P A G E
Saturday, May 29, 1999
today's calendar
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E D I T O R I A L P A G E |
Saturday, May 29, 1999 |
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Contain
the conflict
INTELLIGENCE
FAILURE
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Opinion
divided on Sonia as PM
Politicians
become
Ominous
clashes
Exhibition of women |
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Contain the conflict THE determined ground-and-air action has entered the fourth thundering day in the Kargil, Dras and Batalik mountain belt of Jammu and Kashmir to dislodge and neutralise regular Pakistani soldiers who are leading tough and trained mercenaries. The terrain is inhospitable and the aggressors had the advantage of height and the elements of surprise and cunning. Our regrettable intelligence failure and complacency gave them time to position themselves and their arms well. But it would be futile to give the grave loss of two jet fighters, a helicopter, and a pilot and four other IAF men an unmanful or depressive connotation. The Pakistanis chose their time and place of intrusion. To end such a menace, blood and sweat have to be offered valiantly; tears can be subsumed under gratitude. By using surface-to-air missiles against one of our planes, the military masters of the neighbouring country's political rulers have now turned India's normal response to a belligerent situation into a battle-like condition. A plane plagued by a mechanical failure crashed and another flying machine in a helping attempt was unethically brought down from the edge of the Indian side of the Line of Control (LoC). This is a war crime in peace-time on the part of Pakistan. For India and the rest of the world, there is no war between the two countries and, therefore, an unfortunate pilot made captive after a crafty missile attack in or near his own territory is, at the worst, a person held hostage. Flight Lieutenant Nachiketa has attained martyrdom and the return of his body and belongings is a matter of civilised military conduct. The "captured" pilot must not be humiliated. He is an officer in unfriendly custody in a disturbed atmosphere. He should be facilitated to join his countrymen engaged in the process of ousting entrenched aggressors from vantage points on their side of the LoC. The supreme sacrifice of the four helicopter-borne brave men will be remembered as a saga of death-defying patriotism. From day one, India has
worked for a peaceful resolution of the violent
situation. Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee spoke to
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. The military authorities on
the two sides communicated on the Indian commanders'
initiative. Air strikes were launched on the besieged
positions. Pakistan wanted to cut the vital land route to
Leh and threaten Kashmiri towns from commanding heights.
Optionlessness had to be conquered. There must not be any
let-up in the cautious air-strikes till Pakistan's proxy
or de facto aggression from Batalik to Dras is vacated.
The Government is not disseminating the available
information promptly and wisely. Some officials talk too
much to the electronic media. Army spokesmen occasionally
fumble. It is necessary to give the international
community all facts in time. Russia has understood the
problem. The UK and the USA, too, have shown some
awareness. Mr Nawaz Sharif has surrendered his
decision-making capacity to the Army. We would like the
UN to act fairly and keep itself out of the turmoil.
