKP was elected with a thumping majority last year. One of the reasons for the party’s success was the development projects undertaken by its government. The Turkish government has invested a lot in the comparatively underdeveloped eastern part of the country, populated predominantly by Kurds. The AKP did surprisingly well in what were considered pro-PKK strongholds in the last elections. In fact, Erdogan earned his reputation as an efficient administrator when he was the Mayor of Istanbul. He cleaned up the city and tackled crime and corruption. Today Istanbul is among the best administered cities in the world.

AFP

A section of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline at the Ceyhan crude oil terminal near Turkey's southern coastal city of Adana.

Erdogan has also promised to provide running water to every village in Turkey. “Water is civilisation. If there is no water, there is no energy, no civilisation,” he remarked. He said that his government was implementing its blueprint to overcome its “largest challenge” posed by the shortage of water. Hydroelectric power is harnessed on a large scale. The Attaturk Dam is among the largest in the world. He said that the annual per capita consumption of water in Turkey was currently 1,750 cubic metres. The government hoped to raise this in the near future. Erdogan said he was confident of attaining the target as the government was investing heavily in many water-related projects, including recycling.

Talking about domestic politics, Erdogan emphasised that “civilians should have primacy, once and for all”. The Turkish Constitution, he said, had demarcated clearly the roles of the executive and the armed forces. Sections of the Turkish military are still not completely reconciled to the rise of democracy and the AKP. The “Ergenekon” trial, which is currently under way, has exposed the deep nexus between elements in the army, the judiciary, the media and far-Right parties. The Ergenekon had allegedly planned to assassinate prominent Turks and resorted to terrorist activities with a view to undermining the AKP government.

The controversy over the wearing of head scarves in public was another issue that “secular fundamentalists” used to destabilise the AKP government last year. The wives of both Prime Minister Erdogan and President Abdullah Gul insist on wearing head scarves in public. Erdogan maintained that the country’s Constitutional Court had made its observations on the issue very clear and that the government was strictly adhering to the position taken by the court. He pointed out that the ban on the wearing of head scarves was only implemented after the September 1980 coup.

Erdogan said that his country was playing an “intermediary role” in the ongoing talks between Israel and Syria. He revealed that four rounds of talks had already been held but the resignation of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert had stalled the talks. He said that both Damascus and Tel Aviv had expressed optimism about the future of the dialogue process. Syria is negotiating the terms for an Israeli pullout from the occupied Golan Heights.

Erdogan admitted that Turkey faced some problems on the road to full membership of the E.U. He said that some E.U. members were using the “Cyprus issue” as a bogey to stymie Turkey’s membership. Turkey feels that making Cyprus an E.U. member was a mistake in the first place. Turkish officials say that the E.U. should have recognised that Cyprus is divided into two countries. According to them, the E.U. seems to have preferred the claims of 600,000 Greek Cypriots over those of 70 million Turks. Erdogan said Turkey had not lost its patience. “We can wait for another 15 years.”

Erdogan is optimistic about the presidency of Barack Obama in the U.S. but cautions against plans to partition Iraq. He said that such a move would be disastrous for the region. Joseph Biden, who will be the next U.S. Vice-President, had earlier supported the trifurcation of Iraq. An independent Kurdistan is anathema to Turkey. The Turkish Army has been regularly carrying out cross-border raids into northern Iraq targeting the PKK, which has its safe havens there.

Erdogan also observed that the situation in Afghanistan was deteriorating seven years after the end of Taliban rule. Turkey has allocated $200 million for Afghanistan for undertaking relief and development activities.

Truth & Tawang

2008-12-13T00:18:00.000+05:30

RECENT official statements by India and China on their boundary dispute merit a calm and realistic appraisal shorn of both chauvinism and sentiment. The two countries have set themselves firmly on the path of friendship. But the dispute is an obstacle – serious, but easily removable. Yet little is being done to settle it. Progress in the talks has been insignificant. We must not lose heart; equally, we must not ignore the realities. Neither side has been, or is, free from blame. A fair appraisal will necessarily be a nuanced one. Notoriously, both hawks and doves shun nuances.The statements must be read in the context of vastly improved relations between the two countries. Chinese writings on world affairs, unlike ours, are shorn of sentimentality and are starkly realistic. A brilliant article by Han Hua, Professor of International Relations at the School of International Studies at the University of Beijing, is a fine example of such a calm appraisal, albeit from the Chinese perspective. It is entitled “Friends or Foes: Mutual Perceptions between two Asian Giants” (China & India edited By Isabelle Saint-Mezard; Centre of Asian Studies, The University of Hong Kong). She notes that “the two have shown their increasing keenness to appreciate the salience of their ties… one must admit that there still are obstacles to be removed in order to achieve a cordial and sensible relationship.” The first obstacle she identifies is the border dispute, which lends force to her emphasis on sensibility. For, the dispute simply makes no sense at all. Each has its non-negotiable vital interest securely under its control – China has the Aksai Chin and India has the McMahon Line. Neither side can compromise on this. Han Hua accurately sums up the perceptions each has of the other and holds that both have moved towards the mainstream.

“The mainstream-view holders consent [sic.] that while the border war scenario is unlikely, they don’t foresee a quick accomplishment of a final resolution.” On this, she is on target, and China is responsible for this perception. Just as India’s policies led China to suspect that the Indian leadership lacked the will and political clout to arrive at a fair compromise and sell it to the people, China’s stand leaves many in India with the uncomfortable feeling that it is not ready for such a deal, either.

Han Hua praises both countries for adopting “a pragmatic policy… on various bilateral issues in the past few years”. Is it “pragmatic” for China to question the McMahon Line drawn in 1914, nearly a century ago, and demand that India cede Tawang to China? It is as impossible a demand as if India were to demand the Aksai Chin – which it does not. The Tawang demand, if persisted with, would be a deal-breaker, and there is no reason to believe that China does not want a settlement. As this writer argued earlier (“Maps and borders”; Frontline, October 24, 2008), we must analyse rigorously the situation created by China’s demand and ask why it persists with it so stridently. The truth is a great liberator, and history puts paid to China’s demands in the eastern sector and to India’s stand in the western sector.

On October 24, 2008, Pranab Mukherjee, External Affairs Minister, informed the Lok Sabha that the two countries had agreed to exchange maps delineating the frontier and disputed areas but that the progress was “not very bright”. There were different “perceptions”. In 2003, Special Representatives were appointed to resolve the border dispute. “This is going on, but this is taking time.”

