COMFORTING THE AFFLICTED

A Giant Step For Myanmar

A thought for today

We need to build totems and shrines and icons,
but nobodys sure in honour of what
ROBYN HITCHCOCK, UK musician

Political factions claim proprietary rights

over Indias historic heroes

nion minister of urban development M Venkaiah Naidus

description of Prime Minister Narendra Modi as Gods gift
to India has provoked derision in the ranks of the opposition
while causing discomfiture within BJP, and might invite the
sceptical observation that the remark is a point in favour of atheism
or at least agnosticism.
NaMolatory idolising Modi is only one of several dissensions
concerning iconic or would-be iconic figures, and who holds
proprietary rights over them.
The heated exchange between Rahul Gandhi
and BJP chief Amit Shah, following the Congress
just in
vice-presidents statement to the effect that
Gandhi (Mohandas Karamchand) is ours, Savarkar (Vinayak
Damodar) is yours, is one of many disputes arising out of what
might be called copyright claims made by various political parties
over historical personages.
When nationalism has become the catch-all buzzword of the
day, can Bapu, the Father of the nation, be commandeered by a
single political organisation to the exclusion of all others, the
coincidence of his surname chiming with that of the ruling family
within that party notwithstanding?
Conversely, should Savarkar the redoubtable freedom fighter
who coined the term Hindutva and
had the honorific of Veer added to
his name belong to only one shade
of Indias many-hued political and
ideological spectrum?
Another tug-of-war between BJP
and Congress, in an attempt to corner
the Dalit vote, involves the framer
of the countrys Constitution,
Babasaheb Ambedkar, on whom
Mayawatis Bahujan Samaj Party
has since its inception put its own
registered trade mark.
Meanwhile, Congress MP Shashi
Tharoor has added fuel to iconic ire by comparing controversial
JNU student leader Kanhaiya Kumar with Bhagat Singh, who
sacrificed his life fighting for the countrys freedom. If the Left-liberal
camp holds up Kanhaiya as its latest poster boy, does that disqualify
it from genuflecting before the martyred freedom fighter?
Perhaps the most amicable way to settle such squabbles would be
to devise a share-and-share-alike policy of national icons by which
different political organisations could claim exclusive rights on
them on a turn-and-turn-about basis.
Such a roundabout solution would mirror the system of a
revolving chief ministership once devised in UP between BJP and
BSP, where each could have the gaddi for a six-month stretch before
relinquishing it to the other. Or one could think of a quota system,
like the one currently in force for education and jobs.
The disenchanted voter, however, might well conclude that such
games of political won-upmanship are exploiting our icons for
electoral ends in a ploy best described as an I con you.

jest!

A Taste Of Ash
How Fergusson College, my alma mater,
succumbed to the diktats of right-wing jingoists
Dileep Padgaonkar

The incidents in Punes Fergusson College, my alma mater, in

the third week of March left a taste of ash in the mouth. My
sense of dismay has nothing to do with the fact that right-wing
Hindu organisations were pitted against Left-wing and
Ambedkarite ones. Conservatives and reformers have locked
horns since the college was established in 1885.
What galled me was the conduct of the college authorities. The principal,
Ravindra Singh Pardeshi, has a lot to explain. He hasnt come clean on whether
he gave AVBP permission to hold a meeting on the campus on March 22 to
allow the head of the outfit in JNU, Alok Singh, to speak about what transpired
in his university on February 9. AVBP claimed that no such permission was
needed since the meeting was an informal one. Pardeshi has remained mum
on this issue.
The principal then wrote to the police to say that they needed to investigate
the anti-national slogans raised during this meeting. Within hours he
withdrew his complaint on the ground that there were typographical errors
in it. The police concluded that no such slogans were raised. Even AVBP
concurred with this conclusion.
On the face of it, this speaks poorly of Pardeshis administrative abilities.
But this is only a partial explanation. The other, more distressing bit is his
supine acceptance of the diktats of those who call the shots in the governance
of the college. Several members of various governing bodies of the Deccan
Education Society, which effectively runs Fergusson College, are said to
belong to, or are close to, the Sangh Parivar. The principal can ill afford to rub
them the wrong way, especially after BJP came to power at the Centre and in
Maharashtra.
This was not the case in the past. Right from its establishment the Deccan
Education Society, which founded Fergusson College, has been plagued by
conflicts. Ranged on one side were champions of Hindu orthodoxy, led by B G
Tilak, and on the other Hindu reformers like M G Ranade, G G Agarkar, R G
Bhandarkar and G K Gokhale. They quarrelled
over such issues as the age of consent for marriage,
womens right to education, anti-cow killing
agitation, mobilisation of public opinion against
colonial rule by organising Ganesh festivals and commemorating the birth of
Chattrapati Shivaji, widow remarriage and so forth.
The quarrels were often quite bitter. On womens education, for example,
Tilak was unequivocal. For him a womans place was in the home. Her foremost
virtues, he held, should be obedience to the husband, affectionate devotion
to her husband and children and contentment with her lot in life. An
acquisition of a BA degree, he contended, would not compensate for the
absence of these qualities. To this Agarkar retorted: What greater foolishness
is there than to say that by good education and by acquiring learning, women
will become immoral, imprudent and irresponsible.
Tilak also chastised the reformers for debunking the role of religion in
politics. On September 20, 1896, he published an editorial in his newspaper
Maratha that contained this passage: Religion is the mainstay, the only prop
for a failed nation and some of our friends are committing national suicide in
withholding themselves from a movement which is making us hopeful for the
future. On another occasion he called on the reformers to form a separate
nationality. Why? Because we have been shamelessly represented as a nation
of savages and the reformers have shamelessly testified to it.
The difference between what happened then and what has been happening
of late is this: the rivals then were thinkers of the finest vintage whereas now it
is a tiresome parade of philistines. The rivals then, unlike today, exchanged ideas,
not blows. All were staunch patriots, not, as is the case now, hate-mongering
pseudo-nationalists or lumpens wielding the whip against those who dare to
challenge them liberals, leftists, Ambedkarites.
Moreover, at least until my time, Fergusson College principals, each one a
scholar of repute, refused to trim their sails to the prevailing wind. I cant
vouch for the scholarly attainments of those who succeeded them. But, going
by the record, most possessed the spine of an eel. I weep for my alma mater that
was a fount of liberal thought.

