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Shared concerns Toothless
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Left’s
duplicity Save the government from its allies After the FDI controversy, the Left has raised muck again. It has now targeted the Planning Commission Deputy Chairman, Dr Montek Singh Ahluwalia, for including “outsiders” in “committees” to monitor the Tenth Plan.
A troubled
neighbourhood
Munnabhai, Member
of Parliament
Andhra’s free
power fiasco From
Pakistan
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Shared concerns THE strategic partnership India and the US have forged was evident in the bonhomie that marked Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s meeting with US President George W. Bush. The Prime Minister, who chooses his words a bit carefully, would not have otherwise said that the relations between the two countries were never better and the best was yet to come. It is significant that they met at the first available opportunity on the sidelines of the UN session. This strengthens the point that change of government in New Delhi has not made any difference to India’s foreign policy, which is rooted in certain values and time-tested principles. As mentioned in these columns, the lifting of curbs by the US on the transfer of dual-use technology to India provided the right backdrop for the Manmohan Singh-Bush meeting. Observers of the growing India-US relations would not have missed the point that their talks centred mostly on bilateral relations. What is discernible is the general agreement between the two on some crucial issues like terrorism and nuclear proliferation. India’s complaint that the US was not able to appreciate its concern over the menace of terrorism has been removed in the wake of 9/11. For once, the US realised that it was as much a victim of terrorism as India has been for quite sometime. So, when they say they are one in the fight against terrorism, they are not just being nice to each other. Similarly, there is now greater appreciation in the US of India’s stellar performance in preventing the nuclear know-how it acquired from falling into wrong hands. In fact, nuclear non-proliferation is an article of faith for India, which is one of the first to speak out against the dangers of proliferation. The US now has a better understanding of India’s position on Pakistan. Mr Bush has lauded India’s efforts to improve its relations with Pakistan. But the presence of the terrorist camps across the border and the patronage they get from the powers-that-be stand in the way of improving their bilateral relations. Given Mr Manmohan Singh’s status as the man who set economic reforms rolling in his capacity as Finance Minister in the P.V. Narasimha Rao government, it would have been easy for him to convince Mr Bush that the reforms would not be hampered. |
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Toothless tribunals THE Supreme Court judgement on Tuesday upholding the Madhya Pradesh government’s right to abolish the State Administrative Tribunal (SAT) is significant as it has added a new dimension to the current debate on the relevance of SATs. One cannot overlook the role played by SATs in the growth and development of the administrative law and in checking the arbitrary exercise of power by the executive with respect to the service conditions and other administrative matters of the employees. There are innumerable instances when SATs did come to the rescue of the innocent employees. However, experience in the past few years suggests that these tribunals have hardly contributed to providing quick and inexpensive justice to the government employees, leave alone ensuring reduction in the quantum of litigation. The fact that the Madhya Pradesh SAT alone had a huge backlog of 35,000 cases as on July 25, 2001, when the state government had notified its abolition, speaks volumes for its efficiency! Specifically, questions have been raised on the very purpose and usefulness of these tribunals when the High Courts and the Supreme Court have been vested with the power of judicial review. When a ruling of SAT cannot be enforced because of the overriding powers of the High Court, its continuance becomes meaningless and its rulings exercises in futility. It is in this context that the scope of the Supreme Court’s ruling goes much beyond the state government’s power to create and abolish SAT. If more states follow suit, the nation would be saving huge funds and resources deployed on these tribunals. At the same time, there is a need to evolve suitable measures to help the litigant-employees. As it is, the High Courts are overburdened with a huge backlog of cases. Will the Madhya Pradesh High Court, for instance, get time to dispose of the 35,000 cases which were transferred to it by the government after the abolition of SAT? Clearly, in the absence of SATs, the High Courts will have to explore alternative dispute resolution mechanisms to ease their workload and help the employees in distress. |
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Left’s duplicity After
