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Mamata vs Bengal Tackle by dialogue Compensation for passengers |
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Stop fighting in Lanka
The “snooty” French
Vicious attack on Eenadu Winds of change: Russia, 15 years on Delhi Durbar
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Mamata vs Bengal Trinamool Congress leader Mamata Banerjee’s continued stir against the Singur car project near Kolkata is illogical and irrational. Her hunger strike entered fourth week today. Unfortunately, she did not heed Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s advice to call off the strike and join the talks with West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee. During a visit to Kolkata on Sunday, the Prime Minister took stock of the situation, spoke to the Chief Minister and other leaders and sent Union Information and Broadcasting Minister Priyaranjan Dasmunsi to her as his emissary with the request to withdraw the strike. Earlier, West Bengal Governor Gopalkrishna Gandhi and former Prime Minister V.P. Singh also appealed to her to see reason. However, she insists on the return of the land to farmers even if it costs the state the Tata car project. Ms Banerjee may be justified in demanding adequate compensation to the farmers. But she has no right to demand scrapping of the car project in toto as that would cripple job opportunities. Her stubborn and inflexible stand suggests that she is using strike as a weapon to blackmail the government and give in to unreason. The state has been facing an acute unemployment problem. When more and more industries are needed to create adequate job opportunities, her campaign against the Tata project can scare the investor away from West Bengal. Moreover, Singur is just one of the series of industrial and other investment proposals, which will require the government to acquire more agricultural land. The Salim Group’s proposals alone range from major infrastructure projects to a chemical hub and a special economic zone. The Kulpi project, which includes another SEZ, is in the process of finalisation. The Nuclear Power Corporation has identified Haripur in East Midnapore district for setting up the state’s first nuclear plant. The Jindal Group has identified Salboni in West Midnapore district for its steel plant. West Bengal needs these industries for its overall development and Ms Banerjee would do well to call off her strike and stop playing politics for her own political survival. |
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Tackle by dialogue Finally, the UN Security Council has imposed sanctions on Iran for its nuclear transgressions. Luckily, the Council’s resolution adopted on Saturday does not talk of any military action. There is no move to block Iran’s oil exports too. The punitive action is limited to banning imports and exports of dangerous material and technology related to uranium enrichment and reprocessing as well as heavy water reactors and ballistic missile delivery systems. Iran has been told to stop the on-going of research in uranium enrichment except which is meant for peaceful purposes. Serious doubts have been raised about Teheran’s intentions. The world fears that under the cover of pursuing a programme for nuclear power generation Iran is trying to acquire the capacity to produce nuclear weapons. From the nature of the sanctions it is clear that there is still scope for diplomatic efforts in ending the Iranian nuclear crisis. China has called for immediately taking recourse to a fresh dialogue. China and Russia have already been doing their bit to prevent the use of force because of their economic and strategic interests in Iran. This is the reason why Russia forced the Security Council members to amend the original draft of the resolution to make it less punitive. It could not afford military action as Iran’s nuclear power plants are being set up with Russian help. Such a course would obviously lead to destabilisation in Iran, causing a massive economic loss to Russia besides creating future uncertainty. But Moscow may be asked by the international community to use its influence in Teheran to make the latter address the concerns raised over its nuclear programme. The confrontationist attitude as reflected in the statements of Iranian leaders, including President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad, will only further complicate matters. It is not fair on their part to say that now they will not cooperate with the International Atomic Energy Agency which Iran is supposed to do under the Additional Protocol to the NPT. As India has pointed out, Iran’s right to pursue its nuclear power programme for peaceful purposes cannot be questioned, but it should do so by fulfilling its international obligations under the NPT.
