Amrik Singh

N. Parthasarathi joined as Consular General of India in San Francisco on October 13, 2011. He came at such a time when the public, particularly people belonging to Punjab, had been allegedly complaining against inconvenience, discrimination and corruption at the hands of the mission staff. Some say it all started when one of the cabinet ministers of Manmohan Singh’s government was grilled in a New York court case for his criminally inciting mobs against Sikhs after assassination of Indira Gandhi. The said a cabinet minister had reportedly exerted his influence to teach the Sikhs a lesson. It provided an opportunity to some staff members to extort heavy bribes from those who became US citizens on the basis of asylum.

Consular General Parthasarthi is among very few diplomats who are good writers as well. He is the author of two novels. Whether Parthasarathi will succeed in changing, what was alleged in a Hindustan Times article, “Den of Corruption” to a service-oriented Consulate or not, but one thing is evident from his writing that he has a profound understanding of the religious nationalism of two arch rivals: India and Pakistan.

His novel The Reluctant Assassin narrates the tragic tale of a young Muslim boy who got an engineering degree despite extreme circumstances of poverty. His father, a citizen of Pakistan, had married his mother, an Indian citizen in Dubai. Due to mutual rivalry and hatred between the two countries, the family could neither settle in Pakistan nor in India. Father worked in Karachi and got only two months’ permission to visit his family in Bangalore. However, his parents are content to raise their two children in whatever manner possible. But probably fate has something else in store for them.

Imran Mohd. Khan gets a job interview from Mumbai. It was his first journey to the financial capital of India. But his very Muslim name had many strings attached to it. The author comments: “Now there was nothing on their record for even arresting Imran, a free citizen of India, where basic rights are guaranteed by the constitution.” Bhairav Singh, a notorious Mumbai cop gives him shock of his life. The constable attacks him with a three inch leather belt. Severe lashes on his head cause him to lose his consciousness. He is handed an unloaded revolver so that his finger prints get inscribed on it. If he dies during interrogation, it will be merely a suicide case. “His basic human rights had been violated and because of the incompetence of police, he was inconvenienced.” Traumatized by the treatment at the hands of police, he didn’t know how to respond. He was thrown near a gutter. On regaining consciousness, he came to know that the Gateway of India, erected in honour of King George V and Queen Mary in 1911, was bombed.

Now he is convinced nothing can save him from being linked to the terrorist attack. The police will project him as an ISI agent. They will quote his father’s Pakistani citizenship as a proof. Suddenly all doors appeared shut. He manages to go to New Delhi to catch Samjhauta Express to Pakistan. He wants to know why his father failed to communicate this after spending his two months with the family. Desperate to locate his father, Imran reaches Karachi. But to his disappointment, his father didn’t make to his workplace. One of the friends of his father sheltered him, but not without personal risk to his family.

Feudal lords call all shots in Pakistan. They are on all fronts: government, military, intelligence, political parties, and covert training camps. They control life of the poor, religiously devout and socially aggrieved people of Pakistan. In Karachi, Imran becomes an eyesore for lackeys of Wedeira, a patriarch of the politically influential family. In search of his father, Imran meets one of the friends of his father, Shah Rehman. Earlier, he was Siva Ram, a Pakistani Hindu. He converted to Islam apprehending threats to his young daughter, Reema. But lackeys of the patriarch hardly spare any young girl. In the beginning, Imran’s arrival appears welcoming because Shah Rehman entertains feelings of migrating to India with Imran and marrying his daughter with a Hindu boy. Imran’s presence in fact became an excuse for Wedeira, Mustafa and his cohorts to serial rape his daughter. They kill her to wash their hands of any responsibility and get Imran arrested.

In India, Imran is targeted because he is a young Muslim, and in Pakistan he is arrested because he is an Indian. The same happened with his father. Indian police torture him on suspicion of his being an ISI agent, and Pakistan police torture him to death on suspicion of being an Indian spy. Caught in the vortex of spiraling animosity, a poor family is totally devastated.

Imran tries to live with his circumstances but jail inmates try to take advantage of his innocence. When he is threatened by one of the inmates, Imran pounces back on him with all the rage. It attracts attention of one of the recruiters of the terrorist training camps. They need young men with rage, self-respect and daredevil courage.

The author here tries to deconstruct the modus operandi of Pakistan’s terrorist training camps. Their recruitment sources are jails where innocent, poor and aspiring young men are thrown under one excuse or the other. They easily fall in the trap. They have few choices. Religious rhetoric conditions their mind for ‘something higher’ or Jihad. They are told to become Allah’s instrument of justice against all anti-Islamic forces.