the FDI controversy, the Left has raised muck again. It has now targeted the Planning Commission Deputy Chairman, Dr Montek Singh Ahluwalia, for including “outsiders” in “committees” to monitor the Tenth Plan. Five Leftist economists have threatened to surrender their Planning Commission assignments if the foreigners are involved in the mid-term review. The resignation offer of the five consultants from the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank and McKinsey may clear the mud, but the stains will stay. The question remains: is the Left’s protest right? The comrades’ duplicity is evident. What they say in Delhi is contrary to what they do in Kolkata. In West Bengal, the Left Front government has engaged foreign agencies to better manage finances and improve the service delivery. McKinsey is helping it revamp the agro and IT sectors. Also, it is marketing the state to outside investors. PriceWaterhouseCooper is guiding the recast of the state’s public sector. Funds for this come from a British agency. Kolkata’s renewal is carried out with soft loans from the Asian Development Bank with conditions tagged. Two of the five protesting Left economists are part of an international development economics group funded by the USA’s Ford Foundation. The main Opposition, the BJP, is silent. The Left, a government ally, is thundering. Its latest diatribe is particularly badly timed. While Dr Manmohan Singh is wooing foreign investment in New York, the Left is ranting about a non-issue. What are the Leftist economists doing in the Planning Commission? The commission itself has outlived its utility. For decades all its planning did not raise the country’s growth rate beyond 2.5 per cent. Dr Manmohan Singh is trying to redefine its role. And all that Dr Ahluwalia has done is to form 19 consultative groups. He has tried to reach out to expertise outside the government. He has invited trade unions too to join the groups. Besides, as he argues, how can one set of civil servants assess a plan prepared by another set? Does consultation with foreign experts amount to “surrender of sovereignity”? |
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Someone told me that each equation I included in the book would halve the sales. — Stephen Hawking |
A troubled neighbourhood While
there has been some optimism generated by the commencement of the composite dialogue process with Pakistan, we would be deluding ourselves if we believe that there is cause for satisfaction at what is happening in our immediate neighbourhood. The American “war on terrorism” and actions in Afghanistan and Iraq have given new dimensions to developments both to our west and to our east. There is a growing tendency in the US to attribute these developments to an inevitable “Clash of Civilisations” with the forces of Islam. The Islamic world, in turn, is reacting with a sense of injured outrage and self-righteousness, with scant recognition of the fact that the absence of democratic freedoms has resulted in the emergence of new forces of militant and medieval Islam that cannot be wished away. These forces not only wish to throw out the existing undemocratic and pro-western regimes, but also take revenge on the western world led by the United States, for their support to Israel and their perceived efforts to dominate the Islamic countries. Two recent developments are of significance for us. The first was the terrorist attack at the oil terminal at Khobar in Saudi Arabia. The targets of this attack were not just U.S. nationals and its allies. Anyone who was not a Muslim was brutally killed. Indian nationals who were Hindus and Christians were targeted. I have personally spoken to some Indians who were so shaken by these developments that they hastily returned home, leaving behind lucrative jobs in Saudi Arabia. The three Indian truck drivers who were taken hostage in Iraq were not only compelled to assume Muslim names but also to join in Muslim prayers. They were not the only non-Muslim hostages in Iraq subjected to such treatment. It is worth recalling that when Osama bin Laden formed the “International Islamic Front for Jihad against Jews and Crusaders” (IIF), his targets were Jews and Christians and not Hindus. Hindus were added to the list of those to be hated when jihadi organisations in Pakistan affiliated to the IIF like the Lashkar-e-Toiba proclaimed that “Hindus, Jews and Christians” are enemies of Islam. While anti-Americanism is virtually universal in Iraq, there are elements in Iraq who do not merely see the struggle as one against American occupation, but as a jihad against infidels worldwide. Despite our disinclination to view international developments in such starkly religious terms, we would be ill advised to ignore the implications of what happened to our nationals in Khobar and Fallujah. The ouster of the Taliban from Afghanistan has not led to the elimination but dispersal of members of Bin Laden’s IIF. While the Chechens and Uzbeks are being squeezed along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, Indonesian terrorists from the Jemayah Islamiyah, trained in Afghanistan and Pakistan, have returned home. The bomb blasts in Jakarta and Bali and continued targeting of Australian and American interests in Indonesia are a logical result of American actions in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Within ASEAN, the Philippines, Thailand and even Singapore have felt the fallout of these recent events. Under the Khaleda Zia dispensation Bangladesh has now emerged as a focal point for Islamic