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BJP on a high
NCTC needed |
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‘Spellebrity’ US spelling champions’ Indian roots If you can spell words such as pathognomonic, doryline, melocoton, kaburi, conquistador, flibbertigibbet, humuhumunukunukuapuaa, physiognomy, weissnichtwo and gobbledegook, you might have stood a chance at the annual American spelling competition, but then this year you would have to know the meaning of these words too.
Shed illusions on China
Etched in memory
One is surprised at the absence of accountability from the list of priority tasks for the new government, although it should be at the top of the agenda. A new, comprehensive and effective accountability mechanism must be put in place at the earliest. I.A Rehman AS the dust of electoral controversy has settled down, the focus of the national debate should now be not only on what needs to be done first but also on the best possible way to move forward, for the central issue in Pakistan is still the mode of governance.
He returns, cautiously
Window on pakistan
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BJP on a high
Politicians
these days link every electoral victory to the 2014 general election and delink every defeat. Congress leaders saw a trend emerging in its favour after the Karnataka verdict. Narendra Modi has lost no time in interpreting his party's victory in the six Gujarat parliamentary and assembly by-elections as a signal of the Congress defeat in 2014. The fact is issues in a general election are quite different. A few elections here and there cannot predict a trend in a large and diverse country like India. A common factor in the just-concluded polls, however, is that, barring Bihar and Karnataka, the ruling parties have won. The Gujarat outcome has definitely lifted Modi's standing within the BJP and he is expected to be anointed as the head of the party's campaign committee at the coming meeting of the national executive in Goa. The fact remains that his achievements are still confined to Gujarat and that a section of the top leadership represented by L.K. Advani may still resist his prime ministerial ambitions, a brief conciliatory meeting on Wednesday notwithstanding. Modi's growing dominance in the BJP does not augur well for the NDA partner, Janata Dal (U). The JD (U) defeat in the Maharajganj Lok Sabha by-election has hurt Nitish Kumar's stature and his party's bargaining power with the BJP or the Congress. Mamata Banjerjee has a reason to be happy with the Howrah outcome as her party faced the electorate single-handed, without an alliance with the Congress, and in the backdrop of the Saradha scam. In its celebrations the BJP forgot that it had lost in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. The electoral victories may drive the party to attack the UPA government with renewed belligerence. The Congress has emerged as a clear loser even though it has retained its Yavatmal seat in Maharashtra. The party's defeat in Gujarat, Bihar, UP and West Bengal indicates it will have to rework its electoral strategy for the Lok Sabha elections. Unilateralism may not be an option. The elections have delivered a message which the Congress can ill-afford to ignore. |
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NCTC needed
The opposition to the proposed National Counter-Terrorism Centre at the annual conference on internal security on Wednesday was on the expected political lines. The objections were essentially the same as the last year, though some of the concerns voiced earlier had been addressed. On closer look, however, one can discern agreement, too, on the need per se for a national body to coordinate anti-terror intelligence and operations. The government must take note that two Congress Chief Ministers too have raised concerns similar to the non-Congress ones; only the semantics differed. The two essential areas of concern are how much independence the NCTC should have vis-à-vis state police forces in conducting operations, and should the centre be set up through an Act of Parliament or an executive order. Differences of opinion on these could be overcome if the various parties concerned don’t make it a political issue — which they should not, given the obvious national interest. The Centre has already made some concessions in dropping the proposed right to conduct independent anti-terror searches and operations, and instead suggesting joint operations with the state police. This may be taken a little further, and states could be asked to set up similar dedicated units that coordinate with the NCTC for operations required, i.e., operationally they work as an extension of the central body, but report to the state. The point is these are matters of mechanics, which can be worked around. As for the issue of taking the proposal to Parliament, it seems a legitimate demand, given the issue of Centre-state power sharing. Terror today has evolved beyond what Punjab experienced. Often the impact happens in a place which has nothing to do with the area of origin of the ‘uprising’ or ‘movement’ behind it. It is a global phenomenon. Failure of multiple security agencies to either pass on information regarding terror threats or comprehend the gravity of information received has often allowed attacks that could have been prevented — the recent Maoist attack in Chhattisgarh was an example. The NCTC is needed, only the Centre as well as the states have to work on it a little more. Beginning with identifying points they agree on would be a good idea. |
