Poll-eve bout of generosity
ELECTION time induces a violent change in body chemistry of ruling politicians. The heart begins to pump out juices of human kindness and selfless generosity. Simultaneously, the skin grows a bit more thick.

Gaisal: probe & probity
THE Gaisal accident in West Bengal has shaken the edifice of the management, control and credibility of the entire railway system. Soon after reports of numerous casualties were received through various media channels, this newspaper asked the Union Government to take four steps forthwith.

VIP travellers
THE final judgement in the public interest litigation highlighting how the police was "unnecessarily" challaning citizens coming in the way of a VIP motorcade is yet to be delivered but the strictures passed by a Bench of the Delhi High Court on the government and the police are apt and incisive.

BANGLADESH TODAY
A poor country’s stiff climb
by Chanchal Sarkar
WHEN Egypt’s nationalists were confronting the British in the twenties and thirties, Nahas Pasha, the leader of the Wafd Party, once said sadly: “The tragedy of Egypt is its geography”. He meant that the British would never release their stranglehold on a country through which ran the Suez Canal.

The farce of postal ballots
by P. N. Khera
KARGIL or no Kargil, war heroes or not, there is one thing the politicians seem determined not to put at risk: the likelihood of the 1.5 million soldiers, airmen and seamen casting their ballots anytime the country goes to the polls.

Making ‘Elizabeth’ was frightening: Shekhar
by Tavleen Singh
SHEKHAR KAPUR was the flavour of last week in Delhi. He was feted and fawned upon by this city’s most glittering people and those who had not yet seen “Elizabeth” got their chance to see it — uncensored — in small private theatres to which only invitees got entrance. The film left most people astounded not just by its beauty but also by the fact that such an English story be told so intimately by an Indian director.

Bringing horror into the living rooms
by Amita Malik
BARELY have we got over the horror of Kargil, the body bags, the military funerals with brave families holding back their tears, the jawans with mutilated bodies in hospital, and now comes the rail tragedy. As someone pointed out, it has probably had more casualties than Kargil, but without the glory and the cause. And TV brings the horror right into our living rooms and robs us of sleep and the appetite to eat.

Symbol of dignity
by B. Ram
MOUSTACHE grew upon my upper lip after teens but luckily or unluckily it was so sparse and bristling that it looked as if some hair had been planted on my upper lip and so I dropped the idea to keep it. Those who keep it especially big, are called munchhandar — moustached and those who do not keep it are called munchhmunda — clean shaven like me.

75 Years Ago

Situation on the frontier
THE recent demonstrations in Khost did not apparently subside entirely and reports now state that there has been a recrudescence of the excitement during the last ten days.

Poll-eve bout of generosity

ELECTION time induces a violent change in body chemistry of ruling politicians. The heart begins to pump out juices of human kindness and selfless generosity. Simultaneously, the skin grows a bit more thick. There is a tested antidote for this periodic rash and it is called the model code of conduct. But of late ruling parties, both at the Centre and in the states, are showing signs of developing an immunity against this. For proof see what happened in Delhi and Chandigarh on Thursday. The BJP-led alliance suddenly woke up to an agreement signed two years ago and announced its implementation. Actually, firm directives are not ready and it will be some time before the beneficiaries — in this case, central government employees — secure the promised gains. The government is not interested in the concrete part of the plan but only in scoring as many hits as it can in the psychological war to win voting strength and demoralise electoral adversaries. That is why it has ventured to give out the exact number of employees who are stagnating in the same post for 12 years or more and also the total money the government will spend in granting them notional promotion. The figures are 42 lakh and Rs 64 crore. The number of deserving men and women will have to be much less than the total staff strength which is 42 lakh. It is not the government’s case that every employee stays stuck in the same post for a dozen years or so. The financial outgo is at best only a crude estimate. In these days when the wage structure balloons every 10 years and dearness allowance grows by the half-year, to put an exact figure on the total gain by the employees is a typical bureaucratic jugglery and a political illusion trick. Also, the Grade A officers (once called Class I officers) are not among the lucky ones. But there is no need to shed any tear for them. Just a day earlier the Finance Ministry created some new posts and bestowed monetary benefits on at least 275 of them, even while the Finance Minister was talking of stringent belt-tightening.