India is not Yugoslavia. The nation has risen as one man
and supported this cause of freedom from calumny. The
political parties are playing a supportive role. We must
fight with full awareness of what we are fighting for. |
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THE expelled Congress leaders on
Thursday fulfilled the promise they had made to the
“nation” by adding another name to the
countless political out-fits operating in the country. Mr
Sharad Pawar, Mr P.A. Sangma and Mr Tariq Anwar kept
another promise by retaining the name of the party they
were expelled from while announcing the birth of the
Congress of their dreams. Of course, in India it takes
two to float a party and three usually becomes a crowd
forcing the surplus member to set up his own independent
political shop. However, at the first Press conference of
the Nationalist congress Party the three leaders, who had
shown rare political courage by questioning the
competence of Mrs Sonia Gandhi to lead the nation and the
Congress elected each other president, general secretary
and treasurer and introduced three new faces as proof of
their mass appeal. With the induction of former Union
ministers Mr Jagdeep Dhankar from Rajasthan and Mr
Baleshwar Ram from Bihar and a former Andhra Pradesh
minister Mr K. Prabhakar Reddy the Maratha strongman can
claim to have extended the sweep of his political party
from the North to the South in a single day. The
launching of the new party was supposed to be an earth
shaking event which for some mysterious reason did not
show up on the political Reichter scale. The new party
promised to preserve and strengthen India’s national
identity and work for evolving a non-exploitative and
self-reliant economy providing prosperity through
competition and build a nation which would strengthen the
forces of peace leaders of other political parties must
have secretly pulled their hair in private for allowing
Mr Pawar to steal the “political thunder” by
running away with the mantra for curing the
country’s ills. What Mr Pawar and company unveiled
on Thursday was in the nature of a sneak preview in the
middle of the rehearsal of an incomplete play. Which is
supposed to take the nation by storm. The real drama,
which is meant to make the Congress stalwarts regret the
decision of expelling “men of moral political
courage”, will begin on June 10 at the first
political session of the NCP in Mumbai. As of today, the
only person who may not be too happy with the birth of
yet another political party is the Chief Election
Commissioner, Mr M.S. Gill. For someone in the middle of
putting together the nuts and bolts of a rather complex
election process the knock at the door with the request
for registration of yet another political party can be an
unwelcome intrusion. The stickler that he is for
procedures, Mr Gill will surely rummage through the rule
book to see whether Mr Pawar’s request for national
status for his party measures up to the requirements of
the Election Commission. |
Era of regional parties WITH a consistent vote share of about 35 per cent, regional parties are an entrenched reality. There is no dispute about that. But it is disputable if they have permanently taken over the space vacated by national parties like the Congress and the BJP, as a new study claims. Development and Research Service (DRS) headed by Dr Narasimha Rao, the well-known opinion poll analyst, finds that regionalism, potently expressed in caste terms, has come to stay and it will be hard to weaken it by a larger or national issue or sentiment. This theory is valid because caste is the natural faultline in Indian society and because the OBC-centric parties of the two Yadavs from UP and Bihar have withstood the fierce onslaughts of the Hindutva forces in 1996 and 1998. By the same token, the theory is confined only to these two parties. The Bahujan Samaj Party of Mr Kanshi Ram and Ms Mayawati, another powerful caste-based party, has retained its base and identity without any accretion to its electoral clout. Somewhat similar is the case of the Akali Dal, the party of the Sikh Panth, which swept the poll last year in alliance with the BJP. Today it is weakened by a split in its ranks and erosion of mass base. If the first two parties support the DRS theory, the last two parties challenge its all-India relevance. First it is essential to
answer a basic question. Did the national party wither
away in certain pockets for vibrant regional parties to
fill the political vacuum or did the regional outfits
pack so much appeal that they edged out the other? An
affirmative answer to the first poser will help parties
like the Congress to entertain hopes of an early revival.
Loss of voter appeal is a reversible process but not the
loss of political credibility. This about sums up the
future of the Congress and the Janata Dal. The DRS thesis
slurs over a major development that caused the eclipse of
the Congress in the present decade. Over the past nearly
30 years, the party has been furiously busy shedding its
programmes and seeking votes in the name of its leader.
