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Thursday,
December 20, 2001, Chandigarh, India  
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Unity wins the day Cell phone bonanza Behnji's Samaj Party |
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2001 — the year in retrospect
Kurds and their cinema
Towards preserving peace
Christmas truce flutters in Nagaland air
Poonam of Amritsar can hoot like an owl
1953, Literature: WINSTON CHURCHILL
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Unity wins the day Reason – egged on by a grim realisation – returned to national politics and a strong sense of unity emerged at the end of the two-day debate in the Lok Sabha on the December 13 terrorist attack. True, there were a few discordant notes and also irrelevant references. But largely the speeches were crisp, thoughtful and reflecting a new determination. The one to be highly influenced was Prime Minister Vajpayee. Buoyed up by this rare show of oneness he scaled down the idea of hot pursuit, making it one of the options available to the government. First, he was responding to the views of MPs who expressed reservations about starting a war even if it were a limited one. Two, as is well known, the Army top brass is not very enthusiastic since fighting in the mountains in mid-winter is not a picnic. Three, there is mounting international pressure to act with restraint, showing increasing support to the country’s case and an armed foray will reverse this. Finally, operation Taliban is in its last lap and in a few days Pakistan’s relevance in this will be over, restoring India’s manoeuvrability. As security specialists have pointed out, the trick is to sit out the ongoing US attack but keep the December 13 terrorist event on the global radar screen. This is by and large the national consensus and the government has bowed to it. The powerful proof came when it decided not to introduce POTO in this session and wait for the budget session. The Prime Minister had a pointed dig at the USA. That country is repeatedly asking India to show restraint even while granting it the right to act in self-defence. Mr Vajpayee saw in this conflicting interpretations of terrorism and also a veiled accusation that this country is acting impulsively. He called on all the restraint-wallahs to spare some time to send the same message to Pakistan. Without naming Pakistan, he warned that country to rein in those terrorists who target the very symbol of democracy in India. Democracy is an emotive word and the West will find it difficult not to act. The notable speeches of the day came from NCP leader Sharad Pawar and Mrs Sonia Gandhi. Mr Pawar wanted the MPs and Ministers to be less egotistical and give preference to the imperatives of security. They should, in other words, be willing to be stopped and searched. Mrs Gandhi offered solidarity with the government in whatever it decided to do. She entered a caveat
though. Nobody should look for political gains from this traumatic event. She has the UP Assembly election in mind which the BJP wanted to win by the ban on SIMI and POTO. Both are now lifeless. Will a well-timed hot pursuit revive its chances? A dicey question that. |
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Cell phone bonanza Users of cellular phones are set to reap a rich harvest of competition. Private cellular operators have announced that they are cutting STD charges on mobile-to-mobile calls by 50 per cent with effect from January 26. More than 80 per cent of the country’s 5.2 million cellular phone owners will benefit. This windfall is the result of the coming into play of India’s first private long-distance network. On Monday Mr Sunil Mittal’s Bharti Telesonic shook things up by announcing its entry into the domestic long distance services by offering cellular and basic phone companies connectivity to its nationwide network at “deep discounts”, which are believed to be 50 per cent lower than those charged by BSNL/MTNL. And that is not the end of it. Much more is in the offing. Cell-to-cell STD rates can come down even further as more operators join in. The proposed entry of Reliance Infocom in the national long distance sector as a separate entity will reduce prices further. Of course, the entire package has to be cleared by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) but considering its previous statements, that should not be too much of a problem. What is noteworthy is that the operators have not only sunk their differences but have also agreed to pass on the tariff benefits to the subscribers. The move has stirred up the BSNL as well and it is expected to announce equally substantial rate cuts in the days to come. Now that the first step has been taken, the government ought to go the whole distance in allowing an open and flexible inter-connect regime. Insiders reveal that STD calls can be made from point to point for as little as Rs 5 per minute if only the Department of Telecom were not in the picture. It very much is and it is high time it woke up to the reality that a larger volume would be in its own interest as well. The next logical step is to rationalise the STD rates on calls from cell to fixed phones. In this era of convergence it is imperative that an inter-connect agreement is signed between Bharti, BSNL, private fixed line operators and mobile operators. The Reliance entry is more or less certain. At present the DoT does not permit direct connectivity between cellular players in adjacent circles. Once such restrictions are lifted, the tariff structure will become even more attractive. Bharti Telesonic has aptly named its long distance network “IndiaOne”. |
