Sharif's lost game
PRIME Minister Nawaz Sharif's credibility gap has widened. No gullibility fill is available to him on his home turf. No legislator or political organisation is ready to wholly welcome the commitment made by him in the "Washington Declaration".

Caretaker’s many concerns
TUESDAY turned out to be an unusually busy day for the Union Cabinet. Stepping out of the constraints of the caretaker tag, it cleared a pile of crucial decisions in financial and broadcasting fields.

Promoting rail tourism
FROM July 1 the Indian Railways’ catering wing acquired a sleek corporate look as casserole meals with tissue-wrapped cutlery replaced the unhygienic open "thalis".

PAK PM’S PROMISE ON KARGIL
But can he deliver?
by Inder Malhotra
SO Mr Nawaz Sharif has had to bow to the inevitable. After three-hour talks with President Bill Clinton in Washington — to which destination he had dashed in sheer desperation — he has had to agree to withdraw Pakistani invaders of Kargil and thus “restore” the Line of Control (LoC) in accordance with the Simla Agreement.

Corruption beyond CVC’s endeavours
by Arvind Bhandari
ON June 30 The Tribune organised a programme of special interaction between its staff and the Central Vigilance Commissioner, Mr N. Vittal, who expatiated on the various steps being taken to combat corruption.

Striving for new order in education
by Reeta Sharma
ANURAG Dhillon, popularly addressed as Annu, is a soft spoken, unassuming and an extremely charming lady. Always smiling, full of kindness and concern, one takes to her instantly. She is one of those persons who are silent observers with an open mind. Born in Calcutta, she was two years old when her parents moved to Bahrain. By the time she turned five, they further shifted to Ghana in West Africa.

In the firing line
by Noel Lobo
I PRESSED myself into the earth, scared out of my wits, wondering what the hell had persuaded me to get involved. It was a question I was often to ask myself in years to come...Several of the commandos around us were already dead; the man at my left elbow had risen to his knees aiming his brengun up the slope and taken a bullet between his eyes. He went down without a sound. (Russell Spurr in Let the Tiger Turn Tail.)

75 Years Ago

What about the converse?
IN his speech at the U.P. Political Conference, the Right Hon. Srinivasa Sastri is reported to have said that while the “extremists” might be congratulated on their “great organisation, their enormous sacrifices and their mighty efforts, all these virtues led to poor results if not yoked to reason and practical good sense.”

Sharif's lost game

PRIME Minister Nawaz Sharif's credibility gap has widened. No gullibility fill is available to him on his home turf. No legislator or political organisation is ready to wholly welcome the commitment made by him in the "Washington Declaration". The words chosen to describe the outcome of his desperately hasty flight to the USA at President Bill Clinton's bidding are disparaging and derogatory: climb-down, sell-out and betrayal. However, there should be no debate about the relevance of these words in India. Mr Nawaz Sharif knew what his armymen and mercenaries had been doing for quite some months in the Dras-Batalik-Kargil region of the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir. Mr Clinton told him nothing better than what his Indian counterpart had asked him to do after the Pakistani invasion of the large mountainous and strategically important area across the well-demarcated Line of Control (LoC). Mr Vajpayee had categorically said: Vacate the aggression. Withdraw the regulars and the hired, Talibanised Afghans. Come and talk sincerely in accordance with the letter and the spirit of the Lahore Declaration, which is an extension of the Simla Agreement. Nothing less will improve the situation.... What did Mr Nawaz Sharif promise to do when he was in Washington? He said he would respect the (calculatedly violated) LoC. He would withdraw his forces from the segment which was recently encroached upon to cut the supply line to Ladakh and to achieve what the ISI and the militants had failed to accomplish in our northern state. He would take recourse to the clauses of peace enshrined in the Simla Agreement. And he would take "concrete steps" quickly.

Did he really betray his people who are, by and large, baying for his blood? There can be no two opinions about the fact that the Army Chief, Gen Pervez Musharraf, is calling the shots and the political establishment is gradually going back to the bad old days of dictators — the late Ayub Khan, Yahya Khan and Zia-ul-Haq. Mr Nawaz Sharif has "agreed" with the Army all these years; now he is genuflecting before General Musharraf. However, neither Mr Nawaz Sharif nor General Musharraf is Pakistan. The democratically elected Prime Minister has knocked at the door of the USA as well as the UK. British Prime Minister Tony Blair did a favour: he met the man in transit. He advised him to defuse the chronic tension with India by obeying Mr Clinton. "I support your pledge to take concrete steps to end the conflict", Mr Blair told him.