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Compensation for passengers The Delhi State Consumer Commission’s order imposing a compensation of Rs 10,000 for every passenger whose flight has been delayed beyond two hours, is just the kind of shock treatment needed to jolt airlines out of their indifference to consumer rights. The common order, passed by Justice J.D. Kapoor, decrees that the compensation will apply to all airlines operating out of Delhi. Those affected by similar delays in international flights will get a compensation of Rs 20,000. While the airlines of course will now fight back, and it remains to be seen how this order will be implemented and enforced, there is no doubt that such a measure will be welcomed by all the victims of flight delays. Drastic steps were primarily needed because of the smug resistance from airlines to upgrading their aircraft to the CAT III (b) system installed at Delhi airport, and imparting adequate training to their pilots. Consequently, every time there is fog, flights are delayed and cancelled. This not only affects Delhi flights, but throws schedules across the country into disarray, causing untold inconvenience to passengers. What is more, airlines are playing with lives of passengers, as inability to land in low visibility may seriously compromise flight safety in certain conditions. It is imperative that airlines are no longer allowed to get away with the annual chaos they are responsible for. Passengers also complain about the callous treatment they get at the airport. Many a time proper information about delays and rescheduled timings is not given to passengers in advance. Some times, many people have to wait till they reach the counter to receive a nasty shock. Facilities at airports for stranded passengers are poor – they are barely adequate for those moving through during regular times. While low fares have brought flying within the reach of the middle class, airlines have no business to provide deficient services.
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Idleness is only the refuge of weak minds.— Lord Chesterfield |
Stop fighting in Lanka
A
year is a long time in strife-torn Sri Lanka. Last year, Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam(LTTE) supremo Prabhakaran had given new Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse one year to resolve the political question or face the consequences. Without waiting for completion of the deadline, Prabhakaran unleashed a deadly terrorist campaign breaching the four-year-old Cease-Fire Agreement (CFA) with sophisticated mine warfare, spectacular suicide attacks on sea and land and escalatory conventional assaults, but remained in a denial mode. Between April and October this year, 2300 persons were killed, nearly 10 times the number in four years of the CFA. More than two lakh civilians have been displaced, 15,000 fled to India, six lakh were affected by food shortages and several hundred abducted, disappeared and forcibly recruited in the North-East. Not even this staggering scale of humanitarian disaster has made the warring sides abandon the quest for a military solution even when there isn’t one, or improve ground positions; such is the wretched fate of the Sri Lankans. India and the international community have become hapless onlookers. The year 2006 saw a significant shift in the politico-military balance of power and international opinion. While work on devolution and power-sharing began afresh in July, efforts at a national unity government failed. Under intense pressure from the JVP to abrogate the CFA and end the terrorist menace militarily, President Rajapakse sought and secured the cooperation of the opposition UNP on the national question. Its leader, Mr Ranil Wickremesinghe, is credited with crafting the CFA and the peace process and floating the federal idea. Sadly, all three are in the terminal stage. The silver lining from the debris of the year’s death and devastation is the glimmer of a never-before Southern Consensus, though past record is replete with instances of the Opposition party blocking any initiative on power sharing. This first-time consensus may be more realistic given it may also be the last chance to settle the ethnic conflict. Although the LTTE had welcomed the Southern Consensus, Prabhakaran’s November 27 annual Heroes’ Day speech — when for the first time the commemoration parade was cancelled for fear of Kfir fighter aircraft — made amply clear that “the LTTE has decided to establish the government of Independent State of Tamil Eelam”. While Prabhakaran thanked the Tamil diaspora and the people of Tamil Nadu for their help, he blamed the Sinhalese for the