State chieftains as satraps
POLITICAL power, it would seem, is slowly and surreptitiously shifting from Delhi towards state capitals. No, it is not a planned attempt at establishing genuine federalism but a concomitant of the sharp erosion in the electoral appeal of one national party and the eagerness of another to take roots in new states.

One candidate, one seat
UNION Home Minister L. K. Advani's announcement at an election rally in Bellary that a Bill has been drafted for barring candidates from fighting elections from more than one Lok Sabha seat deserves a qualified welcome.

Dangerous controversy
A HIGHLY dangerous, though avoidable, controversy is raging in the volatile state of Assam. On the one side is the Chief Minister, Mr Prafulla Kumar Mahanta, and on the other are two of his ministers, who have resigned from the government.

THE COMING ELECTIONS
Dialectic of political splits
by Darshan Singh Maini
WITH the Janata Dal, a party prone to endless splits and erosion, thanks to some of its masquerading leaders, long on rhetoric but short on character, now divided hopelessly on the eve of another election, one is tempted to examine the eternal question of political fissures, schisms and splits — a question that covers the nuclear issue of organic divisions in all human species — and, therefore, in all such organisms or outfits where survival and adaptation, erosion and extinction are the primal needs.

SSB: a little known force
by P.K. Vasudeva
THE Special Security Bureau (SSB), a force headed purely by police officers, was raised after the Chinese aggression in 1962 under the aegis of the Cabinet Secretariat.

A common Indo-US strategic stance
by Maj Gen Himmat Singh Gill
EVEN before, but now certainly post-Kargil, the time has come for both India and the USA to forge a positive and dynamic mutual relationship with each other, for the sake of peace in Asia, a democratic way of life, and a human being’s right to exist in an environment free of fundamentalism and trans-border insurgency.

Cinema and TV: a threat to new generation
by Khushwant Ahluwalia
WITH so many television channels in the fray outdoing each other, by whatever means, the “idiot box” and our Bollywood mega-movies promise to promote juvenile misdeeds and ruin our social values. Channel surfing takes you to a world of crime where one sees murder, rape, conspiracy, sex, gambling, drug mafia and all other ills our civilisation has conceived over times immemorial.

Tough Talk
by Rajnish Wattas
AS a great fan of Tim Sebastian’s Hard talk, I have been aspiring to do my own version of such tough talk with people who take my sleep away. To follow the guru’s credo, I take no sides but just put some questions, “to test beliefs, to see if there are any holes,... to measure what they said before with what they say now”.

75 Years Ago

Principal Gidwani
WE are very sorry to learn from a letter we have just received from the President of the Sindh Provincial Congress Committee that Principal Gidwani has lost 30 lbs in weight in the Nabha jail.

State chieftains as satraps

POLITICAL power, it would seem, is slowly and surreptitiously shifting from Delhi towards state capitals. No, it is not a planned attempt at establishing genuine federalism but a concomitant of the sharp erosion in the electoral appeal of one national party and the eagerness of another to take roots in new states. The Villupuram fiasco of the Congress on Sunday and the Laloo Prasad Yadav tantrum of Monday are but two incidents in which a state-level party with an uncertain future laid down the law for a national party with shrunken stature. For the BJP, a similar searing experience came in Andhra Pradesh, Punjab and to some extent in Orissa. In these states one or the other national party has ceased to be well entrenched, having yielded the electoral space to a regional party (the Congress) or it is yet to take roots (the BJP). Entry as also re-entry poses ticklish problems forcing the Big Brothers from Delhi to make unseemly compromises. Between them Villupuram and Bihar have taken off some sheen from the initial glitter and promise of a sterling Congress victory. Of course, amends will be made as have already been made by the AIADMK boss Jayalalitha but that will not improve the shaken morale of party workers and confidence of the electorate. A patchwork solution will emerge in Bihar too and the incipient revolt by Congressmen will die down or lead to a few “friendly contests”, which are innocuous ego trips with defeat conceded even before the battle is joined. One Congressman has crowed that the party’s readiness to take on Mr Laloo Prasad Yadav reflects its growing belief in itself. The opportunity to fight from one-fourth of the 54 Lok Sabha seats is not something to scoff at, as is the offer of 12 seats in Tamil Nadu. A credible showing will provide a firm springboard for regaining lost health.