What happened in Chandigarh is more dramatic but less taxing, fund-wise. The new government planted itself squarely on the side of the employees and banished the hated card-punching system and promised to withdraw all court cases filed during earlier strikes. Yes, all cases. Now that it was in a generous mood, the government also restored the seniority-linked casual leave system. The explanation for this series of policy reversal was stunningly original. The card-punching system was a relic of the imperial days, the government said, downgrading all industrial workers who happily punch cards to the status of unfree citizens. These two developments — in Delhi and Chandigarh — are so routine as to be boring. But they do carry a lesson. Take the case of central government employees “enjoying” at least two promotions in their career. This was part of the recommendations of the Fifth Pay Commission and was given concrete shape two years ago after extensive consultations with trade unions. That was during the United Front government days when the BJP, then in opposition, lambasted two Ministers of succumbing to pressure from their supporters in the trade union movement and lavishing concessions on them far in excess of the pay panel report. Why was not the plan enforced during these long months and why the sudden activism now? Of course, the Election Commission will not object; the government had the sense to seek and secure its prior sanction. As for Haryana, will the Chautala government show the same degree of accommodation if the staff were to go on strike tomorrow? On second thoughts, it appears that election eve is also the time for much administrative shortsight.

Gaisal: probe & probity

THE Gaisal accident in West Bengal has shaken the edifice of the management, control and credibility of the entire railway system. Soon after reports of numerous casualties were received through various media channels, this newspaper asked the Union Government to take four steps forthwith. Besides looking after the injured persons, the dead should be given due respect and their families should be informed adequately if authentic addresses are available. The relief operations should be quickened. Attempts should be made to save as many lives as possible in the telescoped carriages as well as in the battered compartments. The Railway Minister should own moral responsibility for the tragedy and resign. Finally, the causes of such accidents, which are well known, should be removed. The fact is that the salvaging operation has been very slow. Many of the dead persons have not been identified and mass cremation has been found to be the only way for the disposal of the nameless corpses. Many lives have been saved by mechanical experts. Railway Minister Nitish Kumar has followed the advice given at proper time. The Prime Minister delayed the acceptance of the Minister's request a little too much. The nature of the accident is not beyond the scope of the normal fact-finding process. Mr Nitish Kumar has rightly described the distressing situation as an act of "criminal negligence". He has condemned the "total failure of the railway system" He has gone to the extent of admitting that railway officials have become callous; attempts to improve and streamline the system have failed. Now, the Prime Minister is also the Railway Minister. He is overburdening himself; he already holds the charge of Mr Jagmohan's Telecommunications segment. It is impossible for one man to manage effectively a great load of work. In these conditions, bureaucrats perform Ministers' duties and strange results ensue.

On the face of it, the setting up of a one-man commission of inquiry headed by a retired Supreme Court judge seems to be an adequate step. But one has to keep in mind two things. The Commissioner of Railway Safety has usually and regularly probed such accidents. His credibility and position have never been doubted. His reports have a statutory status. To bypass him is to downgrade, if not to denigrate, the exalted and purposeful office. The results of inquires are generally not submitted in time. As and when they appear, the suggestions and recommendations are not taken seriously. The Khanna accident is a case in point. Months have passed. The culprits are yet to be named and brought to book. Their going scot-free for a long time has put a question mark on the entire probing process. The five railway officials suspended in connection with the disaster are not directly related to Gaisal's gory happenings. The move may point to the overall responsibility of senior officers, but they, by themselves, do not constitute prise the decrepit system. There is much anger and anguish among the rank and file of officers on the issue of selective suspensions. (They have a well-organised association.) The NF Railway's General Manager has been asked to proceed on leave, but the Railway Board's Member (Traffic) has not been touched. Similarly, the Member of the electronic section concerned with signalling does not figure in the action taken report. A senior officer has observed: " The message that goes out is that if you have mentors (read godfathers), you will be saved." The path that the inquiry will take will be tortuous. If there is a fair probe, the Gaisal accident would become a turning point in railway safety.