terrorist groups led by the Harkat-ul-Jihad u Islami. These groups have fanciful ideas of creating Islamic emirates in our northeast and Rakhine province of Myanmar. They receive support from the Jamat-e-Islami, an influential member of the Khaleda Zia government. Bangladesh is all set to become another centre for terrorism. Interestingly, senior American diplomats now assert that the Jamat-e-Islami is actually a “moderate” organisation, in much the same way as they alluded to the Taliban in 1994. Instability and the emergence of terrorist organisations are not a feature of Bangladesh and Pakistan alone. Nepal is now engulfed in a Maoist insurgency that can be overcome only by a judicious mix of military force and political accommodation. If mishandled, the Maoist violence can spill over into India. Sadly, the King of Nepal does not appear to be satisfied with being a constitutional monarch, and the political parties there have discredited themselves by placing petty rivalries over national interests. Complicating matters further is the role of the European Union members who simplistically believe that appeasement of the Maoists constitutes the only remedy for Nepal’s woes. While our relations with Sri Lanka are today perhaps friendliest, New Delhi still faces the diplomatic challenge of persuading the LTTE to see reason. Adding to the complications in our neighbourhood is the recent unrest against what is being seen as the increasingly authoritarian rule of President Gayoom in the Maldives — a country where we have once intervened militarily to end a takeover by Sri Lankan mercenaries. New Delhi cannot turn a blind eye to developments in what is now a politically volatile neighbourhood. In countries like Nepal, Sri Lanka and the Maldives, where the governments are friendly to India, the approach has to be one of understanding and behind-the-scene pressures and persuasion. Given our limited ability to influence developments in the Persian Gulf, we would necessarily have to work closely with countries with which we share a common interest in curbing the growth of militant Islamic tendencies. To our east, we should be prepared to fully support initiatives by the ASEAN countries to restore stability. The challenges of dealing with Pakistan are going to remain for years if not decades. In any case, our dialogue with Pakistan is going to achieve little till the American Presidential elections decide who will occupy the White House for the next four years and General Musharraf confirms that he will continue to wear the uniform of a four-star General after December 31. In dealing with these developments, we will have to recognise that we cannot conduct an effective foreign policy till we set our own house in order. Apart from dealing more imaginatively with trouble spots like Manipur and Jammu and Kashmir, we cannot really influence and control developments along our borders if our own body politic is afflicted by criminalisation and corruption. India can strongly influence political developments in Bangladesh by curbing the illegal export of cattle. Rising beef prices would cause serious problems for the not-too-friendly Khaleda Zia dispensation. But can we do this when our Railway Ministry adopts policies that promote such illegal
exports? |
Munnabhai, Member of Parliament I am not sure if Vidhu Vinod
Chopra is thinking of making a sequel to “Munnabhai, MBBS” but if he does, I have a plot ready. The film opens with Munna’s henchmen persuading him to become a neta. All parties ignore his plea for ticket because of his long history-sheet. But when he sends 10 “petis” (of 1000-rupee notes, of course) to the house of the president of the most principled party, the ticket is sent to his den pronto. His followers’ slogan, “Vote diya to lootenge, nahin diya to kootenge” set to music by Nadeem Shrawan, is on everyone’s lips. Most voters think that getting robbed is better than getting murdered and back him whole-heartedly. Only a petite girl, the heroine, campaigns against him. So Munna goes to her public meeting and hugs and kisses her before everyone. In true Bollywood tradition, the heroine is bowled over by this macho man and accepts him as her darling. That takes care of the romance angle. Munna wins by 15 lakh votes in a constituency with 10 lakh votes. Some of his opponents lose their deposits, others lose their limbs or life. The CEC wants to protest but his father is fond of playing carrom with Munna’s men. The mandatory dance number takes place in the chawl and there is the interval. Munna posts unprecedented victory but his party gets only two seats. He hammers out a coalition comprising 420 parties. The president of Munna’s party becomes the Prime Minister, and makes Circuit, the Man Friday of Munna, the Home Minister. You see, Munna is so self-effacing that he does not accept any ministerial berth. Driving to Parliament House one day, Munna comes across a vociferous demonstration. This is an activity right up his alley and he gleefully joins the protesters, only to learn that the agitation is against tainted ministers like Circuit and MPs like Munna. Half an hour later, 100 protesters are in hospital with serious injuries. There are rumours that this is Munna’s handiwork but the police takes no action because the victims give it in writing that they got injured when