P A G E
Wednesday, November 17, 1999
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E D I T O R I A L P A G E |
Wednesday, November 17, 1999 |
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Commonwealth’s
uncommon step
RAVAGES
OF ORISSA CYCLONE |
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USA,
UN to stay in touch with Taliban Kerala
plans to retire captive elephants at 65
Goodbye
jeans!
Congress
Unity |
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Commonwealth’s uncommon step These days CHOGM has become allergic to military dictators although it puts up with elected autocrats. So Pakistan finds the door of the Commonwealth closed. That is understandable since its 54 members share a common past as British colonies and all the leading lights of this quaint club are proud of their democratic present. But this time the summit of the Commonwealth leaders has done something that must have surprised even supersensitive democrats like British Foreign Minister Robin Cook. It has decided to send a eight-member team of Foreign Ministers to Pakistan to monitor the impending trial of ousted Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. The team is also expected to gently pressurise the junta to restore democratic rule early. It is not clear who authored this invasive proposal, but India certainly did not. Mr Jaswant Singh was quite uncomfortable with the idea and came close to admitting that it smacked of interference in the domestic affairs of a member-country even if it stands suspended. True, human rights organisations do send observers to trials of important leaders as they did when Mr Anwar Ibrahim of Malaysia was prosecuted on a number of charges. Prime Minister Vajpayee found it odd that the final communiqué referred to Mr Sharif as the Head of Government but explained that the Constitution had only been suspended and also there was no constitutional sanction for a military ruler. India is apparently happy with the document which reflects its policies on many major issues. But there are two reasons to be wary of. One is the CHOGM pledge to the members “to help to prevent or resolve conflicts in a peaceful manner” and the second is to take a hand in stabilising post-conflict situation. This could become the thin end of the wedge to try and introduce the Commonwealth in the not-so-peaceful conflicts in Kashmir and parts of the North-East. It is well to remember that the same Mr Cook has often expressed his desire to help India and Pakistan end the “Kashmir dispute”. At one time the UK was active in Sri Lanka brokering peace between the government and the Tamil Tigers. India could not have objected to this part of the communiqué as it was part of the same sentence denouncing terrorism and promising to root it out. India and other
developing countries scored a major point on a core issue
before the Seattle meeting of the World Trade
Organisation. CHOGM has appealed to the rich block not to
tag the labour and environment questions with the
liberalisation of trade. The USA is the leading
campaigner in demanding that the Third World countries
should first improve the standard of living of the labour
and enact environment protection measures to measure up
to what is obtaining in the West before they would gain
from free trade. On the face of it, this stand would
appear to be designed to drag the developing sector into
the super league. Far from it; the motive is purely
selfish. The West believes that low wages and lax
pollution laws lower manufacturing costs and make the
products very competitive in terms of price. Many
American units have shut down, unable to take on the
dramatically low-priced Chinese goods. Hence this
recourse to egalitarian-looking trade barrier. The USA is
not likely to change its policy but if the advanced
countries in the Commonwealth like the UK, Canada and
Australia stick to the Durban call, these pernicious
clauses can be kept out of the WTO agenda. This is a big
gain. |
Railways find a hero The timely action of an ordinary cabin man on the Ludhiana-Jalandhar section of the railways on Monday helped avert what would otherwise have been a major rail accident. He noticed that a driverless "diesel multiple unit" {DMU} carrying three empty coaches was headed from Ludhiana in the direction of Jalandhar. The runaway DMU was on the track cleared for the Jhelum Express's arrival at the Ludhiana railway station from Jalandhar. He promptly diverted the driverless train on a "dead track". Fate also played a small supplementary role in giving a happy end to the drama in real life. The DMU, after hitting the bumpers of the dead track over-turned, but not on the track on which the Jhelum Express was to pass, two kilometres before the Ludhiana station. Mercifully, the DMU was not only driverless; it was also not carrying any passenger. But the overall credit for averting a major rail mishap should go to the cabin man, whose name has not been mentioned in any report, for showing exemplary presence of mind in a moment of grave crisis. Last year, and coincidentally in the month of November, almost identical factors resulted in a rail disaster near Khanna in which several hundred human lives were lost. The Khanna accident was a freak occurrence. What can be said with a fair degree of certainty is that at least the driver of the ill-fated 2903-Up Frontier Mail which rammed into the delinked coaches of 3152-Dn Sealdah Express was not at fault. Neither was the Sealdah Express driver, who did not realise that he had "lost the tail end" of the train somewhere near Khanna. But there is no way the maintenance staff could escape responsibility for the Khanna tragedy. It may not be wrong to
say that last year's accident was caused by human
indifference bordering on criminal neglect while on
Monday what would have been an equally grave rail
disaster was averted because of the alertness and timely
action of the cabin man. Union Railway Minister Mamata
Banerjee has stated that her first concern would be to
eliminate the factors responsible for avoidable mishaps.
