Our People, the HOLOCAUST Victims Loved and Believed Indira Gandhi and Jyoti Basu Most, Who BETRAYED the Negroid Black Untouchables MOST!
Indian Holocaust My Fathers Life and time- One Hundred Ninety THREE
Palash Biswas
DARK LADY OF INDIA
In India myths endure. So it is not surprising that many myths surround the persona of Indira Gandhi who was assassinated today 25 years ago. The way she died has added to the myths. One myth should be dispelled straight away. She is often described, by critic and admirer alike, as a deft politician who knew how to deal with her rivals. Yet the fact of the matter is that in 1971 she was re-elected as prime minister with a huge majority in the Lok Sabha in the wake of the liberation of Bangladesh and the Indo-Pak war; within a couple of years, Indira Gandhi’s rule was under attack from within and without the Congress party. The only way she knew to deal with this opposition was by declaring the Emergency and thus undermining Indian democracy. This is not quite the way that a deft practitioner of the art of politicking would have dealt with challenges to her power. She never appeared to be in full control after her return to the top job in 1980.
Indira Gandhi’s great period was a brief one — lasting from 1969 to 1971, between the break with the Syndicate and the liberation of Bangladesh. But this was also when she wore her radical mask and utilized the ideology of socialism to consolidate her own power. She had none of the idealism of her father and certainly did not believe in the institutions of democracy and civil society. Under her, the cabinet system of government became a mere extension of the prime minister’s office. She eroded the independence of the judiciary and the bureaucracy. She packed leading educational institutions, academic bodies and other civil society establishments with her cronies. In all this she broke, with disastrous consequences, from the tradition established by Jawaharlal Nehru. The Emergency was the culmination of a process of centralization of power that Indira Gandhi initiated. It is not unfair to suggest that she had little faith in democratic practices and institutions.
In foreign policy, she brought about a pronounced pro-Soviet tilt which led her to support the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. She shackled India’s economic growth and private investment and entrepreneurship by institutionalizing red tape and a permit and licence raj. This opened up opportunities for venality and corruption. She used the latter with devastating effect on the polity to fund the Congress party and elections.
It is thus difficult to be dispassionate about Indira Gandhi and her era. Historians of subsequent generations could describe the period that bears her indelible stamp as a very dark period for India. What cannot be denied, however, is that in her time she was immensely popular. But she made scant use of that support to take India forward. Prime ministers with far less support — to wit P.V. Narasimha Rao and Manmohan Singh — have achieved much more, especially in the fields of economic reform and foreign policy. A large majority might well be an Indian prime minister’s worst curse.
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1091031/jsp/opinion/story_11678867.jsp
Remembering 'Iron Lady' Indira Gandhi
31 Oct 2009, 0941 hrs IST
Congress President Sonia Gandhi and AICC General Secretary Rahul Gandhi were present at the Shakti Sthal in New Delhi on Saturday (October 31) to pay their respects to former PM Indira Gandhi. They attended a function at Shakti Sthal to remember her on her 25th Death Anniversary. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Vice President Hamid Ansari were also present at the memorial function.
Under her regime India reached its heights -- with the birth of its nuclear programme, but also fell to its depths with Operation Bluestar. TIMES NOW pays a tribute to India's first and only lady Prime Minister -- 'Iron Lady' Indira Gandhi.
She was born into politics, a life that chose her with Pt Nehru as father, Indira Gandhi learnt the ropes of Indian governance observing India's first Prime Minister. HK Dua, Editor-in-Chief, The Tribune said, "Indira was a more hardened politician than Nehru."
She inherited Nehru's vision to some extent, but she was a more a hard politician then a then Nehru was. With 'Garibi Hato', she gave the country its first slogan of populism, one that captured the imagination of her electorate. Kuldeep Nayar, Senior Journalist said, "'Garibi Hato' captured the imagination of the nation. When she gave the slogan, there was a lot of poverty in India, where people did not have anything with them. So she requested the people to vote for her and in return she would remove poverty. This slogan captured the imagination of the people and they voted for her. But then she could not do anything then as opposition increased in voice and also volume."
In 1971, Indira Gandhi deftly handled our neighbour by assisting the war for liberation of East Pakistan. Saeed Naqvi, Journalist said, "After the 1971 war Mrs Gandhi transformed herself from 'Gungi Gudiya' to 'Durga. Gandhi came with a bang after the Bangladesh war, when Shri Atal Biharee Vajpayee in a park in Connaught Place called her "Durga" in his speech after victory over Bangladesh."
She made the country proud by initiating the nuclear weapons program. Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee said, "In Pokhran - 1 Mrs. Gandhi completed that which Pt Nehru had envisioned. She is the basic founder of technological development today."
From the Emergency, to her ouster from the Prime Minister's office to her landslide victory, Mrs. Gandhi proved that she was the Iron Lady of India! Her crumbling moment came in 1984 when she announced Operation Bluestar making it her biggest political blunder. She lived a life on the tight rope, being judged at every step, she took decisions that gave India its most controversial political period times that are etched in our memories even today!
http://www.timesnow.tv/Remembering-Iron-Lady-Indira-Gandhi/articleshow/4330972.cms
Our People, the HOLOCAUST Victims Loved and Believed Indira Gandhi and Jyoti Basu Most, Who BETRAYED the Negroid Black Untouchables MOST!
Nation pays homage to Indira Gandhi on her 25th death anniversary while Addressing the Hindustan Times Leadership Summit, former US president, George W Bush said that both US and India were engaged in an ideological battle against extremists who kill innocents!
Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh led the nation in paying homage to former Premiere Indira Gandhi on the 25th anniversary of her martyrdom at Shakti Sthal here on Saturday.
Tributes were also paid on behalf of President Pratibha Devi Singh Patil, who is on a foreign visit.
Former US president George W. Bush, who played an instrumental role in the signing of the India-US nuclear deal, Saturday said the pact
was New Delhi's "passport to the world". Calling the accord "historic", Bush said at the HT Leadership Summit here that it would provide India an opportunity to get energy without making pollution.
"(By signing the deal) the US recognised India's nuclear weapon's programme. It is India's passport to the world," said Bush.
"In 2006 we signed a historic accord.... India has now the opportunity to get energy without making pollution," said Bush.
The framework of the India-US civilian nuclear agreement was a July 18, 2005 joint statement by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and then US president Bush. Under it, India agreed to separate its civil and military nuclear facilities and place all its civil nuclear facilities under International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) safeguards. In exchange, the US agreed to work towards full civil nuclear cooperation with India.
Indians Saturday flocked to Shakti Sthal to pay homage to former prime minister Indira Gandhi on her 25th death anniversary Saturday. Known as 'Iron Lady', she ruled the country for 15 years in two stints before being assassinated by her Sikh bodyguards.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress president Sonia Gandhi, the slain leader's daughter-in-law, were amongst the first to pay tribute at her memorial on the banks of the Yamuna river.
An all-religion prayer was also organised on the occasion.
The assassination on Oct 31, 1984 triggered massive anti-Sikh riots in which 3,000 people were killed in three days in the national capital.
Her death came as a violent response to the Indian Army storming the Golden Temple in Amritsar in June 1984 to confront heavily armed Sikh extremists.
31st October, 1984.
I was asleep sound at my residence in NAGLABATTU, Meerut.I returned late in the night after the City edition was released. I joined the newspaper few months ago as I resigned from Prabhat Khabar Ranchi just because the Editor SN Vinod had stalled the imbursement of my salary as I had visited Dhrmanagari, Bijonore since SABITA was suddenly ill in her maternal home and while leaving Ranchi I just informed my immediate Boss as the editor was not in the office. I just resigned and left for Meerut as Narendra Mohan, the Editor in Chief, Dainik Jagaran had offered me to join Meerut at my will any time. I joined the paper as chief sub Editor without any appoinment letter!