While the setbacks to the Congress had been front page stuff and editorial page comment theme in all newspapers, the troubles of the BJP had hardly been aired. The Akalis are the firmest of the BJP allies, having pledged support during the all too brief 13-day rule. This time they refused to give up Jalandhar which they gifted to Mr I.K.Gujral last year. The Akali Dal was not even ready for seat swapping. A charitable explanation is that the mutual respect is so strong that a pinprick caused by Jalandhar will not affect the ties. But critics will point out that the Akalis had to be tough to prevent the Tohra faction from accusing it of a sell-out to the Hindutva brigade. A similar compulsion worked behind the Telugu Desam dithering on a seat-sharing arrangement with the BJP till the last minute and then offering a measly eight seats (out of 42). Even the Biju Janata Dal, in the oxygen tent since the day of its birth, has refused to reopen the question of seat division. In all these cases the motivation may be different but the end result has been for the regional parties to armtwist the national parties and get away with it. Both the Congress and the BJP have suffered but have grinned and absorbed the sock in the jaw. One wistfully thinks of the past and wants to recreate it; the other has dreams about the future and is impatient to reach there. For both smaller parties are a necessary evil to countenance and tame in the grand transition from what is today to what could be tomorrow.

One candidate, one seat

UNION Home Minister L. K. Advani's announcement at an election rally in Bellary that a Bill has been drafted for barring candidates from fighting elections from more than one Lok Sabha seat deserves a qualified welcome. The timing of the announcement is suspect. Why? Because among the prominent leaders only Congress President Sonia Gandhi has made public her decision to contest from Amethi in Uttar Pradesh and Bellary in Karnataka. Since Mr Advani made the announcement in Bellary it is evident that under the garb of initiating a debate on electoral reforms he was actually targeting Mrs Sonia Gandhi. In other words the Bharatiya Janata Party now has two Sonia-centric issues for conducting its lop-sided election campaign. It may not be wrong to say that Mr Advani has raised the right issue at the wrong time. One can understand why the BJP, still in its infancy, did not raise the issue in 1980 when Indira Gandhi won the Lok Sabha election from Rae Bareli in U.P. and Medak in Andhra Pradesh. However, by 1989 the party had become politically strong to be able to extend outside support to the government headed by Mr V. P. Singh. For reasons not difficult to understand neither Mr Advani nor any other BJP leader raised the question of changing the electoral laws for debarring candidates from contesting more than one seat. The fact that Mr Devi Lal had successfully contested the Lok Sabha election from Sikar in Rajasthan and Rohtak in Haryana was not a good enough reason for the BJP raise the issue.

Mr Advani may say that announcement of the proposal for bringing a "one candidate, one seat" Bill in the next Lok Sabha, if elected to power, was not politically motivated. It was made in response to a specific question during a press conference in Bellary. According to him "there is a consensus (presumably among the major political parties and not only within a section of the BJP) on the issue". The Home Minister may also like to explain at what point of time did the "consensus" emerge on an important issue highlighting the loophole in the current election laws. Certainly the issue did not give him sleepless nights in 1991 when he himself violated the principle he is now supporting and won both the New Delhi and Gandhinagar Lok Sabha seats with impressive margins. Why did he deem it necessary to contest from two constituencies? For the BJP the "one candidate, one seat" issue was not worth supporting even as late as in 1996 when Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee kept the Lucknow seat for himself and "reserved" the Gandhinagar seat for Mr Advani, who until then was an accused in the hawala case. Nevertheless it is better late than never. The law indeed needs to be changed to prevent candidates from contesting more than one seat. However, the proposed "one candidate, one seat" law should cover the state assemblies also where the "disease" of one candidate filing papers from several constituencies often assumes the dimensions of an "political epidemic".