On November 9, at Tawang in Arunachal Pradesh, Pranab Mukherjee rejected China’s claims to the territory: “The people of Arunachal Pradesh regularly elect two representatives to the Lok Sabha, and there is an elected State Assembly…. The question of parting company with Arunachal Pradesh or any part of it does not arise.” He referred to the 12 rounds of talks that the Special Representatives had held and his efforts “to develop friendly ties with China” and “to persuade them to reopen border trade with Arunachal Pradesh”. On November 11, the official spokesman of China’s Foreign Ministry, Qin Gang, said: “We deeply regret the Indian side’s remarks that take no regard of the historical facts.” The McMahon Line was “illegal”, he said, adding, “China and India have never officially settled demarcation of borders, and China’s stance on the eastern section of China-India borders is consistent and clear-cut.” China was willing to find a “fair, reasonable and acceptable” solution to the dispute through negotiation in the spirit of “mutual understanding and adjustment” – a 50-year-old mantra whose implications have varied with the times.Qin is absolutely wrong in claiming that China’s stand has been consistent. From 1956 to 1960, China was prepared to accept the McMahon Line. In his talks with Jawaharlal Nehru in New Delhi on April 20 and 22 in 1960, Zhou Enlai accepted the Line: “We make no claim in the eastern sector to areas south of the McMahon Line.” It was most unwise of Nehru to have insisted on China’s withdrawal from the Aksai Chin, which caused the talks to collapse. Which is why Zhou revealed, at his press conference on April 25, in answer to a question by K. Rangaswami of The Hindu, that “comparatively less time has been spent on discussions of the eastern sector of the boundary” and “there exists a relatively bigger dispute” on the western sector (Premier Chou En-lai’s Visits to Burma, India and Nepal; Information Office, Embassy of the People’s Republic of China; pages 25 and 26).The McMahon Line of 1914 stretches over Myanmar, which was a part of India until 1937. Zhou accepted it in the boundary agreement with Myanmar on January 28, 1960, shortly before coming to India.

Nineteen years later, China performed a somersault. Far from softening its stand after the war of 1962, China hardened it. On February 14, 1979, in Beijing, Deng Xiaoping offered External Affairs Minister A.B. Vajpayee “the package deal” – de jure recognition of the status quo by both sides. He asserted that the eastern sector was “the area of the biggest dispute”. It was of economic value. This was inconsistent with China’s stand until that day. Was it a tactical riposte to pre-empt India’s expected demand for the restoration of the status quo before the 1962 war? One cannot be sure. What is clear is that China has persisted in this stand for the past nearly 30 years in total variance with its earlier stand.

The nuances have varied. Initially, China insisted on parity of concession – India concedes in the east; China, in the west. Later, this was varied to an insistence that India must first concede in the east if there were to be a settlement. But the room for concession there is restricted. The 1914 sketch map is susceptible to improvement in this age of satellite cartography. But China wants more than a few limited areas that do not disturb the Line. It wants the Tawang district in Arunachal Pradesh.

Qin Gang’s plea for “regard for the historical facts” is justified. China opened its archives recently. India’s archival policy is the most illiberal in the entire democratic world; it is more illiberal than Russia’s or China’s. Our historians ritually pass resolutions at their annual meetings but do not mount a campaign together with supporters in the media and the academia. Why not present a petition to the Prime Minister, himself an academic? A high-power delegation should call on him. Failing redress, have recourse to the Right to Information Act, move the Central Information Commission and eventually the Supreme Court. The National Archives is barred from revealing files after 1914 on this subject.

The Government of India has failed to fulfil a 40-year-old pledge to the people. On June 15, 1966, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was asked at a press conference, “Will it not be better, in order to obtain a clear picture of our border disputes with China and also to end speculations going on here and abroad, to see that all pertinent documents, especially the full proceedings of the 1914 Simla Conference and also the minutes of both meetings of Nehru and Zhou Enlai, in 1954 and 1956, are made public?” She replied, “It is just a suggestion; it can be considered.” Nothing has been done about such an obviously sensible step as yet. The job has been left to private research. Indian scholars are obliged to go to London to do research in the British Library.

The results of all the significant research on the question were published well after the war of October 1962. Margaret Fisher, Leo E. Rose and Robert Huttenback’s pioneering work Himalayan Battleground was published in 1963; Alastair Lamb’s masterly essay “China-India Border” in 1964 was followed by his two volumes on The McMahon Line in 1966; Dorothy Woodman’s definitive Himalayan Frontiers appeared in 1969. W.F. Van Eekelen, a Dutch diplomat who made excellent use of his sojourn to New Delhi and London, published his work Indian Foreign Policy and the Border Dispute with China in 1964. All these were works of original research based on archival material. P.C. Chakravarti’s The Evolution of India’s Northern Borders and S.C. Bajpai’s The Northern Frontiers of India were published in 1971; Parshotam Mehra’s The McMahon Line and After appeared in 1974 and his two volumes of documents, The North-Eastern Frontier, in 1979-80. Mehra is the doyen of scholars in this field, and my debt to him is enormous.

No scholar has been more sympathetic to China than the formidable Alastair Lamb. He wrote in 1964: “The Chinese attitude to the McMahon Line, indeed, seems to have been little influenced by any Chinese views as to the availability of that line as a boundary. In fact, in the 1960 Sino-Burmese boundary agreement China accepted a portion of the McMahon Line as the border the moment the alignment had been renegotiated. No doubt in any genuine boundary discussions with India the present Chinese government would be willing to abide by a freshly negotiated boundary of more or less the McMahon type so long as such a boundary did not carry with it the implications of the March 1914 notes. The McMahon Line is, on the whole, quite a fair and reasonable boundary between China and India along the Assam Himalaya. In a few places, however, it includes territory on the Indian side which could well have been left in Tibetan hands” (emphasis added throughout).

What of Tawang? “Tawang north of the Se La [Pass] was a district which could also have been returned to Tibet at any time before 1947 without sacrifice of Indian interests. It did not, it would seem, actually come under direct Indian administration until 1951, and at the end of British rule in India it was still controlled by Tibet, just as it had been before 1914. Tawang south of the Se La, however, had by 1947 definitely come under Indian control. The retention of this region, moreover, was clearly essential on strategic grounds so as to avoid a salient of Tibetan (and, by 1947, potentially Chinese) territory thrusting right to the edge of the Brahmaputra valley. If, however, all these possible modifications had been made, then India would have reduced its theoretical limits by perhaps less than a 1,000 square miles and this would have represented the maximum adjustment of the McMahon Line that any Tibetan government could have reasonably expected” (pages 169-170, 1964).