suffering of the Tamil people. Another “first” was Eastern Commander and renegade Karuna’s parallel November 27 speech, a direct challenge to the LTTE’s claim to being the sole representatives of Tamils. Karuna announced that the LTTE had been defeated in the East. This is on the cards as Karuna and the Sri Lankan Army (SLA) are systematically eliminating the LTTE control and influence from the coastal belt between Trincomalee and Batticaloa. When the battles in the Vakarai and Mankerni areas are won by the SLA, it would be a great blow to LTTE morale and prestige. The battle performance of the LTTE this year is a significant decline in its operational capability. The string of reverses suffered by it from Maavil Aru to Muttur to Sampore reflects for the first time a subtle shift in the balance of power in favour of security forces, thanks to Karuna and Kfirs. The LTTE weakness could be gauged from its willingness to attend the Geneva II talks unconditionally, yet another first. Even now, it is willing to resume talks provided the CFA is implemented and the A9 highway reopened. In government quarters the tactical gains are being misconstrued as strategic indicators for a military solution. The ill-fated attempt by the SLA to retake the Elephant Pass in the North after LTTE setbacks in the East should be a warning that the North is not the East. A popular impression is that the security forces are on autopilot, driven in Karuna’s East by the Kautilyan precept that your enemy’s enemy is your friend. The speculation in Colombo, though, is that Karuna is being supported by RAW. Whatever the ground reality, the CFA, which according to Prabhakaran has become “defunct”, needs to be respected in letter and spirit so that the humanitarian disaster in Sri Lanka’s North-East can be tackled. The fighting has to stop. But that is easier said than done, especially when one side can smell victory. The abortive LTTE suicide attack on the President’s brother and Defence Secretary, Mr Gothbaya Rajapakse, has reactivated the objectionable parts of the PTA (Prevention of Terrorism Act) which were suspended after the CFA. This is bound to enhance the culture of impunity prevalent among the security forces. Operational preparedness of the security forces is being augmented through a 40 per cent increase in the defence budget. Now that it is eminently clear that India will neither consider the Defence Cooperation Agreement nor supply lethal weapons, Colombo has turned to partners in need, Pakistan and China. But Pakistan extracted a political price: it insisted and got a Presidential visit and Sri Lanka got military hardware. Pakistan and Sri Lanka have a long-standing military relationship. Delhi objected to both the visit and the weapons. “Why does India follow a dog in the manger policy?” asked a Sri Lankan diplomat. “We begged you for MiG 27 aircraft and servicing of our old fleet, but Delhi remained evasive”, he added. Events in the North-East of Sri Lanka result in a chain reaction emanating from Tamil Nadu. The leadership in Chennai wags a finger at Colombo (and Delhi) over the humanitarian crisis and excessive use of force. Delhi reacts predictably by sending the National Security Adviser to Chennai and the Foreign Secretary to Colombo. For the first time, Congress President Sonia Gandhi has also joined the fray. It has become such a fruitless exercise. The Experts Group on Devolution has submitted its proposals. In the Presidential closet are at least one dozen variants for power sharing, the last offered by Chandrika Kumaratunga as the August 2000 draft constitution Bill. The current majority report apparently grants a better and more dignified devolution package to strengthen the provincial council but falls short of federalism. Rajapakse has talked about “maximum devolution in a united Sri Lanka”. The federal idea was offered in December 2002 by Mr Ranil Wickremesinghe and its withdrawal now is inappropriate. If the withdrawal is weighed by the perceived military advantage enjoyed by the government, that could change any time soon. The LTTE has never believed it can be squeezed out of the East or be militarily marginalised. The LTTE is a de facto state. It should still be given the benefit of doubt that it is serious about a negotiated solution, especially after the death of its ideologue Anton Balasingham. Sri Lankan Tamils say that the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Sri Lanka is contingent upon fair political devolution. A separate state is out of the question, but the present state is unacceptable. Mr Rajapakse must not be carried away by the military; he should end the humanitarian crisis and devolve power
urgently.