Dangerous controversy

A HIGHLY dangerous, though avoidable, controversy is raging in the volatile state of Assam. On the one side is the Chief Minister, Mr Prafulla Kumar Mahanta, and on the other are two of his ministers, who have resigned from the government. It all began with a senior Army officer declaring that Pakistan's ISI had planted its agents in certain holy places ( which obviously means mosques and madarsas in this context) in the state for carrying out its subversive activities in India. Mr Mahanta expressed his apprehensions on similar lines on August 8 saying that "one or two such schools and mosques" might be providing shelter to ISI disruptionists, little realising that this was election time and any such statement could be used by his political adversaries to destroy his following among the Muslims of Assam. But things have gone beyond that. Two of his own Cabinet ministers ---Mr Abdul Jabbar, CHAR Area Development Minister belonging to the Asom Gana Parishad, and Mr Muhib Mazumdar, Irrigation Minister, who represents the United People's Party of Assam in the AGP-led government — have accused the Chief Minister of making "reckless and irresponsible statements", though Mr Mahanta is trying to explain away the matter by blaming the Press for giving a different colour to what he had intended to convey. Mr Jabbar, who had been looking for an opportunity to settle personal scores with the Chief Minister, is using the controversy to cut Mr Mahanta to size. The two members of the ruling group have been joined in by certain other legislators belonging to the minority community in the campaign to malign Mr Mahanta — a very ugly development, no doubt. As if this was not enough, the Jamiat-ul-Ulema-e-Hind, a traditional supporter of the Congress,has also jumped in, though for its own political compulsions. The Jamiat leader, Maulana Asad Madani, did not name Mr Mahanta specifically but he criticised him vehemently by saying that "some politicians are fomenting communal hatred" in the state. Since the job of the Congress is being done by the Maulana the state party unit chief, Mr Tarun Gogoi, has commented on the situation using very safe language: "Places of worship of any religion should be kept sacred and away from the activities of the ultras". Ideally, this is what it should be. But there is every likelihood of the ISI succeeding in its efforts to infiltrate where it will be easier for the trouble-makers to do so, exploiting the factor of religion. This possibility has been further strengthened by the report that the notorious organisation of Pakistan is trying to establish its bases in certain Muslim-dominated areas in the country. Under the circumstances the responsibility of those looking after the Muslim religious institutions becomes all the more greater. They should devise their own mechanism to help thwart the ugly designs of the ISI. Their protests will then carry more meaning if anyone raises an accusing finger at them. However, under no circumstances should the ISI factor be allowed to be used to promote communal illwill. That will amount to playing into the hands of the enemy. No responsible person should make a statement which goes to divide our society on communal lines. If Mr Mahanta's statement falls in this category, it is something unfortunate. In any case, the matter should be brought to an end as quickly as possible. This is in the larger interest of the nation.

THE COMING ELECTIONS
Dialectic of political splits
by Darshan Singh Maini

WITH the Janata Dal, a party prone to endless splits and erosion, thanks to some of its masquerading leaders, long on rhetoric but short on character, now divided hopelessly on the eve of another election, one is tempted to examine the eternal question of political fissures, schisms and splits — a question that covers the nuclear issue of organic divisions in all human species — and, therefore, in all such organisms or outfits where survival and adaptation, erosion and extinction are the primal needs. In other words, what I wish to examine briefly is the dialectic of this universal political phenomenon in relation to the Indian scenario today. For as history tells us, almost no political party anywhere has remained whole or inviolate, though some show a stronger backbone and stronger genes than some others in the field.