It worked with Indira Gandhi (1980) and on her death
(1984) but only partly succeeded on Rajiv Gandhi’s
death (1991). Now the party thinks that it has found a
charismatic vote-getter in Mrs Sonia Gandhi and hence the
return of the old mindset to relegate policies to the
background. If this gambit wins the day, the DRS formula
has to be reworked to say that personality-based politics
is equally, if not more, powerful than a regional party
built along caste lines. India has long been a laboratory
for political experiments, but never one as bizarre as
now. |
INTELLIGENCE
FAILURE INCURSIONS and skirmishes along the LoC in Kashmir are a common feature but not so, the present one. First, the extent and the magnitude of incursion is much too wide and large. Second, it arises out of complete external intelligence failure. Third, it reflects major command failure on part of the army. And last, it involves the use of airpower. It new emerges that in a pre-emptive move, over a thousand well trained and well equipped mercenaries and Pak regulars crossed over 6 to 8 km across the LoC in Indian territory and occupied vantage points at great heights, threatening the life line to Leh and beyond. The quality of weapons used and the type of logistic support provided to them shows the extent of Pak hand in this latest venture, notwithstanding its denials. The battalion equivalent incursion of heavily armed militants is in fact tantamount to an aggression. It’s amazing as to how RAW responsible for external intelligence failed totally in this case. Vernacular newspapers in Pakistan like Jung were full of news items and stories in this regard. The militants were training for months in Gilgit and Skardu region prior to their large-scale induction. General Parvez Musharaf, Pak army chief, also visited these places to monitor the plans and their progress. RAW should have known that the Pak chief had served long enough in Special Services Group (SSG) that carries out extraordinary operations in high altitude areas. His continued interest in these operations would be natural. Also, there is little doubt that PAF helicopters were deployed and the troops either landed on makeshift helipads or slithered down whilst the helicopters hovered over a point. It is almost impossible to trudge through 20 to 30 feet of snow and establish posts at heights of 15,000 to 17,000 feet. In this age of satellite intelligence, how RAW failed to monitor the obvious is incomprehensible. This is not the first time that RAW has failed the armed forces. Taking advantage of early summer. Pakistan caught the Indian Army totally unaware. The infiltration of militants had been going on over a period of weeks. But what is surprising is that the army didn’t use its Cheeta helicopters for aerial surveillance since the ground patrols were not feasible due to heavy snow and hostile environment. Even when the Army learnt about the Pak infiltration in early May, it failed to comprehend the extent and the magnitude of enemy incursion. Ironically, it also failed to realise that the incessant and uncommonly heavy artillery shelling across the LoC in the Kargil region was not without a purpose. Adequate assessment of large-scale infiltration and occupation was not made in time and by the time it was done, it was too late for the Army to handle the situation all by itself. Valuable time was lost in initial bravado and complacency before any cohesive and rational response could be formulated. Misplaced bravado and inadequate situational awareness and developing scenario led us to this imbroglio. The situation ran out of hand and the use of airpower became inevitable by May 25. The credit, however, must go to the political leadership for assessing the situation correctly and agreeing to the use of airpower which has psychological connotations besides its ability to widen the scope of conflict. Counteraction had already been delayed by weeks allowing the adversary to entrench well from where it could dominate the entire stretch of land from Dras to Kargil and beyond and nail down the Indian troops. Any assault by them would entail heavy casualties with limited scope for success. Domination of Dras-Kargil-Leh lifeline would have serious repercussions on the sustenance of troops in Siachen and elsewhere. Use of the IAF was the only option left. We failed to do that in 1962 when routed by the Chinese and suffered ignominy in the process. We learnt our lessons and used the airpower in 1965 when a Pakistani thus in the Chhamb Jaurian sector nearly severed J&K from rest of the country. The efficacy of airpower should not be in any doubt, provided it is employed intelligently and with due care. Loss of aircraft to the enemy could have debilitating impact on morale. MiG-23, MiG-27, MiG-29 and Mirage-2000 aircraft have substantial on board wherewithal to reach and strike pinpoint targets anywhere with adequate self protection. The IAF would soften the targets to enable the army to capture them later with minimum loss of life. In all fairness, one must acknowledge