Aung San Suu Kyi anchors new democratic government, but tough challenges remain
Rajiv Bhatia

This week, Myanmar

began a new phase in its
journey towards democracy. U Htin Kyaw, a
former political prisoner,
took over as the new president on March 30. Aung San Suu Kyi, the
best-known former prisoner of conscience,
joined the new cabinet as its sheet anchor.
She has four important ministries (foreign
affairs, education, energy and the presidents office) and the overall responsibility
to lead the nation. The cabinet also includes
three lieutenant generals nominated by
Commander-in-Chief Min Aung Hlaing.
Political adversaries of yesterday are
now partners in government. The army
ruled the country since 1962. Now, a significant chunk of power shifts to leaders
elected by the people. This is a long stride
towards democratic governance. The transition process, begun with 2010 elections,
gathered momentum with a landslide
victory of National League for Democracy
(NLD) in the elections last November.
Is it a new dawn? Surely the change
cannot be minimised. NLD now controls
both houses of the parliament, has the bulk
of cabinet posts, has nominated chief ministers of states, and will speak for the nation.
But it shares power with the military.
The latter has provided the senior
vice-president, three critical ministers
(home, defence and border affairs),
controls 25% of MPs, and is inclined to
continue its political role sanctioned by
the constitution. The Myanmar polity
looks like a car with two drivers.
Should the two principal partners
NLD and the army cooperate fully, they
can lead the nation to a new dawn. All friends of Myanmar should wish them well.
Thanks to the reform set in motion by
Thein Sein, the previous president, the
nation has been recovering perceptibly
from decades of misrule, poverty,
insurgencies and conflict. Inaugurating
the change was the militarys way to
recognise misjudgments and failures of
the past. The people have done the rest.
Through the first free and fair election since 1990, they sent out a powerful

message. The army received it, loud and

clear. Aung San Suu Kyis government
thus embarks on a historic journey.
In a brief statement after his swearingin, President Htin Kyaw identified four
main goals: national reconciliation,
internal peace, constitutional reform, and
improvement of the quality of peoples
lives. While taking oath on the existing
constitution, he emphasised it should be in
accord with the democratic norms suited
to our country. Resistance to achieving
this goal is expected from the army.
The new government faces daunting
challenges. Many of them ethnic
conflict, Buddhist-Muslim tensions,
Rohingya issue will take a long time to
be resolved satisfactorily. They will test
NLDs political skills.
Other issues are even more urgent:
designing constitutional reform, accelerating economic growth that is inclusive,
implementing administrative reform, and
crafting a formula that allows the parliament, government and military to work in

