Instability in UP
UTTAR PRADESH is sliding into deep political and administrative confusion and instability. Chief Minister Kalyan Singh is under attack, this time from coalition parties like the Loktantrik Congress and the Jantantrik BSP.

The birth of euro
THE euro has been in the news for a long time, at least since February, 1992, when its birth was ensured with the signing of the Maastricht Treaty.

Cut-throat car wars
THE consumer is finally emerging as the king. At least that is the impression one gathers from the way the car manufacturers are curtseying to him.

FOREIGN POLICY PRIORITIES
by Inder Malhotra
ON taking over as the first whole-time Foreign Minister in a long while Mr Jaswant Singh has lost no time to spell out his agenda which, happily, makes sound sense.

Democracy and development
by Abha Sharma
RECENTLY a cartoonist depicted a minister saying that he knew the agitationists could turn violent, but he let such law and order matters be resolved by them democratically. Great! After all, we are the largest democracy in the world! Aren’t we?

Will govt last another year?
by Tavleen Singh
IF there is a single political question that the last days of 1998 will be remembered for it is: will there be another government in Delhi in 1999?

DD censors Sangma, Jaipal
by Amita Malik
IT’s not just the Shiv Sena and “Fire”. It‘s now two former Ministers of Information and Broadcasting, Mr Sangma, being a former Speaker as well, and Mr Jaipal Reddy, a party spokesperson.

Maiden ambulance ride
by D.R. Sharma
WITH a nod to John Donne, the 17th century British poet called the “monarch of wit”, who viewed death as a diminishing event, I regard pain in the lower part of the back as an equally devastating experience.

75 Years Ago

Nabha deputation to Shiromani Committee
WHILE the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee was in session, about eighteen persons, Hindus and Sikhs, presented themselves at Akal Takht and requested to be admitted into the presence of the committee to present some grievances of theirs.

Instability in UP

UTTAR PRADESH is sliding into deep political and administrative confusion and instability. Chief Minister Kalyan Singh is under attack, this time from coalition parties like the Loktantrik Congress and the Jantantrik BSP. Their complaint is that the Chief Minister does not consult them on any important issue, like when he threatened to dissolve the Assembly and seek a mid-term poll. As a protest they boycotted the Cabinet meeting, after threatening to align themselves with others to keep the Assembly going. Rebuffed thus, Mr Kalyan Singh has taken back his word but has not softened his attitude towards his detractors in the Cabinet. What irks him is the unfairness of these parties with just about 8 per cent of the MLAs but having nearly 45 per cent of the ministerial berths, openly demanding a change of leadership. So he retaliated in the only way he can: he asked his trusted follower and fellow Lodh Rajput casteman Swami Sachhidanand Sakshi Maharaj to issue a blunt warning that his removal as Chief Minister would lead to a drastic erosion of the BJP base and that would cost the party about 50 Lok Sabha and about 100 Assembly seats. On the face of it, this sounds like wild scare-mongering; but an opinion poll conducted quietly by an RSS-friendly group came to the same conclusion. So vital is the support of the OBC vote to the party that in the adjoining region of Bundelkhand in Madhya Pradesh, which is dominated by the OBCs, the BJP won 18 of the 24 seats in the November 25 Assembly election. All this means that the BJP faces a major problem in retaining or shifting Mr Kalyan Singh. Were he to continue, the party will alienate the coalition partners; were it to move a reluctant Mr Kalyan Singh to the Centre, it would alienate a good chunk of the vital backward caste voters.

