B-day verbal shootout
FOR a government like the BJP-led one at the Centre, which last year underwent excruciating birth pangs, completion of one year was an achievement and called for celebrations.

Missing the wood
THE investigative report about the blatant encroachment of forests in Himachal Pradesh, which we carried yesterday, should make every right-thinking person sit up and take notice.

Sachin’s injury
WHAT is common between the Indian cricket administrators and the man who had a goose which laid golden eggs? The answer is obvious. Football legend Pele was declared a national asset by Brazil during his playing days. Sachin Tendulkar is currently India’s most valuable sportsperson.

THE NASTY NINETIES
by Shyam Ratna Gupta
AT the dawn of 1990 there was hope and promise for a brighter future for the people of India. Despite fiery protests by upper caste misguided youth of the great Indian religions, it was conceded that reservations of seats, safeguards and quotas for the hitherto deprived castes and classes, the dalits, were a judicious approach to correct aberrations of our history.

Winds of change in Afghanistan
by Syed Nooruzzaman
THE fighting characteristics of the Afghans are giving way to an urge for reconstruction of their war-torn country. One gathers this impression from the March 14 agreement reached between the Taliban authorities and their opponents, the groups comprising the Northern Alliance.

After 365 days, miles to go
by Tavleen Singh
SO, Atal Behari Vajpayee’s government has survived a year. And, it has been celebrating with song, dance and some showtime patriotism. These festivities, and more importantly the survival itself, have got the Congress Party more than slightly worried. This was not meant to have happened.

Off the beaten track
by Amita Malik
TIRED of all the politicking and its graphic and depressing depiction on TV, I decided last week to just cut away from it and at least try for some pleasurable entertainment... I might warn you that this is impossible after 11 p.m.

Video headache
by S. Raghunath
LAST week, I had to go to Mumbai and I decided to take a bus —I beg your pardon — I mean a video coach and that explains succinctly why splitting migraine headache has become an inseparable part of my life.

75 Years Ago

Treatment of State Prisoners
THE Bengal Government made an important admission in reply to a question in the Legislative Council on Saturday. It stated that the State prisoners in the Mindnapur Jail were given convict diet from January 20 to March 5, but that as soon as this was brought to the notice of the Government necessary orders were issued, and they were now allowed food according to their own choice subject to a maximum daily expenditure of one rupee four annas per head.

B-day verbal shootout

FOR a government like the BJP-led one at the Centre, which last year underwent excruciating birth pangs, completion of one year was an achievement and called for celebrations. Prime Minister Vajpayee led the show and in an expansive and self-congratulatory mood, claimed several successes, hoped for four more years in office and charged the Congress with being opportunistic, obstructionist, confused and self-contradictory. Long words these and also very harsh. The response came within hours, and in the same kind. Its birthday greetings ended thus: “The Congress will not remain a mute spectator to this drift into disaster. What little mandate the government had, has run its course. The government which in one year has failed to shape up will have to ship out.”

All this is in surprising contrast to the typical Delhi style of celebrating birthdays with truck-loads of bouquets and bear hugs. But it blends nicely with its toughened attitude in Parliament. Suddenly the Congress has become very assertive, rushing to the well of the House, and demanding a detailed discussion on the corruption charges levelled by Mr Mohan Guruswamy and former Admiral Vishnu Bhagwat. It has not given up its option of insisting on a joint parliamentary committee enquiry into these. The most notable change is in fielding speakers in both Houses. In the Rajya Sabha it is Mr Kapil Sibal who spearheads the Congress attack and not the soft-spoken Mr Manmohan Singh or the rule book-bound Mr Pranab Mukherjee. This strategy is more clearly visible in the lower House. It is the tireless trio of Mr P. Shiv Shankar, Mr P.J.Kurian and Mr Ajit Jogi and not the known heavyweights like Mr Sharad Pawar or Mr Madhavrao Scindia, who espouse the party line. Has the speaking team yielded place to the shooting brigade?

