The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

EDITORIALS

Investment in peace
India, Pakistan build more trust

BY all accounts, the two-day India-Pakistan talks on nuclear confidence-building measures (CBMs) ended on Sunday on a positive note. The joint statement issued after the deliberations makes one believe that once the CBMs agreed upon in New Delhi get a concrete shape after the coming deliberations between the Foreign Secretaries of the two countries, scheduled to meet on June 27-28, these are bound to help the on-going peace process move in the right direction. Now the sceptics in Pakistan should revise their opinion that India will not like to sustain the peace dialogue with Pakistan after a change of government in Delhi. No government in a democracy like India can go against the wishes of the people, who stand for peace in the region without, of course, compromising their national security.

Though India and Pakistan discussed their respective security concepts and nuclear doctrines at Lahore in 1999, it is for the first time that they have held extensive talks on nuclear CBMs with a view to having a mechanism for preventing the use of nuclear weapons against each other as responsible regional powers. The upgraded hotline between their Directors-General of Military Operations and a similar link between the two countries' Foreign Secretaries is bound to be helpful. The re-affirmation of their unilateral moratorium on further nuclear tests, despite the rider "extraordinary events that have jeopardised its supreme interests" as given in the joint statement, should send right signals across the globe.

However, India has to tread the path with caution as its nuclear capability is not Pakistan-specific whereas Pakistan's nuclear assets have been acquired keeping only India in view. It is good that the two countries decided to look for more than stressing differences. The two nuclear powers, which have been having adversarial relations, need to carry the peace dialogue further, building on the success achieved so far. The latest round of talks is an investment in peace and stability in the region.

Modi burden
A lost chance to come clean on Gujarat

THE BJP does not seem to recognise the wisdom in the adage, "it is better late than never". The party has decided to persist with the folly of retaining Mr Narendra Modi as the Chief Minister of Gujarat. Former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's suggestion that he be removed has been thrown to the winds by the party's Parliamentary Board. If the decision reflects the general thinking in the party, there is little likelihood of its National Executive, which meets in Mumbai this week, acting on Mr Vajpayee's suggestion. The development is not surprising as Mr Vajpayee's views on Mr Modi were never allowed to prevail. As Prime Minister, Mr Vajpayee had tried to have Mr Modi removed but faced with stout opposition from the leading lights of the Sangh Parivar, he had to make a hasty retreat. This time he tried in vain to use his moral authority.

The former Prime Minister knew when he left his summer home at Prini in Manali that he was in a minority in the party on the issue of Mr Modi. By virtually spurning Mr Vajpayee's advice, the BJP has forsaken an opportunity to come clean on Gujarat. With over half a century of political experience behind him, the former Prime Minister was not making a wild guess when he said that Mr Modi was one of the major factors for the defeat of the BJP. Mr Modi's questionable conduct during the worst-ever riots in Gujarat two years ago and his arrogant style of campaigning had alienated a large section of the voters. Even in Gujarat, the Modi magic did not work. It was obvious that the people were no longer enamoured of his brusque style of functioning because of which there is now a near-revolt against him in the party's legislative wing.

Under these circumstances, any sensible political party would have jumped at the opportunity provided by Mr Vajpayee to remove him from power. Alas, the hawks in the Sangh Parivar, who stood by Mr Modi, thought it would be a setback for them if they countenanced his removal. Hence they sprang to his defence, little realising that he will be a permanent liability for the party. Mr Vajpayee's prestige may have suffered a dent by his inability to have his way on Mr Modi, but there is little doubt that the party will have to pay a heavy price for retaining him in power.

The Cauvery imbroglio
Rains smile on Tamil Nadu farmers

THE rain God has come to the rescue of Tamil Nadu's hapless farmers in the Cauvery delta this time. Karnataka Chief Minister Dharam Singh has ordered the release of the river water following a telephonic directive by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Thursday soon after the Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs met. Rains have given a respite to both states. But the developments preceding it were indicative of the bitter acrimony that exists between the two states. For the past few days, lakhs of farmers in Tamil Nadu had been in great distress because the "kuruvai" crop was in danger. The Karnataka government was in no mood to yield despite visisits to Bangalore by two delegations - one belonging to the DMK and its allies and the other to the Tamil Nadu government.

