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Flight
out of Kandahar The follow-up of the hijack crisis will test the MEA's mettle
In the immediate future, India's aim will be to convince the United States that the two countries are equally threatened by the fundamentalist arc cutting across Pakistan and Afghanistan. India is at the frontline of the conflict; the US has so far suffered no more than sporadic attacks. American policymakers also tend to equate institutional dangers with individuals -- a Manuel Noriega one day, a Saddam Hussein the next and, most recently, Osama bin Laden. A stated threat to American lives may be extinguished the moment bin Laden is brought to justice. Even so, the fountainhead of terror will remain undisturbed. Delhi realises this; but Washington D.C. fails to comprehend it. It is up to the MEA to get the message across. State and Celluloid If the government can organize film festivals, why not cricket matches ?
Never mind that IFFI's business centre to market Indian films is expected to provide no more than opportunities for window shopping. The more important task of a bureaucrat-glitterati cabal having a good time will be achieved. In a throwback to Marie Antoinette, if you can't get the tickets, look for the free passes, if you're not sophisticate enough for Luc Besson's Joan of Arc, feast your eyes on David Dhawan's Biwi No. 1. It is nobody's argument that IFFI is irrelevant as an event. From Calcutta to Kottayam, India probably boasts more cineastes per square inch than any other country. A celebration of the cinema of your choice -- without the burden of social and intellectual hierarchies -- is most welcome. The Directorate of Film Festivals, however, has no more right to exist than the Directorate of Test Cricket. |
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There
is a perception that while the hijacking of Indian Airlines' flight 814 to
Kandahar may have been a security disaster it was, in however tortuous a
manner, a gain for diplomacy. In essence, there are two reasons for this
optimism. First, the ice has been broken between India and the Taliban,
whose regime may be regressive and reprehensible but is a fait accompli.
Second, the process of convincing global opinion about Pakistan's
complicity in Islamic terrorism in Kashmir and beyond has been furthered.
In the backdrop of its success in winning support during the Kargil
invasion in 1999, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) may be allowed
some satisfaction. The danger is, in governmental India at least,
satisfaction is usually a stepping stone to complacency. Seeking a
"terrorist state" epithet for Pakistan should be the conclusion
of a sustained information campaign -- not the beginning. Ideally, this
demand should have come after the home minister's press conference
establishing the hijackers' Pakistani origin and inspiration. Hot
statements are no substitute for cold facts.
As
aesthetically inclined babus busy themselves with the 31st International
Film Festival of India (IFFI), the irony of the information and
broadcasting minister holding additional charge of the Department of
Disinvestment is simply too delicious to ignore. The premise behind
privatisation is that the government withdraw from areas where it is just
not needed. On the other hand, the founding principle of the Directorate
of Film Festivals is unbridled statism. The body is as much of a dinosaur
from the high noon of socialism as, say, Modern Foods, India's
public-sector bakery. Given its comparatively modest budget of Rs 2.5
crore, it may be argued that such trenchant criticism of the Delhi IFFI is
overstated. The fact is in the dock is not merely one festival but a
mindset that believes state patronage of a largely Delhi-based and almost
entirely self-appointed cultural elite is a divine right.