DECODING PRANABDA NOT EASY
Political pundits continue to decode former President and veteran Congress leader Pranab Mukherjee’s actions, intentions and political ambitions—if any. While Pranab Mukherjee’s visit to the RSS headquarters in Nagpur on 7 June has been discussed in detail, his another speech nine days later during a visit to Chittaranjan Park in New Delhi has not attracted much scrutiny, but is being analysed minutely in Kolkata. It was a function organised by Chittaranjan Bhavan, a socio-cultural institution. Mukherjee was invited to unveil the recast statue of Deshbandhu Chittaranjan Das, one of India’s great freedom fighters and barrister, on the occasion of his 93rd death anniversary. Before coming, he had told the Chittaranjan Bhavan president, Arup Roy Chaudhuri, and secretary, Jayanta Roy Chowdhury, a senior journalist, that “I will speak only in Bangla.” Perhaps that is the reason his speech was not covered properly by the capital’s media.
The significance of Mukherjee’s speech was that he brought in the “M” word and spoke of how India’s partition could have been avoided. Mukherjee was criticised for not mentioning Muslims in his Nagpur address. Many politics watchers feel that Dada was trying to reach out in a subtle way to Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, West Bengal and Muslims. Mukherjee recalled that Maulana Abdul Kalam Azad in his book, India Wins Freedom, had written that no other Congress leader understood the Muslims and their problems better than Chittaranjan Das. As the mayor of Calcutta, Das, with the help of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose had entered into a pact with Muslim leaders, the Bengal Pact, which was applicable in undivided India and many believed that if this pact was fully accepted and implemented, India’s partition could have been avoided. “Today,” Mukherjee observed, “it must be acknowledged that Deshbandhu was accepted by both Hindus and Muslims and every other Indian with equal affection and, famous Bengali poet Qazi Nazrul Islam in his ode to Chittaranjan Das penned down a poem, Chitta Nama, adulating the great leader.”
Some political writers are of the view that Mukherjee’s visit to Nagpur was a calculated step—to ensure that if BJP fails to reach a comfortable mark in 2019, it will back Mukherjee as a “consensus candidate” for Prime Minister. But there is a counter view also. Some believe that Mukherjee can be a “consensus candidate” of non-BJP parties also. His presence at an iftar party organised by Congress president Rahul Gandhi is seen in this context.
WHEN JOURNALISTS SUFFER FROM MODI PHOBIA
Many journalists suffer from a Modi phobia. A West Bengal journalist had alleged that the Prime Minister was “hungry for publicity” that he “stage-managed” the incident where a man breached the PM’s security cordon to touch his feet during his visit to Santiniketan. But it turns out that the “gatecrasher” Swapan Majhi has a history of doing such things. Once, he had broken the security cordon of former Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee. When Lalu Prasad Yadav was Railway Minister, Majhi made his way into Lalu’s luxury salon during a train ride. He also broke into the Eden Gardens clubhouse to get himself photographed with Kapil Dev and Saurav Ganguly. Then on the occasion of Environment Day, Majhi landed at Nabanna (West Bengal Secretariat) carrying saplings, wanting to gift them to Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. He was sent back by the police.
SKELETONS BEING SMUGGLED TO BANGLADESH
Smuggling of human skeletons to Bangladesh is now a “trade”. Smugglers pack the skeletons in a knocked down condition in sacks and carry them across the border where they fetch a good price. Bones and skulls can be “re-assembled” and converted into full-sized skeletons. The Customs Department recently handed over the bones and skulls in a knocked down style to three Kolkata medical colleges for students’ training. The remains of 30 humans were found at the India-Bangladesh border in West Bengal’s Murshidabad district. Smugglers were transporting the skulls and bones to Bangladesh in sacks when they were challenged by the Border Security Force. Dropping their “illegal consignment”, the smugglers fled. The skeletal remains then landed in a Customs Department warehouse in Kolkata.
Talking to The Sunday Guardian, Partha Roy Chowdhury, Commissioner of Customs, said that a skeleton fetches about Rs 20,000 in India. But the price is more in Bangladesh: “We suspect that the criminals are digging up bodies from graves for smuggling.”
DEMAND RISES FOR GUJJAR REGIMENT
The brutal killing of Indian Army soldier Aurangzeb, a Gujjar, by terrorists when he was on his way home to his Salani village in Poonch to attend Eid, has revived the old demand from Aurangzeb’s nomadic community for raising a Gujjar regiment. Choudhary Shah Mohammad, a prominent Gujjar leader, told The Sunday Guardian that “since the eruption of gun culture in J&K, Gujjars have been playing a critical role in fighting terrorism, especially in inaccessible areas”. A Gujjar delegation recently gave a memorandum to Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh and interlocutor Dinesh Sharma to raise a Gujjar regiment in the Army. The late Home Minister Rajesh Pilot had promised to raise “Gujjar Scouts” on the pattern of Ladakh Scouts, but it did not materialise.
In 2003, the then NDA government had announced that a new force comprising Gujjars and Bakarwals of J&K would be raised for deployment on the difficult terrains of the state.
Gujjars have played an important role in containing terrorism in the Hill Kaka area of Poonch. Women village defence committees comprising Gujjar women eliminated some dreaded terrorists. Recently, Ishfaq-ur-Rehman Poswal, a BJP leader, requested Gen Rawat to organise a special recruitment drive for Gujjar and Bakerwal youths and raise a Gujjar regiment.
The demand has been continuing since 1940. A letter dated 27 November 1940 of Government of India Department of Defence, Army Branch, addressed to Gujjar Kshitriya Sabaha, Meerut City, states that “the Central government is planning to raise a Gujjar Regiment.”
INDIA EXHIBITS YOGA IN 19 NATIONS
As the world celebrated the fourth International Yoga Day on Thursday, our diplomatic missions in 19 countries organised photographer Benoy K. Behl’s new photographic exhibition, “Yoga for Health and Global Harmony”. Displaying pictures of local residents, young and old, doing yoga, the exhibition received a big footfall. For this project, Behl extensively toured Australia, Switzerland, Kazakhstan, Italy, Hong Kong, Lebanon, Ukraine, Sudan, Seychelles, Uruguay, Doha, Myanmar, Uzbekistan, Fiji, Armenia, Oman, Namibia, Nigeria, Peru and many Latin American nations. Talking to The Sunday Guardian, Behl said, “Yoga has become extremely popular around the world. There are many thousands of new persons being attracted every year to practice Yoga abroad. But most of them see Yoga as a kind of physical exercise.”
Man Mohan can be contacted at rovingeditor@gmail.com