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A minister in jail
Business of politics |
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War on smoking
Growing Indo-US partnership
Rare experience
Paan Singh Tomar’s rebellion echoes frustration of the masses. After the high profile scams of the Commonwealth Games exposed a corrupt system controlling Indian sports, even his violent past finds validation in public opinion.
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A minister in jail
The
CBI has done its job by getting Punjab Cabinet minister Jagir Kaur sentenced to a five-year jail term on charges of kidnapping, illegal detention and forcible abortion leading to miscarriage of her own daughter. Had the Punjab and Haryana High Court not entrusted the inquiry into the mysterious death of Harpreet Kaur to the CBI, the Punjab Police might have botched up the case since it did not even conduct a post-mortem examination soon after the death came to its notice and did not look into any foul play despite the body being hurriedly disposed of. The conviction of Jagir Kaur exposes the incompetence of the Punjab police. The first woman president of the Shiromani Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee and the only woman minister in the recently sworn-in Parkash Singh Badal government now faces disqualification as a member of the Vidhan Sabha. The list of allegations hurled at her during her relatively short but tumultuous political career is pretty long and sordid. As the SGPC chief, she sacked a Jathedar of Akal Takht. The Sikh Gurdwara Judicial Commission ordered her removal as the SGPC President for admitting children of influential people in the MBBS course under the NRI quota without charging admission fee in an SGPC-run medical college. A Kapurthala court issued warrants against her for power theft. She was sued for defamation by a Director of Guru Asra Trust. During the recent elections, she was linked to a liquor seizure operation in her constituency, Bholath. It puzzles one that despite so many charges, including the murder of her own daughter of which she was finally acquitted, Jagir Kaur could still be given the Akali Dal ticket, people could still elect her and she could be even made a Cabinet minister. Punjab politicians take corruption and criminal cases so lightly that nobody perhaps believed that the law would finally catch up with her. If Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal at all feels embarrassed at the conviction of a minister of his government, the embarrassment is well deserved.
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Business of politics
Jharkhand
last week acquired the dubious distinction of becoming the first state in the country where a Rajya Sabha election has been cancelled by the Election Commission on suspicion of horse trading. In the past too, MLAs in Jharkhand have set new benchmarks for greed; so much so that a former chief minister of the state and several of his ministerial colleagues have been cooling their heels in prison on charges of acquiring disproportionate assets and for illegally investing much of their ill-gotten wealth abroad. The mineral-rich state has been the happy hunting ground for all kinds of dealers, brokers and businessmen, who have become rich overnight by plundering natural resources and and by taking advantages of weak governments. So, it came as no surprise when the Income Tax Department seized over Rs 2 crore in cash from a vehicle that was linked to an Independent candidate, a businessman, seeking a seat in the Rajya Sabha. This is not the first time that a businessman has sought election to the Rajya Sabha. Nor is Jharkhand the only state which has been used by various political parties to oblige tycoons and barons. While Chandigarh-based K.D. Singh and Ahmedabad-based Parimal Nathwani were earlier elected to the Rajya Sabha from Jharkhand, businessmen like Vijay Mallya, M.A.M. Ramaswamy and Rajeev Chandrashekhar were elected from Karnataka. Most of them, significantly, have won as Independent candidates who ‘obtained’ surplus votes by obliging political parties. In political circles, the asking price for such surprus votes is openly talked about and is believed to run into several crores of rupees for a single vote. Businessmen seem to get drawn to smaller states like Jharkhand because the MLAs there are possibly satisfied with much less. Such elections to the Council of States, especially when rank outsiders are elected or when businessmen like Mallya use parliamentary privileges to further their own business interests, have lowered the dignity and credibility of the second chamber. The Chief Election Commissioner, therefore, is rightly critical of the lack of political will to crack-down on what he described as ‘street democracy’. All political parties are guilty of encouraging this disturbing trend. They need to realise their folly and act together to restore the prestige, dignity and credibility of the House of Elders.
