Bihar: back to square one
THE revocation of President's rule in Bihar is, by no means, a matter for rejoicing. When Mr Laloo Prasad Yadav's proxy rule saw repeated bloodbaths and extremely saddening cases of bad governance amounting to anarchy, we had, in these columns, pleaded for Central rule in the state.

Tragic crash
THE crash of an AN-32 aircraft belonging to the Indian Air Force near Delhi on Sunday, barely 48 hours after the crashlanding of an Air France Boeing 747 at Chennai airport, has rocked the country.

Another Women’s Day
EVERY year on March 8 pious pronouncements are made on gender issues to mark the International Women’s Day celebrations. Going by the phenomenal increase in the volume of verbal commitment it would appear that gender equality at the global level is just round the corner.

QUESTION OF CONVERSION-I
by B. G. Verghese
THE Prime Minister’s call for a national debate on conversions merits a response in a wider framework. The real issue is one of mediating a variety of social change in grassroots India that is undergoing transformation through complex and subtle processes of democratisation and modernisation.

Calculations over Hillary
as Senator
by V. Gangadhar
IN 1969, New York Times journalist Allen Drury stunned Washington with his hardhitting, fast-moving political novel “Advise and Consent”, which revolved around the theme whether the US Senate would advise and consent to the nomination of Robert A.L. Leffingwell as the Secretary of State.

The Vajpayee Govt gamble that failed
by P. Raman
THE Prime Minister had enough reasons to feel elated over his triple success in quick succession just before the Holi break. While the bus yatra to Lahore had provided Atal Behari Vajpayee with the necessary global limelight, he himself had emphasised the ruling party’s spectacular performance in the Lok Sabha on the Bihar issue. To cap it all, the Finance Minister has this time come out with a seemingly please-all Budget which has spared the government the kind of embarrassment it had faced last year.

Gowda to the forefront
FORMER Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda, who went into virtual seclusion after his government was voted out in Parliament, is once again attempting to recapture lost glory if his changing posture in the Lok Sabha is any indication. Though he has a seat in the front rows of the House, Mr Gowda has preferred to occupy the back rows for quite some time now and his presence is hardly noticed, not now anymore.

75 Years Ago

Wanted homoeopathic applications
THE new session of the Central Homoeopathic Medical College, (School) Railway Road, Lahore, begins from the Ist of the next month. A limited number of matriculates and of higher education (males and females) will be taken in the college course of 3 years in English. (Applications of non-matriculates will also be considered).

Bihar: back to square one

THE revocation of President's rule in Bihar is, by no means, a matter for rejoicing. When Mr Laloo Prasad Yadav's proxy rule saw repeated bloodbaths and extremely saddening cases of bad governance amounting to anarchy, we had, in these columns, pleaded for Central rule in the state. We had hoped fervently that Governor Sunder Singh Bhandari seeking light from President K. R. Narayanan would try to rein in criminal elements and restore at least a semblance of law and order. But nothing changed in the troubled region. The dark shadow of Jehanabad continued to loom and spread over the rest of the populous and impoverished belt. The Ranvir Sena and the People's War Group (PWG) remained the symbols of decimation. Union Home Minister L. K. Advani did only one good thing during the entire period of Central rule: he made a full-throated demand for the appointment of a non-political person as Governor. Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee managed to get support for the Presidential proclamation in the Lok Sabha. But he knew that he could not bypass the Rajya Sabha where the defeat of the motion approved by the Lok Sabha was a certainty. The cooperation of the Congress was crucial. Mrs Sonia Gandhi turned down the request of the Prime Minister not to oppose the motion in the Rajya Sabha. The die was cast.

There are several ways of looking at the recoronation of Mrs Rabri Devi. The month-long uncertainty about the continuance of President's rule has ended. The Congress, which had stated that the Rabri Devi government had "lost the moral right" to govern Bihar, is being seen in poor light. The high judiciary in the state, which had condemned the breakdown of the administrative system in sharp words, finds its observations nullified. Mr Bhandari, who had recommended the imposition of President's rule twice, cannot be expected to stay in peace on the banks of the Ganga after seeing his reign ending in disgrace. In fact, a question mark has been put on the total legitimacy of the existence of the Vajpayee government at the Centre. Article 356 has been used to dismiss state governments at least 110 times. But this occasion has almost immobilised the statutory dispensation the utility of which cannot be denied. The major casualties of the revocation of President's rule are transparency and fairplay in the political system. At stake is the safety and security of the life and limb of the people of the benighted state who are plagued by starvation, disease and violence. There is no winner in the present situation. The BJP has been humiliated. The Congress has been accused of adopting double standard and indulging in doublespeak. No other party deserves a better epithet or description. The image of the Vajpayee government has been impaired beyond repair. The character of our polity has been uglified.

