The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

Seismic warnings
Need to improve response training

NO damage was reported when many cities in North India felt the tremors of a major earthquake that caused much havoc in Iran and Pakistan recently. The epicentre of this earthquake was in Iran and thus India was reasonably far from it. However, we need to remember that India, especially North India, is particularly vulnerable to seismic disturbances, more so the foothills of the Himalayas, since a faultline runs under them.

Much of the damage in Iran and Pakistan could be blamed on the way buildings are constructed there. The same holds true for India, especially the region. Amritsar, Chandigarh and Delhi all fall in Zone IV, and can thus expect earthquakes of an intensity of 8 to 9 on the Richter scale. The 2005 National Building Code directed the state governments to ensure that all new buildings be made earthquake resistant. The governments were told to ensure that the new buildings followed the seismic code. This has, however, not been implemented with any notable success.

India has a huge urban population, and the number of people living in the cities increases every day. Unplanned and rapid urbanisation gives rise to a tremendous demand for housing, which is often fulfilled by unscrupulous builders. As buildings rise vertically in land-starved urban areas, the need for ensuring that they remain safe becomes more acute. How safety issues are ignored is apparent from the way recently an under-construction building near Mumbai collapsed like a deck of cards, killing a large number of people, without any trace of seismic activity in the area. Even as the governments assign to themselves the task of ensuring that buildings become safe, more attention needs to be given to the institutional response to natural disasters. An earthquake-response drill was conducted in Chandigarh earlier this year. It exposed how ill-prepared the administration was to cope with any such disaster since it showed poor coordination, confusion and lack of public participation, among other lacuna. The drill is long over, buildings are still not earthquake proof, and there is no knowing when the next such natural disaster will strike the region. Such apathy is criminal.

WASPS
Time to fight misogynist locusts

THERE are no quick fix solutions for gender-related crimes harboured and nurtured by deep-rooted patriarchy. The political class of Punjab should know it better, with many skeletons of gender-related crimes tumbling out of the closets of its senior leaders.

Before resorting to fresh gimmicks like deploying women security squads for the safety of women, the political class should clean up its backyard of misogynists first, who the Women Armed Special Protection Squads (WASPS) will have to deal with, being part of the same system. What the police did in Tarn Taran is still fresh in public memory as also the rejection of the report prepared by a government magistrate by the Supreme Court that lambasted the efforts of the magistrate in ‘misleading’ the court to protect the erring policemen. The apex court even ordered the victimised girl not be given protection by the Punjab police.

This should have shamed the state government. It should have prompted them to cleanse the system of misogynists. By deploying all women squads for the security of women the Punjab government has inadvertently admitted that its men-force cannot be entrusted with the safety of women. That means its men, in police particularly and in other services cannot be sensitised and trained to treat women with respect and listen to their complaints and respond to them with empathy. The government is treating misogynists as an asset, since they cannot be taught gender sensitivity. Deploy women police, by all means, but why for women’s security?

By empowering a couple of thousand women in the state with revolvers, does the government plan to change the ill-gotten attitudes of male superiority, which result in all gender related crimes? The state continues to have poor sex ratio. The horrifying narrative of its own sub-inspector who lost his life protecting the honour of his daughter in Amritsar from the hands of some politicians seems to have lost its relevance on this government, which now expects scooter-borne policewomen to cleanse this malaise.

Thought for the Day

No matter how many goals you have achieved, you must set your sights on a higher one. —Jessica Savitch

ARTICLE

China-Pakistan nuclear axis
India factor behind their game plan
by Harsh V. Pant

LAST month Beijing confirmed its plans to sell a new 1,000 megawatt nuclear reactor to Pakistan in a deal signed in February. This pact was secretly concluded between the China National Nuclear Corp (CNNC) and the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission during the visit of Pakistani nuclear industry officials to Beijing from February 15 to 18.

This sale would once again violate China’s commitment to the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) and is in contravention to China’s promise in 2004 while joining the NSG not to sell additional reactors to Pakistan’s Chashma nuclear facility beyond the two reactors that began operation in 2000 and 2011.

While this issue is likely to come up for discussion at the June meeting of the NSG in Prague, Beijing has already made it clear that nuclear cooperation between China and Pakistan “does not violate relevant principles of the Nuclear Suppliers Group.” This when the CNNC is not merely constructing civilian reactors in Chashma, it is also developing Pakistan’s nuclear fuel reprocessing capabilities and working to modernise Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal. At a time when concerns about Pakistan’s nuclear programme are causing jitters around the world, China has made its intentions clear to go all out in helping Pakistan’s nuclear development. At a time when many in India are contemplating a new bonhomie in Sino-Indian ties under the new Chinese leadership, China is busy trying its best to maintain nuclear parity between India and Pakistan.