Pak’s ability for coming out with bold strategies which have more often than not caught the Indian Army off guard. Unfortunately, the Indian Army suffers from a persistent handicap vis-a-vis Pakistan; in that it is always in the reactive mode and has to cope with situations as those emerge from Pak’s initiatives. It is well known that in the matter of Kashmir, nuclear policy and Afghanistan one Pak army calls the shots. In that, is not too sure whether it has it’s own agenda to pursue vis-a-vis India, as seems to be the case. When Nawaz Sharif was busy improving relations with Vajpayee, the Pakistani Army was in the thick of training those militants for induction across the LoC. Has Pakistan miscalculated, one wonders? It may find hard to respond to the Indian resolve to evict the militants. However, it would certainly succeed in focussing world attention on Kashmir all over again. (Air Marshal
Bedi is a former Director-General, Defence Planning
Staff, MoD). |
India’s options in Kargil THE ISI is perhaps the most experienced, well organised and ruthless intelligence organisation in the world. It gained a lot of expertise after successful operations against the Russian forces in Afghanistan. It is now making use of this competence to destabilise the situation in J&K. After successfully completing the ethnic cleansing in the valley and to some extent in the Doda-Rajauri area, it has now started its infiltration campaign in the northern part of J&K, in the Batalik-Kargil-Dras area, where no infiltration had taken place earlier. Pakistan’s reasons for this new venture may be manifold. The local population in the valley was losing interest in the ISI efforts to continue the insurgency and more tourists had started visiting the valley. The ISI operations in the Rajauri-Doda area had been contained. So the only new area for infiltration was in the northern portion of J&K. There has been firing from both sides in the Kargil area since last year, but no infiltration had been made by the ISI so far. So the ISI could achieve a surprise if it activated this area which can help it in cutting off the Kargil-Ladakh road. Besides, this is a large sector of highly mountainous terrain starting from Gurez in the West to Ladakh in the East. I have served in this area for several years and am familiar with the terrain. There is very little population near the LoC (Line of Control) in this area. The height of the peaks from Gurez to Kargil-Ladakh varies from 11000 feet to 17000 feet. The peaks are snowbound for six months in the year and so both sides have occupied only important heights near the existing tracks while large areas remain unoccupied by both sides. The army patrols have so far been used to keep this large area under surveillance, which remains unoccupied. We have not used aircraft and helicopters to patrol the northern part of J&K, partly due to no perceived infiltration threat from the Pakistan side and partly not to escalate the situation near the LoC, which will be objected to by Pakistan. Pakistan obviously took advantage of the existing situation and decided to escalate the situation in J&K by sending a sizeable force of infiltrators to occupy the peaks on the Indian side, so as to draw international attention. It is good that the Indian Air Force has started attacking Pak occupied peaks using both fighters and armed helicopters so as to inflict casualties and to lower the morale of the infiltrators. The use of air force was essential, as our artillery fire on these high peaks cannot be very effective, due to many shells not landing on the target because of terrain difficulties. Our air force should be ready for the reaction of the Pak air force and a possible air battle over the high Himalayas, as Pakistan has warned India, not to use its air force in the Kargil sector. It was wise on India’s part to use the air force as its support will be required still more when the ground attacks on the peaks are made. Meanwhile, our air attacks on Pak- held peaks must continue to inflict losses on Pak forces. At the same time, we must try to assess Pakistan’s overall intentions in the present situation. Does Pakistan want to make J&K an international issue so that India is forced to take it to the UNO where Pakistan stands to gain? Does Pakistan want to bargain the captured area for some parts in the Siachen area? Or does Pakistan want to create a situation where the only super power, USA and NATO can support it on ethnic grounds, as they are doing in Kosovo? India should be prepared to face any contingency and should not under-estimate the Pak reaction to our projected operations in the Kargil area as well as use of the IAF. Recapturing Pak-occupied positions will require a large number of Indian troops. It may take a few months and the operations may result in heavy casualties to our attacking troops. Another alternative — and a sensible one — will be to occupy or capture peaks on the Pak side of LoC which are not held or are lightly held, using ground forces or by heliborne operations. Then India can bargain with Pakistan. When I was commanding a division in J&K many years ago which was deployed on the border, I was faced with a similar situation but on a much smaller scale. Capturing of the Pak held area by a gallant battalion commander, Col J.M.S. Hatter, gave me the bargaining position. The Indian commanders in J&K may well have to undertake such operations in the northern part of J&K or anywhere else in J&K, i.e. to capture Pak held territory, to force Pakistan to vacate the peaks captured in the Kargil-Dras area. India may have to use both the above options i.e. to recapture the lost peaks and to capture the Pak-held territory somewhere else in J&K, in case it is not possible to recapture the peaks. The writer is a retired