Some of the measures she has announced for streamlining
the working of the world's largest rail network suggest
that she means business. Unfortunately, the same cannot
be said about her predecessors, Mr Ram Vilas Paswan and
Mr Nitish Kumar, who paid only lip service to the need
for improving the railways' safety record. During their
stay in the Railway Ministry the network earned the
reputation of reporting a minor mishap almost every day
and a major accident every few months. Ms Banerjee may
soon realise what it means to run out of steam while
trying to set the house in order. She should remember
that a basic principle of good management is to reward
efficient workers and punish the time-servers and the
corrupt without delay. The cabin man who saved a certain
accident from taking place near Ludhiana should be
honoured by her at a special function so that others may
emulate him. |
Separatism in Indonesia When Indonesia decided to hold a referendum in East Timor on the issue of independence, of course, under Western pressure, many observers had predicted that this could lead to the fragmentation of the world 's fourth largest country. At this stage it is difficult to say if the prediction will prove to be true. But it appears that the newly constituted government of Mr Abdurrehman Wahid will not be able to bottle up the powerful separatist movement in Indonesia's two other provinces — Aceh and Irian Jaya. Last week he committed himself to holding a referendum in Aceh on the lines of East Timor though with the expectation that the majority of the Acehnese will express their preference to remain a part of the larger Indonesian nation. Mr Wahid made the commitment after nearly one million people came out in the streets of the provincial capital, Banda Aceh, in support of the demand for a referendum on the question of self-determination. It was the biggest rally held in Indonesian history, the call for which was given by the Aceh Referendum Information Centre, an umbrella organisation of various separatist groups. The rally also had the support of the Free Aceh Movement guerrillas. The Acehnese separatists have declared that they will agree to nothing less than total independence from Indonesian rule. All the tactics of Mr
Wahid have been rejected by the separatists as
unacceptable. He has given two top positions in his
government to Acehnese besides pledging to spend on the
development of the angry province as much as 75 per cent
of the revenue from its natural resources and pull out
the troops stationed there. But all this is unlikely to
work. Aceh is perhaps the richest province of Indonesia
in terms of natural resources, particularly oil and gas.
The Acehnese nurse the grouse that Jakarta has been
neglecting the province's economic development and
plundering its natural resources to feed people in other
parts of the archipelago. They also allege that, as if
this was not enough, the army has been used to indulge in
human rights violations. The Acehnese fight against
Jakarta's rule is not new. They have been opposing
Indonesia's control over their affairs since the days of
the Dutch colonialists. In their struggle for
self-determination they have suffered army brutalities of
the worst kind, resulting in the loss of thousands of
lives. Today when they have the example of East Timor to
cite in support of their case, the Indonesian government
appears to have no choice but to go in for another
referendum exercise. Since the West has, perhaps, no axe
to grind it is keeping quiet. The Jakarta regime has to
suffer for the follies of the previous governments.