The Myanmar polity looks like

a car with two drivers. Should
the two principal partners
NLD and the army cooperate
fully, they can lead the nation
to a new dawn
unison. The last task is of exceptional
significance. Only through a mixture of
persistence and patience by one side (NLD)
and flexibility by the other (army) can
Myanmar hope to move forward.
How the new government conducts its
foreign policy will also be interesting to
watch. Its policy approach may reflect
a blend of NLD and army worldviews.
The blending process will occur in the
current regional context when east
Asia experiences a sharpening strategic
contest between the US and China.
During her long struggle against

military rule Suu Kyi received valuable

support from the West, whereas the
generals shunned by most nations got
precious succour from China. President
Thein Sein showed a creative middle way
in the past five years. He built constructive
relations with the US, Japan and others,
while re-fashioning the China equation
with a rare mixture of firmness and
resilience. This line is likely to continue,
but initial endeavours to strengthen
Myanmar-China ties are not ruled out.
As Myanmars new foreign minister
Suu Kyi may wish to establish cooperative
ties with Asean leaders, overcoming
her partys past grievances. Aseans
constructive engagement with the
military-ruled Myanmar was not to
NLDs liking. Asean leaders are now set to
visit and cultivate the new leadership.
Suu Kyi is widely known as Indias
friend, a believer in Gandhian philosophy
and an admirer of Jawaharlal Nehru.
With her in power, India-Myanmar
relations should flourish in the normal
course. Hopes are being expressed about
a possible return to the golden age that
existed in the 1950s.
An alternative view is that, as
Myanmar experiments with two tracks of
governance, India should merely wait
and watch. However, thoughtful experts
point out that a passive Myanmar policy
would be self-defeating. After all, India
has vital stakes in its eastern neighbour
which, for its own reasons, needs Indias
proactive cooperation.
Hence, it is time for New Delhi to unveil
a series of measures to upgrade relations
with Myanmar. This could include a highlevel bilateral visit as soon as possible;
agreement to hold an annual summit; a
new and generous development package; a
fresh endeavour to motivate India Inc to enhance its engagement; and a determined
drive to help civil society and expand
people-to-people relations. At the same
time, communication and cooperation
with the army leadership should continue.
When opportunity knocks wisdom
lies in welcoming it, equipped with a
sound plan.
The writer is Distinguished Fellow at Gateway
House and former ambassador to Myanmar

Punjab BJP disagrees radically with national BJP, yet

party proposes unitary nationalism for the rest of us
Robin.David@timesgroup.com

When you live

in a democratic
country with a
complex and
enormously
diverse people
like India, you will have to
contend with a multitude of
views on everything, especially
on national identity. You cant
get a Kashmiri and a Gujarati to
agree on what constitutes a
decent cup of tea, let alone the
definition of nationalism.
But BJPs new-found love for
nationalism seems at variance
with the fact that Indians have
more than one identity and live
with the many contradictions
quite comfortably. The party
wants all Indians to chant Bharat
Mata ki jai or be branded antinational, in its latest attempt to
stuff its own version of India
down everyones throat.
This desperate bid to fashion
an all-encompassing nationalism has left it chasing its own
tail on a complex issue that is
as much about Indian identity
as it is about realpolitik and
nation-building the Sutlej
Yamuna Link Canal.
How does BJP explain that its
own coalition with Akali Dal in
Punjab denotified the land of the

Sutlej Yamuna Link Canal at a

time when the issue is being
heard in the Supreme Court
through a presidential reference?
The 214-km-long project was
conceived nearly 40 years ago to
carry much needed Ravi and
Beas river waters to the parched
fields of Haryana and Rajasthan,
but it never took off as state
governments of different hues in
Punjab refused to share river
waters with neighbouring states.
If BJP is a genuine votary of

Which act is more

anti-national by BJP
standards an
individual not saying
Bharat Mata ki jai or a
state refusing to share
precious river water
with its neighbours?
one stiff definition of what
constitutes the nation, it should
have attacked Congress for
cancelling all of Punjabs water
agreements with other states
when it was in power in 2004. But
BJP never challenged anything.
Instead, the Punjab assembly on
March 14 unanimously approved
the denotification to give back

Sandeep Adhwaryu

Whose Icons Are

They Anyway

THE TIMES OF INDIA, BENGALURU

SATURDAY, APRIL 2, 2016

AFFLICTING THE COMFORTABLE

Chad Crowe

16

the land acquired for the canal to

its original owners. There
wasnt even a whimper of protest
from the 12 BJP MLAs who
supported the move.
This despite the fact that
BJPs own central government
was arguing in the Supreme
Court that Punjab should complete the canal and share waters.
Punjab chief minister Parkash
Singh Badal then went on
record to say that he did not have
a drop of water to share with
other states.
In such a scenario, it is only
natural to ask which act is more
anti-national by BJP standards
an individual not saying Bharat
Mata ki jai or a state refusing to
share river water with its
neighbours and denying them a