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Behnji's Samaj Party Mr Kanshi Ram last week merely formalised an arrangement that has existed within the Bahujan Samaj Party ever since it became a potent political force in Uttar Pradesh. There are essentially two aspects of the announcement that need to be analysed. One is the strange and disturbing paradox of the world's largest democracy being in the hands of the political outfits that have no respect for inner-party democracy. The BSP was founded and nurtured by Mr Kanshi Ram with the specific objective of making the large Dalit population capture political power. Initially he was the undisputed leader of the party founded by him. However, age and ill-health made him give more responsibilities to Ms Mayawati. As of today "Behnji", as she is called by the party cadre, is virtually the undisputed leader of the BSP with Mr Kanshi Ram making the odd guest appearance, primarily for reassuring his Dalit flock that he was still technically the boss. This boss culture is not confined to the BSP. The post-Nehru Congress was the first to abandon the process of party elections. Party elections reduced to a mere ritual with Indira Gandhi picking and dumping leaders and office-bearers for reinforcing her hold on the Congress. The Left parties, of course, had their own logic for not allowing direct election of office-bearers. The Bharatiya Janata Party is among the outfits that have maintained the facade of practising inner-party democracy. The Rashtriya Janata Dal in Bihar, the Samajwadi Party in UP, the Akali Dal in Punjab, the Indian National Lok Dal in Haryana, the two Dravida parties in Tamil Nadu and the Telugu Desam in Andhra Pradesh too do not believe in democratic functioning. Can Indian democracy be safe for long in the hands of parties that have openly encouraged the concept of a "supreme leader" who is accountable to no one? The second aspect concerns the timing of the announcement. A section of the BSP was reportedly creating problems for Ms Mayawati in UP by questioning her authority in the absence of a clear directive from the "supreme leader" about her position and authority in the party's hierarchy. With assembly elections in the politically most crucial state due in February next year, it was necessary for him to nip the mischief in the bud before it blossomed into an open revolt against Behnji. Mr Kanshi Ram's formal announcement that Ms Mayawati would be his successor in the BSP should effectively take care of the aspirations of the restless elements that are not happy with her style of functioning. Of course, the BSP is not the only party that has in the past resorted to the questionable practice of putting its MLAs under virtual house arrest to stop them from deserting the party. However, Ms Mayawati's projection of herself as a cut above the rest, as exemplified by the seating arrangements at party functions addressed by her, has often been questioned by her own colleagues. They have argued the BSP was formed primarily for fighting upper caste oppression of the Dalits and giving to them a place of respect and dignity in the polity. But Ms Mayawati's style of functioning has remained unchanged. |
2001 — the year in retrospect Human beings invariably shed their innocence and grow up before they reach the age of 50. But even after five decades of Independence can we really claim that we are not perceived as romantic, unrealistic, bleeding heart liberals, especially when it comes to dealing with our adversaries? We started this year in the midst of a much- trumpeted “moratorium on offensive operations” by our security forces in Jammu and Kashmir. This was accompanied by an ill-advised effort to bring the separatist Hurriyat Conference to the political and diplomatic centre-stage. We gave the Hurriyat’s so-called leaders a high media profile and even encouraged them to believe that they would serve as the focal point of our efforts not only to bring peace to the valley but also to build bridges to the architect of the Kargil conflict, General Pervez Musharraf. Not surprisingly, this effort, based on naïve and unrealistic assumptions, led to a deterioration of the security situation in Jammu and Kashmir. The casualties inflicted on our security forces increased, the killings of terrorists decreased, our intelligence assets were targeted and separatist elements in the Kashmir valley were elated. All this was taking place even as terrorists of the Lashkar-e-Toiba were attacking the very heart of our Capital, the Red Fort in Delhi. When the “moratorium on offensive operations” could no longer be sustained, we embarked on yet another romanticised adventure. The redoubtable General Musharraf, who till then was totally isolated internationally, was invited to pay an official visit to India, to be received with the full ceremonials accorded to a Head of Government. General Musharraf