KARNATAKA-Shrinking Role for ZPs

Unpalatable Options IF as a citizen Chandra Shekhar found himself free to voice his disagreement with the centre's handling of the Punjab problem, as prime minister he finds himself unable to make any change in the Punjab policy. His offer to negotiate with the Sikhs without preconditions invited the censure of numerous patriots. It will be surprising should there be a more enlightened handling of the Punjab problem for partisan interests have dug themselves in too deeply to be displaced easily. The law and order establishment, the most pernicious of these interests, far from doing anything to justify its deployment has only magnified the problem. And the exemption from any kind of accountability only enables the perpetuation of the conditions which will make the scaling down of its presence impossible.