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The “snooty” French
I
was visiting an amazing town in France called Lorient for my research. This is the town from where the French used to embark on their colonial missions. It was also the place where the riches from the colonies arrived. On a somewhat pleasant day I took the first ferry from Lorient and after getting down at Port Louis, walked for over 2 km to reach the main gate of the museum of the “Compagnie Des Indes” (The French East India Company) located in an old citadel. I was there by 9 a.m., which I thought would be the opening time of the museum. I found the main gate closed and some painters busy with their job. And as it happens in Europe so frequently, the next moment it started raining followed by a rather strong breeze. Not prepared for this, I stood shivering under the archway of the gate wondering how this place would have bristled with activity and every bit of conversation laced with references to India — my India. My chest somehow swelled a little. Quietly, a black car had come and the occupant parked it in the parking space and was walking towards the entrance. We wished each other. I told him that I had come from India and wanted to visit the museum. He apologised and informed me that it was a holiday and he had just come to see the repair work which was going on at the main gate. He advised me to come the next day. In the meantime the rain had stopped and I slowly walked back towards the ferry and was in Lorient in about an hour. Next day again I was on the front gate of the museum at 9 a.m. and bought the entry ticket. On mentioning that I had come from India, I was advised to go to the room of the Director, I presented myself before the Director of the museum. We at once recognised each other. He was the person whom I had met at the gate the previous day. He personally took me around various sections of the museum. The museum was a bit disappointing with its seeming emphasis on its collection of the Chinese porcelain. We ended our little tour back at the reception desk. The receptionist was a middle aged lady, rather quiet but was handling her job with amazing efficiency. The Director presented me with a few booklets on the museum. We said goodbye to each other and he left for his room. I lingered on at the reception and chose a nice poster for my son. When I wanted to make the payment the lady at the reception gave me a polite smile and refused to take the payment. “You are the first visitor from India that I have met”, she said and added, “Keep it as a souvenir from France”. I thanked her and left as the lunch hour had already begun. I crossed the main gate and found myself to be the only person on road going towards the sea. The sea was roaring, a strong wind was blowing and it was raining persistently. I was thoroughly drenched, a small umbrella having failed to give me any but moral cover. I soon discovered that with the strong gusty wind, the umbrella itself was more of a liability than help. I stoically folded the umbrella and let the rain and wind have me. I never heard a car slow down and stop next to me. I didn’t pay attention and kept walking till I noticed the car moving side by side and a hand waving furiously at me from the half closed window pane. I stopped and took a little while to wipe my specs to see what the matter was. It was the same lady from the reception. “Sorry for the terrible weather” she said sounding fully convinced that she was responsible for the pouring rain. “I will drop you at the ferry” she added. I mumbled a half audible “Merci” and boarded the car, making the seat as wet as I was. “Oh I am so sorry” she said again, “I should have asked you if you had conveyance when you came to me.” A few bends of the road, a few minutes and a little more of conversation later she dropped me near the ferry and waving an “Au Revoir” drove back towards the museum. For a few seconds, I just stood there in the rain wondering why the French are called reserved, snooty and
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Vicious attack on Eenadu The Rajasekhara Reddy government in Andhra Pradesh has unleashed an unprecedented and concerted attack on the interests of a popular media group in a bid to cow down the management. In a witch-hunt reminiscent of the Indian Express days during the Emergency, the ruling party has been trying every trick up its sleeve to harm the reputation of the well-known Eenadu group companies, and run down its promoter Ramoji Rao. What distinguishes this attack on press freedom is the craft and cunningness with which the ruling clique hatched the elaborate plan to undermine the media group. The Chief Minister and the Home Minister filed defamation cases against Eenadu, the flagship newspaper of the group, while the government issued notices threatening to confiscate lands belonging to various group companies. The ruling party sent complaints to Union Finance Ministry against its finance company, ordered a CID investigation into the company affairs and used every forum including the floor of the Assembly to tarnish the image of Ramoji Rao. Ramoji is not just another newspaper baron, or Eenadu, just another regional newspaper. The stocky chairman of the Eenadu Group enjoys a larger than life image in the state. A veteran of many battles against the establishment, he played a key role in bringing the newly founded Telugu Desam Party to power in 1983, putting a stop to the uninterrupted single (Congress) party rule in the state.
