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EDITORIAL
Keep
Ram in Exile
Ayodhya's
out of the national consciousness. Don't bring it back.
 Every
December 6, India goes through a ritual. Parliament is disrupted by protests
over the Ram temple issue. There are demands that L.K. Advani, Murli Manohar
Joshi and Uma Bharati-all three figure in the chargesheet in the demolition
case and are now Union ministers-should resign. BJP MPs on one side and
Left and Congress members across the floor shriek at each other. Outside
the house, obscure sadhus and mullahs-folk who would otherwise never have
faced a camera-are pulled out of the woodwork by journalists. They end
up making statements about how the mandir or the masjid, depending on
individual ideological preference, should be built tomorrow morning, if
not yesterday. This year the prime minister got carried away by it all
and ended up arguing the Ram movement was "an expression of nationalist
feelings" and the "task has remained unfinished". Bang
out of nowhere, India had a full-fledged political controversy on its
hands.
Reviving
the great Ayodhya debate is certainly not top priority for the common
Indian. Rather, there is a whole Ayodhya industry that feeds politicians
without any new ideas, sundry theologians, each more obscure than the
next, and dozens of anguished columnists and seminar speakers. Ayodhya
has become the political equivalent of theatre. Beyond the competitive
emotionalism, it has to be recognised that it is, in essence, a legal
issue. The land dispute is pending before the Allahabad high court, the
agency that will hopefully settle matters. As for December 6, 1992, whatever
else it may or may not have represented, it amounted to a betrayal of
the rule of law. Slow as progress may be, a special sessions court is
trying this case. For all its faults, the Indian juridical system has
convicted even a former prime minister for bribery. Give it time and it
will do justice to Ayodhya as well. Till then keep Ram and Babar out of
politics.
Post
Haste
Save the
mail delivery system by adding value to it
 Since
justifying a strike in a public service organisation is almost impossible,
the 600,000 postal employees who have refused to work over the past week
will get little sympathy. By allowing courier firms to take further control
of the cream of the market-business communication in big cities-and pretending
e-mail doesn't exist, they are, really, living in a fool's paradise. Unfortunately,
in faraway towns and villages and even among the less privileged in the
metros, the post office retains its importance. While a saboteur mentality
never solves any problems, the fact is the government has been entirely
disinclined to arrest the postal system's slow death. One of the demands
of the unions is that 3,00,000 part-time employees-in effect, the sum
total of village postmen-be put on the permanent rolls. The government
is unwilling because it has no money and delivering letters is anyway
a loss-making venture.
True, there
is an inherent subsidy to any plain postal system but bottom lines can
he helped by an innovative mix of franchising and value addition. Selling
stamps and stationery, for instance, shouldn't be the sole preserve of
state outlets. By allowing private shops, even the ubiquitous corner paanwallah,
to hawk them, the government will save itself much money. That apart,
postal infrastructure can be put to better use. The post office is already
a rudimentary bank, unfortunately aimed only at the lower end of the market.
What stops it from upgrading its facilities and competing with the local
branch of the State Bank? Further, as part of the planned Internet revolution,
the Government hopes to set up a string of cyberkiosks across the Indian
landscape. Instead of building afresh, why not just use the post office?
If you can't abolish e-mail, appropriate it.
Top
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METRO TODAY
Ayodhya
is an issue that is pre-determined. And it matters little in the present
fuss that the foremost casualty is the truth, writes INDIA TODAY Deputy
Editor Swapan Dasgupta in 