P A G E
Saturday, November 28, 1998
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E D I T O R I A L P A G E |
Saturday, November 28, 1998 |
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Why
Muslims are backward
EAST
ASIAN CRISIS |
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Tackling
problem of population
DD’s
best news coverage
Advance
planning
Guardianship
of Tikka Sahib |
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Why Muslims are backward THE joint convention of Muslims and Christians held in Hyderabad can be said to have set a healthy precedent of introspection by members of the two minority communities for identifying the factors responsible for their continued backwardness. There was just a passing reference to the “attempt by those in power to dilute the rights of the minorities guaranteed under Articles 29 and 30 of the Constitution.” Such an in-house enquiry on issues concerning the minorities is also significant in the context of the current communal situation which has both upset and angered Muslim and Christian leaders. The main focus of the convention was on Muslim backwardness. The views expressed by the participants deserve a wider audience because India has the second largest number of Muslims after Indonesia. The speakers at the convention, organised by the Andhra Pradesh Minorities Educational Rights Protection Committee, blamed the managements of various minority institutions for the economic and educational backwardness of Indian Muslims and Christians. In a manner of speaking, they supported the Amartya Sen model of spreading the base of education for economic empowerment. A survey conducted by the Confederation of Voluntary Organisations discussed at the convention showed that minority institutions were minority only in name because a majority of students in these institutions were from non-minority sections of society. In seven Christian institutions out of 281 seats for the MCA course only 19 were filled by minority students. In some minority colleges there was not a single minority student! However, instead of blaming the State for the unhappy state of affairs the survey traced the anomaly to “the miserable economic condition of the minorities”. The fact that 60 per cent of Muslims and 58 per cent of Christians in the country have land holding of less than one acre and that 53 per cent of Muslims and 28 per cent of Christians have a per capita income of less than Rs 160 a month indeed exposes the extent of the economic backwardness of the members of the two communities who together represent close to 20 per cent of the total population of the country. The redeeming feature of
the convention, however, was that instead of asking the
government to help the Muslims and the Christians to come
out of economic and educational backwardness the
participants held the leaders of the two communities
responsible for the unhappy situation. The survey showed
that the rate of literacy among Muslims was 42 per cent
against the national average of 52 per cent. The literacy
rate among women at the national level was close to 40
per cent while it was only 11 per cent among Muslims. The
managements of minority institutions were warned to clean
up their act, “otherwise the minorities would be
asked to start an agitation against corrupt practices in
their institutions”. Hopefully, the intelligentsia
would carry the debate forward and put pressure on the
self- proclaimed leaders of the two communities to
introduce long overdue educational reforms which alone
hold the key to economic empowerment. As far as the
Muslims are concerned, the very structure of their faith
does not allow anyone to remain illiterate. Islam, unlike
Christianity, does not recognise an organised church. It
is mandatory for every Muslim, man or woman, to be able
to read (recite) and understand the Quran. On the basis
of the data provided at the convention it can be said
that only 42 per cent men and 11 per cent women out of a
population of nearly 15 crore can qualify to be called
Muslims. An illiterate Muslim is not a Muslim at all. The
Muslim clergy know that if all the members of their
community were to become literate, their hold over the
community would be weakened. Obviously, the spread of
education among the Indian Muslims should begin with
freeing them from the bondage of the clergy. Is there a
Sir Syed Ahmad Khan among the Indian Muslims who can take
up this task? Sir Syed himself was
“excommunicated” for having advocated the
western model of scientific education for the members of
his community. |
Jayalalitha on trial CORRUPTION cases against politicians, however serious they may be, have a tendency to incubate for long only to die harmlessly of old age. In fact, Mr A. R. Antulay of the Indira Gandhi Pratishthan fame, persuaded the Supreme Court to squash a similar case against him by pointing out his years of harassment with the prosecution making no progress. Tamil Nadu leader Jayalalitha tried the same road but has quickly run into a speedbreaker when the apex court on Thursday rejected her plea for a stay order. Now her main petition challenging the legal validity of the three special courts will be heard, but in the meantime her trial too will go on. Of the seven cases filed against her, charges have been framed in three and regular day-to-day hearing can start as early as next week. And the prosecution should be vigorous if the thoroughness of the investigation is any indication. And a special police branch, the Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption, is in charge and its work has so far defeated all efforts of the high profile lawyers defending Ms Jayalalitha to stall the proceedings. Even the Madras High Court seems to be impressed by the way the directorate has built the case, since it rapped her for trying to duck and dodge justice by opposing the setting up of special courts. She had complained that the Tamil Nadu government, under her bitter rival Mr Karunanidhi of the DMK, was trying to “annihilate her politically” by foisting trumped up charges. She is right about the annihilation part though. Even if one case goes against her in the next few months, she will find it difficult to survive politically. It is as bad as that. The case is not about Ms
Jayalalitha alone. It is actually about the power of
state governments to set up special courts to try
corruption cases against important politicians. Tamil
Nadu has set a precedent and if that gets the Supreme
Court nod, it will become the norm, posing a threat to
those with itchy palms. (Mr Laloo Prasad Yadav’s
case is being heard by a special court but under the
orders of the Patna High Court.) Even if the state
government is reluctant to take the initiative, any
concerned citizen can take recourse to public interest
litigation to demand special courts. In this respect, Ms
Jayalalitha will have lot of sympathy from fellow netas.