He misses two points. First, tripartite talks among Britain, China and Tibet became necessary because of the collapse of China’s power in Tibet after the Revolution in 1912. Earlier, Chao Erh-feng’s military campaign to occupy Lhasa had alerted the British. His armies reached as far as Kima. To find out how far the Chinese had penetrated, Noel Williamson set out with an escort party of 44. All were killed by the tribesmen. Calcutta was incensed.

There was in this region an Inner Line fixed by the Bengal Eastern Frontier Regulation 1873 and an Outer Line. The British administered up to the Outer Line along the foothills of the Himalayas. Between it and the McMahon Line lay an area that China claims. However, from 1873 onwards, the British gradually extended a shadowy administration beyond the Outer Line – except in Tawang. The region was depicted on the maps as falling within Britain’s sphere of influence.

In October 1910, the Viceroy Lord Minto advised the India Office to “gain a buffer” by “extending the Outer Line” to Tibet. The alignment he suggested excluded Tawang. So did his successor Lord Hardinge’s alignment.

Surveys galore beyond the Outer Line were conducted by the Survey of India – by Major J.W. Beresford, J.F. Needham of the Bengal Police, Captain E.H. Molesworth, Captain G.A. Nevill and Captain F.M. Bailey. “The entire country was surveyed,” Dorothy Woodman recorded (page 138). The McMahon Line was drawn on the basis of these surveys. It was not drawn arbitrarily.

There was no Chinese presence here ever . Zhou Enlai was altogether wrong when he claimed at his press conference that the area was under China’s administration. The Tibetans did have a presence, but only in Tawang. There was a British, at one remove, Indian, presence, incontestably. “We only administer politically,” as Hardinge put it. Charles Bell, who knew the region like the back of his hand, warned in 1910: “If the Chinese regain control over Tibet, later on they will pay special attention to the development and consolidation of the at present thinly populated but warm and fertile districts in the southwest of Tibet, which are not far from Assam and from which districts, when developed, a considerable army could be fed.”

A very confidential evaluation he wrote at this time read: “Until the recent Tibet Mission, and the resulting growth of Chinese power in Tibet… China had very little power and there were no signs of her being aggressive on the Indian frontier…. The position is now completely damaged. China is becoming every year more formidable as a military power. She has seized the power in Tibet and is increasing her military strength there more and more. Only a narrow stretch of territory intervenes between her conquests and the plains of India. And these conditions apply to 1,100 miles of frontier, i.e. from the north-west corner of Nepal to the north-east corner of Assam. It is of vital importance to keep China and all foreign powers out of this narrow stretch of territory.”

Strategic importance In Ladakh in the 19th century, the fear of a Russian advance prompted the British to encourage China to bring its presence down to the Karakoram. Fear of China’s advance prompted Calcutta to advance beyond the Outer Line to reach the Himalayas. Military Intelligence agreed, but its line also excluded Tawang.

The die was cast by a “Confidential Note by Chief of General Staff” dated June 1, 1912. It warned: “The direction of the frontier line about Tawang requires careful consideration. The present boundary (demarcated) is south of Tawang, running westward along the foothills from near Udalgiri to the southern Bhutan border, and thus a dangerous wedge of territory is thrust between the Miri country and Bhutan. A comparatively easy and much used trade route traverses this wedge from north to south, by which the Chinese would be able to exert influence or pressure on Bhutan, while we have no approach to this salient from a flank, as we have in the case of the Chumbi salient…. Rectification of the frontier here is therefore imperative, and an ideal line would appear to be one from the knot of mountains near Longitude 93” Latitude 28”20’ to the border north of Chona Dzong in a direct east and west line with the northern frontier of Bhutan. There appears to be a convenient watershed for it to follow.” The rest followed.

The second point that Lamb and others miss is that China accepted Tibet as an equal participant at the Simla Conference. China accepted the terms set out in a Memorandum that the British Ambassador presented to the Waichiapu (China’s Foreign Office) on August 17, 1912.

The Order by President Yuan Shih-kai appointed Ivan Chen as special plenipotentiary for Tibetan negotiations and directed him “speedily to proceed to India, there to negotiate provisional treaty jointly with the plenipotentiary appointed by Great Britain and the Tibetan plenipotentiary, and sign articles which may be agreed upon in order that all difficulties which have existed in the past may be dissolved”.

The Dalai Lama appointed Lonchen Shatra as his plenipotentiary. The Foreign Secretary in the Government of India, Sir Arthur Henry McMahon, represented India. China’s plea for London as the venue was turned down. The India-China-Tibet conference opened, instead, at Wheatfield House in Simla on October 13, 1913.

Victory for Chavez

2008-12-13T00:17:00.000+05:30

ELECTIONS seem to be an annual feature in Venezuela. This year, it was the turn of local and gubernatorial elections, which were held in the third week of November. As predicted by opinion polls, President Hugo Chavez’s United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) won emphatic victories in 17 of the 23 States.

At the same time, the electorate sent a strong message to the government: PSUV candidates for Governor lost in five States, including the two most populous ones, and in the Capital District of Caracas. In the elections held four years ago, the opposition managed to win only two States. Among the candidates who were defeated this time were close allies of Chavez, the most prominent one being Aristobulo Isturiz, a former Education Minister. He was defeated in greater Caracas. The victor, Antonio Ledezma, is a confidant of former President Carlos Andres Peres. Peres, who now lives in the United States, once called for the assassination of Chavez. But overall, the results can be interpreted as a massive mandate for Chavez. His party polled around 57 per cent of the votes. The President’s personal popularity ratings have remained over 60 per cent for more than a year. In an address to the nation immediately after the election results were announced, Chavez said that the outcome has “ratified the construction of socialism in Venezuela and now we will deepen it”. He said that Venezuelans had participated in the elections in a “joyful and civic manner” but sarcastically added that some people would still insist that “there is a dictatorship in Venezuela”. A day later, the President said that his party would seek to amend the Constitution so that the head of state could have uninterrupted terms. Chavez narrowly lost a referendum on the issue last year. His current term expires in 2013.

