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April      Last updated: April  8,  5:00 p.m.

Hark India

Putin shows the way

Atul Rawat

The resounding victory of Vladimir Putin in the Russian Presidential elections and that too with 52 per cent popular vote is a victory of Russian nationalism. Although Yeltsin's victory during the last election was bigger (56 per cent popular vote) Putin's was a more complex election with the troubled nation facing a virtual war with Islamic terrorists and the bandits in Chechnya.

Putin's tough and determined handling of the Chechen as acting President has been the most important factor in his victory. A general perception has gained ground in Russia that the country needs a strong man to pull the nation out of the quagmire of history in which the communists had dumped it. And, lo and behold, Putin was supported even by the leaders of Russia's communist youth Movement. Note Igor Malyarov's passionate exhortation: "I call on the patriotic communist youth of our country not to vote for Gennady Zyuganov." For the communists' justification to vote for Putin remains a singular accomplishment of Putin's particularly in the war in Chechnya. Putin had also appealed to the patriotic sentiments of the Russian communists. Even the anti-Putin western press had to acknowledge that Putin had been able to deliever what they termed as, "the most humiliating blow for the communist leader..." A public opinion poll conducted barely a week before the actual voting suggested that twenty-five per cent of those who voted the communists in the December parliamentary elections were now preparing to vote for Putin.

The leaders of the Komsomol movement, which was started basically to infuse communist ideology into the youth, knows fully well that Putin has no sympathy for the communists. On the contrary he is on record to have called the socialist ideology a spent force. Even now this movement has members aged between 13 and 35. Their Moscow unit secretary Dimitry Dubovsky openly accepted that he would vote for Putin. The Komsomol defection led to many more high-profile defections.

The tough handling of Chechnya may have drawn lot of flak for Putin from the West but within Russia it has not only won him the Presidency but also shown that the whole of Russia including the rational communists are behind him. The Russian President has presented a right model before the world to deal with Islamic terrorism and banditry. That he will steadfastly continue the same policies is clear by the renewed attacks on the stronghold of the terrorists in the Chechen mountains. There is much that Indians can learn from Putin's policies in the context of our own problem with fundamentalists.

Nigeria: Democracy in danger

It was only in May last year that Nigeria was released from the clutches of military rule. Restoration of democracy under the leadership of President Olusegun Obasanjo, who himself was once a General has brought about tremendous economic progress. But two major problems persist almost for a year— Muslim-Christian riots and corruption. The riots have claimed around a thousand lives. The intensity of violence has had its ebb and tide. Almost three hundred people were massacred within a week last month.

While the President is trying to concentrate on resurrecting the country's economy the Islamic gangsters have been attacking non-Muslims people and their properties in the northern province of Kaduna. They are demanding introduction of the Islamic Sharia law in that province. The President recently accepted that the ethnic and religious tensions were growing. His political opponents blame him for his alleged failure to take a stand on the issue of Sharia in some Muslim dominated states. President Obasanjo's response to the charge is that turnaround in the economy will bring about peace as actually the religious violence is basically rooted in economic disparity.

It is in the context of the economic development that the president has embarked upon a fullscale assault on corruption, which in fact happens to be a legacy of the military regime of past years.

The Islamists seem to be trying to take advantage of the unsettled politico-economic conditions of the recently reborn democracy, which is still fragile. One of the major Islamic leaders, the Sultan of Sokoto has threatened that the bloody clashes in Kaduna posed a "dangerous and very serious threat" to the peace and unity of Nigeria.

It is understandable that no nation state may allow two parallel systems within its territory. This is the very foundation of the political concept of a nation-state. Implementation of the Sharia would be the end of the multi-religious nation even though it might be only in the Muslim dominated states. It would be something like implementing of the Sharia in Kashmir by the Government of India. Even President Obasanjo's critics accept that the country has made notable progress in the economic sphere. But contrary to the President's expectations, the economic progress has not yet brought about peace. After the Muslim dominated North, now the South-East Nigeria is also being engulfed by a communal flare-up. The local Christian Ibos have been attacked by Muslim immigrants from the North. The Government policy seems to be going awry. Until the Nigerian state decides to tackle the issue directly and with a heavy hand, the situation may well go out of hand and the very existence of the recently reborn democracy will be at stake.

Physician, heal thyself

Many Christian missionaries call Hindus "benighted heathens" but the kind of activities various outfits of the Chruch are engaged in show how benighted they themselves are. The Church believes that the world is coming to an end. They are called the Doomsday cult. There have been a few incidents in which these doomsday cultists committed mass suicides fearing the end of the world. Such cults have been more active in the continent of Africa which has witnessed mass suicides.

Recently members of one such Christian cult decided that the world was coming to an end within the year 2000. The followers of this Christian sect, called the Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments, gathered in a makeshift wooden church in Kampala, Uganda. After closing the doors they set the building on fire. Around 235 persons including women and children perished in the fire. The gruesome end came after hours of chanting.

It was only last September that the Ugandan police ordered the disbanding of another doomsday cult called World Message Last Warning sect. This sect was blamed for sexual assaults on young girls. The cult leaders were reportedly involved in selling space in heaven to the cult members. But before they could do something still more drastic they were disbanded.

Unfortunately however the same could not be done about the Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments and a major tregedy could not be averted. It is being estimated now that the total death toll might have been as high as 400 or more. The actual number may never be known. It is also difficult to find out if it was suicide or mass murder. The investigators are unaware if all the perpetrators of the ghastly crime have been killed or some have survived only to disappear.

This is the second largest mass suicide after the 1978 incident of a similar type in which a US pastor Jam Jones had led 914 persons to death by consuming cynide in fruit-juice.

Such gruesome acts of the Christian missionaries and others should be thoroughly exposed particularly in the vanvasi areas where they keep on propagating all kinds of ill-conceived malpractices in the name of Christianity. What they are doing in Africa, they can as well do in India. Let the people be vigilant.