Imran joins the training camp under the stewardship of one Abdul Pasha. On completion of his course in killing, Imran is directed to take revenge on the police officer who tortured his father to death. Hassan Tirmizi, a professional killer, monitors Imran’s activities. Imran is marked for two great assignments barely a week before parliamentary elections.

First, Imran has to eliminate Sahibzada Ismail Ghani , Deputy Leader of Pakistani Democratic Party, a prospective Chief Minister of Lahore. The second in the line is prime ministerial candidate Muzaffar Ali Mardana. Imran executes both of his assignments with a great precision.

His immediate concern is to survive murder and mayhem. Second, he tries to ascertain motive behind assassination of Sahibzada and Mardana. He learns Jahanaara Begum gets her brother, Muzaffar Ali Mardana eliminated so that she could become Prime Minister in his place. Jahanaara Begum had secretly married a boy, who in the opinion of her brother was beneath their family station. Muzzafar Ali had Jahanaara’s husband killed in a staged up accident.

Imran, a profession killer now, would become scourge for Shamsher Ali Mardana and Mustafa who had raped Rehman’s daughter. The manner in which he kills them all is very gruesome. It reminds them of the horror of crime they had committed in raping an innocent girl.

Jahanaara Begum becomes Prime Minister of Pakistan. She tries to eliminate all those who she used to achieve her illegitimate goals. But in an effort to kill Imran, she kills her own son. Finishing his killing spree in Pakistan, Imran travels on a British passport to India. He tries to connect missing dots of his family life. But society doesn’t accept him as he is suspected of disloyalty to India. Rejected and alienated, Imran mistakes his childhood friend Nagaraj Shastry to be the source of all troubles. The assassin in him wakes up. He blasts his friend’s house only to learn that he killed his sister’s entire family. The only survivor is his sister’s son.

Imran names his nephew ‘Mrutyunjaya Shastry’, the one who conquered death. Feudal lords and business tycoons who remained collaborators of the British most of the time inherited power on both sides of the border. To sustain their power, they have to control mass consciousness of their countrymen. In Pakistan, threat to Muslim identity posed by Kaffir India is one of the biggest factors in impacting collective consciousness of people. In India, terrorist threat emanating from Pakistan soil is projected as a serious concern to the international order. Intervening in such a discourse, Parthasarathi tries to analyse constructs and dynamics of orchestrated hatreds that appear to have become the functional mode of the two countries. Political elites may have become more despotic, but how it destroys ordinary people like Imran, an Indian Muslim, and Siva Ram, a Pakistani Hindu is hardly taken into account. Demolition, train blasts, riots and pogroms seem to have become necessary markers of controlling mobs’ mind.

British exit from India was not haphazard as it is most often shown. It was well planned and had a definitive agenda. Elites took up important roles in the tragic play. British, Hindu and Muslim elites concurred to stop the lower classes and minorities from influencing the future of India. The alternative they found was so subtle, immediate and poignant that they wasted no time in cashing on it.

Muhammad Ali Jinnah after a long prodding from the Indian National Congress raised demand for Pakistan; and the Congress not only granted that wish gleefully but also had Mountbatten advance the date from June 1948 to August 1947 for the independence of the two countries. One fails to understand what hurry informed their decision when boundaries had not been defined yet, and no viable mode envisioned for one of the largest migrations in human history. Feudal lords of two major religious communities: Hindus and Muslims were so much entranced with their mutual benefit, they readily agreed lest the Sikhs, untouchables, Buddhists and Christians get enough time to stop the partition of the country. Elites criminally came to an understanding to allow as little time as possible to the third party. Consequently, the consent of the Indian National Congress for partitioning India in June 1947 and advanced date of August 15, 1947 left less than two months for any reaction. On top of it, the riots had started immediately after the announcement. Hindu and Muslim elites let the anarchy prevail so that other minorities are totally rendered helpless and mute victims of violence. They were left with no options except to save their lives.

The two nations could never wish away their past. The mutual hatred is a sort of lifeline for sustaining the power structure. Therefore, in order to safeguard their misguided nationalism, they mutually hate, blame, malign and downgrade each other. It has become an industry; therefore, to keep it running, they need to fight phantoms and in its wake leave many trails of innocent blood.

