EDITORIALS

Gorshkov is coming
Strategic deal points to higher things

ADMIRAL GORSHKOV, rotting since its decommissioning in early 1990s, is not exactly the stuff of the Indian Navy’s dreams, but given the price constraints and the availability factor, this, perhaps, comprised the best option. It was not designed to be a conventional aircraft carrier. As such, its utility will depend on the quality of the refit. The MiG-29K aircraft, which come with it, are also an untested commodity, considering that no country in the world, including Russia, has purchased it so far. Because of such imponderables, the utility of the aircraft carrier has become a subject of debate in strategic circles, but there is unanimity that a navy as large as that of India requires air cover, which can only be provided by an aircraft carrier. Ever since INS Vikrant went out of action, this need has been acutely felt. In fact, the Navy wanted three strategic platforms but the prohibitive cost came in the way. By the time it is delivered to India in 2008, even INS Viraat will be on its last legs.

In any case, Gorshkov is apparently being purchased as part of a much larger deal, which is expected to take care of some of India’s requirements on the nuclear front. Although both countries have denied it, India is expected to take on lease two or more nuclear submarines and several nuclear capable bombers. Its nuclear weapons require a reliable delivery capability. The aircraft are expected to come under the sub-strategic category. The Russians similarly deny that the submarine will violate their commitment to the Nuclear Suppliers Group or the Non-Proliferation Treaty.

While the common man has been happy to see the acquisition of such huge ships, second-hand though they are, experts have been pressing for the past more than a decade that India should start building an aircraft carrier of its own. That is technically possible because of the strides made by its scientists. But the cost factor and the arms deal scandals have acted as a dampener. Give the difficulties in acquiring suitable strategic equipment from abroad, the country will have to consider this option sooner than later.

Foodgrain business
Private traders will, hopefully, push exports

THE Centre has, at last, thrown open the sensitive foodgrain business to the private sector. This is a major policy shift in a country where drought and starvation deaths have often revived fears of foodgrain scarcity and famine. Private traders had earned notoriety in the past by resorting to hoarding and manipulating food prices, particularly during periods of shortage. But now the situation has changed. The country has progressed from scarcity to plenty. Year after year there have been bumper crops, thanks to better farming practices and irrigation facilities. Government policy so far had only focussed on tackling scarcity. As a result, foodgrains have kept rotting in godowns. The private sector will now take care of surpluses and explore foreign markets more vigorously than government machinery can do.

Hitherto, feeble efforts at exports have met with only partial success. There are many hurdles. Central and state agencies spend huge amounts on procuring, transporting and storing foodgrains. Manual handling of grains and losses in transit, including pilferage, raise production costs. That makes Indian rice and wheat less competitive. The second is poor quality. For exports, foodgrains have to meet global standards. Indian farmers and researchers have to focus on this area. The rejection of a consignment for not being up to the mark, as it happened in the case of exports to Iraq recently, brings a bad name to the country.

The third major hurdle is inadequate infrastructure. Exporters often complain that sufficient rakes are unavailable in time for grain transportation, forcing them to miss deadlines. According to the Federation of Indian Export Organisations, export orders for 10 million tonnes of foodgrains are pending because FCI supplies are held up for want of rakes. Delays at the ports are common. Making cheaper and faster credit available is another requirement for helping private exporters push their business. Farmers will ultimately benefit if Indian grains fetch lucrative prices and capture new markets.

Bicycle chief
Pedal your way to health in Delhi

DELHI Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit believes that the anti-pollution drive has made the act of breathing safe enough for the residents of the metropolis. Now she wants to improve their health. From next month, the young and those who believe they were born to remain young would have the option of using the good old bicycle on Sundays as a short-distance means of transport. Sheila Didi has made sure that the bicycling enthusiasts do not have to make even a modest investment for improving their personal level of fitness. Her government has identified pick-up points from where the poor and the fitness freaks can borrow a bicycle for fun or visiting friends.

Bicycle clubs have acquired the status of a fad in the US and elsewhere in developed societies. The Chief Minister would do her cause a good turn by surfing the Net for information on how these clubs are managed. What she plans to introduce may prove to be a novel experience for just about everyone. She must also educate herself about the link between joblessness and theft. Statistics show that the two-wheel contraption enjoys a high rating on the list of the most ‘nickable’ item.

