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PROF Darshan Singh Maini has in his recent article, “The coming elections — dialectic of political splits”, traced the human traits and the history of using their crowning jewel of intellect as a self-destructive agent to practice “Machiavellianism, sophistry, rationalisation and double-think, etc”, subjecting the original impulse of politics to an eternal curse.

While the learned author has done well to stress “that the phenomenon of political splits in India... has been on the upswing since the infamous Emergency in particular, getting more and more absurd, more and more pitiful”, leaving “no party strong enough to keep the flock from straying”, he goes on to discuss the Janata Dal with its “extravagant, absurd and ironical passage”, its viable promise and hope at the time of its birth notwithstanding.

One pauses here to wonder whether “the arrival of a political set of leaders...braking away from the Congress” was the result or the cause of the Emergency, in their enthusiasm to get to the bandwagon of constitutional power — only to do “the turnabout at varying angles from crises to crises”.

While the non-Congress parties joining the Nav-Nirman Movement of the late Jayaprakash Narayan, even before the Emergency or the Allahabad High Court verdict unseating Indira Gandhi, and the “unspeakable role of Chaudhary Charan Singh” are both a typical manifestation of “this political story of rise, subversions, splits and possible demise” to be lamented “in a most agonising and shameful form”, it is amusing that Mr V.P. Singh, considered by the author till today as “possibly the cleanest Prime Minister with an aura after the great, incomparable Nehru”, was no different from “Chandra Shekhar...easily the most dangerous peer”.

Was Mr V.P. Singh less guilty of “plotting Rajiv’s fall along with Mr Arun Nehru & Co, involving even the then President, than Mr Chandra Shekhar was “form the day of Mr V.P. Singh’s ascent to power”? Unfortunately, Mr Singh got a taste of his own prescription. The BJP too reaped what it had sown by withdrawing its support from the V.P. Singh government.

Problem of over-production

To overcome the problems of over-production and timely sale of wheat and rice by farmers, a cooperative storage system at the farm level would go a long way in ending the dependence of farmers on foodgrain traders and procurement agencies.

If such grain stores as suggested are built in the vicinity of, say, five to 10 villages with 25 to 50 participating-farmers on a cooperative basis, the growers would then sell their produce when they wish to sell rather than being dependent upon the mercy of food procuring agencies.

In addition, such cooperative grain stores shall reduce the spoilage of grains from rain, rats, birds and spillage, which in some cases reaches 10 per cent or more of the production in Punjab.

Punjab Agricultural University and the Departments of Agriculture and Food should help farmers to design and establish such grain stores, which should be subsidised by both the Union and Punjab governments.

B. S. AHLOOWALIA
Agriculture and Food Development Authority, Kinsealy Research Centre
Dublin (Ireland)
(Received in response to the Internet edition)

The article “Old soldiers never die” (Aug 29) conveys the impression that Army pensions are “liberal”. The facts are absolutely contrary to it. While the pension of the lowest civilian employee of the Central government is Rs 2000, the pension of an Army jawan is merely Rs 1275 (if he survives to earn it).

While Pakistani soldiers can get 85 per cent of their pay as pension, their Indian counterparts get only about 30 per cent of their pension.

As they retire much earlier, only those with 33 years service can get 50 per cent of their pay as pension. None of the jawans can serve that long. To keep youthful profile of the Army, a sepoy is retired in his mid-thirties. Thereafter he is left to fend for himself with a princely pension of Rs 1275 per month. Can anyone survive on this pension?

Such cruel rules of the government have forced the ex-servicemen to take to politics from their own platform as all the other political parties whom they supported in the past have let the soldiers down, who are remembered only in times of need, whether in peace or in war. May I appeal to the conscience of all right-thinking persons to spare a thought for the poor soldiers, who have never let the country down and strengthen those, who have shown the courage to take up their cause.

The BJP-led government has been talking of what has been done for the widows and families of the Kargil martyrs. Yet widows of those who died some time ago are being ignored. Isn’t it shocking?

