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Thursday,
December 6, 2001, Chandigarh, India  
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POTO is a time bomb Bonn accord on Kabul New-look Delhi Cabinet |
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Emerging economic challenges
Protecting the Fourth Estate
A more humane vision of life
1935, Physics: JAMES CHADWICK
Orissa woman ostracised for selling sex for survival
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POTO is a time bomb Four days starting with December 18 are reserved for the mother of all parliamentary controversies, pitting the BJP-led alliance government in an irreconcilable conflict with the opposition. This is the scenario scripted by the BJP. It gets POTO through the Lok Sabha by inserting a few cosmetic changes. The opposition votes it out in the upper House. The government then recommends to the President to convene a joint session of the two Houses under the rarely invoked Article 108 of the Constitution and with a comfortable majority it turns POTO into a law. Here are three telltale signs of the government’s cunning thinking. Parliamentary Affairs Minister Mahajan had already spoken of this route to overcome the lack of majority in the Rajya Sabha. On Tuesday just before the Prime Minister began a half-hearted exercise to build a consensus, the BJP parliamentary party met and declared its unanimous and powerful support to POTO in its present form. This proves that the leader of the ruling alliance is rigid in its opposition to any dilution of the draconian clauses. Obviously the MPs were echoing the views and desires of the top leadership and not setting a guideline. The clincher came in the evening when the party issued a three-line whip to all MPs to be present for four days from December 18 to December 21, the last day of the current session. The party spokesman has said it was to prevent a government defeat on the Fernandes issue. The funny thing is that the Congress is no longer insisting on a vote and, two, it is purely a Lok Sabha affair and the Rajya Sabha is out of it. But the whip covers its members as well. So the government had already made up its mind before the formality of the all-party meeting. There is a pile of evidence to support this assessment. The Prime Minister declared a day earlier that he would go flat out to reach a common agreement. He knew the objection of every opposition party. If the government were serious, it would have announced the amendments it was prepared to accept and the reasons why it could not accept the other suggestions. That would have built a conducive atmosphere. The only thing Mr Vajpayee did, and that too to rebut opposition charges, was to give an assurance that the new law would not be abused and the courts, the media and human rights groups were there to prevent misuse. A look back at the TADA misuse exposes how feeble these institutions are and how insensitive is the government to violation of civil liberties. As the government prepares itself to ram POTO through Parliament, it is setting the stage for a daily confrontation in the Rajya Sabha; even unimportant Bills will be blocked there and legislative business will collapse. That will be a tragedy for a government that has so much to do in the realm of economic reforms. |
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Bonn accord on Kabul Finally, the four Afghan factions battling for their share in the interim administration have agreed to a 29-member arrangement with a symbolic role for former king Zahir Shah. The Northern Alliance headed by Mr Burhanuddin Rabbani had to make the maximum concessions despite having occupied the top post after capturing Kabul. The USA has been suspicious of the Alliance's ambitions since the very beginning and did not allow it to dictate terms during the talks at Bonn, Germany. Initially, Mr Rabbani was opposed to holding any discussion outside Afghanistan for finalising an interim administrative set-up but was compelled to accept the Bonn idea. He also did not want the deployment of an international peace-keeping force in his country but he had to agree to it in the face of international pressure. Then he has been denied the position of head of government which he was sure to get in any case. The Bonn agreement has it that Mr Hamid Karzai, an ethnic Pashtun royalist and powerful tribal leader engaged in the battle against the Taliban in Kandahar, will be the interim Prime Minister. He is too junior to Mr Rabbani, known as Ustad among his followers and well-wishers. But Mr Karzai's ethnic background and his being in the good books of the former king proved to be the deciding factor. Mr Rabbani had to rubber-stamp his group's list, willy-nilly, accepting Mr Karzai for the top post in the new government. All his dynamic lieutenants will be holding important portfolios — Mr Yunus Qanooni, Dr Abdullah Abdullah and Gen Mohammad Fahim Khan as Interior, Foreign and Defence Ministers respectively— but that is not enough for the Northern Alliance chief. They are all Tajiks as is Mr Rabbani himself. The outcome of the Bonn parleys is humiliating for him but he seems to have acquiesced in for two reasons. One, his continued resistance could have led to a split in his group, as was apparent, leading to his isolation. Two, there was unavoidable pressure from donor countries on the four Afghan groups to sort out their differences so that funds could be released quickly for the reconstruction of their devastated homeland, and Mr Rabbani did not want to be labelled as the villain of the piece. The new Afghan government, to become functional on December 22 with a term of six months, may not have a smooth sailing so long as Mr Rabbani and Uzbek commander Abdur Rashid Dostum are not accommodated keeping with their standing in the Alliance. Yet Mr Karzai has a greater chance of getting through the Loya Jirga test as strong tribal loyalties in Afghanistan may force the Pashtuns, who constitute an overwhelming majority, to stand by him in the absence of any better choice. |