VIP travellers

THE final judgement in the public interest litigation highlighting how the police was "unnecessarily" challaning citizens coming in the way of a VIP motorcade is yet to be delivered but the strictures passed by a Bench of the Delhi High Court on the government and the police are apt and incisive. In fact, the learned Judges have only given words to what has been on the lips of every common man all along. "What is the problem if the Prime Minister travels like a common man? If there is a security threat to VIPs, then take them by helicopters. But don't disturb the common citizens," the court has said. The fact of the matter is that VIPs have virtually usurped the roads and treat the ordinary users as no more than ants or flies. The security personnel manning their motorcades act like veritable terrorists who terrorise everyone into going off roads. Only recently, the security guards of a Chief Minister smashed the windscreen of the car of a retired senior officer just because he did not make way for the worthy. His family members were badly injured. The politician did apologise when the issue was raised in the Press but that did not put a stop to the highhandedness of the VIPs. Even the present case before the court is about the travails of a Reader at the Delhi School of Economics who was challaned on multiple counts just because he was going ahead of a VIP's (Delhi's Lieut-Governor Vijai Kapoor) motorcade route. Such security is unheard of in any other country but has become commonplace in India in the name of threat to the lives of VIPs. Besides being a tremendous drain on the exchequer, it has become a traffic nuisance. Roads are blocked whenever a VIP has to pass. Even the guards of lesser VIPs muscle everyone else off the roads. The minimum one can expect from them is choicest expletives. The blaring sirens disorient other drivers and cause many accidents.

Such privilege is uncalled for even in the case of one or two politicians. Unfortunately, their number runs into thousands, if not lakhs. As the court has rightly said, "Every Tom, Dick and Harry is given VIP security these days. Every second car has a red bulb (beacon) on it. Even an SDM moves around with a siren and red bulb on his car. Just being a bureaucrat does not qualify him for such facilities". Truer words have never been spoken. The long-suffering commuters sincerely hope that the court intervention would help curb the inhuman depredations of the growing hordes of VIPs.

BANGLADESH TODAY
A poor country’s stiff climb
by Chanchal Sarkar

WHEN Egypt’s nationalists were confronting the British in the twenties and thirties, Nahas Pasha, the leader of the Wafd Party, once said sadly: “The tragedy of Egypt is its geography”. He meant that the British would never release their stranglehold on a country through which ran the Suez Canal. There’s a sizeable section in Bangladesh which thinks on the same lines: that Bangladesh can never struggle free from the huge country that rings it on three sides — India.

Whether or not the fear of dominance is a fantasy it certainly throbs in the Bangladeshi mind and the principal Opposition Party BNP (Bangladesh National Party) which until three years ago ruled the country and the Islamic parties are bent on finger-rattling to people at every conceivable opportunity that India wants to take over or buy up Bangladesh and that the Awami League is standing on tiptoes to sell or give it away. Take any issue roiling in the country: the Ganges Water Treaty; the Treaty with the tribal people of the Chittagong Hill Tracts: the proposal for road-rail transit to send goods and people from India across Bangladesh; buying Ashok-Leyland trucks for the Bangladesh Army; deciding whether Bangladesh will sell its gas at all and to India in particular; gauging how much harm to the Bangladesh economy comes from the annual smuggling of Rs 15,000 crore of Indian goods is doing; or if there is any illegal migration to India of Bangladeshis seeking work — on every single issue the BNP’s squawk is “India is the potential bully, India wants to take everything and give nothing, and the Awami League wants to gift Bangladesh to India.” The guns that stir up violence throughout Bangladesh, says the BNP, come across the Indian border. On another issue the official (meaning the Awami League) view as well as that of the opposition is that there is no economic migration into India.

