Vandalising Indian ethos
THE masks are off. The Shiv Sainiks have put their real faces on display. And these are ugly, uncouth and hideous. By attacking the headquarters of the Board of Control for Cricket in India in Mumbai on Monday, they have shown that they have scant regard for all that the true Indians hold sacred.

Double burden of awards
NOBODY will either demur or be surprised at the selection of Prof Amartya Sen for the Bharat Ratna award. Yet there is much room for surprise at the timing and the manner of selection.

Akali crisis: Anatomy
of a mindset
by Darshan Singh Maini
THAT the Akali leadership has had a particularly unedifying history of divisions, desertions, splits, factions and sell-outs since the establishment of the Punjabi Suba is a well-known fact of Sikh polity.

Lessons from history
lost in feud
by S.S. Dhanoa
IT is said that those who do not learn from history are made to repeat history. Perhaps, it is this perception which has made everyone concerned about the rumblings of differences between two top leaders of the Shiromani Akali Dal.

Real hurdles in Indo-Pak talks
By O.P. Sabherwal
WITH the seventh round of Indo-US talks scheduled later this month, a sensitive phase begins in the ongoing negotiations on nuclear reconciliation. This is amply indicated by the manner in which the US Ambassador, Mr Richard Celeste, has formulated the issues of divergence, partially lifting the secrecy in which the talks have been conducted.

Difficult year for Chandrababu Naidu
From S. Sethuraman
HYDERABAD: The Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister, Mr Chandrababu Naidu, is readjusting his style of governance to face up to the harsh realities confronting him in an election year, and it looks that his Telugu Desam Party will have to go it alone in taking on the Congress, its main rival.

75 Years Ago

Public meeting at Gurdaspur
TO pay tributes to the late Pandit Ram Bhaj Dutta, a well-attended meeting of the Hindu Sabha was held on August 7 at 8.30 p.m. Bawa Gurdit Singh said a prayer suited to the occasion and Mr Gurdu Singh Sari in a short and well-worded speech gave a concise account of the Pandit’s life.

Vandalising Indian ethos

THE masks are off. The Shiv Sainiks have put their real faces on display. And these are ugly, uncouth and hideous. By attacking the headquarters of the Board of Control for Cricket in India in Mumbai on Monday, they have shown that they have scant regard for all that the true Indians hold sacred. Their saying that this is not the handiwork of Shiv Sainiks is like the Sangh Parivar claiming that it had nothing to do with the Babri demolition. The denial is nothing more than yet another change in their strategy. Till the time they dug up the pitch at Delhi, they were of the opinion that the public appreciated their daring. But the outpouring of revulsion has made them change tack. That does not fool anyone. While commenting on the destruction of the Ferozeshah Kotla pitch, we had called them “goons” and they have now proved that it was not a harsh word to use at all. Obviously, they are under the impression that they are beyond the pale of law and order machinery. The kidglove treatment meted out by the Maharashtra Government to them has emboldened them to such an extent. What is now needed is not just strong condemnation but resolute action. The time has come when it must be proved that it is the writ of the Prime Minister which runs in the country and not that of power-crazy paper tigers. The destruction of the Independence Cup at their hands is not just the demolition of a coveted trophy but a symbolic gesture. They have attacked the very independence of the common man. They have held Mumbai to ransom earlier also through agitations and similar highhanded methods but this attack has gone beyond all limits. As India’s former captain Kapil Dev said soon after the pitch was damaged, a cricket ground is like a temple to all cricketers. Even to those who do not play, the attack on the BCCI is simply unbearable. If even sport has to be a hostage in the hands of the violent mobs, nothing else can be sacred.

It is a matter of grave concern that all this happened when the Home Minister, Mr L.K.Advani, was in Mumbai. His reaction does not fully reflect the determination of the government to stop this mischief forthwith, although a BJP spokesman has called the attack “reprehensible”. One wonders what message the Maharashtra Chief Minister, Mr Manohar Joshi, was sending to the mischief-mongers when he said that “if necessary, I will resign as vice-president (of the BCCI)”. Does it mean that he is owning up the acts of these hotheads? He would have won many admirers if he had offered to resign as Chief Minister instead. It is this tendency of being hand in glove with various criminal elements that encourages the latter to go about their agenda without fear. One hopes that this act will not jeopardise the forthcoming visit of the Pakistan cricket team because that will put a black mark on the fair face of India. The claims about providing foolproof security to the visiting cricketers will be meaningful only if those who ransacked the BCCI headquarters are brought to book at once. Then there is also the issue of open threats being issued by the Shiv Sena to dig up the pitches and to disrupt even the bus service to Pakistan. The veiled suggestions to the Indian cricketers to boycott the matches (or else …!) have added yet another dimension to the ugly episode. The BJP is the partner of the Shiv Sena in the Maharashtra government. If it is not able to rein in its partner, it is as much guilty of mismanagement as the Rabri Devi government is in Bihar, which it wants to be out. The ball is now in Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee’s court.