Major-General. |
Ominous clashes JUDGING by reports and official briefs, it is clear that infiltration and intrusions have taken place at farflung locations in the Kargil sector. It is very likely that Pakistan is also trying to realign (by force) the LoC at selected key areas from where their dislodgement will be difficult, namely Chorbatla and Tortuk located between Batalik and Siachen, thereby also expanding the infiltration to the whole of Ladakh and beyond. It is also quite evident that the infiltrators have firmed in, in strength, and will not be easily evicted from their positions which are well fortified and supported by mortars, pika guns, Rocket Launchers and superior firepower. This time it certainly is not a simple artillery duel. It could well be the commencement of a carefully drawn out operational plan orchestrated by Pakistan to disturb the entire LoC and the areas lying beyond it on our entire Northern front. The ominous signs of the trained Taliban only complicate matters further for the Indian security planners. Now here are some of the issues that worry me. First and foremost, why was the infiltration and the possible occupation of the high mountain hilltops by the infiltrators (read Pakistani army in the guise of “bakarwals” and locals, read Afghan Taliban, read whatever else you want to), not discovered in time by our troops? Surely, if we are to believe the reports that the “unheld” areas were occupied by the infiltrators around January this year, then what were we all doing for the last five months till the onset of the summer now, in not evicting the intruders from the mountain passes and ridgelines? Our border intelligence, the information from the early warning (EW) posts, and our patrolling that is to be carried out endlessly even during the winter months, has been found wanting somewhat. This infiltration should have been eliminated long long ago. Second, even if we accept that certain unheld areas (that is areas unoccupied by own troops or vacated in winter due to logistic problems), were quietly occupied by the other side, why has such an occupation remained unnoticed and unobserved, from the ground and the air, when most of the snows have long melted even on the ridgelines that are over 16000 feet high? In any case, there are set strategies and operational tactics, in vogue in any army to keep such unheld areas under its constant vigilance and watch. It is well known that a counter-penetration or a counter-occupation force held in reserve, is always available to take care of exactly such a contingency, as has now developed in the Kargil sector. Obviously here too, few prophylectic measures like intensive patrolling and ambushes on the likely “hides” and routes of the infiltrators, were resorted to, as should have been the case. One possible explanation of what has happened at Batalik and Dras is that when our troops at the onset of the summer went up to re-establish some of these farflung posts on the mountain tops, they found the infiltrators already entrenched there. Thereafter, military action at the local level continued, till the infiltration could not be contained any longer, necessitating a bigger effort on our part as is now the case. In the mountains, it is very difficult (time and casualty wise), to evict troops firmed in at the heights who have favourable routes of ingress. Many of us had been impressing upon our seniors ever since 1970, that in the Kargil sector, right from the time one has crossed the Zojila Pass and all the way to somewhere near Leh, the LoC runs very close and almost parallel to our only line of communication, the Zojila-Dras-Kargil-Fatula-Leh road. In many places, the dominating heights provide excellent observation, artillery fire, and depredation potential to the enemy. We have to have alternative route lines supplementing the present single road artery, in both the Shingo and the Suru river valley sectors. The Doda-Kishtwar valley offers such a possibility, and one hopes that we have exploited this additional surface transportation prospect. Another serious matter that needs to be examined, is this whole question of the pro-active measures like the “hot pursuit” into adjoining territory. “Hot pursuit” is not a child’s toy that can be played around with, at anyone’s whims and fancy. It is a