The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

	Breach of protocol But who cares for conventions? THE manner in which Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee had humiliated West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya in not inviting him to the foundation stone laying ceremony of the Joka-BBD Bag Metro rail project in Kolkata on Wednesday is most unfortunate. Ms Banerjee’s conduct is not only an insult to the duly elected Chief Minister of the state but also a mockery of established norms and conventions. It is common knowledge that Ms Banerjee is not a stickler for political etiquette. However, when she was organising an important function of her Ministry, that too, graced by President Pratibha Patil, protocol demanded that she should have shown the basic courtesy of inviting the Chief Minister to it. Moreover, the protocol rules of the Centre and the states demand that whenever the President, the Vice-President and the Prime Minister visit a state, the Governor and the Chief Minister should not only receive them at the airport but also accompany them to official functions at least in the state capitals. In this case, though Mr Bhattacharya duly received the President at the Kolkata airport, he could not attend the function in the absence of an invitation. Worse, Ms Banerjee showed her pique and anger at the state government even while inviting Mr Ranjit Kundu, the state’s Surface Transport Minister. Her Ministry reportedly sent the invite to Mr Kundu’s office through a peon after the Minister left the office for the day on Tuesday evening. This deplorable attitude reflected the Railway Minister’s refusal to realise the importance of showing basic courtesy to constitutional functionaries, if not political opponents. Clearly, politics should have no role to play when Union Ministers organise official functions in the states. Unfortunately, this disturbing trend is not new in West Bengal. Killings and clashes between the cadres of both the Left and the Trinamul Congress have vitiated the political atmosphere in the state. The political divide is so sharp and bitter today that this has attained personal overtones. Wednesday’s incident is an ugly manifestation of this decadent culture. If the Trinamul Congress is guilty of deciding not to share a platform with the state ministers, the Left, too, cannot be absolved of blame. Though it has been in power for 33 years in West Bengal, it has done little to strengthen democratic conventions and institutions by evolving consensus and carrying the Opposition with it.
	Media & the message Despite odds, India can salvage the Games I always turn to the sports section first. The sports section records people’s accomplishments; the front page nothing but man’s failures”. Former US Chief Justice Earl Warren might have to rewrite these words should he be reading Indian newspapers these days which focus on failures and disasters waiting to happen. Be it the Commonwealth Games or the Ayodhya verdict, the media at times works up frenzy and loses balance. The recent spurt in scare-mongering on the Games, internal security, the Yamuna and Ayodhya has forced some foreigners to reconsider participation in the Games. Yes, corruption and shoddy work need to be pointed out but in a moderate and sober way without going overboard as some of the TV boys and girls seem to be doing. If a pedestrian bridge has fallen, it does not mean the Games have collapsed as Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit aptly points out. If a chip of the false ceiling comes down, it does not become India’s “shame”. No doubt, Organising Committee Chairman Suresh Kalmadi and his team will have a lot to answer for — but after the Games. The search for culprits will have to begin with Mani Shankar Aiyar, who as Sports Minister had delayed projects because of his personal opinion on whether India should hold the Games. “The secret of successful journalism is to make your readers so angry they will write half your paper for you”, so observed broadcaster C.E.M. Joad. First newspapers and TV channels work up readers/viewers with exaggerated and provocative accounts of events and then solicit/extract comment to support what they report. Whether on the Games or Ayodhya, the atmosphere has got so surcharged that if something actually goes wrong, the media must own up its share of the responsibility. TV kids, backed by TRP-hungry managements, tend to launch campaigns with a vengeance for causes small and big. Where is the focus on India’s “can-do” spirit so ably demonstrated by E. Sreedharan in building Delhi’s Metro?
	Thought for the Day Every revolution was first a thought in one man’s mind. — American proverb
	Corrections and clarifications In paragraph eight of the middle “In the line of duty” (Page 10, September 23, The Tribune), the word ‘diffuse’ (the tension) has been wrongly used in place of defuse. Defuse means ‘reduce’ while diffuse broadly means ‘disperse’. The caption with the report “Rain of misery for Punjab farmers” (Page 20, September 23, The Tribune) says “a farmer inspects his damaged field after a heavy rain at the Banur-Rajpura road.” Instead, it should have been “in the Banur-Rajpura area”. The headline “AFSPA, autonomy split allies, NC, Cong” (Page 1, September 22, The Tribune) should not have had a comma after allies. The headline “I’m fit and in-form: Yuvraj” (Page 16, September 21, The Tribune) should have gone without a hyphen. Despite our earnest endeavour to keep The Tribune error-free, some errors do creep in at times. We are always eager to correct them. This column appears twice a week — every Tuesday and Friday. We request our readers to write or e-mail to us whenever they find any error. Readers in such cases can write to Mr Kamlendra Kanwar, Senior Associate Editor, The Tribune, Chandigarh, with the word “Corrections” on the envelope. His e-mail ID is kanwar@tribunemail.com. Raj Chengappa Editor-in-Chief