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War on smoking
Smoking
and tobacco products are injurious to health is not merely a simple innocuous rider that comes affixed to tobacco products. Health hazards of tobacco continue to cast an ominous shadow on the lives of millions of users in India. The killer habit that not only leads to lung cancer but also make addicts susceptible to other forms of cancers is a leading preventable cause of death the world over. Thus, any effort that will discourage the use of tobacco products must be welcomed. The recent move to make educational institutions in Srinagar tobacco-free by banning the sale and consumption of tobacco products within a radius of 100 yards is heartening. The crunch, however, would lie in the extent and effectiveness of the implementation of rules. Time and again not only educational institutions but even cities have been declared smoke-free. While Chandigarh has the distinction of being the first smoke-free city in the country, Punjab is going all out to become a smoke-free state. In J&K, Srinagar too is following in the same lines and Budgam will be declared smoke-free by the end of May. With the dangers of passive smoking becoming known, smoke-free zones and cities can’t be dismissed as mere rhetoric but are well-meaning endeavours. But as the track record has shown, declarations are often not followed by action. Those flouting rules are rarely fined. Studies have shown that the implementation of anti-tobacco laws leaves much to be desired. Despite the ban, tobacco products are blatantly sold around an overwhelming number of schools and colleges. Indeed, as far as anti-tobacco campaigns are concerned. India is moving in the right direction. Graphic alerts on tobacco products, smoking ban in public places and smoke-free zones only affirm that the government is keen to tackle the impending health catastrophe. No doubt smoking and tobacco use are personal habits and it will take more than government intervention to cajole people to quit the fatal addiction. Nevertheless, government initiatives that must follow a holistic approach, including increasing access to quitting methods, can make a key difference. All it would take is the requisite administrative will.
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If you want to make peace with your enemy, you have to work with your enemy. Then he becomes your partner. — Nelson Mandela
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Growing Indo-US partnership
AS the Iranian nuclear issue appears to be heating up again, Indo-US strategic partnership has come under sharp focus. It is, therefore, pertinent to reflect upon the nature of the partnership between these two nations. Since this strategic partnership has been steadily growing for the last few years and, in President Obama's words, is set to be "one of the defining partnerships of the 21st century", every step taken by the two largest democracies is perceived with great expectations and is closely scrutinised. However, it may be suggested that the process of analysing Indo-US strategic partnership like any other partnership should be guided not only by expectations but also by the existing ground realities which really determine vision, policy formulations and practices. Only then can right conclusions be drawn and clear directions charted out for a brighter future. Since the base for Indo-US strategic partnership relies on a solid foundation of shared values and shared interests, the occasional misperceptions between the two partners may only be episodic. However, it is essential to understand and realise that both India and the US are faced with tough realities at their domestic as well as external regional fronts. These realities pose constraints and do influence foreign policy choices. Now it would be worth deliberating upon these realities in both countries. On the domestic front, India, despite the spectacular growth it has recorded in at least the last two decades, is still striving hard to successfully deal with challenges like poverty alleviation, providing attentive healthcare, nurturing a vast young population, ensuring energy security, building infrastructure, governance reforms, etc. These challenges may take some time to be overcome if efforts are made with excellent planning and for effective implementation. India is also a multi-religious, multi-cultural, multi-ethnic society. Thus, the world's largest democracy naturally will always pay utmost attention to the views and aspirations of its domestic constituency. It may be noted that it is the domestic constituency of a nation which ultimately determines foreign policy choices. The recent heated protest in Parliament and outside on the government's decision for allowing 51 per cent FDI in multi-brand retail in India, which led to its suspension, is one of the examples on how the domestic constituency determines any major policy decision. Earlier, India-Bangladesh Teesta water-sharing deal was put off due to protests by the ruling Trinamool Congress in West Bengal. Meanwhile, the protest by several Chief Ministers against the idea of establishing a counter-terrorism mechanism — the National Counter-Terrorism Centre (NCTC) — is yet another glaring instance which highlights how important it is for the government of the day to convince its domestic constituency on any policy move. Similarly, the US, which has severely suffered due to the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression in the 1930s, is dealing with pressing domestic challenges of job creation (the unemployment rate in the US was 8.3 per cent in January), controlling high budget deficit, putting its economy on growth path, etc. Now, to reduce budget deficit, the US government will have to implement the mandatory budget cuts over a period of the next 10 years which includes defence budget. In these challenging times, outsourcing of US jobs to India, China and other countries has been recurring as an electoral issue in US elections. As the process of the fresh US Presidential election is gaining momentum, the issue of outsourcing has once again come to the fore. In a speech on February 17, 2012, President Obama announced that "no company (in the US) should get a tax break for outsourcing jobs". These moves by leaders and policy makers may be aimed at pacifying the domestic constituency in the