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Saturday,
May 12, 2001, Chandigarh, India   |
Scribes under
attack Nuclear
backdrop Litany of economic woes |
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Overhaul
of higher defence management Trade unions’ mindset: bandh to
nowhere
There are miles to
go
Tale of two Manohar
Joshis USA angry over losing Human Rights
seat
Lack of support price
hits farmers
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Scribes under attack ON April 28 more than 300 journalists in Bangladesh observed a three-hour strike to register their protest against the attack on the editor of a small newspaper. They demanded the arrest of the politician behind the attack. Similar action by members of the journalistic fraternity against the attack on a group of scribes at Magam in Jammu and Kashmir on Thursday would be justified. A journalist is said to have not earned his spurs if he has never been roughed up. Journalists even risk their lives in the process of news-gathering. It is part of their job. As members of the fourth estate they have unrestricted freedom to report faithfully the occurrence of an event. It was this freedom which the BSF DIG at Magam sought to restrain by asking his men to open fire on the 20 odd journalists covering the killing of 11 persons in a bomb blast on Wednesday. DIG A. K. Mullick's condemnable action should be seen in the larger framework of the consistently incompetent handling of militancy-related acts of murder and violence in the benighted valley by the security forces. Their morale in Jammu and Kashmir has seldom taken such a beating as it has in the past few months with the Lashkar-e-toiba and other Pakistan-trained militant outfits successfully carrying out a series of daring operations. A nervous officer becomes trigger happy. But should the DIG's conduct be allowed to go unpunished? The Home Ministry has issued an omnibus apology without indicating whether any disciplinary action is contemplated against the officer. The journalistic fraternity would be within its right to demand stern action against the megalomaniac officer. DIG Mullick should be retired from service for displaying un-officer like qualities. He came close to forcing the men under his command to commit the crime of shooting down members of the fourth estate who were merely doing their duty of reporting the post-blast events faithfully. There is only a marginal difference between the professional life of a soldier and a journalist. Both face the risk of getting killed while doing their duty of protecting the State, one through the use of gun and the other through the effective use of pen, from the enemies within and without. Every year a large number of journalists across the globe get killed while covering a war or by the henchmen of those whose anti-national activities they dared to expose. Unlike the soldier a journalist is seldom decorated for his act of valour. All he seeks is the right to do his duty without any let or hindrance from any wing of the State. It was this right which DIG Mullick tried to take away. Not punishing him would send out a wrong signal to others that journalists are for bashing without the fear of being punished. |
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Nuclear backdrop MILITARY exercises almost always cause some disquiet among neighbouring countries, especially those with whom there is an adversary relationship. When war games are as extensive as Operation Poorna Vijay, there is bound to be motivated criticism in countries like Pakistan. One has to ignore it and carry on regardless of the task of fine-tuning one’s defence preparedness. But what has accentuated the sense of unease this time even within the country is the string of statements that would have sounded jingoistic had they not come from highly responsible people like Principal Scientific Adviser Abdul Kalam. Media reports suggest that he has gone so far as to say that the Indian armed forces are actually perfecting their skill on using atomic warfare in the heat of the desert. That is almost an admission that the Indian troops are practising the use of nuclear arsenal as part of the war games. This statement goes far beyond the official line that “the emphasis of this exercise is a mission accomplishment in a conventional battlefield with a nuclear backdrop”. The operative words here are the “nuclear backdrop”, but overall, it is non-committal. Interestingly, the Ministry of Defence has hurriedly denied that the troops are practising the use of nuclear arsenal. It is not clear what prompted the highly respected scientist to come out with a bombshell of a statement. One possible motive could be to send a clear message across the border that any provocative adventure will get a fitting reply. Another reason could be to pre-empt any news leakage about such an exercise. But the problem is that such an admission by so high a functionary is prone to be twisted and used to India’s detriment. It is no secret that the world is extremely wary of nuclear weapons. Even a country like the USA which has already used such weapons in a war is determined to make sure that no new country comes anywhere close to integrating them with its conventional weaponry. There is bound to be a furore and Pakistan will fuel it by saying that it has been sucked into an atomic weapons race by India. To that extent, the statement does not appear to be a very prudent move. In international diplomacy, doing something means one thing; admitting it is quite another. In plain words, you can get away with blue murder if you are discreet about it. But if you make a song and dance about a plan to murder, then you better be prepared to pay a considerable price.
