This is gutter level
ONE BJP worthy calls Mrs Sonia Gandhi a liar. Mumbai mouth-piece Pramod Mahajan compares her with Monica Lewinsky, the White House bimbo.

Violence-hit polls
GENERAL elections are rarely without their share of violence although the number of such incidents has been on the decline. If the 1991 Lok Sabha election saw 3,363 incidents of poll violence in which 272 persons lost their lives, the number shrank to 2,450 by 1998, with 65 lives lost.

Irrelevance of sanctions
A VERY convincing case for dismantling the sanctions regime against Iraq has been made out by a recent UNICEF report. It presents a horrifying picture of death and malnutrition after the economic embargo came into force.

DRAGGING ARMY INTO POLITICS
BJP’s role much the worse
by Inder Malhotra
DESPITE its many and sadly multiplying shortcomings, India has had two shining and enviable achievements to its credit. The first is the country’s steadfast adherence to the democratic path.

Clash of interests in Maharashtra
by P. K. Ravindranath
THE Gandhian crusader against corruption, Anna Hazare, with a week-long fast brought into focus the questionable manner in which he was convicted for defamation and sentenced to three months’ imprisonment last year.

Spurt in terrorism, sabotage new Pak ploy
by P. Raman
WHILE the political elite is totally preoccupied with the election campaign, there have been alarming reports of a sudden spurt in terrorist activities. (See the box giving a list of incidents reported within a span of four days). In the normal course, what is unearthed in such cases can be just the tip of an iceberg. With the ministers busy with election work, there have been a flurry of activities at the bureaucratic level.

Of midriffs and middles
by A.P.N. Pankaj
“THEY asked me how we came to be known as Motwanis”, he would recall his interview and go on, “I told them it was our respected distant ancestor, a fat gentleman from whom we inherited our surname. And to “why are you so fat yourself?”, my reply was, “it is to perpetuate a great memory and in deference to Julius Caesar’s famed observation about fat men ... “men who are sleek headed and sleep o’ nights”.

75 Years Ago

August 31, 1924
Trade unions in India
THE progress of trade unionism in India is very slow and the labouring class is not exhibiting qualities that make for unity and strength, and without which it cannot influence employers.

This is gutter level

ONE BJP worthy calls Mrs Sonia Gandhi a liar. Mumbai mouth-piece Pramod Mahajan compares her with Monica Lewinsky, the White House bimbo. Defence Minister George Fernandes, inspired by his past and present ministerial colleagues, has reduced her to a child-bearing machine and nothing more. For good measure he condemned all Congressmen as eunuchs for meekly accepting a foreign-born woman as their leader. This is a cross-section of election campaign 1999, or what one newspaper has called “the millennium mandate”. One consolation though. The campaign level cannot get worse than this unless the Congress wheels in a foul-mouthed version of its own. There is a hint though. A decade-old book is being dusted off to quote Morarji Desai who apparently found Mr Fernandes unprincipled and corrupt. Mrs Gandhi briefly entered the fray by making charges against the PMO; her advisers should warn her against any further foray into this heavily mined area as she is temperamentally unsuited to stand the heat. Anyway her present campaign style seems to work and she should hammer away at it.

All these snide remarks may titilate the speaker and his or her sycophants or the prurient section of the audience. These remarks have no relevance to issues real or remotely affecting the people. And God alone knows that the average Indian feels crushed by a myriad of problems which seem to defy a solution. From food to drinking water, housing, education and health care...all these have passed him by. As a wag put it, it is not that the average Indian missed the development bus, but that the bus did not come his way at all. He is at once apathetic and cynical and even corruption, the demon that keeps him in perpetual poverty, has ceased to be an issue in election. He not only faces an unwanted third election in three years but is also fed on a menu of past sins and successes. The whole exercise is totally bereft of a plan for tomorrow, a vision of the future, a workable model to guide the country through the next millennium. Energy is concentrated on discomfiting the rival, sneaking in an advertisement to counter the other’s by “filching” it in advance. Never in the past has there been such a heavy deployment of film stars and faded starlets as this year. If the intention is to make electioneering an art, it has failed. What it has done is to turn vote-seeking into a farce. A farce garnished with mental filth.

