Note: Mr Khushwant Singh is on tour. His column was not received this week.
This column was published on October 3, 1998.

Pakistan’s sanest voice: Asma Jehangir

JEE aayaan noo. Welcome, I greeted her as one Lahori would another. Not many Lahoris would remember me. I left the city in which I had lived for nine years more than 51 years ago.Asma Jehangir was born 11 years after Pakistan came into existence. Her name is known and respected over the entire subcontinent comprising Pakistan, India and Bangladesh. She spearheads the voice of sanity against the rising tide of intolerance and religious fundamentalism in Pakistan. She defended victims of Hudood Ordinances under which Christians (including an illiterate boy of 12 years) were sentenced to death for using blasphemous language about Prophet Mohammed, she saved women charged with adultery and people convicted of theft or robbery from having their limbs amputated. She led protest marches against ill-treatment of women, public executions and flogging of men caught drinking alcohol. She was beaten by the police, jailed more than once and two attempts were made to wipe out her family. She had to send her children abroad for safety. She continues to battle against injustice. And Pakistanis fed up of the mullah-dominated government are rallying round her. Despite her becoming the biggest thorn in the eyes of religious fanatics, the government conferred the title Sitara-i-Imtiaz on her and the Philippine Government gave her the Magasaysay Award. She also won the Martin Ennal’s Award for standing up for human rights.Whenever she comes to India and wherever she speaks, she draws large crowds: she is a great orator and Indians like to listen to a Pakistani pleading for friendly relations with India.

Asma Jehangir was in Delhi in mid-September to participate in the Star TV serial Not a Nice Man to Know. I asked her how much more Islamisation does your Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif want to impose on your country? You have already declared yourself as an Islamic state; you have declared Ahmedias to be non-Muslims; you have introduced Shariat laws and Hudood Ordinances which conform to Islamic notions of civil and criminal laws. What more needs to be done?Will you put women in burqas and deprive them to their jobs?

I knew some of the answers myself. Despite strict prohibition against intake of alcohol, well-to-do Pakistani men and women have cultivated a taste for scotch, beer and wine. Only the poor found drunk on the road get flogged. Adultery is as common in Pakistan as it is in other countries.Its population has not shown any signs of decreasing through stoning of adulterers. And fewer women in Pakistan wear burqas than in India. Knowing some of them, I don’t think Nawaz Sharif or his mullah battalions will succeed in putting them back into purdah. Islamisation is pure and simple gimmickery to gun together a tottering regime.

I asked Asma about nuclear explosions carried out by India and Pakistan. In both countries there was jubilation that we too had acquired nuclear capabilities. And in both countries the saner elements believed that the explosions were totally unwarranted and created tension in the region. "You were the first to take the panga," she said, "Pakistan had to follow suit". Asma’s voice leads the chorus of protests against nuclear proliferation.

We discussed many other topics of common interest to India and Pakistan, including the future of Kashmir. We were in agreement about everything.

Someone who has known Asma Jehangir for many years said to me, "Half an hour dialogue with Asma is enough to keep your mind stimulated for a month." I spent one and a half hours with her: one in my house, half in the studio. Her memory will abide with me for many months to come.

Anees Jung

Some years ago I wrote a profile of Anees Jung for Asian Age. I started by saying that if I had to choose one person with whom I would like to spend an evening it would be Anees Jung of Hyderabad. I wrote many other nice things about her being well-read (Urdu and English literature), and widely travelled, a writer of lucid, lyrical prose and a great raconteur. I also mentioned that she was a name-dropper and a hunter of celebrities. She was very gussa and refused to speak to me for three months. This had happened before I was instrumental in having her selected editor of Youth Times and launching her on her career as a journalist and author. But when I found her cultivating her bosses and throwing her weight around, I refused to have anything to do with her. We did not see each other for two years. Then we made up and resumed eating in each other’s house at least once a fortnight.We are again on the best of terms.

Anees is one of the many children of the late Nawab Hoshiar Jung, a musahib of HEH, the last Nizam of Hyderabad. The family are Shia Muslims from Lucknow who migrated to Hyderabad. They were Bilgramis till the Nizam conferred the title of Jung on Anees’ father. All were deep into Urdu poetry. Her brother who lives in Pune is a renowned Urdu poet. Her mother, now 90, also writes poetry. Anees spent many years on a scholarship in the USA and although she reads a lot of Urdu poetry, she writes only in English.

Anees Jung has five books to her credit. Unveiling India (Penguin) went into many editions.She wrote series of articles on Indian women for The New York Times and The Sunday Times (London). For many years she wrote a weekly column for The Times of India. What is surprising is that though most of her writing is about women and her current assignment with UNESCO is to advise the Director-General on the status of women in Third World countries, she has no women friends. At the many parties I have attended in her home (she keeps an excellent table), most men turn up without their wives. She finds women as boring as I find men.

In my interview with her in the serial Not a Nice Man to Know, I asked her bluntly, "Why are women attracted to celebrities like moths to a flame? Why do girls fall in love with their teachers and office girls with their bosses?"

She faced me with the direct question: "Are you by any means alluding to me?"

"Yes," I replied, "Only in your home have I met men like Giani Zail Singh, Sheikh Abdullah, Atal Behari Vajpayee, Balram Jakhar, Ram Niwas Mirdha, Solanki and other celebrities. They would never accept my invitation but they come to you.Why?"

"I don’t know. You tell me."

Anees has a way which draws men towards her. It was in her home that in a small party of about eight guests, Atal Behari Vajpayee read out a poem he had written on his birthday following the destruction of the Babri Masjid. He had entitled it Kya main boorha oh gayaa hoon? It expressed deep anguish over what had happened in Ayodhya. Why he did not speak out boldly against the dastardly crime, I do not know. But I took the poem from him and made him sign it. I translated it into English and with his permission published it in my column for Hindustan Times.

At his last birthday party (September 3), she had three Ambassadors (without wives), the lady Ambassador of Colombia and artist MF Husain, who arrived with a lady friend. There was also Vidya Rao, daughter of the late Rameshwar Rao,Raja of Wanaparthy.She was asked to sing for us. For all her gracious manners, Annes is unsure of herself and apprehensive of guests falling silent. She keeps the music stereo going all the time and always has someone to perform to keep the party going. She is much more fun to be with when alone.

Ode to Rabri Devi

Indian puppetry compares well with the best
Available in countries of the West.
In robotics though,
India appeared to be rather slow
Until a mere Indian Laloo
Using purely native know-how
Could create
A robot that can walk, cook and mate,
can even talk in private;
And amazing still,
can even run a state!.
The West may take a century to catch up,
To create something to match up,
But, what a tragic tale!
The Indian inventor was sent to jail.

(Contributed by J.C. Mehta,Delhi)