deliberate operation of war with full battle support, including additional troops and heavy artillery fire (and often air support), across one’s territory, and would invite a violent retaliatory action, in the same kind. It is so funny at times that people in authority often talk about taking such actions. Unless we and Pakistan can formalise and regularise the LoC into an international border, we will have to live with the turbulence of many more Kargils, in the forseeable future. The proxy and the not-so-proxy war now calls for an immediate and strong military response, a single-window, conflict direction and press briefing from the MO Directorate in the Ministry of Defence at New Delhi, a complete embargo on military field commanders going to the press on operational matters in their sectors, and a clear direction by the government to the Chief of the Army Staff as to how far the Army can go in eliminating, containing or evicting any intrusion and infiltration from across the border. In the meanwhile our political leaders would do well to hold their peace and let the Army get on with its difficult task. I recollect the moments during the 1971 Bangladesh war, when Mrs Gandhi and Babu Jagjivan Ram, the Defence Minister, wished to hurry up the Chief, Field Marshal Sam Maneckshavo into an earlier operational timeframe in the erstwhile East Bengal. Fortunately for the nation, Maneckshaw did not relent. All talk of “hot pursuit”, and air strikes across the LoC must be avoided. Do remember that now the other side too, has a nuclear military capability. For the present, the reported infiltrations must be eliminated, with all possible despatch and urgency. Any delay will make the task more difficult later on. We must also finetune further our operational surveillance and responses. The government could also consider issuing a fresh low-to-medium intensity conflict policy directive to the Services, so that, they could plan for successfully handling such situations in the future on our borders with Pakistan, or anywhere else. It is my view, that like Siachen, we may have to hold and keep occupied, critical heights along the high ridgelines and passes, in winter also in the Kargil sector along the LoC. The frequent Kargil blow-ups affect thousands of residents and their homes and livestock. The Indian Army must dominate all likely infiltration routes and heights, which makes enemy ingress and artillery bombardment difficult. Constant vigilance, a better intelligence system at the local village level, and time-bound programme for clearing the infiltration that has taken place, will go a long way in reassuring the inhabitants of the towns and villages on the LoC and border areas, that they really do not have to move out of their homes and hearths ever again. (Major-General
Gill (rtd) has served as Brigade Major in the Kargil
sector during 1970-71). |
Opinion divided on Sonia as PM
WHILE the Sonia Gandhi melodrama — to resign or not to resign — was being played out in Delhi I was on a trip which took me through Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra. In pursuit for the vox populi (people’s voice), I stopped to talk to women in a Chennai slum, priests and intellectuals in the temples of Kanchipuram and ordinary people at a restaurant in Chingleput. Then, it was a village on the way to Kodaikanal in which I stopped and finally down towards Coimbatore and back to Mumbai. Everywhere, I asked about Sonia Gandhi’s acceptability as an Indian and about the issues that the coming general election are likely to throw up. My investigations began in a middle-class home in Chennai where I got the chance to talk to the ladies of the house as well as to a retired bureaucrat who had held high positions in the Central and UP governments. It was a day after Sharad Pawar, Purno Sangma and Tariq Anwar had suggested in their now famous, letter to Sonia that, perhaps, it was fitting that the Indian Prime Minister should be someone who was Indian by birth and breeding. The letter, as she explained at the All India Congress Committee last week, upset her so much, caused her heart “to become so heavy”, that she felt she had no choice but to resign. In this particular living room, on this particularly hot and sultry morning, the consensus was that Pawar, Sangma and Anwar had done the right thing. We all feel strongly that the Prime Minister should be an Indian, everyone said, and that although it is all right for Sonia Gandhi to remain Congress President, it would be wrong if she were to become Prime Minister. To them this issue as well as the toppling of the Vajpayee Government were likely to be key issues in the coming election. Nobody could understand why Mr Vajpayee had been forced out of office and Jayalalitha was blamed for creating political instability at a time when the government was doing quite well. They said Jayalalitha was likely to pay for this in Tamil Nadu. “She is hated here” one of the ladies whispered “but people are afraid of her so they don’t talk openly. You can get them to say anything