Double burden of awards

NOBODY will either demur or be surprised at the selection of Prof Amartya Sen for the Bharat Ratna award. Yet there is much room for surprise at the timing and the manner of selection. He has just returned to Cambridge after a hectic round public lionising, during which many economic illiterates suffocated him with mushy praise in the sole hope of one day telling others “Sen and me” stories. It is as well to remember that only two functions were natural and elevating: the “Deshikottama” from Santiniketan and the free-wheeling pow-vow at the Delhi School of Economics. All other occasions stank with social climbers wanting to scrap some lustre off the Nobel Laureate and burnish their own dimmed image. After all this soul-crushing pantomime, the good professor deserved some rest to recover his balance and intellectual appetite. No luck, he has now been dragged into another round of award-warming ceremonies, certainly more awkward than the earlier one since the quiet economist is a stranger to such hoopla.

The second intriguing point is the specific reference in the Rashtrapati Bhavan announcement that the Prime Minister personally selected him for the award. So the normal procedure has been given the go-by for whatever reason and the nation is told that it is the private gesture of one man even if he is the Prime Minister. It is apparent that he has been hurt by Ms Mamata Banerjee’s charge that he is anti-Bengali, but using Prof Sen to rebutt her is not the done thing. It is the second time the Establishment is embarrassing Prof Sen. First it waited until the Nobel award to recognise him and then went overboard in hero-worshipping. As a second knee-jerk reaction, the Establishment is now hanging the Bharat Ratna medallion round his neck. There is understandable compulsion in trying to own him, but that should be done through understanding his humanist ideas (frankly, no leader has the stomach to implement them) and not by resorting to cheap gimmicks.

Prof Amartya Sen is too tall to be measured in terms of government-distributed honours. He is truly the proudest son of India now; if one remembers his nostalgic trip to Dhaka, he can be called a joyous son of the subcontinent. When Jayaprakash Narayan was similarly made a Bharat Ratna late last year there was muted anger in several quarters of both his admirers and critics. Even his worst critic will concede two points about him that one does not find in the present set of politicians. JP was forever restless to serve the people, even if it led him to waste a decade of his life by becoming a “jeevandani” devoted to the “bhoodan” movement. Two, he shunned power and refused to become even a nominal guide of the Janata government in 1977. He was easily far, far greater than any leader, yet by hoisting him on the Bharat Ratna pedestal, the government has sullied his memory. The average stature of some of the recent awardees is lower than the average height of a pedestal. This brings out the narrow vision in selection and also the need to keep a few rare and really worthy sons and daughters above the list. Simply put, the eminence of a life-long student that Prof Amartya Sen is, cannot be confined to a sarkari award.

Akali crisis: Anatomy of a mindset
by Darshan Singh Maini

THAT the Akali leadership has had a particularly unedifying history of divisions, desertions, splits, factions and sell-outs since the establishment of the Punjabi Suba is a well-known fact of Sikh polity. In a way, it is quite in line with the political culture created by the Congress and other parties in this country — a culture of indiscipline and rank opportunism which, in the end, reduces politics from vision and service to commodity and commerce.

However, in the case of the Akalis, there are some constitutive components in their makeup to complexify the issue. And these include anything from village wildness, fratricidal vengeance and feuds to casteist, feudalist and parochial outlook. As a consequence, even though the Akalis undoubtedly represent the dream and aspirations of the Sikh masses in general today, they have not succeeded in throwing up a sustained leadership of trust and talent. The mindset remains mired in marginalities, in familial ethos, in low pragmatism.

The leadership hardened into the establishment has developed an intuitive distrust of modernity in politics. It has developed on world-vision, no larger humanist values for which their Gurus made incomparable sacrifices and immortalised them in their hymns. A mere show of blue turbans and kirpans and saffron scarfs cannot hide the poverty of their imagination. That is a melancholy conclusion, and that is what brings me, then, to the recent Badal-Tohra clash and the deepening crisis in Akali ranks.