The mountains still carry the burden of Pakistan's treachery. Every intruder must be thrown out or down — out across the LoC or down into the abyss. We sympathise with Mr Nawaz Sharif. From the ISI and the Pakistan Army to prominent politicians, sections with enormous clout want him "to pay for his sin". The representative Frankenstein fundamentalist monster nurtured by him is approaching him menacingly. His personal reputation as a scheming political creature, an unethical businessman and a feudal lord with a worn-out mask of contrived popularity is pushing him to the exit point. The USA, in connivance with the UK, has decided to promote its own geopolitical gameplan and strategy. It is "a perform-or-perish" situation for the Pakistani Prime Minister. India, on its part, must not fall into international or bilateral traps, seeking a forgiving image and losing sight of its national interests. It is time to bleed the enemy and recover at least some ground lost before the fourth aggression.

Caretaker’s many concerns

TUESDAY turned out to be an unusually busy day for the Union Cabinet. Stepping out of the constraints of the caretaker tag, it cleared a pile of crucial decisions in financial and broadcasting fields. Cellular telephone operators in non-metro cities have secured a total reprieve, which they have been fighting for. Money-spinning oil and long-distance telephone companies and money-losing service sectors will come up for partial sale to mop up a minimum of Rs 10,000 crore in the current year. Film and pop music and advertisement jingles will blare out continuously from hand-held radio sets thanks to dramatic liberalisation of frequency modulation(FM) radio broadcasting. In all 150 FM licences will be up for grab and even small towns which do not have this service, will soon have a private operator hawking local goods to local people riding piggyback on loud recorded music, a craze with the teen brigade. But no news or current affairs programme, please; it is Mr Pramod Mahajan’s territory. The FM decision rings out the ingrained half-thinking of the government. Either it is sold to the Times Radio boasts or it wants to repeat the US success where this highly localised service is very popular. In the latter case, it is the non-stop news update that ensures a faithful following. In the former, it acts as the poorman’s portable CD player and helps youngsters to assemble in a room and break into their form of dancing. Unless girls in small towns take to disco dancing and win the approval of their parents, Mr Mahajan’s dream of making India an FM country is not likely to bloom.

The decision on disinvestment is a more serious matter from the point of view of constitutional propriety. True, the budget has a provision for raising Rs 10,000 crore by shedding government shares in public sector undertakings. But that is a one-line general statement. What the Cabinet has now done is to select the units, some of them are what economic journalists would call cash cows, and the residual percentage of government holding. MTNL, VSNL, Indian Oil Corporation and Gas Authority of India are slated to find private buyers. The case of Madras Refineries and the hotel chain, ITDC, fall in a different category, although in their case the government will retain only a token 26 per cent. The defence for the major action by the Cabinet is that the new government will not have enough time to complete the process of raising the budgeted amount and that the stock market is booming right now, making the sale proposal highly attractive. The first is not very convincing; six months should be enough to unload the equity. The second can be made to stand on its head. If the stock market is on the upswing, why not wait for some more time and get the maximum price? From the looks of it, there is a bull run and it has not exhausted itself. The lollipops to the cellular phone operators exceeds the scope of newspaper reports. The bailout covers paging and other value added services and the final shape of the revised conditions will be first decided by TRAI and later vetted by the Department of Telecommunications. This should hide the arbitrariness of the PMO’s unilateral offer. One unanswered question: former Communications Minister Jagmohan was expected to raise awkward questions but it appears that he preferred to remain silent. Were the decisions railroaded through the Cabinet?

Promoting rail tourism

FROM July 1 the Indian Railways’ catering wing acquired a sleek corporate look as casserole meals with tissue-wrapped cutlery replaced the unhygienic open "thalis". The catering wing of the railways has promised Rajdhani-Shatabdi quality food, served from hot cases and trolleys, on all the major trains as part of its commitment to refurbishing the image of the largest rail network in the world. There is no doubt that the quality of overall service has improved over the years. However, the reason why the Indian Railways get a bad name is because of their inability to ensure quality control of the existing facilities. For instance, the quality of food served on the Shatabdis and Rajdhanis is superior to the unwholesome food available to the passengers of ordinary trains. But a comparison in the quality of maintenance of coaches, general service and food would show a deterioration in relation to what it was when the train services were introduced. Nevertheless, the railways deserve a round of applause, along with a periodic word of criticism, for at least trying to improve their image by introducing innovative and technology-driven facilities for raising the comfort level of most passengers. In this context, a decision which deserves the biggest round of cheer is the one about setting up a Railways Catering and Tourism Corporation.

