The Sunday TimesNews/Comment

2nd February 1997

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"Constitution needs urgent change"

From being a protege of military dictator Zia-ul-Haq, he has evolved into a popular leader in his own right. A front runner in the polls, Nawaz Sharif took time off from a hectic campaign schedule to speak to India Today's Saba Naqvi Bhaumik.

Q. People are still not sure whether the elections will take place on February 3.

A. Yes, there is a shadow of doubt. But there is hardly any choice now. If elections are not held on schedule, then anything can happen....

Q. The Jamaat-e-lslami has called for a boycott of the polls and they are believed to represent the establishment...

A. Boycott of any sort does not make any difference. And elections cannot and must not be postponed because a few parties are boycotting it. The Jamaat was not prepared for polls anyway.

Q. It's said you could not have been allowed to stand for polls unless you've made a deal with the establishment.

A. This is not true. There is no need for any deal. I do not believe in underhand deals. My performance during three years as the opposition leader would confirm that I do not make any deals.

Q. The Eighth Amendment used to dismiss the Benazir Bhutto government was also used against you in 1993. If you become the prime minister, will you try to repeat it?

A. The Constitution does require certain changes and reforms. But there has to be a national consensus on these changes first.

Q. You are believed to have had differences with President Leghari in the past. So if you become the prime minister, are we going to see another PM - President tussle in Pakistan?

A. Politics in Pakistan will have to make a new beginning. This infighting has projected a bad image both at home and abroad since 1988. It's time that we put an end to this tussle.

Q. How seriously are you taking the challenge by Imran Khan?

A. (Laughs) Do you think I should take him seriously? Do you know that Imran and I have often played cricket together?

Q. In your campaign, you stress your plan for a motorway linking all parts of Pakistan. Is a motorway the answer to Pakistan's problems?

A. We want to enter the 21st century with dignity and honour (through the motorway) and not on mules and horses.

Q. You are a known supporter of open markets and free trade. Does this extend to trade with India.

A. I am a strong believer in free trade. It goes to the credit of my government that we came up with a bold economic regional package. Privatisation was also started by my government. It will be my endeavour to improve relations with India. Political economic and trade relations. But it is imperative that we remove all the impediments. Kashmir is the key issue and it should be resolved so that any attempt at establishing economic and trade relations with India is not undermined by critics.

Q. Recently, elections were held in Kashmir. What is your opinion of the process that installed Farooq Abdullah as chief minister?

A. The elections in Kashmir are controversial and lack credibility. The turnout was very poor.

Q. Are you in favour of Pakistan's policy of supporting the Taliban in Afghanistan?

A. I am not aware of what was the policy of Benazir Bhutto on Afghanistan. The Parliament was never taken into confidence by her government. Our policy should be to help all the Afghan factions and leaders to sit on one table and evolve a consensus. The policy of supporting one faction and opposing the other is not good.

Q. You once said Pakistan has the nuclear bomb. Do you stand by that?

A. (Smiles) Don't ask me such questions again and again. And please give my regards to the people of India.


Tryst with the gods

Often at that hour of the day when the spires of the Katmandu temples are streaked with red, and pale gold rims the silhouettes of the mountains, a wisp of a girl trudges through old cobblestone alleys to a large red-brick palace guarded by two stone lions.

There, as the evening shadows gather over the valley, she runs her hand lovingly over the scaly bricks.

The palace is warm and familiar - and they are old friends. As if on cue, a clock in her mind winds back the years and there she is: much younger, dressed in brilliant red cloth bordered with gold brocade, hair pulled back tight, forehead painted in emphatic black and white, bright vermilion around a third eye in the center, and a crown of jewels on the head. Surrounded by burning bowls of camphor and devotees seeking her blessings, she sits calmly - immaculate, unperturbed and imposing. A goddess.

Ask her about the past and anxiety flickers in the eyes. The girl - Rasmila Sakya - was once a goddess. From age three, for eight long years, she was worshipped as the Royal Kumari of Nepal. Always on display, she lived inside the red-brick palace with intricate wood carvings of almost every god in the Hindu pantheon. But she was the one pampered and feared the most. An angry squeal would convince startled devotees that she was predicting imminent doom. a good-natural laugh. peace and prosperity. Every natural calamity would be attributed to her wrath and a bout of illness would foretell more. And, once a year, the king of Nepal would bow down to the fidgeting girl-goddess - as he still does - to seek permission for another year of reign. For most Nepalis, this tradition an amalgamation of myth and reality, remains a living and intrinsic part of their culture.

