Delhi-based Hamara Samaj on the same day wrote that the Dalai Lama himself was against complete independence for Tibet. The Tibetan Bhikkus’ struggle for independence would not succeed without a change of leadership, it opined.

Real democracy?

Delhi-based Hindustan Express, in an editorial on March 24, raised the question whether the new dispensation in Pakistan heralds ‘real democracy.’ It wrote that President Pervez Musharraf should have accepted defeat and relinquished his office — if he were to be true to his professed urge for democracy. Instead, “there were secret meetings with Asif Zardari, Nawaz Sharif was cleverly managed (‘sheeshey mein utara gaya’), a game was played to isolate Makhdoom Amin Faheem and now, according to a secret understanding, the act of forming a new government has been started.” Writing about the newly elected prime minister, Makhdoom Syed Yusuf Raza Gillani, Hamara Samaj (March 25) said that now Sindhis have been ignored and a Punjabi leader has been anointed. Pakistan has always been dominated by Punjabis but following Benazir Bhutto’s assassination it was believed that Sindhis would be given primacy following the National Assembly elections. It opined that Gillani might be able to contain terrorist activity on the Afghan border as he comes from an influential ‘jagirdar’ family of Multan and is connected with a ‘khanqah’ that has a large following in Afghanistan.

Advani writes back

L.K. Advani’s autobiography and his various statements elucidating its contents have attracted some sharp reactions. Qaumi Awaz, in an editorial on March 25, asked, “Did Advani not enjoy the confidence of Vajpayee?” It highlighted Advani’s confessions in his ‘Walk the Talk’ interview in which he claimed that he had been kept in the dark about the high-level bargaining with the hijackers of the Indian Airlines plane in 1999. The editorial says, “Throwing the principle of collective responsibility to the wind, he confessed that he was kept uninformed about the then External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh being sent to Kandahar with the freed hijackers”.

... contd.