Careful handling of the economic grievances of the
Acehnese could have dented the separatist movement. But
now it is too late. |
WHEN a cyclone lashed Berhampur in Orissa in the third week of October, Parliament was in session. Members demanded a discussion on the inadequacy of relief. They were assured that the Business Committees of the two Houses would allot time. But the introduction of the Insurance Bill was preferred to a debate on the devastation in Berhampur. Had there been even a limited discussion, the government, both at the Centre and in the state, might not have been caught napping. Both would have been a little more vigilant and a little more organised. When the second and bigger cyclone hit the coastal area of the state a few days later, there was no plan, no preparation. The administration threw up its hands. It looked as if the battle had been lost even before it began. The authorities were criminally slack and sluggish. They had no clue about what to do. And it is no secret that many officials, including the Collectors on leave, stayed away even after learning about the cyclone. Neither duty nor conscience tugged them to return to serve the people. The military swung into action at the Centre’s order. Even then precious time was wasted. The relief in certain parts did not begin till a week or 10 days later. When New Delhi had given the danger signal of the cyclone two days earlier it is not clear why the follow-up steps for disaster management were not initiated straightaway. Why were not polythene sheets, the equipment for sinking wells in dry areas, sachets of drinking water, tents, apart from food and medicine, not collected beforehand? The state government did not wake up for 10 days. It had no defence. The state did practically nothing. Even when it came to know that lakhs of people were marooned and had no food, no drinking water, it expressed helplessness. If this is not the failure of the state machinery, what else is it? Politics came in the way; otherwise, it was a fit case for the President to take over the administration. In fact, the state has been getting warnings and ignoring them to the people’s peril. Kendrapada was hit by a fierce cyclone as far back as 1971. Some 10,000 people lost their lives at that time. In the last 28 years the state has learnt little from what had happened then. The two Chief Ministers during the period, Biju Patnaik and Janaki Bhallab Patnaik, emptied the state’s treasury but spent nothing on building an organisation which could take care of the people hit by cyclones, floods or such other tragedies. Even the victims of the 1971 cyclone had to fend for themselves. True, natural calamities are hard to avert. But in Orissa the ordeal is also man-made. There has been a systematic destruction of mangrove and other tropical trees having branches that send down roots. This growth protected the coastal areas. Greedy contractors, politicians and bureaucrats have deforested the coastal area, leaving no impediment between the sea and the habitations. Paradip port was developed in the seventies to provide fillip to the hinterland. It has failed in its purpose. There is only one helipad at the port. The main problem is that the area is criss-crossed by the Baitarani, Brahmani and Mahanadi rivers, their branches and a hundred rivulets. The delta area is as it was years ago, raw and unharnessed. Thousands of people have died this time. In Paradip alone, the casualty figure is around 10,000. Hundreds of thousands are still going from pillar to post, seeking shelter and work. Innumerable people are moving along highways and roads. The rice bowl of the state, a 300-kilometre-long coastal belt, has been destroyed. As many as 1.5 crore people have been affected. They have to be helped to restart their life. This will require some Rs 50,000 crore, which is beyond the capacity of even the most advanced nations. Still New Delhi has refused to declare the cyclone havoc a national calamity. What more should have happened to the state to qualify for that status? The advantage of a national calamity is that international assistance comes more freely and substantially. And the state gets from the Centre huge funds in its hands. New Delhi’s fear is that once the state government has money, it will divert it to the payment of salaries of teachers and others, who have remained unpaid for months. But there can be some method to ensure that the money allocated is spent on rehabilitation alone. The national calamity has to be declared. The mere phrase would make a psychological difference. The real lesson to be drawn is that the states have neither resources nor experts to deal with natural disasters. The Centre must set up a separate organisation, preferably under the Prime Minister, so that response is quicker and coordination better. Defence Minister George Fernandes is right in suggesting a Central agency. The quantum of assistance is also nowhere near the scale of what was during the Kargil operation. Divali was still a glittering, wasteful festival. And one missed the institution of volunteers. Not long ago, many persons on their own, slinging a bag on their shoulders, would go to places