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Gas from Myanmar The .in thing |
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Courting trouble
CBMs can be a red herring
Wrong order, right intrusion
Disaster strikes an obscure beauty Defence notes
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Gas from Myanmar Following Thursday’s trilateral agreement, India will get natural gas from Myanmar through a pipeline via Bangladesh. Numerous hurdles had to be crossed before the historic agreement was signed. Myanmar, an untouchable for the West, faced sanctions for keeping Nobel laureate Aung Sang Suu Kyi in house arrest. Its enormous gas potential had remained untapped. China, which has better relations with the military junta ruling Myanmar, has also been eyeing the gas reserves there. ASEAN is another market open to Myanmar’s gas. The deal is the result of India’s “Look East” diplomacy. Last year, top Myanmar leader, Gen Than Shwe, visited Delhi. When Dr Manmohan Singh launched the Indo-ASEAN car rally in Guwahati recently, Myanmar’s Sports Minister was among those present. On the economic side, concerned at the country’s energy insecurity and rising oil prices, the government allowed Indian companies to explore oil abroad. The Petroleum Minister recently got together Asian oil consumers to bargain a better deal with OPEC. The country also faces a massive demand-supply mismatch in natural gas. Hence the significance of the gas find in Myanmar by a consortium of India’s ONGC and GAIL and Korea’s Daewoo. To land it in India, the pipeline had to pass through a rebel-infested area. The Myanmar regime has responded by clearing the area of criminals and ensuring safety for the proposed pipeline. For the first time in 30 years Bangladesh has agreed to allow its territory to be used for transporting a commodity. Dhaka was quite a problem in the beginning. It had sought in exchange a safe trade passage and the use of India’s power network to get electricity from Nepal and Bhutan. But these bilateral issues have been left out for a sympathetic consideration later. Starting from Arakan in Myanmar, the pipeline will enter India at Bongaon near Kolkata. It will also help ONGC wheel surplus gas from its Tripura fields. The significance of the pact signed at Yangon can also be seen in the context of the much-delayed Indo-Iranian gas pipeline project lingering because of Pakistan’s dithering. |
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The .in thing MORE and more national service providers, including BSNL, are providing access to broadband services, at rates which individuals can afford. In another development, mobile phone users will be able to access their Hotmail accounts while on the move, just as Yahoo! users have been able to do so for a while. The National Internet Exchange of India (NIXI) opened a few days ago. All this has brought to the fore the power of the Internet — and its impact on Indian society — where it is steadily transforming a small, though important and expanding segment. Much of brick and mortar corporate India, a veritable who's who of blue-chip companies, had lined up to take paper certificates of their electronic domain names, at a ceremony in New Delhi last week. NIXI has lived up to its stated objective of facilitating improved Internet services in the country, and the .in Registry is an autonomous body primarily responsible for maintaining the .in country-code top-level domain and ensuring its operational stability, reliability, and security. The online move by corporate India would strengthen Indian identity in the cyber world. Many Indian companies have national trademarks, but were not able to get proper domain names in the first-level international domains like .com. Now they will be able to get the domain names that are similar to their trademarks. The move to give the first preference to owners of registered Indian trade marks before opening the domain names to the general public is commendable since it would prevent cyber-squatting, the bane of Internet domain allocations. Hosting corporate sites in India will also get a boost, since such websites are typically low-traffic, which make these easier to handle. In any case, the nation also handles many Indian high-traffic portals with ease, and it is high time that a major outsourcing hub of the world became a hub of Internet operations in their entirety-domain registration, hosting and operations. The other major block needed to keep the IT industry moving up is broadband or high-speed connectivity. Now that this too is here, the IT community has much to cheer about. |