Local issues predominated in the elections. The opposition belatedly gave up on its tactics of demonising Chavez and instead focussed on issues relating to crime, inflation and corruption. These are facts of life in Venezuela. The homicide rate in the capital, one of the highest in the region, has been worrying the authorities. Inflation has been high for some time now and is currently at 30 per cent, the highest in Latin America. But most Venezuelans have given credit to the government for efficiently managing the economy despite the alarming fall in the international price of oil. The government has used its $40-billion-dollar reserves prudently to ensure that its ambitious social programmes are not impacted adversely.

The latest election results show that the Bolivarian movement led by Chavez still faces formidable challenges. One important reason the opposition could make some gains is that both the print and electronic media continue to be monopolised by the pro-U.S. private sector. Private right-wing television stations continue to spew vitriol on Chavez and the government. The government-owned Telesur network, which was meant to be a counter to CNN and the American-financed private channels, has not been able to make much of an impact.

The election results are no doubt being keenly analysed in Washington. Relations between the two countries have gone from bad to worse under the George W. Bush presidency. Chavez welcomed the election of Barack Obama and expressed the hope that with a “black man” as President, bilateral ties would improve. “We hope that he tunes into the frequency of the world and convinces the U.S. hawks that it is impossible to dominate the planet,” Chavez said in his inimitable style.In the last week of November, a squadron of Russian warships arrived in Venezuela for the first time, and the navies of the two countries will be conducting joint exercises. This development is viewed with undisguised alarm in the U.S. Chavez has emphasised that strong relations with Russia are important in order to reduce U.S. influence in the region and maintain peace and stability.

Short on strategy

2008-12-13T00:15:00.000+05:30

THE war on terror in Mumbai is sure to revive the debate on whether the Central and State governments are soft on terror, with the repeal of the Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA) in 2004 being cited as a manifestation of this laxity. The campaign by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), whose National Democratic Alliance government enacted POTA in 2002, for a tough anti-terror law to contain the alarming rise of terrorism in the country obfuscates the real issues.

The Supreme Court held both the Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act (TADA), 1985, and POTA constitutional, in spite of their draconian provisions. It was the political class that repealed these Acts because of their grave potential for abuse by those responsible for implementing them. The Supreme Court refused to strike them down merely on the grounds that they could be abused, maintaining that such a challenge could be mounted against any law. The court sought so that that the law provided for proper checks and balances to ensure due process and protection of individual liberties were guaranteed, as prosecution could continue in cases registered under these Acts even after their repeal and lapsing. The history of the two anti-terror laws is ample testimony to the fact that we tend to substitute legislative response for institutional response. The country has not been able to win the war on terrorism because it lacks an institutional response. Strange as it might seem, both TADA and POTA could not “prevent” terrorist acts although that is what they were intended for. This is because prevention of a terrorist act is largely a result of the work of an efficient intelligence agency, which helps to apprehend the suspects before the commission of an offence. The legislative framework becomes relevant once the investigating agency takes over and the suspect becomes the accused and is prosecuted in accordance with the law. It is assumed that successful investigation and prosecution of suspects depends on a legal framework that enables doing away with certain legal safeguards, which are seen as loopholes by the accused. These safeguards give opportunities to the accused to seek to establish his/her innocence and minimise the scope for the investigating agencies to resort to short cuts in resolving a case.

It is naive to assume, for instance, that the terrorists who struck in Mumbai would not have done so if our legal framework did not have these safeguards. These terrorists were ready to lose their lives and even risk police torture if caught alive. Even the harshest of laws would not have dissuaded them from taking the risk.

On the contrary, there is enough evidence to prove how the anti-terrorist legislation lent itself to abuse. Take TADA, for instance, which was allowed to lapse in 1995. Union Minister of State for Home Rajesh Pilot stated on August 24, 1994: “Of the approximately 67,000 individuals detained since TADA came into force, 8,000 were tried and only 725 persons were convicted. Some 59,509 people had been detained with no case being brought against them. The TADA Review Committees found that except in 5,000 cases the application of TADA was wrong and asked for the withdrawal of cases. Despite the admissibility of the confessions made to the police as evidence – which were invariably made under torture – the conviction rate was less than 1 per cent. Yet, thousands of people underwent prolonged detention without ever being convicted. The maximum numbers of arrests under TADA were not made in Punjab, Jammu and Kashmir or north-east India but in Gujarat, which had no record of terrorism. The majority of the victims belonged to religious minorities.”

The experience with POTA, 2002, does not inspire any confidence about the effectiveness of safeguards against its abuse. In Jharkhand, where the highest number of POTA cases and detainees were registered, there is evidence to suggest that the tribal community was targeted. In Gujarat, all except one of the POTA detainees belonged to the Muslim minority. The Central POTA Review Committee’s conclusion that POTA was inapplicable against the accused in the 2002 Godhra train tragedy case is an instance of how the State government sought to abuse the law. The State government refused to abide by the committee’s decision and did not withdraw POTA charges against the accused for nearly three years. The cases were withdrawn only after the Supreme Court held recently that the committee’s decision was binding on the State government.

The three POTA Review Committees that were set up under the POTA Repeal Act in September 2004 submitted their findings to the Union Home Ministry in September 2005. These findings indicated that of the 1,529 POTA accused the committees had examined in the 263 POTA cases, no prima facie evidence was found against 1,006, suggesting that POTA was not applicable to two-thirds of the accused. Nearly 100 of these 263 cases were lodged in Gujarat and Jharkhand. In Jharkhand, those arrested under POTA included women and children.

The United Progressive Alliance government at the Centre amended the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA), 1967, to incorporate some of the provisions of POTA pertaining to the definition of and punishment and enhanced penalties for terrorist activities, and specific procedures, including the banning of terrorist organisations and interception of communications.The amendment dropped some of the following POTA provisions that were widely perceived as draconian: treating the confessions to a police officer as admissible evidence and the prolonged period of custodial detention, that is, 180 days. The amendment reduced this period to 90 days, in accordance with Section 167 (2) of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC). The only possible justification for treating the confessions of an accused to a police officer as admissible evidence is that the investigating agencies are unable to gather evidence against terrorists other than through confessional statements, which can be secured through torture, the safeguards against involuntary confessions not being very effective. The reduction in the period of custodial detention could ensure expeditious investigation of terrorist offences. The reason that prolonged detention could help the police investigate an offence better is not very convincing.Similarly, under POTA, an accused could not seek bail for a period of one year after arrest without the consent of the prosecution and the satisfaction of the court. POTA also provided for presumption of guilt of the accused and the shifting of the burden of proof of innocence on to the accused. The amended UAPA does not retain these provisions. The absence of these provisions has, however, not weakened the legal mechanism as the courts, under the CrPC, retain the discretion to deny bail in cases of terrorism and the prosecution is free to establish the guilt of the accused beyond reasonable doubt.