The BJP’s personal attacks have achieved one thing: it has snatched away two counter issues the Congress started with. It could have tried to make Kargil a bit more of a level-playing field by keeping the spotlight unerringly on when the government came to know of the intrusion. By the admission of first Mr Pramod Mahajan and now of Mr Fernandes, it was on April 6 last that the Pakistani mischief came to light. Until now the government has maintained that it first noticed the presence of the enemy on May 6, thereby justifying the launch of the counteraction 20 days later. There is no explanation why the army took 50 days to attack the unwelcome guests. Two, the Congress claims to be head of the secular forces; why did not go deep into the BJP’s ultimate stand on the three contentious issues like Ram temple, Article 370 and a common civil code? The nation knows the present stand but it is vital that it also knows what will be its stand in future. Will they spill over into the next millennium? This is a larger than election issue and only the Congress could have secured an answer. That opportunity has been lost. Election 1999 is turning out to be an election of lost issues.

Violence-hit polls

GENERAL elections are rarely without their share of violence although the number of such incidents has been on the decline. If the 1991 Lok Sabha election saw 3,363 incidents of poll violence in which 272 persons lost their lives, the number shrank to 2,450 by 1998, with 65 lives lost. The worrying part is that the present election may see a reversal of this trend, what with reports about such crimes pouring in from all over India. If unidentified gunmen shot dead a prominent activist of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and injured another party worker in a shootout in a south Kashmir village on Sunday morning, three persons were killed when a bomb exploded at the residence of an Andhra Pradesh minister on Saturday night. Unless things change dramatically, Election Commissioner G.V.G. Krishnamurthy's statement that he "anticipated increased violence during the election" might prove prophetic. That is rather unusual considering that the security measures this time are sterner and more elaborate than ever before. The fear that the Kargil imbroglio might curtail the number of security men available for election duty has dissipated. For the first time, as many as 11 lakh cadets of the NCC have been pressed into service. Still, violence has been erupting at various places with alarming regularity. It is fashionable to blame outside agencies for fomenting trouble. But the fact is that they are only stoking the fire which has been lit internally. Nor should poll-related violence be confused with the general disturbance prevalent in society. Election violence has a specific target: to capture power by hook or by crook. Some criminals might use the occasion to settle old scores but in general the mayhem is occasioned by the desire to influence the election outcome. This might be happening more frequently now because despite the commitment by various parties to reverse the process of the criminalisation of politics, hardly any one has bothered to practise what had been preached.

This tendency is not confined to any particular state or party; it is an all-India phenomenon. For record's sake, the country has been divided into various zones. There are five States (Andhra Pradesh, Orissa, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Bihar) which are prone to Naxal-inspired election violence.These will have the election spread over two or three days. Similarly, there are insurgency-prone States which will have a staggered poll. The six Lok Sabha seats of Jammu and Kashmir will have elections over three days. So will Uttar Pradesh. At one time, hit men supported various politicians. Now they have started joining the electoral fray themselves. Parties have been welcoming them with open arms. The real danger lies in the fact that once such people manage to get elected, the first item on their agenda is to subvert the rules in such a manner that they can continue with their illegal activities without fear. In the era of coalitions, these people have started enjoying exceptionally large importance. No party is willing to be the first one to show them the door, knowing full well that it would be politically suicidal. Without their active cooperation, even the Election Commission is helpless. It is becoming a no-win situation.

Irrelevance of sanctions

A VERY convincing case for dismantling the sanctions regime against Iraq has been made out by a recent UNICEF report. It presents a horrifying picture of death and malnutrition after the economic embargo came into force. The report lays bare the truth that over half a million children have died of diseases, etc, owing to the unavailability or acute shortage of medicines following the UN action. Nearly 20 per cent of the population is suffering from malnutrition, and many of this unfortunate section may lose their lives if the situation remains unchanged for some time more. The UN chief, Mr Kofi Annan, has expressed concern at the "unacceptably high" level of child and maternal mortality throughout Iraq.The UNICEF report has clearly stated that between 1984-89 the under-five mortality rate in Iraq was 56 deaths per 1000 live births which jumped to 131 deaths during the 1994-99 period. The carpet bombing and further attacks on parts of Iraq have nearly crippled the country. According to one study, more than 310 tonnes of ammunition manufactured with the use of depleted uranium has led to the death of over two million Iraqis so far, besides causing blood cancer and other serious diseases on a vast scale.

