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Musharraf misses out on the Gita

It is the one gift Pakistan President General Pervez Musharraf will not carry home.

As per programme, Musharraf was to receive from Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee an Urdu version of the Bhagwad Gita.

The gift was supposed to be handed over at the high tea hosted in honour of Musharraf by Ashraf Jehangir Qazi, High Commissioner of Pakistan in India.

Thanks to the boycott of the function by the ruling National Democratic Alliance, however, Vajpayee gave the function a miss. And the gift went undelivered.

The Urdu version is authored by the late Dr. Kalifa Abdul Hakeem, professor of philosophy at Osmania University, Hyderabad. Dr Hakeem's credits include several works on Islam, and the translated works of Iqbal and Sufi mystic Jalaluddin Rumi.

Dr Hakeem, who had also authored a Hindi version of the Gita, retired from Osmania University a year after Partition and moved to his ancestral home in Lahore.

"He worked on the two versions after reading numerous translations of the Gita in order to get the spirit of the religious scripture," said Dr Hakeem's daughter Dr. Rafia Hasan, former professor of psychology in Lahore.

Dr Hasan, who is in New Delhi for the official release of the Hindi and Urdu versions of the ancient text, was upset that the Urdu version could not be gifted to President Musharraf on Saturday. "I might present it to him when I return to Pakistan," Dr Hakeem said.

The book, published by the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, was released by Prime Minister Vajpayee from his Race Course residence. Dr Hakeem's grand-daughter, Dr Naveed Hassan, was also present at the function.

"My grandfather wrote out both versions with such ease that it was amazing," said Naveed Hasan, who teaches business strategy at the Lahore College of Business Administration. "He was so fascinated with the Gita that he started working on the translations in the forties. It is not a literal translation, but brings in the spirit of the Gita. The universal truths applicable to humanity are all there."

Indo-Pak Summit 2001: The Complete Coverage

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