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Diversity, a binding thread Gun-battle in Mysore |
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One more district
The Srikrishna Report
A valued client !
SEZs as ‘gated cities’ Deterring North Korea’s Kim Jong Il Chatterati
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Diversity, a binding thread India has done well to give its approval for the ratification of the Convention on the Protection and Promotion of Diversity of Cultural Expressions adopted by UNESCO at its 33rd session on October 20 last year. India is a living example of plural society and cultural diversity. The ratification will help in protecting and promoting these myriad cultural expressions. It is a pity that India’s cultural amalgam is under threat not from outside forces but from our own blinkered sections who are out to destroy the unique feature. Its protection and promotion is not the responsibility of any particular person or party or a community. It is the sacred duty of each and every one of us. Every time the religious place, language or culture of any section is targeted, the economic and cultural aspects of development suffer. Only if we learn to focus on the larger picture will we be able to rise above the narrow and divisive tendencies displayed by certain lunatic and political elements who are keen to score petty goals. It is now universally acknowledged that cultural diversity is the common heritage of humanity and that its defence is “an ethical imperative, inseparable from respect for human dignity”. We need to put this precept into practice if we are to mesh perfectly with the increasingly inter-connected world. Not only that, it is also the bedrock for sustainable development. Third World-centric that this wisdom is, it is particularly relevant for India, which is fighting a grim battle to preserve the traditional knowledge of indigenous people. This new convention comprises one of the three pillars of the preservation and promotion of creative diversity, along with the 1972 Convention concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage and the 2003 Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage. The UNESCO Universal Declaration on Cultural Diversity is not binding. Yet, its implementation is absolutely necessary if India is to occupy its rightful place in the comity of nations in the light of the rapid growth it has made in the recent past.
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Gun-battle in Mysore The arrest of two Pakistani terrorists after a gun-battle in Mysore on Friday has an important lesson to learn. Had the police not been able to intercept the highly trained militants, they could have caused incalculable loss to the country. They had come to Karnataka with a devastating strike plan at Mysore and Bangalore, India’s IT capital. Last year terrorists succeeded in attacking the Indian Institute of Science campus while an international conference was on. This time they failed to implement the designs of their masters not only because of the alertness of police personnel but also due to the timely intelligence input made available to them. This is, perhaps, the best way to fight terrorism, which continues to pose a serious threat to peace and economic growth. No place in India is safe from this hydra-headed monster. The Karnataka plan was reportedly hatched by Al-Badr, which has its roots in Pakistan as also Jammu and Kashmir in India. But Al-Badr is only one of the outfits operating against India with Pakistan’s help. Despite General Pervez Musharraf’s claim about fighting the terrorist menace, Al-Badr alone got lakhs of rupees from the ISI at least till recently. The infrastructure of most terrorist outfits continues to remain intact. Terrorists’ support bases wherever they exist will have to be eliminated for peace to prevail. There is also a need to launch an awareness drive against these destructive elements in the areas in India where they might have set up their modules. People’s cooperation not only in Jammu and Kashmir but also elsewhere in the country is essential to take the fight against terrorism to its logical conclusion. The most difficult question, however, is how to end Pakistan’s role. The joint anti-terrorism mechanism between India and Pakistan can provide an answer to this question, but only if the other side is serious about it. There is no harm in testing Pakistan’s sincerity. After all, India is not at war with Pakistan, as Prime Minister Manmohan Singh told journalists the other day. But under all circumstances, the nation will have to maintain strict vigil against the terrorists, who remain capable of springing a surprise anywhere, anytime. India cannot rest on Islamabad’s bland assurances.
