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Valley of violence
Bridges falling down |
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Taint of corruption
A divisive exercise
Breaking hearts, celebrity style
Keep the General in good humour COUNTERPOINT
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Valley of violence
The fragile peace in the Kashmir valley stands shattered again, with agitations, protest marches and the resultant violence breaking out at many places. A new factor is that now women have also joined the stone-pelters in large numbers, increasing the difficulties of security forces.
Whatever the Union Home Minister may say, the fact is that the separatists are calling the shots in large parts of the Valley. They have become so bold that they are enforcing their writ not only on private organisations but also on public sector institutions to hold the weekly off on Friday instead of Sunday. Ironically, it is they who disrupt normal life and then say that the state government is not governing. The most dubious has been the role of avowedly democratic parties like the PDP which are indulging in activities more suited to furthering the cause of the separatists. It is high time they realised the consequences of their ill thought out policies. Then there are elements in the Hurriyat who want to negotiate with the government while holding a gun to its head. Disruption and violence are their most dependable weapons. It is a difficult situation no doubt but Chief Minister Omar Abdullah must plod on regardless, with the Centre firmly behind him. The Centre as well as the state government has been inviting all interested parties to come to the negotiating table but the response has been less than even lukewarm. Of course, the government has to remove various irritants like wide-spread unemployment and rampant corruption. It has also to make sure that the security agencies do not exert undue force while tackling protesters. Human rights violations must also be eliminated. But all this cannot be a one-way street. Restraint and reasonableness are also expected from those who are battling the government. While listening to their allegation that the security men retaliated with excessive force, it must also be assessed what the provocation was. Condemning the security forces outright will be playing into the hands of the enemies of the nation who have started a well thought out campaign to discredit the Army and the
CRPF.
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Bridges falling down It is during the rainy season that the true strength and reliability of a building is tested. The rain this season has not been excessive or abnormal. Still road and railway bridges have tumbled down in Himachal Pradesh and Haryana. The latest to cave in is the one on the Basantpur-Kingal road in Himachal that leads to the Indo-Tibetan border.
It apparently could not bear the weight of four cement-loaded trucks parked there. The police immediately challanned the truck drivers, who had stopped to have food. The real culprit(s) will be identified after an inquiry. As if it was something unusual, newspapers highlighted the fact that the bridge was completed just a year ago. There are railway and other bridges constructed during the British times and are still going strong. But the way corruption has flourished in independent India, people are more wary of newly built structures than those made when moral degeneration had not set in. The Border Roads Organisation has done a lot of commendable work but with the latest bridge collapse, its reputation stands besmirched even though it had got the bridge constructed through a private contractor. It was expected nevertheless to ensure quality of the project it had outsourced. In Haryana and Punjab, canal breaches have caused massive damage to private and public property in recent days. The railway services between Delhi and Amritsar were disrupted as rainwater washed away soil under the tracks. The authorities have declared 30 bridges as “sensitive” in the Ambala railway division alone. The overflowing canal waters brought down the bridge over the Shahbad-Nalwi road in Haryana, constructed, again, just a year ago. It is not enough to order an inquiry after every tragedy or mishap. Precious lives are lost. Swift and visible action against the guilty alone will act as a deterrent. The heads must roll at the top also as the monsoon arrival this year has not seen any advance planning.
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Taint of corruption As the deadline of the Commonwealth Games approaches, there has been a flurry of allegations about the misuse of funds and corruption in various projects associated with the Games. The Central Vigilance Commission has pointed out that tenders were given at higher rates to bidders and the quality of construction was poor in a dozen construction works. It has asked the Central Bureau of Investigation to look into the matter.
Another expose put the Delhi government on the mat because of purchase of medical equipment, allegedly at vastly inflated rates. The Commonwealth Games Organising Committee is facing the heat because of a contract given to an event management firm in London, which is being investigated by authorities in the UK. All these allegations must be investigated thoroughly and the guilty must be brought to the book. The Commonwealth Games are just two months away. It is indeed unfortunate that corruption and substandard work have cast their shadow over the biggest sporting event. Swift and efficient completion of various projects associated with the Games is vital to the nation’s honour. The situation on the ground is far from encouraging, since most of the projects are running behind schedule, and at times like this, there is a tendency to cut corners, sometimes with serious consequences. The Prime Minister’s Office has rightly intervened to sort out matters, since it is obvious that the CWGOC, various associated organisations and the Delhi government have not been able to deliver. Only top-level intervention can save the day. Delhi hosted the Asian Games with great aplomb. For the Commonwealth Games, too, it must pull out all the stops, even as it puts a stop to malfeasance by any official.