Mrs Indira Gandhi was assasianted at home, our peopn from the office informed me when I was awken. I Rushed the office, 140 D, Saket. The Nation was mourning and what a Mourning! The Mourning aroused Hindutva to annihilate SIKHISM and SIKHS! We had not INTERNET at the time. I had not got my TV set at home andwe could see the Live Telecast on Doordarshan at my desk. Our Teleprinter which was habitual to produce afew hundred newsitems and feature items at best, was NEVER Enough for Full Coverage and at that time despite having Phototype setting and data Link connecting different Edition network, we had to depend on STD and Telegrams. It was a huge task at the desk and as the payment was MINIMUM, entire editorial would leave anytime and I have to draft Vacancy and recruit a fresh team. It was my routine in Meerut. Hundreds of my recruits turned Editorial heads and I stay in Kolkat as a SUB Editor thanks to the ULTIMATE BRAHMIN PRABHASH Joshi and Brahamin management reigning in Kolkata where I learnt the laws of Manusmriti and apartheid at best. Thanks, Mr. Joshi for my SALVATION!
It was the beginning of an AGE of Genocide, ethnic Cleansing and Mass Destruction which EVENTED All Round with the Introduction of Globalisation till I landed in Kolkata to destroy myself!
Meerut City was calm as it had half the Population MUSLIM and the Muslims even then could see the IMMINENT danger ahead. But we were seized within with UNPRECEDENTD Violence which caught Meerut later with the Opening of Ram Janma Bhumi Mandir in Ayodhya as I had to see the Fire in the sky and on the land every where as my Breath was polluted with Human Flesh Smell. My vision dimmed in SMOKE Infinite and Ears were indulged with the sounds of Human Skeletons on fire. It continued in eighties ending with Antiresrvation Riots during VP Regime Mandal commission. Earlier we were engaged with Assam and Tripura genocides! I wrote all my experience in ANDE SENTE LOG series of Short stories dealing with the topic of hatching Eggs of communalism!
Bengali Holocaust Victims loved and believed most Mrs Indira Gandhi and Jyoti Basu as they proved to be the BONDED Vote Bank of these leaders. My People were quite in Romance with Indian Dark lady and the Bengali Comrade!
Me and my Father Pulin Babu had sea of DIFFERENCE revolving around these two personalities. I was a Marxist and had been SPELLBOUND with the THUNDERING Spring. At the same time, as soon as I passed my High School, I was amidst the storm of Total revolution. While I passed my Intermediate in 1975, it was EMERGENCY.thus, I hated most the Dictator. Further, while I was only four years old in my Professional life as a Journalist, I had to witness Operation Blue star! How could I Romance with the DURGA Dus PRAHARAN Dharini who liberated BANGLADESH and obliged all EAST Bengal rooted refugees but at the same time while fighting PAK Army in East Pakistan, Indian Military CRUSHED Humanity in West Bengal on the name of REPRESSION Naxal Bari!
There was a Big Fight in our family to get hold of the Photos of My father with Mrs Indira Gandhi, with whom he had developed a very good relationship.My sisters fought like cats. I was DISINTERESTED and Never tried to know who got the photos at last.
On the other hand , I knew NOTHING about Bengal until I landed in Kolkata in 1991. I Never did not about the Plight of Bengali Refugees in Bengal. My Father hated Jyoti Basu from the BOTTOM of his heart as he singled out the Man as the Greatest Enemy of our people. Even I did not know about Marichjhanpi Genocide neither I cared for as I was up against the Movement purely for may LOVE for Mangrove forests as an ENVIRONMENT Activist and succeeded to convince My Father NOT to support the Agitation. As for him. he could NEVER depend on the Marxists after the Triple Betrayal sin TELENGANA, in SHRIKAKULAMand finally, in Dhimri Block Peasant Uprising led by him. He repented that the Communists used the Refugees as VOTE bank and stopped them CREATING another Homeland in Andaman and Nicobar while ENSLAVING and FINISHING them in Bengal. I confirmed it very late as my father is no more! On the other hand, My Father was NEVER Aware of the BETRAYAL on the Part of Indira Gandhi and her CONGRESS and allowed his People to be used by them as mobile Vote bank despite being a hard Core AMBEDKARITE!
Vice President Mohammad Hamid Ansari also visited Shakti Sthal and paid his tributes.
Congress president Sonia Gandhi and party General Secretary Rahul Gandhi also paid floral tributes to Indira Gandhi
A prayer meeting was organised at the official residence of Indira Gandhi. This was attended by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, family members of Gandhi and other dignitaries.
A series of programmes are being organised across India to commemorate Indira Gandhi's martyrdom.
Sonia Gandhi is scheduled to give the prestigious 24th Indira Gandhi Award for National Integration for the year 2008 to noted journalist, writer and human rights activist Balraj Puri at a function in New Delhi.
In 1984, Indira Gandhi launched Operation Blue Star to crush secessionist movement in Punjab and sent troops into the Golden Temple of Amritsar.
She was assassinated by her Sikh bodyguards on October 31st of the same year.
Gandhi is remembered for leading the nation to new heights on national and international fronts.
India wants to resolve all issues with neighbours: PM
Reaching out to Pakistan for the third consecutive day, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today said India wishes to resolve all outstanding issues with it and all other neighbours through dialogue and spirit of partnership overcoming the "areas of difficulties".
He noted that Pakistan is grappling with a major problem on account of rising terrorism and wished it success in dealing with it.
"We seek to live in peace with our own neighbourhood and with the world. We have always been and wish to remain good neighbours and good global citizens," Singh said addressing the Hindustan Times Leadership Summit here.
Contending that India's destiny is "intrinsically linked" with that of its neighbours, he said "we seek good relations with each one of them".
India promises level playing field to US varsities
India has promised a level playing field to top US institutions in a bid to encourage foreign investment in the education sector as New Delhi seeks partnerships with global institutions to provide quality education at home.
'With the expansion of the higher education sector and the needs of Indian students, we need not just to allow education providers in India to grow, but we also need to provide for foreign investment in the education sector,' India's Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal said at a press conference here Friday.
Sibal, who was here to seek partnership with leading American universities for an Indian initiative to set up 14 innovation universities to push research and development, said he was encouraged by the response, which made the trip 'exceptionally satisfying'.
With the growing expansion of Indian education coupled with the passage of the Right to Education bill, India would have to add hundreds of universities, expand areas of vocational training and provide a reformed curricula, he said.
Grappling with the issue of quality, 'we need to bring in education providers who have experienced hundreds of years of quality education and have systems in place to provide quality education', Sibal said.
'The foreign institutions coming to India would have to work within the framework of law. But we have explained that to them. But they'll get a level playing field,' he said.
During the visit, Sibal met US Secretary for Education Arne Duncan besides presidents of several leading US universities individually and at a round table at Georgetown University where he spoke on 'Expansion of India's Education Infrastructure and Opportunities for Foreign Universities'.
The Indian delegation, headed by Sibal, also participated in a meeting hosted by the US-India Business Council on the subject of investment and collaboration opportunities in higher education in India.
Among those he met in Washington were the presidents of Duke and Georgetown universities. He had met with the presidents of Harvard University, Yale University, Boston University, New York Academy of Sciences and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in New York earlier.
Obama election 'was uplifting moment': Bush
Barack Obama's election as president of the US was an 'uplifting moment', his predecessor and Republican rival George W. Bush said in New Delhi Saturday.
The election of Obama, a Democrat and the US' first African American president, 'was an uplifting moment for our democracy... not my first choice, but I wish him every success', Bush said amid laughter at the HT Leadership Summit here.
Bush favours UNSC seat for India
Former US President George W Bush today favoured a United Nations Security Council (UNSC) seat for India, saying it has "arrived" as a strong democratic country in the world. He also wanted India and the US to work together to win the war on terror in Afghanistan to bring peace and stability in the region.