The American and British argument that the trade embargo cannot be done away with so long as there is conclusive proof of the total elimination of weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) in Iraq or its capacity to produce them has no relevance today. UNSCOM (United Nations Special Commission), the agency that was created to oversee the task of demilitarisation of Iraq, had failed to find any trace of WMDs or facilities to assemble them before its unnatural death in the wake of the controversy that it was being used for spying purposes. Mr Scott Ritter, a former US marine officer appointed as chief inspector for UNSCOM, who resigned his post in protest against the American misuse of the information gathered by his team, not only confirmed the charge levelled against the Clinton administration but also sought the lifting of the UN sanctions against Iraq. In May this year Mr Ritter declared that Iraq no longer had the capacity to produce or deploy weapons of mass destruction and, therefore, the crippling sanctions should go. But the US regime with the UK's Blair government in tow refused to accept the forceful claim of Mr Ritter. Apart from the assertion of the former conscientious UNSCOM inspector, appeals from various corners of the world have been made from time to time to end the suffering of the Iraqi people as their country is no longer a threat to its neighbours, but all in vain.Now is the time for the UN chief to come to the rescue of the dying people of Iraq. The sanctions have outlived their utility. Iraq has suffered enough during the past nine years. The world community must not allow the US-UK duo to impose its perverted will on the world body.

DRAGGING ARMY INTO POLITICS
BJP’s role much the worse
by Inder Malhotra

DESPITE its many and sadly multiplying shortcomings, India has had two shining and enviable achievements to its credit. The first is the country’s steadfast adherence to the democratic path. The second, which is indeed an essential prerequisite for the first, is the admirably apolitical character of the Indian armed forces.

There was, of course, the shabby aberration of Indira Gandhi’s 19-month Emergency in the mid-seventies. But if it proved anything at all, it was that this vast, hugely diverse and bewilderingly complex country will be ruled democratically or not at all.

What a striking contrast this is to the course of the post-1947 history of the neighbouring lands — Pakistan, Burma (now called Myanmar), Indonesia and even Bangladesh shortly after its liberation — where the military lost no time in taking over, amidst unconcealed glee of those great powers which today swear by democracy but had then lionised tinpot military dictators and had showered upon them gifts in guns and gold.

Against this backdrop it is a crying shame that the 13th general election has become the occasion for a crass, cynical, deplorable and dangerous attempt to drag the gallant defence services into the vortex of partisan politics. As was only to be expected, the leadership of the military has been greatly hurt by the disgraceful drive, as discerning readers of newspapers must have noticed already. But, unfortunately, the problem hasn’t gone away.

In a milieu in which winning an election, by hook or by crook, is all, politicians of all hues are quite happy to garner a few measly votes even by endangering the basic foundations of Indian democracy. Almost all the other instruments of the Indian State — the civil service, the police, the para-military forces and the technocracy, which collectively constitute the infrastructure of the republic — have been blunted and corroded because of relentless politicisation with results that have been haunting the nation for some decades.

To contaminate the armed forces, the last bastion of the country’s unity, territorial integrity and value system, with the plague of politicisation will be nothing short of suicidal. The hitherto unchecked menace therefore needs to be nipped at least at this late stage.

Neither of the two principal combatants in the battle of the ballot is lilly-white innocent in the competition to exploit Kargil for narrow electoral purposes even at the cost of the wider national interest. But the culpability of the BJP-led ruling coalition (albeit a caretaker one) is much the greater.

It is bad enough that heroism of the Indian jawans and the officers leading them was immediately appropriated by the saffron camp as if this was in reality the bravery of the BJP and its supporters. At the same time, any criticism of the negligence and worse that enabled the Pakistanis to occupy strategic Indian heights in Kargil in the first place was denounced as some kind of a lack of patriotism. But the ongoing crude tactics to blur the line of distinction between the apolitical armed forces and the politicians currently in power are much worse.