of natural disasters and spend weeks to render succour to the victims. The international community has been tardy to offer assistance. And I have missed it if the Pope said anything on the Orissa cyclone. He should have emphasised more on the woes of the sufferers, a cleansing and uniting quality, than on saying: “May the third Christian millennium witness a great harvest of faith on this vast and vital continent.” The Orissa tragedy should have shaken us. It has not. The tragedy should have awakened us to the privations of most people all over India — how they live on the periphery of poverty and how the 52-year-old Independence has made little difference to their condition. They still have no regular income, no firm shelter and nothing to fall back upon. Their children have no school to go to and the old wait for death helplessly. They shudder to fall ill because they have no means to afford medicine. Nor can they remain idle for a single day. Even a small flood, much less the cyclone, destroys their meagre existence. And then they get so engrossed in finding food, shelter or work for themselves that they have no time to look for their lost relations, their neighbours or village men. The hard decision that the Vajpayee-led government should take is to curb the greed of the elite and curtail consumerism. Our development should have provided people with food, clothing, shelter, clean water and sanitation. But the benefits of development have gone to the top. The ruling class has “seceded” from the common man. Modern gadgets and goodies are an integral part of the globalisation process which shapes the government’s policies. Undoing all may not be possible. We have burnt many bridges. Still some priorities can be refixed so that the programmes concerning people and their welfare are taken up first. The basic problem
remains the same. The cake is small and the number of
people wanting a slice is increasing. Had the size of the
cake grown larger, there would have been something for
everybody to take home. The demand is either by the top
or by those who operate in the name of caste and
community. In a way, the Orissa tragedy has a lesson for
all communities. They must come together as much to
barricade their villages as to develop their resources.
Those who are trying to raise the standard in the name of
caste or religion would serve their cause better if they
were to act in the name of welfare. |
The unhappy state of Bihar I confess I was stunned on reading the manuscript of S.K. Ghosh’s book “Bihar in Flames”. He has depicted a state of affairs which I never imagined would or could exist in a state of India. He has done a public service by putting together all the infamous acts committed in the state, and has showed how democracy can be subverted, how all institutions of the state damaged, how all avenues of justice blocked, and how corruption, unemployment and savagery can overtake a state ruled by venal politicians. The worst feature is that most of us do not know what is happening in the state, and the Centre has not been able to take steps to change a government that has blackened the face of our democracy, or to punish those who violated financial regulations with proud defiance. How did Bihar come into such a desperate state of decay? Is it democracy that has produced this decay and despoilation of the people? What is wrong with our reading of media reports that we could not appreciate the extent of the damage? Above all what is wrong with our system of justice that all the cases go on for years without firm judicial intervention or punishment? The fact that the Chief Minister had a clear majority does not make a difference if the majority had participated with him in robbing the state. It is this state which in 1948 was judged by Paul Appleby, the American expert, to be the best administered state in India at the time when Dr Srikrishna Sinha was the Chief Minister and Mr L.B. Singh was the Chief Secretary. Just a few years of maladministration has brought it to the verge of anarchy. Where is the system of checks and balances that are supposed to keep a state on the right course? Why have all the controls failed at the same time to impoverish the state so completely? Inevitably, the question arises whether the turmoil in the state was caused by a failure of democracy. It is likely to draw some attention because in Pakistan something similar, perhaps even less, has led to the overthrow of democracy by a dictator. The manner in which politicians have behaved, the rapacious way in which they have stolen state funds, the manner in which they have split the services in caste groups, joined with them in corruption, subverted land reforms, postponed panchayat elections again and again, permitted police brutality and poll violence, and all the massacres in the countryside, will be attributed to a democratic failure in the state of Bihar. It is a warning sign that we cannot ignore. It is the worst blot that has appeared on a democracy noted for its liberal constitution. A question that is being asked again and again is: “Why did the President turn down the request for the imposition of President’s rule when there is convincing