It is an untenable situation, made worse by the Chief Minister’s abrasive style of functioning. His enormous talents to win elections and put together a majority in the face of seemingly impossible hurdles, are not matched by an ability to get along with colleagues. Senior BJP leaders like Mr Rajnath Singh, Mr Kalraj Mishra and Mr Lalji Tandon are in the dissident camp. Almost all caste lobbies are against him and have stepped up their efforts to get him replaced. Most recently, the Brahmin leaders assembled at the residence of Mr Ravindra Shukla, who was dropped from the Cabinet over the Vandemataram and Saraswati vandana controversy, and demanded a change of leadership. They felt that the continuance of the present arrangement would lead to the upper castes moving over to the Congress. Alarmed at the sharpened infighting, the BJP central leadership is toying with two options. One, bring the Chief Minister to Delhi during the next expansion of the Cabinet expected in the middle of this month, even if he is not enthusiastic. Two, force him to change his style of functioning while admonishing his critics within the party to call off their campaign. The first is a half-solution since a sulking Mr Kalyan Singh will not be a pretty sight; the second will solve only half the problem, leaving the alliance parties miffed. Governing, both at the Centre and in the states, is proving to be an endless headache for the BJP.

The birth of euro

THE euro has been in the news for a long time, at least since February, 1992, when its birth was ensured with the signing of the Maastricht Treaty. Now that the new currency has been finally launched with the participation of 11 European Union member-countries, calculations about its future have begun to be made at a hectic pace not only in the areas of the euro's adoption but also elsewhere. It is expected to pose a serious challenge to the supremacy of the dollar, though there is every likelihood of the US currency continuing to maintain its pre-eminent position. The euro has certain obvious advantages. The new legal tender will enjoy the backing of a market size of $ 6.3 trillion, the combined gross domestic product (GDP) of the 11 countries—Germany, France, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, Belgium, Austria, Finland, Portugal, Ireland and Luxembourg. This is only a little less than that of the USA with a $ 8.2 trillion GDP. If the four remaining EU nations—Britain, Denmark, Sweden and Greece—find it worthwhile to become a part of the euro club, the dollar may have to look for cover in the face of onslaughts from the euro. The picture will be clearer after the transition period ends—in December, 2001. Till that time the original legal tenders, the "legacy currencies", of Euroland will be there in the market along with the euro. The new currency will exist only as book money —without any notes or coins — till the conclusion of the transition period, and this will mean some confusion at the grassroots level. But with the "legacy currencies" shifting themselves to the pages of history, a new era will have dawned promising to metamorphose not only the directly affected economies but others as well.

The reality of Euroland will provide India considerable business opportunities though accompanied with new challenges. In an area of the size of a virtual continent, the question of how to deal with a bad currency will disappear. For business organisations there will be no need for separate pricing strategy for every country in Euroland; just one will do. The market will be more transparent, price-wise, and that will make it easier to do business with a system representing 290 million people—a far bigger number than that in the USA, 270 million. But Indian exporters will have to deal with a greater number of competitors and a fiercer competition. The situation will, however, be favourable for certain industries, specially the software one. The coming into being of Euroland, like the identification of the Y2K problem, may push up the software demand from India. This is, therefore, a cheerful development for the computer industry provided it maintains its cutting edge. Businessmen should, therefore, get prepared to make as much euros as they can. With the Euroland trade surplus standing at $ 110 billion, the euro will quickly establish itself as a hot currency of international trade and commerce.

Cut-throat car wars

THE consumer is finally emerging as the king. At least that is the impression one gathers from the way the car manufacturers are curtseying to him. If the announcement of “moderate” prices of the much-awaited Indica were a salute to him, the cutting down of the prices of the Maruti products was a full-fledged “nazrana”. No wonder the joke doing the rounds is that Maruti has been re-born on the same day that Indica was born. These are the fruits of competition, which every car lover can relish. He was promised a people’s car but could never get it at the price that a common man could afford. He has had to wait all these years for the prices to be rationalised somewhat. Goes on to show how high margins the car makers have been enjoying all along. That is what always happens in a monopolistic market. India knows that all too well. For decades, the car makers continued to palm off tinpots to him in the garb of cars, and those too at a fancy price. Only the entry of Maruti made them sit up and take notice. But since it was a government-backed project, Maruti itself succumbed to complacency and waited for more than a decade to introduce a new model, that too with only cosmetic changes. Things are mercifully changing in the backdrop of stiffer competition. A person desirous of getting a car today can choose from a number of models and get the one of his choice almost off the shelf. Loan terms have become more attractive than ever before. The change has come about because of several factors, the main being the entry of the liberalisation into its second phase. One hopes that this kind of competitive spirit will revolutionise other sectors as well. All these years, everybody has spoken of saving the Indian industry, without ever sparing a thought for the Indian consumer.