Like the continuing dispute over the Sutlej-Yamuna Link canal between Punjab and Haryana, hardening of regional identies has prevented the emergence of a workable compromise formula to resolve the Cauvery tangle. Karnataka has shown little regard to either the interim order of the Cauvery Tribunal or the Supreme Court's orders. Nor does it recognise any institutional mechanism to resolve the dispute. It questions the legitimacy of the Cauvery River Authority (CRA) itself though it is headed by the Prime Minister.

As the Prime Minister has evinced interest on the issue, he should take the initiative and try the CRA route to resolve the problem. If an agreed settlement of the dispute between the states is not possible, the CRA should help as a facilitator. The distress sharing formulae has not worked because Karnataka says that it has not worked because Karnataka says that it is the Cauvery Tribunal — and not the CRA — which can decide on this. The Cauvery Tribunal would do well to keep this in view while pronouncing its final order. Above all, states cannot decide on this. Water should be deemed as a national asset. Karnataka cannot always maintain that it does not have enough water for its own needs.

ARTICLE

Sheer numbness
The BJP is yet to recover from poll defeat
by S. Nihal Singh

WHATEVER its statements for the record, the Bharatiya Janata Party has been amply demonstrating that it is at sea in coping with its unexpected defeat in the general election. The controversy over Mr Narendra Modi was but a symptom of the confusion and the leadership's inability to reconcile itself with the fact that it has overnight become an opposition party.

The conventional wisdom is that the hardliners are seeking to dominate the BJP, with considerable support from such elements of the Sangh Parivar as the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh. They blame the BJP for neglecting the basic Hindutva issues in the election, leading to the party's defeat. There is an element of truth in this assessment, except for the fact that it would be a gross oversimplification to lay the party’s defeat at the door of soft-pedalling ideology. Confident as the BJP was of returning to power, it would have been suicidal to embrace religious radicalism.

The reasons for the defeat can be traced to complacency and over-confidence. The high-voltage publicity campaign went awry because more parts of the country are not shining, rather than otherwise. A last-minute appeal to Muslims to vote for the BJP, once the realisation sunk in that far from walking away with the election, it would be a close contest and the votes of 12 per cent of the population would matter.

All these factors have been and are being analysed by the Sangh Parivar, among others, but the real cause for surprise has been the numbness with which the BJP has reacted to its defeat. A favourite taunt of BJP spokesmen has been that the Congress, after its long stint in power, had not reconciled itself to sitting on the Opposition benches. It would appear that after some six years of power in New Delhi, the party of Mr Atal Bihari Vajpayee seems to be at a loss to plan its next moves.

Indeed, Mr Vajpayee seems to be leading the pack in his inability to reconcile himself to defeat. His method of altering statements by ostensibly amplifying them became his trademark while in power. His critical references to the Gujarat carnage were laced in days by praising the Gujarat Chief Minister. Instead of removing him from office to signify his disapproval, he was in denial, talking merely of India's and his own shame. Undoubtedly, there were pressures against doing harm to Mr Modi, but what is one to make of raising the Gujarat issue in public, once out of office?

There followed a series of flip-flops, of the importance of removing Mr Modi and the BJP's defeat being squarely laid to Mr Modi's door. A day later, he had to assume responsibility for the defeat, which was in fact a collective responsibility. He, for his part, would perform unspecified penance. After another day dawned, he belittled the Gujarat issue; the need was to look ahead, he suggested.

A politician in power has often to be economical with truth in order to govern, but what cause is Mr Vajpayee serving by prevaricating and contradicting himself when he sits on the Opposition benches? Having bequeathed the post of Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha to his deputy, Mr L.K. Advani, is he seeking belatedly to right a wrong he was too weak to implement while in power?

Unless Mr Vajpayee chooses to speak out or more evidence is available, these assumptions will remain unproven. But all indications suggest that his party's defeat has been a psychological blow he has yet to recover from. Some strands in his thinking are clear in the six years he has been in office. He was mightily proud of being the longest serving non-Congress leader in office. He was equally proud of his ability to manage the many contradictions involved in running an administration of more than a score of parties. Although some constituents left, most stayed on and such difficult customers as Ms Mamata Banerjee left the coalition only to return to it on the Prime Minister's terms.