On whom does the onus of creating the present imbroglio and a climate of non-governance lie? The Constitution would have been served better by allowing the motion to pass through the Rajya Sabha with the inevitable consequences. The revocation of President's rule and the return of Rabri raj amount to a repetition of the betrayal of the people by manipulative politicians. Will quick elections mend matters? The President, who has to unsign the Cabinet recommendation signed by him earlier, must be a very sad man. Mr Bhandari should leave gracefully. But who will replace him? Any "non-political person", as suggested by Mr Advani? But will such a man be allowed to function effectively by the Rabri-Laloo caucus? The murk is thickening and there is no ray of hope.

Tragic crash

THE crash of an AN-32 aircraft belonging to the Indian Air Force near Delhi on Sunday, barely 48 hours after the crashlanding of an Air France Boeing 747 at Chennai airport, has rocked the country. The second accident is far more tragic, considering that as many as 22 lives have been lost in it. These include IAF personnel who were on the plane as also the persons on whom the debris fell. If it is any consolation, the casualty figure could have been much higher had the crash taken place even half an hour later. When it occurred around 8.22 am, many labourers who were in the vicinity had not started working at the site where the plane fell. Ironically, this mishap took place right on the day when the air might of the defence forces was being displayed through the “Vayushakti-99” show at the Pokhran deserts. In fact, the plane carrying the Defence Minister to the site took off from Delhi airport minutes before the crash of the AN-32. This particular cargo plane has been a workhorse of the Indian Air Force for long and it is a pity that its reasonably good safety record has been sullied by some accidents in recent years. This erratic performance could have arisen because of the spare parts problems that the aircraft has been facing following the disintegration of the USSR. Many aircraft have had to be grounded. There has been a lot of cannibalisation to keep the rest flying and there are some experts who hint darkly that the plane has become risky because of this reason.

But there are many other contributing factors apparently. As is only expected, the preliminary reports are quite confusing. There are conflicting versions even on the sequence of events, as to whether the plane hit a water tank first, or the culvert of a drain or an electric pylon. But almost all eyewitnesses have said that the plane was flying unusually low. This loss of height might have been triggered by some snag in the plane or the poor visibility caused by early-morning smog for which Delhi is notorious. A senior IAF officer has blamed the unchecked construction of high-rise buildings in the Papankalan area, which happens to be close to the air corridor. And the Air Traffic Controllers Guild on its part has hinted at a possible failure of the newly installed ILS system at Indira Gandhi International Airport. Such is the gravity of the accident that none of these allegations should be dismissed as mere conjecture. As it normally happens in our country, separate enquiries have been ordered by the Indian Air Force, the Airport Authority of India and the Director-General of Civil Aviation. One hopes that these will not be acting at cross-purposes and would instead come up with a comprehensive, all-encompassing report in the shortest possible time. The tendency of passing the buck too is pronounced in such matters but should not come into play at least this time. The flight safety record of the country is none too flattering. The situation can be remedied only by identifying the causes dispassionately and taking remedial measures before another such tragedy strikes. That is the least one can do for the people who lost their lives on Sunday.

Another Women’s Day

EVERY year on March 8 pious pronouncements are made on gender issues to mark the International Women’s Day celebrations. Going by the phenomenal increase in the volume of verbal commitment it would appear that gender equality at the global level is just round the corner. However, a glance at the gender-related stories which made news since the previous International Women’s Day would show that the pace of progress in the direction of gender equality is excruciatingly slow. The bitter truth is that it is still a male-dominated society in which women remain the most popular source of pleasure and pastime for sick minds. How else does one explain the attention the Monica Lewinsky story received from the international media? That it resulted in the impeachment of President Bill Clinton should not be seen as a victory for political correctness or public morality. The truth is that at a certain level everyone was having loads of fun so long at the expense of the principal characters. A sensitive nation would have prevailed upon prosecutor Kenneth Starr and the media from giving a blow-by-blow account of the affair not because Monica Lewinsky was involved but because the daily dose of the sleazy details must have caused pain and anguish to Mr Clinton’s wife Hillary and their daughter Chelsea. Which were the gender-related stories which hit the headlines in India during the same period? The story which exposed the duplicity of the male-dominated political class was the rumpus in Parliament over providing 33 per cent reservation of seats to women in Parliament and the State Assemblies.