"We must see the possibility of a seat for India in the United Nations Security Council," Bush said, speaking at the HT Leadership Summit in New delhi. "India has arrived as a strong democratic country in the world.
It is a tolerant, peaceful and multi-religious democracy," he said. Bush, who visited India in 2006 when the two sides chartered out the road map for further strengthening Indo-US strategic partnership, said the two countries shared the same values of freedom and democracy.
On Afghanistan, he said, "America and India must work together to win the war in Afghanistan. The mission in Afghanistan has been long and difficult and costly.
I believe it is necessary for stability and peace." He wholeheartedly agreed with US President Barack Obama that the US-India relations were not only one of the most important ties in the world, but they should also be one of the best.
But he cautioned that it would not happen automatically and the two nations would have to make important choices, including cooperation in the war in Afghanistan.
Rukhsana's house attacked in Jammu and Kashmir
Jammu, Oct 31 (IANS) Jammu and Kashmir's teen braveheart Rukhsana, who had killed a top Lashkar-e-Taiba commander last month and grabbed national headlines for her show of courage, came under attack again when terrorists fired grenades at her village home. Luckily, no one was present inside the house at the time.
Police said the incident took place late Friday in Kalsi village of Rajouri district, about 180 km from here.
'Rifle grenades were fired at the house and the police post in Kalsi village in Thannaa Mandi area of Rajouri late last (Friday) night,' Rajouri Senior Superintendent of Police Shafaqat Watali told IANS.
Watali said the rifle grenades exploded without causing any loss. Rukhsana, 18, and her family had been shifted to a safe place in Rajouri as an attack was feared. Police had received the intercepts of the militants planning an attack on Rukhsana's house.
'But it (the attack) does speak of their intentions to take revenge from the girl, who killed the LeT militant Abu Osama,' Watali said.
Vigil in the village has been stepped up and police have assured the people that they would be protected.
Rukhsana shot to the limelight after she hit back at terrorists who had barged into her house on Sep 27. Top LeT commander Abu Osama was attacked with an axe and shot at with his own rifle by Rukhsana and her brother Aijaz. She also fired at the two other militants, who were injured but managed to escape.
'US growth spurt mitigates uncertainty for India'
Sat, Oct 31 06:08 AM
After having helped the government frame economic policies in exceptional times that brought the global financial system to its knees, the finance ministry's chief economic advisor is moving on to assume his new role as an executive director to the IMF. A day before he leaves office, Arvind Virmani, who was appointed CEA in July 2007, tells Gunjan Pradhan Sinha that the US growth spurt in the third quarter will accelerate the revival of domestic investment. Excerpts:
With the US clocking positive growth numbers for the first time in months, how do you think it will change the scenario in India and the world?
Over the past three- four months we have got indications that recession in the US is coming to an end. The recent news confirms only one fact — that the future won't be worse. Even though it is a larger than expected bump up, recovery will follow the pattern of wavy and stretched out 'U' for the global economy. For India, it spells out mitigation of the uncertainty which crept in due to the external environment. In my expectation, it will accelerate revival of domestic investment and the economy will be less dependent on stimulating forces.
And for the rest of Asia?
Countries heavily dependent on exports would not see a fast paced recovery compared to India. Until they change their orientation, a number of nations including China would have to wait before investment levels pick up. A stimulus approach is a short term measure, it cannot be sustained for long. India is at an advantage as it has a neutral export policy and huge domestic demand.
How do you see inflation panning out in the next few months?
I expect the gap between whole sale price index inflation and consumer price index -industrial workers to narrow. CPI should peak and then start waning. There are already faint glimmerings of this. It could be peaking now. Inflation is expected to go up but not as much as CPI (IW). It will hover around 6 per cent in March 2009-10.
With talk of right timing for withdrawing fiscal stimulus measures, what is your view for the Indian economy?
The fiscal stimulus has two aspects — micro and macro. Micro measures such as interest rate subvention given to certain sectors have time limits. In that sense they have an automatic expiry. For the macro level measures that widened the fiscal deficit, there are indications that we need to go away from it. The FRBM document for the current fiscal sets targets for the next two or three years, which in all likelihood would be met. The winding down will start and by March the picture will be clear.
Gunjan Pradhan Sinha
Indira Gandhi: Fearlessness in the national interest
October 30, 2009 11:21 IST
R Rajamani, a retired bureaucrat, worked in the Prime Minister's Office between 1978 and 1983.
During his tenure he worked for three prime ministers: Morarji Desai, Charan Singh and Indira Gandhi [ Images ]. Later in his stint as additional secretary at the Cabinet Secretariat and as secretary (electronics), he was associated with then prime minister Rajiv Gandhi [ Images ].
Having worked for Indira Gandhi for three years between 1980 and 1983 he had the occasion to observe many of her qualities.
He remembers Indira Gandhi on her 25th death anniversary.
My respected senior colleague in the PMO H Y Sharada Prasad was once asked why he did not write about the prime ministers he worked with. He laughed and said: "Who am I, a child trying to inscribe my name on the giant oak trees of the forest?"
This did influence me in desisting from writing or talking too much about the four prime ministers I worked for, especially Indira Gandhi for whom I worked for three years as joint secretary. There were other reasons too.
Again Sharadaji used to say that when one wrote years later about events which had occurred earlier in which one played some part, there is a temptation to put in words what one thought in retrospect one should have said then, but never really said them!
However, the main reason for avoiding these reminiscences was that I remember only the good things about people whereas most readers seem to want to read about the seamy side of great personalities.
If I do communicate my thoughts now it's not because of the temptation to break into the limelight but in the expectation that people will know that the good that men do lives after them while the evils are interred with them.
There is devilishness and godliness or goodness in all of us in varying degrees (saints excepted) and it is pleasant to talk about the good traits and deeds of great people.
What qualities in Indira Gandhi should I talk about? Before I answer this question I should emphasise that all the four prime ministers I worked for had most of these qualities in varying degrees and it was indeed a privilege and a great learning experience with them.
I have chosen Indira Gandhi because I had the longest term with her. The qualities of fearlessness, courtesy, humour, wide interests and wisdom, deep commitment to Indian science and technology, passion for the environment, objectivity and the ability to see many things through not only a national but also an international prism -- these were some aspects of her life and personality which come out in the episodic narrative I have chosen to adopt.
Fearlessness
I single this out as the strongest trait -- fearlessness to do what she thought was in the national interest and fearlessness in the personal sense; physical and mental courage in adverse circumstances. This was translated into courage which infected others.
I am reminded of the golden age of the Independence struggle when leaders led from the front as in the case of T Prakasam or G B Pant, who always stood in the first row to face bullets or lathis.
It was the hallmark of Indira Gandhi's father Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru [ Images ], who one remembers in the Avadi Congress session jumping into an enclosure to calm down some misguided sections which was trying to disturb the proceedings unmindful of the appeals of even Kamaraj Nadar!
One example in her life was when the door opened in the aircraft where she was sitting alone in the front cabin soon after take-off. The advice from the cockpit asking her to go to the back section was not heeded and when we tried to persuade her to come back she gave only a disarming smile which radiated her fearlessness. She did not leave the seat until we landed.
Of course, one has read about the fearless way she handled the Bangladesh war and other similar situations, putting the national interest above those of personal safety.
Courtesy
As for courtesy, she had this in abundant measure and was the picture of friendliness with whomsoever, she interacted, whether it was a poor lady in a village in Medak district (of which was an MP) or a visiting dignitary from abroad.
The manner in which she reciprocated Cuban President Fidel Castro's bear hug at the Non Aligned Summit is etched in memory. She responded shyly, but without fuss, thus cementing a friendship.
