Special Correspondent
War is best when fought on the battlefield; its ugly side comes into view from the trenches and, worst, from the gutters which cowards choose as last refuge. These are many who equate politics with war; there are others who indulge in politics from the drains, raking up fith and openly hurling invectiues at opponents which have no basis either in truth or courtesy. The Trinamul Congress leader, Mamta Banerjee, has become a past master in gutter politics. There is a major insecurity in being cornered. More so, with the sinking realisation that the elections, which are round the corner, shall not spare the unworthy. It is from this desperation that Ms Banerjee told newsmen on Friday which any self-respecting leader of any status- let alone someone who sees herself as a future Chief Minister-would have though twice before saying. She dragged in a subject which has absolutely no place even among those refined enough not to let the worst creep into the gutters. By talking about Chief Minister Jyoti Basu's personal life-his first marriage, to be precise-Ms Banerjee has flouted perhaps even the norms of the gutters. What politics is she serving by malcing such references? The gutters should know. The CPI (M), with Mr. Basu, in the forefront, has always maintained that Ms. Banerjee is a proved; me have assple proof of that. Camouflaging the lack of a foreign degree by manufacturing one does not border only on a personal aberration; its cheating the people. When Mr. Basu calls Ms Banerjee a "420" and "cheat", the reference is as much to her politics as her personality; a framd should be singled out for criticism and more so, becuases she is an aspirant for an office which is directly responsible to the people. Mr. Basu and other CPI(M) leaders have done nothing wrong by calling Ms Banerjee a cheat; we are doing the people a service by unmasking her destructive politics. As for her anger about her brothers being involved in criminal activities and our charges on that score, Mr. Anil Biswas, State CPI(M) Secretary, has stood by the accusation and maintained that the killing of the young woman, Srabani Saha, near Ms. Banerjee's residence was the result of bickering over loot share and in which the brothers Banerjee are involved. Ms. Banerjee, who speaks of clean politics at the drop of a hat, has now lost her cool, confronted, as she is by crime in her own backward. But unfortunately, Ms. Banerjee is not alone. She is in a company of her own, ringed by the likes of Promode Mahajan and George Ferandes, her trusted allies, who have made shooting off their mouths their personal passports to performance. But this cannot be allowed to go on. By their desperation, all these leader are being exposed; their stooping to conquer shall be met by the thundersons rejection by the people. When people in glasshouses throw stones, the only sound you can bear is that of breaking glass. That noice shall soon mirror the brittfeness of the character of Ms. Banerjee. The mask is slipping Nothing can be worse for the wearer when the mask does not fit. Or slips. And that is precisely what is happening with the Prime Minister of India, Atal Behari Vajpayee; his friend Govindacharya had once said that Vajpayee was the mask with which the RSS functioned inside the BJP giving it a presentable face to the masses. Which, in other words, would mean that Vajpayee was the man who would get the votes while the Sangh Parivar continued with its destructive mission. Govindacharya had then been subjected to some criticism within the party and hauled over the coals as it were for making public a secret machinery of the party which almost everybody knew but very few dared to speak out in public for fear of inviting the Parivar's wrath. But now all that is out in the open. When the mask slips, it shows badly and the real face can be seen. With the elections kicking off for the first phase, the modus operandi of the BJP has become crystal clear. Vajayee is being projected as the man who will get the votes through his so-called moderate image while the Parivar will continue to wreak havoc. The huge advertisements in the national dailies of the country put out by the BJP harp on one theme: vote BJP to vote VaÙayee back as PM. Obviously, the idea is to ride piggy back on the Prime Minister and turn a blind eye to the atrocities and violence being perpetrated in various parts of the country as evidenced on Sunday in Telugu Desam ruled Andhra Pradesh and the Akali-governed Punjab, both not quite coiincidentally, BJP ally states. But what about Vajpayee himself? Isn't this the same man who fiddled or rather, wrote peoms, when Ayodhya became a national shame? Isn't this the same man who sat on a fast to seek penance for the killing of Christians?And is this not the same man who, as Prime Minister, remained blissfully unaware of the intrusions in Kargil even as he sat smugly in the bus to Lahore? Yes, it is him. The man who is touted to be the savious of the nation. But who, in actuality, is worse than the worst once his mask slips. And the mask has indeed slipped. And the nation has taken notice. Through the gutter Glass It is one thing to be impatient with opposition; it is quite another matter to be disrespectful. The problem with Pramode Mahajan and George Fernandes is that they are both. They make remarks in leisure and repent in a hurry. First, Mr Mahajan compared Ms Sonia Gandhi with Ms Monica Lewinsky; now it is Mr Fernandes who has stooped to the level where he has to remind Indians that the only contribution of Ms Gandhi has been in her begetting two children. Without even trying to go into the morality of raising such questions and whether they have done the two leaders and their taste buds any good, the matter that needs to be addressed as a larger question is whether it is time that we take a wider look at the nation’s ethics and our moral Indian code, indeed the code for any gentleman and ladies and that of a civilised society. Electioneering is in itself a metaphor for the political life of a country; we have seen personal attacks before and it is not as if there will be an end to it either. But here the matter is different. When there are much, much larger issues at stake, when the country is going through such turbulent times with communalism and riots and a shallow economic policy creating havoc with our times, is it wise to bring up insinuations which have no real stakes or relation to our polity and future? The task of leaders, out to wrest seat after seat from their rivals, is to corner the Opposition; there can be no serious doubt about that. But that should not degenerate into slander, much less talking about the reproductive contribution of one of the senior politicians of this country. Indeed, if Mr Fernandes and Mr