The Second Administrative Reforms Commission (ARC) submitted its eighth report on “Combating Terrorism: Protecting by Righteousness” to the government in June this year. It has reiterated its recommendation made in its report on “Public Order” for the creation of a specialised division in the Central Bureau of Investigation to investigate terror offences. The need for a federal agency to fight terrorism has been widely felt in recent days, to ensure coordination between the Centre and the States not only in gathering and sharing intelligence but in investigating terrorist crimes. The commission has also recommended an amendment to the National Security Act (NSA) instead of the UAPA, in order to ensure an adequate legal framework against terrorism, and comprehensive police reforms. The ARC’s recommendations may not be sufficient to guarantee the requisite institutional response against terrorism, but they can at least make a beginning in that direction, if accepted by the government.

Pathways to the Spirit

2008-12-13T00:07:00.001+05:30

How can science provide us with pathways to the spirit when we are living in the modern age of the brain? Today, the majority of scientific materialists, which include most psychologists, neurologists and psychiatrists, believe that anything we call mental or spiritual is merely a by-product of biochemical processes taking place in the brain. For them, the spirit or soul is merely an illusion - it simply doesn't exist. For other scientists however, consciousness and the spiritual self are not regarded as illusory epiphenomenona but rather something that transcends the physical brain altogether.

So if the soul or spiritual self is something other than a by-product of brain activity, then what is it? Spirit is generally described as an indwelling animating force present within all living things, associated with mind, will and feeling and responsible for one's sense of personal identity as a spiritual being and immortal soul. Within the context of Christian theology it is part of the trinity, called the holy ghost, while parapsychologist usually regard it as an indwelling nonlocal consciousness which is nonphysical in nature and therefore capable of mentally transcending many normal limitations of physical space and time, as well as surviving the demise of the physical body. In this article we will examine two different scientific pathways to the spirit provided by prominent research biologists and quantum physicists who have rediscovered an ancient truth - that the indwelling spirit is present in the physical world actively participating in its enfoldment. The Biology of the Spirit
Gregory Mendel (1822-1884), an Augustian monk who lived in Brunn Austria, discovered the fundamental biological laws governing heredity by breeding pea plants in his monastery garden. He crossed varieties and species of plants, carefully observing the physical characteristics of the hybrids that he produced. His conclusions, based on his discovery that physical traits are genetically inherited, were published in 1865 in an obscure scientific journal, which to his surprise attracted practically no attention. It wasn't until 1900 that Mendel's discovery resurfaced again, when Hugo DeVries, Erich Von Tsohermark and Carl Correns, working independently, duplicated Mendel's experiments and corroborated his findings.

Today, based on Mendel's materialist genetic theory, all living things are merely regarded as biochemical machines entirely programmed by their genes. Living organisms are regarded as nothing more than complicated collections of organic particles, blindly pushed and pulled by its neighbors. Richard Dawkins describes living things, including ourselves, as nothing more than automatons or 'gene machines'. Thus one's biological fate is sealed as it entirely predetermined, unalterably recorded in their genes.

The independent existence of mind and spirit are no longer recognized as they are considered to be merely epiphenomenona created by biochemical processes taking place within the physical body. Now, geneticists have gone even further, claiming that it is not only physical characteristics that are inherited but all psychological traits including abnormal behavioral as well. Whether it be an inherited disposition to acquiring a particular disease, a health problem, or a tendency to abnormal behavior such as lying, stealing or homosexuality, one can always opt out of any personal responsibility for their condition or behavior by claiming that it is not their fault - that they get it from their genes!

One of the problems with conventional genetics is the kind of language generally used to describe biochemical processes. If genetic material is composed of inert molecules of protein and amino acids, how can they possibly contain a 'memory' of coded genetic information? We cannot legitimately describe biochemical processes by appealing to subjective terms as if matter had mental qualities - a concept which biologists have already rejected.

If the brain is a blob of matter and consciousness is merely an epiphenomenona created by its activity, then how can we claim that the right side of the brain 'appreciates music', or imply that inert chemical molecules are aware of their environment and can intelligently respond to it. We can't attribute to physical matter subjective characteristics that belong to mind unless it really does posses those characteristics. And this is the crux of the problem; what if matter really does have mental characteristics that most biologists are unwilling to recognize?

According to molecular biologists the primary necessity of living things is to reproduce themselves through genetic duplication and DNA is perceived as being the physical blueprints required for the reproduction of the species - but who is there to read those blueprint? If these genetic blueprints are merely comprised of different forms of inert, unintelligible molecules, then how do we explain how a plant is able to successfully develop without the presence of some form of intelligence to inform and guide the complex biological processes involved in its development? The belief that blind biochemical processes can accomplish this miracle is entirely unwarranted.

The Psychogenetic Revolution
I recently obtained a copy of Dr. Bruce Lipton's book: The Biology of Belief, which has finally substantiated my long-held belief that there is something drastically wrong with the current scientific theory of genetics. As a result of his extensive research in cell research, he has literally turned the scientific world up-side-down with his revolutionary approach to a new biological theory he calls epigenetics.

Dr. Lipton is certainly well qualified to lead such an important revolution. He began his career as a cell biologist, receiving his PhD. Degree from the University of Virginia at Charlottesville before joining the Department of Anatomy at the University of Wisconsin's School of Medicine in 1973. Between 1987 and 1992, while conducting basic research at Stanford University's School of Medicine, he achieve an important breakthrough in the study of cellular behavior which seriously challenges the validity of the conventional genetic theory that is so widely accepted by biologists today.

In our search for pathways to the spirit, Dr Lipton has discovered a very important one that will help us understand how the mind and spirit participate in the enfoldment of all living things. In what remains of this section on the Biology of the Spirit I would like to summarize Dr. Lipton's findings and would encourage you to visit his website at www.brucelipton.com.

Some of the insights that Dr. Lipton's research reveals includes the following:
1.The body is not a mechanical device but depends on the participation of mind and spirit. Although every cell is a free-living entity capable of surviving on its own, the body's collective cellular community works together responding to the intentions and wishes of the controlling voice - the mind and spirit. These messages that we mentally send to our cells, including our particular unconscious beliefs and the way we perceive the world around us, directly influences our genetic programming and physically affecting our well-being. For example, habitual negative thinking or prolonged chronic stress are so debilitating that they are able to over-ride healthy genetic programming resulting in many forms of organic dysfunction and disease.