Only the Election Commission’s perfectly legitimate criticism and Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee’s quick and graceful apology put an end to the pernicious ploy of making the badly drawn portraits of the three Service Chiefs part of the garish backdrop to the election meetings of Mr Vajpayee and other Hindutva stalwarts. But this in no way restrained the other depredations of the organisations allied to the BJP.

Veterans of the VHP, for instance, flocked into military hospitals not so much to honour the wounded warriors as to foist on them religious and sectarian literature. Not content with this, the visitors also “persuaded” the injured jawans to leave their beds and touch the feat of VHP leaders while the dismal scene was photographed and filmed. The objective of drafting the war veterans into the political service of the ruling combination could not have been clearer or more shocking.

Then followed the spectacle of the Army Headquarters being inundated with tons of thousands of rakhis, with lotus as their motif, to be sent to the brave soldiers defending the frontiers. Once again, batteries of cameramen were in attendance. Not to be left behind, the Union Home Minister, Mr L.K. Advani, held at Ahmedabad a session of Hindutva volunteers, all of them dressed, for the occasion, in military-looking uniforms complete with the armoured corps berets.

Earlier, the Defence Minister, Mr George Fernandes, had dragged the Director-General of Military Operations at the Army Headquarters and an Air Marshal to a meeting of the BJP executive, without even informing, leave alone consulting, the Chiefs of the Army and the Air Force. When there were inevitable and perfectly justifiable protests, the Information Minister and Hindutva’s spin doctor, Mr Pramod Mahajan, entered the fatuous caveat that other political parties could also be so briefed by military officers.

Mercifully, the Prime Minister was quick to appreciate the point of view of the Service Chiefs, that there should not be the slightest attempt to erode the military’s apolitical character. The three Service Chiefs then agreed to join the Prime Minister and the Defence Minister in briefing an all-party meeting about the state of the Kargil war but strictly on condition that each of them would say his piece and thereafter all three of them would withdraw, leaving the political discussion to the politicians.

However, nothing is more difficult than to shake off a bad habit. No wonder then that exasperated high military officers have once again appealed to political parties to leave the armed forces well alone.

Meanwhile, the Chief Election Commissioner, Mr M.S. Gill, was at the receiving end of sharp criticism by the ruling coalition. For, the Election Commission had, in a unanimous order, prohibited the release on the state-owned TV of a carefully calibrated film on the Kargil war and told political parties not to exploit Kargil for electioneering. Since this was interpreted as a ban on raising the Kargil issue in the election campaign the saffron camp’s dismay was understandable.

Mr Gill has since clarified that Kargil can surely be an election issue but the crass attempts to drag the Army into the election campaign is not at all permissible.

For its part, the Congress, in its anxiety to hit the Vajpayee government for having deliberately ignored the warnings about the Pakistani gameplan, has also tried to wound the Army. The party’s eloquent spokesman, Mr Kapil Sibal, even released an aggrieved Brigadier’s letters, quoting the number of Top Secret file at the Army Headquarters from which the documents were supposed to have come. According to authoritative Army sources, the file number cited by a lawyer of Mr Sibal’s distinction is a “concoction”, and that some of the purported letters of the Brigadier being “hawked around” simply do not exist.

As if this disgraceful process of playing ducks and drakes with the Indian military’s glorious traditions and ethos — which, to repeat, are absolutely vital for the survival and flourishing of Indian democracy — wasn’t enough, the current election campaign, still far from over, has also witnessed the degeneration of electoral rhetoric to the lowest imaginable depths. Mr Mahajan has at least tried to make amends for having bracketed Mrs Sonia Gandhi and Ms Monica Lewinsky. But this hasn’t prevented the redoubtable Mr Fernandes from making fun of the fact that Mrs Gandhi has given birth to two children. According to him, this is her “only contribution” to India.

Against this display of bad taste there have been loud protests, not all of them emanating from the Congress. But strangely nothing is being said about the shocking remark of the BJP candidate in South Delhi, Mr Vijay Kumar Malhotra. He exhorted Sikhs to “take off the turban” of his Congress rival, the highly respected Dr Manmohan Singh. Why? To make sure whether the former Finance Minister is a Sikh at all!