ARTICLE

Quota syndrome haunts Haryana
Skewed development model the villain
by D.R. Chaudhry

THE demand for reservation for Jats in government services in Haryana has taken a violent turn. The discontent on this score, which has been simmering for a long time, has now erupted into fierce conflagration resulting in large-scale destruction of public property and killing of a youth in police firing.

Jats have been socially and culturally a backward community. Not long ago they were treated as an ill-bred, ill-cultured and ill-mannered lot, fit only for the hard toil in the fields. When stray cases from them started making forays into government services and private enterprises a few decades ago, there was a tendency to hide their identity. It was only during the ascendance of Chaudhary Chhotu Ram in the politics of pre-partition Punjab that the process of formation of Jat identity started taking a concrete shape.

It was the Green Revolution in Haryana which added to the social and political clout of Jats. However, this has reached a plateau now and there is a serious crisis in the agricultural economy in the state. Most of the land-holdings in the state are unviable. As per Agriculture Census, 2000-2001, individual land-holdings measuring between 0.5 hectare and 2 hectares numbered 4,18,783 out of the total 5,69,022. The increasing cost of agricultural inputs has further added to the woe, making farming a losing concern in the state. Thus, in every Jat-dominated big village in Haryana, one comes across youths feeling dispirited, disillusioned and lost, with no prospects of gainful employment and marital alliance. They are ideally suited to fuel any agitation which promises them a slightly less grim future.

There has been no industrialisation worth the name in the state which could open new avenues of employment. A comprehensive programme of dairy development, with Delhi as a vast market on the periphery, would have been an ideal strategy to deal with the crisis. Haryana is known for its best quality of milch cattle. Every small farmer could have a few milch cattle with loan from a bank and this would have provided gainful work for the unemployed youth. The experiment of Amul in Gujarat could have been replicated in Haryana. However, vast tracts of fertile land in the state, especially in the NCR region, have been thrown up for grabs by land speculators and property dealers.

The Justice Gurnam Singh Commission in 1991 recommended reservation for several farming communities, including the Jats in Haryana. Now, the then Bhajan Lal government is being blamed for not implementing the recommendations. However, what prompted the subsequent governments, all headed by Jat leaders, for ignoring the commission’s report? In the unseemly game of winning brownie points, the Jats, a highly volatile community, have been used as a pawn by various political leaders to further their narrow interests. When the V.P. Singh government at the Centre introduced the OBC quota in government jobs, the Jats of Haryana were mobilised to oppose reservation by the then leadership of the community and a lot of public property was set ablaze.

The ire of Haryana Jats on the issue of reservation is understandable when their counterparts in Rajasthan have been put in the Central List and those in UP, Himachal Pradesh, Madhaya Pradesh and Delhi in the State List. It is only Haryana and Punjab with a sizeable section of Jats which have not included them even in State List. In the wake of neo-liberal policies of privatisation and liberalisation, the size of the cake of government jobs has shrunk further and this has led to a wild scramble to nibble at it. This has the dangerous portent of pitting one community against another. This happened in Rajasthan in the case of Gujjars versus Meenas. This has started happening in Haryana too. There was a fierce confrontation between Jats and non-Jats in Barwala town in Hissar district and the vehicle of the Jat Aarakshan Samiti chief was torched by non-Jats. (The Tribune, September 16).

The registration of a case of murder against Subhash Yadav of Hissar has evoked sharp reaction in the Ahirwal region. The best course would have been to institute a judicial enquiry and take appropriate action in the light of its findings. The Mirchpur episode has alienated the Dalits. The growing caste cleavage, if not checked in time, is likely to assume alarming proportions in a state like Haryana where every happening is looked into through the caste prism. The situation demands an urgent meeting of all the groups concerned to take necessary steps for ensuring caste harmony in the state.

