P A G E
Tuesday, August 11, 1998
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E D I T O R I A L P A G E |
Tuesday, August 11, 1998 |
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Economic
ill wind
The
Kashmir crisis |
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Hindu-Sikh
shrine claims |
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Economic ill wind SUBSIDY-CUTTING is a key component of the World Bank-IMF-ordained economic reforms which, in turn, are held up as a short cut to plenty and prosperity. This year the BJP-led ruling combine seems to have concentrated all its subsidy-cutting impulses on the farm sector. How else does one justify the measly increase of 8 per cent or Rs 25 a quintal in the procurement price of paddy? This in a year when the farming community is in extreme distress and when the unreliable wholesale price index has soared to 8.32 per cent and the more accurate consumer price index for industrial workers has risen to 12.4 per cent, and when MPs have voted themselves a hefty increase in pay and allowances. One explanation, in the characteristic convoluted style of the officialdom, could be that a higher increase would further push up prices. Normally an 8 per cent hike should not influence the open market but it certainly will this year. The bazaar is in the firm grip of inflationary sentiments and any gesture would do to further stoke it. In last wheat season the output dropped by less than 5 per cent but procurement by the government agencies went up by 3 million tonnes. Yet atta has become dearer and sells at Rs 8.5 a kilo. And the busy festival season is ahead and the stock with private dealers is uncomfortably low. A sure fire combination for a further upward movement in atta prices. Edible oil is set to follow suit and that may lead to an all-round price flare-up. Inflation is one aspect of
the economic troubles the country faces. With the
exception of Union Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha and
some of his officials, others view the economy with
varying degrees of concern. If prices are climbing,
industrial growth is declining as is profit. Fully one
quarter of manufacturing units have posted loss in the
first quarter. Fiscal deficit, both at the Centre and in
the states, is on a trot while exports are plunging;
trade balance is widening while foreign exchange reserves
and inflow are shrinking; inventory is bulging while
consumer demand remains sluggish. Some sectors like heavy
vehicles have stopped production, failing to find buyers.
It is in the midst of this grim situation that the World
Bank has issued its magisterial score card. It has a
changed name this year, but the assessment is the same as
last year. India, the Bank report says, is heading for a
tough time. It warns that the rupee will come under
severe pressure and will shed value. This is because of
several adverse forces. Falling exports will push up
demand for foreign exchange but economic slowdown will
induce repatriation of funds by foreign investors in
stock market and dampen fresh injection of capital. The
result will be a persistent attack on the rupee and a
market-dictated depreciation. Unlike in other times, a
weaker rupee will merely indicate an entrenched economic
imbalance and not be a wayout of it. Finally, it is
recognised all over the world that a stable government
almost always ensures steady economic growth. Conversely
an unstable regime begets economic chaos. India is about
to prove this to the hilt. |
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The Yadavs’ one-point agenda THE remarkable common quality of Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav and Mr Laloo Prasad Yadav is that they believe in their ability to change the political map of India just because they are the ayatollahs of secularism. It is indeed true that the rally organised by them in Lucknow under the common banner of Rashtriya Loktantrik Morcha was successful going by the number of those who turned up to hear their fulminations against the communal forces. But the message, that they were willing to support any friend and oppose any foe of secular values, would help them find the political strength to topple the Bharatiya Janata Party government in Uttar Pradesh or the BJP-led coalition at the Centre was as flat as stale beer. That the caste-based politics of the two Yadavs is bereft of the values they swear by is evident from their desperate attempt to woo the Akalis and the sadhus by supporting the demand for excluding Udham Singh Nagar and Hardwar from the proposed Uttaranchal. They mistakenly presume that by throwing their weight behind the Akali Dal and the Sadhus of Hardwar they would be able to damage the support base of the BJP. The Sadhus would rather fight for the battle of Hardwar on their own steam and the Akali Dal is not likely to put into jeopardy its alliance with the BJP in Punjab by carrying out the threat of withdrawing support to the party at the Centre. There may be nothing wrong with their single-point agenda of defeating the communal forces in the country represented by the BJP, but their approach to realising the dream of “secular raj” in the country suffers from several infirmities. Neither Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav nor Mr Laloo Prasad Yadav can be said to have proved reliable political allies. The formation of the
Janata Dal was a credible response for taking on the
communal forces. The two Yadavs cannot deny the charge
that they were collectively and individually responsible
for destroying the Janata Dal. Their political track
record of letting down even their secular soulmates is
one of the reasons why Congress President Sonia Gandhi
has thus far ignored their promise of support if she
decides to bring down the BJP-led coalition at the
Centre. In any case, the agenda for reviving the Congress
cannot be based on political arrangements with Mr Laloo
Prasad Yadav in Bihar and Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav in UP.
