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Strike and after Terror alert |
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Growth surge
What’s cooking in Pakistan?
Winning hearts and minds
DOCUMENT Europe is being ‘re-nationalised’ Delhi Durbar
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Strike and after
It is in the nation’s interest that the anti-reservation agitation by medicos has been called off although after a stern warning of the Supreme Court. Patients will particularly heave a sigh of relief because it had crippled health services. Now that the highest court is seized of the matter, it is only natural that the students should await the judgement. At the same time, the government too should not take any steps which might be construed as provocative in such a charged atmosphere. The minimum that it can do is to reassure the student community that it will honour the court verdict whatever its nature. It must remember that the agitation has only been withdrawn under court orders. Public feelings in urban India are still very strong on the issue and any attempt to introduce OBC reservation forcibly would only divide the country along caste lines. The breather provided by the end of the agitation should be used by the government to make an honest appraisal of the whole situation. The quota question should not be hinged on the opposition of a few protesting students or the fetish of a few self-serving politicians. What matters is the interest of society at large calculated on the basis of unselfish specialists and social thinkers. The authorities must have an overall view of the advisability of bringing in a piece of legislation which does nothing more than pampering a few undeserving people — and garnering votes for certain politicians without really helping those whose cause they claim to represent. If at all it is found that reservation has indeed been an unqualified success in improving the social and economic condition of the most deserving beneficiaries, without being detrimental to the interests of others, it may be introduced by all means, that too only in a phased, scientific manner. Trying to have it in place from the next session itself, as Mr Arjun Singh wants, without bothering either about infrastructure or quality of education, would unnecessarily lead to social and political tensions the nation cannot afford. |
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Terror alert
While India and Pakistan were reiterating “their commitment to fight terrorism in all its forms and manifestations” in Islamabad on Wednesday, terrorists were busy executing their plans on this side of the divide. They could have blown up the RSS headquarters in Nagpur but for an alert police and intelligence network. The three heavily armed militants in police uniform, believed to be members of the Lashkar-e-Toiyaba, who were on their way to the RSS head office in an Ambassador car, were shot dead following an encounter with the security forces. One can easily imagine the repercussions of what they were up to. This was the second unsuccessful attempt at the RSS complex. Loopholes, if any, in the security at places of religio-cultural significance and the headquarters of the parties like the BJP and the Shiv Sena should be plugged quickly. After all, terrorism remains as potent a threat to the nation as it ever was. While the militants’ plans were foiled in Nagpur, this could not be possible in Srinagar. Terrorists hurled hand-grenades at two buses carrying tourists from West Bengal while on the way to Dal Lake. Tourists are the latest target of terrorists. Militant outfits, perhaps, fear that the revival of tourism in the valley will infuse a new life into the economy of Jammu and Kashmir, making it difficult for them to find new recruits. At a time when the local support base of terrorists is eroding fast, revival of economic activity may lead to militancy dying its natural death. The beneficiaries of terrorism would obviously do everything within their means to prevent such a happy scenario becoming a reality. Whatever the terrorists’ strategy, they cannot sustain themselves once their umbilical chord in Pakistan gets snapped. Since Pakistan has been admitting for some time, as it did on Wednesday during the Home Secretary-level dialogue with India, that terrorism must be eliminated in the interest of peace in the region, Islamabad should move fast and eliminate the infrastructure of these elements. It should dismantle all the terrorist training camps and communication network in Pakistan to justify its claim that it is taking the necessary steps to tackle terrorism. Merely stressing the need “to pursue effective and sustained action against terrorists” will not do. It must do more than it has done. |
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Growth surge
If there were still some sceptics left about the Indian growth story, they can slink away into the shadows. The final numbers are out, and the feel good factor is coming not just from the fact that the Indian economy grew 8.4 per cent during the last fiscal year, but that it grew 9.3 per cent during the fourth quarter. Just how good that is can be gauged from the fact that only the Chinese grew faster, and even they are not too far ahead. What is more, our worst fears about sluggish agricultural growth have been allayed, with the sector growing at 3.9 per cent, as against the previous year’s measly 0.7 per cent. Of course, our growth story has just begun, while China is riding high on several continuous years of comparable growth. And clearly, there is no room for complacency, as the gains made can be lost easily. The jump in agricultural growth in fact suggests that other sectors have not grown as much as they should have. Energy shortages and infrastructure woes are plainly the major reasons. The Finance Minister has admitted as much in stating that mining, electricity, gas, and water supply sectors could have done better than they did. Power generation did pick up in the last quarter, but without major reform, demand will continue to outstrip supply. Trade, hotels, transport and communication managed a 11.5 per cent growth, but not much higher than the previous year’s. Manufacturing has grown at nine per cent, which is reassuring after a worrying time it had a couple of years ago. Also, the economy should not be overly reliant on services. With better infrastructure, this sector can only boom. The growth story may well exert upward pressure on interest rates. The high current account deficit and net FII outflows, going by the bearish sentiment on the stock market, is a serious worry – as are high crude prices and a falling rupee. Effective reforms are a must if high rates are to be sustained. And these would require a strong political will and persistence. |
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Learning is better than house and
land. — A proverb |
What’s cooking in Pakistan?