The panic in the car market is not because of the introduction of newer and better models alone. The sluggishness in the economy itself has contributed a lot. The second-hand market has virtually crashed. All buyers have become unusually choosy. Even otherwise, the foreign manufacturers have ended up overestimating the buying capacity of the Indian middle class. At the same time, they also underestimated the critical capacity of the buyers here. That is why many models of dubious virtue were introduced in the hope that these will be lapped up by those who had hardly any access to the top of the line products. But the Indian consumer has duly rejected those machines. The reduction in prices too will not sway him as much as the quality. In India, a car is still a lifetime investment for most people and they want best value for money. Now that there is open competition, only those who offer the best at the most competitive rates would survive and all the rest would fall by the wayside. The tendency of taking the customer for a ride will become less pronounced. Already there is considerable improvement in maker-buyer interface. Things can only get better. Another spinoff will be that the petrol-guzzlers of yore will become a thing of the past. Innovation and invention will be valued as much as it should. Small is beautiful indeed but quality will be considered even more pretty. Indians will not have to wait for decades to see the latest products being introduced here. Profits will be minimal. The stress will be on the economy of scale. May the best car win!

FOREIGN POLICY PRIORITIES
Pragmatism gets preference
by Inder Malhotra

ON taking over as the first whole-time Foreign Minister in a long while Mr Jaswant Singh has lost no time to spell out his agenda which, happily, makes sound sense. His overriding emphasis is on pragmatism, not ideology, in pursuit of India’s national interests, especially safeguarding the country’s security in a milieu in which the hegemonic nuclear powers refuse to bid farewell to nukes.

He has also declared that this country will engage itself with all major players in the world, and while doing so will concentrate on the neighbourhood, using economics as an instrument of cooperation and friendship, both bilaterally and in the SAARC framework.

This policy enunciation was needed for two important reasons. First, even though New Delhi has been talking to a number of world capitals in the wake of the May nuclear tests by this country and Pakistan, for reasons too obvious to need recounting, the spotlight has been hogged by the conversations with the most important of the “key interlocutors”, the USA, which are being held, interestingly, between Mr Singh and the US Deputy Secretary of State, Mr Strobe Talbott.

Secondly, and more importantly, Pakistan’s salience in any nuclear dialogue, the revived talks between the two subcontinental neighbours, and the Pakistani hype over both Kashmir and the danger of a nuclear conflagration in the absence of a “third party” (for which read American) mediation have created the erroneous impression that Pakistan looks extraordinarily large in the Indian scheme of things, to the virtual exclusion of other neighbours.

Not only has the new Foreign Minister dispelled both these impressions, but other developments have helped to apply the necessary corrective. For instance, the highly productive two-day visit to Delhi by the Russian Prime Minister, Mr Yevgeny Primakov, underscored the range and ramifications of Indian engagement with other power centres even if the post-Cold War world may still appear to be unipolar.

High-level contacts with Japan, reviving a series of significant negotiations that were interrupted immediately after the Shakti series of the nuclear tests, are round the corner. Things are moving even in relation to China although it has not been possible for the Joint Working Group of the two countries to meet during the calendar year 1998. The Chinese side has been suggesting a “preparatory” meeting before the annual get-together of the JWG, but the Indian side did not consider it necessary.