There is no reason why the proposed corporation should not end up playing a major role in promoting domestic tourism along with making travelling by train more attractive for foreign visitors. After all, the Indian Railways move about 12 million passengers every day through their 10,000-train network. The proposal to set up a tourism corporation is meant to take care of the problems of long-distance travellers who have to make multiple arrangements for their board and lodging apart from booking their rail seats and berths in advance. The Railways Tourism Corporation would provide all the facilities to the average traveller by optimising the utilisation of their existing network apart from setting yatri nivas and hotels in cities and towns with a high volume of tourist traffic. As of today, the railways have only hotels at Ranchi and Puri and two yatri nivas at Delhi and Howrah. In fact, with a bit of innovation the railways can make rail journey more exciting for the average passenger by introducing what can be called "coach-as-home service" by converting their coach parking areas into attractive tourist centres. In the USA a number of railway stations have been turned into popular tourist destinations by enterprising individuals. The Indian Railways too have the potential to serve domestic travellers and attract foreign tourists in even larger numbers, compared to the current volume of foreign rail travellers. They have the facilities for playing a leading role for promoting nature, heritage, historical and cultural tourism. With the kind of infrastructure they have already developed for improving the comfort level of rail passengers they can even give stiff competition to the ITDC.

PAK PM’S PROMISE ON KARGIL
But can he deliver?
by Inder Malhotra

SO Mr Nawaz Sharif has had to bow to the inevitable. After three-hour talks with President Bill Clinton in Washington — to which destination he had dashed in sheer desperation — he has had to agree to withdraw Pakistani invaders of Kargil and thus “restore” the Line of Control (LoC) in accordance with the Simla Agreement.

However, carefully the five-paragraph joint statement of the US President and the Pakistani Prime Minister may have been worded, its meaning is crystal clear. The violation of the LoC in the Kargil sector has to be undone first and the fighting there ended before anything else can happen.

Evidently, Mr Clinton has been firm in demanding this and refusing to buy the absurd Pakistani pretence that the “Mujahideen” fighting on the formidable heights of Kargil, Dras and Batalik are not under Islamabad’s control. America has also rejected Mr Sharif’s projected ploys of making Pakistani withdrawal from the Kargil area conditional on talks between Mr Jaswant Singh and his Pakistani opposite number in order that the two sides could agree on “stage by stage” withdrawals and “de-escalation”. The rubbish that the Pakistani Foreign Minister, Mr Sartaj Aziz, has been mouthing when he says that “Pakistan does not know where the LoC lies” was apparently not mentioned during the Washington parleys.

Now that the focus is on Kargil and Kargil alone, and the USA has made it clear that other things can take place only after the steps promised by Pakistan have been “taken” and there is cessation of hostilities, the key question is whether Mian Saheb (as the Pakistani Prime Minister is called) can deliver what he has solemnly promised.

What he is up against has been shouted from the housetops by Gen Hamid Gul (retd), a former chief of the notorious ISI and a diehard fundamentalist with close links with the hardliners within the Islamised army of Pakistan. He has threatened the Prime Minister not with ouster but with “civil war”. He has also publicly appealed to the Army Chief, Gen Parvez Musharraf, ironically handpicked by Mr Nawaz Sharif when he unwisely sacked the previous Chief of the Army Staff, Gen Jehangir Karamat, that he (Musharraf) should resign should he be asked to withdraw the Pakistani regulars and their Afghani adjuncts from the Kargil region.

The reality behind this bombast is that the Kashmir issue has been hyped so recklessly in Pakistan and simultaneously the Islamic fundamentalists have acquired such sway in both the civilian population and the armed forces that any ruling politician accused of a “sell-out” to India faces dire damages. This is so in spite of the widespread recognition within Pakistan, which has found a reflection in the media, that it would be foolish to provoke an all-out war with India.

Ironically, the inflamed Pakistani situation has been aggravated by the Kargil episode itself. After the initial success of the invaders, who are overwhelmingly, if not exclusively, regular Pakistani soldiers belonging to the Northern Light Infantry, the likes of Gen Hamid Gul had started crowing that India was about to lose Siachen, too, a boast which was echoed by the Brigadier commanding the brigade at Skardu, the base of the Pakistani invasion.