you want against Karunanidhi but on Jayalalitha they will avoid saying anything” That this was true I discovered on my next stop — the Chennai slum. It was, like other Indian slums, a place of subsistence living standards. Most homes consisted of one-room, windowless tenements in which barefoot children in grimy clothes looked after themselves while their mothers went to work as domestic help. The only luxury that nearly every household appeared to have permitted itself was a colour television set. They watched Tamil private channels which, they said, were more interesting than Doordarshan. Soon, a group of women gathered round and began to talk of their problems and their hopes. The biggest problem was drinking water: they had to walk quite a distance from their homes to get any at all and then it had to be lugged back in buckets and other vessels — a serious inconvenience since most families consisted of several small children. Most women said they worked, out of a necessity to supplement the family income but that they got no help from their husbands when it came to things like collecting water and doing other house hold chores. What did they expect from the government, I asked. In a chorus they replied that they wanted their basic needs met. They wanted drinking water to be made easily available, the drains to be cleaned and other municipal amenities. Karunanidhi’s government had made some difference, they said, but only smiled when I asked if Jayalalitha had done anything for them. When it came to Sonia Gandhi, though, they were vociferous in their support. Yes, they knew she was a foreigner, they said, but she seemed like a good person and that was all that mattered to them. It was exactly the same response that I got the next day in the villages I stopped in. People said they did not care at all about the fact that she was not Indian. “What have Indian politicians done for us”, asked an old man, “so why should we bother if she is a foreigner?” The old man owned a tea shop and said he had always voted for Congress and would continue to do so. What did he think Congress governments had done for him, I asked, and he looked puzzled. Had they provided him with drinking water, a better standard of living? “We have drinking water in our homes in this village” he said, “but that has been there since British times. As for other things, not much has happened but, I will still vote for Congress”. By this time others had gathered at the tea shop and everyone said they supported the idea of Sonia Gandhi becoming Prime Minister because she was from the Gandhi family and was a national leader. It was clear that no BJP leader, not even Atal Behari Vajpayee, had managed to impress them enough to be considered a national leader. By the time I returned to Mumbai and went through notes of my travels I realised that there was clearly a divide between the middle classes and the poor on the Sonia issue. The poor seemed to think she was more than acceptable as India’s next Prime Minister but the middle classes felt a sense of shame that a country of 980 million people had been unable to produce a natural-born leader. In Mumbai, there seemed to be more support for Sharad Pawar than Sonia and it was the aversion of the middle class to an Italian as Prime Minister that I came across. People said it shamed them that the Congress could not find an Indian leader and that they thought Pawar had taken the correct stand. I returned to Delhi on the day that Sonia Gandhi withdrew her resignation. My sources in Congress had told me that she had always intended to do this and that the dramatics and the hysteria outside her house were all stage-managed. “If you had been here” one Congress source said, “you would have seen that there were no more than 1,000 people at any time outside her house, but television cameras made it seem like thousands”. He added that the very people who were telling her that only she could be Prime Minister were the ones who came outside and admitted that her nationality could be a serious problem. But, as Sonia indicated, in the fighting speech she made at the AICC, it was not for her to answer questions about her nationality. It was the people who would answer this question in the general election and they would answer it strongly enough to make it clear. At this point in an
election campaign it’s always best for us hacks to
merely say: Que Sera, Sera (What will be, will be) By the
way is that French or Italian? |
Politicians become TV-savvy