Clash of interests in Maharashtra
by P. K. Ravindranath

THE Gandhian crusader against corruption, Anna Hazare, with a week-long fast brought into focus the questionable manner in which he was convicted for defamation and sentenced to three months’ imprisonment last year.

He served one month in prison, by which time the state government was forced to grant him pardon and release him unconditionally. The sentence was later quashed by the Additional Sessions Judge, Mr A.M. Thipsay. The Judge disapproved of the magistrate’s “approach in the whole matter” and described it as “perverse.”

Anna went on a hunger-strike to secure justice for himself and vindicate his honour. He alleged that the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate, Mr K.H. Holambe-Patil, who had convicted him on September 9, 1998, got a flat allotted to his mother, Mrs Shewantabai Holambe-Patil, from the government quota on September 15.

Mrs Holambe-Patil sought an extension of the time to take possession of the flat, since she wanted a flat in some other locality in the city.

In June, 1999, the letter of allotment surfaced. A special correspondent of a city paper checked the veracity of the letter with the Housing Department of the Government of Maharashtra. When he questioned Mr Holambe-Patil about the letter he denied any knowledge, even though the letter was delivered at his official residence where his mother was staying.

The story was, however, suppressed by the paper. The correspondent thereupon brought the matter to the notice of the Chief Justice, who has instituted an inquiry.

The whole case arose out of an interview granted by Anna Hazare to a local Marathi daily, Navakal, in September, 1997. In the interview, Anna Hazare had claimed that the Anti-Corruption Bureau had found the Shiv Sena Minister for Social Welfare, Mr Baban Gholap, guilty in respect of purchase of powerlooms and transfer of funds from public corporations under him to the Awami Bank, which went into liquidation.

Mr Baban Gholap charged Anna Hazare with defamation only in respect of his statement about the ACB, not the interview per se. In convicting Hazare, the magistrate had erred in “the conclusion about the guilt of the applicant without any evidence.” The magistrate had offered Anna the choice of furnishing a bond for good conduct for two years with Rs 5,000 or three months in prison. Anna refused to furnish the bond.

What is distressing in all this is the fact that newspapers which had the story as early as June did not think it fit to carry it, at least in public interest. From June till now most of the mainline newspapers in Mumbai have been devoting columns after columns to a report on how an upmarket restaurant, China Garden, in the posh Pedder Road area on Malabar Hill, evaded efforts by the Mumbai Municipal Corporation to demolish illegal additions it had carried out inside the restaurant.

China Garden, run by Nelson Wong, a Chinese immigrant, had been allotted a space of 789 sq metres. Over the last 15 years through illegal encroachment, it now occupies 6,835 sq metres of space in an area where land prices are among the highest in Mumbai. When the Municipal Corporation secured a verdict from the Mumbai High Court to demolish the illegally encroached part of the restaurant, the owner rushed to the Supreme Court and secured a stay order the same evening. Wong is a favourite of the English Press and the glitterati of Mumbai. He is known for his lavish hospitality to this class.

He can afford it, since an ordinary meal at the restaurant (a soup, starters and two dishes) would cost nothing less than Rs 1,000 (minus liquor). The manner in which Wong fought the Municipal Corporation to retain his ill-gotten space made for elegantly written “human interest” stories with photographs in most of the Mumbai papers for days on end. The saga still continues even as the Supreme Court is to hear Wong’s appeal.

Almost every media-savvy personality in Mumbai has been interviewed by the elite newspapers in Mumbai and their valued opinions about the quality and authenticity of the food served by China Garden have found extensive coverage.

In the meantime, Mr Baban Gholap, the minister concerned, resigned from the Cabinet, since his continuance had become untenable and an embarrassment to the government. Now the Shiv Sena has denied him a ticket to contest the elections to the State Assembly. But to pacify him, the party has given the ticket in his constituency to his nephew.

More about Mr Holambe-Patil and Mr Baban Gholap are likely to surface during the election campaign. There are several other ministers and chairmen of public corporations against whom corruption charges are being bandied about. Surprisingly, almost all of them belong to the Shiv Sena, not the BJP, which is a partner in the government.