Mrs Dikshit is fond of seeing movies. She must have seen Vittorio De Sica’s celebrated film The Bicycle Thief. She must see it again before the bicycle clubs become functional from the first Sunday of February. Ricci becomes a bicycle thief because his own bicycle was nicked. He got back the job that was available to only those who had their own transport! Mrs Dikshit should also identify the part of Delhi that is safe for riding a bicycle without the risk of getting knocked down.

Thought for the day

If poetry comes not as naturally as the leaves to a tree it had better not come at all.

— John Keats

ARTICLE

Musharraf’s next 11 months
A look at some telling trends in Pakistan
by Inder Malhotra

SOME revealing developments in Pakistan since the January 6 joint statement by the Prime Minister, Mr Atal Bihari Vajpayee, and the Pakistani President, Gen Pervez Musharraf, merit careful attention. The first is General Musharraf’s seemingly minor but in reality very significant decision to shift residence from the Army House in Rawalpindi to Aiwan-e-Sadar, the presidential palace, in Islamabad, a good 11 months before he normally would have after doffing his uniform and becoming a civilian president.

Evidently, the area where he narrowly escaped death at the hands of potential assassins twice during 11 days is no longer considered safe for him. The shift to the more secure edifice in the shadow of the Marghalla Hills is, therefore, deemed prudent.

However, this might send a far from comforting message to the army ranks and the people in general. No previous military ruler, while still in uniform, has lived anywhere other than the Chief of the Army Staff’s official abode. Gen Zia-ul-Haq stuck to it for 11 years. Since its construction, Aiwan-e-Sadar had lain vacant for years. The Army House would suffer this fate for the first time now. For, General Musharraf would not appoint a new Chief of the Army Staff before the retirement on October 6 of the two other four-star Generals, the Chairman of the Chiefs of Staff Committee, Gen Mohammed Aziz, and the Vice-Chief of the Army Staff, Gen Mohammed Yusuf Khan.

On the other hand, after waiting for a whole year, General Musharraf has at last delivered his address to Parliament, admittedly amidst a lot of unseemly din and noise, but he has discharged a constitutional duty nonetheless. Both the contents of his speech and the atmospherics during it are worthy of notice. To take the latter first, reports in Indian newspapers on the atmosphere during the presidential speech have been bland to the point of being misleading. What really happened is best captured by a report in Dawn.

In the first place, long before the Pakistani President left the Army House for the National Assembly, the “entire city was sealed”. He arrived after three “decoy motorcades” had come and gone. From the Speaker’s chamber, he emerged into the House 30 minutes behind schedule. He “looked distraught” and sweated only “partly because of the bulletproof vest he was wearing under his white sherwani”. And, as the Dawn report underscored, the “barracking, hooting and catcalls”, accompanying the standard chant “go Musharraf, go”, were rather unusually raucous.

Ms. Nahid Khan, one of the staunch loyalists of the PPP leader, Ms Benazir Bhutto, led a group of women MNAs, in an attempt to surround the General. Their way was blocked by members of the ruling Muslim League (Q).

No uniformed President of Pakistan has been subjected to such a hostile treatment as General Musharraf ever before. General Zia had faced only a mild protest by a solitary member against the entry into the House of a “uniformed officer”. How the Army as an institution would take the disrespect shown to its Chief, who is also the Head of State, remains to be seen. But it is noteworthy that before leaving the National Assembly General Musharraf shook his fist at the Opposition benches.

Remarkably, the content of General Musharraf’s address added up to a call for a “jihad” against the jihadi outfits that were “bent on exporting terrorism” and had thus done “enormous damage to Pakistan”. He wanted extremism and sectarianism to be “eradicated”. It is equally significant that the Deputy Prime Minister, Mr. L. K. Advani, has been quick to welcome the Pakistani President’s remarks though some analysts take a different view.