With all that, the material fact is that at his first press conference as Foreign Minister Mr Singh went out of his way to state that he looked forward to “improving relations with China further”. Nor is it a secret that Mr Singh’s Chinese counterpart, Mr Tang Jiaxuan, sent him a very warm message of congratulations on his new assignment and that Mr Singh responded in kind.

So much for what is happening globally. As for the priority assigned to economic engagement in the entire SAARC region (leaving it to Pakistan to join or not to join) what better evidence can there be than that the President of Sri Lanka, Mrs Chandrika Kumaratunga, and her hosts finalised a treaty to establish a free trade area between India and Sri Lanka?

Other initiatives taken by India in recent years aim at the participation by this country, Nepal, Bhutan and Bangladesh in what is inelegantly called “subregional cooperation”. What is more, proposals have been launched under which some SAARC members, India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, and some ASEAN constituents, like Thailand and Myanmar, would forge cooperation and collaboration in the economic field. The ultimate aim is, of course, a live linkage between the two regional economic entities. Unfortunately, the South-East Asian economic meltdown has cast a shadow on these worthwhile efforts. But the challenge can also be converted into an opportunity.

In any case, it is clear that neighbours other than Pakistan are far from being ignored by New Delhi even if the media limelight constantly focuses on Pakistan. Moreover, even Pakistan is committed to moving from SAARC’s SAPTA (South Asian Preferential Trade Area) to SAFTA (South Asian Free Trade Area). It is pertinent to note that all seven SAARC sisters are agreed that the SAFTA blueprint “should be in place” by 2001. The enforcement of the free trade arrangement will start, however, by 2008.

Mr Singh must be congratulated also for giving “energy security” a high priority in his foreign policy objectives. To the best of my knowledge this crucial task has never before been spelt out in such clear-cut terms. Indeed, the Indian policy makers’ amnesia about energy is surprising. While appointing the National Security Council, for example, the BJP-led government set up a 27-member Strategic Planning Group, most of the members being Secretaries to the government. A conspicuous omission was the Energy Secretary.

A careful watch on the energy front, and effective measures to ensure that India’s growing needs for the imports of oil, petroleum products and gas are met uninterruptedly at reasonable costs, are imperative.

The world is becoming short of energy. Older reserves are depleting. This is what has made the massive reserves of mineral resources, especially the natural gas, of Central Asia so attractive. To bring out this wealth to the ports is proving to be extremely difficult, however. After nurturing the hope of building a pipeline to Pakistani ports via Afghanistan, and spending a lot of money in pursuit of this dream, the US-dominated multinational, UNOCAL, has withdrawn from the project. This is entirely because of the medieval and barbaric rule of the Taliban, now disowned by even those Americans who were earlier trying to lend respectability to this unspeakably bigoted bunch.

China, which used to be an exporter of oil, has now turned into a net importer. It is managing its energy problems more adroitly than we can claim to be doing. Beijing has made a number of arrangements for the transport of oil and gas from Central Asia to adjacent Chinese areas. A triangular agreement between gas-rich Turkmenistan, Iran and this country, a viable proposition for importing liquefied natural gas to the Indian shores, already exists. But it has got to be implemented about which nothing has been done so far.

It is not just pipe-laying and the building up of the necessary infrastructure that is involved. There are elements in the situation which are beyond India’s control. After the outrageous US-British airstrikes on Iraq, President Saddam Hussein has, paradoxically, emerged stronger rather than weaker. No wonder he is asserting himself and threatening to fire at any aircraft flying in the “no-fly” zones of his country which he now refuses to recognise. America and Britain have warned him that they would hit back.

Renewed eruption in or over Iraq, especially at a time when the West Asia Peace process is in double jeopardy and Israel is due to go to the polls, could wreck oil supplies from the region. Furthermore, in pursuance of the real objective of getting rid of Mr Saddam Hussein, by hook or by crook, the USA could foment a rebellion in the Shia-majority southern Iraq. What if Iran, for reasons of its own, gets involved in the venture?

