Environmental, Political And Social Pollution

As 1988 opened the Day After Editor’s first Letter To Our Readers challenged them to think and act about doing something as an individual or a group exerting a social force to eliminate the pervading unhappiness being caused by environmental, political and social pollution in the country. Taking a look at the State of the Republic as it entered the 38th year of its Republican existence, the Letter pointed out that it was time to think what we had gained and what we had lost. The questions raised in that Letter would appear relevant even today. So, I would raise them once again. The questions were: Can we afford the style of administration that has come to stay despite the promises and policies of well meaning leaders? Are we being ruled by irresponsive state machinery? Is the rule of law being applied even with a semblance of honesty in both the executive and judicial spheres? Is the ideal of a democratic, egalitarian, socialist government evident anywhere in truth of benefits and reality? Are ideals like equality of opportunity in education and employment available to the people of India without discrimination of caste, creed and religion? Are we more united or more divided than we were at the time of achieving Independence and declaring the country a Sovereign Democratic Republic?

All governments tend to become slothful, hidebound and negative if the people do not maintain constant vigil and watch over their activities. It is true for all government whether at the Centre or in the States. What do you think is the record of the various governments in the Centre and the States run by a plethora of parties? Have the elite classes in the country made any significant contribution to improve the lot of the masses? Or have they been pushing and consolidating their class and sectional interests alone? What can the people do outside the confines of the organised bureaucracy and political parties? It is through your own thinking and response to the problems of your physical and social environment that lasting solutions can emerge for problems that seem to have become everlasting.

Throughout 1988 our editor’s Letters To Our Readers raised issues that deserve to be remembered forever and raised again and again. Is There A Silver Lining raised questions about the role and utility of the public sector industries. Has the Opposition failed this Country raised questions about the credibility and sense of democratic responsibility of several Opposition Parties. People and Protest raised questions against senseless violence in the grab of protests. Why do you raised the issue of a voter’s right and responsibility and his share of blame for electing wrong representatives. Why don’t form Voters’ Councils to take the debate further and suggested formation of such councils to make legislators and corporators accountable to people who elected them. Watch out ‘what is coming’ in our July 1988 issue letter (birthday issue as every year). In this letter we promised new areas of coverage and investigation including the life of policemen, ex-servicemen and the tribal people. Are You an Indian? Raised the issue of identity of every Indian on which depended the future of India. Thoughts About 21st Century pondered on the fast coming computer age and threats to cultural and moral values if we neglected our heritage. You Are Encouraging Corruption underlined that your silence and quiet tolerance of corruption makes you guilty of encouraging corruption. The Indian Press at the Crossroads took a look at the achievements and failures of the Indian media and The Language of Politics expressed concern and disgust at the language of politics becoming angry, bitter, crude and sometimes verging on the obscene. The question we had raised then is even more relevant today. Should we tolerate such language?

The Guilty Men of 1987

The Day After cover stories during that year were well researched investigated and reflected the mood of the nation, by the Day After Bureau concerns and challenges. The year opened with the cover story Guilty Men of 1987 based on the Thakkar- Natrajan Commission Report on the Fairfax scandal by the Day After Bureau. Many of the top leaders of the country at that time had thrashed that report. Our investigation too was critical of the commissioners’ report as it arrived at far reaching conclusions on the basis of scanty or no evidence at all. Another cover story of 1988 was The Nemises of Dhirendra Brahmohari, we did cover stories from the fields of aviation, public sector enterprises, upheaval in Burma. Land Grab Scandals and Sanjay Gandhi’s Maruti dream crash.

The year 1988 also saw the Day After Foreign Desk getting stronger and stronger. Our canvas of coverage included reports like Australia Model In AIDS Control, With Love from Islamabad by Ahmad Hasan, Death Of A Legend, a tribute to Khan Abdul Ghafar Khan as he was laid to rest in Jalalabad. Shamsuddin, Rai Singh and Uma Joshi had also by now added strength to the DA Corps of free and frank writers.

