It’s summertime and ice is melting on the Kargil hills. It seems ice is also breaking in the minds in the plains across the border. Within days of Prime Minister Vajpayee offering a bold hand of friendship, Pakistani PM Jamali called up the South Block with, however premature, an invitation. Granted, New Delhi will stick to its position that no official dialogue is possible unless Islamabad stops sponsoring cross-border terrorism. But once Pakistan opens up its airspace — and indications are it soon will — the ball will be back in our court. We must reciprocate with a symbolic gesture and make sure that it is much more emphatic than Pakistan’s (after all, we opened our airspace for them months back, didn’t we?). Last time India played Pakistan in a bilateral series was in 1999 when Wasim Akram’s boys visited India. It’s our turn and, unfortunately, we have already skipped the April tour scheduled in the ICC cricketing calendar. I understand that security is a genuine problem and I don’t want to pass judgment on the feasibility of playing Pakistan in Pakistan. Pakistanis may have similar reservations about playing in India. But there is no reason why we can’t play each other at ‘‘neutral’’ venues. Resumption of cricket will also help the BCCI as we always find it difficult to counter ICC’s logic that when the two countries regularly contest each other in other sports — like Hockey and even under-19 cricket — and play each other in senior cricket tournaments, one-to-one series should not be made an exception. Many in India feel that playing cricket with Pakistan is counter-productive as it gives rise to warlike tension in the psyches of the people in the two countries. But we must seriously ask ourselves why India-Pak matches evoke such non-cricketing passion. While it’s difficult to change the collective mindset of the sub-continent overnight, what we can do is play each other frequently. Frequent matches will mean frequent success and failure and will temper the derby fever that now grips the subcontinent. It’s criminal to reduce this great game to the level of a petty proxy war and subject the cricketers to such pressure. If we still need more reasons to start playing Pakistan, we must remember the PCB secretary himself has gone on record, after Pakistan’s dismal show in the World Cup, saying every time Pakistan plays India in next two years, the Centurion Park result will get repeated. Personally, I also think it’s our best chance to set the records straight as the current Pakistani team is simply no match for our spirited boys. Let’s just do it. Bear trust’s burden For the common man, the judiciary has always been the most dependable pillar of democracy. Not that there has been no complaints. We all cribbed about the number of pending cases. We all wished that the legal maze be simplified so that certain unscrupulous lawyers can’t take their clients for a ride. On a more academic level, we debated how much judicial activism is healthy for the system. But an average Indian never doubted the integrity of our judges. In recent times, opinion polls across the country also revealed that the Armed Forces and the judiciary top the list of the nation’s most trusted. No wonder people are shocked following the arrest of former High Court judge Shameet Mukherjee on corruption charges. The charges of professional compromise for dubious incentives are grave and — if Mukherjee can’t clear his name — will severely damage the image of judiciary. A few months back, the so-called Mysore ‘‘sex scandal’’ shocked the nation no less. Similarly names of three judges figured in Punjab Public Service Commission scandal. Our faith on the judiciary has been one of the few that keep the system running against numerous odds. Democracy will be the biggest loser if people lose that faith. A bold verdict While on the judiciary, let me mention a recent landmark judgment by Allahabad High Court Judge M Katju. Passing his verdict in a case between a group of prostitutes and the state of UP, Katju instructed the state, particularly the police, not to evict the petitioners from their houses and not to harass them in any other way. The judgment is so moving that I cannot help sharing a few lines with the readers: ‘‘Women become prostitutes not because they enjoy prostitution but due to poverty. Ordinarily, no woman will surrender her body to a man voluntarily unless she respects and loves him. Prostitutes are wrongly regarded as women of vice by society. In fact, in the novels of the great Bengali writer Sharat Chandra Chattopadhyaya, many prostitutes are shown to be women of high character (Rajlakshmi in Srikant and Chandramukhi in Devdas). Similarly in Crime and Punishment by the famous Russian writer Dostoyevsky, we come across the character of Sofia Marmeladov who is compelled to become a prostitute due to poverty. In the famous poem Chakle by Sahir Ludhiyanvi, the plight of prostitutes in India has been vividly depicted, and this poem has been sung (with modifications) in the film Pyasa. The approach of the society towards the prostitutes must change — Prostitutes are also entitled to live a life of dignity which is part of Article 21 of the Constitution as interpreted by the Supreme Court.’’ The observation of Justice Katju will help the prostitutes a great deal as he has directed the Government to plan a rehabilitation package for them. So far the UP Government has been reluctant to spend money on this social cause because of the messy state of its finances. However, if the court takes a strong view, the government will have to do something in compliance.