The BJP too, on its part, has kept up a steady barrage of accusations. Its description of the Congress stand on President’s rule in Bihar has been vitriolic. The Congress was held responsible for the BJP’s self-inflicted wounds in that hapless state. It feels free to pursue the same political line, now that it has spent one full month without any pinpricks from any of its allies. It sees in this lucky turn of events the consolidation of the TINA (there is no alternative) factor. Mr Vajpayee said this in one of his several interviews. In the present Lok Sabha, no other coalition can replace the present coalition, he feels. The Congress says a loud “amen” and repeatedly asserts that it would like to come to power on its own. It is ready to face a midterm election but without being held responsible for bringing down yet another government. In this vigorous sparring, the BJP has a slight edge: like the Congress, its allies too perceive an anti-BJP mood in the country and would do everything to avoid an election. That is the recipe for more verbal skirmishes, parliamentary disruption and policy acrobatics. Plainly, more of the same.

Missing the wood

THE investigative report about the blatant encroachment of forests in Himachal Pradesh, which we carried yesterday, should make every right-thinking person sit up and take notice. As many as 18,000 hectares of forest land has been encroached, according to official records. The actual figure is said to be much higher. This is being done on a wholesale level, so much so that even townships have come up on forest land. While the greed of the culprits is stunning, the lethargy of the government in this regard is also equally shocking. Government property is considered no one's property and is grabbed with impunity. When the property in question is forest land, the consequences are far more serious. As one is taught right from the primary school level, forests comprise the lungs of a country or a State and destroying them is like puncturing one's own lungs. But this activity goes on day in and day out. If no action is taken, it is not only because the departments concerned are not adequately staffed to take up the mission. The fact of the matter is that the governments always lack the political will to galvanise themselves into action. There is this unstated fear that evicting some people would annoy them and thereby deprive a particular party of their votes. What is forgotten is that by acting against such persons, the government of the day can win the goodwill of thousands of law-abiding citizens. Alas, even this fear of annoying the vote banks is not the end of the story. There is no dearth of instances where government officials themselves abet if not actually aid such violations. When that starts happening, there is hardly any hope. In this matter, even the Himachal Pradesh Government cannot say with a straight face that there is no connivance. The State which makes much of its drive to conserve the green cover has been presented in an unflattering light through the encroachment revelations.

But why blame one State alone? Things are no better in others. In fact, the situation is even worse. Uttar Pradesh has been claiming all the while that 17 per cent of its land is covered by forests. Satellite pictures have now revealed that the figure may actually be as low as only 12 per cent. Compare that with the coverage of 33 per cent envisaged in the 50s and the hopelessness of the situation hits one in the eye. It is all a pathetic story of ignoring long-term disastrous consequences for the sake of just a few crumbs of short-term gains. Things are already so bad and so late that any further delay will be nothing less than suicidal. The government needs to gear up to save every single tree like never before. In many European countries, electronic devices are installed in every forest to ensure that no trees are cut. There is no reason why the measure cannot be adopted here, now that such devices have become fairly cheap. Still, given the size of the country, this will entail a lot of expenditure. But that will be nothing compared to the price the country as a whole will have to pay because of the shrinking forest cover. What is taught in schools is not an empty warning.

Sachin’s injury

WHAT is common between the Indian cricket administrators and the man who had a goose which laid golden eggs? The answer is obvious. Football legend Pele was declared a national asset by Brazil during his playing days. Sachin Tendulkar is currently India’s most valuable sportsperson. Pele was declared a national asset so that the State became responsible for his upkeep and welfare. By this logic each one of those associated with the administration of Indian cricket should be asked to explain their role in providing improper guidance and medical care to the world’s best cricketer when he sustained a back injury at a crucial stage during the Chennai Test which India lost to Pakistan by 12 runs. The office-bearers of the Board of Control for Cricket in India, the national selectors and the team’s doctor and physio evidently had no clue about the serious nature of the injury sustained by Tendulkar in Chennai. Instead of asking him to take it easy for the remaining Test of the Indo-Pak Friendship Series and the first two games of the inaugural Asian Test Championship against Pakistan and Sri Lanka he was advised by the wise men to wear a belt for supporting his back and take pain killing pills “because his presence gives India a psychological advantage over the rivals”. For this reason alone his career at the young age of 25 was very nearly sacrificed by both the BCCI and the greedy sponsors! In Delhi he was referred to a so-called specialist who evidently had no experience in treating sport-related injuries.