Another factor which has made things difficult for Mr Sharif bespeaks of exquisite irony. In recent years Mian Saheb has suborned all major institutions of Pakistan, such as the presidency, the judiciary, and the National Assembly, and has made himself the most powerful Prime Minister of his country since Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto in his heyday. This is now having the proverbial equal and opposite reaction, especially among the feudal oligarchy which considers Mr Sharif as a “outsider”. The people at large are appalled by the enormity of the Sharif family’s alleged corruption. It apparently equals the loot which has earned Ms Benazir Bhutto a term in jail that she is avoiding by the simple expedient of not returning to Pakistan from overseas.

As The Economist pointed out recently, Mr Sharif is a man who has his own “intellectual limitations” by surrounding himself with “sycophants”. But even he knows what is good for his survival. The visit to Washington, as the earlier one to Beijing, was obviously an attempt to build up his defences.

He would be on relatively strong ground in telling his countrymen that Pakistan cannot possibly refuse to comply with the unchanging wishes of the two of the closest and indispensable allies it has. Both are insistent on ending the Kargil madness. By annoying America, in particular, Pakistan can only make its possible economic ruination a certainty. China is still willing to supply Pakistan the weaponry it needs. But things could change if Beijing gets worried by Pakistan’s wilful escalation of the armed conflict in an area not far from Xingjiang where China itself feels threatened by Islamic fundamentalism.

In coping with the opponents of the Pakistani withdrawal from Kargil, the trump card Mian Saheb is bound to use is Mr Clinton’s promise to take a “personal interest” in the resumption of bilateral efforts of India and Pakistan, under the Lahore Declaration, to solve all problems, including Kashmir, expeditiously.

We can be certain that Mr Sharif’s spin doctors, more than him, will ostentatiously represent this in his “success” in “internationalising” the Kashmir issue, and thus achieving a major Pakistani objective. He has already been spreading the word that if, “for the sake of a bigger gain”, a small sacrifice has to be made, the Pakistanis should accept it.

Moreover, if Mr Sharif has yielded to American pressure, backed by the international community in general, not merely by the G-8, he must also have received some assurances also from the American side. One of these almost certainly is a virtual guarantee against a military coup. General Musharraf and his cohorts must know that the Americans, who once used to love dealing with military dictators like Ayub Khan and Yahya Khan, are now great devotees of democracy which they want to spread across the globe, including China.

Indeed, usually reliable sources in New Delhi’s Chanakyapuri vouchesafe that General Anthony, head of the recent US mission to Pakistan, bluntly told General Musharraf: “Don’t even think of a coup; we will fry you.” The last Pakistani dignitary to receive an equally sharp warning was Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto. Except that the threat to “make an example” of his was delivered not by a General but by the redoubtable Dr Henry Kissinger.

It is not in Pakistan alone that the Clinton-Sharif joint statement and its various interpretations will cause a stir. In this country, too, there is likely to be a furore over Mr Clinton’s promise to take personal interest in the “expeditious progress” of the “bilateral” Indo-Pakistani talks under the Lahore process. Notwithstanding the repeated American denials of any desire to “mediate” between the two countries, many here might conjure up frightening visions of just this.

But the point to note is that the sequence of events outlined in the Washington statement is exactly in accordance with the Indian wishes: Pakistani withdrawal from the Kargil sector, cessation of hostilities there, and the resumption of the Lahore process. As for making the dialogue within the Lahore framework more expeditious, we have Mr Niaz Naik’s testimony that Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee, in his no longer secret talk with the former Pakistani Foreign Secretary, stated that once the Kargil intruders were withdrawn, the Lahore process would not only be “restored” but also “accelerated”. According to Mr Naik, the Prime Minister used the word “accelerated” twice.

Corruption beyond CVC’s endeavours
by Arvind Bhandari

ON June 30 The Tribune organised a programme of special interaction between its staff and the Central Vigilance Commissioner, Mr N. Vittal, who expatiated on the various steps being taken to combat corruption. All right-thinking citizens would wish more power to his elbow because corruption is corroding the very innards of the Indian nation. But the monster of malfeasance is so well-entrenched that the CVC’s endeavours alone are not enough. These need to be supplemented by major legislative measures to put in place a full-fledged anti-corruption institutional framework.