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Litany of economic woes TOP
names from the automobile, cement and construction sectors marched into the chamber of Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha on Thursday seeking cheaper finance, new projects and a forced jacking up of demand. No, they did not come on their own but in response to a call from the Minister. That gesture is an admission on his part that these industries are facing problems which call for a coordinated approach. There are other tell-tale signs of a slowdown. The mighty Reliance has earned a lower net profit —down by one-fifth in the fourth quarter compared to the previous year. Mahindra and Mahindra is resorting to five-day week in its tractor division to cut production and clear the inventory. A CII study clearly brings out that sales and profits are both down across the board. Only a few select areas, topped by an impressive 20 per cent export growth, are healthy. With the USA going into a slowdown, there is room for gloom in the coming months. Mr Sinha faces an acute dilemma. He would like to help but has no funds to invest in new projects which alone will generate demand. So he promises a comprehensive plan even while telling the bigwigs that there is nothing like a free lunch. The automobile sector has taken a hit. Sales have plunged and longtime profit-makers are struggling. The industry wants two concessions. It wants nationalised banks to directly finance purchases, skirting the present NBFC route. It will lead to a cut in the interest rate and maybe help turnover. It is fond of quoting the Tata case. The company wanted to enter the South African market for trucks but failed in the face of very attractive credit terms offered by China. The second is dressed up as a profound concern for public health. Ban all vehicles which are more than 15 years old in more than 40 cities, it has told the government This euthanasia will eliminate a large number of cars and hopefully the deprived owners will walk to the nearest showroom and walk away with a new vehicle. The industry is smart enough not to be so blunt, but talks of the pollution havoc old jalopies cause and it is prepared to join the race to ensure clean air. The cement makers are less inhibited. They want the government to instruct the National Highway Authority of India to build only concrete roads so that there will be big boost in cement demand. Then there is the suggestion to construct more bridges and allow 100 per cent foreign investment in building townships. All in all, it is the chorus of industrialists who firmly believe that what is good for General Motors is good for the country. |
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Overhaul of higher defence management FOR years, the defence and security community in India has clamoured for an overhaul of higher defence management. Now that it is beginning to happen, many of them are moaning and throwing a spanner in the works. This is a typically Indian trait: complain when you have it; complain when you don’t. The proposed appointment of Admiral Sushil Kumar, currently Chairman Chiefs of Staff Committee and Chief of Naval Staff, as the first Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) has been greeted with skepticism. The post of CDS is the first tentative step towards the integration of the armed forces and introducing jointness in planning, training and conduct of operations. It is ridiculous to suggest as some writers have that it will create discord among the services, further disharmony between the services and the Ministry of Defence (MoD) and threaten civilian control over the military. Suddenly the Indian model of a CDS is not a panacea but just a cautious and do-able reform of the ad hoc Chiefs of Staff Committee in vogue. Who are the complainants ? No marks for guessing. They are led by the Indian Air Force (IAF) and include civilian bureaucracy. Ever since the acronym CDS entered the seminar circuit, it was systematically demolished by airmen as unworkable, unnecessary and designed to weaken and not streamline the quality of decision-making. These critics have sparse comprehension of the CDS system in general and the interim model being introduced in particular. One of the reasons for the unfounded criticism of the CDS is the lack of authentic data on the qualitative requirement and functions of the new post. A lot of groundwork has preceded the process of defence reform. It is not a kneejerk reaction to Kargil or Tehelka, though Kargil certainly precipitated the process. The proposal for CDS first surfaced in 1983 though its echoes were heard earlier. The keel for the CDS was dropped in 1985 when the nucleus of the Defence Planning Staff (DPS) under the Chiefs of Staff Committee (COSC) was set up. India with the fourth largest armed forces is the only country in the world that does not have any meaningful higher defence command structure. Even Sri Lanka has a CDS who acts as a force coordinator. In Pakistan, the Army Chief is also the CDS though they call him Permanent Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee. The patchwork and compartmentalised performance of the three services during our wars against China and