All this and more has to be weighed carefully by policy makers in New Delhi. It may be necessary also to take up the energy issue, in all its dimensions, with Mr Talbott when he comes calling on Mr Jaswant Singh on January 28.

Maiden ambulance ride
by D.R. Sharma

WITH a nod to John Donne, the 17th century British poet called the “monarch of wit”, who viewed death as a diminishing event, I regard pain in the lower part of the back as an equally devastating experience.

While the wise peers at my age prefer to watch their steps in their morning walk, I continue to be heedless and blustery as ever. The other day one of them stopped me near Gandhi Bhavan and said: “Your pace shows you nurse a mighty death-wish; otherwise you would have slowed down by now.”

To be candid, a strange paradox defines my nature. While I tell others to “take care”, I seldom check that native aggression that seems to be my birth-mark. I just can’t alter the rhythm that shapes my voice and pace – despite umpteen warnings and banterings from the lady at home.

Just the other day when our home-help was away to select his bride, I found our Coke crate almost empty. The core committee of my wife’s fan club was scheduled to meet that day. I rushed to the grocer and asked him to get one crate ferried to the car trunk. On return I opened the trunk, lifted the 24-bottle box and carried it speedily to the pantry. The lady did look a trifle alarmed at my enthusiasm, but being a vintage householder, fondly tamed and trimmed by her, I didn’t let her look defocus me.

In less than five minutes I felt a little pressure around the tail-bone. “There’s an unusual strain on the lower part of my back,” I hissed when she asked me why I looked so lost at the dinning table that evening.

That night aggravated the strain and immobilised me in the bed. I felt disjointed with the severance of connection between the lower and upper part of my frame. The bridge had certainly fallen down. With the help of additional cushions and pillows, I tried to change sides but failed. And when I tried to get out of the bed, it looked like the thirteenth task of Hercules.

Moved by my defencelessness, wife called our chief medical officer and brought the telephone close to the cushions. “I can’t drive,” I said when he wanted me to see him at the health centre. “Well, in that case I’ll send you the ambulance,” remarked the gentle and competent medico.

Waiving aside the stool that the driver sought to place near the door, I got in and braced up to endure the bumps in the van. When a clump of peons and professors saw me alighting from the vehicle with a revolving red light, they asked my partner how serious the problem was — and how soon I was to be moved to the Emergency across the road. The doctor also asked the first part of the question and led me behind a curtain where he wanted me to loosen my jeans. After slapping my back with a hammer in search of the tender spot, he prescribed some ointment, quite a few capsules and fermentation. “In future, professor, learn to bend like this,” he said and first bent his knees and later lowered the torso.

After the harrowing experience I have modified my morning prayer. “Merciful Father,” I say now, “let thy children cry of headaches and heartaches, but let none of them suffer from the muscular spasm in the back. And, yes, please teach them how to bend. Amen!”

Democracy and development
by Abha Sharma

RECENTLY a cartoonist depicted a minister saying that he knew the agitationists could turn violent, but he let such law and order matters be resolved by them democratically. Great! After all, we are the largest democracy in the world! Aren’t we?

Yes, largest we are, but at the same time we have degenerated into an unqualified democracy. Democracy is like alcohol which should be taken only in moderation. An overdose could be lethal.

The past one and fifty years of self-government gave us experience but we missed the meaning. Education is the prime pre-requisite for democracy. This largest democracy with the largest army of illiterates remains saddled with too much government and too little administration, too many public servants and too little public service, too many welfare schemes and too little welfare, too many laws and too little justice. Political parties treat the electorate as goods and chattels, whom they call vote banks. Nothing could be more insulting and disparaging to the denizens in a democracy.

