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Politics over merit Pipelines for gas |
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| Integrated HQs Defence management has to be revamped Post-Kargil efforts to integrate the three Service Headquarters with the Defence Ministry have not made much headway for various reasons. The government has now decided to formally designate Army Headquarters as Integrated Headquarters (Army) with the Air Force to follow suit. |
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Unrest in Sri Lanka
Bull and bully
Not by quotas,
Prime Minister America has an
official language (yes, it’s English) Legal
notes
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Pipelines for gas Despite
the pressures from the US to abandon the Iran-Pakistan-India gas pipeline project, efforts appear to be on to see that it becomes a reality. It will be surprising for those who doubt the future of the project that the three-nation joint working group held talks in Islamabad on Tuesday to work out a formula for gas pricing. The pricing issue will be taken up again at the next meeting of the working group in New Delhi in July. None of the three countries believe that the Iranian nuclear issue can jeopardize the fate of the ambitious plan. With varying degrees of enthusiasm, they seem to be keen to pursue the project. Since India has made it clear that any decision on the pipeline plan will be solely guided by its national interests, the US has adopted another method to ensure that the Iran-Pakistan-India project becomes less attractive. Washington is giving its full backing to the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India gas pipeline idea. It is, perhaps, on behalf of the US that Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai has secured the UAE’s involvement in the second project so that it does not face any financial difficulties. Afghanistan will stand to benefit from the transit fee whereas India and Pakistan will get the gas. The UPA government in New Delhi will have to concentrate as much on the second pipeline plan as it is doing on the one coming from Iran, despite the opposition from the Left allies. It is all the more good if there are two pipelines through which gas flows into India. Supposing both projects become a reality, there will be competition between the suppliers — Iran and Turkmenistan — and in that situation, obviously, the buyers will be the gainers. The Iranian gas-pricing problem will be easier to tackle by obtaining gas supply from Turkmenistan at the same time.
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Integrated HQs Post-Kargil efforts to integrate the three Service Headquarters with the Defence Ministry have not made much headway for various reasons. The government has now decided to formally designate Army Headquarters as Integrated Headquarters (Army) with the Air Force to follow suit. It is not just a question of nomenclature. The idea of the integration is to improve defence management during peace time and ensure optimal and speedy decision-making during times of conflict. Senior Army officers have been expressing their unhappiness over the failure to implement the integration plans. It was the Kargil Review Committee (KRC) which noted that the armed forces’ headquarters were “outside the apex governmental structure” and called for a total reorganisation of the structure and interface between the Services and the MOD. A Group of Ministers had been appointed to conduct the review of the national security system that the KRC had called for, and a task force led by Mr Arun Singh specifically went into issues of defence management. It was this task force which recommended the redesignation, in order to “correct the erroneous perception that the armed forces headquarters do not participate in policy formulation and are outside the apex government structure.” There is more involved here than just perception, however. The task force pointed out that the existing procedures involving multiple levels and channels were leading to delays in decision making, and that progressive decentralisation and delegation of powers must be made to the Service Headquarters. This is where more progress has to be made. And there are other crucial recommendations, the most important being the need for single-point military advice from a Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) and defence planning stretched over for at least 15 years. A CDS is also supposed to command our strategic forces and ensure greater coordination between the three Services. The recently announced joint military doctrine is only the first step in this connection. Defence management has to be modernised and made more effective with a sense of urgency, and it has to go beyond mere changes in nomenclature.