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‘Spellebrity’
If you can spell words such as pathognomonic, doryline, melocoton, kaburi, conquistador, flibbertigibbet, humuhumunukunukuapuaa, physiognomy, weissnichtwo and gobbledegook, you might have stood a chance at the annual American spelling competition, but then this year you would have to know the meaning of these words too. Yet children between the ages of 8 and 14 battled with their pears to win the spelling bee competition and become ‘spellebrities’, as these brainy celebrities are known. In what has become a common occurrence, it was a child of Indian origin who won the competition this year, just as five others had done so in the past five years. This time the winner was a boy, Arvind Mahankali, another break in recent tradition where the past five winners, and 52 per cent of this year’s competitors, were girls. An exasperated Professor Henry Higgins said in the classic film, My Fair Lady, “There even are places where English completely disappears. In America, they haven't used it for years!” Yet it is in this very nation, one that not particularly known for keeping true to the Queen’s English, that this competition has been held since 1925. This year there were 281 spellers, and 116 of them speak more than one language. Indians, it seems, have a natural affinity for spellings. The youngest competitor was eight-year-old Tara Singh. Two of the competitors, Vanya Shivashankar, and Ashwin Veeramani, have siblings who have previously won the competition. In fact, Arvind Mahankali too had missed the top honour twice, in the past, but he conquered his difficulties with Germanic origin words and got it right. This was not a case of third time lucky, more one of Bruce Lee and the Spider’s tale of try, try and try again. Now, that’s a good mantra to keep in mind whether you are in a spelling bee competition or generally negotiating the syntax of life. |
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The breaking of a wave cannot explain the whole sea. —Vladimir Nabokov |
Shed illusions on China
During the past month China inflicted a national humiliation on India by intruding 19 kilometres across what has been the traditional border between Ladakh and Tibet since the 17th century and forcing India to not only pull back from its own territory in the Daulat Beg Oldi sector, but also to dismantle defence structures in the Chumar sector. China has consistently refused to define where the so-called “Line of Actual Control” lies and acted aggressively when it finds Indian defences neutralise its tactical and strategic advantages by pushing its claims westwards and well beyond what its own maps had earlier depicted.
Moreover, apart from violating all past agreements on the Ladakh-Tibet border, China's territorial claims also violate the provisions of the Wen Jiabao — Manmohan Singh Agreement of 2005 on the guiding principles for a border settlement which state: “The (Sino-Indian) boundary should be along well defined and easily identifiable geographical features, to be mutually agreed upon”. India’s claims, based on historical data, also fulfil the provisions of the 2005 agreement as they set the western borders up to the Indus river watershed, with the Karakoram mountains forming the natural boundary. After being militarily humiliated, India chose to subject itself to diplomatic ridicule in the joint statement issued after the visit of Premier Li Keqiang. While the joint statement paid lip service to the 2005 guiding principles, there was no mention of the need for defining the LAC in accordance with these guiding principles. Unless we do this and insist on China furnishing its version of the LAC, the Chinese will continue to stall and obfuscate while placing our forces in an untenable position along the borders, with India meekly agreeing to pull down any defences the Chinese demand. Worse still, India agreed to accept some ridiculous and one-sided provisions which are clearly detrimental to its national interests. The most astonishing provision of the joint statement was the sentence: “The two sides are committed to taking a positive view and support each other's friendship with other countries”. This, in effect, was an endorsement of Chinese policies of “low cost containment” of India. Over the past three decades China has provided Pakistan designs for its nuclear weapon, allowed the use of its territory in 1990 by Pakistan for testing nuclear weapons, upgraded Pakistan's enrichment centrifuges, provided unsafeguarded plutonium production and reprocessing facilities and violated its commitment to the MTCR, by providing Pakistan wherewithal for manufacturing medium and long-range ballistic and cruise