C. Rajagopalachari’s following words which he wrote in his prison diary on January 24, 1922, were prophetic:

“Elections and their corruption, injustice and power and tyranny of wealth, and inefficiency of administration, will make a hell of life as soon as freedom is given to us. Man will look regretfully back to the old regime of comparative justice, and efficient, peaceful, more or less honest administration.... Hope lies only in universal education by which right conduct, fear of God and love will be developed among the citizens from childhood. It is only if we succeed in this that Swaraj will mean happiness....”

Morality or the lack of it is like water which flows from high to low. People have always taken their moral standards from their rulers or leaders. Kingdoms have been destroyed not by adversity but by abasement. Sure enough, the so-called Asian tigers shall again rise from their ashes, once the current meltdown melts away. Because they invested in a big way in their human resource by way of education, health, et al. Corruption is the greatest solvent of public institutions. Poverty poses a far smaller threat. Our inability to punish the corrupt or even the worst criminals is widely acknowledged.

Few would disagree that every sustainable and meaningful democracy must have an aristocracy of talent, knowledge and character. Ability, integrity and knowledge must be accorded the highest recognition. The Mughal emperor Akbar had “Navratnas” (Nine Jewels) to aid and advise him in matters of governance. They were accomplished men in their respective fields. The Constituent Assembly was not a “representative” body as we understand the term today.

Basic primary education is absolutely essential for social justice and economic development, and it should not have been difficult for India to provide for it for the single reason that it is a labour-intensive activity. Similarly placed countries in the fifties have out-performed India in many respects. This leads one to believe that our vote-bank motivated leadership had a vested interest in perpetuating poverty and illiteracy. This could only have culminated in a fractured polity and a soft state which is incapable and unwilling to take hard decisions. The future of this country has been sacrificed at the altar of electoral expediency. Hasn’t democracy become the enemy of development?

Netaji Subash Chandra Bose had rightly suggested that in independent India, democracy should be preceded by the pre-requisites of democracy. A period of 10-15 years of intensive and extensive development under a well-meaning leadership which we then had, could have prepared the nation for taking to democracy in substance rather than mere symbols.

We have in President K.R. Narayanan a sagacious statesman. Given his ability, experience and commitment, we may now experiment with the idea of a national government led by persons of eminence, experience, vision, integrity and ability to govern. Politics of appeasement and confrontation, bandh, strikes, etc, should be kept in cold storage. We have had enough of elections. Let’s find a way to enable the government to exercise hard options for at least 10 years. Democracy for the sake of democracy, as we have been practising it, will lead us to anarchy. Except for those 5 per cent who pay tax, those 15 per cent who evade tax and a few others who live and let live, by defrauding the nation, democracy holds little meaning for the masses. We need to create the right environment where productivity and efficiency are rewarded, and the lack of it is penalised. Indians have proved themselves to be highly competitive and can hold their own against the world, given the right systems and environment.

Let’s introspect and dedicate the first 10 years of the next millennium to human development.

Will govt last another year?

by Tavleen Singh

IF there is a single political question that the last days of 1998 will be remembered for it is: will there be another government in Delhi in 1999? It’s true that the question has been asked virtually since the day Mr Vajpayee became Prime Minister but in the mixture of festivity, hangovers and gloom that usually characterise the year-end I have heard it asked so often in political circles in Delhi and business circles in Mumbai that I have actually learned something about the mysteries of political instability, and of how it can emanate from hot air rather than political analysis.

In the case of our first Bharatiya Janata Party Government in Delhi this kind of hot air analysis has become sort of routine on account of our passionately ‘secular’ national press. Secularism took complete offence when the BJP dared form a government and many a political pundit, of ‘secular’ persuasion was offended enough by the event to go into complete denial. Some newspapers started to predict the government’s demise, from the first moments of its existence, out of a strange mix of wishful thinking and self-righteousness, So, 1998 has been a year of considerable political uncertainty. But, the irony of the year-end predictions is that most political commentators have been so carried away in their euphoria about Congress victories in the recent Assembly elections that they have failed to notice that the loss of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Delhi have actually strengthened Mr Vajpayee’s hand rather than weakened it.