seized the opportunity to proclaim himself President of Pakistan and descended on Delhi and Agra like a conquering hero. He brazenly courted the separatist Hurriyat leaders and then proceeded to sermonise us about the virtues of his policies of “bleeding” India. He is said to have proclaimed to his near and dear ones on his return that his hosts are indisciplined and directionless and that “we can beat them”. What General Musharraf had, however, not bargained for was what the Americans now refer to as “9/11” — the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington. The world came crashing down on Pakistan’s quest for strategic depth in Afghanistan. The General was soon compelled to join in America’s campaign against his Taliban allies. In the process, around 8000 Pakistanis have been killed or missing in Afghanistan, a development that is going to have serious domestic implications within Pakistan. New Delhi’s response to the events of “9/11” has been marked by maturity and a welcome sense of realism. Despite some bleating by our bleeding heart liberals and the irrelevant and anachronistic anti-Americanism in sections of our political establishment, the Vajpayee government deserves full praise for the manner in which it decisively chose to support Mr George Bush’s war against terrorism. Subsequent events have demonstrated the wisdom of this approach. The virulently anti-Indian Taliban regime has been replaced by an administration that is friendly to India. Credit also should be given to the manner in which we moved in to assist in the reconstruction of Afghanistan and ensured that we became a low-key player in the international arena in the unfolding events in Afghanistan. The appointment of the suave and professionally savvy Satinder Lambah as special envoy for Afghanistan was a welcome and timely initiative. It is, however, important that we should not view our role in Afghanistan in narrow, Pakistan-focused terms. We are today in the unique position of sharing a common interest with the USA, the Russian Federation, the European Union, China, Iran and Afghanistan’s Central Asian neighbours in political stability and reconstruction of post-Taliban Afghanistan. Our shared aim should be to work for peace, prosperity and the economic reconstruction of post-Taliban Afghanistan. One sincerely hopes and prays that the people of Afghanistan should not again become pawns in any “Great Game” of external powers. The effect of the recent developments in Afghanistan has been devastating for General Musharraf. The passage of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1373 challenges his justification of his support for jihad in Jammu and Kashmir. More and more Pakistani organisations are coming under international scrutiny. Pakistanis, including unfortunately, eminent personalities like the world-renowned author Ahmed Rashid, now face the indignity of being detained and questioned at international airports. Across the world, Pakistan is today synonymous with international terrorism. Despite this, the army establishment in Pakistan still believes that its status as a “frontline state” will enable it to continue its jihad against India. This is evident from the recent comments of General Musharraf’s predecessor, General Jehangir Karamat, who has averred that there will be no let up in Pakistan’s support for so-called “freedom fighters” in Jammu and Kashmir. The Pakistan Army is not yet prepared to dilute or give up its efforts to “bleed” India. The attack on the Srinagar Legislative Assembly on October 1 and on the Parliament complex in New Delhi on December 13 should be seen in this light. The Lashkar-e-Toiba and the Jaish-e-Mohammad have been advised to assume new names and refrain from acknowledging their terrorist activities. They will, however, not be restrained from continuing on their present path. We should, therefore, carefully piece together the evidence we have and present details of how Pakistan is promoting terrorist activities in India to the International community. This should be done immediately on the events of December 13. We also need to expose how criminal, terrorist elements like Dawood Ebrahim and his gang are now being feted in Pakistan. The international community should also be given details of Pakistan’s continuing involvement with terrorist groups, and the haven they have provided to the hijackers of IC 814. While General Musharraf and his colleagues may claim that Jammu and Kashmir is their “core” agenda, we need to factually establish that their real agenda is the destabilisation of a democratic, secular and pluralistic India. General Musharraf is today cornered both internationally and domestically. A recent opinion poll in Pakistan showed that whereas Ms Benazir Bhutto and Mr Nawaz Sharif enjoyed the support of 38 per cent and 20 per cent of those polled, the General’s support was barely 9 per cent. We should, therefore, avoid doing anything that gives Pakistan’s discredited military establishment sympathy or support. We still have several diplomatic cards to play. After all, what Indian national interest is served by permitting Pakistan to have a jumbo-sized diplomatic mission in India with over 100 staffers, of whom over 80 per cent are from the ISI? Can we not express our displeasure