missiles. China is also Pakistan's largest arms supplier, providing equipment ranging from JF 17 fighters and T 90 tanks to modern frigates. General Musharraf had made it clear just after the visit of then Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji that the Gwadar port being built with Chinese assistance would be made available to China if there were tensions with India. Moreover, does our ill-advised endorsement of the nature of Sino-Pakistani collusion not suggest an endorsement of Chinese growing presence in POK and the Northern Areas of Gilgit-Baltistan? As the Chinese government mouthpiece, The Global Times, mockingly observed: “India must accept and adapt to the enviable friendship between China and Pakistan. China cannot scale down this partnership merely because of India’s feelings!” On May 28 President Rajapakse of Sri Lanka signed a “strategic cooperation partnership” agreement with President Xi Jinping in Beijing, in which the two sides agreed to strengthen defence cooperation while jointly cracking down on the “three challenges of terrorism, separatism and extremism” and expanding cooperation on “international and regional affairs”. Virtually every South Asian leader choosing to challenge India, ranging from President Waheed in the Maldives to Begum Khaleda Zia in Bangladesh and Prachanda in Nepal, has received a warm welcome at the highest levels in Beijing. Moreover, China is bent on blocking India’s entry into forums like the Nuclear Suppliers Group. Worse still, India grandiosely agreed to support a Chinese role in the Gulf of Aden, without getting similar Chinese endorsement for its maritime and energy interests in the South China Sea, most notably for its exploration projects in the Phu Khanh Basin off the coast of Vietnam. Interestingly, while commissioning the first squadron of carrier-based Mig 29 aircraft on May 13, the Defence Minster, Mr A.K. Antony, asserted that there should be freedom of navigation in the South China Sea, adding that while India is not a party to disputes there, it believes that these disputes should be settled according to the UN Convention of the Law of the Seas (UNCLOS). Mr Antony added the protection of the sea lanes of communications is imperative for India's trade, commerce and economic development. Sadly, such clarity on Indian interests is not evident in other parts of South Block. Moreover, Mr Antony believes that there can be no “miracles” in the development of India-China relations and has no intention of either taking up residence in Beijing or waxing eloquent on the serenity and tranquillity surrounding Tiananmen Square! New Delhi has to understand that the appeasement of an assertive China is a recipe for global and regional marginalisation. Given China's territorial claims, which have expanded from just Tawang, to the entire state of Arunachal Pradesh and its activities in PoK, India should not merely stop voicing the inane mantra that “Tibet is an Autonomous Region of China,” but make it clear that we did not invite the Dalai Lama to India. We would be happy if he reached an agreement to return to Tibet, with China respecting the provisions of the 17-point agreement it signed with the Tibetans in 1951. Moreover, apart from acquiring berthing facilities for the Navy in Vietnam, India would be well advised to provide Vietnam the ability to protect its maritime interests by the supply of Brahmos cruise missiles, much in the manner that China provides Pakistan ballistic and cruise missiles. On river waters, India is well placed to work with lower riparian states in the Mekong basin and, indeed internationally, to isolate China on its refusal to engage in prior consultations on projects on the Brahmaputra river. It is also high time the PMO and the MEA gathered courage to speak on the South China Sea and issues having a bearing on national security, particularly in forums like the East Asia Summit, with the same clarity as the Defence Minister, instead of appearing apologetic, weak and vacillating. The statements made and cooperation envisaged when the Prime Minister visited Japan are a good
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Etched in memory
It was 1967. Accompanying Punjab Agricultural University Public Relations chief, I was on my first visit to Lahaul and Spiti district. After having tea at the lone tented seasonal dhaba on Rohtang Pass, we headed for Keylong , the district headquarters of the two valleys. Starting late in the evening from Khoksar, the first habitation on the banks of the Chandra river after crossing the 13,050 feet high Rohtang Pass, our jeep wended its way on the dusty Khoksar-Keylong road towards Keylong. The peaks of the surrounding 15,000 to 20,000 ft high mountains covered with virgin snows since time immemorial were glistening in the September moon. Down below on our left, the majestic Chandra was carrying the simmering silvery disc of the full moon in its lap along its path zig-zagging through the sparsely populated valley. The whole atmosphere was dreamy. I wished the time had stood still. But the time has the uncanny nature of continuing its eternal journey. There was a whistling thud