FULL of complexities and facing myriad problems, like the rest of the subcontinent, Pakistan is convulsed at present by two major issues, the revolt in Balochistan and Gen Pervez Musharraf’s crafty plan for his re-election as President without having to give up his military uniform. Both can have far-reaching consequences for domestic stability as well as the future of the volatile region that includes Afghanistan and Iran. A further complicating factor in the situation is the growing disillusionment with each other of the United States and General Musharraf though they supposedly remain “firm allies” in the “war on terrorism”. The virtual insurrection in Balochistan, blandly denied by the Pakistan government, is the third since 1948 in the country’s largest province that also has the smallest population and is enviably rich in energy and mineral resources. By keeping the media out of the troubled area, the regime has successfully enforced a news blackout on unending clashes, constant bomb explosions, and almost routine blowing up of natural gas pipelines by rebels who complain of being “robbed” of their natural resources for the benefit of “Punjab and Islamabad”. Even so, detailed information on Balochistan came out last week at a conference of experts in Washington, organised by the wholly government-financed United States Institute of Peace. Mr. Selig Harrison, an authority on Baloch and Afghan affairs, disclosed, for instance, that more than 25,000 Pakistani security forces, including six Army brigades, were fighting the Baloch Liberation Army. The Baloch insurgents were in a much stronger position this time round than in the past because all the major tribes were united and their cadres “better trained and disciplined”. In neighouring Iran, he revealed, Tehran was “bombing and strafing” the rebellious Baloch tribes, suspecting that they were collaborating with the US Special Forces already operating inside that country. Washington’s official policy so far has been not to say anything about Balochistan on the plea that it is Pakistan’s “internal matter”. Mr Harrison wanted this policy “reversed” because of America’s vital stakes in the peace and stability of the region. He even advocated the termination of US military and economic aid to Pakistan until it “ended the carnage in Balochistan” and started negotiating with the aggrieved people. Two other scholars with direct personal knowledge of Balochistan backed Mr Harrison. It was Senator Sanaullah Baloch, not any foreign expert however who dominated the proceedings at the USIP though he was not present but spoke to it by video telephone. He alleged that the Pakistan government had “pressured” the US State Department to cancel his American visa. He described Balochistan as a “buffer” between two major powers, Pakistan and Iran, and gave a call for its secession. Senator Baloch also alleged that the Musharraf regime had, for all practical purposes, handed over the port of Gwadar to the Chinese who have built it. No wonder then that three Chinese engineers were killed by Balochis angry over being kept aloof from the Gwadar project completely. No one, however, expects Balochistan to secede from Pakistan. For, however strong it may be the Balochi sentiment cannot assume the dimensions of the 1971 events in what was then East Pakistan and is now Bangladesh. Geography makes that impossible, and Balochistan is too sparsely populated to withstand the might of the Pakistan Army. But the trouble it is causing the Musharraf regime could get worse. At the same time the unease in the US-Pakistan relations looks like being aggravated by Afghanistan. Washington knows how right President Hamid Karzai is in complaining that Pakistan is sending suicide bombers into Afghanistan to help the Taliban’s revival. On the other hand, the General has to take note of the strong wave of anti-US feeling across his country even within the ruling establishment that resents “America’s war” in which Pakistan “is killing its own people”. There is no hiding the Army’s unhappiness over its heavy casualties in Waziristan. Furthermore, the Pakistani feeling about Afghanistan is that the Americans would soon pack up and leave. Pakistan must therefore protect its interests in Pakistan that “do not coincide with those of the US”. This dovetails neatly with General Musharraf’s game plan for his own future. He wants another five years as both President and Army Chief, and he wants the present national and state assemblies to sanction this before their dissolution in 2007 rather than risk the issue going to parliament and the provincial legislatures to be elected later. For this purpose, given the inchoate configuration of political forces in Pakistan, the General’s best bet is his alliance with the Jamiat-ul-Ulema-e-Islam (JUI) leader, Maulana Fazalur Rahman, who had done the General’s bidding the last time. Hence General Musharraf’s attempt to be seen to be “standing up to America”. The signal he has sent is indeed significant. For no reason, he suddenly dismissed the liberal Governor of the North-West Frontier Province and appointed in his place the former Commander of the Pershawar Crops, Lt.