They do note that it was unusual for General Musharraf to include in the international community’s four major complaints against Pakistan the one about “terrorism on the Line of Control in Kashmir”. But they add, with some justification, that he failed to repeat his assurance that he would not allow the territory under Pakistan’s control to be used for terrorism in Kashmir. Instead, he asserted that the “only way to tackle the cross-LoC terrorism” was a “peaceful and just” solution of the Kashmir issue. This clearly has implications quite different from those conveyed by the joint statement even though he added that progress towards a resolution of the Kashmir problem “has to be carried forward with sincerity”.

The other three international concerns about Pakistan General Musharraf underlined were the “serious allegations” about “spreading terrorism in Afghanistan from tribal areas”, “proliferation of nuclear weapons” and Pakistan being a “part of intolerant society”. It is here that the crux of the General’s difficulties arises.

Both in this country and, to an extent, in Pakistan, the impression persists that the rather widespread criticism of General Musharraf’s joint statement with Atalji is what is worrying him the most. Pakistani Foreign Minister Mahmood Kasuri’s extraordinary statement — that the Vajpayee-Musharraf talks were so brutally frank that he feared their breakdown until he realised that each of the two leaders was indicating that he would defend his country’s interest to the hilt — only strengthens this impression. So does the formal endorsement of the document by Corps Commanders.

With all that, however, it is Afghanistan, rather than Kashmir, that is becoming General Musharraf’s nightmare. The US is demanding full compliance with the American demand to stop the continuing Pakistani, particularly ISI’s, support to the regrouping Taliban and join instead in the fight against it and Al-Qaeda, and he is unable to duck it any longer. No wonder, only the other day he won high praise from the US Secretary of State, Mr Colin Powell, for launching a massive military campaign against the Taliban remnants merrily ensconced in Pakistan’s federally administrated tribal areas (FATA). But this has also intensified the already mounting anger, not only among Islamist parties and groups but also — and more dangerously — among the tribes most of which are Pushtuns and are appalled by the US-Pakistan action against the predominantly Pushtun Taliban.

As many as 25,000 troops have been sent to southern Waziristan where not a single soldier had gone ever before. Tribal Sardars have protested vigorously. If Pakistan has any problems or concerns, they say, they would attend to them, not the Pakistani Army.

A military regime in Islamabad cannot take this alarming situation lightly, if only because Pushtuns constitute at least a fifth of the entire Pakistani Army, officers and men. The dangers of putting too great a strain on their loyalty and discipline are obvious.

MIDDLE

Dress rehearsal
by Shastri Ramachandaran

“ARE you a Punjabi?” The question was popped at me not yesterday in Chandigarh but some 20 years ago in a provision store in Madras; and in Tamil. My amused smile did not put off the questioner. Instead, he repeated the question in English, as if to underscore that he should not have expected a person from these parts to know Tamil. Only later did my wife gather why I was quizzed about being a Punjabi — because I was wearing a kurta-pyjama and she was clad in a salwar-kameez; and these attires are identified with people in northern India; and North Indians, by definition are Punjabis. How can it be otherwise, when true Indians, from the South, are all Madrasis.

Another reason for people suspecting me to be a “Punjabi” is that my complexion is on the fair side, in contrast to that of most Tamilians who have a fixation with skin colour. I would have been taken for the Brahmin I am — caste is also distinguished by complexion — except that my build and (then) unkempt beard disqualified me from belonging to this pious minority in Tamil Nadu. Sometimes to save the questioner the embarrassment of having come a cropper in his guess, I would say that my wife comes from UP. “Ah, she is North Indian, a Punjabi”, would be the triumphant last word.

In those days the salwar-kameez used to be called “Punjabi dress”. Madras has become Chennai and much has changed in Tamil Nadu since then. Today salwar-kameez is the norm especially among the working urbanites. They find it much more convenient than a sari, more so when many women commute to work on two-wheelers; and they feel more cosmopolitan and in step with the trends. Today, there are millions of “Madrasis” who prefer the salwar-kameez, including my cousins in distant Palakkad. What endures is the appellation “Punjabi dress”. In fact, they take pride in calling it that.

I noticed this only recently, when I was in Chennai for nearly two months — the longest ever stay in that city since I moved out in 1984. I was surprised that during earlier, shorter sojourns, I never registered these and other changes, such as the popularity of Punjabi dress being followed by people gorging on “Punjabi food”. The menu in many Chennai restaurants has more Punjabi food items — chhole bhature, varieties of paranthas, naan, palak panneer, etc — than the idli-dosa associated with the tame Tamilian.