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New-look Delhi Cabinet As we had predicted in an editorial some days ago, the big gamble of Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit in asking her entire Cabinet to resign has not really paid off. While she has succeeded in seeing the back of two dissident ministers, Food and Civil Supplies Minister Yoganand Shastri and Social Welfare Minister Krishna Tirath, the victory has come at the cost of the sacrifice of two of her loyalists, Mr Narendra Nath and Mr Parvez Hashmi. Worse, the new ministry is to have three sworn dissidents, Mr Deep Chand Bandhu, Mr Raj Kumar Chauhan and Mr Haroon Yusuf. She has been apparently worsted by AICC general secretary in charge of Delhi, Mr Kamal Nath. What is bad news from her point of view is that not only is the whole exercise being seen as a climbdown by her before the dissidents, but it has also led to rumours that the high command is having strained relations with her. On the credit side is the fact that she has managed to get rid of some tainted ministers, strictures against whom could have cost the entire ministry dear. The ministry has two more years to go and can make amends for the non-performance of its members in the days to come. The new Cabinet is a good blend of old and new. If they pull together, they can refurbish the image of the party in the time that they have at their command. That, however, is easier said than done. Rumblings are already there in the fractitous party. The dropped ministers are said to be in a rebellious mood. So are the hopefuls who have been left out. Among them is Mr Mukesh Sharma, who enjoys considerable influence in the Outer Delhi constituency. The sack of Power Minister Narendra Nath, the only representative from the trans-Yamuna area, is also going to create problems for the Congress. Nobody admits it in public but the caste factor is extremely important in ministry formation. The team picked up by Ms Dikshit is imbalanced on that count. It is packed with "Punjabis" and has no representation from the Bania community, which has nearly 20 lakh population in the Capital. This "marginalisation" may cost the party dear in the forthcoming Delhi Municipal Corporation elections. The Delhi unit as well as the high command will have to do some astute balancing to neutralise the impact of these rumblings. |
Emerging economic challenges Even as the entire nation remained glued to television sets watching the Taliban collapse in the face of sustained American bombings and onslaughts of the Northern Alliance, there were important developments taking place elsewhere and going to seriously affect not only India’s economic growth but also its role and influence in the neighbourhood and other parts of the world. ASEAN recently announced that it would be concluding a free trade agreement with China within the next decade. It also decided to upgrade its relations with India involving regular annual summits. China was recently admitted to the WTO and far-reaching decisions aimed at promoting international trade and investment were taken at the Doha WTO Ministerial Conference. India faced a rather peculiar situation because even as China clawed its way into the WTO after painful negotiations, our leaders were proclaiming that the WTO was, at best, a “necessary evil”. China’s proposed free trade agreement with ASEAN is going to pose a serious challenge to India’s exports in a region that is showing distinct signs of recovering from its recent economic travails and resuming a path of sustained high growth rates. Even today Chinese products ranging from textiles and engineering goods to handicrafts and consumer electronics are rendering India’s exports uncompetitive in world markets and even entering our own markets. With the lifting of quantitative restrictions, it should not be surprising if India soon faces similar challenges from the products of its South-East Asian neighbours. Countries in the entire Asia-Pacific region have committed themselves to reducing and eliminating tariff barriers as essential measures for expanding world trade and accelerating economic growth and prosperity. Yet India remains an island where protectionism is regarded as a virtue, even as we demand that others should liberalise and open up their markets for India’s exports. One has only to visit Sri Lanka or Bangladesh to understand the chasm between their approaches and those we adopt to issues of trade and economic liberalisation. Even as Commerce Minister Murasoli Maran was ably defending the brief given to him for the Doha Ministerial meeting, China was being welcomed into the WTO after having made substantial concessions just to secure entry. China has agreed to bind its agricultural