The Congress strategy, at least in UP, appears to be to
win back the trust of the Muslims which abandoned it
after the demolition of the Babri Masjid. That is the
reason why a secular Congressman, who also happens to be
a Muslim, has been made President of the UPCC. Mr Salman
Khursheed knows that to be seen doing business with the
Samajwadi Party of Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav would defeat
the very purpose for which he has been sent to UP —
the politically most important state in the country and
once the source of the strength of the Congress. He has
instead decided to follow an independent line which
includes establishing contact with respected leaders of
the Muslim community. Reports from UP suggest that his
meeting with Ali Mian, a Muslim cleric with a vast
following, was fairly successful. Ali Mian is said to
have issued a statement in which he said that Muslims
should be seen to be more tolerant and not allow one
mistake to brand a political party (as unacceptable) for
life. Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav who claims to have
considerable influence over the Muslim constituency in UP
should understand the political significance of such a
statement. If, in spite of the negative signals from her
side Mrs Sonia Gandhi makes the mistake of walking into
the Rashtriya Loktantrik Morcha trap, it would be a day
of national political rejoicing for the two Yadavs —
and of mourning for the Congressmen who believe the party
can be revived. |
Terror tentacles DIABOLICAL and reprehensible that the recent Chamba massacre was, in which 35 labourers were murdered by Kashmiri militants, it was not quite unexpected. In fact, alarm bells should have started ringing last month itself, when four persons of a community belonging to Himachal Pradesh who had gone to the higher reaches on the border of J and K and their state to collect herbs were killed by Kashmiri militants. But the incident was perhaps not viewed with necessary gravity, leading to the other massacre. That has been the pattern during the terrorism days in Punjab as well. Whenever heat was turned on them in the border state, the militants would invariable sneak into the neighboring Haryana or Himachal Pradesh. Even at that time, it was given out that while taking security measures, the state of Himachal Pradesh would be fitted into the overall strategy. But the resolve was apparently forgotten once things cooled down in Punjab. History is repeating itself. The tentacles of terrorism will now gradually spread to Himachal Pradesh given that it is not in the same state of readiness to meet the challenge that Jammu and Kashmir is. On such occasions, it is usual for some armchair experts to insist that the borders should be sealed. Anyone who is familiar with the topography of the area will know that it is a near-impossible task. Terrorists sneaking into Himachal Pradesh can be apprehended only by putting into place an effective intelligence gathering network, which is sadly missing so far. The joint strategy to
tackle the problem, which has been unveiled by the
authorities of the two states, is impressive on paper but
when implementing it, certain precautions must be taken.
First of all, it is necessary that the police does not
end up alienating the local populace. Reports from the
area of the massacre suggest that policemen are harassing
local people and even depending on the poor villagers for
their ration and other needs. Such attitude amounts to
adding insult to injury and infuriates the public. It is
all very well to say that only a few black sheep among
the force indulge in such behaviour. But the common man
comes in contact with so many black sheep that he cannot
be faulted for thinking that the entire force is
satanical. People can come forward to provide information
only if they are certain that the police is their friend.
If the men in khaki continue to revel in the image of a
tormentor, they can never get the necessary feedback.
This kind of highhandedness is unpardonable in any
situation; it is absolutely suicidal when tackling
terrorism. Secondly, it has been noticed that the
anti-terrorist drives which begin with a bang end with a
whimper. The policemen slip back to peacetime mode if
there is no crime for some time. If terrorists do not
strike for another month or so, that should not be
treated as some sort of a victory or as a signal that the
menace has been tackled. That could very well be a ploy
to strike again when the security agencies are off-guard.