Usually, large national parties that get entrenched in power for a long period of time begin to show progressive signs of fatigue, ennui, ageing, debilitation and thanatos or the will to die unless, of course, like animal species, they induct new strains of blood and bone and muscle into their body for “cross-breeding” as a physiological measure to stop “in-breeding”, and, therefore, eventual extinction. However, in politics, the whole process gets vitiated soon enough, and splits — half-splits, quarter-splits, splinter-splits — become a counter agent of inner subversion and downhill slide. The instinct of aggression, self-aggrandisement and power in the animal kingdom is caricatured, travestied and made more vicious, if not lethal, in the political sultanates, fiefdoms and jagirdaris for reasons that involve the larger questions of human nature when it’s endowed with faculties unknown to the lower orders of life. Is then man’s intellect — “the crown jewel” —, in the end, a self-destructive agent? For Machiavellianism, sophistry, rationalisation, doublethink, etc, are peculiar to the homo sapiens in their march towards higher knowledge — and higher power. That’s the point where “the Faustian” man comes out of the prevailing chaos to rob politics of its original impulse and instead, subjects it to an eternal curse.

From these little notes, it should be clear that the phenomenon of political splits in India, which has been on the upswing since the infamous Emergency in particular, has become, with each new election, more and more absurd, more and more pitiful. Today no party, including the enduring Congress and the so-called disciplined, ideologically indoctrinated parties like the Marxists and the BJP-RSS are safe and strong enough to keep the flock from straying, or its satraps and subedars from hoisting their own flags and creating fiefdoms of power — from the feudal structures to the Mandal monad.

Which returns me, finally, to the case history of one party — the Janata Dal at the time of its genesis, it had shown a viable promise of the Fourth Front apart from the decadent, weak, bourgeois liberal-secular Congress, the aggressively nationalistic, rightist BJP-RSS Parivar and the Marxians and leftists sworn to an ideology which in action had come to grief in its own “Mecca”. The Janata Dal now splintered and reconsolidating in specious forms becomes, then, a case of clinical interest. And we will do well to examine its pathology in the context of its extravagant, absurd and ironical passage from idea to inversion after a spectacular but brief period of promise.

Of course, the story of the Janata Dal, so appropriately christened and commissioned, when Indira Gandhi after the Emergency became an overreacher, rudely self-possessed and scornful of the country’s judiciary and Constitution, did suggest the arrival of political set of leaders who breaking away from the Congress, or from the Marxists in general, had sought to set up a polity — and a government — wedded to the secular, liberal-humanist, egalitarian, reformist and truly socialistic values.

Now the tragic story of the Janata Dal, when we cast a nostalgic backward glance, seems to suggest a pernicious paradigm — a typology that subsequent events brought to the fore in a most agonising and shameful form. I’m, of course, hinting at the question of quislings, ruthlessly ambitious peers within the party and the presence of a large number of radical pedagogues and dubious pundits in its own rambling ranks.

There’s a fairly long list of the Janata Dal worthies who have done the turn-about at varying angles from crisis to crisis, and it’s not possible here to examine their cases separately in detail.

After Morarji Desai’s “fall” and the unspeakable role of Chaudhary Charan Singh in the proceedings, it’s really with V.P. Singh that this political story of rise, subversions, splits and possible demise starts. By and large, those who had joined hands with V.P. Singh to create an honest, answerable and radically-oriented party as an answer to the Bofors-tainted, scam-ridden Congress with a dubious history of its role in the Punjab tragedy, could be at that bend in Indian polity an interpreter of the time-spirit — the spirit of change to a cleaner, healthier, humanistic and truly secular politics under a committed government. I shall leave aside V.P. Singh’s “Mandalisation” for the moment, for it’s too large and involved a moral issue to be disposed of here. However, I believe till today that had V.P. Singh, possibly the cleanest Prime Minister with an aura after the great, incomparable Nehru, been allowed by circumstance, contingency and opportunity to implement his vision without being forced into pragmatic, diversionary and divisive politics, the country today would not have been in the unenviable mess of hung parliaments.

But, as I have said above, the Janata Dal contained far too many ideological Machiavels and mavericks to let things take their course in tune with the requirements of the moment. And of these, Chandra Shekhar was easily the most dangerous peer, and from the day of V.P. Singh’s ascent to power, he had started plotting his fall, no matter if he had to eat out of Rajiv Gandhi’s hands the bread of shame, imbibe the champagne of power for a few weeks and do dirt upon his own image and radical past.