and the piercing beam of our jeep’s headlight quivered for a moment before staying motionless on the rugged wall of the opposite hill. One of the rear tyres of the jeep had burst. We decided to do the remaining two miles to Keylong on foot without waiting for the driver to change the wheel. It was 11 pm and the moon was sinking behind the snowy peak of the highest peak. The night was silent, as though listening for something, waiting for something. In the hostile terrain, far away from the noisy civilization, the fear of the unknown did not haunt me. Nature’s dominating force so vividly reflected through the grandeur of the mountain-scape cast its spell. That the man, the most intelligent creature of the universe, was so insignificant and powerless before the forces of the nature had never been so intensely realised by me earlier. Our arrival in Keylong just before midnight went unnoticed. It was only next morning that I started acquainting myself with the environment of the sleepy town situated at an elevation of 10,400 feet. Keylong was the only place in the district which had electricity with most of the houses also having radio sets. The few shops in the small bazaar were well-stocked with tinned foods and other necessaries of life. In the vicinity of Keylong, across the Bhaga river, is situated the Karding monastery, one of the oldest Buddhist temples in the region. The three-storey monastery has colourful paintings on its inside walls, undamaged by the time and depicting the teachings of the Buddha. After spending a day visiting the university’s research farm, we left for Kaza, the sub-divisional headquarters of the Spiti valley and a whole day’s journey from Keylong in the opposite direction upstream of the Chandra river. After the 14,947 ft high Kunzum Pass, travelling to the Spiti valley which borders China was an exciting experience. The monotony of the long and arduous journey was occasionally broken by the shrieking winds or the vast span of the Spiti river all along the route to Kaza after the descent from the 14,947 ft Kunzum Pass into the Spiti valley. It was around 10 pm and half a km from Kaza when another tyre of our 4x4 jeep burst. We walked to the village asking the driver to follow us after changing the tyre. Another adventure awaited us during our descent from the Rohtang Pass. After we left Marhi, below the Pass, heavy rain started. The driver suddenly stopped the jeep. There was an army truck with its body blocking the road. Without heavy woollens for protecting us from the icy winds, we spent the night reclining on our seats with the rain pounding the jeep’s canvass “roof”. It was at 10 in the morning when the Army crane arrived and cleared the roadblock. Some events remain etched in one’s memory. My first visit to Lahaul and Spiti 46 years ago was one such
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One is surprised at the absence of accountability from the list of priority tasks for the new government, although it should be at the top of the agenda. A new, comprehensive and effective accountability mechanism must be put in place at the earliest. I.A Rehman The new Prime Minister may have to change his style of working and leading the government by realising that the parliamentary system does not envisage a prime minister with overriding powers; it means rule by the Cabinet. The ultimate sanction for all government actions lies with the Cabinet and the advice a prime minister gives to the head of the state must be backed by the authority of the Cabinet. Also it is the cabinet that is collectively answerable to parliament. Strong prime ministers tend to treat the cabinet as a body that is good only for endorsing their own ideas and not as a vehicle for ensuring decision-making by consensus. A good Cabinet can offer effective checks to political leaders' impulsive actions, the adoption of untested schemes and the temptation to bend the rules for a populist enterprise. Any attempt to make decisions or policies at the urging of an informal caucus (consisting of friends, family members, bureaucratic aides, etc) will amount to an encroachment on the rights of the Cabinet. Pakistan has paid a heavy price for the slow pace of the change-over from a secret government to a transparent one. A closed system of governance undermines one of the salutary gifts of democracy - that in a democratic set-up the doings of the rulers become instantly known to the people unlike dictatorships whose mischief becomes public when it is often too late. Thus, it is absolutely necessary to ensure as transparent governance as possible. A review of the right to information law appears to have become necessary so as to reduce the restrictions on disclosure and exemptions from the right to information to the absolute minimum. One is surprised at the absence of accountability from the list of priority tasks for the new government although it should be at the top of the agenda. A new, comprehensive and effective accountability mechanism must be put in place at the earliest. Without a system of across-the-board accountability good governance cannot be conceived; neither can the government