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A critic is a man who knows the way but can’t drive the car. — Kenneth Tynan
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A divisive exercise
The demand for a caste census threatens to acquire political space in the none-too-distant future. The well-known OBC leader, Lalu Prasad Yadav, wielding his lathi, has declared that he will not rest till the demand is met. The foremost Dalit leader, Ms Mayawati, has also lent her unequivocal support to the phenomenon. Though the matter is under consideration of the Group of Ministers and other co-opted members appointed by the Prime Minister, there has been very little debate on the issue of caste census. An obvious question is whether the normal census operation under way is unable to enumerate and locate the OBCs and other deprived caste groups. The very purpose of census begun after Independence was to identify areas of socio-economic backwardness and economically disadvantaged groups. Also attention has been paid in the National Sample Surveys to enumerate OBC groups as the Mandal Commission report suggests. According to data provided by Economic and Political Weekly (July 17-23, 2010, p10), the Mandal Commission had arrived at the OBC figure of 52 per cent of the total population on “flimsy empirical evidence”. The National Sample Survey of 1999-2000 estimated the OBC population at 36 per cent and in 2004-05 at 41 per cent. Such surveys are tools for determining caste data and disadvantaged groups. If that is so, is there any necessity of specifically starting a caste census at enormous public expenditure? Several social groups also clamour for reservations. The Jats threatened recently that they would not allow the Commonwealth Games to take place if they were not assured of a “quota”. In Rajasthan the Gujjars have been given 5 per cent reservation. In Tamil Nadu 69 per cent reservations have been made. It is also proposed to give 30 per cent reservation to women. A kind of quota raj is in the offing! Of course, the easy way out is to keep on accepting the demand of each and every caste group till the government collapses to the overall detriment of national good. It is argued here that the quota raj based on caste is harmful and disastrous for the political future of India. It would inaugurate virulent caste conflicts at various levels and eventually affect the morale of our defence forces endangering the security and integrity of India. Since the dawn of Independence, an overwhelming majority of educated middle-class Indians believed that caste was harmful for national growth. It was accepted as an axiom that caste militated against the concept of nationality. As long as caste dominance persisted in the social fabric of India, it was believed that national sentiment, however strong, would remain somewhat mute and quiescent. Caste was also opposed since it denoted social inequality. It was an essential part of a feudal past, which we had aspired to destroy and overgrow. Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru dreamt of establishing a casteless and classless society. They considered caste as a regressive force, opposed to the values of common citizenship, Indian nationhood and modernity. It was also argued that just as Jinnah’s two-nation theory brought about a religious divide leading to partition of India, so also would caste ultimately prove to be divisive and promote social cleavage difficult to bridge. The caste census is bound to perpetuate caste consciousness and caste solidarity to the detriment of national good. The caste census has in it the power to destroy the values of common nationality cherished by millions of Indians. The Khap Panchayats’ demands and subsequent honour killings are to a great extent the consequence of a caste-based social order. No doubt, these have shocked the national conscience, and people hope their demands would not be legitimised by law. Rather, here is an opportunity for the Centre to take a firm and appropriate measure to deal a death blow to such practices. It must be the imperative duty of the Central Government to see that the tragic past based on demeaning caste distinctions did not prevail. The Constitution does not recognise caste as a valid unit of family, village or town. The caste panchayats must be made to function within the constitutional obligations and law. It must also be stressed that caste is not divinely ordained, nor is based on any religion. It has evolved over time. An eminent Vedic scholar, Mahamahopadhyaya P.V.Kane, who was awarded Bharat Ratna in 1963, observed in his classic multiple volume study; History of Dharmasastras, that during the Vedic period before 1000 BC, mention had been made of three Varnas (meaning colour): Brahmans, Ksatriyas and Vaisyas. Sudras (service class) were those who were defeated by the Aryans. They were also known as dasas. (Vol.II, Part I P.33). Owing to cultural advance a division of labour took place and numerous arts