Storm over Jallianwala Bagh

Just Imagine the grandson of a Jallianwala Bagh veteran visiting the site where hundreds of Indian patriots had lost their lives to British brutality at Amritsar, Punjab, during the freedom struggle. Imagine the plight of a grandson who has heard from his grandfather what was there in the monument to the historic event, that turned the tide of the Indian freedom struggle. Imagine yourself, as one such grandson, almost hearing the fading, aged voice of your grandfather, and then keen to come and see if what he had said was there, but you could not find it: Reason? Government renovation of those of others like him. Damned, the beloved country’s governance!

Jallianwala Bagh is not just another recreational spot for tourists, but a ‘sacred’ place today. This public park, close to the Golden Temple of Amritsar, witnessed a massacre on April 13, 1919. It was meant to be a peaceful public meeting for the Baisakhi festival, to assert the right of people to assemble and protest, which was curbed by the martial law imposed by the then Lieutenant Governor of Punjab, Michael O’ Dwyer. Many in the assembly were just people who had come to say morning prayers at the Golden Temple. Soon after the meeting started, Brigadier-General Dyer opened fire on an unarmed gathering of 25,000 men, women and children. The firing lasted about 10 minutes and 1650 rounds were fired, or 33 rounds per soldier and hundreds were killed by the bullets while others fell into the well trying to escape and many were hurt in the stampede.

The renovations are fraught with problems, even as the work is in full progress. The reason for protests by historians and freedom fighters is that some of the important historical relics are being lost in the process. Terming the renovation of historical lanes of Jallianwala Bagh as defacement and destruction of the historical monument, president of Desh Bhagat Yadgar Hall Committee 101-year-old Ghadri Baba Bhagat Singh Bilga has sought the intervention of the Prime Minister in the case. “The two already demolished historical lanes of Jallianwala Bagh should be reconstructed, and the third one should not be razed in the name of widening the entry point for VVIPs’ vehicles,” says a vocal critic.....Continue

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The Sunday Indian

Advantage Jamaat-E-Alliance

After working for decades towards building a society in India based in Islam, Jamaat-E-Islami recently announced its intentions to float its own political party. The announcement made by Mustaq Farooq, the all India general secretary of this semi-political and religious organisation, has undoubtedly created quite a stir among the political circles in Kerala. The new outfit’s general approach towards politics will be to side with the Left parties whenever BJP has a winning chance and support the Congress-led UPA wherever the Left Democratic Front (LDF) does not have any effective influence.

Jamaat’s Kerala leaders say the new outfit will be launched only after the Lok Sabha elections; media speculations meanwhile peg the launch date as January 2009. The decision is likely to be taken during a conference in Kochi to be held soon as a part of the organisation’s national Amir’s all India odyssey.....Continue

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The old tiger still roars

25 kilometres from the Indo-Nepal border, framed against the Terai forests of Lakhimpur Kheri, stands a lonely house… and here they say, an old tiger still roars.

The house was empty. Rising flood waters of the Soheli had claimed these lands for long this season and while the waters had receded, the old tiger hadn’t returned yet to his Haven. On the verandah, next to stacks of mouldy books, throwing a silent challenge, rolled a solid iron barbell, loaded thick with weighted plates. I succumbed to the lure and gripped the cold steel bar and heaved. Nothing happened… I heaved again, and it moved a few reluctant inches before I gave in to gravity and let the barbell clang to the floors. “Sahab roz uthathe thhey, till about 8-10 yrs ago”, said a voice. It was the caretaker. That weight must’ve weighed many hundred pounds and ‘Sahab’ was supposedly 91 now. I wondered about the veracity of the legend. ‘Sahab’ wasn’t here though. He’d moved a few kilometers south, and we followed. I remembered what a local zamindar had said. “He isn’t very tall but used to be a very strong man. He once picked up the front axle of a tractor. Even today his arms are in better shape than yours or mine”. Then I saw him on the front porch of his house, a frail little man curled up on a high chair, a gentle smile welcoming us. He motioned for us to sit and the first thing I asked him was if he’d really picked up the tractor. “Just stories…”, boomed the man’s voice and then he shook my hand with an iron grip that suggested that these ‘stories’ must ring true… surely, the old tiger still roars.