If in reply one says, ever so softly, that India, too, is surrounded on three sides by large Islamic and potentially fundamentalist powers like Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran, Azerbaijan, Iraq, Bangladesh, Saudi Arabia the Gulf Countries, Malaysia and Indonesia it does not cut the smallest sliver of ice. Not at least with a distinguished author and Professor of Political Science in Dhaka University who is also an expert in security and defence. A soft-spoken and pleasant person he became a trifle excited talking about Bangladesh’s determination to be a free entity on its own. He said the Ganges Water Treaty was not fair, and that it has no arbitration clause, that the rivers were drying up in winter with much damage to vegetable growing and that fish like hilsa cannot come up river to spawn any more. I must, however, add that most of the people I spoke to thought that the water treaty was a good one and barring a little hitch in the beginning it was working well. What is paradoxical is what the ambassador of a big Middle Eastern country said: “We consider Bangladesh to be an Indian problem”.

The Amir of the Jamat, Golam Azam, is quite unequivocal about India’s nefarious intentions. He has said: “If this government (Awami League) stays then Indian domination will be so established that it will be different to get free”. I asked a Vice-President of the BNP who

was Commerce and Information Minister in Khaleda Zia’s government how did it help relations between two countries if there was this constant sniping about treachery and bad faith? He said it was necessary to tell the people how things are. He explained the BNP stand on transit, the sale of gas, and the damage to

Bangladesh from the extensive smuggling from India. He said that for almost 50 years Bangladesh had been asking India for a strip of land to have a transit route to and from Nepal but that India had steadfastly refused. The Teen Bigha Corridor, he said, was open only for a few hours. Transit of goods by road and rail will mean a drop in prices in North Bengal and Assam but Bangladesh will not benefit and that, once granted, transit rights cannot be cut off. On gas his view seemed reasonable — that if, instead of using the gas to power Bangladesh’s own industry and domestic needs, it was sold to explorers and countries like the USA which, he said, have oodles of gas stored away and India then Bangladesh would gain nothing. He had something to say about the arrogance of Indian negotiators obviously from his experience as Commerce Minister. A Commerce Secretary of the Government of India told him with brazen blandness during a negotiation. “Better you don’t import a rupee’s worth of goods from India”. This Indian attitude flies in the face of courtesy but, more important, it is blind to the fact that, for India, Bangladesh with its opening to the entire East of Asia, is far more important than Pakistan.

There are those who say that Sheikh Hasina has the people behind her still and she should strike out boldly to do the things that need to be done in the next two years. Others would like to see her opt for astuteness and not be dubbed as pro India and weak on Islam. Some steps are easy but can trigger off controversy.

There are thousands of madarsas in Bangladesh where young boys are fed, clothed and taught free. The teaching is heavy on the Quran and Islam though other subjects are also taught. According to some arms training is given in some madarsas. They are the potential fodder for fundamentalism. The Opposition has accused the Awami League of cutting down on madarsas and hence on Islamic teaching. The Awami League government has flaunted figures showing that the number of madarsas is actually increasing.

Fundamentalists desire Talibanism “Hum Sub Taliban Bangla Hobey Afghan” is the kind of slogan in the streets, or “Jehad, Jehad, Jehad bhai, Jehad korey banchte chai (Jehad, Jehad, Jehad, we want to live by Jehad): To Such people Osama bin Laden is a hero. NGOs are a “western abomination”, they say, and want them driven out.

While Bangladesh dreams of being self sufficient it has made itself hopelessly dependent on imports and on spending scarce foreign exchange abroad. Bangladesh patients spend $105 million a year on treatment abroad of which 47 per cent is spent in India. Only the well-to-do can go abroad and bear this expense. Meanwhile, there is a lack of confidence in local treatment which could be changed. If there is a will. Take skin diseases — there are only nine dermatologists in Dhaka and seven at the district level for a country of 127 million people. In middle or upper class homes things for everyday use like butter, fruit juice, cereals, drinking, chocolate, and toiletries for the bathroom are almost invariably foreign.

A shadow looming over Bangladesh is the endemic spread of violence fuelled by guns, bombs, grenades and explosives. The South West of the country is a terrorist stronghold. The Opposition accuses India of sending in guns. The government universities and technological campuses have become violent places with murders, rape and vandalism by the fundamentalist student bodies as well as that of the Awami League’s student wing.