-General Jan Mohammed Arkazai, who hates the Americans as intensely as they hate him. This, however, is not enough to ensure the success of the re-election plans, which has given Chaudhari Shujaat Hussain, president of the Muslim League faction that broke away from the former Prime Minister, Mr Nawaz Sharif, a god-sent opportunity to acquire enormous clout, outshining even the Prime Minister. A measure of the Chaudhari’s newfound power is that at his behest the President immediately ordered the National Accountability Board, headed by Lt.-General Aziz, to drop its inquiry into the currently raging sugar scandal. There was much flutter across Pakistan when the two exiled former Prime Ministers, Ms Benazir Bhutto of the Pakistan People’s Party and Mr Nawaz Sharif of the Muslim League (Nawaz), signed a “Charter of Democracy”. But General Musharraf trashed it immediately, while most others laughed at it because of the past hatred of the two leaders for each other. Both still want to maintain their hopes of cooperation. But Mr Sharif is apprehensive that Ms Bhutto might do a deal with the Army. For her part, Ms Bhutto is not averse to an understanding with General Musharraf and the Army. In fact, the Musharraf regime did send some emissaries to her in the US. Her advice to them was that the head of either the ISI or Military Intelligence should negotiate with her. Obviously, the lady knows that in Pakistan power grows out of the barrel of a
gun.
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Winning hearts and minds
I was commanding a post in Nagaland in 1970. The insurgency was at a high. A thick jungle covered the 1km separating the post from the village. One selfstyled (SS) Major Sudure belonged to this village. I set myself the task of capturing him. In addition to searching the intervening jungle speculatively and at random, we would cordon and search his house often at night. His wife was always helpful. Lighting a plant root for illumination she would show me around the entire soot-darkened dwelling. She even warned me to keep clear of the pig tied in one corner who eyed me with unconcealed hostility. Her concern only added to my frustration. I could never get Sudure´. Yet I knew he visited; his wife was visibly pregnant after a few months. Winning hearts and minds was a priority. I gifted them rations, medicines, iron sheets and other items, took part in their grief and gaiety, played football and ate snails with them, taught their children, et al. I joined them in festivities and visited the village frequently, especially on occasions when they gathered in numbers. Memorising their names was almost impossible and I concentrated on faces and other kinesics. I could relate one person to a left-eye twitch, another to a prominent forehead bump, yet another to a very firm handshake and such like. I never missed the Sunday church where the whole village attended. After the service was over I would take the pulpit and exhort them to shun violence and join the mainstream. I also asked them to persuade Sudure´ to surrender. Their vigorous approval of my sentiments enthused me into believing that peace was near, at least in “my” village. Then in August 1971 we got sudden orders to move out of Nagaland for the impending war. With time, Sudure´ went out of my mind. In 1978 I was posted back to Nagaland as a commanding officer. My old post was outside my jurisdiction, but curiosity took me there on a Sunday. I had learnt that Sudure´ had subsequently been captured by the security forces, and after a year in jail had come overground. He had also been promoted a SS Colonel. I was eager to meet him. The present post commander accompanied me to the church. The service was already in progress when we arrived. As we sat down the person sitting on my left shook my hand. His unmistakably firm grip brought back memories and we exchanged smiles. I looked around and could see many other familiar faces giving me knowing glances. As of old, a young girl brought me a hymnal, opened it and pointed out the page and the line being sung. As the singing went on, the post commander whispered in my right ear. “Sir, the person sitting on your left is SS Colonel Sudure´”. |