tariffs to an average of 17.5 per cent with a peak tariff of 20 per cent. It has agreed to reduce tariffs on agricultural items in which the USA has an interest to just 6 per cent and reduce its average industrial tariff to 9.5 per cent by 2005. The Chinese Government has also committed itself to not interfering in investment agreements concluded by private parties with foreign investors. China’s importance in the world community today is not because of its intercontinental missiles alone, but because it is viewed as a crucial player in the global economic scenario, with an emerging market of $ 600 billion. In comparison, India’s share of the global market is negligible and likely to remain so if we choose to persist in protecting inefficient and obsolete industries behind high tariff walls. The Prime Minister recently set up a high-level ministerial committee to push ahead with the crucial second generation of economic reforms. The political leadership in our country will have to recognise that reforms and an end to corruption in the power sector, the de-reservation and restructuring of industries in the small-scale sector and drastic improvement in our infrastructure like roads, ports and international airports brook no delay. Protectionist rhetoric may be good for short-term political gains, but it is a sure recipe for long-term economic stagnation and regional and international marginalisation. It is a pity that there are only a few economic thinkers like Dr. Manmohan Singh who realise the truth of this and are courageous enough to swim against the tide of populism. Mr Maran has played a positive role in Doha in ensuring that our agricultural sector and concerns about food security are protected. But even he will agree that we have, at best, bought time to set our own house in order. The approach of South Africa, the African and Caribbean countries and, most importantly, the nations of East and South -East Asia are quite different from us when it comes to trade liberalisation. Given the concessions it has already made, China will be a strong supporter of further trade liberalisation. Our friends and well- wishers naturally expect that rather than swim against the tide, we will set our own house in order to assume our rightful role in the global economy. India should signal its readiness to play a pro-active role to meet emerging economic challenges in the forthcoming SAARC Summit at Kathmandu. One sincerely hopes that New Delhi will ensure that the entire attention from the summit is not diverted to yet another India-Pakistan meeting on its sidelines. The focus must be kept predominantly on promoting economic cooperation in the region. The Eminent Persons Group (EPG) set up during the Tenth SAARC Summit had made wide-ranging proposals focused on the establishment of a South Asian Economic Community by 2020. This is to be preceded by the establishment of a SAARC Free Trade Area by 2008, a SAARC Customs Union by 2015 and an agreement for the free flow of investments across national borders in the SAARC region. The summit should agree to adhere to the schedule proposed by the EPG and set up the necessary mechanisms to ensure time-bound implementation. But for us to be credible in this approach we will need to avoid the myopic approach of placing tariff and non-tariff barriers that we have thus far adopted in our trade relations with SAARC partners like Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. Mr. George Fernandes taught his mandarins the realities of the world by compelling them to visit Siachen. It may be useful if Mr. Maran, likewise, sends some of his mandarins in Udyog Bhavan on a padayatra across East and South-East Asia so that they can learn how countries in this region have rapidly achieved progress and prosperity for their peoples. One hopes that after the decimation of the Taliban, General Musharraf will learn some lessons about the hazards of extolling jihad. But old habits are not easily given up. It is quite likely that rather than join the rest of South Asia on an exciting new journey to economic cooperation and prosperity, he will resume chanting his now tiresome mantras on the centrality of Kashmir before he will begin to smile on India. New Delhi should ensure that any bilateral meeting in Kathmandu with the only military ruler in SAARC does not become a repeat of what transpired at Agra and in the past SAARC summits. If the Musharraf-Sattar duo choose to stall proposals for regional economic integration, New Delhi should make it clear that it will proceed on this path bilaterally and sub-regionally. It is now necessary for us to also activate the BIMSTEC organisation bringing together Bangladesh, India, Myanmar, Sri Lanka and Thailand and not only make it project-oriented but also a vehicle for promoting free trade between SAARC and ASEAN states. Our active diplomatic involvement in the post-September 11 global war against terrorism has been conducted with skill and substantial success. While such diplomatic efforts receive a high media and political profile, we do appear to be paying less than adequate political attention to developing an integrated and comprehensive policy on issues of economic cooperation with countries in our neighbourhood. This approach will adversely affect our long-term economic interests, more so because of China’s pragmatic policies. Our influence in South and South-East Asia will grow only if we show a measure of self-confidence and integrate our markets to these countries for trade and investment. We could deal bilaterally with individual ASEAN members and with ASEAN itself to achieve these objectives. There should also be no reason why the countries in SAARC that are more interested in economic prosperity than jihad cannot join their friends in ASEAN in an extended partnership that promotes free trade and investment across South and South-East Asia. The writer is a former High Commissioner to Pakistan. |