This also explains her desperation. She is already cut up
over her isolation from the parties in the front she set
up to fight the midterm poll. Now this danger of
conviction! As is her wont, she will take out her
frustration on the ruling alliance at the Centre. The
next few days will show. |
Right stress on food safety THE WHO has asked the countries of the South-East Asia Region to take urgent steps to ensure food security for their people. Most of the member-countries of the region have not established policies and plans of action relevant to all participants in food safety. This indicates a lack of understanding of the health and economic consequences of food-borne diseases. A four-day "Regional Consultation on Development of Strategic Plan for Food Safety in the South-East Asia Region" has recently developed certain strategies for food safety improvement. The 10 member-countries of the WHO South-East Asia Region will be encouraged to adapt these to the existing situation. The strategies, according to the information provided by the U.N. in its latest bulletin, can be summed up thus: Countries should develop their food safety policy in integration with policies addressing food security, quality and nutrition, and consistent with international requirements for participation in international trade. Governments should regularly evaluate and revise their food legislation to ensure that it protects their populations and facilitates international trade in safe food. Food inspection activities should be prioritised according to consumer risk, facilitated by the provisions of training and guidelines and supported adequately by appropriate government resources. The national analytical capacity should be strengthened by training, resources and establishment of quality assurance protocols and procedures. Governments should identify the need for and the appropriate approach to food-borne disease surveillance and provide the necessary resources. They should assist food producers, industry and trade to ensure the safety of food and require these sectors to participate in providing safety and quality in all its products. It is necessary for them to assist the retail and food service sectors (particularly street food vendors) to ensure the safety of food and require these sectors to participate in providing safety and quality. Consumers are becoming aware of the importance of access to safety and nutritious food and the government should require the consumers (or their representatives) to participate in national efforts to secure the safety and nutritious nature of the food for the community. Statutory agencies should
recognise the need for facilitating short-term and
long-term focus on education and training for all sectors
of the community in order for each of these to
effectively carry out their responsibilities in ensuring
the safety of food. The authorities should encourage and
support a coordinated approach to food safety research
and give priority to the quest which aims at providing
the necessary data to manage food safety better. India
has most reasonably reaffirmed its commitment to working
for ensuring adequate legislation, infrastructure and
resources to meet the demands of enhancing food safety in
the region. The WHO should continue to assist and advise
governments on the implementation of the strategies.