Pakistan was a result of each fighting its own war. The Kargil war did not take off smoothly as there was poor joint Army and Air Force planning and training for high altitude operations. A recent Rand study commissioned by the US Army has concluded that the IAF has not been able to translate its strategic advantages vis-a-vis Pakistan into operational consequences. Similarly, the Indian Navy, with all its versatility, is unable to influence the land battle. A higher defence mechanism like the CDS would certainly harmonise and optimise the country’s military assets. Much confusion surrounds the post of the new CDS, his selection, role and functions. The government is expected to announce its reforms agenda which will include the vital statistics of CDS. It is almost certain he will be the fourth chief, first among equals but usually one who has not already been a service chief. The post will be rotational and tenable by each service for two years. The CDS will be selected from a pool of three star officers, approved to be regional commanders in chief of their service. In a nuclear-capable India, the CDS will command the country’s strategic nuclear forces. The three other single service chiefs will continue to exercise operational command as they do now over conventional forces. It is in this configuration that the CDS unencumbered by the pressure of conventional battle, will be free to advise and receive higher directions from the Chief Executive (the Prime Minister) for employment of nuclear weapons. A triservice strategic forces command headed by an air force officer to start with, would fall in the chain of command of the CDS. For the next five years at least, the concepts of integrated theatre command, that usually accompanies the CDS system, will stay on the backburner. While each service chief will fight his battle on land, at sea and in the air, the CDS will provide jointness and integration of the war effort. Establishing theatre commands will be a complex task. For example, in the eastern theatre the Navy, Air Force and Army commands are located at Vishakhapatnam, Shillong and Kolkata respectively. A possible triservice eastern theatre command could be built around Ranchi or Bhubaneswar. Similiarly, clubbing of headquarters in the south or in the west is a monumental mission, a near jigsaw puzzle. The experiment for a triservice command can begin with a Bay of Bengal theatre command based on the Andaman and Nicobar islands where a loose structure for a triservice command is already in place. The island base is being shortly expanded into a full-fledged Far East Naval Command. The CDS will be assisted by an elaborate multi-disciplinary DPS headed by a Vice Chief of Defence Staff, who will most probably be an Army General (the man being tipped for the job is Lt Gen N.C. Vij, now Southern Army Commander in Pune). The CDS will also perform other functions like presiding over short and long range joint operational planning, training and doctrine, take charge of all triservice institutes and establishments and prepare the Tenth Five Year Plan for the armed forces. He will guide the futuristic 15-year long term plan and initiate the draft of a politico-military directive for the armed forces from the government. Similarly the new Defence Intelligence Agency, threshed out of Army, Navy and Air Force intelligence agencies will also be steered by him. Joint aspects of defence procurement will fall in his domain. The CDS will chair promotion boards for army commanders and their equivalents in the other services as well as preside over complaint boards. In addition he will perform some ceremonial duties. The fourth four star at the apex command will wear one hat unlike the present Chairman Chiefs of Staff Committee, who is also the head of his service. Why is Admiral Sushil Kumar, who would have gone home two years ago had Vishnu Bhagwat not been sacked, the right choice for CDS ? He is already holding the baton of Chairman Chiefs of Staff Committee, the Indian equivalent of CDS, is the seniormost Chief by virtue of holding that office (otherwise six months junior to his other two colleagues) and has the experience and wisdom to wear the new hat. The BJP-led government has given the country a swadeshi model of CDS who will pose no threat to civilian control over the armed forces. Unnecessary controversy has been generated over the CDS being the single point of advice for the government. Till the theatre command concept is introduced single service chiefs will continue to provide inputs to the government. The CDS, since he has no command function and therefore, no accountability, will even have difficulty in harmonising the advice. Therefore, the Made in India CDS, at least for the time being, is meant not only to keep everyone happy but also start the process of integration. And this is where the real problem lies. In a systematic diminution of their image, service chiefs have progressively been brought down in the warrant of precedence to the 12th position. While the Cabinet Secretary is at Number 11 though on the same pay scale as the Chiefs, India’s first and only living five star Field Marshal, Sam Manekshaw, who won the country its first outright victory in 2000 years, has also been shoved in the No 12 slot with the other four stars. Now the CDS will also join the crowd at No 12 prompting the quip “they’re cheaper by the dozen”. There is a good case for elevating the Field Marshal and CDS to relieve the congestion amongst the Chiefs. |