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One more district The decision to make Barnala a district is financially ruinous without any corresponding administrative gains for citizens or any tangible improvement in governance. Like Tarn Taran, it was made a police district to fight militancy. But revenue districts are created more for political expediency than any administrative necessity. With faster means of transport and communication available, fragmentation of the existing districts hardly raises the level of governance. Rather it leads to the diversion of scarce resources towards creating new layers of officialdom. A small state like Punjab will now have 20 districts and the demand for more is already growing. The latest to join the clamour for district status are residents of Fazilka who are contending that Ferozepur is the state’s biggest district and it is inconvenient, time-consuming and expensive for people of the Abhor and Fazilka area to travel to the district headquarters. But it is more politics than such factors that determine whether or not a town will become a district. Though official figures on how much a district costs the exchequer are unavailable, one estimate puts the figure at a staggering Rs 100 crore with a recurring annual expenditure of Rs 15 crore. The money spent on creating infrastructure for a new district administration can be better utilised by improving civic amenities for citizens and access to quality education and health. Punjab already has a bloated bureaucracy and a top-heavy police force. The state has hardly taken any administrative reforms to streamline the administration. Besides politicians taking electoral advantages, a new district benefits the bureaucracy and the police by creating new avenues for promotion apart from certain land-owning residents as real estate prices shoot up. Most of the districts created in the last decade fall in the Malwa region of Punjab. That is largely because the top leadership of both the Congress and the Akali Dal belongs to this belt.
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Between good sense and good taste there is the same difference as between cause and effect. — Jean de la Bruyere
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The Srikrishna Report
What has happened to the Srikrishna Report about the Mumbai riots? This is a question that has been asked repeatedly during the past few years and needs to be asked even more pointedly today. What happened in March 1993 - explosions and all the rest - has gone through the process of prosecution and a judicial verdict. That it took 13 years for the matter to reach this stage of development speaks for itself. What has been announced so far is only partial. What punishment is exactly awarded to those who are held guilty remains to be decided. When all this is happening, quite some people in Mumbai and elsewhere would like to know what happened to the Srikrishna Report about the riots which took place only a few months later. As most people will recall, this report has had several ups and downs. An enquiry committee was appointed after the riots. But there was a change of government in the state and the committee was disbanded. During the 13 days when Mr Atal Bihari Vajpayee headed the government but failed to secure a vote of confidence one of the things that he did was to persuade the Shiv Sena government to reappoint the committee. That was done. The judge took a very long time over completing his report. Since the government was not all that cooperative, it was difficult to do the job. Somehow the judge managed to complete the enquiry and submitted his report. That it was a fair report should become clear from one single fact. Despite all that was being said about the judge, he was appointed to the Supreme Court. That this should have been done by a BJP-led government speaks for itself. All kinds of things must have been said against the judge by people who mattered. In the end, however, his personal merit and his unquestioned integrity ensured his appointment. Having completed his tenure as a judge of the Supreme Court, he has now retired and lives presumably in Mumbai, which is perhaps his home town. These details are not all that relevant. What is relevant is that doing this enquiry required a good deal of hard work and a genuineness of approach, and both were seen to be in evidence. There were powerful vested interests which wanted to ensure that the enquiry was not completed. But it was completed, and without any loose ends. The judge had to struggle for it. Fortunately, good sense prevailed and eventually everything went through as it should have. Does this statement not require to be amended? Everything did not happen as it should have happened. The report was submitted as well as publicised, but it has not been followed up. And this is despite the fact that the political party which worked behind the scenes and did not wish to be in the dock is already out of office. As a matter of fact, it has been out of office for a couple of years. Not only that, the Shiv Sena which headed the government was indicted in this report to some extent is in a state of disarray. But even then the successor government is not prepared to implement the report. Evidently, one cannot go into the details here nor are all details known publicly. This much is clear however that the report is not being acted upon. What is working in the background and what political calculations are at work should not be difficult to judge. Indeed, one thing should not be difficult to anticipate. As and when certain individuals are punished, there would be protests against it. The psychology at work would be the same as is currently at work in J&K. Afzal, one of the people held guilty in the case relating to the attack on Parliament, is being supported by people who might not have done so had the decision come earlier. Delayed decision-making creates its own problems and we are seeing quite some evidence of it. Would not the same story get repeated even in Maharashtra? The report on the riots which took place in March 1993 was completed and, after the due process of law, some individuals were found guilty. So far, so good, as they say. But how does the party in power in Maharashtra today answer the question that the due process of law is not being followed in the riots