Today everyone is keen to know when the US troops will withdraw from Afghanistan and Pakistan but in March 1988 we carried in our international section a story by Rai Singh entitled Afghan Dilemma: Will Soviet Troops Withdraw? That time Gorbachev was in the dock for his AF-PAK Policy, today it is Barrack Obama who seems to be in the media dock with many asking the question, when the US will exit Afghanistan and Pakistan. The US was there in 1988 and is still there. But now China is very much trying to do what US did with the only difference that it is making a clandestine entry into Pak occupied Kashmir, Balochistan, stolen from India and passed on to China for favours and weapons by Pakistan. Maybe in the future there would come a time when media would ask questions like when will China exit from Kashmir, specially the Chinese occupied Kashmir or the CoK?

Continued Pak support to clandestine militant and terrorist outfits targeting India was a subject of investigation by some of our well-known correspondents like Probir Kumar Sarkar. He did an investigatory story on Pak helping TNV activities in North Eastern India and dug up a mysterious Major Abdullah Khan Rizvi of the Pak Army as the handler of terrorist operations in the East extending as far as Tripura.

Let’s Look At The Full Picture by Syed Akbar took a critical look at General Ziaul haq’s authoritarian military rule in Pakistan which indicated the failures that were lying ahead in future in the absence of democracy and a spineless civil society. Situation today was obviously forseen by our correspondents then reporting on Pakistan.

Bangladesh too was battling against military dictatorship at that point of time Rai singh took a critical look at the problematic Victory of Gen Arshad, the then military dictator who elected himself as the leader of the people against their wishes.

Probir Kumar Sarkar took a look at the turmoil in Darjeeling as the Gorkhaland and agitation swelled turning the area into a “Military State”.

In Prof Satish Dhawan’s critical analysis, the Prospects for A Space Industry in India were visualised.

In May of the year the Day After had carried an investigationinto the heritage of the great Muslim nationalist leader Maulana Azad by firoz Bakht Ahmad, Dimensions Of Iran-Iraq War by Rai Singh and also a detailed report on how the Kamraj Nagar session of the Indian National Congress had proved a turning point for the nation’s oldest and biggest political party were also there.

The Day After’s Sugha Dutt was among the first consumer rights activists who demanded Set Up Consumer Courts. It was a dream then, which is a reality today. India now has strong, active and effective consumer courts system.

The Day After took a look at what the Government of India was doing to promote tourism in the country. The editor interviewed the then Tourism Minister, Mohsina Kidwai and other top brass of tourism with searching questions while reporters spread across the country reported on the state of tourism in the regions. Uma Joshi took a look at the state of the voluntary agencies taking up the cause of the mentally retarded and K.N.Ninan looked at Modern Art as a Bleak concept.

In July 1988 issue of the Day After Rai Singh pointed out that Pakistan and Bangladesh were back to square one and Gopal Saxena pleaded Put An End to Nuclear Evil. Probir focussed on Stalemafe over Rape Casesand Sunil Dang posed the question Has the Electoral System Become A Farce? Sunil Dang also focussed on the development plans of civil aviation and International Airport Authorityin exclusive interviews with the then Minister of State for Civil Aviation and Tourism Shiv Raj Patil and IAAI Chairman Prof. Narinder Kumar Singh. There was also detailed report on Indian Airport by Sahid Akhter Makhfi.

In August of 1988 we carried memorable reports about the Father of Trade Fairs in India, Mohammad Yunus and The Second Revolution in the USSR in which the super powder was trying to free itself from the shackles of red socialism. Eventually we find today that there is no Soviet Union on the world map. As we saw it then the USSR space on the map has been taken up now by a democratic Russia and a host of independent republics. Horat had raised for the first time a voice and a question, which was to be raised by many in the years to follow with varied motivations, the question, was: Is the Election Commission An Eroded Institution? Thank God it is not so today.

That was the time when Kumar Bhartendu greeted the arrival of Monsoon with “Good Morning Monson”. But today that joy has been drained by mismanagement of the municipal authorities and unpredictability of nature even jeopardising the prospects of the Commonwealth Games