Established 1946 Price : Rupees Five Vol. 70 No. 10 Disappointing campaign April 6, 2014 S. Viswam Parties ignore human rights Kuldip Nayar We are perhaps at the penultimate The campaign turned communal on phase of the campaign for the 2014 occasions and we need to be thankful From Mala vs Madiga Lok Sabha polls with just a month left that the communal tone into which it to Yadav vs Modi for the actual voting and two months was slipping was pulled back in time. K. S. Chalam for the nation to know what choices The BJP nominated a communal leader like Pramod Muthalik of the Indianisation of the voters have made. The few days Allopathic medicine after May 16 will give us an insight Sri Ram Sene and then threw him S. V. Nadkarni into the shape of things into which the out under party pressure. The same voters would have placed the country story was repeated with Sabir Ali Farmers must get for the next five years. who was admitted on the rebound coverage for lost crops from expulsion by the JD (U) and Devinder Sharma We have had a virulent, highly thrown out after party vice-president divisive and a no-holds-barred Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi disclosed that Reducing Distress and campaign, lively, contentious and the new entrant was an associate of Dominance Indian Mujahideen terrorist Yasin Bharat Dogra focused. How we wish that the campaign had also been intellectually Bhatkal. Who admitted these men Gandhiji and Indian Socialists stimulating and also of a high into the party and who threw them out is not known but the development Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay debating order! In the event, it betrayed the cavalier manner in was of a pathetically low order, Twenty Questions for which the BJP recruits men into its with those who should have known Modi-Rahul-Kejriwal fold. better indulging in name-calling of the worst kind, stooping to make Not lagging behind, the Congress personal allegations and throwing too was guilty of the same mistake Editor : about serious innuendos lightly. when it nominated Imran Masood G. G. Parikh To call A. K. Antony AK 47 and as its candidate from Saharanpur. Kejriwal AK 49 may be humorous Managing Editor : Guddi It chucked him out when someone but to say that they provided strength recalled that Masood had threatened D-15, Ganesh Prasad, to Pakistan is to descend to the lowest when he was in the Samajwadi Party Naushir Bharucha Marg, level of electioneering. Shriman eight months ago to chop Modi into Mumbai - 400 007. Narendra Modi was not being light- pieces if he (Modi) tried to convert hearted but crude and cheap, and one UP into Gujarat. Such speeches Email : [email protected] does not expect such utterances from are patently incendiary and hence a prime ministerial hopeful. unacceptable. But what message 2 JANATA, April 6, 2014 was Rahul Gandhi trying to convey Between the lines to the public when he chose to go to Saharanpur and appear on the Parties ignore human rights stage with Masood’s family and supporters? That all is fair in war Kuldip Nayar and love and elections? We regret to say that the fall in Dictatorships get a fillip when Congress, should accuse New the standards of electioneering owes democracies falter. India committed Delhi of letting down the Tamils in itself to the tone which Narendra this cardinal sin when it abstained Sri Lanka, Tamil Nadu and other Modi has chosen to impart into from voting at the UN Human places is understandable. But what his speeches. He has concentrated Rights Council. A resolution was is not understandable is the policy exclusively on attacking the Congress sought to be passed to seek an by which the Manmohan Singh which is all right in a campaign international, transparent inquiry government is pursuing to uphold but also chosen to use abusive , to find out whether Sri Lanka had the sentiments and aspirations always derisive and personalized killed in cold blood 40,000 soldiers even when the election of a new rhetoric against Rahul Gandhi, and others in the wake of hostilities government is six weeks away. which is certainly not all right in a against the Liberation of Tamil Sri Lanka should not mistake the campaign. The kind of language he Tigers Eelam (LTTE). They had timidity of the ruling Congress for used against Antony and Kejriwal surrendered unconditionally. India’s betrayal of democratic rights portraying them as Pakistani agents of Tamils. was certainly below the belt. Surely, India’s abstention reminds me a prime ministerial candidate has a of the words of Prime Minister I was not surprised to read the great deal to talk to his voting public Jawaharlal Nehru: When aggression Rajapaksa government’s reaction: on issues and challenges facing the takes place or human rights are Thank you. No doubt, New Delhi