India’s pointman in Afghanistan The
alacrity and speed the Vajpayee government showed in identifying former Ambassador to Russia S.K. Lambah for an assignment in Afghanistan speak volumes for both the man and those who engaged him for the task. Mr Lambah, an Indian Foreign Service officer of the 1964 batch, had retired only a few months back as Ambassador to Russia. Having promoted India’s interests in Pakistan, Russia, Germany, Bangladesh and Italy, Mr Lambah, who is lovingly called Satti by his friends, had mastered diplomatic skills well during his long innings at the Ministry of External Affairs. He lost no time in establishing contacts with the right quarters as soon as he came to know about his appointment as India’s pointman in Afghanistan. During his days in Islamabad, Bonn and Moscow, Mr Lambah had assiduously cultivated contacts with leaders of the Northern Alliance and others who mattered in Afghanistan. He also strengthened ties with his American, British, French and Chinese counterparts. During his trip to New York to attend the UN meeting on Afghanistan, India’s first such foray after taking a back seat for a long time, Mr Lamabah also met UN Special Representative on Afghanistan Lakhdar Brahimi. This was acknowledged by experts as a tacit acceptance of India’s role in political matters concerning Kabul. Big birthday bash
for Pawar Such is the strength and resilience of our political system that birthdays of political leaders are always regarded as memorable events by themselves. An event of this nature assumes special importance not because of the birth anniversary of the leader itself but because of the potential of the event to produce significant changes in the political system and bring with it new alignments and equations. The birthday bash being planned for Mr Sharad Pawar, former Chief Minister of Maharashtra who will attain the age of 62 on December 12, is no exception. The importance of Mr Pawar’s birthday bash, being organised at the Race Course in Mumbai, can be gauged by the fact that even though the founder of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) has not hogged the limelight for quite sometime, he continues to be in the news because of his profound clout, charisma and, above all, his promise of a new political culture of openness — a culture that would help people shun “authoritarianism, sycophancy and hypocrisy” and practise politics as an “honourable profession in the service of the nation”. Mr Pawar is known for his enormous networking abilities so much so that he has “few foes and many friends”. One reason that widened his reach and enhanced his reputation is his attempt to concentrate more on social than on political issues in recent times. Reports say Prime Minister Vajpayee will attend the bash. The 29-member felicitation committee headed by former Prime Minister Chandra Shekhar includes, among others, Mr I.K.Gujral, Dilip Kumar, Lata Mangeshkar, Bhimsen Joshi, M.F.Hussain and Shabana Azmi. A dinner hosted by CPM leader Somnath Chatterjee in New Delhi early this week apparently signalled a thaw in the relations between Congress president Sonia Gandhi and Samajwadi leader Mulayam Singh Yadav. Mr Pawar, popularly known as the Maratha Warrior, too attended the dinner — his first brush with Mrs Gandhi ever since he left the Congress after having raised the issue of her foreign origin in 1999. Mr Pawar, through his party MP, Mr Praful Patel, took the opportunity of inviting her to his birthday. It was expected that if Mrs Gandhi accepted Mr Pawar’s invitation and attended the bash, it would be a “political statement”. And now that Mrs Gandhi has changed her decision, it is viewed that it would still be the same — a different political statement. It is not clear whether Mrs Gandhi’s refusal to attend Mr Pawar’s bash indicates that there is no let-up yet in their hostility. However, another event that is also being watched with great interest is the guest list for the Iftaar party being hosted by Mrs Gandhi on December 11. If it is true that Mrs Gandhi is planning to invite all the floor leaders of the Lok Sabha except those of the BJP and the Shiv Sena, then Mr Pawar should necessarily be an invitee in the normal course. But whether Mrs Gandhi will invite Mr Pawar and the latter will attend the same are two nagging questions. |