To understand the scale of ignorance and callousness of those who control Indian cricket — and through it the future of Indian cricketers — it is important to remember that two former Australian cricket superstars, Ian and Greg Chappell, were the ones who referred Tendulkar to a specialist in London. The Chappell brothers themselves had been treated for similar injuries by Dr Ken Kennedy during their playing days. It is a scary thought that but for the welcome “foreign aid” the little genius may not have opted out of the on-going one-day tri-series between India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka and may thereby have aggravated the injury. Of course, it would have been ideal had Tendulkar been allowed complete rest after the Chennai Test until the World Cup in May. In fact, the BCCI should adopt the South African model for giving rest to key players without opting out from virtually round-the-year international commitments. South Africa has on its payroll two regular teams to share the burden. The selectors should also not overlook the fact that Javagal Srinath. Venkatesh Prasad and Ajit Agarkar, are expected to spearhead the bowling attack on the pace-friendly English pitches during the World Cup and they have recovered or are recovering from sport-related injuries. Except for Agarkar, who needs some match exposure after a long lay-off, the other two bowlers should be saved for the crucial tournament in May. As a matter of fact, it would do Indian cricket a world of good if most of the regular players are allowed to recoup their energy before the World Cup and those knocking at the door of International cricket are allowed to prove their worth in the tri-series in India and another tri-series in Sharjah. As far as Tendulkar is concerned, he should not be allowed to play serious cricket before the World Cup. It must be re-emphasised that he is to India what Pele was to Brazil.

THE NASTY NINETIES
New political icons and unholy pacts
by Shyam Ratna Gupta

AT the dawn of 1990 there was hope and promise for a brighter future for the people of India. Despite fiery protests by upper caste misguided youth of the great Indian religions, it was conceded that reservations of seats, safeguards and quotas for the hitherto deprived castes and classes, the dalits, were a judicious approach to correct aberrations of our history. Whether these concessions or advantages were to be extended to them right across the board of legislators and services were left to the good sense and wisdom of leading cadres in the country.

It was also expected that these new icons in the temples of democracy and society would contribute to social reforms, rural reconstruction, civic culture, fair play and justice, political morality and rejuvenation of national life.

But as the familiar adage goes, the way to hell is paved with good intentions. For the ruling party which had received the people’s mandate in 1990 and championed the cause of the dalits split and the splintered groups entered into an unholy pact with the largest opposition party. The greed for higher political positions was irresistible.

Gradually the better and fairer half of the people — the glamorous and the figure — conscious, political “cat-walkers” on the political stage began to clamour for quotas and seats in proportion to their numerical strength, contending for at least 40 per cent as the just share for themselves. The hands that rocked the cradle and were home makers now agitated for power to capture and occupy chairs and offices in the country. In some cases the glamour ladies after their heroes had passed away and had become part of history, now came to the centre-stage and began to amass wealth under the pretext of serving their groups, parties and followers.

Simultaneously, the leadership cadres began to reorganise themselves to capture power and hold it by fair — or more often, foul-means. The unholy pact fell apart and there was no other alternative left than to go to the polls again in less than two years. Evil genii in all colours and garbs had been unbottled and crime seeped into political circles. While the new political icons had boosted the image and the bargaining power of the minuscule leadership group of the deprived people, the political clique of the higher classes designed measures to share the spoils of office with it. By the beginning of 1991 the politics of assaults, assassinations and survival at all costs had overwhelmed and submerged politics of service to the people. Unholiest pacts and accords acquired legitimacy of sorts. The nasty nineties gradually turned into a long nightmare with few intervals of sanity and good sense. Money and muscle power prevailed from the panchayats and civic bodies right upto state and central governing apparatus.