DOCUMENT To date, there have been no authentic, overarching studies assessing the cost of elections in India. One undeniable factor is that the absence of serious enforcement of the legal provisions requiring political parties to maintain accounts and to have them audited with respect to election expenditures means there is a clear lack of transparency in this area. On the one hand, political parties and candidates in India spend much more money than in other countries of parallel economic development. Yet at the same time, the cost of holding elections in India per registered voter is quite low—about 28 rupees. (This is based on an estimate of total expenditure by the government of India, at Rs 13,000 million, which is 17 times the expenditure of the state of Madhya Pradesh.) Surprisingly, there are no direct legal provisions on the issue of election funding, or for that matter, on any other aspect of political party finance. The limited (but important) provision relating to control of election expenditure is laid down in the Representation of People Act (1951). There is no mention of how political parties are to raise money needed for election campaigns or for meeting their day-to-day expenses. It was only in 1996, through a decision of the Supreme Court, that certain guidelines were established: political parties are required to file tax returns (as per section 13A of the Indian Income Tax Act, 1961) in order for the contesting candidates of those parties to benefit from an exemption from the prescribed ceiling of the election expenditure. Another reference to political funding is contained in section 293A, which was introduced through an amendment in 1985, of the Indian Companies Act (1956). This section stipulates a limit of 5 percent of the average profit for the last three years can be paid by a company to a political party or to a person for political purposes. Another indirect reference is contained in the regulations of the Commission, where media prime time is made available free to various national and state political parties for election campaigning. Campaign funding is not a part of the electoral budget; there is no direct state funding of election campaigning. Private contributions generally come from the business community, many members of which are thought to expect special attention if their candidate wins. There is absolutely no transparency in this area. The national commission appointed to review the working of the Constitution (hereinafter the Constitutional Commission) has, in its report, stated the following: [Political parties need hefty contributions from companies and from other less desirable sources. The greater the contribution, the greater the risk of dependence, corruption and lack of probity in public life....Quite often, funding commitments do not reach the parties, but rather go directly to the candidate and his/her inner circle of supporters.... Transparency is needed for both the contributions received by political parties and candidates, as well as in their expenditures. For a long time, there was a gaping hole in the form of Explanation 1 to section 77(1) of the Representation of People Act (1951), under which the amounts spent by persons other than the candidate and his election agent were not counted as election expenses. This meant that there could never be any violation of expenditure limits, however realistically they might be fixed. But following a 1996 Supreme Court judgment and the recommendation of the Constitutional Commission, this Explanation 1 was amended in 2003. Any money spent by a recognized political party on its 40 identified leaders during the period of an electoral campaign is exempt from inclusion in the ceiling of election expenditures of individual candidates set up by the parties. Such exemption extends to expenditures incurred for air travel (whether regular flights or chartered aircraft) by those 40 leaders of the party. Earlier, part of such expense on air travel of party leaders would have been presumed to have been incurred by the candidates and counted towards their prescribed ceiling on electoral expenditures. The number of leaders has been fixed at 20 for political parties other than those recognized (but registered) by the Election Commission of India. In our opinion, this step by the government has only confused the situation even more and made little headway toward increasing transparency. To put this problem in perspective, it is apt to quote from the judgment of the Supreme Court: The political parties in their quest for power spend more than one thousand crore of rupees on the General Election (Parliament alone), yet nobody accounts for the bulk of the money so spent and there is no accountability anywhere. Nobody discloses the source of the money. Furthermore, the judgment states: When the elections are fought with unaccounted money, the persons elected in the process can think of nothing except getting right by amassing black money. They retain power with the help of black money and while in office collect more and more to spend the same in the next election... Unless the statutory provisions meant to bring transparency in the functioning of the democracy are strictly enforced and the election-funding is made transparent, the vicious circle cannot be broken and the corruption cannot be eliminated from the country. The issue of state funding or budgetary support to political parties, in view of the existing loopholes in the law, has been debated in India for a long time, and there have been a number of committees established to look into this question (the Goswami Committee, The Indrajit Gupta Committee on State Funding of Elections, the 128th Report of the Indian Law Commission etc.). However, no consensus has been reached. The above is excerpted from “Case study (2) India” by former Chief Election Commissioner T.S. Krishnamurthy and Vijay Patidar, in the UN report “CORE: A global survey on the cost of registration and elections.”  |