The only occasion when I found her losing her cool was when we were in the Andaman islands, visiting the Onge tribe there. As the helicopter hovered above the settlement built for the Onges, she asked me to find out what the tin roofed structures were.
When we landed I found out these were hutments made for the Onges who normally lived in small huts on treetops and moved from place to place as their defecation mounds grew under the trees. This was ecologically sustainable as the land was nourished and they had a cooler micro-climate atop the trees.
When I reported this to her, I realised she was upset. To compound this, the Onges who were clad in multi-coloured T-shirts were brought for dancing around her. When she asked the anthropologist present whether this was their usual mode of dress, he whispered they were not in the habit of wearing anything except a brief loin cloth and both men and women were bare-bodied.
On hearing this, she was in a rage and asked all the officers present if they realised what they had done this to these innocent people by locating them in hot tin sheds, away from their natural habitat and worse, making them wear ill-fitting and colourful clothes which they were not used to.
She thundered if they thought the prime minister of India would hesitate to talk to her people whether in their clothes or lack of it and how they had destroyed most of their values forever.
Humour
Indira Gandhi was not given to flippant humour, but showed flashes of mature humour on occasions.
Thus when the Indian Board for Wildlife was meeting and there were two consecutive items on the agenda, one relating to Save the Crocodile Project and the other to the scrapping of the Andhra Pradesh Preservation of the Elephants Act, I scribbled a note to her to say this was like the 'Gajendra Moksha' in reverse. She laughed heartily and read this out loudly to the members of the Board.
This got me into some difficulty with the Andhra Pradesh forest minister when we left the meeting and he said I have created a situation to seem as if the AP government was being insensitive to the cause of conservation, even though the ground reality was that there were no elephants in the state and there was no point in continuing an archaic enactment as a successor to the old Madras state.
I told him politely this was said in good humour and there was no reason why Andhra Pradesh should not have wild elephants now. Soon after this episode one was happy to know that wild elephants have indeed come into Andhra Pradesh in Chittoor district and now have a sanctuary for themselves!
The other bit of humour was displayed by the prime minister when she came up to me sitting in the officers's box in Parliament. When I tried to stand up deferentially, she smiled and said, "Don't tower over me like that. Sit down" and let my tall frame go back into the chair and shaking in mirth!
Interests
Her wide interests and wisdom were manifested often in the midst of all the routine and pressure of work. Whenever she found time, especially on domestic air travel, she would read a book.
Her interests were in a wide spectrum and covered not only the economic and political issues which were the daily bread and butter in her office but also discussions on India's future in wrestling with problems of education, health and employment.
After a visit to Medak where she saw the good effects on welfare, hygiene, nutrition and health of women and children as a result of a pilot Integrated Child Development Services Project a few years after it was wound up, she included this in her Twenty Point Programme.
Her interests extended to our culture, heritage and the arts; testimony to which is the present day INTACH (the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage) and IGNCA (the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts), for which the ground work was done in her time.
She could visualise India's future lay in new initiatives in electronics, renewable sources of energy, ocean development, bio technology and entrepreneurship development in young technocrats to turn job seekers into job givers.
She helped create suitable administrative and technical structures. I must add that I have named only a sample of the initiatives which were the result of her wisdom and farsightedness.
The firm belief that science and technology were the anchors of the economy governed Mrs Gandhi's efforts in this field. She created scientific departments and encouraged both research efforts and the technological spinoffs.
Examples abound but mention can be made of the beginning of the Indian scientific expeditions to Antarctica and her belief in twinning new science and technology with traditional practices having a scientific content.
Thus when the scientists of the Indian Council of Medical Research were extolling the virtues of the plant ocimum sanctum in stress relief, she asked them what the Indian name was. When told it was Tulsi, she smiled and said "My grandmother knew this about Tulsi and used to give us Tulsi tea whenever we were too naughty!"
On another occasion, as we came out of an inspection bungalow we were camping at, she pointed out to me a small plant with pink and white flowers and asked if I knew what it was. Not hiding my ignorance I said I do not know the name but in my part of the country it was known as the smashan flower, being found only in crematoria and burial grounds.
She smiled and educated me that it was the plant vinca rosea (since renamed catharanthus rosea) which bore the common name of Periwinkle. She added for good measure that the chemical extract of the flower was being used for treatment of a type of cancer.
No piece like this on her would be complete without mentioning the passion for conserving India's natural resources, whether it was the forest, or the flora and fauna, or the rivers, water bodies, coral reefs and so on.
Her special interest was in ecosystems like the mountains, islands, coastal, coral reefs and riverine tracts. She was the only head of government from outside Sweden to attend the first UN Conference on the Human Environment and drawing the linkages between under-development poverty and the conservation of natural resources.
She was alarmed at the degradation of Indian forests and coastal ecosystems and their mindless conversion in the name of development without exploring alternatives.
She got enacted the Forest Conservation Act and made us introduce environmental impact analysis in public sector projects. The coastal zones were protected under her directive, which stood the test until a law was enacted later.
The only two projects she stopped in the interests of conserving biodiversity and the fragile Himalayan ecosystem were the Silent Valley Project and the Tehri Hydro Electric Project. It is noteworthy that in both cases there were alternatives to produce the same power with micro and mini hydel sets causing no damage to the environment. Unfortunately, the Tehri project was reopened later underlining the mindset that 'Big is Beautiful'.
In the present day context with spotlight on conservation of electricity to moderate climate change one cannot but remember her frugality in eating and her keenness to switch off all lights when she left a room.
The measures she took to promote solar and wind energy and increase afforestation through social forestry were noteworthy and gave a clear impression that she was a champion of a clean and green environment for all generations of Indians.
Her objectivity and ability to understand different sensibilities and perspectives were outstanding and this was tempered by her being able to be nationalistic and yet breathe a universality of spirit.
Once her personal secretary had collected a sheaf of petitions and sorted them out and was giving one set to me as she was boarding the plane.
She was quick to spot this out of the corner of her eye and said no, that is not for him as it is political and only the other set should be given to him. Thus, she recognised the need for objectivity in recognising the role plays among people who worked for her.
When there was a discussion on India signing an International Labour Organisation vonvention on child labour and the official view was hesitant, she looked at it from both national and international prisms and ruled that we cannot do wrong just because other countries got away with doing things wrong about their children and getting away with it.
Before I finish I should relate what happened when I had returned to Andhra Pradesh to work in the state government. In August 1984, Mrs Gandhi visited Hyderabad en route to Medak to inaugurate an ordinance factory. As her principal secretary Dr P C Alexander was coming with his wife and wanted me to go to the airport to take Mrs Alexander to my house while he went on the visit. In the afternoon when he came home he asked me why I did not try to see my old boss Indira Gandhi.
I told him, how, as a mere bureaucrat, it was not possible for me to muscle into the largely political crowd surrounding her. He told me sternly that I should make an attempt in the evening when they were leaving.
At the airport I made an effort, but again the crowd was such that she reached the ladder of the aircraft and so I was turning back disappointed.
Mrs Gandhi, on reaching the landing, seems to have spotted my back and called out "Rajamani, what are you doing here?"
I went up to the aircraft and she lent over and asked me how my daughter, son and wife were and whether I was OK. I mumbled something in the affirmative, being overcome by her affection in remembering me even after one-and-a-half years of leaving office and conscious of all eyes of all the visitors including the chief minister being on me!
She sweetly said "All the best to you and the family" and left. Sadly, that was the last I saw of her.
In all the short references and cameos I have tried to capture some of the fine qualities of Indira Gandhi but by no means is it a biographer's job or an incisive presentation which would satisfy the purist. Perhaps it ends up as a feeble attempt at inscribing one's signature on a giant oak tree in the forest after all!
As told to Radhika Rajamani.