the dais collapsed accidentally. Munna makes his maiden speech in Parliament and uses such red-hot words that the live telecast has to be stopped. The Opposition demands expunging of the unparliamentary words but the Speaker, who is the rakhi brother of Munna’s beloved, rules that “Ma-****” and “Behen-****” are not abusive words but terms of endearment, which Founding Fathers had never banned specifically. The nation plunges into a crisis when five civilians are held hostage by terrorists. The month-long effort of the government to secure their release fails despite the offer of $ 50 million in a Swiss bank and a Rajya Sabha nomination. At last, Honourable Munnabhai is persuaded to carry out Track-II diplomacy. He speaks to the head of the goons on the hotline: “Abe oye, main Munna bolta. Maloom nahin kya be shyane ke jo pakde vo mere admi? Galat kiya. Tu paanch pakda. Idhar tum kutton ki phamily ke 72 log meri kothi pe akhri saansen lete. Tu maar mere panch ko aur phir asli show dekh”. The hostages are released unconditionally the next day. Munna’s admirers hold a massive thanksgiving rally demanding Bharat Ratna and Nobel Prize for him. The film comes to an end with the beloved neta waving benignly to his delirious fans, as a remix version of “Sare jahan se achcha Hindustan hamara” plays full blast in the
background. |
Andhra’s free power fiasco
Andhra Pradesh seems to be going the Punjab way on the much-touted free power policy, if the former’s latest volte-face is any indication. In both states, the Congress had stormed to power riding on the populist promise of free power to farmers as well as poor domestic consumers. While the Punjab Government quickly backtracked on the promise and scrapped free power to the farm sector in the face of a growing financial burden, the Congress regime in Andhra is caught in a fix with over two lakh illegal farm connections mushrooming in the last three months, posing a threat to the state’s power distribution system. Faced with a no-win situation, Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhar Reddy, who had signed the first file sanctioning free power minutes after taking over the reins in May last, is now talking about modifying the scheme. On the domestic power front also, the government tried to wriggle out of the situation by announcing Rs 10 subsidy on the monthly power bill in lieu of a complete waiver to single-bulb users as promised in the manifesto. The reasons are not far to seek. The number of unauthorised connections, which stood at 1.3 lakh when the Congress took charge, has now peaked at 3.5 lakh, endangering the stability of the power sector. Encouraged by the new regime’s across-the-board promise of free power to the agriculture sector, scores of farmers went in for illegal connections hoping to benefit from the scheme. This has resulted in the overloading of distribution transformers and a rapid increase in energy demand, which touched an all-time single-day high of 157 million units on some days. The experts have warned of a system collapse if the present trend continues. The government is now toying with the idea of excluding rich farmers from the purview of the free power scheme. “ We will soon come out with a comprehensive power policy after taking suggestions from people,” Reddy declared. He also talked tough on unauthorised consumers but quickly gave up the idea of disconnecting illegal connections following pressure from the opposition parties. “We will not touch the unauthorised connections till the completion of the ongoing crop season. But they have to go eventually as it is the government’s responsibility to protect the interests of genuine farmers,” the Chief Minister, who had earlier waived power bill arrears of the farm sector to the tune of Rs 1,301 crore, said. Even those sympathetic to the plight of farmers in the state have maintained that free power could not be universal. “Free power should be given to only marginal farmers. The power supply should be rationalised depending on the requirements. Metering should be done for all categories, including those getting free power,” said Y Harish Chandra Prasad, MD, Lanco Kondapalii Power. The new policy, to be unveiled in a couple of months, is likely to provide for a differential tariff structure to various categories of agricultural consumers while confining the free power supply to small and marginal farmers. The main opposition TDP and its ally BJP lost no time in attacking the government on the issue. “After promising free power to all sections of the farmers, the government is now trying to find lame excuses to deny the facility. It is nothing but cheating the people,” the TDP supremo and former Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu said. He said the Congress had a history of going back on its pre-election promises as had happened in Punjab. Along with the Opposition, the Congress’ left allies—the CPI and the