Mahajan now face the ire of women’s groups and not politicians for a change, then they have only themselves to blame. There is no way that the tastelessness of the remarks made by these ministers can be minimised. And this is not the first time that this happened. Mr Mahajan has been known to have have put his foot in the mouth many times before, not the least serious being the time when he called veteran Communist Parliamentarian Somnath Chatterjee names that the nation did not want to hear. That he apologised profusely later brings us to another side of the story. Both his Prime Minister, Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee, and Mr Mahajan are good at apologising; they have done so many times in the past. It is sad that Mr Vajpayee has to say sorry for breaking the model code of conduct for campaigning while his minister has to bend backwards to say that he did not mean any personal insult to Ms Gandhi when he compared her to Ms Lewinsky. This is the time of apology; apologies in the time of elections, as they were, perhaps. We now wait for Mr Fernandes to say that he did not mean any offence at all to Ms Gandhi in particular and women in general when he said that the country was indeed thankful to the Congress chief for her visits to the maternity homes to gift us with Rahul and Priyanka. But it is time senior politicians knew where to draw the line. We are not interested in their personal preferences; but when these remarks are made from election ramparts for the nation to hear, then it is time that some check ought to be exercised on the fundamental right of these leaders to exercise their option of speaking in public. Cut Out for conning Special Correspondent The Prime Minister, Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee, addressed two election meetings where he spoke from podiums in the forground with huge cutouts of the three defence chiefs in the background. The Election Commission, as we all know, has made it quite clear that it will not allow any use of Kargil and the war for politcal rhetoric; obviously, the BJP does not merely believe in bypassing the model code of conduct but makes a visible presence of its indifference to the laws of the land. What makes the debate_ if at all there is need for one in the first place_ of major significance is that the defence chiefs have been dragged into the political arena and their cutouts have been used to petition the voter for another term for the BJP in power. There is no doubt that the Kargil war has been won; what needs to be pointed out with some forthrightness is that it was not the BJP government’s policies which brought about this victory but the man on the ground who gave his life for the country. The tragic desperation of the BJP is visible but what cannot be condoned is the way it is going about shamelesslessly dragging the defence chiefs into its political gameplan and trying to fool the people. The Election Commission has already taken note of the lapse; obviously, the people will too. And the anger of the voter will be reflected at the hustings. Indeed Mr Vajpayee himself seems to have been cornered over the issue. He has said that this was the result of over-enthusiasm and oversight; when a Prime Minister, because of a lapse even on the behalf of his campaign managers, is seen to be making such errors as flouting the code of conduct of which he should be the model practitioner, then the fate of the nation itself is in jeopardy. One of the chief planks of the BJP in this election is that it is projecting Mr Vajpayee as an able PM; if flouting the model code of conduct and politicising the defence forces are part of able administration, then the less said about BJP governance the better. Gaisal Disastor Special Correspondent
The stench was unbearable.The morgue at Siliguri wass overcrowded and the bodies kept piling up by the hour. Steadily, the toll in the head-on collision between the Brahmaputra Mail and Assam_Awadh Express at Gaisal on Monday morning rose and officials only confirmed a toll which was kept to the minimum for obvious reasons even when three full bogies lying unattended with dead bodies inside. But there was no sense of occasion at Gaisal, scene of the worst train disaster ever in the nation's history.The ambulances flew by at regular intervals, there wass a motley group of onlookers and even the visit of Bihar leader Laloo Prasad Yadav and Trinamool Congress leader Mamata Banerjee did not brighten up things. Ms Banerjee in fact breeezed in and out, stopping over at the site for a few minutes spending some time with the victims in both the Siliguri and Islampur hospitals. However, she did say that the disaster was a ``clear case of sabotage'' and that she would take up the case with the Prime Minister. Mr Yadav and his wife, Rabri Devi, were less outspoken and chose to chat with the victims without making any dramatic announcements or insinuations. The scene did not change much over the next few days. The rescue efforts were tardy and cranes were requisitioned only when the bodies had decomposed beyond recognition. The trains still lay entwined and rescue operations were very slow though it did not rain .Bodies were lined up on the Gaisal platform and the stench could be smelt from a kilometre away. People were being allowed free run of the damaged bogies and there were toys, packets and other pieces of luggage with urchins making a killing. Limbs of victims lay scattered on the floor of many bogies without the rescue as well as medical staff caring to remove them. Such was the indifference of the railway authorities that short of the railway minister’s resignations, there seems to have been no change in the workings of the department. Never before has a train tragedy given occasion for a mass funeral; the non-identification of around 300 bodies led to nameless cremation. The point is: could all this have been avoided? It could have; provided the railways had woken up to the proportions of the tragedy earlier. Another point is a corollary: what happens next? Should another disaster like this follow_ and given the tendency of humans to make errors, it might, any day recur_ what will the railways do? Will the same torturous procedure be adopted; the slow rescue efforts, the lack of any
urgency allowing bodies to rot so much so that two men can lay claim over one body and
leave the rest to some Solomon to sit on judgment? Or is it time to think and end once and
for all any sofpedalling on railways safety? It is obvious that mere suspensions of a
group of railway officers cannot provide any answer; it is equally obvious that it is time
that the nation woke up to some introspection about its own safety on the roads and
airways. Precious lives have been lost. Can any more such disasters be allowed?