enjoy due legitimacy nor will it be possible to relieve the courts of their unnecessary burden of going for the black sheep in the service of or among the politicians. One of the most encouraging observations made by Mian Nawaz Sharif during his predictably goodwill-laced address to his party's newly elected parliamentarians related to his decision to take all parties along. This is in accord with the spirit of democracy which requires that once the electoral contest is over all, parties in parliament become collaborators in ensuring governance in accordance with the will of the people. While the opposition parties ought to continue their role as public watchdogs, they should also help the ruling party in moving away from majoritarian rule, sometimes by censuring it for its false steps and sometimes by supporting its fair initiatives. Despite its poor record in strengthening democratic conventions, Pakistan has certainly taken, over the past few years, some significant steps in the direction of participatory democracy. These included, for instance, increasing the role of multiparty standing committees of parliament, assigning the chairmanship of these committees to members of different parties, and giving the chairmanship of the Public Accounts Committee to the main opposition party. These experiments are in their initial stages and need to be nursed with care and imagination before they can achieve the goal of broadening the democratic base of governance. Another significant development in the recent past, for which the outgoing government deserves due credit, has been the opening of greater opportunities for private members to contribute to parliament's legislative work. Indeed, further and consistent encouragement to private members, especially the women among them, to undertake public-interest legislation will consolidate the democratic dispensation. This will also balance the government's preoccupation with legislative work designed to increase the state's coercive or regulatory powers. It is perhaps time to take a critical look at the Rules of Business (Article 99 of the Constitution) for regulating the conduct of the federal government. These rules, originally framed by the viceroy in the colonial period, were revised by the government in 1973 and may have become due for changes required to strengthen the Cabinet's role in decision-making, to streamline intra-government consultation, to increase interaction with the public, and to remove loopholes and anomalies that cause matters to be taken to the courts. The importance of the rules can be judged from the fact that Farooq Leghari, the then President, created a National Security Council by simply amending the rules. One wonders whether in a parliamentary system the prerogative to lay down the rules for the conduct of the federal authority should continue to vest in the head of state. The grand objective of taking everybody along is not realised by only making coalitions and giving ministries and parliamentary offices to persons outside the core ruling group. It demands the creation of mechanisms not only for parliament's effective oversight of the executive's functioning but also for guaranteeing all state organs' regular and meaningful interaction with civil society. The sights must clearly be set on evolving a system that satisfies the ordinary women and men of Pakistan that their participation in governance does not start and end with the casting of ballots and that on everything that the government does or avoids doing their opinion matters. In fact, it is sought and considered or at least heard. — By arrangement with Dawn, Islamabad. |
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THE tables have turned. Mian Mohammad Nawaz Sharif is back in the prime minister's chair and Gen Pervez Musharraf is under arrest and facing trial. Mian Sahib is the first man to be elected prime minister in the country for a third time. He is unparalleled as a Pakistani head of government ousted in a military coup and brought back by popular vote. There may be more reasons why the occasion needs to be celebrated just as it has to be marked with some solemn vows. In his speech after his election in the National Assembly by an overwhelming majority, the new prime minister made a conscious effort to build on this reputation as a politician who has undergone the course and has learnt. He solicited political consensus, his emphasis on the economy in accordance with the PML-N's line since its victory in the May 11 elections. He spoke of merit, about economic and social mobility manifest in his promise to have a train run between Khunjerab and Gwadar and before that he talked about respecting the mandates given to political parties. Nevertheless, it was clear that there are a few issues which he is not ready to take up as yet. Mr Sharif did not address terrorism and his mention of the drones was too cautious and too fleeting a remark to qualify as a statement of intent, let alone one of policy. It was a mild protest, a polite complaint, a question left hanging in the air. China in Gwadar was easier to handle and it did elicit a word of praise from the new