evidence of bad leadership, defiance of rules to make money, massacres and law and order failures of a serious nature. Even if it does not fall within the parameters of a constitutional breakdown, surely the fact that there is a total breakdown should be enough justification.” Here are a few snapshots of life in Bihar: * A nurse unable to get her salary for months, and hungry for days, poured kerosene on herself and her eight-year old son and put an end to her suffering. * A House Committee report of the Bihar Legislative Assembly revealed that 145 undertrials had died in a sub-jail in Singhbhum district due to lack of food, over-crowding and lack of medical care. * From the last report of the Controller and Auditor-General dozens of FIRs could be made out of massive frauds apart from glaring malpractices. * Large-scale misappropriation of funds even from poverty alleviation schemes. * Out of every 1000 people in Bihar, about 270 go without food everyday, according to a Census report. * On the day Mr Laloo Yadav was sworn in as Chief Minister for the second time, Zulekha Khatoon of a village in Muzaffarpur sold her daughter and grandson for Rs 700 owing to hunger. *G. Krishnaiah, District Magistrate of Gopalgunj, was stoned to death on December 5, 1994, by a mob. S.K. Ghosh says: “The worst-ever slaughter of Harijans by the Ranvir Sena on the night of December 1, 1997, around 9.30 p.m. in villages of Batan Tola, part of Laxmanpur Bathe in Jehanabad district stunned the nation. As Batan Tola went to sleep that night, no one knew that 61 villagers — 35 women and 19 children — would never see the light of December 2. They became victims of the worst carnage in Bihar’s violent history — mercilessly gunned down by the Ranvir Sena. “In a swift, savage attack, more than 300 armed men of the banned Ranvir Sena swooped down on defenceless Harijans and carried out an organised, merciless decimation of Batan Tola. It was a horrible massacre, even by savage standards of this dreaded private army of upper caste landlords, reported Sunday, 14-20 December, 1997.” Ghosh, an officer of mature police experience and an author of note, says: “The police force is poorly equipped and staffed. While the dons fight among themselves with their LMGs and SLRs the police use World War II weapons and wireless sets. The population-police ratio is perhaps the lowest in the country. Many of the police stations function under a thicket of trees. Worse, at the thana level, caste influences postings. Nearly 80 per cent of the SHOs in charge of police stations are Yadavs, belonging to Chief Minister Laloo’s caste.” “Thus, having swamped the Bihar police with his own caste and kinsmen, it is hardly surprising that during his two tenures as Chief Minister, Laloo turned a blind eye to the metamorphosis of the state police into an armed unit of official criminals who have been indulging in loot, rape and mayhem with impunity.” Is it “social justice” to pack the thanas with Yadavs, or rank casteism? Bihar has achieved the distinction of being the most corrupt state in India. The list of big scams and the amounts involved are staggering in crores. It was inconceivable in British days for anyone to draw money from the government treasury when there was no sanction in the budget for it, or to appoint persons in service and pay them salaries where no sanction exists. If anyone did, he would be in jail within a week. Today the treasury in Bihar seems to be the feeding ground of anyone who wants to snatch a few lakhs. What should we attribute this to? Political connivance? Lack of supervision? Most of it is due to the fact that there is no fear or punishment in our Raj. We allow the worst forms of fiscal manipulation to take place and the culprit expects that the case will be forgotten and he will be a free man to enjoy the stolen money after a few years. This is a weakness in our democracy which is being exploited by politicians in many states of the land, and their proteges in service. Democracy is becoming a form of rule in which those who have some political clout want to pose as saviours of the poor, and in the process rob the poor. Perhaps our backwardness is due in some measure to the leakage of funds from the coffers of the government. Perhaps we will never get out of the grip of criminals, in the very seat of government, who enjoy immunity. We must establish authority firmly and clean the system if we want to survive as a democracy. It is time we realised that our criminal justice system was making criminals out of a lot of us. The Judge is not interested in justice: the police loses count owing to delay: the police prosecutor is indifferent. The government is reluctant to intervene. We are slowly drifting into a state of anarchy in Bihar, and other states may follow suit. Bihar is burning. SK
Ghosh has done a service in putting all the facts
together in an indictment that we can only ignore at our
peril. |
USA, UN to stay in touch