The framework required recommends itself: a high-powered Lok Pal; an autonomous CBI; abrogation of Section 19 of the Prevention of Corruption Act; state funding of political parties; and enforcement of accountability in the private sector.

The jurisdiction of the Central Vigilance Commission, generally speaking, is confined to junior government functionaries and bureaucrats. But what about ministers and members of legislatures whose venality is the fountainhead of corruption, which, like liquid, flows from top to bottom? It is here that the proposed Lok Pal comes in. In fact, there should be a formal bifurcation of responsibility between the Central Vigilance Commission and the Lok Pal, with the former covering bureaucrats and the latter ministers and legislators.

The self-serving manner in which all the Prime Ministers since Indira Gandhi have avoided the Lok Pal is a testimony to the institution’s potential effectiveness. The amount of tear-jerking Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee has done on the issue would put even a crocodile in the shade. Anyhow, it is important to remember that the Lok Pal Bill introduced in the previous Lok Sabha was a piece of retrograde legislation and would have proved to be counter-productive. Five changes in the earlier Bill are required if the Lok Pal is to be made an effective instrument to eradicate corruption at the highest echelons of power.

Firstly, the appointment of the three members comprising the Lok Pal institution ought to be insulated from the influence of the Prime Minister, whose office would itself be under the purview of their authority. They should be appointed by a high-powered committee comprising the Chief Justice of India, the Prime Minister, the Leader of the Opposition, the Speaker of the Lok Sabha and the Chairman of the Rajya Sabha. Secondly, proceedings before the Lok Pal should be open and duly publicised in the media.

Thirdly, there is need for a stringent mechanism to ensure compliance within a certain time-frame. It is not enough that, as the earlier Bill stipulated, the Lok Pal can only “communicate his findings and recommendations to the competent authority”. Fourthly, the Lok Pal should have suo motu powers. In countries like Sweden, Denmark, France, New Zealand, Norway and Britain the ombudsman has been conferred with certain discretionary control. Section 33 (b) of the earlier Bill says that the Lok Pal is not to make any enquiry “upon its own knowledge and information”. Fifthly, the Lok Pal should have his own investigative machinery because the police functions as a handmaiden of ruling politicians.

The judiciary has time and again passed strictures against the CBI and felt constrained to monitor the agency’s functioning in various sensitive cases. This is a scathing indictment of the CBI, which is not functioning properly, often being misused by ruling politicians to grind their axe. The CBI should be made fully autonomous, with its Director being appointed, as in the case of the Lok Pal, on the recommendations of a representative committee.

Section 19 of the Prevention of Corruption Act, which stipulates that no government functionary can be prosecuted without the permission of the appointing authority, has been often misused to shield corrupt ministers and bureaucrats. This insidious law should be abrogated. Once a prima facie case is established against government functionaries, they should be automatically prosecuted, as is done in the case of ordinary citizens. This is also called for from the standpoint of equity.

Corruption also results from a glaring lacuna in the Constitution. There is no provision for financing political parties. This has led to a corrupt politician-bureaucrat-businessman nexus, resulting in much stink at the top. There should be state funding of political parties.

Since economic liberalisation means a greater role for the private sector, checking corporate malfeasance has become still more important. The private corporate sector, because of absence of accountability at the level of promoters and boards of directors, is riddled with financial irregularities and wastage. In the recent past the Confederation of Indian Industry came out with a code for corporate governance. But its perusal shows that Indian business is not yet in the mood for self-regulation. Major amendments are required in the Companies Act to enforce transparency and accountability.

In the firing line
by Noel Lobo

I PRESSED myself into the earth, scared out of my wits, wondering what the hell had persuaded me to get involved. It was a question I was often to ask myself in years to come...Several of the commandos around us were already dead; the man at my left elbow had risen to his knees aiming his brengun up the slope and taken a bullet between his eyes. He went down without a sound. (Russell Spurr in Let the Tiger Turn Tail.)

I often wonder why our retired fighting men who have been anointed as defence experts never write of their experiences in combat; never relate any tales of derring- do of our jawans (since they will be too modest to tell of their own bravery); never say how it really is when faced by the enemy; never give us a single human interest story. Since the only time I saw a shot being fired to kill was from the safety of a cruiser trying to overwhelm a tiny force of brave Portuguese soldiers on Anjadiv Island — admittedly we lost a sailor from the landing party who was later buried at sea — I shall have to borrow from the book quoted above.