OVER the last few years, ever since TV started relaying the proceedings of Parliament, our politicians have suddenly become TV savvy. The camera, to quote the old cliche, does not lie, and some of their images have been far from flattering. Untidy, crushed clothes, signs of paan on their lips, shuffling down the aisles of Parliament, uncombed hair, the unshaven look. Bad enough, but the way they speak is far worse. And when it comes to shouting each other down, and storming the well of the House, well, it is not a pretty sight. And hardly music to the ears in fact, others have often come to their own conclusions after watching their legislators on TV. To the extent that now even votes can be swayed by the way politicians show up on the small screen. Small wonder then, that the BJP is said to have got down to persuading proper professionals to coach their candidates in deportment, articulation and even grooming so that they don’t fall flat on the small screen. In the last few years, there has been a regular series of panel discussions, interview programmes and debates, spot interviews at short notice and indeed programmes when the old obsequious ways of DD, where the ruling party, from the PM to the I. and B. Minister, ruled the roost are gone. Except, of course, on DD where traces of it remain. But independent interviewers such as Karan Thapar, can let politicians have it, even on DD II, the Metro Channel, let alone Rajat Sharma, Vir Sanghvi, Rajiv Shukla, Paranjoy Guha-Thakurta and the rest. Even the BBC has got into the act with Question Time India. But even if this has led to a lot of overkill and repetition, at least our politicians cannot complain that they are out of practice! As far grooming goes, women have the advantage of the sari, which is very difficult to uglify, and MPs such as Renuka Choudhury, Geeta Mukherji and Jayanti Natarajan manage to look elegant and good. Even Jayalalitha, who is the “aloo” of TV, speaks so well, that nothing else matters. Sushma Swaraj, while always on back-thumping, first-name terms with the anchor, behaves as if militancy is all, and clashing as this does with her overflowing sindoor, often spoils a good case with excessive belligerence. Mayawati has a brash style of her own on TV, to match her politics, while motherly Sheila Dikshit, invites tea and sympathy. I miss Suhasini Ali on TV, because her belligerence, like Brinda Karat’s, is much more controlled and therefore much more effective. As for Sonia Gandhi, her shyness with TV cameras having given way to overkill; women viewers have focused more on her saris than her written speeches, however, well ghost-written. Not only are women politicians much better groomed than men, they are also better behaved. Only one or two, like Sushma Swaraj, shout down their opponents and not let them speak. The men, on the other hand, are generally dreadful. Exceptions from the BJP, Arun Jaitley comes across as a civilised man and his legal experience makes his arguments compact and to the point, no wastage there. Fatherly K.L. Sharma who never shouts and is always dignified is a very soothing person on screen, often in the midst of bedlam. I believe one of the bete noires of the BJP as far as competition on TV goes, is revived Congress spokesperson Mr Jogi, not to be confused with the TV serial of that name. Again, his ready smile and unflappable style creates a good impression, as does Digvijay Singh, who is very media-savvy. He does not mumble like Chandrababu Naidu. But I must confess that one of the most hilarious sights during Sonia’s come-back was a group of Congress leaders, including Madhavrao Scindia and R.K. Dhawan sitting in a row like penguins, with their Gandhi caps on, mostly outsize, probably mass-produced and handed out like flags. One is used to Sitaram Kesri donning such loyal headgear, but seeing the others flaunting theirs was not only amusing but a give-away of intentions. Sangma and Tariq Anwar looked much more relaxed in their pyjama-kurtas, and Sharad Pawar’s standard bush-shirt also looked pleasingly normal. P.S. There is only one
thing that puzzled me. During DD’s 2.15 p.m.,
English news bulletin on Tuesday last there was not even
a mention of Sonia Gandhi because at the very moment Star
News was carrying her whole speech live. In later
bulletins her speech was not among the top items. Of
course, Pramod Mahajan never interferes with Prasar
Bharati or DD, does he? |
Exhibition of women ONE of the latest developments of Western civilisation is the exhibition of beautiful women like cattle and horses. They have their professional beauties — women who live by exhibiting themselves to the public — they have regular Beauty Shows, in which pretty women are collected from different countries, or different parts of a country, to be exhibited to the public and to compete for beauty prizes. The world is indeed progressing — only the question is whichward — heavenward or hellward? The fashionable woman has but one occupation — painting, padding and dressing. She has one sort of dress for her breakfast, another for her tea, another for her dinner — one for walking, another for driving, yet another for riding, not to speak of her dresses for balls, evening parties, and other entertainments An Indian woman would, we fear, commit suicide if she were required thus to eternally dress herself. This exhibition of women
has something very coarse and indecent about it; it
degrades women, makes men lose their sentiment of
chivalry towards them. Neither can it fail to make the
women immodest and vain. |
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