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Courting trouble If a man has no trouble, it is in his nature to go asking for it. The good doctor, Man(mohan Singh), as he is known in trendier circles, is no exception. Except that he has enough trouble, and troublesome characters, in the disparate United People's Alliance he leads. Yet, he's bargaining for more. Or, so it would appear. Otherwise, why would he have initiated this political dalliance to woo the Trinamool Congress chieftain Mamata Banerjee? As reports have it, the fiery lady met the Prime Minister at the Kolkata Raj Bhavan and poured out her complaints against the CPM-led Left Front Government. Dr Singh gave her a patient hearing and prescribed that Ms Banerjee could administer the antidote herself to these ailments by joining the Union Cabinet. No doubt the Congress party needs to revive itself in large parts of the country; strike roots where it can and forge alliances where it cannot grow on its own, and also seek to fold within itself offshoots gone “astray”. In trying to win her over, it is not clear which of the objectives Dr Singh was seeking to achieve for the Congress party. But, undeniably, he was trying to recover an address and presence for his party in Bengal. Nevertheless, when it comes to Ms Banerjee, the proposition is a tricky one, fraught with imponderables, as other political worthies learnt to their cost. Thankfully for Dr Singh, the lady has said “No” for now. In his early years as Prime Minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee found that quite a bit of the problems in the coalition could be traced to Mamata, Samata and (Jaya)Lalithaa. Mercifully, Dr Singh is saved from dealing with the Samata Party, if only because it has changed its name, though not only for that reason. In the case of Ms Jayalalithaa, it is a consolation that she is outside the coalition tent. Then, pray, why is he courting Ms Mamata Banerjee, and, as many would say, trouble? |
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Try and fail is the manner of losers; try and learn is the way of the strong. — Unknown |
CBMs can be a red herring
OVER a year has elapsed after the much-publicised January 6, 2004 accord between Indian PM AB Vajpayee and Pakistan’s Gen. Pervez Musharraf to resume 1997’s structured, eight-point Indo-Pakistan dialogue for normalising relations between their countries. Second round of the Composite Dialogue may be said to be limping along. Sad to say the deadlock remains intact. Not one Confidence Building Measures (CBMs) like Srinagar-Muzaffarabad bus service or Khokrapar-Munabao train link could be agreed upon. Latest failure is of the experts’ meeting in New Delhi on Baglihar Dam. The outlook is bleak. Ordinarily, the leaders of both countries desire peace; they have no reason to like wars that only cause destruction. Reasons for repeated failures in fence-mending need to be seen under four heads: First, the legacies of history hang heavy over the negotiators. It is not simply the last 57 years that have shaped the adversarial perceptions in these countries. Independence came through harrowing experiences of what remains the world’s largest ethnic cleansing. That itself was a culmination of a hundred years of festering communalism. Second, some suspect that the desire to make up is superficial. The two are going through the motions of negotiating to strengthen peace and be civilised neighbours largely at the behest of the US. Consider the position of both countries. Both are strategic partners of the hyperpower. Both are nuclear powers and a war between them can escalate into a nuclear holocaust. That easily possible war can upset the agenda of the US, whose advice cannot be ignored. While it is possible to overrate the force of American advice, the sophisticated pragmatists of Islamabad and New Delhi are unlikely to underrate it. Third, both countries are, after all, strategic partners of the US. It is therefore legitimate to assume they share ownership of American agenda in Asia. To that extent, an Indo-Pakistan modus operandi is their own need and not because the US is advising them to normalise. Whatever benefit or advantage Islamabad or South Block may expect from partnership with the US can be jeopardised by continued cold war between India and Pakistan. Fourth, one asserts that the objective being sought by these two, viz. normalisation of ties, is inadequate; it is not attractive enough to overcome the legacy of the Hindu-Muslim deeply coloured hatred which has the basic orientations of Pakistan and India. To overcome this overhang of history, something stronger is needed: a people-to-people reconciliation at all levels. Look at the French and Germans today after only 40 years of specific reconciliation effort: they constitute the strong nucleus of the EU. Both are incomparably richer thereby. And yet they had fought three biggest wars: 1870, 1914 and 1939. Their age-old enmity and disputes have been forgotten. A thoroughgoing rapprochement among peoples, from grassroots up, is a stirring vision. It can, given intelligent and modernist leadership, change the encrusted prejudices and adversarial perceptions fairly quickly. What will dissolve the old inimical perceptions is the effects of large-scale people-to-people contacts and their joint economic and cultural