Of the remaining eggheads and ideologues, George Fernandes and Hegde, and now the party pehlwans (Laloo being out already out of his own wrongdoings and clownings) Sharad Yadav and Paswan with their underlings have done the right-about-turn and sought shelter in BJP-RSS combine or joined the Sonia Congress to secure a precarious political future. And I muse and muse over the fate of I.K. Gujral who’s out in the cold after giving the country a passing vision of prescient and purposive politics! Deve Gowda and the other “Left-overs” would soon be a part of history if the signs in Karnataka portend anything.

The fate of the Janata Dal is, then, a lesson in the dark heart of the politics of power.

SSB: a little known force
by P.K. Vasudeva

THE Special Security Bureau (SSB), a force headed purely by police officers, was raised after the Chinese aggression in 1962 under the aegis of the Cabinet Secretariat. The Padmanabhaia Committee had reviewed the role of the SSB and recommended wounding up of the entire force because of its being ineffective for its depth area role.

The little known SSB is a sister organisation of the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) and functions under the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) — a part of the Cabinet Secretariat. While RAW is an external intelligence agency, the SSB is an armed uniformed force functioning on the borders for gathering intelligence. It carries out a mass contact programme, helps in local development and acts as a medical aid agency while functioning in depth areas, in border states, where its personnel go about in civilian dress for that friendly touch.

The aim of this force after the 1962 debacle was to create a friendly atmosphere in the far-flung rural and border areas, provide medical aid to the deserving rural population, and gather intelligence about the enemy. Initially, this 10-division strong force had done a tremendous job, but slowly it has become lazy and casual. It has neither been able to gather intelligence nor has it created a friendly environment among the border people.

In the depth role the SSB is supposed to put its personnel in a remote village to gather intelligence specially trained for the job, but it has not been able to do this job effectively. There is nothing cloak and dagger about them as they merge with the local population and earn their gratitude with welfare activities. It has now become a routine matter with the force and it is not accountable to any organisation as such.

The officers of the force, who are mainly from the police, maintain that their highly specialised training is being wasted by putting them on static guard duty. They further contend that the review report itself “needed to be reviewed” in view of the Kargil happenings and the plan of the Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) of Pakistan to intensify militancy in the border states, especially Jammu and Kashmir.

The SSB officers also feel that the personnel of this special force have the requisite training to be used for counter-insurgency operations in Poonch, Rajouri and Doda districts. Its depth area role has also gained a “new relevance” amid reports that ISI agents are now increasingly succeeding in luring local youths to militancy in certain rural pockets.

In the recent past the ISI had been finding it difficult to get local recruits and had been trying to sustain militancy through foreign mercenaries. According to police and intelligence reports, ISI agents are enticing gullible rural youths in remote pockets with a false propaganda about the “success of the Mujahideen” on the Kargil heights.

The SSB can certainly play an important role in dissuading the youth not to join any outfit promoting militancy. The welfare measures, which they are supposed to provide in the border areas, can certainly “hold back” the rural youth.

Now that the Army has decided to man most of the strategic heights dominating the LoC and the Srinagar-Kargil-Leh highway by creating additional posts in Dras-Kargil- Batalik-Turtuk sectors even during the winter months, the SSB can share the role of providing local intelligence and also look after the villagers’ welfare by providing medical aid in these areas, thus lessening the burden of the Army. However, this role can be made effective only in case the SSB is placed under the operational command of the Army which is deployed in sensitive areas.

This may not be acceptable to the PMO because it is felt that the SSB is mostly busy in creating goodwill for the government. If that were so, then the Padmanabhaia report must be implemented in toto. There are too many organisations in the country which had been raised after the 1962 operations. These are now redundant and a big drain on the national exchequer.

There is the requirement of forming a committee, which should go into the details of all the forces that are functioning under the Ministry of Home Affairs and the Cabinet Secretariat. The terms of reference should be to examine the role of these forces and find out if these are accomplishing the tasks assigned to them. Or if they can be given any alternative roles or wound up in case these are not playing their roles properly. This committee should be a high-powered one and have members from the Army, the police, RAW, the bureaucracy and the political set-up, especially the Opposition. The recommendations of the committee must be made transparent and binding on the government.