Radhika Rajamani
http://news.rediff.com/special/2009/oct/30/rrajamani-remembers-indira-gandhi-on-her-25th-death-anniversary.htm
Two dominant flaws in Indira Gandhi’s character that explain most of her controversial political moves during her 16 years as prime minister were her insecurity and her authoritarian mentality. Of course, it would be wrong to infer from this that Indira Gandhi had no good qualities. She in fact had many but these were overshadowed in decision-making by her insecurity and authoritarianism.
These two contradictory concerns troubled her mind continuously and produced many zigzags, even somersaults, in her policy. Except for her determination to emasculate all her potential challengers in the party, I consider in retrospect Mrs Gandhi as a very erratic leader. To call her strong and decisive therefore is a very superficial reading of her leadership.
As a consequence of her deeply felt sense of insecurity, she was given like a cat when cornered, to extraordinary courage and when not cornered she usually reacted on anxiety. I came to realise this from my personal experiences in dealing with her.
I first met Indira Gandhi in 1965 when she was information and broadcasting minister in Shastri’s Cabinet. She had come to address a meeting at Brandeis University located in a small town called Waltham near the Harvard campus. At that time I was a young professor of economics at Harvard University having got my PhD in the shortest possible time. This appointment had made a splash in the local press since Asians those days were rarely taken into the Harvard faculty. So Mrs Gandhi who always fancied the company of intellectuals, sent me word through a common contact to meet her which I did, and spent chatting with her for a few hours at Brandeis. She spoke bitterly about how the nation had forgotten Nehru, how trite Shastri was, and what advice I would give as a professor to make Rajiv Gandhi study hard in UK.
My contact thereafter with Mrs Gandhi continued till 1969, when I returned to India and joined the Jan Sangh. She thought I was mad to do so and conveyed the same with much irritation to me through my father who was then in civil service. After that it was hostility between us all the way till 1981.
In the last three years before her assassination in 1984, after I had done a favour for her government on the China question, cordiality in my relations was restored. Thereafter, frequent tit-bit conversations with her took place during official dinners and other engagements which I attended as deputy leader of the Janata Party in Parliament.
Dove with steel claws
Mrs Gandhi, in my view, cared a lot about US and European opinion about her while she seemed, for what shall remain for as unexplained reasons, obligated to protect the Soviet Union’s interests in India. Thus her first move as PM in the Sixties was to adopt West’s prescriptions for reviving the Indian economy, such as devaluation of the rupee and by empowering the well-to-do or ‘kulak’ farmers through the green revolution package. She got kudos for it in The New York Times. But soon she somersaulted and swung to harsh licensing, land reform and nationalisation of banks since the pro-Soviet Left began baying for her blood. All this gave a huge boost to black money generation and corrupted Indian society.
She disregarded the US interests when the Bangladesh issue arose in 1971, but very soon just before liberation, she spared West Pakistan from military devastation by declaring prematurely a ceasefire, and then a year later signed the Simla Agreement which meant restoration of status quo in Pakistan’s military capability with US and Chinese help.
Thereafter she invited Henry Kissinger to visit India and tried to pacify the US which had fiercely opposed the Bangladesh military operations. But once in India and pacified, Kissinger flattered her with the remark that she was ‘a dove with steel claws’. Why she sought to pacify the US, post-Bangladesh liberation, is an interesting episode by itself but too long to narrate here. With the declaration of Emergency, this wooing of the US continued, with Sanjay Gandhi taking the lead.
She declared the State of Emergency in 1975 because in her authoritarian bent of mind she could not tolerate popular opposition which JP generated and represented. JP made her insecure since he had impeccable credentials as a freedom fighter against British colonialism and a clean image too. She tried hard to discredit him but failed. Her authoritarian nature was fortified because, with exceptions, opposition leaders’ for personal reasons lacked the capacity to stand up to her methods.
This encouraged her to clamp down on democratic freedom, jail 1,40, 000 innocent persons without trial, impose press censorship, extend the term of Parliament, thus postponing the elections by a constitutional amendment passed by a captive Parliament. Many opposition leaders wrote her apology letters and crawled out of jail on parole. Silence of the graveyard descended on the nation.
Suddenly, she turned around and declared elections at the most inappropriate time for her in early 1977, thereby losing the majority for the party and her own seat in Parliament. Why did she call for elections?
While there could be several reasons, I think the censure of long time Nehru’s liberal friends in the US and the UK, as well as the soothing advice from Jiddu Krishnamurthi (who was highly popular in high society abroad) drove her to doing what her son Sanjay thoroughly disapproved — to declare elections. It is also possible that Jimmy Carter being elected the new President of US in late1976 could have increased her anxiety about her legitimacy. Of course, my dramatic entry and escape from Parliament in August 1976 may have made her wonder as to how strong the underground had grown.
Wooing the Hindu vote
In June 1984, she launched Operation Blue Star on the Golden Temple in Amritsar which Chandrashekhar and I strongly opposed. I spoke to her twice in April that year urging her not to contemplate any such action, which was rumoured those days as imminent. I told her that there were better ways of dealing with militants inside the temple. Her answers were vague and reflected a great deal of anxiety about the issue. In the 1982 Jammu & Kashmir elections she had successfully played the Hindu card, and had in Parliament denounced ‘Muslims who cheer the Pakistani cricket team against India’. Hence, many thought the Punjab operation too was for wooing the Hindu vote.
But after talking to her, I became convinced that it was the Soviet Union’s pressure exerted on her through CPI(M)’s Harkishan Singh Surjeet and via an individual living in her household about whom Mrs Gandhi always sounded apprehensive in conversations with me. After Blue Star, I met Mrs Gandhi in August 1984 for the last time in the Lok Sabha corridor. She seemed then deeply anxious about Sikh anger and asked what could now be done. I had already told her about the Udham Singh mindset, and hence all now could do was shrug my shoulder.
As I look back on her long tenure, I feel sad for India. The country had given her a huge mandate. Yet her unhappy childhood, her agonising marriage, her disappointment with her siblings, friends, relatives, and most of all her inability to trust anybody induced in her unhealthy insecurity and an authoritarian mindset that caused her to fritter that mandate. She will be remembered by posterity for the ignominy of Emergency and Operation Blue Star, without balancing for the Green Revolution, the liberation of Bangladesh, and for daring to test the nuclear bomb.
(The author is a former Union minister)
http://www.expressbuzz.com/edition/story.aspx?Title=The+insecure+dictator&artid=AhwQmXDE3KM=&SectionID=XVSZ2Fy6Gzo=&MainSectionID=wIcBMLGbUJI=&SectionName=m3GntEw72ik=&SEO=Udham%
Loved, hated, admired: The enduring legacy of Indira Gandhi - Feature
New Delhi - Twenty-five years after she was assassinated by her Sikh bodyguards, India's only woman prime minister, Indira Gandhi, has an enduring presence in the minds of most Indians. For some she remains a messiah who connected directly to the poor and underprivileged with her social welfare programmes and catchy populist slogans like "garibi hatao" (oust poverty).
For others she is the monster who unleashed the Emergency, the darkest period in India's democratic history when political opposition was put down ruthlessly, opponents jailed and the free media that India is so proud of muzzled for 19 months.
As daughter of independent India's first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi grew up in the midst of the struggle for independence in a highly political family.
She was elected president of the youth wing of the Indian National Congress in 1956 and was elected to parliament in place of her father when he died in 1964. Her estranged husband Feroze Gandhi had passed away in 1960.
Seen as a political and intellectual lightweight, Indira Gandhi was dubbed a "gungi gudiya" or dumb doll when she was catapulted to power as prime minister in 1966 by a group of Congress party leaders who hoped to control her.
But within five years Indira Gandhi emerged as one of India's most powerful prime ministers.
Veteran journalist Inder Malhotra, who published a biography of the former prime minister in 1989, feels Indira Gandhi understood the importance of power and how to manipulate it better than most politicians.