A spot of silver-lining was provided through the progressive interpretation of certain gender-related issues by the Supreme Court. Keeping in mind the fact that an ever increasing number of women are now joining the country’s work force the apex court did well to define such acts as amount to sexual harassment of women at the workplace. But the most momentous judgement was the one which recognised the right of the mother to be the natural guardian of minor children. However, there are still far too many loopholes in the existing laws which can be easily exploited by unscrupulous elements. Parliament should introduce a fresh set of legislation for removing the lacunae in the existing laws on guardianship of minor children. However, so long as the male-dominated society does not give up its resistance to the concepts of equality and gender justice the Anjana Misras of India would continue to be gangraped for daring to raise their voice against an insensitive system. The gangrape of a woman in a hostel room of Rajasthan University in Jaipur too was a manifestation of a sickness which seems to be spreading at an alarming pace. How else does one explain the highly revolting incidents of rape of minor girls in parts of Delhi during the past several months? As if to mock at the nationwide celebration of Women’s Day Chandigarh Tribune of March 8 reported the alleged rape of a three-year-old girl in the make-shift tenements behind the PGI. Then there was the story of the police seizing the body of a woman from a pyre in Panchkula on suspicion that she was done to death, two years after her marriage, by her husband and in-laws. So long as incidents of dowry death and rape are not stopped through social action and improved policing there will continue to be little for India to celebrate on International Women’s Day.

QUESTION OF CONVERSION-I
The real issue is social reform
by B. G. Verghese

The Tribune started a debate on "Building a tolerant society" in the wake of the crisis triggered by the hyped-up controversy of conversions. The discussion generated considerable interest in the thinking public. It was closed after the publication of a few thought-provoking pieces. This well-researched article in two parts is being carried as an exception. The writer, who argues that the real issue is not conversion but social reform, is a doyen of Indian journalism and a highly respected thinker. — Editor

THE Prime Minister’s call for a national debate on conversions merits a response in a wider framework. The real issue is one of mediating a variety of social change in grassroots India that is undergoing transformation through complex and subtle processes of democratisation and modernisation. The object must be to build fraternity or face a series of violent explosions. The Sangh Parivar’s Hindutva agenda simply does not comprehend these issues. It looks back, not ahead.

Propagation of faith and conversions are both constitutionally permissible under Article 25, which guarantees freedom of conscience. However, force and fraud or derogatory references to other faiths while propagating one’s own are clearly inadmissible and objectionable. That much is agreed.

Where there is violence against any person or community, the law must properly take its course in establishing the facts and sifting truth from fabrication or exaggeration. The VHP and the Bajrang Dal can legitimately protest that it was unfair in the matter of the rape of the Jhabua nuns and the brutal murder of Graham Staines and his two sons to hold them liable without adequate proof. But leading spokesmen of the Parivar assumed the burden of guilt by justifying those admitted attacks by whomsoever on grounds of conversion by missionaries. No real evidence has been cited anywhere thus far by the Parivar of the use of force or inducements for conversion. Yet even the Prime Minister’s unambiguous assertion in Lucknow that the government has no such information was derided by some of its leading members.

Education, health services and care of the distressed such as leprosy patients in remote areas where no one else, not even the State, has been able or cared to reach out to the most underprivileged and disadvantaged, is not an “inducement”. To label it so, as has been done by some, is a damning self-indictment. Should one laugh or cry at the VHP suggestion that the award of the Nobel Prize to Prof Amartya Sen is part of a devious global conspiracy to convert Indians to Christianity through something he rightly holds so dear — universal literacy!

Judaism,Christianity, Zoroastrianism, Islam and the Bahai faith are not “foreign” to India for not being born in the country like Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism. All these religions preach universal values. One of the very oldest Christian churches in the world was founded by the Apostle Thomas in Kerala around 56 AD while Islam came to India in the ninth century. Both religions have been and remain part of the rich diversity of India which has flourished as an unbroken civilisation through the millennia largely on account of the essential tolerance of Hindu society.

It is that spirit of inclusive accommodation providing space for diversity that is now being crudely challenged. This is un-Indian and un-Hindu. It is off and on bruited that Christianity and Islam are “foreign” faiths and that their Indian adherents must therefore “Indianise” themselves. Some concession can perhaps be made to this perception because subsequent waves of conversion followed Muslim conquest and the later Western encounter and did indeed thrive on the patronage of the rulers of the day. But history, or even the perceived wrongs of history, cannot be undone by pinning past “guilt” on present generations, by theories of revenge or revivalism, or by rewriting or appropriating history.