CPI (M)— have demanded regularisation of unauthorised connections. “We will adopt a humanitarian approach on the issue unlike the previous TDP regime. But those illegal connections which are causing overloading will have to go,” the Chief Minister said. The government has already announced plans to provide 50,000 new power connections in the agriculture sector every year. The unauthorised consumers will have to apply for regularisation of their connections. At present, there are 23.35 lakh authorised agricultural connections in the state, for which the free power supply has to be continued in tune with the election promise of the ruling party. “How can we jeopardise the interests of these 23 lakh authorised consumers? We cannot allow the system to collapse by encouraging unauthorised farm connections,” said Reddy, widely seen as an architect of the free power scheme that propelled the Congress to power. He admitted that the number of illegal connections has gone up substantially after his government started implementation of the free power policy. In another reality check, the government also went back on its poll promise of supplying free power to the single-bulb households and instead decided to extend a subsidy of Rs 10 on monthly bills to all consumers whose consumption is below 15 units per month. Even as the opposition parties, including the Communists, dubbed the latest move proof of the government’s duplicity, Finance Minister K Rosaiah said:” Since the process of identifying single-bulb consumers is laborious, the government took a liberal stand and decided to bear the burden of Rs 10 on each bill for 13.92 lakh consumers”. The Telugu Desam Party, which was voted out largely for its failure to rescue farmers in distress, is already trying to make political capital out of the issue. It has demanded that all the 3.5-lakh illegal connections be regularised and that the power supply be continued to farmers who have already sown crops, besides implementing the promise of free power to the single-bulb households. |
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From Pakistan LAHORE: The Indus River System Authority (IRSA) has increased Punjab’s water share from the Indus River System so that the province could increase water supply to the Chashma Jehlum (CJ) Link Canal in order to irrigate the cotton belt in southern parts. Sources informed The Nation on Tuesday that 10,000 cusecs of water was being supplied to CJ Link Canal, which was previously 1,000 cusecs. Though Punjab province had demanded 18,000 cusecs for the canal, IRSA approved 1,000 cusecs in view of the dwindling river inflows in the Indus system. As per agreed water-sharing formula, Punjab will be able to run canals across the province till September 25. Initially, it is estimated that only 4 million acre feet (MAF) water will be available for the forthcoming Rabi season, starting from October 1. According to experts, such a little amount of water could only help in sowing Rabi crops, especially wheat, the staple food of the people. For necessary irrigation, growers will have no other option but to depend on timely rains to cultivate a good crop.
— The Nation
83 pc software pirated
ISLAMABAD: Some 83 per cent of the software installed in computers in Pakistan last year was found to be pirated, representing a loss of over $16 million to the local IT industry, which still continues to face the same problem, opined Co-Chairman of the Business Software Alliance (BSA) Middle East in statement released here on Tuesday. According to the study, the estimated high rate of privacy places Pakistan at number four among the Asia pacific region followed by China, Vietnam and Indonesia. He was of the view that the piracy rate, if not arrested timely ¾, would continue to harm the development of Pakistan’s information technology (IT) industry. The BSA maintains that software piracy has many negative economic consequences, which include crippling of the local software industry from competition with high quality pirated software.
— The Nation
Gwadar port next year
ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz on Tuesday said the Gwadar port would play a pivotal role in the development and prosperity of the country and serve as a gateway to the Middle-East and Central Asian states. It would be ready early next year. Presiding over the first
meeting of the Gwadar Policy Committee held at the Prime Minister’s Secretariat here, he said with the opening of the adar port, the development process would be accelerated and more job opportunities would be created for the people of Balochistan.
— The News
No to nominated councils
PESHAWAR: Political parties on Tuesday rejected the proposal of nominated councils for the Federally-Administered Tribal Areas. Speaking at a joint press conference here on Tuesday, they threatened to launch a joint protest movement if the federal government did not revoke its decision by Sept 30, adding the present system was based on exploitation. Representatives of the PPP, the PML-N, the Jamaat-e-Islami, the National Awami Party Pakistan and the Awami National Party, including former Interior Minister Naseerullah Khan Babar, PPP’s provincial president Raheemdad Khan and Latif Afridi were present at the conference.
— The Dawn |
Meditate on God either in an obscure corner, or in the solitude of forests, or within the silent sanctuary of your own heart. — Sri Ramakrishna Enjoy God’s love, dear one, while youth is fresh and buoyant. — Guru Nanak To cultivate kindness is a valuable part of the business of life. — Johnson Be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you. — Ephesians They can conquer who believe they can. — Virgil |
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