Universities like Rajashahi, Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology, Bangladesh Institute of Technology and Mymensingh Medical College are often closed. All over the country there seems to be little law and order and more free marketry. Thirty armed gangs are supposed to rule Dhaka’s underworld.

The picture is changing. Passing near Farm Gate or Jatrabari in Dhaka in the dim light of an evening one sees nothing but moving heads. In the countryside the paddy is dazzlingly green. Critics say that the great rivers are shrinking but even so the Padma, Meghna and Brahamputra are some three miles across — potential invaders at flood time.

The farce of postal ballots
by P. N. Khera

KARGIL or no Kargil, war heroes or not, there is one thing the politicians seem determined not to put at risk: the likelihood of the 1.5 million soldiers, airmen and seamen casting their ballots anytime the country goes to the polls. A provision for postal ballots had indeed been made by the framers of the Constitution and in the Representation of People Act but they had reckoned without the chronic inefficiency of the postal system. Ballot papers were often not received by various units, spread all over the country, particularly along our national boundaries, with barely days before the poll and once filled up by the officers and men these would reach their destinations long after the counting had ended and in many cases well after the results had been announced!

The farce of postal ballots has continued ever since the republic was born, with the soldiers rarely able to indicate their preference. This, when war after war, conflict after conflict the politicians have never tired of lionising the officers and men of our defence forces.

The politicians love to bask in the reflected glory of the soldiers’ triumphs but when it comes to the right to choose their representatives from their constituencies they must continue to be exposed to the vagaries of a wayward postal system and the inordinate procedural delays that mark the process of postal ballot.

Take a look at the procedure if only to realise the tediousness of the process. Rule 18 of the Conduct of Election Rules 1961 categorises the people entitled to vote by postal ballot. Rule No. 19, which applies to the Services personnel, requires them to apply to the Returning Officer in a special form so as to reach him at least 10 days before the poll. Only after receiving the application form the Returning Officer issues a postal ballot and it is mailed under certificate of posting (ensuring delay) or arranges delivery by hand (an impossibility in the inaccessible terrains of, say, Jammu and Kashmir, the North East or at sea).

The subsequent procedure is even more obnoxious with the soldier-voter required to sign a form in the presence of the Commanding Officer or his designated officer. Only then can the soldier-voter indicate his preference and that apparently is not much of a problem. He or she must now ensure that the ballot paper reaches the Returning Officer before the commencement of counting — an aspect over which the defence personnel have no control, assuming that they have completed all the paper work in 10 days between applying for a ballot paper to the time of their making their choice.

Very often in the past suggestions had been made to enable the Services personnel to exercise their right to vote by proxy. Obviously the soldiers would only select a man or woman — may be a parent a wife or a brother or even a close friend — to cast their proxy ballot in whom they have ample trust and who they know would not betray it.

But the politicians have often contended that proxy vote would amount to transferring a personal right. Pray, what is a power of attorney which empowers a man designated by you or me to dispose of a property. Proxy vote, in a limited sense, would be something like a power of attorney to a friend or relation to cast a soldier’s ballot.

The Vajpayee government did make a desperate attempt this time to enable the defence personnel to exercise their franchise through a proxy. It even suggested that an Ordinance to this effect could be issued by the President on the recommendation of the Union Cabinet. But the Opposition, the Congress Party in particular, would have none of it.

It charged that the Vajpayee government was trying to cash in on the success of the operation in Kargil. It’s an odd position to take for a party which believes that the armed forces were exposed to undue risk in Kargil by the Vajpayee government, that needless casualties were suffered by our soldiers. If that was what they believed to be the case all the more reason that they do not obstruct the proposed ordinance. The soldiers’ wrath would undoubtedly had fallen on the government assuming that the arguments advanced by the anti-ordinance lobbies are correct.

