During this feel good week since India defeated Pakistan so comprehensively last Saturday, one thought has eluded most of us. As we bask in this extreme happiness of beating Pakistan — and, of course, qualifying to the super six stage in the World Cup — we should not lose sight of the greater significance of what has been happening in Pakistan and to the Pakistani cricketers. Pakistan, as a nation, is outraged and an inquiry has been ordered. The players have even issued an apology. Not so much out of guilt of losing — after all they were playing a game — as out of scared anticipation of the public anger they’ll face back home. Pakistanis would have much more rational in their criticism of the team’s failed World Cup mission if Waqar and Co weren’t slotted in the same group with India. Their loss to Australia in the previous World Cup was much more stunning but no inquiry was ordered and certainly no hell broke loose. The same Waqar and Co would be quite, if not very much, welcome home had they gone out of the tournament but managed to beat India. We must seriously ask ourselves why India-Pak matches evoke such non-cricketing passion. It’s important because cricket is a funny game where fortunes change side ever so often. What is happening today in Pakistan and to Pakistani cricketers could well happen here to Saurav and Co if Saturday’s result was different. Worse, the players went down to the middle knowing — like every time they do when the two sides meet — that they were literally playing for their lives. Well, almost. It’s criminal to reduce this great game to the level of a petty proxy war and subject the cricketers to such pressure. Now it’s difficult to change the collective mindset of the sub-continent overnight. What we can do is play each other frequently. At least regularly enough so that the cutting edge feeling gradually gets numbed. When you meet your sworn enemy once in years and lose, you leave little to the spirit of getting even next time. Frequent matches will mean frequent success and failure and will temper the derby fever that now grips the subcontinent. Again, security is a genuine problem and I don’t want to pass judgement on the feasibility of playing Pakistan in Pakistan. Understandably, the Pakistanis may have similar reservations about playing in India. But there is no reason why we can’t play each other at ‘‘neutral’’ venues. Frequent matches will also help BCCI as we always find it difficult to counter ICC’s logic that when the two countries regularly contest each other in other sports, cricket should not be made an exception. If Pakistan responded irrationally to Saturday’s match, more alarming reactions were witnessed at home. Communal clashes in places like Ahmedabad and Bangalore were most unfortunate. And one cannot condemn leaders like Sahib Singh Verma enough for their emphatic assumption that ‘‘one community was not happy’’ about India’s victory. I was present at the grounds last Saturday and I can tell you how a number of Muslims, carrying tri-colours and cheering India’s glory, stormed the dressing room to shake hands with their heroes. Back home, my colleague in Parliament, Obeidullah Azmi, was so excited after the match that he fired a few rounds in the air to honour the occasion. When a patrol jeep reached his house within minutes, Azmi apologetically explained to the cops that he couldn’t find any firecracker at that hour and was simply desperate to celebrate the win. A handful of Vermas have no business, or right, to insult the thousands of Azmis of India. States have to pay up soon In the Rajya Sabha, I was shocked when Finance Minister Jaswant Singh, replying to my question, provided a sad picture of the poor fiscal management of our states. The outstanding loans from the Finance Ministry to the state governments as on March 31, 2002 was Rs 2,19,407.43 crore. In the two previous years, the amounts were Rs 2,12,176.73 and 2,05,960.26 respectively. In March 2002, Maharashtra had an outstanding loan of Rs 22,960.86 crore. Gujarat’s burden was Rs 17,231.44 crore and Andhra’s Rs 18734.58 crore. While Uttar Pradesh topped the list with Rs 31,547.93 crore, West Bengal had an outstanding loan of Rs 24 crore. The Centre has been writing off some amount of outstanding loan as per the Finance Commission’s recommendations. In 2000-2001, the amount of loan written off was about Rs 60 crore. Responsible fiscal behaviour on the states’ part is the need of the hour. Otherwise, it’s difficult to pull them out of their respective holes. Some mechanism should be there to enable poor states to get help from revenue-rich states. Similarly, states should be able to lend, borrow and create funds for one another instead of running to the Centre each time they are short of cash. Besides, the Centre should have effective monitoring power to scan and, if necessary, restrain the states when they indulge in wasteful expenditure. Nitish Express not on track Union Railways Minister Nitish Kumar has been talking about providing better services to passengers. Be it ensuring food quality or maintaining clean toilets, the main problem for one of the world’s biggest employers is its dependence on private contractors. One has to review how certain influential individuals grabbed contracts for over 15 trains each. When you dump such quantity, quality is the first casualty. The only time you realise that the Railways do play their fabled role of uniting the nation is when you get to drink the same insipid, tasteless liquid sold as tea at railway stations across the country — from Bikaner to Guwahati and from Jammu to Trivandram. At least on this count, the Railways pass the consistency test. In Rajdhanis, one pays Rs 500 extra for food. It doesn’t require an expert to figure out what value for money the passenger gets. The Railways should either improve the food quality quite remarkably or allow one to arrange his/her own food and not compulsorily (over)pay the Railways for it. Safety, of course, is the other major concern. For each lapse, the guilty must be punished to ensure accountability. One gruesome accident saw Nitish Kumar resign as Minister not so long ago but when he returned to Rail Bhawan and the inquiry report of the same accident was tabled before him, surprisingly, no senior heads rolled. Worse still, some juniors were made scapegoats and the file was dumped. So when the Minister talks of reforms in the Railways, he better mean business. PTVspeak: Bush is a mad man Pakistan TV should at least maintain a degree of decency while talking about world leaders. During a discussion on the Iraq situation, telecast on Thursday night, President George Bush was referred to as a mad man in need of urgent medical treatment.