2. Conventional thinking among most biologists continue to entertain the concept of 'genetic determinism' which is the theory that the nucleus of the cell containing genetic material is the commanding center or all cellular activity and is in complete charge of the development of a living organism. But Lipton has demonstrated that once the genetic material in the cell's nucleus is removed it continues to survive for several months. In the absence of any genetic material the cell is still able to maintain its metabolism, digest food, excrete waist, breathe and respond to its immediate environment. As Dr. Lipton has concluded: the fact that a cell maintains a successful and integrated life in the absence of genes reveals that they are not the 'brain' or controlling center of the cell. In actuality, genes cannot be the controlling center of cellular activity as they have no way of chemically turning themselves on or off. What then does turn genetic activity on and off, thus controlling all cellular activity?

3. Dr. Lipton made the revolutionary discovery that it is the membrane surrounding the cell, which provides a perceptual interface with its environment, that is actually the controlling center of cellular activity. This outer membrane of the cell has previously been regarded as being a passive, semi-permeable barrier, whose primary function was to contain the cytoplasm. But it has been discovered that this outer cellular membrane has receptors and effectors capable of monitoring and responding to signals in its surrounding environment. In other words, it has the perceptual capability of being consciously aware of changing conditions in its environment, with the capacity of responding accordingly. But an even more revolutionary discovery is that we are not helpless victims of our genetic inheritance. Because we are continually interactively communicating with these outer membranes surrounding the millions of cells that comprise our physical body, we can alter our genetic programming by changing our beliefs, intentions, and the particular way we perceive reality.

Such a discovery immediately frees us from the dominating fear that is normally associated with the materialistic doctrine of genetic determinism, providing us with an awareness of how we can intentionally begin to participate both mentally and emotionally in influencing our biological well-being. In addition, Lipton's theory of epigenetics ushers in a new age of enlightenment - a biology of the spirit that provides us with an important path that each of us can follow in discovering our spiritual nature that is intimately interwoven within the very cellular structure of our biological world.

Quantum Physics and the Sacred
Does Quantum physics also provide us with a pathway to the spirit? Dr. Lawrence W. Fagg, a retired research professor in nuclear physics originally associated with The Catholic University of America believes so; a conclusion resulting from his thirty-five years of pioneering research exploring the quantum frontier between spirit and matter. His revolutionary findings were published in a book entitled: Electromagnetism and the Sacred, in 1999.

Dr. Fagg's general thesis is that the material world is electromagnetic in nature and that its interactions, which underlie the very fabric of our experiential world, from rocks and planets to minds and living organisms, all depend on the activity of virtual photons which are the 'messenger particles' for the electromagnetic force responsible for the formation of the physical world.

Every form of electromagnetic radiation is composed of photons, both real and virtual. Real photons, which are observable and can be measured, are responsible for illuminating the world around us. They are produced in various ways, for example, when charged particles are accelerated or when electrons collide. Virtual photons on the other hand, are not observable or measurable, yet they play a vital role in constraining electrons to specific orbital paths surrounding the nucleus of an atom thereby providing a stabilizing force required for structuring and sustaining the existence of the many different kinds of molecules that comprise our physical world. Without the active participation of virtual photons there would be no electromagnetic interactions and consequently no physical world at all.

As all electromagnetic phenomenon are essentially different forms of light, Dr. Fagg believed that the creative role of light in manifesting physical reality reflects the wisdom of sacred scripture and religious beliefs which have persistently claimed down through the centuries - that God is light. He wondered if there really was a meaningful connection between electromagnetism and God's immanence within the nature of things. But if that were the case, then we should expect to find an all-pervasive intelligence actively present within quantum phenomena itself, and that is exactly what we do find!

Quantum Action-at-a-Distance
The concept of nonlocality, or 'action-at-a-distance' was first proposed in 1935 by Albert Einstein, Boris Podolsky and Nathan Rosen, which has since become know as the EPR paradox. This was originally a 'thought experiment' which involved sending twin particles off in separate directions, each with its own spin. If one was spinning to the left the other would have to spin to the right. Now, assuming that these spinning particles were separated by a vast distance, what would happen if an experimenter suddenly changed the spin of one of the particles? Would the other particle become aware of this change and alter its own spin in the opposite direction?

Alain Aspect, a French physicist, was able to successfully perform the EPR experiment in 1982 and found that twin quantum particles did in fact communicate with each other at a speed greater than the velocity of light, compensating for any abrupt change in polarization or direction of spin. The question now is, how do we propose to explain this exchange of information?

First of all, orthodox quantum mechanics in its original form was not capable of explaining this type of mental phenomena. Since the inception of quantum mechanics by Heisenberg and Bohr, consciousness had been completely excluded from the physical universe. Bohm, an American physicist, later introduced his theory of the 'quantum potential' which postulated fields of active information in terms of 'pilot waves' and 'back action', which provided a workable model for understanding the relationship existing between quantum energy and the distant communication between particles in the EPR experiment.

For David Bohm, a particle rather than just being causally influenced by mechanical forces, is always accompanied by a pilot wave which informs and guides it. The idea of 'active information' is that the pilot wave, which has very little energy itself, uses the information it has to directly influence or control the much greater energy possessed by the particle. According to his concept of 'back action' quantum information is also constantly fed back from the particle to the pilot wave, which then revises the information it has accordingly. Like a pilot controlling the incredible power of a jumbo-jet, information is conveyed from the plane’s instruments according to a mental choreography in which the plane and the pilot interact, giving it the semblance of a living object that is sensitive and responsive to changing conditions in its environment. It is this same kind of scenario that is taking place on the quantum level.According to Bohm, in order to understand this interaction taking place between an informed particle, its pilot wave and the objective environment, including the presence of an observer, all these elements must be viewed in their undivided wholeness. The humble particle, like other living things, is not entirely subject to chaotic mechanical forces but rather through the presence of consciousness provided by the quantum pilot wave which accompanies it, it is able to participate to a degree in its own self determination. For further information on Bohm's contributing to the development of quantum theory, there are two books that are well worth reading: Wholeness and the Implicate Order by David Bohm, and Infinite Potential: the life and times of David Bohm by F. David Peat.As physical reality is comprised of quantum electromagnetic energy, we need to finally recognize the fact that ordinary matter exhibits a nonlocal, rudimentary level of consciousness that is able to transcend the physical limitations of time and space such as the ultimate speed of light, which is approximately 186,000 miles a second. Through time, these pilot waves or quantum fields of awareness associated with matter have slowly evolved to progressively higher functional biological levels of consciousness and at each level there is a proportionately higher degree of complexity and response, such as we find in living organisms. As quantum electromagnetic energy manifesting as our experiential world is simply different manifestations of light, we are in a position to appreciate Dr Fagg's revolutionary insight into the relationship that he has found to exists between electromagnetism and the sacred. Both Lawrence Fagg and David Bohm have provided invaluable insights regarding the nature of an important pathway to the spirit which is actively present at the very deepest levels of the quantum world.