which occurred only a few months later? More than that, the enquiry report that was submitted had to overcome all kinds of difficulties. To have gone through all that and then do nothing at the end of it appears both perverse and short-sighted. Worse than that, it shows poor political judgment. The Congress party alone is not responsible for what is happening in Maharashtra for there is a coalition government at work. But can one say that there is nothing to defend here? The plain fact is that more than Mr Sharad Pawar it is the Congress which will eventually have to explain what is happening. One thought the Congress had learnt a lesson from what had happened in Delhi in 1984, but obviously that does not seem to be correct. What one can say with a good conscience is that this is not the way to build the country. Both the conduct of the police and the judicial process are deeply interlined. To play politics with either of them is the surest way of creating further trouble. In this connection, it would not be out of place to refer to what the Supreme Court said only a few days ago. It told the government in no uncertain terms that police reforms had to be carried through within a specified period of time. At least one dimension of that reform is that the functions of investigation and prosecution need to be separated. Is that being done? It may not be out of place to repeat one thing. The Congress is committing the same mistake that it committed in 1984 in Delhi. Two decades later, it had to apologise in Parliament for what had happened. In the circumstances, the best it could do was to give liberal compensation to those who had suffered. That too has been done mainly in Delhi and Punjab. In states like UP, Rajasthan, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu (where there was some rioting) hardly anything has been done so far. The most notable omission has been that no action has been taken against those officials who had collaborated with the rioters. In a sense, history is being repeated in Maharashtra. Unlike the reports on the Delhi riots, the Srikrishna Report is balanced but unambiguous. It puts some important members of the Shiv Sena in the dock. If this report is to be implemented as it should be, the political cost that the Congress will have to pay may be high. That is why even though the coalition led by the Congress has been in power for over two years, no initiative has been taken in this regard. Over the years, things have changed. History cannot be exactly repeated in the same way but that is what the Congress is trying to ensure. Can it overlook the directive given by the Supreme Court that police reforms as suggested by it have to be introduced by a certain date? It can, but the price in terms of credibility will be high. In addition, there would be some kind of a confrontation, direct or indirect, with the Supreme Court. To say no more on this subject, one thing should be understood. Though the British did commit excesses every now and then, the overall impression most people had, and still have, is that for the most part the British adhered to the rule of law. It was this concept which, among other concepts, dominated the thinking of our Constitution makers. Indeed, the Indian Constitution is fairly specific on this point. As a matter of fact, this concept is one of the pillars of the Constitution. Over the years, it has been getting subverted. Things have reached such a state of deterioration that, as referred to above, the Supreme Court had to issue a formal note of caution. In a sense, therefore, how the report of the Srikrishna Commission is acted upon will determine the next phase of Indian politics.n The writer is a noted educationist and former Vice-Chancellor of Punjabi University, Patiala.
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A valued client !
My son, a businessman engaged in air-ticketing, is always in shortage of the working capital. Money is, thus, welcome to him from whatever source and at whatever cost it comes. Occasionally, he has to borrow money from the market at as high a rate as 48 per cent P.A. This being his situation and state of mind, he is a sought after person with the banks on the look-out for profitable outlets for their surplus funds. My son often gets referred to as a “valued client” in their letters. They do not just do it out of formality. They, indeed, know what they are writing. Where else would you find a ready borrower who pays you interest perennially at the rate of 35 per cent P.A., often along with decent penalties for not paying even the mandatory 5 per cent of the credit card purchases and other instalments in time? Once he, out of curiosity or perhaps need also, tried to see if he could get away by not paying the dues of a bank. After a couple of months of default, a telephone call came from the headquarters of the bank at Bangalore, first trying to know if I was Shekhar, my son. I informed that I was his daddy. The man claimed that he was speaking from the Karnataka High Court where a criminal case had been filed against my son for bouncing of a cheque. When I told him that I happened to be an advocate of the Supreme Court and enquired what a case of this nature was doing in the High Court, he at once came to the point and instead requested if I could advise my son suitably. This was done and the issue settled. It also became adequately evident to my son that, at his level of smartness, it was not possible to get a bank off his back. In my own case, no bank offers to remit or even reduce the annual charges on my credit card, as I would neither make sizeable purchases from their sponsored shops nor afford them an opportunity to earn 35 per cent P.A. and penalties in addition. To their great dislike, I make it a point to make all payments in time. Even if they occasionally refer to me also as their “valued client”, they really do not mean it. With the post-office deposit schemes lately turning unattractive, the money has again started streaming into the banks. However, deposits sans their profitable deployability do not make sense. Herein lies the importance of the likes of my son. His dismal record in the matter of repayments notwithstanding, the banks are keen to do business with him and are always eager to enhance his limits and offer him incentives. After all, he does pay in the end through his
nose.