After all, this is what China has been doing for the last five decades. Based on their convergent interests vis-à-vis India, China and Pakistan reached a strategic understanding in mid-1950s, a bond that has only strengthened ever since. Sino-Pakistan ties gained particular momentum in the aftermath of the 1962 Sino-Indian war when the two states signed a boundary agreement recognising Chinese control over portions of the disputed Kashmir territory and since then the ties have been so strong that the Chinese President Hu Jintao has described the relationship as “higher than mountains and deeper than oceans.” Pakistan’s President, Asif Ali Zardari, has suggested that “No relationship between two sovereign states is as unique and durable as that between Pakistan and China.” Maintaining close ties with China has been a priority for Islamabad and Beijing has provided extensive economic, military and technical assistance to Pakistan over the years. It was Pakistan that in the early 1970s enabled China to cultivate its ties with the West and the US in particular, becoming the conduit for Henry Kissinger’s landmark secret visit to China in 1971 and has been instrumental in bringing China closer to the larger Muslim world.

Over the years China emerged Pakistan’s largest defence supplier. Military cooperation between the two has deepened with joint projects producing armaments ranging from fighter jets to guided missile frigates. China is a steady source of military hardware to the resource-deficient Pakistani Army. It has not only given technology assistance to Pakistan but has also helped Pakistan set up mass weapons production factories. But what has been most significant is China’s major role in the development of Pakistan's nuclear infrastructure, emerging as Pakistan’s benefactor at a time when increasingly stringent export controls in Western countries made it difficult for Pakistan to acquire materials and technology from elsewhere. The Pakistani nuclear weapons programme is essentially an extension of the Chinese one. Despite being a member of the NPT, China has supplied Pakistan with nuclear materials and expertise and has provided critical assistance in the construction of Pakistan's nuclear facilities. Although China has long denied helping any nation attain a nuclear capability, the father of Pakistan’s nuclear weapons programme, Abdul Qadeer Khan, himself has acknowledged the crucial role China has played in his nation’s nuclear weaponisation by gifting 50 kilogrammes of weapon grade enriched uranium, drawing of the nuclear weapons and tonnes of uranium hexafluoride for Pakistan’s centrifuges. This is perhaps the only case where a nuclear weapon state has actually passed on weapons grade fissile material as well as a bomb design to a non-nuclear weapon state.

India has been the main factor that has influenced China and Pakistan’s policies vis-à-vis each other. Whereas Pakistan wants to gain access to civilian and military resources from China to balance the Indian might in the subcontinent, China, viewing India as potential challenger in the strategic landscape of Asia, views Pakistan as its central instrument to counter Indian power in the region. The China-Pakistan partnership serves the interests of both by presenting India with a potential two-front theatre in the event of war with either country. In their own ways, each is using the other to balance India as India’s disputes with Pakistan keep India preoccupied failing to attain its potential as a major regional and global player. China meanwhile guarantees the security of Pakistan when it comes to its conflicts with India, thus preventing India from using its much superior conventional military strength against Pakistan. Not surprisingly, one of the central pillars of Pakistan’s strategic policies for the last more than four decades has been its steady and ever-growing military relationship with China. And preventing India’s dominance of South Asia by strengthening Pakistan has been a strategic priority for China.

But with India’s ascent in global hierarchy and American attempts to carve out a strong partnership with India, China’s need for Pakistan is only likely to grow. A rising India makes Pakistan all the more important for Chinese strategy for the subcontinent. It’s highly unlikely that China will give up playing the Pakistan card vis-à-vis India anytime soon. Indian policy makers would be well advised to disabuse themselves of the notion of a Sino-Indian convergence in managing Pakistan. China doesn’t do sentimentality in foreign policy, and India should follow suit.n

The writer teaches at King’s College, London.

MIDDLE

A life check-mated
by B.K. Karkra

Captain V.P. Laroia, a retired officer from the Indian Navy, was in his mid-eighties when I told him a joke about one nonagenarian John. The old man was floating around in a party animatedly when the host introduced him to the gathering, “Mr John. Though in his nineties, he is still full of life”.

The jovial John clarified, as if in protest, “In early nineties, you see.” This left the guests peeling with laughter, but nobody missed the throb of life in his words. Not to be outdone by John and taking the joke a step forward, the Captain added that, in his case, he was not 90 even. Sadly, he was never to be. He died recently when he was around 85.

Captain Laroia was the first among us to make grade for commission in the Indian armed forces. What an occasion it was when he left for his pre-commission training in New Castle in England! As the Muslim devotees returning from Haj are called ‘Hajis’, the people coming back after a trip to England were then given the appellation of ‘England-Returned’. After he had broken the glass ceiling, many of us, including this writer, made our way through it to get to the commissioned ranks in the three services. One of us, Air Chief Marshall Satish Sareen, went on to rise to the high position of the Air Chief of the country. Captain Laroia was selected by the late Federal Service Commission and was Admiral Tahliani`s batch-mate. He stood every chance of moving higher in the naval hierarchy, but decided instead to retire early in the interest of his family.

