Tags:
Journalism of Courage
The story of Hazaribagh jail deserves to be told in the context of some quaint details that have surfaced in Kargil. In 1973 a story appeared that Mary Tyler, a British national, lodged in Hazaribagh jail in Bihar for being part of a violent naxalite group, had gone on an indefinite hunger strike. Apparently, she, member of a left youth movement in Europe, had fallen in love with a Bengali naxalite and transferred herself to Bengal and Bihar.
Her hunger strike in Hazaribagh attracted some attention. When I reached the remote jail compound to investigate the reasons for the hunger strike, a helpful jailer furnished all the details.
quot;But why this disparity?quot; I asked. The jailer produced a 19thcentury jail manual according to which it was mandatory that European prisoners be fed on mutton chops!
Similar antiquated instructions, it appears, the army too has followed over the decades without any reform. For example on a certain day the entire unit must switch to winter uniform without any attention to the fact that global warming may have altered climatic conditions. A certain feature or a peak can be left vacant on the assumption that heavy snow will make it inaccessible. As happened in this instance, there may not be such heavy snow.
In time-honoured fashion, rum in Kargil is measured in gross. At least it was measured that way about seven years ago. This exquisite detail has surfaced in the course of investigations into the earlier failure when intrusions were not detected in time.
It is now known that 1440 ten gross bottles of rum were distributed annually among the Gujar shepherds who walk the forbidding terrain around Drass as nimbly as their flock. Goodwill thus earned resulted ininformation trickling in about any unusual movement along the Line of Control. But seven years ago an officer suspended this rum distribution among the Gujars and retained the stuff for additional personal consumption. Gujars reared on rum obviously turned elsewhere for their supply.
That such stories are being furtively told to provide relief from the grim details coming out of Kargil, reflects on a slight relaxation in the air.The national mood has been a mixed one. Never since 1948 has the army allowed bodies from the conflict to be taken back to the states of the soldiers. For example 37 bodies have returned to Rajasthan alone. There is, in this fashion, a mass mobilisation in support of the action in Kargil.
This mobilisation the Pakistani army is denied because it persists with the lie that its men are not directly involved in the Kargil operations.The sense of relief one notices compared to the days when intelligence failure and therefore a lack of preparedness had shocked us all in well-informedofficial circles can be traced to the diplomatic successes the PMO and the Ministry of External Affairs have jointly and separately been able to show as a result of swift and imaginative action.
If the Economist and, indeed, influential sections of the western media reflect what their respective establishments might do tomorrow, then, I am afraid Pakistan has had it. I do not recall any other instance when Pakistan has had such a bad press.
External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh is quite clear in his view. There are three bases Pakistan generally touches whenever it seeks to attract attention: the United States, China and the OIC.
On this occasion it has been rapped on the knuckles by the West-collectively by the G-8 and individually by each one of the major powers.
The OIC is stuck with its procedures. In the process it has totally devalued itself. It passes resolutions it has not discussed. When Pakistan is able quite mechanically to push through a resolution, important members of the OIC writeto us privately that they are not in agreement with the spirit of the resolution.
Yes, China has not abandoned Pakistan but, as the fruit of Nawaz Sharif8217;s mission to Beijing, Chinese leaders have shown no enthusiasm for Pakistan8217;s adventure in Kargil either.
Take this exchange from the Chinese spokesman Zhang Qiyne8217;s official briefing after Nawaz Sharif8217;s meeting with Premier Zhu Rongji:
Question: The US believes that the Pakistani military is behind the intrusions across the LoC in Kashmir. Does China believe that Pakistan is involved?
Answer: The Chinese side listened carefully to the briefing of the Pakistan side. We are deeply concerned over the issue. India and Pakistan are both important countries in the region.
Where Jaswant Singh appears to be striking a chord with his foreign interlocuters 8211; a thoughtful correspondence with Strobe Talbott for instance 8211; is in his appraisal that the heart of the problem resides not in Kashmir but in the evolving nature of the Pakistani state:the Talibanisation project, not just for Pakistan, but for adjacent areas including Central Asia and much beyond. The making of the world8217;s most frightening fundamentalist state.