The Reluctant Assassin though was published in 2005 yet it appears as if it was post 26/11/2008 writing. Mumbai terrorist attack had many ingredients which replicate the modus operandi in the novel. The coverage of Mumbai attack on CNN by Fareed Zarkari showed how terrorists’ were instructed minutely by certain handler to target people and places. The handler appeared a true copy of Hasan Tirmizi in the novel. The incidents like blast in Samjhauta Express, terrorist attack in Malegaon and killing of ATS chief Hemant Karkare took place much after it was published. Parthasarathi deserves appreciation for negotiating most difficult treks of Indo-Pak reality.

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From highway to Sahitya Akademi

SAP Bureau

Baldev Singh Sadaknama’s rough journey clinches national award

“IT is an award for a writer, who is sitting on the periphery of mainstream Punjabi literature,” said Punjabi writer Baldev Singh Sadaknama, when his name was announced on December 21 for the Sahitya Akademi Award. He has been selected for his Punjabi novel Dhaawaan Dilli De Kingrey.

The award, he says, came after 35 years of long journey. In these 35 years, Baldev Singh has worked as a truck cleaner, helper, driver and truck owner. He penned down his experiences from time-to-time and was first introduced to Punjabi readers by Amrita Pritam, when she started publishing Singh’s experiences as truck driver in her literary journal Nagmani under the column named Sadaknama. The column was on for more than two decades. Later, these columns were compiled in a book titled Sadaknama. The column became so popular that he was always known as Baldev Singh ‘Sadaknama’.

Apart from Sadaknama, in 1990s, Baldev Singh came out with another book titled ‘Lal Batti’. The book narrates a touching account of the life of prostitutes, their children, pimps and high-profile customers in the brothels of Sonagachi in Kolkota. Dhaawaan Dilli De Kingrey is a novel set in the medieval Punjab. It tells the heroic tale of Punjabi folk hero Dulla Bhatti, who fought against emperor Akbar against the feudal oppression. The award in the form of a casket containing an engraved copper plaque, a shawl and a cheque of Rs 1 lakh will be presented to him at a special function to be held on February 14, 2012 at New Delhi during the Festival of Letters organised by the Sahitya Akademi.

However, this year, poets dominated the Sahitya Akademi Award. Eight books of poetry, seven novels, three books of essays, one each of short stories, narrative history, biography and a play have won the Sahitya Akademi Award. The awards were recommended by jury members representing 23 Indian languages and approved by the executive board of the Sahitya Akademi under the chairmanship of Sunil Gangopadhyay, president of the Sahitya Akademi.

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Sangeet Natak Akademi for two Punjabi artistes

SAP Bureau

SANGER Natak Akademi, the national academy of music, dance and drama, the apex body of performing arts in the country has selected two Punjab artistes for Sangeet Natak Akademi 2011. They were chosen from amongst total 36 artistes from across the country. They include Punjabi folk singer Gurmeet Bawa in the category of folk music (Punjab) and Patiala-based theatre actor Neena Tiwana for acting.

Bawa is a renowned female voice from Punjab, who is known for her high pitch voice and Neena Tiwana is Patiala-based actor and wife of celebrated Punjabi playwright Harpal Tiwana, who passed away in a road accident in 2002. Neena is a graduate from National School of Drama, New Delhi.

The Akademi Awards have been conferred since 1952. These awards not only symbolise the highest standard of excellence and achievements on a national basis, but also recognise sustained individual work and contribution to the practice and appreciation of the arts through performance, teaching and scholarship. The honour of Akademi awards carry Rs 1 lakh, besides a Tamrapatra and Angavastram.

Two Punjabi artistes get Ustad Bismillah Khan Yuva Puraskar

The Sangeet Natak Akademi has selected 33 artistes for Ustad Bismillah Khan Yuva Puraskar 2010 and amongst them are two young artistes from Punjab. They are SAS Nagar-based theatre actor and director Anita Shabdeesh and Patiala-based Alankar Singh for traditional Gurbani music.

The Sangeet Natak Akademi started Ustad Bismillah Khan Yuva Puraskar in 2006 with the objective of giving national recognition to outstanding talents in diverse fields of performing arts. The award is given to the artistes up to the age of 40 years who have made a mark in their respective fields of performing arts.

Ustad Bismillah Khan Yuva Puraskar carries purse money of Rs 25,000. The Yuva Puraskar will be presented at a special ceremony, presided over by the chairman of Sangeet Natak Akademi in the coming months.

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