The Hindu Business Line : Uneasy 2005

THE advent of 2005 is taking place under the dark shadow of the Sumatran tsunami. (Incidentally, it is wrong to call it (phonetically) sunami since the prefix `su' in Sanskrit stands for auspiciousness and benevolence: Why not call it durnami?).

It should cause no surprise if the tally of the death toll, including the number of untraced victims, in all the affected countries crosses 100,000, while India mourns for close to 20,000. The catastrophe certainly bids fair to be reckoned as one of recorded history's worst disasters. The entire world is plunged in grief and nobody in his senses will be in a mood even to think of any festivities.

Of all the States, the tragedy has been both extensive and heart-rending in Tamil Nadu. As happens in all such calamities, the poor have had to bear the brunt. The mammoth effort needed to mobilise the material, financial and manpower resources to take care of those who have lost their all — kith and kin, homes, possessions, livelihoods — is the immediate and the most formidable challenge before the Central and State Governments.

The cost, estimated anywhere between Rs 3,000 and Rs 5,000 crore, might upset the development plans and priorities and throw out of gear the pace and course of their implementation.

It is doubtful whether the New Year will be able to emerge safely from the ominous and ever present shadow of global terrorism. The blood-curdling calls for brutal attacks being given by an unrepentant and determined Osama bin Laden, as the avowed head of the dreaded Al Qaeda, the International Islamic Front forged by him, cannot be taken as empty threats, in view of his record of blind rage.

The fanaticism and ferocity of his outfit and its outgrowths are such that the world, especially the countries targeted by them, must inevitably presume that they have something in the works to justify their sabre-rattling. Terror, in the way they have been practising it, is ruthless and barbaric, and the world should consider itself lucky if 2005 is free of further outrages.

Not counting the tinderboxes of Sudan, Iran and North Korea, downslide in Afghanistan and Iraq on the boil, are bound to have their own repercussions on the rest of the world. Still and all, dear readers, I wish you a: Happy New Year! And do not think I am kidding!

B. S. Raghavan

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