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Plane prejudice Make amends, Alitalia ITALIAN airline Alitalia’s refusal to allow an Indian passenger with a valid business class ticket to board the Milan flight at New Delhi’s IGI airport is an outrageous offence. It is an affront to human dignity that Mr Santram Maurya was stopped from taking the flight — en route to Brazil — on the humiliating ground that he did not fit the “profile” of an “international traveller”.
Bush-Musharraf ‘deal’
A ‘moral’ society
Wonder plant NASA taps Lockheed for new spacecraft A gentleman among politicians
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PM’s anguish PRIME
MINISTER Manmohan Singh was forthright in telling the chief ministers on Tuesday that they could not remain complacent when “fidayeen” (terrorist suicide squads) were lurking somewhere to strike at sensitive targets, including nuclear installations. What he said was obviously based on the inputs provided by intelligence agencies. Earlier, similar fears were expressed by National Security Adviser M. K. Narayanan in a television interview. Despite all the security arrangements made to meet the threat, the situation remains disturbing. It calls for greater alertness on the part of the state administrations. The chief ministers will have to play a proactive role, instead of playing vote-bank politics. The situation is, however, complicated. As Dr Manmohan Singh has pointed out, the minorities (read Muslims) have started developing a feeling of insecurity as a result of the anti-terrorism drive. Their complaint is that the whole community is being targeted because of the actions of some mad caps. Such a complaint should never have arisen. In no case should the innocent suffer. The scenario where every Muslim feels targeted will only suit the enemies of the nation. Of course, anyone found guilty of being involved in a terrorist activity will have to be dealt with sternly. But a whole community cannot be held responsible for the actions of a few. The Prime Minister expressed his anguish for whatever has happened not only on Tuesday but also when he interacted with some Muslim leaders recently. One hopes corrective measures will be taken soon. This will also help in eliminating the local support bases of terrorists. But this requires a change in the mindset of those in charge of law and order. They will have to involve the public in counter-terrorism campaigns so that no one hesitates in reporting to the police the moment he or she notices any unusual activity. People should be made to realise that their role in fighting terrorism is as important as that of any security agency. The beat constable can be of great help in this regard. He has the advantage of greater understanding of the ground reality. The country, in fact, needs a strategy that lays greater stress on sensitising the public vis-à-vis the campaign for confronting the complex internal security problems.
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Cruise control THE absence of a long-range cruise missile in India’s arsenal constitutes a gap in our strategic capabilities. The prospect of a deal with France, which might include not only the purchase of ready-made missiles but also transfer of technology is thus a welcome one. Last-minute hitches notwithstanding, both parties should ensure the completion of a satisfactory arrangement. Considering the sensitivities involved in a cruise missile deal, especially if it is to include technologies to augment India’s own indigenous missile programmes, as reported, hurdles are to be expected. Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee indicated in Paris that the deal continued to be “on track” and would be signed at a later date. India has recently developed the Brahmos anti-ship cruise missile in collaboration with Russia. Work is in progress for an air-launched version. The range of Brahmos is around 300 kilometres. The deal with the French has been reported to be for a missile in the 1200-1500 kilometre band, though understandably, both parties are circumspect about the range. India’s Agni-2 ballistic missile can exceed that range but there are certain advantages to a cruise missile. For instance, a cruise missile can fly low and fast to escape radar detection and can be guided very precisely to high-value targets. Pakistan has a cruise missile called “Babur”. Given the current status of various DRDO programmes, including the Agni-3, acquisition and technology transfer agreements regarding a range of weapons platforms will be crucial. Whether it is for upgrading the existing platforms — a new deal with the Russians for upgrading 66 IAF Mig 29s has reportedly been signed recently — or buying new ones, India is clearly out shopping. A projected nine-billion dollar deal for 126 fighters for the Indian Air Force has attracted worldwide interest. India should leverage its strengths in ensuring the best possible deal, including transfer of technology. DRDO and our Defence PSUs should concomitantly ensure that they are well-poised to make use of these agreements.