nation. Instead of telling us that he violated, we will not and cannot was under pressure from the has plans up his sleeves to tackle the remain neutral. Yet the Manmohan democratic world, led by America, problems confronting the nation, he Singh government has been found that China and Pakistan, where has consistently chosen to tell us placating the dictatorial government democracy has been reduced to a that the Congress is a bad party and headed by President Mahinda relative term, supported Colombo. Congressmen bad people and Rahul Rajapaksa at Colombo. New Delhi India’s obvious stand should have Gandhi the worst of the lot. Ok, but did not bother the harm it would be been to vote for the resolution to are cheap rhetoric and below the doing to the cause of Tamils’ rights reiterate its policy to protect human belt attacks of a personal nature the and their own say in governance. rights. Small sovereign nations only gems to fall all the time from should have felt let down. the mouth of a prime ministerial My hunch is that bureaucrats in candidate? Has Modi nothing else the Ministry of External Affairs, I do not regret the defeat of the other than anti-Congressism among with their mindset, decided to stay LTTE which was largely a terrorists’ his political assets? absent what they thought was “in organization. But as a humanist, I feel the interest of the country.” The sad over the killing of soldiers and In the final analysis, it is a hapless minister, Salman Khurshid, their supporters after the surrender. sobering thought that the current went along. He probably wanted The Sri Lankan army, obviously campaign did not set any examples the release of 100 fishermen who with the blessings of President of dignified debate and intellectual had “strayed” into the waters Rajapaksa and his brother, Defence stimulation. On the contrary, there claimed by Sri Lanka. What will Minister Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, had were instances galore of degrading Salman Khurshid do now when no remorse over their indulging in and abusive language being used the Colombo’s navy has killed four a blood bath. without restraint or moderation. A fishermen? pity, because once again a chance The world would not have known to raise the level of election debates That DMK chief M. Karunanidhi, about the killings if the enterprising has been lost. otherwise supporting the ruling BBC Channel 4 had not shown the JANATA, April 6, 2014 3 documentary on the killings and atrocities committed not only against From Mala vs Madiga to Yadav vs Modi the LTTE troops but also against the innocent Tamils. Colombo’s own K. S. Chalam inquiry was eyewash, exonerating the army and heaping the blame on The recent dramatic political Perhaps, we have examples of the Tamils who wanted an equal say events both at the state and such incidents in our epics. The in the affairs of Sri Lanka. national levels indicate a serious pundits and experts of our scriptures India has tried to persuade the social disorder in our country. tell us that lord Sri Ram was Sinhalese, a preponderant majority, Though caste identities have been pampered by Vasista, the Rajguru to give autonomy to the north, used for political purposes in the to prove that there is no unity among Jaffna. But all such efforts, going parliamentary process, where the kshatriyas and the kulaguru back to the days of Prime Minister number dominates ideology, never of Kshatriyas ,Viswamitra ,was Indira Gandhi, have borne no fruit before unscrupulous methods of inferior to Brahmin Vasista. There because New Delhi is afraid lest dividing castes and even families were scholars like Garbe R., who any corrective step should alienate a for the purpose of gaining the vote have written on such topics during neighbor which is hobnobbing with share seem to have been employed. the 19th century and Sharad Patil China. But how long would we take The trend reminds that caste has has extensively cited the works in a hypocritical stand of placating emerged as a political institution his writings with examples from the ruling Sinhalese and assuring with social characters which Maharashtra scholarship. As the the Tamils of autonomous status? some of our political sociologists current elections and government On paper, the Sinhalese and Tamil have of late recognized. But, the policies seem to broadly respect the are two official languages. But in consequences of the current political age old Sanatana dharma irrespective practice Tamil has no place. Even manipulations, we are afraid, would of declared or concealed agendas, a a police station does not entertain have long term adverse social brief academic reflection on the a complaint written in Tamil, much impact. Interestingly, no political puranic characters as seen from the less in the state secretariat.