When I asked one hotelier what is ‘Manjurian Gobi’, he informed me that it is Punjabi food from Chandigarh — with a soft ‘d’ like in damaad. Uttered thus, chandi is a refined Tamil word for the posterior.

Now, this is where my tongue too slips, even after 15 years in Delhi. Unlike most Madrasis, I know the difference between things North Indian and Punjabi. Yet, never have I felt more like a Madrasi than I do now in Chandigarh. I hope to get my pronunciation right before I run into a bummer.

OPED

Politics behind disbanding of districts
Mulayam Singh spoils Mayawati’s vote-bank game
by V.J. Bandopadhaya

EVEN as Uttar Pradesh burns on the issue of disbanding of nine districts and four commissionaires, manoeuvring has begun on how to harness political advantage from this issue in the coming Lok Sabha elections.

Probably, it is only in Uttar Pradesh, districts are created and disbanded keeping an eye on the vote bank. What illustrates this thinking best is the creation of Shahuji Maharaj district.

It started with an innocuous incident: Priyanka Gandhi, while visiting her mother Sonia Gandhi’s Amethi parliamentary constituency in October 2002, helped a Dalit to file an FIR against some upper caste people who had demolished his house in Dalit-dominated Punpur village. Priyanka went to the police station, stayed there for over an hour and ensured that an FIR was filed against the perpetrators of the crime.

The then Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, Ms Mayawati, took affront to Priyanka’s endeavour. Fearing that by helping a Dalit the Congress was trying to win over the Scheduled Castes vote bank from the BSP, she held a `Chetawani rally’ in Amethi in November, 2002 and as a sop to the Dalits announced the creation of a separate district and named it after a Dalit icon Shahuji Maharaj. Amethi was made the headquarters of the new district.

Exactly a year later, with Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav becoming the Chief Minister of the state, he scrapped Shahuji Maharaj district and three months later scrapped nine more districts and four commissionaires — all of them creations of Ms Mayawati.

Justifying his decision, the Chief Minister said that these new districts were a “burden” on the state exchequer as it needed over Rs 500 crore to set up the headquarters there. The money thus saved would be used for the development of the state, the Chief Minister said in his post-Cabinet meeting briefing.

The districts which were scrapped by the present government through a notification on January 11 included Jyotiba Phule Nagar, Mahamaya Nagar, Sant Kabir Nagar, Gautam Budh Nagar, Ambedkar Nagar, Kaushambi, Auria, Chandauli and Srawasti. The four commissionaires that were dissolved were: Basti, Mirzapur, Devi Patan and Saharanpur.

The political parties of all hues called the decision of Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav to disband the districts as “anti-people”. The Congress, one of the allies of the Yadav-led government, said that they (Congress leaders) were not taken into confidence before taking such an important administrative decision.

“The Chief Minister had betrayed the faith of the people,” Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee President Jagdambika Pal said in a statement. “It is a warning to Yadav not to behave as the big brother … otherwise the Congress would be forced to rethink whether to continue with the alliance.”

The people of these districts reacted violently by staging road and rail blockades and by damaging government properties, including state-owned buses and government vehicles. An effigy of Mulayam Singh Yadav was burnt at many places. With politicians throwing their weight behind the agitatation, it is likely to intensify further.

On the face of it, it may look that the decision of the Chief Minister to disband the districts had backfired because the government step had given the Opposition parties, including the BJP and the BSP, a handle to beat the Samajwadi Party and its allies in the coming Lok Sabha elections.

But on the hindsight, the decision could be a political master stroke as the districts and the divisions which were scrapped had no Samajwadi party presence per se. The nine districts which were scrapped comprised 41 assembly segments. In the 1999 Lok Sabha elections the SP had lost in 30 of these constituencies.

In 1998 the result was no better. The SP had lost in 30 assembly segments. In Mahamaya Nagar district, which is also known as Hathras, the SP won only in one assembly segment in 1999 while in 1998 it had failed to open its account. The BJP swept all the four assembly segments of Gautam Budh Nagar, also known as Noida and Greater Noida in 1999.