incumbent for the previous government which had handed over the port's management to the Chinese. The supremacy of democracy, a call for consensus, the protest against the drones, the respect for popular mandates — the themes were not out of the routine. Five years ago, the stress was on reconciliation, on the need to shape a national policy on many issues. Those who spoke after Mr Nawaz Sharif's speech in the assembly on Wednesday did highlight some of the issues where consensus is hard to achieve: law and order in Karachi and elsewhere, and lack of local governments, which was a big subject missing from the first address of a prime minister aspiring to empower people as were energy and terrorism. The new prime minister's promise in dealing with these problems lies not so much in the numbers he has by his side but in the belief about the security and resultant maturity of the elected collective. Politicians will err and then correct their mistakes, so long as they have the time and the security of tenure. — An edit in Dawn |
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Window on pakistan Most newspapers have preferred to highlight the fact that Nawaz Sharif is the first person in Pakistan to have become the democratically elected Prime Minister for a third time after a gap of 13 years. Thus, his success in capturing power is a historic development. In 1999 when his government was toppled in a military coup staged by the then Army Chief, Gen Pervez Musharraf, he had been written off as a politician with his party, the Pakistan Muslim League (N), struggling for survival. He was jailed and could have been hanged to death. That was the time when the world saw in his wife, Kulsoom, a fearless fighter for her rights. She made it clear to the General that she was not the one who would accept the designs of the dictator to throw her husband into the dustbin of history. She succeeded in making the Saudi rulers intervene in a clandestine cooperation with the US. Nawaz Sharif was forced to go on exile to Saudi Arabia. But the politician in him could not remain away from the hustle and bustle of politics forever. After all, he was destined to come back to power and change the course of politics in Pakistan. But this fact will be of no use to him as he begins his latest tenure at a time when most people in Pakistan are leading a miserable life because of daily power cuts for as long as 12 hours at some places. Pakistan during the PPP-led government somehow escaped having been declared a "failed state". Its economy needs a surgical treatment to make it deliver the goods. Extremism promoted by elements like the Taliban has caused incalculable damage to the Pakistan economy. It invited drone attacks by the US which may now become history, as Nawaz Sharif has declared after taking over as Prime Minister. But how he manages to control extremists remains to be seen. Interestingly, the man who unsuccessfully tried to destroy Nawaz Sharif's political career, Gen Musharraf, is in the dock when the PML (N) leader is in power. The world will be watching with interest whether Nawaz Sharif simply ignores him and allows the law to take its own course. He has no time to waste as people have great expectations from him. He was a successful business man before the PML (N) leader got inducted into politics during Gen Zia-ul-Haq's rule. That is why Sharif's approach has always been business-like. The privatisation programme with the setting up of the Privatisation Commission of Pakistan began when he was at the helm of affairs. It's a different matter that it was alleged those days that when government-owned undertakings were put on sale, his Ittefaq Group of Industries would purchase them. Despite this, Pakistan made some significant achievements on the industrial front during his past two tenures. But today the situation is different. Forces of destabilisation are as active today as they were earlier. They are anxiously waiting for the withdrawal of the US-led troops from Afghanistan next year. The new scenario that will emerge in Afghanistan can affect Pakistan in various ways. But Pakistan can gain enormously by taking steps for the normalisation of relations with India. Nawaz Sharif may face considerable pressure from businessmen to do all he can to increase business opportunities between India and Pakistan. Already the two countries are doing excellently on the bilateral trade front. Exports from India to Pakistan went up by around 15 per cent in 2012-13, adding $1.6 billion to bilateral trade between April 2012 and February 2013. Imports from Pakistan too increased to $488 million from $375 million, a rise of as much as 30 per cent. The new Prime Minister of Pakistan has a great opportunity available to him to change the economic profile of his country by concentrating on the Indo-Pak trade front. |
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AS the dust of electoral controversy has settled down, the focus of the national debate should now be not only on what needs to be done first but also on the best possible way to move forward, for the central issue in Pakistan is still the mode of governance.