(The author, a retired Colonel, is a defence analyst.)

Tough Talk
by Rajnish Wattas

AS a great fan of Tim Sebastian’s Hard talk, I have been aspiring to do my own version of such tough talk with people who take my sleep away. To follow the guru’s credo, I take no sides but just put some questions, “to test beliefs, to see if there are any holes,... to measure what they said before with what they say now”.

Here is a preview of the first episode of the proposed series. The interviewee was my own teenage son who has been gradually crossing the paternal LoC and surreptitiously intruding into my wardrobe, my after-shave, my car, my books, my music; and has now almost taken full control of my sanctum sanctorum — the study. The Tough Talk went on these lines:

“The first accusation is that you wore my most expensive — and the only — Louis Philip shirt last Sunday, dropped coke and mustard sauce on it, in your favourite fast-food joint and then threw it away for washing in the dirty clothes basket, without even informing me?”

“I completely refute it as a false allegation. I have no idea about that disputed shirt of yours. What I wore was always mine; and the proof of this lies in test, that on whom does it fit well, your or me? Would you dare to go in for a plebiscite on this issue...? When you wear it, it simply bursts at its seams, and on me it’s really cool!”

“In that case what about wearing my Benzer pair of socks...?”

“Surely you are not mean enough to make territorial claims on a universal, common resource like socks? Such petty-mindedness would be against the family spirit.”

“And would you say the same about using my Polo after-shave also?”

“Well, you have answered your own question very well... (gives a smart alec smile)”

“So you don’t accept any of these gross human rights violations of your father?”

“I think the real question is not of any human rights violation; the real question is of you coming to terms with your history, your geography and the changed social realities. You are no more a free bachelor; the lord and master of the house, but a man with a family — especially a teenage son, whose socio-economic compulsions are much harder than yours. And not to remind, he stands about one inch taller than you already.”

“Would you accept a third party mediation on this issue?”

“No not at all, after all it’s all a question of mutual trust and respect, to be solved by bilateral talks.”

“Not even if I decided to twist your tail by forcing economic sanctions like cutting off your monthly pocket money etc?”

“In that case I would make a big noise about my human rights violation and internationalise the issue by taking it to the highest family forum.”

“And what would be that?”

“Amnesty Mother”

“You think you could sleep well after such blatant lies?”

“Yes, I enjoy a good health and have loving, doting parents. I sleep well every day. Insomnia is their problem.”

With this the interview comes to an end, and also all my plans to do any further Tough Talks. Thank you Tim, for all your inspiration.

A common Indo-US strategic stance

Security and strategy
by Maj Gen Himmat Singh Gill

EVEN before, but now certainly post-Kargil, the time has come for both India and the USA to forge a positive and dynamic mutual relationship with each other, for the sake of peace in Asia, a democratic way of life, and a human being’s right to exist in an environment free of fundamentalism and trans-border insurgency.

There will be differences, in fact many of them, in our perceptions, overall aims and the modus operandi of achieving our targets, but these are to be expected, and should not stand in the way of bettering Indo-US relations.

What then are some of the issues that the two countries, India and the USA, would need to look at more closely than the rest? First and foremost, both must understand that the strategic and political picture in South Asia and more specifically India and Pakistan, has changed considerably in the last few years, and that a resurgent India today wishes to look beyond the Kargils and all the Indo-Pakistan wars, and march ahead into the next millennium as a mature, self-confident and progressive democracy, backed by its own military and economic strength, and its absolute resoluteness in not giving in to terrorism, a nuclear imbalance, and small to large-sized bush wars and other conflicts. There is at present, I believe, a calculus of strategic vulnerability and strategic strength in both the USA and India, and the success lies in both understanding and appreciating the then red line that they have drawn, for safeguarding their own national interests and strategic agendas. It would be evident to any in the free world that India’s restraint in the Kargil conflict, (in not crossing the LoC, not opening up new fronts in and around Kargil, in restoring the LoC without crossing it, and in its treatment of the POWs of the Pakistani army), depicts a sound and unflappable political and diplomatic leadership, with whom the USA can do serious business. The simultaneous holding of the Lok Sabha elections, even as the Pakistani ISI-abetted insurgency and terrorism rages on in Jammu and Kashmir, (not to forget India’s North East), speaks volumes of the resilience and Indian concern for peace and stability in the region.