by recalling our High Commissioner? If Pakistan refuses to honour the provisions of the Simla Agreement should we continue to adhere to the provisions of the Indus Waters Treaty? Why should Prime Minister Vajpayee sit together with General Musharraf in the SAARC summit at Kathmandu if the latter refuses to act against those who organised the carnage on December 13? If he stalls and refuses to bring to book those who authored the outrage of December 13, we can always utilise the strategic space we have for military options in a measured, surgical, proportionate and internationally justifiable manner at a time and place of our choosing. The year 2002 will be one of both challenges and opportunities for India. But if we are to succeed, we will necessarily have to avoid the naiveté and wooly headedness that characterises the thinking of our so-called liberals, self-styled intellectuals and sections of our media. |
Kurds and their cinema Araz Rashid’s story is almost ordinary. A Kurd born in Iraq and raised in an illiterate family, he left his homeland in 1982 to escape the Iran-Iraq war, like a million of his compatriots. He built a new life for himself in Sweden. But that is where the story stops being ordinary. In his new Scandinavian setting, Rashid learnt how to make films. He went to the USA to push his art further and, back in Sweden, he had only one desire: to return to his homeland and shoot a movie about his people in his own language, Sorani, one of two major Kurdish dialects. Rashid saved as much of his own money as he could and headed down to the city of Suleymaniye, in Kurdish-dominated southern Iraq. The task was to prove more difficult than anything he had expected: there were no laboratories to develop his film after days of shooting, no Sorani-speaking cinema professionals to work with, and no film actors. “In cinema, Kurdistan is the desert,” he says. After a prolonged hunt, he found three theatre actors willing to try the big screen — and a handful of generous villagers to play the main characters. “But it remained difficult because I was shooting all my footage and I could not look at it every night like you usually do in order to see if some things are missing. I was lucky though — all the parts came together in the end,” Rashid told Gemini News Service during a recent festival of Kurdish films in London. Rashid’s Burning Paradise was released in 1999, but he thinks he won’t shoot another movie in his homeland until it is possible to work there professionally with other Kurds. The efforts of Rashid and other Kurdish filmmakers such as Bhaman Ghobadi are paying off. The first Kurdish film festival was held in London in October. Organised by the Britain-based Kurdish Diaspora, it brought together more than 15 directors and hundreds of filmgoers. Kurdish people, numbering some 20-25 million, are subjected to all forms of discrimination in the four countries they inhabit — Turkey, Iraq, Iran and Syria. In Turkey, propagation of the Kurdish language and culture continues to be banned. The Kurdish regions of these four countries, plus a thin sliver of southern Armenia, are together described as “Kurdistan”. About one million Kurds live abroad, mostly in Europe and the USA. Row over state burial Thirty-eight years after independence the Kenyan government is under pressure to give a man the British colonial government hanged in 1958 for terrorism a state burial. “Field Marshal” Dedan Kimathi was leader of the Mau Mau, the guerrilla movement that fought against the British colonial government. The Mau Mau operated from forest bases in this East African nation in the 1950s before it was crushed in 1959. Kenya won its independence four years later. “We want the government to recognise the role played by Kimathi,” says Mr Adolf Muchiri, a Kenyan legislator who is pushing the matter in Parliament. “Time has come for us to recognise the role played by Kimathi in liberating this country.” But the Kenyan government under President Daniel arap Moi has said that Kimathi — dubbed a terrorist by the British although he remains a hero to ex-freedom fighters — will not be granted a state burial and his family will not be handed over his body. His remains are in an unmarked grave somewhere inside Kamiti Maximum Prison, some 21 km north-east of the Kenyan capital, Nairobi. “The law clearly prohibits the exhumation of a prisoner’s body for reburial outside the prison premises and unless that law is changed Kimathi’s body will remain in Kamiti prison,” says Wycliff Osundwa, an assistant minister in the President’s office. But there’s another problem — nobody knows where the grave is. For four years now, pressure has been mounting on the British government to indicate where they buried Kimathi, but still no official word has been received. Kenyan historians maintain that the British carried away all the documents relating to the Mau Mau war after independence. “They know where the grave is, they are just playing poker with us,” says Kenyan Mau Mau researcher Maina wa Kinyatti, a history professor at the State University of New Jersey in USA. Kenyan papers have now picked up the issue. The Daily Nation, East Africa’s largest circulating newspaper, asked: “Is there any good reason why the government has not acted on this issue for nearly 38 years since we attained independence from Britain? “The story of Dedan Kimathi is one shameful commentary on how badly we treat our heroes.” |