The BJP, which is making a bid to capture the Chief Ministership, on the basis of an understanding with the Shiv Sena that the alliance partner that gets the larger number of seats would be given that office. The BJP’s campaign is already projecting Mr Gopinath Munde, the Deputy Chief Minister, as the future “leader of Maharashtra”.

The two parties are, however, openly conducting their own election campaigns separately unlike last time when there were joint campaigns. The BJP is utilising almost the entire media to project itself, its achievements and its “united leadership”. The Shiv Sena campaign, on the other hand, is lacklustre. The realisation has dawned on the Sena that it would not be returned as the major ruling party. Sensing this diffident attitude, the rank and file has also made little effort to secure the party ticket to contest seats outside the Konkan strip and Mumbai city, two of its strongholds. In these areas, there is keen infighting and rivalry among various groups.

The plight of the Congress is even worse. It has not been able to find the right kind of candidates in many constituencies. It persuaded a reluctant Sunil Dutt to contest the Mumbai North-East seat, which he had declined to do in the last elections. He has a special sense of gratitude to the Shiv Sena for standing by him, when his son, Sanjay Dutt, was arrested on charges of his involvement in the handling of arms and ammunitions during the communal riots in Mumbai in 1992 and 1993.

The Nationalist Congress Party is likely to benefit by the confusion that prevails in the Shiv Sena and the BJP. Its strategy has been to allow the Sena-BJP combine to fight it out with the Congress while it concentrates on its main support base in the sugar belt in western Maharashtra, Marathwada and Vidarbha. The vast majority of seats lie in those areas.

Of midriffs and middles
by A.P.N. Pankaj

“THEY asked me how we came to be known as Motwanis”, he would recall his interview and go on, “I told them it was our respected distant ancestor, a fat gentleman from whom we inherited our surname. And to “why are you so fat yourself?”, my reply was, “it is to perpetuate a great memory and in deference to Julius Caesar’s famed observation about fat men ... “men who are sleek headed and sleep o’ nights”.

It was at this interview that we had met about 36 years ago, got to know each other while waiting for our turn. Eventually, we were both selected, joined the same organisation and struck a life-long friendship.

Man of many parts and full of wit and humour, he would regale any audience with his repartee. Once, when someone suggested to him to let this pretty lass who worked with us and in whom he apparently took more than ordinary interest, tie a ‘rakhee’ around his wrist, he instantly came up with, ‘By all means. Let her tie a Titoni watch around my wrist’ (Remember? Titoni was then the watch of the smart young men).

That was some 35 years back, when we were still probationers and his ambition used, in sheer fun, to be to become the Chief Executive of the “Circle Space, Headquarters Moon” of our organisation. As time went by, we kept departing and meeting to work in various offices and branches of this institution.

While his devotion to duty remained supreme, his ability to carry the weight of his work lightly never deserted him. He was full of anecdotes and stories and his sense of timing was remarkable. Once, during the lunch recess, we were eating sliced fruit at a vendor’s. He picked up a piece of “cheekoo”, gulped it saying, “cheekoo is my favourite fruit”, and then with a pause and a characteristic twinkle in his eye, “I am eating it after eight years”.

Fond as he was of telling stories, he chose to forget that he had told the same story many times earlier too. So each time he repeated it, he would spin a bit of a new yarn into it. If told that the portion in question had not been there in the story earlier, he would cheekily say, a little more spice doesn’t hurt. Does it?

And if, during a discussion, I quoted from a Sanskrit text and the discussion tended to become rather serious, he would intervene: “There he goes again, making fools of us all in Sanskrit”.

Thoroughly upright, while he was respectful to his seniors, he refused to be bullied by seniority and stood his ground against any unprincipled orders.

Vishnu, that was his name, in his unique but unpretentious style, often said: “Do you know, Vishnu is the purveyor. I must help people to the best of my capacity, limited as it is”. And even at the cost of considerable personal inconvenience at times, he tried to help those who approached him.

Nearly two years ago, in August, 1997, he left his family, friends and admirers, leaving many a great memory behind.