Under her stewardship India won a war against Pakistan for the liberation of Bangladesh in 1971.
She ushered in the green revolution that ensured food security for India, nationalized banks in a move that cushioned India from the worst of the current global recession and abolished princely states.
It was during her stint as prime minister that India joined the nuclear club and took big strides in the field of science and technology, but at the same time put in place draconian laws and elaborate red tape that hobbled the administration and the economy.
In international diplomacy Indira Gandhi was an effective and strong leader who dared to take on the United States.
But her primary strength lay in her ability to connect with the poor, which her critics dismissed as a tactical ploy.
To this day leaders of her Congress party seek votes in remote areas of the country in the name of Indira Amma (mother). In many houses in the south of the country she's worshipped along with religious deities.
The Emergency is an event the Congress party tends to push under the carpet. The Indian electorate decisively voted Indira Gandhi out of power in 1977 in the first election after the Emergency, but re-elected her in 1980.
Malhotra, in his biography, described the Emergency as Indira Gandhi's cardinal sin. But today, he said, with the passage of time, the anger against the Emergency is much less.
The Indira Gandhi who returned to power in 1980 ensured unswerving loyalty among her party members and this bred a culture of sycophancy that endures within the Congress party to this day.
Gandhi also perpetuated dynastic politics, first promoting her younger son Sanjay Gandhi in the party and when he died in an air crash in 1980, making sure her elder son Rajiv Gandhi was seen as a prospective leader.
The pilot-turned-politician was chosen by Congress members to be the next prime minister to contain infighting among leaders when Indira Gandhi was assassinated on October 31, 1984 by her Sikh bodyguards.
The bodyguards were seeking revenge for her ordering the Indian Army to launch an assault on their holiest shrine, the Golden Temple, to flush out Sikh militants.
Gandhi's death was followed by three days of riots by party sympathisers in which more than 3,000 Sikhs were massacred in Delhi and, according to unofficial estimates, another 4,000 in other towns around the country.
For large numbers of Indians, Indira Gandhi remains a progressive and idealistic figure. But for others she remains a master political manipulator who, as yet another biographer Zareer Masani puts it, drifted from her promise of democratic socialism to blatant dynasticism and suppression of dissent.
The bungalow in Delhi where she lived and died has been turned into a memorial and draws up to 10,000 visitors a day.
They peer into rooms which are kept as they were and crowd before numerous awards, photographs and the bloodstained sari she wore when she was shot.
"She was a strong and enterprising woman. I admire her immensely," Janaki from Bangalore said after her pilgrimage to Indira Gandhi's home. "They don't make leaders like her anymore."
http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/292294,loved-hated-admired-the-enduring-legacy-of-indira-gandhi--feature.html
BANGLADESH- INDIA RELATIONSHIP:TRANSIT AND OTHER NATIONAL ISSUES
Badrul Islam
October 24, 2009
In response to Raheed Ejaz´s report, Dhaka considers one-time transit to Tripura as ´test case´,
(New Age, 0ctober 17, 2009) the Editor in his editorial, (New Age, 0ctober 18, 2009) has
correctly voiced his opinion under the topic, 0ne ´test case´ is bitter enough. Congratulations to the Editor for his excellent analysis.
I am confident, that together with me, the conscious Citizens of Bangladesh would equally agree with all the relevant points indicated therein which I submit here to highlight and analyze further:
1. We cannot but express our apprehension about another ´test case´. The Farakka Barrage, which was supposedly a test case for three weeks, continues to further misery in Bangladesh even over three decades later. Another test case may prove to be too bitter a pill to swallow.
2. While connectivity among the peoples of the two countries, and indeed the entire region, is imperative in order to bring about a more cohesive integration of the subcontinent has substantial advantages, it certainly cannot be at the cost of the individual country´s strategic, political and economic disadvantage that might threaten individual sovereignty. The Asian Highway route is yet is yet to be decided and it appears that the government is all but ready to submit to tacit Indian pressure of agreeing to a route that would not increase Bangladesh connectivity and provide India with a transit of sorts as both the entry and exit points of two of the three proposed routes would be through India.
The above interests of our friendly neighbor, India, according to my judgment are contributing to an overall negative attitude due to lack of transparency in placing the demands and in the manner the respective Authorities of both Governments are wheeling and dealing to finalize it. I wish to indicate herein two points in support of this view:
1. Ejaz´s report confirms that 0fficials of the foreign affairs, shipping and communications ministries would want to know how the decision would be implemented and how it could benefit both neighbors. A senior 0fficer, involved in the process said, we consider allowing India transit once as test case and its result will decide the fate of other proposals floated earlier by New Delhi.
2. We are not being informed as to whether the interests of Bangladesh are being included into the deliberations for the Indian Government´s concurrence; issues that are pending for long namely, SAFTA and SAPTA, reduction in non-tariff, para-tariff and tariff barriers for Bangladesh products to be exported to India, removing barriers to Bangladeshi investment, making the Joint Rivers Commission functional ,solutions to Farakka Barrage and other installations and transit to Bhutan and Nepal through India with a view to fostering harmony and integration of the region.
I wish to avail this opportunity to ask the Government of India four very pertinent questions: 1.How, over the last 38 years, prior to Independence of Bangladesh, did they solve the communication, administrative and economic problems of Tripura and Arunachal(the seven sister states)? 2. Why are they being impatient with the Government of Bangladesh´s deliberation on this matter before it can make a final decision? 3. How much cooperation has the Government of India extended to the Government of Bangladesh to solve the above mentioned pending issues of interest to Bangladesh to enhance the "Friendship" between the two? 4. Why India doesn´t feel that there could be security threats to Bangladesh when it wants transit through approximately 600 miles of Bangladesh land to Arunachal and use of Ashuganj port plus Akhaura-Tripura 31 km road connection; when both areas are hot beds for insurgency?
My personal opinion is that, India should continue dealing with these areas as it had been doing before over the previous 38 years and there is no necessity to burden Bangladesh with their domestic problems and security threats that can arise from insurgents.
Security threat was cited by the Indians, when it denied Bangladesh the use of Calcutta port in 1972, (our Chittagong port was difficult to operate then, in view of several sunken ships in and around the port area during the War); and 16 miles of transit through Indian land for trade between two SAARC countries, Bhutan and Nepal. Why can´t Bangladesh do the same?
About cooperation from India to Bangladesh to enhance friendship, it would suffice to say "the less said the better"; while at private and Citizen level the friendly atmosphere is so cordial, it is a pity that over the last 38 years no initiative from either side of Government and political level has been initiated to improve friendly relations without asking of any favor from each other. At Government and political level we still remain suspicious and recall the errors of the past; I include herein a few pointers for the readers knowledge. Relations began to sour from the time the exile Mujibnagar government was installed and immediately after Independence, on 16 December 1971, when representatives of Bangladesh government and Mukti Bahini were absent from the ceremony of surrender of Pakistan Army to Indian Army, shifting of Jute headquarters to Delhi and placing an Indian as head of Rakhi Bahini and implementation of the seven point agreement between late Indira Gandhi and the then acting president of the exiled Mujibnagar government, late Syed Najrul Islam (ref The war preparation of India-Pakistan and war by Dr.Kalidas Baidyowas)was being implemented. Late Jean Dixit, first High Commissioner of India to Bangladesh wrote in his book "Liberation and Beyond, "India´s failure to return part of the military equipment captured from Pakistani forces to Bangladesh and its defense experts suggesting that Bangladesh need not have a large armed force equipped with armour etc also created misunderstandings and revived old suspicions about Indian hegemonism". The list is too long and to shorten it we note with dismay the most recent signs of uncooperation,(1) pressurizing Bangladesh government to cancel the connection through Myanmar for the Asian Highway and the (2)Tipaimukh Dam episode. My article "Will dams "damage" the relationship? published on July 24,2009 in the The Financial Times, can be read by those interested in details as well suggestions to its solutions , which in return can help in improving relations.