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Plane prejudice ITALIAN airline Alitalia’s refusal to allow an Indian passenger with a valid business class ticket to board the Milan flight at New Delhi’s IGI airport is an outrageous offence. It is an affront to human dignity that Mr Santram Maurya was stopped from taking the flight — en route to Brazil — on the humiliating ground that he did not fit the “profile” of an “international traveller”. In fact, the prejudiced action exposes Alitalia as one that does not conform to the profile of an international commercial airline. It is all the more offensive that Mr Maurya was stopped from proceeding to a conference, for which the NGO Chintan had nominated him — because he works as a waste collector. So much for the national airline of a country from where the Enlightenment and Renaissance spread to the rest of the world. The profiling of the passenger, especially the conclusion that he did not look like a businessman, betrays a mindset that is certainly not appropriate for the business in which Alitalia operates. This rank discrimination goes against all norms of decency as well as business ethics. There are laid-down grounds on which passengers can be prevented from boarding a flight, such as a traveller being a security threat or he is found to be highly inebriated or drugged making him unstable to proceed with the journey. Alitalia’s discriminatory and prejudiced action calls for severe reprimand. Its conduct is legally actionable and the airline should be made to pay for the injustice inflicted on Mr Maurya. It is not an issue for Indians and Indian authorities alone. International civil aviation bodies should be prompted to initiate appropriate proceedings against Alitalia and ensure that it makes adequate amends.
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It’s a funny old world — a man is lucky if he gets out of it alive.
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Bush-Musharraf ‘deal’ AS President Bush approaches the middle of his second and final term in office, the “neoconservatives”, who dominated his defence and foreign policy establishment and advocated the use of overwhelming military power, particularly in the “Greater Middle East”, are in disarray. The limitations of American military power have been exposed in North-East Asia by North Korea, which has manufactured nuclear weapons, disregarding American pressures. But it is in Iraq that the limitations of American military power have been fully exposed. The Americans have found that it is relatively easy to conquer Iraq, but virtually impossible to contain a full blown insurgency in which over 2000 Americans have been killed. The invasion has not only destabilised Iraq, but also, according to a Pentagon report, resulted in “conditions that lead to a civil war in Iraq”. Moves to introduce parliamentary democracy have led to a situation that could result in the partition of Iraq on sectarian Shia-Sunni and ethnic Arab-Kurd lines. Despite bringing in 7000 additional troops recently, the Americans are finding that in the last two months there have been 3400 casualties in Baghdad alone, with 90 per cent of these casualties being caused by executions carried out by Shia and Sunni death squads. With the Americans stretched and stuck in a quagmire in Iraq, Iran knows that the US is in no position to resort to military force either to end Iranian military assistance to the Hezbollah, or to deal with Iranian defiance of demands made by the UN Security Council that it should suspend its nuclear enrichment programme by August 31. While the US would like to move quickly towards imposing sanctions on Teheran, neither Russia nor China is going to be rushed into agreeing to sanctions. Russian Defence Minister Sergei Ivanov has announced that Russia would not be ready to back US and UK proposals for imposing sanctions against Iran, as the issue was not so “urgent” to consider sanctions, at this stage. China has voiced similar views. EU Foreign Ministers meeting in Finland on September 1 asked for further discussions with Iran, rather than sanctions. Significantly, UN-Secretary General Kofi Annan joined the anti-sanctions chorus stating: “I do not believe that sanctions are the solution to everything. There are times when a little patience is more effective”. It does, therefore, appear that any negotiated settlement with Iran would involve prolonged negotiations and some accommodation of Iran’s assertion about its “right” to enrich uranium. Any resolution of the Iran nuclear issue could involve limitations on the level of enrichment to ensure that the enriched uranium is used for power reactors and not for nuclear weapons. American realisation of the limitations of military power is also evident in Afghanistan. The Americans know that the Taliban leadership is comfortably lodged in Quetta in Balochistan with the support of General Musharraf and the ISI. They also know that with a ceasefire and peace process underway between the Musharraf dispensation and the pro-Taliban tribal leadership in the tribal areas of the North-West Frontier Province (NWFP), the Taliban and their Al-Qaeda, Chechen and Uzbek allies will now be able to operate against NATO and Afghan government forces from bases in both Balochistan and the NWFP. The Americans have reduced their troop levels in Afghanistan and NATO members like the UK, Germany, Netherlands and Canada have been forced to undertake larger troop deployments there. More importantly, even though American and NATO