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God is love, but get it in writing. — Gypsy Rose Lee |
Unrest in Sri Lanka Strange
but true. An undeclared war is coexisting with a cease fire agreement (CFA). It’s war alongside the ceasefire. You have to give it to the LTTE. Not for nothing is it the world’s deadliest guerrilla force, its cadres uniquely strung on a cyanide capsule. The LTTE has now taken a leaf out of Pakistan’s book of waging both direct and indirect war against the enemy. Ever since Sri Lanka’s new President, Mr Mahinda Rajapakse, took office in November 2005, the Tigers have calibrated the war of attrition through Claymore mines, suicide attacks and proxy groups against the Sri Lankan government without walking out of the four-year-old CFA. In the last six months, nearly 500 persons have been killed compared to 700 in the previous four years. LTTE brinkmanship is designed to force the government to address its core concerns: Karuna, the rebel commander who has challenged the legitimacy of the LTTE as the sole representatives of Tamils; and a political package on devolution to turn its de facto control over the North-East, de jure. LTTE supremo Prabhakaran’s warnings to Colombo last year were taken rather lightly after Mr Rajapakse turned the clock back from a federal solution offered by his predecessor, Mr Ranil Wickremesinghe, to a unitary one. Further, as per the joint statement issued after the February talks in Geneva over implementing the CFA, the government has done little to rein in Karuna. The two rounds of low intensity conflict have escalated from Claymore mines to naval engagements culminating in the suicide attack against Army Commander Lt.-Gen Sanath Fonseka. Sea Tiger suicide strikes have sunk at least five Sri Lankan Navy vessels, including three Israeli fast attack Dvora boats. Both sides have exchanged artillery, mortar and small arms fire. Sri Lankan Air Force jets have attacked LTTE strongholds and its air base in Irnamadu. The Nordic Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) announced that it was no longer monitoring the CFA but war after one of its members on board a Navy vessel escorting a troop ship flying the SLMM flag narrowly escaped a Sea Tigers suicide attack. A war of words followed between the LTTE and the SLMM, its commander Brig Ulf Henricsson questioning the right to sea of a non-state actor. This angered LTTE political Commissar SP Tamilchelvam so much that he questioned the propriety of the SLMM in passing any judgment on the sovereign right of access to air and sea space adjacent to the LTTE homeland as well as in classifying state and non-state players. That was not all. The LTTE warned the SLMM not to board Sri Lanka Navy ships and its Sea Tiger commander, Colonel Soosai, said: “We will declare war to exercise our freedom.” In fact, the Sea Tigers have demanded protection from SLMM on a par with the Navy. A clear but not a new lesson from Sri Lanka’s experience in conflict resolution is that a CFA cannot exist in a political vacuum and a political process has to operate in tandem. The political process has been missing since April 2003 and it is this status quo that the LTTE wants changed by threatening the CFA and taking the war to Colombo. It knows the last thing the government wants is Tigers prowling in the tourist-rich suburbs of the capital. The Sri Lankan economy is growing between 6 and 7 per cent thanks to the CFA. Mr Rajapakse’s restraint is driven by the recognition that the balance of the advantage lies with the LTTE. While neither side wants war and both want the cover of the CFA, each has its own limitations in dousing the fires. The LTTE has made full use of the CFA in strengthening its military capability. The deficiencies caused to the Navy by the tsunami have been made up. Two Zlin aircraft and one helicopter with two trained pilots are the LTTE’s new weapons. A Kamikaze a la 9/11 strike on Colombo cannot be ruled out. The LTTE has one weakness: manpower. The Sri Lankan Security Forces (SLSF) on the other hand have been neglected and are at low operational readiness. Tanks, guns and aircraft are at minimum scales. Low morale, growing desertions, and the unprecedented casualties in recent months could see a repeat of the 2000 Jaffna crisis. The capture of Jaffna is part of the LTTE’s unfinished Eelam agenda. Karuna, the champion of the Tamils in the East, is the big worry for the LTTE. It believes that the SLSF is supporting the 300-odd Karuna group. Henricsson has confirmed this. Frustrated over the failure to trap Karuna, the LTTE has been targeting the SLSF. And the SLSF, unable to strike back at the LTTE, are believed to be taking revenge on Tamil civilians. The continued killings of Tamils and Sinhalese in Jaffna and Trinco have the potential to blow up into a communal war resulting in hundreds upon thousands of refugees, fleeing to India. A trickle has already begun. The Sri Lanka government is both unable and unwilling to hold back Karuna who is seen as God-sent to break the LTTE hegemony over the North-East. He helps in reverting North-East into North and the East. The hardline Marxist JVP, a powerful ally of the government, considers Karuna a political and military asset. They have been urging the goverment to scrap the CFA and declare war. The government says that Karuna is an internal matter of the LTTE, he broke away after the CFA was signed; his group operates outside the government-controlled areas and the burden of disarming Karuna is not on the government. The LTTE’s armed proxy groups are in response to the Karuna phenomenon. Like the government disowns Karuna, the LTTE disowns its new proxy groups. The LTTE is fighting on two fronts: the government and Karuna. Simultaneously, Sinhalese and Tamil civilians are being targeted by rival proxy groups. April and May, the worst months, have accounted for nearly 350 killed. The Norwegians have failed to save the CFA and the situation looks irredeemable. Japan’s peace envoy Yasushi Akashi dashed to Kilinochchi but failed to either meet Prabhakaran or persuade the LTTE to return to talks. Others tried but the LTTE will not budge, adding fresh conditions that killings of Tamils had to stop in the North-East and troops returned to barracks before the resumption of talks. What will deter the LTTE from further acts of violence ? Words certainly have had no effect. The US is usually the harshest in condemning the LTTE. It announced that it would lead an international campaign to force the Tigers to abandon violence. The European Union too has used strong words and is likely to ban the LTTE. The donors who oversee the peace process and are to meet in Tokyo later this month will not be able to break the LTTE intransigence. India’s studied indifference to the worsening security situation is intriguing even as the LTTE’s naval threat becomes more menacing. Till India gets more directly involved politically and militarily, employing carrot and stick, things will only get worse. Only India has the means, though not the will, to defuse the situation. India’s claim that it exercises decisive influence without being directly involved is bizarre. In the meantime, Sri Lankan Sinhalese will have to learn to share power with Tamils or endure an optimal level of conflict - like Indians do in J&K — hopefully without full-scale war, but notionally within the framework of a CFA till a final political solution can be
reached.