However, merely to run a heterogeneous coalition might display political adroitness but does not entitle one to great status in history. Even the decision to give the go ahead for conducting nuclear tests in 1998 was no big deal. Mr Vajpayee was essentially following a Congress policy, which had been frustrated in Mr Narasimha Rao's time by American detection, making it virtually impossible to conduct tests. He was lucky because officials had calculated the window of opportunity better and gave the slip to American eyes in the sky, the surveillance satellites.

On one issue Mr Vajpayee has been both consistent and ambitious. He wished to leave his mark on history by altering the basis of India-Pakistan relations to one of amity and good-neighbourly relations. Even when he was Morarji Desai's Foreign Minister in the 70's, he made an impression in Pakistan, despite the attitude of Pakistanis to the BJP's earlier avatar, the Jan Sangh. After he assumed the office of Prime Minister, he undertook the bus journey to Lahore, which ended up on the scrap heap of history, having been caught up in domestic Pakistani politics and the peremptory departure of Mr Nawaz Sharif, thanks to a coup undertaken by Gen Pervez Musharraf.

But Mr Vajpayee persevered. Despite General Musharraf's reported complicity in the Kargil affair, he invited the General for a summit in Agra. The summit was largely unprepared, based as it was on the Prime Minister's belief that only an unscripted meeting of the executive heads of the two governments could cut through the maze of past distrust, nursed by the bureaucracies of the two countries, to break the logjam. He was taking great risk, which did not pay off, but it was in the end an indication of his passion for seeking peace with Pakistan.

The jury is still out in the latest peace initiative launched by Mr Vajpayee through the "hand of friendship" offered to Pakistan in Srinagar. It led first to the highly emotional and successful cricket series played by the Indian team in Pakistan. Later, the improved atmosphere led to the Saarc summit in Islamabad and an agreed framework of a series of talks between officials of the two countries. In scheduling the talks, Islamabad made allowances for the Indian election schedule, convinced as it was like the BJP itself that Mr Vajpayee would return to power.

In an effort to egg on Pakistan, Mr Vajpayee was fond of saying that his third peace bid with Pakistan as Prime Minister would be his last. Indeed, the majority of Pakistanis and at least a part of the Pakistani establishment believed that the Indian Prime Minister was sincere and represented the best bet in memory to make peace with India.

It came as a blow to Pakistanis, as to the BJP and Mr Vajpayee himself, that he lost the election. Almost every politician believes that he has more unfinished business than the political space he has been given. In Mr Vajpayee's case, this feeling was laced with the great regret that his bequest to India and history will now remain unfulfilled. Perhaps this is the reason he has not been able to accept his defeat with equanimity and feels at a loss for words to explain it.

MIDDLE

A packet of joy and energy
by Darshan Singh Maini

I started this small gallery of “portraits” in ink a whole expanse of years ago, and some that I remember include the one on my two-year old niece’s daughter, a baby bibliophile who started browsing intently huge tomes her little fingers could hardly hold, another on a three-year-old boy in our family who spoke not a word since he cried his way into the world, and then one fine morning started singing like a canary — no stopping thereafter. And then my first born, a daughter who at the royal age of six could rise in full majesty to her 43”, and take on any one with an appetite for argument.

And the one now on the “Pasel and Canvas” is not from our vast clan, but who in less than a year’s time would curl up in my lap, crooning Granda, Grandpa... The five-year-old daughter of our new tenants upstairs, Khushboo, for such was her name, spread perfume of her presence day after day and whose fond parents, a Sindhi couple could hardly cope with her endless capers and whimsies and tantrums.

A packet of sheer dynamite, she would explode suddenly into my room, rocking with laughter, full of funny school stories. She had a huge talent for mimicry — and acting, and often she started doing the act from any film she had just watched on the TV, her favourite stars, then, being Rani Mukherjee and Shah Rukh Khan. She had keenly noticed their shot-gun dialogues, or their scenes of coy love. Khushboo sent us all into peals of laughter when adjusting her skirt and blouse (all designer stuff, please!), she would re-enact those scenes with gusto....