The politicisation of religion and caste has been India’s bane. This is where Hindutva does disservice to Hinduism. It is true that “Hindu” originally encompassed anyone living in India until the term underwent metamorphosis and came to be used by the West to define a whole body of eclectic thought, beliefs and practices as one composite category called Hindu. However, in now equating Hindutva with “cultural nationalism”, its protagonists have tended to define culture and nationalism in narrowly exclusive terms that have been used to foster revivalism and chauvinism at different times. This shrinks India and diminishes Hinduism by trying to make it what it is not.

Blame must be shared. The word secularism did not figure in the Constitution — except in the “worldly” sense in Article 25 —until it was introduced into the Preamble in 1975. The Founding Fathers preferred to advocate fraternity, connoting a far wider and richer concept of togetherness and brotherhood amidst diversity, bonded by the constitutional assurance of “the dignity of the individual and the unity of the nation”.

The word “fraternity” has virtually been exiled from political discourse. It has been replaced by the term “secularism” which has been narrowly conceived of as implying no more than equal respect for all faiths and separation of the State from Church. Notwithstanding this clear prohibition, the State even now conducts elections to the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee which is controlled by the Akali Dal. Whatever the origins of this practice, it is surely incongruous today and has enabled partisan politics to intrude into the religious domain.

Several consequences have followed this narrow definition of secularism. Orthodoxy has been officially patronised at the interface of religion and society, placing modernising and moderating influences at a discount. Demands by progressive Muslims for reform of their personal law have received little official sympathy and have on occasion met with the active opposition of the State. In the result, secularism has sometimes come to mean equal respect for everybody’s communalism.

There has been an inadequate effort to distinguish culture from religion. The two are often assumed to be interchangeable though culture has a far broader ambit that includes religion but is not confined by it. Thus also the periodisation or compartmentalisation of history, long taught and still widely thought of in dynastic terms, as ancient or Hindu, medieval or Muslim and modern or British (Christian), ignoring popular movements and the intermingling of cultures.

How can there be equal respect for all religions when there is no effort to instil knowledge or understanding of them in the name of secularism. There is very little teaching at any level of comparative religion or cultural appreciation. Urdu has been dubbed “Muslim” and “bhoomi puja” or lighting a lamp as “Hindu”. Moral instruction has been banished from (State) schools and the ethical basis of society undermined.

Indonesia has the largest Muslim population of any country in the world but takes pride in a culture deeply infused with Hindu or Indian influence which it has internalised. Likewise Buddhist Thailand and Cambodia. In India, it took a Doordarshan serial for many “modern” Hindu parents and their children, as well as Indians of other faiths, to rediscover the Ramayana and the Mahabharata which some secularists then criticised as communalising the State media. Now other zealots tell us that Hussain has no business to paint Hindu goddesses, that “Fire” should be censored because lesbianism is un-Indian, and that Rushdie should not be permitted to visit his homeland. Books and plays are censored, stifling debate and the exploration of ideas that merit a hearing and can be rebutted by others.

Partition and the terrible riots that accompanied it created a Hindu-Muslim divide which has softened but has yet to disappear. Mutual suspicions have been fanned by extremist elements on both sides. The evolution of even an optional common civil code has been defeated by its political abuse for Muslim baiting on the one hand and by orthodox Muslim intransigence on the other, with the State becoming a pusillanimous hostage to “secularism” and vote bank politics. Hindus apart, no other community in India can adopt a child except under the Guardians and Wards Act. This is an absurd and cruel situation, especially when no compulsion is involved.

A common civil code is essentially about gender justice and equitable property rights for women. Few know that Goa has a common civil code, a legacy of Portuguese rule. It has worked well enough for Muslim Goans to refuse to trade it for Shariat law despite political instigation from outside. Interestingly, the Special Marriage Act, the only component of a common civil code so far legislated, was amended during the Emergency to permit Hindu males marrying under that Act to avail themselves of the Hindu Succession Act, presumably in order to safeguard property rights. “Secularism” has come in the way of women’s rights, equity, social reform and modernisation. This is a heavy burden that India carries.

The idea of Muslim or minority “appeasement” preached by the BJP is hollow considering that all manner of elements have been appeased at various times. Most recently, rampaging Shiv Sainiks earned ministerial plaudits for unabashed vandalism in digging up cricket pitches and ransacking the office of the Board of Cricket Control in Bombay. Nevertheless, the emphasis given to the concept of religious minorities and an obverse (Hindu or other local) majority is exaggerated. All minorities of whatever description, be it religious, linguistic or ethnic, should be given due protection in a plural and democratic society to avoid the danger of majoritarian tyranny.