forces operating in Afghanistan and their diplomats in Kabul are furious about the sanctuary that Pakistan is providing to the Taliban, they are under strict orders not to be critical of Pakistan and to sound sweet and nice when talking about the Musharraf government. Given these developments, there are inevitable suspicions about a “deal” between the Bush Administration, which recognises the growing war weariness in the US on the one hand, and General Musharraf, desperately seeking legitimacy, on the other. General Musharraf knows that the Americans will have to live with him as their “best option,” even if he keeps his Taliban allies ready to strike across the Durand Line at American, NATO and Afghan government forces. What could such a “deal” involve? General Musharraf would expect continuing American support for his re-election as President in 2007 and for his domestic policies. Evidence of such US “understanding” about General Musharraf’s domestic policies was clear in the US reaction to the brutal killing of Nawab Akbar Bugti, when the State Department expressed support for a “strong and unified Pakistan”, while alluding to what it said was Bugti’s “taking up arms”. General Musharraf would obviously like to see an important role for his Taliban allies in the Kabul government with Taliban leaders like Mullah Jalaluddin Haqqani holding crucial positions on security issues, in return for his assisting President Bush to “get” Osama bin Laden. It is now evident that President Bush is not going to be able to claim that he had successfully dealt with either “Islamic fascists” or the “Axis of Evil” comprising Libya, Iraq, Iran and North Korea before he relinquishes office. But his fellow countrymen will judge him positively if he is able to deliver the head of Osama bin Laden on a platter to them. This is not going to be possible unless he keeps his “best bet” General Musharraf in good humour. For this purpose, the Bush Administration will turn a blind eye to the strategic implications of China’s presence in the Gwadar port on the western entrances to the Persian Gulf and to China’s continuing nuclear and missile cooperation with Pakistan. The US will also be very circumspect in dealing with Pakistani involvement in terrorism against India and elsewhere in the world. Pakistan’s military ruler will be feted in the White House and be able to tell his countrymen that he has been able to provide his armed forces with American military hardware, including 96 upgraded F-16 strike aircraft. It, however, remains to be seen how events surrounding the forthcoming presidential elections in Pakistan and an end to the saga of Osama bin Laden are sequenced and played out in the coming months. While our “Look East” policy has brought tangible benefits to us over the past 15 years, we now need to develop a comprehensive “Look West” policy covering our relations with Pakistan, Iran, the Arab Gulf countries and Central Asia, given the directions that America’s “war on terrorism” now appears to be taking. While one cannot doubt President Bush’s commitment to give a new direction and momentum to relations with India, we also cannot ignore the implications of American policies in our western neighbourhood on our national
security.
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A ‘moral’ society I was left agitated after reading a news report on female foetuses having been found in a well in Patran, Patiala. The horror of it was inconceivable. This was followed by a family get-together that led to a discussion on what was ailing our society. A rather presumptuous cousin blamed all the ills on the iniquitous western influence — our all-time refuge and favourite punching bag. He went on to extol the virtues of Indians that once were, but had now been corrupted by “all this exposure.” “We’ve always been culturally superior but now we are just like them, if not worse,” he rued. I opposed vehemently. The problem wasn’t the West, it was us. We kill our daughters before they are born and in the era gone, after birth; kill our parents for property and our brothers over disputes; kill our sisters for so-called honour; and burn our brides for greed. Such utter lack of sensitivity. When we have in us a potential murderer, how do we take a moral highground? No one from a two-month-old girl to a 60-year-old woman is safe from rape. Lovers would rather jump before a train, than face the wrath of society. Our prejudices make us demonic and our sense of righteousness is often misplaced. All this in a society that swears by its morality. We accept these conditions as avoidable and yet continue to be tolerant towards them. We are classic at playing the ostrich, having little courage to face up to the realities that make us uncomfortable or threaten to rip apart the fabric of society; instead we gloat in glorifying social precepts and practices that may have well lost their relevance. We’d be naive to believe our mindset is an offshoot of western influence. Deviant behaviour prevails the world over but what we practice can only be distinct barbarism. Launching campaigns to rid society of its evils is appreciable but before that we must deconstruct the myth of Indians being demi-gods that are infallible. The charade must fall. Any claims of us being superior ethically rings so piteously hollow. As a people, we are hardly enlightened and rarely moral. But we just won’t see. My violent denunciation ended with my unconvinced cousin thinking I was incomprehensible. Like I said—we usually miss the
point.