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SEZs as ‘gated cities’ Special Economic Zones (SEZs) are in the midst of a raging national debate. The Union Ministry of Commerce, in their policy paper, describes SEZs thus: “A designated duty free enclave to be treated as foreign territory for trade operations and duties and tariffs”. As per this description SEZs are alien territory located within the geographical limits of India with all the perks and privileges befitting a princely state! At the last count 181 of them have been approved and hundreds more are waiting in line. For the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), the voice of large industries and MNCs, SEZs as conceived by the government will be a “powerful instrument” to achieve rapid growth in manufacturing, employment and exports and offer “the only way forward” in bridging the gap between India and South-East Asia, including China, in terms of manufacturing and employment. The National Alliance of People’s Movements speaking up for farmers have a diametrically opposite perception: “SEZ is a system of apartheid, the return of the old system of zamindari. There will be a preferred group of people/industrialists in these enclaves just because they happened to grab a piece of land approved as an SEZ, as opposed to those who are outside the SEZ. These ‘zamindari enclaves’ will sound the death knell of all industry outside the SEZs and have enormous implications for other industry, government revenue, environment and labour.” Let us look at SEZs as they are emerging. The range of perks and privileges fiscal as well as physical, are vast and varied. Fiscal incentives include 100% income tax exemption and ploughing back of profits; exemption from customs duty and central excise on import / procurement of capital goods, raw materials, consumables, spares etc; treatment of supplies from Domestic Tariff Area to SEZ as deemed exports; reimbursement of Central Sales Tax paid on domestic purchases; carry forward of losses; facility to retain 100 per cent foreign exchange receipts; commodity hedging; exemption from industrial licensing requirements; free repatriation of profits without any dividend balancing requirement; duty free goods to be utilized in 5 years; in house customs clearance and many more. Physical privileges include permission to develop Independent Townships within the SEZ with commercial/residential areas, hotels, hospitals, markets, clubs, golf courses, casinos and recreation centers with authority to provide services like water, electricity, security etc. Developers have full freedom in allocation of developed plots to approved SEZ units on purely commercial basis. Barring a few sectors 100 per cent Foreign Direct Investment in manufacturing is allowed through automatic route. SEZ units could be for manufacturing, trading or service activity and no license is required for imports. For enjoying such mind-boggling array of privileges and incentives, developers have to use just 25 per cent of the SEZ area for manufacturing or other core activities. The balance could be utilized for ‘city building’ purposes to make huge profits. This is reflected in the statement of the Reliance Group representative while responding to the ‘satyagraha’ launched against the 35,000 acre SEZ project near Mumbai: “We are planning the Mumbai SEZ in such a way that it will be a world class city, which will ease the pressure on Mumbai.” Two more ‘world class SEZ cities’ are coming up in the small state of Haryana, one on 25, 000 acres of land near Delhi and another on 11, 000 acres near Chandigarh. Besides incurring farmers’ wrath these ‘private, gated cities’ are fraught with grave socio-economic consequences. Little wonder that the Reserve Bank of India has stepped in and declared SEZs as real estate development, advising banks and financial institutions to adopt stringent norms while funding these projects. The Commerce Ministry is upset and has sought the intervention of the Prime Minister to rein in the RBI. What has been the track record of SEZs and similar land based development models? Have they been able to “achieve rapid growth in manufacturing, employment and exports” as perceived by CII? The fact of the matter is that neither the international nor the Indian experience with SEZs has been particularly happy. Globally, only a handful of SEZs of the hundreds that exist, have generated substantial exports, along with significant domestic spin-offs in demand or technology upgradation. For each successful Shannon (Ireland) or Shenzhen (China), there are 10 failures - in the