10-09-2013, 02:32 PM
The Hindu Editorials
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28th March,2013
Back from the brink
From the populist point of view, Indian cricket is either in robust good health or in its death throes. There is seldom anything in between. This is precisely why the historic sweep over Australia on familiar terrain — while being a significant achievement — is not something that should give rise to triumphalism. Stiffer challenges await Mahendra Singh Dhoni and his men on foreign soil when they journey to South Africa, New Zealand, England and Australia over the next two years. But a 4-0 score-line — this is the first time India has won all four matches of a four-Test series — was crucial for a team that was gasping for breath after the 2-1 defeat at the hands of England at home earlier this season. The series also provided a lifeline to skipper Dhoni, who is now India’s most successful Test captain with 24 victories. The skipper’s destructive 224 when the first Test was in the balance at Chepauk was a huge turning point in the series; psychologically, the aggressive innings adversely impacted the Australian team. Gradually the Indian team gained in confidence and won the key moments of the duel by finding the right men for different situations. The selectors were rewarded for their boldness in dropping Gautam Gambhir ahead of the series and then axing Virender Sehwag after the first two Tests. Opener Murali Vijay was a gain with 430 runs at 61.42 including two hundreds; he displayed composure and the right technique. And the left-handed Shikhar Dhawan’s explosive 187 at Mohali — the quickest century by a debutant — saw Indian fans applauding the arrival of a new top-order batsman. The consistent Cheteshwar Pujara’s 419 runs at 83.80 were just rewards for his equanimity and solid strokes.
But then, these batsmen will face bigger tests away from the subcontinent on bouncy tracks — as, of course, will the spinners. The last few weeks, they called the shots on surfaces that assisted them. And the one in New Delhi was certainly not fit for Test cricket. However, credit must go to Ravichandran Ashwin for rightly depending on his off-spinner. His 29 wickets in four Tests at 20.10 confirmed his position as spin spearhead. Left-arm spinner Ravindra Jadeja’s accuracy and subtle variations in trajectory — he prised out 24 batsmen in four Tests at 17.45 — combined splendidly with Ashwin’s methods. If Jadeja can turn himself into a genuine Test class all-rounder in all conditions, it will be a big gain for Indian cricket. In the event, even as they celebrate, the Indian players would do well to remember that they will land in South Africa in November without having played any Test cricket for seven full months — hardly a tribute to the foresight of the Board of Control for Cricket in India.
29th March,2013
Establish the truth
Once a terrorist, always a terrorist? Surely not because then there can be no redemption for the individual who feels remorse for embracing destruction, who realises the futility of avenging perceived injustice by injustice. That governments faced with the challenge of terrorism also have programmes for the surrender and rehabilitation of those wishing to give up the path of violence attests to the strong human impulse to reform. Yet for countless reasons, former militants rarely manage to fully shrug off their past and continue to battle questions and suspicions long after their presumed return to legitimacy. When a militant surrenders, his acknowledged association with one or another form of terrorism makes him at once an invaluable source of information for investigators and an automatic suspect in anticipated or accomplished acts of terror. In the case of Liaquat Ali Shah, a Pakistan-occupied Kashmir-based former militant who was arrested by the Special Cell of the Delhi Police, the truth has become harder to establish because there are two official versions of why and how he came to be found crossing the Nepal border into India. The Special Cell’s case is that far from reforming, Liaquat Ali continued to be active as a member of the Hizbul Mujahideen and had actually planned to stage a fidayeen attack on the Capital to avenge the execution of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru when he was arrested.
On the other hand, the Jammu and Kashmir police are emphatic that Liaquat Ali, an Indian Kashmiri who had taken up residence in PoK, was on his way back to the Indian side of the valley as part of the State government’s surrender and rehabilitation policy for former militants. The J&K Police have cited previous instances of militants crossing over from Nepal into Kashmir to avail amnesty. There is also some curiosity over why Liaquat Ali chose to travel with his family when he was clearly on a suicide mission. The two police forces have clashed before, and significantly, the disagreements have been over the deployment of former militants in terror investigations. The Delhi Police have also previously come under judicial scrutiny for acts of commission and omission relating to the prosecution of former J&K militants. While this by itself cannot become grounds for negating their claims, the National Investigation Agency will now have to get to the bottom of the story and establish the truth. The outcome is crucial not just for the life and liberty of Liaquat Ali but for hundreds of Kashmiri militants who have applied for permission to return home and surrender. Their takeaway from this unfortunate episode ought not to be that it does not pay to renounce your past.
29th March,2013
Motion and emotion
Is it right for Indian legislators to advocate a referendum for the break-up of a neighbouring country? Politicians in Tamil Nadu spearheading the campaign against Sri Lanka for human rights abuses by its military in the final stages of the war with the Tamil Tigers seem to think so. India is deeply involved in the efforts for the resettlement and rehabilitation of Sri Lankan Tamils displaced by the war. But, going by the resolution adopted by the Tamil Nadu Assembly demanding a referendum on Eelam and calling for economic sanctions against Sri Lanka, regional political parties in Tamil Nadu are keener to score points off each other than aid India’s purposive, if somewhat limited, attempts at bettering the lot of the Sri Lankan Tamils, many of whom are still without homes and means of livelihood. The legislators want India to move the U.N. Security Council seeking a referendum among Tamils living in Sri Lanka and the Sri Lankan Tamil diaspora on creation of a separate nation of Tamil Eelam. Apart from the sheer bad taste and bad judgment involved — India would violate every principle it has stood for were it to approach the Security Council with such a demand — the motion can only do more harm than good to the Tamils of Sri Lanka. A partition will doubtless create more displacement and inflict more pain on a battered people already suffering from the effects of a decades-long ethnic conflict that ended only in a war that appears to have killed more civilians than armed combatants. Indeed, any position that makes the assumption of irreconcilable differences between the Sinhalese and the Tamils is doomed to failure.