Next, for the knowledge of Prime Minister, the Foreign Minister and Citizen of Bangladesh, I wish to present here an example of a good strategic diplomacy that will help Bangladesh to negotiate with India. Prior to her decision to help Bangladesh during the war late Indira Gandhi made twenty years treaty with Soviet Union(Russia) which guarantee India economical, political and military assistance (arms and ammunition needed for the war). Inspite of this treaty late Indira Gandhi didn´t alter the important principles of Indian foreign policy. She made it clear that Soviet Union would not receive any special privileges—much less naval base rights- in Indian ports, despite major Soviet contribution to the construction of ship building and ship repair facilities at Bombay (Mumbai). By repeatedly emphasizing the nonexclusive nature of its friendship with Soviet Union, India kept open the way open for normalizing relations with China and improving ties with the West. (http://countrystudies.us/India/133.htm)
0ne marvels and admires the late Indira Gandi´s intelligence and strategy, which should be a learning lesson and an eye opener, for our Prime Minister, to know that friendship with neighbors can be retained, while diplomacy means strategy without bending our backs to grant special privileges that could be detrimental to our own Country; and that friendship begets friendship, which is imperative for our neighbors to offer.
Agartala, May29, 2009 ICT by IANS (www.thaindian.com) states that Bangladesh has agreed in principle "and this what the ´test case´ is about" to allow India to use its water ways to transport heavy machines for 0il and Natural Gas Corp´s(ONGC) upcoming740-MW power project in Tripura. This gas based project, the biggest ever of ONGC is coming up in south Tripura´s Palatana and is expected to be operational by 2012. Tripura Chief Secretary, Shashi Prakash said if necessary India is ready to provide Rs.100 million to Dhaka to improve the poor road (linking Agartala) on the Bangladesh side. "Dhaka and New Delhi are now considering adding Ashuganj as the ninth port of call for easy transport of Indian goods from other parts of the country to the land-locked north-eastern region through Bangladesh.
I can only presume, that our Foreign Minister as well as our Prime Minister, is well aware of the above facts, and wish to remind them of the Bhopal gas tragedy. 0n December 2, 1984 tons of toxic gas leaked from a pesticide plant owned by Union Carbide in Bhopal (India), killing 3.800 people almost immediately. Thousands more were injured. The people are still suffering from lungs problem and respiratory diseases and the new born children are facing problems of poor visions, proper growth and loss of memory. Union Carbide accepted responsibility and established 100 million dollars charitable trust fund to build hospital for the victim yet the Government failed to provide victims of quality medical care. The victims are suffering.
Should any accident like the Bhopal gas tragedy happen within Tripura, (a) either during installation and connection or (b) objections and possible sabotage by the Citizens of Tripura for use their available gas or (c) later during its operation by ONGC; who will take the responsibility and what measures will taken to protect the lives of Bangladeshi Citizens, residing within close proximity to Tripura border area? This factor cannot be overlooked.
What does India mean by Ashuganj as its "ninth port of call"? How will the Rs.100 million be given; as direct payment or as loan to Bangladesh to be paid back with interest? What would be the terms and condition of the use of the port by India and whether Bangladesh too can use it for its economic benefit without being pressurized by India for their exclusive use.
It is imperative, to obtain complete explanations from the Indian Government, on all the points at the earliest, for Bangladesh to evaluate the entire deal so that an agreement may be signed by May 2010 , as Foreign Minister Dipu Moni has conveyed to her Indian counterpart S.M.Krishna in Delhi on September 8, 2009.
Two vital issues that demands inclusion here are: 1 Maritime Boundary and 2. Bangladesh´s Border and its defending institution BDR.
1.The most important issue is that of maritime boundary that Bangladesh has lodged with the United Nations. Will friendly India support Bangladesh claim to settle the issue on the principles of equity rather than on principles of equidistant, which both India and Myanmar are favoring? Foley Hoaq is retained by Bangladesh for arbitrations against India and Myanmar over boundaries in Bay of Bengal´s resource-rich waters. In separate proceedings against each of its two neighbors, Bangladesh has referred to binding arbitration its maritime boundaries in the territorial sea(out to 12 nautical miles from the shoreline), the Exclusive Economic Zone(or EEZ,to 200 nautical miles from shore), and the continental shelf(beyond 200 miles from shore). Paul Reichler who heads the team says, "Unfortunately, negotiations have been deadlocked for years, leaving international arbitration as the only way for Bangladesh to achieve peaceful and lawful resolutions of these maritime boundary issue, and definitive borders that will ultimately allow it to access natural resources that will benefit the Bangladeshi people." Neither India nor Myanmar has yet responded to the arbitration notifications, which were filed by Bangladesh on 0cober 8, 2009. They each have 30 days under the applicable rules to appoint an arbitrator or one will be appointed for them. Reichler further informs that arbitration of this type can take up to 3 to 4 years from the initial notification to final decision. In addition to Reichler, Bangladesh is also represented by Foley Hoaq partners Lawrence Martin and Andrew Loewenstein, as well as Professor James Crawford of Cambridge University in the United Kingdom and Professor Payam Akhavan of McGill University in Canada-(Ref:www.reuters.com).
Myanmar Ambassador in Dhaka, Phae Thann 00 ,in an exclusive interview to UNB has expressed his frustration and queried that when bilateral talk were progressing why Bangladesh had to go to UN for arbitration? Since he is also expresses that, on going talk will continue in November this year and is optimistic that "one day we will have a mutually agreed settlement", I only wish to draw his attention, right now, to the above statement from Paul Reichler and to act accordingly. He should also read the two part article of Shah Mohammad Saifuddin, "Bangla-Myanmar Relation" published in New Age, dated 0ctober 19 and 20, 2009. 0ut of curiosity, however, I would like to enquire of him, if the November 2, 2008 activity of Myanmar of sending four ships of Daewoo escorted by two Mayanmar´s naval war ship to drill when delimitation of boundary between the three friendly countries has not been settled?
2. Prior to independence, Bangladesh was the Eastern Part of Pakistan and due to poor relations with Pakistan as a whole, East Pakistan, though enjoying the "Bengali affiliation" with West Bengal was considered as security threat and therefore India had a strong vigilant force manning the border but never formulated national policy to fence the entire border and skirmishes between BDR and BSF and shooting civilians was very rare. What prompts the Indian Authorities to evolve a national policy to fence the entire border area with Bangladesh side now, when it envisages Bangladesh to be a friendly country? Why the BSF have to kill innocent civilians and engage into skirmishes with BDR? BSF shot dead 53 Bangladesh nationals from January to September this year, Home Minister Sahara Khatun informed parliament today-Sangsad Bhaban; 0ctober 12 (UNB) i.e 6 people killed in a month and skirmishes between BSF and BDR are very frequent and always initiated by BSF.
I believe that, the Citizens of Bangladesh have confidence on their elected representatives, to honestly and properly evaluate the pros and cons of these national matters especially that of the use of Ashuganj port, in the parliament, to form a national consensus before formally conveying the final decision to our friendly neighbor, India. However, if the 0pposition party continues to boycott the parliament, then deliberations within the parliament by the ruling party and its alliance only, will be partial and therefore unacceptable to Citizens. The next best choice, for Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, is to declare an open public debate though media and seminars for a period of two or three weeks and then fix a date for, "public referendum". The 0pposition cannot avoid participating in the public debate or the ´referendum´, because they cannot afford to loose more credibility for future elections.