This ongoing clash of personalities and ambitions, as we know, was for years kept under wraps for purely pragmatic reasons which included the Akali struggle for supremacy in Punjab, the Machiavellian politics of the Congress governments in New Delhi, and the grievous tragedy that had darkened the Sikh psyche during the decade of terror and trauma. But both Mr Badal and Mr Tohra knew that the struggle for the Punjab “crown” would eventually reach the point of “criticality” one day, and cause a nuclear chain of reactions. Each had been devising strategies of surface calm and peace, of occasional bonhomie, even as the weapons of assault and retreat were being put in place. Each knew the other’s game, and the patchwork peace was just a figleaf to cover the nakedness of their designs.

The present (perhaps the final) showdown was apparently triggered by Mr Tohra, though his demand that Mr Badal should step down from the SAD presidentship wasn’t too alarming to set the pigeons fluttering in the rival dovecots. However, the wily SGPC President, ensconced in that high seat like a Sikh “pontiff” almost for keeps, had taken a calculated risk. A fox knows his “onions”, and keeps open the line of retreat in the event of a looming defeat. But Mr Badal had other thoughts this time, as indeed had Mr Tohra. While the former with a safe majority of legislators and jathedars behind him regarded this as the hour of reckoning, the latter, a supreme opportunist had, in his own calculations considered the moment ripe for the blow (if things did come to a boil).

Mr Tohra’s arithmetic was, of course, highly dubious, at best, but the conditions — the charges of dynastic dreams and familial pressures, the charges of shielding corrupt bureaucrats and putting to sword those who had dared to do their duty (such as the Chief Secretary, Mr VK Khanna, now vindicated by the High Court), and the charges of Punjab’s financial crisis following populist measures and corruption and high spending, and above all, the highly shaky situation of the Vajpayee government of disparate and desperate elements, etc — set his imagination of intrigue on the track.

Added to this was his belief — and that of his “agents” in the Badal ministry — that the Chief Minister’s health was a matter of deep concern, and that he was keen to see his son Sukhbir Singh, already placed as a Minister of State in New Delhi and causing a considerable amount of heartburn among his betters and elders, placed strongly to ensure his smooth succession in the event of his retirement or exit.

Having nursed the dream of Chief Ministership for a wilderness of years, Mr Tohra, moving gingerly, lighted the fuse. Sensing that his moment had perhaps come, he decided to play a gambler’s hand, though keeping some cards close to his own chest. Unfortunately for him, the ironies of history obey no one’s desires or directions. And the old “fox” walked into a trap of his own making.

It appears from the latest Press reports that the SGPC supremo, in the event of his ouster from the party may join hands with two other supreme opportunists in Indian politics — Mr Kanshi Ram and Mr Chandra Shekhar — to queer the Punjab pitch. All such calculations at this point of time strike one as the actions of a man on the brink, doomed to come a cropper before he can put his “flock” together.

In the final analysis, we are not really bothered about the fate of Mr Tohra, or, for that matter of any other claimant to the Chandigarh “throne”. Our anxieties and fears have their locus in the possible return of militancy to a state that has barely put a decade of terror and trauma behind its back. The bruised Sikh psyche seems to have recovered some serenity, and the Punjabi spirit its usual bounce and buoyancy. If the present crisis causes the dreaded regression, it would be then a tragedy beyond our ken or control.

All these reflections lead us back to the crisis of character, and to the dialectic of the politics of power. And in this connection, I’m tempted to quote the indispensable Shakespeare who, to my mind, goes right into the dark heart of the problem in his history plays and in “King Lear” above all. The great visionary bard of Avon saw the whole panoply and pomp of royal power often in terms of the known Machiavellian maxims. No wonder, one of his critics, Wyndham Lewis, used a telling metaphor for his title in his volume. “The Lion and the Fox.” The metaphor dramatises the clash between two opposed energies: the force and valour of the lion, and the cunning and deviousness of the fox. A king or a ruler must combine in one person both these energies to keep the predators and prowlers at bay. The Badal-Tohra clash doesn’t quite fit into this frame, but we can see at least one of these energies in action. For in Mr Tohra’s case, “appetite” and “authority” have combined to create a state of ominous uncertainty and anxiety in Punjab.