precious natural resource that

can make life easier for thousands of struggling farmers?
Let us ask the same question
differently. Is it not double
standards to shout Bharat
Mata ki jai the loudest, but then
forget about Bharat and pick up
a fight with neighbours within
Bharat over an issue that affects
just one small fragment that
he belongs to? What is more
important one fragment of
Bharat or the sum of all fragments that make up Bharat?
Ideally, no citizen should be
forced to make such a choice,
and frankly, it is okay to have
these contradictions. We feel very
strongly about India on certain
issues like cricket and terrorism. We feel equally strongly

dilbert

about our region or state or

community when it comes to
sharing river waters or reservation to certain communities as
seen in Haryana and Gujarat.
And there will be times
when we will forget about the
nation and state and feel
very strongly about personal
freedoms, like in the case of
Kanhaiya Kumar. Neither is
mutually exclusive of the other.
Our nationalism is the sum of all
these identities put together.
Because BJP refuses to see it
that way, it has become the
director of a farce on the issue of
the canal. The flag-bearer of
Indias nationalism is in power at
the Centre, it has a coalition with
Akali Dal in Punjab and it has full
majority governments in Haryana and Rajasthan. You have a
situation where BJP has joined
hands with Akali Dal in Punjab
to challenge BJP at the Centre, in
Haryana and in Rajasthan.
So, BJP is fine with dissent
and a difference of opinion on a
crucial national issue between
its leaders, but not okay with
the rest of the country having a
difference of opinion! The
party will have to give up these
double standards and come to
terms with the fact that Indias
nationalism has many faces;
none of them are ugly.

Sacredspace
Fun & Games
I want to get to make games
where youre not trying to win
or lose; youre not trying to get
a higher score you are having
unbelievable amounts of fun
as you learn about yourself
and the world. Thats what
games can do!
Warren Spector

talkingterms

Creating Space In Our Lives For God

Nayaswamis Jyotish and Devi

aramhansa Yogananda said that

we should think of work as active
meditation, and meditation as
inward service our daily activities and
meditation are not separate from each
other; they are two aspects of our
spiritual path. Here are some tips on
how to do that:
1. Remember God while you work:
Keeping our mind focussed on God
while at work is the biggest hurdle,
because for many of us most of our
waking hours are spent at work. The
biggest problem we face is forgetfulness.
To remember God, there are two basic
approaches: Have little reminders so
that during pauses in your work, you
can bring your mind back to God.
But a deeper aspect is to feel that you
are in Gods presence while you are
working. If you work in a retail store,
you can relate to the customers as God.
Bringing that awareness to your work

will dramatically change the way you

relate to others.
2. Consciously serve as a channel
for the Divine: An important aspect of
seeing your work as service is to see
everything you do as an opportunity to
share love, blessings and joy. Whatever
you are doing, try to feel that
you are a channel for divine
consciousness. If youre
answering emails, dont do it
mechanically. A good practice
is to take a moment and
consciously feel that you are
sending blessings along with
the message.
3. Be calmly active and
actively calm: Theres a story
about Paramhansa Yogananda
when he was late for a lecture
and was running to the lecture
hall. One of his disciples said, Dont be
nervous, Master. Yogananda stopped
and said, Im not nervous, but not to
run when youre late is to be lazy! He

was saying that you can put a lot of

energy into what you are doing, but
that doesnt mean you have to be
nervous and agitated. To be calmly
active is an important goal for
daily life.
A friend of ours was a nurse in the
emergency room of a
hospital. She would meditate
each morning before she
went to work. At lunchtime,
she would meditate in her
car in the parking lot because
it was the only place where
she could be alone. Other
emergency room staff
members would ask her,
How is it that youre so calm
all the time? She would say,
Its because i meditate.
4. Prioritise your daily
activities: To establish the right
balance between your work and
spiritual life, it is very important to
prioritise your daily activities. The first

the

speaking
tree

priority should be to meditate when you

get up in the morning and before you go
to bed at night.
Taking a calmer, more expanded
consciousness into sleep will make your
sleep more restful and uplifting.
Paramhansa Yogananda said that
we should also leave time for reading,
study, perhaps for writing in a journal,
and for laughter and fun. Its important
to leave time for the right kind of
relaxation: a walk in nature; an
uplifting movie or book; uplifting and
relaxing times with friends. For some
people, finding hobbies that enable
them to be alone and to relax deeply is
also very important.
At the end of your day, try not to take
your work home with you.
Follow Nayaswamis Jyotish and Devi at
speakingtree.in The Speaking Tree is also
available as an 8 page newspaper every
Sunday for Rs 3. Book your copy of The
Speaking Tree with your newspaper vendor
or SMS STREE to 58888.