The same was the story in Srawasti where the SP was routed. The poverty-stricken districts, including Jyotiba Phule Nagar, Ambedkar Nagar and Kaushambi, had been the BSP’s citadel. If Mulayam scrapped the “unfavourable” districts, he did not touch two other newly created districts — Kannauj and Baghpat.

Mulayam’s son Akhilesh Yadav is a Member of Parliament from Kannauj while Baghpat is the stronghold of Ajit Singh of the Rashtriya lok Dal, an ally of Mulayam Singh Yadav in the government. Both Kannauj and Baghpat were created by Mayawati in 2001. Kannauj was carved out of Farukhabad while Baghpat was made a district after dividing Meerut.

Political aim behind Mulayam’s move to disband the districts could be to polarise voters in camps favouring and opposing the scrapping of districts and bring rich dividends in the coming Lok Sabha elections. The effect was palpable.

In the face of anti-scrapping protests in Noida, a few advocates and teachers staged a dharna on Tuesday in favour of scrapping Gautam Budh Nagar district. Moreover, through this political game of disbanding districts Mulayam has tried to salvage pride for the Samajwadi Party by protecting Other Backward Class (OBCs) — his major vote bank.

It is now Mulayam’s turn to try to harvest political advantage by disbanding the districts. The Samajwadi Party is expected to consolidate after restoration of their numerical clout over a large area, it would also lead to the polarisation of the BJP, BSP votes. In a three-cornered contest the SP stands a better chance. Who will emerge the winner in the game of one-upmanship only time will tell.

FROM PAKISTAN
LFO as part of constitution challenged

The petitioner-advocate also contended that Gen Pervez Musharraf had, through the amendment, got himself elected as the President. By doing so, the President had subverted the Constitution and acted in direct contravention of the constitutional principles as enunciated by the apex court — that no authority, even the elected parliament, was empowered to change the federal system and the state’s ideological basis. — Dawn

Low spending on education

ISLAMABAD: Asian Development Bank (ADB) has revealed that the spending on primary education in Pakistan during the year 2003 has gone down significantly and basic education indicators for the poor are “extremely low” because of the transfer of massive funds towards higher studies.

The bank has conveyed its fears to the government through official channels, telling its authorities that such considerable decline in spending on basic education could lead to more poverty among the poor, specially in the rural areas of the country who actually benefit from primary education.

ADB said basic education indicators for the poor are extremely low and this decline in spending would produce further problems for the poor to fight against their poverty through education.

The revelation strongly contradicts the claim of the Education Ministry that during the last three years it had introduced huge reforms in the education sector by increasing funds, specially for primary education. — The News International

Govt’s role questioned

ISLAMABAD: An international think-tank has said President Gen Pervez Musharraf’s promise to drive extremism away from madarsas remains unfulfilled.

“Today, two years after he promised his sweeping reforms, the jihadi madarsas remain the key breeding ground for radical Islamist ideology and the recruitment centre for terrorist jihadi networks,” says the International Crisis Group (ICG).

The ICG in its latest report, “Unfulfilled Promises: Pakistan’s Failure to Tackle Extremism”, states that the failure to curb rising extremism in Pakistan stems directly from the military government’s own unwillingness to act against its political allies among the religious groups. — Dawn

Spurious medicines

LAHORE: Though the Provincial Health Department is working under the leadership of the minister who belongs to the same profession, it has failed to control the menace of spurious medicines in the province.

According to a survey conducted by The Nation, the business of spurious and fake medicines is on the rise owing to the negligence of government towards this area in the health sector. — The Nation

REFLECTIONS

The absolutistic and the personalistic Shruti texts must be harmonised, and there must be place for Jnana, Bhakti, Karma, and yoga in a harmonious manner.

— Shri Adi Shankaracharya

You must do your duties. This keeps your mind in good condition. But it is also necessary to practise japa, meditation, and prayer.

— Sarada Devi

Himsa is impossible without anger, without attachment, without hatred, and the Bhagavadgita strives to carry us to the state beyond sattwa, rajas and tamas, a state that excludes anger, hatred etc.

— Mahatma Gandhi

The whole world is a phylactery, and everything we see is an item of the wisdom, power, or goodness of God.

— Sir Thomas Browne