So, a continued vigil is the order of the day. Third, it
has been noticed that coordination between various
security agencies is not what it should be. Any kind of
bickering will only end up offering an advantage to the
mercenaries on a platter. The Centre will also have to be
ever ready to fulfil the requirements of the state for
armed forces and equipment. Care must be taken while
distributing arms and ammunition to village defence
committees, lest these fall into wrong hands. |
The Kashmir crisis AFTER the explosion of nuclear devices by India on May 11 and 13, one of the grounds on which the present government is being assailed is that it has caused internationalisation of the Kashmir issue. But the criticism of the government on this ground has no validity. Apart from the fact that Kashmir cannot be internationalised by mere mentioning its name in some communiques and resolutions, it must be remembered that the Western bloc has, from day one, been trying to needle India on Kashmir for the sake of its own geo-political interests. As early as in 1948-49, Jawaharlal Nehru bemoaned that for a simple complaint by India to the United Nations it had been made a victim of international power politics. At a public meeting at Jammu on February 15, 1948, he said: “Instead of discussing and deciding our reference on Kashmir in a straight forward manner, the nations of the world sitting in the United Nations got lost in power politics.” In the current phase of the Kashmir crisis the USA and its present-day cohorts have shown the same disposition to first contribute to the creation of trouble in Kashmir and then fish in its troubled waters to secure their ends of power. Their present objective is to protect and perpetuate the monopoly of the five-member nuclear club. It needs to be noted that but for the acquiescence of the USA in the use of its funds and weapons, made available to the ISI for extending help to the Mujahideen in Afghanistan, Pakistan would not have been able to engineer large-scale terrorism and subversion in Kashmir. And as soon as the trouble commenced, the game of linking this trouble with India’s stand on the NPT began to be played. This should be clear from the facts given below. Much before the NPT’s extension came up for consideration of the international body, an influential “think tank”, led by Prof Cohen, who is virtually a part of the American policy-making group on the Kashmir and Indo-Pakistan relations, started advocating that “the road to accession to the NPT lies through Kashmir”, implying thereby that India’s current difficulties with regard to the valley should be used to pressurise it to agree to the extension of the NPT. The Carnegie Endowment
Study Group on “US-India relations in a changing
international environment” recommended in 1993:
“The United States should seek, both unilaterally
and through the United Nations, to promote multi-faceted
Indo-Pakistan negotiations in which nuclear
non-proliferation and other issues are addressed
concurrently. Efforts to promote nuclear dialogue without
a parallel initiative on other fronts are likely to prove
futile. The Kashmir dispute, in particular, could become
the flash-point of a conventional war that could escalate
to nuclear level.” The message between the lines is
quite clear. It is to link India’s stand on the NPT
with Kashmir. The Carnegie Endowment is another
semi-official “think tank”. The report of the Joint American-Russian Study Mission, which was prepared during the heyday of their new-found friendship and cooperation, had the same refrain: “Russia and the United States could initiate, in the UN Security Council, a resolution that could state their concern on Kashmir”... . At about the same time, unfavourable comments were, off and on, made to serve as subtle hints to India to remember that the “Kashmir dispute” was still alive. For example, on October 29, 1993, Ms Robin Raphel, the US Assistant Secretary of State, at a “background briefing” for South Asian journalists, said: “We do not recognise the instrument of accession as meaning that Kashmir is forever more an integral part of India... . We view the whole of Kashmir as disputed territory, the status of which needs to be resolved... . The Simla Agreement is 21 years old.” Asked about the storm of protest in New Delhi over President Clinton’s reference to Kashmir in his United Nations address, Ms Raphel replied: “It is very easy to create a storm in Delhi. It was correct to say we saw Kashmir on the radar screen along with Yugoslavia and Somalia.” A clarification, subsequently issued by the State Department, tended to confirm what was stated by Ms Raphel. “It did not change the content of the dish but merely the manner of serving it.” A few days earlier, John R. Mallot, the US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State, who was on a visit to India, made observations similar to those of Ms Robin Raphel quoted above. The issue of human rights violations was repeatedly raised to pressurise India. Highly exaggerated stories, sometimes even connected ones, were given wide publicity both in India and abroad, conveniently forgetting that human ingenuity had yet to evolve a method other than mechanism of security forces to tackle contemporary mechanism. To create international
opinion in favour of the American plan to secure
agreement of both India and Pakistan to the indefinite
extension of the NPT and signing of the CTBT, scare
stories were planted regarding the imminence of
Indo-Pakistan nuclear conflict. In an article titled
“On the nuclear edge”, published in 1993, in
New Yorker magazine, Seymour Hersh asserted that in early
1990, India and Pakistan were on the brink of a nuclear
conflict on Kashmir. President Ghulam Ishaq Khan and Gen
Mirza Aslam Beg were “keeping their hands on the
button”, and India was also ready to retaliate. This
story was imaginary. As I have shown in my book,
“Frozen Turbulence in Kashmir”, with the help
of contemporaneous records and factual data, the Indian
government at the Centre was so casual in its approach
that even the collapse of the administration and
large-scale internal subversion in the valley during Dr
Farooq Abdullah’s regime did not spur it to action.