Protecting the Fourth Estate Of late the media has been bearing the brunt of hostilities between the DMK and the AIADMK and getting caught in the crossfire. A spate of attacks on media people took place in Tamil Nadu just before and after the dramatic arrest of former Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi earlier this year. The Press Council of India set up a five-member fact-finding committee on the police attacks on journalists in Tamil Nadu. The committee, comprising of Mr Hari Jaisingh (Chairman), Mr Pratap Bhai T Shah, Mr Indrajit Mohanty, Mr Vijay Darda and Mr R Venkataraman, has said in its 22-page report prepared on November 15, 2001 that the nodal authorities needed to safeguard the functional freedom and dignity of working journalists “in a pro-active manner.” The committee has made some very thoughtful recommendations and observations which need to be given a close look. The committee has given some important recommendations for ensuring freedom of the Press as follows: * Study of the arrests without warrant made during the last few months. * The Supreme Court should be approached to issue suitable instructions to all courts to ensure that the directions issued in the Joginder Kumar and D K Basu cases regarding arrest and detention are invariably complied with both in letter and in spirit. The committee has suggested that the Government of India should initiate and complete steps to bring the criminal laws in India in tune with the constitutional provisions and the pronouncements of the Supreme Court; and restructure the law enforcement system in line with a democratic polity totally independent of political and other interference as obtaining in advanced democracies of the world. To quote the committee report: “Of course, the freedom of the Press is not an end in itself. It has to be practised with a sense of responsibility. Ironically, the media may itself be somewhat responsible for the contemptuous way it is being treated. The fact is that over-hyping and pandering of politicians in the media gives them a larger-than-life image, which they do not deserve. Besides, it sends the wrong signals to the public that those in power or those manoeuvring for power are the lords and masters since even their petty words and actions are given huge publicity through news stories, reports and visuals. This gives the ‘ruling class’ a sense of arrogance and the feeling that they are above the law as they are not accountable to anybody.” The committee has some words of advice for journalists themselves, the Press Council and the government. For journalists, its advice is to write truthfully, logically, critically, objectively, freely and fearlessly on matters of public interest. Journalists should not be biased and should show mettle to be above the pulls and counter-pulls of political groups and parties which ultimately create problems for journalists as well. The committee has given some important recommendations for ensuring freedom of the Press and protecting journalists’ right: * Directions should be given by the state home department to all police stations to provide adequate security to all accredited journalists. * Mass media handling should be introduced as a full-fledged subject in the training programme for the policemen. * If any FIR is filed against any accredited journalist it should be made obligatory that a journalists’ union or association or guild or any such body be informed of his arrest. Practices like selective arrests, preventive detentions and foisting false cases should be done away with. * Some form of identification of a journalist such as bands could be introduced, especially for use during coverage of protest rallies, riots, internal disturbances etc. * Adequate compensation be given to all journalists who sustained injuries, lost equipment, cameras, both still and video, and mobile phones and other equipment used for news coverage. * Managements of all media organisations should take out comprehensive risk insurance policies for all their journalist employees. |
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A more humane vision of life “God’s in His heaven — All’s right with the world”, wrote Robert Browning. This was an eloquent expression of the poet’s faith in the divine scheme of things. It filled the poet with hope and optimism. Browning’s faith was rooted in the benevolent power of God and divinity in man — the divine spark that comes from no source other than God. Divinity, he believed, was the core of human life. Saints and sages have confirmed this belief in the divine plan. The divine plan is a perfect world order based on love, harmony, peace and universal brotherhood. Then who has marred the perfection of this world? Who is responsible for the misery and suffering on earth? In spite of all progress, man still remains in search of happiness and peace. Worship of Mammon has resulted in corruption, degradation and hypocrisy in human affairs. Divinity in man has not found expression in his thoughts, words and deeds. It is hidden under layers of ignorance. This ignorance is the root cause of all sins and evils in this world. Chaos, disharmony and disorder are at variance with the divine plan and purpose. Evil and sin are the perversion of divinity, truth and goodness. Misery and suffering have been caused by man’s disobedience to the laws of God. Man is out of tune with nature — the life force that sustains this universe and unites all into one creative whole, William Wordsworth was deeply grieved “to think what man has made of man”. The poet with his deep spiritual insight, took full cognisance of ‘nature’s holy plan’. He believed that it was man’s natural state to be in tune with this plan and come into oneness with his own divinity. This was man’s true destiny and end of all human quest. Paul Tillich identifies man’s basic predicament in this world as existential estrangement from his essential being, an estrangement which is often