While celebrating the Amartya Sen Nobel, we should
remember the economist's emphasis on food and education
for the growth of society. |
EAST ASIAN CRISIS THE East Asian crisis is engaging attention of the international community largely because of its adverse impact in larger number of developing and developed countries throughout the world to varying degrees. Perhaps India and China are the two countries where the adverse impact of this crisis is the least. One wonders why and how India could survive the crisis.The first symptom of the crisis was visible on July 2, 1997, when the Thai currency was devalued substantially. No one grasped the full implications of the Thai devaluation when the Baht was cut loose from its anchor. Many thought it was no more than “a blip”. East Asian countries were considered as success stories in bridging the income gap, reducing unemployment, reduction of poverty, etc. Foreign trade acted as an engine of growth. Through the liberalised trade and investment regime integration with global economy took place. Over the whole decade of 80s and 90s before the current crisis the GDP growth in East Asian countries was reasonably high. However, as a result of the crisis, according to some estimates the decline of output is expected to exceed 15% in Indonesia, between 6-8 per cent in Korea and Thailand. No country except China and Taiwan in this region is projecting to register a positive growth this year. The extent of decline and hardship is unprecedented. The pressure exerted by short-term credit, instability in the stock market, lack of confidence in the system by international financial and commercial sectors exerted pressure to such an extent that an unprecedented crisis was created in these countries. In East Asia today decades of rising incomes have been reversed and unemployment, under-employment and poverty are rising to an alarming level. Many of the lost jobs have been in sectors of the economy that in the past reduced poverty by absorbing low skilled workers of rural region. This is particularly manifested in the small and medium size enterprise sectors — the backbone of a truly democratic and balanced market economy. More than large conglomerates these firms that have been decimated by the full impact of the credit crunch and the high level of interest rates. Sharp increase in food prices and reduction of social expenditures have further aggravated the problems. These contributed to the growth of poverty. According to UNCTAD’s estimates the proportion of Indonesia’s population living below official poverty line in 1998 is expected to increase by 50 per cent as compared to 1996. Persons below poverty line in Thailand are estimated to increase by one-third. As the crisis drags off it will be increasingly difficult for the new power to recover from the deprivation and regain their previous occupation and living standards. Moreover, the social harm could linger on even after economic recovery is achieved. The impact of the crisis on human resource development is felt in Thailand by growing child malnutrition and decline in primary school enrolments. If somebody looks at the debt crisis of Latin America in 1980s one would recall the destructive effect of these disasters. The genesis of the debt crisis in Latin America was a combination of imprudent borrowing and equally imprudent lending, together with the decision to raise interest rates sharply by the USA, completely ignoring all the consequences for the third parties. The net result is that after a lost decade of sacrifice and readjustment even though recovery is underway in Latin America, average growth in the region during the first half of this decade has oscillated between three and three and a half per cent per year. This is much less compared to the average annual growth of five and a half per cent during the period 1945-80. Poverty in Latin America between 1990-96 declined from 41 to 39 per cent of the population. This is much more than the poverty level of 34 per cent recorded before the debt crisis in 1982. The IMF prescription of excessive high interest rates which is being pursued by Indonesia and Thailand for a longer period than the average of four months usually considered to be maximum durable conditions for such measures. The global ramifications
of the crisis have not been felt so acutely in the
industrial world since the benefits of declining
commodity prices and improving terms of trade appear so
far to outweigh the loss of incomes and jobs due to
reduction in exports to this region. However, the
developing countries in most other parts of the world
have already started feeling the adverse consequences of
the crisis. Since the outbreak of the crisis the downward revision in GDP growth forecast has been more substantial in developing countries than in developed ones. Economic growth in developing countries in 1998 is expected to be halved compared to 1997 falling to almost 2per cent. The gap between North and South is likely to widen. For the first time in many years, growth in the developing world, will fall below that of the developed world. Negative trends in volume and export prices of the goods are bound to affect developing countries more. From Chile, Cuba, Equador and Peru in Latin America to Angola, Congo, Tanzania and Zambia in Africa and to Kazhakstan, Russia and Romania developing countries in all regions have depended on East Asia for an important part of their export earnings. The collapse of East Asia has been the single most important factor in the recent declines in the prices of many commodities, including oil, agricultural raw materials and metals. For some of these countries loss in export earnings may be up to 25 per cent of their total exports. Far from subsiding, the crisis seems to be deepening as appears from the rapid overview of some recent developments. 1. Economic growth and exports are slowing down in China. 2. In Hong Kong the first quarter of 1998 has witnessed reduction of 2 per cent in GDP growth. 3. Japan and Pakistan have devalued twice within nine months. 4. Australia foreign exchange reserve will probably fall for the first time in 20 years leading to their current account deficit to exceed 6.5 per cent of GDP. The reduction in current account deficit in East Asian countries is no consolation as this has been achieved mainly by sharp import compression rather than expansion of exports. The financial pictures continue to be discouraging. Last year, the East Asian region suffered a net loss in capital flows to the extent of $109 billion equivalent to 11 per cent of the regional GDP. From the above analysis it would appear the following factors are responsible for the crisis faced by the East Asian countries: - Substantial dependence on short term credit - High interest rates - Sharp decline in commodity prices - Failure of market to discipline financial sectors - Volatile currency fluctuation -Premature full convertibility on capital account. Debt crisis of Latin