All these developments, apparently logical, eroded — national solidarity but the fragrance of quotas, reservations and safeguards was so intoxicating that hardly anyone in public life bothered to examine closely what could be the impact of these “demands” on the mainstream of politics in the years to come.

The political administration in 1991-96, after the general election in July, 1991, was conducted by astute, shrewd leaders who had no moral scruples or long-term concerns. Semblance of fairplay was assiduously fostered, but throughout these years, there was an unmistakable sense of unease, heightened by a whiff of chicanery and unpleasant odour of deceit and deception. The mandate for the five-year term could not be set aside, notwithstanding votes of censure of no confidence and of rumour of bribery and misdeeds and immorality.

Prior to and after the May, 1986, general election, crime and criminality were unashamedly and thoroughly exposed in public life, media reports lowered public morale and morality, while rank commercialism became the sole monitoring factor of both print and electronic news and entertainment vendors. Information, guidance to public opinion and moral education were given a secondary position. Profit, once a dirty word in the lexicon of socialist planning, now became an attribute of divinity. At the same time, social infrastructure on which the quality of life depended and for which public demand was insatiable, was not only unreliable and inefficient but it also seemed to be a source of widespread corruption for politicians and bureaucrats, captains of industry and business and big or small entrepreneurs. The story of life as it was being unfolded in the information sheets was a sordid saga of sex, drug-peddling, terrorism, thefts and robberies, black money laundering and fatal accidents. Secularism and equality were regarded as a sign of profanity. The new political icons, the dalits or the many “Rams” and the glamorous ladies of politics were more equal than all others, leaving far behind the 80-90 per cent of the total population of 1000 million people.

In this politico-economic, socio-civic scenario of mid-1996, the politics of multi-party coalition made its debut for the first time at the Centre, after the largest single political party in the Indian Parliament collapsed. By no means was this an unwelcome development or unworthy of Indian genius but the cohesive element of the first 13-party coalition is not the resolution of domestic or external problems but the lure of office only. Compromise, conciliation and consensus need not necessarily cater to the base instincts of social life or formulate policies at the level of lowest common denominators. For coalition, compromise, conciliation and consensus must be informed by the highest moral imperatives and national concerns which are accepted by all political parties. Briefly, these are poverty, overpopulation, unplanned and irresponsible parenthood, corrupt electoral practices, vulgar display of wealth, social diseases of affluence, and lust for office and power without accountability. To compound all these problems are share and capital market manipulations, currency and tax changes for political gains.

During the last seven years, we have had five prime ministers, V.P. Singh, Chandra Shekhar, Atal Behari Vajpayee and H.D. Deve Gowda. Of these, Narasimha Rao had the largest tenure of about five years and he should have to accept gracefully the major responsibility for the present almost tragic state of affairs in the country. How do we get out of the present political, economic, commercial, social and civic quagmire? The stakes today are too high to call for a light-hearted or piece-meal approach to national affairs. Either we contain near chaos and reverse the nasty trends of the 1990s or suspend or surrender our hard-won freedom and moral values and succumb to politico-economic serfdom in the national and global markets.

Fortunately, there is a shaft of light at the end of the journey through the dark, seven-year tunnel, a glimmer of hope and promise after 50 years of free India. The Prime Minister and his team of principal advisors are known to be intellectuals guided by the highest, moral motives. Financial rectitude, honesty, transparency and curbing crime with a heavy hand are what the people look for. We should begin to renew our confidence in liberal Gandhian values of highest standards of political and civic morality, individual dignity, work-ethos and self-sustainable programmes of growth and development with social justice and stability in the setting of the emerging century.

(The author, a retired IFS officer, was Chief Editor, Indian and Foreign Review, New Delhi.)