Lessons from history lost in feud
by S.S. Dhanoa

IT is said that those who do not learn from history are made to repeat history. Perhaps, it is this perception which has made everyone concerned about the rumblings of differences between two top leaders of the Shiromani Akali Dal. Some have blamed the clashing of the egos of the persons concerned. Some are blaming the one-upmanship strategy adopted by the SGPC chief, and some are of the view that a minor indiscretion of Mr Tohra has been blown up by the media to create the present situation.

There may be a partial truth in all that is being said but at best the above analysis can only be called symptomatic. The Shiromani Akali Dal is a byproduct of the gurdwara reform movement, which had received a backing from Mahatma Gandhi and the Indian National Congress. Some of the modern educated participants in the gurdwara reform movement could perceive an advantage for themselves or the Sikh community whom they claim to represent, in joining together as a political party. At first for the political objectives of the Sikhs, a Central Sikh League came into being but it soon got taken over by the Shiromani Akali Dal.

The decision taken to constitute the Shiromani Akali Dal as a political party was not born out of any grave situation facing the Sikh community. The author has not come across any reference to the “ardas” offered to seek blessings of the Satguru for constituting the Shiromani Akali Dal as a political party nor has any historian enlightened us about the ‘hukamnama’ of the Sri Guru Granth Saheb on that occasion. The Shiromani Akali Dal is, therefore, a political party sponsored by a group of self-centred Sikh participants in the gurdwara reform movement to further their group or personal interests. The formation of such groups is contrary to the verse of the fourth Guru in Rag Asa (SGGS p. 366) according to which the only legitimate purpose for which human beings could come together to form a group was to further righteousness in society.

The Shiromani Akali Dal leaders often describe themselves as the leaders of the Sikh Panth and many Sikhs accept and endorse the above claim of the Shiromani Akali Dal leaders without a critical examination. The Sikh Panth, or more appropriately the Khalsa Panth, is a brotherhood of God-centred or Guru-centred human beings who are to be guided always by the word of the Guru whereas the self-centred ones in their policies and programmes are guided by their own experiences, cleverness and wisdom. The leaders of the Shiromani Akali Dal who claim to represent the Khalsa Panth have often displayed in their action and words that the Guru’s word has not been internalised by them. This contradiction is more responsible for many controversial and confused policies and programmes of the Shiromani Akali Dal than personal ambition or foibles of any particular Shiromani Akali Dal leader.

Guru Gobind Singh in his “Zafarnamah” wrote to Aurangzeb that when all other means failed, it was appropriate to take to the sword. However, it seems that out of expediency, the Shiromani Akali Dal assured Mahatma Gandhi that they would always remain non-violent come what may. Gandhi took this assurance with a pinch of salt as a strategy of the Akalis deliberately adopted as it suited the occasion. However, Gandhi soon i.e. in 1923, came to entertain grave suspicion about the Akali intentions when they undertook agitation in support of Ripudaman Singh, the Maharaja of Nabha. He specifically enquired if the ultimate objective of the Akalis was to establish Sikh Raj.

The British who were the rulers, soon realised the folly of confronting the Akalis and they got out of the situation by hastening the passing of the Gurdwara Act. Their master stroke was putting a condition for the Akalis in jail that for their release they should give an undertaking, that on their release they would work for the new Gurdwara Act that had been drafted and passed in consultation with the Akalis. Thus the fruits of the victory of the Akali agitation were made bitter for them. The Akalis got divided into the group that got released after signing the undertaking and the group that refused to sign such an undertaking. Thus the oneupmanship policy as a substitute for the Guru’s word got introduced in the Akali politics and it has continued to be a bugbear ever since.

Mr Parkash Singh Badal himself followed this policy in 1985 when he dissociated himself from the Rajiv Gandhi-Sant Longowal accord. Looking at his public postures thereafter, it can be said that his prolonged experience of remaining in wilderness brought about a change in him. Around 1994 he decided to confront all the Akali leaders who stood for oneupmanship and in this he even took on the then head priest of Akal Takht. All Punjabis and the Sikh masses backed him fully and he did the unthinkable by entering into an alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party. The normalcy in law and order had got restored in Punjab during the regime of the late Beant Singh but normalcy and buoyancy in Punjabi minds got restored with one stroke with the Akali-BJP alliance.