America in 80s and the current crisis of East Asia did
not have impact on India because the policies pursued by
India over the years were sound and less vulnerable from
external sources. Our inward looking policies, emphasis
on import substitution, building up heavy industries and
solid technological foundation have provided desired
safeguards to our economy. No doubt, shortcomings of some
of these policies made our economy non-competitive and
could not eradicate poverty and our growth was slow but
steady. Prudent borrowing policy from external sources up
to mid 80s and avoidance of short-term credit till then
insulated our economy from volatile external financial
market. The decision to retire the short-term credit to
the extent of $3 billion after 1991-92 also reduced the
vulnerability. The decision of not succumbing to the
pressure of having full convertibility on capital account
was no doubt very wise. As a result India may not have
had spectacular growth in the recent years or our FDI
receipts may have been less than $4 billion in 1997, but
the economy has not collapsed altogether despite utter
mismanagement in past two years — (NPA) |
Planning amidst uncertainties THE emaciated Planning Commission is trying bravely to present some make-believe exercises for the Ninth Five-Year Plan (1997-2002) notwithstanding the virtual stagnation of the economy in the first two years and hoping that its higher growth projections for the coming three years would yield a plan average of 6.5 per cent rise in GDP. What matters is not the GDP growth per se but the quality of the growth, which would be labour-intensive and enable the State to be in the forefront in the provision of basic infrastructure and to generate the level of resources required to implement social development programmes. The commission is certainly concerned over the present state of economy, the high level of fiscal deficit, the industrial slowdown, the export downtrend and the steep rise in prices. GDP growth, which was 5.1 per cent in 1997-98, the first year of the plan, is now expected to be in the 5 to 6 per cent range. Most economists and research bodies are sceptical about recovery prospects in the short term, given the current adverse external environment. East Asian economies, in the thick of the financial crisis, have spread the contagion to Russia, Latin America and the United States and their recovery will be a slow and painful process which could stretch over the next two to three years. India, it was proudly claimed, had insulated itself from the Asian crisis but this was only true to the extent of avoiding a run on the rupee for an economy which has limited exposure to the global market. Prudential stance of governments in the 1990s helped keep down short-term debt while reform-related policies brought in private capital inflows and further improved the invisible receipts. Global output and trade
trends projected for this and the coming year are too
discouraging for India’s export scenario, and the
current year trade and current account deficits would put
pressure on the reserves which have no doubt held steady
at some $ 26 billion. For 1998-99, projected foreign investment has not taken place in the first half which saw some outflows of portfolio capital of FIIs (Foreign Institutional Investors). This is making the Vajpayee Government woo NRIs, who no doubt generously responded to the Resurgent India Bonds (RIBs) scheme which offered interest rates far above the prevailing rates in global markets, partly switching over from the lower-rated deposits in Indian banks. The short point is that over the next two years, international developments, with the present possibility of further shocks, will not favour developing countries in general, India in particular with its mix of political uncertainties, bureaucratic procedures and infrastructural bottlenecks. There can be no comfortable view about the balance of payments as had been the case between 1993-94 and 1997-98. The Planning Commission has promised to finalise its three-year blueprint (1999-2002) under the still-born Ninth Plan before the end of the year maintaining the plan outlay aggregates envisaged in the United Front Government’s plan draft though it was based on the 1996-97 price level. This will be unrealistic as inflation has been soaring, especially in the current year, with the WPI now closer to 9 per cent and the consumer price index 16 per cent. If the new Plan — let alone the highly risky assumption of durability of the Vajpayee Government for a full term — has to incorporate all the priorities set by Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee through action plans, at static outlays, the axe will fall on other development sectors. The Commission might simply put faith on foreign capital and NRI benevolence to take care of infrastructure though similar expectations in the past three years have been belied. Given the current high
level of fiscal deficit and massive borrowings pushing
the country toward an internal debt trap, the failure of
States to mobilise plan resources of their own, and the
difficult external environment, the Commission may
stultify itself by putting together programmes and
targets on the basis of bright expectations slurring over
the ground realities. This should enable the Vajpayee
Government to go through the motion of giving itself a
five-year plan, operative in effect from the third year.