There is need to go beyond the narrow confines of reservation to understand the root cause of the problem. The development model adopted by our ruling elites in the country has benefited a small section at the top of the social pyramid, with the bulk of the population languishing at its bottom. A few hard facts should be in order to illustrate that India has seen the highest rate of economic growth in the world after China. It has the largest number of dollar billionaires in Asia.

However, the flip side makes a chilling reading. As per the findings of the Central Commission on Unorganised Enterprises headed by Dr Arjun Sengupta, India’s track record in tackling hunger is among the worst in the world. As per the National Health Survey (2006), child under-nutrition in India is 46 per cent. In the Global Hunger Index (2008), India ranks 66th among 88 countries. Census data shows that 8 million cultivators quit agriculture between 1991 and 2001.

The country spends Rs 10,000 crore on a new airport. But funds for the hungry are hard to come by. “The poor in India are doomed,” as Mani Shankar Aiyer, a former Union Minister, rightly laments. The uneven development of the worst kind, the talk of inclusive growth notwithstanding, has led to fierce fighting among different community groups for their share in government jobs. The system is fast losing its legitimacy. This poses a serious challenge to those who want to make Indian democracy a meaningful exercise for the toiling millions.

MIDDLE

Googly
by Maj-Gen G.G. Dwivedi (retd)

IT was a dull winter afternoon in 2001. The sun was almost behind the distant hills. The Baramula town had been calm for almost two months, after a series of encounters with terrorists. While the pattern of activities appeared normal, yet there was feeling of uneasiness. As we drove through the main market, the crowds were thinning out. In an hour or so, the down convoy to Srinagar was expected to pass through.

No sooner had I got to my headquarters, there was a frantic call — from the Commanding Officer — reporting “heavy firing on the convoy – right inside the market”. As the situation cleared, it was evident that there had been some civilian casualties during the exchange of fire. While both the terrorists were eliminated, the fragile environment had become turbulent.

Next day, large crowds had turned out at the Cement Bridge. Security forces and the agitators battled it out over the next two days. Stones were repeatedly hurled at security forces that combated the fury with utmost restraint. The skills of the young stone-pelters were indeed admirable. The vested parties extracted maximum mileage. Fortunately, there were no casualties during the demonstrations.

Come spring, a number of activities were organised by the local Army units for the youth. The cycling race was a grand success. Cricket matches too were a huge draw.

“A Day with Your Army” was organised for the participants. They were thrilled to have the real feel of the weapon systems. Many showed keen interest to even join the armed forces. The oft-discussed topic of Azadi too surfaced. It was far from the concept of separatism. Most wanted normalcy and peace. Knock at night (terrorists or security forces), crackdown and encounters were what hurt them most. The majority felt that they were hemmed in between terrorists, security forces and political organisations.

The prize distribution function was the eagerly awaited event. When young Javed came to receive his prize, there was special applause for the most promising bowler. As he walked back to the seat, the tongue in cheek ‘whispers’ intrigued me.

During lunch, it emerged that alongside his bowling acumen, Javed was equally known for his pelting skills. During demonstrations he was much in demand. To gauge the expertise, an impromptu competition was organised between the officers and the young lads. It involved targeting a pole with the cricket ball from 25 metres. Javed’s team won hands down.

The students left with a ‘feel good’ experience. They harboured the same dynamism, energy and innovativeness that you would find in the youth in any part of the country. All that they looked forward to was an environment free of fear, indignation and manipulation.

Today, when I see the snapshots of the stone pelting youth, I remember the likes of Javed. His parting words “Sir, my dream is to bowl for India one day; the pelting ‘Googly’ is only because of frustration, sheer irony of destiny” resonate deep within me. It’s time nation took the call by making the right choices.

OPED — NEIGHBOURS

Sharing benefits of growth
Noeleen Heyzer

Today, Asia’s leaders have an unrivalled opportunity to meet the Millennium Development Goals by relying on the region’s people and resources to create new sustainable and inclusive sources of wealth.

Despite Asia’s incredible economic might -- now leading the global economic recovery -- and continued high rates of economic growth, the region still faces chronic challenges of underdevelopment: hunger, disease and far too many families living in poverty.

The economic growth of Asia is impressive. The region’s GDP has doubled since 1990. In this period, the jobs created in Asia have lifted 500 million people out of poverty -- an incredible achievement, unmatched in human history. This rapid economic growth has also resulted in the growth of a dynamic, globally connected and information-savvy middle class.