pursuits on the largest possible scale. Their people have thousand and one commonalities and once they start cooperating, the whole chemistry of Indo-Pakistani relationship can change with incomes growth. It is laughably simple and easy. No doubt, it seems a herculean effort to those who have grown up — and have prospered — during long cold and hot wars. One has no desire to minimise the difficulties involved in the process of rapprochement between such inveterate adversaries. After all, the philosophies that inform these two states are diametrically opposed to each other. India championed a formally inclusive secular and democratic Indian nationalism while emphasis of Pakistan Idea was on Muslims being distinct. Mr Jinnah tried vainly to inform Pakistan Movement with secular liberalism. Jinnah is today idolised but his legacy is not his liberal ideas but the very opposite. Jinnah is murdered everyday in Pakistan when he is portrayed as an Islamic saint; every dictator profusely venerates him but goes on torpedoing democracy. There are other difficulties. In pursuance of hateful politics both countries became nuclear powers. One is aware of the elaborate justification of the Indian Bomb, in violation of its traditional policies. The writer regards both Bombs to be directly linked with subcontinent’s politics. It is American CIA inspired stories of Islamic Bomb in early 1970s that seem to have made Mrs Indira Gandhi’s annoyance through the 1974 PNE. As for Pakistan, it was frank; 1971’s decisive defeat rankled and the Bomb was designed to offset India’s superiority. Whether it does so or not is irrelevant here. The Pakistani Bomb has done great mischief. It made Zia-ul-Haq and Mirza Aslam Beg, Army chiefs in 1980s and early 1990s, arrogant; they said even the putative Pakistani Bomb has made Pakistan unassailable and they could do anything, even carry on a proxy war in Kashmir. Later, India chose to become a nuclear power and proved its prowess on May 11, 1998. Pakistanis countered it with their own atomic explosions. A frightened world’s perception was that the only place where a nuclear war can happen is the Subcontinent; the US advised talks. After much worsening of the situation during 2002, the two could see no alternative to normalisation. Vajpayee indicated it in April 2003 and set the talkathon rolling in January 2004. Indo-Pakistani atomic weapons have greatly strengthened the hardliners on both sides. The hubris these weapons systems have created is the greatest hurdle in the way of India-Pakistan friendship. This huge hurdle is rivaled by another: These weapons have destroyed the trust between the two countries. Who can forget that these are Doomsday weapons? There is no defence against them; all talk of missile defence systems is just that. Which government or general can trust an adversary that has nuclear tipped missiles at the ready? So long as Pakistan and India remain atomic powers, they will have to stay on hair trigger alert. Neither Islamabad can trust New Delhi nor vice versa. Even US good offices cannot remove the bleakness of outlook. One earnestly hopes this picture is overdrawn. The purpose is to underline the situation’s gravity. Conscious decisions to reverse the trend are possible, in theory. Would the possible become actual? But this is predicated on great many acts of faith about atomic weapons. Their mischief cannot be undone by mere CBMs. Indeed, CBMs can be extraordinarily treacherous red herring; they implicitly assume the long-term presence of atomic weapons; they seek merely to reduce the risks of accidents, bad ways of deploying, storage and transportation of these weapons and hope to prevent unauthorised launches. CBMs, while being useful, are likely to create false optimism - and at the cost of making nuclear weapons permanent. These weapons are a difficult problem that is required to be solved. The two leaderships should have realised that Composite Dialogue is going nowhere. Nor can it succeed because of current premises. Provided they genuinely want peace, friendship and cooperation among South Asian peoples and are prepared for acts of faith in seeking true reconciliation while ignoring vested interests, it can be done. The intellectual effort involved will certainly be taxing. Are there leaders ready to pick up this
gauntlet? |
Wrong order, right intrusion
A