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Wonder plant Despite certain weaknesses, SBT, locally called ‘charma’, is slowly and steadily changing the face of the snowbound Lahaul-Spiti tribal belt. Ecologists say that it promises an eco-friendly cure-all for the scourge of silt and flash floods that threaten Himachal Pradesh’s power projects worth 10,000 MW, mainly located in the Satluj basin, and the lives of communities living downstream. The spiny shrub plant has an extensive root system that helps bind soil together. Its fruit is edible and nutritious, and its leaves make good livestock and pet food. Sea-buckthorn oil has medicinal and cosmetic properties. The plant is drought resistant and tolerant of extremely low temperatures. The SBT, found wild in Lahaul-Spiti, Kinnaur and Pangi, has started bringing about prosperity to farmers in Lahaul-Spiti. Besides, SBT promises “a cure” for the Border Roads Organization, which spends several crores in maintaining the strategic National Highways (NH)-21 and NH-22. Landslides and flash floods damage these highways every year. The Satluj Jal Vidyut Nigam Ltd loses over Rs. 9 crore a day when power generation in its 1500 MW Nathpa Jhakhri project in Kinnaur district is affected by heavy silt in the river during the rainy season every year. “I have cultivated 50,000 SBT polybags and planted 1 lakh plants in the field”, says Mr. Tashi Angrup, a progressive farmer from Tino village, who is the vice-president, Sea-buckthorn Cooperative and Marketing Society (SCMS), Lahaul, which now has 70 members. “Last year, we sold five tonnes of leaves and seven tonnes of fruits to a private company and earned Rs. 5.50 lakh. On an average, a hectare of SBT yields an income of Rs. 3-4 lakh for a farmer each year”, he said. “Lahaul enjoys an advantage over China, which so far dominates SBT’s world market, as its two native species are of superior quality”, asserts Mr. Tashi. In all, farmers have raised over 2-3 lakhs seedlings while the government nurseries have raised 4 lakhs seedlings in polybags for plantation to cover 120 hectares of wasteland area next year. “The farmers are being encouraged to plant SBT, replacing potato and peas. They reap benefits in 3 to 5 years. We have held 20 camps on how to raise nurseries”, say scientists. The Deputy Commissioner of Lahaul-Spiti, Mr. R Selvam, who has set up the SCMS and heads the SBT task force, says that they have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) between a private company and the SCMS to give better prices to farmers. “Prices have been fixed for fruits and leaves of male plants at the rate of Rs 25 and Rs 160 per Kg. We ensure companies make an instant payment to farmers”. The SBT’s leaves, prized for its unique tea flavour, is exported to the USA, where it is sold for Rs. 1650 a kg. “Even the Defense Research and Development Organization, which is making the Leh berry juice, buys pulp from the company”, say SCMS members. The state Government has established four SBT processing units at Rangrik, Shego, Tabo and Shunsha. “We market pulp instead of fruits earning two to three times higher income.” Scientists say the “SBT vanmahotsav’ should start along all the major riversides, and along the roads and highways, to check soil erosion. “If we plant 1000 SBT plants successfully, it will multiply into 7000 plants within a time of six years”, they add. Dr. Virender, a scientist at the HP Krishi Vishvavidalaya, Palampur, says the SBT fruit is the richest source of vitamin ‘C’ on earth. “It can be used for producing food, cosmetics, medicine and tea. The fruit pulp and seeds contain high quality medicinal oil. The fruit skin, after extracting pulp, is utilized for making tea. The leaves from the male plant are also commercially used to make tea. The whole plant is an excellent source of fuel wood and fodder” “We have planted over 7000 plants in some of the 140 watersheds identified in Bhaga, Chandra and the Pattan river valleys for SBT plantation, under the Desert Development project. Even under Horticulture Technology Mission, farmers are raising nurseries”, says Mr. Selvam. The state government has planned a Rs. 50 crore National Agricultural Innovative Project for its cultivation, processing and marketing. “It aims to bring a fresh area of 1800 hectares under SBT in next 6 years. This project will be submitted to Indian Agricultural Research Institute for its approval this year”. The weak areas, however, remain. The value addition to the SBT’s raw material has not been started yet. In Lahaul valley, farmers in general still take it as a government-sponsored rather than a people driven programme. Its propagation and plantation needs proper, scientific technologies. It needs extensive research for its scientific management, tissue culture techniques, and plant protection, say ecologists.
