With trappings of politics, Chhath festival begins today

NEW DELHI, Oct 29: Uniquely associated with Bihar and eastern Uttar Pradesh, the festival of ‘Chhath’ (worship of Sun God, symbolising life force and prosperity) has now transcended the region where it is predominantly celebrated.

In the national capital, the festival, known for its solemnity and austere observance of rituals, has also assumed all the trappings of electoral politics ahead of the Ddecember 1 assembly polls.

Far from being an obscure ritual confined to the two states, the festival - the uniqueness of which lies in paying obeisance to both the rising and the setting Sun - is celebrated on the sixth and seventh days after Diwali in several parts of the country on a scale comparable to any important Hindu festival.

In Delhi, where the settlers from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh form about 35-40 per cent of the electorate, the festival this year has assumed a political tinge with leaders of all hues going overboard to provide facilities to the devotees to appease this crucial vote bank at the hustings.

"The festival is an example of cross-cultural movement and its assimilation in various regions of the country," says Mr Mahabal Mishra, the Congress legislator from Nasirpur, who is credited with popularising the festival in the capital through a slew of Governmental concessions and facilities.

Talking to UNI, Mr Mishra said the festival in Delhi has come to be noticed during the last four years because of his sustained efforts.

"With a large number of people from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh migrating to the national capital in search of livelihood, the Delhi Government declared the festival a restricted holiday in 2000. The practice continues to facilitate the people in worshipping the Sun God,"the primeval life force".

The legislator claimed that it was at his initiative that the Delhi Government had been making special arrangements during the festival to improve the condition of Yamuna ghats where devotees offer their prayers.

"The city Government has also formed a committee to ensure basic amenities, including tents, for the convenience of the devotess," he said, adding that police personnel would be deployed on the river banks to maintain law and order during the festival, beginning tomorrow.

Last year, the Haryana Government had even released 100 cusecs of water in the Yamuna so that ghats had enough water for the devotees, he said. "This year, a magnanimous monsoon has ensured that the water level near the banks is adequate for the devotees to make a dip there," he said.

Mr Mishra, however, accused the BJP of trying to politicise the festival and "hijack" it for electoral advantages.

"It is amazing that some of top Delhi BJP leaders have put up welcome arches and signboards on the river banks and also in the localities where migrants from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh are in strength. But during the last four years, the BJP has conveniently forgotten the festival."

There are at least 15 assembly constituencies in the capital where there is a significant presence of the migrant population from the two states. These include Nasirpur, Palam, Hastaal, Najafgarh, Nangloi, Bawana, Tughlakabad, Badarpur, Mandawali, Yamuna Vihar, Salempur, Jahangirpuri, Rajendranagar and Patel Nagar.

On this year’s arrangement for the festival, Mr Mishra said some 20-25 tents have been pitched on the banks of the Yamuna while the Government has spent nearly Rs 80-85 lakh for the convenience of the devotees, including sprucing up of the ghats.

He pointed out that Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, since the past four years, had made it a practice to visit most of the banks and inquire about the facilities and problems of the worshippers.

The Sun, according to the Hindu mythology, occupies the central force for sustaining life on the earth. Both men and women offer prayers to the Sun in their faith that it will fulfil all their wishes and safeguard their families from calamities and misfortunes.

Though the festival is celebrated on two days, the preparations begin a day in advance during which purity and cleanliness are strictly adhered to. On the first day, devotees eat food prepared with ‘Ghee’ (clarified butter) and rock salt. On the second day, they have to fast the whole day and at night they consume custard prepared with jaggery with chapatis (pancakes) prepared on firewood of mango tree.

The third day, they observe a total abstinence from food and water. In the evening and the next morning, they take a holy dip in the river and offer prayers to the setting and rising Sun.

The two-day festival is the single largest festival of Bihar. Nearly all migrant labourers of the state visit their homes to be with their families in the worship of the Sun God. The ‘Chhath’ festival is observed for the health of the family and over the years, people of Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and Assam have started celebrating it.

For one night and day, the people of Bihar literally live on the banks of the river Ganga when the ritual offering is made to the Sun God.

The word ‘Chhath’ denotes the number six and thus the name itself serves as a reminder of this auspicious day on the festival Almanac.

With no Temples to visit, or house to spruce up before the festival, one may surmise that Chhath puja or prayer ritual would be an easy sail through. But such an idea can be a misplaced one, given the meticulous observance of rituals by the devotees, who chant the Gayatri mantra of the rig veda, standing in the shallow waters made punishing by the nippy winter evening and morning.

It is this unquestioned faith, a reminder about the basics of human existence, a conscious upkeep of the environment in its benevolence and bounty that becomes integral to the currency of living and believing.