That said, to categorise 120 million Muslims or even the 20 million Christians in India as minorities is to take a mechanical view of the matter by merely counting heads. This in turn follows the politicisation of religion, like caste, for electoral and sectarian gain. While the expression “minority” is a numerical statement, the sense of being a minority or majority reflects an attitude.

Despite being a tiny “minority”, the Parsis are a proud, confident community that has displayed leadership and won applause in every walk of life. So too the Sikhs. On the contrary, large sections of the Sangh Parivar suffer a sense of insecurity and lack self-assurance which has created in them a minority complex. The Sinhala majority in Sri Lanka suffers from a similar complex vis-a-vis the Tamils, who “confront” them not only in the North and East of the island but, they believe, in Tamil Nadu, Malaysia and Singapore as well.

The Parivar minority complex is manifest in fears of Muslims becoming a majority in India a couple of 100 years hence on account of a higher fertility rate and polygamy — both questionable premises — and, now, immigration from Bangladesh. It possibly also explains the insistence on defining tribals as Hindu, which is not necessarily so as many of them profess their own faiths. Fear of being encircled by a militant and oil-rich Islam could well be a contributory factor. This minority complex again finds assertion in revivalism and the rewriting of history as compensation for a sense of present inadequacy for which there is absolutely no warrant at all.

There is another sense in which the use of the terms majority and minority is unfortunate. It has come to mean “we” and “they”, self and the other, rather than just another. It is for this reason perverse and contrary to fraternity and even “secularism” for the Gujarat government or its agencies to order a census of Muslims and Christians even if this is supposedly for their own protection. This is calculated to divide, not integrate.

There is also something grievously wrong somewhere when the Ramakrishna Mission has to declare itself a minority in order to get certain benefits for its educational institutions.

(To be concluded)

Calculations over Hillary as Senator
by V. Gangadhar

IN 1969, New York Times journalist Allen Drury stunned Washington with his hardhitting, fast-moving political novel “Advise and Consent”, which revolved around the theme whether the US Senate would advise and consent to the nomination of Robert A.L. Leffingwell as the Secretary of State. Though a favourite of the US President, Leffingwell’s nomination was defeated after a bruising battle in the Senate. In today’s changed political scenario, the voters of New York may be asked if they would advise and consent to the election of Hillary Clinton as their Senator in 2000 AD.

It could be the start of a political development to kickstart the new century. If Hillary agreed to contest the Senate seat, which falls vacant next year after the retirement of Senator Patrik Moynihan, she could be in for a bruising battle against New York Mayor, Rudolph Guiliani or State Governor, George Pataki. So far, the First Lady had been cool to the overtures from a strong, noisy section of the Democrats led by the 14-term Congressman from Harlem, Charlie Rangel. He had been meeting Hillary Clinton frequently and told the media that she was very serious about the nomination.

Rangel is not the only Democrat who was thrilled at Hillary’s “enthusiasm”. Senator Moynihan, a respected figure in US politics, was happy that the First Lady could be elected in his place. Democratic politicians, in public and private functions, were broadly hinting that Hillary would be the next Senator from New York. President Clinton had left the decision to her. But he could not help remarking, “She’d be great if she did... I think she would be terrific in the Senate.”

According to a Time magazine survey, if elections to the Senate from New York were held today, Hillary would get 52 per cent of the votes against a possible 43 per cent for the Republican candidate, Mayor Rudolph Guiliani. But it would be a tougher battle against Governor Pataki (49 per cent to 47 per cent).

One cannot imagine Hillary being a passive retired First Lady, doing social work, writing her memoirs and continuing with her legal practice. With a high favourable rating of 78 per cent in New York city and 65 per cent in the suburbs, this could be her moment. Senators and Congressmen remember with gratitude her vigorous, hectic and highly effective campaigning during last November elections which decided the issue favourably in the case of many border-line Democratic candidates. Obviously, she had got over the trauma of her husband’s affair with Monica and the resultant international media publicity. The Hillary impact was very much evident on several administrative decisions like the national budget and the increased funds towards various health care schemes.

What are the advantages of a Hillary candidacy from New York? Like Bobby Kennedy who contested the Senate seat from New York in 1964, Hillary is a national figure. New York has 1.9 million registered Democratic voters than the Republicans and even those who normally shunned the polls may be enthused by the Hillary factor. New York has also large segments of women, blacks, liberals and other minorities who were disillusioned with the “Act Tough” policies of the Mayor. Crime no doubt had been controlled, but the popular feeling was that blacks were targeted for police harassment. Only last fortnight armed policemen pumped bullets into Amadou Diallo, an unarmed and innocent immigrant from Guinea, suspecting him to be a criminal. Under Guiliani, such brutal actions on the blacks were on the rise. Many of the New York Democrats were confident that the Mayor’s “shoot first, then investigate” policies would work in favour of the First Lady.