road journey from Stockholm to Gothenburg is a delightful one at any time of the year, night or day. Our grand-daughter studied in Gothenburg. So when my friend Eric Nicholson asked us to join him for a short trip to Gothenburg, my wife and I were elated. The entire journey was a five-hour one with two stoppages and a night stoppage enroute. It taught us never to order an unfamiliar dish while travelling abroad. We left Platovagen Heights in Sollentuna at daybreak arriving at the village of Esklistuna on Lake Malkaren. The next segment of our road journey ended in the township of Junkoping on Lake Vattern. It was soon lunch time and we stopped at a sea food restaurant. The display chart showed an item “Pommefrites Korv”. Without consulting anyone around and in our zeal to offer something good we instantly and enthusiastically imagined that the item was Mumbai’s famous pomfret fish which could be ordered for Eric also. It was already 2 pm and everyone was hungry. My wife rushed to Eric, asked him to avoid sole fish and accept a surprise item of Mumbai pomfret fish which was a better delicacy instead. She also congratulated the restaurant manager for providing an Indian fish delicacy in such far-off land. The manager looked puzzled. Three full plates of Pommefrites Korv were ordered and we took our seats. A bell rang and three large plates containing four black meat sausages and a few pieces of potato chips each were placed on the dining table. We thought it was someone else’s order. Eric realised what was wrong. He took us to the menu display board and explained that the word pommefrites in Swedish language meant potato chips while korv meant meat sausages. That explained everything and everyone had a hearty laugh. Greatly embarrassed, we picked up some sandwiches and headed towards the township amidst great rush of Valentine revelers. We found a room for night stay but no place to park our car in any parking lot. Mr Eric thought fast, hired a caravan trailer and attached it to our car. Then he entered a spacious private bungalow and parked our vehicle there without asking permission from anyone. We made oursleves comfortable with available emergency light and material to cook. We meekly protested to Eric that we were unlawfully intruding into private premises. Eric promptly showed us a copy of a Swedish government order which stated: “Any person or vehicle may occupy any private premises, without prior permission from owner and stay there for night provided owners’ access to road is not obstructed.” We took this surprise as a compensation for the embarrassment suffered by us during lunch time. Next morning, amazingly, the lady of the house sent hot cups of mushroom soup for us before waving us off with a
smile.
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Disaster strikes an obscure beauty Katchal is a good place from which to understand the tragedy that struck the archipelago on Dec 26, when three tsunami waves, each about as tall as a coconut tree, pounded the island. It smashed school and government buildings, banks, hospitals and living quarters, all very close to the shoreline. Those who didn’t die outright rode those waves only to be smashed into hard ground, trees or other objects, sustaining multiple fractures. In terms of the number of people dead, or missing and presumed dead, it is the island that is the worst hit. Its population according to the 2001 Census is about 5012. The administration estimates that it had increased to 8,500 in the next few years. Village headmen there estimate 12,000. The official missing figure stands at 4657, and 96 bodies have been disposed of. Its geography obviously made it vulnerable. The presence of living spaces so close to the shore made its population vulnerable. Of course, no one had ever heard of a tsunami before. Four other small islands, Trinkat, Kondul, Pilomillow and Little Nicobar, were completely devastated, and the few survivors there had to be evacuated. More than 450 died in those islands. The final number for the islands may be anywhere between 7000 and 12,000. While it is still too early to take a final stock, certain things are fairly clear. It is the southern group of Nicobar island that have taken the brunt. Car Nicobar’s population figure is the highest at 20,292. More than 350 people dead, 300 people injured. In Chowra , 1,283 people were evacuated to neighbouring Teresa — about 40 were dead. In a small island called Pilomillow, its entire population of a 145 people plus some new settlers are dead. Two defence airstrips and several naval and coastguard stations of the Tri-services command was the saving grace in the disaster mitigation response that followed, and that story has been told. A big debate about allowing international aid, missed one essential point — unless those offering such aid came in their own aircraft and ships, they would only have caused more logistics problems. The problem here was not so much the resources, as the difficulty in reaching these to the areas hit. Jetties were destroyed and inland roads damaged. A few key lessons have already emerged: while disaster management courses for officers, hazard and vulnerability analysis methodologies, disaster management plans, agencies and task forces abound, why is the response always inadequate? A new mechanism has to be found — some of the elements of that mechanism are fairly clear. First, is a central disaster response agency, with branches in all states each oriented to the requirements of the area. The central agency should have access and interlinks with a variety of agencies, ranging from