Towards preserving peace Throughout ages, there is hardly a prophet or saint who has not condemned violence and war and preached the gospel of peace, amity and goodwill. The second world war was fought by the Allied powers claiming that it was the war to end all wars, but peace has remained a perpetual dream. The twentieth century has been called the most violent and turbulent era in the history of humankind when two world wars were fought and violence continued to erupt in different parts of the world at short intervals. No country has ever acknowledged that it fights an unjust war. All claim to fight a righteous war for the good of humanity. The question is whether war itself is ever just or moral. On this issue, we were generally evasive. This evasiveness rests on the assumption that what is right is a matter of individual opinion, a purely subjective matter. But it must be emphasised that no society can survive unless it is held together by standards that transcend the individual, and are cherished, sustained and internalised across the generations. Without safeguarding the values such as peace, goodwill and sympathy there is no possibility of preserving individual liberty and social cohesion. It is by these values that we can build up healthy traditions of conduct for the good of all which is a cementing force for constructive human relationship. Education has been regarded for long a key for the diffusion of values and a panacea of human values. Despite advancement of humankind in several creative and moral spheres, man’s propensity to violence has not diminished. A poet had rightly said, ‘what man has made of man!? The perennial question facing is how to mitigate and fight evil and bring about happiness to the suffering. George Bernard Shaw had said that happiness is for the brute. John Stuart Mill thought that an unhappy Socrates is far better than a contented pig. Bertrand Russell wrote a very popular book ‘The Conquest of Happiness’ in which he identified some negative attributes of human beings which require to be curbed by self-discipline for happiness such as anger, jealousy, ambition, illwill, though in his own life Russell sought happiness, found none but only anguish. Mahatma Gandhi was a firm and convinced believer in non-violence, the weapon he used for fighting the British for the freedom of India. When his colleagues, Jawaharlal Nehru, Abul Kalam Azad and C. Rajagopalachari wanted to support the British during the Second World War on the condition of granting some constitutional advancement, Gandhi protested and threatened to break with them. He advised the British to disarm themselves and fight the Germans non-violently. According to Gandhi, the Bhagavad Gita was an allegory that engage itself with the bable of the soul and the power that strives within us for perfection. It is thus the inword growth and development that is built up to wrestle with the manifold problems of life. It is clear from Gandhi’s works that he did not consider the Mahabharta war necessary as it did not serve any purpose because the Kauravas were destroyed and the Pandavas had to go to the Himalayas to seek the bliss of peace. Gandhi appears to take the side of Arjuna rather than that of Krishna who had compelled his disciple to war. Gandhi firmly believed that the collective suffering of a large number of people by fighting non-violently would awaken public consciousness and act as a compelling force on the perpetrators of violence to abandon their nefarious plans and activities and follow the path of truth and justice. Such a line of action is generally regarded by people as sheer idealism in the topsy turvy world. Socrates and Jesus Christ had died as martyrs for the values they devoutedly cherished. Guru Arjun Dev and Guru Teg Bahadur were men of great conviction who refused to swerve from their principles and sacrificed their lives for truth and justice. Madan Lal Dhingra and Bhagat Singh died smilingly, on the gallows for the cause of India’s freedom. The history of martyrdom throughout the ages, a fascinating study in itself, inspiring admiration, still awaits a historian. Thus, one way to fight evil is the message of non-violence preached and expounded by the Buddha, Christ and Gandhi and scores of saints and sages throughout the ages. Non-violence is the way to be used to fight evil through means of passive resistance without using any physical force. By no means non-violence is sectarian ethics, but a religion of humanity. But there are a large number of people in the world who consider this method of non-violence absolutely inadequate to fight the forces of violence. It is argued from the opposite angle that great problems of the world are not resolved by pious resolution by force at times, particularly in self-protection. In the Bhagavad Gita, Lord Krishna was convinced that there was no other way to restore peace except by destroying the Kauravas who were hell-bent on annihilating all norms of civilised behaviour. Arjuna, the prince-warrior, faltered and dithered, but Krishna by force of his logic and divine manifestation pushed him into war. Krishna realised