He rewrote Telugu journalism in many ways - in design, lay-out, printing, distribution, writing style and most importantly in playing an adversarial role to the governments of the day. Winner of the B D Goenka Award, Ramoji Rao pioneered the concept of district edition and developing a new brand of reader-focused journalism. Eenadu is the largest circulated paper in the state with more than 1.1 million copies sold every day with 23 editions, including in Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore and Chennai. He runs 12 TV channels in various languages including Hindi, Urdu, Telugu, Bengali, Marathi, Gujarati and Kannada. Eenadu has probably the largest network of reporters, said to be present in 400 districts out of the total 581, in the country. His Ramoji Film City, spread across nearly 2,000 acres, is officially the largest film studio in the world. His other interests include Margadarsi Chit Funds, Margadarsi Financiers, Usha Kiran Movies, Mayuri Film Distributors, Priya Pickles, Dolphin Hotels etc. What differentiates Ramoji Rao from other proprietor-editors is the fact that he had been a hands-on editor throughout. Though his other companies make more money than his paper or TV channels, Ramoji devotes to this day most of his time to look after the day-to-day affairs of his media empire, which he built from a scratch. A low profile and publicity-shy personality, Ramoji acquired a formidable reputation especially after the ascent of the TDP into power. Interestingly, Ramoji never enjoyed a cosy relationship with the people he helped capture power. Both NTR and later Chandrababu Naidu were not spared by his newspaper. Nor is the present Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy, whose ‘pada yatra’ in the state as opposition leader was extensively covered by Eenadu much to the discomfiture of Naidu. Eenadu and ETV’s critical coverage of the Congress government, which took over in 2004, was resented from day one by YSR, not known for his tolerance to criticism. The Chief Minister initially made innuendos against Eenadu, without naming it. “One newspaper in the state is against the Congress government. It’s the voice of TDP. I don’t want the people to believe its writings,” he said in several press briefings. Simultaneously, he was preparing the ground for a multi-pronged attack. The first was to target Margadarsi Financiers, a group company of Ramoji Rao. The plan was executed with brilliant effect. An unknown MP from Rajahmundry U Arun Kumar with a gift of the gab was chosen for the hatchet job. The fusillade was aimed at creating panic among the depositors, and to force a run on the company offices, as always happens in such a scenario. RBI was brought into the picture by the state government, but the apex bank acted with the depositors’ interest in view. It is a tribute to Ramoji’s financial credentials built over several decades that more than 2.5 lakh depositors of Margadarsi remained solidly behind Ramoji Rao, foiling the ruling party’s efforts at spreading rumours and half-truths. Having failed to stir up unrest among depositors, the state government finally decided take things into its hands, by initiating criminal proceedings against Ramoji Rao. All this, when not a single depositor came forward to file any complaint over default in payment.
Stepping up the assault, the Reddy government continued its tirade against the group by raising the issue of assignment lands in Ramoji Film City. So dogged was YSR in pursuing Ramoji that he surrendered his excess land holdings just to take on Ramoji’s studio lands. A new legislation was enactedwhich enables the government to selectively target individuals who purchased assignment lands. This is the biggest assault on a media group in the state by any government, and it is early days to say whether the Reddy government would be successful in bringing the indomitable and defiant Ramoji Rao to his knees.
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Winds of change: Russia, 15 years on Fifteen years ago, Mikhail Gorbachev resigned, the hammer-and-sickle flag over the Kremlin was hauled down and the Soviet Union officially ceased to exist, replaced by an independent, theoretically democratic Russia and 14 cousin states. But don’t look for parades in Moscow to celebrate the anniversary. There will be no fireworks, no national commemoration of the epochal event of the last half of the 20th century. By contrast, the 100th birthday of the late Leonid Brezhnev last week touched off a wave of nostalgia for the old apparatchik with the bushy eyebrows. Wreaths and flowers were laid at his tomb in Red Square, conferences were held on his legacy, a street and park were renamed for him. A state television correspondent rhapsodized about how he “was quite a hit with the ladies.” A poll showed that more than 60 percent of Russians saw the Brezhnev era in a positive light compared with 17 percent who did not. What to make of a Russia that today grows misty-eyed over a period of tyranny and stagnation while growling that the breakup of one of the world’s most despotic regimes in 1991 was, as President Vladimir Putin put it, “the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the century”? What to make of a country with all the trappings of a Western-style capitalist democracy but the KGB-style cynicism to seemingly reach out and kill a critic in exile using radioactive polonium? Russia today defies easy characterization. It is not your father’s Soviet Union. Everyday Russians enjoy enormous freedom to live as they choose without worrying that neighbors will rat them out for making a joke about authorities. They can travel abroad, start businesses, watch foreign movies and surf the Internet unfettered. And