Since the festival’s devoted to the worship of the Sun God, it is also known as Surya Shashti. (UNI)

Human rights under siege since 9/11: ex-UN-rapporteur

NEW DELHI, Oct 29: Caution against violating human rights in the name of combating terrorism was sounded as Indian jurists assembled last evening to hear a former United Nations special rapporteur on judicial independence.

"Human rights... Appear under siege since 9/11," dato Param Cumaraswamy told fellow-jurists at a function organised by lawasia—law association for Asia and the Pacific.

"Human rights and in particular principles of due process which we all lawyers have been strenuously defending over the years appear under siege since 9/11," the former UN special rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers said.

Human rights were "the cornerstone to restructure the world after the World War II devastation. This is expressed in the preamble of the UN charter to remind us," Cumaraswamy recalled.

"What the international community worked for in the last 50 years cannot be thrown overboard or sidelined to counter the actions of the enemies of human rights and the rule of law," he said, pointing out that "we would be perceived as no better than these enemies."

The Malaysia-born lawyer who just completed his nine year tenure as UN rapporteur, lives in Kuala Lumpur from where he arrived at the invitation of united lawyers association president and Attorney General Soli Sorabjee.

A special rapporteur investigates complaints about attacks on independence of judges or lawyers— and Governments generally "do not like" such an entity. "We are seen as too intrusive."

Cumaraswamy narrated experiences involving several of the 100-odd nations with whose Governments he intervened in his capacity as a special rapporteur or where he carried out in-Situ mission.

These included Zimbabwe, Britain, Belgium, Italy, the United States and even Malaysia.

He said he invited the fury of his own Government in Malaysia where for five years "I battled libel suits claiming to the tune of 73 million US dollars against me before the Malaysian Courts.

"Even the US Government did not spare me over my public statements on the military commission and the denial of due process to detainees in Guantanamo bay."

His sentiment on human rights appeared echoed by India’s senior-most puisne Judge S Rajendra Babu who described terrorism as an assault on basic rights but cautioned that violating human rights in the process of combating terrorism "will be self-defeating."

Justice Rajendra Babu said "terrorism itself should... Be understood as an assault on basic rights," but "if human rights are violated in the process of combating terrorism, it will be self defeating."

The Judge said terrorism posed a new challenge for law enforcement and a challenge to the whole community of civilised nations.

"Terrorist activities in one country may take on a transnational character, carrying out attacks across one’s border, receiving funding from private parties or a Government across another, and procuring arms from multiple sources."

He acknowledged that "it is difficult to draw sharp distinctions between domestic and international terrorism."

But he said the protection and promotion of human rights under the rule of law is essential in the prevention of terrorism. "If human rights are violated in the process of combating terrorism, it will be self-defeating. Terrorism often thrives where human rights are violated, which adds to the need to strengthen action to combat violations of human rights."

Also present were lawasia’s current President G L Sanghi as well as its past Presidents— Fali Nariman and Anil B Divan.

Stressing the importance of the special rapporteur’s function, Rajya Sabha member and senior advocate Nariman recalled the words of late Justice John Milne, President of the Supreme Court of Natal, who "acted bravely and independently, as not many judges did, in what was then apartheid South Africa."

He said Justice Milne once wrote to him: "It seems that however much they may pay lip service to the idea that the judiciary is totally independent of the executive, politicians throughout the ages and throughout the world would actually much prefer to have executive-minded lackeys and are considerably irritated by independent Judges functioning in an independent manner."

Nariman recounted several events of the 1980s which, he said, caused concern that the independence of the judiciary had been eroded and in many areas the judiciary had, by force of circumstance, become impotent and subservient to the executive.

These included forcible removal of Malaysia’s top judicial officers in 1988, Bangladesh lawyers’ protesting their Chief Justice role in a Government bid to fragment the highest Court, the 1988 death sentence against Indira Gandhi assassination accused Kehar Singh although a co-accused with "equally skeletal" evidence was let off and the arrest of two Judges in Fiji in 1987.

He recalled how at a commonwealth heads of Government meeting in Kuala Lumpur in November 1989, then Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto expressed the need to have some kind of international Court or forum in this region for promoting human values.

She said the idea was closest to her heart because my own father was unjustly tried and I know how important it is to have an independent forum,’’ Nariman quoted her as having remarked.

But he regretted that the wish of setting up an Asia Pacific Commission for Justice, voiced first in 1989 by Tara Sidhu of Kuala Lumpur, an "indefatigable" human rights activist, "has remained a pipe-dream." (UNI)

Jazz master Louis banks to woo tourists to visit Darjeeling

DARJEELING (WB), Oct 29: Renowned music composer Louis banks has agreed to perform at the Darjeeling carnival-2003 under the November night sky to lure tourists to visit the hill station and renew old bonds between the hills and the plains.