that what the social order required was not only the spirituality of mind and soul, ascetic unworldiness, and detachment, but strong action to curb the abuse of power perpetrated by the Kauravas. Centuries later, Guru Gobind Singh, following Krishna’s model of Bhakti (spirituality) and Shakti (power) unleashed such powerful forces in Punjab as to stem the tides of Afghan invasions leading to the restoration of social and political order in Punjab. No social order without stable political system is possible in the world. Any social union, for less cohesion, without political stability is like friendship without devotion, and religion without metaphysics. There has never been any state of society in the world in which collision did not take place between the immediate interests and powerful sections of the people. President Bush’s war to fight the terrorists poses certain basic problems. Of course, the Buddha, Christ and Gandhi lived in different worlds. What advice would they have given to meet the present crisis in Afghanistan where innocent lives are lost everyday. It is a new world, and a different age. Will the passive non-violent way meet the onslaught of the terrorists? Possibly Christ and Gandhi might have brought suffering on themselves by dying voluntarily through fasts. Or is the Krishna or the Guru Gobind way to wage war to the finish, by combining the spiritual and mighty muscle power: This is the predicament that exasperates us. What is the answer? It is not the mere existence of unusual criminals that has ravaged the world; for the arrangements of society (whether national or international) ought always to presume that some of these will be lurking somewhere. Evil exists in the world because there is a terrible discrepancy between high human ideals set by philosophers and saints and actual possibilities. Unless this chasm is filled, there seems a remote possibility of preserving peace in the world. Though martyrdom has stolen a march on power, it has remained ineffectual concerning the nature of man and the structure of the historical universe. Short of the conversion of all men and the harnessing of human capability itself, what is required is we should steal a march on power by force of human reason and spiritual strength. Our object ought to be not to fight or kill but to save men who somehow seem to have become the victims of diabolical agencies. And this is possible not only through ideological diplomacy, but by setting up an international order based on amity, peace and goodwill. |
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Christmas truce flutters in Nagaland air A powerful Christian tribal separatist group in the northeastern state of Nagaland has announced a month-long ceasefire from Wednesday to enable the people to celebrate Christmas and New
Year. “With Christmas and the New Year approaching, the Naga army will strictly bind themselves towards suspension of military operations and take to the defensive front,” said Kitovi Zhimomi, leader of the S.S. Khaplang faction of the outlawed National Socialist Council of Nagaland (NSCN) in a statement. The state has been racked by a 54-year-old violent bush war with two rival factions of the NSCN waging a separatist campaign for an independent tribal homeland. The two NSCN factions, the other led by guerrilla leaders Isak Chishi Swu and Thuingaleng Muivah, have also been engaged in a violent turf war since the group split in 1988 over territorial supremacy. Some of the violence is related to inter-tribal warfare due to rivalry between some of Nagaland’s 17 main tribes and 20 sub-tribes. At least 25,000 people have lost their lives in conflict in Nagaland since India’s independence in 1947. Both the NSCN groups have entered into a ceasefire with the federal government and have held several rounds of peace talks. The NSCN (Khaplang) statement urged its rival group to “stop hostilities” during the celebrations in the Christian majority Nagaland
state. IANS |
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Poonam of Amritsar can hoot like an owl Poonam Sharma, a third year undergraduate student of Amritsar, can hoot like an owl, copy the sounds of other birds and “speak in the voice” of silver screen personalities. The prodigy has won college and state level awards. Poonam loves it when people enjoy what she can produce as also confuse her with somebody else. She took to mimicry as a child, playing pranks on her family members who soon found out her innate capacity. Later, at a talent search contest in her school two years ago, the merit formally recognised. In Punjabi it’s called “suwang”, which means bringing forth different voices and tones. One aspect is “astonics” in which one acts and copies a particular person. Their style of walking and other facets are reproduced. Describing her experience on the stage during a state-level competition, Poonam said that it was the most memorable moment of her life. “There were seven boys and I was the only girl member from Punjab state”, said the young artiste. “It was a great feeling when people admired my performance and said I had a good chance of standing first. And when I went to take my prize, the crowd was so excited that they started beating drums. I was on top of the world”, Poonam added.