American soldiers and civilians alike, posted in distant lands, in times of peace and war, enabled to cast their ballots in the elections. India, the world’s largest democracy, has the unique distinction of denying this basic right to its men in uniform serving in distant parts of this vast land. At a time when every Indian swears by the bravery of our soldiers it seems in odd taste that political parties should come in the way of their right to participate in the electoral process. (ADNI)

Symbol of dignity
by B. Ram

MOUSTACHE grew upon my upper lip after teens but luckily or unluckily it was so sparse and bristling that it looked as if some hair had been planted on my upper lip and so I dropped the idea to keep it. Those who keep it especially big, are called munchhandar — moustached and those who do not keep it are called munchhmunda — clean shaven like me.

Moustache has been worn by people to show manhood, masculinity and honour. It is also worn as per religious instructions. It suits some and they look handsome and are complimented. It does not suit others but even then they keep it while some who have look fearsome. However, it is seen that modern people started to keep themselves clean-shaven. Moustached men have different styles based on shape, size and length.

Some wear very thin, trimmed, short moustache and they feel young. Some wear bushy and billowy moustache which leaps and dances when they talk. Persons like Dhannaram and Ramavatar of Rajasthan wear very long, adventurous and record-breaking moustache and they can lift buckets full of water, heavy weights, and pull cars in moustache competitions. The best moustache is chosen and they are rewarded. One person, even pulled a railway engine. Their aim is to get their names recorded in the Guinness Book of Records.

Charlie Chaplin and Hitler had moustache only below their noses not covering their full lips. Such moustached persons get fame. Some wear moustache on both sides of the lips and nothing in between as per ritualistic norms or fashion trends. Some sport a very dense moustache, some curly, some sword like, some like handle bar, some drooping and some sweeping. On the basis of style they are judged as brave or grave or intellectual or depressed. With age, moustache changes from black to brown to grey to motley to white.

Those who keep moustache feel proud of it and they remain busy in caring, twisting and twirling it. Earlier, some men used to have moustache cups to save moustache from getting drenched in milk, tea, soup, juice etc. But now hand or hanky does this job.

Several phrases and idioms have been coined on the basis of moustache and they have either complimentary or derogatory meaning. Some of them are: munchh unchi hona (to feel proud), munchhon par taaw dena (to be on the top of the world), munchh tan kar chalna (walk proudly or arrogantly), munchh ki laj rakhna (to vindicate the honour of one’s manhood), munchh munana (to concede victory or to get the moustache shaven), munchh neechi hona (to be disgraced) etc. It is so important that sometimes punishment is given by shaving the entire moustache or one side of it.

It is said that once in the court of Akbar it was declared that somebody had caught the moustache of the King and the offender had to be punished. Adequate punishment was to be suggested. In response, most of the people suggested that severe punishment should be given to him. But there was one voice against this condemnation, it was of none other than Birbal who suggested that the person should be awarded the throne as he could be none other than Prince Salim, the son of the King.

Making ‘Elizabeth’ was frightening: Shekhar

by Tavleen Singh

SHEKHAR KAPUR was the flavour of last week in Delhi. He was feted and fawned upon by this city’s most glittering people and those who had not yet seen “Elizabeth” got their chance to see it — uncensored — in small private theatres to which only invitees got entrance. The film left most people astounded not just by its beauty but also by the fact that such an English story be told so intimately by an Indian director.

It also left people angry that yet again the censors with their stupid, unthinking approach to cinema were insisting on cuts because in their limited worldview the Indian audience will remain forever “schoolboys” to use Shekhar’s own phrase. With the average Hindi film, he said, cuts were easy because most directors shot extra footage keeping in mind that the censors would invariably snip it. In his own case he tried to make a film exactly so even one cut could destroy it, at least in his own eyes. That is why he is fighting for ‘Elizabeth’ to be shown in India exactly as he made it.

He was speaking to a group of media glitterati at the Taj Hotel’s Club 21 whom he mesmerised with tales of Hollywood and “Elizabeth”. Everyone had assumed after “Bandit Queen”, he said, that Hollywood studios were falling over themselves trying to give him films to direct. Nothing of the sort.