Winds of change in Afghanistan
by Syed Nooruzzaman

THE fighting characteristics of the Afghans are giving way to an urge for reconstruction of their war-torn country. One gathers this impression from the March 14 agreement reached between the Taliban authorities and their opponents, the groups comprising the Northern Alliance. The credit goes mainly to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, who has been taking special interest in the Afghan crisis. The Ashgabad capital of (Turkmenistan) declaration on sharing the responsibilities of governance between the two warring camps has come after a similar attempt made in Islamabad in May last failed.

The UN Secretary-General’s special envoy, Mr Lakhdar Brahimi, who had been assigned the difficult task, did well to select for the venue of the talks the capital (Ashgabad) of Turkmenistan, which has had the reputation of not siding with any of the warring groups. He accomplished the task with the consent of the USA and Russia besides the regional players involved in the conflict — Pakistan, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan. The UN envoy’s strategy to use Turkmenistan Foreign Minister Sheikh Boris Muradov to convince Taliban supreme leader Mullah Omar and Northern Alliance commander Ahmed Shah Masood that the two parties should come to the negotiation table with an open mind, without any preconditions, helped a lot.

The Taliban authorities, controlling nearly 90 per cent of the ruined country, recognise the military might of Mr Masood, whose forces have prevented the 10 per cent of the remaining areas from being captured by the ruling group. Even the UN Secretary-General is on record having said that none of the other Taliban opponents has any fighting capability left with them. Mr Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, who became Prime Minister under President Burhanuddin Rabbani following a patch-up between the two in June, 1996, has ceased to have any significance. Uzbek warlord Abdour Rashid Dostum of the Panjshir Valley fame too has become to toothless lion. Mr Burhanuddin Rabbani, whose ousted government is still recognised by the UN, of course, commands respect within Afghanistan and outside. He represents the liberal face of the troubled country.

Whatever the military weaknesses or strengths of the opponents of the Taliban, they have the sympathies of the majority of the world. As against this, the Taliban regime enjoys little respect in the comity of nations. By agreeing to share power with the constituents of the Northern Alliance, the Taliban rulers can hope to secure UN recognition for their government to consolidate their position politically. Besides this, it is possible that their main supporters — Pakistan and Saudi Arabia — have been pressured by the USA to reduce their moral and material aid to the country which has been allowing the world’s top terrorist, Osama bin Laden, to run his network from there. Pakistan may also be having its own compulsions to see to it that the Taliban brand of Islam is diluted, as it is capable of triggering madarsa-inspired social unrest in the country. A madarsa takeover of Pakistan can eclipse the political future of not only Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif but his opponents too.

Though India did not influence the Ashgabad discussions directly, it played its card in a remarkable way. Its unannounced response to a secret call from the Taliban regime to come to its rescue with planeloads of medicines has metamorphosed the thinking in the much-maligned Afghanistan government. The establishment of this direct link provides India an excellent opportunity to revive its traditional bonds with Kabul.

Turkmenistan, playing an active role in normalising the situation in its immediate neighbourhood, expects to benefit from the development economically. A peaceful Afghanistan would serve as the best corridor for its gas export to different South Asian countries.

All eyes are now fixed on the next meeting between the representatives of the two Afghan camps under the UN auspices when the agreement will get its final shape. Since the situation is such that every group, big or small, has a stake in peace, one can clearly see the wind of change in Afghanistan.

The end of the civil war, however, may not mean an easy governance for those who find themselves at the helm of affairs. The Taliban is not a homogeneous entity. The different tribes providing sustenance to the ultra-religious politico-military movement may begin to distrust one another, which may cause the weakening of the fundamentalist forces. This may be possible specially on the question of what kind of laws the newly constituted judicial set up will follow. So far the country’s legal system has been run on a narrow interpretation of the Islamic Sharia. This is unlikely to continue under a new regime.

Video headache
by S. Raghunath

LAST week, I had to go to Mumbai and I decided to take a bus —I beg your pardon — I mean a video coach and that explains succinctly why splitting migraine headache has become an inseparable part of my life.

The video coach I boarded in Bangalore’s busy Majestic area was the last word in luxury — plush, push-back seats, red-carpeted aisles, curtained windows et al., and of course, the colour TV perched cockily at a rakish angle on a rack above the driver’s cabin.