Philippines, Malaysia, Brazil, Mexico, Colombia, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and even India. A 1998 report by the Comptroller and Auditor General on export processing zones (EPZ) says: “Customs duty amounting to Rs. 7,500 crores was forgone for achieving net foreign exchange earning of Rs.4, 700 crores” What is the guarantee that a similar fate does not await the new avatar – SEZs? Studies on the EPZs show extremely high rates of labour exploitation and job insecurity, especially of female workers, poor technology absorption, and dubious long-term benefits. Going by past experience, the promises of millions of new jobs in SEZs sounds like empty rhetoric. Are SEZs the appropriate growth model for India? The answer is a categorical no, considering the country’s geography, economy and the composition of its workforce. India has a large population and there is tremendous pressure on its land mass. Any development model should be based on the most economic usage of land keeping food security in view. Despite the 8-9 per cent GDP growth, India’s economy largely remains poor and low-income earning. The vast majority of India’s workforce is low, semi and unskilled and they have no place in the SEZs. A few hundred ‘exclusive luxury enclaves’ mostly catering to high-tech, low-employment foreign investments are not going to change this. What is required is broad-based, value-added, employment intensive and inclusive development models wherein the common man can feel he can take part. |
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Deterring North Korea’s Kim Jong Il In an interview aired last week, US President George W. Bush was asked: What would he do if “North Korea sold nukes to Iran or al-Qaida?” Bush replied, “They’d be held to account.” “What does that mean?” The president answered, “I want the leader of North Korea to understand that he’ll be held to account. Just like he’s being held to account now for having run a test.” Excuse me? If North Korea sells a nuclear weapon to Osama bin Laden or Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, he should expect the United States to go to the United Nations and negotiate further sanctions? And if al-Qaida sneaks that bomb into the United States and we awake to the president’s nightmare in which a mushroom cloud engulfs Washington or Los Angeles, then what? If this formulation stands – without further specification – America risks becoming the victim of a catastrophic “deterrence failure.” Deterrence emerged as a central concept in Cold War strategy. It meant convincing the adversary that the costs of taking an unacceptable action would greatly exceed any benefits it could hope to achieve. How did the United States prevent the Soviets from seizing Berlin? By convincing Soviet leaders that such an attack would trigger a response that would destroy their country. Effective deterrence required three components: clarity, capability and credibility. Clarity meant bright lines and unacceptable consequences. Credibility was understood to be in the eye of the beholder. How credible was the threat to trade Boston for Berlin? Never 100 percent. But U.S. forces, exercises and communication were crafted to convince Soviet leaders they dare not test it. To date the Bush administration has demonstrably failed to deter Kim Jong Il. Successive U.S. demands that Kim not develop nuclear weapons, not test a missile and not test a nuclear bomb have been defied. In each case, the president has asserted that this would be “intolerable.” America’s challenge is to convince Kim that he will be held accountable for every nuclear weapon that originates in North Korea. This requires clarity, credibility about our capacity to identify the source of a bomb that explodes in one of our cities (however it is delivered by whomever) and a believable threat to respond. Kim must be convinced that American nuclear forensics will be able to identify the molecular fingerprint of nuclear material from his Yongbyon reactor. The president can take a page from President John F. Kennedy in the Cuban missile crisis. In 1962, as the Soviet Union was emplacing nuclear-tipped missiles in Cuba, some worried that these weapons could be transferred to a young revolutionary named Fidel Castro. Kennedy issued an unambiguous warning to Nikita Khrushchev. “It shall be the policy of this nation,” he announced, “to regard any nuclear missile launched from Cuba against any nation in the Western Hemisphere as an attack by the Soviet Union on the United States requiring a full retaliatory response upon the Soviet Union.” Khrushchev knew that meant a nuclear war.