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NASA taps Lockheed for new spacecraft IN a decision that surprised industry observers as well as the losing parties, the American National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) announced that it had chosen Lockheed Martin Corp. to build Orion, an Apollo-like capsule that would succeed the US’s current space shuttles and return humans to the moon as a steppingstone to a manned mission to Mars. Lockheed, the largest U.S. defense contractor, beat out the team of Northrop Grumman Corp. and Boeing Co. for the contract, potentially worth $8.1 billion over 13 years, to build Orion. The entire exploration project, dubbed Constellation, is expected to take 13 years and cost $106 billion. Although similar in shape to the Apollo vehicles that flew three-man crews to the moon from 1968 to 1972, Orion would be three times larger, carrying as many as six astronauts. The new capsule will be built with proven technology that would allow it to be reused as many as 10 times. The Northrop-Boeing team was widely expected to win the contract, based on the previous experience they and predecessor companies had in leading the development of the Apollo program. “So much for conventional wisdom,” said Paul H. Nisbet, aerospace analyst for JSA Research Inc. “You just can’t count Lockheed out of any big space and defense competition. They’re big and powerful.” The decision dealt a blow to the aerospace industry in Southern California. Lockheed, based in Bethesda, Md., plans to do most of the work in Texas, Louisiana and Florida. Northrop of Los Angeles and Chicago-based Boeing had planned to perform much of initial design and development work locally. But some analysts said the blow might not be so severe because the contract could itself turn to moon dust, given the many pressing budget items competing for federal dollars. The big question, analysts said, is whether the new project can survive longer term, considering the costs of the Hurricane Katrina cleanup, the war in Iraq and other fiscal constraints that could leave the space agency strapped for funds. “You have to be concerned that you could end up at the end of the decade with no space shuttle and no follow-up vehicle because there will not be enough money,” said John Pike, director of GlobalSecurity.org, a defense and space policy research firm. NASA wants to retire the space shuttle fleet in 2010 after nearly 30 years of service and the Challenger and Columbia disasters. The current shuttles would be replaced by Orion, which would initially be used to resupply and transfer International Space Station crews before taking humans back to the moon, perhaps as early as 2018, and then to Mars years later. The initial contract is valued at $3.9 billion and calls for the design and development of the first spacecraft by 2011; an additional $3.5 billion would pay for production of the vehicles that would carry astronauts to the moon. NASA estimates that it will spend $700 million for follow-on engineering work. Last week’s contract was the first in an ambitious 12-year, $104-billion blueprint to send astronauts to the moon as a steppingstone to Mars. Other pending contracts include those for building the lunar lander and the launch vehicles that would carry the capsule into orbit.
