Because the NDA government is remarkably media-savvy and because the National Security Adviser, Ajit Doval, is an old hand at manipulating mediapersons, the terror attack at Pathankot Air Force Base on Saturday was reported and portrayed in an unusually un-hawkish tone. Some of the television channels, which are otherwise notorious for venomously ratcheting up anti-Pakistan rhetoric, allowed themselves to pander to the official line. The line was that the security forces were doing a clinical, professional job and the government was in control of the situation. The Modi government obviously wanted to protect itself from any perception of being ‘soft on terror.’Given the fact that the attack had taken place at an Air Force base and given the fact that the security forces had already anticipated the murderous move because the terrorists had shown their hand when they earlier waylaid an SP-rank officer of the Punjab Police, no one was in any doubt as to how the drama would unfold.Yet, it was good to see the television channels playing it responsibly. Most of our channels are deeply embedded in the defence establishment, which has consistently fed them an anti-Pakistan diet. But now that Mr Narendra Modi himself had been constrained to seek rapprochement with Pakistan, our hawkish media is a confused lot. The Pathankot attack has taken place within eight days of Prime Minister Modi’s much talked about stopover in Lahore. While it will be interesting to see how in the days to come the Modi establishment – and its big brother, the Nagpur-based parivar – would try to rationalise the Lahore peace process, the fact of the matter is that people in India as also in Pakistan want peace. Neither the politicians nor the media can ignore this reality. Last Sunday at a lunch, I happened to overhear a conversation between a former civil servant and a businessman on how in the mid-1970s, they had worked together to set up an industrial project. There was a tinge of regret that that creative juggalbundi between the bureaucracy and business enterprise was no longer working. I joined the conversation in an attempt to understand why industrialisation was no longer a subject of political discourse.Instead, there seems to be a pointless competition among the political parties as to who can stage a bigger rally than the other. Political parties are threatening to convert the coming January 14 traditional Maghi Mela in Muktsar into a political mela. No one in Punjab seems to be worried about this simple fact of life: who will create new jobs? Not all youth can migrate to Canada. Opportunities for gainful employment have to be created here on the ground. I am told that the Deputy Chief Minister has been very industriously choreographing events where industrialists of all hues and reputations come and with much fanfare sign “MoUs” and then everyone goes back to whatever they do — other than setting up job-creating units. It has been nearly two decades that the back of militancy was broken and yet Punjab has not been able to re-discover that old work culture that once characterised the “industrious Punjabi”.The Khalistan movement and its sub-culture of violence and gun had sapped the administrative and political vitality. The bureaucracy remained preoccupied with the “law and order” idiom and never really recovered its earlier enthusiasm for industrialisation. The political leadership has been only too happy to cite “militancy” as the excuse for the state’s backwardness. The Centre has been the favourite fall guy for refusing to write off the state’s ‘debts.’ In the past 10 years, the state has been flirting with bankruptcy. Yet, the political priorities remain focused on winning the next election. That is the politician’s karma. But, then, his dharma is also to help create prosperity in the state. The bitterness among the two principal political formations – the Congress and the Akali Dal – has spawned suspicion and distrust. Whatever projects and policies a government puts in place are most likely to be jettisoned by the successive government – because of a self-serving assumption that the previous government/chief minister must have taken a hefty “cut”. Now the AAP people have been flexing their muscle and they too can be expected to encourage further this culture of suspicion. Even if there is a “non-corrupt” government and the most “honest”chief minister, jobs, productivity, employment would not get automatically generated. Without vision, good intentions would not suffice to generate and re-invigorate the gasping small and medium industries, leave alone setting up of large-scale industry. The state needs a new political idiom with job-creating industrialisation at its centre. All Punjab leaders, headed by Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, seem to be smarting under the notion that private enterprise was a nuisance, and that the state government was doing the businessmen a favour by letting them do their business. The political leadership in the state seems to be oblivious of the 1991 paradigm shift.In 2016, Punjab would be fully obsessed with electoral calculations and manoeuverings. No political leader has the stature and the self-assurance to talk of a long-term vision for the state. Five months ago, I was told by my doctors that my blood sugar level was rather alarming and something needed to be done about it. A few days back, I fortuitously met “Dr” Harmohan Dhawan, who told me that he ran a “nature cure” clinic and claimed that it was possible to get the better of this diabetic business without taking recourse to any of those fancy “insulins.” On an impulse, I decided to seek “Dr” Dhawan’s advice. He immediately and willingly took me under his care and put me on an almost pain-free regimen. In essence, he put me on a diet that simply involved eating lots and lots of vegetables and fruits. In addition, he insisted on a daily 45-minute brisk physical activity, including walking/yoga. And, I have no hesitation in acknowledging that within a month, there was a dramatic improvement in my blood sugar count. Now my count is better than it has been in years. So much so, that over this preceding festive season, I could indulge myself in cakes and halwa (of course, within limits.) “Dr” Dhawan insists that he is not a “proper doctor”, but I always tell him that anyone who can help me bring my sugar level down – that too without putting chemicals in my body—qualifies for the salutation. He misses no opportunity to talk in public about disproportionately huge benefits derived from making minor adjustments in lifestyle. His hope is that one day his treatments and teachings would become a mass movement, and would help India become a healthy society.A few days ago, I received a communication from a reader, Satwant Singh, who described himself as a “sixty-six-year-old Chandigarh-based artist, designer, cartoonist and poet and above all, a hardcore Tribune admirer.” By way of greetings for the new year, he was kind enough to send a poem and a cartoon, with a request that it be shared with fellow-readers. Who can ignore a hardcore Tribune reader!
The Selfie Sarkar
Ajj kal apne desh ke mahaul kiTabiyat kuchh nasaaz chal rahi hai. Kya bolein, kya na bolein, Is par bhi taqraar chal rahi hai.
Kya khayein, kya pahne,
Is par bhi hahakaar chal rahi hai.Kaun desh bhakt, kaun desh drohi,Iski bhi parhtal chal rahi hai.Kaun yahan rahein, kaun yahan se jayein,Is par bhi takraav chal rahi hai.Danishwaron ke dimaag ki battian bhujhane par
Cheekho pukar chalrahi hai.
Har taraf urh rahe hain zehreeley dank,Nafraton ki car beraftaar chal rahi hai.Taanashahi ki band bajaa baraat chal rahi hai.Jumlon ki bahaar chal rahi hai.Kyunki Selfie ki Sarkaar chal rahi hai!Thank you, Satwant Singh ji. Coffee?
kaffeeklatsch@tribuneindia.com