— (IPA) |
Advance
planning UNCLE Tom was a prosperous crockery merchant in the Kissakhani bazar of Peshawar. He used to live in our locality, Mohalla Kakaran. Once in a while, he would go to Bombay and for weeks thereafter no one could prevent him from singing songs in praise of the crockery available there. Uncle Tom very much wanted to involve his son, Shiv Ram Oberoi, in his business. But Shiv had his eyes fixed on altogether different goals. Whenever opportunity came, he used to slip into Lahore and there stay in Majestic Hotel in Anarkali which was owned by Bhai Wazir Singh, a close friend of Uncle Tom. Shiv wanted to set up something like that in Peshawar also. But before he could crystallise his plans, Partition came and Uncle Tom and his family, like the rest of us, were thrown out of Peshawar. Uncle Tom landed in Delhi. Reduced to the position of a pauper, he would go from Paharganj to Chandni Chowk every day, buy cutlery and crockery there and sell the same in Connaught Place. Brick by brick, he raised his edifice once again. He needed the help of his son in managing it. But Shiv escaped to Lucknow in search of his own pastures. There, in Hussainganj, he established a small dhaba and through that, introduced tandoori roti, seekh kababs, tikkas and things like that in the cuisine culture of Lucknow. The dhaba flourished like Uncle Tom’s business in Delhi. But that was not the case in another matter of no less crucial importance to Shiv. While in a refugee camp, he had fallen in love with a girl. He very much wanted to get married to her. But Uncle Tom came as a big stumbling block in his way. He wanted that his son should first be settled comfortably in life. Which meant that Shiv had miles to go. He worked hard to enlarge his clientele and stuff by stuff introduced delicacies like murghmalai, murghmusallam, Peshawari lamb and Peshawari roghanjosh in the dhaba. Gradually the place developed into something like a miniature Motimahal. Shiv gave it a grand name — Shahi Restaurant, owned by Shiv Ram Oberoi and Sons of Peshawar. Then he called his father to Lucknow. Uncle Tom was highly impressed, but knowing no English, he could not understand a bit of the matter that the billboard on the restaurant contained. When he discovered that — thanks to my father — he gave a dressing-down to his son. “How the dickens,” he thundered, “can you have sons when you are not yet married?” I can’t say what
reply Shiv gave to his father. But there was a big row
between the two of them and Uncle Tom threatened to put
the dhaba-turned-restaurant to fire and drag Shiv over to
Delhi. In a huff, he packed up his bistra and called a
rickshaw to take him to the Charbagh railway station.