Such could not be the attitude of a government that was
contemplating war, let alone nuclear war. So far as
Pakistan was concerned, why should it have risked a
holocaust when its objective was being achieved through a
low-cost proxy war in which the Kashmiri youth was
serving as its cannon fodder? Even at the worst of the
Kashmir crisis (November, 1989 to March, 1990), most
political parties in India were concerned more with their
vote banks than preventing Pakistan to close its jaws on
Kashmir. In early 1990, neither administratively nor
politically, India showed any signs which suggested a war
mentality. Likewise, in February, 1994, excerpts from Burrow and Winderm book, “Critical Mass”, were published in the Indian Press. One of the “revelations” that these excerpts made was that Indira Gandhi was planning to bomb Pakistani nuclear installations at Kahuta, in October, 1984. This “revelation”, too, was a concoction. Five days before her assassination on October 31, 1984, Indira Gandhi was in Srinagar with her grandchildren, visiting religious shrines. She had detailed discussions with me about the situation in Jammu and Kashmir. There was nothing in those discussions which indicated any likelihood of confrontation with Pakistan or any other happening of significance occurring in the near future. After all, bombing of Kahuta could not have been without repercussion, particularly in the state of Jammu and Kashmir which also includes the strategic area of Ladakh bordering China. Clearly, it is not only after the testing of nuclear devices by India that it has been put under pressure by the USA on the Kashmir issue. Such pressures have been there since the time of preparation for securing the extension of the NPT and an agreement on the CTBT. If India encounters US moves on Kashmir with a determined stand, the USA might abandon or modify the course it has at present taken. After all, the USA cannot afford to incur the hostility of a nation of 950 million people. In this connection, it is worth recalling that when the diehard Tory members of the British Parliament, like R.A. Butler and Churchill, tried to browbeat India by espousing the cause of the Nizam of Hyderabad, the “faithful ally of the empire”, Sardar Patel firmly told them not to stand by the “old world”. He made it clear: “It
is only in goodwill spirit that an enduring relationship
of friendship can be built between India and Britain and
other members of the Commonwealth”. He thus
successfully prevented Hyderabad, whom he described as an
“ulcer in the abdomen of India”, from becoming
cancerous. Such a forthright and fearless stand towards
the USA’s new posture, I am sure, would help India
in retrieving the situation, besides sending the right
signals to the secessionists in the valley. And the bogey
of internationalisation of the Kashmir issue would turn
out to be nothing but a propagating and bullying tactics. |
SIR Winston Churchill, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Mahatma Gandhi and Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel — all great men. They were strong-willed. They had a purpose. They had an invincible determination. They could achieve anything. They stood like solid towers in different continents of the world. But all of them had a common physical feature — a bald head. And perhaps looking at them, the wit said, “God made some good heads. The rest He covered with hair.” The long, lustrous, yellow golden locks of hair are nature’s ornament for a woman. Dusky tresses are the crowning glory of man. It has been said that the slender, flexible thread like hair are the God’s gift to living beings. But it is also known that the hair are only an outgrowth of the epidermis. They have no blood vessels. No nerves. These are chiefly composed of “elongated and modified epidermal cells”. And yet, these lifeless and insensitive hair demand all the attention. Regular massage, preferably with almond oil, to preserve the lustre; trimming, to keep the shape; innumerable chemical processes to tint, wave, curl, strengthen and condition the hair. To add to all this, an endless wait at the hair-dresser’s saloon despite a prior appointment. What a big bother! Probably, to avoid all this botheration, the ancient Egyptians, men and women alike, shaved their heads. The sages, in particular the Buddhist monks, still follow this old practice. And what a relief! No hair. No shampoo. No hair dye. No hair tonic. No combing. No barber. No allergic reactions to the chemicals. No visit to the dermatologist. No appointments at the anti-allergy clinics. A goodbye to so many problems. And, to top it all, baldness is so neat. The only thing that a bald man may wear on his head is a few beads of perspiration. The medical science
suggests that baldness has a hereditary basis. Some
doctors opine that it is dependent on the “male
hormone levels” in the blood. Its causes may include
the “scar producing skin diseases, inborn lack of
hair development and severe injury to the hair germ
centres by chemical or physical agents.” It is known
to have been produced by exposure to X-rays, ingestion of
metals, malnutrition, chronic wasting diseases, endocrine
disorders and fungus infection. But, whatever be the
cause, a head as bald as a “plucked chicken”
with not “even a wisp or two of hair” is a rare