Lieut Russell Spurr of the Royal Indian Volunteer Reserve was on duty as a cameraman for the directorate of publicity for the Indian armed forces in WW II. In January the allies were on the offensive and the brave Japanese in retreat. The author found himself on a landing craft with a force attempting to take Myebon Island off the Arakan coast. They succeeded — there is no space for details — and nine days later a commando brigade was landed to take the village of Kangaw, east of Myebon. The commandos charged up a slimy creek, thick with mangroves, and occupied a hill marked 160 on the map (for 160 feet high) This enabled the 25th Indian Division, including a battalion of Rajputs led by Colonel Thimmaya (later General) which pushed inland to block the only road available for the Japanese retreat.

Hill 160 is what concerns us now because it will give some small idea of what our troops must face in trying to recapture our lost positions — and our men are fighting at elevations of 17,000 feet, not at sea level.

The morning after the landing the commandos were brewing their cuppa atop Hill 160 when an enemy reconnaissance brigade struck without warning. They charged, flags flying, up the tree covered slopes. “One minute there was nothing below us but empty paddy fields. Suddenly the fields were swarming with the bastards, bayonets fixed, swords flashing, battle flags, the whole bloody banzai bit.” The commandos knew that loss of the hill would threaten the beach-head. They let rip, but nothing could stop the enemy soldiers clawing their way uphill. It was a suicidal attack; and now, surprise, surprise, they were backed by artillery fire. (The RAF had claimed to have knocked out all Japanese guns as they enjoyed total air superiority.)

The commandos now made a determined attempt to recapture the hill. The author found himself with a platoon. He says the dead lay all around the foot of the hill and among the trees and bushes. (Our men in Ladakh have no such cover on the barren hills.) “Ahead lay the last few yards of open ground before the hill. The firing grew heavier; the sergeant leading us — the platoon commander had been killed in an earlier assault — went down with a bullet, bleeding horribly. The Japanese now sent down grenades...”.

A fresh squad of commandos now went ahead. The one surviving tank roared past firing point blank into an enemy platoon on the flank. The allied dive bombers went in with napalm and high explosives. Fresh waves of commandos rose up to charge to the top of the hill.

No Japanese were left alive. A trench at the bottom of the hill, on the other side, was filled with obscenely tumbled bodies (his own words). One or two were finishing themselves off with grenades holding them to their stomachs. A helmeted head lolled against the tree, both spectacles lenses shattered... a trail of corpses... we were knee deep in corpses....

Two Victoria Crosses were awarded, both posthumously.

Striving for new order in education

by Reeta Sharma

ANURAG Dhillon, popularly addressed as Annu, is a soft spoken, unassuming and an extremely charming lady. Always smiling, full of kindness and concern, one takes to her instantly. She is one of those persons who are silent observers with an open mind. Born in Calcutta, she was two years old when her parents moved to Bahrain. By the time she turned five, they further shifted to Ghana in West Africa.

At Ghana, she completed her ‘O-levels’ of school (equivalent to Class XII) from a British school, affiliated to the University of London. For her ‘A-levels’, Anurag went to Canterbury in England. Finally she acquired her honours degree in psychology and social biology with the former as her major subject, again from the University of London. Armed with her academic qualifications, she joined the famous City & Guilds, Institute of London for a course in ‘Computer programming’. And this well groomed, cultured lady returned to India in 1983.

Next five years were spent at trying her hands at teaching and various other occupations, besides learning about her own Indian culture from a scratch.

Shuttling between Ludhiana, Chandigarh and Delhi, Anurag felt alien like a fish out of water but without ever loosing her will-power she continued to strive. Afterall she was a lady with solid foundation in terms of intellectual capabilities, which helped her cope with new challenges that life had thrown before her swim afloat in an ocean of chaos, that was her motherland — India. She had grown with well-defined systems, discipline, morality, ethics, which eventually helped her. In 1989, she got married to Dr (Capt) Gurpartap Singh Dhillon and moved to Dalhousie with him. “He inspired, encouraged and supported me to my best in the worst-around me.” Her husband was successfully running “Dalhousie Public School”, which had established a matching reputation with that of Sacred Heart Convent of the area. Anurag blessed with a son is now helping her husband in the school, trying to bring in a new order in education. In conversation with her:

Ques: Since you have the personal experience of the European education system and now that of Indian, how do you find our system of imparting education?