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Trade unions’ mindset: bandh to
nowhere TWO thousand crores. That is the estimate by the Indian Merchants Chamber
(IMC) of the loss suffered by Maharashtra from the recent one-day bandh. The loss to Mumbai alone runs to Rs 400 crore. This does not take into account the huge losses in wages for workers, losses of productive man-days by professionals, losses in earnings by traders, both big and small, and the loss in income by taxi and auto-drivers. The losses suffered by the taxi and auto-drivers in the city for only that day come to roughly Rs 4 crore. How does
A.L. Quadros, the long-time head of the Mumbai Taxi Union who takes taxis off the roads on the flimsiest of pretexts, intend to make up this loss? More important, why was the bandh called? A snap survey taken by a newspaper came out with some hilarious results. Some people thought it was because of the clash on the Indo-Bangla border, in which several personnel of the Indian Border Security Force (BSF) lost their lives. Others imagined it was due to the Tehelka expose, or the Enron controversy. One person even felt that the bandh had been called because Bal Thackeray, the Shiv Sena supremo, was angry over some issue or the other! Hardly anybody seemed to know the real reason, which was the “anti-worker” policies of the Central government, whatever that might mean. Strangely, labour unions covering the entire political spectrum, from the left to the right, supported the bandh. With the Shiv Sena also coming out in support, the bandh was bound to be a success, though the word “success” is hardly appropriate for an agitation that compels everybody to stay at home and causes such huge losses to the economy. Remember, too, that the bandh came right after seven bank holidays in quick succession. The IMC has worked out that the bandh and the bank holidays together caused a production loss of a staggering and mind-boggling Rs 10,000 crore. Little wonder that industry is beginning to move out of Maharashtra to other states where there aren’t so many stoppages of work and where the production facilities are such that both workers and employers benefit. In fact, Mumbai is fast going the way of Kolkata in the 1970s. Perhaps the strangest aspect of the bandh was that a major political party the Shiv Sena, which is allied with the BJP and which has three ministers in the Central government, supported the bandh. And there was not even a murmur of disapproval from the BJP. Only a party that is so weak and so utterly dependent on its allies, however, unreliable they might be, could have put up with such an affront. The Shiv Sena was telling the BJP, in so many words, that it did not agree with the economic policies that it was following and that those policies were “anti-worker”. Any self-respecting party would have said, “Well, if you do not believe in our policies, get out of the alliance”. Not the BJP, however. It has simply turned the other cheek. The Maharashtra government, dominated by the Congress, has not come out any better. Its response to the bandh was craven. It stood helplessly by as the state was brought to a standstill. We have a knack of making a laughing stock of ourselves to the outside world. On the one hand, a bandh is allowed to take place which wastes thousands of crores of rupees. And on the other, the state government throws up its hands and says it does not have the funds to pay Enron its dues! How can anybody take us seriously? But to return to the rationale — if one can use that word — of the labour unions for calling the bandh, they have clearly not come to terms with the changing world. The days when labour and businessmen were cocooned from competition are over. Indian goods have to compete with the goods made in various parts of the world. That is what globalisation is all about. At a recent United Nations conference, Mats
Karlsson, Vice-President of the World Bank, had this to say: “Globalisation is like the cell phone. It connects, it make a noise, it stresses you, but if you use it properly, it will enable you to do much more than you could in the past.” That’s well put. The Chinese have understood it. They are making and selling consumer goods, some of them of the highest quality, all over the world. Even India is awash with China-made products. The Chinese economy has been growing at an annual rate of between 8 and 12 per cent for the last 20 years, thanks mainly to globalisation. Foreign investment has come pouring into the country. The country has been transformed, its people — from workers to farmers, to the urban middle class, to entrepreneurs — given a much higher standard of living than two decades ago. Only a small proportion of the Chinese population now lives below the poverty line. India, on the other hand, is struggling to get an annual economic growth of 6 per cent and over a third of all Indians live below the poverty line. India is desperately trying to do what China has done and our policies — policies that were started by the Congress party, incidentally, and then continued by the BJP — are geared to that end. But if union leaders like Mr Sharad Rao and Mr