gift of God. Baldness has various patterns. In certain cases, the hair loss progresses gradually. It begins with a recession of the hairline at the front. In others, there is thinning of the crown hair. There are also those who have only a thin rim of hair at the sides and the back of the head. This form of baldness has been aptly described as the “Hippocratic Wreath”. Each pattern has its own beauty. Dishevelled hair give a slovenly look and multiply the wrinkles on the face. The unshaven man generally goes unnoticed. Shave makes the man look suave. It is the medicine for a man’s personality. A well-shaven, silken smooth skull has its own shine. A totally peculiar glow. It makes the person look different. So easily recognisable. Ronaldo, the super-star of soccer, is spotted from a distance even before he touches the ball. These days, some of us tend to be carefully careless. It is becoming common to appear casual in clothes and looks. But let us remember that even an emperor may not be noticed if he goes around in his night-cap. The king is really recognised and respected when he is wearing the crown. Had Socrates delivered his orations with only a sheet around his shoulders, more men may have laughed at his attire than admired his eloquence. The casual man generally goes out of countenance. The baldies constitute an exclusive club. It consists of the poets, the politicians, the scientists, the actors, the actresses — men and women who have won distinction in different fields. In our own times, we have seen Yul Bryner and Persis Khambatta rise in name and fame after the razor had removed the dusky tresses and golden locks of hair. And then what was the difference between Lord Mountbatten and Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru? Lady Edwina would have told you. The bald are beautiful. Is
it not? |
THE Punjab Swaraksha Sabha, in its meeting held last week, resolved that the Hon’ble Rai Bahadur Lala Ramsaran Das CIE and Prof Gulshan Rai be nominated on their behalf to cooperate with two nominees of the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee in settling any disputes that may arise between the Sanatanists and the Sikhs in connection with any shrine in the Punjab and that the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee be requested to appoint its nominees at an early date. On the same evening, Sardar Harbans Singh and Sardar Teja Singh, Jathedar of the Shiromani Committee, and Prof Gulshan Rai of the Punjab Swaraksha Sabha proceeded to Hazro to study the nature of the dispute between the Sanatanists and the Sikhs there. Both the parties have agreed in writing to put the dispute in connection with the Shrine of Bhagat Bishan Das of Hazro for settlement into the hands of the Hon’ble Rai Bahadur Ramsaran Dass and Prof Gulshan Rai and two other gentlemen who may be nominated by the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee. The decision given by this
committee of four will be acceptable to both the parties.
In the meanwhile, it is requested that no newspaper
should write anything on the subject as it will prejudice
the cause of settlement which, it is expected, will soon
be arrived at. |
Dooms day predictions POOR humanity — at least a vast majority of it — has barely 12 short months to live. All will be destroyed, obliterated, when that catastrophe strikes planet earth. P. Lal has pronounced this fatal verdict based on the predictions of an obscure French seer, Nostradamus, more than 400 years ago (The Tribune, July 26). An atomic war will begin in July, 1999, which will sign the death warrant of the living beings on the earth. The king of terror will visit planet earth from the sky. This our commentator interprets to mean that there will be a rain of nuclear-tipped missiles from the sky. Asia will invade Europe; does not look probable in view of Asia’s weakness and Europe’s power. While the nuclear war goes on, the sun, which is our life and light, will not appear for full 40 years. Have a good look at it and do all your worship, those who are sun-worshippers. There would be constant rain and devastating floods that would drown all. Yet in the midst of all this, the parched earth would get drier and drier. There are other internal contradictions too; which cast doubt on the credibility of the whole story. In the midst of this doomsday phenomenon, an atomic war will go on for 29 years and six months (mark the exactness till 2028 A.D.). An atomic war for three decades — a contradiction in terms. But no, wait, our writer has an explanation for this too: the atomic powers will exhaust all their nuclear weaponry at the start. Who will destroy America’s more than 5000 nuclear war-heads? And then the conventional war (hundred times more destructive than any previous war) would drag on, for three decades. Could a Hiroshima immediately start a long war? This is straining our credulity too much. After the war is finished, the survivors would replace their brick-walls with the marble ones. We thought even a limited war brought utter financial ruin for the participants, not a fresh flood of prosperity and affluence. The French seer — said to be gifted with clairvoyance, to whom future of the centuries and the millennia was an open book — was no man of God or prayers, but just a practising physician. Yet he has presented a detailed picture of the future world-wide which even our prophets and omniscient messengers of God like Christ, Buddha, Muhammad and the rest could not — or rather did not choose to present. Another prophesy is that
crescents will smash the crosses and the Muslims shall be
on top. He seems to be thinking of the crusades (to
capture their Holy Land) in which Christian kings and
their armies were worsted by Muslims. Yet in the same
breath he says the Muslims shall be driven out of Europe.