There is God’s dappled glory so much to please the eye, so much to charm the senses, but a girl-child oozing energy and radiance, cavorting, rolling up and down the flight of stairs going to her first-floor flat is perhaps a nature’s spectacle too fine, too inscrutable for words.

Fancy, at that tender age, returning from her school, she dropped this little “brick” on our heads .... “Do you know Grandpa, I’m in love with a boy in my class, and when we make signs, our scowling “Ma’am” signals us out of the room.” Another thing she did on return from the school was her sing-song orders to “Surinder Bhayia”, our cook, for her customary alu-parantha — and without loss of time she used to call her parents upstairs to announce her “royal” arrival.

The parents left for the US after a year’s stay, her father, a computer expert, got a most lucrative job and contract. And today when I picture her in my mind, a 10-year-old girl soon to step into her early womanhood, I bless her with all my heart. A little lady now whose native innocence tempered and annealed during her encounters with reality, she, I pray goes on to her college and her marriage later, loaded with garlands of love from her Grandpa and Grandma here. I’m reminded of Yeats’s celebrated poem, “A prayer for My Daughter”, and thinking of Khushboo’s marriage, I repeat the aged Irish poet’s blessings — a home where “all’s accustomed, ceremonial ...” A prayer uttered, bending over her crib. n

OPED

News analysis
Reforms take back seat in Andhra
Agriculture high on new govt’s agenda
by Ramesh Kandula

Chief Minister YSR Reddy, who avoids spotlight, if possible

FROM Ferraris to farmers is the paradigm shift the new Congress government led by Chief Minister Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy has brought about in its over one month in power in Andhra Pradesh.

In sharp contrast to his predecessor, N Chandrababu Naidu’s penchant for urban and IT orientation during the Telugu Desam Party’s nine-year rule, Dr Reddy has put agriculture and irrigation high on his government’s agenda.

Reforms, for which the World Bank and the IMF have touted the state as a model, have taken a backseat and the welfare approach has been brought forth as the guiding philosophy of the administration under the new regime.

The result: Formula One Track, the dream project of Naidu, is out. Free power to farmers is in. Several hi-tech projects conceived by Naidu have no place in the new dispensation. Dismissing the Formula One proposal contemptuously, the new man at the helm said, “We can consider such projects when the coffers overflow and people become rich, have filled-up tummies and suffer from ajeerthi (indigestion).”

It is in tune with this new-found fervour for the rural uplift that Dr Reddy announced free power to the farm sector on the day he took over and kicked off his bi-weekly mass contact programme in the rural hinterland, named “Rajiv Palle Baata,” marking completion of one month in office.

A series of farmer-friendly policies and announcements, which were unthinkable during Naidu’s IMF-inspired regime, including ex-gratia to the kin of debt-trapped farmers who kill themselves, clearly spell out the new government’s area of focus.

The Telugu Desam government had steadfastly refused to consider any help to these families, maintaining that such a step would encourage more farmers to commit suicide for the sake of the dole.

User charges for government services in areas like medical care was another issue that the pro-reform Naidu refused to budge in the face of strong opposition from the Congress and the Left parties. Dr Reddy issued orders scrapping the user charges.

On the positive side, Dr Reddy has committed his government to completing 26 small, medium and big projects in a time frame of five years and has already taken up steps for institutional funding.

A major initiative taken by the new government relates to renewing talks with the Naxalites of the People’s War Group. While the earlier government believed in rooting out the problem by allowing the police to eliminate the underground-armed outfit, the new establishment is keen on resolving the stand-off through negotiations.

As with the change of policies, there is also a sharp difference in the style of functioning of the two Chief Ministers. While Naidu assiduously built up a pro-industry, pro-reform and pro-active image for himself, Dr Reddy is made in the ‘garibi-hatao’ mould of politics.

While Naidu was media-savvy and relished to be in the limelight, his contemporary in the Youth Congress in the late 1970s tries to be a man of the masses and avoids spotlight, if possible.