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Bull and bully Must
have heard of “bulls keeping company with the bears in the share market”? This time, however, it wasn’t so and the bulls’ might didn’t match the bears’ clairvoyance. It wasn’t a crash but a thud. Bulls fall like that only. When it comes to appreciation of or measuring power as a motor force, we generally refer to horsepower, but when we really intend poking fun at the wasteful use of one’s strength and might, the appellation or the analogy always has a bull in its reference. And perhaps rightly so, as they say that a bull is the one who waits for a bout and invites us to take it by the horns and enjoy a flight in the space. A youthful and debonair calf challenged an old bull into “a friendly match”. Big bull knew the vigour and agility of the young one so he had to save face but be ready for some semblance of a fight. He told the calf, “No darling, if you really want to test my might, then let us compete in the game of shaking the ears, only when one is sitting.” Ajit might have quipped,
“Smart guy-ka husband, I mean.” Old age robs even the bulls of their might. Bully is a class unto himself. Outwardly frowning, guardedly infuriated, seemingly on fire, secretly ejected out of his own self, acidically articulate, suffering from what Khushwant Singh calls verbal diarrhoea, and high-decibelly loudmouthed; but the bully is at the same time always aware of his timid white-liver and yielding bowels. I have known his variety in a cabby Nirbhay Singh, who when he saw another cabbie reaching the middle of the bridge with his cab, shouted on the latter, “gaddi peechhe kar le varna Kikar Singh wali kar dayanga” (Pull your cart back or else I’ll do unto you what I did to Kikar Singh).” The other cabbie retorted and challenged with expletives galore and in an equally threatening tone, “And if I tell you to go ahead and do what you did to Kikar Singh then?” “I’ll let you have the right of way and go first, or what!” submitted Nirbhay Singh the bully. The bullshitting variety is mostly found in officers donning the uniform, be it khaki or olives. Generally it flows from the top downwards. On quantity of work the junior officer will be told, “no matter how much you do, you’ll never do enough.” On quality, the observation would be, “the minimum acceptable level is perfection.” An advice from the commander would always be “Eat a live toad as first thing in the morning and nothing worse will happen to you for the rest of the day”. All bullshit. Isn’t it? But some times bullshit splashes on to the face also. An officer asked a johnny, “Hey, do you have change for a hundred rupee note.” “Sure buddy” said he. “Is that the way to talk to officers? Let’’ try again. Do you have the change?” the officer tried to browbeat. “No Saar!” gibed the
johnny.