My husband, Lt-Col S.S. Rana (Ashok Chakra), achieved martyrdom in J&K, while fighting militants sometime before the Kargil crisis started. For his act of gallantry the government awarded him “Ashok Chakra”, the highest gallantry award in the non-war situation. Yet till today I have not received Rs 2 lakh the ad hoc amount to be awarded to a widow at that time. The amount has now been increased to Rs 10 lakh. May be, this is because of the elections.

I had written a letter to the Government of India seeking interview with the Prime Minister, but he declined to meet me PMO letter No 426/PSG-PM/98 dated April 26, 1998.

Surely, it is time people noticed that the politicians have been taking the men in uniform for a ride and ignoring their families till they felt it was necessary to give them some recognition “as a publicity stunt” following the Kargil operations. It is heartening to note that the ex-defence and uniformed fraternity is organising itself politically to put pressure on the government to give the soldiers and their families their due.

I appeal to every right-thinking individual to strengthen the hands of ex-servicemen who are fighting for the cause of widows like me.

The editorial “This is gutter level” (August 31), highlighting the steep deterioration in the standard of the election campaign by various political parties, hardly comes a day too soon. It minces no words in calling a spade a spade.

No doubt, it seems an electoral battle/campaign with no holds barred; so much so that the exercise appears to have degenerated virtually to the gutter level, as the editorial points out. What a gloomy scenario, indeed!

Sadly and strangely, the contesting parties seem brazenly skirting the real issues — mass hunger, sickening poverty, rampant corruption, mounting unemployment, increasing maladministration, food/clothing/housing for all, etc. Instead, the outfits seem concentrating on emotive issues — nay, non-issues. What a way to take India into the new millennium!

Heavy deployment of film stars and “faded starlets” in the election campaign has undoubtedly helped vote-seeking turn into a veritable farce. A farce garnished with mental filth, as the editorial aptly observes.

The news “Hectic politicking at Isru”, (Aug 16) has saddened those who have been closely associated with Shaheed Karnail Singh. This great son of Punjab in line with the revolutionary traditions of India, carried forward the heroic struggle initiated by S. Kartar Singh Sarabha and nurtured by S. Bhagat Singh and his comrades and emulated by the coming generations. Shaheed Karnail Singh faced the bullets of Salazar’s riflemen while storming the Goan territory with the Indian national flag in his hands, on August 15,1955 and not in 1950.

Setting political scores on such a solemn occasion seems to be an unpardonable act especially to those who have, lived, worked, and grew mature in the company of Shaheed Karnail Singh. Being one of them, I find it to be my moral obligation to let the reader know that our comrade Karnail, as we affectionately called him, was a dedicated communist. We got our first lessons in Marxism, nationalism and secularism from such revolutionary luminaries and selfless stalwarts as Baba Gurmukh Singh Kamagatamaru, Com Avtar Singh Malhotra, Prof. V.D. Copra, Com Bharat Parkash and Com Mohan Lal Singh. Arrest warrants had been issued against these comrades and they were working underground. We had been assigned the task of coordination of the party work. We were proud to take their message to the masses at large. Marxism as a dynamic philosophy inspired us so much that we celebrated the May Day 1949 at A.S. High School Khanna Distt Ludhiana.

The fact I want to emphasise is that Karnail was a dedicated Communist worker. The political heavyweights or underweights who ceremoniously gathered at Isru on August 15,1999, are not at all conversant with the views of Shaheed Karnail Singh.

They are requested to remember that the great martyr was a true Marxian revolutionary and his martyrdom was an urge fulfilled. Many of his close comrades who are still alive and are in their mid-sixties are grievously hurt when the day of his martyrdom is misused for settling political feuds and garner votes. Can anyone of them know even an iota of what has been written above? I think none!

For heaven’s sake, spare our martyrs from personal squabbles and unnecessary political controversies. They lived for their motherland, the entire world and the humanity at large. They sacrificed their precious lives for a better future for all of us.

	M A I L B A G	Monday, September 6, 1999
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