We thought that their habitats were Asia and Africa, not
the continent of Europe. Yet in the Asia-Europe war, the
crescents will score over the crosses, but all the
Muslims (the victors) will be turned out. War would clip
the wings of the Friday-keepers. Involving himself in the
string of self-contradictions seems to be the French
man’s style. Another forecast: the present Pope John Paul II will be forced to flee the Vatican, hide in France and be abducted and killed at a place between the two rivers. This is a good test case. The year 2000 is not far off; and we should live to see the falsehood of the prophecy. But public memories are short and move in their wonted track. We remember that in 1958, there was the great scare of Ashta-grahi (eight planets out of the total nine coming together in a single house of the Zodiac) and the end of the world was forecast. The faithfuls passed the designated day and night with fasts and prayers, vacating their houses and much else. But when that universally-feared day came, absolutely nothing happened. Not even a dog barked. Not even stray murders or mishaps or accidents which have become our daily routine today. The prophesy had proved 100 per cent false; yet after a while the populace continued with its pathetic faith in the truth of the predictions of astrologers, star-gazers, future-seers and their tribe. There is one very good thing in the French man’s forecast: India does not figure anywhere, which our commentator interprets to mean that India shall remain untouched by the global catastrophe, an oasis of peace and normalcy, while the rest of the world would burn to extinction. This is the prophecy that
I whole-heartedly wish to support, though my common sense
tells me that in a global conflict, how can India be
allowed to remain totally untouched? |
IN the normal course, Atal Behari Vajpayee’s current endeavour to mend India’s foreign relations should have received the full support of the entire nation. He has already made significant headway in breaking the ice with the USA. His success in this regard would depend on various factors, including the consequences of the mindless actions by some of his own colleagues. Some of them are still trying to put a spoke in the wheels by way of subtle suggestions in the name of enhancing the ruling party’s ‘basic tenets.’ Thus the main hurdles in
the way of Vajpayee’s normalisation moves come not
from the Opposition or the BJP allies but the powerful
lobbies working within his own party. They have already
complicated matters to such an extent that even the VHP
and Bajrang Dal have begun putting up resistance to all
efforts to introduce sanity in foreign relations. Never
before has India’s foreign policy been so much
intertwined with the political expediency of the domestic
policies of the ruling party. This is entirely due to the
rigid perception of the RSS clan on crucial issues and
the inability of the present dispensation to rectify it. This itself makes the Prime Minister’s task extremely insurmountable. As a result, India has never found itself in such isolation as of today. It has not been so friendless even during the worst days of the war with its neighbours or in the thick of the cold war. Over-emphasis on jingoism rooted in ethnic and cultural superiority might serve a certain political purpose in whipping up sentiments at home. But when ruling parties begin framing foreign policy on similar over-rated national self-respect, it is bound to evoke highly adverse responses. In an era of globalisation and total interdependence foreign retaliation can be deadly. Vajpayee’s emissary Jaswant Singh has a busy schedule cut out for him. Apart from his ‘secret’ mission to Beijing he is to hold his fourth round of talks with US Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbot later this month. He will also meet Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. Ever since Pokhran II the USA has been pressurising India to make a public declaration of its intention to sign the CTBT. The Prime Minister has in his intervention in Parliament hinted at the government’s inclination to do so. Apparently, the Prime Minister has been trying to gauge the public mood — more so of ruling party ranks. For the past two weeks, the Prime Minister and his emissary have been working hard to convince the parivar colleagues about the need to adhere to the US proposal. The protracted consultations among the top BJP leaders have revealed the sharp divergence of views on CTBT and rapprochement with Pakistan. Therefore, Vajpayee will first have to try for a consensus within the “parivar” before trying for a national consensus on the US move. According to BJP circles, the US formula implies India’s immediate public declaration to sign the CTBT. Then this could be sent to the UN Secretary-General to make it a formal commitment. The other component of the US proposal — no-first-strike, seems to have been cleared by the parivar. Even this is a big achievement for Vajpayee. During May’s post-blast euphoria, the mood was to use the new weapon to threaten the recalcitrant neighbour into submission. Obviously, L.K. Advani and Madan Lal Khurana no more talk about “neostrategic” changes or of subjugating Pakistan. However, the parivar remains sharply divided on signing the CTBT without conditions and foregoing India’s right to weaponisation. Originally, the BJP had put conditions like recognition of India as a nuclear-weapon state and permanent membership of the UN Security Council, etc. An influential section in
the parivar argues that any ‘surrender’ on the
preconditions for signing the treaty and weaponisation