Thackeray
Tamed Thackeray has reacted with his usual bravado; he has ``lauded'' Indian democracy and questioned how he can be punished for a crime which he committed 12 years back. The question which begs the answer is simple; a crime as singularly destructive as that which the Sena is carrying on in the name of politics would naturally take time to comprehend and once it is understood and the game seen through, then the judgement, even if it is just those many years late, should be welcomed and lauded for the very fact that it has come at all. The President as well as the Election Commission should be congratulated for this bold step which once again reinforces our faith in our democracy. Thackeray has been at it for as long as he has been in active politics. He has made a joker out of the regional politics of Maharashtra, making the people gullible to his cartoon-wiles and devious communal tactics. That he is now a party to power in the state has made matters worse; what is even more dangerous is that he shares that power with one of the worst cancers of Indian polity now: the BJP. The delay in the judgment has only proved one point; it took so many years for the law-enforcers to see the nature of his crime because Thackeray is no ordinary criminal with simple tactics. He strikes and he strikes with uncanny deviousness, plotting and shaping his actions in a scheme which takes just those extra years to develop into either fullfledged riots or gang wars or mafia empowerment. Thackeray is no ordinary criminal and he cannot be judged by the yardstick of other lesser members of his tribe; if one man can sustain and pressurise a filmstar of the stature of Dilip Kumar to seek residence out of Mumbai; if one man can actually have the gumption of striking at the roots of sporting ties and generate a public debate on a proposed cricket ban on Pakistan; if one man can let loose his goons on a cultural evening which should otherwise be privy to the music of no less than Ghulam Ali, then he cannot be ignored and his potential to maim cannot be minimised by taking any hasty ruling. The deeds of Thackeray needed to be judged from the monumental audacity and potential danger of his crime; even it would have taken some more years to debar him from voting, it would have been in the fitness of things. If a crime is as huge as that of this man's, then it is but natural that it should take that much extra time to sit and deliver a verdict on him. The judgement has come and we welcome it. At least one vote will not be cast this time and not until 2001; one nation has been saved of one ballot-paper sullying the entire nation's democratic, electoral process. Editorial on 26th July 1999
The
bongo is a great instrument; not only does it make for feet-tapping music as an
accompaniment device but this percussion piece is perhaps the only one which has to be
necessarily held between the knees for maximum effect.It would be quite futile to dwell on
any innuendo that the bongo might suggest, but in these days of prose and worse, anything
goes in the name of hardsell. The bongo is now being used for camouflage, for plotting,
for stooping...only those interested in the marketing of the bongo as a propaganda device
would be able to say when some enterprising headline-maker in one of the widely-read
English language newspapers, The Telegraph, to be precise, will select innuendo from the
most innocuous. |
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near Siliguri in West Bengal last week can serve to raise only one valid
talking point: how can such disasters continue to take place in a civilised, modern
country? For those who had been present at the accident site for close to four days after
the tragedy, one feature stood clear: the government machinery as represented by the
world’s largest land transport network was clearly caught napping and the upshot was
a colossal waste of precious human lives and concrete evidence of official indifference
which makes life pitiable for those who are accustomed to better living and greater
security.
of science,
has proved to be a test case in how a pin can successfully prick a balloon and deflate it
to make a valid point. However, the Election Commission's landmark ruling and the
President's subsequent endorsement that the Shiv Sena chief will not be able to exercise
his right to vote for six years for an inflammatory speech should not be treated as a
simple handing out of the law of the nation; this step will go a long way in reemphasising
our commitment to the tenets of democracy and secularism of India. And to take the
punishment of the Sena overlord as just another exercising in limiting yet another
criminal would be to miss the point altogether. Thackeray could have been dismissed as
just another criminal had he been only a man given to rhetoric; the unfortunate fact about
the man is that he is not mere hot air, the balloon which he, with a native sense of
success, flies high on some skies, is not only filled with hot air. There is poison in it.
The ability to kill cannot be overemphasised.