‘Billy’ Arjan Singh is what they called him in the early days when he went about trying to be ‘The Corbett of Kheri’ as he put it, but today he prefers just plain Arjan Singh. Tracing his lineage to the royal family of Kapurthala and Anglo –Bengali Christians, ‘Billy’ loved the great outdoors. He wrestled, lifted weights and in keeping with his heritage, made friends with the hunting rifle rather early in life. He killed his first leopard at 12 and his first tiger at 14. In fact, he was quite a blood thirsty little butcher in those days, killing every possible animal within the range of his rifle. On one occasion he and his brother were returning from the forest in a car and saw a hyena loping across. They fired at the unhappy beast till they ran out of bullets. Then they tried to run the animal over and yet the suffering animal wouldn’t die. There are tales a plenty of his ‘callous brutality’ as he puts it in one of his books. And yet, the forest had claimed his soul and with each animal he killed, he felt a little emptier inside until the day he realised that he killed not for the joys of the hunt as much as he killed to quiet his own feelings of inadequacy. Since then, he has ruthlessly denounced his own weaknesses that had made him into a wanton killer. Today, as the crops stand in his fields, he tells his farm hands that the animals have first right to these crops and there would be enough for all. And sure enough, there is. There’s a sadness in those eyes when he talks of that same blood lust, greed and human insecurity that he once felt, which still turns men into poachers and forests to fallow land, but he hasn’t given up the fight… the old tiger still roars.....Continue

'Descent'ralisation?

The fight for decentralisation and hence, more power in the hands of the state governments, has been a pertinent case for long. For decades, several Indian states have blamed the partisan politics and the bias of the Indian central government for the lack (or stalling) of development in their respective territories. Therefore, over the years there has been significant devolution of central power in favour of the states. For ministries like panchayati raj, education, agriculture and rural development, while the money has been sanctioned by the respective Central ministries, the onus was definitely lying with the state governments as to how the money given is to be spent in the said financial year. Yet, with the passage of time, it is highly evident that anything controlled and monitored by the Central government has been rightly tackled, thereby, yielding better results. For example, consider the national highways constructed and maintained by the nodal agency called National Highway Authority of India.

The quality and smoothness of these national highways stand in stark contrast to the piteous conditions of the state-owned ones. Also, the conditions of the municipality-managed-city-roads are far from "better". Most of India’s blue chip PSUs like NTPC, ONGC, IOCL BHEL, Nuclear Power Corporation and SAIL, or banks like SBI, Bank of Baroda and Allahabad Bank, or research organisations like DRDO, ISRO, BARC and CSIR are centrally owned. Now, opposing these centrally branded varients are the many inefficiently run state government corporations (barring most Gujarat PSUs) that barely witnessing any profit inflow....Continue

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The Genial Giant

Isaw Anil for the first time at a coaching camp that the Karnataka State Cricket Association used to conduct. That’s almost more than two decades back. To be honest, the very first thing that came into my mind when I saw Anil was that maybe “this boy is gifted with the ultimate talent, and definitely he is going to be a gem for Team India." He was the ‘fast bowler’ from the beginning. When he bowls, he never flights the ball. Instead, he bowls it fast. There is more zip than there is spin. The thing which made me observe Anil in the coaching camp was that his style of bowling was quite similar to mine. He was and is very good at line and length, and a very accurate bowler from day one.

If Anil has become a legendary cricketer, it is just because of his determination, hard work and ultimate patience. Though I could not keep a perfect track of how Anil as a bowler moved further (during the time, I was bed-ridden for five years), but on and off, I watched him all along. I can say he still bowled in the same style and manner that he used to bowl before. He must also have been told to change his bowling action, as he doesn’t spin much, but having a tremendous grip on the ball, he bowls fast. Anil’s greatest strength is his never-say-die attitude. He never ever quits. He never gives up the challenge. If Anil cannot do it today he will think hard about how to make it possible tomorrow.

According to me Anil is the world’s best spinner. There would be no second word about it. He has proved it often. As a bowler Anil has won more matches than any other bowler for India. India has won every match where Anil performed well. The self confidence and control he has is a lesson for every one.....Continue

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One-upmanship swamps nascent 'Bihari Pride' campaign

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Speaking from Jhanjharpur, RJD MP Devendra Prasad Yadav told TSI: “These resignations have made politics a joke, and Nitish Kumar has merely decided to break out unity. On October 27, all our parties had decided to work together, but this step has broken that promise. Ideally the MPs of all three parties should have resigned together. This is not a small issue. It is a question of the unity and
sovereignty of the country.”

Paswan has termed this a political gimmick. “Who does not know that the terms of the MPs would in any case end within the next three months? Meanwhile, ‘inspired’ by Nitish’s step, even the RJD MPs have sent in their resignations to party boss Lalu Prasad. The big question is, why give it to Lalu, why not to the Lok Sabha Speaker? Is this an RJD’s answer to Nitish’s gimmick?....continue

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