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Europe is being ‘re-nationalised’
Europe’s revolutionary experiment in political union is faltering. Political life across Europe is being renationalized, plunging the enterprise of European integration into its most serious crisis since World War II. In Britain and Poland in the last month, nationalistic parties uneasy with integration into the European Union have scored major advances. The EU constitution, rejected last year by France and the Netherlands, is dead in the water. Economic nationalism and protectionism are surging. The French, Italian, Spanish and Polish governments recently have taken steps to protect national industries from foreign takeover. On a continent that dreamed of eliminating national borders, hostility toward immigrants — especially those from Muslim countries — is causing national boundaries to spring back to life. Four main forces are undermining the EU’s foundations. First, Europe’s paternalistic welfare states are struggling to survive the dual forces of European integration and globalization. Citizens are fighting back, insisting that the state reassert its sovereignty to block unwelcome change. Especially in France, Germany and Italy, governments are caught in the middle, squeezed from above by the pressures of competitive markets and from below by an electorate clinging to the comforts of the past and fearful of the future. The result is political stalemate and economic stagnation, which only intensify the public’s discontent and its skepticism of the benefits of European integration. Second, a combination of the EU’s enlargement and the influx of Muslim immigrants has diluted traditional European identities and created new social cleavages. The EU now has 25 member-states at very different levels of development. Fifteen million Muslims reside within the EU, and Turkey, with 70 million Muslims, is knocking on the door. Too many of Europe’s Muslims are achingly alienated, inviting radicalism. Unaccustomed to a multiethnic society and fearful of an Islamist threat from within, the EU’s majority populations are retreating behind the illusory comfort of national boundaries and ethnic concepts of nationhood. Third, European politics is growing increasingly populist. Voters see both European and national institutions as elitist and detached. Finally, Europe is lacking the strong leadership needed to breathe new life into the union. Governments in London, Paris, Berlin and Rome are fragile and preoccupied by their divided and angry electorates. Generational change is exacerbating matters. At least for now, the EU is merely adrift, not yet about to unravel. Its demise is hardly inevitable; over the last six decades, Europe has weathered many periods of self-doubt and stasis. But only bold and urgent steps can put the EU back on track. European leaders will have to give up the pretense of business as usual and acknowledge the gravity of the current political crisis. They should scrap the belabored EU constitution in favor of a leaner document with a few key provisions —appointment of an EU president and foreign minister and reform of decision-making. Only a more capable union can make the EU more relevant to its citizens. Europeans must face the reality that they have reached a watershed moment. Unless they urgently revive the project of political and economic union, one of the greatest accomplishments of the 20th century will be at risk. — By arrangement with
LA Times-Washington Post |
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Delhi
Durbar Even as the Manmohan Singh government is planning to come forward with some business competition laws, India can imbibe a few lessons in this regard from Australia. Former Chairman of Australian Competition and Consumer Commission Prof Allan Fels was in the capital recently to deliver the fourth Sir John Crawfold lecture. In the course of the lecture Prof Fels drew attention to a sting operation. Taking note of complaints that a company was not transporting packages by air as claimed in an advertisement, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission sought to test it out by sending its own packages which contained altimeters among other items. Interestingly, the altimeter showed that the parcel had not travelled at more than 300 metres above sea level. The conclusion was that either the aircraft flew rather low, or there was misleading and deceptive conduct. Prof Fels stressed that the challenge is not merely creating a competition law but in making it work.
