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Journalism of Courage
Past brings nostalgia. But it haunts the displaced. When I visited Pakistan recently, I met Islamabad billionaire Md Alvi. Now in his 70s, Alvi, left Karol Bagh when he was just 14. But he remembers every detail of the Delhi neighbourhood that constituted his adolescent world. He insisted that the Indian delegation come for dinner with him and invited a host of important Pakistanis, including General Aiyub Khan8217;s son. We could not say no to the old man and Alvi was almost in tears when he learnt that I was from Delhi and regretted that he could never visit India after the Partition. 8216;8216;My days are numbered. I wish I can visit Karol Bagh before I die,8217;8217; remained his plea to the establishment.
Similarly, Taimur Bande, a young intellectual from Lahore, wanted me to visit his home as his bedridden grandmother, a Parsi from Mumbai, was very keen to meet someone from the Indian delegation. When I visited her, she told the family members to leave the room. Left alone, she came up with a heart-wrenching request: 8216;8216;When you come next time, please bring me a handful of earth from Mumbai. I was born and brought up there. I want to touch that soil before I die.8217;8217;
I am sure even L.K. Advani would love to visit his home in Karachi. I personally know people like Shah Rukh Khan8217;s grandmother in-law or Congress leader R.K. Dhawan who are keen to set their foot on their birth place in Faisalabad. While many temples and Gurdwaras have been converted to schools or banks some have been just sealed and many old residential structures have been demolished in Pakistan, a huge number of homes are still intact.
In Pakistan, I met Kashmala Tariq, one of the most active and definitely the prettiest member of Pakistan Parliament, who floated the excellent idea of having a common parliamentary forum or NGO, named 8216;8216;Lost and Found8217;8217;, to facilitate all those Indians and Pakistanis who want to visit their home or birthplace on the other side of the border. In this context, I find the Uttar Pradesh Information Department8217;s initiatives exemplary. The Centre should also form a cell and all state governments should designate officials who can help people tracing their roots.
Many among the thousands who left UP to try their luck in countries like Mauritius, West Indies, and Trinidad and Tobago as labourers and made it big in their new homes, many of them are keen to trace their roots back to India and UP is the only state which is helping them for the past five years.
Most of these Indians left home due to abject poverty and the family they left behind often disintegrated. So it is not an easy job to trace back the roots. Due to their hard work, a substantial number of people who had gone to foreign shores have emerged big achievers. They have established themselves in their adopted homes and have climbed high in the social order. But most of them haven8217;t forgotten their past. So we have Trinidad and Tobago President Basdeo Pande or Guyana President Bharat Jagdeo visiting their ancestral homes in UP.
Colagate
The controversy over CSE report on soft drinks should have come to a conclusive end long ago. Sushma Swaraj has made her statement in Parliament and a Joint Parliamentary Committee has been constituted and now this proposal about EU norms has been floated for opinions. But how practical is the idea of extending EU norms to everything, ranging from water to vegetables? Our farmers can8217;t match those strict standards and our exporters will be in a fix if we insist on such norms.
Even EU farmers fail to meet standards 40 pc of the time but the Union demands 100 pc certification of compliance for imports. And in certain cases, they differentiate between fruits, less stringent about homegrown ones, but highly fussy about imported ones like mango. These technical standards often work as trade barriers and we need to find out if there is any vested interest in play in promoting erratic EU standards in India.
Moreover, EU standards are biased towards other countries. For example, beet sugar grown in Europe is allowed to have 5 pc pesticide in it while cane sugar grown by other countries is allowed to have only 0.75 pc. EU standards are definitely going to hamper Indian interests.
Final choice
Finally Chandan Mitra made it to Rajya Sabha through Presidential nomination. Eight top journalists of the country were trying for the coveted post and none of them had imagined that Mitra could be a consensus choice of both PM and DPM. Several names were discussed and rejected by a group comprising Vajpayee, Advani, Venkaiah Naidu, Jaswant Singh and Arun Jaitley. Finally, Jaitley and Naidu proposed Mitra8217;s name, which got the approval of both Advani and Vajpayee. Mitra was in London and Naidu spoke to him and broke the good news. Though one seat is still left but no industrialist will be nominated. It will probably go to a Muslim recommended by the RSS.
Understanding ties
Julia MacDonald has recently come up with her painstaking work on the expectations and perceptions on Indo-US Military relation. An associate at Booz Allen Hamilton, she has spent years studying strategic dynamics of the region and understanding the establishments in both countries through a series of interviews. Sponsored by the Office of US Secretary of Defense, its an interesting as well as useful handbook.