But New York would not be a cakewalk for Hillary who will be portrayed as a carpetbagger. Her candidacy would unite the right-wing elements from both political parties, a development which would benefit the Mayor if he chose to contest against Hillary.

That makes one wonder whether it was really necessary for the First Lady to contest from New York. She could wait and then run for the Senate from her home state, Illinois, in 2004. There could also be a likely vacancy from Arkansas state when back-bencher Republican Tim Hutchinson came up for re-election. But winning from New York amidst international publicity would be different.

The Vajpayee Govt gamble that failed

by P. Raman

THE Prime Minister had enough reasons to feel elated over his triple success in quick succession just before the Holi break. While the bus yatra to Lahore had provided Atal Behari Vajpayee with the necessary global limelight, he himself had emphasised the ruling party’s spectacular performance in the Lok Sabha on the Bihar issue. To cap it all, the Finance Minister has this time come out with a seemingly please-all Budget which has spared the government the kind of embarrassment it had faced last year.

However, the whole euphoria began to wear off even before the celebrations ended. Suddenly, it was realised that things were not so rosy on any of the three accounts. This seems to be the bane of contemporary Indian politics. It is so fluid, and the players’ fortunes look so fluctuating. Now an air of confidence and success, now frustration due to sudden defeat. To an extent, the smart media management also adds a dramatic effect to the seemingly sudden twists and turns. Initially, a story is so neatly packaged doled out to give an exalted image. Eventually when truth comes out as it does, the brief elation ends up in multiple damage. Thus Pramod Mahajan is doing more harm to the government by heightening its own contrasts.

This was what had pushed the Vajpayee Government deeper into the Bihar imbroglio. Its haste to take control of Bihar from Laloo Prasad Yadav was so irresistible that it had mishandled the issue at every stage. It took advantage of the massacre in the class war-hit Jehanabad to hurriedly recommend dismissal of the Rabri Government. It simply gambled on the issue on the presumption that the Congress would bail it out in Parliament. They overlooked the compulsions of the Congress and its own political calculations. In any case, the Prime Minister did not make any efforts to take the Congress into confidence before pushing the Bihar issue to the brink. When there were more massacres in the same area, even the very rationale for the action became untenable before the public eye.

This itself had created another problem for the government. Political rivals in states came out with their own figures to prove that there were more crimes in each one of them, and the Centre should dismiss them as well. The aborted move to oust the BJP Governor to please the Samata leaders without even consulting the former, landed the party in a bigger mess. For all its political misadventure, the lack of majority in the Rajya Sabha is bound to put the government in a utter humiliation. Amidst all this, the only consolation for the BJP has been that it was able to establish its majority in the Lok Sabha at a time when it badly needed such a morale booster.

Contrary to the routine media-hype on all such occasions, the outcome of the bus trip should have been dealt with more caution and care. The Prime Minister’s fault has been that he tried to make partisan political capital at home. For complications had already developed and they have tended to neutralise whatever initial psychological advantages gained. Pakistan is again at its old game. Domestic pressure is also building up on both sides. As for the Budget euphoria after the initial ecstacy it is now being realised that it suffers from many miscalculations and assumptions. Resentment against various region-specific provisions is also building up in different states. In any case, electorally the real arbiters are not corporates but those at the lower levels.

In India, public opinion takes shape on two planes — transient and cumulative. In the absence of politically engineered emotional issues, transient themes are overlooked at the time of the election. Victory in a vote on the floor of the House, an isolated big rally or a good coverage in media can only have short-term effect, if at all. It is the cumulative effect of a series of developments affecting the people which finally crystalises into public opinion. Basic public perception of performance or non-performance is beyond statistics and seldom guided by official records or claims. It is normal for every government at the Centre to lament about the failure to publicise its achievements. Though publicity materials are simultaneously released by both the ruling party and the DAVP, the voters go by their own perception of the government’s worth.

Indian politics has been volatile but the system itself is not fragile. Over the past two decades the political scenario had undergone sweeping transformation. Several myths have been exploded, many idols demolished and new forces have emerged on the political horizon. But barring brief aberrations, the system had withstood severe trials and tribulations. This has been due to its inbuilt corrective mechanism. Its resilience stems from its illiterate and thus presumably disinformed but highly discriminating electorate. It may still be a sociologist’s puzzle but the Indian voters have repeatedly established their ability to check extremities and exert restraint on those who had tried to cross the limits.