He had spent all his savings on flying Concords to the USA and living in style but, in fact, it was he who had been doing the soliciting when he was asked to direct “Elizabeth”. He had accepted only to discover that he had not even seen the script and realised shortly afterwards that English costume drama was a genre of film-making that he was not even slightly interested in. Afterwards, he had told the producers this and was pleased to find that this was not what they had in mind either.

So, he had taken the plunge only to find that there could be fresh problems over the choice of who should play Elizabeth-I. He did not want a star, just as he had not wanted Dimple Kapadia to play Phoolan Devi so he had scoured around for the right person and come up with a relatively unknown Australian actress, Cate Blanchette. His agent had warned him not to fight too much over this because which producer was going to agree to spend $25 million on a film that did not have a star like Nicole Kidman or Kate Winslet playing Elizabeth.

Shekhar won this battle but remained so frightened about making “Elizabeth” throughout its filming that he insisted on a coconut being broken and “Jai Ganesha” being said before shooting began every morning. By the end of it, he said, everyone on the set became so infected with Hindu superstition that if anything went wrong with the shooting they would demand to know if the coconut had been broken properly that morning. “I had told them that it wasn’t good enough to just crack the coconut but to break it fully”, he laughed, “so we carried this stone — which became sacred — with us wherever we went”.

Had he been unsure of his ability, as an Indian director, to make a film on one of England’s most important icons?

Yes, he had been unsure all the time. But, once the filming starts you get this “creative arrogance” and it carries you through. Besides, the language of film-making is the same wherever you go and despite any qualms anyone may have had before the film got started they disappeared completely and he was accepted totally.

Most films about Elizabeth I deal with her reign of 40 years and its historical importance. Shekhar has chosen to see her story as that of the story of a woman who is transformed by power and politics from an innocent, young girl into a ruthless queen. It is historically accurate, he claims, from the events to the costumes and customs of the English court in the 16th century, but history takes second place to Elizabeth’s own story.

He had not wanted to talk about Elizabeth-I he told us at the very beginning but curiosity about this very English film being made by a very Indian director made it impossible for the queen not to become the focal point of that evening. He was, though, bursting with other stories, like the one about how he had got the full attention of the bosses at Disney with a story that had the potential for a good film. “They were fascinated” he said “they said it was a fantastic idea and, do you know what? I had told them, almost frame by frame, but with a bit of Westernisation the story of Biwi Number One”.

So, what now? A film on Mandela. He had almost decided that he was not the right person to make a film about Nelson Mandela’s life. He believe that it needed to be made by a South African director who could understand, better than him, what it must have been like under apartheid to always know that you are not even accepted as a full human being. To know that in your own country you have lived as someone who has only been accepted as a sort of sub-human being. He believed that he did not have either the anger or the passion that would be needed to do justice to the story. Then, he went to America and mentioned to someone in Hollywood that he had decided against making the film and the man said it was the right decision because “nobody was interested at the moment in a film about a black man”.

“That made me angry” he said “really angry, and I realised that I did have it in me to make this film”. So, Mandela will almost certainly be his next film but there are other projects in the making as well because Shekhar has finally made it. He is India’s only living film director who has transcended national, cultural and linguistic boundaries to become part of the international world of cinema.

Listening to him talk that evening and watching him being surrounded by Delhi’s actors, artists, socialites and media stars I remembered the first time I met him nearly 20 years ago. It was at a fancy dress party in Oxford to which we had all driven down from London.

He was a chartered accountant then and had driven down dressed as an Arab Sheikh. A bad choice of fancy dress considering that the oil crisis had just happened but he may have got away with it had his car not run out of petrol. His unfortunate choice of fancy dress came home to him when he tried to hitch a ride in Arab regalia he found there was almost nobody ready to give him a lift. So, he got to the party at dawn! Festivities continued, though, all through the next day and at some point we found ourselves in a boat on the river.

My most vivid memory of Shekhar is of him falling into the river because instead of concentrating on punting he was ogling at a woman in another boat. He has, as they say, come a long way since. A very long way even from those days as a failed actor and struggling director in our own Bollywood.