The other reality, lest it is missed out, is the stark difference in the perceptions and the actions of the military minds, in and out of the uniform, in both India and Pakistan. The handling of the military operations in Kargil by the Generals and the Air Marshals in India were complementary and in unison, to the overall strategic policy of the government, though nothing of the kind can be said for our counterparts across the border and their interface and interactions with Mr Nawaz Sharif and his political team. In so far as the others in India who have since hung up their spurs, but still ‘think’ military and diplomacy, it has to be emphasised, (that like in the United States), the time has come here too, to involve in a more meaningful manner in higher policy planning, this segment, for the overall good of the nation. Only those who understand mountain warfare and strategies at these high altitudes and have experience of such specialised operations, can speak up forcefully and convincingly for the further betterment of the Indian Army.

What would pay us in the future in Conflict Control, would be a, ‘direct dialogue’, between the security experts serving and retired, and the government. It is not only a civilian, a bureaucrat or a politician like Farooq Abdullah who can suggest, that the turning of the LoC in Jammu and Kashmir into a permanent border with Pakistan, could possibly be one of the few workable solutions that could at least be seriously examined with mutual, long term benefit to both countries. The security experts will even suggest to you, how to go about achieving this task!

India and the USA must urgently evolve a system by which they can learn to separate and prioritise the multifarious issues that will confront them from time to time. The Intellectual Property Rights issue, radical steps for furthering international trade and a stepping up of the technological cooperation between the two countries can be set aside for one kind of a dispensation, while other issues relating to the CTBT, FMCT and the NPT, where some deeper strategic concerns are involved, in the follow-up to the successful Jaswant Singh-Strobe Talbott talks, are baracketed in quite another category, so that simultaneous progress in one field or the other can be affected all the time. If at present we are treading carefully on the NPT and the CTBT, then we have also taken care to announce a moratorium on further tests, as also the instituting of measures that will prevent the export of dangerous nuclear technologies. Knotty issues do take time to resolve, but one thing is quite clear that the golden opportunity for improving the Indo-US relations, so painstakingly nurtured by both sides in the last one year or so, must not be frittered away once again, as India regrettably did in 1962, when the USA had promptly and unambiguously come to our assistance, but we had failed to even maintain the necessary strategic co-balance then, with the erstwhile Soviet Union and USA. On the other hand, a nuclear India’s restraint and sobriety in de-escalating against all provocations, the war in Kargil, has surely sent the right signals to America, that in many things both countries have common interests. Arresting the spread of Muslim fundamentalism, denuding the chances of even an accidental conflagration, keeping alive a democratic way of life in position and raising the living standards of its people, are some of these. Let us both address them now.

Cinema and TV: a threat to new generation
by Khushwant Ahluwalia

WITH so many television channels in the fray outdoing each other, by whatever means, the “idiot box” and our Bollywood mega-movies promise to promote juvenile misdeeds and ruin our social values.

Channel surfing takes you to a world of crime where one sees murder, rape, conspiracy, sex, gambling, drug mafia and all other ills our civilisation has conceived over times immemorial. The same acts are done off-screen by teenagers and immature kids who become motivated and excited watching these TV programmes.

Alcoholism and drug addiction are one of the side-effects of tele-serials which project macho images of actors indulging in such activities.

Bullying weak students, bunking classes, cheating during examinations and school and college students threatening teachers is all picked up from movies and television.