Harsh punishment to wayward political parties, even if a meant opting for the relatively less sinful, invariably forces the political class to behave as a whole. So no one can ignore the will of the people. Paradoxically, fragmentation of the polity itself seems to be acting as an integrating force. For instance, regionalisation of politics and emergence of hitherto neglected social groups as an organised force, prevented concentration of powers in a single party or a caucus that controls it. No Indira Gandhi can hereafter emerge to impose Emergency overnight.

For over a decade and half, the ruling parties or alliances have been not in a position to effect amendments to the Constitution. They cannot do so without seeking a consensus from a large number of parties. In the Rajya Sabha, which reflects the strength of the political parties in states, no party or alliance enjoys even a simple majority. But for this, the BJP alliance could have easily got the endorsement of the Rabri Devi Government’s dismissal in Bihar. During the days of single-party domination, Opposition state governments have been under perpetual threat of dismissal.

In view of the brute majority, even the affected political parties had taken it as a “right” of the ruling party at the Centre. The reckless resort to Article 356 came to a halt when, after the Bommai case verdict, the judiciary began to go into the validity of the Central action. The subsequent provision for the parliamentary endorsement made arbitrary action more difficult. In this regard, significant contribution has been made by President K R Narayanan. Unlike his predecessors. Narayanan used his limited powers to caution the Cabinet whenever it seemed misusing the constitutional powers to wreak vengeance on rival Chief Ministers. First he resorted to it when the UF Government tried to dismiss Kalyan Singh. He repeated it in the case of the Rabri Devi Government.

Technically, the Cabinet can send back the proclamation and force the President to sign it. However, neither the UF nor the BJP alliance did so. Apparently, the ruling parties feared that the high moral authority enjoyed by the President would create adverse public opinion against their action. Narayanan has also used his power to seek clarification on vital pieces of legislation which had the effect of restraining the Cabinet surviving on a wafer-thin majority. Resort to this new tool of democracy was made possible because Narayanan himself has been the creation of a system propped up by a divided polity.

Democratic tradition of a society is an important factor in the success of a functional democracy. This explains the strength of the Indian system even under conditions of divided loyalty. India has never been a nation in its political sense. But its people were bound by cultural and emotional traditions. This emotional cord was so strong that it cut across the boundaries of the innumerable kingdoms. We have had so much about the oriental despotism. But within it, a sort of democracy of the elders worked in most places even if it were of a narrow base. Caste and community panchayats, formal or informal, could exert the elite’s will on local communities.

They, thus, had divided, but not necessarily conflicting, loyalties — to the community and the king. Under this tradition, loyalties to the regional parties could continue side by side with national loyalty. This has been an important sociological factor that has contributed to the survival of Indian democracy and its federalism. Now regional parties with their own strong support base dominates over two-thirds of the country without in any way being a threat to its integrity.

Regional assertion is basically a challenge to those claiming to be representing the entire country. The BJP has scant presence in over half a dozen states. In many states it managed to come up due its ‘strategic alliances’ with the state-level parties. The moment the prop goes, the BJP will lose heavily. The Congress, the other all-India party, also suffered electoral elimination in several states. The party has been able to win just six Lok Sabha seats out of 220 spread over West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. It is going to be an impossible task for the Congress to make a real breakthrough in these states. In each of these states, it finds itself caught between two well-entrenched political combines.

Prevalence of a virtual two-party contest in most states — but not at the Centre — and crumbling of the old captive vote-banks have made it impossible for the voters to be taken for granted. Instead, under the competitive bidding by the main rivals for the support, every political player will have to constantly strive hard to win over the voters’ confidence. All this exerts checks and balances on the system.

Gowda to the forefront

FORMER Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda, who went into virtual seclusion after his government was voted out in Parliament, is once again attempting to recapture lost glory if his changing posture in the Lok Sabha is any indication.

Though he has a seat in the front rows of the House, Mr Gowda has preferred to occupy the back rows for quite some time now and his presence is hardly noticed, not now anymore.

With the fragile BJP-led coalition tottering on the brink of a precipice and the emergence of a third front appearing to be a reality, Mr Gowda has changed his tactics.

His renewed confidence was felt when he preferred to occupy his rightful place in the front of the Lok Sabha on the day the House took up the voting on the imposition of President’s rule in Bihar. Then again on Friday, the Karnataka leader was occupying his seat in the front demanding an inquiry into the allegations made by a former consultant to the Finance Minister about a scam in the Ministry.