Nobody is more aware of this than those who work in Mr Vajpayee’s Government. Ministers who till recently were running scared every time Jayalalitha sailed into town now speak confidently about their plans for the next four years. Next four years, I asked a Minister who till not long ago had barely dared speak of the next four months, are you sure you’re going to be around four years from now?

“Of course I’m sure” the Minister said. “Where’ve you been since the results came out? Can’t you see how angry Mulayam Singh and company are? Mulayam has already said that Congress is now enemy number one and what this means is we are safe because nobody is going to want to bring the government down just yet”.

Interesting, isn’t it, how unexpectedly things can change? Messrs Mulayam and Laloo Yadav have been in the vanguard of the movement to topple Vajpayee’s government, the moving force behind it. Not long ago I met both gentlemen, one in Patna before he was packed off to jail and the other on a flight from Delhi to Mumbai. Both were vociferous about how ‘secular forces’ must come together to ensure the demise of the Vajpayee Government, both indicated clearly that they thought it was Sonia Gandhi’s fault that the government had not already fallen. Their chief partner in this enterprise has been none other than the CPM’s Harkishen Singh Surjeet. This gentleman has spent many hours on national television extolling the virtues of an alliance with the Congress and the importance of ridding the nation of ‘communal forces’.

After the Assembly results, though, it’s easy to notice a change of heart even here. Mr Surjeet has now started muttering dark things about how the Congress Party is ‘drunk’ on its recent victories.

What lies behind these changes, dear readers, is the simple fact that Congress gains in the vital Hindi heartland states of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar automatically signify the decline of such ‘third force’ creatures as Mulayam and Laloo. According to senior Congress leaders, and in fact, judging by the results in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, there are now clear indications that the Muslims who had moved away from the Congress are now moving back to it because they see it as the only party that can single-handedly defeat the BJP.

Results from Madhya Pradesh indicate that not only has the Congress begun to see the return of its Muslim vote bank but even Harijans have begun to return which means that Congress has serious chances of being able to stage a dramatic comeback in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.

A senior Congress leader from Madhya Pradesh said: “From what we saw in M.P. during the elections it looks as if we could win the next Lok Sabha elections with a simple majority quite easily”.

Naturally, I asked whether this would happen even if Mr Vajpayee’s Government managed to survive a full term and he admitted that things could become quite uncertain if that happened. The main reason, he said, for the Congress victory in Madhya Pradesh was prices. “If onions hadn’t gone up the way did and if the prices of other essential commodities like dal and vegetables had not also started going up you could have seen quite a different result in Madhya Pradesh”.

In other words, if Mr Vajpayee uses the chance now to control prices and really start governing there is no reason why the situation should not change once more. That is unless the Congress is now confident enough of its position to force an early general election. On this matter there is still uncertainty. Members of Parliament are notoriously disinclined to fight mid-term elections and there is no indication yet that Congress MPs are confident to want another election so soon. Unfortunately for them most of Sonia Gandhi’s closest advisers are not Lok Sabha MPs so the timing of the next election is still an open question. What is certain is that the Congress will find it nearly impossible to topple Vajpayee and cobble together another government.

Everything now depends on whether Mr Vajpayee has been frightened enough by the Assembly results to really start governing. Governance matters little to the average Indian voter when the price of onions is Rs 2 a kg. When it goes up to Rs 20 there are already problems, when it hits Rs 70 (whatever the causes) you can be sure that it will be interpreted as a sign of bad governance.

For Mr Vajpayee it has certainly been the year of the onion. If his government survives through 1999 he would do well to take severe action against those who allowed the humble onion to become such a lethal political weapon. In Delhi everyone is beginning to blame his Principal Secretary, Brajesh Misra, but this is not the time to look for fall guys but for a few gestures that indicate that the Prime Minister is really leading from the front.