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Not by quotas, Prime Minister Dear Mr Prime Minister, Two words of explanation at the beginning: Why am I not addressing you by your first name, as I have always done, as an old friend and class-mate? Because it concerns your role as the Prime Minister of this nation, seized of the complexity of the issues involved, but also obligated to address them. And why am I writing this as an ‘Open Letter’ instead of sending it to your office? For fear that it will have to run the gauntlet of a battery of bureaucrats before it has a chance to reach your desk. The whole matter is too pressing for that. We all know that we are caught in a maelstrom at this juncture of time, a disorderly tumult. It is as if we were a nation at war with itself. Reservations are the current question, and despite all the agitations and counter-agitations, things will eventually calm down, for some expedient formula or the other — expedient, not lasting or meaningful —will be worked out. Like implementing the decisions only from the next academic session perhaps, or increasing the number of seats in professional institutions. The question to be asked, however, is: when we think in this manner, are we not thinking only of palliative measures? Postponing by a year the implementation of decisions already announced will only create an illusion of a solution, enough perhaps to give the agitating anti-reservationists the feeling of having ‘won’, but will the hollowness of that ‘victory’ not be apparent to everyone, come next year? Increasing the number of seats may bring some over-all benefits, but does that address the all-important issue of merit, the quality of the professionals we eventually produce, and place ourselves in the hands of? What we need to do is to think differently. The fundamental question remains the same: social justice — social justice not for one group or set of groups, but for all — but the answer needs to be found differently than in terms of the comforting formula of reservations in perpetuity. Who will deny that wrongs need to be righted, and every effort must be made to create the right atmosphere and the right opportunity for the perennially disadvantaged? But is this best achieved through reservations? As of now, reservations are based primarily on grounds of caste, but is caste, as a marker of social status, the major disabling factor for sections of society, or is it something else? Like their depressed economic state? If caste remained translated into poverty and deprivation for long centuries, is the opposite of it equally true — that poverty and deprivation stemmed only from caste? And if countless people remain in a state of want, regardless of the caste they belong to, what are caste-based reservations likely to do for them, except raise the level of their bitterness and hostility? There are no easy answers to questions like this anywhere, certainly none in our land with its layered history and the demons of discrimination that it has harboured. All the same, is it not possible for us to move away, gradually if not at once, from thinking of reservations as a solution, as a panacea that will resolve these issues for us? And, instead, think, concertedly and hard, about the alternative of enablement, for instance? This is just one possibility, but allow me to explore the idea a bit. Since jobs, and admissions to institutions of higher or professional learning, are what reservations are chiefly about, it comes down to issues concerning education, and the acquisition of skills and abilities, that enable a person to compete. That being so, is it not possible to set a system into place that will provide, at state expense, a disadvantaged person with increased, intensive opportunity to raise the level of his or her education and skill, and thus enable him or her to compete with everyone else? The criteria for disadvantaged can be laid down but they must be irrespective of religion or caste or extraction. The person should have already demonstrated his or her potential by attaining at least to a certain level of ability, as reflected in his or her results at the preceding level. ‘Increased, intensive opportunity’ means the provision of summer classes/remedial courses/coaching, if one so likes, in designated institutions, but always at state expense. The system will have to be thought through with care. But different tiers at which this kind of remedial teaching/coaching should be provided can be thought of: after the tenth class or 10+2; then again after graduation; and after a Master’s or equivalent degree. For preparing for competitive examinations — for entry whether into the civil services or to medical/engineering/IT institutions — once again the state can set up a mechanism of a similar kind. The previous performance of a student at a lower examination can determine whether he or she is entitled to this kind of coaching at state expense, or receiving a scholarship in addition, or not. But this approach, and putting a system such as this into place, will enable the student/applicant to raise his or her level of merit and compete with everyone else, rather than go in ‘through the back door of reservations’ as the case now is. The costs of such a system will need to be worked out, but the benefits to the nation can be incalculable. It can take the nation forward, not backwards. And no price is high enough for that. This is just one thought, in a raw form. There must be many that others have. The point I am trying to make it is that if the present situation can be frozen at the point at which it is, instead of hurried, ad-hoc decisions being taken and announced, room and time can be created for a calmer consideration of the whole set of issues. At the moment the sea is too choppy and the winds that are howling are too fierce. I close this with respect and admiration. The writer, a former IAS officer, is currently Professor Emeritus at the Panjab University, Chandigarh. |
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America has an official language (yes, it’s English) IN