US, particularly young voters, who are facing hardships due to the gloomy employment scenario. It is evident that these domestic factors do appear as constraints in policy formulation processes for both strategic partners. On the regional front, it may be noted that India finds itself in a unique regional strategic environment. On its western side, it is faced with the gravest threat of terrorism emanating from Afghanistan and Pakistan. On its northern front, India faces probably the biggest challenge of our times — managing relations with a rising China with which India has some unresolved issues despite growing economic cooperation between the two. India is also surrounded by other neighbours which are relatively smaller in size but certainly not in importance. These neighbours have been facing their own internal challenges. India realises that to have a brighter strategic future, it is essential to have a dynamic and robust neighbourhood policy. In recent times, India has been proactively taking several initiatives to improve its relations with neighbours despite limitations in doing so. Now, the Iranian nuclear programme and the scenario of a conflict in the West Asian region has placed India in a tight spot. The fact remains that on the one hand India gets 12 per cent of its total crude oil imports from Iran, there are more than six million Indians working in West Asian and the Gulf region. India also depends on Iran for most of its equipment and construction material supplies to Afghanistan. On the other side, India's ties with the Israel are also of critical significance as Israel has emerged as the second largest defence equipment supplier to India. Since Indo-US strategic partnership is growing, Washington DC is expecting New Delhi to support its sanctions against Iran. However, it may be suggested that any Indian position on the Iranian issue needs to be guided by our own interests. It would be worth mentioning here that no government in India would attempt to take any such decision as might lead to risking the interests of its people. Any unrealistic step will surely be disapproved of by the domestic constituency. Similarly, the US is also facing a tough external environment. The US constantly remains cautious against the threats of terrorist attacks. After ending its combat operations in Iraq and recently in Libya, it is looking forward to ending its combat mission in Afghanistan by the end of 2014. To safely and successfully implement its proposed exit plan in Afghanistan, the US is looking for cooperation from regional countries. During her visit to India in July 2011, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton stated in Chennai, "Reconciliation (in Afghanistan), achieving it, and maintaining it, will depend on the participation of all of Afghanistan's neighbours, including both Pakistan and India. We all need to be working together". A close look at these domestic and regional realities becomes essential for both strategic partners while cooperating and collaborating with each other. This deep understanding by the two sides with regard to expectations, realities, values, interests, opportunities as well as challenges is essential. It will help in reducing frictions and in evolving a clear strategy and vision for a brighter future. Finally, it may be noted that despite having shared values and shared interests because of the different state of domestic and regional environments, India and the US sometimes may appear to be taking different positions and postures on certain issues which should not be interpreted that they are working against each
other. The writer is associated with the Institute for Defence Studies and
Analyses (IDSA), New Delhi.
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Rare experience I
happened to be in Delhi when well-known Punjabi writer K.S. Duggal, who died recently, was last admitted to hospital. I knew his family much before I met him face to face when he joined the National Book Trust of India many years ago. As I entered his study with his friend Baldev Singh Goindi, we could see his shelf-containing books authored by Amrita Pritam and Bhai Veer Singh. Greetings over, he answered our queries. He spoke quietly, clearly and lucidly on the subject of publication of books at the government and private levels in Punjabi. Instinctively, he started murmuring quotations from his new book in a slow and facile manner. Earlier I had the privilege of listening to poems flowing from great Maithili Sharan Gupt’s mouth at his home in Chirgaon, Jhansi, when he had recited touching couplets from his immortal work, “Jayadrath Vadh”, touching the plight of young Uttara after the demise of husband Abhimanyu. The poetical atmosphere appeared similar. Duggal Sahib spoke on the influence of prevailing Punjabi folklore on modern Punjabi poetry. Besides the deep thoughts behind what he said, it was his facile style which stunned us. It was a real literary treat indeed and a rare experience. Our meeting lasted more than 40 minutes. Our later meetings with him were shorter and often involved. During our greetings to him on his receiving various awards, his admirers concentrated on the various trends emerging in Punjabi plays. Knowing his excellence in Hindi writing, once I took a chance to recite a few lines written by poetess Mahadevi Verma and Jayashankar Prasad which he appreciated immensely. He promptly remarked, “You have woken up my soft feelings for the downtrodden.” In New Delhi, his residence was not far from where I used to stay. He often used to express dislike towards visitors who tried to meet him in his house without prior appointment, as such sudden programmes interrupted his tranquillity essential for creative writing. In one sitting he used to complete dozens of pages or several short stories. His writings reflected his thinking on diverse subjects and the innate feelings of his inner-self. I vividly remember the day when he was seen guiding the amateur actors getting ready to enact one of his famous plays. Besides advice on acting, he guided the organisers on selecting the type of dress for each player. His writings like “Sharad Poonam Di Raat” and “Haal Mureedan Da” have added glory to Punjabi literature. His remarkable contribution will ever be remembered. His endearing wife Ayesha also contributed fully to bringing about harmony in his
family.