He had lost his father, a doctor, quite early in his life. Untimely demise of father left him saddled with the huge responsibility of four unmarried sisters and two brothers. The brave sailor settled all his siblings with loving care one by one, in the best traditions of a dutiful son.

After all this was over, he was still left with the task of taking care of his three daughters. All of them came up as highly accomplished girls. But they were daughters nevertheless. Nobody understood it better than he what it took to settle daughters in our society. So, he left his job and joined a German shipping concern to accumulate some money for ensuring a decent married life for his daughters.

It was only after all the three girls were also nicely settled that he started thinking for himself and his loving wife who had stood by him in all his struggles. He now ensconced himself in his single-storey bungalow at Chandigarh, sprawling over two kanals. It had a very moderate plinth area. The rest of the plot was covered with fruit-bearing trees, grassy lawns, laced with flowery plants and a big kitchen garden. The couple now spent their time in solace tending the trees and plants with delicate care.

Besides, the Captain took to the game of chess. He would issue an advertisement in the local papers inviting people to play with him. After a while, he was able to locate a keen and likable partner to play with right till the end of his life. The two were often seen playing the game with great gusto and occasionally, quarrelling noisily over the moves. In the end, death check-mated him while he was playing the final game of chess on his lap-top. He died sweetly in the manner of a person going to sleep. His face reflected serenity and satisfaction of a life lived well and meaningfully.

OPED Diaspora

Sikhism to be second biggest religion in Vancouver
From corporate forays to trucking business, Indians, particularly Punjabis, are dominating the Canadian economy so much so that Vancouver has become the largest Punjabi settlement outside Punjab
by Gurmukh Singh

WHITE Canada is fast changing its colours as visible minorities — Asians, Blacks and others — are outgrowing the white population. According to projections done for Citizenship and Immigration Canada, 60 per cent residents of the Greater Vancouver area by the year 2031 will be non-whites.

The Vancouver Baisakhi parade attracts a large number of Sikhs from across Canada and the US

Daniel Hiebert of Vancouver-based University of British Columbia, who is an expert on immigration and did this projection, says, "There is no European city with anything like this demographic structure nor will there be in 2031."

The good news is that South Asians, read Punjabis, will be the second biggest group after the Chinese by 2031. And Sikhism will be the second biggest religion in the Greater Vancouver area in the next decades, says the study.

But Surrey city on the outskirts of Vancouver is already a 'Punjabi city'. Some call it the Southall of Canada as more than 40 per cent of its population is of Punjabi origin. Surrey reported more than 94,000 speakers of Punjabi in the last year's census which pegged the city's population at about 500,000.

"In that sense, the city has become the largest Punjabi settlement outside Punjab," says Indo-Canadian community leader Balwant Sanghera, who heads the Punjabi Language Education Association (PLEA) of Canada. At the other end of Canada in Toronto, which is the country's biggest city, the ethno-demographics are set to change even faster.

According to projections, Toronto will have only 37 per cent white population by 2031. Again, Punjabis are going to be one of the biggest ethnic groups in the Greater Toronto area. In fact, in Brampton on the outskirts of Toronto, Punjabis are already the biggest ethnic group after whites.

Brampton, which is in Ontario province, and Surrey and Abbotsford, in British Columbia province, are the three cities which are recording the highest growth of the Punjabi community in Canada. And these three cities also boast the highest numbers of gurdwaras. In fact, Abbotsford is home to North America's oldest gurdwara which was built in 1911. The city proclaimed 2011 as the Year of the Gurdwara.

To put things in perspective, Punjabis are by far the biggest group among Indo-Canadians whose numbers are nearing one million. Since they were the first Indian group to land in Canada's British Columbia province in the last decade of the 19th century, it is not surprising that Sikhs made history in Canada when Ujjal Dosanjh was elected as the premier of British Columbia in Feb 2000. Today, eight out of the nine MPs in the Canadian parliament are Punjabis, including two Sikh women Jinny Sims (her real is Joginder Kaur) and Neena Grewal. Balle, balle!

He rose to the top of a bank

THE Indian community in Canada has broken yet another glass ceiling with the appointment of Bharat Masrani as the CEO of Canada's top financial institution. Though they have become ministers and mayors in Canada, no Indian has reached the top in corporate Canada so far.

Bharat Masrani (left) is the first Indian to become the CEO of a bank in Canada

But the appointment of 56-year-old Bharat Masrani to the top job at the top bank TD Trust on April 3, another barrier for the community, has been broken. TD Trust is the seventh largest bank in North America.