Mumbai under seige

2008-11-28T10:08:00.000+05:30

Terror struck the country’s financial capital late tonight as “coordinated” serial explosions (12 of them) & indiscriminate firing rocked areas across Mumbai. City was held on gun point as terrorist fired gun shots on the streets of the city. Which at this point of time seems like complete planned attack. City beared a Gaza strip look with gun being fired from AK-47 and grenade being shot at will. Several police personal and citizen were dead. Foreign nationals, Anti Terrorist Squad officers & Media persons were targeted. The first incident took place between 10.15 pm and 10.30 pm when bullets, apparently from automatic weapons, were fired at police and paramilitary forces outside the Taj Mahal Hotel in south Mumbai. Minutes later, bullets were fired near Hotel Trident - another five-star hotel - barely a kilometre away from the Taj. Trident is in a high security zone and lies just behind Air India and Maharashtra legislature buildings. Unidentified persons also opened random firing near Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus, headquarters of the Central Railway, which is a world heritage building and remains crowded almost throughout the day. According to sources, two men rushed into a local train stationary at CST and fired indiscrimately. The next time he raises the issue of terrorism in Parliament, CPM member N N Krishnadas will be able to speak from his personal experience as he had a providential escape from the gun-toting extremists who barged into the Taj Hotel in Mumbai on Wednesday night.Death was never so near, it was terrible,” the Left MP from Palakkad in Kerala told Deccan Herald from Mumbai over telephone.His colleagues Vikhe Singh Patil from Maharashtra and Lalmani Prasad from UP were still inside the hotel and rescue operations were on when he spoke to media on Thursday evening.
“We reached Mumbai on Wednesday as part of a Parliamentary Committee visit and were allotted rooms in the third floor,” Krishnadas said.“Around 9.40 pm, myself and another MP Bhupinder Singh Solanki were having dinner at the Shamiana Restaurant in the hotel and suddenly two masked men barged in firing indiscriminately,” he said.One foreigner was shot dead on the spot. It was a matter of a few minutes, and before they could figure out anything, the hotel staff escorted them out through an emergency door to the first floor lobby.“When we reached there, we could see about 150 people lying on the floor to save themselves from fire and counter-fire and the whole night we were there in that position,” he said adding that other two MPs were in their rooms at that time.