No wonder, the Information and Public Relations Department is not as important in this government as it was under Naidu.

Dr Reddy has not said anything against reforms or IT per se. “The reforms process will continue, but with a human face,” the Chief Minister declared. But there is no doubt in anybody’s mind that the World Bank can no longer play the role of Big Brother, nor will IT companies get the same royal treatment that they were used to during the previous regime.

While Mr Naidu walked that extra mile to bring in Microsoft, Infosys, Wipro and turned HITEC City as the icon of modern Hyderabad, Dr Reddy has shown no inclination to act as the state’s high-pitched salesman.

One can safely assume that the new Chief Minister will not be too keen on bringing prestigious projects like the International School of Business or global IT exhibitions such as Gitex. Cyberabad, Naidu’s dreamland for the IT industry, is already no more than one more suburban centres of Hyderabad.

Nowhere has the change in the regime reflected more accurately than in the falling real estate rates of Hyderabad. With most of the new projects announced by the previous government not in sight, land rates that witnessed a boom earlier, are witnessing steep decline.

While that is not much of a concern for Dr Reddy, it is too early to say whether he will be able to realise his pledge to make the state “Haritha Andhra Pradesh (Green Andhra Pradesh)” as against “Swarna Andhra Pradesh (Golden Andhra Pradesh),” the oft-repeated goal of the previous TDP government.

Delhi Durbar
Budget pulls and pressures

UNION Finance Minister P. Chidamabaram, who had been eulogised in the 90s for unveiling a “dream” Budget, is cautioning everyone in the Congress-led UPA government that it might not be possible for him to give full and proper play to all suggestions contained in the common minimum programme (CMP) in one go.

Though the CMP is the mantra for drawing up an economic roadmap with a human face, he has to grapple with the critical issue of containing and bringing down the fiscal deficit to a manageable level and wipe out the revenue deficit by 2009. Even though Chidambaram is acutely aware of pulls and pressures on him, the Left parties are hoping the government will partially roll back the price hike on cooking gas. Petroleum Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar has maintained that “ours is not a roll-back government like the previous regime.”

RJD-LJP fight hots up

A parting of ways appears imminent between Railway Minister Laloo Prasad Yadav’s RJD and Union Chemicals and Fertilisers Minister Ram Vilas Paswan’s LJP. That spells trouble for the alliance which swept the recent Lok Sabha elections in Bihar. The RJD and the LJP are blaming each other for the impasse.

The LJP is hopping mad that the maverick Laloo is constantly going against the coalition dharma of sticking to his side of the bargain. This has created fissures between the RJD and the LJP. Laloo first snatched the Railways portfolio from the LJP and has now reneged on providing a Rajya Sabha seat to Paswan’s party.

The RJD leaders insist that with their party emerging as the single largest entity in Bihar with 21 MPs, their claim to the Railways portfolio was greater than the LJP having only four MPs.

CII AGM in low key

It is one of those rare occasions when the CII elected its new President and Vice-President in a closely held AGM. Usually, the AGM of the CII is a grand affair where the who’s-who of the government of the day participates. Almost invariably, the Prime Minister inaugurates the AGM and the Finance Minister is the keynote speaker. This time, however, the session was a short affair. It is learnt, however, that a bigger session is being planned after the Budget.

R.L. Bhatia may be shifted

Senior Congress leader and former Union minister R.L. Bhatia, whose gubernatorial assignment has taken him to Kerala, is likely to be transferred to a northern state later. Considering the fractious state of affairs of the Congress in Kerala, Bhatia might provide a soothing balm for the present. The Congress high command had sent him to Kerala some time back to make an assessment of the intra-party affairs and suggest ways of putting the KPCC house in order.

Kerala Chief Minister A. K. Antony’s arch rival K. Karunakaran appears to have sobered down after the defeat of his son and daughter at the hustings. Despite the veiled threat of floating a regional party, Karunakaran has now veered round to the view that Antony should continue as the Chief Minister. For Karunakaran, the wily old horse, it is a surprise turnaround. But the million dollar question is how long will this truce last?

Contributed by Gaurav Choudhury, S. Satyanarayanan and Prashant Sood