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EDITORIALS
Cease-fire
Crossfire
Violence in Srinagar and mixed signals from Delhi
could
ruin it all
 By
prefacing the third extension of the cease-fire in Jammu and Kashmir with
the warning that "our patience is not infinite" and that "we
will not let this process be derailed, diluted or misused", Prime
Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee attempted to balance the conflicting signals
that have shaken his peace initiative. Regardless of the gushing endorsement
of his audacious move in diplomatic circles, the Government fully knows
that within the country his peace move is being seen as an example of
misplaced magnanimity. Neither his own party nor his National Conference
ally see any merit in a policy of turning the other cheek, a reason why
Vajpayee had to fall back on the opposition parties to bail him out this
time. But the respite is temporary. If the level of terrorist-inspired
violence in Kashmir doesn't come down and Pakistan fails to control its
home-grown jehadis, it is not merely the peace initiative that will come
unstuck. Vajpayee's own political credibility will take a serious knock.
This, in turn, has the potential of jeopardising political stability after
the state assembly elections in April.
What should worry the Government is the inability
of the cease-fire to improve the situation on the ground. The gains from
the relative peace along the Line of Control have been offset by widespread
civil disturbances in Srinagar. Equally disturbing is the conflicting
signals from Delhi which have thrown the entire decision-making process
into disarray. It is not clear whether the pacification of Kashmir is
part of a domestic initiative or an aspect of wider international diplomacy.
The linkages haven't been spelt out. Communication and clarity seem to
be at a discount and exaggerated faith is being reposed in Vajpayee's
own ability to find a way out. Hardly the best way to approach a problem
of this magnitude.
Big
Sister is Watching
There's nothing cultural about making a cause out
of FTV
 The
enemy never sleeps for the culturally paranoid. This time, the enemy is
out there on the small screen, a catwalking, semidressed enemy with bee-stung
lips, about to seduce the TV-watching, soft-hearted Indian male-and confuse
the sari-clad, bindi-sporting Bharatiya nari. Imagine the consequence:
the culturally gullible walking across the sacred streets of India in
their transparent underwear. It's a clear-too clear-and present danger,
and only the Information & Broadcasting Minister Sushma Swaraj has
realised the enormity of this national danger. Beware, you models on FTV,
the Big Sister has watched you, and she has decreed that you in your present
state of style are not fashionable for cultural India, that you need a
culturally acceptable new look. The Big Sister is worried, for the D (as
in depravity) Day has come.
Sorry, it's a misplaced worry. It's the same
old, tired-and tiring-argument on India vs the Countercultural Viruses
from Abroad. It's the administrative-and non-violent-version of the anti-Valentine's
Day demonstration of Hindu Rashtra's lunatic fringe. In the FTV case too,
the fear of the anatomy police defies both logic and commonsense. For,
the socio-cultural relevance of the current cause is only as relevant
as the page-three sociology; its cultural influence is only as influential
as the glossy lifestyle magazines. To assume that FTV-watchers are at
the risk of losing their Indian cultural identity is to underestimate
the cultural integrity of the Indian. By that logic, quite a few Indians
should have lost their Indianness long ago, what with Hollywood, the Internet
and other easily accessible demons. But the Indian cultural exceptionalists
have a way of legitimising the ridiculous. They can't ignore. They can
only protest-and censor.
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