meteorological offices to the defence service and the coast guard, and the ability to mobilise and deploy on ground support. Media management seems a trivial issue compared to the loss of life and livelihood that one deals with in a disaster of this magnitude, but it is nevertheless an acknowledged component of disaster management, and something that can actually be used to aid the mitigation effort. The rather poor way in which top officials of the civil administration in the A & N handled the issue is a case in point — and one is not talking so much of the “ban” suddenly and ineffectually placed on taking journalists to the southern Nicobar group for a few days, as the way information was assessed and passed on. Training in this area becomes critical given the increasing presence of the international media in such situations, who, it could be clearly discerned, have not yet got rid of the “third world reporting” complex. Reviving the island’s economy so that it does not start degenerating and its 3.6 lakh population does not suffer is a key challenge ahead. An important element in that economy is tourism, and once relief operations are completed, a policy for revival has to be proactively formulated. |
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Defence notes by Girja Shankar Kaura
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peculiar situation has arisen in the Indian Air Force following a court case over promotions at the top level. The Western Air Command (WAC) has been left headless for more than 10 days now. With the High Court setting aside the result of the promotion board and the IAF’s appeal pending in the apex court, the WAC, which played the stellar role in the Kargil war with Pakistan in 1999, is now without a C-in-C. The Supreme Court has ordered the IAF to reconvene the promotion board and consider all the cases afresh. A former chief of the WAC, Air Marshal S.P. Tyagi, took over as the Chief of Air Staff following the retirement of Air Chief Marshal S. Krishnaswamy on December 31 last.
Naming of aircraft
Air Chief Marshal S.P. Tyagi had an interesting observation to make during his first media interaction last week. When asked who had given the name Tejas to the Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) being developed by the DRDO, the Air Chief Marshal said in the forces everybody had some name given to him. The Air Chief Marshal said that he was called “Bundle” in the IAF and he still did not know why and more importantly “I do not know who gave me this name. But I have this name”. He, however, clarified that the name Tejas was selected by former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee from a list of names forwarded to him by the MoD. The problem here was not so much the resources, as the difficulty in reaching these to the areas hit. Jetties were destroyed and inland roads damaged.
NCC expedition
to Everest
The National Cadet Corps (NCC) plans to launch a women’s expedition to the Everest under the aegis of the Army in June, 2005, according to the Director- General, NCC, Lt Gen MC Bhandari. The team will undergo one month’s glacier training, he told the 1,792 cadets, including 594 girls, who are attending the Republic Day camp. Approximately 100 foreign cadets from eight countries are expected to join the camp on January 15. Incidentally, the NCC has collected over Rs 13 lakh for the tsunami victims. The amount was donated to the Delhi Chief Minister’s fund when Mrs Sheila Dikshit visited the cadets earlier this week.
UN military adviser
Major Gen Randhir Kumar Mehta has been appointed the new Military Adviser in the Department of Peacekeeping Operations by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan. General Mehta will take over from Maj Gen Patrick Cammaert of the Netherlands. General Mehta had earlier served as Sector Commander with the United Nations Mission in Sierra Leone and was a member of India’s delegation in various peace talks. A graduate of the National Defence Services Staff College, the Higher Command Course and the National Defence College, General Mehta has been awarded the Yudh Seva Medal (YSM) for gallantry in operations in Sierra Leone and also the Vishisht Seva Medal (VSM). |
What counts is how much love there is in the giving and not how much we give. — Mother Teresa Remembering God cuts the chain of birth that rails along the fear of death on earth. — Guru Nanak  |
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The island of Katchal is about 425 km south of Port Blair and 150 km south of the Car Nicobar Air Force base. It is a breathtakingly beautiful place.
To the Indian mainlander, to whom the remote and dispersed Andaman and Nicobar islands occupy a unique place in his or her consciousness, where visions of beautiful beaches and Kala Pani prisoners intermingle, Katchal would have been yet another obscure name of an obscure place, expect, that it is the island that “heralded” the first sunrise of the new millennium.