Shiv touched his feet as well as his own ears and even
volunteered to give up his love and remove the billboard
from the premises. Uncle Tom’s heart melted. Love
triumphed and, with the blessings of his father, Shiv
eventually married the girl he had fallen in love with in
a refugee camp. |
Tackling problem of population
ONLY once in the past 50 years has population control been an issue in an election. In 1977, and even that time it was for negative reasons. After Sanjay Gandhi’s disastrous efforts at forcing compulsory sterilisation down the throats of the average Indian, under the protection of his mother’s Emergency, not a single Indian political leader has dared mention the words ‘family planning’ at election time. So, in last week’s Assembly elections national leaders stomped around the countryside allegedly raising national issues like the price of onions and tomatoes, poverty, the bomb and virtually everything etc. But, not one single one of them dared mention that by the year 2010 we will have a population of more than a billion people (1162.3 million to be exact) and at least half of them will have no access to the basic amenities of the 21st century. It is, in fact, that half of India which lives below the international poverty line of a dollar a day which will be responsible for doing most of the breeding. Already, most people below this poverty line live not much better than cattle. Their women are mostly illiterate, their children if they go to school at all usually drop out before they get to high school, their homes lack even such ordinary necessities as electricity and clean water and most of the boys they breed are unemployable because of their sub-standard education. It is people like this, mainly in the states of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan, who will make India the most populous country in the world by 2010. So, if India is already one of the poorest countries in the world with living conditions that are considered sub-human by international standards it is easy to imagine how much worse things will be in 10 years. And, the horror of it is that not only do our political leaders never talk about the problem but our media ignores it as well. If you pick up an average Mumbai newspaper you will be able to read every last detail about the latest tacky event. Some fashion show, some beauty contest, some trashy party will manage to get splashed across several columns, often in full colour, but if someone made a serious effort to start a debate on population control it would make no more than a couple of paragraphs. In Delhi, fashion shows and beauty contests are not quite so column-inch consuming but political trivia is. So, if there is some squabble between one political leader and another we can expect to see endless stories on the subject but mention population control and reporters start closing their notebooks and moving on to the next ‘political’ story. Sadly, population control is a political story, probably the biggest in India. It is for political reasons and political reasons alone that it has been so neglected in India that even conservative Muslim countries like Bangladesh and Iran have managed to go ahead of us. The consequences for India, for all of us are horrific but our political leaders will continue to pretend that there is no problem unless pressure builds up from the people. It is in this context that
CII (Confederation of Indian Industry) deserves fulsome
praise for setting up a National Council on Population
Management with the specific purpose of seeing what
Indian industry can do to help control India’s
population. The council is headed by P. Chidambaram and I
happened to attend its first meeting in Delhi last week. The meeting was attended by representatives of some of India’s biggest companies, many of whom had come to boast of all the good work their particular company had been doing, but we are going to need a lot more good work by a lot more people if we are to prevent India from bursting at the seams by the middle of the next century. Unfortunately, no matter how much CII, you or I do it is likely to be useless unless the government decides to take the lead. Why, for instance, do we not already have an all party Population Management Council already in existence? Chidambaram would be the ideal man to head this because, speaking personally, he is the only politician I have met who is genuinely concerned about the subject and who also believes that something can be done. Memorably, he once said to me: “If I were Minister for Health and Family Planning I could bring our growth rate down to 1 per cent in 10 years”. He probably would be able to do this without even being in government and a National Population Council could be the vehicle he needs. Ironically, what came out most poignantly at the CII meeting was the impossibility for anyone to do anything in a big way without the involvement of government. Chidambaram asked everyone at the meeting to make suggestions about what CII could do at its level and the ideas that came up were mainly that CII could help launch a media campaign and that big companies could do their bit in their own areas. Beyond this it really is for government to take the lead. Why, for instance, are we not declaring a population emergency in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar? It is these two states, desperately poor, hopelessly backward, who will be largely responsible for making India the most populous country in the 21st century. Even Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan should be able to bring their growth rates down to zero growth in the next 20 years or so. Bihar will need at least another 10 and UP is unlikely to achieve this target till the middle of the 21st century. Meanwhile, the southern states have done so well in population control that Kerala already grows no faster than developed western countries and Andhra and Tamil Nadu are soon catching up. So, if we want to tackle the problem seriously we need to concentrate most of our energy and resources on making Uttar Pradesh and Bihar more literate and less backward. It is no coincidence that it is also these two states which have the worst records in female literacy. There are other aspects of