with Taliban The Clinton administration is expected to maintain some kind of dialogue with the Taliban on the U.S. demand for the extradition of suspected terrorist Osama bin Laden, currently hiding in Afghanistan. According to informed sources, the talks are expected to be conducted through the Taliban representative in New York. The UN also proposes to keep open its lines of communication with the Taliban, which controls 90 per cent of Afghanistan but is not represented on the world body. Saudi renegade Bin Laden, who has taken shelter in Afghanistan, is wanted by the USA in connection with the bombings of US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania last year. According to observers, some kind of engagement with the Taliban rulers is necessary to keep exploring prospects of a solution instead of totally depending on the sanctions, which have clearly not worked in the case of Iraq. Baghdad has been under international sanctions for nearly a decade. Taliban spokesman Noorulla Zadran told BBC that Afghanistan had tabled at least four proposals to resolve the Bin Laden issue, but all had been refused. The Taliban is stated to favour an arrangement short of extradition of Bin Laden against his will. Both the US and the United Nations refused to accept the offer of Bin Laden being allowed to exit Afghanistan and shift to a secret destination elsewhere. Nor did they accept a proposal for his trial by Islamic clerics from several countries. According to reports, the UN Security Council, which voted for the sanctions last month, proposes to set up a sanctions committee to monitor compliance and oversee humanitarian exemptions. These include medical flights and religious travels to Mecca, the spiritual capital of the Muslim world in Saudi Arabia. Zadran called the sanctions cruel and inhuman, saying orphans and widows would be the ones to suffer. The sanctions prohibit the Afghan airline Ariana from flying outside the country and freeze the Taliban government’s overseas bank accounts. Meanwhile, in a statement broadcast on the Voice of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Teheran’s embassy in Kabul has urged the UN to ensure that the Taliban opened roads through which food and medicine could be delivered to Afghans. Taliban Foreign Minister Wakil Ahmad Muttawakil made it clear that Kabul would not bend to pressure and urged other Muslim countries to ignore the sanctions. “Our stance is the same, we will not hand over Osama to the USA or expel him from Afghanistan against his will,” he said. According to reports,
the Security Council gave unanimous approval to the
sanctions resolution last month because the curbs were
carefully crafted, targeted to limit an adverse
humanitarian impact on Afghan citizens, who already
suffer economically, and clearly tied to the performance
of a specific task — the hand-over of Bin Laden.
— IANS |
Kerala plans to retire captive
elephants at 65 You thought rest and recuperation are for humans only. Think again. In trend-setting Kerala animals too can enjoy the fruits of their labour, as it were, after completing their tour of duty. For starters, new legislation for the welfare of captive elephants envisages retirement for the hardworking pachyderms in Kerala once they are 65 years old. That is not a bad deal, considering that the much weaker humans have to work until they are 60. According to a top wildlife department official in the state, final touches are being given to the legislation, the first of its kind in the country. The bill is expected to be passed in the coming session of the state Assembly. The life span of an elephant, according to experts, is similar to that of human beings. Wildlife department sources estimate the total number of captive elephants in the state at 600. According to the new rules, all owners of elephants in the state are expected to register their beasts. The legislation also proposes a licence for the mahouts, or elephant trainers. The licence will be given only after they undergo a course. The certification process will be carried out by the Chief Wildlife Warden of the Forest Department. Although 65 will be the official retirement age for elephants, owners can make their animals work beyond that age provided they get a ‘fitness certificate’ from a veterinarian and an expert group designated to look after the welfare of the elephants. “We will ensure that these elephants are subjected to only light work and not heavy work,” said the wildlife official. Under the legislation, the certificates will be given to the owners only after they submit an undertaking that they would take care of these elephants properly and they get them examined once in six months by a veterinary doctor. The owners are also expected to keep a register of the quantity of food they give to the animals. No elephant below the height of 1.5 metres will carry any load. Owners who employ elephants less than two metres tall in the forest will be punished. Elephants above 2.5 metres can be made to carry a burden of not more than 400 kg. All she-elephants have to be mated at least twice in 40 years and the Forest Department will meet all the expenses connected with delivery. The department, in turn, will collect 50 per cent of these expenses from the owner of the male tusker as a levy. According to another rule, elephants should not be made to walk to their work places if they happen to be more than 