Incidentally, Mr Gowda’s move to the front row follows a prediction in a respected astrological magazine that the former Prime Minister would be the main mover of the third front.

Will Mr Gowda live to his famous words while being voted out in the Lok Sabha that he will like the proverbial Phoenix rise from the ashes to occupy the top executive post once again ?

A tale of two Holis

Holi was an occasion for traditional revelry in the BJP and its allies’ camp because of the Holi celebrations on the lawns of Prime Minister’s house, 7, Race Course Road. However, there was no parallel to this in the Congress camp. Reason: Though in power in the National Capital Territory of Delhi, Congressmen were deprived of a “powerful” Holi as Delhi Chief Minister, Sheila Dikshit, who is also President of the Pradesh Congress Committee, was away to Madhya Pradesh on the festive occasion.

The Holi celebrations at 7, Race Course Road reminded one of the type of functions associated with this function which used to take place in Delhi in the 70s. Mrs Indira Gandhi, though allergic to ‘gulal’, used to put on a headgear and join party workers in merry making. The security environment created by her assassination robbed Delhi of the fun associated with the festival of colours till Mr Vajpayee revived it this year.

In the Congress camp, the residence of the Pradesh Congress Committee president was always a meeting point for Holi. This year Congressmen were looking forward to a colourful Holi because the party had at last, at least, made its way back to power at the local government level. However, with Mrs Dikshit chosing to stay away from the city, that was not to be.

A political observer commented that Mr Vajpayee having been a grassroot political worker understands the importance of a festive occasion like Holi whereas Mrs Dikshit, who has been pitchforked to the top job in Delhi without having done much groundwork at the organisational level, could not understand the benefit of letting the Holi spirit prevail — this is a festival in which even rivals can greet each other and choose to iron out their differences. And perhaps that was one of the reasons for Mr Vajpayee, who was besieged by problems, to organise the Holi show on the lawns of the Prime Minister’s house all over again.

Holi Milan

If it was Iftaar time during January, spring ushered a new culture to Delhi’s political circuit this time: Holi Milan.

There were several such parties organised this time. There was one by the Union Minister for Human Resource Development, Dr Murli Manohar Joshi, which was attended among others by the Prime Minister himself.

The media personnel too had their share of such parties, with the Union Home Minister, Mr L.K. Advani hosting one exclusively for scribes covering his Ministry. Incidentally, the party was on a day when the Union Cabinet was to discuss the Bihar issue. It is another matter that Mr Advani prefer to fete the media not with their staple diet of news but taste bud-tingling “kachoris, bhalle’s, tikkis, kulfi et all.

Not to be left behind, the Congress spokesperson, Dr Girja Vyas, too held one where the invitees were smeared with gulal in traditional manner before joining the dinner table for a typical Rajasthani fare.

The only person who could not keep up his promised Holi Milan was the Speaker, Mr G M C Balayogi, whose scheduled party was postponed since it clashed with the day the Bihar issue came up for voting in Lok Sabha.

A wonder called EVM

Normally counting of votes during elections is a time consuming affair and specially during general elections, the process goes on non-stop for over 24 hours before the final results are announced.

Going by the precedence, journalists who covered the recent Delhi Assembly byelections reached the counting venue in the afternoon only to be told that the results had been declared in the forenoon itself courtesy the electronic voting machines (EVMs).

The EVMs proved to be a boon for the counting staff who did not have to labour throughout the day first sorting out the votes and then counting them. The eagle-eyed counting agents also had only to twiddle their thumbs since the EVMs do not record improper votes.

Technology sure seems to have made life a lot easier, specially during counting.

(Contributed by SB, T.V. Lakshminarayan, K.V. Prasad and P.N. Andley.)

75 YEARS AGO

Wanted homoeopathic applications

THE new session of the Central Homoeopathic Medical College, (School) Railway Road, Lahore, begins from the Ist of the next month. A limited number of matriculates and of higher education (males and females) will be taken in the college course of 3 years in English. (Applications of non-matriculates will also be considered).

Students of middle standard will be taken in the school. The course of 2 years in Urdu classes will be held in the evening. Practical training will be given in the day time. A boarding house is attached for the students. All applications should come with an admission fee of Rs 5 (which will be refunded in the event of the application being refused). All applications must be sent at once to Dr Sadiq Ali, Assistant Surgeon, Retired Surgeon Major, Principal, Central Homoeopathic Medical College, Railway Road, Lahore.