expressed in a feeling of meaninglessness and futility of life, sometimes a gnawing awareness of alienation from the divine source. We often feel a turmoil in our souls. This turmoil will not cease until we know ourselves and link with the divine source. Man without divinity is rudderless and lost. ‘Know thyself was the motto of Socrates and it was permanently inscribed on the famous temple of Apollo at Delphi. Our scriptures tell us that man has been created in the image of God. He has to take full cognisance of his spiritual heritage and potential in order to progress in the true sense and grow in love and creativity. He has to seek refuge in God and identify himself with the divine plan and purpose to become a better player in the game of life. He has to exude peace and goodwill. Unfortunately man has yet to realise the futility of discord, hatred, jealousy and bigotry. He has to shun war and realise that it is ugly and destructive. War often involves both the parties in mutual ruin. It has no victors and no losers. It was Euripides who made the victors weep with the Trojans they had slain. Unfortunately war has been glorified. Some have described it as a necessary evil. Divinity constitutes love, which is an intelligent force, a dynamic principle working in this world. Divinity opens up infinite possibilities of peace, happiness and fulfilment. This awareness leads to a more humane vision of life. It leads to a greater love for God and fellow beings. Life acquires a new meaning and purpose for a divinity-inspired person. It helps him in facing the vicissitudes of daily life with courage, conviction, confidence and fortitude. It awakens the power of perception to grasp the mysteries of life. It is through divinity that a man discovers his hidden talents and rises to his best potentialities. Soul is the storehouse of all knowledge. It contains the secret of all intelligence and wisdom. As Walt Whitman has rightly put it, ‘Wisdom is not finally tested in schools. Wisdom cannot be passed from one having it to another not having it. Wisdom is of the soul; it is not susceptible of proof; man has to recognise the essence of his own being through a constant spiritual endeavour. His foremost aim in life is to kindle the divine spark in him into a divine flame of light and love. Therein lies his true destiny. It is the only way to establish a happier, healthier and more harmonious life on this earth. The current worldwide upsurge in the field of spirituality is a progressive and a positive sign which fills us with optimism. The new century is waiting for the resurrection of the divinity in man that would lead to a new dawn in human affairs, a new world order based on love, harmony, peace and brotherhood. All human beings will share a bond that will cut across the boundaries of race, religion, caste or creed. Triumph of the human spirit is going to be the hallmark of the new century. This will be a time when the deadlock between science and religion will end. Secularisation has outlived its value. Cut and dried values of science and technology will have to be subordinated to a new set of moral and ethical values. Love among nations will be recognised as the prime factor in human progress. Divinity in man will triumph. Divine plan will prevail. |
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Orissa woman ostracised for selling sex for survival Hunger has ravaged her life over and over again. It pushed Nura Gahir’s family into debt, widowed her and even made her sell some of her five children. Now it has led her village in Orissa to ostracise her, turning a blind eye to the circumstances that led to her unwanted pregnancy. Gahir of Barpan village in Bolangir district, about 430 km from the state capital Bhubaneswar, is eight months pregnant, carrying the child of a man she sold her body to so she could eat one square meal a day. Gahir has been battling hunger since her husband Tulsi starved to death on December 29, 1996. She suddenly became the sole provider for five children — daughter Sanju (8) and sons Rohit (9), Gopal (7), Mithun (3) and Nanda (1). “We had one acre of cultivable land, a house and a pair of bovines before my husband died,” Gahir, 33, told IANS. “But the drought and the crop failure crippled us financially. We were forced to mortgage our land for Rs. 1,500. After that my husband became a daily wage earner.” But Tulsi couldn’t find a steady job and had to mortgage their home for Rs. 500. Their inability to repay the debt resulted in their land being seized. Finally, Tulsi died of hunger. That’s when Gahir sold Rohit for Rs. 2,000 to a moneylender. “I pleaded with the local administration for help,” Gahir recounts. “Initially they gave me a package comprising 10 kg of rice and some unstitched cloth. Later some officials visited us and gave some cash, but that did not last long.” She told a House committee of the Orissa assembly how she sold Rohit, after which the state family welfare department and a non-government agency gave her Rs. 5,000 each. But Gahir claims her in-laws swindled the money. “Finally I sold my two sons to some local landlords and sent the other two as contract labourers... I went to Raipur town in Madhya Pradesh with my (now) five-year-old child Nanda to earn a livelihood,” she says. “I did not get any work. I was compelled to take to prostitution for one square meal. In that process I got pregnant again.”