Once, when I compared his potbelly with the slim waistline of an attractive young lady and said I would write a middle on the subject, he retorted: “Don’t threaten. Execute the threat. I know middles and midriffs are not in the ink of your pen”. Not indeed, dear departed friend!

Preliminary investigations into the Ghaisal tragedy conducted by Chief Commissioner of Railway Safety have clearly hinted at the ‘mala fide intention’ or a ‘criminal intent’ in letting such a rail tragedy happen. A proper inquiry will alone bring out whether sabotage was behind the collision of the two trains which had carried Army personnel at the fag end of the Kargil war.

We had a curious episode on the Bangladesh border in which two Indian securitymen, posing as ISI agents, crossed the border and took away a haul of explosives from the ISI contacts. The tip came from the ISI agents arrested on the Indian side. The implications are really startling.

This means the Pakistani agency has established new centres of operation on a border which was relatively free of its direct involvement. This may be with or without the eastern neighbour’s knowledge. Already there are freightening reports of the ULFA in the North-East establishing an effective tie-up with the ISI. If these reports prove true, the latter is also trying to rope in Islamic groups along the eastern sector. Pakistani propaganda materials are reported to have been seized from such newly-recruited elements.

Another report talks of the ISI moves in the eastern sector to infiltrate into the defence at the stage of recruitments. Even Kashmir Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah has given credence to such stories by asserting that Bangladeshis had also joined the Mujahideen forces in Kashmir. In the course of an interview, Dr Abdullah urged the Union Government take up the issue with Dhaka. Official sources in the Capital let out ISI plans to establish bases in Muslim-dominated pockets like Hyderabad, western UP, north Kerala, Mumbai suburbs and parts of Tamil Nadu and Himachal Pradesh. This is based on the revelations made by the arrested militants.

If the ISI has been able to penetrate so deep into this sprawling country, it has been due to the mindless politicisation of security and the divisive policies aimed at alienating and isolating the minorities. Intolerance of ‘other’ faiths, communal riots and notions of ‘righting the past wrongs’ have created psychological ghettos which have become a breeding ground for misguided elements. Such ghettos, abstract or real, also serve as fertile field for the recruitment of the agents of saboteurs. It has been such emotionally possessive youth who had fell prey to the ISI inducements. In such situations, even the overwhelming saner sections fail to detect and discourage the misguided elements. The correlation is so apparent to be ignored.

Politicisation of security is aimed at one-upmanship to gain political mileage. Pokhran II, it was hoped, would heighten the patriotic spirit and help the ruling party get massive popular support. The post-blast media hype and TV display of public approval had emphasised this point. Outbursts of senior ministers about crossing the border and “change in geopolitics” only strengthened the hawks and mullahs on the other side. The Lahore bus ride has been part of a diplomatic damage limitation exercise at a time when the country began reeling under the resultant foreign pressure.

The poll-eve announcement of nuclear doctrine draft marked another exercise at the politicisation of security. We hardly realise that every such move will evoke a response outside our borders. Watch how the new poll-eve exercise dashed the hopes of a “paradigm shift” in the US position. Whatever our professional analysts periodically proclaim, Pakistan’s Kargil defeat has made it make intensified terrorism and sabotage as a substitute to direct war. Prevalence of anti-minority politics in India will only give them a fillip. This is going to be a serious challenge to the new government.

75 YEARS AGO

August 31, 1924
Trade unions in India

THE progress of trade unionism in India is very slow and the labouring class is not exhibiting qualities that make for unity and strength, and without which it cannot influence employers.

In Bombay, which is an important industrial area, it is said that the number of members of the existing trade unions is decreasing, subscriptions are not paid regularly and the funds at the disposal of the unions are too small to enable them to work efficiently.

Moreover, workers in certain important industries have not taken advantage of the facilities for forming unions. These imperfections are, however, only to be expected at this stage of the country’s progress. Trade unionism, in a purely Western form, is no unmixed blessing and does not appeal to the working classes who desire to secure what they want by a more simple method, if possible.

Their wages are too small at present to enable them to pay regular subscriptions to form a union fund to fight out their case by setting up paid executive agencies.