Quadros, along with Mr Bal Thackeray, get their way, India will continue to languish in poverty, while other developing nations gallop ahead towards prosperity. |
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There are miles to
go “FELLOW countrymen, mothers and sisters,” said the hon’ble MP, “at the stroke of midnight tonight, while the rest of the world sleeps, you are going to awake to a new morn. All the promises that I had made to you when you had elected me to Parliament last are going to be fulfilled. “Take the credit card. If big people in big cities can have it, why can’t people living in my own village have it, too? Each one of you living in Bharosa will have one. And on its strength, you will be able to get anything from anywhere in the world without making any downright cash payment. “If airports can be built in big cities, why can’t one be built in Bharosa? I have come here in a helicopter. That is to show what I am going to do. And I am going to do it. You will have an airport here. And you will be able to fly from your village itself to wherever you may like to go. Not only that. Close to your panchayatghar, there will be a duty-free shop. And from that shop you can buy anything you like, from lip-service, I mean lip-stick, to the latest brand of beauty soap. “I don’t want to promote drinking in my constituency. But once in a while, there is nothing wrong in taking a peg or two. It tones up the system. So, I will see to it that at the duty-free shop, all brands of whisky are available, from Chivas Regal to White Horse. You can have your choice. “And as electricity has now come to Bharosa, I stand by my promise made to you earlier that very soon each one of you will have an air-conditioner installed in your home at government expense. You may have to pay the electricity bill. But it will be my endeavour to see that it does not exceed the barest minimum. “And I also stand by my promise that now that cars are being manufactured within our own country, each one of you also gets one. If coal-miners in England can move about in their own cars, why must the people of Bharosa go on using the bullock-cart? I am going to the UK and the USA shortly to study the causes behind the prosperity of village people there. I will see to it that what is sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander, too. If not an Esteem, you are certainly entitled to a Maruti 800. I am determined to see to it that no mai ka lal (mother’s son) comes in your way.” Five years after that famous speech, when the next election came, people in Bharosa tried to contact their MP who had by then become a minister. They wanted to tell him that none of the things that he had promised had materialised. Some tried to get him on phone. The recorded reply from there was “yeh number mojood nahin hae (this number is no longer in existence.”) They made enquiries and discovered that their fellow countryman, the distinguished MP of their area, had moved over to another constituency. For there, too, he had promises to keep and miles to go..... |
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Tale of two Manohar
Joshis I
have often criticised Manohar Joshi, the former Chief Minister of Maharashtra and presently a minister in the Central Government, in print. He symbolises the dark side of Indian politics. He played a very dubious role in the controversial Enron power project, the consequences of which are being faced now by a State Government that faces bankruptcy. He claimed that he had been “misled” by Press reports, while trying to justify his volte face on the virtues of the project. Nobody believed him and he was lucky not to be prosecuted for perjury. He then had to resign his chief ministership in disgrace, after a High Court virtually accused him of nepotism and corruption in a land deal in Pune which involved his son-in-law. One would have thought that the High Court indictment would have terminated his political career, as it would have done in most democratic countries that respect court judgements and the rule of law. But that is not how things happen in this country and it is also not how the Shiv Sena, the party Manohar Joshi belongs to, conducts its affairs. Its supremo, Bal Thackeray, after having thrown Joshi out as Chief Minister, thrust him in the Centre as a minister! The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led Central Government, which has long lost its “clean” sheen, had no option than to accept him. So much for the tainted and discredited Manohar Joshi. He has a namesake and colleague in the Central Government who, though he may not have been indicted for corruption and nepotism by the judiciary or committed any illegalities — his role in the destruction of the Babri Masjid notwithstanding — is doing incalculable harm to the country. I am referring to Murli Manohar Joshi, the Cabinet Minister for Human Resource Development, the man who likes to sport a large red tikka on his forehead and who wants to drag us, whether we like it or