But Asia’s growth is uneven: many countries, especially the least developed and small island states, still face challenges in making the development leap. The task is far from complete. Asia is home to about a billion of the world’s absolute poor. Hunger is a daily threat to one out of five. As many as 480 million people do not have access to water, 900 million live without electricity, and one third of the residents of Asia’s crowded cities live in precarious slums and squatter developments. Just to meet the basic needs of the present and future generations -- to prevent millions from sliding backwards -- Asia will have to count on a phenomenal rate of economic growth unknown in the rest of the world.

Moreover, to rely so heavily on rapid economic growth has resulted in huge social and ecological costs. Across Asia, hundreds of millions have joined the decades-long migration from countryside to urban areas, and internationally, in search of employment. Income and access disparities have increased in almost every country, booming economies have depleted the region’s natural resources, and polluted rivers mean that drinking water and basic sanitation are unobtainable for the poorest.

It has also left many countries vulnerable to a sharp rise in food and fuel prices and downturns in the global economy. Our crowded urban spaces with poor social and physical infrastructure are vulnerable to the increasing risks of climate-related natural disasters.

Asia cannot continue to rely on the quantity of economic growth alone. We need to focus on the quality of our economic and social development and on the sustainable use of our natural resources -- to ensure our place in the economic, social and ecological balance. Improving the quality of growth, including the ecological quality, requires a transformation of our current economic and social systems.

Rather than solely relying on the cheap labour and ecologically costly export-driven economic model of the present, Asia can start a new regional interlocked economy of the future, based on greater eco-efficiency and social equity.

The United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), a project started by the world’s leaders 10 years ago, offers such a transformation at a global level -- and a chance for Asia to share the benefits of economic growth with all its citizens. Meeting the challenges set by the Goals — yardstick measurements of each country’s efforts to meet the basic requirements of food, education and health for their people — is the responsibility of both national governments and the international community seeking to reduce poverty and advance human development in their respective countries and through a more just global economic order. While progress has been seen over the past 10 years, with some countries moving faster than others, the final deadline of 2015 is now looming, and all the world and Asia especially have a long way to go.

To make good on the promises of the world’s leaders will require new solutions and new urgency for a number of reasons:

Bringing women to the economic table. The MDGs push governments toward ensuring that girls are in school in equal numbers with boys and that women are part of governance and decision-making. Tapping into women’s economic power and market role is essential in producing a smart economic model for Asia that generates the wealth of a regional economy based on its people.

Asia’s poor are a source of economic power. Asia’s one billion people living below the poverty line can become the consumers of tomorrow in a vast Asia regional market and economy. If Asia’s leaders can close the development gap, increase income security, promote better connections between their citizens and the trade of goods across the region, the aggregate demand would increase. Closing the development gap and meeting the MDGs could create a new middle class — what every country wants.

Investing in social programmes, investing in our environment. To transform the Asia economic model, the MDGs offer the way forward. Asia’s new workers and new middle class still lead an insecure existence — affordable healthcare, schools, pensions and environmental sustainability are not optional, they are of urgent necessity.

In 1990, the world’s leaders pledged to create a new world largely free of poverty by 2015. Today, Asia’s leaders have an unrivalled opportunity to meet that goal by relying on the region’s people and resources to create new sustainable and inclusive sources of wealth and development.

The final MDG story is yet to be told. All countries still have five years to seek the most promising path. Asia can tilt the balance to success.

The writer, UN Under-Secretary-General, is the Executive Secretary of the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific.

Rajapaksa to be ruler for life!
Maj-Gen Ashok K. Mehta (retd)

Riding the waves of military and electoral triumphs, President Mahinda Rajapaksa has rammed through Parliament the 18th Amendment which makes him the most powerful chief executive on earth. With the ban on two presidential terms lifted, he could now govern for life and groom his son Namal for dynastic rule. Rajapaksa has set up a committee to alter the Indo-Sri Lanka Accord-enabled 13th Amendment which was intended to provide Sri Lankan Tamils political devolution in a merged North-Eastern Province.