and crafts and occupations came into being, giving rise to castes (jati) and sub-castes (p-48). Manusmriti (around I century A.D.) and subsequent Purusukta claimed that the four Varnas were created by Supreme Purusa (p.33). In recent times, however, it is believed that “the caste system was an invention, and artificial product due to the machinations of crafty Brahmans” (p.22). If that is so, why continue with the caste system at all? Caste, however, has not disappeared nor is there any chance of its disappearance if the practices like caste census, Khap Panchayat demands are continued. With the Mandalisation of politics the caste system has received a fresh lease of life, which is being utilised for electoral gains. In the modern age caste distinctions among the urban educated and middle classes are considered abhorrent. Caste has no place in the Constitution. Studies have shown the hold of caste in the urban middle classes has weakened. Andre Beteille, an eminent sociologist, writes : “The doctor in his office, the lawyer in his chamber, the civil servant or even the clerk in his office is no longer bound by the moral authority of his caste in the way the Brahman, the Rajput, the Nai (Barbar) or Dhobi (Washerman) was in the traditional village...... He (middle class man) can’t repudiate his obligations to his family even when he finds them irksome; (but) nothing is easier for him than to repudiate the demands of his caste if he finds them inconvenient” (Sudhir Kakar, The Indians: Portrait of a People (Penguin, Delhi, 2007, p 40). No longer family occupations of the past satisfy aspirations of the younger generation of modern middle-class families and all other groups, rich and poor. The nation can grow, flourish and achieve greatness if only it looks beyond
caste. The writer is a retired Professor of History
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Breaking hearts, celebrity style
IT had all the ingredients of a glittery ceremony: A posh venue, the company’s beaming PR head welcoming the guests at the entrance and beautiful girls escorting them to their seats, dazzling damsels in shimmering sarees conducting the stage and announcing the upcoming proceedings in Queen’s English, and the spectators marvelling at their linguistic skills, besides other things. The function had been organised by a famous beauty, health and fitness training institute to felicitate its students. As it turned out to be, it was also the birthday of the founder of the institute. When I reached the auditorium, the stage was all set for the event and the hall was abuzz with conversations. I also got engaged in some small talk with a fellow journalist seated next to me. All of a sudden, the buzz fell silent and all heads turned towards the entrance. “She’s there,” murmured somebody from a back row. Imbibing every bit of the gaze on her and throwing a cursory glance and smug smile on the gathering, the woman of the moment arrived in style. Flanked by a posse of her close aides, she settled down in the front row, enjoying her celebrity status to the hilt. The staff went into a tizzy, taking turns to welcome the “dignitaries”. Bouquets appeared in a jiffy, and were laid to rest alongside the mineral-water bottles on the front tables. A saree-clad announcer formally welcomed the founder-mentor of the institute and extolled her virtues in great details. She was then invited to the dais to light the ceremonial lamp and inaugurate the event. Following that, the founder was prayed to say a few words, and she obliged. While she spoke, a tall man dressed in a safari suit trademark of security personnel stood behind her. After the speech was over, the owner of the institute proceeded towards her seat, escorted by the safari-clad man. As they alighted from the dais, a nicely dressed-up young girl holding a greeting card in her hand stepped towards them. The safari man at once stepped ahead to introduce the girl: “Ye meri beti hai, Madam,” he mumbled, but the “madam” ignored them and walked towards her seat. The man tried to call her again, but he was stopped by his daughter. He hugged the girl, perhaps to console her. I couldn’t make out whether the lady boss had done it deliberately or it just happened, but I felt sorry for the girl. A little later, I found that the girl had left and the safari man was standing in a corner, holding the card in his hands. It was a beautiful card, perhaps made by the girl herself. I could see the words “Happy Birthday” inscribed on it amidst an attractive pattern of flowers and sparkles. I didn’t feel like being there anymore. I wanted to console the girl and her father, but stopped myself from doing so as it might embarrass them. I left the place, telling myself that some things in life are beyond our control. I sincerely hope that the episode turns out to be a blessing in disguise for the young girl, and she does well in her life. And, when she is in an enviable position herself, she does not do to anybody what was done to
her.