By arrangement with LA Times-Washington Post
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A gentleman among politicians
FOR a while my residential address in Patna was “behind Satyendra Narain Sinha’s house”. His was the most elegant house on Boring Road, though high walls blocked its visibility. Despite such proximity, I cannot claim any closeness to “Chhotte Saab” as most people affectionately called him. The “Bhade Saab” was his father Anugraha Narain Sinha, one of the founders of modern Bihar. The last time I met him was four and a half years ago. His house wore a deserted look unlike the previous time when the double-storeyed building overflowed with officials, hangers-on and fair-weather friends. This time only his wife Kishori Sinha and a couple of servants were around. “I told him that meeting people will only do good to his health”, said his wife, who was once elected to the Lok Sabha from Vaishali, where republican form of government was first practised. Just then Sinha, accompanied by an aide, haltingly walked into the room. Though he had changed a lot in 10 years, he was dressed as impeccably as he used to be. He donned a spotless Gandhi cap and clutched at a walking stick. He suffered from a kidney ailment and was nearly deaf. “Sit closer to him”, she advised and he obeyed. He was in his eighties but had not lost the sharpness of his mind. Sinha was happy that Sonia Gandhi trounced Jitendra Prasad in the Congress presidential election but he did not like the way the election was conducted. “The electoral roll was fudged”. He had the knack of keeping politics out of personal relations. Even when he was in the Janata Party, he maintained close relations with Indira Gandhi. It was on the Vijay Dashmi day in 1984, when the country was celebrating the triumphant return of Lord Ram to Ayodhya, that Bihar witnessed another homecoming — Sinha’s return to the Congress fold, 14 years after he left it. It was at the suggestion of his religious guru - the late Avadhoot Bhagwan Ram of Varanasi - that he sought to make the temporal and the spiritual coincide. Indira Gandhi came down to Patna to formally admit him to the party but before she could properly rehabilitate him in the organisation, she fell to the bullets of her own security guards. A turnaround in Sinha’s fortune came when Rajiv Gandhi facing challenge from V.P. Singh thought of countering him with another Rajput. He made Sinha the Chief Minister. But a wily Jagannath Mishra did not allow him to continue for long. Little did the two know that the Congress had lost its hold on the people and Lalu Prasad Yadav’s stars were in the ascendant. With the benefit of hindsight, Sinha said, “Upper castes have become totally redundant in the state. No upper caste leader can ever become the CM of Bihar”. Of course, he paid compliments to Lalu: “No leader, including my own father and Sri Babu (Dr Srikrishna Sinha, the first CM) was as popular as Lalu even in their own time”. Yet, Sinha was sorry, Lalu did nothing for Bihar’s development. Sinha, whose son and former Delhi police chief Nikhil Kumar represents Aurangabad, a pocket borough of the family, lamented that the days of gentlemen politicians were over. He did not want to talk more and wanted to leave. “He has the phobia that he would wet his pyjama”, Kishori Sinha explained, as I took leave of Satyendra Narain Sinha, who passed away on Monday, aged 87.
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From the pages of And now to battle RELIEF in several quarters, including a major section of the Janata Party, over the withdrawal of Mr Morarji Desai from Prime Ministership has been followed immediately by anxiety over the problem of succession. This was not unexpected considering the rival claims of Mr Charan Singh and Mr Jagjivan Ram (assuming that Mr Morarji Desai steps down in his favour). A direct contest between the two was avoided in March, 1977, but this has now become inevitable unless both are bypassed by the President in favour of a third candidate. Both would like to build up support around the base they have inherited from the Janata Party. The most obvious choice as a major partner in that attempt would be the Congress Party whose 75 members in the Lok Sabha hold a crucial position.
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He is formless and cannot be set up as an image. He exists by Himself, not dependent on any material conditions. You see a clay jar. I see pine trees and canyons, mountain after mountain and the maker of mountains too. My friend, I tell you the truth: The God whome I love lives in this clay. Love, to be real, must empty us of self.
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THE Himalayan-friendly sea-buckthorn (SBT), a native wonder plant, has succeeded where vast, expensive, engineering structures and check dams have failed. In China, this plant changed the course of the Yellow river, arrested the scourge of silt in major river dams and brought prosperity to its farmers.