the problem that only the government can tackle. The main
reason, other than ignorance and illiteracy, why our
poorest states continue to breed fastest is because
healthcare is at its most hopeless here. This means that
access to contraception is virtually absent in more
remote parts. Narasimha Rao, as Prime Minister, came up
with the idea of distributing condoms through village
paan shops. It was a good idea that nobody has ever tried
to implement. Unless our political leaders realise
immediately that population control has to be above party
differences we are, quite literally, doomed. India is on
the verge of bursting at the seams and, as we did 20
years ago, we continue to add an Australia every year. |
DD’s best news coverage
IT is, alas, the misfortune of this column that it always goes to press on the day an important event takes place so that no follow-up of media coverage is possible. But the run-up to November 25 has been truly fascinating. All the tamasha of an Indian election. First the usual dreary party telecasts. By now, each party should have built up a solid panel of media specialists to appear on the screen and do their bit on radio. But that day has yet to come. So we were tied down to watching the usual leaders and candidates on TV while making election propaganda on public platforms. Atal Behari Vajpayee’s rhetoric does not lend itself too kindly to television, however much it sways the masses on an open maidan. In the same way, Sonia Gandhi’s heavily accented and laboured Hindi seems to stand out all the more on the media. Some of the candidates looked pathetic staring stonily at the camera after being garlanded. And gimmicks such as Sushma Swaraj swearing on the Gita seemed to make matters worse. All in all the character
and personalities of candidates were best revealed when
they were interviewed at length, from what they ate for
breakfast to how they reacted to criticism from the
voters. The relaxed manner in which Digvijay Singh and
Sheila Dixit chatted during their 24 Hours with Star News
and the rather more stiff reactions of a visibly tired
B.S. Shekhawat or the rather brusque and basically
defensive repartees from Sushma Swaraj had their own
tales to tell. Zee also had its On The Campaign Trail,
but the highly experienced and politically Savvy Star
reporters scored heavily. One must, however, hand it to Doordarshan for their intensive coverage of the pre-election news in their bulletins. Theirs was one of the best news coverage and all the more creditable considering the professional restrictions under which their staff operate. They might not have had a programme like the outstanding Battleground, but they did their bit by the news. Battleground,which has now become a steady feature of election coverage, devotes half an hour to analysing election prospects constituency-wise in minute detail, with what went before and what might come. In Sorab Sopariwala and Mahesh Rangarajan, Prannoy Roy has an unbeatable team of analysts and the programme operates at a sophisticated detached, academic level which is admirable. At the time of writing, one is unable to comment on the actual election coverage, including DD’s exit polls, but more next week. What it comes to sport, DD is unbeaten as far as gaffes go. On Tuesday, we had the Asia Cup at DD’s home base, the capital. We first stumbled on the Bhupathi Quereishi match on the Metro Channel, the earlier singles which India lost to Pakistan having, presumably already gone by. We watched the second match in comparative peace, although the Hindi commentator’s trite remarks such as if he wins the next game it will be 5-4 and other obvious comments left one gnashing one’s teeth. The woman commentator in English (no one addressed her by name and there were no credits because there was confusion over failure of the lights) did rather better but sorry we can’t name her. Then came the doubles, with the light failure, so we surfed to something else while the lights were being set right for the match to resume. When we came back, there was no tennis on either DDI or the Metro Channel and, of course, no explanation. Thoroughly frustrated, we anxiously watched the 9 p.m. DD news for results. But there, they had only got as far as the earlier matches between Uzbekistan and Korea and made no mention of the India-Pakistan matches and their results although DD had carried the two singles live. We had to ring up a newspaper to get the results of the doubles, praised be Doordarshan. Why do they take on sports events they cannot manage professionally and for which they do not have enough channels to cope? If it is not cricket being murdered by ads., it is tennis being quietly deleted because the channels are needed for news and other programmes. And, of course, DD still has to get modern, trained commentators, because its old steadies look amateurish against the Geoffrey Boycotts and Vijay Amritrajs of the other channels. Tailpiece: Twice DD
mentioned the men’s double match, instead of
doubles. But who cares? |
Guardianship of Tikka Sahib Shiromani Committee’s reply THE Government has made a formal announcement about its intention to replace the ICS Administrator in Nabha by a Council of Administration as soon as circumstances permit. It has also been announced that one of the maternal uncles of the Tikka Sahib has been selected as his guardian. It is suggested in certain quarters that this has been done with a view to appeasing to some extent the indignant Sikh community. This is not to be thought of, for neither the astute government nor the simple Sikhs are quite so simple as to seriously believe that the creation of the council or the guardianship would make the slightest difference for the Sikhs. The Shiromani Gurdwara
Parbandhak Committee reiterates that its position briefly
put is that the so-called “voluntary” agreement
is not worth the paper on which it is written. Therefore,
it is futile to enter into a discussion of the merits of
the terms of that “agreement” or raise the
point of the breach of those terms. |
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