The dancing camphor flames are today fleeting shadows of the past. Somebody else is Kumari now and for I6-year-old Rasmila the free fall from goddess to ordinariness has been devastating. Years of being ogled at has resulted in her being bitterly shy and, often, depression - pining, brooding over the past - leaves her wandering from room to room in her family's small house, buried in the labyrinthine alleys of old Katmandu.

As a Kumari she had no family, ate when she wanted to (who can deny a goddess.) and was carried everywhere. Back home, she had to grapple with reality. "She didn't even understand who we were and how to address us," says Pragyadevi, her mother. Rasmila strives to make friends, pick up the strands of her life - the Class VIII student's grades are constantly improving - but the past is never too far away.

The plight of these cast-off deities is a recurring theme with families of former Kumaris. For Anita Sakya, in her 20s, the early years of her life seem "wasted" as she now struggles to get into university. Nobody has given much thought about what will happen to them once the goddess returns to ground.

They are left between two worlds, growing up extremely withdrawn, their former fame setting them apart, their present trauma making them lonelier still.

Rasmila is today an absolute antithesis of Taleju, the fierce demon-slaying goddess of whom she was once a living incarnation. Taleju, in one of its numerous forms, is menacing, the embodiment of all horrors of the mortal mind, and is the protective deity of the kingdom. According to legend, many centuries ago she befriended a Nepali king and would often come in the form of a stunningly attractive woman to play dice with him. One day a princess interrupted them. Infuriated at being seen by another mortal, Taleju vanished. But after much pleading by the king she relented, and said she would guide him on the condition that he could no longer see her. From then on, Taleju's spirit is brought to life in the form of a virgin girl. Michael Allen, an anthropologist who has studied the Kumaris, writes: "There is always the implication... that the king developed a strong desire to sexually possess the goddess." That's why, reasons Allen, the Kumaris are always virgins, a far cry from the saucy, dice-throwing Taleju of legend.

Yet, embodied in this tiny girl are all the supernatural powers of the dreaded Taleju.

One of the more suffocating aspects of the Kumari cult is the myth about marriage. Anita today is a pretty young girl at 22. But her parents need to look hard for a suitor. An incarnation of Taleju, even a former one, for most, is difficult to take on as a life partner. Ask Nepalis where former Kumaris end up and many will tell you: as prostitutes or withered spinsters. "Marry one and you'll die.' says one, half-mockingly. Myths are difficult to counter. One former Kumari, Sunina Sakya, got married a few years ago, conceding the fact that she had been a goddess. No longer a secret, there is marital tension and she refuses to speak about her Kumari days. Hearing all this, Anita - characteristically shy - says she doesn't want to get married. She is a misfit - no friends, doesn't go out, can't keep up with studies, has failed her Class X examinations thrice. "Sometimes," she sighs,''I wonder if being a Kumari was lucky..."

Rasmila says children at school make fun of her, but the flip side is that the principal still bows to her.She's pretty and likes make-up. It's like a hangover from her Kumari days: she loves to line her eyes with kohl. At home Anita is still treated like a goddess, often not allowed to sit on the floor. She is moody, withdrawn and going outside means the rooftop. "I don't like to go out," she says. "People recognise me.' A reminder of the past. "I don't like it."

She has succeeded in preserving only the happier memories of her few months as Kumari - a bad case of acne was a sign that Taleju had abandoned her. Now, Hiramayya tells her grandchildren stories of the days she was a goddess. Now, there is a serenity and acceptance that comes with age, the inevitability of fate: "The gods willed it (her being a Kumari). It was a chance of being one with Him."

In a torn folder, in an old file box Nanimayya keeps some of the mementos of her Kumari days. A yellowed photograph, an old newspaper article, some gold brocade - all kept away from her husband who hates being reminded of that phase in her life. So does she, still bitter. "While as Kumari everything was wonderful, later things became so tough, so difficult to overcome.

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