Even as the coach was on the outskirts of Bangalore, the driver, aided and abetted by the conductor and movie-hungry passengers switched on the VCR and would you believe me, he switched it off only the next morning when we stopped at King’s Circle in Mumbai?

In between, I was the unwilling audience of no less than six, full-length, “U”-certified Hindi feature films.

Andha Kanoon was the first to go on and a loud groan of discontent rippled thru’ the coach. “Oh, no”, grumbled the chap sitting next to me,” I’ve seen it in a charity premiere and believe me, angry middle-aged hero Amitabh Bachchan is a big disappointment. Anupam Kher turns in a spotty performance and like the proverbial curate’s egg good in parts. Reena Roy’s cabaret sequences however, are titillating, while dialogue by Salim-Javed duo lack power and punch. Indivar’s lyrics, however, are good. Music deserves no mention.”

It was heartwarming that my ticket entitled me to free, frank, fearless and healthy film criticism.

The passenger in seat no. 49 on the left aisle called out angrily. “Hey conductor, I demand to know why Andha Kanoon is being shown. Your booking clerk had specifically assured me that Manthan was to be screened and I particularly wanted to see this movie to see if Mahesh Bhatt’s new wave art film deserved the national award.”

“I’m sorry sir,” apologised the conductor, “the pirated video of Manthan is yet to reach us.”

Even as these cerebral and erudite exchanges were underway, I had to pinch myself to make sure that I was indeed travelling to Mumbai aboard an omnibus and not attending the technical session of a snooty Film Appreciation Society or the IX India International Film Festival.

As the coach reached Kolhapur, Ek Duje ke Liye was ready to be screened and animated discussion filled the air. Will Sri Devi and Kamal Hasan make it big in the bad world of Bollywood and was Sri Devi upstaging Kamal in serious roles and who was a better artiste-Rati Agnihotri or Jayaprada? The passengers had done their home work all right by boning up on Cine Blitz and Filmfare.

Do Jhoot was the next on the filmi menu and the chap sitting next to me was all excited. “Moushumi Chaterjee in a light, cameo role is fantastic with Raj Kapoor and Johnny Walker in a guest appearance,” and he proceeded to narrate the entire story, adding to my throbbing headache.

As the coach left Pune, three more films were yet to be shown to paraphrase Robert Frost, — I had miles and miles to go and many more pirated videos to watch before I could sleep.

A video coach? No, thank you. Any time, I’ll take a State Transport bone-rattler.

After 365 days, miles to go

by Tavleen Singh

SO, Atal Behari Vajpayee’s government has survived a year. And, it has been celebrating with song, dance and some showtime patriotism. These festivities, and more importantly the survival itself, have got the Congress Party more than slightly worried. This was not meant to have happened. Not according to their plan which had envisaged a collapse before a full year was out at which point the sainted Sonia Gandhi would have graciously refused to form a government without ‘the people’s mandate’ but would not have objected to cobbling together (without the people’s mandate) the sort of government we had under Deve Gowda and Inder Gujral, a government at the total mercy of the Congress.

What worries the Congress now is that not only is the government showing signs of surviving (if the gods continue to smile) for not just another year but even perhaps a full term. If in this time Mr Vajpayee manages to notch up a few more triumphs and even show us that the BJP has learned something about governance then the Congress chances of winning a full majority diminish. After the recent Assembly election results, when onions became the ruination of Mr Vajpayee’s already ineffectual image, it had seemed possible that Congress could win as many as 300 seats on its own. My own impression that this was possible came mainly from a short tour of Uttar Pradesh where people curiously seemed angrier with the Central government than with their own state government. People I talked to said that what had particularly irritated them were the attacks on Christians. They did not understand this as being anything to do with governance. They also saw it as a sign that the government was too preoccupied with irrelevant matters to be seriously able to govern.

So, how has the image begun to change since? A Congress MP seemed to speak for the party when he said that, although he did not like to admit it, one of the things that had made a difference was the bus ride to Wagah.