not, back into the middle ages. He is a walking, talking disaster, a huge embarrassment to the saner elements in the present Central government (yes, there are some). He has decreed that Sanskrit, a noble and classical language no doubt, just like Latin and Greek, equally noble and classical, be promoted as a spoken language and that Indian scientists should learn it. In his obscurantist enthusiasm what he overlooks is the fact that Sanskrit, along with Latin and Greek, are “dead” languages. Very, very few people speak them (the Greek that is spoken in Greece is very far removed from classical Greek). The only people conversant in them are scholars specialising in these languages and, in the case of Sanskrit, some Hindu priests. There was a time when almost all high school students in Europe and the USA had to study Latin or Greek. In fact, to get into the prestigious British universities of Oxford and Cambridge, you had to pass an entrance test in Latin, Greek or Sanskrit. Sanskrit was included for the benefit of Asian students. I should know, because for six months I regularly went to a panditji, who had once been my mother’s Sanskrit tutor, to learn the basics of Sanskrit, in order to get into Cambridge University. I duly passed the entrance test but today know no Sanskrit at all. The same, I’m sure is true of those who had to learn Latin or Greek to get into these universitites. Because they are “dead” languages, you learn their basics by rote and then, unless you constantly keep up with the language, you forget everything. That is why Latin and Greek are no longer compulsory subjects for students in Europe. The European educational authorities realised that forcing students to learn these languages was a waste of their time and effort. Murli Manohar Joshi, however, has other ideas. Apart from students, he even wants scientists to learn Sanskrit. What are they going to gain? Absolutely nothing. More dangerous is Joshi’s move to introduce astrology as a “science” in those universities which want to have such courses. He has an ally, a puppy-dog really, in the head of the University Grants Commission, a certain Hari Gautam. Anybody who claims that astrology is a “science” must be out of his mind. There is no scientific basis to astrology whatsoever. The late Sri Lankan rationalist, Abraham Kovoor, demonstrated this conclusively. He showed how our ancient astrologers had no concept about light and time. They based their predictions and horoscopes on the position of planets and stars in the solar system, little realising that those planets and stars were not in the same position as the eye saw them, since light takes time to travel. So, the entire basis of astrology was completely flawed. To prove his point, he analysed the so-called “predictions” of the best known astrologer of the time, one K.V. Raman, and showed how wrong — often hilariously so — he had been. I have my favourite story, a true one, incidentally, about how a well-known astrologer had written a column in which he had predicted a glorious future and long life for Sanjay Gandhi. A couple of days before the column was due to be published, Sanjay Gandhi was killed while flying a stunt plane. The astrologer went rushing to the editor of the magazine, pleading that he be allowed to change the column. The editor had a good laugh and agreed. One of the Directive Principles of the Indian Constitution is the imparting of a “scientific temperament” in the Indian public. Murli Manohar Joshi, on the other hand, wants to make us a nation of gullible and superstitious fools. |
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USA angry over losing Human Rights
seat IT
is akin to the elephant slipping and falling — the world’s super power, the USA suffering humiliation in losing its long-held seat in the UN Human Rights Commission and watching China and some other countries like Cuba and Libya gloat at the American embarrassment. The offence of the UN Economic and Social Council in failing to re-elect the USA for a seat this year in the Commission may have been compounded in the eyes of Washington by the induction and presence of countries like Sudan, Libya, Sierra Leone, Algeria, Cuba and Uganda some of whom are, in the American lexicon, “rogue states.” The ECOSOC on Thursday last elected France, Sweden and Austria for three seats allocated to western countries on the 53-member UN Human Rights Commission. The USA with 29 votes was at the bottom of the poll. It has been a member of the Commission since it was established in 1947. Eleanor Roosevelt, the late first lady and human rights advocate, was its first chairperson. US Government spokesmen and lawmakers have reacted sharply to the UN vote, describing it variously as “odd,” “an affront,” “outrageous” and “absurd”. A veiled threat has come from Capitol Hill that there might be a problem in the Congress releasing funds due to the United Nations. A spokesman for the speaker of the House of Representatives Dennis Hastert said the UN vote “really hurts the credibility of the UN in the Congress,” and it might force lawmakers to reconsider an agreement worked out between the Senate and the former Clinton Administration to pay outstanding US dues to the world body. “This