Bringing horror into the living rooms

by Amita Malik

BARELY have we got over the horror of Kargil, the body bags, the military funerals with brave families holding back their tears, the jawans with mutilated bodies in hospital, and now comes the rail tragedy. As someone pointed out, it has probably had more casualties than Kargil, but without the glory and the cause. And TV brings the horror right into our living rooms and robs us of sleep and the appetite to eat. The only consolation, if any, is that the media also do their unofficial post-mortems which rob the official cover-ups of their false excuses, if not of their shame. Specialists come into the studios to grill the callous, the smug and the guilty parties. In Kargil it was the intelligence lapse, the delay over vital equipment down the years, the handicaps under which our gallant men fought. In the case of the rail accident, it is again the lack of priorities, the refusal to learn from other accidents and the human error where the buck is passed on to the lowest staff. The media must keep up a relentless war to expose all this, because we cannot afford to forget, if human lives are to be saved and ordinary Indians spared this kind of avoidable tragedy. The nation cannot sup indefinitely off horror.

As if all this were not enough, Star Plus has started a serial which I think should be banned forthwith and I am not being either squeamish or over-cautious and am dead(wrong word) serious in suggesting a ban. It is aptly called Shock TV and some local presenters are giving us another taste of horror, thinly laced with feats on motor cycles and gory car accidents, but mostly devoted to crime of the most sordid kind but, of course, in the USA. Thus one sequence shows a man holed up in a car, and then behind it, in a shoot-out with the police. He is hopelessly out-numbered and after some verbal exchanges and shoot-outs, he is shot and we see his body wriggling to death. With shoot-outs a common occurrence in Mumbai and now at the gates of five-star hotels in the capital, surely it is unnecessary and, indeed, anti-social and anti-viewer to show crimes being committed, with several helpful details for our local variety of criminals, in India? What purpose is the serial serving? Certainly not news, information of a dangerous sort and if this is entertainment, we can do without it. I suggest that whichever body keeps an eye, including Star Plus itself, on violence and anti-social slants in serials should get this one off the screens as soon as possible. Or someone files a public interest case against it. A disgusting serial which deserves no leniency.

I am getting a little bothered about the format of some of our chat shows. While it is legitimate to introduce a personality before interviewing him, surely it is not necessary to keep him off the screen and then tell him the story of his life at great length. I refer in particular to the programme Limelight, where in both the Hindi and English versions, the anchors seem to have a lengthy first word on screen and of course the last word. Two recent instances are Shyam Benegal and Shekhar Kapur.

We went through the dreary long introductions and after a long time both Benegal and Kapur finally emerged on the screen looking a little weary as well as bored and perhaps a trifle surprised. Surely, the personality should tell the story of his life with the right kind of questions and the anchors not show off their homework at the expense of the personality. Other interviewers adopt this practice, but people like Tim Sebastian, Vir Sanghvi and Karan Thapar keep their intros to the minimum mostly to one-liners.

On Star Plus and news, such personalities appear sometimes as much as three times in different programmes in the course of a few hours and one prefers the brief intros of Good Morning India and even more News Hour, where Shekhar Kapur came off best thanks to the relaxed and unselfish way in which Sonia Verma and Rajdeep Sardesai handled the questions. In fact, the format of Limelight, where the anchor sits carefully looking at some papers, then lifts the head on cue all terribly contrived and unnatural and then indulges in long questions is tedious for the viewer. Time the whole format was revised.

75 YEARS AGO

Situation on the frontier

THE recent demonstrations in Khost did not apparently subside entirely and reports now state that there has been a recrudescence of the excitement during the last ten days.

Various officials from Kabul have arrived at Gardez and are discussing the question of Nizamanaina with the representatives of the Mangal trible, which is again stated to be in an excited condition and to have collected in large numbers round Gardez and Matun.

Rumours are afloat that the Mangals are endeavouring to persuade various other local tribes to join their demonstration and to cut the communications between Matun and Gardez.

Meanwhile, the discussions at Gardez continue and it is hoped that the authorities will succeed in pacifying these excitable and headstrong tribes without having to resort to the use of armed force.