IANS Pakistani diplomat’s daughter flees ‘abusive’ parents The 15-year-old daughter of a Pakistani diplomat in Germany has fled her parents, reportedly saying they abused her for having an affair with a boy and were forcing her to go back to Pakistan. A Berlin court is expected to rule in the second week of December on whether the right of custody should be denied to her parents and the Pakistani girl, currently lodged in a children’s home, should be permitted to remain in Germany. The father, who is attached to the Pakistani Embassy in Berlin, would like his daughter to be sent back to Pakistan but the girl refuses to do so. According to the girl, her father had hit her, locked her up at home for weeks and, in the end, even threatened to subject her to stoning in Pakistan. The girl, whose name is not being revealed by the German authorities because she is a minor, is said to have had a clandestine affair with a boy of her age in Berlin. By running away from her father, according to the Muslim law, she had committed a “sin.” The Pakistani embassy in Berlin declined comment when IANS contacted it for comments. The story of “Sultana” — German papers are calling her by this fictitious name in order to protect her - has become a hot topic here. Sultana’s lawyer Erhard Montag, however, has been talking uninhibitedly to the media, saying the girl’s return to Pakistan could even “seriously endanger her life” which would not be the case if she stayed in Berlin.
IANS |
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The cow is a poem of pity... Protection of the cow means protection of the whole dumb creation of God.... The cow is the purest type of sub-human species for justice to it at the hands of man.... She seems to speak to us through her eyes: “You are not appointed over us to kill us and eat our flesh or otherwise ill-treat us, but to be our friend and guardian.” Cow protection to me is one of the most wonderful phenomena in human evolution.... Man through the cow is enjoined to realise his identity with all that lives. Why the cow was selected for apotheosis is obvious to me. The cow was in India the best companion. She was the giver of plenty. Not only did she give milk, but she also made agriculture possible. My religion teaches me that I should by personal conduct instil into the minds of those who might hold different views, the conviction that cow-killing is a sin and that, therefore, it ought to be abandoned. Cow protection to me is not mere protection of the cow. It means protection of all that lives and is helpless and weak in the world. Where there is ahimsa, there is infinite patience, inner calm, discrimination, self-sacrifice and true knowledge. — Mahatma Gandhi,
Young India, October 6, 1921; June 26, 1925; September 15, 1940; January 29, 1925; May 7, 1925;
Harijan, August 31, 1947. * * * Meditate on the Name so long as you have the youth and life. — Sri Guru Granth Sahib,
Sri Rag M 4, page 82 * * * Those who know how to purify grain and water and cook in a proper manner and exclude meat from their food become energetic. — Rig Veda, Mandala 1:162; M.12 * * * Go, the cow is a symbol of the earth, the nourisher, the ever-giving, undemanding provider. To the Hindu, all animals are sacred, and we acknowledge this reverence of life in our special affection for the gentle cow. — Satguru
Sivaya, Subramuniyaswami, Dancing with Shiva * * * The world is bound by action, other than action done for the sake of sacrifice; with such object, free from attachment, O son of Kunti, perform thou action. — The Bhagavadgita, III.9 |
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