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Keep the General in good humour
Myanmar's reclusive military leader, General Than Shwe, just ended a five-day visit to India and signed a raft of pacts including treaties on mutual legal assistance in criminal matters, counter terrorism, development projects, science and technology and information cooperation etc. A memorandum of understanding was also signed to provide Indian assistance in restoring the Ananda temple in Bagan, a major tourist attraction in Myanmar. Two issues were central - energy cooperation and insurgents operating in India's Northeast who manage to use the 1650 km long India-Myanmar border for their hiding purposes. India plans to invest more than $1 billion in Myanmar's energy sector over the next few years. Among the infrastructure and development projects that were discussed include an India-Myanmar-Thailand highway project, a hydro-electric project to be built by the NHPC, a truck assembly plant by Tata Motors and a border trade point on the Mizoram-Myanmar border. In an attempt to restructure the India-Myanmar border areas, Myanmar has agreed to give citizenship cards to people of Indian origin even if they lack any document. In a sign that Myanmar wants to substantively engage India on economic and trade issues, Than Shwe visited the information technology hub in Hyderabad and the industrial centre in Jamshedpur. Than Shwe's visit to New Delhi came days after the US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, in a speech at the ASEAN meeting urged regional countries to push Myanmar to comply with UN human rights resolutions. The US is anxious that the junta in Myanmar will use its growing engagements with India to gain greater global legitimacy. The US Assistant Secretary of State, Kurt Campbell, suggested that India's growing role in global politics should be used to penetrate the tight military clique that runs Myanmar and that New Delhi should "encourage interlocutors inside [Myanmar] to embrace reforms." After being a strong critic of the Myanmar junta, India muted its criticism and dropped its vocal support for Aung San Suu Kyi since mid-1990s to help pursue its 'Look East' policy aimed at strengthening India's economic linkages with the rapidly growing economies in East and South-east Asia. More important has been the realisation that China's profile in Myanmar has grown at an alarming pace. India's ideological obsession with democracy made sure that Myanmar drifted towards China. As India realised that one of its closest neighbors and a major source of natural gas, Myanmar, is coming under China's orbit, it reversed its policy of isolating the Burmese junta and has now begun to deal with it directly. India cannot afford to toe the western line on Myanmar. India's strategic interests demand that India only gently nudge the Myanmar's junta on the issue of democracy. India's relief efforts after the tropical cyclone Nargis hit Myanmar in 2008 earned it great deal of appreciation. India has gained a sense of trust at the highest echelons of the Myanmar's ruling elite and it would be loathe to lose it. Not surprising, therefore, that India remains opposed to western sanctions on the country. After six years of discussions, India agreed to the building of Sittwe port in 2008 at a cost of $120 million. This will provide an alternative route to connect with South -east Asia without transiting Bangladesh. India has also extended a $20 million credit for renovation of the Thanlyin Refinery, but it also supported Myanmar against the U.S. censure motion in an attempt to lure the junta to grant preferential treatment to India in the supply of natural gas. Bilateral trade between India and Myanmar today stands at almost $1 billion. The junta has cooperated with India in eliminating Naga insurgents. India's long border with Myanmar is an open one where the tribal population is free to move up to 20 kms on either side. Apart from India's existing infrastructure projects in Myanmar, which include the 160-kilometer India-Myanmar friendship road built by India's Border Roads Organisation in 2001, India is looking into the possibility of embarking on a second road project and investing in a deep-sea project (Sagar Samridhi) to explore oil and gas in the Bay of Bengal as well as the Shwe gas pipeline project in western Myanmar. Even as the Burmese military junta was readying for a violent crackdown on monks and democracy activists, the Indian petroleum minister was in Yangon signing a production deal for three deep-water exploration blocks off the Rakhine coast. While India did support the United Nations Human Rights Council resolution against Myanmar, it tried to tone it down and balance its democratic credentials with its desire to retain its influence with the Burmese military government. Yet, India has found it difficult to counter Chinese influence in Myanmar, with China selling everything from weapons to food grains to Myanmar. There is no escaping the clout China wields in Myanmar. The Chinese firms get preferential treatment in the award of blocks and gas, apparently in recognition of China's steady opposition to the U.S. moves against Myanmar's junta in the UN. China's growing naval presence in and around the Indian Ocean region is troubling India as it restricts India's freedom to manoeuvre in the region. Of particular note is what has been termed as China's "string of pearls" strategy that has significantly expanded China's strategic depth in India's backyard. Some of these claims are exaggerated as has been the case with the Chinese naval presence in Myanmar. The Indian government, for example, had to concede in 2005 that reports of China turning Coco Islands in Myanmar into a naval base were incorrect and that there were indeed no naval bases in Myanmar. Yet the Chinese thrust into the Indian Ocean is gradually becoming more pronounced than before. The Chinese may not have a naval base in Myanmar but they are involved in the upgradation of infrastructure in the Coco Islands and may be providing some limited technical assistance to Myanmar. Indian strategic interests, therefore, demand a robust partnership with Myanmar. Democracy promotion is a luxury that India cannot afford at the moment.