50 km away. They should then be transported there in trucks. The proposed set of rules has however brought little cheer to the owners. Babu, owner of seven elephants at Thottakad near Kottayam, expressed doubts on the effectiveness of these rules. The first problem for the authorities would be to determine the age of these elephants. At present it is only a fair guess by doctors. According to Babu, the business is no more lucrative for the owner. It is the mahouts who make the most. “Earlier there was plenty of work in the forests of Kerala, but now with forests becoming extinct we have to look for work in neighbouring states. It then becomes difficult for us to keep track of our animals,” said Babu who believes there are more than 1,000 captive elephants in the state. With less and less of forest work, the main income for elephant owners is from Hindu festivals. Caparisoned elephants marching behind groups of musicians is a common sight during the festival season which extends from December to March. A healthy, tall elephant can earn around Rs. 70,000 during this period. But expenses are also
the highest during this period with the result that the
owners are left with very little profit. “All
passionate elephant lovers will watch for some time and
if the new rules are not viable many of the elephants
will be sold outside the state. The present going rate of
elephants is around Rs. 500,000,” said Babu. — IANS |
Goodbye jeans! The ORG-Marg survey showing that the people in India have begun to prefer lightweight trousers for comfort and neat look in comparison to rugged and thicker denim jeans has disturbed my school and college going, jeans loving nieces. They are alarmed that this wash-and-wear “poor thing” to which millions had given their youthful personal signature was on the fading list. Ankita is so wild about jeans that she measures everything by its cost. Her school fee per month is one Levis jeans, if there is “sale” on jeans in the market, the restaurant bill was one “Newport” jeans and that the paltry salaried fellow gets only seven “Ruff and Tuff” every month and on and on. Saakshi simply disbelieved the survey because she and her college mates totalled to 90 per cent of the jeans wearing population. This reminds me of 1960s when a freshly appointed IAS lady officer, clad in a pair of jeans, reported for duty to a Deputy Commissioner. He told her that what she was wearing was neither a symbol of liberty nor of egalitarianism and that she should come to office in presentable apparels which were accepted by the society that she was to serve. The jeans had jumped so rapidly in popularity from 60s to 90s that a representation was made to me, when I was posted as Deputy Commissioner at Dharamsala in early nineties, by “Save the Indian Culture Society, Kangra” pleading that the District Administration should take immediate steps to check the infiltration of jeans, especially, into the female domain, where it had already crossed the line of control. How much the District Administration wished that it had the powers of the then “Kharkus” of Punjab whose “ik gutt tey salwar, kameez, dupatta” became the unwritten law for even the trendiest of girls! The unfavourable-to-jeans ORG-Marg survey report has its supporter in the New Internationalist magazine which has thrown the jeans out of the fashion sense in the next millennium. It is most eco-unfriendly clothing, the magazine says. A pair of jeans is made of cotton which uses higher volumes of toxic pesticides resulting in many cases of human poisoning and that its fabric needs to be treated with another concoction of chemicals thus creating further health hazard. And then jeans are stitched by semi-starved urchins of developing countries resulting in New Age Slavery, the New Internationalist adds. The bowing out of jeans is surely upsetting to my nieces and the clan. But they are young and can always ring in the new. It would, however, be a great loss to we greybeards because a few moments of whoopee would be snatched from our lives as we would miss eye-catching sight like the flat-chested damsel with full posterior, whom I saw once, wearing a shrink-to-fit jeans with “Dancing Dunes” printed on the front of her T-Shirt. How much I itched to
write “Please see reverse” below the
“Dancing Dunes”! |
WE hope with all our heart that the discussions which are being held in Calcutta between the Mahatma and the Swarajists on the subject of Congress unity will prove fruitful, and a decision will be arrived at which will make the Congress at Belgaum a united Congress of all parties, of all those who believe in self-government. Mahatma Gandhi has already taken very important steps towards the bringing about of this much-needed result. Only one thing remains to be done now, and that is to so modify his proposal regarding the spinning franchise as to make it a unifying, instead of a dividing, factor. Once this is done we
anticipate no difficulty whatever. Whatever difficulty
existed some weeks ago when Mrs Besant saw the Mahatma
has been effectively removed by the new repressive policy
and the return of the Conservatives to power! |
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