yet the Kremlin has nearly completed a seven-year project to reconsolidate power and eliminate any serious opposition. It started by taking over television, then parliament, then business. It manipulated elections and then, when that became inconvenient, eliminated voting altogether for the country’s 89 governors and now is considering the same for big-city mayors. It has intimidated human rights groups and assumed control of newspapers one by one. So Russia in some ways appears a little like China, where the economy flourishes with new freedom but politics remain tightly controlled. The optimism of those first weeks after the Soviet collapse was infectious. Gorbachev succumbed to the pressures he himself had unleashed with reforms intended to save socialism. President George H.W. Bush hailed the end of the Soviet Union as “a victory for democracy and freedom” and welcomed “the emergence of a free, independent and democratic Russia.” Under Boris Yeltsin, Russia moved fitfully forward, but every advance seemed to encounter an equally powerful setback. Elections brought in a representative parliament only to trigger a tank battle with Yeltsin. State property was divested to private owners only to be stolen by newly minted oligarchs. The borders opened but the economy collapsed. Regions asserted greater autonomy but war broke out when Chechnya claimed too much. By the time an ailing Yeltsin picked a little-known former KGB colonel to succeed him on New Year’s Eve 1999, the country was ready for anything resembling stability. Putin’s tough-fisted rule combined with soaring oil prices have transformed Russia. Russia is swimming in money; its economy has grown fivefold under Putin, from $200 billion to $920 billion, and the once-destitute government has paid off its international debt in full and early. Yet that wealth has not trickled down throughout the entire country, and even where it has, a sense of unease remains, a feeling of something lost. A recent poll by the Levada Center found that 15 years later, 61 percent of Russians regret the fall of the Soviet Union. As long as they remain peaceful and quiet, the Russian people can live relatively unbothered by the state today. Those who try to influence their country in a significant way, however, risk harassment, prison or violence. The killing of Alexander Litvinenko by radioactive poisoning in London has captured attention in the West, but he is only the latest person out of favor to fall into harm’s way. Whether Putin orchestrated such incidents remains murky, of course, but they are a standard feature of the Russia he has built. By arrangement with LA Times-Washington Post
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There is never a dull moment between the Parliamentarians of the Congress and the Left parties. The Left believes that the credit is entirely theirs for pushing the Congress-led UPA government to lower the prices of petrol and diesel. Congressmen vociferously disagree on the ground that it was the intervention of their numero uno, Sonia Gandhi, that did the trick. Sitaram Yechury of the CPI-M maintained that it was the Left parties which had been consistently demanding that the government reduce the prices of petrol and diesel. Nevertheless, Left MPs believe that Sonia Gandhi provides a keen ear to their demands, as well as to the serious differences they have with the coalition leader on key economic policy issues. Silent Varun Varun Gandhi tried his best to get the Vidishi Lok Sabha ticket from the BJP. That was not to be. However, Varun has been lying low and the BJP leadership now feels this might prove favourable to the youthful leader. With an overhaul of the party round the corner, many in the saffron brigade believe he could be in line to be one of the General Secretaries of the BJP. There are several others eyeing the plum posts of General Secretary in the BJP and the buzz is that Shahanawaz Hussain could also be one of them. All for a cause Sharmila from Manipur remains firm on fasting unto death if the UPA government does not scrap the Armed Forces Special Powers Act. Having begun a hunger fast six years ago in November 2000, she is now resisting medication or being fed intravenously. Sharmila, who moved to the national capital in October, has found support beyond the country's shores. Iranian Nobel Laureate Shirin Ebadi met Sharmila last month and has promised to take up the issue globally. Award to O.P. Sabherwal The Indian Nuclear Society (INS) has awarded the INS Science Communications Award 2005 to author and journalist O.P. Sabherwal. INS described Mr Sabherwal as a “communicator and dedicated publicist of India’s nuclear programme for over 15 years,” in the print and electronic media. The society lauded his book India’s Tryst with the Atom, stressing its “enduring contribution to understanding India’s nuclear programme – conveyed in style and manner equally understandable to the common reader as well as the intelligentsia.” INS Secretary Mr G.D. Mittal praised Mr Sabherwal for “successfully and effectively communicating to the public, India’s significant achievements in the field of nuclear technology.”
Contributed by R. Suryamurthy and S. Satyanarayanan |
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To revive the morale of his subjects, the victorious king must perform religious sacrifices, encourage festivals and celebrate every suitable occasion. Thus he will —The Mahabharata When a person is really good deep within, he does not crib and complain. In every person, in every circumstance, he searches for that which is good. Even in something apparently bad, he tries to find something good. —The Bhagvad Gita |
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