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Chatterati Festivities were at their peak with Diwali and Id. Yet the Capital did not witness loud firecrackers or any evidence of merry-making. There was also far less of the ostentation of recently acquired wealth. Some Diwali parties are a regular feature every year, include Dr Karan Singh’s, and they are elegant and fun. Fashion designer Ritu Kumar’s farmhouse party is loud with lots of dance and masti. Everyone then rushes to the lobster which is a specialty of the house. This year, Vandana Luthra of VLCC fame used the farmhouse of her friend Arjun Sharma of Sita Travels for a Diwali party. This was in true Punjabi style right from the lines of generators at the door, vast acres of land covered with flowers, fire works to dazzle the entire town, food enough to feed an army, Bollywood singers, and large dance floors. Kapil Dev, Kuldip Bashnoi and Rudi Pratap Singh were among those present. Well, in comparison, the other party hosted by Shiv Guddu Nadar of HCL had the top business tycoons of the country present in traditional finery. Whether it was the Singhanias or Thapars, along with Kamal Nath and Dr Naresh Trehan, the elite were there with understated elegance. The crooner in the background, with old Bollywood tunes, and traditional dishes and Indian sweets, were tastefully chosen to go with the ambience. There were a couple of card tables where everyone tried their luck. Actually, comparatively speaking, this year one did not hear of vast sums of money lost due to drunken frenzies. What with the Mumbai blasts, the sealing scare and even the kids being educated in school against crackers, Diwali was a subdued affair with people getting more subtle and grown-up.
Rahul getting ready After the cabinet reshuffle the AICC office bearers are waiting with bated breath. Well, all are focused towards Rahul Gandhi. Sonia seems to have given up talking on his behalf. Whether Rahul takes a formal post in the AICC or not, it is very apparent here that the crown prince is working real hard. He is getting his working and strategy teams together. Where Uttar Pradesh is concerned, he is all clued in now. But the signal is clear – he is not going to take a post till he has done his homework. Rahul is meeting a selected few from each state now. He likes to listen, absorb and is involved with various NGO’s on the ground level. A bit shy of over-powering politicians he depends more on non-political feed back.
Merit counts As we all know, in any political party, there is a lot of backbiting and selfishness. But Congress guys have realised that unlike her predecessors, Mrs Gandhi does not believe in giving representation to every state. It could, for instance, be ten from South India and none from the East. It is a question of who she thinks is capable. About the cabinet reshuffle, it was a masterstroke to get A.K. Antony as Defence Minister. No minister till now has come out clean after handling this portfolio. The grapevine also insists that Digvijay and Ghelot will be going back to their states as PCC presidents. So, there is a lot to look forward to, especially with the international Satyagraha movement to be held at the end of January. Participants from all over the world will be here. The Congress guys really need to be well-organised for that.
Four-legged beauties There is no better way to spend a perfect Sunday afternoon in Delhi’s winter season than to watch a game of polo. The polo season was flagged off by the Nawab of Pataudi, along with Sharmila Tagore and the much sought after son Saif Ali Khan, who was accompanied by his Italian girl friend Rosa. The event is a social gathering as much as a sporting occasion. Especially when the guest list is as impressive. It included the Royal Highness, the Crown Prince of Malaysia, along with Naveen and Shalu Jindal and Yasho Scindia. Right from the elegant Gayatri Devi to the royalty of Kashmir. The high tea after the prize distribution is chit-chat time for the glitterati. Believe it or not, in this season of polo the horses take the cake. Worth millions, these special specimens are a treat to watch as they are guided by their elegant riders. They are quick and responsive to every minute move. After all, the game and on many occasions the lives of the riders, really depend on these four-legged beauties. |
When a human forgets God, The Regent of Death keeps him in eye. All his comforts vanish and
miseries begin to confront him. Let us not envy others’ knowledge but strive to learn from them. A successful King is one who knows the histories of all his subjects. Thus only he can assess their strengths and weakness. Thus only he can determine who is likely to be loyal to
him and who may betray him.
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