is some more timber on the fire,” spokesman Pete Jeffries added, “for members to debate when it comes to the legislation scheduled for the floor next week.” Republican Congressman Christopher Smith attributed the UN vote to US attempts to secure a resolution at the just concluded Commission meeting in Geneva that was critical of China. “It is payback time against the United States now,” he said. “When the Sudan gets on and the United States gets off, the abusers are in the ascendancy. The hypocrisy of the Commission is appalling, and this only underscores it.” The veteran Senator Jesse Helms, Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, went to the extent of suggesting that a few European countries manoeuvred — in a secret vote — to eliminate the United States” from the Commission, and added that countries like China, Cuba and Sudan “will no longer be subject to the careful scrutiny that the United States has always demanded.” House democratic leader Dick Gephrdt quoted diplomatic sources as saying the Bush Administration’s recent withdrawal from the Kyoto Treaty and its willingness to shatter the international arms control framework in pursuit of unproven missile defence influenced the vote by other nations against the nomination of the USA to the Commission. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said it was hard to explain how members could listen to the lobbying by Cuba and China on human rights abuses. The vote did raise questions about the nature of the commitment of some of the members to human rights issues. White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said the failure of the USA to win a seat on the Commission would not stop President Bush “from speaking out about the importance of human rights around the world.” China, Cuba and some other countries with an animus against the USA have not concealed their glee at the American discomfiture. China found fault with the “politicisation” of the human right issue and said the vote “is seen as strong rejection of the US attempts to use the so-called human rights issue as a tool to pursue its power politics and hegemonism in the world.” Sympathy and support for the USA came from the UN Human Rights Commissioner, Ms Mary Robinson, who praised Washington’s “historic contribution” to the UN Commission and expressed the hope that it would “return speedily” to the main human rights forum. |
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Amritsar: A cashier of the local Irrigation Department, attached to the Third Division of the Bari Doab Canal, who was arrested in August last year for having absconded with over Rs 18,000 belonging to the department, has now been convicted by Rai Sahib Lala Amar Nath, Additional District Magistrate, under Section 409 of the Indian Penal Code and has been sentenced to four years’ rigorous imprisonment.  |
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Lack of support price
hits farmers FARMERS in Pakistan are a harassed lot. Drought and lack of support price have hit them hard. Although they are the majority in an agriculture society, yet their voice is heard nowhere. The ruling class — the politicians whenever they rule, the military and the bureaucratic nexus — backs only the rich landlords called the ‘vaderas’ the big brothers.
They exploit to the hilt. These are the statements usually made in the columns of some enlightened newspapers. This summer the new military government sent a shockwave across the country. There had been protests since mid-April. Two major agriculture inputs — fertilizers and diesel — have registered a price increase of nearly 74 per cent in less than two years, the daily Nation reported. The price of urea, the most important fertilizer, has gone up by 89 per cent. The government of Gen Parvez Musharraf has really kicked the farmers — described everyday the backbone of the nation — where it hurts the most It imposed a general sales tax of 15 per cent all across the board. The dictate had come from the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund whom Pakistan owed $ 38 billion as debt. Add to this the total debt burden and it comes to $ 76 billion. This increase, the Nation and other newspapers estimated, would have major repercussions on the farm output, the food security system and finally whatever little freedom the Pakistani enjoyed. One could at best swear by
jehad, but not eat it to live. The price of DAP fertilizer has been raised from Rs 545 per 50 kg bag in just one year to Rs 670. So is the case with other varieties and brands. The farmers are not willing to accept the government’s argument that the raise in the GST would have no impact. They estimated that the minimum raise would be Rs 10 per bag. This would raise the price of farm produce. For example the cost of production of wheat would go up by Rs 400 per acre. For potatoes it would mean Rs 1,100 per acre and corn by almost Rs 1,000. Add the price of died which had increased by 44 per cent in the last two years — between December 1999 and March 2001. It was Rs 10.66 per litre and today it is Rs 15.40 per