Masrani will be the only person of Indian origin to hold the top job at a global bank when he takes the helm on November 1. Of course, Anshu Jain, another Indian, is currently the co-CEO of Deutsche Bank. In the past, only two Indians have headed global banks. These are Rana Gurvirendra Singh Talwar, who was the CEO of Standard Chartered Bank from 1998 to 2001, and Vikram Pandit, who headed Citibank from 2007 to 2012.

Currently, Sarabjit Singh Marwah, who is the number two at Scotiabank, which is Canada's most international bank, is the highest-ranking Indian in corporate Canada. However, he is due to retire soon.

Masrani, who has been with TD Trust since 1987, also served in Mumbai in 1996 as the bank's country head.

Toronto-based Rahul Petkar, whom Masrani brought to Canada from Mumbai to start the bank's NRI operations, says, "Bharat has made it to the top of the bank because he is a very smart guy. He understands the issues quickly and then moves very fast. He has the ability to take risks, but he will act only after he has understood the risk thoroughly."

In Canadian corporate circles, he is credited with creating TD Trust into one of North America's top banks.

Masrani, who is currently in charge of his bank's personal and commercial banking operations in the US and is based in Portland, has executed many acquisitions, including those of New Jersey-based Commerce Bancorp for more than $8-billion and some Florida banks, over the years.

"Bharat was trusted by his boss Ed Clark, who is the current CEO of the bank, when others were skeptical about his acquisitions. Look how these American acquisitions have made TD Trust the seventh biggest bank in North America today. All credit goes to Bharat for his risk assessment," says Rahul Petkar of his former mentor.

"Bharat brings a continuity of strategy, culture and values. I am extremely confident in the future of TD," says the outgoing CEO Ed Clark.

Bharat Masrani holds an MBA from Toronto-based York University's Schulich School of Business. He is set to head home to Canada with his wife Shabnam and two children.

Interestingly, the Canadian bank this Indo-Canadian is going to head is more of an American bank because it has 1,300 branches in the US as compared to 1,100 in Canada!

Why educated Indians prefer trucking

Indo-Canadian trucker-turned-drug smuggler Anoop Singh Kahlon, who was arrested from Zirakpur on the outskirts of Chandigarh in early March with 26 kg of heroin worth more than Rs 130 crore in the international market, is a symptom of something that is afflicting the desi community in Canada.

Trucking and smuggling have become synonymous here. Since Punjabis control about 60 per cent of the trucking business here, more and more Indo-Canadian truck drivers are getting caught in the drug smuggling trade.

Readers will be shocked to know that trucking has become the preferred job for most of the educated immigrants, including lawyers, doctors and teachers, coming to Canada from India, particularly Punjab, each year.

Among immigrants from Punjab, truck driving is the first preference. Why is trucking their favourite profession?

One, they are familiar with it as trucking, along with soldiering, has been the preferred profession of Punjabis for a long time.

Two, since finding jobs in their professions is difficult for doctors, lawyers and teachers, they opt for trucking because it is easy to enter.

Third, it pays much more compared to factory jobs.

"A driver can earn between $4,000 and $8,000 a month," says Mississauga-based Nachhattar Singh Chohan, who is the president of the Indian Trucking Association.

Lastly, trucking has become a quick road to riches! And that quick road to riches lies through smuggling drugs across the US-Canada border. It is no surprise that Indo-Canadian truck drivers are getting mixed up with drug cartels who operate through brokers in the Indo-Canadian community to lure these truckers.

"Now if you as a driver are offered $50,000 to hide the drug consignment in your truck and carry across the border, you may fall for it. The temptation is too much," says Chohan, who owns a fleet of trucks in Mississauga city on the outskirts of Toronto.

Asked whether drug smuggling across the US-Canada border has increased because of Indo-Canadian drivers, Chohan says, "I really don't know, but since Indo-Canadian trucker drivers are fast replacing white drivers, they are coming under greater scrutiny at the borders. Once some of them get caught, all Indo-Canadian drivers become suspect and get thoroughly checked. Some get caught. That's how it is happening with Indo-Canadian truck drivers."

Interestingly, even border authorities admit that for every drug consignment caught, 200 slip through undetected. This shows the magnitude of the lure for Indo-Canadian truck drivers. Those who are not caught are richer by thousands of dollars with every trip across the border.

In the process, some Indo-Canadian truckers are possibly graduating to becoming drug smugglers themselves. And the easier route for them is the sea or air. "I don't know Anoop Singh Kahlon. If my information is correct, I think he is not from the Greater Toronto Area. But I don't know. People like him want to become rich quickly. It is not hidden how so many people have smuggled drugs into Canada to become millionaires quickly. Only a few get caught because their smuggling methods so clever. That's the story of many people here," says Chohan.