Anurag: I have all my sympathies with our children here. Our systems over the years have complicated our education methodology. Students have been burdened with theory with literally no practical knowledge. It’s donkey’s load on them of subjects with little scope to flower as all-round personalities.

Ques: Could you elaborate in a specific manner?

Anurag: Well, I personally feel that our education system suffers from three major drawbacks. First of all, syllabus in each class of a school is unrealistically large. Second, our teaching methods are outdated. Marginal superficial changes have been introduced. But I feel those are only cosmetic. Our foundation of educating a child remains as sick as ever. Third, there is huge stress on mere learning without understanding and its application in day-to-day life.

Ques: What is your experience and observations about Indian teachers?

Anurag: I think on the one hand our teachers have not been given their due and on the other they too have lost their sheen and glory of old times. The fact that any and everybody can easily enter this profession of teaching is also responsible for destroying the institution of teaching.

Ques: How about the training imparted to teachers. Is that no good enough?

Anurag: No, I’m sorry to observe that the training imparted to our teachers in India lacks in preparing them as good teachers. It’s more like holding a ticket to board a bus which takes you where they get entitled to receive recognised pay scales. Entry to teachers’ training institutions is not based on aptitude for teaching but on the same criteria of percentage, reservations, etc. I have come across excellent teachers who don’t hold my degree of having been trained. India is ridden with archaic methodology of churning out teachers as well as students. We need radical changes.

Ques: How would you compare Indian students with the ones in the West?

Anurag: Indian students have an edge over the ones from the West vis-a-vis strong emotional family ties. In the West, a majority of students suffer from traumatic family problems. However, as far as education system is concerned, the students in the West enjoy relaxed and everlasting learning. On the contrary, students here in our country go through slogging, laborious learning without its deep understanding. Here the parents and the systems expect only the results.... results.... and percentage. Hence schools produce mere robots and products. I often wonder, who are the people running this whole system. Who are those people who define syllabus, subjects, teaching methodology? With each passing year games, sports, relaxation, moral education is getting eroded from the school’s time-table. Who is accountable for all these changes?

Ques: You returned to India with Indian family values and emotional ties well groomed Western? How do you find Indian women?

Anurag: Most Indian women don’t recognise themselves. They are mostly striving for recognition from others. With the result then they don’t do what they want to do but what others want them to do. Indian women have never been allowed to speak their mind. That is why I find them always desperate to be heard. Perhaps this inherent conflict has resulted in making a majority of modern Indian women extremely aggressive.

Ques: You mean to say that women in the West are not aggressive?

Anurag: You see their product of nuclear family where everyone has a voice. Women in the West don’t need to be pushy. They enjoy the freedom to pursue whatever they desire to. Hence they are ambitious but in a quite way.

Ques: How do you find modern day India?

Anurag: For the past one decade or so India has changed rapidly. In fact this change has arrived a little too fast. But this change may not necessarily be in a positive way. There appears to be an absolutely new-found culture wherein money-making, consuming and catching up fast with the West seem to be the other order of the day. As again this backdrop in urban India, the villages appear to be suffering from poverty, uneducation and lack of progress in most spheres.

Ques: Do you think that this fast change will have negative effect on our country?

Anurag: No, not everything negative about it. The fast progress and change in spheres like technology, information and communication cannot be rated as negative. But many other fast changes may boomerang. Indians appear to be on the move. In fact I find Indians as the fastest changing people. But when knowledge and change do not get transferred into practical life, what use is it?

I find educated people destroying environment without any trace of guilt. They don’t keep their surrounding clean but wear best of clothes to attend a party or a function. Then its shocking to witness people venturing into any profession without holding any qualification or knowledge about education. Making money at any cost cannot be viewed as a positive change.

75 YEARS AGO

What about the converse?

IN his speech at the U.P. Political Conference, the Right Hon. Srinivasa Sastri is reported to have said that while the “extremists” might be congratulated on their “great organisation, their enormous sacrifices and their mighty efforts, all these virtues led to poor results if not yoked to reason and practical good sense.”

This is, of course, true. But the converse is equally true.

Reason and practical good sense produce no results unless yoked to passionate and sensitive patriotism, to consuming love of freedom, dauntless courage, spirit of self-sacrifice and capacity for organising the people for effective resistance to injustice and autocracy.

If the average non-co-operator has hitherto suffered from shortcomings of one kind, the average liberal has suffered for shortcomings of the other kind. In both cases, there are many and brilliant exceptions, but exceptions here, as elsewhere, only prove the rule.