would negate all political advantages of Pokhran II. The
Pakistani nuclear test at Chagai had already reduced its
“national pride”. Now the Vajpayee-Jaswant
Singh move would complete the BJP’s humiliation in
the public eye. This, they feel, is all the more
important in view of the November elections to four state
assemblies. Due to the frequent instability threat by the
allies and the inability to show results, the BJP will
have to rely solely on whatever is left of the
‘nuclear pride’ as an election plank. BJP leaders even say that Mulayam Singh Yadav has already begun “ridiculing” the BJP for first conducting the tests thereby challenging the USA and Islamabad and then meekly “selling out” the country’s interests under threats. If that was really the case, why did the leadership go in for the Pokhran test, they ask. In the aftermath of the economic reform in early 1990s when the swadeshi lobby within the RSS parivar has been valiantly resisting globalisation, Advani had fairly succeeded in opening a bridge with the foreign investment lobby abroad. He has been frequently meeting visiting dignitaries and foreign business representatives to reassure them about the party’s commitment to reform. It has been rather easy for the RSS parivar to quietly bury the economic aspects of swadeshi. This is because for the parivar, swadeshi economics has been, by and large, a post-1990 acquisition. But cultural nationalism, which encompasses anti-minorityism and Hindutva domination, has deeper roots. These have been the very basis on which the Hindutva concept was built. This constitutes the basic difference between the foreign policy parameters of other political parties and the Hindutva-based BJP. As for the BJP, it has been always easier to whip up sentiments on issues like religious hatred and “national pride” irrespective of their international implications. Thus the BJP Government’s foreign policy has been an extension of its domestic programmes based on Hindu pride and cultural nationalism. Pokhran II has been a manifestation of this pride — false or real. True, the BJP combine’s national agenda talks of the nuclear option. But it was widely perceived as an option to be made after the promised defence review and a national debate. In the case of Pakistan, the BJP has more compulsions to extend its domestic policy of anti-minorityism and Muslim hatred to matters concerning foreign relations. This is in sharp contrast to the Gujral doctrine of good neighbourliness. What is often overlooked is that in the present world, foreign policy cannot be confined to a watertight compartment. It is closely interlinked with the domestic policies. The kind of jingoistic public display of arrogance and challenge — repeatedly shown on TV — after the Pokhran blast was followed by the threat of cross-border chase of terrorists. In this era of fast communication, even things we dismiss as trivial can send strong signals abroad. The laborious efforts to explain away Hindutva as ‘Indianness’ may convince some of us about its non-communal connotation. But recently a foreign magazine has put it conversely, giving it a disastrous explanation. Similarly, bestowing the title “Sardar Patel” to L.K. Advani conveys a different meaning to outsiders. The organised pogrom of minorities in Gujarat, attacks on the Christians and burning of the Bible, etc., are getting wide publicity abroad. The impact of such incidents on the western mind cannot be ignored. The USA and Pakistan had differently responded to such actions by the BJP government. While the USA countered India’s nuclear blasts by sanctions and retaliations, Islamabad responded by intensifying terrorism in Kashmir. While the Prime Minister’s diplomatic offensive to restore the nation’s lost credibility is certainly a welcome move, It is time for him for an introspection into the factors that had taken it to a breaking point. The absurdity of break-and-make policy is more pronounced in the case of China. In the first place, there was no reason to drag China into the controversy by those like George Fernandes and then launch a diplomatic offensive to mend fences. Moreover, the kind of
designer deplomacy by Jaswant Singh may offer some
theatrical effect at home. But in the world of hard
diplomacy, such endeavours can be successful only after
patient confidence building. It invariably depends on the
stability of the authority in power and its ability to
impose decisions on the establishment. Even in the case
of the present talks with the USA, India has yielded
itself more than it gained. European hand in Pak bomb? More than China, it has been the known allies of the Western bloc, including the NATO countries, who had extended secret assistance to Pakistan in its endeavour to develop its nuclear capability. While China’s help for the Khushab reactor producing plutonium has received wide publicity, the role of West European countries like Germany in making available many of the critical components to Pakistan, had gone almost unnoticed. According to highly reliable sources, as early as the 70s, the USA and other western allies, as part of the cold war strategy, had arranged scholarships and training to a large number of Pakistani nuclear scientists and experts. By 1974, when India had conducted its first nuclear experiment, about 550 Pakistani specialists had been getting training at various levels in USA, Canada and West European countries. Technology for enrichment in the nuclear project at Kahuta was designed and manufactured with the assistance of the Dutch company, Ultra Centrifuge, German Kalhof and Neul technologies GMBH. Ring magnets for overhauling these centrifuges were received from China. The unit used by the Pakistani nuclear specialists for the required production of heavy water was received from the Belgian company, Belgonucleaire. The German company, Nuklear Technic GMBH, delivered sophisticated nuclear technology to Islamabad. The Norwegian press