Big and small screen programmes are meant to entertain and in the process project values and customs of the social fabric in which they exist, along with highlighting the ills of the society in a manner that leaves the viewer detesting the villain.

Somehow our Hindi movies are the worst messiahs of gregarious culture and these set the stage for distortment of reality in a child’s mind.

These project the police in poor light and portray it as an inefficient, lethargic, comical and a thoroughly corrupt force meant to be ridiculed. The projection of the police can be factual to a certain extent but the police has the capability of solving crime without the help of a Dharmendra or Shahrukh Khan. Hollywood movies personify their cops as highly efficient and competent in tackling crime, thus the respect for the police.

An Indian movie police officer can be seen touching the feet of some underworld don and a politician is addressing him as “Ay Commissioner ke bachhe or even worse.”

Today because of such image-building of the police, none of us have the slightest awe and respect for the caretakers of law. The BMW accident and Jessica Lal murder reflect how scant is our regard for the law.

Television and cinema glorify the villain to such an extent that their lifestyles and way of living, become role models for teenagers. Flashy cars, designer clothes, expensive watches, sun glasses and colognes are what youngsters seek at an impressionable age.

When they see 10 to 15 gun-toting bodyguards around the villain, see his authority and respect in society, with women doting on him and view the elaborate paraphernalia in his day-to-day life, children marvel at such acts of materialism.

“The urge to get rich overnight is what drives them to commit acts of kidnapping, murder or robbery at this young age” says Kuldip Singh, Senior Superintendent of Police, Ludhiana, which has seen a spurt in child delinquency cases over a couple of years.

What creates this urge?

“Television and movies have a definite bearing on a teenager and his craving to have a gaudy lifestyle may have been picked from the screen”, he says.

Three friends kidnapped a peer in Ludhiana to collect ransom from his father only to kill him later.

In another shocking incident in Hoshiarpur district, friends after a drinking binge, brutally stabbed to death a companion, put his corpse in a gunny bag and threw it down a gorge. The reason was the deceased had confessed to his friends that he had gone to a third person’s house to woo his cousin.

In yet another act of violence in the same city, 12 young boys came in a Tata Sumo and tried to kill a sadhu with sharp-edged weapons. The accused had no links with the injured and just came for funsake at somebody’s behest.

Ironically, all these incidents were executed in “filmi-style”.

Apart from crime, human relationships are in for a rude shock as we watch programmes which show youngsters showing disrespect to parents, teachers and old respected institutions of social relationships.

Husband and wife kinship is no longer preserved by filmwallas as adultery runs rampant in tele-serials. The man and woman of today is shown breaking all moral codes in pursuance of lust, power and fame. All this has affected family ties.

Adolescent sex and violent impulsions are wrongly answered by television. “They seek respite of their guilt feeling from the teleserials,” comments Mrs Renu Mital, child councillor at St. Xavier’s School.

For example, the fashion channel, which comes live from France, leaves nothing to imagination and is a great influencing factor on adolescents on what they think is correct and acceptable dressing. “The screen reinforces their thoughts after they have been checked on these matters” says Mrs Mital.

Is this the role of television in our society, cry law-enforcers and parents? Are these the reasons we allowed free beaming of channels and relaxed censor rules? Is it to allow decomposition of the coming generation and make them “zeros just for the sake of phony heroes”?

75 YEARS AGO

August 25, 1924
Principal Gidwani

WE are very sorry to learn from a letter we have just received from the President of the Sindh Provincial Congress Committee that Principal Gidwani has lost 30 lbs in weight in the Nabha jail. The letter further states that Mrs Gidwani had written to the Jail Superintendent no less than a dozen times inquiring when she could interview her husband, but that no reply has been forthcoming on the point.

Is it too much to hope that the Government of India will make a public statement on this subject?

Principal Gidwani is not only a political prisoner in the strictest sense of the term, but as a public man he has always been held in high esteem by all who know him.

In the present case, moreover, his offence, if any, is wholly technical. We can think of absolutely no justification for treating such a person with misdemeanour. All the privileges pertaining to his position should be given to him.