a new twist to the contentious immigration debate in the United States, the US Senate has voted to designate English the national language of the United States, and to effectively ban federal government ordinances and services in any language other than English. The 63-34 vote, on an amendment offered by the Oklahoma Republican James Inhofe, split the Senate along largely party lines, with only nine of the 44 Democrats voting for it, and just one Republican voting against. The amendment has mainly symbolic significance and may not make it into the immigration bill that eventually emerges from the Senate, let alone into the final version that must be agreed with the House for Congress to send for signature to President George Bush. But in a confusing debate passions ran high, with the Democratic minority leader Harry Reid labelling the amendment “racist”, and Ken Salazar, a Colorado Democrat of Hispanic ancestry, calling it “divisive and anti-American”. Not only does it overrule any claims to multilingual services, but the measure also stipulates rigorous testing to ensure would-be citizens have a sound knowledge of both the English language and US history. Muddying the waters further, the Senate then passed by a 58-39 margin a more moderate amendment that declares English merely to be the “common unifying language of the United States”. The furore over the language proposals are more evidence of how Mr Bush’s prime-time address on immigration, when he proposed a “sensible middle way”, has failed to bridge the gulf between the two sides. In his speech on Monday, the President announced the dispatch of 6,000 National Guardsmen to beef up controls along the 2,000-mile US/Mexico border, but also urged a mechanism that would permit long-term illegal immigrants to apply for citizenship. The pro-immigrant lobby is increasingly worried about the rightward tilt of the debate. The Senate passed a separate amendment this week backing construction of a 370-mile-long “fence” along the border, and the move to formally designate English as America’s national language is seen as yet another gambit by immigration foes to toughen the final bill. Legend has it that English only defeated German by a single vote to become the official language of the United States, in a 1795 Congressional debate. Until now, America has never had an official language. Before World War I, more than 6 per cent of US primary school children were taught in German. More than 45 million Americans say their ancestry is German. Mass immigration throughout the 20th century means 336 languages are currently in use, including 176 indigenous dialects. Over 47 million Americans speak a language other than English at home. Spanish speakers make up just under 30 million of that total. By arrangement with
The Independent |
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Legal notes The
trial proceedings against Punjab IGP Sumedh Singh Saini, senior police officer Sukmohinder Singh Sandhu, and two other cops, in a case pertaining to the “disappearance” of two Ludhiana businessmen and their drivers from “illegal” detention 12 years, ago has entered a crucial phase. The CBI is seeking framing of charges against them. The Agency’s prosecutor, while opening arguments before Sessions Judge Vinod Goel here earlier this month, claimed that it has collected enough evidence to show that a “prima facie” case for putting the police officers on trial could be made out. The case against Saini, who was at the centre of various controversies during the Punjab Police’s drive against terrorism, was transferred to Delhi by the Supreme Court on the petition of Amar Kaur, the mother of Ludhiana businessman Vinod Kumar, who went missing from the custody of Ludhiana Kotwali station along with his brother-in-law Ashok Kumar and driver Mukhtiyar Singh, after detention between February 23, 1994 and March 3, 1994. After exhaustive arguments, the court has posted further hearing in the case for May 26 and 27. Waiting for implementation A Chandigarh-based former Commandant of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) S.S. Ahluwalia, whose voluntary retirement with full pension benefits was ordered by the Delhi High Court in January this year, is running from pillar-to-post to get the order implemented by the force. The court had given the Union Home Ministry eight weeks time to complete the process. Ahluwalia, who had joined CRPF after a stint in the Army as an officer, was involved in a protracted legal battle with the force after his plea for voluntary retirement, made after putting in over 25 years of service in July 1993, was turned down. Not only this, when he made a fresh request in 1994, proceedings were initiated against him by serving a charge sheet for imposition of “major penalty”. Consequently, a drastic cut was ordered in his pension, which the High Court termed as an action laced with “immense prejudice”. Ahluwalia has filed a contempt petition in the Court for CRPF’s failure to implement the order. Rohini court complex The setting up of a new court complex at Rohini, as part of the Delhi District Judiciary’s drive to establish district courts in each of the nine districts, was strongly resisted by lawyers of the capital’s largest court complex Tis Hazari. It has finally become a reality. This is thanks to the tough stand taken by the Delhi High Court in curbing the advocates’ stir. After realising that a futile agitation against the complex could not be sustained any longer, the advocates seem to be reconciled to setting up their offices there. It was evident from the fact that a foundation stone for the Rs 28 crore lawyers chamber block was laid down by Supreme Court Judge, Justice K G Balakrishnan. The block that will house nearly 500 chambers would have two big halls, library, communication centre, canteen and car park for over 200 vehicles. Delhi District Judge Ms Aruna Suresh said that the court complex would be one of its kind, with modern architectural features, and the lawyers should have no complaints working there — rather they would enjoy it. Delhi High Court Acting Chief Justice Vijender Jian, instrumental in tackling the strike by the lawyers, assured the High Court’s full co-operation for the success of the project. |
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From the pages of Hyderabad’s future
Once again the Hyderabad Union talks have ended inconclusively and except for the assurance that the talks were held in an atmosphere of “goodwill and cordiality”, which is held out as a promise of settlement of some future date, there is nothing to indicate that the differences are being narrowed down. It is reported to be the Hyderabad delegation’s contention that the Government of the Indian Union had failed to implement certain terms of the Standstill Agreement. It is not difficult for us to hazard a guess on what the delegation has in mind. Their charges probably relate to what Mir Laik Ali vaguely refers to as “subversive activities on the border. “ While the delegation is said to be again claimed independent status for the Nizam’s State, the Government of India is believed to have insisted on the democratisation of the State and its accession to the Indian Union. |
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