litre. What a gift by the new military regime! Again the flat rate system for electricity supply has been changed to metered system and here too the rates have consistently increased over the past three years. Add to this the water shortage, drought and mismanagement in the canal water supply. The growth in agriculture has declined by 1 per cent. But the hefty increase in the prices of farm inputs depicts a dismal picture for the country as a whole. Costly foodgrains and other farm output would clearly mean higher cost for the consumers. And, in a country where more than 40 per cent people live below the poverty line, this could mean starvation. The farm sector has helped Pakistan to stand to the sanctions imposed after the nuclear tests in May 1998. It also kept the economy floating despite recessionary trends as all the major economic indicators showed. The growth has slowed down further. The economy was expected to grow by 4.5 per cent and it is down to 3.8 per cent. No newspaper was prepared to hazard a guess as to what the real impact of drought would be there. They term it as the worst in the century. Here is what the celebrated editor Najam Sethi of the Friday Times, the weekly that really counts in Pakistan, said in his article Duplicity All Around, Sethi said the Shariat Appellate Bench of the Supreme Court had ruled that all interest that is equated with riba stood outlawed as it was un-Islamic. June 30 is the target date to implement the order. Now United Bank Ltd has petitioned the court to review this sweeping judgment of December, 1999. Its argument is more legalistic as it says the S.C went beyond its jurisdiction. The decision per se is not
bad. Najam Sethi’s comment is worth repeating. He said, “In 1991, the Federal Shariat Court (bequeathed by a military dictator) was prodded by “Islamic ideologues” in Nawaz Sharif’s Islami Jamhoori lttehad (both created by the military) to declare interest as riba and ban all interest-bearing transactions as un-Islamic. The FSC was emboldened to do so by Mr Sharif who had not only handpicked its chief judge but also amended the constitution to incorporate shariah as “the supreme law of the land”. However, Mr Sharif was forced to reconsider his decisions when his Finance Minister, Mr Sartaj
Azia, was collared by members of the Aid to Pakistan consortium in Paris in 1992. Therefore, as a sop to aid donors, the government reluctantly appealed against the FSC decision in the SC. But as a sop to the Islamic ideologues propping up the IJI government, no serious effort was made to overturn the decision. Indeed, interminable delays were sought by the petitioner and granted by the SC, even though the law expressly said that the review petition should be disposed of within six
months.” Najam Sethi further said: “The hypocritical conspiracy launched by Mr Sharif continued under Benazir Bhutto from 1993 to 1996. In fact, she left the case in cold storage because the didn’t want IJI ideologues baying for her blood. But the mood became decidedly chilling after Mr Sharif retuned to power in 1997, packed the SAB with hardline Islmaic judges and, in a shocking U-turn in 1998, withdrew his pending 1991 appeal against the FSC judgment. A proposal to amend the constitution and make himself Amir ul Momineen followed, but was thankfully blocked in the Senate. Undaunted, he moved a local court to throw out a London court’s order to pay about US$30m in principal and accumulated interest on a loan his father and brother had taken from a middle-eastern bank a long time ago.” No less stunning was the manner in which the SAB reacted to the government’s decision to withdraw its 1991 appeal. Instead of dropping the matter as is the norm in such situations, the court summoned “financial experts” and “Islamic jurists” to enlighten it. In due course, a detailed anti-interest judgment was delivered in the absence of any appellant or respondent in the case! |
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There are two classes of perfect men in the world — those who, on attaining Truth become silent and enjoy it all by themselves without any thought of others; and those who attain Truth, but finding no pleasure in keeping it ton themselves, cry out in a trumpet voice to all — "Come ye, and enjoy the Truth with us." — Sayings of Sri Ramakrishna, 180 ***** Impurity of heart is greed; Impurity of the tongue is falsehood; Impurity of the eyes is gazing on another's wealth his wife or her beauty; Impurity of the ears is listening to slander. Nanak, such men are found out, and go to the abode of death. The worst impurity is doubt which leads astray.... ***** Make the body the field, the mind the ploughman, good deeds the husbandry; God's Name the seed, contentment the roller; then irrigate with modesty. Bear thyself in humility and simplicity. Disciplined men gain preferment. The seed of devotion will germinate, and the home will be blessed. Friend, wordly wealth will not go with thee. This illusion misleads the world. Only the virtuous understand the reality and escape its snare. ***** Such good men are rare who wear the garment of restraint, Use awakened intelligence as purifying bath of fire. Display the caste-mark of virtue and drink the wine of love. — Sri Guru Granth Sahib, Var Asa M 1, Sorath M.1, Var Sarang, M 1. |
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