DD censors Sangma, Jaipal

by Amita Malik

IT’s not just the Shiv Sena and “Fire”. It‘s now two former Ministers of Information and Broadcasting, Mr Sangma, being a former Speaker as well, and Mr Jaipal Reddy, a party spokesperson.

Ironically enough, it is when I telephoned Mr Jaipal Reddy to congratulate him on getting the Best Parliamentarian award that he told me the whole sorry story of the “On the Record” discussion by Karan Thapar that wasn’t. It seems that Karan, in an effort to be extra fair, asked two members of the BJP Government, Mr K.L. Sharma and Mr Kumaramangalam, to take part in a panel discussion on “Is this government damaged beyond repair or is it about to resurrect itself?” which, one would have thought, was very well put and laid the subject open to a civilised debate between parliamentary colleagues. And by all accounts, it was a lively and fair debate.

But Doordarshan (and you know who that means) decided in its infinite wisdom that the debate was partisan and biased, and banned it. That even politicians of the calibre and standing of Mr Sangma and Mr Jaipal Reddy are suspect in the eyes of Doordarshan is a telling commentary on the state of freedom of information in this country and reminiscent of that famous episode during the Emergency, when even the writings of Nehru and Gandhi started being censored. I strongly urge that the political luminaries involved should take up the matter in Parliament.

To more cheerful programmes, with the New Year being ushered in. I thoroughly enjoyed Channel V’s splendid spoof on converting the film “Bombay Boys” into a fit subject for condemnation by women, who protest against the male sexual overtones of the film. Not a shot was missed, from the tearing down of posters to the smashing of cinemas, with some grim-looking women shouting and screaming for Indian cultural and moral values. Indians are not very good at laughing at themselves on radio or television. This was a welcome exception.

The only survey of the year I have seen before this goes to press was Prannoy Roy’s one-hour review of 1998 on Tuesday. It was not merely the style which ranged from the most delightful visual sleights of hand to tagging on Bombay film songs on to personalities and events. But best of all I liked Prannoy’s chat with Shekhar Kapur. Ever since Shekhar returned almost everyone has had a bash at interviewing him, including some from Star TV. They were mostly dismally amateurish. Prannoy’s was warm, relaxed and included a lot of reactions from Kapur on angles not discussed before and with the same sophistication. In fact, the number of generalists on Star News now taking on special subjects without adequate backgrounds is becoming a bit trying. Barkha Dutt’s exuberance is at once her strength and her weakness. She cut in several times very crudely in the discussion with Major-General Mehta and Mr Chari. Arnab Goswami and Vikram Chandra pitched into John Dayal’s account on the subject of attacks on Christians as if he were some sort of a guilty party. Interviewing is a very specialised and delicate business. Just mugging up questions and pursuing them doggedly usually defeats its own purpose. All the more so when one is needlessly aggressive from a false sense of ego as well as power.

I am usually thankful I am out on New Year’s Eve and gladly miss the usual contrived and unfunny programmes, especially DD’s. I was not too thrilled with the Christmas programmes from Delhi. Let’s hope it will be a happier new year. Best wishes for better listening and viewing from this column.

75 YEARS AGO

Nabha deputation to Shiromani Committee

WHILE the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee was in session, about eighteen persons, Hindus and Sikhs, presented themselves at Akal Takht and requested to be admitted into the presence of the committee to present some grievances of theirs.

They were admitted and on being asked they explained that they had to make some complaints against the Nabha State under the present and the past administration. They were told in reply that the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee had no influence with the present administration and as to the previous administration if the Panth succeeded in getting the Maharaja Sahib restored, the committee might consider their case for recommendation to His Highness. They were asked if any of them was a member of the so-called Parja Rakshni Sabha. They repeated that none of them was a member of that society. In fact they had heard of its name for the first time on reaching Amritsar. No such society existed in Nabha.