“To tell you the truth” he said dropping his voice to a whisper “even Muslims in our own party have been very touched by the whole thing. This is not good for us”. It was the expectation of a return of the Muslim vote bank that had brightened Congress prospects in the two states, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, that they need to dramatically improve their performance in if they are to get a full majority. If Muslims in Uttar Pradesh suddenly find that it is easier to travel to see their relatives in Pakistan than it has ever been before it could come as a reminder that the last time relations improved was when Vajpayee was External Affairs Minister in Morarji Desai’s government. It might also make them conscious of the fact that there has been no serious communal violence since the BJP government came to power.

My sources in the Congress tell me that it was in an attempt to lesson the Wagah effect that Sonia Gandhi decided to help Rabri Devi return to power in Bihar. Alas, since it is mainly Harijans who have been killed in massacres under her reign, this is unlikely to do much to bring the Harijan vote bank back. Mayawati has already announced that the Congress will pay in Bihar for what it has done and the fact that the party’s Bihar unit opposed the ‘high command’ on the resuscitation of the Rabri government speaks volumes.

The other factor that has helped the government’s image improve is the budget. The stock market has not gone up this high since 1991, as businessmen in Mumbai point out, and generally the view is that Yashwant Sinha has done a reasonably good job this time.

Things, though, could start going wrong again unless the Prime Minister is able to keep the RSS (Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh) and its ugly subsidiaries under check. A BJP political analyst pointed out that the real increase in the party’s support had come from the middle classes and their support was based entirely on the hope that the BJP would emerge as a conservative, Right-wing alternative to the Congress. “I believe” he said “that we get no more than eight or 10 per cent of our support from the hardcore Hindutva types whereas at least 30 per cent of our support comes from the middle classes”.

Mr Vajpayee seems fully aware of this and has so far succeeded in putting a lid on the BJP’s lunatic fringe. But, the RSS has announced yet again in Nagpur that it sees the Christians as the enemy. It has also, in its usual lopsided analysis of political realities, linked what it calls ‘the rise in conversion to Christianity’ to the emergence of Sonia Gandhi as the Congress Party’s main leader. This is not political analysis but stupidity. Unfortunately, for Mr Vajpayee there are enough people in the lunatic fringe who believe this sort of hysterical talk. Will he be able to contain them sufficiently to get on with some real governance?

There is much to be done. One good budget and the bus to Wagah are not enough to make a dramatic difference where the average voter is concerned. The average voter is much more interested in his standard of living showing signs of improvement and this can only happen if the Prime Minister does more than give Amartya Sen the Bharat Ratna. The Congress model of government’s biggest flaw were its failures in education, healthcare and other related things that fall under the social sector category. So far there are no signs that Mr Vajpayee has understood this.

The repeal of the Urban Land Ceiling Act is a good start where urban housing is concerned but we still do not have a Ministry of Education in Delhi nor are there any signs that the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare is being made more important or more effective.

Granted that coalition governments have their limitations but, surely, these are areas in which neither Jayalalitha nor Mamata Bannerji are going to start stamping their feet with rage. Even if the government survives a full term and fails in these areas the BJP will end up losing the next election unless Mr Vajpayee can show that he is capable of doing the sort of things that Chandrababu Naidu is doing in Andhra and Digvijay Singh is doing in Madhya Pradesh. So, even if celebrations are in order, Mr Vajpayee needs to remember that he still has miles to go. And, that there are plenty of political parties working together to ensure that his government falls before he has a chance of walking those miles.

Off the beaten track

by Amita Malik

TIRED of all the politicking and its graphic and depressing depiction on TV, I decided last week to just cut away from it and at least try for some pleasurable entertainment... I might warn you that this is impossible after 11 p.m. All the channels, Indian and foreign, with the possible exception of the BBC and CNN and always TNT, offer the most gory serials and films, with so much blood and explicit sex to go with it that it is hardly bed-time stuff. Even the Metro channel has those dog-eared dubbed detective stories from Transtel and some of them seem to belong to somewhere in the 60’s. They probably do.