My suggestions are based on facts that it essential to follow democratic system through which the consent of the governed must be obtained in order to legitimatize the Government´s diplomatic steps and the Foreign Policy. Precisely, with this view in mind, I wish to draw the attention of our Prime Minister that, unilateral decision to permit one time ´test case´ to India would be a wrong judgment. Aristotle says, "At his best man is the noblest of all animals; separated from law and justice he is the worst." Let us all pledge to stay within the perimeters of law and justice.
http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/view/125473
NOSTALGIA
- An anniversary year for two extraordinary journals
CUTTING CORNERS - ASHOK MITRA
The year happens to be the anniversary occasion for two journals, both quite out of the ordinary. The formidable Economic (now Economic and Political) Weekly completed 60 years of its existence in January. September marked half-a-century of publication of that curiosum of a periodical, Seminar. The EPW’s deft blending of serious academic thinking with incisive critiques of contemporary goings-on is non pareil in the world. Seminar too, in its own manner, stands out as a spectacular phenomenon. It presents in its pages diverse musings on a single theme, and each month it is a new theme. This has been the proceeding, month after month, across six hundred-odd issues. A further overlap between the EPW and the Seminar is that both started as cottage craft, a small-scale family affair. The EPW was a brainwave of two brothers, Sachin and Hiten Chaudhuri; Seminar, on the other hand, was the handiwork of a husband-and-wife team.
Lahore Government College, in the early 1940s, used to fawn on the boys and girls attending it from affluent, and perhaps not so affluent, families. They crammed its sprawling lawns, corridors and lecture rooms. Spring was always in the air: excited roaming in literature and political philosophy, intense discussion on the mysteries of the atom, loads and loads of Faiz’s poetry, thrill at reports of heroic Soviet résistance, at Stalingrad and elsewhere, against the advancing Nazi aggressors. It was almost inevitable that Raj Malhotra and Romesh Thapar would be sucked into the Students’ Federation and the proximity of the communist party. Romesh had a flair for writing, drawing and acting, his calligraphy was beautiful, Raj had elegance and, apart from her passion for art and aesthetics, was full of ideas. The sufferings and deprivation of the poor hurt their sensibility; the courting couple dreamed of a future exclusively dedicated to the cause of the people. The Indian People’s Theatre Movement was then a vibrant, thriving organism. It was sheer joy to be part of it. It also taught Raj and Romesh the virtues of method and discipline.
With Partition, Lahore could no longer provide a base. They married early and moved to Bombay, possibly because it was the headquarters of the IPTA. Romesh had his hands full with writing, producing documentary films, acting, even performing cameo roles in one or two Bombay films. Raj did her comradely bits. The Ranadive phase brought an end to that chapter. The IPTA was in disarray, Raj turned to looking after the household and rearing the children, Romesh pottered around, contributing to this or that newspaper, producing an impulsive book on the national political scene, getting a shade disenchanted with films and plays. Then a thing happened. They befriended Sachin Chaudhuri, or it could have been the other way round. Sachin Chaudhuri was a beguiling guest in all seasons; Raj and Romesh were wonderful hosts. The format and contents of the Economic Weekly fascinated them. What about embarking on an adventure along the same direction as Sachin’s, starting a journal which would be socially relevant and yet have a persona of its own, flaunting a predilection for intellectual rigour but not at all airy-fairy, and with a focus on concrete issues? A weekly publication invited a thousand headaches; why not, instead, a monthly publication? Choose for each month a particular topic and invite a dozen or thereabouts of knowledgeable people to expand their thoughts around it? In a university or college seminar, one speaker usually makes an introductory presentation, which is followed by comments from others attending, and, after some meandering, the discussion reaches a dénouement, or sometimes — no harm done — does not. The 1950s, it needs to be remembered, were the decade of panchsheel. Mao Zedong and Chou En Lai were much admired names in this country, Mao’s edict of allowing a hundred thoughts to contend had bowled over the Indian middle class. Constituents of this class were, more often than not, wont to take themselves excessively seriously. Seminar did not mind, to each his or her ego. Seminar delightfully carried the burden of both naïveté and pseudo-sophistication in its issues. The strategy was to leave it to the readers to separate the wheat from the chaff. It had, however, something additional to offer: reviews of books touching on the month’s theme and a carefully composed bibliography of relevant literature. Could one ask for more?
The range of subjects Seminar has coped with over these decades nearly takes one’s breath away: politics, economics, international relations, Pakistan, the liberation of Bangladesh, anthropology, sociology, atomic energy, literature, sports, psephology, problems of individual political parties, national security, Kashmir, Centre-state relations, public finance, police reforms, public undertakings, globalization, the poverty level, urban planning, housing and architecture, the food crisis, agriculture and land reforms, trade unions, the Naxalites, the Green Movement, archaeology, global warming — one can go on and on. A new month, a new theme, now and then, return to an old theme at an interval of 10 or 15 years.
Like the Economic Weekly, Seminar too had its blooding in Bombay. While Sachin Chaudhuri and his weekly dug roots in Apollo Bunder, the Thapars soon moved to New Delhi where the climate was perhaps marginally less commercial, if marginally more bureaucratic. Because of their wide social connections, Romesh and Raj could afford not to worry over bureaucratic artefacts. In any case, everybody knew everybody else in New Delhi’s upper layers; that social reality permitted Raj and Romesh to invite, with confidence, all and sundry to partake of the eclectic fare they served.
For it is not just the range of issues Seminar has expatiated on that overwhelms. Equally impressive is the range of people who have written for it: politicians (ministers not excluded), civil servants, major domos and prima donnas from different sections of the academia, economists, sociologists, physicists, mathematicians, anthropologists, defence strategists, film stars, art critics, danseuses, thespians, civil society activists, architects, city planners, diplomats, sports personalities, defunct and still active revolutionaries. Much of this was possible on account of the concept of Seminar which attracted persons with different backgrounds and experience. Romesh’s grit and persuasive power, supplemented by Raj’s charm, did the rest.
Both the Economic Weekly and Seminar were initiated as exercises in the small scale. The Economic Weekly, despite its founder’s great reluctance, had to transform itself in the middle of life; the romanticism of running an enterprise on a shoestring basis needed to be abandoned; its social relevance called for that change. The EPW therefore broke out of the contours of cottage existence. Although it remains under the care of a private trust, it has increasingly accepted some of the constraints of a near-corporate entity even while jealously preserving its freewheeling left-liberal outlook. Since the Thapars had ample private means and it was only a monthly publication, Seminar did not have to take the EPW route. It is content to stay small-scale, it has changed neither its format nor its textual contents. Raj and Romesh are gone, the progeny has taken it over, the daughter and son-in-law duo run it with the same quiet efficiency that has been the hallmark of Seminar from the very first issue of September 1959.
It is, however, a new generation. While Seminar remains essentially the same, in some details it is a teeny-weeny bit different. The globalized environment provokes new challenges, which has to get reflected in the themes Seminar chooses to accommodate, it has to, to be contemporary. It has, therefore, both changed, and not changed; let it be left at that.
Seminar, of course, spells continuity. It would, however, be a very odd sort of obliviousness not to mention an interruption in its being. This happened during Indira Gandhi’s Emergency. Romesh and Raj abhorred the idea of submitting matter intended for publication in Seminar to the queen’s censure. They preferred to close down the journal. Not too many were prepared to follow their example. Seminar remains unique in that respect too.
For an old-timer, what at the end matters, though, is nostalgia, nostalgia which takes one back perhaps two score years, nostalgia for the neat little Seminar office on the first floor of Malhotra Building, its cool interior décor, Romesh, with his half-grin, half-grimace and rich baritone, commanding the visiting friend to take a seat and listen to his latest political grouse, Raj, ever full of tact, grace and affection, trying to rescue the friend from Romesh’s overdrive and fill him with the most recent New Delhi gossip — or, better still, organize, right in the office premises, an impromptu lunch of luscious ravioli.
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1091009/jsp/opinion/story_11581344.jsp
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