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October     Last updated: September 30, 5:00 p.m.

World Window
A big deed by a small man

Atul Rawat

The Swiss banks are notorious not only for keeping the black money of Indians and the soft money of the Americans but also for keeping the crime gold of the Nazis. The major Swiss banks like the Union Bank of Switzerland (UBS) have long been accused of keeping Nazi gold. Not only that, they even did not return the money and gold of those Jews who were killed by the Nazis. When their descendants claimed that money the banks hid themselves behind such technicalities as asking for death certificates, knowing fully well that the Nazis never provided any death certificates for those whom they killed in their concentration camps. As many as forty-six thousand accounts were probably holocaust related. Jews were a rich people in the pre-war Europe. How much money those forty-six thousand accounts might hold in reality may never be known even if the banks ever divulge the figure. Such figures would always be controversial. It was only two years ago that the Swiss banks agreed to a historical settlement to resolve the situation.

The settlement was to the tune of 1.3 billion dollars. Since the real holdings are unknown, and the banks used that unknown money for almost six decades now, the 1.3 billion dollars settlement may easily be termed as a soft solution to the problems of harsh past. The whole issue was brought to public notice once again with a heroic deed by one Christoph Meili, an ex-guard at the UBS. He was instrumental in rescuing the World War II era documents which the bank wanted to shred, that too when it was in the middle of an audit by the Volcker Commission. The Commission has been probing whether the bank had assets from holocaust families. World Jewish Congress, a major Jewish group, has backed the idea of givng an award to Meili. Appreciating the effort of the small time security guard Elan, Steinberg, the executive director of the Congress, said that the Congress supported the idea of the award, "in recognition of his courageous selfless act".

Although the amount of the award is yet unknown, some observers feel that a million dollars may be a favourable amount. The deed by Meili is certainly both courageous and selfless. Although he is receiving death threats, he has also been hailed as a hero not only by the Jews but even by some US officials like former Senator Alfonse D' Amato. Meili had also sued the UBS charging it that it had a hand in hounding him out of the country. The inspiration for this small man of great ideals came from Schindler's List. The experience of this ex-guard clearly indicates the strength of goodness is always more than the evil, howsover small the goodness may be.

Let Pakistan dismember brick by brick

The survivability of Pakistan as a nation has always been in question ever since 1947 when the British diplomacy tore it apart from India. But the enthusiasts of Pakistan including the Indian communists had their faith that it would survive. The Mohajirs were the ones who were most enthusiastic about the new Islamic state. It is no exaggeration to say that more than the Muslims of the area, which is now Pakistan, the Muslims mostly from UP and Bihar were responsible for the Partition.

But the descendants of these enthusiasts have now began to question the sustainability of Pakistan as a nation. The 1971 crisis in South Asia gave ample evidence of the unsustainability of Pakistan as a nation based on the Islamic ideology. But even then the enthusiasts of Pakistan did not see the writing on the wall. It is only now that the Mohajirs, the Sindhis, the Baluchs, and the Pakhtoons have begun to realise that Pakistan cannot survive . They are speaking in terms of Punjabi domination as being the root-cause of Pakistan to break if and when the breakaway comes. They are still not ready to accept that nations based on religion can hardly meet the challenges that the modern world throws. Last Sunday, the leaders of all these ethnicities of Pakistan met in London, where, for the first time, Altaf Hussain, the leader of Pakistan's Muttahida Quami Movement (MQM) accepted that Partition was a blunder. All these leaders had gathered to form a united opposition to Punjabi domination within Pakistan.

Hussain compared the probable disintegration of Pakistan with the sinking of the Titanic. In the same vein, Hussain also attacked Mohammed Ali Jinnah and denied that Mohajirs planned to call the country they want to carve out for themselves to be called Jinnahpur. He categorically emphasised: "If we break the country, we will never name it after Jinnah." For Hussain, it seemed as if the Mohajirs' love for India is reborn. He claimed just like our own secular leaders that there are more Muslim in India than in Pakistan. He promised to write the next letter to Indian Muslims in which he would ask them to come to Pakistan and see what is happening to Mohajirs. He even recited Pakistani poet Iqbal's lines—Sare jehan se achha, Hindustan hamara. But the emphasis of his speech was the Sindhis, the Mohajirs, the Baluchs and the Pakhtoons are being treated as slaves in Pakistan and are even considered traitors. He challenged Pakistan, "If Paksitan breaks, it is not the Sindhis, Baluchs and Pakhtoons who will be the losers, the loser will be Punjab".

He also told the Pakistani leadership that this assembly was a warning to those who were commiting crimes against humanity with brute state force. It need not be reminded here that in the recently leaked report on the causes of 1971 debacle for Pakistan this was one of the major reasons cited for the birth of Bangladesh. In the present scenario, the Pakistani ruling classes are repeating their actions within the left-over Pakistan. The economy of Pakistan is already in shambles. The survival of Pakistan as one nation is in a great doubt. It will really be a testing time for India too, if Pakistan ends with a large implosion, for the void it will create will certainly try to suck India in. The larger the implosion the greater will be the impact. Thus, India will have to make complicated choices so that the disintegration of Pakistan causes minimum impact on India.