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COUNTERPOINT A 5-day trip to India by Senior General Than Shwe, the head of the military junta that has ruled neighbouring Myanmar for decades, was expected to pass off smoothly. It did, as neither the Indian government nor the country's activist community rose to the occasion to apply any pressure on the draconian junta. The itinerary of the General's second visit to India included access to the highest portals of power and business centres. Although incredulously dubbed as a "religious visit" by a devout Buddhist, Than Shwe came with a delegation of government officials and met the entire top brass of the Indian leadership. It was a de facto state visit that notched up workmanlike deals and accords on trade, investment and border security. While the Indian government's 15-year-long logic of not upsetting Myanmar's entrenched authoritarian regime by advocating for democracy and civil liberties is strategically and morally questionable, an even more surprising silence has emanated from India's civil society. Than Shwe visited major tourist and business centres across India where there is no dearth of activists, social workers and crusaders for justice. Yet, they did not think it worth their time and energy to display significant dissent. The streets were largely left to Myanmarese exiles in India (unofficially around 100,000 strong) to voice their disgust at the honour and legitimacy being accorded to a man they consider a war criminal. Myanmarese refugee organisations in India clearly have the greatest stake in their homeland's destiny, and they did turn out in sizeable numbers with banners and placards demanding that Than Shwe conduct free elections and release thousands of political prisoners. But glaringly absent from these mini-demonstrations were India's civil society progressives. The Thailand-based Irrawaddy magazine mentioned as a footnote that a handful of Indian intellectuals, film makers, writers and movie stars had written a letter to the Manmohan Singh government denouncing the cosy relations between New Delhi and the blood-stained junta ensconced in Naypyidaw. Some 'progressive' elements from India's marginal political parties, such as Jaya Jaitley of the Samata Party and the youth wing of the Communist Party of India, were observed marching, delivering speeches and burning effigies. However, such interventions belied the concept of 'civil society' participation, which is supposed to be non-electoral and unrelated to the agendas of political parties. It is evident now that pro-democracy forces within the Indian civil society are negligible in number and declining in quality. When Than Shwe's deputy, General Maung Aye, came calling to India with an official entourage in April 2008, expatriate Myanmarese media outlets reported a gathering of over 1,000 Myanmarese exiles, Tibetan refugees and Indian civil society activists to mark their disapproval of the atrocities and repression being perpetrated by the junta. But not even a few hundred Indian activists with some public clout and influence on opinion- making were around this time when Myanmar's head of state arrived. The deficiencies and inconsistencies of the Indian civil society with regard to mobilising concern on issues of international social justice have been exposed in recent years in the Tibet theatre as well. When the Olympic torch relay in the run up to the Beijing summer games was underway in 2008, India proved to be one of the safest transit points. There was no untoward incident or even peaceful expression of mass outrage when the flame was carried by India's cognoscenti and selected sporting legends through sanitised New Delhi. This passiveness stood in sharp contrast to the robust protests and symbolic shaming actions of civil society groups in a number of international cities, distressed by the Chinese government's crackdown in March 2008 on Tibet. The spirit of popular resistance to Chinese rule in Tibet, which were witnessed in the USA, Turkey, Japan, the UK, France, South Korea, Australia et al, were contrasted by sleepy anti-climaxes in India, West Asia, Africa and Latin America. An interesting North-South divide has emerged in civil society approaches to murderous regimes in the decolonised world. While civil society activism in rich countries is global as well as self-critical in its range of interests, social movements in poorer, formerly colonised countries tend to be ambivalent about indignities meted out by states of fellow developing countries. India's raucous civil society- a self-proclaimed defender of justice that estimates itself to be an avant garde force standing up against impunity and misrule- barely raised a whimper in the final stages of Sri Lanka's war in 2009. Except a few prominent figures like the novelist and essayist Arundhati Roy, who has critiqued Chinese oppression in Tibet, Sri Lankan state terrorism, as well as the US 'war on terrorism' in equal measure, most Indian social activists kept deafeningly quiet about the gory endgame of the war in Sri Lanka and the Indian government's acquiescence to it. It would be unfair to label Indian civil society an accomplice of the Indian state, because the former does intercede with gumption against domestic state policies that militate against justice and equality. Even in foreign affairs, in recent times, Indian civil society entities have staged impressive protests and agitations drawing in crowds in excess of 20,000 against the US war on Iraq and Israel's attacks on Lebanon and Gaza. But their no-show on Myanmar or Tibet reveals disturbing double standards that condemn Western iniquities but condone or ignore human-made disasters in Asia owing to ideological limitations of seeing villains only if they are white or capitalist. Opposing state and corporate misdeeds stemming from the West and from within India, but remaining disinterested or misinformed about tyranny elsewhere in Asia and beyond, reproduces the toxic conditions in which Than Shwes of the world thrive. (The author is Associate Professor of World Politics at the OP Jindal Global University in Sonepat, Haryana) |
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