The youths of the region, who recently formed a platform called the "citizens of Darjeeling" to create awareness among people that only travellers from the plains could generate revenue and sustain living in the mountain terrains, has invited banks to perform and promote their cause during the carnival organised by them.

The forum, which was formed last month by few youths of the region and is now getting bigger with enrollments of people from all walks of life, is trying hard to make Darjeeling carnival-2003 a grand success.

The carnival would begin with serving of hot tea from happy valley tea estate on November 6 and culminate with the release of two red pandas- sweetie and milli- in the Singalila wildlife sanctuary on November 16, said one of the organisers Samir Sharma.

He said composer Louis banks has agreed to perform with his jazz group at Chowrasta, a busy hub famed for political meetings after the Gorkhaland movement, to attract tourists in Darjeeling.

The inauguration would be led by children and a host of other programmes would follow in the subsequent nine days.

Banks, who studied in Darjeeling, has confirmed his participation but the organisers will fix the date of his programme later.

Carnival Secretary Anu Subba said there is an overwhelming response from everybody to make the carnival a grand success and tour operators, businessmen, politicians, bureaucrats, hoteliers, car owners and others are rendering help with willingness.

The carnival was organised following a fall of tourist traffic in the past four to five years for various reasons, including water crisis, political problems, shrinking of space for travellers and opening of new tourist destinations in the neighbouring state of Sikkim.

After Sikkim was thrown open for tourists in 1992, both domestic and foreign travellers prefer this new destination in the eastern Himalayas, and Darjeeling, known as the queen of the hills, became the second choice.

The organisers of the carnival are also making all out efforts to renew the old bonds between the tourists from the plains and the people of Darjeeling, said Sonam Tsering Namchu, an organiser and tour operator.

He said to make Darjeeling clean and trouble-free, efforts are on to revamp the cleaning of roads and drains, garbage bins are being put at all important points and the public works department is also undertaking the repair of roads.

Police is helping to ensure peace during the carnival and has agreed to provide security for the show.

Rock climbing, landrover rally, pony race, dog show, music competition, flower festival, para gliding and show distance rally by tourists are among the main features of the carnival. (UNI)

SIT questionnaires to senior officers tapes from KTK awaited

MUMBAI, Oct 29: The Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the multi-crore fake stamp paper scam is in the process of sending questionnaires to some top police officers, even as tapes allegedly containing conversations of certain accused are the case is yet to be received from the Karnataka Government.

Senior police officers today declined to identify the officers to whom the questionnaires are being sent. "The SIT would like to know more about the investigations that these officers have conducted into the scam and some other officers who have levelled allegations against these officers who oversaw the investigations," a police officer disclosed here today.

The officer, though, did not wish to dwell on the content of the questionnaires. He, however, said that as the Bombay High Court’s November 12 deadline given to Special Director General of Police S S Puri, comes closer, more and more public servants which include IPS officers, will come under the scanner of the SIT.

A total of 57 persons have been arrested so far in connection with the scam.

The mastermind behind the racket, Abdul Karim Telgi has been in jail custody in Karnataka for over a year now and two MLAs Anil Gote (Maharashtra) and Krishna Yadav (Andhra Pradesh) are among those who have been arrested by the SIT so far.

Meanwhile, the SIT is yet to receive from the Karnataka Government, the transcript of the alleged telephonic conversations between Telgi and Government officials and politicians.

As many as five police officers have been arrested by the Pune-based sit in connection with the scam and questioned by investigators. They are Assistant Commissioner of Police Gokul Patil of the State Intelligence Department, Thane unit, senior Inspector Vashist Aandhale of Sahar Airport Crime Branch-CID, Prabhakar Kakade of Nallasopara Police Station, Inspector Dattatreya Dhal and Assistant Inspector Dilip Kamath.

All these officers were booked under the Maharashtra Control for Organised Crime Act (MCOCA).

It may be recalled that earlier this month, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Detection) Pradip Sawant and Assistant Commissioner of Police (crime) R K Padwal had received a questionnaire and they are said to have sent their replies.

The investigations now are overseen by former Director General of Anti-Corruption Bureau S S Puri, who has been appointed by the Bombay High Court as a special DGP to conduct investigations and submit a report to the Court by November 12. (UNI)

Aavin, pvt dairies on collision course again

CHENNAI, Oct 29: The Tamil Nadu Cooperative Milk Producers’ Federation, Aavin, and private dairies appear to be heading for another round of confrontation with the authorities proposing to set up soon a public milk testing laboratory, the first of its kind in south India.