ANI Chhattisgarh villagers look for new pastures Chhattisgarh state looks like a deserted village. Majority of farmers have migrated to neighbouring areas in search of new pastures, the main reason being the end of the harvesting season. The farmers are employed only during the Kharif season which lasts only four months. For eight months they are forced to work as labourers to look after their families. The state government claims to have started relief works to prevent migration, but the villagers say it never lasts long and finally they are forced to migrate to cities for a better future. Pardesi Ram Dhruv, sarpanch, says: “People are migrating, 25 per cent have laready migrated because there is no rain, and therefore, no work and no earning”. The labourers are helpless and have no alternative to moving out. Dukhram, a farm labourer, said, “Lot of people have migrated because there is no work. We all have families and cannot leave them to die of hunger”.
ANI Wrong way for a right cause She is not an elite, for whom forming NGOs for upliftment of the poor and the downtrodden is a status symbol. She is not a whimsical wealthy widow, who befriends the poor just to get rid of the banality of a luxurious lifestyle. Nor is she a social reformer who would be remembered for ages. She is Bobbey Das who has adopted a bad way for a good cause. It is difficult to believe that crime and social service can go together, but Bobbey has made it possible. Bobbey does not collect donations to take care of her nine adopted kids, except one, but instead sells marijuana for this nobel cause. She runs a small pan shop on the platform of the Guwahati Railway Station, where she also sells marijuana. Interestingly, everybody knows about it, including the administration and the police. But she has never been troubled by either of them. Those who know that she is a pot seller also know the responsibility she has towards her children. Bobbey says, “Everybody, including the police, knows that I sell pot, but I fear none. Because I don’t want to buy a car or construct a building by selling pot”. “My intention is to look after the children that I have adopted. My man died 50 years ago. Since then I have been doing this business. Even my family members know about it”, she added.
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God has a broad back; If you have burden Let him take it from you. When you burn with the fire of anger, smoke gets in your eyes. If we realise that wars are born in the minds of men we would make greater efforts for peace of mind. A man with a bad temper is really angry with himself. Keep humility as your armour. Apply a full stop to unproductive thoughts, feelings and actions of yesterday, so that not a trace of them remains. To have fear means that I am danger to myself as well as to others. When people cannot stand you because they do not understand you, God will stand by you. — From Thought for Today (A Brahmakumaris’ publication) *** Man is ever agitated under the influence of the triple tendencies of inactivity (sattwa), activity (rajas), and inactivity (tamas) inherent in him. Even for a single moment he cannot totally remain inactive.... Even if we are physically at rest mentally and intellectually we are active all the time, except during the state of deep sleep. So long as we are under the influence of these three mental tendencies we are helplessly prompted to labour and to act. — Swami Chinmayananda, The Holy Geeta *** Change is the law of growth. When you change your habits you will renew yourself body and soul. How can you love anything else but Me? You cannot know a man unless you first love him. Men ought not to care if a dog barks as it is proof he will not bite. People think if railroads are not built how will they go to heaven in season. Civilised folk live thick and are in each other’s way and stumble over one another. Let not to get a living be thy trade but thy sport. Enjoy the land but own it not. Myself is more than a whole world to me. He who lightly assents will seldom keep his word. The good man confers a blessing upon the world merely living. — Swami Ramatirtha, Notebook V |
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