It is only natural that the government which came into power with enormous goodwill should start losing its lustre and the disenchanted turn to the old tradition of oneupmanship in the absence of any ideological framework supporting the Akali-BJP alliance among the Sikhs. Even senior ministers in the Badal government preferred to be apologetic for the alliance. One senior leader in a seminar at Patiala described it as an expediency for the Shiromani Akali Dal similar to the one in which Dal Khalsa had agreed to support Zakaria Khan, the governor of Lahore, in the 18th century.

There is a close historical parallel for the current situation to the events that proved to be the undoing of the Akali government in Punjab that took office in 1985. Sant Harchand Singh Longowal had taken a conscious decision to break the stalemate in Punjab and he signed the Rajiv Gandhi-Longowal accord at a time when feelings among the Sikh masses against the Central Government and the Gandhis were very strong and bitter. He undertook to dispel fears and misgivings about the accord among the Sikh masses but he was assassinated before he could succeed in his mission. The people of Punjab endorsed his decision to sign the accord by giving a massive mandate to the Akalis. The first brick that slipped from the edifice of the Rajiv-Longowal accord was the inability of the Akali-led government to prevent the extremists from taking over the Golden Temple complex in December, 1985. The SGPC chief who had remained silent when Bhindranwale and his followers had taken over the Golden Temple complex, suddenly decided to go public against the use of force to dislodge the extremists from the complex. Thereafter, it was only a matter of time for the whole edifice to collapse.

Mr Badal has shown courage and conviction though a bit belatedly in pulling up no less a person than Mr G.S. Tohra, the SGPC chief when he went public against Mr Badal’s policies and indirectly questioning the Akali-BJP alliance. One wonders as to why on the ideological plane, Mr Badal has not attached importance to removing the dust and cobwebs of reaction and fundamentalism which operate to embarrass and obstruct him time and again. Such description of the present situation, only serves to signal to the Punjabis that the Shiromani Akali Dal had taken them for a ride in order to acquire political power. It is certain that unless something positive and effective is done the Shiromani Akali Dal power base may get eroded.

The Shiromani Akali Dal leaders in having not taken Guru’s word as their light, start indulging in mutual recriminations or blaming others for their ills or the ills of the people contrary to the Gurus’ injunction that it is futile to blame the whole world for one’s ills and for that to get angry with others around oneself.

It is expected that a leader like Mr Badal after having taken such courageous decisions in the recent past would provide an institutional and ideological framework in which Shiromani Akali Dal decisions, policies and programmes are guided by the human values enshrined in the Indian spiritual heritage and Gurbani and not by the interests of personalities nor by mere expediency.

Real hurdles in Indo-Pak talks
By O.P. Sabherwal

WITH the seventh round of Indo-US talks scheduled later this month, a sensitive phase begins in the ongoing negotiations on nuclear reconciliation. This is amply indicated by the manner in which the US Ambassador, Mr Richard Celeste, has formulated the issues of divergence, partially lifting the secrecy in which the talks have been conducted.

Ambassador Celeste’s carefully worded proposition is that India’s nuclear deterrent should not be “open ended”, and that there should be transparency on the “number of missile systems and (nuclear) warheads” that comprise the Indian deterrent. This projection actually embodies several facets. But first one should take note of its positive implications.

A major positive aspect revolves on India’s claim for recognition, de facto if not de jure, of its nuclear weapon status — the prime issue from the Indian point of view. When Ambassador Celeste speaks of transparency on the quantum of Indian nuclear warheads and missile systems in India’s deterrent, he without doubt concedes the reality of this country’s nuclear weapon status, call it a de facto or de jure recognition.

So far so good. Mr Celeste also notes that the Talbott-Jaswant Singh talks have made progress. This obviously means fair advance from American considerations in regard to important aspects of the non-proliferation regime on which the USA seeks India’s cooperation. These are: banning exports of Indian nuclear material outside the purview of IAEA; Indian adherence to the CTBT; and India’s participation in the fissile material cut-off treaty negotiations. This will mean fairly large ground covered from the American point of view.

What then is the real hitch and cause for American concerns propelling Ambassador Celeste to come forward with his projection on transparency of the Indian nuclear deterrent? Is it a suggestion for circumscribing Indian nuclear weapons so that a nuclear arms race does not begin in India’s neighbourhood? Indeed not: the American envoy could not possibly have such an intent even if he points his finger in this direction.