Believe it or not, one of the most satisfying programmes I saw was on DD1, somewhere near midnight which was the height of callous scheduling, and it was on the saris of India. It was a scholarly script, with solid research and expertise and covered the whole range, starting from the brocades of Banaras, where the weavers are mostly Muslims and designs have come from many sources, including the Moghuls, to the South, from the Pochampallis and Venkatgiris of Andhra Pradesh to the famous Kanchipurams down the road. The Bengal saris were particularly well described from the historical background of Jamdanis and Nilambaris to the Tangails, where, after its loss to Bangladesh, South Bengal has taken over the Tangail tradition. The Garads, Shantipuris, Dhonekalis and Kaantha traditions, the silks from Malda, the mulberry cultivators there, were covered in elaborate detail, as were the famous textiles of Orissa and their motifs. A beautiful and informative programme to watch. Full kudos for script and narration to Archana Kapoor. A pity that the programme was shown so late at night. It should be repeated at a more reasonable hour.

For sheer amusement I thoroughly enjoyed a spoof on MTV, which was a mock competition for pelvic thrusts culled direct from our Mumbai films. Unconsciously or consciously, it brutally exposed the depths to which our actors, and particularly actresses have sunk, in vulgarity and indecency. On second thoughts, it was not as funny as it seemed. Our self-appointed moralists, always criticising alien cultures, should first take a look at their home products.

On a more serious plane was a very interesting discussion on the BBC on the attitudes towards women in Pakistan. In the London studios were two articulate and critical Pakistanis, Prof. Akbar Ahmed from Cambridge University and a spirited woman and highly motivated journalist, Umber Khairi. It was an eye-opener and a refreshing study in self-analysis.

Zee channel’s strangely named Mystery Unfolds was, again, a well-researched study of crime in Delhi with some revealing interviews. And, of course, Karan Thapar was at it again, successfully grilling Pramod Mahajan, Shivraj Patil and Jaipal Reddy on the very contemporary goings-on about Prasar Bharati. Not one of them acquitted himself with much credit thanks to Thapar’s relentless questions.

Two BBC programmes have mercifully pulled back from the brink. Money Wise has expanded its coverage and I enjoyed the sight of an Italian chef blind-folded and asked to evaluate three Indian Mozarellas in a programme on cheeses. I accept his judgement because his food is very Italian. Victor Bannerji has been given better content in his programme Film India although the script tends to be too clever by half at times. Victor himself interviewed Manoj Bajpai as from one professional to another. Also great fun was the cuts of Amitabh Bachchan in double roles. Last week, we also had a look-back at Bimal Roy’s Bandhini, with Nutan and Ashok Kumar. Good nostalgia.

Pretty much everyone interviewed Berkoff of Shakesperean villains fame, some interrupted too much. By far the best chat was with Sonali Verma and Rajdeep Sardesai in the late-night news, when the questions were well-framed and Berkoff given time to expand. He seemed most relaxed in this programme.

I must confess I was not too moved or shaken by Shekhar Suman’s Movers and Shakers. Political gags day after day are not very easy. And it shows. I am not the only one who thinks that Suman has taken on too many programmes on TV.

75 YEARS AGO

Treatment of State Prisoners

THE Bengal Government made an important admission in reply to a question in the Legislative Council on Saturday. It stated that the State prisoners in the Mindnapur Jail were given convict diet from January 20 to March 5, but that as soon as this was brought to the notice of the Government necessary orders were issued, and they were now allowed food according to their own choice subject to a maximum daily expenditure of one rupee four annas per head.

The statement means, in the first place, that the Government had not issued the instructions which it was its clear duty to issue for the proper treatment of the prisoners as soon as they were arrested and sent to jail; secondly that on account of this act of unjustifiable omission on their part the prisoners were for a long period treated as ordinary felons, and lastly that even now they are not treated each according to his own social position, as demanded by Regulation 3 of 1818, under which action has been taken against them, but according to one uniform, arbitrary rule.