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Paan Singh Tomar’s rebellion echoes frustration of the masses. After the high profile scams of the Commonwealth Games exposed a corrupt system controlling Indian sports, even his violent past finds validation in public opinion.
It
does not have a sexy title like ‘ The Dirty Picture’, nor does it boast of a raunchy item number. With an unattractive title like ‘Paan Singh Tomar’ and not much of a ‘manufactured’ controversy, not even promotional events worth mention, the film is still a success. Success — not in commercial terms alone, but in terms of bringing substance back to the centre stage in Hindi cinema. The kind of success that had left our discourse for a long time with an over emphasis on political correctness of the issues tackled. The film also succeeds in re- defining the bench mark for Hindi cinema by venturing into everything that is politically incorrect. To begin with, the protagonist of the film is an unsung hero of the Indian sports, who served the army and later became a dreaded decoit of the Chambal valley. The film is also bereft of a sultry heroine to offer a bait for steamy scenes.
PST (‘Paan Singh Tomar’), based on the life of a seven time national steeplechase champion is fiction, inspired by true events. Tomar joins army as a rangroot ( trainee sepoy) and becomes a butt of joke among other rangroots for his gluttony. The script has several understated facts — for the rangroots who came from abject poverty, joining the army ensured two square meals. One finds an underlying pathos in these cruel realities, the film is peppered with. Tomar is simple and straightforward, naïve to be precise. He dares to tell his bosses that most of them lack integrity, and that he would take commands only from the honest officers, at the cost of risking his job. He gets into athletics only because sportsmen get more to eat. After an athletic event in his unit, his potential is noticed by the coach who explains why he couldn’t send him for national championship – despite his trust in his talent. His daughter’s brother in law was also a contestant, and if he refused him a chance, his daughter would be tortured! Tomar understood this complexity of social hierarchy and obliged his coach by training instead for steeplechase.
Through such subtle anecdotes poor working conditions of the athletes are brought to the fore. Tomar is given spiked shoes to run steeplechase in Tokyo for the Asian Games, without ever practicing in them. When he protests, the manager tells him to “run and get a medal for the country.” He throws off his shoes in the middle of the race, and loses the race. These incidents suggest the malaise that had set in our sports management, right from the beginning. But, his simplicity makes him keep faith in the system and win medals year- after- year for the country. The disillusionment sets in when his land is grabbed by his relatives and his confidence that his name and service for the country would help him get justice is shattered when a cowardly DC leaves the panchayat and asks him to settle the dispute with his relatives, who had six guns with them while his family had none. Or, when the blatantly corrupt police officer refuses to register his complaint and instead asks Tomar, who had travelled abroad for sporting competitions, why foreigners wear such few clothes? When the police officer throws away his medals, hurt and angry Tomar wonders,“ Desh ke liye faltu bhagey kya?” (Was all that hard work to get medals for the country futile?) This finds a resounding response in the minds of the audience, like a refrain of a popular song. Narratives of triviality In the clamour for development, of high per capita income and our newly acquired global confidence, one thing that eluded our film makers for a long time, was, that people take up challenges, life-threatening challenges to protect their dignity. This one ingredient, so deeply engrained in human DNA got buried under the narratives of triviality— films that enjoyed the comfort zone of portraying cosy, acquisition oriented lives that could carry their narrative on the strength of six- pack abs, designer homes and clothes and exotic locales. In this manufactured- to- perfection world, somewhere life failed to pulsate and so did the audience interest. These films made their moolah in the first week of opening, never bothering to know if the audience related to their narratives. People watched the film but once they left the auditorium, it was out of their mind. These one week wonders did not offer enough depth and substance to hold attention and ignite a debate. What did PST do to occupy that space? One couldn’t leave it behind in