Enough is known about India’s nuclear weapon capability to dispel such fears. Not to speak of a nuclear arms race of global proportions, India has no intention or possibility of entering into such a race even with China. It is no secret that the plutonium-based Indian weapon capability has no supporting uranium enrichment plant such as China’s. Indian weapon capability rests solely on advanced nuclear technology having attained reprocessing capability to obtain plutonium from spent fuel. The Indian plutonium fissile pool too, according to reliable Western intelligence, has a limit of 100 small size weapons by the turn of the century. Is the American concern really whether the Indian deterrent has half a dozen more or less small nukes?

The factors generating American anxiety as voiced by Mr Celeste must therefore be substantially different. Is it the desire to put a full stop on Indian nuclear technology growth rather than the numbers game that propels the USA to a fantastic new proposal in the ongoing talks? Indian official response to Ambassador Celeste’s proposition (or is it a feeler?) has rightly termed the Indian deterrent to be “a matter of top secret assessment”. It is not only a limited view of threat perception that has to guide Indian decision-making on nuclear issues but a large global view and major technology developments — even futuristic trends.

On the other hand, India is aware that all major traditional nuclear powers, with the USA in the forefront, are set to develop a new generation of nuclear weapons technology — pure fusion weapons technology. The new generation nuclear weapons under development are extremely powerful and sophisticated. More significantly, products of pure fusion research linked to high powered lasers, these nuclear weapons would not require high enriched uranium or weapon grade plutonium and would thus be outside the ambit of the present non-proliferation regime — the CTBT and the FMCT. Instead, the raw material for pure fusion weapons — different isotopes of hydrogen — are abundantly available.

The USA is pushing the frontiers of fusion research and is way ahead in the race to build the new generation fusion weapons. Not only are the other four accepted weapon powers struggling along in the race — succeeding in varying degrees — but Germany and Japan too are following suit, both having developed significant capabilities in fusion research. The USA, however, with a huge laser complex coming up at the National Ignition Facility in Livermore, California, intends to maintain its head-on lead.

Where does India come in? India of course is no competitor in this futuristic nuclear weapon making. But it cannot ignore the strident advances in nuclear technology development worldwide. No government can accept constraints on this account and US demands for curbs on Indian nuclear research in the areas of fusion and high-powered lasers will be unacceptable, whatever the pressures. American anxiety on this score can, however, be dealt with by other means. It is true that the Pokhran II thermo-nuclear test on May 11 gave an insight into the advances India had accomplished in the field of fusion research. And American know-how of Indian nuclear research being exceptionally updated, the development of a four-beam laser at the Centre of Advanced Technology (CAT), recorded in the 1997-98 annual report of the Atomic Energy Commission, may have raised American concerns. India, however, cannot be penalised for the excellence of its nuclear research establishments. Nor can there be differential treatment for India and the other five established nuclear weapon states on this account. — IPA

Difficult year for Chandrababu Naidu
From S. Sethuraman

HYDERABAD: The Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister, Mr Chandrababu Naidu, is readjusting his style of governance to face up to the harsh realities confronting him in an election year, and it looks that his Telugu Desam Party will have to go it alone in taking on the Congress, its main rival.

Mr Naidu parted ways with the United Front in March last when he extended issue-based support to the BJP-led coalition at the Centre, and in the process he alienated himself from the Muslims in the State. Lately, the CPM severed its ties with TDP with which it had electoral understandings in the past, as Mr Naidu has been lukewarm to the idea of a third front of like-minded parties at the Centre.

Nor does Mr Naidu relish the idea of a tie-up with the BJP at the State-level as he is keen to proclaim his secular credentials while the BJP itself is making a bid to enlarge its base in Andhra Pradesh by putting up as many candidates as possible for the Assembly elections. This may cut into the votes of the two major contenders, the Congress and the TDP.

Mr Naidu’s grand vision for the State to become the front-runner by 2020, and his single-minded pursuit of information technology to revolutionise the lives of its people — which have earned him laurels at home and abroad — will hardly weigh with the mass of the electorate, when he leads the TDP into the battle in December, for the first time.

The TDP owed its past victories to the late N.T. Rama Rao from whom Mr Naidu wrested power in 1995, and began to consolidate his position as the head of the ruling party. Over the past three years, Mr Naidu has tried to push through a reform agenda covering power, transport and other undertakings with privatisation to improve the State’s finances.

He successfully negotiated with the World Bank an economic restructuring project for which the Bank has approved a loan of $ 540 million over a four-year period with periodic monitoring of progress. Mr Naidu also overcame stiff resistance to get legislation enacted for power sector reform, and the Bill received the President’s assent recently.