recently published a series of articles revealing the
facts about the delivery of zirconium tubes to Islamabad
by certain Norwegian firms. In a report in Klassen Kampen
entitled‘Norwegian exports behind Pak nuclear
bombs’, nuclear specialist Knut Lunde gave details
of the vital supplies to Pakistan by their firms. Another
newspaper, Aften Posten, said Norwegian computer
equipment, itself from an unsourced country, had been
used for the creation of the Islamic bomb. |
RASHTRIYA JANATA DAL leader, Laloo Prasad Yadav was amongst the most prominent speakers at the recently concluded Lok Sabha session but then it appears he did not have his fill. In the concluding stages Mr Laloo Yadav, impressed upon the Speaker, Mr GMC Balayogi, to allow him to speak out of turn as he was to take a flight. The Speaker obliged but then when he started there seemed to be no end in sight. When Mr Balayogi asked him to wind up and reminded him that he had a flight to catch. Mr Yadav, in his inimitable style, retorted that the flight had been delayed and he could speak for some more time. Perhaps for once delay in
the flight departure had come in handy for a politician
who otherwise berates tardy public services. Suspense at CWC meeting It was an episode filled with suspense that occurred at the emergency meeting of the Congress Working Committee last week. Just as the meeting ended, those who were seen leaving Mrs Sonia Gandhi’s residence were former Prime Minister, Mr H.D. Deve Gowda, and his Janata Dal colleague, Mr S.R. Bommai. Those assembled started speculating over their presence specially since the CWC discussed its stand on the Srikrishna Commission report, which inquired into the 1993 Mumbai riots. The conclusion was that the Congress was getting its act together in case the current arrangement at the Centre came apart. Sensing an important development, scribes were eager to get confirmation and could not wait to shoot questions about their presence to the spokesmen of the evening, Mr Sharad Pawar and Mr Arjun Singh. The denouement came as an anti-climax. Mr Arjun Singh disclosed that the two leaders were there to attend a scheduled meeting of the Jallianwala Bagh Trust. Sonia’s guidelines At a time when the Speaker has expressed concern over unruly behaviour and tendency to disrupt proceedings in the House during the just-concluded Budget session, Congress MPs received a pat on their backs from the party supremo, Mrs Sonia Gandhi, for their orderly conduct. Disturbed at the tendency of some members to disrupt proceedings, the Speaker spoke his mind to an all-party meeting on related issues and has now decided to call a conference of Assembly Speakers next month to discuss electoral reforms and maintenance of discipline in state assemblies. In fact, the Congress President in her opening address at the start of the session asked her MPs to protest with restraint. The unwritten guidelines included not to rush to the well of the House and not to raise slogans or such acts. Senior party leaders were particular that the President’s diktat was followed both in letter and spirit. At times when some first-timers got carried away, the seniors used to gently remind them of the need for restraint. And their effort did not
go waste. At the customary end-of-the-session meeting of
the Congress party in Parliament, Mrs Gandhi devoted a
whole paragraph. She showed her appreciation by stating:
“Thank you for having maintained decorum and reason
even when the House had been plunged in chaos. It is such
good behaviour that persuades the country that the
Congress is the natural party of governance, the party
with which democracy is safe.” Khanna wins over lady MPs When film star Vinod Khanna decided to join politics very few took him seriously. A case in point was his first press conference where he was asked mundane questions like whether he would treat his opponents in the same way as the villains roughed up by him in movies. Khanna was quick to react and in an apparent reference to his Congress opponent from Gurdaspur, Sukhbans Kaur Bhinder, he said he never fought with women. And true to his words he has stuck to his words. Having emerged victorious in the elections, the film star-turned politician is taking his new job very seriously. His flashy dress has given way to kurta-pyjama. He has been very regular in attending the proceedings of the just-concluded Lok Sabha session. He could be seen spending hours listening to various debates. As for his stand on women, Khanna won the hearts of the lady MPs by throwing in his lot with their demand for the introduction of the Women’s Reservation Bill. Coordinated culmination Unlike the last year, when Delhi witnessed two parallel functions to mark the beginning of the year-long celebrations of 50 years of Independence, the Capital will have just one main event. Last year, with the United Front Government in power at the Centre, the BJP Government in Delhi decided to have its own show with a march on the Rajpath, a laser show and rendition of songs by leading singers. A little later there was a historic midnight session of both Houses of Parliament. This year, with the
BJP-led coalition at the Centre, the activities are being
coordinated and, of course, there will be no special
session of Parliament. |
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