While consumers have welcomed the idea, in the wake of reports that chemicals were being used in milk processing in some parts of the state, private operators perceive it as yet another attempt by the administration to rein them in, as they had made a serious dent into its monopolistic market.

They bitterly complain that in the name of checks, the authorities are ensuring that their products go out of market and allow ‘Aavin’ to get more space. The checks and the campaign have created fear psychosis among the consumers, affecting their sale.

The milk market in the state is a picture of conflicting realities ever since the entry of private dairies in the early 1990’s.

The breaking down of the monopoly of state-run milk cooperative, ‘Aavin’, that controlled the milk market of around 2.6 million litres per day, had a serious impact on its profitability. Aavin’s market share slowly got eroded by over 50 per cent, compelling revival strategies.

The private dairies started complaining that the dual authority of the Milk Commissioner, who was also the Managing Director of Aavin, was forcing certain initiatives that hindered their operations.

They felt that their interest was sabotaged as the Milk Commissioner’s actions were directed towards justifying his role as the Managing Director of Aavin.

Though the private market players have slowly started reconciling to these realities and the controversy seemed to have somewhat died for a while, the news of having a testing laboratory under the control of the Milk Commissioner is expected to trigger it all over again.

The consumers, unaware of this background and with no common testing facility to certify the quality of alternative brands, believe that the quality of milk they consume is good.

King institute here and a private laboratory are the only two places that can test milk samples. This does not seem to be an accessible route for the general public, as costs are often extremely prohibitive.

Incidents like chemicals being added to milk, as was reported in some parts of Tamil Nadu recently, have left consumers in a fix.

The announcement to have a public testing laboratory is certainly good news for the consumers many of whom felt that if it functioned efficiently, at least the fear of an impartial laboratory would keep the quality under check.

But the issue does not seem to be that simple. The private dairies, quoting their past, reiterated that the laboratory would be used to axe their survival and demanded that the dual authority of the Milk Commissioner’s post be removed. Fair competition with Aavin brand seemed acceptable for most private players.

The private players based in Tamil Nadu felt that already their margins were dwindling on account of their operations with cow’s milk.

The contention was that in contrast to buffalo’s milk, cow’s milk was thinner and yielded less profits. Among the private dairies, the ones based in Andhra Pradesh and dealing with thick buffalo milk have cornered more market share in Tamil Nadu, said a Tamil Nadu-based private player. A fair level playing field is what the private dairies need.

Many feel that the adoption of the Karnataka model with a separate Milk Commissioner and a Managing Director for the state-run cooperative would help.

Mr B K Prasad, TN Milk Commissioner and Managing Director, Tamil Nadu Cooperative Milk Producers’ Federation, for his part, said the testing laboratory would make no impact as long as the power to take action rested with the municipal authorities.

The TN Milk Commissioner said the prevention of food adulteration act that came under the supervision of the municipal authorities guided the quality of milk. The role of Commissioner was limited to placing facts before the municipal authorities.

This, Mr Prasad said, would take the issue no further. The real intent of the laboratory would suffer, he said.

The Commissioner reiterated that if the samples were found to be adulterated, the penal powers should be granted to the milk Commissioner to make the whole affair more effective.

The controversy seems to have reached a flash point with both the parties becoming stubborn in their stands. But the common man, for whose well being these power lobbies are supposed to be fighting, is often left far from any understanding.

Already there exists a host of other mandatory regulations like printing the date of manufacture, MMPO license number and ingredients used on the sachets. These are not currently being adhered to by many private dairies, Mr Prasad said.

"The milk sachets do not have these vital details printed on them, still no voice is raised. In the absence of an active consumer movement it is unlikely that action will be taken," he said.

"In hurrying with our daily scores, we expect these basic requirements to be adhered to by the dairy operators. It is easy for us to believe that they are always right," a housewife said.

The proposed testing laboratory will come up here at a cost of Rs 70 lakh with 100 per cent subsidies being offered by the Union Government, Mr Prasad said.

An enthusiastic Mr Prasad was gearing ahead to roll out new products from Aavin. The latest new product that Aavin is working on is the Lassi, that is already available in test markets. The initial response has been very encouraging, Mr Prasad said.

But the best is yet to come, Mr Prasad said, referring to the research efforts being carried out on a new ‘fizz drink’ from Aavin. Mr Prasad said this was specially done to counter the cola market. (UNI)

| home | state | national | business| editorial | advertisement | sports |
| international | weather | mailbag | suggestions | search | subscribe | send mail |