Around 9.40 pm, myself and another MP Bhupinder Singh Solanki were having dinner at the Shamiana Restaurant in the hotel and suddenly two masked men barged in firing indiscriminately,” he said.One foreigner was shot dead on the spot. It was a matter of a few minutes, and before they could figure out anything, the hotel staff escorted them out through an emergency door to the first floor lobby.“When we reached there, we could see about 150 people lying on the floor to save themselves from fire and counter-fire and the whole night we were there in that position,” he said adding that other two MPs were in their rooms at that time.
Around 9.45 am on Thursday, commandoes evacuated them and escorted them to the Asadnagar Police station, from where they were taken to the Bank of Baroda guest house at Churchgate. Solanki, who also witnessed the 2001 Parliament attack, said the Mumbai attack was deadlier than the one in Delhi.
Target Points:-
The Taj Mahal Palace & Tower,Apollo Bunder, S.Mumbai
Hotel Oberoi/Trident Nariman Point,S.Mumbai
Chatrapati Shivaji Terminus, Railway Station
Police headquarters in S. Mumbai
Metro cinema, S. Mumbai
JJ school of Art, N.A. M. G. Road, Fort, S.Mumbai
Leopold's restaurant, Colaba, Nawroji F Road,S.Mumbai
Blast in a taxi in Vile Parle, N.Mumbai
Western Expressway, S.Mumbai
Cama Hospital, Mahapalika Marg, S.Mumbai
Sequence of events:-
Wednesday, 26/11/2008
Millitants enter city via sea on boat.
Cafe Lehold, Nawroji F Road,Colaba, South Mumbai faces first attack at (09:30 PM IST, Wednesday, 26/11/2008)
Militants open fire at CST,Railway Station & UNESCO World Heritage Site(10:15PM IST)
Gun battle at Metro cinema (10:20 AM IST)
Millitants enter Cama Hospital, (10:30PM IST)
Militants hijack police gypsy and open fire on public at Colaba with AK-47, AK-56 & hand grenades (10:33PM IST)
Hotel Taj was one of the flashpoint, where 17 blasts has been reported so far (10:45 PM IST).
Thursday,27/11/2008
ATS chief Hemant Karkare (IPS) broght dead at JJ Hospital with 3 bullets, after leading operation at Cama hospital (02:20 AM IST, Thursday, 27/11/2008)
ATS officer Ashok Kamte killed at cross fire with millitants at Metro cinema.
Chatrapati Shivaji Terminus, JJ school of Art is under attack
More than 100 people have been killed & 283 have been injured.
5 terrorist have been killed in encounter in Hotel Taj.400 people were rescued from Hotel Taj & 170 from hotel Oberoi.
9 terrorists (alleged) have been captured by ATS (5:30 AM IST)
119 of 125 dead are Indian national rest 6 are foreigners.
Several people are held as hostages in Hotel Taj, Nariman Point & Oberoi(Trident)
Milltary has started several operations with ATS, CRPF, STF, Mumbai Police ( including CST which is now under millitary control).
Navy being called by Home Ministry, central.
NSG (National Security Guards) commandos have been air lifted from New Delhi to Mumbai for anti-terrorists operations (05:00 AM IST, Thursday, 27/11/2008)
NSG reaches Mumbai (07:00 AM IST)
No order from Police commisioner & Home Ministry to start operation.
City under complete control of Military, NSG, STF,ATS,CISF & Mumbai Police.
'Deccan Majahedeen' claims responsibilities of attack via e-mail to news agencies/channels.
Cama Hospital cleared of milittants. Under army control now. (08:30 AM IST)
A couple and old lady dies in 'threat firing' early in morning (08:45 AM IST)
NSG trying to negotiate with millitants but fails. (08:45 AM IST)
NSG commandos (200 of them) with help of STF, ATS,Military (5 columns, 800 in numbers) & Navy starts special operation to gush out millitants now, probably 2 or 3 of them. 6 foreign nationals among 15-20 hostages. (08:50 AM IST)
Few (approx.40) people, all civilians, move out of the hotel as NSG moves in. (09:10AM IST)
Anti-terrorist operations on at 3 places viz. Taj Palace, Hotel Oberoi (also known as Trident) & Nariman Point (09:20AM IST)
An hour after operations began, no clue about the progress as no gun-shots heard in last 30-35 minutes(10:30 AM IST)
NSG asks media not to go into detail of operation on air as millitants might be wtching on TV. Media asked to take cautious approach at immensely tense and vulnerable situation (10:35 PM IST)
Citizens,World & Media wait & watch as NSG and rest do hard job at ground zero.30-35 persons remain hostage, including 2MPs (10:50 AM IST)
DGP AN Roy : " Complicated operation, time factor not known". Terrorists are believed to be asking ransom. Operation continues.....(13:25 HRS IST)
Hotel Taj Palace free of hostages, search on there for any hiding terrorists. Final assault at Taj. Hostage crisisis at hotel Trident/Oberoi & Nariman point. NSG go all out at terrorist at these 3 places. (14:30 HRS IST)
Coast Gaurd & Indian Navy launch massive search operation at Indian coasts looking for escaping millitant's boat (14:45 HRS IST)
Indian coast Guard & Indian Navy get hold of MV Alpha by which terrorists supposedly reached Mumbai (via Gateway of India) from Karachi Port, Pakistan(15:45 HRS IST)
6 Blasts occur in Oberoi in last 15 minutes, gunbattle continues at Trident & Nariman Place. (16:05 HRS IST)
Atleast 200 people are feared stuck in Hotel Oberoi as intense gunbattle continues to rescue citizens of difffrent nations. (17:45HRS IST)
6 fresh blasts at hotel Oberoi/Trident & Nariman house (18:00 HRS IST)
Fire again breaks out at Taj Palace (18:10 HRS IST).
1 alive terrorist of Pakistan national captured from Taj hotel (18:25 HRS IST).
Terrorist kill their own head, who was master mind of this attack, body was recovered by STF in Mumbai (19:00 HRS IST)
Hotel Taj palace is now free of militants, struggle continues at Oberoi though, 2 force personnel killed. (22:00 HRS IST)
26th hrs after it all started, the fight continues as brave hearts continue their fights & Mumbai struggle for euillibrium (23:00 HRS IST)
Friday, 28/11/2008
7 rescued from Hotel Oberoi including 3 foreigners (00:05 HRS IST)
Rescue operations carry on at Hotel Oberoi (00:30HRS IST)
2 NSG commandos injured in operation at Hotel Oberoi (02:30 HRS IST)
Fresh fire break out Hotel Oberoi (03:00 HRS IST)
More person brought out of Taj Palace (05:00 HRS IST)
Army,NSG & STF decides to air drop commandos at Nariman point as it gets difficult to gush them out (05:45 HRS IST)
Operation continues at Oberoi & Nariman place (07:30 HRS IST)
More grenades blasts at Nariman Point (08:30 HRS IST)
Helicopter continue to hover around Nariman Point, as rescue operation continues (09:45 HRS IST)
Operation reaches decisive phase as security forces corner terrorist at Nariman point (10:05 HRS IST)
ATS officers under attack:-
ATS Special squad ACP, Ashok Kamte (IPS), is reported to have died in Operation
ATS encounter specialist ACP Vijay Salaskar (IPS) is also dead as bullet hits his head in cross-fire.
ATS chief Hemant Karkare (IPS) is dead in operation.
3 more senior ATS officers of IPS ranks are fighting for their life in hospitals.
16 police personnel including 4 senior officers (3 of IPS Rank) died in operations. 2 SI, 2 ASI & 6 constables include among police deaths.
STF, NSG, Millitary & ATS trying to crack into hotels. Cross fire still on.
CISF deployed at airport.
Millitary & STF do flag march to restore normalcy in the city
Fire still on at Taj Palace.
Aftermath:-
Emerging hostage situation in Taj Palace, Oberoi hotel and Cama Hospital.
All educational institute & Govt,PVT. office to remain close today.
No trading at BSE & NSE: SEBI
Domestic & international flights cancelled/delayed
Local train run late
England cricket tour of India has been cancelled.
Championship matches shifted out of Mumbai.
Australia rejects to visit India for T-20 cricket championship.

With love from Jaipur

2008-11-26T08:37:00.000+05:30

Some snaps from last visit of Jaipur,Rajasthan,India

Jaipur, the pink city was founded in 1727 by Maharaja Jai Singh II, a Kachhwaha Rajput, who ruled from 1699-1744. Initially his capital was Amber, which lies at a distance of 11kms from Jaipur. He felt the need of shifting his capital city with the increase in population and growing scarcity of water. Jaipur is the first planned city of India and the King took great interest while designing this city of victory. He consulted several books on architecture and architects before making the lay out of Jaipur.

The Red wall

After several battles with Marathas, Jai Singh was keen on the security aspect of the city. Due to this reason, he focused on his scientific and cultural interests to make a brilliant city. Being, a lover of mathematics and science, Jai Singh sought advice from Vidyadhar Bhattacharya, a Brahmin scholar of Bengal, to aid him design the city architecture. Vidyadhar referred the ancient Indian literature on astronomy, books of Ptolemy and Euclid, and discussed the plan with the King

Road less travelled

With a strategic plan, the construction of the city started in 1727. It took around 4 years to complete the major palaces, roads and square. The city was built following the principles of Shilpa Shastra, the Indian Architecture. The city was divided into nine blocks, out of which two consist the state buildings and palaces, whereas the remaining seven blocks were allotted to the public. In order to ensure the security, huge fortification walls were made along with seven strong gates. According to that time, architecture of the town was very advanced and certainly the best in Indian subcontinent.

The Puppet Royal Pillars

The Musician