the theatre, it grew deeper in the mindscape, with questions that disturbed and with issues that remain unresolved. Film director Anurag Kashyap observed, “ PST is like 29th February, that comes only once in a while.” The audience strikes a chord with the narrative, because nowhere in the film Tomar is portrayed larger than life. He is like you and me, fighting a corrupt system on a day- to- day basis, with hope, heart-breaking courage and confidence — a prerogative of those who make it on the basis of sheer hard work and talent. This is precisely the reason that the film opened to a lukewarm response on the first weekend, like Sholay, but picked gradually by publicity received through word of mouth, a rare phenomenon in the days of on- your- face publicity campaigns. That forgotten word — pride Tomar resorts to violence in the second half of the film only when he loses all hope of getting help from all quarters. Unlike other bio-pics made on the lives of decoits, PST does not resort to melodramatic scenes of rape and arson. The high decibel proclamations of revenge and anger are missing. Like Clint Eastwood’s ‘Letters from Iwo Jima’, a war film based on American response to Pearl Harbour attack by Japan during World War II, without resorting to violence and noise, the power and beauty of restraint is used by the director to focus on Tomar’s rebellion — for the restoration of his lost pride. The sequence is dealt with subtlety — a village lad brings his mother’s broken glass bangles and tells him, she wanted him to have them. The message has layered implications. A director of lesser maturity wouldn’t have missed the opportunity to exploit the potent situation for violence and gore. Quietly, his life takes a U- turn, and the athlete who never lost a chance to win, who never hid behind excuses for lack of facilities, became a victim of circumstances. He was left with no other choice but to become a baagi, a rebel, to protect his dignity. In a world infested with compromises, Tomar’s rebellion to accept nothing short of complete justice offers a new reality, people had forgotten under the burden of ambitious living. Tigmanshu Dhulia, whose first film ‘Haasil’, based on the student politics of Allahabad University was equally powerful, has used economy and restrain in dealing with a volatile subject, which had the risk of overriding the subtle balance. Cinematographer, Assem Mishra has used backdrops intelligently and aesthetically; may it be the sports ground or the hauntingly lonely ravines of Chambal. There is no jarring note, not even swear words, so common in films dealing with violence and crime. Keeping it simple The narrative grows linear, in a simple way, shorn of smart devices to tantalise, which work effectively in striking a deeper chord with the viewer. The film grows on mind like grass, unobtrusively, yet widening its space. Irrfan Khan, who plays the lead role, carries the challenge of playing a real-life character, still alive in public memory, with an unassuming simplicity. The simpleton of the first half, who rushes to gobble up a bunch of bananas after each race is a complete athlete- in body and soul. The gaunt decoit, hiding in a house at some place in Gwalior whose wounded pride declares before a journalist with a wry smile, despite being a seven-time National Games winner, he remained anonymous, while murder and kidnapping brought him fame, haunt the viewer for its contemporary connotations. Mahie Gill, as his wife soars quietly. The film has its moments of dark humour that linger. There is no denouement to this tale. Surrounded by the police Tomar decides to jump across a canal, like he had jumped through so many hurdles in his racing career, but a bullet is faster than his athletic abilities. The film does not end with his death, several other sportsperson’s narratives scroll down the screen, with their tales of achievements, humiliation and loss of dignity. Tomar’s steeplechase record was broken after a decade but the circumstances that breed corruption and turn an honest athlete into a decoit haven’t changed in the last six decades.
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Paan Singh Tomar was born in village Bhidausa, in Morena district of Madhya
Pradesh. Tomar became a seven time national steeplechase champion during the 1950s and 1960s. In 1958 he created the national steeplechase record in the National Games at Cuttack with a timing of 9 minutes and 12.4 seconds. Later he broke his own record in the 1964 Open Meet in Delhi with a timing of 9 minutes and 4 seconds. His record in the 3,000 m steeplechase stood for almost a decade. He represented India in the 1958 Asian games and won consecutive national titles.