Bill of profit President A P J Abdul Kalam has sent shock waves in the Congress-led UPA government by sending the controversial Office of Profit bill to the Speaker of the Lok Sabha and the Chairman of the Rajya Sabha for reconsideration. With the quota issue in higher institutions of learning already creating a headache for the government, the return of the Office of Profit Bill has put several MPs, including the just elected Congress President Sonia Gandhi, Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee and others in a piquant situation. Even as President Kalam has expressed strong reservation on certain counts, BJP’s Arun Jaitley is having a quiet laugh. Jaitley was planning to challenge the amendment to the Prevention of Disqualification Act in the Supreme Court after the summer vacation. What he will do now remains to be seen.
Lalu on fast track Union Railway minister Lalu Prasad Yadav is on a new high. The Prime Minister and the Planning Commission have commended his performance in bringing the gigantic railways out of the red. What Lalu Prasad Yadav finds a trifle baffling is that the Left parties have not protested his move to privatise container traffic or getting the proposed freight corridors built through private investment. It is very much possible that the Left leaders want to steer clear of confronting Lalu in order to secure their pound of flesh for West Bengal.
Eager RS aspirants The time taken by Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad to resign his Rajya Sabha seat has caused some resentment among the aspirants for the berth in the Upper House. They felt that given the “certainty” of Mr Azad’s victory in a by-election to the assembly after he took over as Chief Minister in November last, he should have quit his Upper House berth earlier. Senior party leader M L Fotedar, senior advocate Ashok Bhan, who has been active in back-channel efforts on the Kashmir problem, and Mohammad Sharief Niaz, who had vacated the assembly seat for Mr Azad, are among the contenders for the Upper House seat. Contributed by S Satyanarayanan, Prashant Sood and R Suryamurthy |
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From the pages of DEATH OF SARDAR PATEL
Sardar Vallabhai Patel’s death is a loss to the country which it will be impossible to fill. That he suffered great physical pain in the last months of his life is not widely known. Mental unrest at deteriorating conditions in the country and in the Congress made him impatient of factions and schisms and interminable, time wasting argument. In spite of their difference in outlook, Sardar Patel shielded Pandit Nehru’s idealism by taking on himself the responsibility of dealing with the many conflicting forces at work in the country. There is no one in Indian politics today with Sardar Patel’s determination, with his unswerving loyalty to the organisation to which he belonged. Today his fellow countrymen cannot do better than to respond to his last message: “I appeal to my fellow countrymen on this solemn and auspicious day to reflect on what they see in and around themselves and with the strength and faith that comes from self introspection, sustain the hope and confidence which an old servant of theirs still has in the future of our country.” |
As fire is extinguished by throwing water over it, so are our desires quenched or subdued (by cherishing the name of God). — Guru Nanak
Let me share my knowledge with all who wish to do so. — The Upanishadas When a young warrior accomplishes what other renowned warriors could not, the latter do not want to honour his rank or have mercy on his age. They wish to trample him underfoot as they would demolish the memory of an ignominious defeat. —The Mahabharata Where are you searching for me, friend? Look! Here I am, right within you. Not in the temple, nor in mosque, not in Kaaba, nor Kailas, but here right within you. —Kabir There are three steps which bring you closer to happiness. And these are open to all. Speak the truth. Do not yield to anger. Give, when asked, though it may be a little only. —The Buddha Men get only what they are destined for.
— Guru Nanak
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