The World Bank is agreeable to extend a $ 1 billion loan over longer term for the implementation of the Andhra Pradesh Electricity Board restructuring with private participation in generation and distribution. A Bank appraisal team is already looking at the power sector reforms and a first instalment of $ 150 million is likely to become available for transmission and distribution schemes.

Like SEBs elsewhere, the APSEB has been incurring heavy losses and the Bank has insisted on the Government reimbursing the board for the subsidy incurred in supply of power for agriculture (Rs 1734 crore in 1997-98) and revision of power tariff for all consumers. Accordingly, the State Government hiked the tariff on December 28 but excluded agricultural users (who pay 17 paise per unit) and the bulk of domestic consumers who use less than 300 units a month. This may yield Rs 430 crore a year but would not make any difference to APSEB’s finances with losses amounting to Rs 2000 crore.

The power tariff hike has given the Congress one more issue in its sustained campaign against the Chandrababu Naidu Government, which it has been charging with entering into corrupt deals in connection with the setting up of the “Hi-Tech” City near Hyderabad and with succumbing to World Bank pressures in implementing reforms.

Congress MPs from the State had handed the President, Mr K.R. Narayanan, a memorandum of allegations last month and demanded imposition of Central rule in the State. Mr Naidu has ridiculed the Congress moves and justified the “painful” decision on the tariff hike which, he pointed out, would not affect the farmers and poor people. The BJP has also been threatening to launch an agitation against the tariff hike while the Left parties are stoutly opposed to Mr Naidu’s privatisation plans.

Mr Naidu exudes a sense of confidence that his Government’s record of development activities and reaching out to the poor through the “Janmabhoomi” programme, involving local people, of activities with benefits to the community would secure the TDP a fresh mandate. “If we perform well and prove our sincerity, the people will certainly endorse our performance”, he asserts.

Mindful of the odds he is facing nevertheless, Mr Naidu has lately been making an intense tour of rural areas and making promises of eradication of poverty, offering schemes for small and marginal farmers and house sites for poor families.

Mr Naidu does not see any “anti-establishment sentiment” in the State but the Congress is no less confident that it could come back to power because of the TDP Government’s failures in providing relief to the flood-affected in the coastal areas and maintaining law and order, and its “pro-rich” policies in general.

In a pre-election year, Mr Naidu will tread cautiously with his ambitious reform plans linked to World Bank assistance with its conditionalities nor would he be able to mobilise additional resources to narrow the chronic Budget deficits which have retarded the pace of development of water and power resources so vital for its immense agricultural potential.

Prone to cyclones and floods almost twice a year, the State’s diversified crop base suffers, and 1997-98 was one such bad year. About 70 per cent of the population is dependent on agriculture. Lack of adequate funding held up many irrigation projects in the past while the State is unable to meet rising energy consumption, especially from the farm sector. Some shift from paddy crop to commercial crops has been suggested to reduce dependence on the power grid.

Mr Naidu has not been able to enforce a minimum of 50 paise per unit for agriculture, as suggested by the Bank, while farmers are also opposed to metering the power pumpsets despite pilferages on a large scale. Mr Naidu has tried to give himself a breathing space in the implementation of fiscal deficit reduction and other reforms during the election year, in his memorandum of understanding with the World Bank. — IPA

75 YEARS AGO

Public meeting at Gurdaspur

TO pay tributes to the late Pandit Ram Bhaj Dutta, a well-attended meeting of the Hindu Sabha was held on August 7 at 8.30 p.m. Bawa Gurdit Singh said a prayer suited to the occasion and Mr Gurdu Singh Sari in a short and well-worded speech gave a concise account of the Pandit’s life.

The able speaker dilated upon the various qualities of head and heart of the Panditji and fully impressed upon the audience that all honour was due to the deceased.

The Pandit was a resident of this district and after having completed his course at school, he passed his Intermediate examination from Government College.

Then he became the Headmaster of Bharati School. But his spirit would not let him remain contented with this job.

He soon became a graduate and joined the famous Law College. He started his practice at Tarn Taran as a Mukhtar and some time after he shifted to Amritsar as a pleader. He eventually settled at Lahore and continued to practise law as a Vakil, High Court, till a few years before his death when he had given up his legal profession.

His services in different spheres were all meritorious and the work he had undertaken should not be left undone. He was a pioneer in the Shuddhi movement and reclaimed hundreds, nay thousands, of persons to the fold of Hinduism.