The two-thirds parliamentary majority necessary for a constitutional amendment and repudiation of the 13th Amendment was secured by dismembering further the hapless Opposition just when Indian Army Chief Gen V.K. Singh was on an ill-timed visit to Colombo and became the highest Indian dignitary to visit the IPKF memorial grudgingly constructed by Sri Lanka. The episode is reminiscent of another Army Chief, Gen K.S. Thimayya, being present in Nepal when King Mahendra dismantled democracy in 1959. Delhi made a big fuss about the royal coup. This time around, while India has maintained its stance of the three wise monkeys over events in Sri Lanka, the US has described the 18th Amendment as undermining constitutional democracy and removing vital checks and balances in governance. Although opposition to the Rajapaksa family consolidating absolute power has been muted, some Sri Lankans have called the 18th Amendment the death of freedom and democracy.

Sri Lanka’s record in upholding human rights over the past five years of the war involving disappearances, killings and alleged war crimes has been below par.

Only the military phase of the ethnic conflict is over. Political reconciliation is a far cry. The Sri Lankan government achieved a rare military solution to an essentially political problem. The last instance of a comprehensive military victory in a full-blown insurgency was in Malaya in the late 1960s. Three other examples of the use of military force in addressing a political problem are Algeria, Chechnya and Angola, but in all three the victory was not as comprehensive as in Sri Lanka.

Sri Lanka has set a new paradigm in the use of force demonstrating that a domestic insurgency can be subdued with the right mix of strategy, resources and political will but most importantly a favourable geo-strategic environment. The high political, diplomatic and especially humanitarian costs of all-out use of force are not likely to be emulated by liberal democracies seeking a political settlement. The media gagging, unfettered controls, disappearances, killings, justificatory propaganda, blanket cover over the battlefield, etc, were some of the extraordinary means used by Sri Lanka.

Militaries the world over are trained to create conditions which are conducive to a negotiated political settlement. For all those who argue that there is no military solution to terrorism/insurgency, Sri Lanka has proved an exception to the rule. What is most striking about the outcome of the war is not just the complete elimination of the LTTE as an organised military force but also the decapitation of its entire leadership and capacity to wage a residual guerrilla war.

Yet, military coercion works in extremely limited and localised conditions. An unusual set of conditions and plain luck enabled Sri Lanka’s military triumph. The one factor crucial for success was India. The repercussions of the strategic decision to help Sri Lanka to defeat the LTTE were never fully understood as India was reduced to a bit player towards the end of the war. New Delhi had not bargained for an outright military victory for Sri Lanka.

Neither had the Sri Lankans. They set out to weaken the LTTE and cripple their military capacity and not eliminate the threat posed by them altogether. How clinching India’s passive and active assistance proved was manifest in the remarks of two Sri Lankan ministers soon after the war. While one said the war could not have been won without India’s help, the other noted that Sri Lanka had expected India to ask it to halt the war after the capture of Kilinochchi on January 1, 2009.

In assassinating Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, the LTTE committed the biggest blunder of its military struggle. Twenty years later, his widow and India’s most powerful leader, Sonia Gandhi, many argue, presided over their destruction.

For weeks during their last battle, LTTE top commanders and elite fighters were crammed into an area the size of a football ground without splitting or dispersing to live to fight another day. They clung to their shrinking enclave in the hope that general elections in India would bring the BJP to power and an Indian intervention to halt the war. The ruling Congress alliance won the elections and the war for Sri Lanka.

Colombo’s military success was the product of the right conjugation of political and military factors in a localised battlefield where the only neighbour in the north was pivotal to the defeat of the insurgency. Whether the military victory would translate into a political resolution of the ethnic conflict is still doubtful.

The way events are shaping in Colombo shows that New Delhi’s expectations on a political settlement are likely to be belied. Has India given away too much for too little? Rajapakse had, on more than one occasion, told Prime Minister Manmohan Singh that he would implement in full the 13th Amendment. He has cleverly removed devolution from his list of four D’s – the other three being demilitarisation, democracy and development. He’s banking on the last to become the magic mantra.

Two Sri Lankan experts – one Sinhalese, the other Tamil – lecturing at two different seminars concluded that India has been “fast asleep”, ceding space to China and unable to help meet the political aspirations of the Tamils.

India is largely confined to development projects in the North and East with low visibility in the Sinhalese South where the Chinese are the dominant face. After the Hambantota port project the Chinese have bagged Colombo Harbour too. Sri Lankans attribute their military victory to China, especially after India’s former National Security Advisory M.K. Narayanan admonished Colombo for getting weapons from China when India was the regional power. It is a different matter that Narayanan had also said, “We will decide what defensive weapons Colombo needs.”

India’s confused coalition politics and absence of strategic clarity have wrecked its Sri Lanka policy. The Rajapaksa family will now do the rest.